from *si* ‘tree’ and *u-ŋgu* ‘inside’, and its original meaning was presumably ‘among the trees’.<fnref n="22" />

Compounds also exist with specific placenames such as *tɛ́h̩itɛ́un* ‘Chuchen’, for instance in *tɛ́h̩itɛ́un paχɛ́i* ‘pear’ (with *paχɛ́i* ‘apple’ as second element), a noun which can undergo denominal derivation to *nutɛ́h̩itɛ́unpaχɛ́i* ‘collect pears’ (§20.1.2), showing that the place name modifier has been integrated.<fnref n="23" />

In addition to nouns, participles also occur in determinative compounds. They are found both as first or second element of the compound, and both subject participles in *ku-* (§16.1.1.7) and oblique participles in *sɣ-* (§16.1.3.10) are attested.

For instance, the compound *tɔ́ysɔ́ŋgɔ́t* ‘crossroad’ combines the bound state of *tɔ́su* ‘road’ and the oblique participle *u-sɔ́-ŋgɔ́t* ‘place where X part ways’ from *nɔ́ŋgɔ́t* ‘part ways’.<fnref n="24" /> The obsolete noun *sɔ́qrysɔ́h a* ‘alcohol offered to one’s guests’, comprises the oblique participle *u-sɔ́-qru* of the verb *qru* ‘greet, welcome, receive’ and the noun *cʰa* ‘alcohol’ (see other examples in §16.1.3.10).

Compounds with the participle of a transitive verb as their second element do not necessarily derive from a genitival construction, though they might be superficially similar to compounds of this type. For instance *qalekutsʰi* ‘species of kite’ comes from *qale* ‘wind’ and the participle *u-ku-tsʰi* ‘blocking (it)’ (§16.1.1) of the transitive verb *tsʰi* ‘block’; the phrase *qale u-ku-tsʰi* (wind 3SG.POSS-SBJ:PCP-block) ‘blocking the wind’ is more properly a headless participial relative (§23.4.1, §16.1.1.7), and is more similar to Object-Verb compounds (§5.5.5.2).

Only a handful of Head-Modifier determinative compounds are attested. Most of these are the lexicalized versions of nouns followed by post-nominal modifiers (§5.2). A good example of such compounds is provided by *z̥mbrukɔ́lu* ‘willow that does not grow high’ from *z̥mbri* ‘willow’ and the privative form *kɔ́lu* ‘headless’ (§5.7.1) of *tu-ku* ‘head’), a name explained in (97).

(97) *u-taɣ* *u-mn<u>u</u>* *kuŋu* *ku-zri* *tu-ɔov*
3SG-on 3SG.POSS-new. twig also SBJ:PCP-be.long IPFV:UP-come.out
*múj-cʰa* tce, *n<u>u</u>-kɔ́-b̥ndz<u>yr</u> zo *p<u>u</u>-fse tce *n<u>u</u>*
NEG:SENS-can LNK AOR-OBJ:PCP-cut EMPH SENS-be.like LNK DEM
z̥mbr<u>uk</u>z<u>lu</u> *tu-* *ku-* *ti* *ŋu*. tce *n<u>u</u>* *u-ku*
plant.name IPFV-GENR-say be:FACT LNK DEM 3SG.POSS-head

<footnote n="22">²²The noun *suŋgu* ‘forest’ is better translated as ‘wild’ when occurring as prenominal modifier or first member of compounds.</footnote>

<footnote n="23">²³I am indebted to Gong Xun for this observation.</footnote>

<footnote n="24">²⁴This intransitive verb itself is the anticausative of *q<u>y</u>t ‘separate’, with an additional *nu-* prefix, §18.5.1.2.</footnote>
kw-me kty-ti jw-ŋu. kylu n̥u w-ku
SBJ:PCP-not.exist INF-say SENS-be headless DEM 3SG.POSS-head

kw-me kty-ti jw-ŋu.

SBJ:PCP-not.exist INF-say SENS-be

'Its new twigs cannot grow very long, and look like they have been sawed short, therefore it is called 'headless willow'. 'Headless' means 'without head.' (07-Zmbri) {0003438#S30}

The counted noun *tu-pyrme* ‘one year of life’ attests a different type of Head-Modifier determinative compound. It comes from *tu-xpa* ‘one year’ and *turme* ‘person’ (see §7.3.1.7 on the alternation between *-xpa* and *-pyr-*, and §5.1.2.10 on the *tu-* prefix in ‘man’), and originally meant ‘man’s year (of life)’. Despite this meaning, the modifier ‘man’ appears as the second element. Unlike ‘headless willows’ (97), in this case the modifier would not be postnominal in the corresponding noun phrase.

### 5.5.1.2 Possessive compounds

Possessive (or exocentric) compounds (*bahuvrihi*) are uncommon in Japhug, and tend to be synchronically obscure. All known examples appear to have Modifier-Head order, and are plant names.

The name *kʰulu* ‘Euphorbia helioscopia’ combines the reduced bound state of *kʰuna* ‘dog’ (§5.4.2.3) with *ty-lu* ‘milk’. It presumably means ‘(having) dog milk’, a reference to a whitish toxic liquid that comes from it (98).

(98) tce n̥u kʰulu n̥wnu syndγ. w-lu
LNK DEM Euphorbia.helioscopia DEM poisonous:FACT 3SG.POSS-milk
tu tce, ty-lu kw-fse kw-wyrw~wyrum
exist:FACT LNK INDEF.POSS-milk SBJ:PCP-be like SBJ:PCP-EMPH~be.white
ŋu. koŋla zo, pjū-wɣ-qlwt tce, n̥wre w-lu

be:FACT completely EMPH IPFV-INV-break LNK there 3SG.POSS-milk
tu.

exist:FACT

‘The *Euphorbia helioscopia* is toxic, it has a juice white like milk, when it is broken, there is milk in [the stalk]. (19-khWlu) {0003540#S18}

Another plant name, *qaprimdžu* ‘Cicerbita roborowskii’, from *qapri* ‘snake’ and *tu-mdžu* ‘tongue’ is interpretable as a possessive compound ‘(having) a snake’s tongue’, referring to the shape of its leaves (99).
(99) *w-jwaq* nwra qapri *w-mdzu* *w-tsʰuya* nw
3SG.POSS-leaf DEM:PL snake 3SG.POSS-tongue 3SG.POSS-shape DEM
*fse*
be liker FACT
‘The shape of its leaves look like that of a snake tongue.’ (xsArW)
{0003500#S66}

The compound *kunguttɛ́rtsɣ* ‘Leonurus’, from the numeral *kungut* ‘nine’ and the noun *ts-rtsɣ* ‘stairs’, can be analyzed as meaning ‘(plant having) nine stairs’, referring to the nodes on the stalk of this plant. The Numeral-Noun order in this compound is remarkable, since numeral normally follow the noun (see §7.1.7, §9.3) but similar to some quantifiers (§9.1.3). The same Numeral-Noun order is found in the more complex compound *kunguttɛ́rqʰɔŋgaq* ‘Lonicera sp.’ discussed in §5.5.5.

### 5.5.1.3 Coordinative compound

Coordinative compounds are uncommon in Japhug, and are formally indistinguishable from the previous classes. In this type of compounds, both elements are heads.

This class includes the traditional traditional *dvandva*-, which are semantically intrinsically collectives, for instance *cʰimtʰum* ‘food and drinks’ from *cʰa* ‘alcohol’ and *ts-mtʰum* ‘meat’, *sniɛr* ‘night and day’ from *tu-sni* ‘one day’ and *cɛr* ‘night’ and *χcʰoɛe* ‘right and left’ from *χcʰa* ‘right’ and *ke* ‘left’, the latter two being mainly used as adverbs.

An even rarer type of coordinative compound are the appositive compounds, the only clear example of which is *kurŋukwɛ́ndzur* ‘harvestman’, a noun built from two subject participles, from the transitive verbs *rŋu* ‘parch’ and *yndzur* ‘grind’. The two elements of the compound refer to the actions supposedly performed by that type of chelicerate (‘the parcher-grinder’) like the participial form of a bipartite verb (§11.6.3).

The compound *qajuɛmvsnba* ‘leech’, from *qaju* ‘worm’ and *smvsnba* ‘doctor’, is possibly interpretable as an appositive compound ‘bug acting as a doctor’ or ‘doctor who is a bug’, since its meaning is clearly not ‘doctor treating bugs’.

### 5.5.2 Verb-Verb compounds

There are two types of Verb-Verb nominal compounds in Japhug, action nominals (involving transitive action verbs) and degree nouns (with adjectival stative verbs).
5.5.2.1 Action nominals

Action nominals built from two verb roots are not common in Japhug. Some
of these action nominals are made from verbs with complementary or near-
identical meanings, for instance *jokßzur* 'tidying up' from *jok* 'raise' and *ßzur*
'move'. This noun occurs in a light verb construction as in (100). The denominal
compound verb *rъjokßzur* 'tidy up' has a meaning verb close to this construction
(§20.12).

(100) *jokßzur* *tx-ßzu-t-a*
tidying.up AOR-do-PST:TR-1SG
'I did some tidying up.' (elicited)

Another type of verb-verb action nominals are made from verbs with opposite meanings, for instance *ßvynjo* ‘winning and losing’ from *ßva* ‘prevail, win’ and *njo* ‘lose’, which is used with existential verbs as in (101).<fnref n="25" />

(101) *ßvynjo* *maŋe-ndzi*
winning.and.losing not.exist:SENS-DU
'One cannot decide who [of the two of them] is winning and who is
losing.'

At an earlier stage, such compound action nominals may have been common,
as is suggested by the existence of denominal compound verbs without a cor-
responding noun, such as *raχtuſtye* ‘do business’ (from *χtu* ‘buy’ and *ntſye* ‘sell’,
§20.7.2 on the *-n-* element).

5.5.2.2 Nouns of dimension

The productive way of building degree nouns in Japhug is by adding the prefix *tu-* to an adjectival stative verb (§16.3), but an alternative formation involves the compounding of two antonymic verbs or location adverbs, such as *jpumxtsʰum* ‘thickness’ from *jpum* ‘be thick’ and *xtsʰum* ‘be thin’. All known examples are listed in Table 5.7 (note that whenever possible, the first member of these compounds is in bound state).

In the case of *xtɛuxte* ‘size’, the second element *xte* is a variant also found
in the derived verb *muxte* ‘be the majority’, probably the relic of a former *i/e*
alternation still observed in the verb *yi* ‘come’ (§12.2.1.1).

<footnote n="25"><sup>25</sup> A similar compound *fq-ηət* with identical meaning is found in Tshobdun (Sun & Blogros 2019: 295).</footnote>
<table><caption>Table 5.7: Nouns of dimension</caption><thead><tr><th>Compound</th><th>First verb</th><th>Second verb</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>jpumxtsʰum 'thickness' (diameter)</td><td>jpum 'be thick'</td><td>xtsʰum 'be thin'</td></tr><tr><td>jaŋmba 'thickness' (of a sheet)</td><td>jaŋ 'be thick'</td><td>mba 'be thin'</td></tr><tr><td>xturŋŋi 'length'</td><td>xtut 'be short'</td><td>ŋŋi 'be long'</td></tr><tr><td>xtɛuuxte 'size'</td><td>xtɛi 'be small'</td><td>wxti 'be big'</td></tr></tbody></table>

Locational adverbs/nouns can also be compounded to express the three spatial dimensions encoded by verbal morphology and locative markers (§15.1.3, §22.2.6): *taŋki* 'up and down' from *taŋ* 'up' and *aki* 'down', *lotʰi* 'upstream and downstream' from *lo* 'upstream' and *tʰi* 'downstream' and *kundi* 'east and west' from *ku* 'east' and *ndi* 'west'. An example of the use of these nouns can be found in (93), §5.3.4 above.

Nouns of dimension can further derive denominal verbs in *a-* meaning ‘of unequal X’ (§20.2.1).

### 5.5.3 Noun-Ideophone compounds

Nominal compounds comprising an ideophone (§10.1.1) are rare. Three examples are attested.

First, the noun *mciruβruβ* ‘person whose saliva drips continuously’ is built from the inalienably possessed *tu-mci* ‘saliva’ (§5.6.5) and the reduplicated ideophonic root |ruβ|, found in the pattern III form (§10.1.2.3) *ruβnɔŋruβ* meaning ‘dripping (drop by drop) continuously’ (§10.1.4) and the deideophonic verb *ŋŋ-ruβruβ* ‘drip continuously’. The collocation of *tu-mci* with both the ideophone and its derived verb is commonly attested (see example 62, §21.3.2.3).

Second, the bird name *jaŋmɔzdoŋzdoŋ* contains the bound state form of *tu-jaŋmu* ‘thumb’ and the pattern II ideophone *zdoŋzdoŋ* meaning ‘small and active’.

Third, the name of the mushroom *salaboŋboŋ* ‘puffball’ contains the pattern II ideophone *boŋboŋ* ‘ovoid’. The first part of this word is obscure.

### 5.5.4 Adverb-Verb compounds

Adverb-Verb compounds are relative marginal. Compounds with *kuzya* ‘a long time’ in bound state *kuzyɔ-* followed by a verb are however attested, as *kuzyɔ-ɔar* ‘searching for a long time’ from the verb *ɔar* ‘search’ in (102). These compounds are studied in more detail in §16.4.7 (see also Jacques 2016a: 252).
(102) ku-xtci nu yu pj-me tce, tcendre rca
SBJ:PCP-be.small DEM GEN IFR.IPFV-not.exist LNK LNK UNEXP:DEG

kuzy-car zo p-y-zu-nu ri pj-me.
long.time-search EMPH IFR-do-PL LNK IFR.IPFV-not.exist

‘The [pigeon skin] of the youngest girl was not there, there looked for it for a long time but it was not there.’ (the flood 2002) {0003360#S55}

### 5.5.5 Noun-Verb compounds

Noun-Verb compounds include three main types, Subject-Verb, Object-Verb and Adjunct-Verb compounds. Participles or other nominalized verbs forms are treated in sections 5.5.1, but criteria to distinguish between ambiguous forms in cases of homophony between noun and verb are provided in §5.5.5.2.

#### 5.5.5.1 Subject-Verb compounds

Subject-Verb compounds occur exclusively with intransitive verbs, mainly adjective stative verbs. The noun is generally in bound state (see Table 5.8). Based on their semantics, three types of subject-verb compounds can be distinguished: attributive, possessive and action nominals.

<table><caption>Table 5.8: Examples of attributive Subject-Verb compound nouns</caption><thead><tr><td>Compound</td><td>Base Noun</td><td>Verb</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>tx-cy-pa- 'black barley'</td><td>txci 'barley'</td><td>pa- 'be black'</td></tr><tr><td>tx-cy-yrum 'white barley'</td><td></td><td>wyrum 'be white'</td></tr><tr><td>mts-ha-y-pa- 'black nettle'</td><td>mts-halu 'nettle'</td><td>pa- 'be black'</td></tr><tr><td>mts-ha-y-yrum 'white nettle'</td><td></td><td>wyrum 'be white'</td></tr><tr><td>qartsu-pa- 'cold winter'</td><td>qartsu 'winter'</td><td>pa- 'be black'</td></tr><tr><td>py-y-pa- 'Pucrasia macrolopha'</td><td>pya 'bird'</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>tx-mtu-pa- 'deadlock'</td><td>tx-mtu 'knot'</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

Attributive Subject-verb compounds are equivalent to a relative clause comprising a stative verb and its subject (§9.1.8.3, §16.1.1.4). If the nominal and verbal elements are represented as *N* and *V*, an attributive *NV* compound means ‘*N* which is *V*’. They are common with stative verbs of colour such as *pa-* ‘be black’ or *wyrum* ‘be white’ as in Table 5.8.

The compounds in Table 5.8 are highly lexicalized; in the case for instance of *py-y-pa-* ‘Pucrasia macrolopha’, this bird is not even black as the speakers themselves point out (103).
(103) **pүүраң** kү-ti ci tu tce, nүнү ңо
Pucrasia.macrolopha OBJ:PCP-say INDEF exist:FACT LNK DEM ADVERS
**lurski** li nү pya ңu, tceri mү-раң ma
of-course again DEM bird be:FACT but NEG-be.black:FACT LNK
**рш-mpcy** ш-мuj nura wuma zo
SENS-be.beautiful 3SG.Poss-feather DEM:PL really EMPH
**рш-mpcy** qʰe kw-tu ra рш-nymbju zo
SENS-be.beautiful LNK SBJ:PCP-exist PL SENS-be.brilliant EMPH

‘The *Pucrasia macrolopha* is of course also a bird (like the previous ones we talked about), but it is not black, it is beautiful, its feathers are very beautiful and those that are there (visible) are iridescent.’ (23-pGAYaR)
{0003626#S80}

More complex NV compounds of this type are found, such as *tw-jaңndzumyра-χcy* ‘middle finger’ from *tw-jaңndzu* ‘finger’ and *myраχcy* ‘be in the middle’ (itself a denominal verb from *u-χcy* ‘center’).

In such compounds, some stative verbs occur with a -x- element in individual forms. This is the case of *tylcyxcʰi* ‘fresh milk’ from *ty-lu* ‘milk’ and *cʰi* ‘be sweet’. It is possible that this velar fricative represents the remnant of a participle prefix *kw-.* This -x- is however present in the causative (§17.2.1.4) and the tropative (*nyxcʰi* ‘find sweet’, §17.5.1) derivations.

Possessive NV compounds are equivalent to a participial relative with the possessor of the subject as the relativized element (§23.5.10): In other words, a possessive NV means ‘(person/animal/entity) whose N is V’. Examples are considerably fewer than the previous ones.

Table 5.9 illustrates a few Noun-Verb compounds based on the verb *axa* ‘lacking a piece’, ‘have a hole’, which surfaces as *-xa* with elision of the *a-* prefix.<fnref n="26" /> Among these examples, *cycyxa* ‘person lacking a tooth’ and *rnycfuxa* ‘whose ear has ten holes’<fnref n="27" /> are possessive compounds, while *tscyxa* ‘chuckhole’ and *tw-jaңmyxa* (虎口 <hǔkǒu> ‘space between thumb and index’ are possessive compounds.

A particularly interesting Noun-Verb possessive compound is the plant name *kunguttrqʰngak* ‘Lonicera sp.’, which comprises three elements: the numeral

<footnote n="26">²⁶It is however alternatively possible that the verb *axa* is denominal from an unattested inalienably possessed noun *-xa* ‘hole, chip, notch’, and that the compounds in Table 5.9 are also from that lost noun.</footnote>

<footnote n="27">²⁷The compound *rnycfuxa* occurs exclusively as postnominal modifier (§9.1.8.1) in the fixed expression *qala rnycfuxa* ‘the rabbit with ten holes in his ear’, a trickster character found in traditional stories.</footnote>
<table><caption>Table 5.9: Possessive compound nouns in -χa, derived from the verb αχa ‘lacking a piece’</caption><thead><tr><th>Compound noun</th><th>First element</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>ɛγγχa 'person lacking a tooth'</td><td>ɛγγ- ← tu-ɛγa 'tooth'</td></tr><tr><td>rnγftɛωχa 'whose ear has ten holes'</td><td>rnγ- ← tu-rna 'ear'</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>ftɛω- ← Tib. ṛṣ bṭṣu 'ten'</td></tr><tr><td>ṭṣγχa 'chuckhole'</td><td>ṭṣγ- ← ṭṣu 'road'</td></tr><tr><td>tu-jaṣṭmγχa 'space between thumb and index'</td><td>tu-jaṣṭmγ- ← tu-jaṣṭmu 'thumb'</td></tr></tbody></table>

kwungut 'nine', the inalienably possessed noun tɔ̃-rqʰu 'hull, skin' and the intransitive verb ngak 'peel, shed skin' (anticausative of qaak 'peel', see §18.5.1). This compound is to be parsed [kwungut-tɔ̃rqʰɔ̃-] [ngak] from a morphological point of view, as its meaning is ('plant') whose nine skins shed off' as is explained in the text excerpt in (104): the first element kwungut-tɔ̃rqʰɔ̃-<fnref n="28" /> corresponds to the intransitive subject of ngak 'peel, shed skin'.

(104) kwunguttyrqʰŋngak w-rmi kura numw tɛcendsre, Lonicera 3SG.POSS-name DEM:PROX:PL DEM LNK w-rqʰu kw-dw~dɔ̃n zo pjw-ngak p̥w-ŋu. 3SG.POSS-skin SBJ:PCP-EMPH~be.many EMPH IPFV-ACAUS:peel SENS-be numw tu-mpcar ny tu-mpcar, tu-mpcar ny tu-mpcar, DEM one-leaf LNK one-leaf one-leaf LNK one-leaf p̥w-ngak qʰe w-ŋgw li mɔzw p̥w-βze qʰe, AOR-ACAUS:peel LNK 3SG.POSS-inside again yet IPFV-GROW LNK 'As for the name of the Lonicera sp., [it is because] it has a lot of skins that shed off, one after the other, and after one has shed off, another one grows again inside.' (14-sWNgWJu) {0003506#S66}

Yet, from a phonological point of view, the form should rather be parsed as [kwungut-] [tɔ̃rqʰɔ̃-ngak], as the phonological integration between tɔ̃rqʰɔ̃- in bound state and the following verb root is stronger than that between the numeral kwungut 'nine' and the rest, as shown by the preservation of the final -t with a rare heterosyllabic geminate (§4.2.3.1).

Additional less obvious examples of possessive compounds include ɛnɛrsti 'person with a stuffy nose' (from tu-ɛna 'nose' and asti 'be blocked', see the discussion

<footnote n="28">²⁸Note that this compound has Numeral-Noun order as in other examples (see §5.5.1.2).</footnote>
in §5.5.5.2) and ᶜnaβndzyi ‘snotty-nosed kid’ (from *tu-čnaβ ‘snot’ and a verbal root -ndzyi attested in nɔ̃ndzyi ‘have (snot)’).

Action nominals *NV* compounds are rare with intransitive verbs. Examples include *pyγmbri* ‘bird song’ from *pya* ‘bird’ and the intransitive *mbri* ‘cry, sing’ or *snušpaa* ‘harming people’ from *tu-sni* ‘heart’ and *paaš* ‘be black’ (§20.13.1).

### 5.5.5.2 Object-Verb compounds

Object-Verb nominal compounds in Japhug are very productive, and can be classified into two main types: actor *OV* compounds, and action *OV* compounds.

Actor *OV* compounds are common in names of trades, animals and even plants, such as *rŋułfɛi* ‘silversmith’, *βγγru* ‘miller’, *zruγndza* ‘praying mantis’ and *tɔ́tɔu-βraš* ‘burdock’. The first of these examples, from the Tibetan loanword *rŋuł* ‘silver’ and the labile verb *fɛi* ‘forge’, requires little explanation. Some compounds present significant morphological alterations, as *βγγru* ‘miller’, which comes from the bound state of *βγa* ‘mill’ and the non-reduplicated form of the verb *ruŋu* ‘guard’ (§19.7.11). In addition, some compounds of this type do not make much sense without some cultural background; as an illustration of how the Japhug corpus can be used to better understand the origin of these compounds, I discuss below the latter two nouns.

The compound *zruγndza* ‘praying mantis’ derives from *zruγy* ‘louse’ and *ndza* ‘eat’, and literally means ‘louse eater’, a descriptive term based on the feeding habits of that insect, as described in (105).

(105) *nʷ* *u̯-taaš* *ri* *zruγndza* *kʷ-ndo-tc̥i* *tce*, ... *tcendγre* *zruγy*
DEM 3SG-on LOC praying.mantis AOR-take-1DU LNK ... LNK *louse*
*rcanʷ* *lɔŋγtɔšγy* *jamar zo* *u̯-cki* *kʷ-ta-tc̥i*. *tce*
UNEXP:DEG five.or.six about EMPH 3SG-DAT AOR:EAST-put-1DU LNK
*kʷ-m* *nʷra* *tce*, *tce* *zruγy* *nʷ* *lonba zo* *cʰʷ-mqlaš*
SBJ:PCP-be.first DEM:PL LNK LNK *louse* DEM ALL EMPH IPFV-swallow
*tce* *tu-ndze* *pʷ-ŋu*. *tcendγre* *kʷ-maqʰu* *tce* *n*
LNK IPFV-eat[III] SENS-be LNK SBJ:PCP-be.after LNK DEM:CATAPH
*pʷ-ŋu*, *tcendγre* *ku-numi* *kʷ-fṣe* *qʰe*, *u-ŋgw*
SENS-be LNK IPFV-suck[III] SBJ:PCP-be lik e LNK 3SG.POSS-inside
*nʷmʷ*, *u̯-se* *nʷ* *lu-nʷ-tcɛyt* *qʰe*
DEM 3SG.POSS-blood DEM IPFV:UPSTREAM-AUTO-take.out LNK
*cʰʷ-mqlaš* *pʷ-ŋu*.
IPFV-swallow SENS-be

‘(When we were little, one of my classmate had a lot of lice, and) we took
a praying mantis [and put it on his clothes], then put five or six lice near it; the first ones, it swallowed them whole, and the following ones, it did the following: it would kind of suck them, drink the blood inside them, swallow it (and then throw them away).' (26-zrWGndza) {0003696#S26}

The nouns *tštšuβraš* ‘burdock’ from (*tšr-tšu* ‘son, boy’ and *βraš* ‘attach to’) and *tšemēmeβraš* ‘little burdock’ (with *tšemēme* ‘girl’ as first element) literally mean ‘attaching boys/girls’; an explanation for these names from local folklore is provided in (106).

(106) *tštšuβraš tce, cw kšu pa-mto nšnšu tce tce nšu ýw wzyy burdock LNK who ERG AOR:3→3'-see DEM LNK LNK DEM GEN 3SG:GEN māk ny, w-kʰa ýw māk ny, w-kwmdza not.be:FACT LNK 3SG.POSS-house GEN not.be:FACT LNK 3SG.POSS-relative kšu-fse ra ýw, nšu-tšu māk ny nšu-me SBJ:PCP-be like PL GEN 3PL.POSS-son not.be:FACT LNK 3PL.POSS-daughter tu tu-ti-nšu pšu-nyu. tce nšu nšu-kwmdza exist:FACT IPFV-say-PL SENS-be LNK DEM 3PL.POSS-relative kšu-fse kšu-yrcšt ra, nšu-skʰrš mš-kšu-βdi SBJ:PCP-be like SBJ:PCP-be-related PL 3PL.POSS-body NEG-SBJ:PCP-be.well a-pšu-tu tce, “wo ... w-rʃit tšr-tšu sci IRR-IPFV-exist LNK INTERJ ... 3SG.POSS-child INDEF.POSS-son LNK ma tštšuβraš pšu-mto-t-a” be born:FACT burdock AOR-see-TR:PST-1SG ‘The burdock, whoever saw it will have a boy or a girl, him or someone from his house or among his relatives. If someone among his relatives is pregnant, he will say ‘her child will be a boy, as I saw a burdock.’” (26-NalitCaRmbWm) {0003676#S110}

The object-verb compound *tʰy lwγtṣat* ‘sparing earth’ (107), from *tʰy lw a* ‘earth’ and the transitive *tṣat* ‘spare’, occurs as postnominal modifier (§9.1.8.1) of the noun *qandże* ‘earthworm’, semantically equivalent to a post-nominal subject relative clause *tʰy lw a w-kšu-tṣat* (earth 3SG.POSS-SBJ:PCP-spare). This is the only case of a Noun-Verb compound in which both the subject and the object of the base verb are overt.

(107) nšnšu kšu-mγci kšnšu kšu-ry-ctṣat nšu, qandże DEM SBJ:PCP-be.rich also SBJ:PCP-APASS-spare DEM earthworm
tʰɪlwɪ-ctʃaːt tu-ti-nuː.

earth-sparing ipfv-say-pl

‘Someone who spares things (i.e., does not waste anything) even though he is rich, people call him an ‘earth-sparing earthworm’.”

(25-akWzgumba) {0003632#S125}

Like actor OV compounds, action nominal compounds comprise a nominal root and a transitive verbal root. The nominal root in bound state corresponds to the object of the verb, as in the compound cʰiːtsʰiː ‘alcohol drinking’ from cʰaː ‘alcohol’ and tsʰiː ‘drink’. This class of nouns, which occur in light verb constructions and serve as bases for incorporating denominal verbs (§20.13.1), is discussed in §16.4.7 and §24.4.3.3.

Not all compounds whose second element originates from a transitive verb are Object-Verb (or Adjunct-Verb) compounds. Two potentially ambiguous cases must be pointed out.

First, there are Noun-Noun compounds whose second element is a bare action nominal, deriving from a transitive verb (see §16.4.6), but which loses its possessive prefix as is usual in compounding (§5.4.3.1). In such cases the resulting Noun-Noun compound is not formally distinguishable from a Noun-Verb compound, and only the meaning can be used to differentiate between the two classes. For instance, the plant name tʃuːcpeːhɪt ‘plantain’ has the bound state of tʃuː ‘road’ as a first element, while its second part -peːhɪt can be interpreted as either directly from the verb peːhɪt ‘patch’ (‘road patcher’) or from the derived noun tɛr-peːhɪt ‘patch (n)’ (a piece of fabric used to patch worn clothes) (‘road patch’). In this particular case, the second interpretation is more likely, and hence tʃuːcpeːhɪt ‘plantain’ is better analyzed as a Noun-Noun compound.

