Tibeto-Burman Research Articles

Acoustic characteristics of aspirated fricatives in a Tibeto-Burman language

Aspirated fricatives are typologically rare, though they are relatively more common in Asia (Jacques, 2011). Of the 2155 languages in the PHOIBLE Online database of phonological segments, only 7 are reported to have distinctive fricative aspiration (Moran et al., 2014). This paper examines the acoustic properties of aspirated fricatives in Matu, an under-documented Kuki-Chin (Tibeto-Burman) language spoken in Chin State, Burma (Myanmar). Matu contrasts unaspirated alveolar fricative /s/ with aspirated alveolar fricative /sh/. Aspirated alveolar fricatives are also found in other Chin languages and have been reconstructed for Proto-Kuki-Chin (VanBik, 2009, p. 186). The data were recorded with Matu-speaking refugees living in Indiana, U.S. and are analyzed using durational and spectral measures. This research expands literature on an uncommon—and reportedly diachronically unstable (Jacques, 2011)—phonemic contrast while increasing documentation of an understudied language. Jacques, G., “A panchronic study of aspirated fricatives, with new evidence from Pumi,” Lingua 121, 1518–1538 (2011). and Wright, R.(eds). 2014. PHOIBLE Online, edited by S. Moran, D. McCloy, and R. Wright (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Lepzig, 2014). VanBik, K., “Proto-Kuki-Chin: A reconstructed ancestor of the Kuki-Chin languages,” STEDT Monograph Series #8 (University of California, Berkeley, CA, 2009). Aspirated fricatives are typologically rare, though they are relatively more common in Asia (Jacques, 2011). Of the 2155 languages in the PHOIBLE Online database of phonological segments, only 7 are reported to have distinctive fricative aspiration (Moran et al., 2014). This paper examines the acoustic properties of aspirated fricatives in Matu, an under-documented Kuki-Chin (Tibeto-Burman) language spoken in Chin State, Burma (Myanmar). Matu contrasts unaspirated alveolar fricative /s/ with aspirated alveolar fricative /sh/. Aspirated alveolar fricatives are also found in other Chin languages and have been reconstructed for Proto-Kuki-Chin (VanBik, 2009, p. 186). The data were recorded with Matu-speaking refugees living in Indiana, U.S. and are analyzed using durational and spectral measures. This research expands literature on an uncommon—and reportedly diachronically unstable (Jacques, 2011)—phonemic contrast while increasing documentation of an understudied language. Jacques, G., “A panchronic study ...

Quantity, quality, both or neither? Vowel contrasts in Hakha Chin monophthongs

Hakha Chin—a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Chin State in western Myanmar—is reported to have phonemic length distinctions in its monophthongs (Melnik, 1997; Peterson, 2003; Maddieson, 2004) (e.g., [ii] vs. [i], [aa] vs. [a]). These pairs are also sometimes represented with tense/lax vowels (e.g., [i] vs. [ɪ], [a] vs. [ə]) (Peterson, 2017). Indeed, the results of a perception study conducted by Mortenson and Van Bik (2002) found variable response patterns in different dialect groups. Listeners from Hakha, the city after which the language is named, relied heavily on spectral cues related to quality to distinguish between long and short vowels, while listeners from the town of Thanthlang relied mainly on durational cues to perform the same task. In the current study, we present the first instrumental acoustic analysis of Hakha Chin vowel quality in order to aid in elucidating the nature of the contrast. Data from three college-aged native speakers (two male) suggest that neither duration nor quality play key roles in distinguishing between the so-called long and short vowels of Hakha Chin. Rather, as originally suggested by Maddieson (2004), the length associated with long vowels is mainly realized through lengthening of sonorant codas.

Polyfunction derived from fillers: The case of làmò in Longxi Qiang

This paper focuses on the multifunctionality of làmò derived from filler in language use in Longxi Qiang, a Tibeto-Burman language. The results show that filler, focus marker and discourse marker are distinctive functions of làmò with different syntactic and discourse features. From the perspective of ostensive-inferential communication, the linguistic item làmò may generate implicature. Collocations composed of làmò present the same polyfunctionality. This paper also examines the similarities between làmò in Longxi Qiang and the sentence-intermediate particle ne in Mandarin Chinese.

