- School of Humanities | The University of Sydney | NSW | 2006 | AUSTRALIA
Mark W. Post
The University of Sydney, Linguistics, Faculty Member
- University of Oregon, Linguistics, Alumnusadd
- Languages and Linguistics, Typology, Anthropological Linguistics, Fieldwork in linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Grammaticalization, and 63 moreFunctional Linguistics, Historical Syntax, Language Documentation, Language Evolution, Southeast Asian Linguistics, Indigenous Languages, Ethnobotany, Etymology, Experimental Linguistics, Linguistic Anthropology, Prosody-Syntax, Endangered Languages, Linguistics, Anthropology of Tibet and the Himalayas, Morphology, Tibeto-Burman Linguistics, History of Linguistics, Thai Linguistics, Open Access Books in Linguistics, Phylogenetics, Ethnography, Northeast India, North East India Studies, Sino-Tibetan Linguistics, Tani language, Syntax, Diachronic Linguistics (Or Historical Linguistics), Asian Studies, Deixis, Trans-Himalayan languages, Linguistic Typology, Spatial cognition, South Asian Studies, South Asian Languages, East Asian Languages and Cultures, Himalayan Languages, Languages, Negation, Conjunct/disjunct, Egophoricity, Prosody, Morphophonology, Tani, Phonetics, Lexicography, Grammatical Categories and Cognition, Thai Language, Phonology, Morphosyntax, Anthropology, Southeast Asian Studies, Tibetan Studies, Southeast Asia, Tibeto-Burman, Descriptive Grammar, Language Typology, Middle Voice, Milang, Grammar, Galo Language, Ethnolinguistics, Computational Linguistics, and Indigenous Studiesedit
- My research aims to characterize and explain the typology and distribution of Greater Mainland Southeast Asian langua... moreMy research aims to characterize and explain the typology and distribution of Greater Mainland Southeast Asian languages, primarily from an evolutionary perspective. Currently, I am focusing most closely on the Tani branch of Trans-Himalayan (Tibeto-Burman), as well as its immediate eastern Himalayan neighbours.edit
Tangam is a critically endangered Trans-Himalayan (Tibeto-Burman) language spoken by around 150 hilltribespeople in the far Eastern Himalaya. A member of the Tani subgroup of Trans-Himalayan, Tangam is mutually-unintelligible with other... more
Tangam is a critically endangered Trans-Himalayan (Tibeto-Burman) language spoken by
around 150 hilltribespeople in the far Eastern Himalaya. A member of the Tani subgroup
of Trans-Himalayan, Tangam is mutually-unintelligible with other languages of this
otherwise relatively homogeneous subgroup. This is demonstrated to be a consequence of Tangam's early-branching status within the Western Tani subgroup, subsequent contact with Eastern Tani languages, and historical relationship with speakers of Bodic languages.
Based on three field trips to the Tangam-speaking area over two years, this work presents
a brief but comprehensive cultural, historical and grammatical introduction to the Tangam language, together with a trilingual lexicon in Tangam, English and Minyong, and
a collection of fully-analysed texts. It will be of interest to linguists and anthropologists of
the Himalayan region, as well as to historical linguists and language typologists.
around 150 hilltribespeople in the far Eastern Himalaya. A member of the Tani subgroup
of Trans-Himalayan, Tangam is mutually-unintelligible with other languages of this
otherwise relatively homogeneous subgroup. This is demonstrated to be a consequence of Tangam's early-branching status within the Western Tani subgroup, subsequent contact with Eastern Tani languages, and historical relationship with speakers of Bodic languages.
Based on three field trips to the Tangam-speaking area over two years, this work presents
a brief but comprehensive cultural, historical and grammatical introduction to the Tangam language, together with a trilingual lexicon in Tangam, English and Minyong, and
a collection of fully-analysed texts. It will be of interest to linguists and anthropologists of
the Himalayan region, as well as to historical linguists and language typologists.
Research Interests: Anthropology, Anthropological Linguistics, Southeast Asian Studies, Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, and 11 moreTibetan Studies, Language Documentation, Endangered Languages, Southeast Asia, South Asian Languages, Linguistics, Southeast Asian Linguistics, Sino-Tibetan Linguistics, Tibeto-Burman Linguistics, Linguistic Typology, and East Asian Languages and Cultures
This work is the first comprehensive descriptive grammar of the Lare dialect of Galo, a Tibeto-Burman language of the Tani branch spoken in central Arunachal Pradesh State, in the North-East Indian Himalaya. It is based on primary data... more
This work is the first comprehensive descriptive grammar of the Lare dialect of Galo, a Tibeto-Burman language of the Tani branch spoken in central Arunachal Pradesh State, in the North-East Indian Himalaya. It is based on primary data obtained from original fieldwork conducted by the author in Galo towns and villages in Arunachal Pradesh. In addition to description of the synchronic phonology and grammar of Lare Galo, it contains a historical overview and preliminary reconstruction of Proto-Galo segmental phonology, in addition to a glossary of approximately 1,300 lexical roots with 4,000 lexical exemplars and three fully analyzed texts.
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The Eastern Himalaya holds perhaps the highest levels of ethnolinguistic diversity in all Eurasia, with over 300 languages spoken by as many distinct cultural groups. What factors can explain such diversity? How did it evolve, and what... more
The Eastern Himalaya holds perhaps the highest levels of ethnolinguistic diversity in all Eurasia, with over 300 languages spoken by as many distinct cultural groups. What factors can explain such diversity? How did it evolve, and what can its analysis teach us about the prehistory of its wider region? This pioneering interdisciplinary volume brings together a diverse group of linguists and anthropologists, all of whom seek to reconstruct aspects of Eastern Himalayan ethnolinguistic prehistory from an empirical standpoint, on the basis of primary fieldwork-derived data from a diverse range of Himalayan Indigenous languages and cultural practices.
Research Interests: History, Area Studies, Asian Studies, Anthropology, Anthropological Linguistics, and 10 moreSoutheast Asian Studies, Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Tibetan Studies, Linguistics, Sino-Tibetan Linguistics, Tibetan and Himalayan societies, Tibeto-Burman Linguistics, Zomia, and Trans-Himalayan languages
In the greater Northeast Indian region, one of the richest and most diverse ethnolinguistic areas in all of Asia, Robbins Burling stands out as a true scholarly pioneer. His extensive fieldwork-based research on Bodo-Garo languages,... more
In the greater Northeast Indian region, one of the richest and most diverse ethnolinguistic areas in all of Asia, Robbins Burling stands out as a true scholarly pioneer. His extensive fieldwork-based research on Bodo-Garo languages, comparative-historical Tibeto-Burman linguistics, the ethnography of kinship systems, and language contact, has had a profound impact on the field of Northeast Indian ethnolinguistics and beyond, and has inspired generations of Indian and international scholars to follow his example. This volume of papers on the anthropology and linguistics of Northeast India and beyond is offered as a tribute to Robbins Burling on the occasion of his 90th birthday, his 60th year of scholarly productivity, and his umpteenth trip to Northeast India.
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The concept of “Zomia”—a transnational region centred on the greater Southeast Asian massif, inhabited primarily by putatively state-resisting “hill tribal” peoples—has gained considerable traction in the social sciences and area studies... more
The concept of “Zomia”—a transnational region centred on the greater Southeast Asian massif, inhabited primarily by putatively state-resisting “hill tribal” peoples—has gained considerable traction in the social sciences and area studies literatures over the past decade, particularly since the publication of Scott (2009). Yet there are at least two noticeable gaps in these literatures: first, linguists have hardly engaged with the idea of Zomia thus far. This is perhaps surprising, given the centrality of language to socio-cultural conceptions of Zomia as outlined in van Schendel (2002) and Scott (2009: 14, 21). Second, the literature on Zomia contains very few mentions of the Eastern Himalaya, its peoples and their languages. This is perhaps less surprising, given the relative lack of detailed information that has generally been available concerning Eastern Himalayan languages and cultures, but it is nevertheless unfortunate; as I will argue below, the Eastern Himalaya should feature centrally in considerations about what Zomia “is”, and why it is the way it is.
This chapter will work towards addressing both gaps, by means of a linguist’s rethinking of Zomia from an Eastern Himalayan perspective. In it, I will focus both on contemporary conceptions of Zomia, its peoples and their cultural-linguistic attributes, as well as on Scott’s proposed explanation for these cultural-linguistic attributes in terms of his concept of state evasion (Scott 2009: 174, Ch. 6). After demarcating an area, which I will label the “mid-Eastern Himalaya”, I will situate this area in terms of discourses about Zomia and Zomians, examine evidence from linguistic distributions, socio-historical context, and socio-cultural features, and suggest that, although the mid-Eastern Himalayan region shows clear and, in a sense, prototypically “Zomian” attributes (called “Zomianisms” for short), clear evidence that these attributes are best explained by means of a “state evasion” hypothesis seems to be lacking. I will therefore advance an alternative hypothesis: that mid-Eastern Himalayan Zomianisms are less likely to represent innovative reactions to the power of an expanding state than they are to represent conservations of adaptively successful survival strategies on their own terms (see also Lieberherr’s chapter in this volume). Although these survival strategies may indeed have fortuitously enabled mid-Eastern Himalayan Zomians to subsequently resist such states as they eventually came to encounter, they seem unlikely to have been motivated by state formation in any way. I will close by considering some implications of this analysis for the Zomia hypothesis more generally.
