A Grammar of Dongwang Tibetan

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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara

A Grammar of Dongwang Tibetan

A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics

by

Ellen Lynn Bartee

Committee in charge: Professor Carol Genetti, Chair Professor Sandra A. Thompson Professor Bernard Comrie Professor Krisadawan Hongladarom

September 2007

The dissertation of Ellen Lynn Bartee is approved.

_____________________________________________ Sandra A. Thompson

_____________________________________________ Bernard Comrie

_____________________________________________ Krisadawan Hongladarom

_____________________________________________ Carol Genetti, Committee Chair

July 2007

A Grammar of Dongwang Tibetan

Copyright © 2007 by Ellen Lynn Bartee iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS From my first trip to Dongwang in 2002 to the final completion of this dissertation in 2007, many people have befriended, housed, and helped me along the way. To all these people, I extend my thanks. I would like to thank the people of Pongding for welcoming me and my family into their village. Thanks to Tashi Tsering who first told me about Dongwang and who introduced me to his family in Pongding. Big thanks are due to Tashi's family for allowing us to stay in their house whenever we were there. Longchu, Danzen Chumpi, Danzen Norbu, and Hushing put up with our oddities and took us into their home with great ease. Thanks to Yishi Droma, Tashi Norbu, Losang Chutso and Chundzom for their friendship and help. Special thanks are due to my committee members: Carol Genetti, Sandy Thompson, Bernard Comrie, and Krisadawan Hongladarom. The difficulty of writing this dissertation far exceeded my expectations, as did the commitment and rigor my committee invested to see it to completion. They read countless drafts and made extensive comments throughout that resulted in a much higher quality work than would have existed without their insights. Special thanks to my Chair, Carol Genetti, who applied herself to this project with all the enthusiasm, professionalism and expertise that characterizes all her endeavors. Big thanks to Ken Hugoniot who spent many hours proofreading and editing this whole dissertation several times over.

iv

Filing this dissertation from China would have been impossible without the help I received from Karen Barteld and Mary Rae Staton. Mary Rae, linguistic department secretary extraordinaire, fielded many emails and filed forms on my behalf efficiently and cheerfully. To Ken and Isabelle—who make having more free time meaningful—now we have time for a long hike!

v

VITA OF ELLEN LYNN BARTEE July, 2007 EDUCATION June, 1986

Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics, Simpson College, San Francisco, California

June, 1987

TESOL Certificate, San Jose State University, San Jose, California

June, 1995

Master of Arts in Linguistics, University of Texas, Arlington, Texas

September, 2007 Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics, University of California, Santa Barbara, (expected) RESEARCH INTERESTS Languages: Mandarin Chinese, Lhasa Tibetan, Literary Tibetan, Khams Tibetan Topic areas: Morphology, syntax, discourse, grammaticization, language contact, field methodology PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Research Assistant, Panasonic Speech Technology Lab (Worked with a group on Speech Recognition and Speech Production software), 2000-01 Teaching Assistant, UC Santa Barbara, Linguistics Department (Introduction to Linguistics, Language and Gender, Syntax, Historical Linguistics), 1998-2001; Teaching Assistant, University of Oregon, (Syntax and Semantics), 1995, Summer Lecturer, University of Oregon, Linguistics Department (Language and Culture Acquisition), 1996, Summer Lecturer in China (English as a Second Language): Center for Tibetan Studies, Beijing, 1991-92; University of Tibet, Lhasa 1988-89; Hengyang Teacher's College, Hunan, 1987-88. FIELD RESEARCH Yunnan, CHINA. Cooperation between SIL and Yunnan Provincial Language Commission to conduct research on Tibetan dialects in Yunnan, 2004-present. vi

Dongwang Tibetan, Yunnan, CHINA. One year researching a dialect of Khams Tibetan, sponsored by Fulbright, 2002-03 Lhasa, Tibet, CHINA. Various trips to collect discourse data, 1991-1998 PUBLICATIONS 2000 With Nyima Droma. A Beginning Textbook of Lhasa Tibetan. Beijing: National Press for Tibetan Studies. PAPERS PRESENTED Preliminary report on Dongwang Phonology. Tibetan Workshop. UCSB, January, 2003 'The role of animacy in the verbal morphology of Dongwang Tibetan'. Paper presented at The 11th Himalayan Languages Symposium and Workshop on Old Tibetan and Tibetan Dialectology. Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, December 69, 2005 'Relative Clauses in Dongwang Tibetan'. Paper presented at the 10th International Symposium on Language Typology and Structure in Minority Languages of China. Lijiang, Yunnan, PRC. September 24-25, 2006.

