A Descriptive Grammar of Daai Chin
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A DESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR OF DAAI CHIN by Helga So-Hartmann Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Oriental and African Studies University of London 2008 ProQuest Number: 11015813 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 11015813 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 2 Hereby I, Helga So-Hartmann, declare that the work presented in this thesis is my own work. Abstract Daai Chin belongs to the Southern branch of the Kuki-Naga section of the Tibeto- Burman language family. It is spoken by approximately 45,000 people in the townships of Mindat, Kanpetlet, Paletwa and Matupi in the Southern Chin Hills of western Myanmar. The Daai Chin people live in a cluster of about 160 villages in the rather isolated interior of the Southern Chin Hills. This study is based on a dialect of Daai called ‘Yang’, spoken in Kanpetlet Township. This thesis is the first comprehensive grammatical description of Daai Chin. All analysis is presented by ample language examples. The study is divided into thirteen chapters and addresses all major aspects of the language. A short introduction into Daai phonology is included which mainly gives an account of segmental phonology. The discussion of morphology deals mainly with derivational morphology and compounding. At the phrase level, the order and function of constituents within the noun phrase is described. Complex noun phrases including nominalization and relativization are also discussed. Extensive coverage is given to the study and description of the verb complex and the many various particles and markers that can follow the main verb. This includes the description of valence changing categories, the tense-aspect-modality system, applicatives, evidentiality, directionals and other markers. Special features of the Daai Chin language like verb stem alternation and the agreement system are also described in detail. At the clause level, various clause types are described: grammatical relations are discussed and degrees of transitivity are shown. Sentence moods and non-declarative speech acts are described. This study of the Daai Chin language concludes with the treatment of complex sentence structures, addresses complementation, adverbial clauses and clause chaining. The appendix contains a fully interlinearized folktale with a free translation. 4 Acknowledgements First of all I want to thank Dr. Katy Barnwell, Dr. Susan Malone and Dr. Austin Hale for their decisive encouragement to embark on this voyage that lead to a Daai Chin Grammar. Special thanks are due to my supervisor Dr. Justin Watkins who has accompanied and encouraged me throughout the process of writing this thesis. I am thankful to Dr. Austin Hale, Ken Manson and Dr. Erik Andvik who read earlier drafts of this study and provided stimulating feedback and guidance to appropriate literature. My special thanks go to Dr. Larin Adams who has given much time to discuss with me this final draft of the thesis. I am also thankful to Dr. Kenneth Gregerson for his advice on the section about phonology. My thanks go also to Dr. George Bedell who read carefully through nearly all of the chapters of this thesis and gave valuable and thoughtful feedback. The support and fellowship of the MSEA group of SIL has carried me through difficult stretches and helped me not to give up when I felt like it. I am also deeply grateful to many other friends and supporters. I wish to thank The Seed Company for financial support. Finally I would like to state that the Daai Chin Grammar would have never become a reality without the active involvement of the Daai Chin people. Most of the recordings for the text corpus on which this study is based have been carried out by my late husband Kheng Sho, his brother Ling Sho and by Naang Kiiui. I am extremely grateful to Naang Kiiui who has been my patient and enthusiastic research assistant over many years. 5 Mkuui Im Nu village Preparations for a feast 6 A Yang Woman ? m r\ w c j i s Mkuui girls A Woman from the Kduk-Msang group 7 Contents Titlepage......................................................................................................................................1 Declaration .................................................................................................................................2 Abstract...................................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... 4 Photo 1.................................................................................................................................... 5 Photo 2.................................................................................................................................... 6 Contents ......................................................................................................................................7 Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................7 List of Tables............................................................................................................................16 List of Figures...........................................................................................................................17 List of Abbreviations .............................................................................................................. 19 Map 1................................................................................ 22 Map 3........................................................................................................................................23 Appendix ................................................................................................................................363 Bibliography.......................................................................................................................... 372 Table of Content 1 Introduction..................................................................................................................24 1.1 The language.......................................................................................................... 24 1.1.1 Name of the language..................................................................................24 1.1.2 Linguistic classifications of Chin ................................................................25 1.1.3 Subgroups and speech varieties .................................................................. 31 1.2 The people..............................................................................................................32 1.2.1 Geography and demography ........................................................................32 1.2.2 Material culture............................................................................................33 1.2.3 Cosmology.....................................................................................................34 1.3 Previous and ongoing research on Chin languages ...........................................35 1.3.1 Previous works.............................................................................................. 35 1.3.2 Ongoing research in Chin languages......................................................... 36 1.4 The sociolinguistic situation .................................................................................37 1.4.1 Multilingualism and language attitude .......................................................37 1.4.2 Viability......................................................................................................... 37 1.5 The research for this study ...................................................................................38 1.6 Summary statements about Daai .........................................................................38 1.6.1 General typological information ................................................................. 38 1.6.2 Special features ............................................................................................. 39 2 Phonology..................................................................................................................... 40 2.1 The phonological w ord ....................................................................................... 40 2.1.1 Presyllables....................................................................................................40 2.1.1.1 Presyllable form s..................................................................................42 2.1.2 The main syllable ..........................................................................................43 2.1.2.2 Main syllable types .............................................................................. 46 2.1.3 The interpretation