The Khasic or Khasian languages are a family of Austroasiatic languages native to the Shillong Plateau, spoken in the northeastern Indian state Meghalaya and neighbouring areas of Bangladesh, spoken by the Khasi people.

Languages[edit]

Sidwell (2018: 27–31) classifies the Khasian languages as follows.

Varieties called Bhoi are dialects of both Pnar and Khasi.

External relationships[edit]

Paul Sidwell (2011) suggests that Khasian is closely related to Palaungic, forming a Khasi–Palaungic branch.

The following eight Khasian-Palaungic isoglosses have been identified by Sidwell (2018: 32).

Lexical innovations[edit]

Sidwell (2018: 23) lists the following Khasian lexical innovations (i.e., defining lexical forms) that are found exclusively in the Khasian branch, but not in other Austroasiatic branches).

Reconstruction[edit]

Proto-Khasian and Proto-Pnar-Khasi-Lyngngam have been reconstructed by Paul Sidwell (2018). Proto-Khasian is estimated to have originated about 2,000-2,500 years ago, with War splitting from other Khasian linguistic varieties about 1,500 years ago (Sidwell 2018: 20).

Proto-Khasian morphology includes a causative *pN- prefix and verbalizing *-r- infix (Sidwell 2018: 66-67).

The following reconstructed paradigmatic and closed class morphemes in Proto-Khasian are from Sidwell (2018: 51-67).

Personal pronouns

Demonstratives

• *ni 'proximal'
• *tu 'mesiodistal'
• *taj 'distal (visible)'
• *te 'mesioproximal'
• *tɛ 'distal (non-visible)'

Negators

• *ʔǝm 'not'
• *ham 'do not'
• *ta 'not'

Prepositions/case markers

• *ha 'locative/oblique'
• *ʤɔŋ 'to possess'
• *da 'instrumental'
• *ba (?) 'and/with'
• *tV 'oblique'

Tense/aspect morphemes

• *la:j 'to go'
• *dɛp 'finish'
• *diʔ 'to go'
• *daː 'have'
• *ʤuʔ 'same'

Morphological affixes

• *pN- 'prefix'
• *-r- 'verbalizer'

Numerals

Sound changes[edit]

Sidwell (2018) lists the following sound changes from Pre-Khasian (i.e., the ancestral stage of Khasian that preceded Proto-Khasian) to Proto-Khasian.

• Pre-Khasian *b- > *p-, *ɓ- > *b- chain shift
  • Proto-Austroasiatic *b- > proto-Khasian *p-
  • Proto-Austroasiatic *ɓ- > proto-Khasian *b-
• Pre-Khasian *d- > *t-, * ɗ- > *d- chain shift
  • Proto-Austroasiatic *d- > proto-Khasian *t-
  • Proto-Austroasiatic *ɗ- > proto-Khasian *d-
• Pre-Khasian *-l > *-n/*-Ø
• Pre-Khasian *-h > *-s > *-t
• Pre-Khasian *-ʔ > *-Ø >, *-k > *-ʔ chain shift
• Pre-Khasian *g- > *k-

See also[edit]

• List of Proto-Khasian reconstructions (Wiktionary)

References[edit]

• Sidwell, Paul. 2011. Proto-Khasian and Khasi-Palaungic. Journal of the South East Asia linguistics society Archived 2016-07-23 at the Wayback Machine, Vol. 4.2, pages 144-168, December 2011.
• Sidwell, Paul. 2011b. Proto-Khasian (or -War-Khasi); reconstruction and classification. Presented at SEALS 21, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand.
• Sidwell, Paul. 2018. The Khasian Languages: Classification, Reconstruction, and Comparative Lexicon. Languages of the World 58. Munich: Lincom Europa. ISBN 9783862889143

External links[edit]

• Khasian Languages Project (by Paul Sidwell)