This chapter will work towards addressing both gaps, by means of a linguist’s rethinking of Zomia from an Eastern Himalayan perspective. In it, I will focus both on contemporary conceptions of Zomia, its peoples and their cultural-linguistic attributes, as well as on Scott’s proposed explanation for these cultural-linguistic attributes in terms of his concept of state evasion (Scott 2009: 174, Ch. 6). After demarcating an area, which I will label the “mid-Eastern Himalaya”, I will situate this area in terms of discourses about Zomia and Zomians, examine evidence from linguistic distributions, socio-historical context, and socio-cultural features, and suggest that, although the mid-Eastern Himalayan region shows clear and, in a sense, prototypically “Zomian” attributes (called “Zomianisms” for short), clear evidence that these attributes are best explained by means of a “state evasion” hypothesis seems to be lacking. I will therefore advance an alternative hypothesis: that mid-Eastern Himalayan Zomianisms are less likely to represent innovative reactions to the power of an expanding state than they are to represent conservations of adaptively successful survival strategies on their own terms (see also Lieberherr’s chapter in this volume). Although these survival strategies may indeed have fortuitously enabled mid-Eastern Himalayan Zomians to subsequently resist such states as they eventually came to encounter, they seem unlikely to have been motivated by state formation in any way. I will close by considering some implications of this analysis for the Zomia hypothesis more generally.
Research Interests: History, Anthropology, Anthropological Linguistics, Southeast Asian Studies, Languages and Linguistics, and 11 moreHistorical Linguistics, South Asian Studies, South Asian Languages, Linguistics, Anthropology of Tibet and the Himalayas, Sino-Tibetan Linguistics, Tibeto-Burman Linguistics, Tribal studies, Zomia, Tani language, and Trans-Himalayan languages
Classifiers in Tani languages are similar in scale and semantic contents to the systems of betterknown classifier languages such as Thai and Mandarin. Yet they are unusual in co-existing with an ancient and well-grammaticalised... more
Classifiers in Tani languages are similar in scale and semantic contents to the systems of betterknown classifier languages such as Thai and Mandarin. Yet they are unusual in co-existing with an ancient and well-grammaticalised referential management system including both definite and indefinite articles, in lacking a generic classifier, in tending not to use a classifier with human referents, and in occurring exclusively to the right of head nouns, in the order [N CLF NUM]. They are also relatively more lexemelike, occurring less frequently and with more semantic control than do the classifiers of many other East/Southeast Asian languages. This article will present a basic description of Tani classifier systems, and argue for their relatively recent development through the mechanism of a repeater construction functioning within a pre-existing [A-B B-C] template for taxonomic compound formation. Although this development is similar to pathways attested for other Asian languages, Tani classifiers do not share the same set of functional and distributional outcomes.
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Research Interests: Anthropology, Anthropological Linguistics, Languages and Linguistics, Diversity, Indigenous Knowledge, and 9 moreSouth Asian Languages, Linguistics, Northeast India, Sino-Tibetan Linguistics, Tibeto-Burman Linguistics, Tribal studies, East Asian Languages and Cultures, Asian Languages and Cultures, and Trans-Himalayan languages
This chapter’s goal is to update the case for reconstructing the ethno-linguistic prehistory of “Tani” – a cluster of closely related ethno-linguistic groups found primarily in the mid-Eastern Himalayan region, in the modern Indian states... more
This chapter’s goal is to update the case for reconstructing the ethno-linguistic prehistory of “Tani” – a cluster of closely related ethno-linguistic groups found primarily in the mid-Eastern Himalayan region, in the modern Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam. It aims to demonstrate that important aspects of Tani prehistory can be effectively reconstructed, and argues that such reconstructions can serve as useful counterweights to dominant, yet historically vacuous, "claims" over the Tani-speaking region by large regional nation-states.
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This chapter discusses applicative constructions in Macro-Tani, a small group of Trans-Himalayan languages spoken in northeastern India and Tibet. We first present a background discussion of Macro-Tani grammatical relations and predicate... more
This chapter discusses applicative constructions in Macro-Tani, a small group of Trans-Himalayan languages spoken in northeastern India and Tibet. We first present a background discussion of Macro-Tani grammatical relations and predicate structures. We then outline some basic properties of Macro-Tani applicatives, focusing more closely on less-commonly identified applicative properties. We find that: (a) there is no "promotional" relationship between base and applied phrases in Macro-Tani languages; Macro-Tani applicatives do not function to "promote" an oblique to core argument status, but instead add an argument which in most cases could not otherwise be expressed in the clause at all. (b) While Macro-Tani applicatives principally add grammatical (indirect) Objects, some applicatives add oblique phrases such as Goals and Instruments. (c) Macro-Tani applicatives form an unusually large class (at least dozens), and include semantically rich and typologically rare functions such as "Territive" (addition of an object that is "shocked" as a result of the predicate) and "Eruditive" (an object that is "educated" or "shown how" by means of the predicate). (d) Macro-Tani applicatives are closely aligned to Macro-Tani causatives, and could be argued to constitute a single formal and functional class. The chapter closes with our reconstruction of the origin of Macro-Tani applicatives via morphologization of an earlier serial verb construction.
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This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the little-known "bare classifier phrase" construction in Modern Standard Thai. It describes the syntax, semantics and discourse functions of Thai bare classifier phrases, and further... more
This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the little-known "bare classifier phrase" construction in Modern Standard Thai. It describes the syntax, semantics and discourse functions of Thai bare classifier phrases, and further proposes a diachronic account of their origin in reduction of post-posed numeral 'one'. Following this synchronic and diachronic description, this article attempts to locate Thai within a working typology of bare classifier constructions in mainland Asian languages, and further argues for the importance of bare classifier constructions to the theory of classifiers more generally. Following Bisang (1999) and others, it argues that bare classifier constructions reveal the core function of classifiers in Asian languages to be INDIVIDUATION-a referential function. It therefore cautions against some recent proposals to merge classifiers and gender markers within a single categorical space defined on the semantic basis of nominal classification , and in favour of continuing to treat classifiers as a discrete linguistic category-in mainland Asian languages, at least.
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Middle voice constructions are generally understood as syntactically detransitivizing and as semantically characterized by a “low degree of event elaboration” (in Kemmer’s terms) involving a relatively affected subject. Middle voice... more
Middle voice constructions are generally understood as syntactically detransitivizing and as semantically characterized by a “low degree of event elaboration” (in Kemmer’s terms) involving a relatively affected subject. Middle voice constructions thus characterized have been identified in several Trans-Himalayan (Sino-Tibetan) languages, in particular by LaPolla. In Macro-Tani languages, we find a seemingly cognate construction with a similar distribution; however, Macro-Tani middle-like constructions are not detransitivizing, and do not mark subject affectedness. Instead, their primary meaning appears to be one of highlighting subject autonomy: a heightened degree of autonomy, volition and/or responsibility over an action on the part of the clause subject. In this article, following an analysis of Macro-Tani subject autonomy marking, we will argue that its similarities to and differences from middle voice marking in other Trans-Himalayan languages is consistent with Zúñiga and Kittilä’s view of middle voice as a “network of meanings,” whose properties derive not from their reflection of a unified underlying
cognitive category, but rather from a heterogeneous set of developments from similar diachronic source forms.
cognitive category, but rather from a heterogeneous set of developments from similar diachronic source forms.
Research Interests: Languages and Linguistics, Morphosyntax, Morphology, Linguistics, Sino-Tibetan Linguistics, and 11 moreLanguage Typology, Tibeto-Burman Linguistics, Linguistic Typology, Descriptive Linguistics, Grammar, Middle Voice, Galo Language, Tani language, Milang, Trans-Himalayan languages, and Tangam language
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Topographical deixis refers to a variety of spatial-environmental deixis, in which typically distal reference to entities is made in terms of a set of topographically-anchored referential planes: most often, upward, downward , or on the... more
Topographical deixis refers to a variety of spatial-environmental deixis, in which typically distal reference to entities is made in terms of a set of topographically-anchored referential planes: most often, upward, downward , or on the same level. This article reviews the genealogical and geographic distribution of topographical deixis in Trans-Himalayan (Sino-Tibetan) languages, reviews the conditions in which topographical deixis in Trans-Himalayan languages may be gained or lost, and concludes that (a) topographical deixis is overwhelmingly found in languages spoken in mon-tane environments, and (b) topographical deixis most likely reconstructs to a deep level within Trans-Himalayan. The language spoken at that level-whose precise phylogenetic status cannot yet be specified-was overwhelmingly likely to have been spoken in a montane environment.
