A Descriptive Grammar of Bunan

910 Pages·2014·7.93 MB·English

by  Widmer Manuel

A descriptive grammar
of Bunan

Dissertation submitted at the Faculty of Humanities at the University of
Bern to obtain the degree Doctor of Philosophy by

Manuel Widmer
Sumiswald / BE

Prof. Dr. George van Driem
Prof. Dr. Scott DeLancey

December 2014
Acknowledgments
It is extremely difficult ‒ perhaps impossible ‒ to name all the people who have con-
tributed to this thesis in one way or the other over the past four and a half years. Nonethe-
less, I will try to say thank you to all of them, knowing that I cannot do justice to every single
person who has supported me and hoping that the ones that are not mentioned by name will
not be resentful.
First and foremost, I would like to express my deep gratitude to the late Prof. Dr. em.
Roland Bielmeier. He was the person who raised my interest in Tibeto-Burman languages
many years ago and encouraged me to pursue the research that eventually culminated in
this thesis. Roland was a constant source of motivation, guidance, and advice, and it sad-
dens me that he was not granted to see this thesis being brought to completion. All the more,
I hope that my thanks and thoughts can still find their way to him.
Further, my thanks go out to the members of the Bunan speaking community and the
inhabitants of Lahaul and Kullu in general for all the kindness and hospitality that I met with
while conducting fieldwork in North India. Especially, I would like to thank Tshering Dorje,
Tshetan Drolma, and Sonam Angrup for teaching me their language and hosting me at their
home in Barituni. Furthermore, I am deeply indebted to Sonam Tashi, Rinchen Zangpo, and
Norbu Ram and all other members of the Chelingpa family for hosting me in Keylong and
Jagatsukh whenever I was in need of a place to stay. In addition, I would like to say thank
you to Prem Singh Barbogpa and his family, who generously invited me to their home in
Switzerland, and to Dietrich (a.k.a. Deepak) and Natascha, in whose company I spent many
relaxing hours in Keylong.
I am also much obliged to my supervisors Prof. Dr. George van Driem and Prof. Dr.
Scott DeLancey for their constant support and constructive criticism on earlier drafts of this
thesis. They left me the freedom to pursue this dissertation project on my own, yet were al-
ways willing to assist me whenever I needed their advice. Furthermore, I am deeply indebted
to my dear friend Dr. Marius Zemp. Besides being the most likeable office colleague that I
can imagine, he has been an extremely inspiring and motivating companion for the last four
and a half years. This thesis has immensely profited from discussions with him and I hope
that my future research will continue to profit from his critical and inventive thinking in equal
measure.
In addition, I would like to thank Prof. Dr. em. Suhnu Ram Sharma, who gave me
helpful advice on conducting fieldwork in Lahaul and established valuable contacts to mem-
bers of indigenous communities, Dr. Christian Huber, who was friendly enough to share his
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profound knowledge and personal material about the West Himalayish languages of Upper
Kinnaur with me, and Vroni Hein, with whom I had interesting discussions about the history
and geography of Himachal Pradesh. The research on which this thesis is based was sup-
ported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant number P1BEP1_148871) and the
Faculty of Humanities at the University of Bern. I am indebted to both institutions for their
generous financial support. In addition, I would like to say thank you to my fellow students
and working colleagues at the University of Berne and the University of Oregon. It is often
forgotten that productive research can only be conducted in a friendly and synergistic atmos-
phere. Therefore: Thanks guys ‒ and keep things functional!
Moreover, thanks go out to Silvana Camenisch, Pascal Gerber, Selin Grollmann,
Charitini Karadamou, Nicolas Schorer, and (again) Marius Zemp for proof-reading and com-
menting on the final draft of this thesis.
Last but not least, I would like to thank my family and friends in Bern, Switzerland. I
would probably never have set out on this journey if I were not safe in the knowledge that no
matter where I am, there is a place to return to where I will always be surrounded by wonder-
ful people. This thesis is thus dedicated to them.
