On the status of Buyang presyllables

Guillaume Jacques

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INTRODUCTION In his review of Baxter and Sagart (2014), Ho (2016:210-7) objects to the use of the Buyang word of Chinese origin ma⁰lɔk¹¹ 'deer' as evidence for reconstructing a presyllable in the word 鹿 luwk 'deer' in Chinese. He argues instead that this word, while of Chinese origin, was borrowed through the mediation of Zhuang, and offers two competing hypotheses to explain the first syllable ma⁰-. First, he proposes that this ma⁰- could be a Buyang prefix added after borrowing took place. Second, he suggests that Buyang ma⁰lɔk¹¹ 'deer' was borrowed as a whole from Zhuang maxloeg 'deer', itself borrowed from Chinese 马鹿 mǎlù 'red deer'. In this paper, I evaluate Prof. Ho's claims from the point of view of Kra-Dai historical phonology. First, I show that his assertion that Buyang ma⁰lɔk¹¹ 'deer' is a Zhuang loanword is due to a misunderstanding of the cited source. Second, I present evidence that at least some Buyang presyllables are archaic features that should be reconstructed back to proto-Kra-Dai. Third, I discuss the reconstruction of Chinese 鹿 luwk 'deer' in the light of the first two sections.

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