News & Events
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Topic: Research Student Presentation: Fuminobu Nishida on 25th November 2002 (Monday)
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 Posted - 18/11/2002 : 09:16:18
Department of Chinese, Translation and Linguistics
Research Student Presentation
by
Fuminobu Nishida
Tone of Syangja Gurung and Typology of TB Tones
Time: 4:30 - 6:00 pm
Date: 25 November 2002 (Monday)
Venue: B7603 (CTL Multi-purpose Room), City University of Hong Kong
Abstract
Gurung is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in the higher mountain area in the
kingdom of Nepal. Field data from Syangja Gurung suggest that its tonal
system is fundamentally closer to those of some Tibeto-Burman languages of
Nepal such as Thakali and Tamang. While there is no doubt that Gurung is a
tone language, the question as to the precise nature of its suprasegmental
system is the subject of the present investigation. The preliminary analysis
shows that Syangja Gurung tone sandhi is a process of neutralization whereby
the tones of all syllables after the initial syllable in a tone group are
deleted, with the result that the tone of the initial syllables spreads
rightward over the entire word. It can be said that the suprasegmentals of
this language constitute a system intermidiate between omnisyllabic tone and
pitch-accent, that is to say, between languages which have a tonal contrast on
all syllables and those where a single syllable is not enough for the
development of a tonal contrast. In order to elucidate and provide a deeper
understanding of the nature of tones of Gurung and linguistic position of this
language among Tamangic langauges, on the basis of data collected in the
course of fieldwork in Hong Kong, and other materials of other Gurung dialects
published so far, this paper demonstrates the aspects of tones of a southern
(Syangja) dialect, which has not been described before, in detail and
discusses the phonological process from phonetic, historical, typological and
areal linguistic point of view.
Enquiries: 2788-8705
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