On the Position of Baima within Tibetan: A Look from Basic Vocabulary

This article examines the 100-word Swadesh (1955) list, the layer of lexicon which is arguably least resistible to change, for Baima, a Tibeto-Burman language with disputed genetic affiliation spoken in the South-West of China. The following issues are addressed: (1) Sound correspondences between Baima and Written Tibetan;(2) Their conformity with respective sound correspondences between Written Tibetan and the Amdo and Khams dialects of China and (3) Unclear etymologies and their possible origins