vii

ABSTRACT

A Grammar of Dongwang Tibetan

by

Ellen Lynn Bartee

This dissertation is a description of Dongwang Tibetan. It is based on personal biographies, narratives and procedural texts, as well as on elicited material. Dongwang is a Southern Khams Tibetan dialect spoken in Shangri-la County, Diqing Prefecture, Yunnan. There are about 6,000 speakers of Dongwang who live in fiftyseven villages that are scattered on the steep hillsides along both sides of the Dongwang River. After an introductory chapter, a synchronic and diachronic description of the phonology is given. The synchronic section examines the segments, syllable canon and tone of Dongwang. The diachronic section focuses on comparing older forms of Tibetan, as reflected in Written Tibetan, with Dongwang speech in order to highlight the historical origins and development of Dongwang forms. Word classes including nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are described in Chapters Three through Six. Special attention is given to how new nouns are inducted into Dongwang and the various morphological processes required to do viii

so. The semantic and pragmatic categories that typify verbs are described in Chapter Four with special attention given to categories of control, transitivity and intention. Two types of adjectives are described in Chapter Six as well as the semantic categories that adjectives depict. Constituent order and nominal morphology is discussed in Chapter Eight, in which the morphosyntactic organization of core arguments is described along with other casemarking clitics. Chapters Nine and Ten describe the verb phrase, focusing on pre-verbal and post-verbal elements and issues of grammaticization which typify the secondary verbs in Dongwang. Intention, evidentiality, and validationality are some of the issues contained in the discussion of final auxiliaries. Chapter Eleven describes simple clause types in Dongwang and Chapter Twelve discusses combinations of clauses such as relative clauses, complement clauses and clause chains.

