A GRAMMAR OF BAO’AN TU, A MONGOLIC LANGUAGE OF NORTHWEST CHINA by Robert Wayne Fried June 1, 2010 A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Buffalo, State University of New York in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Linguistics UMI Number: 3407976 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI 3407976 Copyright 2010 by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This edition of the work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346 Copyright by Robert Wayne Fried 2010 ii Acknowledgements I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my advisor, Matthew Dryer for his guidance and for his detailed comments on numerous drafts of this dissertation. I would also like to thank my committee members, Karin Michelson and Robert VanValin, Jr., for their patience, flexibility, and helpful feedback. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to be a part of the linguistics department at the University at Buffalo. I have benefited in ways too numerous to recount from my interactions with the UB linguistics faculty and with my fellow graduate students. I am also grateful for the tireless help of Carole Orsolitz, Jodi Reiner, and Sharon Sell, without whose help I could not have successfully navigated a study program spanning nine years and multiple international locations. Thanks are also due to the Mark Diamond Research Fund of the Graduate Association of the University at Buffalo for funding that made much of my fieldwork possible. I am very grateful to the members of the foreign affairs office at the Qinghai Nationalities University; their help enabled me to live and study in the most beautiful province in China. I am also indebted to my Mandarin teachers Wang Baoqin and Ma Shengmei for their patient instruction. I owe particular thanks to Li Meiling for sharing her expert knowledge of Tu culture, history, and language and for giving me the introductions necessary to live in a village setting. I wish to express my heartfelt thanks and appreciation for the many Bao’an Tu language consultants who have given generously of their time and more often than not shared not only their linguistic knowledge, but also their hospitality. I must also thank iii Carol Eames for introducing me to many of them. I would like to thank by name Dorje Jiashi, Caiguoji, and Ang Xiu, all of whom played vital roles in helping me to collect and transcribe the data used in this study. Without the loyalty and talent of Caiguoji in particular, the completion of this dissertation could not have been realized. I am grateful for the help and support of my SIL colleagues throughout the process of writing this dissertation. Stephen Kim and Peter Lester graciously allowed me to take time away from other duties to work on it, and Keith Slater stood by me through it all with both linguistic help and much-valued friendship. I wish to thank my parents Ken and Jo Fried and my parents-in-law Daniel and Sharon Yazak for their encouragement and support. Their moral support and practical help have made all the difference in the world. Finally, to my girls, I owe thanks beyond what words can express. Heather Fried has not only shared this adventure with me from beginning to end and cheered me on; she has ventured to believe in me when I did not even believe in myself. The joy Asha and Selah have brought to the journey has been priceless. soli Deo gloria iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements................................................................................................ iii List of Tables ................................................................................................. xiii Abbreviations ................................................................................................. xiv Abstract ................................................................................................. xvi 1 Introduction .....................................................................................................1 1.1 Linguistic Context .....................................................................................1 1.1.1 Genetic Classification........................................................................1 1.1.2 Typological Overview........................................................................3 1.1.3 Previous Scholarship..........................................................................4 1.2 Bao’an Speakers and Their Context..........................................................6 1.2.1 Social and Historical Context.............................................................7 1.2.2 Sociolinguistic Context......................................................................9 1.3 Theory and Methods................................................................................11 1.3.1 Language Description and Basic Linguistic Theory ........................11 1.3.2 Data ..................................................................................................12 2 Phonology ...................................................................................................15 2.1 Phoneme Inventory..................................................................................16 2.1.1 Consonants .......................................................................................16 2.1.1.1 Plosives .....................................................................................22 2.1.1.2 Affricates...................................................................................24 2.1.1.3 Fricatives...................................................................................26 2.1.1.4 Nasals ........................................................................................31 v 2.1.1.5 Liquids ......................................................................................31 2.1.1.6 Glides ........................................................................................32 2.1.2 Vowels ......................................................................................32 2.2 Syllable Structure....................................................................................35 2.3 Word Stress.............................................................................................37 3 Morphology ...................................................................................................38 3.1 Nominal Morphology..............................................................................40 3.1.1 Inflectional Morphology..................................................................40 3.1.1.1 Case...........................................................................................43 3.1.1.1.1 Nominative Case.................................................................44 3.1.1.1.2 The Accusative Enclitic =nə ..............................................47 3.1.1.1.3 Locative Enclitics...............................................................52 3.1.1.1.3.1 The Locative Enclitic =da...............................................52 3.1.1.1.3.2 The Locative Enclitic =də...............................................58 3.1.1.1.4 The Instrumental Enclitic =ʁala.........................................60 3.1.1.1.5 The Ablative Enclitic =sa ..................................................64 3.1.1.1.6 The Predicate Possessive Enclitic =gaŋ .............................65 3.1.1.2 Number......................................................................................65 3.1.1.2.1 Noun Phrases with No Number Enclitic.............................66 3.1.1.2.2 The Singular Indefinite Enclitic =gə..................................67 3.1.1.2.3 The Dual Enclitic =ʁala .....................................................68 3.1.1.2.4 The Paucal Enclitic =ʁula ..................................................71 vi 3.1.1.2.5 The Plural Enclitic =la........................................................73 3.1.1.3 The Enclitic =tshaŋ ‘family’......................................................75 3.1.1.4 Articles/Definiteness.................................................................82 3.1.2 Derivational Morphology.................................................................84 3.1.2.1 Reduplication ............................................................................84 3.1.2.2 Deverbal Nouns.........................................................................85 3.2 Verbal Morphology.................................................................................88 3.2.1 Tense/Aspect/Modality ....................................................................88 3.2.1.1 Finite Forms ..............................................................................88 3.2.1.2 Non-finite Forms.......................................................................90 3.2.2 Subjective/Objective Speaker Perspective .......................................92 3.2.3 Negation of Verbs............................................................................94 3.2.3.1 Negative Particles əle and əsə...................................................94 3.2.3.2 Negative Copulas ki/kina and