Reconsidering the Diachrony of Tone in Rma1
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THE TONES of NUMERALS and NUMERAL-PLUS-CLASSIFIER PHRASES: on STRUCTURAL SIMILARITIES BETWEEN NAXI, NA and LAZE* Alexis Michaud LACITO-CNRS
Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area Volume 34.1 — April 2011 THE TONES OF NUMERALS AND NUMERAL-PLUS-CLASSIFIER PHRASES: ON STRUCTURAL SIMILARITIES BETWEEN NAXI, NA AND LAZE* Alexis Michaud LACITO-CNRS Abstract: Numeral-plus-classifier phrases have relatively complex tone patterns in Naxi, Na (a.k.a. Mosuo) and Laze (a.k.a. Shuitian). These tone patterns have structural similarities across the three languages. Among the numerals from ‘1’ to ‘10’, three pairs emerge: ‘1’ and ‘2’ always have the same tonal behaviour; likewise, ‘4’ and ‘5’ share the same tone patterns, as do ‘6’ and ‘8’. Even those tone patterns that are irregular in view of the synchronic phonology of the languages at issue are no exception to the structural identity within these three pairs of numerals. These pairs also behave identically in numerals from ‘11’ to ‘99’ and above, e.g. ‘16’ and ‘18’ share the same tone pattern. In view of the paucity of irregular morphology—and indeed of morphological alternations in general—in these languages, these structural properties appear interesting for phylogenetic research. The identical behaviour of these pairs of numerals originates in morpho- phonological properties that they shared at least as early as the stage preceding the separation of Naxi, Na and Laze, referred to as the Proto-Naish stage. Although no reconstruction can be proposed as yet for these shared properties, it is argued that they provide a hint concerning the phylogenetic closeness of the three languages. Keywords: tone; numerals; classifiers; morpho-tonology; Naxi; Na; Mosuo; Laze; Muli Shuitian; Naish languages; phylogeny. 1. -
An Internal Reconstruction of Tibetan Stem Alternations1
Transactions of the Philological Society Volume 110:2 (2012) 212–224 AN INTERNAL RECONSTRUCTION OF TIBETAN STEM ALTERNATIONS1 By GUILLAUME JACQUES CNRS (CRLAO), EHESS ABSTRACT Tibetan verbal morphology differs considerably from that of other Sino-Tibetan languages. Most of the vocalic and consonantal alternations observed in the verbal paradigms remain unexplained after more than a hundred years of investigation: the study of historical Tibetan morphology would seem to have reached an aporia. This paper proposes a new model, explaining the origin of the alternations in the Tibetan verb as the remnant of a former system of directional prefixes, typologically similar to the ones still attested in the Rgyalrongic languages. 1. INTRODUCTION Tibetan verbal morphology is known for its extremely irregular conjugations. Li (1933) and Coblin (1976) have successfully explained some of the vocalic and consonantal alternations in the verbal system as the result of a series of sound changes. Little substantial progress has been made since Coblin’s article, except for Hahn (1999) and Hill (2005) who have discovered two additional conjugation patterns, the l- and r- stems respectively. Unlike many Sino-Tibetan languages (see for instance DeLancey 2010), Tibetan does not have verbal agreement, and its morphology seems mostly unrelated to that of other languages. Only three morphological features of the Tibetan verbal system have been compared with other languages. First, Shafer (1951: 1022) has proposed that the a ⁄ o alternation in the imperative was related to the –o suffix in Tamangic languages. This hypothesis is well accepted, though Zeisler (2002) has shown that the so-called imperative (skul-tshig) was not an imperative at all but a potential in Old Tibetan. -
The Origin of Vowel Alternations in the Tangut Verb Guillaume Jacques
The origin of vowel alternations in the Tangut verb Guillaume Jacques To cite this version: Guillaume Jacques. The origin of vowel alternations in the Tangut verb. Language and Linguistics, Sage publishing, Association with Academia Sinica, Taiwan, 2009, 10 (1), pp.17-27. halshs-00351738 HAL Id: halshs-00351738 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00351738 Submitted on 11 Jan 2009 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. The origin of vowel alternations in the Tangut verb1 Jacques Guillaume, Université Paris Descartes Language and Linguistics 10.1:17-27,2009 Abstract: Like other Qiangic languages, Tangut has a complex verbal morphology. Based on comparative data from Qiangic languages, this article attempts at reconstructing the origin of the Tangut Ablaut system. In Tangut, some verbs have two stems, whose distribution is determined by the person of the agent and the patient. Stem 2 appears when the agent is first of second person singular and the patient is third person, and stem 1 in other verbal forms. We show that there was third person patient *-w suffix in Tangut cognate with Northern Qiang, and that stem 2 are the result of the coalescence of this suffix with the verb root vowel. -
Aktionsart and Aspect in Qiang