ix

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1: Introduction

1

1.1 Culture

1

1.1.1 Livelihood

1

1.1.2 Religion

2

1.1.3 Food

3

1.1.4 Clothing

5

1.1.5 Architecture

6

1.1.6 Kinship and marriage

7

1.2 Geographical location

8

1.3 Historical notes

13

1.4 Linguistic classification

15

1.5 The name 'Dongwang'

18

1.6 Villages and populations

18

1.7 Published research

19

1.7.1 Written Tibetan

19

1.7.2 Spoken Tibetan

19

1.7.2.1 Central Tibetan

20

1.7.2.2 Amdo Tibetan

20

1.7.2.3 Khams Tibetan

20

1.8 Typology

21 x

1.9 Data and speakers

22

Chapter 2: Phonology

24

2.1 Synchronic phonology

24

2.1.1 Consonants

24

2.1.1.1 Stops

25

2.1.1.1.1 Bilabial stops

26

2.1.1.1.2 Alveolar stops

26

2.1.1.1.3 Velar stops

27

2.1.1.1.4 Glottal stops

27

2.1.1.2 Nasals

28

2.1.1.2.1 Bilabial nasals

28

2.1..12.2 Alveolar nasals

29

2.1.1.2.3 Palatal nasals

29

2.1.1.2.4 Velar nasals

29

2.1.1.3 Taps/flaps

29

2.1.1.4 Fricatives

30

2.1.1.5 Affricates

32

2.1.1.6 Approximants

33

2.1.2 Vowels

36

2.1.2.1 Monopthongs

36

2.1.2.1.1 Nasalization contrasts xi

37

2.1.2.1.2 Length contrasts

37

2.1.2.2 Dipthongs

38

2.1.3 Syllable canon

40

2.1.4 Suprasegmentals

42

2.1.4.1 Tone

42

2.1.4.1.1 Tone in monosyllabic words

43

2.1.4.1.2 Tonogenesis

51

2.1.4.1.3 Tones in polysyllabic words

54

2.1.4.1.4 Tone sandhi

55

2.1.4.1.5 Stress

56

2.2 Diachronic phonology

58

2.2.1 Onsets

61

2.2.1.1 Obstruents

61

2.2.1.2 Plosives

61

2.2.1.2.1 Bilabials

61

2.2.1.2.2 Coronals

66

2.2.1.2.3 Velars

68

2.2.1.3 Fricatives

71

2.2.1.4 Affricates

72

2.2.1.5 Sonorants

73

2.2.1.5.1 Nasals

73

2.2.1.5.2 Liquids

75 xii

2.2.1.5.3 Glides (w and y)

78

2.2.2 Rhymes

79

2.2.2.1 Diphthongization

84

2.2.2.2 Resyllabification

87

Chapter 3: Nouns and pronouns

88

3.1 Lexical nouns

90

3.1.1 General characteristics of nouns

91

3.1.1.1 Number of syllables

91

3.1.1.2 Proper nouns

92

3.1.1.2.1 Personal names

92

3.1.1.2.2 Place names

93

3.1.1.3 Honorifics

93

3.1.2 Induction of new nouns into Dongwang

94

3.1.2.1 Borrowing

94

3.1.2.2 Morphological processes

96

3.1.2.2.1 Vowel raising

96

3.1.2.2.2 Compounds

97

3.1.2.2.2.1 Noun + noun compounds

97

3.1.2.2.2.2 Noun + adjective compounds

98

3.1.2.2.2.3 Noun + verb compounds

99

3.1.2.2.3 Nominalization

99 xiii

3.1.2.2.3.1 -bɑ and -mo

100

3.1.2.2.3.2 -mə, -wɑ, coalescence

101

3.1.2.2.3.3 -sɑ, -nə and -mi

103

3.1.2.2.3.4 Place/instrumental nominalizer -sɑ

103

3.1.2.2.3.5 Agent nominalizer -nə

104

3.1.2.2.3.6 Kinship prefix a-

105

3.2 Pronouns

105

3.2.1 Personal pronouns

105

3.2.1.1 Singular personal pronouns

106

3.2.1.2 Plural personal pronouns

107

3.2.1.2.1 Overview of personal pronouns

108

3.2.1.2.2 Background of plural personal pronouns

109

3.2.2 Reflexive pronouns

110

Chapter 4: Verbs and verbal categories

113

4.1 Semantic and pragmatic categories

114

4.1.1 Transitivity

115

4.1.1.1 Core arguments

116

4.1.1.2 Verb pairs

120

4.1.2 Control

126 xiv

4.1.3 Intention

130

4.1.4 Honorifics

131

4.2 Copulas

132

4.2.1 A note regarding the terms 'conjunct/disjunct'

132

4.2.2 Equative copulas

137

4.2.3 Existential copulas

139

4.3 Lexical verbs

142

4.3.1 Compound verbs

143

4.3.2 Phrasal verbs

143

Chapter 5: Adjectives

148

5.1 Morphological characteristics of adjectives

148

5.1.1 Nominalized adjectives

150

5.1.2 Reduplicated adjectives

151

5.1.3 Compounds

152

5.1.4 'Plain' adjectives

153

5.2 Syntactic properties of adjectives and descriptive verbs

153

5.2.1 Nominal modifiers

154

5.2.2 Copula complements

157

5.2.3 Verbal morphology

159

