Temporal articulatory stability, phonological variation, and lexical contrast preservation in diaspora Tibetan

This dissertation examines how lexical tone can be represented with articulatory gestures, and the ways a gestural perspective can inform synchronic and diachronic analysis of the phonology and phonetics of a language. Tibetan is chosen an example of a language with interacting laryngeal and tonal phonology, a history of tonogenesis and dialect diversification, and recent contact-induced realignment of the tonal and consonantal systems. Despite variation in voice onset time (VOT) and presence/absence of the lexical tone contrast, speakers retain a consistent relative timing of consonant and vowel gestures. Recent research has attempted to integrate tone into the framework of Articulatory Phonology through the addition of tone gestures. Unlike other theories of phonetics-phonology, Articulatory Phonology uniquely incorporates relative timing as a key parameter. This allows the system to represent contrasts instantiated not just in the presence or absence of gestures, but also in how gestures are timed with each other. Building on the different predictions of various timing relations, along with the historical developments in the language, hypotheses are generated and tested with acoustic and articulatory experiments. Following an overview of relevant theory, the second chapter surveys past literature on the history of sound change and present phonological diversity of Tibetic dialects. Whereas Old Tibetan lacked lexical tone, contrasted voiced and voiceless obstruents, and exhibited complex clusters, a series of overlapping sound changes have led to some modern varieties that are tone, lack clusters, and vary in the expression of voicing and aspiration. Furthermore, speakers in the Tibetan diaspora use a variety that has grown out of the contact between diverse Tibetic dialects. The state of the language and the dynamics of diaspora have created a situation ripe for sound change, including the recombination of elements from different dialects and, potentially, the loss of tone contrasts. The nature of the diaspora Tibetan is investigated through an acoustic corpus study. Recordings made in Kathmandu, Nepal, are being transcribed and forced-aligned into a useful audio corpus. Speakers in the corpus come from diverse backgrounds across and outside traditional Tibetan-speaking regions, but the analysis presented here focuses on speakers who grew up in diaspora, with a mixed input of Standard Tibetan (spyi skad) and other Tibetan varieties. Especially notable among these speakers is the high variability of voice onset time (VOT) and its interaction with tone. An analysis of this data in terms of the relative timing of oral, laryngeal, and tone gestures leads to the generation of hypotheses for testing using articulatory data. The articulatory study is conducted using electromagnetic articulography (EMA), and six Tibetan-speaking participants. The key finding is that the relative timing of consonant and vowel gestures is consistent across phonological categories and across speakers who do and do not contrast tone. This result leads to the conclusion that the relative timing of speech gestures is conserved and acquired independently. Speakers acquire and generalize a limited inventory of timing patterns, and can use timing patterns even when the conditioning environment for the development of those patterns, namely tone, has been lost

Methods in Contemporary Linguistics

The present volume is a broad overview of methods and methodologies in linguistics, illustrated with examples from concrete research. It collects insights gained from a broad range of linguistic sub-disciplines, ranging from core disciplines to topics in cross-linguistic and language-internal diversity or to contributions towards language, space and society. Given its critical and innovative nature, the volume is a valuable source for students and researchers of a broad range of linguistic interests

Methods in Contemporary Linguistics

The present volume is a broad overview of methods and methodologies in linguistics, illustrated with examples from concrete research. It collects insights gained from a broad range of linguistic sub-disciplines, ranging from core disciplines to topics in cross-linguistic and language-internal diversity or to contributions towards language, space and society. Given its critical and innovative nature, the volume is a valuable source for students and researchers of a broad range of linguistic interests

Methods in Contemporary Linguistics

The present volume is a broad overview of methods and methodologies in linguistics, illustrated with examples from concrete research. It collects insights gained from a broad range of linguistic sub-disciplines, ranging from core disciplines to topics in cross-linguistic and language-internal diversity or to contributions towards language, space and society. Given its critical and innovative nature, the volume is a valuable source for students and researchers of a broad range of linguistic interests

Kwényï: A Sketch Grammar from a Historical Perspective

This dissertation is a sketch grammar of the Oceanic Kwényï language of New Caledonia. It aims to provide an updated synchronic description of the language and an understanding of the language’s diachronic sound change. A synchronic description of Kwényï is important as it is understudied despite being described as a rare tonal language among Oceanic and Austronesian languages. A diachronic study of the language’s conservative and innovative sound changes contributes to the understanding of language change among Oceanic languages. This dissertation also examines theories of tonogenesis and tonoexodus against the synchronic description of tone in Kwényï and proposes possible explanations of existing gaps. The analysis in this dissertation is based on qualitative fieldwork sessions with three native speakers of Kwényï over two fieldtrips to the Isle of Pines, New Caledonia. It includes the analysis of short texts and three hymns as a source of data. Some quantitative methods were used to support preliminary observations in this sketch grammar. The result is an overview of Kwényï’s grammar, with a greater focus on its phonetics and phonology and some observations of its morphology and syntax. A comparison of Kwényï and its related languages is contrasted against proto Oceanic reconstructions to understand the language in a broader context, historically and typologically. The analysis reflects ongoing language change as some contrastive features such as vowel length and tone appear to be losing their significance. This sketch lays groundwork for future research of Kwényï and its related languages. It also fills the gap in understanding tone within the Oceanic and Austronesian language family

A corpus-based account of morphosyntactic evidentiality in discourse in Chhitkul-Rākchham

Chhitkul-Rākchham is a Tibeto-Burman language of the Bodic branch spoken in Northern India. Evidentiality is expressed by means of a range of morphosyntactic devices: copulas, auxiliaries, suffixes, clitics, particles and converb constructions. Chapter 1 deals with the language context. High-caste members – the Chhitkul-Rākchham speakers – were not the original inhabitants of this area. Chhitkul-Rākchham is not Tibetic, rather, it shows similarities with the Kiranti subgroup. Chapter 2 provides a chronological and thematic overview of evidentiality from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. I introduce my own theoretical apparatus and I address issues related to methods. Chapter 3 introduces the Chhitkul-Rākchham verbal system: finite and non-finite verb inflection and negation. Chapter 4 focuses on copula clauses, where five copula verbs and a set of syntactic allomorphs are part of an epistemic scheme that notably includes emphasis. Their distribution is to a large extent semantically and pragmatically driven. Chapter 5 deals with auxiliation. I demonstrate that it is the hierarchical arrangement of the verbal categories – main verbs, second verbs and auxiliaries – and not auxiliaries taken in isolation, which provides an adequate overview of the phenomenon. Chapter 6 gives an account of reported evidentiality, never epistemically neutral and expressed by means of a hearsay clitic and a quotative adverbial complementizer. Chapter 7 sheds light on a few converb constructions invariably followed by the perceptual copula (or a syntactic allomorph). The copula dampens the dubitative or emphatic meaning carried by the converb. Chapter 8 shows that a pair of discourse particles – one emphatic and one assertive – is part of the evidential system. Chapter 9 deals with evidentiality at the noun phrase level, expressed by morphosyntactic means already present at the verbal level (final particles and copulas). I uncover seven evidential distinctions: perceptual, dubitative, assertive, personal experience, personal assertive, reported, and neutral