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Japhug language

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Japhug
IPA: [kɯrɯ skɤt]
PronunciationIPA: [tɕɤpʰɯ]
Native toChina
RegionSichuan
Language codes
ISO 639-3(included in Jiarong [jya])
Glottologjaph1234

Japhug is a Gyalrong language spoken in Barkam County, Rngaba, Sichuan, China, in the three townships of Gdong-brgyad (Chinese: 龙尔甲; pinyin: Lóng'rjiǎ, Japhug IPA: [ʁdɯrɟɤt]), Gsar-rdzong (Chinese: 沙尔宗; pinyin: Shā'rzōng, Japhug IPA: [sarndzu]) and Da-tshang (Chinese: 大藏; pinyin: Dàzàng, Japhug IPA: [tatsʰi]).

The endonym of the Japhug language is IPA: [kɯrɯ skɤt]. The name Japhug (IPA: [tɕɤpʰɯ]; Tibetan: ja phug; Chinese: 茶堡; pinyin: Chápù) refers in Japhug to the area comprising Gsar-rdzong and Da-tshang, while that of Gdong-brgyad is also known as IPA: [sɤŋu] (Jacques 2004), but speakers of Situ Gyalrong use this name to refer to the whole Japhug-speaking area.

Phonology

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Japhug is the only toneless Gyalrong language. It has 49 consonants and seven vowels.

Consonants

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Labial Dental Alveolar Retroflex Alveopalatal Palatal Velar Uvular
Occlusive nasal m n ɲ ŋ
prenasalized ᵐb ⁿd ⁿdz ᶯɖʐ ᶮdʑ ᶮɟ ᵑɡ ᶰɢ
voiced b d dz ɟ ɡ
voiceless p t ts c k q
aspirated tsʰ tʂʰ tɕʰ
Continuant voiced w l z ʐ ʑ j ɣ ʁ
voiceless ɬ s ʂ ɕ x χ
Trill r

The phoneme /w/ has the allophones [β] and [f].

The phoneme /ʁ/ is realized as an epiglottal fricative in the coda or preceding another consonant.

The prenasalized consonants are analyzed as units for two reasons. First, there is a phoneme /ɴɢ/, as in /ɴɢoɕna/ "large spider", but neither /ɴ/ nor /ɢ/ exist as independent phonemes. Second, there are clusters of fricatives and prenasalized voiced stops, as in /ʑmbri/ "willow", but never clusters of fricatives and prenasalized voiceless stops.

Japhug distinguishes between palatal plosives and velar plosive + j sequences, as in /co/ "valley" vs. /kjo/ "drag". These both contrast with alveolo-palatal affricates.

There are at least 339 consonant clusters in Japhug (Jacques 2008:29), more than in Old Tibetan or in most Indo-European languages. Some of these clusters are typologically unusual: in addition to the previously mentioned clusters of fricatives and prenasalized stops, there are clusters where the first element is a semivowel, as in /jla/ "hybrid of a yak and a cow".

Vowels

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Japhug has eight vowel phonemes: a, o, u, ɤ, ɯ, y, e and i. The vowel y is attested in only one native word (/qaɟy/ "fish") and its derivatives, but appears in Chinese loanwords.

The mid-open unrounded vowels /ɤ/ and /e/ are only marginally contrastive: /ɤ/ does not occur in word- final open syllables except in unaccented clitics (like the additive nɤ), and /e/ only occurs in the last (accented) syllable of a word. They are clearly contrastive only with the coda /-t/.[1]

Not all speakers of Kamnyu Japhug have a phoneme /y/ in the native vocabulary. Even for those speakers, it is only attested in the word ‘fish’ and the verbs derived from it. It nevertheless contrasts with /ɯ/ and /u/, as shown by the quasi-minimal pairs /qaɟy/ ‘fish’, /waɟɯ/ ‘earthquake’ and /ɟuli/ ‘flute’. Other speakers pronounce ‘fish’ with a medial /w/ as /qaɟwi/. However, [y] is found in the speech of all Japhug speakers in Chinese loanwords such as 洋芋 <yángyù> ‘potato’.[1]

Grammar

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Jacques (2008) is a short grammar and Jacques and Chen (2010) a text collection with interlinear glosses. Other studies on morphosyntax include Jacques (2010) on direct–inverse marking, Jacques (2012a) on valency (passive, antipassive, anticausative, lability etc.), Jacques (2012b) on incorporation and Jacques (2013) on associated motion.