Research Interests: Asian Studies, Diachronic Linguistics (Or Historical Linguistics), Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Spatial cognition, and 10 moreSouth Asian Studies, South Asian Languages, Deixis, Linguistics, Sino-Tibetan Linguistics, Tibeto-Burman Linguistics, East Asian Languages and Cultures, Himalayan Languages, Tani language, and Trans-Himalayan languages
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“Topographical deixis” refers to a variety of spatial-environmental deixis in which typically distal reference to entities is made in terms of a set of topographically-anchored referential plains: most often, upward, downward, or on the... more
“Topographical deixis” refers to a variety of spatial-environmental deixis in which typically distal reference to entities is made in terms of a set of topographically-anchored referential plains: most often, upward, downward, or on the same level. Thus defined, topographical deixis is a pervasive feature of Trans-Himalayan (= Sino-Tibetan) languages. However, while there have been several descriptions of Trans-Himalayan topographical deixis at the language or subgroup level, there has been as yet no account of its overall status and distribution within the family. The primary goal of this article is to provide an account of topographical deixis from a pan-Trans-Himalayan perspective, to the maximum extent possible on the basis of existing descriptions. It discusses its formal coding, functions, distribution within the family, and environmental correlations. In addition to providing a benchmark account of the nature and distribution of topographical deixis within the Trans-Himalayan family, this study thus contributes to cross-linguistic typologies of spatial deictic systems and their environmental-interactional motivations more generally.
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Northeast India is the epicentre of phylogenetic diversity in the Sino-Tibetan family, with perhaps 20 independent Tibeto-Burman subgroups and as many as 300 languages spoken there. Politically, Northeast India is divided into the states... more
Northeast India is the epicentre of phylogenetic diversity in the Sino-Tibetan family, with perhaps 20 independent Tibeto-Burman subgroups and as many as 300 languages spoken there. Politically, Northeast India is divided into the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura. Linguistically, it can be divided into Northern, Central and Eastern Border areas. The languages of this region remain relatively little-known and underdescribed. This chapter reviews the state of current knowledge concerning Northeast Indian Tibeto-Burman languages, and urges further research on individual languages and low-level subgroups in the area.
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While the vast majority of Sino-Tibetan (=Trans-Himalayan) languages have a pre-head predicate negator, Tani is one of a small handful of subgroups whose languages display an exclusively post-head negator. This negator, furthermore, is... more
While the vast majority of Sino-Tibetan (=Trans-Himalayan) languages have a pre-head predicate negator, Tani is one of a small handful of subgroups whose languages display an exclusively post-head negator. This negator, furthermore, is somewhat unusual in having both derivation-like and inflection-like properties, and in occupying an ‘intermediate’ position between derivations and inflections in the predicate stem. This article proposes a common explanation for both facts, by hypothesizing that reanalysis of an AUX-final serial verb construction as a single predicate word has resulted in realignment of an earlier pre-head auxiliary negator as a predicate suffix with leftward scope over the predicate stem. This is similar to another channel found in some Tibeto-Burman languages in which a prefixal negator fuses with a clause-final auxiliary to become a suffix (as in Kuki-Chin and ‘Naga’); however, I argue it to be ultimately somewhat different. These arguments are made on the basis of a more comprehensive description of negation in Galo (Tibeto-Burman > Tani, Eastern Himalaya) than was provided in Post (2007); as such, a second goal of the paper is to contribute to the typology of negation in Asian languages more generally.
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Scott DeLancey’s analysis of person-sensitive TAME marking in Lhasa Tibetan - “a.k.a. conjunct-disjunct marking” or “egophoricity” - has stimulated considerable discussion and debate, particularly as previously little-known languages of... more
Scott DeLancey’s analysis of person-sensitive TAME marking in Lhasa Tibetan - “a.k.a. conjunct-disjunct marking” or “egophoricity” - has stimulated considerable discussion and debate, particularly as previously little-known languages of the Tibeto-Burman area, as well as outside it, are described, and a wider range of functional factors are taken into account. This chapter is intended as a contribution to this discussion, by presenting the first detailed analysis of person-sensitive TAME marking in a language of the Tani subgroup of Tibeto-Burman, namely Galo. Like Tournadre (2008), I find that person-sensitive TAME marking in Galo is not a grammaticalized index of person (“agreement”) nor of cross-clause subject continuity, but is instead a semantic index of an assertor’s knowledge state. Unlike in more westerly Tibeto-Burman languages, however, different construals of agency and/or volition do not seem to be factors in the Galo system. Thus, there are both similarities and differences underlying systems of person-sensitive TAME marking in different Tibeto-Burman languages; this suggests that further research - particularly, employing a diachronic perspective when possible - will be required before we can confidently characterize person-sensitive TAME marking from a pan-Tibeto-Burman (or broader) cross-linguistic perspective.
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Despite being one of the most extensively researched of Eastern Himalayan languages, the basic morphological and phonological-prosodic properties of Apatani (Tibeto-Burman > Tani > Western) have not yet been adequately described. This... more
Despite being one of the most extensively researched of Eastern Himalayan languages, the basic morphological and phonological-prosodic properties of Apatani (Tibeto-Burman > Tani > Western) have not yet been adequately described. This article attempts such a description, focusing especially on interactions between segmental-syllabic phonology and tone in Apatani. We highlight three features in particular – vowel length, nasality and a glottal stop – which contribute to contrastively-weighted syllables in Apatani, which are consistently under-represented in previous descriptions of Apatani, and in absence of which tone in Apatani cannot be effectively analysed. We conclude that Apatani has two “underlying”, lexically-specified tone categories H and L, whose interaction with word structure and syllable weight produce a maximum of three “surface” pitch contours – level, falling and rising – on disyllabic phonological words. Two appendices provide a set of diagnostic procedures for the discovery and description of Apatani tone categories, as well as an Apatani lexicon of approximately one thousand entries.
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This chapter exhaustively describes the grammar of possession in Galo, a Tibeto-Burman language of the Tani branch spoken in North East India. In the noun phrase grammar, we focus on the functions and semantics of genitive constructions.... more
This chapter exhaustively describes the grammar of possession in Galo, a Tibeto-Burman language of the Tani branch spoken in North East India. In the noun phrase grammar, we focus on the functions and semantics of genitive constructions. A section on the predicate grammar then discusses constructions headed by existential verbs, posture verbs, verbs of association and entitlement, verbs of temporary possession, and “propensity predicates”. Adopting a cultural-evolutionary perspective in conclusion, we argue that the concept of “possession” is not well-represented either in Galo language or in Galo culture, and that a more general concept of “association” instead most likely underlies the linguistic structures discussed.
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This paper describes nominalization and nominalization-based constructions in Galo, a Tibeto-Burman language of the Tani branch spoken in North East India. Nominalizers in Galo are divided into primary and secondary sets, while... more
This paper describes nominalization and nominalization-based constructions in Galo, a Tibeto-Burman language of the Tani branch spoken in North East India. Nominalizers in Galo are divided into primary and secondary sets, while nominalization-based constructions are divided into two types: nominalized clauses and clausal nominalizations. Both primary and secondary nominalizers help form nominalized clauses, which are uninflected, exhibit a genitive subject, and enter into nominal complement and relative clause constructions. Clausal nominalizations are formed by primary nominalizers only, may be inflected, exhibit a nominative subject, and in general take on a more main clause-like structure and set of functions. Following this basic description, the diachronic origins of Galo nominalizers are discussed, and the Galo forms and patterns are situated in terms of a broader typology of nominalization in Tibeto-Burman.
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“Words” may be independently defined and identified in Galo (Tibeto-Burman > Western Tani) in terms of relatively consistent and functionally well-motivated sets of phonological and grammatical criteria. However, these criteria very... more
“Words” may be independently defined and identified in Galo (Tibeto-Burman >
Western Tani) in terms of relatively consistent and functionally well-motivated
sets of phonological and grammatical criteria. However, these criteria very
often fail to converge upon identification of the same formal unit; instead, we
frequently find phonological “words” which consist of two grammatical “words”,
and grammatical “words” which consist of two phonological “words”, etc. The
resulting “mismatch” between “phonological words” and “grammatical words”
in Galo is argued to be theoretically non-trivial, in that its existence is capable of
explaining a variety of otherwise seemingly disparate facts in the synchronic and
diachronic organization of Galo grammar. The facts from Galo thus support a
view of language in which “word” is independently defined in phonological and
grammatical terms, and in which neither type of “word” necessarily corresponds
to (or is projected by) the other. Although there might be said to exist a very
generalized functional pressure towards “unification” of “phonological words”
and “grammatical words”, such a pressure would not be expressible as a formal
constraint on language grammar.
