Languages of the Greater Himalayan Region, Volume 6: A Grammar of the Thangmi Language (2 Vols) : With an Ethnolinguistic Introduction to the Speakers and Their Culture

This monograph is a grammar of Thangmi, an endangered Tibeto-Burman language spoken in the districts of Dolakha and Sindhupalcok in central-eastern Nepal. The language is spoken by upwards of 30,000 people belonging to an ethnic group of the same name. The Thangmi are one of Nepal's least documented communities. These two volumes include a grammatical description of the Dolakha dialect of Thangmi, a collection of glossed oral texts and a comprehensive lexicon with relevant examples. In addition, the reader will find an extensive ethnolinguistic introduction to the speakers and their culture. For students and scholars of anthropology and linguistics, this study is a compelling illustration of the interweaving of these disciplines in the context of Himalayan studies. With financial support of the International Institute for Asian Studies (www.iias.nl) Contents List of Figures and Tables Preface Acknowledgements Transliteration and Transcription Abbreviations Editorial Foreword Map: Location of Thangmi-speaking communities in Nepal Chapter One The Linguistic Classification of Thangmi 1.1 Early classifications of Thangmi within Tibeto-Burman 1.2 Thangmi in light of the Proto-Kiranti verb 1.3 Before and after Mahâkirântî 1.4 Thangmi-Newar lexical correspondences and the case for Newaric 1.4.1 Shared numeral classifiers 1.4.2 Research on the Classical Newar language 1.4.3 Three classes of Thangmi and Classical Newar correspondences 1.4.3.1 Shared common reflexes of Tibeto-Burman 1.4.3.2 Shared Indo-Aryan loans 1.4.3.3 Lexical correspondences specific to Thangmi and Newar 1.5 Concluding thoughts on the genetic affinity of Thangmi Chapter Two The Thangmi Ethnolinguistic Context 2.1 Previous research on the Thangmi and their language 2.1.1 Writings in European languages 2.1.2 Religious writings 2.1.2.1 Christian writings 2.1.2.2 Evangelical writings 2.1.3 Journalistic writings 2.1.4 Nepali language writings 2.1.4 Nepali language writings 2.1.4.1 Nepali language scholarship 2.1.4.2 Nepali language literature and journalism 2.1.4.3 Nepali language political writings 2.2 Ethnonyms and toponyms 2.2.1 Thangmi ethnonyms 2.2.2 Thangmi terms for Tamang, Newar and the Se connection 2.2.3 Thangmi terms for caste Hindus and the importance of beef 2.2.4 Thangmi toponyms 2.3 The distribution of ethnic Thangmi and speakers of the language 2.3.1 The geographical distribution of Thangmi speakers 2.3.2 Thangmi population statistics 2.3.2.1 Thangmi population statistics prior to 1991 2.3.2.2 Consensus for the census and modern identity politics 2.4 The status of the Thangmi language and its dialects 2.4.1 The Thangmi dialect continuum: Dolakhâ and Sindhupâlcok 2.4.2 Multilingualism and the retention of the Thangmi language 2.4.3 Historically documented stages of the Thangmi language 2.5 The Thangmi mythological world 2.5.1 Genesis 2.5.2 Thangmi ethnogenesis 2.5.2.1 Narrative 2.5.2.2 Analysis 2.6 An ethnolinguistic analysis of Thangmi clan names and structure 2.6.1 Parents of the clans 2.6.2 Male clans 2.6.3 Female clans 2.6.4 Later arrivals 2.6.5 Earlier writings on Thangmi clans 2.7 Thangmi kinship terminology and social structure 2.7.1 The context of Thangmi kinship 2.7.2 Representing kinship 2.7.3 Thangmi kinship terminology 2.7.4 The sex of speaker distinction 2.7.5 The morphology of Thangmi kinship terms 2.7.6 Thangmi kinship terms