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Article published In:
Ethnolinguistic contact across the Indo-Myanmar-Southwestern China mountains
Edited by Alexander R. Coupe, Randy J. LaPolla and Hideo Sawada
[Asian Languages and Linguistics 4:2] 2023
► pp. 273–290

Manifestations of Jinghpaw influence among Rawang speakers

| Nanyang Technological University
| Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

Rawang and Jinghpaw, while both considered part of the larger Kachin ethnic group, are not seen to be closely related, though both retain proto-Tibeto-Burman forms relatively well. But as essentially all Rawang speakers speak Jinghpaw, there are a lot of loan words from Jinghpaw in Rawang, and there is also some commonality in the structures. This paper looks at the domains in which we find many loanwords and their paths into Rawang, and certain grammatical structures that seem to be either direct loans from Jinghpaw into Rawang, or could be calques on Jinghpaw structures. One such pattern is an adverbial phrase with a reduplicated adverb plus a light verb. There are also two nominalisation constructions that are relatively transparent loans from Jinghpaw.

Keywords: Rawang language, Tibeto-Burman languages, Language contact influence, Kachin languages, Sino-Tibetan languages
Article outline
  • Nominalization by -pà and nā
  • Nominalization by ká and kū
  • The locative nominalizer -rà
  • Adverbial phrase with light verb
  • Comparative construction with mvzv́nē
  • Benefactive applicative
  • Short summary
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations used
  • References
Published online: 25 April 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/alal.00015.lap
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