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Table of contents

List of Tables .......................................................................................................... xv
List of Figures .........................................................................................................xix
List of Abbreviations ..............................................................................................xxi
1 Preliminaries........................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................1
1.2 Background information .............................................................................................1
1.2.1 The geographical setting..............................................................................................1
1.2.2 Lahaul through the centuries........................................................................................7
1.2.2.1 Political situation .............................................................................................7
1.2.2.2 Economic situation .........................................................................................9
1.2.2.3 Ethnolinguistic situation ................................................................................ 12
1.2.2.4 Some further historical speculations.............................................................. 15
1.2.3 The Bunan speaking community ................................................................................ 18
1.2.3.1 The speakers................................................................................................ 18
1.2.3.2 The sociolinguistic situation – past and present............................................. 20
1.3 Previous descriptions ...............................................................................................22
1.4 Genetic affiliation .....................................................................................................24
1.4.1 Previous classifications .............................................................................................. 26
1.4.2 A tentative classification of West Himalayish .............................................................. 33
1.4.3 The relationship between West Himalayish and Zhangzhung ..................................... 47
1.5 The data and their presentation ...............................................................................56
1.5.1 Fieldwork and language consultants .......................................................................... 56
1.5.2 Corpus of language data ........................................................................................... 59
1.5.3 Presentation of the data ............................................................................................. 61
1.6 Theoretical orientation .............................................................................................64
2 Phonetics and Phonology ................................................................................... 66
2.1 Introduction ..............................................................................................................66
2.2 Consonants .............................................................................................................66
2.2.1 Stops and affricates ................................................................................................... 67
2.2.1.1 Manners of articulation ................................................................................. 67
2.2.1.2 Voiceless unaspirated stops and affricates.................................................... 71
2.2.1.3 Voiceless aspirated stops and affricates ....................................................... 74
2.2.1.4 Voiced stops and affricates ........................................................................... 75
2.2.2 Nasals ....................................................................................................................... 78
2.2.3 Fricatives ................................................................................................................... 80
2.2.4 Liquids and approximants .......................................................................................... 81
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2.2.5 Major phonological processes affecting consonants ................................................... 84
2.2.5.1 Degemination ............................................................................................... 84
2.2.5.2 Palatalization ................................................................................................ 85
2.2.5.3 Voicing assimilation ...................................................................................... 86
2.3 Vowels .....................................................................................................................87
2.3.1 Short vowels .............................................................................................................. 88
2.3.1.1 Front vowels ................................................................................................. 89
2.3.1.2 Low central vowel ......................................................................................... 90
2.3.1.3 Back vowels ................................................................................................. 92
2.3.2 Long vowels .............................................................................................................. 93
2.3.3 Diphthongs ................................................................................................................ 96
2.3.4 The phonological status of -jV- and -Vj- sequences .................................................... 98
2.3.5 Major phonological processes affecting vowels .......................................................... 99
2.3.5.1 Deletion ........................................................................................................ 99
2.3.5.2 Fronting ...................................................................................................... 100
2.3.5.3 Glottalization .............................................................................................. 102
2.3.5.4 Initial glottal stop ......................................................................................... 105
2.3.5.5 Nasalization ................................................................................................ 106
2.4 Syllable structure ................................................................................................... 107
2.4.1 Syllable onset .......................................................................................................... 108
2.4.2 Syllable nucleus ...................................................................................................... 110
2.4.3 Syllable coda ........................................................................................................... 110
2.4.4 Traces of a more complex syllable structure ............................................................ 114
2.5 Suprasegmental features ....................................................................................... 117
2.5.1 Stress ...................................................................................................................... 117
2.5.2 Phonation ................................................................................................................ 130
2.6 Phonological word ................................................................................................. 133
2.6.1 Segmental features ................................................................................................. 133
2.6.2 Prosodic features..................................................................................................... 133
2.6.3 Phonological rules ................................................................................................... 134
