Some Chinese reflexes of Sino-Tibetan s-clusters
汉藏语 s-组复辅音在汉语中的反映
Nicholas C. Bodman 包拟古

Abstract 摘要
Middle Chinese ts- (and its voiced and aspirated counterparts) and s- can sometimes be traced back to clusters of s- plus stop, either by the evidence in O.C. phonetic series, or by comparison with Tibetan forms like st-, sd-, etc. From the first type of evidence alone, F.K. Li has reconstructed clusters like *sk-, skh- and *sg-; from similar evidence and especially from comparison with Tibetan, it is seen that *st-, and *sp- (with their voiced and aspirated counterparts) should also be set up for Old Chinese. The reason for the dual development in later Chinese of types ts- and s- is unclear, although it is possible that in some complex clusters like *skr- the stop was skipped resulting in the s- type of reflex. Clusters of s- with nasals and *sr- and *sl- are also assumed, but only dealt with here in passing. Diversity in apparently related Old Chinese forms is sometimes explainable as dialect variation, while other cases show traces of original morphological alternations as members of 'word families'.