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DHANKUTE TAMANG ADVERBS Kedar Prasad Poudel [email protected] 1. Introduction Dhankute Tamang is a dialect of Tamang that belongs to the group of non-pronominalising languages of Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. This dialect is spoken in Dhankuta district of Nepal. This paper deals with Dhankute Tamang adverbs focusing on the forms and functions. It is divided into 3 major parts. First part deals with formation of adverbs, whereas second part describes positions of adverbs. Classification of adverbs is mentioned in third part. Lastly, conclusion is drawn. 2. Formation of adverbs Adverbs in Dhankute Tamang form a separate word class, e.g., (1) a. lhakpa zya -na le dim - ri ni -zi. Lhakpa good-NML-MAN Home-ALL go-Pt 'Lhakpa went home well.' b. lhakpa audi ca- mu- la Lhakpa much eat-be-NPt 'Lhakpa eats much.' c. lhanan zya-ba mhi kha -ban- mu-la. Very good–NML man come-PROG be-NPt ‘A very good man is coming.’ Adverbs zya- na- le and dim ri in (1a) modify the verb ni zi with respect to manner and direction (place), respectively. audi in (1b) modifies the verb group Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 23, 2008, pp. 221-34. 222 / Dhankute Tamang adverbs ca -mu- la, whereas lhanan in (1c) modifies the adjective zya- ba in a noun phrase lhanan zya-ba mhi. Structurally, Dhankute Tamang adverbs can be categorized into three different groups: Non-derived adverbs, derived adverbs, adverbial phrases. 2.1 Non-derived adverbs Non-derived adverbs in Dhankute Tamang can be categorized into three groups: Temporal, locative and degree. Some common non-derived adverbs are given below: i. Temporal adverbs (2) a. nhaar ‘tomorrow' b. dande 'now' c. reni 'day after tomorrow' d. one 'day before yesterday' e. tilma 'yesterday' f. tini 'today' g. sjori 'morning' ii. Locative /directional adverbs (3) a. kemsa 'beyond' b. zasa 'this side' c. phiryap 'out' d. accha 'in front' e. ker 'at that side' d. lisa 'behind' g. laccha 'behind' iii. Degree adverbs (4) a. lhanan 'very\ much\many' b. alik 'a bit' Poudel / 223 c. udidi 'a little\ a few' d. lha-lhanan 'very\ much\many' e. tikpe 'little' f. tikpe -tikpe2 'so little' All temporal and locative adverbs mentioned in (2 a-f ; 3 a-f) are originally Tibeto-Burman words. Degree adverbs like lha -lhanan and tikpe -tikpe contain repetition of first syllable, and the whole word only for the emphasis. So, they are emphatic forms of lhanan and tikpe, rather than new adverbs. Besides, alik is borrowed from Nepali, their lingua franca, and tikpe from Sherpa, their neighbouring language. Phonemically and originally, lhanan and udidi are only found as the degree adverbs in Dhankute Tamang. 2.2 Derived adverbs Adverbs in Dhankute Tamang can be derived from demonstratives, nouns, adjectives and verbs. Their derivational suffixes along with the examples are illustrated in Tables 1-2. Table 1: Derived temporal adverbs Derivational Derived from suffix Word Word Derived form class ri syor N syor-ri 'in the morning' di-ni N di- ni -ri 'in the day time' one N one ri 'in Shrawan' dona lho char N lho-char 1 Copy of the first syllable indicates much emphasis, but here it refers to ‘very much’ or ‘too much’. 2 Copy of the complete word indicates much emphasis, and thereby it means ‘very small quantity’. 224 / Dhankute Tamang adverbs dona ‘ up to Lhochhar' mhun N mhun dona 'up to night' kartik N kartik dona 'up to Kartik' yam\ sjor N sjor-yam 'from the hense morning' tihar N tihar-yam 'from the Tihar.' mhun N mhun-yam 'from the night' Table 2: Derived directional adverbs Derivational Derived from suffix Word Word Derived form adverbs class -ri namsa N namsa-ri 'to village' bazar N bazar-ri 'to bazaar' hoza Dem hoza-ri 'there/to that place' -dona yambu N yambu-dona 'up to Kathmandu' namsa N namsa-dona 'up to village' hoza Dem hoza-dona 'up to that place' -yam / dim N dim-yam -hense 'from the house' namsa N namsa-yam 'from the village' hoza Dem hoza-yam 'from that place' 3 Derivational suffixes -yam and -hense are free variants. Poudel / 225 Table 3: Derived locative adverbs Derivational Derived from suffix Word Word Derived form adverbs class -ri namsa N namsa- ri 'in the village' thopo N thopo-ri 'on the head' chjoi N chjoi-ri 'in the book' cu Dem cu- ri 'here' Dem hoza hoza- ri 'there' Table 4: Derived manner adverbs Derivational Derived from suffix Word Word Derived form adverbs class -le tun- ba V tun-na-le 'curtly' chyar- ba V chyar-na-le 'sharply' ron- ba V ro-na-le 'deliciously' chem- ba V chem- na- le 'vigorously' V lep -pa lep -na- le 'hotly V -se ala Adj. ala-se 'immaturely' kuki Adj. kuki-se 'twistingly' liaa Adj. liaa-se 'nakedly' locyur Adj. locyur-se 'timidly' From the above-mentioned tables (1-4), the derivational suffixes are -ri, -dona, -jam / hense, -le and -se, which are used to derive adverbs from other word classes. Both temporal and directional adverbs (see, Tables 1-2) share the same suffixes -ri, -dona and -jam / -hense. They are understood only in pragmatics. 