5.2.3.1 Adjectives and aspectual and directional marking

159

5.2.3.2 Adjectives and causative constructions

160

xv

5.2.3.3 Adjectives and change-of-state suffix -ra

161

5.2.3.4 Adjectives and auxiliary verbs

163

5.2.3.5 Adjectives and clause combining

165

5.2.4 Negation strategies

166

5.2.4.1 Clauses with first-person S arguments

167

5.2.4.2 Clauses with non-first-person S arguments

169

5.2.5 Adverbial functions of adjectives 5.3 Semantic categories

170 170

5.3.1 Dimension

171

5.3.2 Age

172

5.3.3 Value

172

5.3.4 Color

173

5.3.5 Physical property

174

5.3.6 Human propensity

175

5.3.7 Difficulty

176

5.3.8 Quantification

176

5.4 Comparatives, superlatives, and excessives

176

5.4.1 Comparatives

176

5.4.2 Superlatives, intensives, and excessives

179

Chapter 6: Adverbs

181

6.1 Morphology of adverbs

182 xvi

6.2 Syntax of adverbs

183

6.3 Types of adverbs

186

6.3.1 Temporal adverbs

186

6.3.1.1 Absolute time

186

6.3.1.2 Relative time

187

6.3.1.3 Continuous time

191

6.3.1.4 Durative time

193

6.3.1.5 Iterative time

194

6.3.2 Manner adverbs

197

6.3.3 Intensive adverbs and adverbs of degree

199

6.3.4 Restrictive adverbs

201

6.3.5 Epistemic adverbs

203

6.3.6 Locational adverbs

205

6.3.7 Directionals

206

6.4 Adverbs in discourse

206

6.4.1 Openers

207

6.4.2 Bracketing

208

6.4.2.1 ɲɯ¹³ tɕi⁵³ ʼone day'

208

6.4.2.2 sə¹¹ɲɯ⁵³ 'the next day'

208

6.4.2.3 tæ̃¹³ 'then'

209

xvii

Chapter 7: Minor word classes

212

7.1 Numerals, quantifiers, and classifiers

212

7.1.1 Numbers

212

7.1.1.1 Cardinal numbers

212

7.1.1.2 Grammaticized function of the number 'one'

215

7.1.1.3 Ordinal numbers

217

7.1.1.4 Special count words

217

7.1.1.5 Fractions

218

7.1.2 Quantifiers

218

7.1.3 Measures and classifiers

221

7.2 Non-personal pronouns

224

7.2.1 Demonstrative pronouns

225

7.2.2 Interrogative pronouns

228

7.3 Vocatives

231

7.4 Postpositions

232

7.5 Nominal coordination markers

233

7.6 Expletives, fillers, interjections and particles

236

7.6.1 Expletives and emphatic words

236

7.6.2 Fillers

237

7.6.3 Interjections

238

7.6.4 Sentence-final interactional particles

238

xviii

Chapter 8: The noun phrase

241

8.1 Structure of the noun phrase

241

8.1.1 Pre-nominal constituents

241

8.1.1.1 Demonstratives

242

8.1.1.2 Possessors

244

8.1.1.3 Relative clauses

246

8.1.2 Post-nominal constituents

248

8.1.2.1 Numerals, quantifiers and classifiers

248

8.1.2.1.1 Numerals and quantifiers

249

8.1.2.1.2 Classifiers

251

8.1.2.2 Post-nominal demonstratives

252

8.1.2.3 Adjectives

253

8.1.2.4 Nominal modifiers

254

8.1.2.5 Plural marking

254

8.1.3 Conjoined noun phrases

256

8.2 Casemarking

257

8.2.1 Casemarkers

258

8.2.2 Casemarking relations

261

8.2.2.1 Core grammatical relations

261

8.2.2.1.1 Ergative =ji and absolutive =0

261

8.2.2.1.2 Objective =ɡõ

268

8.2.2.2 Non-core grammatical relations xix

274

8.2.2.2.1 Instrumental =ji

274

8.2.2.2.2 Genitive =ji

275

8.2.2.2.3 Dative =jæ

277

8.2.2.2.4 Allative =tsa

279

8.2.2.2.5 Locative =nə

280

8.2.2.2.6 Ablative =tsəo

281

8.2.2.2.7 Comitative rõ

282

8.2.2.3 Case-stacking

283

Chapter 9: The verb phrase

285

9.1 Pre-verbal elements

286

9.1.1 Directionals

286

9.1.1.1 zə- 'up' and mbə- 'down'

286

9.1.1.2 tsʰə 'hither' and pʰə- 'thither'

291

9.1.2 Negation

294

9.1.2.1 Negation of copular and existential verbs

294

9.1.2.2 Negation of other verbs

297

9.1.2.2.1 ma-

297

9.1.2.2.2 pæ̃⁵³

300

xx

9.1.2.2.3 wu-

302

9.1.2.3 Negation in discourse

304

9.2 Post-verbal elements

305

9.2.1 Secondary verbs

307

9.2.1.1 Valence

307

9.2.1.1.1 tɕo⁵³ 'cause'

