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Article published In:
Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area
Vol. 41:2 (2018) ► pp.294–330

Stem alternations in the Brag-bar dialect of Situ Rgyalrong

| INALCO-CRLAO

In Rgyalrongic studies, it is believed that the most complex stem alternation system is found in Zbu, a Northern Rgyalrong language, whereas other languages, including Situ, have simpler systems. However, as a dialect of Situ Rgyalrong, Brag-bar presents a complex stem alternation system exhibiting several opaque features in comparison with other Situ dialects. This paper documents the stem alternations in the Brag-bar dialect of Situ Rgyalrong. It first describes the distribution and stem formation devices of different verb stems in Brag-bar, then explains the occurrence of the irregular stem I′/II′ in Brag-bar and investigates their synchronic status.

Keywords: Brag-bar, stem alternation, stem I′, stem II′, vowel alternation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Stem alternations in Rgyalrong languages
    • 2.1Stem I and stem II in Rgyalrong languages
    • 2.2Stem III in Northern Rgyalrong languages
    • 2.3Stem 3 in the Kyom-kyo dialect of Situ Rgyalrong
  • 3.Overview of Brag-bar Situ phonology and verbal morphology
    • 3.1Brag-bar segmental and tonal phonology
    • 3.2Brag-bar verbal morphology
  • 4.Person indexation and stem modifications
    • 4.1Person indexation in Brag-bar
      • 4.1.1Intransitive person marking in open syllabe ending verbs
      • 4.1.2Transitive person marking in open syllabe ending verbs
      • 4.1.3Person indexation in closed syllable ending verbs
    • 4.2Influence of the 3sg→3 suffix -u
  • 5.Stem alternations in Brag-bar
    • 5.1Class A: Two-stem verbs
    • 5.2Class B: Three-stem verbs distinguishing stem I′
    • 5.3Class C: Three-stem verbs distinguishing stem II′
    • 5.4Class D: Four-stem verbs
  • 6.Stem distribution
    • 6.1The distribution of stem I and stem II
    • 6.2The distribution of stem I′
      • 6.2.1Stop ending verbs
      • 6.2.2Intransitive open syllable verbs
      • 6.2.3Transitive open syllable verbs
    • 6.3The distribution of stem II′
      • 6.3.1Intransitive open syllable verbs
      • 6.3.2Transitive open syllable verbs
  • 7.Stem formation processes
    • 7.1Tonal alternation
    • 7.2Vowel alternations
      • 7.2.1Vowel alternations of verbs in Class B
      • 7.2.2Vowel alternations of verbs in Class C
      • 7.2.3Vowel alternations in stem II formation
    • 7.3Marginal devices
      • 7.3.1Consonantal alternation
      • 7.3.2Suppletion
  • 8.Correlation between syllable structure and stem alternations in Brag-bar
    • 8.1Person indexation and stem I′/II′
    • 8.2Syllable structure and stem I′/II′
      • 8.2.1Open syllable verbs
      • 8.2.2Stop ending verbs
    • 8.3Status of stem I′/II′
    • 8.4The verbal paradigm of Brag-bar’s synchrony
  • 9.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 1 February 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ltba.18009.zha
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