The Labial Causative In Trans-Himalayan

Abstract

This paper proposes that the labial causative prefixes found in various Trans-Himalayan languages of North-Eastern India are not innovations as is generally assumed. Instead, it is argued that they are related to labial causative prefixes found in Rgyalrongic languages, whose traces are perhaps attested in other branches of the family, and a bilabial prefix that derived stative verbs into transitive verbs is potentially reconstructible to proto-Trans-Himalayan.