Western Tani) in terms of relatively consistent and functionally well-motivated
sets of phonological and grammatical criteria. However, these criteria very
often fail to converge upon identification of the same formal unit; instead, we
frequently find phonological “words” which consist of two grammatical “words”,
and grammatical “words” which consist of two phonological “words”, etc. The
resulting “mismatch” between “phonological words” and “grammatical words”
in Galo is argued to be theoretically non-trivial, in that its existence is capable of
explaining a variety of otherwise seemingly disparate facts in the synchronic and
diachronic organization of Galo grammar. The facts from Galo thus support a
view of language in which “word” is independently defined in phonological and
grammatical terms, and in which neither type of “word” necessarily corresponds
to (or is projected by) the other. Although there might be said to exist a very
generalized functional pressure towards “unification” of “phonological words”
and “grammatical words”, such a pressure would not be expressible as a formal
constraint on language grammar.
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Tai languages are often described as “lacking” a major lexical class “adjectives”; accordingly, they and other area languages are frequently cited as evidence against adjectival universality. This article brings the putative lack under... more
Tai languages are often described as “lacking” a major lexical class “adjectives”; accordingly, they and other area languages are frequently cited as evidence against adjectival universality. This article brings the putative lack under examination, arguing that a more complete distributional analysis reveals a pattern: overlap is highest among semantically peripheral adjectives and verbs and in constructions prototypically associated to both classes cross-linguistically, and lowest among semantically core adjectives and verbs and in constructions prototypically associated to only one or the other class. Rather than “lacking” adjectives, data from Thai thus in fact support functional-typological characterizations of adjectival universality such as those of Givón (1984), Croft (2001), and Dixon (2004). Finally, while data from Thai would fail to falsify an adaptation of Enfield's (2004) Lao lexical class-taxonomy (in which adjectives are treated as a verbal subclass) on its own terms, this article argues that in absence of both universally-applicable criteria for the evaluation of categorial taxonomies cross-linguistically and evidence for the cognitive reality of categorial taxonomies so stipulated, even this more limited sense of a “lack” of adjectives in Thai is less radical a challenge to adjectival universality than has sometimes been supposed.
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Maa, a Nilo-Saharan language, exhibits a cross-height vowel harmony system known as ‘tongue root harmony’. The high and mid vowels participate in this system, but the low vowel does not. The Maa harmony system is briefly described,... more
Maa, a Nilo-Saharan language, exhibits a cross-height vowel harmony system known as ‘tongue root harmony’. The high and mid vowels participate in this system, but the low vowel does not. The Maa harmony system is briefly described, followed by an investigation into the phonetic properties of the vowels. Five Maa speakers were recorded producing 100 example words three times each. The [+ATR] vowels were found to have consistently lower first formant values and relatively less energy in the higher frequency regions than their [−ATR] counterparts. An investigation of the differences between the auditorily quite similar [−ATR] high and [+ATR] mid vowels revealed durational differences for the back vowels and much inter-speaker variation for the front vowels. Electroglottographic data obtained from one speaker indicated a slightly less constricted glottis for [+ATR] than [−ATR] vowels. This phonation difference is not readily detectable auditorily in the current data, but has been reported previously for Maa. The results contribute to typological knowledge about the phonetics of tongue root vowel contrasts, as very little data is currently available for Nilo-Saharan languages. A possible origin of stronger voice quality distinctions common to other tongue root harmony languages is offered from the theory of Auditory Enhancement.
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This talk will discuss applicatives in the Tani languages (Trans-Himalayan/Sino-Tibetan), which are considered to fall within the larger morphological class of predicate derivations (Post 2010). Tani applicatives differ from “canonical”... more
This talk will discuss applicatives in the Tani languages (Trans-Himalayan/Sino-Tibetan), which are considered to fall within the larger morphological class of predicate derivations (Post 2010). Tani applicatives differ from “canonical” applicatives in that there is no “promotion” involved (of adjunct/oblique to (core) argument status). Instead, applicatives add an otherwise un-licensed NP to the clause, usually an object. Note that in (1), (a) there is no alternative means of expressing the highlighted object beneficiary (b) the applicative has licensed a second object in both clauses (ellipsed in the second).
1. ŋorumme paasan geaabikumaape, ahan dadaabikumaape.
ŋoru=me paasa=en ge-aŋ-bi-ku-ma(ŋ)-pe
1. pl=nagt firewood=def.acc carry/wear-dir:inward-appl:ben-cmpl-neg-sjnc
aha=en dat-aŋ-bi-ku-ma(ŋ)-pe
sago=def.acc remove.skin.from.plant-dir:inward-appl:ben-cmpl-neg-sjnc
‘You’re not bringing us firewood, you’re not getting us sago...’ (Tangam, Tani; NEIndia)
Tani applicatives can also add non-objects, such as goal obliques. In the absence of -lək (2), hɨɨ would have the status of an adjunct location. Still, this is not “promotion”, as an adjunct location could again be added to (2).
2. hime loorəəpara…hɨ ahi birəəra.
hi=me lok-lək-pa-la prx=nagt carve-dir/appl:into.goal-mod:achv-nf
hɨɨ ahi bi-lək-la
prx.loc water give-dir/appl:into.goal-nf
‘(We) carve this out….and put [the pigs’] water into here.’ (Tangam, Tani; NEIndia)
Applicative functions in Tani include Causative (erstwhile A is added O), Benefactive, Comitative, Instrumental, and Comparative (Comparand is added O). Applicative functionality is also found in predicate derivations otherwise devoted to manner, result and direction (e.g. -lək in (2)). In (3), the result derivation -lom adds an experiencer object.
3. homénə́ rɨgîilò umlôm dagèe.
homen¹=ə¹ rɨgii²=lo² um¹-lom²-dak²=ee¹
tiger=def field.boundary=loc grunt-res/appl:startle.O-stat.antr.altr ‘The tiger at the field’s edge roared, frightening (us).’ (Galo, Tani; NEIndia)
We will next discuss the relationship of applicatives to other types of valence- changing derivation in Tani languages, including passive and middle-like constructions, and finally provide an account of the historical origin of Tani applicatives in earlier clause union through verb serialization.
1. ŋorumme paasan geaabikumaape, ahan dadaabikumaape.
ŋoru=me paasa=en ge-aŋ-bi-ku-ma(ŋ)-pe
1. pl=nagt firewood=def.acc carry/wear-dir:inward-appl:ben-cmpl-neg-sjnc
aha=en dat-aŋ-bi-ku-ma(ŋ)-pe
sago=def.acc remove.skin.from.plant-dir:inward-appl:ben-cmpl-neg-sjnc
‘You’re not bringing us firewood, you’re not getting us sago...’ (Tangam, Tani; NEIndia)
Tani applicatives can also add non-objects, such as goal obliques. In the absence of -lək (2), hɨɨ would have the status of an adjunct location. Still, this is not “promotion”, as an adjunct location could again be added to (2).
2. hime loorəəpara…hɨ ahi birəəra.
hi=me lok-lək-pa-la prx=nagt carve-dir/appl:into.goal-mod:achv-nf
hɨɨ ahi bi-lək-la
prx.loc water give-dir/appl:into.goal-nf
‘(We) carve this out….and put [the pigs’] water into here.’ (Tangam, Tani; NEIndia)
Applicative functions in Tani include Causative (erstwhile A is added O), Benefactive, Comitative, Instrumental, and Comparative (Comparand is added O). Applicative functionality is also found in predicate derivations otherwise devoted to manner, result and direction (e.g. -lək in (2)). In (3), the result derivation -lom adds an experiencer object.
3. homénə́ rɨgîilò umlôm dagèe.
homen¹=ə¹ rɨgii²=lo² um¹-lom²-dak²=ee¹
tiger=def field.boundary=loc grunt-res/appl:startle.O-stat.antr.altr ‘The tiger at the field’s edge roared, frightening (us).’ (Galo, Tani; NEIndia)
We will next discuss the relationship of applicatives to other types of valence- changing derivation in Tani languages, including passive and middle-like constructions, and finally provide an account of the historical origin of Tani applicatives in earlier clause union through verb serialization.
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Please view the presentation at: doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/U65QH
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The pervasive Tibeto-Burman suffix *-si (poss. < *-su) has been associated with subject autonomy by scholars such as Sun (1982) and Liu (1988). This was later re-interpreted by LaPolla (1996, 2005, 2013) as an instance of “middle” voice... more
The pervasive Tibeto-Burman suffix *-si (poss. < *-su) has been associated with subject autonomy by scholars such as Sun (1982) and Liu (1988). This was later re-interpreted by LaPolla (1996, 2005, 2013) as an instance of “middle” voice marking, in the sense of Kemmer (1993).
