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Article published In: Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area
Vol. 44:1 (2021) ► pp.133–139

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Noun-epithets of Dongba and Daba oral traditions

 | Nanyang Technological University
Published online: 11 May 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ltba.20011.xu
Abstract
Dongba and Daba chants represent two of the few oral traditions still surviving in the world. In both traditions, the main category of formulaic expressions consists of traditional noun-epithets describing spirits. Dongba and Daba spirits can be classified into five categories, of which the noun-epithets used to describe them share similar features. Another significant percentage of noun-epithets portray figures of animals. Dongba and Daba chants are both chanted in odd-numbered metric patterns in which noun-epithets are adapted to the metric context. Besides the core expression (often a tetra-syllabic compound), several monosyllabic words not affecting the core meaning may be inserted as optional morphemes to modify the number of syllables in the noun-epithet. This study provides a systematic philological analysis of the vast repertoire of Daba and Dongba noun-epithets. Comparative mythology and comparative linguistics combine to present a comprehensive description of the stylistic features of Daba and Dongba noun-epithets.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Noun-epithets of spirits
    • 2.1Categorization of Dongba and Daba spirits
    • 2.2Common morphology of noun-epithets of spirits
    • 2.3Variants and distinctions
  • 3.Noun-epithets of animals
  • 4.Metric patterns
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
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