Second, when the second element of a Noun-Verb compound is a a- passive verb (see §18.1), the a-/r- prefix is absorbed by the first element of the compound and becomes invisible. In the resulting form, the second element superficially looks similar to the transitive verb. For instance, the noun enrsti ‘person with a stuffy nose’ appears to derive from tu-ɛna ‘nose’ and the transitive verb sti ‘block’. However, semantics rules out such a derivation: it is a possessive compound whose literal meaning is ‘whose nose is blocked’ (see §5.5.5.1), and cannot be interpreted as ‘(person) blocking noses’, the expected meaning of an Object-Verb compound. Since the passive asti ‘be blocked’ of sti ‘block’ is well-attested, as shown by (108), it is better to analyze enrsti ‘person with a stuffy nose’ as a Subject-Verb possessive compound (§5.5.5.1) derived from that passive form.
(108) maka pú-wy-cwy-mu mú-pjy-cʰa ma mú-pjy-mtsʰy-m
at.all IPFV-INV-CAUS-be.afraid NEG-IFR.IPFV-can LNK NEG-IFR-hear
matci ú-rna pjy-k-y-sti-ci.
because 3SG.POSS-ear IFR.IPFV-PEG-PASS-block-PEG
'The noise could not frighten him, as he did not hear it, because his ears
were blocked.' (140514 huishuohua de niao-zh) {0003992#S191}

5.5.5.3 Adjunct-Verb compounds

Adjunct-Verb compounds are action nominals (§16.4.7). Like other action nomi-
nal compounds, they can undergo denominal derivation to become incorporating
verbs (§20.13.1).

Adjunct-Verb compounds typically take body parts or locative nouns as first element, as *zgrutćʰu* ‘nudge’ and *kṛtćʰu* ‘headbutt’, which combine the body parts *tu*-*zgru* ‘elbow’ and *tu*-ku ‘head’ with the verb *tćʰu* ‘gore, stab’ as second element. Here the body parts cannot be analyzed as objects: the object of *tćʰu* ‘gore, stab’ is the person being gored/hit, not the part of the body one uses, as shown by the 1SG indexation on the verb in (109).

(109) mbala ku tś-wy-tćʰu-a
bull ERG AOR-INV-stab-1SG
'The bull gored me.' (elicited)

These compounds are used with the light verb *lɔt* ‘release’ as in (110). Addi-
tional examples are discussed in §16.4.7 and §20.13.1 and §20.13.4.

(110) zgručʰu ty-lat-a
nudge AOR-throw-1SG
'I nudged [him].' (elicited)

The incorporating denominal verbs *suzgrutćʰu* ‘give a nudge’ or *nɔkutćʰu* ‘give a headbutt’, ‘gore’ are considerably more common that light verb constructions with compound action nouns such as (110).

The compound *mnačmtsač* ‘grasshoper’ from *tu-*mnač ‘eye’ and *mtsač* ‘jump’ is obscure, but unlikely to be a possessive compound ‘whose eyes jump’, and should rather be analyzed as an adjunct compound (maybe ‘jumping with (big) eyes’, as if from a comitative adverb like *kšmnyumnač* ‘with eyes’ §5.8.1). If this analysis is correct, *mnačmtsač* is the only example of *actor* Adjunct-Verb compound.
5.5.6 Verb-Noun compounds

Verb-Noun compounds are extremely rare in Japhug, as they are in general in
Trans-Himalayan languages other than Chinese.

Adjectival stative verbs nearly always occur as second element in compounds
with a noun (§5.5.5.1), but the opposite order is attested in *sъябdi* ‘unpleasant
smell’ from *тъ-ди* ‘smell’ and *съяб* ‘be unpleasant’ (on which see §20.3.1) a noun
which can occur with the intransitive verb *мъмъ* ‘smell’ as in (111).

(111) sъяб-ди zo ръ-мъм
be.unpleasant-smell EMPH SENS-smell
‘There is an unpleasant smell.’ (elicited)

A possible example of Verb-Noun compound with a transitive verb is *ndzъpri*
‘brown bear’, comprising *pri* ‘bear’ and *ndza* ‘eat’ – as shown by (112) from a text
about bears, it is considered by some native speakers of Japhug as a man eater,
though this explanation could be folk-etymology. Note that this compound is also
anomalous in that when transitive verbs are used in compounds with a noun, that
noun is either an object (§5.5.5.2) or adjunct (§5.5.5.3), never the subject.

(112) tce ndzъpri kъ-ti nw tce turme tu-ku-ndza
LNK brown.bear INF-say DEM LNK people IPFV-GENR:S/O-eat
ръ-нgrыл
SENS-be.usually.the.case
‘The one called *ndzъpri* (‘the eating bear’), it eats people.’ (21-pri)
{0003580#S91}

We find several examples of nominal compounds whose structure is *тъ-+Verb +Noun*, where the verb is an adjectival stative verb. This category includes *тъqi-абъjmъy* ‘Lactarius sp.’, literally ‘bitter mushroom’, from the noun *тъjmъy* ‘mushroom’ (see §5.1.2.10 concerning the lost of *тъ-* and the verb *qaиъ* ‘be bitter’, or *тъmbextsa* ‘type of shoes’ from *tu-xtsa* ‘shoe’ and *mbe* ‘be old’. These should not be analyzed as Verb-Noun compounds however, as the first element originates from a nominalized form of the verb (either a property noun deriving from a verb (§16.4.6) in indefinite possessor *тъ-* form (§5.1.2.7) or a *тъ-* abstract noun, §16.4.2): they are rather a subtype of Noun-Noun compounds.

The same applies to compounds whose first element comes from a participle,
such as *къръijмъу* ‘type of mushroom’ from *тъмъу* ‘mushroom’ with the subject
participle *ku-ъръи* ‘green one’ /*къръи* / from the verb *arъи* ‘be green’ (see additional
examples in §16.1.1.7). Note that the compounding order is unexpected, as partici-
ples of adjectival stative verbs generally follow the noun (§9.1.8.3).
## 5.6 Noun class prefixes

Noun class prefixes are prefixal elements that occur in some nouns, whose root cannot occur on its own, except for a few rare exceptions (such as *qapyымтumtu* 'hoopoe' discussed in §5.6.1). Uvular *qa-/-χ-/-к-* and velar *ku-/-x-/-γ-* prefixes are attested, and occur on animal names, plant names and nouns referring to traditional objects. Additional body part class prefixes, in particular *m-* are also present in Japhug.

Dental prefixal elements such as *ty-* or *tu-* are very common, but are better interpreted as frozen indefinite possessor prefixes (see §5.1.2.10), rather as noun class prefixes.

### 5.6.1 Uvular animal name prefix

The uvular animal prefix has a basic form *qa-* (Table 5.10) and a reduced allomorph *χ-/-к-*, attested in a few names like *kʾmbroŋ* ‘wild yak’, *rtʿṣʾuwʿṣju* ‘caterpillar’ and *tʿṣʾuwχpri* ‘salamander’.

Note that *kʾmbroŋ* ‘wild yak’ is a borrowing from Tibetan *kṣṇ- nʾbroŋ* ‘wild yak’, a fact that possibly suggests that the *χ-/-к-* prefix has some degree of productivity (see Jacques 2014d).

The noun *qapyымтumtu* ‘hoopoe’ is clearly a compound containing the bound state of *pya* ‘bird’ and the reduplicated form of the noun *u-mtu* ‘crest’, to which the class prefix *qa-* has been added. The origin of this compound is still transparent to native speakers (see 85, §25.5.2).

The allomorph *qa-* is reduced to its non-syllabic variants *χ-/-к-* when the pre-fixed noun occurs as the second member of a compound. The nouns *tʿṣʾuwχpri* ‘salamander’ and *rtʿṣʾuwʿṣju* ‘caterpillar’ are examples of this reduction. The former is a compound of *tʿṣʾu-* (a syllable borrowed from Tibetan *kṣʾu* ‘water’) and *-χpri*, a variant of *qapri* ‘snake’. The latter comprises the syllable *rtʿṣʾu-* bound state of the unprefixed root of *turtʿṣʾi* ‘type of vegetable (酸酸菜)’, and the second *-ʿṣju* is the reduced variant of *qajju* ‘worm’.

### 5.6.2 Velar animal name prefix

While most nouns beginning in *ku-* are frozen participles (see §16.1.1.7), there is a residue of forms which cannot be analyzed as deverbal nouns: no corresponding verb root is attested, and moreover some of them have cognates elsewhere in the family. Table 5.11 presents animal names that are not derivable from any verb root, and appear to bear a *ku-* class prefix, which is to be distinguished from the
<table><caption>Table 5.10: Animal name qa- prefix</caption><tr><td>qacʰya 'fox'</td><td>qandże 'earthworm'</td></tr><tr><td>qaçyi 'big fly'</td><td>qandzi 'anadromous fish'</td></tr><tr><td>qaçpa 'frog'</td><td>qandzyi 'falcon'</td></tr><tr><td>qajdo 'crow'</td><td>qaŋi 'mole'</td></tr><tr><td>qajtsʰa 'Aegyptius monachus'</td><td>qapar 'dhole'</td></tr><tr><td>qajwi 'worm'</td><td>qapymtumtu 'hoopoe'</td></tr><tr><td>qajy 'fish'</td><td>qapri 'snake'</td></tr><tr><td>qala 'rabbit'</td><td>qarma 'crossoptilon'</td></tr><tr><td>qalia 'eagle'</td><td>qartsʰaz 'deer'</td></tr><tr><td>qambalula 'butterfly'</td><td>qartsʰi 'cricket'</td></tr><tr><td>qambru 'male yak'</td><td>qazo 'sheep'</td></tr><tr><td>qamtɛwir 'shrew'</td><td></td></tr></table>

uvular one. Among these words, *kurtsɣy* ‘snow leopard’ has a Tibetan cognate **གཤིག** *gzig* ‘leopard’ with a *g-* preinitial, which is possibly related to the *ku-* prefix in Japhug.

<table><caption>Table 5.11: Animal name ku- prefix</caption><tr><td>kwcçpaz 'marmot'</td></tr><tr><td>kujka 'pyrrhocorax'</td></tr><tr><td>kumu 'Tetraogallus tibetanus'</td></tr><tr><td>kupγz 'type of bug'</td></tr><tr><td>kurtsɣy 'snow leopard'</td></tr><tr><td>kurni 'beast'</td></tr><tr><td>kurnu 'mite'</td></tr></table>

There is a handful of nouns with reduced allomorphs γ-, x- or even metathesized as βγ- in some words, corresponding to kə- in Situ (see the phonological discussion in Jacques 2014b: 6), including xçiri ‘weasel’, xtut ‘wild cat’, γzu ‘monkey’, γni ‘flying squirrel’, βγuz ‘badger’ and βγza ‘fly’. The same allomorphy is observed between the subject participle ku- (§16.1.1) and the nominalization prefixes x-/γ- (§16.5.2).
### 5.6.3 Uvular plant name prefix

Some plant names have a uvular class prefix *qa-*, including both cultivated and wild plants (and even plant parts), such as *qaćti* ‘peach’, *qaɣγi* ‘oat’, *qampʰoʔ* ‘oak leaves’, *qandzi* ‘type of fir’, *qaẓmbri* ‘vine’, *qawuẓ* ‘edelweiss’ and many others.

### 5.6.4 Other uses of the uvular class prefix

In addition to animal and plants names, the class prefix *qa-* appears on some tools (*qajo* ‘earthen pot’, *qase* ‘leather rope’, *qaɣt* ‘rake’, *qapi* ‘white stone’), names of periods of the year (*qartsu* ‘winter’, *qartsɣβ* ‘harvest’), materials (*qandzi* ‘tin’, *qambut* ‘sand’) or natural forces like *qale* ‘wind’.

The reduced form ཨ- of the class prefix occurs with the noun *qale* ‘wind’ in some compounds such as *akucʰoʔle* ‘east wind’ and the abstract inalienably possessed noun *u-ཨle* ‘reputation’ (and the verbs derived from it, such as *ra(120, 631, 437, 658],

The identification of class prefixes in body parts mainly rests on comparative evidence. Other Trans-Himalayan languages that preserve clusters such as Ti-betan have in some names for body parts cluster that do not match those found in Japhug, for instance ṁkṣīṣṇu *mkʰris.pa* ‘bile’ and ṣkṣi *ske* ‘neck’ corresponding to the Japhug inalienably possessed nouns *tu-ekrut* ‘bile’ and *tu-mke* ‘neck’ (see §5.1.2.3), suggesting that body part class prefixes such as ṭ- and m- have been added to these words in Gyalrongic and Tibetan independently.

Apart from the m- and ṭ-/ṣ- class prefixes, some alienably possessed body parts such as *qambyo* ‘earwax’ have a *qa-* prefix (§5.1.2.3).

## 5.7 Nominal derivations

Nominal derivations pale compared to the rich verbal (§11.2.2) and even ideophonic (§10.1.1) derivations in Japhug. There is little derivational prefixation in nouns (aside from the collective *kyndzi*-*pre*- prefix and derivational uses of class prefixes, as seen in §5.6 above), and nearly all of the suffixes or quasi-suffixes involved in these derivations are traceable to inalienably possessed nouns that are still attested in the language, and have thus nearly no antiquity.
5.7.1 Privative

The suffix -lu can be combined with the bound state form of body part nouns, without possessive prefix, to derive a noun meaning ‘...less’, ‘without ...’ that can be used as a modifier (§5.2). Examples attested in the corpus are indicated in Table 5.12, but this derivation appears to be productive.

<table><caption>Table 5.12: Privative -lu suffix</caption><thead><tr><td>Base Noun</td><td>Privative form</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>ta-ъru 'horn'</td><td>ърulu 'hornless'</td></tr><tr><td>tr-jme 'tail'</td><td>jmъlu 'without tail'</td></tr><tr><td>tw-jaъ 'hand, arm'</td><td>jaъlu 'missing a hand'</td></tr><tr><td>tw-ku 'head'</td><td>kъlu 'headless'</td></tr></tbody></table>

These privative forms can modify other nouns, and are placed after the nouns and before determiners such as demonstratives or numerals, as in (113) and (114).

(113) zъni γwftsob ъrulu ci ta-rku-nw рw-ηu
3DU GEN female.hybrid.yak hornless INDEF AOR:3→3'-put.in-PL SENS-be
'They gave them a hornless female yak (to take with them back to the
husband's home.' (2005-stod)

Privative nouns are systematically glossed in Japhug with possessor participial relatives in ku-me 'not having' (§23.5.10.1), as in (114) (see also example 97 from §5.5.1.1).

(114) tce kuju jmъlu nwnw turme рw-ηu, w-jme kw-me
LNK animal tailless DEM man SENS-be 3SG.POSS-tail SBJ:PCP-not.exist
nw tce, tce kuju jmъlu nwnw рw-spw cti tce nw
DEM LNK LNK animal tailless DEM IPFV-be.crazy be:AFF:FACT LNK DEM
nw-spw tce tce icqha tw-ryi
AOR-be.crazy LNK LNK the.aforementioned INDEF.POSS-seed
chъw-ku-χtyr nw nw-ku-spw tu-syrmi-nw.
IPFV-SBJ:PCP-spread DEM AOR-SBJ:PCP-be.crazy IPFV-call-PL
'The 'tailless animal' is the man, and 'he becomes crazy', [when the
crow says] that [people] became crazy, it means that they are sowing
seeds.' (22-qajdo) {0003596#S46}
The noun *kejlu* ‘left-handed’ is not a privative noun deriving from *ke* ‘left’, but rather a compound comprising the property noun *w-jlu* (§5.1.2.7) as second element, in its grammaticalized meaning as a restrictive focus marker (§9.1.6.5), literally meaning ‘only (with) left (hand)’.

## 5.7.2 Relative location

The prefix *maŋ-* can be used to derive nouns referring to the position of the referent on either the vertical, the riverine or the solar dimensions (§15.1.3), which are encoded in verbal morphology, postpositions, relator nouns and locative adverbs (§8.2.10, §8.3.4.1, §22.2.6). These nouns are homophonous with corresponding verbs of relative location (§15.1.3.4).

<table><caption>Table 5.13: Nouns of relative location and corresponding locative adverbs</caption><thead><tr><td>Locative adverb</td><td>Noun of location</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>tak</td><td>maŋta「the one on the upper side」</td></tr><tr><td>pa</td><td>maŋpa「the one on the lower side」</td></tr><tr><td>lo</td><td>maŋlo「the one upstream」</td></tr><tr><td>t'i</td><td>maŋt'i「the one downstream」</td></tr><tr><td>ku</td><td>maŋku「the one on the east side」</td></tr><tr><td>ndi</td><td>maŋndi「the one on the west side」</td></tr></tbody></table>

The nouns of relative location can either occur as postnominal attributes, but can also (less commonly) be used their own as illustrated by (115).

(115) icqʰa nũ, tʰi nũ, kuki cna t maŋtʰi
just before DEM downstream de DEM.PROX heddle downstream. one
ki tx-jo-V-a pu-ŋu tce, tʰam tce maŋlo nura
DEM.PROX AOR-lift-1SG PST.IPFV-be LNK now LNK upstream. one DEM.PL
tú-wy-joV ra
IPFV-INV-lift be. needed: FACT

‘Just before, I had lifted the heddle on the lower (downstream) side [of the loom], now we have to lift the ones on the upper (upstream) side.’
(video 20140429090403) {0003776#S68}

## 5.7.3 Diminutive

There are four diminutive formations in Japhug, with the quasi-suffixes -pu-, -tsa-, -tco- and -li-.
The most productive is the -pu suffixation. This transparent suffix comes from the noun *tx-pu* ‘offspring, young’ (from Tibetan ṅ bu ‘son’). A diminutive formation based on the same noun also exists in Tibetan (Uray 1952, Hill 2014b: 627); whether the diminutive formation was independently innovated, or was borrowed from Tibetan is a question that needs to be further investigated. It is also attested in Situ (Zhang 2016, Lai 2017: 151).

Earlier diminutives are formed with the bound state of the noun, for instance *tɛ̃h̃emɣpu* ‘little girl’ from *tɛ̃h̃eme* ‘girl’, *staxpu* ‘pea’ from *stɔ́k* ‘broad bean’, or *kʰuzxpu* ‘puppy’ from a non-attested form *kʰuza*, propably itself the -tsa diminutive of *kʰuna* ‘dog’, borrowed from a Situ dialect.

More recent diminutives are directly formed with the base form, such as *qa-pripu* ‘little serpent’. This formation is extremely productive, and applies to plants, animals and even objects as in (116).

(116) tce srwnloɔ-pwu ci nɔ̃-kʰo tce
LNK ring-DIM INDEF IFR-give LNK
‘He handed him a little ring.’ (2011-4-smanmi)

The suffix -pu is recursive: examples of doubly suffixed nouns are found in the corpus, as in (117) for instance.

(117) łɔndʒi-pwu-pwu nura ku, u-pʰoŋbu nura ko-sылyyu-nu ri,
demon-DIM-DIM DEM:PL ERG 3SG.POSS-body DEM:PL IFR-link-PL LNK
‘The little demonlings put back his body together, but...’ (150909 xifangping-zh) {0006408#S89}

Suffixation with -pu is the fused variant of the property noun construction with *u-pu* ‘little one’ described in §5.1.2.7.

A diminutive that is common to all Gyalrongic languages is the suffix -tsa/-za (Situ -tsa or -za (Lin 1993: 163), Khroskyabs -ze / -zə / -za, -tsi (Lai 2017: 158), Stau -za), found in fossilized forms in nouns such as *kʰutsa* ‘bowl’ and *βɣγza* ‘fly’,<fnref n="29" /> but still visible in diminutive forms like *paкtsa* ‘piglet’ (from *paк* ‘pig’). It originates from the noun ‘son’ that is lost in Japhug but still attested in Situ and Khroskyabs (Wobzi zî ‘young man’).

In Japhug the -tsa diminutive is not very productive; it applies to some nouns that already have a -pu diminutive such as *stɔ́ktsa* ‘name of plant’ from *stɔ́k* ‘broad bean’ (besides *staxpu* ‘pea’).

<footnote n="29">²⁹The noun βγγza ‘fly’ is cognate to Brag-dbar kəvôs, Khroskyabs jvazá (Zhang 2016, Lai 2017: 156) and originates from proto-Gyalrong *kpɔs-tsa* (Jacques 2008: 53).</footnote>
The third diminutive suffix -tɛu, like the two preceding ones, originates from a noun meaning ‘offspring’, tsr-tɛu ‘son’, and requires bound state.

It is used for animals (*kumpγrtɛu* ‘sparrow’ from *kumpγa* ‘fowl’) or inanimate objects (*kʰrtɛu* ‘little house’ from *kʰa* ‘house’ or *lkrrtɛu* ‘little gunny bag’ from *lkr* ‘gunny bag’). It occurs in some lexicalized forms such as *mbrutɛu* ‘knife’.<fnref n="30" />

The suffix -li is the least productive of all diminutive formations, and the only one that cannot be traced to an existing noun. It appears is *tɛʰemɛrli* ‘little girl’ (a synonym of *tɛʰemɛrpu* ‘little girl’) and in *rgali* ‘young cow’.

### 5.7.4 Augmentative

A handful of nouns, some of Tibetan origin, have an augmentative form in -te, originally from a property noun *w-te* ‘big’ (related to the verb *wxti* ‘be big’).

Augmentatives include *tɛyomte* ‘cultivated xanthoxylum’ (from *tɛyom* ‘xanthoxylum’), *tujite* ‘big field’ (from *tu-ji* ‘field’, name of several fields in Kamnyu), *tɛʰute* ‘big river’ (from *kʰ* *tɛʰu* ‘water, river’) and the possessive compound *ŋgute* ‘person with a big head’ (with *ŋgu-* from Tibetan *གློ་* *ŋgo* ‘head, top’; this stem is not attested in Japhug as an independent word).

### 5.7.5 Derogatory

There are three derogatory quasi-suffixes in Japhug, deriving designations of old or broken things: -do and -mbe ‘old X’ and -nqra ‘broken X’. These suffixes are the fused variants of the property nouns *w-nqra* ‘broken one’, *w-do* ‘old one’ and *tsr-mbe* ‘old thing’ (see §5.1.2.7).

The suffixes -do and -mbe, like their corresponding property nouns, differ in that the former occurs with animals and plants (*nuna-do* ‘old cow’, *rjɛlpu-do* ‘old king’), while the latter is used for inanimate objects.

In a few cases, the suffixed noun is in bound state (as *kʰrɛnqra* ‘ruin’ from *kʰa* ‘house’ and *-nqra*, or *kʰudo* ‘old dog’ (from *kʰuna* ‘dog’ and -do, see §5.4.2.3)). When the suffixed noun is inalienably possessed, addition of a derogatory suffix does not turn it into an alienably possessed noun, as in *tu-rcvme* ‘old jacket’ from *tu-rcu* ‘jacket’ and -mbe.

### 5.7.6 Gentilic

The gentilic suffix -pu derives from the same noun *tsr-pu* ‘offspring, young’ from which the diminutive -pu ultimately originates (see §5.7.3). It is used to derive

<footnote n="30">³⁰The root of this noun is metathesized from *mbur*; its cognates have a -tsa diminutive in Situ (Brag-dbar mbərtsiɛ̄, Zhang 2016: 228) and Khroskyabs (Wobzi (bərzé, Lai 2017: 115).</footnote>
nouns referring to inhabitants of a certain place, and occurs without bound state. For instance, from the village names of *kṣṛṇpu* (the village whose speech is described in this grammar) and *snarndi* (a village in Tshobdun), one derives *kṣṛṇpu-wu* ‘person from Kamnyu’ and *snarndipu* ‘person from Snarndi’ (see the text 26-tshubdWnpW in the corpus). Given the high productivity of this derivation, these nouns are not indicated in the dictionary, as it would unnecessarily inflate the number of entries.

An alternative way to refer to the inhabitants of a place is by adding the plural *ra* to it (§5.2.1).

### 5.7.7 Gender

There is no morphological expression of gender in Japhug. For animals, the nouns *pʰu* ‘male’ and *mu* ‘female’ (from Tibetan ṣ pʰo ‘male’ and ṣ mo ‘female’) can be used on their own (as in 118) or occur as second member of compounds, as *kumpyapʰu* ‘rooster’ and *kumpyamu* ‘hen’ from *kumpya* ‘fowl’, or *lulvmu* ‘female cat’ from *lulu* ‘cat’, with bound state of the first noun.

(118) *tykʰe pyxtcu ndyre pʰu mu saχsyl*
stupid bird: *DIM on.the.other hand* male female be.clear: *FACT*
‘The male and the female of the ‘stupid bird’, as opposed [to the birds previously discussed], are easy to distinguish.’ (23-scuz) {0003612#S42}

The suffixes -pa and -mu (from Tibetan -pa and -mo, respectively) also occur for a handful of nouns, some of Tibetan origin (*srunmu* ‘râkshasi’ from Ṣrakṣasi *srin.mo* ‘râkshasi’) but also some local names such as *ngarpa* ‘male one quarter yak hybrid’ vs. *ngarmu* ‘female one quarter yak hybrid’.

The noun *paŋu* ‘boar’ from *paŋ* ‘pig’ has a suffix -u that is not found in any other word.

For some farm animals, a lexical distinction is made between male and female animals (see Table 5.14).

### 5.7.8 Collective

While Japhug lacks number inflection, there are several collective derivations: the social relation collective, reduplicated collectives and the *dvandva* collective.
<table><caption>Table 5.14: Lexical distinction of male and female animals</caption><thead><tr><th>Male</th><th>Female</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><i>qambru</i> ‘male yak’</td><td><i>qra</i> ‘female yak’</td></tr><tr><td><i>jla</i> ‘male hybrid yak’</td><td><i>ftsoš</i> ‘female hybrid yak’</td></tr><tr><td><i>mbala</i> ‘bull’</td><td><i>nua</i> ‘cow’</td></tr><tr><td><i>zraβ</i> ‘buck’</td><td>(<i>ts</i><sup>h</sup><sub>š</sub><i>nmu</i> ‘ewe’)</td></tr></tbody></table>

### 5.7.8.1 Social relation collective

The first type of collective is a noun prefixed in *kъndzi-* and built either from kinship or social relation terms (which can be either inalienably or alienably possessed nouns), designating a group of people linked to one another by a specific relation.<fnref n="31" />

Two types of social relation collectives should be distinguished: reciprocal and non-reciprocal collectives.

Reciprocal collectives (Table 5.15) are derived from nouns designating a relationship in which all members of the group call each other by the same term: these can be non-kinship terms like ‘companion’ or ‘friend’ or kinship terms like *ty-sqʰaj* ‘sister’ (of a female) (§27.2.2.1).

Non-reciprocal collectives (Table 5.16) are based on nouns designating unequal relationships, in which the members designate each other by different terms, in particular kinship terms involving relatives from different generations or different gender. Aside from kinship terms, groups comprising farm animals and their owners can also be formed by the same process from the name of the animal, as *kъndzimbro* ‘horseman and his horse’ and *kъndziftsoš* ‘female hybrid yak and its owners’ (see example 120 below).

Non-reciprocal collectives are either formed from one of the two nouns, which can be either from the lower (*kъndziye* ‘grandparents and grandchildren’) or the higher generation (*kъndzini* ‘paternal aunt and her nephews’), or by a combination of two kinship terms, the first of which, in some cases, undergoes changes to the point of being barely recognizable (*kъndzipymdu* ‘paternal uncle and his nephews’).<fnref n="32" />

<footnote n="31">³¹There is some doubt about whether this prefix should be transcribed as *kъndzu-* or *kъndzi-.* See §3.5.2.2 on the question of the contrast between /i/ and /w/ following palatals and alveolo-palatals in non-final syllables.</footnote>

<footnote n="32">³²In the case of *kъndziwytaš* ‘maternal aunt and her nephews’, the origin of the element -wy- is not identifiable.</footnote>
<table><caption>Table 5.15: Reciprocal social relation collectives</caption><thead><tr><th>Collective</th><th>Base noun</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>kɔndziyufsu 'friends'</td><td>yufsu 'friend'</td></tr><tr><td>kɔndzißaŋsa 'friends'</td><td>ßaŋsa 'friend'</td></tr><tr><td>kɔndziɔxpu 'friends'</td><td>ɔxpu 'friend'</td></tr><tr><td>kɔndzikumdza 'relatives'</td><td>kumdza 'relative'</td></tr><tr><td>kɔndzirya 'neighbours'</td><td>tɔ-rya 'neighbour'</td></tr><tr><td>kɔndzislamaχti 'classmates'</td><td>slamaχti 'classmate'</td></tr><tr><td>kɔndzisqʰaj 'sisters'</td><td>tɔ-sqʰaj 'sister' (of a female)</td></tr><tr><td>kɔndzimɔtsa 'mother's sister's children'</td><td>tɔ-mɔtsa 'mother's sister's child'</td></tr><tr><td>kɔndzitɔtɔuχti 'friends (between males)'</td><td>tɔtɔuχti 'friend (between males)'</td></tr><tr><td>kɔndzitɛʰemɔχti 'friends (between female)'</td><td>tɔʰemɔχti 'friend (between female)'</td></tr><tr><td>kɔndzitɔy 'brothers'</td><td>tɔ-xtɔy 'brother' (of a male)</td></tr><tr><td>kɔndzitɔti 'companions'</td><td>tɔu-χti 'companion'</td></tr><tr><td>kɔndzizda 'companions'</td><td>tɔu-zda 'companion'</td></tr></tbody></table>

The collective nouns can be used as normal nouns and take flagging, numerals and other modifiers, as in (119).

(119) kɔndzi-xtɔy χswɔm pjɔ-tu-nɔ
COLL-brother three IFR.IPFV-exist-PL
'There were three brothers.' (07-deluge) [0003426#S2]

Social relation collectives are also found in Situ and Tshobdun (Sun 1998: 107), where they have optional reduplication; in Japhug, partial reduplication (as in §5.7.8.2) is used by some speakers, as kɔndziftsuftsoɔ 'female hybrid yak and its owners' in example (120), from a story by Kunbzang Mtsho.

