This paper describes systems of direction and associated motion in Barpak Ghale, a Tamangic language spoken in Nepal. The language has two sets of suffixes to encode these grammatical categories. The first set, -p Lambda and -r Lambda, encodes direction and prior associated motion, while the second set, -kwi and -ri, encodes direction and subsequent or concurrent associated motion. The co-expression of direction and associated motion raises the question of how one reading is selected over the other. Examining data from the present author's fieldwork, this study argues that the interpretation of these suffixes depends on the semantic class of the verb root. The data generally follow the hierarchy of verb classes as proposed in typological studies. In addition, this study demonstrates that causative-motion verbs exhibit distinct behaviors depending on their subtypes. It argues that the nature of causation and the accompaniment of the causer in causative-motion verbs play a crucial role in the interpretation of suffixes.
This paper investigates the occurrence of ABB modifier patterns in Wolam Ngio (Glottolog: wola1254), a North Khiamniungan variety, along with the closely related standard Thang variety which serves as the standard dialect in India, as well as Kingphu Ngio spoken in neighbouring Myanmar. North Khiamniungan shows the ABB pattern as one of many productive uses of reduplication. This paper builds upon previous work on the occurrence of reduplicated modifiers in languages of Northeast India in which the bare stem A is followed by an often reduplicated morpheme B similar to B, which may or may not be semantically transparent.
This article presents a transcribed, glossed, and translated folktale in Thebo Tibetan. The narrative is presented in four-line interlinear format with accompanying commentary and time-aligned transcription. This is the first published text in Thebo Tibetan and offers valuable insight into its structure and oral narrative tradition. This contribution enhances the documentation of Thebo and expands the comparative folklore record for Tibeto-Burman languages.
This paper aims to provide a comprehensive description of the forms and distribution of negation expressions in southern Tujia (Tibeto-Burman), an endangered language spoken in southern China, from a diachronic perspective and comparing the negation forms with those in northern Tujia. Southern Tujia employs different negators, some of which are disappearing, while some new ones are being introduced. Furthermore, negation is sometimes preverbal, sometimes postverbal. We analyze this complex situation from a historical perspective, in which some aspects can be explained as continuations from Proto-Tibeto-Burman, and others as innovations, based on grammaticalization, semantic adaptation and borrowing, which have led to the present complex state of affairs. These kinds of changes can be compared to developments in other languages in the world, and therefore contribute to typological research on the expression and diachronic development of negation.
This preliminary study argues that the Lhasa Tibetan (LT) Factive evidential category is fundamentally polysemous. Aside from capturing the category's full semantic range, a polysemous account of Factive also resolves apparent contradictions in prior descriptions and better predicts its distribution in discourse and narration. Drawing on elicited scenarios and consultant judgments, I show that the uses of Factive constructions cluster into three related but distinct functions - familiar knowledge, common knowledge, and logical inference - which vary along two dimensions: (i) whether a specific perceptual act is construed and (ii) how knowledge is distributed between interlocutors. These dimensions yield predictable, context-specific effects on the tense-aspect and discourse-pragmatic interpretations of a sentence indicating systematic polysemy, rather than semantic vagueness (Geeraerts 1993: 223-272). Diachronically, LT Factive forms derive from two constructions, *red and *yod.pa.red (Shao 2016). Although both contain the element *red, they entered the Sentence Ending paradigm (the morphosyntactic paradigm that encodes epistemic-evidential contrasts) with distinct connotations which were later aligned as a single category. This Factive category serves as an effective strategy for negotiating interlocutors' "territories of information" (Kamio 1994, 1997): speakers use Factive to signal contextually varying values of knowledge ownership, epistemic proximity and perceived reliability. Consequently, the category's polysemy has the paradigmatic effect of increasing the number of available epistemic-evidential contrasts, giving the Sentence Ending paradigm greater expressive reach.