and their Tibeto-Burman cognates 2.8 Thangmi religious and cultural practice 2.8.1 The central role of the Thangmi guru 2.8.2 The ritual world 2.8.3 Marriage 2.8.4 Death 2.9 Notes on the history of Dolakhâ 2.9.1 The Simraunga!h connection 2.9.2 Cultural connections between the Thangmi and Newar Chapter Three Phonology 3.1 Vowels 3.1.1 Overview of vowel phonemes 3.1.2 Monophthongs and their allophones 3.1.3 Diphthongs and their allophones 3.1.4 Nasality 3.1.5 Vowel minimal pairs 3.2 Consonants 3.2.1 Overview of consonant phonemes 3.2.2 Obstruents and their allophones 3.2.2.1 Velar stops 3.2.2.2 Retroflex stops 3.2.2.3 Palatal stops 3.2.2.4 Dental stops 3.2.2.5 Bilabial stops 3.2.3 Nasals 3.2.4 Glottal stop 3.2.5 Fricatives, trills and laterals 3.2.6 Approximants 3.2.7 Consonant minimal pairs 3.2.7.1 Distinctiveness of voicing 3.2.7.2 Distinctiveness of aspiration and breathy articulation 3.2.7.3 Distinctiveness of nasals 3.2.7.4 Distinctiveness of other consonants 3.3 Phonotactics, syllables and the Thangmi word 3.3.1 Stress 3.3.2 Syllable structure 3.3.3 Consonant clusters and geminate consonants 3.4 Prosodic lengthening 3.5 The phonology of loans from Nepali 3.6 The orthography Chapter Four Morphophonology 4.1 Remnants of a liquid-nasal alternation 4.2 Assimilation 4.3 The morphophonology of intervocalic approximants 4.4 Syncope Chapter Five Nominal Morphology 5.1 Gender 5.2 Number 5.2.1 Plural 5.2.2 Pronominal plural for third person 5.3 Case 5.3.1 Unmarked 5.3.2 Ergative 5.3.3 Instrumental 5.3.4 Genitive 5.3.5 Locative 5.3.6 Comitative 5.3.7 Patient marking for direct and indirect objects 5.3.8 Ablative 5.4 Postpositions 5.4.1 The postpositions prif ‘outside, without’ and duf ‘within’ 5.4.2 The postposition d!i ‘towards’ 5.4.3 The postposition ka ‘throughout’ 5.4.4 The postposition habi ‘before, in front of’ 5.4.5 The postposition unif ‘like, as, than’ 5.5 Compounding and miscellaneous nominal suffixes 5.5.1 Diminutive 5.5.2 The topic marker be 5.5.3 The individuative suffix guri 5.6 Pronouns 5.6.1 Personal pronouns 5.6.2 Morphemic analysis of personal pronouns 5.6.3 Interrogative pronouns 5.6.4 The affable suffix che 5.7 Adjectives 5.7.1 Colour adjectives 5.8 Intensifiers and quantifiers 5.9 Numerals 5.9.1 Simple numerals and their classifiers 5.9.2 Numeral decades 5.10 Adverbs of time and the adverbs woi ‘also’ and jukun ‘only’ 5.10.1 Periods of a day 5.10.2 Past and future days 5.10.3 Past and future years 5.10.4 Telling the time 5.10.5 The adverb libi ‘after, behind’ 5.10.6 The adverb woi ‘also’ 5.10.7 The adverb jukun ‘only’ 5.11 Some bound nominal elements 5.11.1 The ‘person’ morph 5.11.2 The ‘grain or usable plant matter’ morph 5.11.3 The ‘round and fairly hard internal body organ’ morph 5.11.4 The ‘tree or wood’ morph Chapter Six Morphology of Simplicia 6.1 Affixal slots 6.2 Morphophonology of the verb root in simplicia 6.3 The verb stem 6.3.1 The irregular verb hen-sa 6.3.2 The irregular verb cya-sa 6.4 Simplex person and number agreement morphemes 6.5 Prefixes 6.5.1 The negative morpheme 6.6 Suffixes 6.6 Suffixes 6.6.1 The reflexive morpheme 6.6.2 The non-first person singular agent or subject morpheme 6.6.3 The plural agent or plural subject morpheme 6.6.4 The second person plural actant morpheme 6.6.5 The first person plural patient or subject morpheme 6.6.6 The first person plural to second or third person morpheme 6.6.7 The third person patient morpheme 6.6.8 The second person singular actant morpheme 6.6.9 The first person singular actant morpheme 6.6.10 