Tone assignment and grammatical tone in Anal (Tibeto-Burman)

AbstractComplex phenomena of grammatical tone, well-described for many African languages, are increasingly attested also in the Tibeto-Burman family. This paper describes the tone assignment rule and two cases of tonal expression of grammatical categories in the Tibeto-Burman language Anal. The typologically unusual rule involves tone spreading, tonal polarity on a non-edge constituent and additional spreading, resulting in constant tonal patterns across grammatical suffixes. In two different cases the combination of the tonal pattern assigned by this rule with peculiar morpho-tonological processes results in a marking of a grammatical category (future and 1sg-person) by grammatical tone, by vowel-length, or only by the overall tonal pattern of the verbal form. Both cases are related to the omission of an explicit marking of the category, although the outcome cannot be explained only by the concept of a floating tone.

Perception of focus in Sümi (Tibeto-Burman, India)

This paper investigates the homophony/polysemy between a morphological agentive marker and a contrastive focus marker in Sümi, a Tibeto-Burman language of Northeast India. Both are realized by an enclitic = no that attaches to grammatical subjects, but the interpretation of the enclitic varies by clause type: textual analysis shows that = no with subjects of transitive clauses is more commonly interpreted as an agentive marker without focus; while = no with subjects of verbless and intransitive clauses is more commonly interpreted as a contrastive focus marker (Teo 2018). The present study examines whether transitive subjects in contrastive focus receive any special prosodic marking that is recognizable to native listeners. We answer this question using a ratings task in which listeners were presented with sentences that were produced under different pragmatic conditions to have broad focus over the entire clause or narrow contrastive focus on the subject, i.e., in responses to a question like “Who (out of a set of potential participants) did the action?” The study has implications for understanding the development of focus markers in other languages of the Himalayas, as well as in New Guinea and Australia where homophony/polysemy between agentive or ergative markers and focus markers has been found.

Perception of voiceless nasals in Mizo and Angami

This study is a perceptual analysis of place of articulation of voiceless nasals and their voiced counterparts in Mizo and Angami, two Tibeto-Burman languages spoken in North-East India. The voiceless nasals in Mizo and Angami differ in terms of their characteristics of voicing. In Mizo, there is a portion of voiced nasal murmur before the vowel starts, which has been compared to the voiceless nasals in Burmese (Bhaskararao & Ladefoged,1991). However, in Angami, the nasal murmur remains voiceless throughout (Bhaskararao & Ladefoged,1991; Blankenship et al.,1993). A previously performed acoustic analysis of cues for place of articulation in both the languages shows that the cues were more robust in the transition portion of the vowel following the voiceless nasal (Gogoi, 2018). The perception of voiceless nasals by native speakers have not yet been studied. However, existing literature on Burmese voiceless nasals have shown that there are sufficient acoustic cues in the voiced murmur portion of the voiceless nasals for discrimination of the place of articulation (Dantsuji,1986). This study investigates whether the perception results correspond to the acoustic analysis previously observed.

Transitivity markers in West Himalayish

Abstract The present paper describes a transitivity distinction that is attested in some Tibeto-Burman (TB) languages of the West Himalayish (WH) subgroup. The relevant distinction is encoded by a set of dedicated markers that occur between verb stems and inflectional endings and group verbs into transitivity classes. The paper first offers a synchronic description of transitivity classes in the WH language Bunan, discussing their formal realization and functional motivation. Subsequently, the relevant transitivity classes are discussed from a historical-comparative perspective. It is argued that the transitivity distinction developed when an object agreement marker was reanalyzed as a marker of transitive verbs. The paper thus offers new perspectives on transitivity in TB from both a synchronic and a diacronic point of view, and adduces evidence for a hitherto underscribed reanalysis from “object agreement marker” > “marker of transitive verbs”.

