Morphology of Some Tibeto-Burman Dialects of the Himalayan Region

Abstract

Since the time of the appearance of the first grammar and dictionary by Csoma de Koros, Tibetan has become one of the beststudied languages of the East. The Tibeto-Burman family of languages, which forms the subject of the present study 1), comprises a large number of dialects extending from Tibet in the north to Burma in the South, and from Baltistan in the west to Ssechuan and Yiinnan in the East. All the dialects spoken in this vast area are connected with the Siamese-Chinese languages, but how nearly they are related to each other it is too early yet to say with any degree of certainty. The dialects dealt with in the present paper are Classical Tibetan or the written language (Cl. T.), Balti (Bal.), Purik (Pur.), Ladakhi (Lad.), Lahul (La.), Central Tibetan (Cent. T.), Spiti (Sp.), Nyamkat (Ny.), Jad (Ja.) Garhwal (Gar.), Kigate (Ka.), Sharpa (Sha.), the Bhotiai of Sikkim or PD-njon-kii (Bho.), the Bhotiaof Bhutan or Lhoke (Lho.) and Khams (Kha.). Taking