Proto-Kiranti language
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Proto-Kiranti is the reconstructed protolanguage of the Kiranti language family, developed largely by Sergei Starostin in the 1980s. The most important consequence of the project, from a grammarian's perspective, has been a better understanding of the verbal morphology of the Kiranti languages. Kiranti verbs are not easily segmentable, due in large part to the presence of portmanteau morphemes, crowded affix strings, and extensive (and often nonintuitive) allomorphy. The identification and arrangement of these affixes, resulting from a systematic comparison of the conjugational systems of Limbu, Dumi, Kulung, Thulung, and Hayu, has led to a far greater understanding of the Kiranti verb and its use in modern Kiranti languages.
