3.3.1 Vowels
3.3.1.1 Vowel phonemes
Japhug has eight vowel phonemes, listed in Table 3.4. 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 additivenɤ, §8.2.6), and /e/ only occurs in the last (accented) syllable of a word. They are clearly con-trastive only with the coda/-t/(§3.3.2).
Table 3.4: List of vowels in Japhug
Vowel Example Meaning /a/ /qala/ ‘rabbit’
/e/ /qale/ ‘wind’
/i/ /ɟuli/ ‘flute’
/ɤ/ /lɤpɯɣ/ ‘radish’
/ɯ/ /rɯlɯ/ ‘medicine’
/y/ /qaɟy/ ‘fish’
/o/ /lo/ upstream
/u/ /tɤlu/ ‘milk’
Not all speakers of Kamnyu Japhug have a phoneme/y/in the native vocabu-lary. 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’.
3.3.1.2 Vowel assimilation
When followed by a syllable containing a rounded vowel (/u/or/o/), the back unrounded vowels /ɯ/ and/ɤ/ optionally undergo rounding harmony to [u]
and[o], respectively. For instance,/ɣɤʑu/‘exist (sensory)’ (§22.5.1.2) is generally pronounced as [ɣoʑu], and the reduplicated form tɯ~tu-dɤn ‘more and more’
(§12.4.1.4) is realized as[tutudɛn].
The phoneme/ɤ/in prefixes tends to be pronounced more open as[ɐ]when followed by a syllable whose main vowel is /a/, making it sometimes difficult to perceive the contrast, for instance betweenta-ma ‘work’ andtɤ-ma‘mother’
(honorific). In the verbal system, the 1sg-asuffix triggers obligatory regressive assimilationɤ→aon the preceding syllable (see Table 14.2, §14.2.1.1).
3.3.1.3 Synizesis
While no true diphthongs exist in Japhug, when the 1sg-asuffix is added to a verb stem ending in an open syllable, the two syllables undergo synizesis (§14.2.1.1).
When the verb stem contains the mid vowels/-e/and/-o/, they become the cor-responding high vowels/-i/and/-u/due to merging witha, and the contrasts between/e/and/i/on the one hand, andoanduon the other hand, are neutral-ized. For instance,tso-a [tsua]‘I understand’ andβze-a[βzia]‘I (will) do it’ are homophonous withtsu-a‘I have time’ andβzi-a‘I (will) be drunk’, respectively.
Three pseudo-diphthongs are thus attested:ia(frome-aandi-a),ua(fromo-aand u-a) andɯa(fromɯ-a).
Synizesis results in syllables homophonous to the rhymes-waand-jain clus-ters ending in-w-(§4.2.2.1) or-j-(§4.2.2.2) followed by the vowel-a. For instance, aro-a‘I own’ (§14.2.3) is homophonous witha-rwa‘my tent’ (§4.2.2.1).
Apart from synizesis, two other types of vowel contraction are found in Japhug.
First, verb stems with initiala-have specific conjugation patterns, where initial a- merges with the immediately preceding prefix following rules that are not completely trivial (§12.3). Second, the 1sg -a suffix merges with -a stems as a, without vowel lengthening in Kamnyu Japhug (§14.2.1.1).3
3.3.1.4 Zero onset
There are strong phonotactic restrictions on vowel-initial stems and words in Japhug.
In word-initial position, onlya- andɯ-are found. These vowels can merge with previous open syllables (§4.3), and no glottal stop appears, unlike in many Trans-Himalayan languages such as Khaling (Jacques et al. 2012). Phonetic[u-], [o-],[i-]do appear in word-initial position, but are preferably analyzed as/wu-/, /wo-/and/ji-/with a glide.
The only possible stem-initial vowel in verbal stems isa-(§12.3). It is relatively common due to the fact that it appears in many derivational prefixes (§20.2, §18.1,
3However, vowel lengthening is found in some dialects, such as that of Sarndzu.
§18.4, §18.7). Stem-initiala-undergoes vowel contraction with all preceding pre-fixes. By contrast, stem-initialwu-orji-(for instance,wum‘gather’ andji‘plant’) never merge with preceding prefixes.
In noun stems, initiala-also exists and interacts with prefixes (§5.1.1.1), but is considerably rarer.
