Linguistics of the Himalayas and Beyond

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Linguistics of the Himalayas and Beyond Linguistics of the Himalayas and Beyond edited by Roland Bielmeier Felix Haller Mouton de Gruyter Berlin • New York Contents Editorial . v Reasons for language shift: Theories, myths and counterevidence 1 Dorte Borchers Directionals in Tokpe Gola Tibetan discourse 23 Nancy J. Caplow The language history of Tibetan 47 Philip Denwood Dzala and Dakpa form a coherent subgroup within East Bodish, and some related thoughts 71 George van Driem Stem alternation and verbal valence in Themchen Tibetan 85 Felix Holier A comparative and historical study of demonstratives and plural markers in Tamangic languages 97 Isao Honda Grammatical peculiarities of two dialects of southern Kham Tibetan 119 Krisadawan Hongladarom The Sampang word accent: Phonetic realisation and phonological function 153 RendHuysmans A low glide in Marphali 163 Martine Mazaudon Pronominally marked noun determiners in Limbu 189 Boyd Michailovsky xii Contents About Chaurasia 203 Jean Robert Opgenort Implications of labial place assimilation in Amdo Tibetan 225 KarlA.Peet Context shift and linguistic coding in Kinnauri narratives 247 Anju Saxena The status of Bunan in the Tibeto-Burman family 265 Suhnu Ram Sharma Tibetan orthography, the Balti dialect, and a contemporary phonological theory 279 Richard K. Sprigg Case-marked PRO: Evidence from Rabha, Manipuri, Hindi-Urdu and Telugu 291 Karumuri Venkata Subbarao, Upen Rabha Hakacham, and Thokchom Sarju Devi Perfective stem renovation in Khalong Tibetan 323 Jackson T.-S. Sun On the deictic patterns in Kinnauri (Pangi dialect) 341 Yoshiharu Takahashi Tibetan grammar and. the active/stative case-marking type 355 Ralf Vollmann The nature of narrative text in Dzongkha: Evidence from deixis, evidentially, and mirativity 381 Stephen A. Waiters Sentence patterns and pattern variation in Ladakhi: A field report 399 Bettina Zeisler. Subject index 427 Language index 436.
Recommended publications
  • On Bhutanese and Tibetan Dzongs **
    ON BHUTANESE AND TIBETAN DZONGS ** Ingun Bruskeland Amundsen** “Seen from without, it´s a rocky escarpment! Seen from within, it´s all gold and treasure!”1 There used to be impressive dzong complexes in Tibet and areas of the Himalayas with Tibetan influence. Today most of them are lost or in ruins, a few are restored as museums, and it is only in Bhutan that we find the dzongs still alive today as administration centers and monasteries. This paper reviews some of what is known about the historical developments of the dzong type of buildings in Tibet and Bhutan, and I shall thus discuss towers, khars (mkhar) and dzongs (rdzong). The first two are included in this context as they are important in the broad picture of understanding the historical background and typological developments of the later dzongs. The etymological background for the term dzong is also to be elaborated. Backdrop What we call dzongs today have a long history of development through centuries of varying religious and socio-economic conditions. Bhutanese and Tibetan histories describe periods verging on civil and religious war while others were more peaceful. The living conditions were tough, even in peaceful times. Whatever wealth one possessed had to be very well protected, whether one was a layman or a lama, since warfare and strife appear to have been endemic. Security measures * Paper presented at the workshop "The Lhasa valley: History, Conservation and Modernisation of Tibetan Architecture" at CNRS in Paris Nov. 1997, and submitted for publication in 1999. ** Ingun B. Amundsen, architect MNAL, lived and worked in Bhutan from 1987 until 1998.
    [Show full text]
  • 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.