However, data from Tani and Milang, at a minimum, indicate that Sun (1982) and Liu (1988) were on the right track, and that data sets that have been used to justify a “middle” analysis are in at least some cases incomplete in key respects. Specifically, they fail to show clear evidence of de-transitivization - evidence which we will argue cannot be found, at least in some Tibeto-Burman languages. We thus argue for the recognition of a distinct type of “subject autonomy” marking in Tibeto-Burman, and urge scholars whose languages appear to show evidence of “middle” marking in a reflex of *-si/*su (or anything else) to attend closely to the transitivity properties of the resulting stems.
However, data from Tani and Milang, at a minimum, indicate that Sun (1982) and Liu (1988) were on the right track, and that data sets that have been used to justify a “middle” analysis are in at least some cases incomplete in key respects. Specifically, they fail to show clear evidence of de-transitivization - evidence which we will argue cannot be found, at least in some Tibeto-Burman languages. We thus argue for the recognition of a distinct type of “subject autonomy” marking in Tibeto-Burman, and urge scholars whose languages appear to show evidence of “middle” marking in a reflex of *-si/*su (or anything else) to attend closely to the transitivity properties of the resulting stems.
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“Topographical deixis” refers to a system of shifting reference according to three planes: uphill (often also upriver), downhill (often also downriver), and on the same or an unknown level. Topographical deixis has been very well... more
“Topographical deixis” refers to a system of shifting reference according to three planes: uphill (often also upriver), downhill (often also downriver), and on the same or an unknown level. Topographical deixis has been very well described for Kiranti, Tani, rGyalrongic and Lolo-Burmese, but seems in fact to be found in most major Tibeto-Burman subgroups, and almost certainly reconstructs in some form to the earliest stages of the family. This paper will report on the results of a near-comprehensive survey of topographical-deictic distal demonstratives (or other corresponding forms, such as directional prefixes) in Tibeto-Burman, and will discuss the reconstruction of three demonstratives *tV, *bV and *yV, as well as their retention, change, or loss in a wide range of key TB languages or subgroups.
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Language plays a central role in Scott’s (2009) construal of “Zomia”. Characterising Zomia as a region of “bewildering ethnic and linguistic complexity” (p. 7), Scott emphasises both the sheer number of languages and dialects found in... more
Language plays a central role in Scott’s (2009) construal of “Zomia”. Characterising Zomia as a region of “bewildering ethnic and linguistic complexity” (p. 7), Scott emphasises both the sheer number of languages and dialects found in Zomia, and the prevalence of multilingualism and language shift among Zomian populations. The result is a “baroque complexity” that seems purposefully designed to evade the state.
However, if one focuses the lens more narrowly, we find a perhaps surprisingly consistent geographical clustering of linguistic subgroups within “Zomia”, evidence of grammatical de-complexification in several of these areas, and a perhaps correlated prevalence of regional lingua francas. These outcomes – a drift toward simplification and convergence at the local scale, and the appearance of complexity only emerging at more broadly – are argued to be more suggestive of the interaction of two contextual factors – geo-topographical complexity and significant time-depth – than they are of any “deliberate” strategy for state-evasion.
However, if one focuses the lens more narrowly, we find a perhaps surprisingly consistent geographical clustering of linguistic subgroups within “Zomia”, evidence of grammatical de-complexification in several of these areas, and a perhaps correlated prevalence of regional lingua francas. These outcomes – a drift toward simplification and convergence at the local scale, and the appearance of complexity only emerging at more broadly – are argued to be more suggestive of the interaction of two contextual factors – geo-topographical complexity and significant time-depth – than they are of any “deliberate” strategy for state-evasion.
Research Interests:
It is by now well known that “words” as defined independently by the grammars and phonologies of languages can fail to correspond (Dixon and Aikhenvald 2002, Hall, Hildebrandt et al. 2008, among others), sometimes quite radically (Post... more
It is by now well known that “words” as defined independently by the grammars and phonologies of languages can fail to correspond (Dixon and Aikhenvald 2002, Hall, Hildebrandt et al. 2008, among others), sometimes quite radically (Post 2009). More recently, the universality and, indeed, the unity of the concept “phonological word” has been brought into question: as Schiering, Bickel et al. (2010) show, it is possible for some languages to show no evidence for a unit between “foot” and “phrase”, while other languages may show evidence for more than one unit between “foot” and “phrase”.
In this paper, we will examine data from two closely related Tibeto-Burman languages, Galo and Tangam. We will see that while grammatical words are almost identical in Galo and Tangam, phonological evidence for “wordhood” diverges radically. While a substantial range of prosodic, segmental and morphophonological processes converge on identification of a “word” unit that is closest to the “foot” level of analysis in Galo, the same types of criteria when applied in Tangam identify a unit that is much larger, and closer to the “phrase” level of analysis.
Two questions thus naturally raise themselves: one, is it actually necessary, or even helpful, to identify a phonological unit “word” in Galo or in Tangam (distinct from “foot” and “phrase”)? Two, if we do identify a phonological “word” in Galo and Tangam, does its seemingly quite radical difference between the two languages actually signify anything substantial concerning differences in the languages themselves - in other words, is the phonological word, as distinct from grammatical word, as important to languages as it seems to be to linguists?
In this paper, we will examine data from two closely related Tibeto-Burman languages, Galo and Tangam. We will see that while grammatical words are almost identical in Galo and Tangam, phonological evidence for “wordhood” diverges radically. While a substantial range of prosodic, segmental and morphophonological processes converge on identification of a “word” unit that is closest to the “foot” level of analysis in Galo, the same types of criteria when applied in Tangam identify a unit that is much larger, and closer to the “phrase” level of analysis.
Two questions thus naturally raise themselves: one, is it actually necessary, or even helpful, to identify a phonological unit “word” in Galo or in Tangam (distinct from “foot” and “phrase”)? Two, if we do identify a phonological “word” in Galo and Tangam, does its seemingly quite radical difference between the two languages actually signify anything substantial concerning differences in the languages themselves - in other words, is the phonological word, as distinct from grammatical word, as important to languages as it seems to be to linguists?
Research Interests:
Topographical deixis is a highly grammaticalized system of spatial reference found widely in Trans-Himalayan (= Tibeto-Burman) languages, in which three levels are distinguished in distal reference only: upward, downward, and on the same... more
Topographical deixis is a highly grammaticalized system of spatial reference found widely in Trans-Himalayan (= Tibeto-Burman) languages, in which three levels are distinguished in distal reference only: upward, downward, and on the same or an unknown level. A number of extensions follow naturally from these values in a montane environment, including riverine orientation, compass directions, in-village or out-village reference, etc. However, the topographical-orientation values seem to be the most stable across languages, and quite likely reconstruct to the earliest stages of the family.
As various Trans-Himalayan-speaking groups have moved around within and out of montane environments, their topographical-deixis systems have undergone changes. When hill languages have moved into plains areas in which large rivers are found, the systemic “anchor” has been found to shift from topographic to riverine orientation, and systems have been found to remain grammatically intact for several generations at least; such a change is attested in plains-area Tani lects (Post 2011). However, topographical-deixis systems are also prone to erosion and decay in plains-area languages; this appears to have happened in Singpho, in which pale shadows of the Proto-Jingphoic system are now retained in song poetry only (Stephen Morey, personal communcation April 2016, Kurabe 2017). In some plains-area subgroups, topographical deixis was completely lost at the meso-language stage, as appears to have been the case in Proto-Bodo-Garo. And in the few clear instances that we can find of plains-area languages spreading up to (new) hill areas, we find that topographical dexis is not re-innovated, at least within a small number of centuries (Burling 2004).
The picture that emerges is one in which topographical deixis, once established, readily fluctuates and changes in direct response to speaker-group interaction with a changing environment as a result of migration events; these observations seem basically supportive of Palmer, Gaby et al. (2016)’s SocioTopographic model, and would generally support a view of language in which at least some aspects of grammatical structure are directly shaped by discourse patterns resulting from speaker interactions in particular types of environment.
As various Trans-Himalayan-speaking groups have moved around within and out of montane environments, their topographical-deixis systems have undergone changes. When hill languages have moved into plains areas in which large rivers are found, the systemic “anchor” has been found to shift from topographic to riverine orientation, and systems have been found to remain grammatically intact for several generations at least; such a change is attested in plains-area Tani lects (Post 2011). However, topographical-deixis systems are also prone to erosion and decay in plains-area languages; this appears to have happened in Singpho, in which pale shadows of the Proto-Jingphoic system are now retained in song poetry only (Stephen Morey, personal communcation April 2016, Kurabe 2017). In some plains-area subgroups, topographical deixis was completely lost at the meso-language stage, as appears to have been the case in Proto-Bodo-Garo. And in the few clear instances that we can find of plains-area languages spreading up to (new) hill areas, we find that topographical dexis is not re-innovated, at least within a small number of centuries (Burling 2004).
