DIALECTAL PARTICULARITIES OF SOGPHO TIBETAN – AN INTRODUCTION TO THE “TWENTY-FOUR VILLAGES’ PATOIS”

HIROYUKI SUZUKI

1. INTRODUCTION

Sogpho Tibetan is a Tibetan variety spoken in Danba County in western , , a region that borders the Tibetan and rGyalrong speaking area and Han China. This paper explores the phonological system and provides an analysis of its peculiar phonetic and lexical features.1

1.1. Location and cultural background Danba County is one of the most eastern counties in Ganzi Prefecture, western Sichuan, China. This place is traditionally populated by rGyal- rong Tibetans, who consider it to be a central spiritual area, where the holy mountain Moerduo [dMu-rdo] lies. The Tibetans in Danba call themselves rGyalrong, and their culture, traditions, and heritage are, in fact, similar to those of other rGyalrong people who speak rGyalrong languages.2 The architectural heritage treated in Darragon (2005) clearly indicates some common traits be- tween the rGyalrong and eastern Khams areas, including Danba.

1.2. Languages spoken in Danba The linguistic situation in Danba can best be described as quite com- plex, since five different languages are spoken by the Tibetan commu- nities of the area:

– (see 1.3)

– Tibetan, spoken in the nomadic area

– Geshitsa, spoken along the Geshiza River, in Niega and Bawang and other villages3

1 All data concerning Sogpho Tibetan were collected by the author. 2 For detailed information, see Yang (2005). 3 See rDo-rje (1998) for a comprehensive description of this language. 56 HIRUYUKI SUZUKI

– Situ-rGyalrong, spoken in Badi and Taipingqiao villages, among others

– Chinese (as a regional common language)

1.3. “Twenty-four villages’ patois” “Twenty-four villages’ patois” is the local name for a Khams Tibetan dialect group in Danba. This variety is spoken in several villages, such as Suopo (Sog-pho), Gezong (dGu-rdzong), Zhonglu (sPro-snang), Zhanggu (Rong-mi Brag-’go), and Shuizi (Rwa-tso), all located at the headwaters of Daduhe River. This speech form is an isolated Khams Tibetan dialect, surrounded by Situ-rGyalrong to the north and the east, Geshitsa to the west and Guiqiong to the south. According to the local Tibetans, the dialect con- sists of several subdialects, which can be identified according to their location along the river and mountains, namely, Sogpho, dGudzong, sProsnang and Rwatso. While these subdialects differ only minimally at the grammatical level, there are much greater differences at the pho- netic level.4 The speakers of this dialect group only use their native dialect in their own villages, while they use Chinese in other Danba villages on account of the linguistically intricate situation mentioned above. Danba Xianzhi (1996: 174) presents a short description of the “Twenty-four villages’ patois”, but few linguistic studies have so far been produced. Suzuki (2005b) provides us with the first preliminary description of the phonological system of Sogpho Tibetan.

2. PHONOLOGICAL SYSTEM

2.1. Sogpho shows a five-way distinction in word tone. The following phonemic signs will be used at the beginning of a word:

Ú : high level []  : rising [] A : rising-falling [] B : low level [] C : falling []

4 For example, the systematic preservation of the glide /r/ corresponding to ra- btags in sProsnang Tibetan only, and a particular sound change in vowel quality attested only in dGudzong Tibetan.