    [Show full text]
  • Syntactic Aspects of Nominalization in Five Tibeto-Burman Languages of the Himalayan Area1
    Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area Volume 31.2 — October 2008 SYNTACTIC ASPECTS OF NOMINALIZATION IN FIVE TIBETO-BURMAN LANGUAGES OF THE HIMALAYAN AREA1 Carol Genetti University of California, Santa Barbara Research Centre for Linguistic Typology A.R. Coupe Ellen Bartee Kristine Hildebrandt You-Jing Lin La Trobe University SIL SIUE UC Santa Barbara The goal of this paper is to describe some of the syntactic structures that are created through nominalization processes in Himalayan Tibeto-Burman languages and the relationships between those structures. These include both structures involving the nominalization of clauses (e.g. complement clauses, relative clauses) and structures involving the nominalization of verbs and predicates (e.g. the derivation of nouns and adjectives). We will argue that, synchronically, clausal nominalization, structurally represented as [clause]NP, is the basic structure underlying many of the nominalizing constructions in these languages, even though individual constructions embed and alter this structure in interesting ways. In addition to clausal nominalization, we will illustrate the presence of derivational nominalization, represented as [V-NOM]N and [V-NOM]ADJ, although some nominal derivations target the predicate, not the verb root as their domain. We will also demonstrate that derivational nominalization can be seen as having developed from clausal nominalization, at least for some forms in some languages, and that the opposite direction of development, from derivational to clausal structures, is also attested. We will conclude with some syntactic observations pertinent to recent claims made on the historical relationship between nominalization and relativization, demonstrating that there are various ways that these structures can be related.
    [Show full text]
  • )53Lt- I'\.' -- the ENGLISH and FOREIGN LANGUAGES UNIVERSITY HYDERABAD 500605, INDIA
    DZONGKHA SEGMENTS AND TONES: A PHONETIC AND PHONOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION KINLEY DORJEE . I Supervisor PROFESSOR K.G. VIJA Y AKRISHNAN Department of Linguistics and Contemporary English Hyderabad Co-supervisor Dr. T. Temsunungsang The English and Foreign Languages University Shillong Campus A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics SCHOOL OF LANGUAGE SCIENCES >. )53lt- I'\.' -- THE ENGLISH AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES UNIVERSITY HYDERABAD 500605, INDIA JULY 2011 To my mother ABSTRACT In this thesis, we make, for the first time, an acoustic investigation of supposedly unique phonemic contrasts: a four-way stop phonation contrast (voiceless, voiceless aspirated, voiced and devoiced), a three-way fricative contrast (voiceless, voiced and devoiced) and a two-way sonorant contrast (voiced and voiceless) in Dzongkha, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Western Bhutan. Paying special attention to the 'Devoiced' (as recorded in the literature) obstruent and the 'Voiceless' sonorants, we examine the durational and spectral characteristics, including the vowel quality (following the initial consonant types), in comparison with four other languages, viz .. Hindi. Korean (for obstruents), Mizo and Tenyidie (for sonorants). While the 'devoiced' phonation type in Dzongkha is not attested in any language in the region, we show that the devoiced type is very different from the 'breathy' phonation type, found in Hindi. However, when compared to the three-way voiceless stop phonation types (Tense, Lax and Aspirated) in Korean, we find striking similarities in the way the two stops CDevoiced' and 'Lax') employ their acoustic correlates. We extend our analysis of stops to fricatives, and analyse the three fricatives in Dzongkha as: Tense, Lax and Voiced.
    [Show full text]
  • Review of Evidential Systems of Tibetan Languages
    Zurich Open Repository and Archive University of Zurich Main Library Strickhofstrasse 39 CH-8057 Zurich www.zora.uzh.ch Year: 2017 Review of Lauren Gawne Nathan W. Hill (eds.). 2016. Evidential systems of Tibetan languages. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 40(2), 285–303 Widmer, Manuel DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/ltba.00002.wid Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-168681 Journal Article Accepted Version Originally published at: Widmer, Manuel (2017). Review of Lauren Gawne Nathan W. Hill (eds.). 2016. Evidential systems of Tibetan languages. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 40(2), 285–303. Linguistics of the Tibeto- Burman Area, 40(2):285-303. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/ltba.00002.wid Review of Evidential systems of Tibetan languages Gawne, Lauren & Nathan W. Hill (eds.). 2016. Evidential systems of Tibetan languages. de Gruyter: Berlin. vi + 472 pp. ISBN 978-3-11-047374-2 Reviewed by Manuel Widmer 1 Tibetan evidentiality systems and their relevance for the typology of evidentiality The evidentiality1 systems of Tibetan languages rank among the most complex in the world. According to Tournadre & Dorje (2003: 110), the evidentiality systeM of Lhasa Tibetan (LT) distinguishes no less than four “evidential Moods”: (i) egophoric, (ii) testiMonial, (iii) inferential, and (iv) assertive. If one also takes into account the hearsay Marker, which is cOMMonly considered as an evidential category in typological survey studies (e.g. Aikhenvald 2004; Hengeveld & Dall’Aglio Hattnher 2015; inter alia), LT displays a five-fold evidential distinction. The LT systeM, however, is clearly not the Most cOMplex of its kind within the Tibetan linguistic area.