2.6.4 Grammatical words and their relationship to phonological words .............................. 135
2.7 Phonology of loanwords ........................................................................................ 136
3 Morphophonology ...............................................................................................139
3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 139
3.2 Morphophonological processes ............................................................................. 143
3.2.1 Assimilation ............................................................................................................. 143
3.2.1.1 Assimilation of plosives ............................................................................... 143
3.2.1.2 Assimilation of sibilants ............................................................................... 148
3.2.1.3 Assimilatory processes blocked by the zero-marked transitivity suffix .......... 149
3.2.2 Simplification of consonant clusters ......................................................................... 149
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3.2.2.1 Simplification of sibilant clusters.................................................................. 149
3.2.2.2 Simplification of sibilant-plosive clusters...................................................... 153
3.2.2.3 Simplification of plosive-sibilant clusters...................................................... 154
3.2.2.4 Simplification of plosive clusters / resonant-plosive clusters ........................ 154
3.2.2.5 Simplification processes blocked by the zero-marked transitivity suffix ........ 157
3.2.3 Palatalization of velars ............................................................................................. 158
3.2.4 Aspiration of transitivity markers .............................................................................. 159
3.2.5 Glottalization ........................................................................................................... 161
3.2.6 Idiosyncratic morphophonological alternations ......................................................... 162
3.2.6.1 Direct evidential conjunct past ending -et .................................................... 162
3.2.6.2 Imperative singular endings -a / -i ............................................................... 164
3.3 Example paradigms ............................................................................................... 166
3.3.1 Voiceless unaspirated stop suffixes ......................................................................... 166
3.3.2 Voiced stop suffixes ................................................................................................. 168
3.3.3 Voiceless aspirated affricate suffixes ....................................................................... 169
3.3.4 Voiced affricate suffixes ........................................................................................... 170
3.3.5 Voiceless fricative suffixes ....................................................................................... 171
3.3.6 Vocalic suffixes ........................................................................................................ 173
4 Nouns and nominal morphology .......................................................................174
4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 174
4.2 Phonotactic structure ............................................................................................. 174
4.3 Derivation .............................................................................................................. 175
4.3.1 The diminutive suffix -tsi .......................................................................................... 175
4.3.2 The nominalizing suffix -pa ...................................................................................... 178
4.3.3 The nominalizing suffix -s ........................................................................................ 179
4.3.4 The gender prefixes pʰo- / mo- ................................................................................. 182
4.3.5 Compounding .......................................................................................................... 183
4.3.5.1 Endocentric compounds ............................................................................. 183
4.3.5.2 Coordinative compounds ............................................................................ 185
4.3.6 Reduplication .......................................................................................................... 185
4.3.7 Deverbal nouns from infinitives ................................................................................ 186
4.3.8 Unanalyzable nouns ................................................................................................ 187
4.3.9 Borrowed nouns ...................................................................................................... 188
4.4 Morphology of nouns ............................................................................................. 190
4.4.1 Qualifying and quantifying clitics .............................................................................. 191
4.4.1.1 Approximative =lek ..................................................................................... 192
4.4.1.2 Enumerative =tsore .................................................................................... 193
4.4.1.3 Semblative =asti ......................................................................................... 195
4.4.2 Definiteness / Indefiniteness .................................................................................... 197
4.4.2.1 Definiteness marker .................................................................................... 197
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4.4.2.2 Indefiniteness marker ................................................................................. 200
4.4.3 Number ................................................................................................................... 204
4.4.3.1 The plural clitic =ɕi ...................................................................................... 204
4.4.3.2 The ergative plural clitic =tsʰi ...................................................................... 206
4.4.3.3 The postnominal quantifiers =ɲama and tsʰaŋi ............................................ 207
4.4.4 Case ....................................................................................................................... 210
4.4.4.1 Absolutive (unmarked) ................................................................................ 213
4.4.4.2 Ergative =dzi / =tsʰi ..................................................................................... 218
4.4.4.3 Dative =tok ................................................................................................. 229
4.4.4.4 Ablative =tɕi ................................................................................................ 237
4.4.4.5 Allative =maŋ .............................................................................................. 241
4.4.4.6 Terminative =astok ..................................................................................... 242
4.4.4.7 Locative =kuŋ ............................................................................................. 244
4.4.4.8 Interessive =basta ~ =bastaŋ ...................................................................... 245
4.4.4.9 Comitative =ɲampo..................................................................................... 246
4.4.4.10 Genitive =ki .............................................................................................. 249
4.4.4.11 Adessive =katɕaŋ ..................................................................................... 251
4.4.4.12 Sequences of case clitics.......................................................................... 253