The 2005 International Course and Conference on RRG, Academia Sinica, Taipei, June 26-30 AKTIONSART AND ASPECT IN QIANG Huang Chenglong Institute of Ethnology & Anthropology Chinese Academy of Social Sciences E-mail: [email protected] Abstract The Qiang language reflects a basic Aktionsart dichotomy in the classification of stative and active verbs, the form of verbs directly reflects the elements of the lexical decomposition. Generally, State or activity is the basic form of the verb, which becomes an achievement or accomplishment when it takes a directional prefix, and becomes a causative achievement or causative accomplishment when it takes the causative suffix. It shows that grammatical aspect and Aktionsart seem to play much of a systematic role. Semantically, on the one hand, there is a clear-cut boundary between states and activities, but morphologically, however, there is no distinction between them. Both of them take the same marking to encode lexical aspect (Aktionsart), and grammatical aspect does not entirely correspond with lexical aspect. 1.0. Introduction The Ronghong variety of Qiang is spoken in Yadu Township (雅都鄉), Mao County (茂縣), Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture (阿壩藏族羌族自治州), Sichuan Province (四川省), China. It has more than 3,000 speakers. The Ronghong variety of Qiang belongs to the Yadu subdialect (雅都土語) of the Northern dialect of Qiang (羌語北部方言). It is mutually intelligible with other subdialects within the Northern dialect, but mutually unintelligible with other subdialects within the Southern dialect. In this paper we use Aktionsart and lexical decomposition, as developed by Van Valin and LaPolla (1997, Ch. 3 and Ch. 4), to discuss lexical aspect, grammatical aspect and the relationship between them in Qiang. -
"Brightening" and the Place of Xixia (Tangut)
1 "Briiighttteniiing" and ttthe plllace of Xiiixiiia (Tanguttt) iiin ttthe Qiiiangiiic branch of Tiiibettto-Burman* James A. Matisoff University of California, Berkeley 1.0 Introduction Xixia (Tangut) is an extinct Tibeto-Burman language, once spoken in the Qinghai/Gansu/Tibetan border region in far western China. Its complex logographic script, invented around A.D. 1036, was the vehicle for a considerable body of literature until it gradually fell out of use after the Mongol conquest in 1223 and the destruction of the Xixia kingdom.1 A very large percentage of the 6000+ characters have been semantically deciphered and phonologically reconstructed, thanks to a Xixia/Chinese glossary, Tibetan transcriptions, and monolingual Xixia dictionaries and rhyme-books. The f«anqi\e method of indicating the pronunciation of Xixia characters was used both via other Xixia characters (in the monolingual dictionaries) and via Chinese characters (in the bilingual glossary Pearl in the Palm, where Chinese characters are also glossed by one or more Xixia ones). Various reconstruction systems have been proposed by scholars, including M.V. Sofronov/K.B. Keping, T. Nishida, Li Fanwen, and Gong Hwang-cherng. This paper relies entirely on the reconstructions of Gong.2 After some initial speculations that Xixia might have belonged to the Loloish group of Tibeto-Burman languages, scholarly opinion has now coalesced behind the geographically plausible opinion that it was a member of the "Qiangic" subgroup of TB. The dozen or so Qiangic languages, spoken in Sichuan Province and adjacent parts of Yunnan, were once among the most obscure in the TB family, loosely lumped together as the languages of the Western Barbarians (Xifan = Hsifan). -
The Structure of the Tangut Verb Guillaume Jacques
The Structure of the Tangut verb Guillaume Jacques To cite this version: Guillaume Jacques. The Structure of the Tangut verb. Journal of Chinese Linguistics, 2011, 39 (2), pp.419-443. halshs-00610385 HAL Id: halshs-00610385 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00610385 Submitted on 21 Jul 2011 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. THE STRUCTURE OF THE TANGUT VERB1 Guillaume Jacques CNRS (CRLAO), Paris ABSTRACT Abstract: The present paper is an attempt at analyzing the verbal morphology of Tangut from the point of view of both Tangut texts and modern Qiangic languages, its closest living relatives. Modern Qiangic languages, especially Rgyalrong, have a very strict verbal template. In this article, we propose that Tangut also had a verbal template, which was probably the result of independent grammaticalization rather than a shared inheritance with Rgyalrong. Then, we discuss apparent counterexamples to the proposed template and argue that other explanations are possible to account for them. Finally, we demonstrate the (previously unnoticed) existence of verbal incorporation in Tangut. SUBJECT KEYWORDS Tangut, Rgyalrong, Japhug, incorporation, directional prefixes, templatic morphology 1 As in Middle and Modern Chinese, in the Tangut script, there is a one-to-one relation between syllables and characters. -
Sir Gerard Clauson and His Skeleton Tangut Dictionary Imre Galambos