    [Show full text]
  • Himalayan Linguistics the Encoding Of
    Himalayan Linguistics The encoding of space in Manange and Nar-Phu (Tamangic) Kristine A. Hildebrandt Southern Illinois University Edwardsville ABSTRACT This is an account of the forms and semantic dimensions of spatial relations in Manange (Tibeto-Burman, Tamangic; Nepal), with comparison to sister language Nar-Phu. Topological relations (“IN/ON/AT/ NEAR”) in these languages are encoded by locative enclitics and also by a set of noun-like objects termed as “locational nouns.” In Manange, the general locative enclitic is more frequently encountered for a wide range of topological relations, while in Nar-Phu, the opposite pattern is observed, i.e. more frequent use of locational nouns. While the linguistic frame of reference system encoded in these forms is primarily relative (i.e. oriented on the speaker’s own viewing perspective), a more extrinsic/absolute system emerges with certain verbs of motion in these languages, with verbs like “come,” “go,” and certain verbs of placement or posture orienting to arbitrary fixed bearings such as slope. This account also provides some examples of cultural or metaphorical extensions of spatial forms as they are encountered in connected speech. KEYWORDS Tamangic, directional, static, dynamic, locational noun, relative, intrinsic, absolute This is a contribution from Himalayan Linguistics, Vol. 16(1), Special Issue on the Grammatical Encoding of Space, Carol Genetti and Kristine Hildebrandt (eds.): 41-58. ISSN 1544-7502 © 2017. All rights reserved. This Portable Document Format (PDF) file may not be altered in any way. Tables of contents, abstracts, and submission guidelines are available at escholarship.org/uc/himalayanlinguistics Himalayan Linguistics, Vol. 16(1).
    [Show full text]
  • Curriculum Vitae
    CURRICULUM VITAE NAME: STEPHEN A WATTERS 516 Dyer Ave Waco, TX 76708 (254) 366 - 7844 e-mail: [email protected] ACADEMIC DEGREES: PhD in Linguistics, Rice University, 2018 Thesis: A Grammar of Dzongkha: phonology, words, and simple sentences Master of Arts in Linguistics, University of Texas at Arlington, 1996 Thesis: A Preliminary Study of Prosody in Dzongkha Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics, University of Washington, 1990 (with an emphasis in database management) Associate of Arts, Peninsula College, Washington, 1986 AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Linguistic Field Research, Linguistic Typology, Languages of the Himalaya, Language Documentation, Translation, Tone Language in relation to human flourishing PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: TEACHING: Adjunct Faculty, Baylor University, Jan 2015 to 2018 Instructor, Linguistic Analysis, Rice University, Fall 2014 Teaching Assistant, Linguistic Analysis, Rice University, Fall 2013 Teaching Assistant, Introduction to Linguistics, Rice University, Spring 2013 Visiting Lecturer, Central Department of Linguistics, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu Nepal, 1998 to 2009 LINGUISTIC FIELD WORK: Visiting Research Scholar, Central Department of Linguistics, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal, 1998 to 2007 Sociolinguistic researcher, Indian sub-continent, SIL International, 1986 to 1988 CONSULTING and ADMINISTRATION: Translation Consultant, SIL Intl, 2001 to present International Consultant to LinSuN (Linguistic Survey of Nepal), Government of Nepal, 2007 to 2010 Technical Studies Department Coordinator, SAG, SIL Intl, 2006 to 2008 RESEARCH and APPOINTMENTS: Adjunct Researcher, LCRC, James Cook University, 2020 to present Visiting Fellow, LCRC, James Cook University, 2019 Research Director, SIL Intl, 2019 to present Pike Scholar, Pike Center for Integrative Scholarship, SIL Intl, 2019 to present Fellow, Institute for Studies of Religion, Baylor University, 2018 to present AWARDS: The James T.
