Japhug is a Gyalrong language spoken in Barkam County, Rngaba, Sichuan, China, in the three townships of Gdong-brgyad (, ), Gsar-rdzong (, ) and Da-tshang (, ).

The endonym of the Japhug language is . The name Japhug (; Tibetan: ja phug; ) refers in Japhug to the area comprising Gsar-rdzong and Da-tshang, while that of Gdong-brgyad is also known as (Jacques 2004), but speakers of Situ Gyalrong use this name to refer to the whole Japhug-speaking area.

Phonology

Japhug is the only toneless Gyalrong language. It has 49 consonants and seven vowels.

Consonants

LabialDentalAlveolarRetroflexAlveopalatalPalatalVelarUvularOcclusivenasal prenasalizedvoicedvoicelessaspiratedContinuantvoiced ~ voiceless

[r] and [ʐ] are allophones, more precisely, pronounced as [ɽ͡ʐ].

The phoneme /w/ has the allophones [β] and [f].

The phoneme is realized as an epiglottal fricative in the coda or preceding another consonant.

The prenasalized consonants are analyzed as units for two reasons. First, there is a phoneme /ɴɢ/, as in /ɴɢoɕna/ "large spider", but neither /ɴ/ nor /ɢ/ exist as independent phonemes. Second, there are clusters of fricatives and prenasalized voiced stops, as in /ʑmbri/ "willow", but never clusters of fricatives and prenasalized voiceless stops.

Japhug distinguishes between palatal plosives and velar plosive + j sequences, as in /co/ "valley" vs. /kjo/ "drag". These both contrast with alveolo-palatal affricates.

There are at least 339 consonant clusters in Japhug (Jacques 2008:29), more than in Old Tibetan or in most Indo-European languages. Some of these clusters are typologically unusual: in addition to the previously mentioned clusters of fricatives and prenasalized stops, there are clusters where the first element is a semivowel, as in /jla/ "hybrid of a yak and a cow".

Vowels Japhug has eight vowel phonemes: , , , , , , and . The vowel is attested in only one native word ( "fish") and its derivatives, but appears in Chinese loanwords.

The mid-open unrounded vowels /ɤ/ and /e/ are only marginally contrastive: /ɤ/ does not occur in word- final open syllables except in unaccented clitics (like the additive nɤ), and /e/ only occurs in the last (accented) syllable of a word. They are clearly contrastive only with the coda /-t/.

Not all speakers of Kamnyu Japhug have a phoneme /y/ in the native vocabulary. Even for those speakers, it is only attested in the word ‘fish’ and the verbs derived from it. It nevertheless contrasts with /ɯ/ and /u/, as shown by the quasi-minimal pairs /qaɟy/ ‘fish’, /waɟɯ/ ‘earthquake’ and /ɟuli/ ‘flute’. Other speakers pronounce ‘fish’ with a medial /w/ as /qaɟwi/. However, [y] is found in the speech of all Japhug speakers in Chinese loanwords such as 洋芋 <yángyù> ‘potato’.

Grammar Jacques (2008) is a short grammar and Jacques and Chen (2010) a text collection with interlinear glosses. Other studies on morphosyntax include Jacques (2010) on direct–inverse marking, Jacques (2012a) on valency (passive, antipassive, anticausative, lability etc.), Jacques (2012b) on incorporation and Jacques (2013) on associated motion.

Nouns Case marking Japhug lacks case inflection. However, Japhug does have few adverbializing derivations that display functions for oblique cases, for example, the comitative kɤ́- and perlative reduplication. In noun phrases, grammatical relations are denoted by following clitics:

+ Case markers in Japhug Case Markers Dative ɯ-ɕki, ɯ-pʰe Locative zɯ, tɕu, ri Approximate locative -cʰu Genitive ɣɯ Ergative kɯ Instrumental kɯ Comitative cʰo, cʰondɤre, cʰonɤ Terminative mɤɕtʂa Egressive ɕaŋtaʁ, ɕaŋpa, ɕaŋlo, ɕaŋtʰi, ɕaŋkɯ, ɕaŋdi

Number Japhug lacks grammatical number. It has two clitic number determiners, dual ni and plural ra, both do not have syntactic relationship with noun argument.Guillaume (2021:367)

Demonstratives Demonstratives in Japhug can be either pronominal or post-nominal.Guillaume (2021:374–375)

