A Phonology of Muak Sa-aak

Muak Sa-aak is a Mon-Khmer language spoken by a small community of about 4,460 people, primarily in Eastern Shan State of Myanmar, but also known to be in Yunnan province of China. The language belongs to a little-known group of languages, the Angkuic branch of Eastern Palaungic. The sound system of only one Angkuic language has previously been described. This thesis seeks to study Muak Sa-aak to present a complete phonological inventory. The data collected contain a considerable amount of vocabulary borrowed from Tai Lue, a language with which Muak Sa-aak speakers have long been in contact, so a brief investigation of the impact on the phonology of this borrowing from a Tai-Kadai language will be conducted. As special tonogenetic features are frequently mentioned in the literature on Angkuic, an excursus into tonogenesis also seems appropriate. In this study, Muak Sa-aak was found to follow general Palaungic phonology as a sesquisyllabic language, with 22 consonants, 18 vowels, and three tones. The sound system is clearly distinct from Tai Lue, as seen by the presence of diphthongs and syllable-final palatal consonants. There are clear correspondences between tone in Tai Lue and tone in Muak Sa-aak. The three distinctive tones appear to have developed from a combination of final consonants and the effects of vowel length.