    [Show full text]
  • Map by Steve Huffman Data from World Language Mapping System 16
    Tajiki Tajiki Tajiki Shughni Southern Pashto Shughni Tajiki Wakhi Wakhi Wakhi Mandarin Chinese Sanglechi-Ishkashimi Sanglechi-Ishkashimi Wakhi Domaaki Sanglechi-Ishkashimi Khowar Khowar Khowar Kati Yidgha Eastern Farsi Munji Kalasha Kati KatiKati Phalura Kalami Indus Kohistani Shina Kati Prasuni Kamviri Dameli Kalami Languages of the Gawar-Bati To rw al i Chilisso Waigali Gawar-Bati Ushojo Kohistani Shina Balti Parachi Ashkun Tregami Gowro Northwest Pashayi Southwest Pashayi Grangali Bateri Ladakhi Northeast Pashayi Southeast Pashayi Shina Purik Shina Brokskat Aimaq Parya Northern Hindko Kashmiri Northern Pashto Purik Hazaragi Ladakhi Indian Subcontinent Changthang Ormuri Gujari Kashmiri Pahari-Potwari Gujari Bhadrawahi Zangskari Southern Hindko Kashmiri Ladakhi Pangwali Churahi Dogri Pattani Gahri Ormuri Chambeali Tinani Bhattiyali Gaddi Kanashi Tinani Southern Pashto Ladakhi Central Pashto Khams Tibetan Kullu Pahari KinnauriBhoti Kinnauri Sunam Majhi Western Panjabi Mandeali Jangshung Tukpa Bilaspuri Chitkuli Kinnauri Mahasu Pahari Eastern Panjabi Panang Jaunsari Western Balochi Southern Pashto Garhwali Khetrani Hazaragi Humla Rawat Central Tibetan Waneci Rawat Brahui Seraiki DarmiyaByangsi ChaudangsiDarmiya Western Balochi Kumaoni Chaudangsi Mugom Dehwari Bagri Nepali Dolpo Haryanvi Jumli Urdu Buksa Lowa Raute Eastern Balochi Tichurong Seke Sholaga Kaike Raji Rana Tharu Sonha Nar Phu ChantyalThakali Seraiki Raji Western Parbate Kham Manangba Tibetan Kathoriya Tharu Tibetan Eastern Parbate Kham Nubri Marwari Ts um Gamale Kham Eastern
    [Show full text]
  • Languages and Technology in Bhutan
    Languages and Technology in Bhutan Bhutan and Languages Policy • Land area : 38,394 sq km • Enshrined in Constitution: • Population : 734,374 (2018) • Section 8, Article 1: “Dzongkha is the national language of Bhutan” • Linguistically rich country with 19 different • Section 1, Article 4: “language” and “literature” languages spoken to be preserved, protected and promoted • The Bhutanese languages are classified under • Dzongkha Development Commission is mandated Central Bodhish, East Bodhish, Bodic, and Indo- to formulate language plans and policies, develop Aryan (van Driem 1998) and promote Dzongkha, the national language • All the languages of Bhutan with the exception of and document, preserve and promote other Dzongkha, Tshangla, and Lhotsham, fall under the indigenous languages of Bhutan category of “endangered” languages. • Three languages, namely Monkha, Lhokpu, and Language policy of Bhutan Gongduk are critically endangered. can be summarized in the • One dialect kown as Olekha, a variety of Monkha form of Quadrilingual spoken in Rukha under Wangdue Dzongkhag, is a Model moribund. • ’Ucän Script is used to write Dzongkha it is consists Mother Tongue in this of thirty consonant symbols and four vowel model is the sum total of all symbols. Other languages can also be written the mother tongues in using the same script. Bhutan. Language Technology • Currently, it is limited to input, storage and display for Dzongkha • So far, very less has been done in terms of Natural Language Processing (NLP): • Dzongkha word segmentation using syllable feature – 95% accurate • Dzongkha part of speech tagging -90% accurate • Dzongkha automatic speech recognition -66% accurate • Not being able to develop technology for Dzongkha and other indigenous languages of Bhutan is a threat to our languages and culture.
