DOCSLIB.ORG

Investigating Differential Case Marking in Sümi, a Language Of

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Investigating Differential Case Marking in Sümi, a Language Of INVESTIGATING DIFFERENTIAL CASE MARKING IN SÜMI, A LANGUAGE OF NAGALAND, USING LANGUAGE DOCUMENTATION AND EXPERIMENTAL METHODS by AMOS BENJAMIN LENG YUAN TEO A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of Linguistics and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 2019 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Amos Benjamin Leng Yuan Teo Title: Investigating Differential Case Marking in Sümi, a Language of Nagaland, Using Language Documentation and Experimental Methods This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Linguistics by: Scott DeLancey Co-Chairperson Melissa Baese-Berk Co-Chairperson Spike Gildea Core Member Kaori Idemaru Institutional Representative and Janet Woodruff-Borden Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded September 2019 ii © 2019 Amos Benjamin Leng Yuan Teo This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND. iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Amos Benjamin Teo Doctor of Philosophy Department of Linguistics September 2019 Title: Investigating Differential Case Marking in Sümi, a Language of Nagaland, Using Language Documentation and Experimental Methods One goal in linguistics is to model how speakers use natural language to convey different kinds of information. In theories of grammar, two kinds of information: “who is doing what (and to whom)”, the technical term for which is case or case role; and pragmatic information about “what is important”, have been assumed to be expressed by different means within a language. However, linguists have recently discovered that in numerous languages spoken in Australia, New Guinea, and South Asia, there are noun suffixes or enclitics that appear to simultaneously provide both case and pragmatic information. The existence of such systems suggests that our current theories of grammar need to be modified, though it is unclear how as we still know little about how these grammatical systems work. In this project, I looked at Sumi, a Tibeto-Burman language of North-east India, which has such a system of case marking. In this system, speakers do not consistently mark the subject of a transitive or intransitive sentence with an enclitic that conveys case iv information, but their choice depends on additional semantic and pragmatic factors. This was the first study of a Tibeto-Burman language to use a combination of new quantitative corpus methods with traditional linguistic fieldwork methods, including the recording, transcription, and tagging of spoken language, to identify semantic and pragmatic factors that are relevant to speakers’ choice of noun enclitic. In this study, some factors found to be relevant were: whether the sentence had a direct object or not; the animacy of the subject; and whether it was the first mention of a subject in connected speech or not. This was also the first study of a language with such a case system to include a perception study that investigated if intonation was used by native listeners to disambiguate whether a noun suffix was conveying either case or pragmatic information. This study showed that listeners were not using differences in intonation, but rather relied on the type of sentence the suffix occurred in to determine its meaning. v CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Amos Benjamin Leng Yuan Teo GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene University of Melbourne DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor of Philosophy, Linguistics, 2019, University of Oregon Master of Arts in Linguistics, 2010, University of Melbourne Bachelor of Arts (Honours), 2007, University of Melbourne AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Linguistic documentation and description Tibeto-Burman languages Phonetics (especially of endangered languages) Tone Prosody Linguistic typology Construction grammar Usage-based approaches to grammar PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: University of Oregon, Graduate Employee, 2013-2015, 2016-2019 University of Melbourne, Teaching Assistant, 2008-2012 vi GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS: National Science Foundation DEL (Documenting Endangered Languages) Dissertation Improvement Grant, “Using language documentation and experimental methods to investigate differential A and S marking in Sumi, a language of Nagaland”, 2017-2019. Foundation for Endangered Languages grant, “Development of mother tongue literacy for the Sumi community in Nagaland”, 2013-2014. ELDP (Endangered Languages Documentation Programme) Small Grant, “Documenting traditional agricultural songs and stories of the Sumi Nagas”, 2011-12. Firebird Foundation for Anthropological Research grant, “Documenting traditional agricultural songs and stories of the Sumi Nagas”, 2011-12. PUBLICATIONS: Teo, Amos. 2012. Sumi agentive and topic markers: No and ye. Linguistics of the Tibeto- Burman Area 35(1). 