(120) kɔndzi-ftsuɔ-ftsoɔ χswɔm nɔ, tsʰuntsʰuɔ kɔu-pa
COLL-female.yak.hybrid three DEM IDPH(II):in.order INF:STAT-AUX
kɔ-nɔ-łɔɔ-nɔ pɔu-ŋu,
AOR:EAST-AUTO-come.out-PL SENS-be

'[The girl, her husband] and their female hybrid yak crossed [the large river] without damage.' (2003 Kunbzang)

The lists in Tables 5.15 and 5.16 comprise most common social relation collectives, but are by no means complete lists. For instance, next to kɔndzirpuftsa
<table><caption>Table 5.16: Non-reciprocal social relation collectives</caption><thead><tr><th>Collective</th><th>Base noun</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>kyndziye</strong> 'grandparents and grandchildren'</td><td><strong>ty-ye</strong> 'grandchild'</td></tr><tr><td><strong>kyndziisi</strong> 'siblings'</td><td><strong>ta-ki</strong> 'younger sibling'</td></tr><tr><td><strong>kyndzime</strong> 'parents and daughter'</td><td><strong>u-me</strong> 'daughter'</td></tr><tr><td><strong>kyndzi ni</strong> 'paternal aunt and her nephews'</td><td><strong>ty- ni</strong> 'father's sister'</td></tr><tr><td><strong>kyndzimbro</strong> 'horseman and his horse'</td><td><strong>mbro</strong> 'horse'</td></tr><tr><td><strong>kyndzislama</strong> 'master and disciple'</td><td><strong>slama</strong> 'student'</td></tr><tr><td><strong>kyndzijla</strong> 'male hybrid yak and its owners'</td><td><strong>jla</strong> 'male hybrid yak'</td></tr><tr><td><strong>kyndziftso</strong> 'female hybrid yak and its owners'</td><td><strong>ftso</strong> 'female hybrid yak'</td></tr><tr><td><strong>kyndzi pa</strong> 'pig and its owners'</td><td><strong>pa</strong> 'pig'</td></tr><tr><td><strong>kyndziqazo</strong> 'sheep and its owners'</td><td><strong>qazo</strong> 'sheep'</td></tr><tr><td><strong>kyndzits</strong><sup>h</sup><sub>yt</sub> 'goat and its owners'</td><td><strong>ts</strong><sup>h</sup><sub>yt</sub> 'goat'</td></tr><tr><td><strong>kyndzirpuftsa</strong> 'maternal uncle and his nephews'</td><td><strong>ty-rpu</strong> 'mother's brother' (1)<br><strong>ty-ftsa</strong> 'sister's child' (2)</td></tr><tr><td><strong>kyndziwra</strong> 'maternal aunt and her nephews'</td><td><strong>ty- la</strong> 'mother's sister' (2)</td></tr><tr><td><strong>kyndzi pmdu</strong> 'paternal uncle and his nephews'</td><td><strong>ty- βyo</strong> 'father's brother' (1)<br><strong>ty- mdu</strong> 'brother's child' (2)</td></tr><tr><td><strong>kyndziwmu</strong> 'brother and sisters'</td><td><strong>ty- wmu</strong> 'brother' (of a female) (1)<br><strong>ty- snom</strong> 'sister' (of a male) (2)</td></tr></tbody></table>

'maternal uncle and his nephews' from *ty-rpu* 'mother's brother' and *ty-ftsa* 'sister's child', the terms *kyndzirpu* 'maternal uncle and his nephews' and *kyndziftsa* 'nephew with his maternal uncles and aunts' are also possible though less common. However, some combinations are considered incorrect. For instance, Tshendzin considers that †kyndzirzaβ (from *ty-rzaβ* 'wife') is only found in children's language (*npu ty-ptso ra ku tu-ti-nu ngryl* 'children talk like that'), as the correct term is *bzmi* 'husband and wife' from Tibetan *བརྟོན་སྟེ་ bza.mi* 'husband and wife'.

There is in addition an irregular collective *kutsa* 'parents and children', with the same element -tsa found in some diminutives (see §5.7.3), from an earlier word for 'child'.

It can be used without any preceding noun as in (121), but more commonly serves as the modifier of a kinship term, as in (122) (note also *ty-tcu* *kutsa* 'father and son' and *tcheme* *kutsa* 'mother and daughter' from *ty-tcu* 'son, boy' and *tcheme* 'girl').
## 5 Nominal morphology

(121) tce tς-mu nw ku w-pw numu
LNK INDEF.POSS-mother DEM ERG 3SG.POSS-young DEM
ju-cpʰyγm tce, zara kvtsa ra stwsti yfa
IPFV-flee.with[III] LNK 3PL parents.and.children PL alone completely
zo ce-nw pω-ra.
EMPH go:FACT-PL SENS-be.needed
‘And the mother (i.e. lioness) flees with her cubs, and they (i.e. mother and children) have to go alone (without the father).’ (20-sWNgi)
{0003562#S71}

(122) tς-mu kvtsa ci pjy-tu-ndzi tce
INDEF.POSS-mother parents.and.children INDEF IFR.IPFV-exist-DU LNK
‘There was a mother and her son.’ (tWJo 2012) {0004089#S4}

Like comitative adverbs (§5.8.1), it is clear that social relation collectives originate from participles of denominal verbs. The only example of the verbal denominal *andžu-* derivation from which they originate is *andzirya* ‘be neighbours’ from the inalienably possessed noun *tς-rya* ‘neighbour’ (§20.2.5). The social relation collective *kvndzirya* ‘neighbours’ can thus be analyzed as the participle of this verb *ku-vndzirya*.

However, since the *andzi-* denominal derivation attested only in this single example, from a synchronic point of view it is better to consider this collective formation as a strictly nominal derivation.

### 5.7.8.2 Reduplicated collectives

The reduplicated collectives are built using partial reduplication. There are three different patterns.

First, some nouns allow standard partial reduplication with -u in the redupli-cated syllable (§4.1) expressing a vague collective. This reduplication can apply to loanwords from Tibetan, such as *χswu~χsγr* ‘things in gold’ and *rŋwu~rŋwul* ‘things in silver’ from *χsγr* ‘gold’ and *rŋwul* ‘silver’ (Tibetan གསེར་ gser ‘gold’ and དྷུལ་ dŋul ‘silver’).

(123) a-χswu~χsγr ra, a-rŋwu~rŋwul ra mς-ra ku
1SG.POSS-COLL~gold PL 1SG.POSS-COLL~silver PL NEG-be.needed:FACT ERG
com rjγskxt w-taɣ tu-ce-a γu
iron stairs 3SG.POSS-on IPFV:UP-go-1SG be:FACT
‘I don’t need things in gold or silver, I will go up the iron stairs.’ (not the golden or silver stairs, 2005-Kunbzang)
Some nouns, which only appear in a reduplicated form are presumably an-
cient collectives, like *kʰambaχtuχtɛm* ‘lies’ from a possible non-reduplicated
form *kʰambaχtɛm* (from ၎ስ አካባቢ አካባቢ *kʰram.pa.gtam* ‘deceiving words’).

Second, we find some reduplicated collectives with the vowel /a/, not /u/, in the replicated syllable. There are only a few examples, as shown in Table 5.17, but several of them are borrowings from Tibetan. In one case, *fɛafɛrt* ‘words’, the base word is a transitive verb (*fɛrt* ‘tell’).

<table><caption>Table 5.17: Collective noun derivation</caption><thead><tr><th>Base form</th><th>Collective</th><th>Tibetan</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>rdul 'dust'</td><td>rdardul 'dust, dirt'</td><td>ξuv rdul 'dust'</td></tr><tr><td>tu-ntcʰur 'fragment'</td><td>u-ntcʰantcʰur 'fragments'</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>u-zur 'side'</td><td>u-zarzur 'sides'</td><td>ξx zur 'side, corner'</td></tr><tr><td>u-rku 'side'</td><td>u-rkarku 'sides'</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>fɛrt 'tell'</td><td>fɛafɛrt 'words'</td><td>བཤད bead 'explain, tell'</td></tr></tbody></table>

Reduplicated collective nouns in *a-* can be used without a number clitic, as in (124), but they often appear with the *ra* ‘plural’ as in (125).

(124) znɣryama nʷ mtʰa w-k(186, 744, 739, 796],

tw-ji w-ntcʰantcʰu̯r pw-dn, jinde kʰro

INDEF POSS-field 3SG POSS-fragment:COLL PST.IPFV-be:many now much

ŋv-s-qapu-nu̯,

IFR-CAUS-be.fallow-PL

‘Znargama (‘The place where one calls the rain’) is on the east of Mtha,
there used to be many little fragments of fields, but now people have left
them become fallow.’ (150903 kAmYW tWji3) {0006288#S20}

(125) tce tyci nʷ tú-wy-χtci tcʰγatcʰγat zo tce,
LNK barley DEM IPFV-INV-wash IDPH(II):completely.clean EMPH LNK
rdardul nʷra nʷ-wy-ɣy-me tce
dush:COLL DEM:PL IPFV-INV-CAUS-notuez LNK

‘Then one washes the barley very thoroughly, one removes all the dirt.’
(2002 tWsqar)

The noun *rgargun* ‘old person’ has the form of a collective noun as those in Table 5.17, but it is commonly used with singular or dual referents (as in 126). It
could be analyzed as the collective form of a loanword from Tibetan སྐྱ་རྒྱ་ང་ rgan-po
'old person', though the expected form would have been †rga-rgyn.

(126) rgargwn ni ky-fstwn pw-ra
old.person DU INF-serve PST.IPFV-be-needed
'She had to take care of two old people.' (14-siblings) {0003508#S33}

A third reduplicated collective derivation is only attested by one example, the
form *qajuwaja* ‘all kinds of worms’ (see 127) which derives from *qaju* ‘worm’ by
reduplicating the whole word and changing the last rhyme to /-a/, a reduplica-
tion template reminiscent of that found in Khroskyabs (see Lai 2013, Lai 2017:
22–24).

(127) tw-ci w-ngw qajuwaja tʰamtcvt, sw-ngw yw w-rwdaŋ
INDEF.Poss-water 3SG-inside worm:COLL all forest GEN animal
kw-xtci kw-wxti, mzyw pya numura lonba zo
SBJ:PCP-be.small SBJ:PCP-be.big yet bird DEM:PL all EMPH
ky-fsraŋ kw-ra pw-cti ma
INF-protect INF:STAT-be-needed SENS-be:AFF LNK
‘All the creatures in the water, the small and big animals of the forest,
and also the birds have to be protected.’ (160703 jingyu) {0006169#S43}

A fourth type of collective has the vowel -e in the reduplicated syllable. It is
attested in the noun *u-ŋovje* ‘all kinds of diluted drinks’ from *u-ŋo* ‘diluted drink’
(derived from the verb *o-jo* ‘rinse’).

5.7.8.3 Dvandva collective

The *dvandva* collective is derived from two nouns, the first one in bound state
followed by the element -l- and then by the second noun stem without a pos-
sessive prefix. All known forms, some of which have Tshobdun cognates,<fnref n="33" /> are
listed in Table 5.18.

Among the examples in Table 5.18, *u-krlvjme* ‘head upside down’ and *kumrlxso* ‘useless’, ‘in vain’ are mainly used adverbially. The first one mostly occurs with verbs such as *ctʰuẓ* ‘turn towards’ and *ru* ‘look at’ at, as in (128).<fnref n="34" />

<footnote n="33">³³The nouns *tu-mrlvjar* ‘limbs’ and *u-krlvjme* ‘head upside down’ correspond to *o-kolvjmw* ‘head and tail’ (Sun & Blogros 2019: 533) and *o-melja* ‘limbs’, respectively (Sun & Blogros 2019: 276).</footnote>

<footnote n="34">³⁴See a definition of this noun in (150), §16.2.1.4.</footnote>
<table><caption>Table 5.18: Dvandva collectives</caption><thead><tr><th>Collective</th><th>First noun</th><th>Second Noun</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><i>tu-kъlymъna</i> 'facial features'</td><td><i>tu-ku</i> 'head'</td><td><i>tu-mъna</i> 'eye'</td></tr><tr><td><i>tu-mъlyja</i> 'limbs'</td><td><i>tu-mi</i> 'foot, leg'</td><td><i>tu-ja</i> 'hand, arm'</td></tr><tr><td><i>u-kъlyjme</i> 'head upside down'</td><td><i>tu-ku</i> 'head'</td><td><i>ty-jme</i> 'tail'</td></tr><tr><td><i>kumъlyxso</i> 'useless'</td><td><i>ku-me</i> 'not existing'</td><td><i>u-xso</i> 'empty, normal'</td></tr></tbody></table>

(128) tce nū u-sta nū lytcʰom nū jū́-wỳ-къo žo
LNK DEM 3SG.POSS-place DEM churning bucket DEM IPFV-INV-rinse EMPH
kʰrʌŋkʰrʌŋ žo qʰe tce u-kъlyjme
IDPF:II:completely.clean EMPH LNK LNK 3SG.POSS-head.upside.down
pjú́-wỳ-ctʰuMES qʰe, u-mŋu nū pa
IPFV:DOWN-INV-turn.towards LNK 3SG.POSS-opening DEM down
pjú́-wỳ-ctʰuMES
IPFV:DOWN-INV-turn.towards

'One rinses the churning bucket very clean, and put it upside down at its
place, the opening down.' (30-macha) {0003746#S62}

The noun *kumъlyxso* 'useless', 'superfluous', combines the subject participle of *me* 'not exist' with the property noun *u-xso* 'empty, normal' (a lexicalized participle, whose uses and etymology are described in §5.1.2.7). It can be used as predicate with a copula (129), but often occurs in adverbial use meaning 'in vain', 'for nothing' or 'doing nothing' as in (130).

(129) nuzora kumylyxso pw-tu-cti-nu ma tu-nyma-nu maŋe!
2PL in.vain SENS-2-be.AFF LNK 2-work:FACT-PL notuezENS
'You are useless, you don't do any work.' (2003 Kunbzang)

(130) ndzi-<zuoye> pw-βzu-ndzi ra ma kumylyxso
2DU.POSS-homework IMP-make-DU be.needed:FACT LNK in.vain
ku-tu-rỳzi-ndzi mỳ-jyỳ
IPFV-2-stay-DU NEG-be.allowed:FACT
'Do your homework, don't stay there doing nothing.' (conversation,
14-05-10)

The -lъ-/la- element found in collective *dvandva-s* is also attested in approximate numerals (§7.2) and in adverbs such *tuxpalыskъr* 'the whole year' (from *tu-xpa* 'one year' and *fskъr* 'turn around') and *rtsućanjalajmtcъr* 'all the plants' (from
rtsu·caŋ 'plant' and tʰamtɛrɛt 'all', respectively from Tibetan རྟེ་སྤེ་ན་ rtsi·cinaŋ 'plant' and མངས་སྤེ་ན་ tʰams·tcad 'all'). Another possible trace of this lɣ- element is found in the adverb lɣqʰrtɔmbɛrt ('distance of) several mountain ranges' (131), which contains the noun tɔmbɛrt 'mountain' and perhaps the bound state qʰɔ- from u-qʰu 'after, behind'.

(131) ji-pɛrtʰiβ lɔqʰitɔmbɛrt tu 1PL.POSS-between several mountains exist:FACT 'There is a distance of several mountain ranges between us.' (elicited)

Another linking morpheme -mr- instead of -lɣ- is found in the possessed noun u-ŋgwamɛpçi 'the inside and the outside' from the locative relator nouns u-ŋgw 'inside' and u-pçi 'outside' (the latter from Tibetan མ་པོ་གི 'outside', §8.3.4.2).

5.7.9 Superlative

While there is no adjectival superlative derivation in Japhug (the available con-
structions to express this meaning are described in §26.4), we find nevertheless a
derivation applied to locative nouns (§8.3.4), expressing the furthest location. As
shown in Table 5.19, it is built by adding an element -ɛu- followed by a complete
copy of the root of the noun without bound state alternation or partial replica-
tion; the resulting noun is still an inalienably possessed locative noun. Example
(132) illustrates the use of one of these forms.

<table><caption>Table 5.19: Superlative noun derivation</caption>
   <tr>
    <td>
     tu-ku
    </td>
    <td>
     ‘head’, ‘top’
    </td>
    <td>
     u-kuçuku
    </td>
    <td>
     ‘the highest place’
    </td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
    <td>
     tɔ-qa
    </td>
    <td>
     ‘paw, root’, ‘bottom’
    </td>
    <td>
     u-qaçuqa
    </td>
    <td>
     ‘the deepest place’
    </td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
    <td>
     u-rku
    </td>
    <td>
     ‘side’
    </td>
    <td>
     u-rkuçurku
    </td>
    <td>
     ‘the furthest place on the side’
    </td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
    <td>
     u-zur
    </td>
    <td>
     ‘side’
    </td>
    <td>
     u-zurçuzur
    </td>
    <td>
     ‘the furthest place on the side’
    </td>
   </tr>
  </table>

(132) rtsʰu u-qacuqa pjw-ce tce, nunw
ocean 3SG.POSS-bottom:SUPER IPFV:DOWN-go LNK DEM
u-k-muw nwra c-tu-nw-tcɛt
3SG.POSS-OBJ:PCP-TROP-be.tasty DEM:PL TRAL-IPFV-AUTO-take.out
pw-uŋu.
SENS-be

'[The sperm whale] goes to the lowest depths of the ocean and catches
the things it likes to eat.' (160703 jingyu) {0006169#S24}
### 5.7.10 Unattested derivations

The only negative morphology possible on Japhug nouns is the privative derivation (§5.7.1). Negative prefixes only occur verbs (§13.1), and the only way to express non-privative negation on nouns is by using a relative clause (§13.4.1). There is no nominal tense derivation corresponding to the English prefix *ex-*. This meaning can only be expressed by participial relatives with the past imperfective participle of the copula *pu-kuu-ηu* (133) (§16.1.1.2).

(133) *u-ηuav* *pu-kuu-ηu*
3SG.POSS-husband PST.IPFV-SBJ:PCP-be
'Her ex-husband (the one who used to be her husband).' (several attestations)

In addition, although it is possible to derive abstract nouns from verbs (§16.3, §16.4.2, §16.4.7), there is no direct way of deriving an abstract noun from a noun. There is however an indirect way of doing it by building a denominal verb, and then to subjecting it to a nominalizing derivation. For instance, from the inalienably possessed *ty-mdzu* 'thorn', the proprietive verb *ayu-mdzu* 'be thorny, have a lot of thorns' can be derived (§20.2.4) and its (productive) degree noun *u-tw-γyu-mdzu* 'its degree of thornity' is well attested in the degree construction (§26.1.2.1) as shown in (134).

(134) *u-tw-γyu-mdzu* *saχaiv*
3SG.POSS-PROP:DENOM-thorn be.extremely:FACT
'It is very thorny (its degree of having thorns is extreme).' (18-NGolo)
{0003530#S70}

## 5.8 Denominal adverbs and postpositions

### 5.8.1 Comitative adverbs

Comitative adverbs are productively derived from nouns. Their meaning is 'having *X*', 'together with *X*', 'including *X*' or in the case of clothes or covers 'wearing *X*'.

Comitative adverbs are built by partially reduplicating the last syllable of the noun stem (following the morphophonological rules in §4.1) and prefixing either *ký-* or *kγyu-*. This derivation applies to native words and loanwords from Tibetan.
From instance, **χσνlmuy** 'glasses' (from Tibetan སྤྱོ་སྐོལ། cel.mig 'glasses') yields **kṛ-χσνlmu-lmuy** or **kṛyu-χσνlmu-lmuy** 'together with glasses; wearing glasses'.<fnref n="35" />

No semantic difference between the comitative adverbs in **kṛ-** and those in **kṛyu-** has been detected: Both are fully productive and can be built from the same nouns. As argued in Jacques (2017d), the **kṛyu-** form is inherited (from proto-Gyalrong *kdwə-*), while **kṛ-** is borrowed from Tshobdun **ko-**, the exact cognate of **kṛyu-** (Sun 1998: 107). The prefix **kṛyu-** and its Tshobdun cognate **ko-** both originate from the participle **ku-** (§16.1.1) of the proprietive **ayu-** denominal derivation (§20.2.4.4), attesting a **PROPRIETIVE** ⇒ **COMITATIVE** grammaticalization pathway (Jacques 2017d). When the base noun is inalienably possessed, it is possible to build a comitative adverb with the indefinite possessor prefix or with the bare stem. For instance, from **tx-rte** 'hat' one can derive both **kṛrtu-rte** / **kṛyu-rtu-rte** 'with his/her hat' and **kṛ-tx-rtu-rte** / **kṛyu-tx-rtu-rte** 'with a/the hat' with the indefinite possessor prefix **tx-**. These two sets of forms have different meanings: the former **kṛrtu-rte** / **kṛyu-rtu-rte** mean 'wearing one's hat' (example 135), while the latter **kṛ-tx-rtu-rte** / **kṛyu-tx-rtu-rte** imply that the subject is not wearing the hat (136); preserving the indefinite possessor in the derived form alienabilizes the inalienably possessed noun (see §5.1.2.9).

(135) **kṛyu-rtu-rte zo kʰa w-ŋgw lɣ-tu-ŋe**
COMIT-hat EMPH house 3SG-inside AOR-2-come[II]

'You came inside the house wearing your hat.' (You were expected to take it off before coming in, elicited)

(136) **laχtcʰa kṛyu-tχ-rtu-rte zo ta-ndo**
thing COMIT-INDEF.POSS-hat EMPH AOR:3→3'-take

'He took the hat along with the other objects.' (Not wearing it, elicited)

The alienabilized comitative adverb **kṛtxlulu** 'with milk' (from **tx-lu** 'milk') is used as postnominal modifier in 'milk tea' (137). The inalienably possessed form **kṛxlulu** 'with its milk' is only compatible with the animal producing the milk (or in the case of a plant producing a milk-like juice).

(137) **tʃʰa kṛ-tχ-lu-lu**
tea COMIT-INDEF.POSS-milk

'Milk tea.' (30-Com) {0003736#S92}

<footnote n="35">³⁵Note that reduplication applies across morpheme boundaries, as the coda of χσν 'glass' (from ṣel 'glass') is reduplicated with the following syllable.</footnote>
Comitative adverbs can be used as sentential adverbs, with scope over the whole sentence (examples 135, 136).

They also occur as noun modifiers (as in 137 above), and either follow (137, 138) or precede (142, 140) the noun that they modify.

(138) *ty-sno* *ký-jw~jaš* *nw* *lu-ta-nw*
INDEF.POSS.saddle COMIT-hand DEM IPFV-put-PL
'(Then), they put the saddle with its handles.' (30-tAsno) {0003758#S68}

The noun modified by a comitative adverb can have various syntactic functions in the clauses, including object (137, 138, 140), intransitive subject (139, 142) or even transitive subject (141). This last option is not attested in the text corpus, but speakers have no trouble producing sentences of this type.

(139) *ký-snʷ~sno* *zo* *kʷ-rŋgw*
COMIT-saddle EMPH AOR-lie.down
'[The horse] slept with its saddle.' (elicited)

(140) *ký-tʰy lwu~lwa* w~zrym *ra kwny cʰú-yγ-γušt* pjú~wγ-ji
COMIT-earth 3SG.POSS-root PL also IPFV-INV-bring IPFV-INV-plant
ri maka tu-łoč *múj-cʰa*
but at.all IPFV-come.out NEG:SENS-can
'Even if one takes its root with earth [around it] and plant it, it cannot
grow.' (15-babW) {0003512#S112}

(141) *lwlu ký-rfwo~rfjšt* *ra kw* *zo* *βzw* to-ndza-nw.
cat COMIT-offspring PL ERG EMPH mouse IFR-eat-PL
'The cat and its young ate the mouse.' (elicited)

The comitative adverbs have additional meanings in certain contexts. With the verb *fse* 'be like', comitative adverbs from body parts occurring with names of animals, as in (142) and (143), mean 'to have a body part that looks like that of the other animal'.

(142) *pyγkʰw* nw *u-ku* *nwnw* lwlu tsa *pwn-fse*,
owl DEM 3SG.POSS-head DEM cat a.little SENS-be lik e
w-mtsioč γγzu ma *ký-rnw~rna* lwlu
3SG.POSS-beak exist:SENS a.part.from COMIT-ear cat
w-tw-fse *pwn-syre* *zo*.
3SG.POSS-NMLZ:DEG-be lik e SENS-be .extremely/be .funny EMPH
'The owl's head looks a little like that of a cat, apart from the fact that it
has a beak, it looks very much like a cat with its ears.' (22-pGAkhW)
{0003594#S7}
(143) *li βzw ḱ-mtcʰw~mtcʰi ci nw ɲw-fse*
again mouse COMIT-mouth INDEF DEM SENS-be like
'[The bat's] mouth is like that of a mouse.' (literally 'It looks like a
mouse with its mouth.' 25-qarmWrwa) {0003648#S11}

Comitative adverbs connected to a noun can occur before the indefinite article ci 'a' as in (143), but this article can also be repeated on both the noun and the adverb, as in (§9.1.4.1).

(144) *tce jlɛkrw ci ḱ-rɔ̃-ri ci ɲr̥-rŋo,*
LNK rake INDEF COMIT-thread INDEF IFR-borrow
'He borrowed a rake with a thread.' (140427 qala cho kWrtsAG)
{0003852#S56}

Nouns incorporated into comitative adverbs lose their nominal status and can-
not be determined by relative clauses (including attributive adjectives), numerals
or demonstratives. In a sentence such as 145 for instance, the attributive partici-
pial relative [kw~kw-ŋyɛn] ‘all the ones who are evil’ does not determine kɣyuy-
ŋkʰu~ŋkʰor ‘with his subjects’, a syntactic structure which would correspond to
the translation ‘with all his evil subjects’. Rather, it determines the head noun
together with the comitative adverb rɣɛlpu kɣyuy-ŋkʰu~ŋkʰor ‘the king with his
subjects’, which implies the translation given below.

(145) *rɣɛlpu kɣyuy-ŋkʰu~ŋkʰor kw~kw-ŋyɛn zo to-ndo tce,*
king COMIT-subjects TOTAL~SBJ:PCP-be.bad EMPH IFR-take LNK
tcendvɛr kw~mɣku nw svtcʰa kw~kw-sɣ-scit
LNK SBJ:PCP-be before DEM place TOTAL~SBJ:PCP-PROP-be.happy
zo jo-tswm ɲw-ŋu ri kw-maqʰu tce,*
EMPH IFR-take.away SENS-be LNK SBJ:PCP-be after LNK
kw~kw-sɣy-mu zo jo-tswm tce
TOTAL~SBJ:PCP-PROP-fear EMPH IFR-take.away LNK

‘She took the king and his subjects, all the evil ones, in the beginning
she took them to nice places, but later she took them to fearful places.’
(2012 Norbzang) {0003768#S341}

Other denominal adverb formations are also attested in Japhug, but are de-
scribed in the sections on time nominals (§7.5.2) and locational nouns (§8.3.4) in
other chapters.
5.8.2 Reduplicated perlative

Partial reduplication of nouns, in addition to the reduplicated collectives (§5.7.8.2),
can also derive location adverbs such as *tsuțușu* ‘along the road’ from *tsu* ‘road’
with a perlative meaning, as in (146). A similar use of the reduplication appears
in Zbu, but with an additional *kə-* prefix (Gong 2018: 114).

(146) cʰa ra tʰu-tilu kú-wy-nu-tsʰi tce
alcohol PL path~PERLATIVE IPFV-INV-AUTO-drink LNK
'One drinks alcohol along the way [back home].' (2010-histoire10)

Other examples of perlative include *u-jru-jroŋ* ‘following X’s trace’ from *ty-jroŋ* ‘trace’ (see example 76, §19.4.1).

5.8.3 -z suffix

The postposition *kaz* ‘while ... still’, which is mainly used in a particular type of
temporal clause (§25.3.4.3), probably originates from the inalienably possessed
noun *ty-ka* ‘free time’ with the fossil locative suffix -z (related to the locative
postposition *zu*, §8.2.4.1) cognate to Situ -s (Lin 1993: 330–331).

5.8.4 s- prefix

The adverbs stʰuci ‘so much’ (§26.3.1.4) and stʰamtɛrɛt ‘so much’ are derived from
the indefinite pronoun tʰuci ‘something’ (§6.6.2) and the universal quantifier
tʰamtɛrɛt ‘all’ (§9.1.3.1) by what appears to be an s- prefix.

They are attested in derived forms such as *kustʰuci* ‘this much’ and *nustʰuci*
‘that much’ (§26.1.1.3) with the prefixed demonstrative stems *ku-* and *nu-* (§6.9).

The standard marker *stɑk* ‘compared with’ and its variant *sustak* (§8.2.7) are
clearly related to the locative relator noun *u-tač* ‘on, above’ (§8.3.4.3). The prefix
*s-* is doubled as *su-s-* in the form *sustač*.

The ultimate origin of the prefix *s-* in the adverbs and postpositions above is
unclear, but it could be the result of the degrammaticalization of the locative *-z*
suffix (§5.8.3; this suffix eventually became the locative postposition *zu*, §8.2.4.1)
and subsequent procliticization to the following host. For instance, in the case of
*stɑk*, the hypothesized process would be:<fnref n="36" />

1. *X-z (u)-tač (Suffix)*

<footnote n="36">³⁶The symbol X represents a noun phrase. The forms are presented in their Japhug orthography for convenience, but at the stage when this reanalysis happened, the actual pronunciation of the forms in question was probably different.</footnote>
5 Nominal morphology

2. *X zə = taɣ (Procliticization)

3. X staɣ (monosyllabicization and reanalysis as a postposition)
# 6 Pronouns

## 6.1 Personal pronouns

The pronominal system of Japhug distinguishes singular, dual and plural. Alongside free pronouns, a system of pronominal prefixes is used not only to express possession on nouns (§8.2.3.1), but also appears in various non-finite verb forms (§16.1.1.1, §16.1.2.1, §16.1.3.3, §16.2.2, §16.4.6). These prefixes do not distinguish the second and the third person in the dual and plural forms; their use is described in §5.1.1.