Case marking

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Japhug lacks case inflection. However, Japhug does have few adverbializing derivations that display functions for oblique cases, for example, the comitative kɤ́- and perlative reduplication. In noun phrases, grammatical relations are denoted by following clitics:

Case markers in Japhug
Case Markers
Dative ɯ-ɕki, ɯ-pʰe
Locative zɯ, tɕu, ri
Approximate locative -cʰu
Genitive ɣɯ
Ergative
Instrumental
Comitative cʰo, cʰondɤre, cʰonɤ
Terminative mɤɕtʂa
Egressive ɕaŋtaʁ, ɕaŋpa, ɕaŋlo, ɕaŋtʰi, ɕaŋkɯ, ɕaŋdi

Noun phrases

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Number

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Japhug lacks grammatical number. It has two clitic number determiners, dual ni and plural ra, both do not have syntactic relationship with noun argument.[2]

ɯ-pi

3SG.POSS-elder.sibling

ni

DU

ndʑi-sroʁ

3DU.POSS-life

ko-ri

IMPERF-save

tɕe

LK

ɯ-pi ni ndʑi-sroʁ ko-ri tɕe

3SG.POSS-elder.sibling DU 3DU.POSS-life IMPERF-save LK

"He saved the life of his two brothers."

Demonstratives

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Demonstratives in Japhug can be either pronominal or post-nominal.[3]

Function Proximal Singular Proximal Dual Proximal Plural Distal Singular Distal Dual Distal Plural Medial
Base form ki kɯni kɯra nɯnɯni nɯra nɤki
Reduplicated kɯki (kɯkɯni) kɯkɯra nɯnɯ nɯnɯni nɯnɯra
Emphatic ɯkɯki (ɯkɯkɯni) ɯkɯkɯra ɯnɯnɯ (ɯnɯnɯni) ɯnɯnɯra

Verbal morphology

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Overview

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In Japhug, verbal inflection is overwhelmingly dominated by prefixes, though it does support limited suffix slots. The Japhug prefixation template can be described as following

Modal- Negation- AM- Orientation- second person- Inverse progressive- Extended verb stem (Outer prefixes)

Inter prefixes do not have rigid order.[4]

Japhug suffixation template is run as following

verb stem -past transitive -First person -Dual/Plural - peg (circumfix)

Person indexation

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Japhug finite verbs can form agreement with one or two arguments, depending on the transitivity of the verb. Verb indexation can use a combination of prefixes, suffixes and stem alternation. Person indexation in Japhug in general have neutral alignment, though ergative-absolutive alignment can occur.

ma

LK

tú-wɣ-ndza

IPFV-INV-eat

tɕe,

LK

ɲɯ-kɯ-z-nɯtɯfɕɤl

IPFV-general:S/O-CAUS-have.diarrhea

ɕti

be.AFF:FACT

ma tú-wɣ-ndza tɕe, ɲɯ-kɯ-z-nɯtɯfɕɤl ɕti

LK IPFV-INV-eat LK IPFV-general:S/O-CAUS-have.diarrhea be.AFF:FACT

"If you eat mold, it causes you diarrhea."

References

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  1. ^ a b Jacques, Guillaume (6 April 2021). A grammar of Japhug. Language Science Press. ISBN 978-3-96110-305-8. Retrieved 19 September 2024. This article incorporates text from this source, which is available under the CC BY 4.0 license.
  2. ^ Guillaume (2021:367)
  3. ^ Guillaume (2021:374–375)
  4. ^ Guillaume (2021:474)

Sources

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