49-74. Teo, Amos. 2012. Illustrations of the IPA: Sumi (Sema). Journal of the International Phonetic Association 42(3). 365-373. Teo, Amos. 2013. Deverbal nominals in Sumi. In Gwendolyn Hyslop, Stephen Morey & Mark W. Post. (Eds.), North East Indian Linguistics, Volume 5. 192-209. Delhi: Cambridge University Press / Foundation. Teo, Amos. 2014. A phonological and phonetic description of Sumi, a Tibeto-Burman language of Nagaland. Canberra: Asia-Pacific Linguistics. Konnerth, Linda & Amos Teo. 2014. Acoustic-statistical and perceptual investigations of Karbi tones: A peculiar case of incomplete neutralisation of F0. In Gwendolyn Hyslop, Linda Konnerth, Stephen Morey & Priyankoo Sarmah (Eds.), North East Indian Linguistics, Volume 6. 13-37. Canberra: Asia Pacific Linguistics; equal authorship. Teo, Amos, Lauren Gawne & Melissa Baese-Berk. 2015. A case study of tone and intonation in two Tibetic language varieties. In The Scottish Consortium for ICPhS 2015 (Ed.), Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Glasgow, UK: The University of Glasgow. Paper number 893. vii Konnerth, Linda, Stephen Morey, Priyankoo Sarmah & Amos Teo. (Eds.) 2016. North East Indian Linguistics, Volume 7. Canberra: Asia Pacific Linguistics. Teo, Amos. 2017. The coding of identifiability in Mòòré. In Doris Payne, Sara Pacchiarotti & Mokaya Bosire (Eds.), Diversity in African languages: Selected papers from the 46th Annual Conference on African Linguistics (Contemporary African Linguistics 1). 41-61. Berlin: Language Science Press. Konnerth, Linda, Stephen Morey & Amos Teo. (Eds.) 2018. North East Indian Linguistics, Volume 8. Canberra: Asia Pacific Linguistics. Teo, Amos. 2018. Differential A and S marking in Sumi – synchronic and diachronic considerations. In Ilja A. Seržant & Alena Witzlack-Makarevich (Eds.), The Diachronic Typology of Differential Argument Marking. 381-400. Berlin: Language Science Press. Teo, Amos & Melissa Baese-Berk. 2019. Production and perception of focus in Sümi. In Sasha Calhoun, Paola Escudero, Marija Tabain & Paul Warren (Eds.) Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Melbourne, Australia 2019. 300-304. Canberra, Australia: Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc. viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I remain indebted to many people who are responsible for my education on Nagaland and the Sümi language, especially Dr Salome Kinny and her wonderful family. I am so grateful that the Sümi community has their own linguist in Dr Kinny, who has been an instrumental member of this project. I am also thankful to my first Sümi teacher, Inotoli Zhimomi, who I met more than a decade ago back in 2007 at the University of Melbourne, and all my subsequent teachers, especially H. S. Rotokha and Abokali Sumi, without whom the Sümi cultural documentation project would not have been possible. At the University of Oregon, my deepest thanks go to Scott DeLancey who found me wandering around the wilds of North-East India while I was searching for a graduate program. It wasn’t our first encounter, but my life would not be what it is today were it not for that fateful meeting in Guwahati at the Tamulis’ residence. My deepest thanks also go to Melissa Baese-Berk who allowed me to continue my interest in phonetics, while also expanding my training from speech production to speech perception. I am thankful every day for having her as a mentor and a friend. Special thanks go to my committee members Spike Gildea and Kaori Idemaru for invaluable feedback on data analysis and experimental design. But there are so many professors at the University of Oregon to whom I am grateful for having received an education and guidance from: Doris Payne, Tom Payne, Eric Pederson, Tyler Kendall, Charlotte Vaughn and Volya Kapatsinski. Thank you for making UO Linguistics such a special place. There are so many other people at the University of Oregon, past and present, who I need to acknowledge too. Special mention goes to Prakaiwan Vajrabhaya for ix brightening my first 5 years at in Eugene. Special thanks to Shahar Shirtz and Matt Stave for all the conversations we’ve had about linguistic analysis and typology. Thank you also to my fellow Tibeto-Burmanists Linda Konnerth, Krishna Boro, Marie-Caroline Pons, Zoe Tribur, Xuan Guan; my fellow fieldworkers Manuel Otero, Sara Pachhiarotti, Becky Paterson, Richard Griscom and Zalmai Zahir; and my fellow lab mates: Misaki Kato, Dae-yong Lee, Ellen Gillooly-Kress and Zack Jaggers. And to everyone else, including Jeff Kallay, Jessica Kosie, Becki Quick,
Load more

Recommended publications
  • A Comparative Study of Angami and Chakhesang Women
