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Article published In:
Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area
Vol. 45:2 (2022) ► pp.230–261

Glottalic and pitch features in Chepang and Bhujel

Their relationship to Incipient Tone and to whistle speech

This paper looks at two closely related Tibeto-Burman languages of Nepal, Chepang and Bhujel, in relation to certain supra-segmental features they possess which are involved in the distinction of minimal pairs. Since these features include pitch and glottalisation, the possible phonemic analyses of these in terms of either a supra-segmental solution (tone) or a segmental one (glottal plosive) are discussed. Given the latter, a non-tonal analysis for the present state of these languages, and the possibilities of one or both of these becoming tonal languages in the future, are considered. Also, Chepang is unusual in possessing a whistled form of speech and the relation of this to the spoken language is described. These features are exemplified in the Appendices by waveforms, fundamental frequency (F0) contours and spectrogram illustrations, and also by sound files.

Keywords: Chepang, Bhujel, Tibeto-Burman, phonology, suprasegmental, tone, glottal, whistle speech
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Phoneme inventory
    • 2.1Phonotactics
  • 3.Non-segmental contrasting features
    • 3.1Chepang
      • 3.1.1Contextual variants
        • 3.1.1.1Isolation
        • 3.1.1.2Continuous speech
      • 3.1.2Syllable-initial glottalisation
      • 3.1.3Compound stems
      • 3.1.4Word categories with the contrast between type 1 and type 2
    • 3.2Bhujel
      • 3.2.1Phonetic contrasts
        • 3.2.1.1Nouns
        • 3.2.1.2Verbs
      • 3.2.2Contextual variation
      • 3.2.3Syllable-initial glottal features in Bhujel
  • 4.Interpretation
    • 4.1Chepang
      • 4.1.1A Chepang speaker’s description of minimal contrast
    • 4.2Bhujel
    • 4.3Summary of the above analyses for Chepang and Bhujel
  • 5.Semantic load
  • 6.Other considerations arising from this analysis
    • 6.1Initial glottal
    • 6.2Origin of the glottal plosive
    • 6.3Correspondence between Chepang and Bhujel
  • 7.Incipient tone
    • 7.1The prospect of Chepang becoming a tonal language
  • 8.Whistle speech
  • 9.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 4 November 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ltba.22001.cau
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