South Mande Reconstruction: Initial consonants1 - Langues mandé ...

2) for the same stem, the Mano form given by ZE is ɓūlū (rather thanbulu);3) 'antelope, goat': the Mano form is ɓò (rather than gbó, bú, bó).These criticisms are not, by any means, intended to belittle Claire'swork, which was an important contribution to the development of Mandecomparative studies. It is simply meant to demonstrate the progress madein the Mande studies during the last 15-20 years which allows a comparativistto work with much more precise data as well as continue ourdiscussion on the importance of internal sub-group reconstructions —which, according to Claire, «seem to be doomed to failure» [Grégoire1988:104].3.3. Alveolars and palatals.3.3.1. In a great majority of cases, the proto-phoneme *t- is reflected inmodern SM languages without any change (Series 10).Series 10:SMande Dan Tura Mano Guro Yaure Gban Mwan Wan Beng*t t t t t t t t t t*t black-2 > Dan (bl, gw, ka) t, Dan (kl) t adj black; dark; (bl)unknown; (bl, ka) dirty, Tura # t, Mano NE, VV, ZE t, Guro #, BN, GR,ST t, Gban ST t vi be black, Mwan # t, Wan AT t, Beng # t*tṹn charcoal-2 Tura # t, Mano ZE tū, Guro #, GR ta, Gban STtṹ, Beng # tan (?)*ta close-2 (to), shut (to) > Dan (bl) ta vt close; bar, Tura # ɗ-ta vi close;vt close, Mano ZE lé-taa, Guro # l-ta vt, Wan # lé-ta vt close, shut; bar;damn, Beng GA, PA ta vt close; stick, clue*tēlē darkness-2 > Dan (gw) tr, Dan (kl) tr vi grow dark; n darkness;adj dirty, Tura # tala vi blacken, darken, Wan # trē n night, Beng # tr vtblacken, darken*tŋ draw (to; water)-2 > Dan (bl, gw) t, Guro #, BN t, hab. ta, YaureHO t, Mwan # t, Wan # tṹŋ, Beng # t vt draw (water); pick up*t drop-2, point > Guro # t, progr. t vt drip, vi drop, seep, GbanST tǒ n drop, Beng # tt vi leak water, t-la vt pour by drops