307

9.2.1.1.2 tɕʰu⁵³ 'permit'

310

9.2.1.1.3 te⁵³ 'give'

311

9.2.1.1.4 ŋa⁵³ 'send', 'release'

312

9.2.1.1.5 ra¹³ 'obtain'

318

9.2.1.2 politeness marker ru 'to help'

321

9.2.1.3 Directionals

321

9.2.1.3.1 ⁿdʐu¹³ 'go'

322

9.2.1.3.2 wũ¹³ 'come'

323

9.2.1.4 Modals

325

9.2.1.4.1 ʂi⁵³ 'know how to', 'able'

326

9.2.1.4.2 gui 'ought to', 'need to'

327

9.2.1.4.3 ɕɑ⁵³ 'able to', 'can'

328 xxi

9.2.1.4.4 pu⁵³ 'dare to'

329

9.2.1.4.5 jæ̃¹³ 'have time to'

330

9.2.1.4.6 ʂæ⁵³ 'to let escape', 'to emit'

331

9.2.1.4.7 ɕi malefactive

332

9.2.1.4.8 tʰu 'able to'

334

9.2.1.4.9 sʰã⁵³ 'to think'

334

9.2.1.5 Aspect

335

9.2.1.5.1 Prospective tsi

336

9.2.1.5.2 Continuative de

337

9.2.1.5.3 Imminent ræ̃

338

9.2.1.5.4 Durative tsʰa

339

9.2.1.5.5 Perfective tʰæ̃

340

9.2.1.5.6 Historical past pə⁵⁵

343

Chapter 10: Final Auxiliary Verbs

345

10.1 SELF/OTHER auxiliaries

349

10.1.1 Auxiliaries from copulas

xxii

350

10.1.1.1 SELF forms zĩ and ji

350

10.1.1.2 OTHER form re

355

10.1.2 Auxiliaries from existentials

357

10.1.2.1 The perfect ze/ze¹¹dʑiʔ

358

10.1.2.2 The present ⁿdo/ⁿdo¹¹dʑiʔ

360

10.1.3 Auxiliaries dʑĩ and dʑiʔ

362

10.1.3.1 The auxiliary dʑĩ

362

10.1.3.2 The auxiliary dʑiʔ

364

10.2 Egodeictic sõ/zõ

365

10.3 The experiential perfect ɲõ/ɲæ¹¹dʑiʔ

367

10.4 Evidentials

368

10.4.1 Direct evidentials

369

10.4.1.1 Imperfective visual evidential n̥õ

369

10.4.1.2 Imperfective visual evidential ⁿdo¹¹dʑiʔ

370

10.4.1.3 Perfective visual evidential tʰi

371

10.4.1.4 The quotative evidential sə⁵⁵tʂa, ~sə, ~s

373

10.4.2 Indirect evidentials

374

xxiii

10.4.2.1 The hearsay tʂa

374

10.4.2.2 The hearsay sə ~ s

375

10.4.2.3 The inferential we⁵⁵no¹¹

376

10.5 Validationals

377

Chapter 11: Clause Types

380

11.1 Sentence structure

380

11.2 Copula clauses

384

11.2.1 Equative copula clauses

384

11.2.2 Attributive copula clauses

386

11.3 Existential clauses

388

11.3.1 Background

389

11.3.2 Existential clauses

389

11.4 Clauses with lexical verbs

392

11.4.1 Intransitive clauses

392

11.4.1.1 Patient-type intransitives

393

11.4.1.2 Agent-type intransitives

395

11.4.1.3 Weather verbs

398

11.4.2 Transitive clauses

399

11.4.2.1 Transitive clauses with control verbs

400

11.4.2.2 Transitive clauses with non-control verbs

404

xxiv

11.4.3 Ditransitive clauses

406

11.5 Zero auxiliary clauses

407

11.6 Interrogative clauses

411

11.6.1 Interrogative clauses with interrogative pronouns

411

11.6.2 Interrogative clauses with question particles

412

11.6.3 Polar question clauses with control lexical verbs

413

11.6.4 Polar question clauses with non-control lexical verbs

416

11.6.5 Polar question clause juxtaposition

418

11.6.6 When questions are not questions

418

11.6.6.1

Mutual interaction

419

11.6.6.2 The hortative construction

421

Chapter 12: Clause Combining

422

12.1 Non-final clauses

422

12.1.1 Neutralization of SELF/OTHER auxiliary forms

423

12.1.2 Adverbial clauses

425

12.1.2.1 Time adverbial clauses

426

12.1.2.1.1 Concurrent time

426

12.1.2.1.2 Simultaneous overlap

430

12.1.2.1.3 Immediate sequential time

431

12.1.2.1.4 Posterior time

431

12.1.2.1.5 Anterior time

432 xxv

12.1.2.2 Conditional adverbial clauses

