Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area - Volume 39, Issue 1, 2016

Matisoff (2003) reconstructs an “adjectival prefix” *gV-, based on work by Wolfenden (1929). As a result of surveying grammatical descriptions of more than 90 Tibeto-Burman languages, the present study provides evidence to reconstruct Matisoff’s adjectival prefix as a nominalizer whose functional range includes (but is not limited to) the adjectival marking. Evidence for the prefix is found in three major genetic subdivisions. Within Bradley’s (2002) Western branch, Baram (Newaric) has a particularly versatile nominalizer ki-~gi-, and Eastern Kiranti languages have *gV-…-pa nominalizing circumfixes. In Bradley’s Eastern branch, rGyalrongic languages have velar prefixes that function as the main nominalizers. Further, in DeLancey’s (2015) Central branch of Trans-Himalayan (Sino-Tibetan), we find reflexes of *gV- in many languages, most notably the versatile nominalizer kV- in Lamkang (Northwest Kuki-Chin). Other languages of the India-Myanmar border with unresolved phylogenetic status within Tibeto-Burman also have reflexes of *gV-, most prominently Karbi and Tangkhul (Konnerth 2012).

Khaling, like other Kiranti languages, has a Reflexive / Middle suffix-si, the main function of which is to reduce the valence of verbs. The present paper describes the complex morphological alternations observed in the reflexive paradigms, and provides a detailed account of the various meanings of the -si derivation in Khaling.

Thulung Rai, an endangered Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Eastern Nepal, presents two derivational suffixes associated with reflexivization: -si and -s. The first, -si, is quite productive, found in complete paradigms, and derives reflexives, reciprocals, antipassives and anticausatives from transitive verbs (and occasionally from intransitive verbs). The second marker, -s, is more difficult to analyze: it has a limited distribution in verb paradigms, only appearing with 1pi and 3sg forms, and appears in a number of different contexts: it is found with the same types of derivations as -si but also — in some cases obligatorily, in others optionally — with verbs that do not have reflexive (or related) functions. It is even found with some transitive verbs. In this presentation, I will propose an analysis of the phenomena above based on elicited and narrative data I have collected in the field. The -s in fact has multiple, albeit related, origins: it is a phonological reduction of -si in certain circumstances, while in others it appears to be an older reflexivizing suffix which has been integrated, to different degrees, into verb morphology. With transitives, it appears to be a trace reflecting the complex derivational history of verbs which are derived from intransitives.

Lataddi Narua is the first reported variety of a Naish language having only two tonal levels; all other Naish languages described to date have three. The language uses a system in which level tones are primary, and tones are associated to lexical items rather than to individual syllables. Four tone categories are identified for nouns and adjectives, and six for verbs. Processes of tonal interaction across word boundaries are discussed, from tonal morphology to observations about syntactic and semantic factors influencing the placement of tone group boundaries within a sentence.

This paper describes the attention marker =ɕo in Denjongke, a Tibetic language spoken in Sikkim, India. The presence of the attention marker, which may be either speaker or addressee-oriented, indicates that something is brought to the forefront of the speaker’s or the addressee’s attention. The attention marker =ɕo occurs in declarative uses postposed to a verb, and in interrogative uses postposed to other parts of speech (verbless uses). The attention in verbal uses, which resemble the notion “mirativity”, is either speaker or addressee-oriented, whereas verbless uses, which resemble the notion “contrastive focus”, are always addressee-oriented. When occurring with copulas, the function of =ɕo as either speaker or addressee-oriented is partly dependent on the evidentiality of the copulas. With other verbs, the orientation of =ɕo is dependent on other contextual factors. After describing the verbal and verbless uses of =ɕo, the article concludes by showing why the categories focus and mirativity are problematic for describing =ɕo. Existing definitions of mirativity by DeLancey (1997), Peterson (2013), Dickinson (2000), Hyslop (2011b), Hengeveld & Olbertz (2012) and Aikhenvald (2012) are shown to fail to accommodate the range of uses of =ɕo. The concept of attention, on the other hand, not only describes the Denjongke data more comprehensively but also helps understand the interface between mirative-like and focus-like phenomena. The last section illustrates the similarity of =ɕo to exclusively addressee-oriented morphemes in Nepali, Japanese (Davis 2011) and Ingush (Nichols 2011), suggesting that the concept of attention may prove useful for describing exclusively addressee-oriented phenomena, which have rarely been associated with “mirativity”.

Through a case study on the Zijun Samatao community of Kunming City in Yunnan Province of China, this paper discusses the impact of urbanization and mass Han Chinese migration on the endangerment of an ethnic minority language and culture. Samatao of Kunming is a subgroup of the minority Yi nationality of China. Historically, Kunming was the original homeland of many Yi communities including the Samatao. With the fast pace of urbanization and increasing Han Chinese migration, the Samatao community is losing their language and has lost their traditional culture and religion. Urbanization has brought mass migration into Zijun village, accelerating the endangerment of the Samatao language. Of nearly three thousand registered Samatao people, fewer than 100 (including semi-speakers) have any level of active knowledge of their language and culture. Since 1994, the endangerment of Samatao language has dramatically increased, especially since 2003. Based on data from fieldwork in the community over more than twenty years, this paper explores how the ideals of the Samatao community about preserving their language and culture are challenged by the contextual reality of urbanization and mass Han Chinese migration.