Proto-Miao Initials

The three million speakers of Miao-Yao languages live in southern China and the northern regions of Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. The Miao and Yao subgroups are characterized by the marked degree to which they preserve either initials or finals, but not both: the Yao dialects have the. six endings which may be reconstructed for proto-Miao-Yao (-p, -t, -k; -m, -n, -ŋ), but it is the Miao dialects with their highly complicated initial system to which we must first turn in reconstruction proto-Miao-Yao initials. Initials and finals are, of course, interdependent, and the solution of problems in the proto-Yao final system, such as the roles played by the medials *r, *l, *j, and *w, may suggest modifications in the reconstructions of initials I present here.