    [Show full text]
  • Evidential Systems of Tibetan Languages Trends in Linguistics Studies and Monographs
    Lauren Gawne, Nathan W. Hill (Eds.) Evidential Systems of Tibetan Languages Trends in Linguistics Studies and Monographs Editor Volker Gast Editorial Board Walter Bisang Jan Terje Faarlund Hans Henrich Hock Natalia Levshina Heiko Narrog Matthias Schlesewsky Amir Zeldes Niina Ning Zhang Editor responsible for this volume Walter Bisang and Volker Gast Volume 302 Evidential Systems of Tibetan Languages Edited by Lauren Gawne Nathan W. Hill ISBN 978-3-11-046018-6 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-047374-2 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-047187-8 ISSN 1861-4302 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the internet http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Typesetting: Compuscript Ltd., Shannon, Ireland Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck ♾ Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com Contents Nathan W. Hill and Lauren Gawne 1 The contribution of Tibetan languages to the study of evidentiality 1 Typology and history Shiho Ebihara 2 Evidentiality of the Tibetan verb snang 41 Lauren Gawne 3 Egophoric evidentiality in Bodish languages 61 Nicolas Tournadre 4 A typological sketch of evidential/epistemic categories in the Tibetic languages 95 Nathan W. Hill 5 Perfect experiential constructions: the inferential semantics of direct evidence 131 Guillaume Oisel 6 On the origin of the Lhasa Tibetan evidentials song and byung 161 Lhasa and Diasporic Tibetan Yasutoshi Yukawa 7 Lhasa Tibetan predicates 187 Nancy J.
    [Show full text]
  • Report on the 19 Himalayan Languages Symposium
    Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area Volume 36.2 — October 2013 REPORT ON THE 19TH HIMALAYAN LANGUAGES SYMPOSIUM AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA 6 SEPTEMBER - 8 SEPTEMBER, 2013 André Bosch Australian National University Peter Appleby Christopher Weedall Australian National University Australian National University In what was a highly successful series of intellectual discussions, smoothly organized by the team from the School of Culture, History and Languages at the Australian National University, Canberra, this year’s Himalayan Languages Symposium was the nineteenth since its inception in 1995. A small but energized group of linguists came from every corner of the globe to meet in Canberra, Australia, including many from the nations that play host to these diverse and fascinating languages, including Nepal and India. This was thanks to grants provided by the ANU to assist academics from developing nations in making the long journey to Canberra. Following a warm welcome to the Australian National University in the opening remarks, the first plenary talk was given by Toni Huber, discussing an ethnographic perspective on the linguistic work being done in eastern Bhutan and far west Arunachal Pradesh. In this talk Huber presented case studies of ritual and kinship in the area, particularly amongst the East Bodish area, showing how linguistic evidence can be used in ethnographic study and how, in turn, ethno- graphic work can inform linguistic study. Sessions bifurcated after the first plenary. In one session, a group discussed the sub-groupings of the Tibeto-Burman languages of Nepal. Isao Honda gave a thorough new perspective on the position of Kaike, having rejected its grouping among the Tamangic languages, while Kwang-Ju Cho gave an explanation for the current dialectal differences of Bantawa through diachronic analysis and contact with Nepali.
    [Show full text]
  • 25-Hyslop-Stls-2016-Handout
    STLS-2016 University of Washington 10 September 2016 East Bodish reconstructions in a comparative light1 Gwendolyn Hyslop The University of Sydney [email protected] 1. Introduction 2. Overview of East Bodish 3. Pronouns 4. Crops 5. Body parts 6. Animals 7. Natural world 8. Material culture 9. Numerals 10. Verbs 11. Summary & Conclusions 1. Introduction 1.1. Aims • Present latest East Bodish (EB) reconstructions • Separate EB retentions from innovations • Compare EB with Tibetan, Tangut, Qiangic, rGyalrongic, Nungic, Burmish, to o aid the reconstruction as appropriate; and o possibly identify shared EB/Tibetic innovations; and o ultimately forward our understanding of the placement of EB and Tibeto-Burman2 phylogeny more broadly 1.2. Data and methodology • Tibetan: as cited • Tangut (STEDT 3.1) • Qiangic (STEDT 3.2) • rGyalrongic (STEDT 3.3) • Nungic (STEDT 4) • Burmish = Nisoic = Lolo-Burmese (STEDT 6 Lolo-Burmese-Naxi) • Note that I am not consistently accepting the proposed PTB reconstructions and their proposed reflexes (to be refined later); rather, I am using them as a guiding point to consider possible relationships. • I only list potential cognates. A ‘-’ indicates that no potential cognate was found (either because no word was reported or the words found were too different to be included here) 1 This work has been funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Project (DP140103937). I am also grateful to the Dzongkha Development Commission in Bhutan, for supporting this research, and to Karma Tshering and Sonam Deki for helping to collect the data that have contributed to the reconstructions. 2 I am using the term Tibeto-Burman here to be interchangeable with Sino-Tibetan or Trans-Himalayan and do not mean to make any claims about the groupings within the family.
    [Show full text]