UC Berkeley Dissertations, Department of Linguistics Title Aspects of the Grammar of Thulung Rai: An Endangered Himalayan Language Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6b17v2kq Author Lahaussois, Aimée Publication Date 2002 eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Aspects of the grammar of Thulung Rai: an endangered Himalayan language by Aimee Lahaussois B.A. (Princeton University) 1993 M.A. (University of California, Berkeley) 1998 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics in the GRADUATE DIVISION of the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY Committee in charge: Professor James A.Matisoff, Chair Professor John McWhorter Professor William F. Hanks Spring 2002 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Abstract Aspects of the grammar of Thulung Rai: an endangered Himalayan language by Aimee Lahaussois Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics University of California, Berkeley Professor James A. Matisoff, Chair Thulung Rai is an endangered Tibeto-Burman language of eastern Nepal, currently spoken by approximately one thousand people. It is a member of the Kiranti group in the Himalayish branch of Tibeto-Burman, along with languages characterized principally by their complex pronominalizing verbal inflectional systems. This dissertation provides an overview of the grammar of the Thulung language, along with selected texts and a glossary. The aspects of the grammar which are discussed are those which are particularly relevant as far as Thulung’s heritage as a Tibeto-Burman language is concerned. The chapters discuss the phonological system of the language; the case marking system; the use of discourse particles; nominalization and its etymological and semantic relationship with relativization and genitivization; the finite verbs, with their complex agreement system and stem alternations; the augmentation of verbs with aspect-bearing derivational suffixes; clause-combining by means of converbs and sequencers. 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Each of these topics bears a significance for Tibeto-Burman studies as a whole, and these are characteristic features of languages from this area. The areal context for Thulung is another important aspect of this dissertation. The endangered status of Thulung is a result of the inroads of the Indo-Aryan national language of Nepal, Nepali. Each chapter, in addition to describing and analyzing particular grammatical topics, also discusses the equivalent constructions in Nepali in light of whether they constitute the source for the construction in Thulung as it stands today. This dissertation provides reliable and up-to-date information on a little-known minority Tibeto-Burman language of Nepal. Since this dissertation looks at grammatical features in one language in the context of their distribution over an entire linguistic area, the materials presented are useful as a case-study of an intense language contact situation. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of Contents Introduction 1 Language and people 1 Classification of Thulung within Tibeto-Burman 4 Previous research 6 Goals of the dissertation 7 Inroads of Nepali into Thulung 10 Typological overview of the language 31 Chapter 1: Phonology 33 Syllable structure 33 Initial consonants 33 Vowels 38 Final consonants 40 Rhymes 41 Vowel length 45 Tone 46 Morphophonological rules 47 Chapter 2: Case marking 53 S and A marking : -ka 54 O marking: -lai 63 Genitive:-&m, -kam 71 Comitative: -num 74 Instrumental: -ka 75 Locatives: -ra, -la, -ju, -nu 11 Chapter 3 : Discourse markers 82 Topic marker ne 83 Focus marker re 87 Contrastive marker tsahi 89 Emphasis marker -rja 92 Chapter 4: Nominalization, relativization, genitivization 97 Relativization 100 Alternative relativization with participials 104 Nominalization: 106 Citation form of verbs 107 Verb complementation 108 Clause nominalization 108 Verbal periphrasis 110 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. 