226 / Dhankute Tamang adverbs Locative suffix -ri is shared by the temporal and directional adverbs (see, Tables 1-3). Manner adverbs contain derivational suffixes -le and -se (see, Table 4). 2.3 Adverbial phrases Functionally, even the phrases in Dhankute Tamang can convey the adverbial sense. Such phrases can be: nominal, postpositional, and reduplication. i) Nominal phrases Structurally, nouns, which can have pre-modifiers, may refer to the adverbial meanings. Some such phrases are in Tables 5- 8. Table 5: NPs as temporal adverbs Pre-modifiers NPs as temporal adverbs Word Word class Head (N) ik NUM din ik din 'one day' som cha NUM lho som-cha lho 'third year' nhi cha NUM syor nhi-cha syor 'second morning' cu DEM bela cu bela 'at this time' hoza din hoza din 'that day' DEM hoza yase hoza yase'that evening' DEM Numerals and demonstratives in (Table 5) pre-modify the nouns and mark the temporal adverbs. Table 6: NPs as manner adverbs Pre-modifiers NPs as manner adverbs Word Word Head class (NML) Poudel / 227 dwa ‘pig’ N ra- ba dwa ra-ba 'very ‘like’ slowly\lazily' dabra 'crow’ N dabra ra-ba ‘cleverly’ syauri ‘ant’ N syauri ra-ba ' laboriously' More gravity of meaning is on the pre-modifier and noun ra- ba is not a postposition. Rather, it is syntactically a nominalizer, as -ba is added to -ra.These NPs function as manner adverbs. Table 7: NPs as sentential adverbs Pre-modifiers NPs as sentential adverbs Word Word Head (N) class o-la N-GEN tam o-la tam 'luckily' syan Adj tam syan tam 'moreover' ik NUM bicar ik bicar 'on the one hand' Sentential adverbs4 are formed in the way as to how a noun phrase is formed. The genitive, adjective or numeral may modify noun. Table 8: Nominal phrases as frequency adverbs Pre-modifier NP as frequency Head (N) adverbs Word Word class ik NUM rem ik rem 'once' nhi NUM rem nhi rem 'twice' som NUM rem som rem 'thrice' lhanan Quan rem lhanan rem 'many times' 4 Sentential adverbs modify the whole clause or sentence. 228 / Dhankute Tamang adverbs Numerals like ik, nhi and som or quantifiers like lhanan are compounded to nouns to form frequency adverbial phrases. Structurally, pre-modifiers may be numeral, adjective, demonstrative and noun, whereas the head word may be noun or verb + NML (Tables 5-8). ii) Postpositional phrases Dhankute Tamang NPs may have postpositions and thereby they are functionally adverbials, e.g., (5) sarpa ik dim- nha mu-la. snake one home-inside be-NPt 'A snake is inside the house.' - nha in (5) is a postposition, which changes the noun dim into adverbial one. Such postpositions in Dhankute Tamang are: -nha, -u, -thori, -diri, -zasa, -kemsa, -phiryap, -li sa,-acha,-asa, -licha, -ker and -whana. Such N+ Postposition phrases may function as temporal, locative and directional adverbs, e.g., (6) a. nhi baze lisa b. dim lisa two o'clock-PP house-PP ‘after two o'clock.' ‘behind the house' c. dim asa house-PP ‘in front of the house' nhi baze lisa in (6a) is time adverbial, whereas dim lisa and dim asa in (6 b-c) are place (locative and directional) adverbials. iii) Reduplication Adverbs can be formed by reduplication, e.g., Poudel / 229 (7) a. syo-syo b. din -din morning-RED day-RED 'early morning.' 'always' c. dim- dim home- RED ‘door to door’ Nouns are reduplicated in (7a-c). Adjectives may be changed into adverbials by reduplication, e.g., (8) a. olche- olche b. yona -yona slow-RED quick-RED 'slowly' 'quickly' Adjectives olche and yona in (8a-b) are reduplicated to form adverbials. 3. Positions of adverbs Dhankute Tamang adverbs are placed immediately before an adverb, adjective or a verb, e.g., (9) a. pemba olche-se ni-la. Pemba slow-MAN go-NPt ‘Pemba will go slowly.' b. phurba nikai yona-n bra-la. Phurba very fast-EMP walk-NPt 'Phurba will walk very fast.' c. choisa udidi mla-ba mu-la. Chhoisang a bit black-NML be-NPt 'Chhoisang is a bit black.' 230 / Dhankute Tamang adverbs olche -se, nikai,and udidi in (9a-c) precede the verb ni- la, adverb yona-n and adjective mla- ba, respectively. 4. Classification of adverbs Dhankute Tamang Adverbs can be categorized into temporal, locative, directional, manner, degree and frequency. 4.1 Temporal adverbs Two calendar terms in Dhankute Tamang refer to past and future as in Table 9. Table 9: Temporal calendar adverbs Time DAY YEAR PAST onema nyu 'day before yesterday' ‘2 years before' tilma 'yesterday' tuyu 'last year' NOW tini 'today' cu di 'this year' FUTURE nhaar ’tomorrow’ kha-ba-di'next year' rai-nu/ren '2days later' rai-di '2 years later' Temporal adverbs may refer to both definite and indefinite time, e.g., (10) a dande ni-la. I now go-NPt 'I am going now.' (11) a lisa ni-la. I later go-NPt 'I will go later.' 5 In Dhankute Tamang most adverbs contain verb (Infinitive) marker -ba