<table><caption>Table 6.1: Pronouns and possessive prefixes</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th>Possessive prefixes</th><th colspan="2">Pronouns</th></tr><tr><th></th><th></th><th>(Kamnyu dialect)</th><th>(Tatshi dialect)</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1SG</td><td>a-</td><td>azo, aj</td><td>ŋa</td></tr><tr><td>2SG</td><td>ny-</td><td>nyzo, nyj</td><td>nazo</td></tr><tr><td>3SG</td><td>uw-</td><td>wuzo</td><td>mi</td></tr><tr><td>1DU</td><td>tci-</td><td>tćizo</td><td>tsəzo</td></tr><tr><td>2DU</td><td>ndzi-</td><td>ndzizo</td><td>ndzəzo</td></tr><tr><td>3DU</td><td>ndzi-</td><td>zyni</td><td>mindzo</td></tr><tr><td>1PL</td><td>i-</td><td>izo, izora, izyra</td><td>jizo</td></tr><tr><td>2PL</td><td>nuw-</td><td>nuzo, nuzora, nuzyra</td><td>əzo</td></tr><tr><td>3PL</td><td>nuw-</td><td>zara</td><td>mijo</td></tr><tr><td>generic</td><td>tuw-</td><td>tuzo</td><td>-</td></tr></tbody></table>

Free pronouns and possessive prefixes are remarkably similar in Kamnyu Japhug. In this dialect, all the pronouns except the third person dual and plural are formed by adding the root -zo to the corresponding possessive prefix. In the eastern Japhug dialects (represented by Tatshi in Table 6.1), the 1SG *ŋa* and 3SG *mi* pronouns differ from the corresponding possessive prefixes (the former is possibly borrowed from Situ *ŋa*).
The first and second person singular pronouns *azo* and *nzyo* also have the shorter monosyllabic forms *aj* and *nzj*, respectively. These short forms are considerably less common in stories (in the reported speech of the characters), but appear frequently in free conversations.

Japhug lacks any inclusive/exclusive distinction, unlike other Gyalrongic languages such as Tshobdun, Situ or Khroskyabs (see Sun 1998, Lin 1993: 177, Prins 2016: 92, Lai 2017: 170). Example (1) shows the dual pronoun *tciżo* ‘we (dual)’ in inclusive use (it is clear from the context that the son tells his mother to come with him), and (2) illustrates the same pronoun in exclusive use. Similar pairs of examples can be found with the first plural pronoun *iżo* ‘we (plural)’ and its variants.

(1) *a-mu* tceʰa tciżo kwny ce-tci
1SG.POSS-mother later 1DU also go:FACT-1DU
‘Mother, you and I will go too.’ (2003 tWxtsa)

(2) nuzora yu nuz-cymwydwo cʰo kw-fse nw u-tsʰyt nw,
2PL GEN 2PL.POSS-gun COMIT SBJ:PCP-be like DEM 3SG-instead DEM
tciżo yu tci-tyŋi tu-ldza pw-tu tce, nw
1DU GEN 1DU.POSS-staff one-longobject PST.IPFV-exist LNK DEM
ky-nw-tʰw-tci cti wo
AOR-AUTO-spread-1DU be:AFF:FACT SFP

‘Instead of guns and other things like you, we<sub>DU.EXCL</sub> only had a staff, and we<sub>DU.EXCL</sub> used it as a bridge (to cross the river).’ (2003 Kunbzang)

Third person pronouns can be used with inanimate referents, as the third person dual *zyni* in example (3).

(3) tce rŋgw nw to-k-ymw-rpu-ndzi-ci tce, tcendvre zyni
LNK boulder DEM IFR-PEG-RECIP-bump_into-DU-PEG LNK LNK 3DU
pjy-nw-nGrw-ndzi
IFR-AUTO-ACAUS:shatter-DU
‘The boulders bumped into each other and they were pulverized.’
(smanmi4.82-83)

In some contexts, demonstrative pronouns rather than person pronouns are used to refer to a third person, even human (see §6.9).

Personal pronouns are not used as head of relative clauses (as in Chinese …… 的你 <... de nǐ > ‘you who are ...’), though there are case of relativization of first or second person possessor, as in (4) (§23.5.10.1).
(4) az̥o nʷ [a-mu ku̥-me] ŋu-a tce tce
1SG DEM 1SG.POSS-mother SBJ:PCP-exist be:FACT-1SG LNK LNK
'I am someone who does not have a mother.' (2003Nyimawodzer2)

Personal pronouns can take determiners, in particular the demonstrative *nु* as in (4), numerals (§7.1.7) and can also precede a noun in apposition, in expressions such as *iżo kuru* ‘we, Tibetans’ (5) or *n}*y̥o qaçpa* ‘you frog’ in (6).

(5) iżo kuru tce py̥ka tu-nu̥-ti-j ŋu tce,
1PL Tibetan LNK species.of.squash IPFV-AUTO-say-1PL LNK
‘We Tibetans call it py̥ka.’ (16-CWrNgo) {0003518#S69}

(6) n}*y̥o qaçpa* n}*-rzaβ cw ku t}*-wγ-mbi
2SG frog 2SG.POSS-wife who ERG 2-INV-give:FACT
‘Who will give you a wife, you frog.’ (2002 qaCpa)

The relationship between the pronouns and the following noun is not neces-
sarily appositional; for instance, in (7), despite the absence of possessive pre-
fix on the borrowing 土汉族 <tūhànzú> ‘local Chinese’, the meaning of iżora
<tuhanzu> is ‘the local Chinese living among us’ rather than ‘We local Chinese’.

(7) iz̥ora <tuhanzu> ra ku, <qingyang> tu-ti-nu ŋu.
1PL local.Chinese PL ERG bharal IPFV-say-PL be:FACT
‘The local Chinese among us call it “qingyang”.’ (20-xsar) {0003568#S41}

As in most languages with polypersonal indexation, pronouns (especially first
and second person pronouns) are never obligatory, and a finite verb form without
overt argument NPs is a perfectly well-formed sentence (§22.1). Overt pronouns
are obligatorily overt as core arguments only when focalized (§22.1.2.3).

Japhug presents a very common subtype of split ergativity: the ergative ku
being obligatory on transitive subject third person pronouns (except in the case
of the emphatic use of pronouns, §6.4) but optional on first and second person
pronouns (§8.1.2 and §8.2.2.1).

6.1.1 Honorific plural

The second plural pronoun *nużo* can be used as honorific pronoun, as in (8),
where the addressee is unambiguously singular.

(8) ǔtxz nuzo tcʰi ǔ-ruy tu-ŋu-nu?
actually 2PL what 3SG.POSS-race 2-be:FACT-PL
‘Actually, which type of being are you?’ (2003 smanmi)
This pronoun correlates with plural honorific indexation -nu (§14.6.1.2). Note that the plural ra also occurs as a honorific marker on nouns (§9.1.1.3).

### 6.1.2 Personal pronouns as possessive markers

Personal pronouns occur instead of possessive prefixes (§5.1) as first member of compounds with the adverbs -suso 'as X wish' (from the verb suso 'think'), as in example (9) and -sti 'X alone'.

(9) a-zda ra zara-suso tu-nu-nŋŋkuŋke-nu
1SG.POSS-companion PL 3PL-as.wish IPFV-AUTO-go.here.and.there-PL
pu-kʰu
SENS-be.possible
'The other [snakes] can go here and there as they wish.' (The divination
2002) {0003364#S43}

The noun -βra 'it is X's turn to' can either take a regular possessive prefix, or a pronoun in bound state form as in (10), where the bound form n- occurs instead of nɛzɔ '2SG'.

(10) wortciʰi nɛzɔ-βra a-tɔ-tu-ti ra
please 2SG.POSS-turn IRR-PFV-2-say be.needed:FACT
'It is your turn to say it.' (2014-kWlAG)

These constructions are discussed in more detail in §5.1.2.12 and §22.2.2.4.

## 6.2 Generic pronouns

### 6.2.1 tuẓo 'one'

The generic pronoun tuẓo 'one' has the same morphological structure as personal pronouns as seen in the previous section, combining the generic possessive prefix tu- with the pronominal root -zo. Note that this generic possessive has to be strictly distinguished from the homophonous indefinite possessor prefix tu- (see §5.1.3). It has a rare plural variant tuẓvra 'one' (see §14.6.1.3, example 166).

In Japhug, sentences have at most one generic human referent (§5.1.3). If this referent is core argument, the verb has generic indexation (ku- for intransitive subject and object and wy- for transitive subject, as in the following example, §14.3.2.5). The generic argument can be realized as the generic pronoun tuẓo as in (11) or by a generic noun (such as turme 'person', §6.2.2).
(11) **twu-zda**
**pjú-wy̥-z-y̥tca,**
**twu̥o**
**ntsw**
GENR.POSS-companion IPFV-INV-CAUS-be.wrong oneself always
**pjw-kw-zy̥-yy̥gi**
**tce,**
**pw-kw-nw-y̥tca**
**kúmy**
IPFV-GENR:S/O-REFL-be.right LNK AOR-GENR:S/O-AUTO-be.wrong also
**pjw-kw-zy̥-yy̥gi**
**tce,**
**w-mbryzw**
**kw-tu**
IPFV-GENR:S/O-REFL-be.right LNK 3SG.POSS-result SBJ:PCP-have
**me**
**tu-kw-ti**
**pw-ny**
not balls: FACT IPFV-GENR-say SENS-be

'If one considers that one's companion is wrong, and always considers
himself to be right even if one is wrong, there is can be no good result.'
(IWlu) {0003361#S80}

The generic pronoun can occur before a noun with the generic possessive as in **twu̥o** **tuu-skv̥t** 'one's language' in example (12); this contributes to disambiguating between the indefinite possessive and the generic possessive in the case of in- alienably possessed nouns (thus on its own **tuu-skv̥t** can mean either 'a language' or 'one's language').

(12) **tcendvre** **twu̥o** **tuu-skv̥t**
**zara** yu̥-swxcv̥t
**pw-ra,**
LNK GENR GENR.POSS-language 3PL INV-teach:FACT SENS-be-needed
**zara** n̥u̥-skv̥t
**twu̥o** ku̥-swxcv̥t
**pw-ra**
3PL 3PL.POSS-language GENR GENR:S/O-teach:FACT SENS-be-needed

'One has to teach them one's language, and they have to teach you their language.' (150901 tshuBdWnskAt) {0006242#S28}

When occurring in A function, the generic pronoun *tuzo* obligatorily receives
the ergative *ku* as in (13) (note that in example 12, although the generic referent
is A in the first clause, *tuzo* does not take ergative because it is a determiner of
*tu*-skv̥t).

(13) **tuzo** ku̥ **tu̥-χti**
**pw̥-wy̥-nw̥-car**
**kw̥-maw**
**kw,**
GENR ERG GENR.POSS-spouse IPFV-INV-AUTO-search INF:STAT-not.be ERG
**tu̥-pʰama**
**ra** ku̥ **tu̥-χti**
**pw̥-car-nw**
GENR.POSS-parent PL ERG GENR.POSS-spouse IPFV-search-PL

'One could not choose one's spouse, one's parents chose one's spouse.'
(14-siblings) {0003508#S191}

Relator nouns (§8.3), for example the dative *u̥-čki* (§8.3.1), are grammaticalized
from inalienably possessed nouns and like them, take a generic possessive prefix
(tu-čki or tu-pʰe 'to one') when following tużo, as in example (14), which describes the Omaha-type skewing rule in the kinship system (§27.5).

(14) **tw-ŋi** yu w-rjit nwa kw twzo tu-čki
GENR.POSS-FZ GEN 3SG.POSS-child DEM:PL ERG GENR GENR-dat
"a-rpw", tɔ-tɔu pw-kw-ŋu ny "a-rpw"
1SG.POSS-MB INDEF.POSS-SON PST.IPFV-GENR:S/O-be if 1SG.POSS-MB
tu-ti-nu, tcʰeme pw-kw-ŋu ny "a-łaŋ" tu-ti-nu
IPFV-say-PL girl PST.IPFV-GENR:S/O-be if 1SG.POSS-MZ IPFV-say-PL
kw-ra ŋu
INF.STAT-be.needed be:FACT

'One's father's sister's children have to call oneself "my maternal uncle" if one is a boy, "my maternal aunt" if one is a girl.' (140425 kWmdza03)
{0003787}

As examples (11) to (14) illustrate, generic agreement between pronoun, possessive prefix and verb indexation is very systematic. Examples of 1PL indexation with generic pronouns or vice-versa are, however, attested (§14.6.1.3).

Due to the constraint against more than one generic argument per clause (§5.1.3), the only case that the generic pronoun can appear two times in the same clause occurs in reflexive constructions (§18.3), as in (15).

(15) **twzo kw twzo tu-kw-nu-zyv-βri** ra
GENR ERG GENR IPFV-GENR:S/O-AUTO-REFL-protect be.needed:FACT
kɔ-ti pɔ-w-ŋu
INF-say SENS-be
'One has to protect oneself.' (04-qala1)

### 6.2.2 The generic noun turme 'person'

The noun turme 'person', also attested to express indefinite humans (§6.6.1) or in the meaning 'someone else' (§6.8), can occur as a marker of generic person, as in (16).

(16) **turme kwny tú-wy-ndza** sna.
people also IPFV-INV-eat be.good:FACT
'It is also good for people to eat.' (12-Zmbroko) {0003490#S29}

In this function, turme 'person' can be indexed on the verb by either generic person (as in 16) or 3PL markers, a question explored in more detail in §14.6.2.
There is a slight difference of usage between *turme* ‘person’ and *tuzo* ‘one’ in clauses with a generic argument. Both can be followed by a noun or a case marker taking the generic possessive prefix, as in (17) and (18).

(17) *turme tw-fsu* *caŋtaŋ tu-mbro* *mɔ-y-cʰa.*
people GENR.POSS-equal.to until IPFV-be.big NEG-FACT:can
'It cannot grow bigger than a person.' ('as oneself') (11-qarGW)
{0003480#S25}

(18) *u-tu-mbro* *nuŋu tu-zo* *tu-fsu* *jamar tu-zyušt*
3SG-NMLZ:DEG-be.high DEM GENR GENR-equal.to about IPFV:UP-reach
*čʰa.*
can:FACT
'As for its size, it can reach one's ('a person's') size.' (16-CWrNgo)
{0003518#S18}

However, *turme* ‘person’ as a generic noun can alternatively be used with a
possessee or a case marker with the third person singular *u-* prefix, as in (19),
while this option does not exist for *tuzo* ‘one’.

(19) *turme u-fsu* *jamar tu-βže* *čʰa.*
people 3SG-equal.to about IPFV-do[III] can:FACT
'It can grow about the size of a person.' (12-ndZiNgri) {0003488#S4}

6.3 Genitive forms

The form of pronouns and personal prefixes undergoes few morphophonologi-
cal changes in combination with postpositions and relational nouns. However,
in combination with the genitive postposition yu (cf §8.2.3), some personal pro-
nouns have special forms indicated in Table 6.2.

While some degree of variation exists with dual and plural pronouns (for in-
stance the regular *izo yu* is found alongside *izy̥ y* and *izy̥ra yu*), for the singular
pronouns only one form is attested.

(20) azwy ndza ŋu ci, nzywy ndza ŋu, aj
1SG:GEN reason be:FACT QU 2SG:GEN reason be:FACT 1SG
múj-tso-a
NEG:SENS-understand-1SG
‘I don’t know if it is because of me, or because of you.’ (that the phone
line is not working well) (phone conversation)
<table><caption>Table 6.2: Pronouns and possessive prefixes</caption><thead><tr><th>Free pronoun</th><th>Genitive</th><th></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>azo</td><td>azwy</td><td>1SG</td></tr><tr><td>nyzo</td><td>nyzwy</td><td>2SG</td></tr><tr><td>wizo</td><td>wzry</td><td>3SG</td></tr><tr><td>tćizo</td><td>tćizy</td><td>1DU</td></tr><tr><td>ndzizo</td><td>ndzizy</td><td>2DU</td></tr><tr><td>zyni</td><td>zyniw</td><td>3DU</td></tr><tr><td>izo</td><td>izy, izyra yw</td><td>1PL</td></tr><tr><td>nuzo</td><td>nuzy, nuzyra yw</td><td>2PL</td></tr><tr><td>zara</td><td>zaray, zara yw</td><td>3PL</td></tr></tbody></table>

In the genitive forms of the pronouns, the vowel of the genitive marker is generally dropped, and the pronominal root -zo undergoes vowel change to -zuy (in the case of first and second person) and -zry (in other forms). Note that zaray is the only case of the rhyme /ay/ in Japhug.

When genitive pronouns occur as determiners of nouns (including in the possessive existential construction, §22.5.2.1), these nouns almost always take a possessive prefix coreferent with the genitive pronoun, as in (21).

(21) tcizy y tci-tbyfklyyi tw-ckat pw-tu tce, nw
1DU:GEN 2DU-plant.ash one-load PST.IPFV-exist LNK DEM
ky-nw-xyr-tci cti wo
AOR-AUTO-spread-1DU be:AFF:FACT SFP
‘We had one load of ash, and we spilled it there.’ (2003 Kunbzang)

The genitive pronouns can be used as possessive pronouns (‘mine’, ‘my own’ etc) and take the determiner *nw* and the plural *ra*, as in (22) and (23).

(22) “tce yny sqaptu-rza tu-tsu tce pwa yu” pwa-ti-nw
LNK twenty.one-night IPFV-pass LNK IPFV-hatch be:FACT SENS-say-PL
ri, azwy nw yny sqamnwz ty-rza myctsa mw-nw-va.
LNK 1SG:GEN DEM twenty.two one-night until NEG-AOR-hatch
‘People say that [chicken eggs] hatch after twenty-one days, mine took
twenty-two days to hatch.’ (150819 kumpGa) {0006388#S33}
(23) wzyy nwra tu-nw-yv-βdi tce, cw-sv-sqvr
3SG:GEN DEM:PL IPFV-AUTO-CAUS-be.well LNK TRAL-APASS-hire:FACT
mv-ra
NEG-be.needed:FACT

'He repairs his own [machines] by himself, he does not need to ask other people.' (14-siblings) {0003508#S153}

6.4 The emphatic use of pronouns

In addition to their referential and anaphoric functions, pronouns in Japhug
can be used in an emphatic way in combination with the emphatic particle zo
(§26.1.1.5), as in (24).

(24) azo wzo zo k-y-mto mw-pw-rjo-t-a.
1SG 3SG EMPH INF-see NEG-AOR-experience-PST:TR-1SG
'I never saw it itself.' (24-kWmu) {0003618#S7}

In combination with the autive *nw-* on the verb, pronouns express the mean-
ing ‘do X on one’s own’ (§19.1.3). In the case of transitive verbs, third person
pronouns in this function does not take the ergative even if the referent is the
transitive subject (example 25, where *tcyt* ‘take out’ is transitive, §22.4.2.3).

(25) tce lu-nw-rxji-nw tce, nw-ky-ndza nwra zara
LNK IPFV-AUTO-plant.crops-PL LNK 3PL.PLOSS-OBJ.PCP-eat DEM:PL 3PL
pjw-nw-tcyt-nw pjy-ny tce
IPFV-AUTO-take.out-PL IFR.IPFV-be LNK
‘They were working in the fields, and earning their own food by
themselves.’ (about lepers, who were settled in the special place by the
government, 25-khArWm) {0003644#S61}

The emphatic pronoun *raj* ‘oneself’ borrowed from Tibetan <u>ra</u> ‘raj’ ‘oneself’, can also be used with any person, though this usage is not very common. It can occur with the autive (26) or without it (27).

(26) nyzo tu-tu-ti m-v-ra ma azo raŋ
2SG IPFV-2-say NEG-be.neededo:FACT LNK 1SG oneself
tu-nw-ti-a jyy
IPFV-AUTO-say-1SG be.possible:FACT
‘You don’t need to say it, I can say it myself.’ (elicited)
(27) az̥o raŋ zo ju-ce-a ra
1SG oneself EMPH IPFV-go-1SG be.needed:FACT
‘I have to go there myself.’ (150830 afanti-zh) {0006380#S94}

6.5 Interrogative pronouns

The interrogative pronouns in Japhug are indicated in Table 6.3. These pronouns are used in independent interrogative clauses (28), in subordinate clauses (29), and also in correlatives (30) (§23.2.5), and also occur to express non-specific referents (these uses are described in § §6.6.6, after the indefinite pronouns).

(28) tce mzyw tcʰi pw-ŋu?
LNK yet what PST.IPFV-be
‘What was there [after this one]?’ (12-ndZiNgri) {0003488#S92}

(29) wzo tcʰi kw-ŋu nw ko-tso-nw tce tce
3SG what SBJ:PCP-be DEM IFR-understand-PL LNK LNK
cʰy̥-wy-tcyt
IFR:DOWNSTREAM-INV-take.out
‘They understood what he was, and expelled him (from their group).’
(140427 hanya yu gezi-zh) {0003842#S18}

(30) w-pʰoŋbu tcʰi kw-fse nw, ŋoču w-syzy-rzyi
3SG.Poss-body what SBJ:PCP-be like DEM where 3SG-OBL:PCP-remain
nwnw yw kw-nwtsa kw-fse pw-cti tce
DEM GEN SBJ:PCP-fit SBJ:PCP-be like SENS-be:AFF LNK
‘The way its body is like is well-adapted to the place where it lives.’
(19-rNamoN) {0003552#S22}

In addition to these pronouns, some indefinite pronouns are also marginally
used in questions, see for instance (87) in §6.6.2.

6.5.1 tçʰi ‘what’

The interrogative pronoun ‘what’ considerably varies across Japhug dialects. In Kamnyu we find tçʰi, apparently borrowed from Tibetan tçʰi. Neighbouring dialects of Gdongbrgyad area have either tsʰi (in Mangi) or tʰi (in Rqaco), which represents the original Gyalrongic root for this interrogative pronoun (cognate with Tibetan སྤྱ་ tçʰi ‘what’ and Limbu the). Even in the Kamnyu dialect, the form
<table><caption>Table 6.3: Interrogative pronouns</caption><tr><td>tɛ̃h̃i</td><td>'what'</td></tr><tr><td>ɔ̃u</td><td>'who'</td></tr><tr><td>tʰɔ̃stuy</td><td>'how many'</td></tr><tr><td>tʰɔ̃jtɛ̃u</td><td>'when'</td></tr><tr><td>ŋotɛ̃u</td><td>'where', ŋoj 'where'</td></tr><tr><td>tɛ̃h̃indz̃a</td><td>'why'</td></tr></table>

tsʰi- is directly attested in the indefinite tsʰitsuku ‘whatever’ (§6.6.3). Mangi Japhug shares with Kamnyu the sound change *tʰi → tsʰi which also affects the verb tsʰi ‘drink’ (this sound change occurred after the pronoun *tʰi underwent bound state alternation to tʰu- and was used to build the indefinite pronoun tʰuci ‘something’, see §6.6.2). Note that Kamnyu Japhug tɛ̃h̃i ‘what’ is homophonous with the noun tɛ̃h̃i ‘tree-trunk stairs’ attested for instance in example (31) – the readers of Japhug texts have to be aware of this potential ambiguity.

(31) com yfɔ̃ kɔ̃-mbɔ̃-mbro zo, ɔ̃-ymbaj zw tɛ̃h̃i
iron tower SBJ:PCP-EMPH-be.high EMPH 3SG.POSS-side LOC treetrunk.stairs
tu-kɔ̃-ndɔ̃ ci pw-tu pɔ̃-ŋu
IPFV:UP-SBJ:PCP-ACAUS:spread INDEF PST.IPFV-be SENS-be
‘There was a huge iron tower, with a tree-trunk stairs on its side.’ (2005 Norbzang)

The Eastern dialects of Gsardzong and Datshang have xto instead, a word of unknown etymology; these dialects, which share many additional morphosyntactic and phonological commonalities, can be collectively referred to as “Xtokavian”.

In the Kamnyu dialect, tɛ̃h̃i ‘what’ is by far the most common interrogative pronoun in the corpus. In interrogative clauses, it can be used to ask about objects, non-human animals (32) and names of persons (33), and can occur as prenominal determiner meaning ‘what (type of)’ as in (34).

(32) nyzo ny-mbro nɔ̃ tɛ̃h̃i ŋu
2SG 2SG.POSS-horse DEM what be:FACT
‘Who is your horse?’ (about a sentient horse) (2003 smanmi2)

(33) tɛ̃h̃i tw-rmi?
what 2-beillage:FACT
‘What is your name?’ (heard in context)
(34) tcend̥re m tcʰi cku tu
LNK yet what allium exist:FACT
‘What other [plants of the genus] Allium are there?’ (07-Cku)
{0003424#S94}

As in many languages, this interrogative pronoun (instead of the pronoun ɛu ‘who’) is also used in questions about classification of persons (Idiatov 2007), including social affiliation (35, and 29 above) and biological affiliation (47).

(35) wtxz nwzo tcʰi w-rwy tw-ŋu-nw?
finally 2PL what 3SG.POSS-race 2-be:FACT-PL
‘Finally, which type [of being] are you?’ (smanmi 2003)

There is no specific interrogative pronoun to ask about manner like English ‘how’, and Japhug expresses this meaning by combining tɛʰi with the verbs fse ‘be like’ or stu ‘do like’ (§24.5.7) as in (36).

(36) nɣ-smɣn tɣ-sw-βzu-t-a ri maka
3SG.POSS-medicine AOR-CAUS-make-PST:TR-1SG but at.all
múj-pʰyŋ, tce tcʰi zo tú-wy-stu pʰyŋ
NEG:SENS-be.efficient LNK what EMPH IPFV-INV-do lik e be.efficient:FACT
‘I had medicine made for you but it does not work, how should we do for
it to work?’ (nyima wodzer 2002)

When used with tɛʰi, the similative verbs often take an infinitival complement as in (37).

(37) a-ɔi, ki kw-fse txjpyom kw-wxti
1SG.POSS-younger.sibling this SBJ:PCP-be. like ice SBJ:PCP-be.big
nuctu, kɔ-ce tcʰi tɔ-tɔ-fse-ndzi?
DEM:LOC INF-go what AOR-2-be. like-DU
‘Sister, how did you cross such a big block of ice?’ (Kunbzang 2005)

The pronoun tɛʰi ‘what’ on its own can occur in questions about the reason or the purpose of a particular state of affair, as in (38) and (39).

(38) azo tcʰi a-pw-ŋu-a?
1SG what IRR-IPFV-be-1SG
‘How can it be me?’ (2003 sras)
(39) a-tycime, tcʰi pwn-tw-nvre ŋu?
1SG.POSS-lady what SENS-2-laugh be:FACT
‘My lady, why are you laughing?’ (Not ‘what are you laughing at?’, 2002
qaCpa)

When referring to purpose or reason, it is possible to combine tɛ́ h i ‘what’ with
the nouns w-spa ‘material’ and w-ndza ‘cause’ (as the pronoun tɛ́ h́indza ‘why’), as
in (40) and (41). Note that examples (39) and (41) are from the same story, just a
few lines away, in the same context; the construction in (41) is a more explicit
variant of that in (39).

(40) tce tcʰi w-spa pw-ŋu mɣ-xsi ma tce nw
LNK what 3SG.POSS-material PST.IPFV-be NEG-GENR:know LNK LNK DEM
kw-fse pjɣ-tu
SBJ:PCP-be like IFR.IPFV-exist
‘It is not known what it was for, but there was something like that.’
(hist140522 GJW) {0004051#S18}

(41) tcʰindza pw-tw-yɣwu ŋu?
why SENS-2-cry be:FACT
‘Why are you crying?’ (2002 qaCpa)

The pronoun tɛ́ h i takes case marking with genitive yu and the instrumental/ergative kw, as in (42).

(42) tce tcʰi kw tu-sw-βze ŋu mɣxsi ma nw
LNK what ERG IPFV-CAUS-make[III] be:FACT NEG-GENR-know LNK DEM
kw-fse nw, swku ri ku-ndzov ŋu
SBJ:PCP-be like DEM top.of.trees LOC IPFV-ACAUS:attach be:FACT
‘I don’t what [the wasp] uses to make [its nest], it is attached on trees
like that.’ (26-ndzWrnaR) {0003678#S52}

In combination with the adverb jarma / jamar ‘about’, it can be used to indicate
a quantity, instead of tʰystuy ‘how many’ (§6.5.3), as illustrated by (43), and (44).

(43) tu-ctṣam-a tce tcʰi jamar zo yzyu kw?
IPFV-measure[III]-1SG LNK what about EMPH exist:SENS SFP
‘I will measure it with a scoop to see how much [gold] there is.’ (140512
alibaba-zh) {0003965#S56}
(44) kʰu̯tsa u-ŋgw tu-ci tu-rku-nu tce, nwmwtcu txŋe
bowl 3SG-inside INDEF.POSS-water IPFV-put.in-PL LNK DEM:LOC sun
nuw pjw-sw-ntcʰy̱r-nuw tce, tce tcʰi jamar ko-ndza numw, nwmw
DEM IPFV-CAUS-illuminate-PL LNK LNK what about IFR-eat DEM DEM
u-ŋgw nwtcu pjw-ru-nuw tce, nwmw tu-rtoön-nuw
3SG-inside DEM:LOC IPFV:DOWN-look.at-PL LNK DEM IPFV-see-PL
pjγ-ŋgrγl.
IFR.IPFV-be.usually.the.case

‘They used to put water in a bowl and let the sunlight reflect into it; they
could see how much [of the sun] had been occulted (‘eaten’ by the
eclipse).’ (29-mWBZi) {0003728#S117}

It is possible to combine tɛʰi jamar with an adjective to express approximate
comparison, as in (45).