Case Markers in Bodo and Sanzari Bodo: A Comparative Investigation

This paper is an attempt to investigate and compare the case markers of Bodo and Sanzari Bodo - a variety of Bodo. A Tibeto-Burman language, Bodo is primarily spoken in the north eastern state of Assam, India. Because of immense ethno linguistic diversity the region of Bodoland has attracted numerous linguistic studies from across the globe but due to geographical isolation there are pockets which are left with undocumented language varieties. The present research is based on the data obtained from 20 Sanzari Bodo speakers of Nagaon district of Assam. Though the standard Bodo and Sanzari Bodo share the same number of case markers they have some evident differences between them. Case is a grammatical category which expresses the semantic relation between a noun phrase and its predicate. There are at least ten case markers in both Bodo as well as Sanzari Bodo. Close investigation of data establishes that despite sharing similarities, the two varieties have their uniqueness too, for example, the accusative case marker of Bodo {-kʰɯu} is monophthongised to {-kʰɯ}, the final /ŋ/ sound of instrumental, comitative and allative cases are removed in Sanzari Bodo and the illative case too has different manifestations in the two varieties.

Voiceless nasal sounds in three Tibeto-Burman languages

This paper focuses on two types of voiceless nasal sounds in Xumi, a Tibeto-Burman language: (i) the voiceless aspirated nasals // [] and // [], and (ii) the voiceless nasal glottal fricative []. We provide a synchronic description of these two types of sounds, and explore their similarities and differences. Xumi voiceless nasal consonants are described with reference to the voiceless nasal consonants // and // in Burmese and Kham Tibetan because Burmese voiceless nasals are the best described type of voiceless nasals, and are therefore used as a reference point for comparison; voiceless nasals in Kham Tibetan, which is in close contact with Xumi, represent a characteristic regional feature. The synchronic description is based on acoustic and aerodynamic measurements (the total duration of the target phonemes, the duration of the voiced period during the target phonemes, mean nasal and oral flow). Our study (i) contributes to a better understanding of voiceless nasals as a type of sound, (ii) provides a first-ever instrumental description (acoustic and aerodynamic) of the voiceless nasal glottal fricative [], as attested in a number of Tibeto-Burman languages of Southwest China, and (iii) suggests a possible phonetic basis for the observed dialectal and diachronic variation between voiceless nasals and [] in some Tibeto-Burman languages.

Inter- and intra-speaker variability in the production of voiceless nasal consonants

This study uses both acoustic and aerodynamic data to investigate variation in the realization of phonemically voiceless nasal consonants, which have been found to differ cross-linguistically. In particular, it examines the timing of voicing and oral and nasal air flow during production of voiceless nasal consonants in both word-initial and word-medial positions in Hakha Chin, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in western Burma/Myanmar. Comparing three other Tibeto-Burman languages, Bhaskararao and Ladefoged (1991) found two distinct patterns in the production of voiceless nasal consonants, which varied by language, but reported general consistency among speakers of the same language. Results of the present study show considerable variation in the realization of voiceless nasals, both between individual speakers and even between individual tokens produced by the same speaker. This high degree of variability may be linked to the relatively weak acoustic cues for place of articulation among nasal consonants in general and for voiceless nasals in particular.This study uses both acoustic and aerodynamic data to investigate variation in the realization of phonemically voiceless nasal consonants, which have been found to differ cross-linguistically. In particular, it examines the timing of voicing and oral and nasal air flow during production of voiceless nasal consonants in both word-initial and word-medial positions in Hakha Chin, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in western Burma/Myanmar. Comparing three other Tibeto-Burman languages, Bhaskararao and Ladefoged (1991) found two distinct patterns in the production of voiceless nasal consonants, which varied by language, but reported general consistency among speakers of the same language. Results of the present study show considerable variation in the realization of voiceless nasals, both between individual speakers and even between individual tokens produced by the same speaker. This high degree of variability may be linked to the relatively weak acoustic cues for place of articulation among nasal consonants in...

