Areal extent of Indian-type phonosemantics

[Jess Tauber]

After looking closely at my Indian data sets something clicked in my head
and I started to reexamine forms various Central Asian languages. So far
I've taken another look at Mongolian and Manchu (the latter in Tungusic).

The overall phonosemantic layout appears to be very, very similar (though
the details vary). Is this possibly the result of contact? Even the tight
grouping of terms for "bright, shining" in the palatals and alveopalatal
articulatory zones (for initial consonants) is shared.

Does anyone know whether ideophones/expressives were borrowed as part of
religious training? This might help explain also some of the things I've
seen in Southeast Asian languages (for instance Tai and Mon-Khmer
families), and also in some Austronesian.

I had never considered long-range arealism before as affecting a
language's expressive terminology.

Best,
Jess Tauber
phonosemantics at earthlink.net