LINGUIST List 17.2318
Mon Aug 14 2006
Diss: Lang Description/Historical Ling: Huber: 'The Tibetan Dialect...'
Editor for this issue: Hannah Morales
<hannahlinguistlist.org>
Directory
1. Brigitte
Huber,
The Tibetan Dialect of Lende (Kyirong): A grammatical description with historical annotations
Message 1: The Tibetan Dialect of Lende (Kyirong): A grammatical description with historical annotations
Date: 14-Aug-2006
From: Brigitte Huber <brhuberisw.unibe.ch>
Subject: The Tibetan Dialect of Lende (Kyirong): A grammatical description with historical annotations
Institution: University of Bern
Program: Linguistik
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2002
Author: Brigitte Huber
Dissertation Title: The Tibetan Dialect of Lende (Kyirong): A grammatical description with historical annotations
Dissertation URL: http://www.tibetinstitut.de/pageID_2753405.html
Linguistic Field(s):
Historical Linguistics
Language Description
Subject Language(s): Tibetan (bod)
Dissertation Director:
Roland Bielmeier
Dissertation Abstract:
This dissertation, based on twelve months of fieldwork, provides the firstlinguistic description of the Tibetan dialect of Kyirong (sKyid-grong). Itdoes not only give a synchronic description of the dialect, but it alsoattempts to show the historical development of the dialect by comparing itwith Written Tibetan data and, to a lesser extent, with data of otherTibetan dialects. Kyirong Tibetan is spoken in Kyirong county in westernCentral Tibet (today's Tibetan Autonomous Region TAR), about 70 km north ofKatmandu. The Lende Valley, where the variety described in the thesis isspoken, lies west of Kyirong, on the border to Nepal.
The dissertation starts with an introduction containing information aboutLende and Kyirong, about dialect classification and closely relateddialects, and about fieldwork. The introduction is followed by the chapteron phonetics and phonology, where the phoneme inventory is established. Inthe chapter on diachronic phonology, the sound changes this dialectunderwent are extensively documented. Part of this is also the descriptionof the development of tone which leads to three different register tones.Such a development has not been observed so far among central Tibetan dialects.
In the following chapters of the dissertation, that is "noun phrase", "verbphrase" and "clause combining", synchronic descriptions are separated fromhistorical observations. In these chapters, most descriptive sections areimmediately followed by a section entitled "historical annotations". Thesesections are graphically discriminated by the use of a different font,which should facilitate the reading for those only interested in eithersynchronic or diachronic issues. The "diachronic sections" provideetymologies or attempt explanations for the expressions described in the"synchronic sections", and here most of the comparisons with other Tibetandialects are made.
The last chapter contains an oral text, which is transcribed andinterlinearized. Its goal is to illustrate the use of the dialect. Finally,the vocabulary occurring in the thesis is listed in three glossaries,sorted according to Kyirong Tibetan, to English, and to Written Tibetan.
The study represents another small brickstone in the documentation of theTibetan linguistic area and contributes to the classification of Tibetandialects and to understanding the development of Tibetan in general. In thefield of linguistics, it can furthermore be of interest for typologists,who, with this thesis, gain another description of a previously undescribedlanguage with quite a few interesting grammatical and morphosyntacticpeculiarities as a basis for their research.
The dissertation has been published in 2005 in Beiträge zur tibetischenErzähl-forschung, edited by Dieter Schuh, VGH Wissen-schafts-verlag, SanktAugustin.
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