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Sentence nominalization 111 Genitivization: 114 Genitivization of time words 115 Genitivization of locative elements 116 Pronominal nominalization 119 Noun complementation 121 Alternative nominalizations 124 Agent/patient nominals, in -pa 124 Locative nominals, in -khop/-khom 126 Nouns in -la 128 Chapter 5: Finite verbs Stems with alternating initials : morphological causatives 130 Inflectional system of the language 131 Intransitive paradigm 133 Transitive paradigm 135 Verb suffixes 138 Change in the paradigm 149 Stem alternations 153 Irregular verbs 170 Copulas 171 Tense 180 Aspect 181 Mood 182 Irrealis 182 Imperative 185 Obligation 187 Evidentiality 190 Negation 191 Adjectives 195 Chapter 6: Aspectivizers Valence-changers 203 Causativizer -be- 203 Detransitivizer -si- 207 Benefactive -sa- 210 Habitual -thal- 213 Stative -ta- 215 Completives 216 Definitive - j o - 216 Ponent -dzuil- 218 Resultative -le- 222 Intensifier -tha- 226 Approximative-bal- 230 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Directional verbs 234 Aspectivizers denoting suddenness 235 Chapter 7: Clause combining 234 Converbs 239 Simultaneous -to 239 Anterior -saka 250 Summary of converbs 258 Sequencers 259 Simultaneous -lo 261 Anterior ma 270 Bibliography 282 Appendix 1: Selected stories 287 Bala’s Life 287 Millet paste recipe 294 Eagle story 296b Dilwar 312 Ghumne Pani 326 Frog story 341 Hansel and Gretel 348 Appendix 2: Glossary 359 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. List of tables Table 1 The TB family 5 Table 2 Matisoff s Himalayish 6 Table 3 Initial consonants 35 Table 4 Vowels 38 Table 5 Final consonants 40 Table 6 Thulung independent pronouns 58 Table 7 1975 Thulung independent pronouns (Allen 1975) 59 Table 8 Nepali independent pronouns 61 Table 9 Possessive pronouns 119 Table 10 Functions and forms of relativizers, genitivizers and nominalizers 122 Table 11 Intransitive verb paradigm 133 Table 12 Intransitive personal endings 134 Table 13 Non-past personal endings for transitive verbs 136 Table 14 Past personal endings for transitive verbs 137 Table 15 Independent pronouns compared to agent and patient personal markers 139 Table 16 Distribution of Stem I and Stem II for various person/tense combinations 156 Table 17 Stem in -k paradigm 157 Table 18 Stem in -p paradigm 158 Table 19 Stem in -4. paradigm 159 Table 20 Stem in underlying -g paradigm 162 Table 21 Stem in underlying-s paradigm 164 Table 22 Stem in underlying -i paradigm 166 Table 23 Stem in -1 paradigm 167 Table 24 Stem in -r paradigm 167 Table 25 Stem in -m and stem in -n paradigms 168 Table 26 Differences between transitive and intransitive personal endings 169 Table 27 Verbs po-mu and bo-mu 170 Table 28 Verb bu-mu 171 Table 29 Examples of transitive verbs showing non-past/past and affirmative/negative morphology 193 Table 30 Examples of intransitive verbs showing non-past/past and affirmative/negative morphology 194 Table 31 Formation of converbal form in -to for various verb classes 240 Table 32 Formation of converbal form in -saka for various verb classes 252 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. 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List of glosses CASE: ERG ergative -ka DAT dative (ie primary object) -lai ABL ablative -lam, -lagka LOC generic locative -ra,-<ja hiLOC high-locative -la loLOC low-locative -ju levLOC level-locative -nu COM comitative -num INSTR instrumental -ka GEN genitive -ku, -kam PRAGMATIC: TOP topic, ne FOC focus, re CONTR contrastive, tsahi EMPH emphasis -ga SC simultaneous con verb -to AC anterior converb -saka SS simultaneous sequencer -lo AS anterior sequencer ma NEXP negative experiential -thi Npst.PRT non-past participle -pa Pst.PRT part participle -ma PROG progressive -saga IRR irrealis -wa/-a COND conditional -la/ mala N.COND negative conditional -mela PURP purposive -ra/-c|a HS hear-say -?e 2IMP 2s imperative suffix a/ra/ka VN verbal noun -si OBL obligation basi NEG.OBL negative obligation myny N.OBL loan obligation marker, from Nepali pame, parjo NOM nominalizer -m, -mim NOM.inf infinitive -mu, -m NOM.rel relativizer -m, -mim Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. L.NOM locative nominalizer -khop, -khom PLU nominal pluralizer, -mim DU nominal dualizer, -tsi NEG negation, -mi 1POSS First person possessive pronoun: a, aki, ama, akima 2POSS Second person possessive pronoun: i, ini, ima, inima 3POSS Third person possessive pronoun: u, uni, uma, unima In combination with a person number, pronouns are s singular ddual p plural de dual exclusive di dual inclusive pe plural exclusive pi plural inclusive (NB there has been a shift in the pronouns, with the introduction of politeness distinctions. I use the old pronoun labels, because these are what is reflected in the verbal forms) Aspectivizers: CAU causativizer, be DET detransitivizer, si BEN benefactive, sa HAB habitual, thal ST A stative, ta DEF definitive, so PON ponent, juil RES resultative, le ITF intensifier, tha APX approximative, bal/bhal N. precedes the gloss of any lexical item which is a loan from Nepali. 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