Comparison with other Gyalrongic languages indicates that word-initial a-andɯ-(in the native vocabulary, excluding loanwords and interjections) are sec-ondary. Word-initialɯ-is only attested in a few interjections (such asɯtɕʰɯtɕʰɯ,
§10.2.1) and in the third possessive prefix (§5.1.1). The form†ɣɯ-(homophonous with the inverse prefix, §14.3.2.7) would be expected, and the unexpected form ɯ-in Japhug might be due to false segmentation in sandhi (§5.1.1.5). Word-initial a-originates mainly from*ŋa-(Jacques & Chen 2007), due to loss of the simple initial*ŋ-in non-stressed syllables (includingwuma‘real, really’ fromངོ་མ་ŋo.ma
‘real, true’, but excluding monosyllabic verb stems such asŋu‘be’ andŋa‘buy on credit, owe’).
3.3.2 Rhymes
There are strong phonotactic constraints on possible rhymes in Japhug. Table 3.5 lists all attested rhymes; the coda /-w/is transcribed as-β in the orthography used in this grammar.
Table 3.5: List of possible rhymes in Japhug
/w/ /p/ /m/ /t/ /n/ /z/ /l/ /r/ /j / /ɣ/ /ŋ/ /ʁ/
/a/ /aw/ /ap/ /am/ /at/ /an/ /az/ /al/ /ar/ /aj/ /aŋ/ /aʁ/
/e/ /et/
/i/ /it/ /il/
/ɤ/ /ɤw/ /ɤm/ /ɤt/ /ɤt/ /ɤz/ /ɤl/ /ɤr/ /ɤj/ /ɤɣ/
/ɯ/ /ɯw/ /ɯp/ /ɯm/ /ɯt/ /ɯn/ /ɯz/ /ɯl/ /ɯr/ /ɯr/ /ɯɣ/ /ɯŋ/
/y/ /yt/
/o/ /om/ /ot/ /on/ /oz/ /ol/ /or/ /oj/ /oŋ/ /oʁ/
/u/ /ut/ /uz/ /uj/
The only coda attested with all vowels is/-t/(Table 3.6). Among these rhymes, /-et/and/-yt/are only attested in verb forms with the past transitive-tsuffix (§11.3, §21.1.3, §14.3.2.1), which occurs in word-final position only in 2sg→3 forms.
In closed syllables with an alveolo-palatal or a palatal consonant preceding the vowel,/ɯ/is fronted and its contrast with/i/is neutralized (§3.5.2.1). It is
Table 3.6: Examples of closed syllable rhymes in/-t/
Vowel Rhyme Example Meaning/Gloss
/a/ /at/ /tɤtɯsɤlat/ ‘you boiled it’
tɤ-tɯ-sɯ-ɤla-t aor-2-caus-boil-pst:tr /e/ /et/ /tɤtɯnɤmɤlet/ ‘you did it’
tɤ-tɯ-nɤmɤle-t aor-2-do-pst:tr /i/ /it/ /tɤtɯrɤlit/ ‘you reimbursed it’
tɤ-tɯ-rɤli-t aor-2-reimburse-pst:tr /ɤ/ /ɤt/ /jɤtɯlɤt/ ‘you threw it’
tɤ-tɯ-lɤt aor-2-release /ɯ/ /ɯt/ /tʰɯtɯplɯt/ ‘you destroyed it’
tʰɯ-tɯ-plɯt aor-2-destroy /y/ /yt/ /lotɯznɯqaɟyt/ ‘you let him fish’
lo-tɯ-z-nɯ-qaɟy-t ifr-2-denom-fish-pst:tr /o/ /ot/ /nɯtɯsɤwlot/ ‘you took care of him’
nɯ-tɯ-sɤβlo-t aor-2-take.care-pst:tr /u/ /ut/ /pɯtɯnɤlut/ ‘you milked it’
pɯ-tɯ-nɤ-lu-t aor-2-denom-milk-pst:tr
only maintained before /-t/ in forms with the past transitive -t suffix. For in-stance, we find the minimal pair/tɤ-tɯ-cɯ-t/‘you opened it’ (aor-2-open-pst) and/lɤ-tɯ-cit/‘you moved’ (aor-2-move).
With the coda/-j/, the contrasts between/ɯ/and/i/on the one hand, and /ɤ/and/e/on the other hand, are neutralized. The rhyme/-aj/is realized as[ɛj]
or[æj].