(45) lwlu yu̯ tce wzo u-pʰoŋbu tcʰi ku-zri jamar
cat GEN LNK 3SG 3SG.POSS-body what SBJ:PCP-be.long about
u-jme nw kwny zri ri
3SG.POSS-tail DEM also be.longFACT but
‘The cat, its body is about as long as its tail, but…’ (27-qartshAz)
{0003702#S208}

In correlative clauses, the pronoun *tɛʰi* ‘what’ can also be used to refer to a
quantity without the adverb *jamar* ‘about’ (example 46).

(46) tɣ-rjit tcʰi tɣ-ku-sci nw zo yu-tcyt
INDEF.POSS-child what AOR-SBJ:PCP-be.born DEM EMPH INV-take.out:FACT
ku-ra pjγ-cti tce,
INF:STAT-be.needed IPFV.IFR-be:AFF LNK
‘However many children were born, one had to raise them.’ (tApAtso
kAnWBdaR I)

However, in independent interrogative clauses, *tɛʰi* ‘what’ cannot refer to quantities. Sentence (47) thus can only mean ‘Was it a boy or a girl’ not ‘How many children did she have?’.

(47) u-rjit tcʰi to-sci
3SG.POSS-child what IFR-be.born
‘Was it a boy or a girl?’ (elicited)
## 6.5 Interrogative pronouns

The interrogative *tçʰi* ‘what’ occurs in topicalized clauses with an adjective stative verb in perfective form, meaning ‘as for how X it becomes’ as in examples (48) and (49).

(48) *tcʰi nɔ̃-jpum ki caŋtaк pɔ̃-jpum múj-cʰa*
what AOR-be.thick DEM.PROX above IPFV-be.thick NEG:SENS-can
‘As for how thick it can grow, it cannot grow thicker than this.’
(16-CWrNgo) {0003518#S147}

(49) *tcʰi tɔ̃-mbro, k nɔ̃-rtsyγ caŋtaк tu-mbro múj-cʰa.*
what AOR-be.tall two-stairs above IPFV-be.tall NEG:SENS-can
‘As for how tall it can grow, it cannot grow taller than two stairs.’
(07-paXCi) {0003430#S7}

### 6.5.2 ɛu ‘who’

The interrogative pronoun ɛu ‘who’ occurs in questions about the identification of a human referent. It can occur in all syntactic roles, and does not have special ergative or genitive forms (see examples 51 and 52). It is the probable cognate of a etymon widespread in the Trans-Himalayan family (for instance, Tibetan ṡu ‘who’).

(50) *ma-tɔ̃-nɔ̃qafy ma cɔ̃ tɔ̃-ŋu mɔ̃-xsi*
NEG:IMP-2-fish LNK who 2-be:FACT NEG-GENR:know
‘Don’t fish, I don’t who you are.’ (gesar)

(51) *mɔ̃-ta-mbi nɔ̃zo qaçpa cɔ̃ kw tú-wy-mbi*
NEG-1→2-give:FACT 2SG frog who ERG 2-INV-give:FACT
‘We won’t give her to you, who would give her to you, a frog?’ (2002 qaCpa)

(52) *cɔ̃ yɔ̃ zo pɔ̃-kʰam-a ra kwyɛ?*
who GEN EMPH IPFV-give:III-1SG be.needed:FACT SFP
‘Whom should I give [her] to (in marriage)?’ (140508 benling gaoqiang de si xiongdi-zh) {0003935#S218}

The pronoun ɛu ‘who’ can be used in one context with non-human referents, when asking about which object (out of two or more) has the highest value as to a property described by the main verb, as in (53); in this construction, the verb receives non-singular indexation (§14.6.1.3), such as the dual -ndzi in this example.
Concerning the use of the ergative *ku* in this sentence see §8.2.7, §26.2.1 and Jacques (2016b).

(53) *nʷ* *n* *w-tu̯-rpid̥i* *nʷ*, *aki* *ce-tci*
DEM 2SG.POSS-head 3SG.POSS-NMLZ:DEG-be.long SFP down go:FACT-1DU
*tce*, *mbro* *u̯-jme* *cʰon tú-wy-s*, *cʷ ku*
LNK horse 3SG.POSS-tail COMIT IPFV-INV-compare who ERG
*pu̯-zri-ndzi* *ku*
SENS-be.long-DU SFP

‘Your hair is very long, let us go downstairs, and compare it with a horse’s tail.’ (2002 qaCpa)

Forms related to *cʷ* ‘who’ in Japhug include the indefinite pronoun *cʷmERRYcʷ*
‘whoever, anybody’ (6.6.4) and *cʷŋarurwa* ‘each better than the other’.

6.5.3 **tʰersuy** ‘how many’ and **tʰjsctu** ‘when’

To ask about precise quantities, *tʰersuy* ‘how many’ (or ‘how much’) occurs rather
than *tʃeʰi jamar* as seen above (§43).

(54) *nzyo tʰersuy tw-kʰym?*
you how.much 2-give[III]:FACT
‘How much [money] do you give [for it]?’ (Bargaining)

It can be used for any countable quantity, including for people, as in (55).

(55) *tsʰupa tʰersuy tw-tu-nu̯ ŋu?*
village how.much 2-exist:FACT-PL be:FACT
‘How many [people] are you in the village?’ (conversation)

The pronoun *tʰersuy* has a conjunct form *tʰersu-* when used with counted nouns, including Chinese borrowings (§7.3.1.4). For instance, in (56) and (57), it occurs with the classifiers *X-ma材* ‘size of shoes’ (from Chinese 裁 mǎ), and in (57) with the non-nativized form of 点 <diǎn> ‘hour’ (the same meaning can be expressed without borrowing from Chinese, as in 59).

(56) *nɣ-xtsa* *nʷ* *tʰersu-ma材* *tu-tu̯-ŋge* *ŋu*
2SG.POSS-shoe DEM how.many-size IPFV-2-wear[III] be:FACT
‘What is the size of your shoes?’ (Conversation)
(57) *nwzo nwtcu tʰystw-<dian> ŋu?
2PL DEM:LOC hour how.many-hour be:FACT
‘What time is it at your place?’ (conversation 12-11-2018)

Combined with the noun *ty-rzaŋ* ‘time’, *tʰystwɣ* can be used to ask about a length of time (58).

(58) *nyzo ty-rzaŋ tʰystwɣ jamar ty-tsu tce
you INDEF.POSS-time how.many about AOR-pass LNK
kɣ-tw-spa-t?
AOR-2-be.able-PST:TR
‘How long did it take you to learn it?’ (elicited)

The phrase *ty-rzaŋ tʰystwɣ* (or alternatively *tutsʰot tʰystwɣ*) in collocation with the verb *zyut* ‘arrive’, is also employed for asking about clock time, as in (59) (see §7.5.4) or dates.

(59) *ty-rzaŋ tʰystwɣ ko-zyut?
INDEF.POSS-time how.many IFR-reach
‘What is the time?’ (heard in context)

Questions about time can also be expressed by the pronoun *tʰyjtɛu* ‘when’, as in (60) and (61).

(60) *tʰyjtɛu ly-tw-nwye pw-ŋu ra ny?
when AOR-2-come.back[II] PST.IPFV-be PL SFP
‘When did you come back home?’ (taRrdo conversation)

As shown by (61), *tʰyjtɛu* ‘when’ can be used with the genitive *yw*.

(61) <jipiao> *nw, tʰyjtɛu yw ty-tw-χtw-t?
plane.ticket DEM when GEN AOR-2-buy-PST:TR
‘Your plane ticket, for what date did you buy it?’ (conversation,
2014.03.19)

The pronoun *tʰyjtɛu* ‘when’ also occurs in the meaning ‘since when’ to express impossible events as in (62).
(62) nɔ̃-ww
kw-rɔ̃rʃit
jɔ̃-ari
kw ci,
3SG.POSS-grandfather SBJ:PCP-have.a.child AOR-go[II] SFP QU
tɔ̃-tce
cʰu-kce-rɔ̃rʃit
tʰyjtcɛ
INDEF.POSS-son IPFV-SBJ:PCP-have.a.child when
pjɔ̃-ŋgrɔ̃l?
IFR.IPFV-be.usually.the.case

[You say] that your father-in-law went away to give birth to a child, but since when can a man bear children?' (tAwa kWCqraR)

The element tʰɔ̃- in the pronouns tʰɔ̃rtilu 'when' and tʰɔ̃swu 'how many' is the bound state form of proto-Japhug *tʰi, the inherited form of the pronoun 'what' (see §6.5.1). The element -tɛu in tʰɔ̃rtilu 'when' is related to the locative tɛu (§8.2.4.1).

The prefixal form cœstry- instead of tʰɔ̃swu- is attested in one story told by Kun-bzang Mtsho, probably influence from Tshobdun (63).

(63) nɔ̃mkʰa cœstry-jɔm ku-nw-tu kwyɛ?
sky how.many-fathom DUBIT-AUTO-exist SFP
‘How many fathoms [high] is the sky?’ (tAwa kWCqraR)

6.5.4 notçu ‘where’

The interrogative pronoun notçu ‘where’ and its variant form noj (§8.2.4.4) can be used to ask either about a location (64), a direction towards (examples 65 and 66) or from (67) a certain place. The second syllable of this pronoun -tcu comes from the locative postposition tcu, but the first part is etymologically obscure.

(64) notcu ku-tw-rzyi?
where PRES.EGOPH-2-stay
‘Where are you?’ (Conversation)

(65) notcu tw-ce?
where 2-go:FACT
‘Where are you going to?’ (Common greeting used when one meets someone on the road)

(66) qala noj nu-ari?
rabbit where AOR:WEST-go[II]
‘Where did the rabbit go?’ (qala2002)
(67) *núzra notcu jy-tw-ye-nú?*
*notcu c-pw-tw-tu-nú?*
2PL where AOR-2-come[II]-PL where TRAL-PST.IPFV-2-exist-PL
‘Where are you from? Where have you been?’ (2003 sras)

Likewise, with verbs of manipulation, *notcu* can be used both from questions about origin (as in 68) or destination.

(68) *núnu notcu ny-jak*
*nú-ye nu, notcu jy-tw-ywt?*
DEM where 2SG.POSS-hand AOR-come[II] be:FACT where AOR-2-bring
‘Where did you get it from, from where did you bring it?’ (150831 renshen wawa-zh) {0006418#S48}

With the determiner *nú*, the pronoun *notcu* means ‘which (of several places)’, as in (69) and (70).

(69) *kʰa rayri yw zo w-ftaɣ pjy-tu cti ma, tce*
house each GEN EMPH 3SG.POSS-mark IFR.IPFV-exist be.AFF:FACT LNK LNK
*notcu nuyu, notcu nuy maɣ mw-pjy-saɣsyl.*
where DEM be:FACT where DEM be:FACT NEG-IFR.IPFV-be.clear
‘There was a mark on each of the houses, and one could not tell which [house] was [Alibaba’s] and which was not.’ (140512 alibaba-zh)
{0003965#S183}

(70) *qapryftsa núnu, cici jy-ari tce u-ku*
centipede DEM sometimes AOR-go LNK 3SG.POSS-head
*ju-z-muke, cici tce u-jme ju-z-muke*
IPFV-CAUS-be.first[III] sometimes LNK 3SG.POSS-tail IPFV-CAUS-be.first[III]
*pu-cti tce notcu nuy u-ku ny, notcu u-jme*
SENS-be:AFF LNK where DEM 3SG.POSS-head be:FACT where 3SG.POSS-head
*ny, mui-saɣsyl*
be:FACT NEG.SENS-be.clear
‘The centipede, when it moves, sometimes its head goes first, sometimes its tail goes first, it is not each to tell which is its head and which is its tail.’ (21-qaprAftsa) {0003582#S9}

With generic nouns such as *turme* ‘person’, *notcu* can serve as prenominal determiner to mean ‘a person from where’, as in (71).

(71) *notcu turme tw-ny?*
where person 2-be:FACT
‘Where are you from?’ (2011-05-nyima)
The pronoun *ŋotču* however has non-spatial uses, in particular to ask about a particular individual (or a subgroup) within a group, as in (72) and (73).

(72) azo a-wa nʷ ŋotcu zo nʷ ŋu kw?
1SG 1SG.POSS-father DEM where EMPH DEM be:FACT SFP
‘Which one is my father?’ (150831 jubaopen-zh) {0006294#S158}

(73) mʷzw ŋotcu nʷ zo sʾndyɣ m xsi ma
more where DEM EMPH be:poisonous:FACT NEG-know:GENR LNK
‘(Apart from this one), I don’t which other [mushrooms] are poisonous.’
(23-grWBgrWBftsa) {0003602#S29}

In participial relatives with subject participle (in *kw-*, see §16.1.1.4), *ŋotču* ‘where’ can occur to express relativization of locative adjuncts, as in (74); see §23.2.5 for a discussion of the other available constructions.

(74) kw-me nura qʰe me, ŋotcu kw-tu nʷ qʰe
SBJ:PCP-not.exist DEM:PL LNK not.exist:FACT where SBJ:PCP-exist DEM LNK
kw-dʷ-dyn tu-łov ŋu.
SBJ:PCP-EMPH-be.many IPFV-come.out be:FACT
‘In [places] where it is not found, there is none, but in [places] where it is
found, it grows in great number.’ (21-jmAGni) {0003572#S87}

The pronoun *ŋotču* ‘where’ is not exclusively used in question about place or direction, we also find it in the expression in (75).

(75) kʷiki ŋotcu pʷ-ŋgrγl?
this where IPFV-be.usually.the.case
‘How could this be possible?’ (qajdoskAt 2002) {0003366#S32}

This sentence is used to express indignation (as in Chinese 哪有这样的道理?).<fnref n="1" />

## 6.6 Indefinite pronouns

Japhug has a handful of indefinite pronouns, indicated in Table 6.4. They do not form a complete paradigm, and other constructions, in particular generic nouns

<footnote n="1">¹In the story from which it is quoted, the husband says this sentence after his wife, quoting the words of a raven, says that she will have luck, not her husband, who thus reacts in anger.</footnote>
and free relatives occur to express meanings for which no indefinite pronoun exists (see §23.7).

There are no negative indefinite pronouns, and indefinite pronouns are almost never under the scope of negation (except in translations from Chinese). They also never occur as standard of comparison.<fnref n="2" />

<table><caption>Table 6.4: Indefinite pronouns</caption><tr><td>ci</td><td>'one', 'someone'</td></tr><tr><td>tʰuːci</td><td>'tʰuːtʰuːci'</td><td>'something'</td></tr><tr><td>tsʰitsuku</td><td>'whatever'</td></tr><tr><td>çuːmยːcu</td><td>'whoever, anybody'</td></tr><tr><td>ciscʰiz</td><td>'somewhere'</td></tr></table>

### 6.6.1 ci 'someone'

There is no indefinite pronoun 'someone' in Japhug, but the numeral ci 'one', which has many additional functions (indefinite article, modifier and partitive pronoun §9.1.4.1, §6.8, §6.7.2, §9.1.7, §7.1.1 and §22.2.1), can express this meaning as in (76) and (77).

(76) *w-lycu* *nuctu* *qazo* *kytsa* *ci*, *ci* *ku*
3SG.Poss-upstream DEM:LOC sheep parent.and.child INDEF one ERG
ky-ntsyɛ *tʰa-yut* *pu-nyu*.

OBJ:PCP-sell AOR:3→3'-bring SENS-be
'Upstream from there, [there was] a ewe and her young, that someone had brought them to sell.' (2003 kandZislama)

(77) *tw-xpa* *tce* *ci* *ku* *tw-rdoːk* *pjɛ-sat*.
one-year LNK one ERG one-piece IFR-kill
'One year, someone killed one [wild goose].' (22-qomndroN)

{0003598#S37}

This use of ci is rare. The preferred construction to express the meaning 'someone' involves the combination of the generic noun *turme* 'person' with the indefinite ci.

<footnote n="2">²Examples such as 'In Freiburg the weather is better than anywhere in Germany' (Haspelmath 1997: 2) would not be expressible with an indefinite pronoun.</footnote>
6.6.2 **tʰuci** ‘something’

The indefinite pronoun *tʰuci* ‘something’ derives from the bound state of the
proto-Japhug pronoun *tʰi* ‘what’ (see §6.5.1 above) with the indefinite deter-
miner and numeral *ci* ‘one’. Note that vowel alternation bleeds the sound change
/*tʰi/ → /tsʰi/, otherwise a form such as †tsʰu ci would have been expected. Its
reduplicated form tʰu tʰi ci has an irregular vocalism /r/ (†tʰu tʰi u ci would have
been expected instead).

It can designate specific referents, whose nature is known to the speaker but
unknown to the addressee (as in 78),<fnref n="3" />.

(78) **tu-nuısman-a jyy** ri, mzy w-ftcaka tsuku
IPFV-treat-1SG be.possible:FACT but yet 3SG.POSS-manner some
**pjw-tu ra** wo, tce tʰuwthyci zo pjw-tu
IPFV-exist be.needed:FACT SFP LNK something EMPH IPFV-exist
ra
be.needed:FACT
'I can treat [your illness], but yet another method is needed, something
[else] is needed.' (140427 qala cho kWrtsAg) {0003852#S44}

The pronoun *tʰu ci* also occurs to refer to things whose name is unknown to
the speaker (as in 79 and 80), even if he/she may have seen the object.

(79) tce nu nw-rte nw tcʰi nu ma tʰu ci ci “-za”
LNK DEM 3PL.POSS-hat DEM what be:FACT LNK something INDEF ...
tu-ti nu, χsyrza!
IPFV-say be:FACT golden.hat
'How is their hat [called], something in 'za'.... yes, gser.zwa 'golden
hat'!' (30-mboR) {0003748#S93}

(80) tce ty-ndzwy nw kwnx, tʰu ci kʰutsa kw-fse
LNK INDEF.POSS-resin DEM also something bowl SBJ:PCPbe like
w-ŋgw tu-rku-nw tce
3SG-inside IPFV-put.in-PL LNK
'The resin, people put it into something like a bowl.' (07-tAtho)
{0003432#S40}

<footnote n="3">³Example (78) is from a tale about a rabbit tricking a snow leopard; the difference of knowledge between the speaker and the addressee concerning the nature of the ‘something’ is crucial to the plot.</footnote>
It is also used for non-specific referents whose nature is entirely unknown, as in (81) and (82).

(81) tce m tʰuːtʰyiː ta-nnuːrku-nuː kuːma

LNK yet something AOR:3→3'-AUTO-put.in-PL SFP

‘They also probably gave them something else.’ (02-deluge 2012)

{0003376#S111}

(82) tʰuː-mqlaːk tʰuː-mqlaːk ma tʰuːci fse ci ndza

IMP:swallow IMP:swallow LNK something be lik e:FACT INDEF reason

cʰuː-ce

cti

IPFV:DOWNSTREAM-go be.AFF:FACT

‘Swallow it, swallow it, it comes down [into your throat] for some reason.’
(2005-stod-kunbzang)

The reduplicated form tʰuː~tʰyiː, especially in combination with fse ‘be like’,
can also mean ‘whatever (happened)’, as in (83).

(83) slama ra yuː tʰuːtʰyiː kuː-fse, kx-ry-βzjoz ra

student PL GEN something SBJ:PCP-be lik e INF-ANTIPASS-learn PL

puː-stu

múːj-stu-nuː,

nuː-stu

puː-nyma-nuː

SENS-try.hard-PL NEG:SENS-try.hard-PL 3SG.POSS-right SENS-do-PL

múːj-nyma-nuː, nuːnuːra nuː-pʰama

ra nuː-cki

kuː-ryfct

NEG:SENS-do-PL DEM:PL 3PL.POSS-parent PL 3PL-DAT GENR:S/O-tell

puː-ra.

SENS-be.needed

‘One had to tell the parents all kinds of things concerning the students,
whether they try hard or not, whether they work seriously or not.’

(150901 tshuBdWnskAt) {0006242#S17}

The non-reduplicated form *tʰuːci* occurs in a correlative construction with the form *muːci* to mean ‘this and that’, an expression that is used especially in reporting speech from another person when the speaker does not want to bother reporting in details the exact words that have been said.

(84) tʰuːci nɣme-a ra, muːci nɣ-me-a

something do[III]:fact-1SG be.needed:FACT something do[III]:fact-1SG

ra

be.needed:FACT

‘I have to do this and that (so I cannot do X).’ (elicited)
The pronoun *tʰuci* ‘something’ can also occur as head of a relative clause as in (80) above with the relative *tʰuci kʰutsa ku-fse* ‘something which is like a bowl’. This use is most common in texts translated from Chinese, with the indefinite article *ci* ‘one’ (§9.1.4.1) following relative clause, as in (85).

(85) *laχci ci pjw-βzjoz-a, tʰuci a-ky-spa ci*
trade INDEF IPFV-learn-1SG something 1SG.POSS-OBJ:PCP-be.able INDEF
*a-pw-tu pw-ra*
IRR-PFV-exist SENS-be.needed
‘I have to learn a trade, to have something I am able to do.’ (150902
luban-zh) {0006268#S12}

With stative verbs in the relative as in (86), this construction has a low degree
meaning ‘a little X’.

(86) *tce kw-wyürum w-ngwz kumv tʰuci*
LNK SBJ:PCP-be.white 3SG.POSS-inside:LOC also something
*kw-ypywlu kw-fse ci ŋu tce,*
SBJ:PCP-greyish SBJ:PCP-be like INDEF be:FACT LNK
‘[Silver] is white with a little greyish colour.’ (30-Com) {0003736#S173}

The reduplicated form of the indefinite pronoun *tʰutʰyci* can be used as an
interrogative pronoun, as in (87). This construction is similar in meaning to Chi-
nese 一些什么 <yīxiēshénme> ‘what kinds of things’, and is attested in particular
with the verbs *ti* ‘say’ and *ra* ‘be needed’. By using this form, the speaker implies
that the addressee necessarily knows the answer to the question. For instance,
in (87), a sentence from a text enumerating the mountain names in Kamnyu, the
names had been written before hand on a piece of paper, and I was reading them
one by one to Tshendzin; given the fact that the name had been written down, it
was obvious that I necessarily knew the answer to that question (on the use of
the Inferential in this example, see §21.5.2.3).

(87) *nwn w-pa tʰuutʰyci to-ti-a?*
DEM 3SG.POSS-down something IFR-say-1SG
‘What did I say after that?’ (140522 Kamnyu zgo) {0004055#S69}

There are very marginal examples of *tʰuci* ‘something’ used as an indefinite
prenominal determiner (§9.1.4.2).

The pronoun *tʰuci* ‘something’ can take various modifiers, for instance the
identity modifier *kumaʌ* ‘other’ (§9.1.7) as in (88).
(88) ki mbro ki p̥u-kɣ-ntsɣe tce, [kumač tʰuči]
DEM:PROX horse DEM:PROX IPFV-INF-sell LNK other something
p̥u-kɣ-sɣndu to-nukrɣz-ndzi
IPFV-INF-exchange IFR-discuss-DU

'They discussed about selling their horse, and exchanging it for something else.' (150822 laoye zuoshi zongshi duide-zh) {0006298#S41}

No example of *tʰuči* with topic markers contributing to mark definiteness such as *nu* or *icqʰa* (§9.1.4.3) have been found in the corpus.

### 6.6.3 tsʰitsuku 'whatever'

The pronoun *tsʰitsuku* ‘whatever’ combines the interrogative pronoun *tsʰi* ‘what’ (replaced by *teʰi* ‘what’, a borrowing from Tibetan, in Kamnyu Japhug, but still attested in Mangi village, see §6.5.1 above) with the mid-scalar quantifier *tsuku* ‘some’ (see §9.1.3.2; also found as a partitive pronoun, §6.7.2). Unlike *tʰuči* ‘something’, is not used for specific referents. Example (89) illustrates its most common use. The variant form *tʰitsuku*, without the sound change *tsʰi* → *tsʰi*, is also used by speakers of the Kamnyu dialect.

(89) kɣ-nu-βłu tce ckrɣz wuma zo pe ma numu, numu
INF-AUTO-burn LNK oak really EMPH be.good:FACT LNK DEM DEM
yw u-smumba nw sycke, tcendvre tsʰitsuku kú-wy-sqa tce,
GEN 3SG.POSS-flame DEM burning LNK whatever IPFV-INV-COOK LNK
zaza zo ku-yγ-smi cʰa, tsʰitsuku

SOON EMPH IPFV-CAUS-be.cooked can:FACT whatever
tú-wy-suw-γla tce, zaza tu-suw-γle

IPFV-INV-CAUS-be.boiling LNK SOON IPFV-CAUS-CAUS-be.boiling[III]
cʰa.

can:FACT

'For burning, oak is very good, the flames [from its wood] are very hot, whatever one cooks, it cooks it quickly, whatever one boils, it boils it quickly.' (08-CkrAz) {0003444#S2}

In many cases, it is better translated as ‘all kinds of things’, as in (90).

(90) tce nuťcu kwny u-jak u-ntsi tysi
LNK DEM:LOC also 3SG.POSS-hand 3SG.POSS-one.of.a.pair staff
pjw-sytse u-jak u-ntsi kw tsʰitsuku
IPFV-plant[III] 3SG.POSS-hand 3SG.POSS-one.of.a pair ERG whatever
p̥u-z-n̥me qhe, zara n̥u-ndzytsʰi tu-βze, fsapaŋ ra

IPFV-CAUS-do[III] LNK 3PL 3PL.POSS-food IPFV-make[III] animal PL

n̥u-ndzytsʰi p̥u-βze

3PL.POSS-food IPFV-make[III]

'Even like that, she supports herself with a staff in one hand, and with the other hand she does all kinds of things, makes their food, she makes food for the animals.' (14-siblings) {0003508#S49}

As other indefinite pronouns, tsʰitsuku 'whatever' is not normally used with negation, but such sentences do occur in the corpus in translations from Chinese, as (91). They are not idiomatic Japhug, and only marginally grammatical.

(91) tsʰitsuku m̥u-to-ti, qʰe tcend̥re ku̥-rŋgw̥ jo-n̥wce qʰe
whatever NEG-IFR-say LNK LNK SBJ:PCP-lay.down IFR-go.back LNK
ko-n̥u-rŋgw̥.

IFR-AUTO-lay.down

'He did not said anything, went back to sleep and laid down in bed.'
(150902 qixian-zh) {0006258#S90}

### 6.6.4 ᥠmɛ́rɛ́ ‘whoever, anybody’

There is no indefinite pronoun for human referents ‘somebody’ in Japhug corresponding to tʰu ci ‘something’ – a generic noun with the indefinite determiner ci ‘one’ such as turme ci ‘a man’ is used instead. There is nevertheless a free choice pronoun ᥠmɛ́rɛ́ ‘whoever, anybody’ (see Haspelmath 1997: 48–52 on the differences with universal quantifiers), which, however, is not very common. As example (92) shows, it can take the ergative ku, and the verb receives plural indexation (§14.6.2).

(92) tcaχkvr kʰu tsa n̥u wo tʰam qʰe c̥u mɛ́ c̥u ku ku-nu-ntcʰo z-nu
tin bowl DEM ADVERS NOW LNK anybody ERG IPFV-AUTO-use-PL
cti

be.AFF:FACT

'Now anybody can use tin bowls.' (unlike before, when only important people could use it, 160702 khWtsa) {0006075#S26}

### 6.6.5 ciscʰiz ‘somewhere’

The indefinite pronoun ciscʰiz ‘somewhere’ comprises the indefinite ci ‘one’ and the approximate locative (s)chʰiz (see §8.2.4.2). It occurs with or without the loca-
tive postposition ri, as in (93) and (94). It can refer to static location, or motion
from or towards a direction.

(93) ciscʰiz, tɛtsʰɔv ɔr-taɣ kɔr-fse, tɔ-ytsi ɔr-taɣ
somewhere nail 3SG-ON SBJ:PCP-be lik e, INDEF.POSS-pillar 3SG-ON
kɔr-fse, nɔmwa, nɔmwtcu kú-w tce,
SBJ:PCP-be like, DEM:PL DEM:LOC IPFV-INV-attach LNK
'One attaches [their noseband] somewhere, like on a nail, on a pillar.'
(150902 kAxtCAr) {0006308#S7}

(94) nɔmw ciscʰiz ri tú-wɣ-z-nuŋdzɔ wce pɔ́ w-y-ta.
DEM somewhere LOC IPFV-INV-CAUS-be LNK IPFV-WEST-INV-put
'One puts it vertically somewhere.' (14-tasa) {0003510#S58}

6.6.6 Interrogative pronouns used as free-choice indefinites

Non-specific free-choice (Haspelmath 1997: 48) indefinite referents can be ex-
pressed by interrogative pronouns in Japhug. Constructions where this function
is attested include correlatives (§23.2.5), as in (95) and universal concessive con-
ditionals (§25.2.3.3) as in (96).

(95) a-pɔwwɔ, [ŋotcu lɔ-y-tɔŋrgw] zo qʰe], nɔwtcu
1SG-donkey where AOR:UPSTREAM-2-lay.down EMPH LNK DEM:LOC
rɔz̥i-tci ŋu ma,
stay:FACT-1DU be:FACT because
‘My donkey, we will stay wherever you lay down.’ (28-qajdoskAt)
{0003718#S36}

(96) [tʰyjtcu fsaŋ ky-ta ty-ra] zo tce nɔmw
when fumigation INF-put AOR-be.needed EMPH LNK DEM
tu-βlɔ-nw tce,
IPFV-burn-PL LNK
‘Whenever there is need to make fumigations, they burn it.’ (15-YaBrWG)
{0003516#S28}

This meaning also occurs in infinitival subordinate clauses, in particular in the
expression *tɛʰi k-cʰa* ‘do whatever X can to Y’, as in example (97).

