Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area - Volume 47, Issue 2, 2024

Although the iconicity of reduplication has been addressed by many researchers, not enough attention has been paid to the distinct character of modified reduplication in opposition to full reduplication. Modified reduplication is here defined as the juxtaposition of two similar but not identical phonological forms which differ in vowel quality (e.g. English chit-chat, Lhasa Tibetan zam zom ‘careless work’, Tshangla napanopo ‘silly’) or in initial consonant (e.g. English hotchpotch, Lhasa Tibetan ’a la ma la ‘confused, unconnected, irregular’). This paper describes the uses of modified reduplication in five languages spoken in the Himalayas: Central Tibetan (bod), Denjongke (sip, Tibetic), Lhomi (lhm, Tibetic), Tshangla (tsj, Sino-Tibetan, Bodish) and Duhumbi (cvg, Kho-Bwa). The data, which come both from published sources (Bodt 2020, Naga & Rigzin 1994, Yliniemi 2021, Nitartha online dictionary of Tibetan) and heretofore unpublished material, show that modified reduplication in the aforementioned languages is associated with four types of iconicity: (1) duality/plurality of similar but not identical sounds (e.g. Denjongke tʽaŋtʽiŋ ‘cling clang’), (2) duality/plurality of similar but not identical items (e.g. Denjongke dakdok ‘occurring as an assortment of small items of various sizes’), (3) duality/plurality of similar but not identical locations (e.g. Tibetan thar thor ‘scattered’), also suggesting motion between locations (e.g. Tibetan lang ling ‘drifting, swinging’), and (4) nonnormativity arising from the comparison of two similar but non-identical forms (e.g. Tshangla thapathopo ‘slow-witted’, zhalangzholong ‘shapeless; useless [of people]’). In four of the five languages (others than Lhomi) a~o vowel modification is strongly associated with nonnormativity.

This paper combines field investigation and phonetic experiments to study the monosyllabic tone and tone sandhi of the Jino language as spoken in Baka village. The study found that the phenomenon of tone sandhi in bisyllabic words of Jino language has describable rules: from a diachronic perspective, morphemes with the same historical origin exhibit the same tone alternation characteristics when constructing words, while morphemes with different historical origins exhibit different tone alternation characteristics. Morphemes derived from the *Proto-Lolo Tone 1 reorganize the metrical relationship between morphemes in word construction, resulting in unstressed and stressed tones. From the perspective of synchronic phonological analysis, the obligatory contour principle restricts the occurrence of tones in bisyllabic words. In addition, this paper also proposes some new views on the historical development of tones in Jino language from an empirical perspective.

Both Pangkhua and South Central languages exhibit an elaborate indexation of arguments on verbs. Pangkhua shares many of the characteristics of argument indexation with other languages in South Central while showing a relatively more innovative pattern in this domain (verbal argument indexation). In South Central, major tendencies of argument indexation include the loss of archaic patterns in mostly Central languages as opposed to Northwestern and Peripheral languages, the retention of archaic forms in mostly negative constructions, and the relatively higher complexity in 1st person and 2nd person argument indexation than in 3rd person. There is a notable affinity between a few Central and Peripheral languages in the grammaticalization of directional markers as argument indexes. This affinity in specific functional domains indicates the likelihood of language contact at a post proto-SC period.

This contribution provides a descriptive account of the phasal polarity domain (encompassing the concepts not yet, already, still, and no longer) in Suansu, using a corpus of naturalistic and semi-spontaneous data. It aims at filling the descriptive gap of this category in Tibeto-Burman and frames the properties of Suansu phasal polarity system within a cross-linguistic framework. Findings reveal that Suansu expresses these concepts through various means, including versatile verbs, discourse markers, aspectual markers, and dedicated forms. Results also show that Suansu phasal polarity domain revolves around an interconnected semantic network based on internal negation, polarity change, and actualization (or existence) at the reference point.