The goal of this article is to describe the evidential-epistemic (E-E) system of Dolpo, a Tibetic language of Nepal. The evidential and epistemic paradigms are constructed with equative, existential, and auxiliary verbs. The first two, equative and existential verbs, are also used as linking verbs, whereas auxiliary verbs form a part of verbal endings. These markers can be divided into two major types depending on what they connote: if doubt is conveyed, the verb is labelled as epistemic; if the statement is strictly based on evidence, the verb is designated as evidential. The core part of this article comprises a systematic overview of the interaction of E-E markers with differing tenses and aspects. Moreover, we demonstrate the existence of some original features of the Dolpo system, including documentation of specific inferential markers; we also discuss several semantic and cognitive differences in the E-E markers of local varieties within Dolpo. The multiterm E-E system is illustrated by examples obtained during linguistic fieldwork in Dolpo in 2022 and 2023.
This paper investigates clausal complementation in Mising, an Eastern Tani (TB) language spoken in Assam, India. It examines finite and non-finite complement clauses, analyzing their grammatical structures and underlying conceptualizations. Mising employs at least four complementizers (one finite, three non-finite), while some complement clauses appear without overt complementizers. Each of these constructions exhibits distinct semantic properties.While primarily descriptive in nature, this study incorporates insights from Cognitive Linguistics. Our analysis suggests that finite complementation aligns with an objective perspective, where the speaker views the complement event as external and distinct. Conversely, non-finite complementation aligns with a subjective perspective, reflecting a closer involvement of the speaker in the complement event. These two perspectives are associated with different conceptual viewing arrangements.The data for this paper comes from the Pagro dialect of Mising, primarily spoken in the Jonai sub-division of Assam's Dhemaji district.
Mienic languages constitute one of two branches of the Hmong-Mien language family, Hmongic and Mienic, and are distributed over a vast area from southern China to Southeast Asia. Based on the published data, this paper argues that certain correspondence patterns found between Mienic languages provide evidence on specific phonological states of Proto-Mienic initial consonants, which have been lost in all modern Mienic languages: Proto-Mienic has prenasalized plosives in its initial consonant inventory.
In this paper, I examine two cases of merger, by comparing the fricatives (/s/, /integral/) and affricates (/ts/ and /t integral/) in ten varieties of Mongsen-Ao, including Changki, which is structurally close to Mongsen. Based on the comparison of fricatives and affricates in the ten selected varieties, I show that the merger of /s/ and /integral/ as observed by Bruhn (2014) and merger of affricates /ts/ and /t integral/ as proposed by Coupe (2003, 2007), did not take place in all varieties of Mongsen. The merger also had an impact on the following vowel, leading to a process of vowel reduction in most of the Mongsen varieties. As part of the analysis, two fricatives- *s and *integral, and two affricates- *ts and *t integral, are reconstructed with all the four vowels in Proto-Mongsen.Given the phonological variation within Mongsen varieties spoken in different villages, this paper also sheds light on some of the phonological changes across varieties.
Tonogenesis for Tangsa-Nocte has previously been described as likely derived from phonation distinctions in the proto-language, where aspiration and voicing played no part (van Dam 2018). With newly published Wancho data (Losu & Morey 2023), a direct tone correspondence can be shown between Tangsa-Nocte and Wancho. Phom (Burling & Phom 1998) shows a similar correspondence. The situation differs when considering Southeast Patkaian varieties such as Lainong and Khiamniungan; a correspondence pattern can still be found, but only when taking into account features like voicing and aspiration which had no role in Tangsa-Nocte tonogenesis.Khiamniungan also lacks the checked-tone category found elsewhere in Patkaian and other Mainland Southeast Asian languages. This paper will show how tonogenesis can be explained for the entirety of Patkaian (Northern Naga) as distinct tonogenetic events based on common pre-tonal features such as voicing, aspiration, and phonation in the proto language.