    A SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY OF UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM : A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ANGAMI AND CHAKHESANG WOMEN THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN SOCIOLOGY SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES NAGALAND UNIVERSITY BY MEDONUO PIENYÜ Ph. D. REGISTRATION NO. 357/ 2008 UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF PROF. KSHETRI RAJENDRA SINGH DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY NAGALAND UNIVERSITY H.Qs. LUMAMI, NAGALAND, INDIA NOVEMBER 2013 I would like to dedicate this thesis to my Mother Mrs. Mhasivonuo Pienyü who never gave up on me and supported me through the most difficult times of my life. NAGALAND UNIVERSITY (A Central University Estd. By the Act of Parliament No 35 of 1989) Headquaters- Lumami P.O. Mokokchung- 798601 Department of Sociology Ref. No……………. Date………………. CERTIFICATE This is certified that I have supervised and gone through the entire pages of the Ph.D. thesis entitled “A Sociological Study of Unemployment Problem: A Comparative Study of Angami and Chakhesang Women” submitted by Medonuo Pienyü. This is further certified that this research work of Medonuo Pienyü, carried out under my supervision is her original work and has not been submitted for any degree to any other university or institute. Supervisor Place: (Prof. Kshetri Rajendra Singh) Date: Department of Sociology, Nagaland University Hqs: Lumami DECLARATION The Nagaland University November, 2013. I, Miss. Medonuo Pienyü, hereby declare that the contents of this thesis is the record of my work done and the subject matter of this thesis did not form the basis of the award of any previous degree to me or to the best of my knowledge to anybody else, and that thesis has not been submitted by me for any research degree in any other university/ institute.
    [Show full text]
  • Some Principles of the Use of Macro-Areas Language Dynamics &A
    Online Appendix for Harald Hammarstr¨om& Mark Donohue (2014) Some Principles of the Use of Macro-Areas Language Dynamics & Change Harald Hammarstr¨om& Mark Donohue The following document lists the languages of the world and their as- signment to the macro-areas described in the main body of the paper as well as the WALS macro-area for languages featured in the WALS 2005 edi- tion. 7160 languages are included, which represent all languages for which we had coordinates available1. Every language is given with its ISO-639-3 code (if it has one) for proper identification. The mapping between WALS languages and ISO-codes was done by using the mapping downloadable from the 2011 online WALS edition2 (because a number of errors in the mapping were corrected for the 2011 edition). 38 WALS languages are not given an ISO-code in the 2011 mapping, 36 of these have been assigned their appropri- ate iso-code based on the sources the WALS lists for the respective language. This was not possible for Tasmanian (WALS-code: tsm) because the WALS mixes data from very different Tasmanian languages and for Kualan (WALS- code: kua) because no source is given. 17 WALS-languages were assigned ISO-codes which have subsequently been retired { these have been assigned their appropriate updated ISO-code. In many cases, a WALS-language is mapped to several ISO-codes. As this has no bearing for the assignment to macro-areas, multiple mappings have been retained. 1There are another couple of hundred languages which are attested but for which our database currently lacks coordinates.
    [Show full text]
  • A RECONSTRUCTION of PROTO-TANGKHULIC RHYMES David R
    A RECONSTRUCTION OF PROTO-TANGKHULIC RHYMES David R. Mortensen University of Pittsburgh James A. Miller Independent Scholar This paper presents a reconstruction of the rhyme system of Proto-Tangkhulic, the putative ancestor of the Tangkhulic languages, a Tibeto-Burman subgroup. A reconstructed rhyme inventory for the proto-language is presented. Correspondence sets for each of the members of the inventory are then systematically presented, along with supporting cognate sets drawn from four Tangkhulic languages: Ukhrul, Huishu, Kachai, and Tusom. This paper also summarizes the major sound changes that relate Proto-Tangkhulic to the daughter languages on which the reconstruction is based. It is concluded that Proto-Tangkhulic was considerably more conservative than any of these languages. It preserved the Proto-Tibeto-Burman length distinction in certain contexts and reflexes of final *-l, even though these are not preserved as such in Ukhrul, Huishu, Kachai, or Tusom. Proto-Tangkhulic is argued to be a potentially useful source of evidence in the reconstruction of Proto-Tibeto- Burman. Tangkhulic, comparative reconstruction, rhymes, vowel length 1. INTRODUCTION The goal of this paper is to present a preliminary reconstruction of the rhyme system of Proto-Tangkhulic (PT), the ancestor of the Tangkhulic languages of Manipur and contiguous parts of India and Burma. It will show that Proto- Tangkhulic was a relatively conservative daughter language of Proto-Tibeto- Burman, preserving final *-l, and the vowel length distinction (in some contexts), among other features. As such, we suggest that Proto-Tangkhulic has significant importance in understanding the history of Tibeto-Burman. 1.1. The Tangkhulic language family All Tangkhulic languages are spoken in a compact area centered around Ukhrul District, Manipur State, India.