4.5 Relator nouns and postpositions ............................................................................ 254
4.5.1 jartok “on top of” ...................................................................................................... 255
4.5.2 tʰil=tok “under” ......................................................................................................... 256
4.5.3 dutɕi ~ dutɕimaŋ “in front of, before” ......................................................................... 257
4.5.4 kʰokjotɕi ~ kʰotɕi ~ kʰotɕimaŋ “behind, after” ............................................................. 258
4.5.5 tak=tok “above” ....................................................................................................... 260
4.5.6 barlak=kuŋ “in the space between” .......................................................................... 260
4.5.7 sep=kuŋ “among” .................................................................................................... 261
4.5.8 naŋnak “into” ........................................................................................................... 262
4.5.9 bonʈʰek “for the sake of” ........................................................................................... 262
4.6 Honorific nouns ...................................................................................................... 265
5 Pronouns and demonstratives ...........................................................................267
5.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 267
5.2 Pronouns ............................................................................................................... 267
5.2.1 Personal pronouns .................................................................................................. 267
5.2.2 Emphatic / reflexive pronouns .................................................................................. 274
5.2.3 Interrogative pronouns ............................................................................................. 279
5.2.4 Indefinite pronouns .................................................................................................. 287
5.2.5 Distributive pronouns ............................................................................................... 293
5.3 Demonstratives ...................................................................................................... 294
5.3.1 Demonstrative pronouns / determiners .................................................................... 294
5.3.2 Demonstratives of location ....................................................................................... 301
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5.3.3 Demonstratives of manner ....................................................................................... 307
5.3.4 Demonstratives of quantity ...................................................................................... 309
5.3.5 Demonstratives of quality......................................................................................... 311
6 Adjectives ............................................................................................................313
6.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 313
6.2 Phonotactic structure ............................................................................................. 320
6.3 Derivation .............................................................................................................. 321
6.3.1 The modifier marker -i.............................................................................................. 321
6.3.2 The modifier marker -na .......................................................................................... 323
6.3.3 Reduplication .......................................................................................................... 324
6.3.4 Unanalyzable adjectives .......................................................................................... 325
6.3.5 Borrowed adjectives ................................................................................................ 326
6.4 Comparative constructions .................................................................................... 327
7 Quantifiers ...........................................................................................................330
7.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 330
7.2 Lexical quantifiers .................................................................................................. 333
7.3 Numeral quantifiers................................................................................................ 338
7.3.1 Cardinal numerals ................................................................................................... 338
7.3.1.1 Syntactically autonomous cardinal numerals ............................................... 338
7.3.1.2 Cliticized cardinal numerals ........................................................................ 344
7.3.2 Ordinal numerals ..................................................................................................... 346
7.3.3 Collective numerals ................................................................................................. 346
7.3.4 Fractional numerals ................................................................................................. 347
8 Adverbs ................................................................................................................348
8.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 348
8.2 Locational adverbs................................................................................................. 349
8.3 Temporal adverbs .................................................................................................. 351
8.4 Manner adverbs ..................................................................................................... 356
8.5 Epistemic adverbs ................................................................................................. 358
9 The structure of the noun phrase ......................................................................360
9.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 360
9.2 Basic order of constituents ..................................................................................... 360
9.3 Coordination .......................................................................................................... 362
9.4 Disjunction ............................................................................................................. 368
10 Discourse clitics and discourse particles .......................................................370
10.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 370
10.2 Discourse clitics ................................................................................................... 370
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10.2.1 =ni: “topic clitic”...................................................................................................... 371
10.2.2 =re “extended topic clitic” ....................................................................................... 374
10.2.3 =ta “adversative clitic” ............................................................................................ 379
10.2.4 =na “hearsay clitic” ................................................................................................ 380
10.2.5 =la “question clitic” ................................................................................................. 382
10.2.6 =la “evocative clitic” ............................................................................................... 383
10.3 Discourse particles .............................................................................................. 385
10.3.1 wa “focus particle” ................................................................................................. 385
