6 Clues to Kanashi prehistory 1: loanword adaptation in nouns and adjectives

In this chapter we focus on a shared innovation of Kanashi and Kinnauri, the addition of characteristic suffixes - or adaptive markers - to Indo-Aryan loan nouns and adjectives. The distribution of this adaptive mechanism in related and unrelated languages in the western Himalayas is investigated, and we also discuss possible sources for the adaptive markers, with the goal of increasing our knowledge about the genealogical composition and structure of the West Himalayish subbranch of Sino-Tibetan.