SOUTHERN LISU DICTIONARY Qaaaqrc Qbq[D @^J Hell Ebll Ell
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STEDT Monograph Series, No. 4 James A. Matisoff, general editor SOUTHERN LISU DICTIONARY QaaaqRc Qbq[d @^j Hell Ebll ell David Bradley with Edward Reginald Hope, James Fish and Maya Bradley Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus Project Center for Southeast Asia Studies University of California, Berkeley 2006 © 2005 David Bradley All Rights Reserved ISBN 0-944613-43-8 Volume #4 in the STEDT Monograph Series Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus Project <http://stedt.berkeley.edu/> Department of Linguistics research unit in International and Area Studies University of California, Berkeley Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus Monograph Series General Editor JAMES A. MATISOFF University of California, Berkeley Previous Titles in the STEDT Monograph Series: STEDT MONOGRAPH NO. 1A: Bibliography of the International Conferences on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics I-XXV (second edition) STEDT MONOGRAPH NO. 2: Annotated Directory of Tibeto-Burman Languages and Dialects (revised) STEDT MONOGRAPH NO. 3: Phonological Inventories of Tibeto- Burman Languages Author’s Dedication: for my Lisu friends CONTENTS Series Editor’s Introduction vii Introduction xv The Lisu xv Lisu Phonology xviii Lisu Orthographies xxv Lisu Syntax xxviii Acknowledgements xxix References xxxi Hel Bck Ubl (Lisu Introduction) xxxiii List of Abbreviations xxxiv @ b 1 @\ bj 14 A p 17 A\ pj 31 B pæ 33 B\ pæj 42 C d 45 D t 56 E tæ 70 F g 80 G k 87 H kæ 101 I dÔ 112 J tΔ 121 K tΔæ 133 L dz 146 M ts 155 N tsæ 163 O m 173 O\ mj 194 P n 198 P\ ¯ 212 Q l 220 v vi Southern Lisu Dictionary R s 246 S  260 T z 260 U ≥ 266 V ~h 271 W x 279 X h 287 Y f 288 Z w 292 [ Δ 305 \ j 315 ] ÷ 322 ^ á 340 _ e 340 ` ö 341 a i 341 b o 342 c u 343 d y 343 e ©∑ 343 f ©Ì 345 g © 346 TABLES Table 1: Southern Lisu Consonants xviii Table 2: Vowels of Southern Lisu xx Table 3: Restricted Combinations of Initials and Vowels xxii Table 4: Combinations of Initials and Vowels xxiii Southern Lisu Dictionary vii SERIES EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION Lisu is one of the most important and viable Loloish languages, with nearly a million speakers, but until recently comparative Loloish studies have been hampered by the lack of a comprehensive dictionary of the language. David Bradley, who has already done much to clarify the interrelationships among the Lolo-Burmese languages as a whole, has been working to fill this lexicographical lacuna for more than a decade. In 1994, he published a concise 257-page dictionary of Northern Lisu.1 The present work treats the Southern dialect. The front matter includes an informative introduction about the Lisu people and their dialectal subdivisions, and a brief sketch of Lisu syntax. The body of the 346-page Southern Lisu Dictionary is carefully arranged, with clear glosses for both the lemmata and the subentries. A number of these glosses provide intriguing glimpses into Lisu culture: tttΔæwå|| tttæå|| 'steaming rituals for sick people, placing leaves of artemisia in water and pouring this onto hot rocks' (p. 142) tttsæåjjj 'chant riddles at funerals' (p. 164) Δ|e| 'castrate (polite when applied to chickens, vulgar when applied to other animals)' (p. 305) Bradley consistently lists subentries under their proper head-entry, thus avoiding the sin of "pernicious interalphabetization" whereby monosyllables, compounds and collocations are all presented in a single alphabetical list regardless of the morphemic identity of their first syllable. Many entries are richly supplied with subentries, some of which are complete sentences, e.g.: Lisu word Gloss Subentries Pages lllá\\ arm, hand 83 226-228 ¯î«« heart 79 214-216 wu|| head; top 68 299-300 s∑«« & sï«« wood, tree 54 255-257 dzå rice, food 45 146-147 tttsæïÉÉ foot 42 166-167 bjjjå\\ bee 35 14-15 mjjjå eye 34 194-195 zïÉÉ water 30 262-263 må bamboo 30 175 tttsæo person 29 169-170 1 A Dictionary of the Northern Dialect of Lisu (China and Southeast Asia). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics C-126 (1994). viii Southern Lisu Dictionary The front matter also contains a detailed account of Lisu phonology, with emphasis on its intra- and inter-dialectal variability. This dialect of Southern Lisu has 30 initial consonants (3 of which are marginal), 11 vowels (including front rounded and back unrounded), and 6 tones (two of which have creaky phonation). There are no final consonants in native words. This dialect contains a considerable number of loanwords from Tai, Chinese, Burmese, and English, some of which have special phonological features; these loans are all accurately identified. As explained in interesting detail in the front matter, no fewer than four orthographies have been devised for Lisu by