The picture that emerges is one in which topographical deixis, once established, readily fluctuates and changes in direct response to speaker-group interaction with a changing environment as a result of migration events; these observations seem basically supportive of Palmer, Gaby et al. (2016)’s SocioTopographic model, and would generally support a view of language in which at least some aspects of grammatical structure are directly shaped by discourse patterns resulting from speaker interactions in particular types of environment.
Research Interests:
The concept of “Zomia” – a trans-national hill region in Southeast Asia characterised by a predominance of “tribal” populations mainly speaking Tibeto-Burman languages – has gained considerable traction among social scientists other than... more
The concept of “Zomia” – a trans-national hill region in Southeast Asia characterised by a predominance of “tribal” populations mainly speaking Tibeto-Burman languages – has gained considerable traction among social scientists other than linguists, particularly since the publication of Scott’s (2009) The Art of (Not) Being Governed. In Scott’s view, “Zomia” is best understood as a “shatter zone”, in which “refugees fleeing” the expansion of valley states - “Zomians” - have established societies whose social structures, productive strategies, settlement patterns, material cultures, linguistic practices and group identities - “Zomianisms” - are “deliberately” designed to evade subjection by a neighbouring valley state.
What does the “Zomian” hypothesis tell us about prehistory? In Scott’s view, that the people currently inhabiting the Zomian region are where they are, and live how they do, for the precise reason that their ethnolinguistic ancestors fled the expansion of rice-growing valley states at some time within the preceding 2000 years. If it is persuasive, Scott’s thesis would argue in favour of viewing hill groups in the Eastern Himalaya, and perhaps also the languages that they speak, as essentially secondary, and attributable to precursor populations who at one time inhabited either the Brahmaputra Valley floodplain or the Tibetan Plateau, and who were effectively pushed into the areas they currently inhabit as a result of in-principle specifiable state expansion events within something like the past 2000 years.
In this paper, I will argue that although historical state expansion conditions in the Brahmaputra Valley and/or the Tibetan Plateau are in principle available within the time period specified, evidence from ethnographic observations and language distributions in the mid-Eastern Himalayan region suggest that Scott’s “state evasion” argument is fundamentally misguided in a large number of its aspects, at least with respect to these populations. We find better support for the likelihood that Eastern Himalayan populations fundamentally practice a set of successful adaptations to a specifiable social-physical environment, which neither require nor are in most ways illuminated through references to a state. Better support is found for the likelihood that Eastern Himalayan populations - and, by implication, at least some Zomian groups elsewhere - exhibit cultural and linguistic archaisms (i.e., conservative features) that predate the emergence of states in this region – even if they may, indeed, have eventually (and perhaps fortuitously) assisted these populations in retaining relatively high degrees of independence from neighbouring states. In all likelihood, at least some and perhaps many “Zomian” groups have been who they are, where they are, and speaking many of the languages that they do, for considerably more than 2000 years – not because they are refugees from a historical state, but rather because their way of life has proved to be successful on its own terms.
What does the “Zomian” hypothesis tell us about prehistory? In Scott’s view, that the people currently inhabiting the Zomian region are where they are, and live how they do, for the precise reason that their ethnolinguistic ancestors fled the expansion of rice-growing valley states at some time within the preceding 2000 years. If it is persuasive, Scott’s thesis would argue in favour of viewing hill groups in the Eastern Himalaya, and perhaps also the languages that they speak, as essentially secondary, and attributable to precursor populations who at one time inhabited either the Brahmaputra Valley floodplain or the Tibetan Plateau, and who were effectively pushed into the areas they currently inhabit as a result of in-principle specifiable state expansion events within something like the past 2000 years.
In this paper, I will argue that although historical state expansion conditions in the Brahmaputra Valley and/or the Tibetan Plateau are in principle available within the time period specified, evidence from ethnographic observations and language distributions in the mid-Eastern Himalayan region suggest that Scott’s “state evasion” argument is fundamentally misguided in a large number of its aspects, at least with respect to these populations. We find better support for the likelihood that Eastern Himalayan populations fundamentally practice a set of successful adaptations to a specifiable social-physical environment, which neither require nor are in most ways illuminated through references to a state. Better support is found for the likelihood that Eastern Himalayan populations - and, by implication, at least some Zomian groups elsewhere - exhibit cultural and linguistic archaisms (i.e., conservative features) that predate the emergence of states in this region – even if they may, indeed, have eventually (and perhaps fortuitously) assisted these populations in retaining relatively high degrees of independence from neighbouring states. In all likelihood, at least some and perhaps many “Zomian” groups have been who they are, where they are, and speaking many of the languages that they do, for considerably more than 2000 years – not because they are refugees from a historical state, but rather because their way of life has proved to be successful on its own terms.
Research Interests: Asian Studies, Anthropology, Southeast Asian Studies, Languages and Linguistics, Ethnography, and 9 moreSouth Asian Studies, South Asian Languages, Linguistics, Anthropology of Tibet and the Himalayas, Sino-Tibetan Linguistics, Cultural Anthropology, Tibetan and Himalayan societies, Tibeto-Burman Linguistics, and Tibetan History
North East India doesn't constitute a "linguistic area" in the same way that, for example, Mainland Southeast Asia, Korea/Japan, insular SE Asia, and most of the rest of South Asia arguably do. Not only that, it is arguably not part of... more
North East India doesn't constitute a "linguistic area" in the same way that, for example, Mainland Southeast Asia, Korea/Japan, insular SE Asia, and most of the rest of South Asia arguably do. Not only that, it is arguably not part of any of these linguistic areas. What we instead find in North East India is levels of linguistic diversity which are unparalleled anywhere else in the Asian continent. But that's not to say that language contact hasn't been important in the North East Indian context; quite the contrary: on a more localized scale, language contact has played, and continues to play, a critical role in the development of North East Indian languages, both individually and in various contact zones. This paper will discuss a range of contact situations in the North East Indian region, with a special focus on central Arunachal Pradesh, and will discuss some consequences for subgrouping, typology, and the reconstruction of areal prehistory.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The Tani branch of Trans-Himalayan (Tibeto-Burman) was convincingly established by Tian-Shin Jackson Sun in 1993, on the strength of a large number of cognates, regular phonological correspondences, and around 500 reconstructed lexical... more
The Tani branch of Trans-Himalayan (Tibeto-Burman) was convincingly established by Tian-Shin Jackson Sun in 1993, on the strength of a large number of cognates, regular phonological correspondences, and around 500 reconstructed lexical roots. Sun's Tani subgrouping proposal then bifurcated the family into "Eastern" and "Western" branches, which mainly included languages found in the Siang and Subansiri-Kameng river areas respectively. Sun’s primary criteria for this bifurcation were a set of four phonological isoglosses, supported by around twenty-five differentially-retained lexical roots. Subsequent research has focused on two areas: (1) identification of larger numbers of phonological isoglosses for a larger number of Tani languages, and (2) assessment of “problem cases”, being languages which do not align perfectly with either of the Eastern or Western groups according to Sun’s criteria.
The results are as follows: although Sun's Proto-Tani reconstruction appears to remain valid in that it is supported by data from all known Tani languages, the overwhelming majority of Tani phonological innovations which have been identified - including Sun's original four - identify distinct sets of languages with at best partial obedience to Sun's primary Eastern/Western split. In other words, all identified phonological innovations cross at least one branch which is established by another innovation. The implication is that it may be simply impossible to subgroup Tani languages on a strictly genealogical basis. Instead, what we find is a network of innovations spreading areally across languages both mutually intelligible and not - a counterintuitive but entirely plausible outcome given the facts of widespread multilingualism and population exchanges throughout the Tani region. An adequate "classification" of the Tani languages, therefore, might be best represented as a schematic of areal clusters, diffusion zones, and their boundaries - a forest rather than a tree.
The results are as follows: although Sun's Proto-Tani reconstruction appears to remain valid in that it is supported by data from all known Tani languages, the overwhelming majority of Tani phonological innovations which have been identified - including Sun's original four - identify distinct sets of languages with at best partial obedience to Sun's primary Eastern/Western split. In other words, all identified phonological innovations cross at least one branch which is established by another innovation. The implication is that it may be simply impossible to subgroup Tani languages on a strictly genealogical basis. Instead, what we find is a network of innovations spreading areally across languages both mutually intelligible and not - a counterintuitive but entirely plausible outcome given the facts of widespread multilingualism and population exchanges throughout the Tani region. An adequate "classification" of the Tani languages, therefore, might be best represented as a schematic of areal clusters, diffusion zones, and their boundaries - a forest rather than a tree.
Research Interests:
This paper will have two purposes. The first will be to describe the tone systems of the three Tani (Tibeto-Burman) languages for which tones have been attested: Apatani, Galo (Western Tani) and Upper Minyong (Eastern Tani). The second... more
This paper will have two purposes. The first will be to describe the tone systems of the three Tani (Tibeto-Burman) languages for which tones have been attested: Apatani, Galo (Western Tani) and Upper Minyong (Eastern Tani). The second will be to provide a sort of guide for fieldworkers investigating tones in Tani languages.