The first person singular to third person morpheme 6.6.11 Tense morphemes 6.6.12 The preterite tense third person subject morpheme 6.6.13 The preterite tense third person to third person morpheme 6.6.14 The preterite tense first person to third person morpheme Chapter Seven Other Verbal Constructions and Morphosyntax 7.1 Verbs ‘to be’ 7.1.1 The verb tha-sa 7.1.2 The verb hok-sa 7.2 The verb ‘to be okay’ 7.3 The verb ‘to appear’ 7.4 The infinitive 7.5 The supine 7.6 The imperative 7.6.1 The singular to first person singular imperative morpheme 7.6.2 The plural to first person singular imperative morpheme 7.6.3 The singular to first person plural imperative morpheme 7.6.4 The plural to first person plural imperative morpheme 7.6.5 The singular to third person imperative morpheme 7.6.6 The plural to third person imperative morpheme 7.6.7 The singular intransitive imperative morpheme 7.6.8 The plural intransitive imperative morpheme 7.6.9 The reflexive imperative morpheme 7.6.10 Negative imperatives 7.6.11 The singular intransitive negative imperative morpheme 7.7 Speech particles 7.7.1 Reported speech 7.7.2 Direct and indirect speech 7.8 The optative 7.9 The adhortative 7.10 The causative 7.11 The permissive 7.12 Compound verbs of motion 7.13 Gerunds 7.13.1 The present gerund 7.13.2 The perfect gerund 7.14 Participles 7.14.1 The participial ending 7.14.2 The transitive preterite participle 7.14.3 The intransitive preterite participle 7.15 The negative participial suffix 7.16 The connector suffix 7.17 The third person singular conditional ending 7.18 The continuous background activity suffix Texts Introduction to the texts Getting married to a young girl The father who sold his daughter Chat between friends Lile’s life story Smoking Youngest son Your fate Shaman Kathmandu New name Mushrooms Elder brother The god of the Thangmi Kabita Thangmi history Dog resting place The story of the jackal Sixteen sacred stones Running away to Kathmandu Poor man’s burden Hen-pecked husband Round face Blackie The missing bread Greedy sister Feeding the animals Mother-daughter Brother-sister Own people Appearance Thief Tamang Friend Uncle Old woman and chicken The way it used to be Co-wife Mouse Women nowadays Cucumber Going to the wedding Girls these days Boys these days Daughter-in-law Son is killed Thangmi Lexicon Introduction to the lexicon Appendix Kinship Charts Bibliography Index This Monograph Is A Grammar Of Thangmi, An Endangered Tibeto-burman Language Spoken In The Districts Of Dolakha And Sindhupalcok In Central-eastern Nepal. The Language Is Spoken By Upwards Of 30,000 People Belonging To An Ethnic Group Of The Same Name. The Thangmi Are One Of Nepal S Least Documented Communities.these Two Volumes Include A Grammatical Description Of The Dolakha Dialect Of Thangmi, A Collection Of Glossed Oral Texts And A Comprehensive Lexicon With Relevant Examples. In Addition, The Reader Will Find An Extensive Ethnolinguistic Introduction To The Speakers And Their Culture.for Students And Scholars Of Anthropology And Linguistics, This Study Is A Compelling Illustration Of The Interweaving Of These Disciplines In The Context Of Himalayan Studies.with Financial Support Of The International Institute For Asian Studies (www.iias.nl). This monograph is a grammar of Thangmi, an endangered Tibeto-Burman language spoken in central-eastern Nepal. Alongside a collection of glossed oral texts and a trilingual lexicon, an extensive ethnolinguistic introduction to the speakers and their culture is also provided.