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Article published In: Studies in Language
Vol. 45:2 (2021) ► pp.408–427

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Tonal morphology in Sama Nubri

Case marking and transitivity alternations

ORCiD logo with link | The University of Hong Kong
Published online: 19 October 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.19074.don
Abstract
This paper reports on the Tibeto-Burman language, Nubri, of the high Himalayan region of northern central Nepal. Specifically, data is presented to illustrate the use of tone to mark two morphological features in the language: the use of a H tone suffix to mark the genitive case, and the use of a H tone prefix to mark an increase in transitivity. This is the first account of these phenomena in Nubri and an analysis is presented before contextualizing the phenomena in a typological perspective.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Tone in Nubri
  • 3.Tonal case in Nubri
  • 4.Tonally marked transitivity alternations in Nubri
  • 5.Typological distribution of grammatical tone
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
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