Articulatory and acoustic investigation of coronals in Hakha Chin

Coronal obstruents are profoundly common typologically, occurring in most or all of the world’s known languages. Very few languages, however, contrast coronal obstruents at the dental and alveolar places of articulation. Hakha Chin—also known as Lai—is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in western Myanmar that is reported to do so. Very little phonetic research on Chin exists, but Maddieson and Van Bik (2004) provide acoustic and static articulatory data (palatography and linguography) suggesting that the contrast is between a lamino-dental series and an apico-alveolar series. We follow up on that research using dynamic, volumetric articulatory imaging in the form of 3D/4D ultrasound. Articulatory and acoustic data from two native speakers of Chin are presented in order to contribute to a more thorough understanding of this typologically uncommon contrast.Coronal obstruents are profoundly common typologically, occurring in most or all of the world’s known languages. Very few languages, however, contrast coronal obstruents at the dental and alveolar places of articulation. Hakha Chin—also known as Lai—is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in western Myanmar that is reported to do so. Very little phonetic research on Chin exists, but Maddieson and Van Bik (2004) provide acoustic and static articulatory data (palatography and linguography) suggesting that the contrast is between a lamino-dental series and an apico-alveolar series. We follow up on that research using dynamic, volumetric articulatory imaging in the form of 3D/4D ultrasound. Articulatory and acoustic data from two native speakers of Chin are presented in order to contribute to a more thorough understanding of this typologically uncommon contrast.

Stop laryngeal contrasts of endangered languages of Northern Pakistan

Iranian, Indo-Aryan (Dardic), and Tibeto-Burman languages of Northern Pakistan are characterized by 2-, 3-, and 4-way laryngeal contrasts at four or five places of articulation (e.g., Balti, Kalasha, Wakhi, etc.). However, the number of stop laryngeal contrasts, their phonetic realization, and the exact place of articulation of retroflex stops (apical or sub-apical) are still controversial in most of the endangered languages of Northern Pakistan. The current study provides the first detailed acoustic and articulatory (Ultrasound for coronals and velars and aerodynamic for all stops) description of the stop laryngeal contrasts of six languages of Northern Pakistan: Balti (Tibeto-Burman), Burushaski (Isolate), Kalasha, Khowar, Shina (Indo-Aryan, Dardic), and Wakhi (Iranian, Pamir). Given that there are languages belonging to different families, we may expect differences in the phonetic realization of stop laryngeal contrasts and the articulation of retroflexes across languages. The acoustic, articulatory, and aerodynamic data were collected in Chitral and Gilgit, Pakistan in 2017. A total of 33 participants were recorded (Balti: 5; Burushaski: 4; Kalasha: 9; Khowar: 5; Shina: 6; and Wakhi: 4). The results of this study will help understand the diverse nature of stop consonants in the endangered languages of Northern Pakistan.

Acoustic characteristics and perception of voiced and voiceless nasals in Mizo and Angami

This study compares and contrasts acoustic characteristics (e.g., nasal murmur’s formant and anti-formant frequencies, vowel formant frequencies, bandwidths, spectral tilts, etc.) of voiced and voiceless nasals in Mizo and Angami, Tibeto-Burman languages spoken in North-East India. Mizo contrasts voiced and voiceless nasals at the bilabial, alveolar, and velar places of articulation, whereas Angami contrasts them at four different places of articulation: bilabial, alveolar, velar, and palatal. Similar to voiceless nasals previously described for Burmese (Danstuji,1984; Bhaskararao & Ladefoged,1991), in Mizo, voiceless nasal murmur is followed by a period of voiced nasal murmur as it transitions into the following vowel, while it remains voiceless throughout in Angami. Results of a perception experiment also suggests that the voiced nasal murmur portion in Mizo voiceless nasals aided the identification of its place of articulation, but a heavier perceptual load is placed on the following vowel for place id...

