Horpa language

Horpa
Native to China
Region Sichuan and Tibet
Native speakers
 50,000 (2002–2004)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 Either:
ero – Horpa
jih – sTodsde (Shangzhai)
Glottolog horp1240[2]

Horpa (Chinese: 道孚语 Daofu, 爾龔語 Ergong), also named Stau, Daofuhua, Bawang, Bopa, Danba, Dawu, Geshitsa, Geshiza, Geshizahua, Hor, Huo’er, Hórsók, Nyagrong-Minyag, Pawang, Rgu, Western Gyarong, Western Jiarong, Xinlong-Muya, rTau[3], is one of several closely related Rgyalrongic languages of China.Horpa is better understood as a cluster of closely related yet unintelligible dialect groups/languages. Closely related to Horpa Shangzhai or Stodsde skad. The term Stodsde skad is a Tibetan name meaning "language of the people of the far Northwest".

Classification

Horpa is a type of Rgyalrongic language, a branch of  the Qiangic languages of the Sino-Tibetan family. Rgyalrong (proper), Lavrung, and Horpa-Shangzhai are in the Rgyalrongic subgroup. These have been organized into a family tree by Sun (2000).[4] Horpa and Shangzhai are sub-types of Horpa-Shangzhai, a Rgyalrongic language.

Geographic Distribution

Horpa is spoken in Dasang District, Danba County of Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan.[5] There are about 50,000 Horpa speakers in the northwestern Sichuan. It is also spoken in nearby Dawu County, where it is called 'Stau', pronounced [stawuske].[6]

The cluster of languages variously referred to as Stau, Ergong or Horpa in the literature are spoken over a large area from Ndzamthang county (in Chinese Rangtang 壤塘县) in Rngaba prefecture (Aba 阿坝州) to Rtau county (Dawu 道孚) in Dkarmdzes prefecture (Ganzi 甘孜州), in Sichuan province, China. At the moment of writing, it is still unclear how many unintelligible varieties belong to this group, but at least three must be distinguished: the language of Rtau county (referred to as ‘Stau’ in this paper), the Dgebshes language (Geshizha 格什扎话) spoken in Rongbrag county (Danba 丹巴), and the Stodsde language (Shangzhai 上寨) in Ndzamthang.[7]

Ergong is a non-tonal language (Sun 2013).[8]

Dialects/Varieties

The language has dialects (varieties of languages), such as the Shangzhai Horpa and Gexi Horpa (Sun 2013).[9]

Grammar

Shangzhai Horpa (Puxi Shangzhai) is a dialect of the Horpa language with a single consistently non-syllabic causative prefix "s", which exerts pressure on the already elaborate onset system and triggers multiple phonological adjustments (Sun 2007).[10] Gexi Horpa language not only has a split verbal agreement system as the Rgtalrongic language, but also presents a hybrid system involving a more intricate interplay of functional and syntactic factors (Sun 2013).[9] The verbs in Rgtalrongic family have the traits of "person making" and "agreement", and Horpa language also illustrates a sub-type of hierarchical agreement.

Stau is another name for the Horpa lanague (Jacques et al. 2013).[11] As a dialect of Rgtalrongic language, the Stau (Horpa) language follows some traits of the Tibetan language (Bradley 2012).[12] As a variety of Qiangic language groups, Horpa has unique verb inflection and morphology, such as the strategy of inverting the aspiration feature in the formation of the past and progressive stem(s) (Sun 2000).[4]

Examples

Verb agreement

The Horpa verb agrees with its subject. For example, zbəcʰa-i [zbəcʰe], means ‘you beat’, and zbəcʰa-u [zbəcʰo], means, 'I beat’.[13]

References

  1. ↑ Horpa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    sTodsde (Shangzhai) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Horpa–Shangzhai". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. ↑ "Horpa". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2017-05-01.
  4. 1 2 Sun, Jackson T. S. "Stem alternations in Puxi verb inflection: toward validating the rGyalrongic subgroup in Qiangic." (PDF). Language and linguistics. 1: 161–190.
  5. ↑ "Chinese: 甘孜州丹巴县大桑区尔龚" Chinese: 孙; pinyin: Sūn, Chinese: 宏开; pinyin: Hóngkāi (1991). Chinese: 藏缅语音和词汇 [Tibeto-Burman Phonology and Lexicon]. Chinese Social Sciences Press. p. 211.
  6. ↑ Gates, J. P. (2016), Verbal Triplication Morphology in Stau (Mazi Dialect). Transactions of the Philological Society. doi: 10.1111/1467-968X.12083
  7. ↑ Guillaume Jacques; Lai Yunfan; Anton Antonov; Lobsang Nima (January 29, 2015). Stau. Retrieved 11 May 2015.
  8. ↑ Sun Hongkai. 2013. Tibeto-Burman languages of eight watersheds [八江流域的藏缅语]. Beijing: China Social Sciences Academy Press.
  9. 1 2 Sun, Jackson T.-S.; Tian, Qianzi (2013-01-24). "Verb Agreement in Gexi Horpa". Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics. 7 (2): 203–223. ISSN 2405-478X. doi:10.1163/2405478X-90000120.
  10. ↑ Sun, Jackson T.-S. (2007-01-24). "Morphological Causative Formation in Shangzhai Horpa". Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics. 2 (1): 211–232. ISSN 2405-478X. doi:10.1163/2405478X-90000031.
  11. ↑ Gates, Jesse P. "Situ in situ: towards a dialectology of Jiāróng (rGyalrong)".
  12. ↑ Bradley, David. "Tibeto-Burman languages of China".
  13. ↑ Sun, Jackson T. (2013). "Horpa Language in Xichuan Provice [Chinese: 川西霍爾語格西話動詞對協初探.]". Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics.

Horpa at the Endangered Languages Project.

Lewis, M. Paul, Gary F. Simons, & Charles D. Fennig, eds. (2015). Ethnologue: Languages of the World (18th ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International. 

Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.  http://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/horp1239


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.