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Tone in Yongning Na: lexical tones and morphotonology Alexis Michaud To cite this version: Alexis Michaud. Tone in Yongning Na: lexical tones and morphotonology. Language Science Press, 13, 2017, Studies in Diversity Linguistics, Haspelmath, Martin, 978-3-946234-86-9. 10.5281/zen- odo.439004. halshs-01094049v6 HAL Id: halshs-01094049 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01094049v6 Submitted on 26 Apr 2017 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution| 4.0 International License Tone in Yongning Na Lexical tones and morphotonology Alexis Michaud language Studies in Diversity Linguistics 13 science press Studies in Diversity Linguistics Chief Editor: Martin Haspelmath Consulting Editors: Fernando Zúñiga, Peter Arkadiev, Ruth Singer, Pilar Valen zuela In this series: 1. Handschuh, Corinna. A typology of marked-S languages. 2. Rießler, Michael. Adjective attribution. 3. Klamer, Marian (ed.). The Alor-Pantar languages: History and typology. 4. Berghäll, Liisa. A grammar of Mauwake (Papua New Guinea). 5. Wilbur, Joshua. A grammar of Pite Saami. 6. Dahl, Östen. Grammaticalization in the North: Noun phrase morphosyntax in Scandinavian vernaculars. 7. Schackow, Diana. A grammar of Yakkha. 8. Liljegren, Henrik. A grammar of Palula. 9. Shimelman, Aviva. A grammar of Yauyos Quechua. 10. Rudin, Catherine & Bryan James Gordon (eds.). Advances in the study of Siouan languages and linguistics. 11. Kluge, Angela. A grammar of Papuan Malay. 12. Kieviet, Paulus. A grammar of Rapa Nui. 13. Michaud, Alexis. Tone in Yongning Na: Lexical tones and morphotonology. ISSN: 2363-5568 Tone in Yongning Na Lexical tones and morphotonology Alexis Michaud language science press Alexis Michaud. 2017. Tone in Yongning Na: Lexical tones and morphotonology (Studies in Diversity Linguistics 13). Berlin: Language Science Press. This title can be downloaded at: http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/109 © 2017, Alexis Michaud Published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence (CC BY 4.0): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ISBN: 978-3-946234-86-9 (Digital) 978-3-946234-87-6 (Hardcover) 978-3-946234-68-5 (Softcover) ISSN: 2363-5568 DOI:10.5281/zenodo.439004 Cover and concept of design: Ulrike Harbort Typesetting: Luise Dorenbusch, Benjamin Galliot, Guillaume Jacques, Alexis Michaud, Sebastian Nordhoff, Thomas Pellard Proofreading: Eran Asoulin, Rosey Billington, Mykel Brinkerhoff, Henriëtte Daudey, Aude Gao (Gao Yang 高扬), Andreas Hölzl, Lachlan Mackenzie, Maria Isabel Maldonado, Claudia Marzi, Jean Nitzke, Sebastian Nordhoff, Ikmi Nur Oktavianti, Ahmet Bilal Özdemir, Ludger Paschen, Brett Reynolds, Alec Shaw Fonts: Linux Libertine, Arimo, DejaVu Sans Mono, Charis SIL, AR PL UMing Typesetting software:Ǝ X LATEX Language Science Press Unter den Linden 6 10099 Berlin, Germany langsci-press.org Storage and cataloguing done by FU Berlin Language Science Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. À mon père Contents Acknowledgments xiii Abbreviations and conventions xvii For quick reference: Lexical tones and main tone rules xxv 1 Introduction 1 1.1 The Na language ........................... 2 1.1.1 Endonym and exonyms .................. 2 1.1.2 Dialect classification and issues of phylogeny ...... 9 1.1.3 A review of Na language studies ............. 14 1.2 Project and method ......................... 22 1.2.1 The aim: Detailed description of a level-tone system .. 22 1.2.2 Theoretical backdrop .................... 23 1.2.3 Field trips and collaboration with consultants ...... 27 1.2.4 Elicitation methods ..................... 35 1.2.5 Online materials ...................... 38 1.3 A grammatical sketch of Yongning Na ............... 45 1.3.1 Word order ......................... 47 1.3.2 Tense, aspect and modality ................ 48 1.3.3 Question formation ..................... 48 1.3.4 Existential sentences .................... 48 1.3.5 Sentence-final particles ................... 50 1.3.6 Noun and noun phrase ................... 50 1.3.7 Verb and verb phrase .................... 51 2 The lexical tones of nouns 53 2.1 A static inventory of tone patterns ................. 53 2.2 A dynamic view, bringing out the tonal categories ........ 57 2.2.1 Monosyllabic nouns: Six tonal categories ......... 57 2.2.2 Disyllabic nouns: Eleven tonal categories ......... 58 Contents 2.3 Phonological analysis ........................ 59 2.3.1 A floating H tone ...................... 60 2.3.2 Word-final H tone and the ‘flea’ H tone category .... 69 2.3.3 A postlexical rule for all-L tone groups .......... 72 2.3.4 Tonal contours as sequences of level tones ........ 72 2.3.5 An alternative analysis of //LM// and //LH// ....... 73 2.3.6 Cases of neutralization of //LM// and //LH// ....... 76 2.3.7 On the anchoring of tones to word boundaries ..... 77 2.4 General observations about the system .............. 78 2.4.1 Usefulness of an autosegmental approach ........ 78 2.4.2 Recapitulation of the lexical tone categories ....... 79 2.4.3 M as a default tone ..................... 87 2.4.4 The notation of tonal categories in lexical entries .... 88 2.4.5 Attested and unattested lexical tones ........... 90 2.4.6 Phonological regularities and morphotonological oddities 91 3 Compound nouns 93 3.1 Determinative compound nouns. Part I: The main facts ..... 94 3.1.1 The role of the number of syllables ............ 