Some further sound changes in the languages of the Baining family
Marc Hausdorf; visualisation by Melanie Schippling
Of course, there have been many more sound changes in the development of the various Baining languages. Have a look at the examples of the following table and see whether you can spot some of them.
| Sound law (see below) | Mali | Ura | Kairak | Qaqet |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | duraik ‘chickens’ | durac ‘chickens’ | durec ‘chickens’ | duraik ‘chickens’ |
| 1 | naik ‘drink’ | nac ‘drink’ | nec ‘drink’ | |
| 2 | dul ‘stones’ | dui ‘stones’ | dul ‘stones’ | dul ‘stones’ |
| 2 | tal ‘carry, bear’ | ta ‘take, bear’ | tal ‘get’ | tal ‘carry’ |
| 3 | qulim ‘noses’ | qulim ‘noses’ | qorim ‘noses’ | qərim ‘noses’ |
| 3 | vuleqa ‘grandson’ | vəreqa ‘grandson’ | vriqa ‘cousin’ |
Click to show the sound laws.
- Proto-Baining *ik becomes c in Ura and Kairak, a sound that probably didn’t exist in Proto-Baining. In Kairak, this also causes a preceding a to change to e.
- In Ura, an l at the end of syllable often becomes i or disappears altogether.
- Kairak and Qaqet change l to r when it occurs before e or i.
