Some Diachronic Phonological changes from Proto-Kuki-Chin to Lutuv

Abstract

Lutuv (Lautu) is a Kuki-Chin language that VanBik (2009) places in the Maraic branch alongside Zophei, Mara, Senthang, and Zotung. Lutuv is of particular interest to the diachronic development of Maraic languages in that it is geographically central in the Maraic-speaking area, but shows some differences in historical development from its neighbors. This project is based on my dissertation research on Zophei and was first presented to Dr. Kelly Berkson’s Field Methods class on Lutuv in order to offer researchers of Lutuv (like those in the field methods class) a finer grained look at the diachronic development of syllable rhymes in Lutuv, specifically in comparison with the most closely related Kuki-Chin languages Zophei and Mara. The data set this paper is published separately in this volume as Lexical correspondences between Proto-Kuki-Chin, Hakha Lai, and six Maraic varieties(Lotven, 2020). This research is presented here to be of use to other Lutuv researchers, researchers of Kuki-Chin more broadly, and historical phonologists interested in rhyme development and syllable structure simplification.