    [Show full text]
  • Origin and Development of the Meitei Language
    International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Modern Education (IJMRME) ISSN (Online): 2454 - 6119 (www.rdmodernresearch.org) Volume II, Issue I, 2016 ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE MEITEI LANGUAGE Khongbantabam Naobi Devi Ph.D Scholar, Department of English, Ethiraj College for Women, Chennai, Tamilnadu Abstract: Meitei language is an Indo-Aryan language. The Indo- Aryans came to Manipur and settled in the Manipur from the 4th century B.C. onwards. The noted historian and scholar R.K. Jhalajit Singh present his views on the topic to Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterjee, the great scholar and experts on language. He expressed as Meitei language may not belong to the Kuki- Chin sub-group of the Tibeto-Burman branch; but belongs to the Sino-Tibetan family of language. All the language that belongs to the Tibeto-Burman, a sub-branch of the Sino- Tibetan family of languages, is mono- syllabic. The Meiteis language is not a monosyllabic language; it is a polysyllabic language. In meiteis language, majority of words have more than one syllable. A language should be classified because of grammar. This is the universal principle accepted on all. A language cannot be classified according to vocabulary. If we begin to classify a language according to its vocabulary, the results will be incorrect. The first settlers of the Indo-Aryans in Manipur spoke Sanskrit. Later settlers spoke Prakrit. When Prakrit was removed as spoken language, they spoke Apabhransha.. The combination of Apabhransha and Mongoloid languages gave birth to the Manipuri language by about 1074 A.D. In the olden days of the Meitei language, which was formed by the interaction of Apabhransha and Mongoloid languages, the most important words were taken from Sanskrit.
    [Show full text]
  • National E-Conference on Naga Languages and Culture
    National e-Conference on Naga Languages and Culture Organized by: Centre for Naga Tribal Language Studies (CNTLS) Nagaland University, Kohima Campus, Meriema-797004, India DATES: 8th-10th October, 2020 The Centre for Naga Tribal Language Studies (CNTLS), Nagaland University, Kohima Campus, Meriema is organizing a 3-Day National E-Conference on various aspects of Naga Languages and Culture from 8th–10th October, 2020. Concept Note “Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.” Rita Mae Brown. Inarguably the most diversified group of languages in India, Naga languages, spoken by Naga tribes native to Nagaland and parts of Manipur, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh – all North East Indian States – and Myanmar country, constitute a unique and distinct class in itself. No other language has been found to subsume within itself a number and variety of fundamentally distinct languages/dialects as ours. For example, Nagaland, a small state with a geographical area of 16, 579 sq km and a population of nearly 2 million as per 2011 census alone has 14 ‘officially’ recognized indigenous Naga languages but a much larger, albeit officially unrecognized, number of constituent languages/dialects intertwined within those languages, making it a linguistically rich and diverse state. There are so many languages, dialects and sub-dialects among the speakers of a particular language community that it is almost as if every village has a dialect of its own. To illustrate further, the Konyak language itself has more than 20 dialects, the Pochury at least 8, the Phom at least 5, the Chakhesang 3, the Angami 4, the Ao 3 and so on.