(97) [tcʰi k-cʰa] zo cʰu-pʰut-nw,
what INF-can EMPH IPFV-remove-PL
‘People do whatever they can to remove [this plant].’ (12-Zmbroko)
{0003490#S116}
In both correlative relatives and universal concessive conditionals, the inter-
rogative pronoun often occurs with verb with partial reduplication on the last
syllable of the stem and/or the autive *nw-* prefix (§19.1.4, §25.2.3.3).

With tɛ̈ h i 'what', this construction expresses the meaning 'whatever; no mat-
ter what' in intransitive subject (98), object (99) or semi-object (100, see §14.4.2)
functions.

(98) lú-wy-sti tce tce nw w-ŋgw [tcʰi pw-nw-ŋw-ŋu] nw
IPFV-INV-block LNK LNK DEM 3SG-inside what PST.IPFV-AUTO-be DEM
ŋw-mŋy-t múj-cʰa
IPFV-be.spoiled NEG:SENS-can
'One seals [its opening] and whatever [food] is inside will not be spoiled.'
(150828 kodAt) {0006392#S13}

(99) [tcʰi tɔ-tn-nɔ-tn-tɔ-tɔ] zo ju-yi cti
what AOR-2-AUTO-say[II] EMPH IPFV-come be.AFF:FACT
'Whatever you say will come.' (2003 tWxtsa)

(100) nɔzo tcʰi kw-stɔ-stu-a zo ŋu
2SG what 2→1-do like:FACT-1SG EMPH be:FACT
'Whatever you do to me [will be fine].' (28-qajdoskAt) {0003718#S38}

With ɛ̈ w ‘who’, the construction means ‘whoever; regardless of who; no matter who’. Examples are found with the non-specific referent in intransitive subject (101), transitive subject (102), or oblique argument (103) functions. Note that it often occurs with plural indexation.

(101) twsqar nw kurw turme ra mɣ-ku-rga maka zo
tsampa DEM Tibetan person PL NEG-SBJ:PCP-like at.all EMPH
me, [ɛw pw-nw-ŋw-ŋu] zo, twsqar a-pw-tu qʰe,
notiant:FACT who PST.IPFV-AUTO-be EMPH tsampa IRR-IPFV-exist LNK
tcendvre, nw-ky-ndza tu-rtaw cti,
LNK 3PL.POSS-OBJ:PCP-eat IPFV-be.enough be:AFF:FACT
'Among Tibetan people, everybody likes tsampa ('there is no one who
does not like it'), no matter who, if they have tsampa, they have enough
to eat.' (2002 tWsqar2)
(102) tce [cw kʷ pa-nu̱-mtu̱-mto-nu̱] žo kʷki yu̱, ṉu-kʰa
LNK who ERG AOR:3→3'-see-PL EMPH DEM.PROX GEN 3PL.POSS-house
yu̱ ṉu-mu̱ntoɣ ṉu cʰondy̱re ṉu-coŋpʰu ṉura tce, my̱ẕu
GEN 3PL.POSS-flower DEM COMIT 3PL.POSS-tree DEM:PL LNK yet
ṉu-<-cai> ṉura, pj̱u-y̱mu̱-ṉu tce,
3PL.POSS-vegetable DEM:PL IPFV-praise-PL LNK

'Whoever saw it, the flowers and the trees and the vegetables of their
house, they praised it.' (150824 yuanding-zh) {0006270#S29}

(103) tscime ri tw-rdoɣ ma me, tcendsre nwo̱zo [cw yu̱
lady also one-piece apart.from not.exist:FACT LNK 2PL who GEN
ṉu-ṉu-kʰu̱-kʰo-t-a] žo múj-nu̱twu̱tsaŋ cti tce,
AOR-AUTO-give-PST:TR-1SG EMPH NEG:SENS-be.fair be.AFF:FACT LNK

'There is only one princess, and regardless of whom among you all I
give her hand to, it will be unfair.' (140508 benling gaoqiang de si
xiongdi-zh) {0003935#S223}

Universal concessive conditionals are found with the pronoun *ŋotɛu* ‘where’, with the meaning ‘no matter where, wherever’ (location or direction from or to), as in (104). This free-choice indefinite meaning of *ŋotɛu* in also found in the deloc-utive expression *ŋrɛtɛukrɛti + kʰu* ‘be obedient’, where the interrogative pronoun occurs in bound state form *ŋrɛtɛu-* with the infinitive of *ti* ‘say’ (§16.2.1.9).

(104) [ŋotcu nú̱-wy-tu̱-ta] zo kwpɣz ṉu-βže
where IPFV-INV-INDEFINITE~put EMPH type.of.bug IPFV-grow
ṉu-cti
SENS-be.AFF

'Bugs will grow wherever you put [the meat].'(28-kWpAz) {0003714#S21}

No example of multiple partitive use of interrogatives (as in French *qui appor-
tait un fromage, qui un sac de noix*, Haspelmath 1997: 177) is attested in the data
at hand; mid-scalar quantifiers such as *tsuku* ‘some’ occur instead as partitive
pronouns (§6.7.2).

6.7 Quantifiers

6.7.1 Universal quantifiers

Several quantifiers meaning ‘all’ exist in Japhug (§9.1.3.1). Among them, *ksufse*
‘all’ can be used in the meaning ‘everybody’, as in example (105).
(105) kṣṣuṇṣe kṣu ṭo ta-nu maṇ
all ERG EMPH put:FACT-PL not.be:FACT
'Not everybody puts it.' (160706 thotsi) {0006133#S21}

The less common form *mpururi* ‘everybody, each person’ (from Tibetan མི་རྗེས་པ་ ‘each man’ also serves as a universal quantifier, as in (106).

(106) mpururi kṣu 'nunṣ pṛ-pe' ntsu to-ti-nu
everybody ERG DEM SENS-be.good always IFR-say-PL
'Everybody said 'It is nice!' (140521 huangdi de xinzhuang)
{0004047#S192}

There are several words meaning ‘everywhere’, such as *akṣndundṛt* ‘everywhere’, but they are treated as adverbs rather than pronouns (§22.2.2.2).

6.7.2 Partitive pronouns

The mid-scalar quantifier *tsuku* ‘some’ is used both as a noun determiner (§9.1.3.2) and as a partitive pronoun, taking case markers and determiners. This construc- tion expresses a meaning close to that obtained by combining a relative clause with an existential verb (‘there is someone who…’, §22.5.1.2), as can be seen in (107) where both constructions are used one after the other.

(107) tsuku kṣu zgri tu-ti-nu ṇu, tsuku kṣu mṛrkuj
some ERG plant.name IPFV-say-PL some ERG plant.name IPFV-say-PL
tu-ti-nu ṇu. mṛrkuj tu-kṣu-ti tci
plant.name IPFV-SBJ:PCP-say also exist:FACT plant.name
tu, zgri tu-kṣu-ti tci tu ma,
IPFV-SBJ:PCP-say also exist:FACT LNK
'Some call it zgri, some call it mṛrkuj; there are people who call it mṛrkuj,
and also people who call it zgri.' (19-qachGa mWntoR) {0003546#S154}

The quantifier *tsuku* ‘some’ used as a pronoun generally refers to humans in the corpus, but (108) shows that it can also denote plants for instance.

(108) tsuku maṇ, tsuku aqarṇuṛṇe,
some be.black:FACT some be.light.yellow:FACT
'Some are black, some are light yellow.' (140505 stonka mWntoR)
{0003917#S5}
Numerals (in particular ci 'one') and also counted nouns (§7.3.2) can be used
without head noun with a partitive meaning 'one of (a group)' as in (109) and
(110).

(109) ci yu̯ t️-tcu̯, ci yu̯ tcʰeme tw~t️-tu n️y,
one GEN INDEF.POSS-son one GEN INDEF.POSS-son COND~AOR-exist LNK
bzymi ku-k-su̯-βzu
husband.and.wife IPFV-INF-CAUS-make

'If one of them has a boy, and the other one has a girl, let us make them
husband and wife.' (2003 zrAntCW)

(110) ci tʰu̯-ku̯-rgu̯-rgyz p<u>u̯-cti tce, ci
one AOR-SBJ:PCP-EMPH~be.old C-be.AFF LNK one
ku̯-xtcu̯-xtci p<u>u̯-cti tce,
AOR-SBJ:PCP-EMPH~be.old C-be.AFF LNK

'One of them has grown very old, and one of them is very small.'
(2011-05-nyima)

This partitive function is also found in combination with personal pronouns,
as in (111).

(111) n<u>uzora ci ku̯ a-t<u>uci
2PL one ERG 1SG.POSS-INDEF.POSS-water a.little IPFV-2-bring-PL
<u>u̯-j<u>yy
QU-be.possible:FACT
'Could one of you bring me some water?' (150904 zhongli-zh)
{0006348#S47}

**6.7.3 Distributive pronouns**

The pronoun *zaka* ‘each his own’ and its variant *zakastaka* ‘each his own’ occur
as pronouns, especially as possessors in an possessive existential construction. It
can be correlated with a third singular *u̯-* (112) or a third plural *nu̯-* (113) prefix
on the possessum.

(112) tce nu<u>nu̯ li qazo nu̯ ku̯-pav tu,
LNK DEM again sheep DEM SBJ:PCP-be.black exist:FACT
ku̯-wyrum tu, ku̯-γy<u>wnu̯cu̯r ku̯-fse tu,
SBJ:PCP-be.white exist:FACT SBJ:PCP-be.reddish SBJ:PCP-be lik exist:FACT
ku-rrŋuwuz tu, tce numu zaka u-mdoɔ
SBJ:PCP-be blueish exist:FACT LNK DEM each.his.own 3SG.POSS-colour
tu ma
exist:FACT LNK

'There are black sheep, white ones, reddish ones, blueish ones, each has
his own colour (they come in all types of colors).' (05-qaZo)
{0003404#S58}

(113) li zaka nɔu-rmi tu,
again each.his.own 3PL.POSS-name exist:FACT
'Each have their own names.' (150903 tWmNu) {0006280#S10}

The pronoun zaka is built by combining the bound state of the pronominal root -zo (§6.1) with the root -ka found in the distributive modifier tuka 'each' (which follows possessums, see §9.1.3.3).

6.8 Identity pronoun

The words kumaɔ ‘other’ and kuɔte ‘other’ occur as prenominal determiners (see
§9.1.7, also for a discussion on the etymology of the former), but it can also be
used as a pronoun and take determiners as in (114).

(114) ma kumaɔ nwa aj múj-swɔ:sal-a ri, tkʰepyɔ:twu nɔ
LNK other DEM:PL 1SG NEG:SENS-recognize but bird.sp DEM
swɔ:sal-a
recognize:FACT-1SG
'The other ones I don't recognize them, but the tkʰepyɔ:twu bird, I do
recognize it.' (23-scuz) {0003612#S43}

The interpretation of both *kumaɔ* ‘other’ and *kuɔte* ‘other’ can be locative
‘somewhere else’ as in (115), when the main verb (*ta* ‘put’ in this example) selects
a goal or a locative adjunct (since locative noun phrases are often unmarked,
§8.1.8, §8.1.9).

(115) kumaɔ/kuɔte nɔ-w-ta-t ņu u-maɔ?
other AOR-2-put-TR:PST be:FACT QU-not.be:FACT
'Did you put it somewhere else?' (elicitated1)

Adding the indefinite determiner *ci* ‘one’ is necessary in this context to convey
the meaning ‘something else’:
(116) *kumaъ/kwъcte ci* nъw-tuъ-ta-t *pu* u-maъ?
other INDEF AOR-2-put-TR:PST be:FACT QU-not.be:FACT
'Did you put something else?' (elicitated1)

Example (117) illustrates that both *kumaъ* and *kumaъ ci* can occur in the mean-
ing ‘another one’ in some contexts (here with the verb *car* ‘search’).

(117) xsw-sŋi mɔ-yu-tsu qʰe li kumaъ ci ju-yut qʰe,
three-day NEG-INF:STAT-pass LNK again other INDEF IPFV-bring LNK
li u-zda pwo-nu-car pwo-cti. tce nwmu
again 3SG.POSS-companion IPFV-AUTO-search SENS-be.AFF LNK DEM
maka kwjka nɔ-yn ma, u-zda nɔ-
completely pyrrhocorax DEM be.evil:FACT LNK 3SG.POSS-companion DEM
nɔ-me u-qʰu mɔ-ku-nyrzaъ tce kumaъ
AOR-not.exist 3SG.POSS-after NEG-INF:STAT-spend.time LNK other
pwo-car pwo-cti tce mɔ-yu-pe tu-ti-nu
IPFV-search SENS-be.AFF LNK NEG:SENS-be.good IPFV-say-PL
ŋgryl.
be.usually.the.case:FACT

‘Not even three days [after hunters kill its mate, the *Pyrrhocorax*] brings another one, it looks for another mate. People say that the *Pyrrhocorax* is not nice, because not long after its mate has died, it looks for another one, it is not good.’ (22-CAGpGa) {0003586#S79}

The indefinite *ci* ‘one’ combined with the demonstrative determiner *nɔ* (or *numu*) has the meaning ‘the other one’ (the definite counterpart of *kumaъ* ‘other’), as in (118) and (119).

(118) tce u-jak ku ki tu-ste lu-z-nakje
LNK 3SG.POSS-hand ERG DEM:PROX IPFV-do likel[III] IPFV-reach. into[III]
pw-u ri, tce ci nɔ ku u-jak ku-mtswy
SENS-be but LNK INDEF DEM ERG 3SG.POSS-hand IPFV-bite
pwo-cti qʰe,
SENS-be.AFF:FACT LNK

‘[The cat]i reaches with itsi paw [into the hole] like this, but the other one (the weasel) bites itsi paw.’ (27-spjaNkW) {0003704#S47}
(119) *u-me* b*nu*z *pj*γ-*tu* tce, *tu*-rdok *nw* χ*syrlγsm*yn
3SG.POSS-daughter two IFR.IPFV-exist LNK one-piece DEM gser.la.sman
*pj*γ-*rmi*, ci *nw* *rp*γl*vs*my* n *pj*γ-*rmi* tce,
IFR.IPFV-beillage DEM dngul.la.sman IFR.IPFV-beillage LNK
‘He had two daughters, one of them was called Gser.la.sman, and the
other Dngul.la.sman.’ (2003-kWBRa)

Alternatively to the construction in (119) with *tu-rdoov* ‘one piece’ and *ci nu* to express the meaning ‘one of them .... and the other ...’, it is possible to use *ci nu* two times in the same sentence to refer to more than one persons or animals, as in (120).

(120) tce ci *n*u*n*u ju-ce *u*-kʰu*kiha ci *n*u *ku* *u*-pu
LNK INDEF DEM IPFV-go 3SG-while INDEF DEM ERG 3SG.POSS-intestine
*tu*-ndze, *c*ʰ*u*-r.
IPFV-eat[III] IPFV-pull
‘While one of the two (i.e. the prey) is (still) going, the other one (i.e. the
predator) eats and pulls its intestine.’ (20-RmbroN) {0003560#S69}

The dual *ci numi* ‘the other two’ and plural *ci nura* ‘the other ones’ are also
attested, as in (121), showing that *ci* is here completely bleached of numeral mean-
ing.

(121) ci numi γu* n*u, ndzi-ta-mar rjyγi
INDEF DEM:DU GEN DEM 3DU.POSS-INDEF.POSS-butter tsampa
*pj*γ-*ŋu* tce tce n*u*n*u w*zo* kw to-ndza
IPFV.IFR-be:FACT LNK LNK DEM 3SG ERG IFR-eat
‘The tsampa of the other two [sisters] was butter tsampa, and she ate it.’
(2003-kWBRa) {0006346#S67}

It is also possible in this function to use other modifiers such as numerals, as
in (122) with χswm ‘three’.

(122) icqʰa ci χswm *nw* *mw*-jo-γi-*nw* *kw*
the.aforementioned INDEF three DEM NEG-IFR-come-PL ERG
‘The three other ones, without coming, (said...)’ (140515 congming de
wusui xiaohai-zh) {0003998#S44}

As a prenominal determiner, *ci* also has the meaning ‘the other *X*’ (see §9.1.7).

Finally, the noun *turme* ‘person’ (which also occurs to express generic person, §6.2.2) can be used in the meaning ‘someone else’ or ‘other people’, in particular in genitival constructions as in (123).
<table><tr><td>(123)</td><td><b>turme</b> <b>u-kʰs</b><b>pa</b></td><td><b>zu̯</b>, <b>ki</b></td><td><b>ku̯-fse</b></td><td><b>tu̯-rza</b><b>u̯</b></td></tr><tr><td></td><td colspan="4">people 3SG POSS-yard LOC DEM.PROX SBJ:PCP-be like one-night</td></tr><tr><td></td><td><b>lu-znu̯fso</b><b>spat-a</b></td><td><b>ku-omdzu̯-a.</b></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td></td><td colspan="4">IPFV-do.the.whole.night-1SG IPFV-sit-1SG</td></tr></table>

'I would spend an entire night from dusk till dawn sitting in someone else's animal yard.' (2010-histoire09)

## 6.9 Demonstrative pronouns

There are two basic demonstratives in Japhug, the proximal *ki* 'this' and the distal one *nu* 'that', which also occur as demonstrative determiners (see §9.1.2). Table 6.5 illustrates the various demonstrative pronouns that are derived from these basic forms, with reduplicated and emphatic forms. There is in addition a cataphoric pronoun *nɛki*, discussed in §6.9.2.2.

Plural and dual forms, as in the case of determiners, are formed by adding -ra and -ni suffixes (§9.1.1) to the demonstrative root, which undergoes bound state change /i/ → /u/ in the case of proximal demonstratives. Plural forms are given in the table; dual forms are attested but rare and can be predicted (*kuni* 'these two' etc).

<table><caption>Table 6.5: Demonstrative pronouns</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th>Base form</th><th>Reduplicated</th><th>Emphatic</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Proximal, singular</td><td><b>ki</b></td><td><b>kuki</b></td><td><b>ukuki</b></td></tr><tr><td>Distal, singular</td><td><b>nu</b></td><td><b>nu</b><b>nu</b></td><td><b>u</b><b>nu</b><b>nu</b></td></tr><tr><td>Proximal, plural</td><td><b>kura</b></td><td><b>kukura</b></td><td><b>ukukura</b></td></tr><tr><td>Distal, plural</td><td><b>nura</b></td><td><b>nu</b><b>nu</b><b>ura</b></td><td><b>u</b><b>nu</b><b>mu</b><b>ura</b></td></tr></tbody></table>

The distal demonstratives, being the default forms, are simply glossed as DEM in the examples: only proximal demonstratives are explicitely marked as such in the glosses.

### 6.9.1 Anaphoric demonstrative pronouns

The basic demonstratives *ki* and *nu* are less often used as pronouns that the other ones (they mainly occur as determiners). They nevertheless do occur in all syntactic functions, including object (in particular with the verb *ti* 'say', as in 124,
where it refers to words that have been previously told to another animal), and
semi-object (in particular with the verb *stu* 'do like' as in 125).

(124) *li nɔ̃w to-ti ri,*
again DEM IFR-say LNK
'[Gesar] said the same thing to the [snow leopard].' (gesar)

(125) *ũ-mu nɔ̃w ku-rqoɣ tce ki tu-ste tce*
3SG.POSS-mother DEM IPFV-hug LNK DEM:PROX IPFV-do like[III] LNK
'It hugs its mother like that.' (19-GzW) {0003536#S29}

The distal demonstratives *nɔ̃w* and *nunɔ̃w* serve as anaphoric pronouns with any type of referent, including humans, but also abstract concepts, inanimate objects or plants as in (126), though as mentioned in §6.1, third person pronouns such as *uwo* 'he' can also have inanimate antecedents.

(126) *tʰsʰa k(-)nɔ̃-ta tʃ-ra, smi kʃ-βlɔ̃ tʃ-ra*
tea INF-AUTO-put AOR-be-needed fire AOR-burn AOR-be-needed
*pɔ̃-nɔ̃-ŋu, tʰamaka sko-nɔ̃* *pɔ̃-nɔ̃-ŋu, tce*
PST.IPFV-AUTO-be tobacco smoke:FACT-PL PST.IPFV-AUTO-be LNK
**nunɔ̃w kɔ̃ smi tu-sw-tcɣt-nɔ̃w.**
DEM ERG fire IPFV-CAUS-take.out-PL
'When they need to boil tea, to make a fire or smoke tobacco, people
light up the fire with it.' (15-babW) {0003512#S209}

When a third person mentioned in a discussion is present, the pronoun *uwo*
'he' is not the optimal way of referring to him/her, and a proximal demonstrative,
in particular the reduplicated *kuki* 'this', is used instead. It can occur to present
someone to someone else (127) (note that a similar usage exists in Western lan-
guages such as English in the same context) and even to talk about the actions
of this person, as in (128) and (129).

(127) *kuki a-slama ŋu*
DEM.PROX 1SG.POSS-student be:FACT
'This a [former] student of mine.' (conversation 140510)

(128) *kuki kɔ̃ ta-βzu?*
DEM.PROX ERG AOR:3→3'-make
'Did she make it?' (conversation 140510)
As other pronouns (see §6.1), demonstrative pronouns can take the demonstrative determiner *nu*, as in (129).

(129) *mw~my-pw-jyγ* tce my-yi-tci ma
COND~NEG-PST.IPFV-be.acceptable LNK NEG-come:FACT-1DU LNK

kwki nw fstwn-tci ra ma tci-βye

DEM:PROX DEM serve:FACT-1DU be.needed:FACT LNK 1DU.POSS-orphan

w-ku tʰw-kw-yγrndi

3SG.POSS-head AOR-SBJ:PCP-support

‘If it is not possible [to take the old man with us] we will not come, as we have to serve him, he is the one who adopted us orphans when we were in dire straits.’ (The old man is presumably present when this sentence is uttered) (2003nyima2)

The emphatic demonstrative pronouns (which are also used as determiners, §9.1.2) are built by combining the reduplicated forms of demonstratives with the third person possessive prefix *w-*. They are about fifty times less common than corresponding reduplicated forms, but their function is essentially the same. In (130), *wnwnw* is an anaphoric pronoun whose antecedent is present in the immediately preceding clause.

(130) tce w-rqʰu kw-fse ci γγzu tce, **wnwnw** kw
LNK 3SG.POSS-hull SBJ:PCP-be like INDEF exist:SENS LNK DEM:EMPH ERG

w-rdu nw tu-cw-fkaβ kw-fse p̱w-ηu.

3SG.POSS-eyeball DEM IPFV-CAUS-COVER SBJ:PCP-be like SENS-be
‘It has something like a membrane, and it covers its eyeball with it.’
(description of the nictitating membrane of birds, 140513
sWNgWrmABja) {0003983#S9}

The demonstrative *nu* may not refer anaphorically to a particular entity, but also to an entire situation, as in (131) where it occurs as an adjunct in absolutive form, meaning ‘this way, like that’ (in another version of the same story, we find *nu kw-fse* ‘like that’ instead of *nu* in the same context).

(131) nwnw w-mŋu nwtcu zw li, qapri, nγki, kw-paɣ
DEM 3SG.POSS-bank DEM:LOC LOC again snake FILLER SBJ:PCP-be.black

nw kw kw-wγrum nw w-qiw zo cʰy-mqlaɣ tce

DEM ERG SBJ:PCP-be.white DEM 3SG.POSS-half EMPH IFR-swallow LNK
nú pjγ-rγzi-ndzi.

DEM IFR.IPFV-stay-DU

‘On the bank [of the lake], there was again a black snake that had swallowed half of a white snake, and they were staying [stuck] like that.’
(28-smAnmi) {0004063#S99}

### 6.9.2 Medial and cataphoric pronoun

#### 6.9.2.1 Medial demonstrative

In addition to the proximal and distal demonstratives, there is a considerably rarer medial demonstrative *nɛ́ki*, in examples such as (132) and (133), which means ‘your place, near you’, as opposed to ‘here’.

(132) *kutcu* ko-qanú pʰoq-pʰoq zo, nɛ́ki

DEM.PROX:LOC IFR-be.dark IDPH(II):completely EMPH DEM:MEDIAL

nútcu ú-kó-qanú?

DEM:LOC QU-IFR-be.dark

‘Here (in Mbarkhams) it is already dark, is it [also] dark at your place (in Paris)?’ (phone conversation, 14.12.24, referring to the time lag between Paris and Mbarkham)

(133) *ki* kúra pú-kʰam-a tce nɛ́ki nú azúy

DEM:PROX DEM:PROX:PL IPFV-give-1SG LNK DEM:MEDIAL DEM 1SG:GEN

nú-kʰym je

IMP-give SFP

‘I give [you] these [toys], give me that one.’ (2012 Norbzang)

{0003768#S116}

The medial demonstrative *nɛ́ki* can be historically analyzed as a combination of the proximal demonstrative *ki* with the second person possessive *nɛ́*. However, equivalent dual or plural forms such as †ndziki or †nuki are impossible (the equivalent meaning can only be expressed with the dative, using a form such as *ndzizo ndzi-pʰe* ‘at your *du* place’, §8.3.1).

#### 6.9.2.2 Cataphoric pronoun

In addition to its function as a medial demonstrative (§6.9.2.1), the demonstrative *nɛ́ki* also occurs to express cataphoric reference. It occurs especially when the speaker hesitates and uses it as a filler, followed by a clause with the same verb (examples 134 and 135) or just with the same auxiliary (136).
(134) <luohan> nwnw nyki p̱w-ŋu loß, skw p̱w-ŋu loß
Arhat DEM DEM:CATAPH SENS-be SFP statue SENS-be SFP
'An Arhat is... it is Buddhist statue.' (150829 jidian) {0006338#S124}

(135) tce nw tw-ci yw w-taɣ nwnwtcu, nyki
LNK DEM INDEF.POSS-water GEN 3SG-on DEM:LOC DEM:CATAPH
p̱y-χtyr, icqʰa <yujinxiang> ky-ti muntok nw
IFR-spread the aforementionned tulip OBJ:PCP-say flower DEM
yw w-jwaɣ nw p̱y-χtyr.
GEN 3SG.POSS-leaf DEM IFR-spread
'She spilled on the water... she spilled the petals of the flower called
"tulip".' (150818 muzhi guniang-zh) {0006334#S68}

(136) tce nw-nuŋa ra nyki nyu ci, tce
LNK 2SG.POSS-COW PL DEM:CATAPH be:FACT QU LNK
p̱w-tw-nym qʰe, tce zara ku-n-nw-yi-nw
IPFV:WEST-2-chase[III] LNK LNK 3PL IPFV:EAST-AUTO-VERT-come-PL
nyu ci?
be:FACT QU

'And your cows, are they (still) like that, you let them out of the pen (in the morning), and they come back home on their own (in the evening)?'
(taRrdo conversation)

It is also used when the speaker alerts the addressee that a long description follows as in (137), as in English ‘(he said) the following’. Given the fact the Japhug is strictly verb-final and has pre-verbal complements (§22.1.1), this is a strategy employed to avoid relegating the main verb to the end of the description.

(137) kʰopi kw nqiazwɛr ci p̱w-muɣm rca
ANTHR ERG bitter.wormwood INDEF SENS-be.tasty UNEXPECT
p̱w-saχaɣ zo tce nyki tu-stu-nw p̱w-ŋu
SENS-beextremely EMPH LNK DEM:CATAPH IPFV-do likープL SENS-be
p̱w-ti, p̱w-pʰuɣt-nw qʰe kw-zri... ki jamar zo
SENS-say IPFV-take.out-PL LNK SBJ:PCP-be.long DEM:PROX about EMPH
kw-zri p̱w-pʰuɣt-nw qʰe nyki, w-ku
SBJ:PCP-be.long IPFV-take.out-PL LNK DEM:CATAPH 3SG.POSS-head
u-mtw kw-fse nwtcu kú-wy-ndo qʰe tce
3SG.POSS-crest SBJ:PCP-be likede DEM:LOC IPFV-INV-take LNK LNK
u̱-pa
ṉu, u̱-jwaɣ
ṉu cʰu̱-χcoɣ-ṉu
3SG.POSS-under DEM 3SG.POSS-leaf DEM IPFV:DOWNSTREAM-take.out-PL
p̱u̱-ŋu...
SENS-be

‘Kebei says that bitter wormwood is very tasty, and that they prepare it in the following way: they pluck (wormwoods) that are this big, take it by something that looks like a crest on the top, and prune away the leaves under it... (continued by several paragraphs)’ (conversation 140510)

The pronoun *nɛ́ki* is also used as a determiner (§9.1.2) and the speech filler *nɛ́-kinu* (§10.3) derives from the combination of *nɛ́ki* with the determiner *nu*. There are no plural or dual forms of *nɛ́ki*, but it can be combined with dual or plural determiners as in (138).

(138) tce nɛ́ki ṉu̱ra, mkʰyraŋ ra pjy-ruswso-nu̱ tce,
LNK DEM:CATAPH DEM:PL people PL IFR-think-PL LNK
‘And these, the people thought about it.’ (150829 jidian-zh)
{0006338#S132}

It is likely that the cataphoric demonstrative use of *nɛ́ki* derives from its func-
tion as a medial demonstrative, suggesting the historical pathway in (139).

(139) 2SG+DEM:PROX ⇒ DEM:MEDIAL ⇒ DEM:CATAPHORIC ⇒ SPEECH FILLER

6.9.3 Locative forms of the demonstrative pronouns

The locative postposition *tçu* (§8.2.4.1) can be combined with the demonstrative pronouns *nu* and *ki* and their reduplicated and emphatic forms, as shown in Table 6.6.

The locative pronouns in -tçu can be followed by the postposition zu as in
(140), but not by the locative ri.