Here’s the basic overview: Tani languages have two underlying (or basic) tonemes, which can be called H and L, Level and Falling, Toneless and Toneful or Unmarked and Marked, depending on how one feels about the balance between theoretical implications and descriptive clarity. The point is that there are two categories, one of which is associated to a relatively mid-to-high and level pitch contour, and the other of which is associated to a low, falling, rising, or rising-falling pitch contour, depending on a number of contextual factors. The second category is more “marked” than the first, on phonological, perceptual, and phonetic grounds.
All lexical morphemes are underlyingly specified for one of these two tones. If a word is monosyllabic and monomorphemic, the specified tone will be projected directly onto the surface pitch contour. However, the overwhelming majority of words in Tani are in fact disyllabic or larger, and generally dimorphemic, or larger. In these more complex words, certain derivations apply. These derivations are slightly different from language to language, but all obey a similar set of principles requiring reference to the structure of a word’s constituent syllables: light or heavy, i.e. monomoraic (V rhyme) or bimoraic (VV, Ṽ or VC rhyme) - as well as, to some extent, the rhythmic template of a language (generally trochaic) and some morphophonological processes (such as syncope) which are associated with it.
Due to the interaction of all of these factors, it can be a real challenge to unify one’s account of the relationship between the underlying tones of morphemes and the phonetic pitch contour of words in which they are expressed. By the same token, it can be a real challenge, from a fieldworker’s perspective, to work one’s way from the quite complex surface pitch contour of a string of morphemes all the way down to the underlying (and quite simple!) set of tonal categories that ultimately motivate it. My main hope in writing this paper is that I’ll be able to outline a set of procedures to render the discovery and representation of tones in Tani languages less painful, less time-consuming and less error-prone, and - ideally - maximize the chances that other fieldworkers will be able to expand our Tani language tonal database, so that we can get ourselves on a more solid comparative-historical footing!
Here’s the basic overview: Tani languages have two underlying (or basic) tonemes, which can be called H and L, Level and Falling, Toneless and Toneful or Unmarked and Marked, depending on how one feels about the balance between theoretical implications and descriptive clarity. The point is that there are two categories, one of which is associated to a relatively mid-to-high and level pitch contour, and the other of which is associated to a low, falling, rising, or rising-falling pitch contour, depending on a number of contextual factors. The second category is more “marked” than the first, on phonological, perceptual, and phonetic grounds.
All lexical morphemes are underlyingly specified for one of these two tones. If a word is monosyllabic and monomorphemic, the specified tone will be projected directly onto the surface pitch contour. However, the overwhelming majority of words in Tani are in fact disyllabic or larger, and generally dimorphemic, or larger. In these more complex words, certain derivations apply. These derivations are slightly different from language to language, but all obey a similar set of principles requiring reference to the structure of a word’s constituent syllables: light or heavy, i.e. monomoraic (V rhyme) or bimoraic (VV, Ṽ or VC rhyme) - as well as, to some extent, the rhythmic template of a language (generally trochaic) and some morphophonological processes (such as syncope) which are associated with it.
Due to the interaction of all of these factors, it can be a real challenge to unify one’s account of the relationship between the underlying tones of morphemes and the phonetic pitch contour of words in which they are expressed. By the same token, it can be a real challenge, from a fieldworker’s perspective, to work one’s way from the quite complex surface pitch contour of a string of morphemes all the way down to the underlying (and quite simple!) set of tonal categories that ultimately motivate it. My main hope in writing this paper is that I’ll be able to outline a set of procedures to render the discovery and representation of tones in Tani languages less painful, less time-consuming and less error-prone, and - ideally - maximize the chances that other fieldworkers will be able to expand our Tani language tonal database, so that we can get ourselves on a more solid comparative-historical footing!
Research Interests:
"ISO 639 is an ambitious attempt to standardize and organize various types of references to the languages of the world. It is designed to be fully comprehensive and permanent; as such, it promises to greatly enhance the precision and... more
"ISO 639 is an ambitious attempt to standardize and organize various types of references to the languages of the world. It is designed to be fully comprehensive and permanent; as such, it promises to greatly enhance the precision and reliability with which language materials can be archived, catalogued, and referenced in the literature, as well as the ease and precision with which such materials and references can be processed by machines and effectively located via search queries. There are, however, a number of serious problems with several components of ISO 639 as they are currently conceived. At a minimum, these are:
(1) use of both The Ethnologue as the basis for ISO 639-3’s “three-letter codes” and of SIL as its registration authority is problematic for a number of reasons
(2) in-principle “arbitrary” (but in fact not arbitrary) “mnemonic” labels of ISO 639-3 have the potential to enshrine offensive designations for language communities, and in fact currently do so
(3) decision-making processes in ISO 639-3 are currently excessively centralized and privilege the views of a minority of the linguistics community
(4) the in-principle “permanency” of language codes such as those of ISO 639-3 is fundamentally incompatible with the nature of human languages, which are demonstrably impermanent
(5) the structure of ISO 639-3 has a serious potential to be misunderstood, misused, and in fact abused by decision-making bodies (such as arms of government in various political contexts)
(6) ISO 639-5, which attempts to catalogue the genetic affiliations of the world’s languages, is highly premature, since there is nothing approaching agreement among specialists in a great number of cases
(7) ISO 639-6, which attempts to catalogue language variation, is in principle impossible, unless it aims to extend to an analysis of the language use of every human being on Earth, living or dead
On the basis of these observations, which we will illustrate by means of three detailed “case studies” from the Eastern Himalaya, the Burmese/Indian border region, and the Balkan region, we will argue that ISO 639 must be substantially re-conceived and re-organized before it can be supported by linguists. "
(1) use of both The Ethnologue as the basis for ISO 639-3’s “three-letter codes” and of SIL as its registration authority is problematic for a number of reasons
(2) in-principle “arbitrary” (but in fact not arbitrary) “mnemonic” labels of ISO 639-3 have the potential to enshrine offensive designations for language communities, and in fact currently do so
(3) decision-making processes in ISO 639-3 are currently excessively centralized and privilege the views of a minority of the linguistics community
(4) the in-principle “permanency” of language codes such as those of ISO 639-3 is fundamentally incompatible with the nature of human languages, which are demonstrably impermanent
(5) the structure of ISO 639-3 has a serious potential to be misunderstood, misused, and in fact abused by decision-making bodies (such as arms of government in various political contexts)
(6) ISO 639-5, which attempts to catalogue the genetic affiliations of the world’s languages, is highly premature, since there is nothing approaching agreement among specialists in a great number of cases
(7) ISO 639-6, which attempts to catalogue language variation, is in principle impossible, unless it aims to extend to an analysis of the language use of every human being on Earth, living or dead
On the basis of these observations, which we will illustrate by means of three detailed “case studies” from the Eastern Himalaya, the Burmese/Indian border region, and the Balkan region, we will argue that ISO 639 must be substantially re-conceived and re-organized before it can be supported by linguists. "
Research Interests:
"Sun’s (1993) magnificent A Historical-Comparative Study of the Tani (Mirish) Branch of Tibeto-Burman brought order to an area of the pan-Himalayan linguistic world that had been wracked by uncertainty at least since Konow and Grierson... more
"Sun’s (1993) magnificent A Historical-Comparative Study of the Tani (Mirish) Branch of Tibeto-Burman brought order to an area of the pan-Himalayan linguistic world that had been wracked by uncertainty at least since Konow and Grierson (2005 [1909]), primarily due to a lack of reliable data. In carving out the Tani subgroup of Tibeto-Burman, in establishing a provisional internal bifurcation into a Western and Eastern branch, and in developing around 500 provisionally-reconstructed Proto-Tani lexical roots and morphemes, Sun laid a solid framework against which all subsequent work in the area could be measured. Unfortunately, however, Sun continued to lack access to a wide range of reliable data from area languages at the time of his writing. Accordingly, his actual subgrouping criteria were limited to a small set of only four phonological innovations (supplemented by 25 lexical isoglosses), with the remainder of the known phonological innovations left to future research.
In recent work, Post and Modi (2011) and Post (2013) have shown that intensive language contact in the Tani area has led to considerable “cross-branch” sharing of phonological features, as well as to massive lexical and grammatical borrowing and convergence. In both cases, the authors had the conservative goal of interpreting certain problematic outcomes in relation to the established background of Sun’s (1993) subgrouping proposal. However, more recent work on Tangam (Tani > Eastern?) has forced a wholesale re-examination of phonological innovations in the Tani area from an agnostic perspective, and preliminary results suggest that Sun’s subgrouping proposal may not in fact be tenable as a model of branching genetic descent. Instead, the best we may currently be able to do is to locate overlapping clusters of areally-shared innovations - mini-spread-zones of contact and convergence which, in their most radical construal, challenge the very concept of genetic linguistics."