    [Show full text]
  • Tone in Yongning Na: Lexical Tones and Morphotonology Alexis Michaud
    Tone in Yongning Na: lexical tones and morphotonology Alexis Michaud To cite this version: Alexis Michaud. Tone in Yongning Na: lexical tones and morphotonology. Language Science Press, 13, 2017, Studies in Diversity Linguistics, Haspelmath, Martin, 978-3-946234-86-9. 10.5281/zen- odo.439004. halshs-01094049v6 HAL Id: halshs-01094049 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01094049v6 Submitted on 26 Apr 2017 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. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution| 4.0 International License Tone in Yongning Na Lexical tones and morphotonology Alexis Michaud language Studies in Diversity Linguistics 13 science press Studies in Diversity Linguistics Chief Editor: Martin Haspelmath Consulting Editors: Fernando Zúñiga, Peter Arkadiev, Ruth Singer, Pilar Valen zuela In this series: 1. Handschuh, Corinna. A typology of marked-S languages. 2. Rießler, Michael. Adjective attribution. 3. Klamer, Marian (ed.). The Alor-Pantar languages: History and typology. 4. Berghäll, Liisa. A grammar of Mauwake (Papua New Guinea). 5. Wilbur, Joshua. A grammar of Pite Saami. 6. Dahl, Östen. Grammaticalization in the North: Noun phrase morphosyntax in Scandinavian vernaculars. 7. Schackow, Diana. A grammar of Yakkha. 8.
    [Show full text]
  • The Cultural Politics of Proxy-Voting in Nagaland
    TIF - The Cultural Politics of Proxy-Voting in Nagaland JELLE J P WOUTERS June 7, 2019 RODERICK WIJUNAMAI Voters in Kohima, Nagaland | PIB Photo Nagaland’s voter turnouts are often the highest in the country, and it may be so this time around as well. But why was the citizenry of Nagaland so keen to vote for their lone, largely ineffectual representative in the Lok Sabha? Of all truisms about democracy, one that is held to be particularly true is that any democracy’s vitality and verve depends on its voter turnouts during elections. As the acclaimed political and social theorist Steven Lukes (1975: 304) concluded long ago: “Participation in elections can plausibly be interpreted as the symbolic affirmation of the voters’ acceptance of the political system and of their role within it.” Indian democracy thence draws special attention; not just for its trope of being the world’s largest democracy (Indian voters make up roughly one-sixth of the world’s electorate) but for the democratic and electoral effervescence reported all across the country. While a disenchantment with democratic institutions and politics is now clearly discernible in large swathes of the so-called “West” and finds its reflection in declining voter turnouts, to the point almost where a minority of citizens elect majority governments, India experiences no such democratic fatigue. Here voter turnouts are not just consistently high, but continue to increase and now habitually outdo those of much older democracies elsewhere. And if India’s official voter turnouts are already high, they might well be a low estimate still.
    [Show full text]
  • A Phonetic, Phonological, and Morphosyntactic Analysis of the Mara Language
    San Jose State University SJSU ScholarWorks Master's Theses Master's Theses and Graduate Research Spring 2010 A Phonetic, Phonological, and Morphosyntactic Analysis of the Mara Language Michelle Arden San Jose State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/etd_theses Recommended Citation Arden, Michelle, "A Phonetic, Phonological, and Morphosyntactic Analysis of the Mara Language" (2010). Master's Theses. 3744. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31979/etd.v36r-dk3u https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/etd_theses/3744 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Master's Theses and Graduate Research at SJSU ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of SJSU ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A PHONETIC, PHONOLOGICAL, AND MORPHOSYNTACTIC ANALYSIS OF THE MARA LANGUAGE A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of Linguistics and Language Development San Jose State University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts by Michelle J. Arden May 2010 © 2010 Michelle J. Arden ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The Designated Thesis Committee Approves the Thesis Titled A PHONETIC, PHONOLOGICAL, AND MORPHOSYNTACTIC ANALYSIS OF THE MARA LANGUAGE by Michelle J. Arden APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY May 2010 Dr. Daniel Silverman Department of Linguistics and Language Development Dr. Soteria Svorou Department of Linguistics and Language Development Dr. Kenneth VanBik Department of Linguistics and Language Development ABSTRACT A PHONETIC, PHONOLOGICAL, AND MORPHOSYNTACTIC ANALYSIS OF THE MARA LANGUAGE by Michelle J. Arden This thesis presents a linguistic analysis of the Mara language, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in northwest Myanmar and in neighboring districts of India.