95 3.1.2 How the tone patterns were collected ........... 97 3.1.3 Surface phonological tone patterns ............ 98 3.1.4 Analysis into underlying tone patterns .......... 105 3.2 Determinative compound nouns. Part II: Discussion ....... 113 3.2.1 LM-tone determiners .................... 118 3.2.2 M-tone determiners .................... 119 3.2.3 L-tone determiners ..................... 120 3.2.4 H-tone determiners: #H, H# and H$ ............ 121 3.2.5 MH-tone determiners ................... 122 3.2.6 Determiners carrying LM+MH# tone or LM+#H tone .. 122 3.2.7 Cases of neutralization of tonal oppositions on the head 123 3.2.8 A tendency to avoid long-distance movement of tones . 125 3.2.9 Brief remarks about slips of the tongue .......... 126 3.2.10 Perspectives for comparison across speakers ....... 127 3.2.11 Exceptional items ...................... 129 3.3 Coordinative compounds ...................... 133 3.3.1 The main facts ........................ 133 3.3.2 Discussion: Tonal variability and lexical diversity .... 141 3.3.3 Compound given names and terms of address ...... 144 vi Contents 3.4 Compound nouns containing adjectives .............. 148 3.4.1 A productive construction: N+Adj+relativizer ...... 148 3.4.2 Lexicalized compounds of N+Adj structure ....... 151 3.4.3 N+Adj combinations in the process of lexicalization .. 158 3.4.4 A lexicalized compound of Adj+N structure ....... 160 3.4.5 A lexicalized compound of V+Adj structure ....... 160 3.5 Concluding note ........................... 161 4 Classifiers 163 4.1 Numeral-plus-classifier phrases .................. 164 4.1.1 Elicitation procedures ................... 164 4.1.2 Results: Nine tonal categories for monosyllabic classifiers 167 4.1.3 The tones of classifiers and of corresponding free forms 177 4.1.4 Indirect confirmation for the H, MH, M and L categories 179 4.1.5 Degree of tonal complexity and amount of mistakes .. 180 4.1.6 About variants of tone patterns .............. 181 4.1.7 Disyllabic classifiers .................... 183 4.1.8 Two numerals plus a classifier ............... 183 4.1.9 Conclusions ......................... 185 4.2 Demonstrative-plus-classifier phrases ............... 187 4.3 Tonal interactions with a preceding noun ............. 189 4.4 Concluding note ........................... 192 5 Combinations of nouns with grammatical elements 195 5.1 Derivational affixes: Gender suffixes and kinship prefix ..... 195 5.1.1 Introduction to gender suffixes .............. 195 5.1.2 The facts ........................... 197 5.1.3 Discussion .......................... 205 5.1.4 Other suffixes for ‘male’ .................. 211 5.1.5 The kinship prefix /ə˧-/ ................... 213 5.2 Reduplication ............................ 216 5.2.1 Reduplication of numeral-plus-classifier phrases .... 217 5.2.2 A reduplicated nominal suffix ............... 217 5.3 Possessive constructions containing pronouns .......... 219 5.3.1 The 1st, 2nd and 3rd person pronouns ........... 220 5.3.2 The pronoun ‘oneself’ ................... 224 5.4 Monosyllabic enclitics, suffixes, and postpositions ........ 227 5.4.1 L-tone morphemes ..................... 227 5.4.2 M-tone morphemes ..................... 231 vii Contents 5.4.3 MH-tone morphemes .................... 236 5.4.4 A H-tone morpheme .................... 236 5.5 Disyllabic postpositions ....................... 238 5.6 Adverbs ................................ 240 5.6.1 The homophonous adverbslɑ˧ / / ‘only’
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  • A Study of Cognates Between Gyalrong Languages and Old Chinese

    A Study of Cognates Between Gyalrong Languages and Old Chinese

    ZHANG Shuya †, Guillaume JACQUES ‡, LAI Yunfan § † Institut National des langues et des civilisations orientales, Paris; [email protected] ‡ Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris; [email protected] § Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena; [email protected] A study of cognates between Gyalrong languages and Old Chinese Gyalrongic languages, a subgroup of the Burmo-Qiangic branch of the Sino-Tibetan family, are spoken in the Western Sichuan Province of China. They are polysynthetic languages, and present rich verbal morphology. Although they are not closely related to Chinese, they are of particular interest for Sino-Tibetan/Trans-Himalayan comparative linguistics with regards to their conservative phonology and morphology. Based on previous studies on Old Chinese phonology, combining with recent fieldwork data, this paper aims to show how Gyalrong languages could shed light on Old Chinese morphology and thus contribute to the Old Chinese reconstruction. It also proposes a list of possible cognates between Old Chinese, Gyalrong languages, indicating also Tibetan cognates when available. Keywords: Gyalrong languages, Old Chinese language, etymological cognates, comparative morphology, historical reconstruction. 1. Introduction Although Gyalrongic languages are not closely related to Chinese (Sagart et al. 2019), they are of particular interest for Sino-Tibetan/Trans-Himalayan comparative studies since they are the rare languages in the family exhibiting complex consonant clusters (Lai 2017) and conservative morphologies (Jacques 2016b; Gong 2017). However, they have hitherto been neglected by comparativists. This paper aims at providing easily accessible data on potential cognates between Old Chinese (OC) and Gyalrong, and discusses how these comparisons could contribute to improve OC reconstruction.