HIMALAYA, the Journal of theAssociation for Nepal andHimalayan Studies
Volume 38 | Number 2Article 32

December 2018

Review of A Grammar of the Thangmi Language:
With an Ethnolinguistic Introduction to the Speakers andTheir Culture by Mark Turin
Narayan P. Sharma
University of Oregon

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Recommended Citation
Sharma, Narayan P. (2018) "Review of A Grammar of the Thangmi Language: With an Ethnolinguistic Introduction to the Speakers andTheir Culture by Mark Turin," HIMALAYA, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies: Vol. 38 : No. 2 , Article 32.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya/vol38/iss2/32

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the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies by an authorizedmorphemes (p. 6), and Thangmi
kinship terms appear to be cognatewith Classical Newar forms, possible
genetic affiliation of Thangmi withBaram, Dolakha Newar and Kiranti
languages needs further exploration.

A Grammar of the Thangmi
Language: With an Ethnolinguistic
Introduction to the Speakers andTheir Culture.
Mark Turin. Leiden and Boston:
Brill, 2012. 958 pages. ISBN
9789004155268.
Reviewed by Narayan P. Sharma
This is an excellent comprehensive
grammar of Thangmi, a TibetoBurman language spoken byapproximately 30,000 people in
the Dolakha and Sindhupalchok
districts of Nepal. Turin offers adetailed discussion of a grammaticaldescription of the Dolakha dialectof the Thangmi language, including
a large collection of glossed oral
texts, a lexicon, and an extensive
ethnolinguistic introduction to thespeakers and their culture. The bookcontains two volumes: the first is
a 484-page grammar comprised ofseven chapters and the second isdevoted entirely to transcribed texts
and lexicon. The goals of descriptive
analysis are well covered and are wellillustrated from a rich natural corpus.
In the opening chapter of thegrammar (pp. 1-30), Turin describes
the linguistic classification ofThangmi. While almost half of
the affixes of the Thangmi verbal
agreement system have clear
cognates with Proto-Kiranti

Ethnolinguists will be particularlyinterested in Chapter Two on theThangmi ethnolinguistic context. He
includes many interesting details.
For example, it is considered sinful tomarry or have sexual relations with arelative until seven generations haveelapsed (p. 116). Turin introduces theritual rites like marriage and death,though he does not provide any typesof marriage in Thangmi culture.
After this introduction to thepeople and their language, Turinthen describes a language in termsof its phonology, morphology, andmorphosyntax in Chapter Three. Here
Turin makes the novel claim thatThangmi phonology does not differ
considerably from Nepali phonology,
since Nepali is a lingua franca.
Thangmi contrasts six points ofarticulation (bilabial, dental, alveolar,palatal, velar and glottal) in thirtytwo consonants and distinguishes
six vowel phonemes. Unlike many
Tibeto-Burman languages, only
breathy voiced nasal /nh/, andretroflex sounds such as /ʈ/, /ʈh/, /ɖ/and /ɖh/ are attested in this language,
which are the defining characteristics
of South Asian languages (Colin P.
Masica. 1976. Defining a Linguistic Area:
South Asia. Chicago: The University ofChicago Press, 187).
While Turin discusses the various
morphophonological processes
such as liquid-nasal alternation,
assimilation, intervocalic
approximants, and syncope inChapter Four, he describes thenominal morphology in Chapter
Five. Thangmi ergative-absolutivedative case-marking pattern,compared to that of some TibetoBurman languages, will fascinate

