Preliminary Phonological Analysis of the Limi Dialect of Humla Bhotia
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PRELIMINARY PHONOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE LIMI DIALECT OF HUMLA BHOTIA Christopher Pekka Wilde General Linguistics MA-thesis University of Helsinki, April 23rd 2001 i Contents: Abbreviations........................................................................................................... ....... iii 1. Introduction............................................................................................................... 1 2. Language affiliation, location and population .......................................................... 4 2.1. Dialects.............................................................................................................. 5 2.2. The Limi dialect................................................................................................ 8 3. Methodology: procedures and problems in segmental analysis............................... 10 4. Vowels....................................................................................................................... 12 4.1. Vowel phonemes............................................................................................... 12 4.2. Vowel clusters................................................................................................... 15 5. Consonants................................................................................................................ 17 5.1. Plosives............................................................................................................. 19 5.1.1. Word-initial plosives............................................................................... 19 5.1.2. Word-medial and word-final plosives...................................................... 24 5.2. Affricates and fricatives..................................................................................... 26 5.3. Nasals................................................................................................................. 28 5.4. Rhotics and lateral approximant....................................................................... 28 5.5. Central approximants........................................................................................ 30 6. Prosodic elements in Tibeto-Burman languages: background and definitions......... 32 6.1. Notes on tonogenesis......................................................................................... 32 6.2. The tone-bearing unit......................................................................................... 33 6.3. The ‘four box’ tonal system............................................................................... 34 6.4. Prosodic elements in the related language Sherpa............................................. 35 7. Methodology: procedures and problems in prosodic analysis................................ 37 ii 8. Prosodic elements in Limi........................................................................................ 41 8.1. Syllable structure................................................................................................ 41 8.2. Nasalisation........................................................................................................ 43 8.3. Length............................................................................................................... 44 8.4. Phonation types, syllable onset and vowel quality........................................... 46 8.5. Monosyllabics words........................................................................................ 49 8.5.1. Pitch movement....................................................................................... 49 8.5.2. Pitch and phonation type........................................................................... 54 8.6. Disyllabic words................................................................................................ 58 8.6.1. Restrictions.............................................................................................. 58 8.6.2. Phonation types and pitch patterns........................................................... 59 8.6.3. Stress placement or tone spread?.............................................................. 61 8.7. Notes on sentence intonation............................................................................ 64 8.8. Conclusions and residue................................................................................... 65 9. Summary.................................................................................................................... 67 Bibliography..................................................................................................................... 68 Appendix 1: Language assistants Appendix 2: Maps of South Asia, Nepal and the primary language area Appendix 3: List of audio files on the accompanying CD iii Abbreviations The phonetic symbols used in this thesis follow the 1993 (revised to 1996) version of the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet). Other symbols include the following: C, c – consonant L – low pitch V, u – vowel Fo – fundamental frequency [bubu] – disyllabic word SG. – singular s – syllable PL. – plural CC-cluster – consonant cluster COMP. – comparative Cvd-obst – voiced obstruent POSS. – possessive m Cobst – prenasalised obstruent UNSPEC.DEM. – unspecified demonstrative Crhotic – rhotic consonant RESP. – respective form Cnasal – nasal consonant IMP. – imperative form . – syllable boundary VRBL. – verbaliser # – word boundary NOM. – nominal form » – free variation, e.g. [x]»[y] SUFF.POSTP. – suffixal postposition [å£] – tense phonation (not IPA) INF.SUFF. – infinitival suffix [å%] – rising pitch ERG. – ergative case [å]] – falling pitch GEN. – genetive case [å?] – high(er) pitch VRB-EX. – verb-existential [å#] – low(er) pitch PQM. – polar question marker H – high pitch Q-MRK. – question marker (factual) M – mid pitch I have used the diacritics [ ,] for lax words. In the IPA the diacritic [ ,] refers to breathiness and therefore corresponds well to the phonetic realisation of lax voice (eg. in the word /aå,%/ [a™,%ˆ] ‘permanently swollen; gnarl; soap bubbles’). I have used the diacritic [ £] to denote tense voice, though conventionally in the IPA the symbol refers to voicing – I have used the diacritic in order to be able to distinguish between phonemic tense (or stiff) voice and conditioned laryngealisation. The symbol has been marked under the first vowel of the morpheme (eg. in the tense voiced word /s4å£/ [s4å£] ‘horse’). The IPA diacritic [ /] is used for laryngealisation (eg. in the word /d%i/ [>d/%i] ‘elder sister’). Laryngealisation often coincides iv with tense voice in Limi, but laryngealisation also occurs in conjunction with glottal closures in both lax and tense words. I have attempted to present the data examples in both phonemic and phonetic form. The phonemic representation of a word is in slanted brackets / /. The square brackets [ ] denote phonetic (surface) realisation. At this stage I have refrained from marking pitch or phonation type in the phonemic representation where I have found the features difficult to distinguish. Therefore the slanted brackets / / indicate that I am certain of the phonemic status of only those contrastive elements which are present therein. If phonation type or pitch movement are not marked within the slanted brackets, I have not been able to define those prosodic elements as phonemic at this stage. When the symbol ‘/’ occurs within square brackets ([]) it denotes ‘alternative phonetic realisation’, e.g. [w.x]. Word to word glosses are presented with the angled brackets < >. To summarise, the following manner of notation shall be maintained: a. The transcription /bu%,/ [bu%,] indicates that all segments, that is the consonant and the vowel segment, the phonation type and pitch movement, are all considered to be phonemic. b. The transcription /bu%/ [bu%.u]%, indicates that the vowel is variably realised with breathiness (hence the symbol ‘/’ in the phonetic transcription). Lax voice has not been interpreted as phonemic in this case due to uncertainty of the phonemic status of the breathiness. The data referred to in this thesis can be heard on the accompanying CD. All of the data items are listed in Appendix 3 according to the page on which they appear in the thesis. For example, to hear the word /iå?j-kå#/ [iå?>kÀ#] ‘yak-SUFF.POSTP.’ which occurs on page 2 of this thesis, look in Appendix 3 for the words listed for page 2. Appendix 3 indicates that the word can be heard on the wave file ‘003.wav’ on the accompanying CD. Appendix 3 has the following layout: v data item is found data item in phonetic or phonemic notes wave file on this page of form and gloss the thesis page 2 /iå?j-k$/ [iå?>kÀ#] ‘yak- extracted from sentential context 003.wav SUFF.POSTP.’ [...fE$ùwi@-ïÎ$ iå?>-lÀ$ k@l...] 1 1. Introduction This thesis attempts to give a preliminary phonological description of the Limi dialect of Humla Bhotia, a Tibetan-related language that has not previously been the subject of analysis. Research on Humla Bhotia was conducted between February and May 2000 in Kathmandu, Nepal. During this time I studied the Upper Humla dialect from 2nd February to 24th April, and the Limi dialect from 17th April to 24th May. I have restricted this thesis to the analysis of the Limi dialect, but I will occasionally make reference to findings from the Upper Humla dialect. It should be stressed that due to the limited research time it would be irresponsible to state anything categorical on the complex phonological