10.3.2 ma “consent particle” ............................................................................................. 388
10.3.3 ake “querying particle” ........................................................................................... 389
10.3.4 ne “suggestive particle” .......................................................................................... 389
10.3.5 ka “assertive particle” ............................................................................................. 391
11 Interjections and conventionalized communicative expressions .................393
11.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 393
11.2 Interjections ......................................................................................................... 393
11.3 Authoritative use of kinship terms ........................................................................ 394
11.4 Conventionalized communicative expressions ..................................................... 396
12 Verbs ..................................................................................................................399
12.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 399
12.2 Phonotactic structure ........................................................................................... 399
12.3 Derivation ............................................................................................................ 401
12.3.1 The stative suffix -s ................................................................................................ 401
12.3.2 The detransitivizing suffix -s ................................................................................... 404
12.3.2.1 Anticausativization .................................................................................... 406
12.3.2.2 Passivization ............................................................................................ 408
12.3.2.3 Reciprocalization ...................................................................................... 412
12.3.2.4 Experiencer and recipient backgrounding ................................................. 413
12.3.2.5 Factors governing the construal of detransitivized verb forms.................... 420
12.3.2.6 Concluding remarks .................................................................................. 425
12.3.3 The verbalizing suffix -t .......................................................................................... 426
12.3.4 The functionally opaque suffix -t............................................................................. 428
12.3.5 Voicing opposition ................................................................................................. 432
12.3.6 Verbal derivation from a comparative perspective .................................................. 433
12.3.6.1 Comparative notes on s-suffixes ............................................................... 433
12.3.6.2 Comparative notes on t-suffixes ................................................................ 434
12.3.6.3 Comparative notes on voicing opposition .................................................. 436
12.4 Transitivity and conjugation classes ..................................................................... 437
12.4.1 Preliminary remarks ............................................................................................... 437
12.4.1.1 Terminology ............................................................................................. 437
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12.4.1.2 The conjugation markers .......................................................................... 442
12.4.1.3 Changes of conjugation class membership and markedness .................... 444
12.4.2 The intransitive conjugation ................................................................................... 447
12.4.2.1 Genuine intransitive verbs ........................................................................ 448
12.4.2.2 Intransitive verbs derived from the transitive conjugation ........................... 451
12.4.3 The middle conjugation .......................................................................................... 453
12.4.3.1 Genuine middle verbs ............................................................................... 458
12.4.3.2 Middle verbs derived from the intransitive conjugation............................... 459
12.4.3.3 Middle verbs derived from the transitive conjugation (non-detransitivized) . 461
12.4.3.4 Middle verbs derived from the transitive conjugation (detransitivized) ........ 465
12.4.4 The transitive conjugation ...................................................................................... 467
12.4.5 The three conjugation from a comparative perspective ........................................... 474
12.5 Inflectional morphology of the verb ...................................................................... 478
12.6 Negation .............................................................................................................. 479
12.7 Non-finite verb forms ........................................................................................... 483
12.7.1 The infinitive .......................................................................................................... 484
12.7.2 The supine ............................................................................................................ 485
12.7.3 The progressive participle ...................................................................................... 487
12.7.4 The active participle ............................................................................................... 490
12.7.5 The converb participle ........................................................................................... 491
12.8 Number distinctions ............................................................................................. 492
12.9 Honorific verbs ..................................................................................................... 494
12.10 Defective verbs .................................................................................................. 496
12.10.1 gjut “to want, to need” .......................................................................................... 496
12.10.2 ɖik “to be suitable” ............................................................................................... 498
13 Epistemic marking and syntactic agreement ..................................................500
13.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 500
13.2 Preliminary remarks on epistemic categories ....................................................... 501
13.2.1 An overview of epistemic marking in Bunan ........................................................... 501
13.2.2 The epistemic source ............................................................................................. 507
13.2.3 A note on terminology ............................................................................................ 514
13.3 Conjunct-disjunct ................................................................................................. 515
13.3.1 Conjunct-disjunct marking in the present tense ...................................................... 519
13.3.2 Conjunct-disjunct marking in the past tense ........................................................... 522
13.3.2.1 Primary conjunct marking ......................................................................... 522
13.3.2.2 Secondary conjunct marking ..................................................................... 530
13.3.3 Conjunct-disjunct marking in the future tense ......................................................... 534
13.3.4 Conjunct-disjunct marking in periphrastic verb forms .............................................. 536
13.3.5 The historical status of conjunct-disjunct marking ................................................... 538
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