The Retroflex Sound of Languages Spoken in Southeast Tibet: Feature Floating, Feature Recombination and Its Historical Typological Value

In Southeast Tibet, some Tibeto-Burman languages have apparent retroflex feature floating. Some initial research on this phenomenon shows that different sound categories, such as a post consonant r and vowels (or finals), are not totally independent. This is likely the result of evolution one category toward another, mechanism recombination between basic consonant. approach can be applied to studying whole Sino-Tibetan historical typology, including Chinese languages.