This paper examines the plural marker = ɲê in Cogtse Situ, a Gyalrongic language spoken in Western Sichuan, based on data from Lin (2016) . Although the etymology of = ɲê suggests that it was originally a plural marker, its morphosyntax reveals that its hosts range beyond traditional nominals and further cover infinitives, clauses, and adverbs, indicating that = ɲê has a wider array of uses beyond simply expressing plurality in modern Cogtse. In this paper, I discuss the uses and the semantics of the marker = ɲê extend to honorific, associative, approximative, and intensificative. After describing the different functions of = ɲê , I propose an evolutionary pathway for these uses. The proposal of the pathway provides a possible explanation for the relationship between different uses of this = ɲê , and this paper fills the research gap in the study of the plural marker in Gyalrongic languages.
The classification and naming of plants and animals is said to follow a number of “universal” constraints cross-linguistically. While these constraints are generally accepted in the literature, few have been rigorously tested with a large language sample. In particular, the languages of mainland southeast Asia appear to have been neglected in such endeavours, even though it is common knowledge that some key constraints are violated in this region. Here, we investigate the construction of “Generic” plant and animal names in 22 languages of mainland southeast Asia, and show that the vast majority of these — especially among plant and fish ethnotaxa — are two-part “secondary names”, in contrast to a major constraint that predicts that such names should be one-part “primary names”. This appears to be a widespread areal feature, and has implications for the validity of other nomenclatural “universals”, which remain to be similarly tested.
We describe the yarn preparation and weaving tradition of the Japhug people of Sichuan Province, China, speakers of a Rgyalrongic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan family. We discuss the practical aspects of the loom and its operation, as well as the terms used to describe it. Our analysis shows that the terms are mostly a mixture of autochthonous Rgyalrongic and borrowings from Tibetan. The loom is a version of the frameless body-tensioned loom, an ancient and widespread type in East Asia and Southeast Asia, used by many Sino-Tibetan language speakers. We provide a simple guide for researchers interested in recording weaving traditions in the field, and we briefly discuss the implications of our findings for the study of the languages and ethnography of the Sino-Tibetan peoples generally.
The goal of this article is a description of the verbal system of Dolpo, a Tibetic language of Nepal, and to demonstrate some of its original features concerning verbal morphosyntax. Dolpo no longer reflects Old Tibetan verb inflections: instead, tense-aspect is conveyed by a system of verbal endings that are combinations of nominalizers and equative or existential verbs. Unlike Common Tibetan and other Tibetic languages, Dolpo exhibits original morphophonemic variations of verbal morphosyntax, a description of which comprises the main part of this article. Morphophonemic variations also apply to negation markers and interrogative enclitics. This complex system of morphophonemic variations is demonstrated by examples obtained during our linguistic fieldwork in Dolpo in 2022 and 2023.
This paper showcases the Mùwe Ké ergative - gane / -gadiː , a unit formed from - ga , a particle of specificity, with ablative marker - ne or demonstrative dìː . This is unique in the language family, where ergative - gi is usually found, and it is shown that ‘modern’ - gane has replaced historical - gi in the language, which is still found on pronominals. The functions of - ga and - gane are shown to centre around precise indication, highlighting, and intersubjective focussing of attention. The second half of the paper provides a presentation of the differential use of - gane . Looking at possible differential argument marking triggers, it is shown that only information structure and the notion of focus account for the differential patterns found in the language.
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.
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 t'a eta t'i eta '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 similar to o vowel modification is strongly associated with nonnormativity.
Gerard Diffloth (1937-2023) was a leading authority on Austroasiatic languages, with a wide range of linguistic interests ranging from historical reconstruction to expressives, and much more. He was a tireless fieldworker who firmly believed that research into the linguistic history of Austroasiatic need be grounded in long-term fieldwork with native speakers in their daily speech environment. In this paper we introduce an unpublished manuscript on the phonology of the Tri language spoken in Vilabouly District, Savannakhet Province in southern Laos. We frame this with a brief introduction to his work, with a tribute to his commitment to fieldwork and the principles he maintained throughout the many decades of working with speakers of Austroasiatic languages.