In recent work, Post and Modi (2011) and Post (2013) have shown that intensive language contact in the Tani area has led to considerable “cross-branch” sharing of phonological features, as well as to massive lexical and grammatical borrowing and convergence. In both cases, the authors had the conservative goal of interpreting certain problematic outcomes in relation to the established background of Sun’s (1993) subgrouping proposal. However, more recent work on Tangam (Tani > Eastern?) has forced a wholesale re-examination of phonological innovations in the Tani area from an agnostic perspective, and preliminary results suggest that Sun’s subgrouping proposal may not in fact be tenable as a model of branching genetic descent. Instead, the best we may currently be able to do is to locate overlapping clusters of areally-shared innovations - mini-spread-zones of contact and convergence which, in their most radical construal, challenge the very concept of genetic linguistics."
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
North East India lies at the crossroads of South and Mainland South East Asia. Typologically, the majority of well-established North East Indian languages (excluding, for example, more recent Tai migrants) are highly agglutinating. But... more
North East India lies at the crossroads of South and Mainland South East Asia. Typologically, the majority of well-established North East Indian languages (excluding, for example, more recent Tai migrants) are highly agglutinating. But they don’t seem to have always been. In the case of the Tani languages, a compact subgroup of Tibeto-Burman languages spoken from the central Eastern Himalaya to the Brahmaputra Valley, a highly agglutinating set of modern languages seem to reconstruct to an isolating ancestor with several characteristically Mainland South East Asian features. Modern-day lexical compounds seem to reconstruct to class term constructions, incorporated nominals seem to reconstruct to generic nominals and external possession constructions, and an expansive predicate word, replete with a vast array of derivational formatives, seems to reconstruct to a fairly ordinary serial verb construction. If such reconstructions are tenable, they would tend to align Tani and other North East Indian languages typologically with Mainland South East Asian languages in early history. The question is, what does this mean? Was there a contact corridor that helped maintain this common typology, which was later disrupted? Was North East India in part populated by migrants from Mainland South East Asia (in early times, and more recently), who brought this typology together with their languages? Or is this simply a historical manifestation of creole typology, with no implied relationship to the languages of Mainland South East Asia?
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Engagement of community member researchers is a major desideratum in modern-day field linguistics. We need community members engaged throughout the research process to enhance quality, productivity, continuity, and of course ethical... more
Engagement of community member researchers is a major desideratum in modern-day field linguistics. We need community members engaged throughout the research process to enhance quality, productivity, continuity, and of course ethical responsibility. Over the past 8 years, we’ve worked to develop a research support model that integrates community-member-focused training, funding and project support, with the aim of providing ongoing institution-independent and project-independent support in at least one part of the world, the Eastern Himalaya. In this talk, we’ll outline the motivations and components of the CCLD model in its current form, and discuss some of our ongoing challenges as well as initial successes.
Research Interests:
"Languages differ essentially in what they must convey and not in what they may convey." —Roman Jakobson, “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation” In any language, it is possible to refer to things as being located upward, downward, or on... more
"Languages differ essentially in what they must convey and not in what they may convey." —Roman Jakobson, “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation”
In any language, it is possible to refer to things as being located upward, downward, or on the same level as an observer. In some languages, it is all but impossible not to. Such languages with “topographical deixis”, systems of distal reference which require an observer to locate an entity’s geo-physical location within a montane landscape, are endemic to Indigenous languages of the Himalayan region and reflect centuries and indeed millennia of cultural-linguistic co-evolution in a topographically varied environment. This seminar will introduce the form and functions of Himalayan topographical-deictic systems, outline their distribution within the Trans-Himalayan region, and show how the presence/absence and characteristics of topographical-deictic systems can be used to reconstruct some aspects of Trans-Himalayan ethnolinguistic prehistory.
In any language, it is possible to refer to things as being located upward, downward, or on the same level as an observer. In some languages, it is all but impossible not to. Such languages with “topographical deixis”, systems of distal reference which require an observer to locate an entity’s geo-physical location within a montane landscape, are endemic to Indigenous languages of the Himalayan region and reflect centuries and indeed millennia of cultural-linguistic co-evolution in a topographically varied environment. This seminar will introduce the form and functions of Himalayan topographical-deictic systems, outline their distribution within the Trans-Himalayan region, and show how the presence/absence and characteristics of topographical-deictic systems can be used to reconstruct some aspects of Trans-Himalayan ethnolinguistic prehistory.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
In many languages, "words" as defined from phonological and grammatical perspectives tend to align well, while in others, there is a strong disconnect. Galo (Tibeto-Burman > Tani, Eastern Himalaya) is a language of the second type: in... more
In many languages, "words" as defined from phonological and grammatical perspectives tend to align well, while in others, there is a strong disconnect. Galo (Tibeto-Burman > Tani, Eastern Himalaya) is a language of the second type: in Galo, phonological and grammatical criteria for wordhood are each robust, but they very frequently fail to converge upon the same sets of units. Accordingly, it is possible in Galo to have single grammatical words corresponding to three or four phonological words, and phonological words which consist of two or three grammatical words. The resulting "grammatical-phonological word disconnect" has been described by Post (2009) as "radical".
Within the same subgroup of Tibeto-Burman, the more recently-described language Tangam presents an interestingly different picture. In Tangam also, phonological and grammatical words are independently definable in terms of robust and highly similar sets of criteria. However, unlike in Galo, Tangam phonological and grammatical words nearly always correspond.
Whatever the motivation for this difference, the outcome is a pair of languages that may "look" very different from the perspective of a linguist, but "feel" almost identical as far as speakers are concerned. So why is the grammatical/phonological word "disconnect" apparently so much less important to speakers than it is to linguists? And what can this teach us about the role and importance of wordhood (or its representation) in linguistic analysis?
Within the same subgroup of Tibeto-Burman, the more recently-described language Tangam presents an interestingly different picture. In Tangam also, phonological and grammatical words are independently definable in terms of robust and highly similar sets of criteria. However, unlike in Galo, Tangam phonological and grammatical words nearly always correspond.
Whatever the motivation for this difference, the outcome is a pair of languages that may "look" very different from the perspective of a linguist, but "feel" almost identical as far as speakers are concerned. So why is the grammatical/phonological word "disconnect" apparently so much less important to speakers than it is to linguists? And what can this teach us about the role and importance of wordhood (or its representation) in linguistic analysis?
Research Interests: Anthropological Linguistics, Languages and Linguistics, Phonology, Linguistics, Tibeto-Burman Linguistics, and 6 moreProsody, Descriptive Linguistics, Language Documentation, Indigenous Languages, Sociolinguistics, Field Linguistics, Himalayan Languages, Galo Language, Tani language, and Tangam language
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Full reference: Post, Mark W, Stephen Morey and Scott DeLancey (eds). 2015. Language and culture in Northeast India and beyond: in honour of Robbins Burling. Canberra, Australia-Pacific Linguistics, Language and Peoples of the Eastern... more
Full reference:
Post, Mark W, Stephen Morey and Scott DeLancey (eds). 2015. Language and culture in Northeast India and beyond: in honour of Robbins Burling. Canberra, Australia-Pacific Linguistics, Language and Peoples of the Eastern Himalaya Region (series). Downloaded at https://digitalcollections.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/38458 ISBN: 9781922185266 (print book); 9781922185259 (ebook)
Post, Mark W, Stephen Morey and Scott DeLancey (eds). 2015. Language and culture in Northeast India and beyond: in honour of Robbins Burling. Canberra, Australia-Pacific Linguistics, Language and Peoples of the Eastern Himalaya Region (series). Downloaded at https://digitalcollections.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/38458 ISBN: 9781922185266 (print book); 9781922185259 (ebook)
Research Interests:
“Topographical deixis” refers to a variety of spatial-environmental deixis in which typically distal reference to entities is made in terms of a set of topographically-anchored referential plains: most often, upward, downward, or on the... more
“Topographical deixis” refers to a variety of spatial-environmental deixis in which typically distal reference to entities is made in terms of a set of topographically-anchored referential plains: most often, upward, downward, or on the same level. Thus defined, topographical deixis is a pervasive feature of Trans-Himalayan (= Sino-Tibetan) languages. However, while there have been several descriptions of Trans-Himalayan topographical deixis at the language or subgroup level, there has been as yet no account of its overall status and distribution within the family. The primary goal of this article is to provide an account of topographical deixis from a pan-Trans-Himalayan perspective, to the maximum extent possible on the basis of existing descriptions. It discusses its formal coding, functions, distribution within the family, and environmental correlations. In addition to providing a benchmark account of the nature and distribution of topographical deixis within the Trans-Himalayan family, this study thus contributes to cross-linguistic typologies of spatial deictic systems and their environmental-interactional motivations more generally.