missionaries and linguists. This dictionary has adopted the ingenious practice of using a dual orthography, whereby each lemma is transcribed both in the "Fraser script", the one most widely used by literate Lisu themselves, and in phonemic transcription. (Subentries are given only in phonemic transcription.) This has the great advantage of increasing the usefulness of the dictionary to the people whose language it records.2 This Fraser script is composed of upper case roman letters (many of them upside down or reversed) for both consonants and vowels, and punctuation marks after the vowel to indicate tones. While some of these symbols are bizarre-looking or counterintuitive, they are actually not so bad once one gets used to them. The consonants are ordered according to their position of articulation, but contrary to the usual order in devan—agar—î-inspired systems, they start with the labials and move backward, instead of starting with the velars and moving forward. Running feet at the bottom of each page indicate the Lisu alphabetical order. The Northern Lisu of Bradley 1994 uses a Chinese-type romanization with arbitrary final consonants to indicate tones. Here is a comparative table of a minimal tonal sextuplet, with tonemarks as used in Fraser 1922,3 Northern Lisu and Southern Lisu: Fraser Northern Lisu Southern Lisu Numeric Diacritic Value Symbol Value Symbol 'millstone' mo1 Obhh 55 mol 55 m|o| 'tattoo' mo2 Obii 35 moq 35 m«o« 'high' mo3 Obj 33 mo 33 mo 'see' mo4 Obk 44 mox 33 mo 'old' mo5 Obll 21 mot 21 m\o\ 'weed' mo6 Obmm 21 mor 21 m\o\ 2 A further feature that should appeal to the Lisu user is the introductory page written entirely in Fraser script (p. xxxiii). 3 The standard pioneering work on Lisu: Handbook of the Lisu (Yawyin) Language (Rangoon: Government Printer). It is convenient to refer to the six Lisu tones by the numbers assigned to them by Fraser. Southern Lisu Dictionary ix These differences are to be noted: – S. Lisu has constriction in both Tones 3 and 6 (both derived from Proto- Loloish syllables with final stops), while N. Lisu has lost constriction in Tone 3. – Tone 4 is somewhat higher in Northern Lisu (44) than in S. Lisu (33). – The unmarked tone in N. Lisu corresponds to Fraser's Tone 3, while the unmarked tone in S. Lisu corresponds to Fraser 's Tone 4. Aside from its intrinsic virtues, this dictionary contains much of interest from the broader point of view of comparative Loloish, also a focus of Bradley's distinguished scholarship. Multiple cognates with closely related languages like Lahu appear on virtually every page.4 Particularly striking are two-syllable compounds which have the same semantic structure in Lisu and Lahu (and where both syllables are usually cognate), e.g.: Lisu Lahu 'ashamed'5 ®å ttto ya\\ ÷-tttø 'ask' nå ¯iii na-niii 'bladder' zï\\ pæu\\ jjjï»» -pho»» 'blunt edge of knife' å|| tttæå\\ nu a|| -ttthø=nø\\ 'cubit' lllá\\ tttΔæå«« llla\\ ÷-jjja»» ÷ 'dandruff' ("head-crud") wu|| me\\ u|| -me»» 'dawn' mî\\ tttæá\\ mu»» -ttthî»» 'earth/ground' miii tttΔæå mî\\ -cha»» 'eel' ("snake-fish") ≥wå|| fu ≥a»» -vï\\ 'forehead' nå gå\\ na—— -qa—— (=pï) 'heart' nî«« må niii-ma 'medicine' ná tttsæï\\ na»» ÷-chï»» 'meteor' ("star-shit")6 ku zå\_\_ tttΔæî\\ m˙\\ ÷-k˙=qh‰»» 'moon/month'7 ¿å bå ha-pa 'owner' sïÉÉ pæå\\ s«« ‰—— -pha»» 'placenta' ("child-nest") zå\\ kæ∑ ya»» -phïÉÉ 'sleep' jjjî\\ m∑ yï\\ ÷-mï|| 'sneeze' h~~ å«« tttæî\\ ha|| -ttthî»» (mï\\ ve) 'sparrow' dzå m∑\\ å\\ jjja\\ -m˙»» 4 Detailed phonological features shared by Lisu and Lahu include the shakiness of the contrast between palatal and dental fricates, with much variation and interchange between them; the palatalization of /n/ to [¯] before /-i/; and the phonetic closeness of the mid and high vowel pairs /i e/ and /u o/. One difference is that Lisu syllables begin with [÷-] in the absence of any other initial consonant, whereas Lahu has smooth vocalic onset in such syllables. 5 This binome for 'ashamed' is actually pan-Loloish. 6 These binomes are semantically parallel, although the elements for 'star' are not cognate. A similar example is 'sugar': Lisu tttsæå\\ tttΔæïÉÉ / Lahu a|| -lll‰\\ ÷=chø : both mean "sweet salt", but only the 2nd syllables ('sweet') are cognate. This is actually an areal formation: cf. Thai klllya-wa«« an. 7 This is also a widespread formation in TB (cf. Written Tibetan zla-ba). x Southern Lisu Dictionary 'twin' ("child-pair") zå\\ dÔö ya»» -c‰\\ (=qa) 'wave at/beckon'8 lllá\\ me\\ llla\\ ÷-m‰»» ÷ (mï\\ ve) 'widow'9 m∑\\ tttΔæï\\ må m‰»» -chø»» -ma 'widower' m∑\\ tttΔæï\\ pæå\\\\ m‰»» -chø»» -pa——— But it is not always so easy to match up the syllables of a Lisu compound with those of a Lahu one. Compare Lisu tttΔï|| tttΔï|| m∑|| ka|| 'racket-tailed drongo' and 'long-tailed drongo' tttΔ|ï| tttΔ_ï_ m|∑| kwå tttΔö with Lahu kha»» ÷-pa\\ =m‰—— =cï|| -ca»» -kwî——— 'greater racket-tailed drongo'.