434

12.1.2.3 Manner adverbial clauses

437

12.1.2.4 Purpose adverbial clauses

437

12.1.2.5 Concessive clauses

438

12.1.2.6 Restrictive clauses

440

12.1.3 Chained clauses

441

12.2 Relative clauses

450

12.2.1 Typological characteristics

451

12.2.2 Relative clauses with the nominalizer -sɑ

454

12.2.3 Relative clauses with the nominalizer -mi⁵³

455

12.2.4 Relative clauses with the nominalizer -nə

458

12.3 Complement clauses

461

12.3.1 Finite complement clauses

463

12.3.2 Non-finite complement clauses

466

12.3.2.1 Nominalized complement clauses

466

12.3.2.2 du, ru

467

12.3.2.3 Zero marking

469

References

475

Appendix A: Dongwang texts

488 xxvi

Getting married

489

How to make butter and cheese

500

How rabbit came to have a short body and long ears

505

Rabbit and Crane

511

Appendix B: English- Written Tibetan Dongwang word list

xxvii

515

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS 1 2 3 A ABS ADVERS AN APPROX CC CH CONC COND CONT COP CS DAT DCT DET DUB DUR EGO ERG EVI EX EXP FUT HON HS IMM IMP INAN INDF INF IPFV IR LOC MAL MOD MUT NEG NZR OBJ

first person second person third person most agent-like argument in transitive clause absolutive adversative animate approximate complement of copular clause Chinese borrowing concessive conditional continuative copula S of copular clause dative deictic determiner dubitive durative egodeictic ergative evidential existential experiential perfect future honorific hearsay evidential imminent aspect imperative inanimate indefinite inferential evidential imperfective irrealis locative malefactive modal mutual negative nominalizer objective xxviii

OBL OTHR P PERM PFV PL POL POSD POSR PROSP PST PTCL Q QTV REAL S SG SELF SPEC TOP VAL VBZR VIS WT

= -

oblique argument other most patient-like argument in transitive clause permissive perfective plural politeness marker possessed argument of possessive clause possessor argument of possessive clause prospective aspect past particle question word or particle quotative realis single argument in intransitive clause singular self auxiliary specific topic validational verbalizer visual evidential Written Tibetan indicates WT examples written in Wylie transcription clitic affix

xxix

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 1 STEDT Stammbaum ................................................................................. 16 Figure 2 Spectrograms of 'bull' and 'valley' uttered by a male and a female speaker . 34 Figure 3 Oscillograms of 'bull' and 'valley' uttered by a male speaker ...................... 35 Figure 4 Minimal sets illustrating three tone categories in Dongwang...................... 44 Figure 5 tʂɑ⁵³ 'hair' in frame sentence uttered by a male speaker.............................. 45 Figure 6 tʂɑ³⁵³ 'enemy' in frame sentence uttered by a male speaker ........................ 45 Figure 7 tʂɑ¹³ 'to cut' in frame sentence uttered by a male speaker ........................... 46 Figure 8 Pitch traces of 20 words illustrating high and low tones............................. 47 Figure 9 Pitch traces of 30 words illustrating high, low and mid tones ..................... 48 Figure 10 Dongwang vowel shift of WT open syllables........................................... 80

