Reconstructing the *s- prefix in Old Chinese

International audienceThis paper presents the treatment of the Old Chinese *s- prefix in the Baxter-Sagart system of Old Chinese reconstruction. The main functions of the prefix are to increase the valency of verbs and to derive oblique deverbal nouns. The phonetic evolutions to Middle Chinese of *s- with different kinds of OC root initials are discussed. Two salient features of the proposed system are (1) that *s- plus plain sonorants go to MC s- or sr-, and (2) that s- preceding voiced obstruents becomes voiced. Problems within a competing proposal by Mei Tsu-lin, in which OC *s- devoices both sonorants and voiced obstruents, are pointed out