A geolinguistic study of directional prefixes in the Qiangic language area

This study examines directional prefixes in Qiangic languages from a geolinguistic perspective. Among Qiangic languages, the northern languages tend to have more directional prefixes. This fact suggests the areal development of directional prefixes. The present paper discusses the following four groups of directional prefixes: (i) “upward”; (ii) “downward”; (iii) “inward,” “upriver,” “eastward,” and related movements; and (iv) “outward,” “downriver,” “westward,” and related movements. First, I show the geographical distribution of the forms of prefixes for each directional category. Then, I examine the relative time depth of each form using a geolinguistic method and make hypotheses on the historical development of directional prefixes. This study reached the following conclusion: In Qiangic, the basic directional prefixes among these four groups are “upward,” “downward,” “inward,” and “outward.” The other categories involved in (iii) and (iv) were developed later, since the “upriver” and “downriver” prefixes show variety of forms among local areas, whereas the “eastward” and “westward” prefixes are found in limited areas. The following are the oldest types of initial of each directional prefix: dental plosive for the “upriver” prefixes; dental nasal for the “downward” prefixes; voiceless velar plosive for the “inward” prefixes; and voiced velar plosive for the “outward” prefixes.