researchers, where the agent-likeargument of transitive clause (A)bears the ergative case -e/-ye, thepatient-like argument of a transitive
clause (P) has an unmarked casebut no absolutive case, and thehuman patient noun bears thepatient marker -kâi/-gâi. In Thangmi,
unlike Kiranti languages such as
Puma (Narayan P. Sharma. 2014.
Morphosyntax of Puma, a TibetoBurman language of Nepal. London:
SOAS, University of London, 122125), while the ergative case also
marks the subject of intransitively
conjugated transitive verbs (p. 238),
the locative case does not contrast
in a four-way manner (up, down,neutral and across). Similarly,
unlike many Kiranti languages, theThangmi pronominal system exhibits
neither an inclusive versus exclusive
distinction, nor does the language
differentiate for dual number. Like in
Indo-Aryan languages such as Nepali,a distinct use of special words fordays and years in the past and thefuture is very wide spread in TibetoBurman languages, including theKiranti sub-group. Turin lists distinct
Thangmi lexical items for four daysin the past future, and from fouryears in the past to two years in thefuture. There are special forms foreight days and years before and after
the present day or year in Chepang(Ross C. Caughley. 2000. Dictionary ofChepang: A Tibeto-Burman Language ofNepal. Canberra: Research School ofPacific and Asian Studies, Australian
National University, 539). It is also
helpful that Turin provides Nepalilanguage equivalents for examples
143-146 (pp. 264-265).
Turin critically examines themorphology of simplicia in Chapter
Six. It is interesting to note that
there is only a prefixal position
for negation -ma and six suffixal
positions in Thangmi. In contrast tomany Kiranti languages, Thangmi
exhibits no paradigmatic stem
HIMALAYA Volume 38, Number 2 | 151

This is a great contribution to Thangmi studies due to its many insightful details
in the discussion, and is an invaluable resource that will be of great interest
particularly to those working on Tibeto-Burman linguistics, anthropology,historical linguistics and linguistic typology.
Narayan P. Sharma on A Grammar of the Thangmi Language: With an Ethnolinguistic Introduction to the Speakers andTheir Culture
alternations, except in two verbs(p. 358). The Thangmi languageshows a pattern of split ergativity,
similar but different to that of theKiranti type, as in Thangmi, only the
first person is marked ergatively, andthe second and third persons bearaccusative markers.
The final chapter on other verbal
constructions and morphosyntax
includes a lengthy section on theimperative. In Thangmi, while
intransitive imperatives agree onlywith subject, transitive imperatives
agree with both agent and patient.
Furthermore, Thangmi does notmake a distinction between direct
and indirect speech. Turin does notprovide much information about
relative clauses, except to note thatthey can be identified by structuralproperties but are not marked by
specific morphemes (p. 407). In fact,
the second volume of the grammar
includes rich analyzed texts(pp. 485-754) on forty-five different
topics, followed by a Thangmi
lexicon (pp. 755-918), an appendixof kinship charts, and index. These
are just a few of the highlights of thegrammar, which is an extraordinary
achievement reflecting Turin’s
profound knowledge of Thangmi.
The book is remarkably free oftypographic and editing errors. I
noticed only a few worth mentioning:
I have no idea what v in -svŋ
(1s→3) (p. 8) indicates, and there
should be ṇiŋ in example 60 on
p. 243 instead of ṇin to refer to stonein Thangmi. Turin endeavours tocontribute to the field of Nepali loan
152 | HIMALAYA Fall 2018

words. However, the Nepali loan
words and Nepali equivalent words
contain some typographical errors.
For example: piṇḍālu should be piḍāluon p. 116; sothar should be sotar on
p. 122; Dolakhâ and Sindhupâlcok
should be Dolakhā and Sindhupālcok
on p. 131; dewār should be dewar on
p. 144; Nepalese rhododendron tree
should be Nepalese lālīgurās tree on
p. 180; Nepali should be as Nepali…inexample 4 (p. 408), 52 and 53 (p. 418);
arko pani chan should be aru pani chanin example 30 (p. 414); maile hunchabhanne should be maile huncha bhanẽon p. 418. Likewise, the Nepalese form
malāī rīs āyo at the end of p. 246 is notacceptable; instead ma rīsāẽ may beacceptable. Additionally, on glossing
part of the example 60 (p. 243), there
should be -ye as ins and in example
120 (p. 406) the gloss of -ye erg ismissing. Indeed, a distinction between
elicited and naturally occurring
examples would have added value andthis would have been especially usefulin providing sample verb paradigms.
Overall, aside from these minor
inconsistencies, this book should
be required reading for anyone
thinking of further research inany of the Thangmi dialects. Thisis a great contribution to Thangmi
studies due to its many insightful
details in the discussion, and is aninvaluable resource that will be greatinterest particularly to those working
on Tibeto-Burman linguistics,anthropology, historical linguistics
and linguistic typology.
Narayan P. Sharma is a postdoctoral
research associate in the Departmentof Linguistics, University of Oregon. He
earned his Ph.D. at SOAS, University ofLondon. His primary research interests
include language documentation anddescription, morphosyntax, linguistic
typology, field linguistics, and endangered
and minority languages.