(140) mbrosta ci tu tce, nwtcu zw mbro nw
stable INDEF exist:FACT LNK DEM:LOC LOC horse DEM
a-ja.
pASS-keep.attached:FACT
‘There are stables (in this palace), and the horse is kept there.’ (140507
jinniao-zh) {0003931#S170}
The proximal demonstrative *ki* undergoes bound state (§5.4) alternation and changes to *ku-* when combined with the locative postposition *tçu* (§8.2.4.1), with further assimilation to [*u*] due to the regressive vowel assimilation (§3.3.1.2) when followed by -tçu.

In addition to the locative pronouns in -tçu, there is an entirely parallel series of pronouns in -re; this suffix is probably unrelated to the locative postposition ri, and may rather reflect the plural marker ra (which can be used to mark vague location, see §9.1.1.2) with the proto-Gyalrong locative suffix *-j* and regular vowel fusion (§8.2.4.4). These locative pronouns are much less commonly used in the corpus than those of the -tçu series.

<table><caption>Table 6.6: Locative demonstrative pronouns</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th>Base form</th><th>Reduplicated</th><th>Emphatic</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>PROX.SG</td><td>kutçu</td><td>kukutçu</td><td>–</td></tr><tr><td>DIST.SG</td><td>mutçu</td><td>numutçu</td><td>umumutçu</td></tr><tr><td>PROX.SG</td><td>kure</td><td>kukure</td><td>–</td></tr><tr><td>DIST.SG</td><td>nure</td><td>numure</td><td>umumure</td></tr></tbody></table>

Locative pronouns in -re can appear on their own as in (141), or with the locative postposition ri as in (142), but never with the other postpositions zu and tçu.

(141) azo mw-pw-rvzi-a, kure pw-cti-a.
1SG NEG-PST.IPFV-stay DEM.PROX:LOC PST.IPFV-be.AFF-1SG
'I was not present [there], I was here.' (conversation140510)

(142) tce kukutcu, <zhuanmen>, nykinw, tw-cya
LNK DEM.PROX:LOC specially FILLER INDEF.POSS-tooth
w-ku-nwsmyn, tcetʰi, nducʰu kure ri
3SG.POSS-SBJ:PCP-treat downstream west:APPROX.LOC DEM.PROX:LOC LOC
rvzi ma, nwnw wuma zo mkʰyz tce,
stay:FACT LNK DEM really EMPH be.expert:FACT LNK
'Here (in Mbarkham), there is someone who specially treats teeth in the
west (of Mbarkham).' (27-tApGi) {0003706#S130}

Locative adverbs, such as those based on the approximate locative -cʰu (§8.2.4.2) can be combined with the locative pronouns in -re as shown by the phrase nducʰu kure ri 'on the western side' in (142).
Both series of locative pronouns can express static location as in examples (141) to (143), or motion towards a place as in (144) and (145).

(143) *nwtcu ku-rṣi-nw p̱w-ŋu.*
DEM:LOC IPFV-stay-PL SENS-be
‘They live there.’ (20-RmbroN) {0003560#S4}

(144) azo akw k;ntcʰa.k ri k-ari-a tce, nw kóɔ́mwz
1SG east street LOC AOR:EAST-go[II]-1SG LNK DEM only-after
kwere ṉw-ṉw-y̱e-a
DEM.PROX:LOC AOR:WEST-VERT-come[II]-1SG
‘I went there on the street, I just came back here.’ (conversation,
2013-12-02)

(145) βγγtu ṉw γ̱w u-χcɛl ri spoɛk. [...] upper.grindstone DEM GEN 3SG.POSS-middle LOC have.a.hole:FACT [...] ṉw ṉw ṯcu tce kγ-yndẕw u-spa ṉwra pjúw-wγ-lyt. DEM:LOC LNK OBJ:PCP-grind 3SG.POSS-material DEM:PL IPFV-INV-throw ‘There is a hole in the middle of the upper grindstone, into which one pours [the grains] that are to be ground.’ (160705 khABGa) {0006207#S13}

Apart from its locative uses, *nwtçu* can express a temporal meaning ‘at that time’ as in (146) and (147).

(146) <qidian> tce tγ-mγym ta-ẓa a-pw-ŋu tce, tce ṉw ṉw seven.o’clock LNK AOR-hurt AOR:3→3’-start IRR-IPFV-be LNK DEM ṯw-sṉi ṉw tu-mγym, ṯw-rẓa.k ṉw tu-mγym tce, one-day DEM IPFV-hurt one-night DEM IPFV-hurt LNK u-fso <qidian> mγctṣa ṉw múj-ẓi tce 3SG.POSS-tomorrow seven.o’clock until DEM NEG:SENS-subside LNK *nwtçu tce kw-xtcw~xtci ṯw-ẓi p̱w-że p̱w-ŋu* DEM:LOC LNK SBJ:PCP-EMPH~be.small INF-subside IPFV-start[III] SENS-be tce LNK

‘(For instance), if [the headache] starts at seven o’clock, it hurts for one day and one night, and subsides only in the next day at seven, **at that time** it starts to subside a little.’ (24-pGArtsAG) {0003624#S89}
(147) *nwtcu* *twrme nwa* *psjkʰu pjɣ-me* *pnw-ŋu tce.*

DEM:LOC people DEM:PL yet IFR:IPFV-not.exist SENS-be LNK

‘At that time (i.e. the time of the dinosaurs), humans did not exist yet.’

(180421 bawanglong) {0006209#S33}

In addition, it can convey in some contexts a more abstract meaning like ‘in those circumstances’, as in (148).

(148) *tceri nwtcu* *kwnɣ tcizo k(5, 195, 33, 221],

but DEM:LOC also 1DU COLL:friend DEM

*mw-pw-nw-qia-tci*

NEG-AOR-AUTO-tear.down-1DU

‘But even under those circumstances (i.e. working in different places, and meeting only once a year), we did not lose our friendship.’

(12-BzaNsa) {0003484#S39}

As for *kutçu*, it is almost exclusively used for spatial location; a metaphorical usage is attested in (149), where it means ‘in this story’.

(149) *icqʰa nɔkinu* <piqiu> *nuw u-rmi* *kɔ-spa-t-a.*

FILLER FILLER ball DEM 3SG.Poss-name AOR-be.able-PST:TR-1SG

*nVKI, tsʰuβdwn ra ku rgoŋlu tu-ti-nuw* *pnw-ŋu. izora, tce*

FILLER TOPO PL ERG ball IPFV-say-PL SENS-be 1PL LNK

*kutcu* *tce nɔu tu-ti-a* *u.*

DEM.PROX:LOC LNK DEM IPFV-say-1PL be:FACT

‘I have learned how to say “ball”, people from Tshobdun call it *rgoŋlu*, we [do not have this word in Japhug but] this is how I am going to say it here (in this story). (140514 huishuohua de niao-zh) {0003992#S4}

The forms *nwtçu* and *nunwtçu* following a noun phrase result from the fusion of the postnominal demonstrative determiners *nw* and *nunu* with the locative postposition *tcu* (§8.2.4.1), and are not be to analyzed as locative pronouns.
<figure><img src="image_10.png" /></figure>
# 7 Numerals and counted nouns

## 7.1 Plain numerals

This section describes the morphology of cardinal and ordinal numerals in Japhug. Unlike some other languages of the Sino-Tibetan family, which have vigesimal features or substractive numerals (Mazaudon 2002), Japhug has a strict decimal system.

In addition to plain numerals, Japhug has a system of numeral prefixes (§7.3.1) which occur on a specific type of nouns, *counted nouns*, discussed in §7.3.

### 7.1.1 Numerals 1-10

The basic numerals from one to ten are indicated in Table 7.1. The corresponding numeral prefixes are discussed in §7.3.1.1.

Some dialects of Japhug other than the Kamnyu variety use *ty* ‘one’ instead. In calculations (see §7.6), the generic counted noun *tw-rdoь* ‘one piece’ (§7.3.2) with the numeral prefix ‘one’ (§7.3.1) is used instead of *ci* ‘one’ to express the number ‘one’.

Apart from *ci* ‘one’ and *sqi* ‘ten’, these numerals have clear cognates in languages outside of the Gyalrongic group, even in Tibetan and Chinese; Table 7.1 includes the Tibetan equivalent of these numerals (the numerals that are *not* cognate with their Japhug equivalents are indicated between brackets) and the Japhug pronunciation of these Tibetan words in borrowed words (see §7.1.6.1, in particular Table 7.4).

The numerals from 2 to 9 have a prefix, uvular **χ-/**ь- in ‘two’ and ‘three’ and velar **ku-** from ‘four’ to ‘nine’. These prefixes do not appear in some derived forms such as the numbers 11-19 (Table 7.1.3 below) or approximate numerals (§7.2).

The numeral **wnuz** ‘two’ is etymologically related to the dual postnominal **determiner** *ni* (§9.1.1.1). The latter lacks the uvular prefix and the sibilant suffix, but the vowel difference is expected, as after adding the suffix **/*-s-**, the proto-Gyalrong rhyme **-*is** regularly yields Japhug **-uцз**. The adverb **wпакпа** ‘both’ (§9.1.1.1) is also probably related, though its morphological relationship with **wnuz** ‘two’ does not fit any known pattern.
## 7 Numerals and counted nouns

The superficial resemblance between *kmu* 'two' and *kućmu* 'seven' could suggest the existence of a former quinary system. However, the fact that these two numerals have different vowels in Situ (Cogtse *kəniēs* 'two' and *kəcnās* 'seven', from Huang & Sun 2002) makes this assumption less likely; it is in any case irrelevant to the synchronic grammar of Japhug.

Unlike the other numerals in Table 7.1, the free numeral *xsum* 'three' is identical to the form found in compound loans such as *kumtcʰoχsum* 'triratna' from དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་ *dkon.mtcʰoχgsum* 'triratna'. Therefore, one cannot exclude the possibility that it is a borrowing from Tibetan གསུམ་ *gsum* 'three' that replaced the native numeral 'three' (which was cognate to the Tibetan form, and phonetically similar to it). In this hypothesis, the alternative forms -fsum and *fsu* - for 'three' found in the numerals 11-19 (§7.1.3) and tens (§7.1.2) could be remnants of the native numeral. Alternatively, it is possible that the native word and the borrowing are true cognates, and happen to have the same form by coincidence.

The numeral *kungut* 'nine' has a coda -t which is not found in the cognates of this numeral in Situ and languages outside of Gyalrongic, suggesting analogical spreading of the coda from *kurcat* 'eight'. This innovation is shared by all Northern Gyalrong languages: Tshobdun has *kón*gət (Sun & Blogros 2019) and Zbu *kən*gə́t (Gong 2018: 130). The same analogy independently occurred in the Siyuewu dialect of Khroskyabs, where 'nine' is *ŋgə́d* (Lai 2017: 174).

<table><caption>Table 7.1: Basic numerals in Japhug and Tibetan</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th>Native Japhug</th><th>Tibetan</th><th>Tibetan loanwords in Japhug</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1</td><td>ci or tɔɣ</td><td>གཤིག་ gtɛig 'one'</td><td>χtɛuy</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>kmu</td><td>གཉིས་ gnis 'two'</td><td>ཀpniz</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>xsum</td><td>གསུམ་ *gsum* 'three'</td><td>χsum</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>kubde</td><td>བོ་ bzi 'four'</td><td>βzi</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>kumnʊ</td><td>ྲ་ lŋa 'five'</td><td>rŋa</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>kutɔɣy</td><td>དུག་ drug 'six'</td><td>tɔswy</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>kucmu</td><td>(བདུན་ bdun 'seven')</td><td>βdun</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td>kurcat</td><td>བརྙད་ brg'ad 'eight'</td><td>βŋrt</td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td>kungut</td><td>དགུ་ dgu 'nine'</td><td>rgu</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>sqi</td><td>(བཅུ་ btɛu 'ten')</td><td>ftɛu</td></tr></tbody></table>

Numerals from 1 to 99 are a subclass of unpossessible nouns (§5.2), and can- not take possessive prefixes; they differ in this regard from the higher numerals (§7.1.4, §7.2).
### 7.1.2 Tens

The numerals for tens (Table 7.2) are relatively straightforward. With the exception of *ynъsqi* ‘twenty’ and *fsusqi* ‘thirty’, they are predictable by combining *sqi* ‘ten’ with the corresponding numeral prefix (§7.3.1). The numeral *kungusqi* ‘ninety’ is ambiguous, as the same form can also mean ‘nine or ten’ (see Table 7.5).

The element *ynъ-* in *ynъsqi* ‘twenty’ is related to the numeral *ънъцъ* ‘two’, but has a velar *γ-* prefix instead of the uvular *к-*, and has a different vowel. The adverb *ъпавна* ‘both’ is also relatable, but the alternations are not explainable from a synchronic point of view.

<table><caption>Table 7.2: Tens</caption><tr><td>10</td><td>sqi</td></tr><tr><td>20</td><td>γης-sqi</td></tr><tr><td>30</td><td>fsu-sqi</td></tr><tr><td>40</td><td>kubdγ-sqi</td></tr><tr><td>50</td><td>kumηγ-sqi</td></tr><tr><td>60</td><td>kutşγ-sqi</td></tr><tr><td>70</td><td>kucηγ-sqi</td></tr><tr><td>80</td><td>kurcγ-sqi</td></tr><tr><td>90</td><td>kungu-sqi</td></tr></table>

Other numerals under one hundred are built by combining the tens in Table 7.2 (removing the *-sqi* element) with the units in Table 7.3. For instance, 37 can be obtained by putting together *fsusqi* ‘thirty’ and *sqaçnuz* ‘seventeen’ as *fsu-sqaçnuz*.

### 7.1.3 Numerals 11-19 and units

The numerals 11-19, listed in Table 7.3, serve as the basis for indicating units in all following numerals between 21 and 99, by replacing the *-sqi* element of the tens (Table 7.2) by the appropriate form. As an example of how to build numerals above 19 with a unit 1-9, Table 7.3 illustrates the formation of the numerals 21 to 29 from *ynъsqi* ‘twenty’.

The numerals 11-19 present three morphological changes in comparison with the basic numerals 1-9.

First, the form *sqi* ‘ten’ alternates with *sqa-*. The origin of this Ablaut is unknown, though it could be a type of bound state (§5.4); some Gyalrongic languages, such as Khroskyabs have a similar alternation (Lai 2017: 175–176).
7 Numerals and counted nouns

<table><caption>Table 7.3: Numerals 11-19 and 21-29</caption><thead><tr><th>10</th><th>sqi</th><th>20</th><th>yn<sup>r</sup>sqi</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>11</td><td>sqa-p-tuy</td><td>21</td><td>yn<sup>r</sup>-sqa-p-tuy</td></tr><tr><td>12</td><td>sqa-m-nuz</td><td>22</td><td>yn<sup>r</sup>-sqa-m-nuz</td></tr><tr><td>13</td><td>sqa-f-sum</td><td>23</td><td>yn<sup>r</sup>-sqa-f-sum</td></tr><tr><td>14</td><td>sqa-βde</td><td>24</td><td>yn<sup>r</sup>-sqa-βde</td></tr><tr><td>15</td><td>sqa-mηu</td><td>25</td><td>yn<sup>r</sup>-sqa-mηu</td></tr><tr><td>16</td><td>sqa-p-rγy</td><td>26</td><td>yn<sup>r</sup>-sqa-p-rγy</td></tr><tr><td>17</td><td>sqa-ζnuz</td><td>27</td><td>yn<sup>r</sup>-sqa-ζnuz</td></tr><tr><td>18</td><td>sqa-rcat</td><td>28</td><td>yn<sup>r</sup>-sqa-rcat</td></tr><tr><td>19</td><td>sqa-ngut</td><td>29</td><td>yn<sup>r</sup>-sqa-ngut</td></tr></tbody></table>

Second, the velar *ku-* and uvular χ-/κ-* prefixes found in the base numerals are lost in all numerals 11-19.

Third, a labial element /p/ (*sqaptuy* ‘eleven’, *sqapryy* ‘sixteen’), /m/ (*sqamnuz* ‘twelve’), or /w/ (*sqafsum* ‘thirteen’) is inserted between the *sqa-* and the following numeral root. It does not occur in seventeen, eighteen and nineteen (which already have a cluster), fourteen and fifteen (which have a cluster with a labial as first element).

The form *sqaptuy* ‘eleven’ contains an ablauted form of *tyy* ‘one’ as second element. The cluster -pt- in this word is the only case in the language of a /p/ followed by an obstruent (§4.2.3.1).

In *sqamnuz* ‘twelve’, the labial linker is nasalized by the following *n*. This is not a synchronic rule: for instance, a noun *cnabndzyi* ‘snotty-nosed kid’ has *β* allomorph of /w/ before a prenasalized obstruent (§5.5.5.1). However, there are other cases of nasalization of labial consonants to /m/ before nasal or prenasalized consonants in Japhug (see §17.3.1).

In *sqapryy* ‘sixteen’, not only the prefix *ku-* is lost, the *ts* affricate of the base form *kutṣyy* ‘six’ is replaced by /r/, preceded by the linking element -p-. This /tṣ/ ~ /r/ alternation is evidence for a sound change *tr-* → /tṣ/ (§4.2.2.4). The numeral *kutṣyy* ‘six’ contains two etymological prefixes, *ku-* and a prefix *t-* that has fused with the root as -tṣyy. This *t-* prefix is possibly related to the *d-* of its Tibetan cognate *tṣu* drug ‘six’.

The numeral prefixes corresponding to the numerals between 11 and 99 are discussed in §7.3.1.2.
7.1.4 Hundred and above

There are two ways of expressing numbers above 99 in Japhug. First, the noun-
like numeral *yurza* ‘hundred’ can occur on its own or be followed by another
numeral to express a number between 101 and 199, as in (1).

(1) azo ku-fse ku-ycʰwcʰa zo bzunu yurza kurcat
1SG SBJ:PCP-be lik e SBJ:PCP-be.capable EMPH young.man hundred eight
ra
need:FACT
‘I need one hundred and eight able young men like me.’ (Norbzang)
{0003768#S16}

The numeral *yurza* ‘hundred’ cannot be combined with single digit numerals to express numbers between 200 and 900. The counted noun<fnref n="1" /> *tu-ri* ‘one hundred’ is used for this purpose, as in 2. The two suppletive roots for hundreds are shared with Pumi (the numeral *ci* ‘hundred’ vs. the counted noun *-lej*, see Daudey 2014: 101; evidence for cognacy with *yurza* and *tu-ri* is presented in Jacques 2017c).

(2) χsw-ri jamar ndvre tu-nw ko, tw-twph'u nw
three-hundred about LNK exist:FACT-PL SFP one-hive DEM
‘There are about three hundred of them in one hive.’ (26-GZo)
{0003668#S48}

Numerals above the hundreds are all borrowed from Tibetan: *støŋtsu* ‘thou-
sand’, *kʰruitsu* ‘ten thousands’, *mbumχtvr* ‘hundred thousands’ originate from སྤོ-
ས kɔŋ støŋ.tsʰo ‘thousand’, མི་kʰri.tsʰo ‘ten thousands’ and འགྲུབ་བརྩོ་ *m* buminher ‘hundred
thousands’, respectively. Like other numerals, they are postnominal, as shown
by (3).

(3) ngocna yu nw, u-pu stoŋtsu tu tu-ti-nw
spider GEN DEM 3SG.POSS-young thousand exist:FACT IPFV-say-PL
pu-ŋu. qafu yu nw, kʰruitsu tu tu-ti-nw pu-ŋu.
SENS-be fish GEN DEM ten.thousands exist:FACT IPFV-say-PL SENS-be
‘People say that spiders have a thousand offspring, and fishes ten
thousands.’ (26-mYaRmtsaR) {0003674#S111}

The numerals thousand and above can take other numerals as multiplicative
modifiers, as in (4), where kučuču ‘six’ follows stoŋtsu ‘thousand’ to express ‘six
thousand’. This use illustrates the difference between the numerals stoŋtsu ‘thou-
sand’ and above with yurza ‘hundred’, as when the latter is followed by a numeral,

<footnote n="1">¹Counted nouns are nouns that take an obligatory numeral prefix (§7.3).</footnote>
## 7 Numerals and counted nouns

as *yurza kurcat* ‘one hundred and eight’, it can only be in additive, not multiplicative, relation to it (see example 1 above). The multiplicative numeral modifier to *stoŋtsu* ‘thousand’ cannot be preposed (Tshendzin says of a combination like †*kutšy* *stoŋtsu* that *nu mš-sštso* ‘it does not make sense’).

(4) *rŋul twn-xpa tce stoŋtsu kuwtšy jarma pnu-fsok pnu-cʰa*
money one-year LNK thousand six about IPFV-earn SENS-can
‘He can earn about six thousand [renminbi] per year.’ (14-siblings)
{0003508#S159}

To have an additive interpretation, the comitative cʰo ‘and, with’ (or cʰondv̥re ‘with’) is used as in (5) and (6).

(5) *stoŋtsu ci cʰo kuwtšyri*
thousand one COMIT six-hundred
‘One thousand six hundred (1600).’ (elicited)

(6) *stoŋtsu ci cʰondvre kuwtšy*
thousand one COMIT six-hundred
‘One thousand and six (1006).’ (elicited)

In (7), a multiplicative modifier sqi ‘ten’ following kʰruitsu ‘ten thousands’ is used instead of *mbuumχtšr* ‘hundred thousands’. The latter numeral, although known to native speakers, is hardly ever used in speech.

(7) *u-kš-nukon numu, rjšlkʰyβ kʰruitsu sqi pjš-tu.*
3SG.Poss-OBJ:PCP-rule DEM country ten.thousands ten IFR.IPFV-exist
‘There were a hundred thousand countries under his rule.’ (140518 jinyin
chengbao-zh) {0004028#S12}

Unlike numerals under 100, *yurza* ‘hundred’ and above are alienably possessed nouns and can take a third person possessive prefix *u-* to express an approximate number (§7.2).

### 7.1.5 Ordinals

There are no native ordinal numbers in Japhug, even for ‘first’, which is expressed by combining the superlative *stu* ‘most’ (§26.4.1) with the subject participle (§16.1.1) of the verb *mṛku* ‘be first’ (§20.6). This minimal participial relative *stu ku-mṛku* (§23.5.1) can be used as prenominal modifier as in (8), but most commonly occurs adverbially as in (9).
(8) **stu ku-mysku** *tu-xpa nši rše-rumšintok ma, nši ma*
most SBJ:PCP-be.first one-year DEM IPFV-have.flower LNK DEM apart.from
*u-mat me*
3SG.POSS-fruit notuez.FACT
'The first year, it has flowers, but no fruits.' (08-qaCti) {0003456#S33}

(9) **stu ku-mysku nši a-pi** ku pú-wy-sat-a,
most SBJ:PCP-be.first DEM 1SG.POSS-elder.sibling ERG AOR-INV-kill-1SG
nši w-qʰu tce, pyctcši ty-sci-a,
DEM 3SG.POSS-after LNK bird AOR-be.born-1SG
'First, my elder sister killed me, and then I was reborn as a bird.'
(2005-stod-kunbzang)

With counted nouns (§7.3), it is strictly prenominial, and the counted noun can be converted to an inalienably possessed noun (§7.3.4.1); for instance, the noun phrase (10) can be used instead of *stu kuu-mysku tuu-xpa* in (8). The phrase *stu kuu-mysku* does not occur postnominally.

(10) **stu kuu-mysku w-xpa**
most SBJ:PCP-be.first 3SG.POSS-year
'The first year' (elicitation based on 8)

There is no specific word meaning ‘last’ in Japhug either, and the participial relative *stu kuu-maqʰu* with the subject participle (§16.1.1) of *maqʰu* ‘be after’ is used instead; as in the case of *stu kuu-mysku*, counted noun to inalienably possessed noun conversion is possible, and for instance both (11) and (12) exist.

(11) **stu kuu-maqʰu tuu-sni**
most SBJ:PCP-be.after one-day

(12) **stu kuu-maqʰu w-sni**
most SBJ:PCP-be.after 3SG.POSS-day
'The last day' (elicited)

Given the absence of native ordinals, Chinese ordinals are used (§7.1.6.2). Ti-
betan ordinals are only attested for names of months (§7.1.6.1) and even this use
is disappearing, as they are being replaced by their Chinese equivalents.

Unlike many languages of the Sino-Tibetan family, the system of birth-order
ordinals is very rudimentary. The eldest son is simply called *stu kuu-wxti* 'the one
who is the biggest' as in (13).
The Japhug form - **χtćuy**- of the Tibetan numeral གཅིག gtćig ‘one’ occurs in com-
pounds, but is not attested as an independent word; however, it is possible that
it used to exist in Japhug at an earlier stage of the language (though perhaps not
as a numeral), as the stative verb naχtćuy ‘be the same’ is a denominal derivation
based on this numeral (§9.1.7, §20.7.1).

The Tibetan ordinal numbers up to ten (and the cardinal numbers for ‘eleven’ and ‘twelve’), indicated in Table 7.4, can be used for months names (Tournadre & Suzuki 2021: #406). This usage is not attested in conversations, but does occur in texts when speakers consciously try to avoid using Chinese words. In example (15), Tshendzin first used the Chinese 三月份 <sānyuèfèn> ‘third month’ and then corrected it to its Tibetan equivalent.

(15) <sanyuefen> jamar zlawa χswamba jamar tce ci cʰu-rɣpɔ,
third.month about month third about LNK one IPFV-have.young
'It bears young once in the third month.' (21-IWLU) {0003576#S61}

<table><caption>Table 7.4: Tibetan ordinals used in Japhug</caption>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th></th>
      <th>Japhug</th>
      <th>Tibetan</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>1</td>
      <td>taŋbu</td>
      <td>དང་པོ daŋ-po 'first'</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2</td>
      <td>ŋŋispa</td>
      <td>གསུམ་པ་ gnis.pa 'second'</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3</td>
      <td>χswamba</td>
      <td>གསུམ་པ་ gsum.pa 'third'</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4</td>
      <td>βɔ́upa</td>
      <td>བཞི་པ་ bɔ́i.pa 'fourth'</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5</td>
      <td>rŋapa</td>
      <td>ལྔ་པ་ lŋa.pa 'fifth'</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>6</td>
      <td>tṣuɔха</td>
      <td>දුරු ପ་ drug.pa 'sixth'</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>7</td>
      <td>βdunpa</td>
      <td>བདུན་པ་ bdun.pa 'seventh'</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>8</td>
      <td>βtpa</td>
      <td>བརྒྱད་པ་ brg'ad.pa 'eighth'</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>9</td>
      <td>rgupa</td>
      <td>དགུ་པ་ dgu.pa 'ninth'</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10</td>
      <td>ftɛ́upa</td>
      <td>བཅུ་པ་ btɛ́u.pa 'tenth'</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>11</td>
      <td>ftɛ́uχtɛ́uy</td>
      <td>བཅུ་གཅིག btɛ́u.gtɛ́ig 'eleventh'</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>12</td>
      <td>ftɛ́uŋŋiz</td>
      <td>བཅུ་གཉིས་ btɛ́u.gnis 'twelfth'</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

The ordinals can be used with the Tibetan word zlawa ‘month’ (from ཟླ་བ་ zla.ba ‘moon, month’) as in (15), or without it as in (16) from the same text.

(16) rgupa jamar tce ci cʰu-rɣpɔ ŋu-ŋu.
ninth about LNK one IPFV-have.young SENS-be
'It bears young once in the ninth month.' (21-IWLU) {0003576#S63}
## 7 Numerals and counted nouns

In traditional stories of Tibetan origin, complete noun phrases in Tibetan including numerals can be found. For instance, in (17), the numeral χsumrjatṣuyftɛu from གསུམ་བརྒྱ་དྲུག་བཞུ་ gsum.brg'a.drug.btɛu 'three hundred sixty' occurs with the noun pja (from Tibetan གྲུ b'a 'bird'; not normally used in Japhug except in compounds) and the adverb mundzamwχtɛwy 'all kinds' (from མི་འདྲ་མི་གཅིག mi.n'dra.mi.gtɛig 'diverse, different', §9.1.3.5).

(17) pja mündzamwχtɛwy, χswmrjatṣuyftɛw kw pymbri
bird all.kinds 360 ERG bird song

jcγynγcγyt zo to-lγt-nw,

IDPH.III:very.noisy EMPH IFR-throw-PL

‘Three hundred sixty birds of all kinds sung bird songs.’ (2003 smanmi)

### 7.1.6.2 Chinese numerals

Chinese numerals are ubiquitous in Japhug, and many younger people (born after 1990) have trouble counting above twenty, even if they otherwise speak Japhug fairly fluently. Even the most fluent speakers use Chinese numerals (with their appropriate Chinese classifiers) when speaking normally.

In examples (18) and (19), from a text describing the hamlets in the township of Gdong-brgyad, the Chinese expressions 全乡 <quánxiāng> ‘the whole township’, 三千多人 <sānqiānduōrén> ‘three thousand people and a little more’ and 两个小队 <liǎngggèxiǎoduì> ‘two groups’ (with the generic classifier 个 <gè> ‘CL’) are used instead of Japhug native numerals and quantifiers to count the number of people in the area. Note the use of the Cultural Revolution term 小队 <xiǎoduì> ‘team, group’ as a counting unit. The use of Chinese here is due to the fact that administration-related counting, even in villages, is done in Chinese.

(18) nwnw bdkwrjyt <quanxiang> numw <sanqianduoren>
DEM ANTHR the.whole.township DEM three.thousand.people
ma mane.

apart.from not:exist:SENS

‘There are only a little more than three thousand people in the township of Gdong-brgyad.’ (140522 RdWrJAt) {0004061#S109}

(19) kypmw nw <lianggexiaodui> ma mane
Kamnyu DEM two.groups apart.from not.exist:SENS

‘In Kamnyu there are only two xiaodui.’ (140522 RdWrJAt) {0004061#S111}
Given the absence of ordinal numerals in Japhug (§7.1.5), Chinese expressions with the ordinal marker 第 /dì/ are used instead. In example (20), the Chinese phrase 第一名 <diyīmíng> ‘the first (in a competition)’ occurs, directly followed by the participial clause *stu kuw-myku* ‘the first one’.

