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Article published In:
Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area
Vol. 42:2 (2019) ► pp.222–259

Humilifics in Mabzhi pastoralist speech of Amdo Tibetan

| SOAS, University of London
| IKOS, University of Oslo
Politeness strategies using specific word forms and morphemes are well known in Tibetan, in which honorific expressions are in the majority. However, for Amdo Tibetan the politeness register is less well known. In this paper, the humilific politeness system of Mabzhi Amdo Tibetan is discussed in terms of ten morphologically-formed types, eight types of noun suffixes (/-ŋən/, /-tɕhəl/, /-tɕhəχ/, /-choχ/, /-ɦdəx/, /-ʈʋ̩/, /-rgen/, and /-ʂti/), and two adjective types (/ʔa xha ma/ and /nɖa nɖa/), as well as suppletion. In addition, the article discusses both the use and misuse of humilifics providing case examples from natural conversation settings as well as a crosstalk (kha shags) performance to illustrate how humilifics are deployed, treated, and evaluated in the contemporary world of Mabzhi Tibetans.
Keywords: Amdo Tibetan, politeness strategy, humilific, morphology, discourse
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
  • 3.Humilific use and distribution
    • Contexts
    • Range of dialects
  • 4.Morphology of humilifics
    • Type 1: Suffixes /-ŋən/ and /-ŋən ma/
    • Type 2: Suffix /-tɕhəl/
    • Type 3: Suffix /-tɕhəχ/
    • Type 4: Suffix /-choχ/
    • Type 5: Suffix /-ɦdəx/
    • Type 6: Suffixes /-ʈʋ̩/, /-ʈʋ̩ ma/, and /-ɖʋ̩/
    • Type 7: Suffix /-rgen/ and /-rgen ma/
    • Type 8: Suffixes /-ʂti/ and /-thi/
    • Type 9: Adjective /ʔa xha ma/
    • Type 10: Adjective /nɖa nɖa/
    • Type 11: Suppletion
    • Remarks
  • 5.Humilifics versus insult terms
    • 5.1Usage of humilifics in various contexts
    • 5.2Analysis of crosstalk
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 8 January 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ltba.17008.sam
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