{| class="wikitable" ! Function ! Proximal Singular ! Proximal Dual ! Proximal Plural ! Distal Singular ! Distal Dual ! Distal Plural ! Medial |- ! style="text-align: left;" | Base form | ki | kɯni | kɯra | nɯ | nɯnɯni | nɯra | nɤki |- ! style="text-align: left;" | Reduplicated | kɯki | (kɯkɯni) | kɯkɯra | nɯnɯ | nɯnɯni | nɯnɯra | – |- ! style="text-align: left;" | Emphatic | ɯkɯki | (ɯkɯkɯni) | ɯkɯkɯra | ɯnɯnɯ | (ɯnɯnɯni) | ɯnɯnɯra | –

Noun class marking Many Japhug nouns are prefixed with noun class markers, most of which are unproductive.Guillaume (2021:167-169)

+ Class markers in Japhug Prefix Semantics Example Notesqa- animals, plants, tools, materials qapri ("snake") reduces to χ- or ʁ- in some words.kɯ- animals kɯrtsɤɣ ("snow leopard") reduces to ɣ- or x- in some words. Cognate with Tibetan g- as in ("leopard").m- body parts (tɯ-)mke ("neck") cognate with Tibetan m- as in ("head")ɕ- body parts (tɯ-)ɕkrɯt ("bile") appears as ʑ- in some words. Cognate with Tibetan s- as in ("neck")

Verbs

Overview In Japhug, verbal inflection is overwhelmingly dominated by prefixes, though it does support limited suffix slots. The Japhug verb template can be described as following:Guillaume (2021:474)

+ Japhug verb template +10 +9 +8 +7 +6 +5 +4 +3 +2 +1 core -1 -2 -3 -4 MOD/POSS NEG AM TRANSLOC 2 Inverse REFL CAUS PASS Autobenefactive verb stem PST TR 1 2/3 SUBJ/OBJ PEG

Referent indexing Japhug finite verbs can form agreement with one or two arguments, depending on the transitivity of the verb. Verb indexation can use a combination of prefixes, suffixes and stem alternation. Person indexation in Japhug in general have neutral alignment, though ergative-absolutive alignment can occur.

patient generalrowspan="100%" ta-Σ ta-Σ-ndʑi ta-Σ-nɯ Σ-a Σ-a-ndʑi Σ-a-nɯ ta-Σ ta-Σ-ndʑi ta-Σ-nɯ Σ-tɕi Σ-tɕi Σ-tɕi ta-Σ ta-Σ-ndʑi ta-Σ-nɯ Σ-ji Σ-ji Σ-ji kɯ-Σ-a kɯ-Σ-tɕi kɯ-Σ-ji tɯ-Σ tɯ-Σ tɯ-Σ kɯ-Σ-a-ndʑi kɯ-Σ-tɕi kɯ-Σ-ji tɯ-Σ-ndʑi tɯ-Σ-ndʑi tɯ-Σ-ndʑi kɯ-Σ1-a-nɯ kɯ-Σ-tɕi kɯ-Σ-ji tɯ-Σ-nɯ tɯ-Σ-nɯ tɯ-Σ-nɯ wɣɯ́-Σ-a wɣɯ́-Σ-tɕi wɣɯ́-Σ-ji tɯ́-wɣ-Σ tɯ́-wɣ-Σ-ndʑi tɯ́-wɣ-Σ-nɯ Σ-Ø wɣɯ́-Σ-a-ndʑi wɣɯ́-Σ-tɕi wɣɯ́-Σ-ji tɯ́-wɣ-Σ tɯ́-wɣ-Σ-ndʑi tɯ́-wɣ-Σ-nɯ Σ-ndʑi wɣɯ́-Σ-a-nɯ wɣɯ́-Σ-tɕi wɣɯ́-Σ-ji tɯ́-wɣ-Σ tɯ́-wɣ-Σ-ndʑi tɯ́-wɣ-Σ-nɯ Σ-nɯ general wɣɯ́-Σ wɣɯ́-Σ-ndʑi wɣɯ́-Σ-nɯ Intransitive Σ-a Σ-tɕi Σ-ji tɯ-Σ tɯ-Σ-ndʑi tɯ-Σ-nɯ Σ-Ø Σ-ndʑi Σ-nɯ

Noun incorporation Japhug noun incorporation is attested in denominal derivations. The complex verb, formed from the prefixation of a noun-verb compound, has its direction following the head movement with a strong head-final tendency. The IN precedes the verb root. A Japhug verb can incorporate intransitive subject, object and semi-object, goal/location adjunct, and instrument. Indirect objects and transitive subjects are never incorporated into the verb. Japhug likely has an antipassive NI effect; the noun incorporation subject is not marked with the ergative.

References

Sources