    [Show full text]
  • Minority Languages in India
    Thomas Benedikter Minority Languages in India An appraisal of the linguistic rights of minorities in India ---------------------------- EURASIA-Net Europe-South Asia Exchange on Supranational (Regional) Policies and Instruments for the Promotion of Human Rights and the Management of Minority Issues 2 Linguistic minorities in India An appraisal of the linguistic rights of minorities in India Bozen/Bolzano, March 2013 This study was originally written for the European Academy of Bolzano/Bozen (EURAC), Institute for Minority Rights, in the frame of the project Europe-South Asia Exchange on Supranational (Regional) Policies and Instruments for the Promotion of Human Rights and the Management of Minority Issues (EURASIA-Net). The publication is based on extensive research in eight Indian States, with the support of the European Academy of Bozen/Bolzano and the Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, Kolkata. EURASIA-Net Partners Accademia Europea Bolzano/Europäische Akademie Bozen (EURAC) – Bolzano/Bozen (Italy) Brunel University – West London (UK) Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität – Frankfurt am Main (Germany) Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group (India) South Asian Forum for Human Rights (Nepal) Democratic Commission of Human Development (Pakistan), and University of Dhaka (Bangladesh) Edited by © Thomas Benedikter 2013 Rights and permissions Copying and/or transmitting parts of this work without prior permission, may be a violation of applicable law. The publishers encourage dissemination of this publication and would be happy to grant permission.
    [Show full text]
  • 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 ..................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter V Socio-Cultural Organization and Change
    107 Chapter V Socio-Cultural Organization and Change 5.1 Introduction From very early times the Poumai Naga have been practicing a direct democratic form of government in the village, combining it with their own culture and tradition, to retain their identity as the people of Poumai. The Poumai Naga tribe is in a transitional stage: though they practice agriculture as the main occupation, they have not left hunting and gathering fruits which still continues side by side There was no written history of Poumai Nagas but it is conspicuous that there were changes in their economic and socio-cultural life. In retrospect, to understand the changes within the Poumai Naga community, from pre-British period to the present day, the history of socio-cultural changes have conveniently been divided into different periods. 5.2 Pre-British arrival to tlie Naga Hills (- 1832) Before the arrival of the British to the Naga Hills, the Poumai Nagas were not exposed to the outside world. Headhunting at this time was at its zenith, with lots of pride but hatred, fear and jealousy filled their hearts. Fishing, hunting and shifting cultivation were the main occupations in the pre- British period. The Poumai Naga had no caste system in terms of high or low, pure and untouchables, rich or poor. It functioned, as an independent democratic society within a community set-up where helping ones clansmen in every respect was the hallmark of their lives. 5.2.1 Family The Poumai Naga community believes in a patriarchal family system. In many of the Naga villages, large families ranging from to 8-10 members in a family are common.
    [Show full text]
  • The Naga Language Groups Within the Tibeto-Burman Language Family
    TheNaga Language Groups within the Tibeto-Burman Language Family George van Driem The Nagas speak languages of the Tibeto-Burman fami­ Ethnically, many Tibeto-Burman tribes of the northeast ly. Yet, according to our present state of knowledge, the have been called Naga in the past or have been labelled as >Naga languages< do not constitute a single genetic sub­ >Naga< in scholarly literature who are no longer usually group within Tibeto-Burman. What defines the Nagas best covered by the modern more restricted sense of the term is perhaps just the label Naga, which was once applied in­ today. Linguistically, even today's >Naga languages< do discriminately by Indo-Aryan colonists to all scantily clad not represent a single coherent branch of the family, but tribes speaking Tibeto-Burman languages in the northeast constitute several distinct branches of Tibeto-Burman. of the Subcontinent. At any rate, the name Naga, ultimately This essay aims (1) to give an idea of the linguistic position derived from Sanskrit nagna >naked<, originated as a titu­ of these languages within the family to which they belong, lar label, because the term denoted a sect of Shaivite sadhus (2) to provide a relatively comprehensive list of names and whose most salient trait to the eyes of the lay observer was localities as a directory for consultation by scholars and in­ that they went through life unclad. The Tibeto-Burman terested laymen who wish to make their way through the tribes labelled N aga in the northeast, though scantily clad, jungle of names and alternative appellations that confront were of course not Hindu at all.
    [Show full text]