A long way from New York City: Socially stratified contact-induced phonological convergence in Ganluo Ersu (Sichuan, China)

AbstractLabov's classic study,The Social Stratification of English in New York City(1966), paved the way for generations of researchers to examine sociolinguistic patterns in many different communities (Bell, Sharma, & Britain, 2016). This research paradigm has traditionally tended to focus on Western industrialized communities and large world languages and dialects, leaving many unanswered questions about lesser-studied indigenous minority communities. In this study, we examine whether Labovian models for age, sex, and social stratification (Labov, 1966, 2001; Trudgill, 1972, 1974) may be effectively applied to a small, endangered Tibeto-Burman language in southwestern China: Ganluo Ersu. Using new field recordings with 97 speakers, we find evidence of phonological change in progress as Ganluo Ersu consonants are converging toward Chinese phonology. The results suggest that when an endangered language undergoes convergence toward a majority language due to intense contact, this convergence is manifested in a socially stratified way that is consistent with many of the predictions of the classic Labovian sociolinguistic principles.

Massively parallel sequencing of 165 ancestry informative SNPs in two Chinese Tibetan-Burmese minority ethnicities

The Tibeto-Burman language, one subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan languages, is spoken by over 60 million people all over East Asia. Yet the ethnic origin and genetic architecture of Tibeto-Burman speaking populations remain largely unexplored. In the present study, 169 Chinese individuals from Tibeto-Burman speaking populations (two ethnic groups: Tibetan and Yi) in four different geographic regions in western China were analyzed using the Precision ID Ancestry Panel (165 AISNPs) and the Ion PGM System. The performance and corresponding forensic statistical parameters of this AISNPs panel were investigated. Comprehensive population genetic comparisons (143 populations based on Kidd’ SNPs, 92 populations on the basis of Seldin’ SNPs and 31 populations based on the Precision ID Ancestry Panel) and ancestry inference were further performed. Sequencing performance demonstrated that the Precision ID Ancestry Panel is effective and robust. Forensic characteristics suggested that this panel not only can be used for ancestry estimation of Tibeto-Burman populations but also for individual identification. Tibetan and Yi shared a common genetic ancestry origin but experienced the complex history of gene flow, local adaptation, and isolation, and constructed the specific genetic landscape of human genetic diversity of Highlander and Lowlander populations. Tibetan-Burman populations and other East Asian populations showed sufficient genetic difference and could be distinguished into three distinct groups. Furthermore, analysis of population structure revealed that significant genetic difference was existed inter-continent populations and strong genetic affinity was observed within-continent populations. Additional population-specific AISNPs and a relatively more comprehensive database with sufficient reference population data remain necessary to get better-scale resolution within a geographically proximate populations in East Asia.

Khamti Shan anti-ergative construction

Abstract It is widely recognized that Khamti Shan is unique among Tai languages in evidencing a basic (A)OV word order, quite likely due to extensive language contact with Tibeto-Burman languages. Much less recognized in Khamti Shan is that some functional objects take a postposition marker, revealing a striking, but not necessarily unexpected, resemblance to a Tibeto-Burman-like anti-ergative construction. The deictic mai² ‘here’ grammaticalizes an anti-ergative function in which it acts as a marker for certain monotransitive ‘objects’ which are analyzed as pragmatically foregrounded referents in the information structure of the sentence.

The evolution of egophoricity and evidentiality in the Himalayas

AbstractThe epistemic verbal categories “evidentiality” and “egophoricity” play an important role in the verbal systems of many Tibeto-Burman languages of the Himalayas. In the course of the past decades, our synchronic understanding of those grammatical categories has been considerably enhanced by numerous descriptive studies. However, little is still known about the diachronic processes that give rise to evidentiality and egophoricity. The article addresses this gap by discussing evidence from Bunan, a Tibeto-Burman language, for which the development of evidentiality and egophoricity in its past tense system can be reconstructed in detail. It is argued that the evolution of the two categories can be explained by reference to two processes: (i) the reanalysis of a resultative construction as an inferential past tense and (ii) the reanalysis of third person agreement markers as allophoric markers. In addition, it is maintained that the concept of Scalar Quantity Implicature is crucial to account for the evolution of the two categories.