Table 1: Dongwang consonant inventory................................................................. 25 Table 2: Dongwang vowel chart .............................................................................. 36 Table 3 Average f0 measurements for 158 words..................................................... 49 Table 4 Correlation of low, mid, and high tones with WT onsets ............................. 52 Table 5 Stress patterns in disyllabic words correlated with length and amplitude..... 56 Table 6 Stress patterns in trisyllabic verbal and non-verbal compounds .................. 57 Table 7 WT consonantal letters with Wylie and IPA transcription .......................... 59 xxx

Table 8 Development of vowels from WT syllables with coronal codas .................. 81 Table 9 Development of vowels from WT syllables with bilabial codas .................. 82 Table 10 Development of vowels from WT syllables with velar codas .................... 82 Table 11 Summary of the development of WT rhymes in Dongwang ..................... 83 Table 12 Development of Dongwang rhymes from WT syllables with non-nasal velar onsets and coronal codas following ................................................................. 85 Table 13 Development of Dongwang rhymes from WT syllables with non-nasal velar onsets and coronal codas not following ........................................................... 86 Table 14 Pronominal paradigm of singular forms ................................................. 106 Table 15 Pronominal paradigm of plural forms ..................................................... 108 Table 16 Transitive/intransitive verb pairs in Dongwang ...................................... 123 Table 17 Transitive and control categories in Dongwang ...................................... 127 Table 18 SELF and OTHER copula forms in Dongwang ........................................... 137 Table 19 SELF and OTHER existential forms in Dongwang ..................................... 139 Table 20 Distributional features of plain adjectives and descriptive verbs ............. 162 Table 21 Distribution of plain adjectives and descriptive verbs w/final auxiliaries. 163 Table 22 Demonstrative pronouns in Dongwang .................................................. 225 Table 23 Casemarkers in Dongwang with WT counterparts .................................. 259 Table 24 Copula/existential affirmative and negative paradigm ............................ 295 Table 25 Secondary modal verbs in Dongwang .................................................... 326 Table 26 Secondary aspectual verbs in Dongwang ................................................ 336 Table 27 Tense/aspect distinctions of final auxiliaries ........................................... 348 xxxi

Table 28 Clause types correlated with # of overt arguments................................... 381 Table 29 Adverbial clause markers in Dongwang ................................................. 426 Table 30 Complement-taking verbs in Dongwang ................................................ 472 Table 31 Scale of complement-taking verbs in Dongwang .................................... 473

LIST OF PLATES AND MAPS Plate 1: Woman harvesting barley in Pongding, Dongwang....................................... 5 Plate 2: A view of Pongding houses from a rooftop ................................................... 6

Map 1: Location of Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture within the PRC ............. 9 Map 2: Deqin (Dechen), Weixi, and Zhongdian (Shangri-la) Counties .................... 11 Map 3: Satellite view of the Dongwang River Valley .............................................. 12

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Chapter 1

Introduction

This dissertation describes a little-known dialect of Tibetan called Dongwang, spoken on the Southeastern periphery of historical Tibet. The goals of this dissertation are to describe the phonology, morphology and syntax of Dongwang, drawing on both naturally-occurring and elicited data.

1.1. Culture For many, the name 'Tibet' conjures a high, dry plateau ringed by mountains, dotted by monasteries and populated by roaming monks, mendicants, and yak herders. The 'Tibetan language' has often been equated with the dialects spoken in and around one of the great centers such as Lhasa, Dege, or Amdo. By contrast, Dongwang is a non-standard dialect spoken by farmers who live in a deep mountain valley far from any well-known center of Tibetan population.

1.1.1.

Livelihood The Tibetans who live in Dongwang primarily cultivate corn, barley, and

wheat. Irrigation channels, carved into steep hillsides, bring water from distant mountain streams to the villages. Most villages have pear, apple, walnut, peach, orange and apricot trees which dot the otherwise bone-dry hillsides. In addition, some households grow small patches of vegetables behind their houses. The main cash crops are various types of mushrooms and ‘caterpillar fungus'. The most valuable

1

type of mushroom is the matsutake mushroom, known locally as ʂũ¹³ 1. The matsutake, which is found on elite menus throughout the world, grows on the hillsides during the rainy summer months. 'Caterpillar fungi', or mbə³⁵³