Publications

Publication details [#71211]

Samdrup, Tsering and Hiroyuki Suzuki. 2020. Humilifics in Mabzhi pastoralist speech of Amdo Tibetan. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 42 (2) : 222–259.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Keywords
Language as a subject
Journal DOI
10.1075/ltba

Annotation

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/, /-tɕ h əl/, /-tɕ h əχ/, /-c h oχ/, /- ɦ dəx/, /-ʈʋ̩/, /- r gen/, and /- ʂ ti/), and two adjective types (/ʔa x h a ma/ and / n ɖa n ɖa/), 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.