The genomic landscape of Nepalese Tibeto-Burmans reveals new insights into the recent peopling of Southern Himalayas

While much research attention has focused on demographic processes that enabled human diffusion on the Tibetan plateau, little is known about more recent colonization of Southern Himalayas. In particular, the history of migrations, admixture and/or isolation of populations speaking Tibeto-Burman languages, which is supposed to be quite complex and to have reshaped patterns of genetic variation on both sides of the Himalayan arc, remains only partially elucidated. We thus described the genomic landscape of previously unsurveyed Tibeto-Burman (i.e. Sherpa and Tamang) and Indo-Aryan communities from remote Nepalese valleys. Exploration of their genomic relationships with South/East Asian populations provided evidence for Tibetan admixture with low-altitude East Asians and for Sherpa isolation. We also showed that the other Southern Himalayan Tibeto-Burmans derived East Asian ancestry not from the Tibetan/Sherpa lineage, but from low-altitude ancestors who migrated from China plausibly across Northern India/Myanmar, having experienced extensive admixture that reshuffled the ancestral Tibeto-Burman gene pool. These findings improved the understanding of the impact of gene flow/drift on the evolution of high-altitude Himalayan peoples and shed light on migration events that drove colonization of the southern Himalayan slopes, as well as on the role played by different Tibeto-Burman groups in such a complex demographic scenario.

The linguistic reconstruction of the past

Abstract I will first describe (1) the linguistic situation in modern-day Assam (Northeast India) and the historical hypotheses that might explain it. These hypotheses are subjected to criticism. Next, I will analyse (2) in detail, the phonological concordances in the Tibeto-Burman languages and dialects of Central Assam that form the Boro-Garo group. I will present detailed criteria – the most detailed of all will concern the diphthongs – with examples, which will enable us to classify the languages. Using these criteria will also allow us to take advantage of certain ancient sources of information on dialects which are, in some cases, extinct. The study (3) of other Tibeto-Burman languages will consolidate our criteria and specify their historical development. Finally (4), I will propose a historical reconstruction of linguistic layers, after which (5) I will emphasise the importance of the distinction, central to our discussion, between language change and ethnic change (where cultural and physical anthropology follow distinct paths) before proposing a basis for a more general investigation of the Boro-Garo languages. Northeastern India is home to a great number of languages, mainly from the Tibeto-Burman, Mon-Khmer, Tai and Indo-Aryan groups. This paper first summarises the current historical interpretations of this plethora, and concentrates on the Tibeto-Burman languages spoken in the lowlands, sc. the Boro-Garo subgroup. A phonological comparative assessment of the data provides a classification with definite criteria, and suggests historical interpretation. Central to this comparative study are the vowel systems, the analysis of which allows us to understand far better (and to use more appropriately) the older lexical lists from 1805. The result of this assessment is a new direction of research, when it appears that the Zeliangrong languages (traditionally taken as Southern Naga) offer a remarkable and certainly unexpected linguistic link between the Boro-Garo and the Kuki Chin (and Naga) languages. The paper exemplifies how language histories remain distinct from ethnic and political developments, and makes a useful contribution to a finer historical understanding of complex human situations.

The case for alveolar fricative rhotics with evidence from Nusu

AbstractCross-linguistically, fricatives are the rarest types of rhotics, found in a few African and European languages (Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996) and as allophones in some Romance languages (Jesus & Shadle 2005;Recasens 2002;Bradley 2006;Colantoni 2006). Acoustic data from Nusu, phonotactic reasoning, and a cognate comparison demonstrate the presence of alveolar fricative rhotics in Tibeto-Burman. The Nusu rhotic appears in syllable-initial position as the first or second consonant and can be realized as alveolar approximants [ɹ] or [ɹʲ], non-sibilant voiced and voiceless fricatives [ɹ̝, ɹ̥], as well as voiced sibilant [ʐ]. In other studies on Nusu, these fricative rhotics have sometimes been reported as retroflex voiced sibilants (Sun & Lu 1986;Fu 1991), but intra-speaker and cross-variety comparison point to classification as rhotics. Evidence from other Tibeto-Burman languages suggests that alveolar fricative rhotics are not limited to Nusu. Together these data challenge the tradition of generally interpreting alveolar fricatives as sibilants.