Sir Gerard Clauson and his Skeleton Tangut Dictionary Imre Galambos Sir Gerard Leslie Makins Clauson (1891–1974) worked most of his life as a civil servant and conducted academic research in his spare time.1 Only after retiring in 1951 at the age of 60 was he able to devote his full attention to scholarly endeavours, which were primarily focussed on Turkish languages. Thus as a scholar, today he is primarily remembered for his contribution to Turkish studies, and his Etymological Dictionary of Pre-Thirteenth-Century Turkish is still an essential reference tool in the field.2 Yet in addition to his study of Turkish and Mongolian linguistics, he also worked on a number of other Asian languages, including Tangut. Even though his extensive list of publications includes a small number of items related to Tangut studies,3 he devoted an incredible amount of time and effort to studying the language and to compiling a dictionary. He never finished the dictionary but deposited a draft version along with his notes in seven large volumes at the Library of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), so that they would be available to anyone who wished to study Tangut and perhaps continue his research. Eric Grinstead, who used the dictionary when working on the Tangut manuscripts at the British Museum, called it “a paragon of excellence” in comparison with high level of errors in dictionaries available at the time.4 Indeed, the erudition of Clauson’s dictionary is obvious even upon a cursory look at the manuscript version and had it ever been published, it would have undoubtedly made a major impact on scholarship. -
University of California Press (University of California, Office of the President)
University of California Press (University of California, Office of the President) Year Paper vol Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman: System and Philosophy of Sino-Tibetan Reconstruction James A. Matisoff University of California, Berkeley This paper is posted at the eScholarship Repository, University of California. http://repositories.cdlib.org/ucpress/ucpl/vol 135 Copyright c 2003 by the author. Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman: System and Philosophy of Sino-Tibetan Reconstruction Abstract This 800-page volume is a clear and readable presentation of the current state of research on the history of the Tibeto-Burman (TB) language family, a typologically diverse group of over 250 languages spoken in Southern China, the Himalayas, NE India, and peninsular Southeast Asia. The TB languages are the only proven relatives of Chinese, with which they form the great Sino-Tibetan family. The exposition is systematic, treating the reconstruction of all the elements of the TB proto-syllable in turn, including initial consonants (Ch. III), prefixes (Ch. IV), monophthongal and diphthongal rhymes (Ch. V), final nasals (Ch. VII), final stops (Ch. VIII), final liquids (Ch. IX), root-final *-s (Ch. X), suffixes (Ch. XI). Particular attention is paid to variational phenomena at all historical levels (e.g. Ch. XII “Allofamic variation in rhymes”). This Handbook builds on the best previous scholarship, and adds up-to-date material that has accumulated over the past 30 years. It contains reconstruc- tions of over a thousand Tibeto-Burman roots, as well as suggested comparisons with several hundred Chinese etyma. It is liberally indexed and cross-referenced for maximum accessibility and internal consistency. -
第四届中国西南地区汉藏语国际研讨会program and Abstract Book
FOURTH WORKSHOP ON SINO-TIBETAN LANGUAGES OF SOUTHWEST CHINA 第四届中国西南地区汉藏语国际研讨会 UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, SEATTLE SEPTEMBER 8-10, 2016 PROGRAM AND ABSTRACT BOOK Table of Contents General Information & Special Thanks to Our Sponsors ......................................................... 3 Program Synoptic Schedule ..................................................................................................................... 4 Thursday, September 8 .............................................................................................................. 5 Friday, September 9 ................................................................................................................... 6 Saturday, September 10 ............................................................................................................. 7 Abstracts (in presentation order) Scott DeLancey, Reconstructing Hierarchical Argument Indexation in Trans-Himalayan .... 8 James A. Matisoff, Lahu in the 21st century: vocabulary enrichment and orthographical issues ........................................................................................................................................ 10 Guillaume Jacques, The life cycle of multiple indexation and bipartite verbs in Sino-Tibetan ................................................................................................................................................. 11 Jackson T.-S. SUN and Qianzi TIAN, Argument Indexation patterns in Horpa languages: a major Rgyalrongic subgroup .................................................................................................. -
Relativization in Qiang∗
LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS 9.4:735-768, 2008 2008-0-009-004-000247-1 Relativization in Qiang∗ Chenglong Huang Chinese Academy of Social Sciences In this paper, we review the strategies of relativization and discuss the different types of relative clauses and morpho-syntactic properties of relative clauses in eight varieties of Qiang. The Qiang language shows six types of relativization in terms of whether there is a head noun or not, and the relative positions of the head noun and relative clause. Double-headed relative clauses are unusual cross-linguistically. Head-internal relative clauses are modified by a demonstrative-(numeral)-classifier/ (in)definite-classifier, which helps readers to identify head-internal relative clause structures as NPs. In Qiang, different nominalizers, the genitive marker, and the definite marking or indefinite marking are used as clues in identifying the clause as relative; the choice of nominalizers or the genitive marker depends on the semantic role of the head in the relative clause. In some varieties of Qiang there are also some relative clauses that are not marked by nominalizers but are marked by person with aspect marking. Similar to English and Mandarin Chinese, almost all NPs, like actor, undergoer, experiencer, destination, instrument, source, location, time, etc., may be relativized on, therefore, there is no restricted neutralization (S/A pivot or S/P pivot) in nominalized relative clauses, while there is restricted neutralization in non- nominalized relative clauses (finite relative clauses), i.e. S/A is the same marking. Key words: Sino-Tibetan, relative clauses, typology 1. Introduction There are 306,072 Qiang people in the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan (四川阿壩藏族羌族自治州), China (2000 census). -
Sino-Tibetan Languages 393
Sino-Tibetan Languages 393 Gair J W (1998). Studies in South Asian linguistics: Sinhala Government Press. [Reprinted Sri Lanka Sahitya and other South Asian languages. Oxford: Oxford Uni- Mandalaya, Colombo: 1962.] versity Press. Karunatillake W S (1992). An introduction to spoken Sin- Gair J W & Karunatillake W S (1974). Literary Sinhala. hala. Colombo: Gunasena. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University South Asia Program. Karunatillake W S (2001). Historical phonology of Sinha- Gair J W & Karunatillake W S (1976). Literary Sinhala lese: from old Indo-Aryan to the 14th century AD. inflected forms: a synopsis with a transliteration guide to Colombo: S. Godage and Brothers. Sinhala script. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University South Asia Macdougall B G (1979). Sinhala: basic course. Program. Washington D.C.: Foreign Service Institute, Department Gair J W & Paolillo J C (1997). Sinhala (Languages of the of State. world/materials 34). Mu¨ nchen: Lincom. Matzel K & Jayawardena-Moser P (2001). Singhalesisch: Gair J W, Karunatillake W S & Paolillo J C (1987). Read- Eine Einfu¨ hrung. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ings in colloquial Sinhala. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Reynolds C H B (ed.) (1970). An anthology of Sinhalese South Asia Program. literature up to 1815. London: George Allen and Unwin Geiger W (1938). A grammar of the Sinhalese language. (English translations). Colombo: Royal Asiatic Society. Reynolds C H B (ed.) (1987). An anthology of Sinhalese Godakumbura C E (1955). Sinhalese literature. Colombo: literature of the twentieth century. Woodchurch, Kent: Colombo Apothecaries Ltd. Paul Norbury/Unesco (English translations). Gunasekara A M (1891). A grammar of the Sinhalese Reynolds C H B (1995). Sinhalese: an introductory course language. -
Title Lolo-Burmese Studies I. Author(S) Nishida, Tatsuo Citation
Title Lolo-Burmese Studies I. Author(s) Nishida, Tatsuo Citation 音声科学研究 (1978), 12: 1-24 Issue Date 1978 URL http://hdl.handle.net/2433/52564 Right Type Departmental Bulletin Paper Textversion publisher Kyoto University STUDIA PHONOLOGICA XII (1978) Lolo-Burmese Studies P) Tatsuo NISHIDA 1. Lolo and Burmese Languages It was Robert Shafer who first took up Akha and Phunoi as the objects of a comparative study2). These languages drew his interest as he 3 considered them as constituting the link between Lolo and Burmese ). In his article 'Phonetique historique des langues 1010', which was published 4 in 1952 ), Shafer further extended the range of his comparison so as to include Written Burmese (wrB), Phunoi, Akha, Gni 1010, Lolopho, Phu 5 pha, Weining 1010 and Oulou 1010 ), and attempted to postulate the forms 'birmanoises' for some 126 cognate sets. Though it contained some marked defects due to the paucity of data-the languages following Lolopho above are known only by their fragmentary vocabularies-the gist of his argument was excellent. The Lolo languages are characterized by their having contrast be tween voiced and voiceless consonants and their syllable pattern ev, no vowel being followed by a final consonant, while the Burmese langua ges permit of the pattern eve, where thus a vowel may be followed by a consonant within the same syllable, but do not preserve the voiced: voiceless contrast for consonants, except for a few exceptions. Therefore, these complementary features being summed up together, we may naturally expect to obtain the common earlier types of forms of these groups of 6 languages )• Assuming that the proto-forms had the patterns ev (e) and the voiced: voiceless contrast, as well as the aspirated: unaspirated one, for consonants, Shafer has considered that the former contrast has been Tatsuo NISHIDA (@B3f~ltMD: Professor of Linguistics, Faculty of Letters, Kyoto University 1.