3.3.3 Historical phonology
Some notions of Japhug historical phonology are useful to account for the gaps in the distribution of rhymes (§3.3.2) as well as some vowel alternations (§12.2.2.1).
Comparison of inherited vocabulary between Japhug and extra-Gyalrongic languages shows that the codas*-l,*-nand*-ŋ have been lost in the native
vo-cabulary (Table 3.7). Words with these codas are either borrowed from Tibetan or have an ideophonic origin.
Table 3.7: Loss of*-l,*-nand*-ŋin Japhug
Japhug Other languages qaɕpa‘frog’ ལ་པ་sbal.pa‘frog’
tɤjpa‘snow’ Dulongtɯ³¹ wɑ̆n⁵³ ‘snow’ (Sun 1982) tɯrmɯ‘dusk’ ན་པ་mun.pa‘darkness’
tɯ-mtsʰi‘liver’ མཆིན་པ་mtɕʰin.pa‘liver’
pɣo‘spin’ འཕང་མ་ⁿpʰaŋ.ma‘spindle’
mto‘see’ མཐོང་mtʰoŋ‘see’
zri‘be long’ རིང་པོ་riŋ.po‘long’
tɤ-rmi‘name’ མིང་miŋ‘name’
The proto-Gyalrong rhyme*-aŋcorresponds to Japhug-o(Situ-o, Tshobdun-i, Zbu-æ, Jacques 2004: 228–231); this correspondence is also found in some early loanwords. A secondary-aŋrhyme has been created from several sources (§3.5.1), most importantly Tibetan borrowings postdating the sound change*-aŋ→-o.
A chain shift has taken place, as Proto-Gyalrong*-ohas regularly changed to -uand*-uto-ɯ(Jacques 2004: 239).
In closed syllables, rounded vowels have become unrounded in the native vo-cabulary. In the earliest layer of Tibetan loanwords,-od,-or,-ob,-oland-os cor-respond to-ɤt,-ɤr,-ɤβ,-ɤland-ɤz, respectively, but are unchanged in the later layers (Table 3.8).
This sound change did not affect rhymes with uvular codas: proto-Gyalrong
*-oqremained-oʁ.
The rhymes*-aj,*-ojand*-ujon the other hand have merged as-e,-eand-i, respectively. These vowel fusions occurred before*-o→-u, as shown by the-u/ -ealternation in Stem III (§12.2.2.1, Jacques 2004: 357, Jacques 2008: 234), which is cognate to the “transitivity marker”-jəin Tshobdun (Sun 2003: 496), as illustrated in Table 3.9.
After this sound change had removed all-jcodas, secondary-ojand-ujrhymes were later analogically created by the addition of the locative*-jsuffix to stems in-oand-u. A handful of examples remain in Japhug (§8.2.4.4). The origin of the rhyme-ajin Japhug is an unsolved problem, and may be due to contextual vowel breaking (Gong Xun, p.c.).
Table 3.8: Unrounding of vowels in Tibetan loanwords
Japhug Tibetan
mtɕʰɤtkʰo‘house shrine’ མཆོད་ཁང་mtɕʰod.kʰaŋ‘shrine, chapel’
pjɤl‘go around, cross, avoid’ ོལ་bʲol‘turn away’
χtɤr‘scatter’ གཏོར་gtor‘scatter’
slɤβkʰaŋ‘school’ ོབ་ཁང་slob.kʰaŋ‘school’
tɯkrɤz‘discussion’ ོས་gros‘discussion’
ɣot ‘warm light’ འོད་ɦod‘light’
kʰaŋfkot‘architect’ ཁང་བཀོད་kʰaŋ.bkod‘founding a house’
nor‘make a mistake’ ནོར་nor‘make a mistake’
spoz‘incense’ ོས་spos‘incense’
Table 3.9: Sound changes and stem III alternation in Japhug
Stem I Proto-form Stem III Proto-form meaning
ndza *ndza ndze *ndza-j ‘eat’
rku *rko rke *rko-j ‘put in’
βlɯ *plu βli *plu-j ‘burn’
The only other closed rhymes withoin the native vocabulary are-oz, which originates from*-aŋs, as insoz‘morning’, and-ot(in the case of verb stems in-o with the past transitive-tsuffix, §11.3).