Himalayan Linguistics

This paper presents a pan-dialectal synchronic survey and documentation of preinitials in the Horpa cluster (West Gyalrongic). Based on fieldwork and analysis of earlier Horpa scholarship, the study not only describes the preinitial systems of ten Horpa varieties covering all proposed branches of the Horpa cluster of West Gyalrongic, but it also identifies four key parameters of variation in the preinitial systems, namely the presence or absence of 1. guttural, 2. sigmatic, and 3. liquid contrasts in addition to the presence and absence of 4. weakened semivowel preinitials. The study contributes to the ongoing documentation and analysis of Horpa varieties, many of which are now endangered. Due to the phonological conservatism of the Gyalrongic languages, the Horpa preinitialed consonant clusters have the potential to offer insights and new perspectives for the investigation of Sino-Tibetan diachronic phonology.