(20) tce βzw nchw kuw <diyiming> tce stu kchw-myku pjy-mja.
LNK mouse DEM ERG first LNK most SBJ:PCP-be.first IFR-take
‘The mouse obtained the first place.’ (150826 shier shengxiao-zh)
{0006284#S96}

7.1.7 Use of the numerals

Japhug numerals can occur on their own when counting (ci, bnuw, χswm, kuβde...)
or be used as postnominal attributive modifiers (§9.3). The noun can be elided
when the context is clear, especially when the same referent occurs in the previ-
ous proposition as in (21) with *u-rjit* ‘her children’ and (22) with 菜 <cài> ‘dish’.
In this case the numeral constitutes the head of the noun phrase.

(21) *u-rjit* kungwut ty-tu ri, kwutγy nwi-si
3SG.Poss-child nine AOR-exist LNK six AOR-die
‘She had nine children, but six [of them] died.’ (14-siblings) {0003508#S16}

(22) <cai> χswm tu-sw-lyt-i tce tce kuβde nchw ku χswm
dish three IPFV-CAUS-throw-1PL LNK LNK four DEM ERG three
tu-ndza-j kuw-fse.
IPFV-eat-1PL SBJ:PCP-be like
‘We used to order three dishes, and the four of us would eat [the] three
/of them].’ (140501 tshering skyid) {0003902#S90}

Numerals can also be modifiers of dual and plural pronouns as in (23). Since pronouns are never obligatory in Japhug (§22.1.2), it is also possible to use a bare numeral in core argument function with first or second person indexation on the verb, as in (22), where the verb *tu-ndza-j* ‘we eat’ of the second proposition has the *1PL -j* suffix indexing the transitive subject, coreferent with the ergatively-marked phrase *kuβde nu ku* ‘the four’ (standing for *izo kuβde nu ku* ‘the four of us”).

(23) tce izo kuβde nchw ttwurca ku-rvzi-j tce,
LNK 1PL four DEM together IPFV-stay-1PL LNK
‘The four of us were living together.’ (140501 tshering skyid)
{0003902#S84}
## 7 Numerals and counted nouns

Numerals can be used in collocations with two light verbs: the intransitive verb *pa* ‘pass X years’ (§22.4.1.4) and the transitive verb *ndo* ‘take’ (§22.4.2.4).

The numeral *ci* ‘one’ occurs in many additional functions: as an identity pronoun ‘the other one’ (§6.8), as a partitive pronoun ‘one of them’ (§6.7.2), as an indefinite article ‘a, one’ (postnominal, §9.1.4), as an identity modifier ‘the other X’ (prenominal, §9.1.7) and as an adverb meaning ‘once, one time, a little’ (§22.2.1).

## 7.2 Approximate numerals

To express an approximate number, it is possible in Japhug to use the adverb *jamar* ‘about’ (from Tibetan གམ་རྒྱ་ jar.mar ‘about, up and down’ and/or to combine adjacent numerals in a row as in (24).

(24) *tw-kʰy̥l n̥atcu w̥nwz, x̥swm kuβde jamar ku-ndzɔv.*

one-place DEM:LOC two three four about IPFV-ANTICAUS:attach

‘In each place [the flowers] are attached in [groups] of about two, three or four.’ (16-RIWmsWsi) {0003520#S9}

However, Japhug also has five morphological devices to build approximate numerals (Tables 7.5 and 7.6).

First, for numerals under seven (Table 7.5), one can build approximate numerals by prefixing a *la-* or *lɣ-* element to one (or two) numeral root(s). Not all possibilities are attested (for instance there is no such approximate numeral ᵈlɣtṣɣy derived from only *kutṣɣy* ‘six’). Prefixation of *la-* / *lɣ-* occurs with other morphological changes: (i) loss of the velar *kuu-* prefix (but not the uvular one in ‘two’ and ‘three’, §7.1.1) (ii) loss of the *m-* preinitial in *lɣŋu* ‘about five’, but not of the *t*- prefix of *kutṣɣy* (§7.1.3) in *lɣŋtṣɣy* ‘five or six’ (otherwise ᵈlɣŋaɣŋy would be have been found). The *la-* / *lɣ-* prefix is probably historically related to the *-lɣ-* element found in *dvandva* collectives (§5.7.8.3).

Above ‘seven’, the *lɣ-* prefix seem to have some productivity, as in example (25) from a story translated from Chinese, it is found in the form *lɣ-kʰruasu-sqi*, which translates 数十万 <shùshíwàn> ‘several hundred thousands’. The normal way to express this meaning in contemporary Japhug would be direct borrowing from Chinese (§7.1.6.2), and this *Augenblicksbildung* was introduced to avoid using a Chinese word.
(25) <zhanghan> k-ti nwnw kw wmawm l-krhwtsu-sqi jamar
ANTHR OBJ:PCP-say DEM ERG soldier about-10000-ten about
zo to-ndo.
EMPH IFR-take

‘The [general] called Zhang Han took several hundred thousand soldiers.’
(hist160721 pofuchenzhou-zh)

Second, some approximate numerals are built by compounding two numeral roots (in some cases with the la- / l- prefix, Table 7.5). The first numeral undergoes bound state vowel change (§5.4), with loss of the codas -z and -t (§5.4.2.2). In the case of cnycat ‘seven or eight’ (illustrated by example 26), the form cny- is irregular (†cnu- would be expected instead). Note that in this list kungusqi ‘nine or ten’ is ambiguous: this form can also mean ‘ninety’ (see Table 7.2).

(26) wzo numw cnycat ci ty-ky-supa jamar zo
3SG DEM seven.or.eight one AOR-OBJ:PCP-CAUS-do about EMPH
qarma wxti ri,
crossoptilon be.big:FACT but

‘Although the crossoptilon is as big as about seven or eight of them (weasels) put together.’ (27-spjaNkW) {0003704#S54}

<table><caption>Table 7.5: Approximate numerals in Japhug (one to ten)</caption><thead><tr><th>Approximate Numeral</th><th>Base Numerals</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>lawnuz 'a few'</td><td>wnu 'two'</td></tr><tr><td>lawnuxsum 'two or three'</td><td>wnu 'two'<br>χsum 'three'</td></tr><tr><td>l-βdelryu 'four or five'</td><td>kubde 'four'<br>kumru 'five'</td></tr><tr><td>lryu 'about five'</td><td>kumru 'five'</td></tr><tr><td>lryrtyγγ 'five or six'</td><td>kumru 'five'<br>kutγγ 'six'</td></tr><tr><td>cnycat 'seven or eight'</td><td>kucnu 'seven'<br>kurcat 'eight'</td></tr><tr><td>kungusqi 'nine or ten'</td><td>kungut 'nine'<br>sqi 'ten'</td></tr></tbody></table>
7 Numerals and counted nouns

Third, for tens (Table 7.6), approximate forms can be formed using the same rule as tens from 40 to 90 (§7.1.2), by combining the bound state of the unit numeral with the root *sqi* ‘ten’, for instance *lɔŋŋɔrsqi* ‘about fifty’ from *lɔŋŋu* ‘about five’ like *kumŋŋɔrsqi* ‘fifty’ from *kumŋŋu* ‘five’. These approximate numerals are rare and not attested in the non-elicited corpus.

Fourth, an alternative way of producing approximate tens is to add the numeral prefix *tu-* (§7.3.1) to a ten, as for instance *tuɔŋnɔrsqi* ‘about twenty’ from *ŋnɔrsqi* ‘twenty’ (see example 27).

(27) *tuɔŋnɔrsqi* jamar *tuɔtura* ju-yi-nɔ *ŋgrɔl*
about.twenty about together ipfv-come-pl be.usually.the.case:FACT
‘They come in groups of about twenty individuals.’ (23-qapGAmtWmtW)
{0003608#S98}

<table><caption>Table 7.6: Approximate numerals in Japhug (tens)</caption><thead><tr><th>Approximate Numeral</th><th>Base Form</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>tuɔŋnɔrsqi 'about twenty'</td><td>ŋnɔrsqi 'twenty'</td></tr><tr><td>tufsusqi 'about thirty'</td><td>fsusqi 'thirty'</td></tr><tr><td>tukuβdɔrsqi 'about forty'</td><td>kwiβdɔrsqi 'forty'</td></tr><tr><td>tukumŋɔrsqi 'about fifty'</td><td>kumŋɔrsqi 'fifty'</td></tr><tr><td>tukutɔşrsqi 'about sixty'</td><td>kutuşrsqi 'sixty'</td></tr><tr><td>tukuwɔnɔrsqi 'about seventy'</td><td>kuwɔnɔrsqi 'seventy'</td></tr><tr><td>tukurcɔrsqi 'about eighty'</td><td>kurcɔrsqi 'eighty'</td></tr><tr><td>tukungusqi 'about ninety'</td><td>kungusqi 'ninety'</td></tr><tr><td>lɔŋŋɔrsqi 'about fifty'</td><td>lɔŋŋu 'about five'</td></tr><tr><td>lɔŋŋɔrtɔşrsqi 'fifty or sixty'</td><td>lɔŋŋɔrtɔşɔy 'five or six'</td></tr><tr><td>ɔnɔrcɔrsqi 'seventy or eighty'</td><td>ɔnɔrcɔat 'seven or eight'</td></tr></tbody></table>

Fifth, in the case of numerals above 99, approximate numerals are built by prefixing a third singular possessive *u-* prefix, as *u-yurza* ‘several hundreds’ (28), *u-stoŋtsu* ‘several thousands’ (29) and higher numerals.

(28) *u-yurza*, χswri jamar ndvre tu-nɔ̈ ko,
3SG.Poss-hundred three-hundred about TOP.ADVERS exist:FACT-PL SFP
*tu-tuɔpʰu nɔ̈*
one-hive DEM

‘There are about several hundreds, about three hundred of them in one hive.’ (26-GZo) {0003668#S48}
(29) *tw-ŋga* *tw-rdoь* *nɔ* *u-stoŋtsu* *u-pʰu*
INDEF.POSS-clothes one-piece DEM 3SG.POSS-thousand 3SG.POSS-price
*ku-ese* *ŋu* *ma*
SBJ:PCP-be like be:FACT LNK

'One piece of clothes [made from it], its price is several thousand
[renminbi].' (05-qaZo) {0003404#S72}

7.3 Counted nouns

The term *counted nouns* designates a subclass of nouns that differs from inalien-
ably possessed (§5.1.2), alienably possessed and unpossessible nouns (§5.2) in that
they require a numeral prefix, whose paradigm is described in (§7.3.1). No other
part of speech is compatible with these prefixes.

For instance, the counted noun -xpa 'year' occurs in (30) with the prefix χsw-
'three'. It is not possible to express the same meaning by combining the bare
stem of the noun -(x)pa with the corresponding numeral numeral χsum 'three'
(something like †xpa χsum or †pa χsum would be agrammatical).

(30) χsw-xpa
three-year
'Three years'

In this grammar, counted noun are cited using the form with the numeral
prefix ‘one’ (*tw-xpa* in the case of ‘year’).<fnref n="3" />

Numeral prefixes are bound forms historically derived from free numerals
(§7.3.1.7). These bound forms strictly precede the nominal stem, unlike free nu-
merals, which generally *follow* the nouns they modify (§7.1.7).<fnref n="4" />

Only a highly restricted number of nominal stems can take numeral prefixes.
For instance, the alienably possessed *mbro* ‘horse’ or the inalienably possessed
*tɔ pi* ‘elder sibling’ are not compatible with numerals prefixes. To express the
meanings ‘three horses’ or ‘three brothers’, one cannot add the numeral prefix
χsw-: forms such as †χsw-mbro, †χsw-tɔ-pi or †χsw-pi would be unintelligible.
Instead, one must use the free numeral χsum ‘three’ (§7.1.7) as in (31).

<footnote n="3">³One reviewer pointed out that this choice may be infelicitous, but in my opinion it is prefer-
able in order to avoid confusion with other subclasses of nouns, in particular in the case of
conversion from inalienable and alienable nouns to counted nouns (§7.3.4).</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴However, the numeral+noun order is attested in some compounds (§5.5.1.1, §5.5.1.2).</footnote>
## 7 Numerals and counted nouns

(31) mbro χsum
horse three
‘Three horses’

A handful of alienably and inalienably possessed nouns can be *converted* to counted nouns and thus take numeral prefixes, but always with a semantic narrowing (§7.3.4.1, §7.3.4.2).

The class of “counted nouns” in this grammar is similar to what have elsewhere in the literature been described as ‘classifiers’ (in Chinese 量词 liàngcí “measure words”). The morphology-based term “counted noun”, independent of meaning and function, is preferred over “classifier” because it is highly contestable that classification is indeed the main function of this class of words (see for instance François 1999, and §7.3.3).

### 7.3.1 Numeral prefixes

In this section, numeral prefixes are described following several categories (1-10, 11-99, approximate numerals and prefixes derived from nouns) and irregular forms are discussed in a separated subsection (§7.3.1.5). A final subsection presents historical hypotheses to account for the numeral prefixal paradigm and its relationship to that of other Gyalrongic languages.

#### 7.3.1.1 Numeral prefixes between 1 and 10

The paradigm of regular numeral prefixes from 1 to 10 in Kamnyu Japhug is indicated in Table 7.7. The prefixes are derived from the corresponding numeral by bound state (§5.4), with loss of the coda and vowel alternation. Vowel alternation is optional for *kußde* ‘four’ and *kumŋu* ‘five’.

Note that the forms of the numeral prefixes differ in some cases from the corresponding numeral prefixes in tens (cf. Table 7.2), compare *kuçnu-sŋi* ‘seven days’ with *kuçŋr-sqi* ‘seventy’.

#### 7.3.1.2 Numeral prefixes between 11 and 99

Above ten, numeral prefixes present some variation. Table 7.8 shows the most common forms of the numeral prefixes between 11 and 20 (from which all numerals between 11 and 99 can be generated following the rules described in §7.1.2), but many cases without vowel alternation or with preservation of the codas -z (32) or -γ (34) are attested, as in (32) for instance.
<table><caption>Table 7.7: 1-10 regular numeral prefixes in Japhug</caption><thead><tr><th>Numeral</th><th>Free form</th><th>-sŋi 'day'</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1</td><td>tɔŋy</td><td>tw-sŋi</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>ɔtnwuz</td><td>ɔtnw-sŋi</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>χsum</td><td>χsw-sŋi</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>kwaβde</td><td>kwaβde-sŋi, kwaβdɔ'-sŋi</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>kumŋu</td><td>kumŋu-sŋi, kumŋɔ'-sŋi</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>kutɔŋy</td><td>kutɔş-sŋi</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>kwaçnwuz</td><td>kwaçnu-sŋi</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td>kurcat</td><td>kurcɔ'-sŋi</td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td>kungut</td><td>kungu-sŋi</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>sqi</td><td>squ-sŋi</td></tr></tbody></table>

(32) ma w-me kumɔ ynysqamnwuz-pvrme tʰu-azyut.
LNK 3SG.POSS-daughter also twenty.two-year.old AOR-reach
'Even his daughter is now twenty-two.' (14-siblings) {0003508#S284}

<table><caption>Table 7.8: 11-20 numeral prefixes in Japhug</caption><thead><tr><th>Numeral</th><th>Free form</th><th>-sŋi 'day'</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>11</td><td>sqaptuy</td><td>sqaptu-sŋi</td></tr><tr><td>12</td><td>sqamnwuz</td><td>sqamnu-sŋi</td></tr><tr><td>13</td><td>sqafsum</td><td>sqafsum-sŋi</td></tr><tr><td>14</td><td>sqaβde</td><td>sqaβde-sŋi</td></tr><tr><td>15</td><td>sqamŋu</td><td>sqamŋu-sŋi</td></tr><tr><td>16</td><td>sqaprɔy</td><td>sqaprɔ-sŋi</td></tr><tr><td>17</td><td>sqaçnwuz</td><td>sqaçnu-sŋi</td></tr><tr><td>18</td><td>sqarcat</td><td>sqarcɔ'-sŋi</td></tr><tr><td>19</td><td>sqanguut</td><td>sqangu-sŋi</td></tr><tr><td>20</td><td>ynɔsqi</td><td>ynɔsqw-sŋi</td></tr></tbody></table>

In example (33), we observe the two alternative forms -squ- and -sqi- for the tens in the same sentence. While for the numeral ten only the prefix squ- (or its variant sqr-, see Table 7.10 below) is found, for tens between 20 and 90 vowel
## 7 Numerals and counted nouns

alternation is optional and there is free variation between the two forms. In the corpus, we find 15 examples of -sqi- and 14 of -squ-, suggesting that both are about equally common.

(33) *tw-pʰw nw tce rcanw, li, fswsqi-ldza jamar,
one-tree DEM LNK UNEXP:DEG again thirty-longobject about
kwβdvsqw-ldza jamar tu.
forty-longobject about exist:FACT
'On one tree, there are about thirty or forty [branches].' (14-sWNgWJu)
{0003506#S186}

Example (34) illustrates three alternative forms with the counted noun *ty-rzaŋ*
'one night': *ynыsqaptu-rzaŋ* with regular loss of coda, *ynыsqaptuγ-rzaŋ* with preser-
vation of the coda, and *ynыsqamnuz ty-rzaŋ* as two words, the numeral being a
kind of prenominal modifier. The first form is regular, while the other ones each
are *hapax legomena*.

(34) tce nw γnvsqaptuy-rzaŋ tu-tsu pü-ra. “tce
LNK DEM twenty.one-night IPFV-pass SENS-be.needed LNK
γnvsqaptu-rzaŋ tu-tsu tce pü-vaŋ ny” pü-ti-nw ri,
twenty.one-night IPFV-pass LNK IPFV-hatch be:FACT SENS-say-PL LNK
azwy nw γnvsqamnuz ty-rzaŋ myctsa mw-nw-vaŋ.
1SG:GEN DEM twenty.two one-night until NEG-AOR-hatch
'[Eggs] need twenty-two days to hatch; people say 'They hatch in
twenty-two days' but mine only hatch after twenty two days.' (150819
kumpGa) {0006388#S32}

### 7.3.1.3 Approximate numeral prefixes

Approximate numerals also have corresponding prefixal forms. Table 7.9 presents
the forms attested in the corpus.

By far the most commonly used approximate numeral prefix is *lʌnsw-χ*, whose
meaning is not ‘one or two’ as could have been expected from the use of the *lɔ-/
la-* prefix in the other examples, but ‘a few’ (see example 35 – life expectancy of
goats and sheep is much above two years).
<table><caption>Table 7.9: Approximate numeral prefixes in Japhug</caption><thead><tr><td>Approximate Numeral</td><td>Approximate Numeral Prefix</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>laknwz 'a few'</td><td>laknw-</td></tr><tr><td>lъbdelъnu 'four or five'</td><td>lъbdelъnu-</td></tr><tr><td>lъnu 'about five'</td><td>lъnu-</td></tr><tr><td>lъnytsъy 'five or six'</td><td>lъnytsъ-, lъnytsъy-</td></tr><tr><td>cnycat 'seven or eight'</td><td>cnycr-</td></tr></tbody></table>

(35) tsʰyt qazo numw tce laknw-xpa ma cʰu-mdu goat sheep DEM LNK a.few-year apart.from IPFV-live.up.to múj-ngryl ma tce cʰu-rgyz cti NEG:SENS-be.usually.the.case LNK LNK IPFV-be.old be.AFF:FACT 'Goats and sheep only live for a few years, and then become old.' (05-qaZo) {0003404#S128}

Just like approximate numbers can also be expressed by juxtaposition of numerals (§7.2), it is possible to juxtapose counted nouns (the same counted noun with contiguous numeral prefixes, as in 36), or to combine a numeral with a counted noun whose numeral prefix is contiguous to it, as in (37).

(36) tce numw χsw-zwm kwβde-zwm jamar kw-xtcʰuwt tu. LNK DEM three-bucket four-bucket about SBJ:PCP-contain exist:FACT 'There are [jars] that can contain about three or four buckets [of water].'(26-tChWra) {0003690#S4}

(37) <tuolaji> tu-yjyn ju-ywt n̥u rcanu, ynysqi fswsqi-fkur tractor one-time IPFV-bring DEM UNEXP:DEG twenty thirty-burden jamar ju-su-yzywt cʰa. about IPFV-CAUS-reach can:FACT 'Each time the tractor brings [firewood], it can move about twenty or thirty loads (the size a person can carry on his back).' (140430 tWfkur) {0003898#S22}

Additionally, the paucal meaning can be expressed by converting the counted noun into an inalienably possessed noun with a third person possessive prefix and reduplication of the noun stem (see §7.3.4.1).
7.3.1.4 Other numeral prefixes

In addition to the numerals mentioned above, all higher and compound numerals, an interrogative pronoun and a participle form can appear as prefixes of counted nouns.

The numerals above 99 (§7.1.4) occur as numeral prefixes without vowel alternation, as *yurza-xpa* ‘a hundred years’ and *stottsu-xpa* ‘a thousand years’ (from *yurza* ‘hundred’ and *stottsu* ‘thousand’).<fnref n="5" />

The prefixal form of hundreds based on the counted noun *tw-ri* ‘one hundred’ have double numeral prefixes, such as *χswu-ri-xpa* ‘three hundred years’ in (38).

(38) *tcendvre χswu-ri-xpa*   *ty-tsu tce, li kwjŋu*
    LNK three-hundred-year AOR-pass LNK again oath
    *pw-ta-t-a*   *tce,*
    AOR-put-TR:PST-1SG LNK

‘Three hundred years passed, and I made another oath.’ (140512 yufu yu mogui-zh) {0003973#S87}

In the case of complex numerals, such as the very common *yurza kurcat* ‘one hundred and eight’, only the last one undergoes bound state, as in (39) and (40), where we find *yurza* as a separate phonological word followed by the counted noun with the numeral prefix *kurcy-* (from *kurcat* ‘eight’).

(39) *commbri yurza kurcy-jom,*   [...] *comtsʰoʔ*
    iron hundred eight-length.of.two.outstretched.arms ... iron.nails
    *yurza kurcy-ldza ra*
    hundred eight-longobject be.needed:FACT

‘[I] need a chain of one hundred and eight fathoms, and one hundred and eight nails.’ (2003 tWxtsa)

(40) *yurza kurcy-ydyt qapri nʷa-tx-ce*   *ra*
    hundred eight-section snake DEM IRR-PFV:UP-go be.needed:FACT
    ‘May the snake be cut into hundred and eight sections!’ (2012 Norbzang)
    {0003768#S243}

<footnote n="5">⁵Even in the absence of vowel alternation, the prefixal status of these numerals is shown by three pieces of evidence: (i) the fact that they combine with non-free elements like the stem -xpa ‘year’, which require a numeral prefix, (ii) the absence of stress and (iii) the inability to pause or insert any element in between, except in the case of speech errors.</footnote>
The interrogative pronoun *tʰystuy* ‘how many’ has the prefixal form *tʰystu-* with counted nouns (§§6.5.3).

The subject participle *ku-ryntɛ́hʊ* of the stative verb *antɛ́hʊ* ‘be many’, has the prefixal form *kyntɛ́hʊ-*, as in (41). This prefix is very common in the corpus.

(41) tce nunu k(177, 300, 838, 327],

LNK dem many-household DEM 3PL.POSS-grave 3SG.POSS-place SENS-be

ma

LNK

‘It is the grave-place of many families.’ (140522 kAmYW tWji)

{0004055#S91}

It is however not possible to convert any noun, pronoun or quantifier into a numeral prefix; with other words, it is necessary to convert the counted noun to an inalienably possessed noun, with a third singular *u*- prefix instead of the numeral prefixes, see §7.3.4.1.

The nouns *tu-sla* ‘one month’ and *tu-xpa* ‘one year’ can be used with a numeral prefix *kuyu-* not attested with other counted nouns (see §7.5.1).

### 7.3.1.5 Irregular forms

A handful of counted nouns, in particular *ty-rza* ‘one night’, have an alternative paradigm with /ɪ/ instead of *u* in the prefixes, as shown by the forms *tyy-rza* ‘two nights’ and *χsty-rza* ‘three nights’ in (42).

(42) byy-rza jamar, xy-rza jamar to-tsu tce tcendre cʰa
two-night about three-night about ifr-pass lNK lNK alcohol
u-di tu-mny m puy-ny.
3SG.POSS-smell ipfv-have.a.smell SENS-be
‘After two or three nights, one can smell the smell of alcohol.’ (160703
araR) {0006101#S39}

The complete paradigm of this noun is presented in Table 7.10.

There is however some degree of variation, and using the regular paradigm is not considered erroneous. In the corpus, the numeral ‘one’ form *ty-rza* ‘one night’ is more common than *ty-rza*, possibly because of the homophony with the inalienably possessed noun *ty-rza* ‘time’ found in examples such as (44). For other numerals, the forms in Table (7.10) are considerably more common than the regular ones. In addition, the *r* vocalism is also found with other numeral prefixes such as the interrogative (*tʰysty-rza* ‘how many nights’).
7 Numerals and counted nouns

<table><caption>Table 7.10: Irregular numeral prefixes in Japhug</caption><thead><tr><th>Numeral</th><th>Free form</th><th>-rza 'night'</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1</td><td>tyy</td><td>ty-rza</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>ynwz</td><td>yny-rza</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>χsum</td><td>χsy-rza</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>kubde</td><td>kubdy-rza</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>kumju</td><td>kumjy-rza</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>kutṣyy</td><td>kutṣy-rza</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>kucnwz</td><td>kucny-rza</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td>kurcat</td><td>kurcy-rza</td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td>kungut</td><td>kungy-rza</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>sqi</td><td>sqy-rza</td></tr></tbody></table>

(43) tce qarma n̥w, tw-rza tce kuβde kumju jamar pjw-sat-nw, LNK crossoptilon DEM one-night LNK four five about IPFV-kill-PL, tw-rdo, turme tw-rdo k̥w one-piece person one-piece ERG

'Crossoptilons, in one night, each of [the hunters] can kill four or five of them.' (23-qapGAmtWmtW) {0003608#S146}

(44) ty-rza ty-rpji tce, n̥w-ji ra INDEF.POSS-time AOR-be.long LNK 3PL.POSS-field PL k̥w-dw~dyn k̥w-jw~jom lo-pyak-nw, conjca SBJ:PCP-EMPH~be.many SBJ:PCP-EMPH~be.broad IFR-turn.over-PL timber k̥w-dw~dyn pjy-pʰwyt-nw SBJ:PCP-EMPH~be.many IFR-remove-PL

'After some time/as time went on, [those people] had ploughed many broad fields for them, and chopped a lot of timber.' (2002 qajdoskAt) {0003366#S115}

Apart from ty-rza 'one night', counted nouns following the paradigm in Table (7.10) are very rare. The counted nouns tu-tya 'one span' and tw-rtyy 'one storey' have the irregular forms χsy-tya 'three spans' and χsy-rtyy 'three storeys' (competing with regular χsw-tya and χsw-rtyy) as in (45), but not for other numeral prefixes.
(45) **nū χsɣ-tγa** kwβde-tγa jamar tu-rŋj i cʰa.
DEM three-span four-span about IPFV-be.long can:FACT
'It can grow three or four spans long.' (14-sWNgWJu) {0003506#S181}

Another unrelated irregularity concerns the counted noun *tu-yjγn* ‘one time’:
free variation between -jγn and -yjγn is observed for the numerals ‘two’ and
‘three’ (both χsw-yjγn ‘three times’ and χsw-yjγn are attested).

A similar case is observed with counted noun *tu-xpa* ‘one year’; the form -xpa
is obligatory for one to three (*mnu-xpa* ‘two years’, *χsw-xpa* ‘three years’), but
for ‘four’ on, both stems -xpa and -pa are attested (both *squ-xpa* ‘ten years’ and
*squ-pa* ‘ten years’ are possible, though the former is more common), including
for approximate numerals (*cnγcɣ-pa* ‘seven or eight years’).

The counted noun *tu-zloKS* ‘one time’ (see §7.6 on its use) is attested in (46) with
the special form *kruu-zloKS* ‘two times’ whose first element is a numeral prefix form
*kuu*- influenced by the Tibetan numeral གཉིས་ *gnis* ‘two’ (in Japhug pronunciation
*kuuiz*-). The regular form *kuu-zloKS* ‘two times’ also exists.

(46) a-zda yu ku-fse krpu-zloK nū tu-ndze-a
1SG.POSS-companion GEN SBJ:PCP-be lik e two-times DEM IPFV-eat[III]-1SG
pu-tṣan
SENS-be.fair
'It would be fair if I had two times as much to eat as the other one.'
(140426 lv he luozi-zh) {0003816#S9}

The stem -zloKS looks like a blend from the two Tibetan words ཁྲུག་ zlog 'turn
around' and ཁྲུ zlo 'repeat'. Tibetan numerals are generally post-nominal, but pre-
nominal numerals also exist as in ཁྲིས་ཁྲུ nis.ldab 'two times'.

7.3.1.6 Distributed numeral prefixes

The distributed form of counted nouns is built by reduplicating the numeral ‘one’ prefix *tu-*, as *tu-tu-rdoK* from the generic counted noun *tu-rdoK* ‘one piece’ (see §7.3.3) in example (47).

(47) zwrwzvri qʰe, tce tu-tu-rdoK nū pü-zγy-qγr-nū qʰe
progressively LNK LNK one-one-piece DEM IPFV-get.separated-PL LNK
'Progressively, some of them get separated [from the herd].' (20-RmbroN)
{0003560#S55}