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The present study tested whether the switch costs of production-based language switching tasks by trilinguals are due to competition from outside language schemas or from within language systems. We recruited 90 Tibetan-Chinese-English trilinguals in 10th grade in a Tibetan middle school in China to name digits and number words using different stimuli valence. The study was divided into three experiments, one for each combination of two languages possible amongst Tibetan, Chinese and English. We observed the switch cost symmetrical patterns in the three experiments. The results suggest that the sources of switch cost are partially from outside competition between language schemas and partially from within language system. These results may contribute to our understanding of the language control mechanism between production-based and comprehension-based language switching tasks and language control mechanism of trilinguals with three orthographically different languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key focus of linguistic landscape research is the interaction among local language policies, the visibility of minority languages on public signage, and the perceptions of residents regarding language use. In China, ongoing urbanization and eased household registration requirements have precipitated an influx of ethnic minority migrants from autonomous regions to urban locales. This migration raises crucial questions about the integration and acceptance of ethnic minority migrants within the sociolinguistic fabric of urban China. Combining a linguistic landscape analysis and interviews with public sign owners, this study examines attitudes towards Tibetan language and Tibetan migrants in "Little Lhasa" in Chengdu, a major city in western China. Our findings reveal that various social actors, including Han residents, the Neighbourhood Committee, and the municipal authorities, prudently leverage the semiotic potentials of the Tibetan script in crafting public signs. The visibility of Tibetan in the local linguistic landscape reflects ideologies of acceptance, hesitation, or concern regarding Tibetan migrants. Although Tibetan migrants have conceded aspects of their language use in exchange for integration into urban life, they have not yet gained wider community acceptance. This study offers an innovative linguistic landscape lens on the implicit language policy in an ethnic minority migrant community in urban China. It illuminates a reflective case where language planning is much needed for mitigating bias and misunderstanding in multi-ethnic communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The disparities in phonetics and corpuses across the three major dialects of Tibetan exacerbate the difficulty of a single task model for one dialect to accommodate other different dialects. To address this issue, this paper proposes task-diverse meta-learning. Our model can acquire more comprehensive and robust features, facilitating its adaptation to the variations among different dialects. This study uses Tibetan dialect ID recognition and Tibetan speaker recognition as the source tasks for meta-learning, which aims to augment the ability of the model to discriminate variations and differences among different dialects. Consequently, the model's performance in Tibetan multi-dialect speech recognition tasks is enhanced. The experimental results show that task-diverse meta-learning leads to improved performance in Tibetan multi-dialect speech recognition. This demonstrates the effectiveness and applicability of task-diverse meta-learning, thereby contributing to the advancement of speech recognition techniques in multi-dialect environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The disparities in phonetics and corpuses across the three major dialects of Tibetan exacerbate the difficulty of a single task model for one dialect to accommodate other different dialects. To address this issue, this paper proposes task-diverse meta-learning. Our model can acquire more comprehensive and robust features, facilitating its adaptation to the variations among different dialects. This study uses Tibetan dialect ID recognition and Tibetan speaker recognition as the source tasks for meta-learning, which aims to augment the ability of the model to discriminate variations and differences among different dialects. Consequently, the model’s performance in Tibetan multi-dialect speech recognition tasks is enhanced. The experimental results show that task-diverse meta-learning leads to improved performance in Tibetan multi-dialect speech recognition. This demonstrates the effectiveness and applicability of task-diverse meta-learning, thereby contributing to the advancement of speech recognition techniques in multi-dialect environments.

Introduction. The article is devoted to Buddhist terms, which represent a significant layer in the lexical system of the Buryat language. The borrowed Buddhist vocabulary of the Buryat language is the result of the enteringprocessof Buddhist terms into the Buryat language taken place over centuries. It was not stable, it, like any process, had periods of decline and activity. Of course, borrowing of Buddhist terms is a consequence of the development of Buddhist ideas. The main purpose of the study is to describe the features of borrowed Buddhist terms, which are the result of an inextricable connection between the process of their appearing in the Buryat language and the history of Buddhism popularization among the Mongolian–speaking peoples. The objectives of the study include: 1) justification of intensification periods of entering the Buddhist terms into the lexicological system of the Buryat language against a historical background; 2) a brief historical and linguistic description of periods of the mass appearance of the Buddhist terms; 3) identification of the peculiarities of the semantics of individual borrowings belonging to different periods of borrowing and different donor languages. Results. Based on the historical and linguistic facts, the authors justify the validity of the allocation of periods of appearing of Buddhist terms associated with periods of intensive development of Buddhism. The study showed that in the first period of borrowing Buddhist terms of the Buryat language, their guides were the Sogdian and Uighur languages: from Sanskrit and Tibetan they fell into Sogdian, then into Uighur. It was only after Uighur that they appeared in the Mongolian languages through the old-written Mongolian language. In the second period, Buddhist terms came directly from the Tibetan language to the Buryat language, in some cases the Mongolian language was the intermediary. The third period of intensification of the appearance of Buddhist terms is characterized by the revival of previously borrowed words. The authors conclude that the features of Buddhist terms depend on the donor language, while the roads along which they came to the Buryat language also play an important role: directly or through an intermediary language, orally or in writing.

Introduction. Translations from Tibetan had been of great importance for the making of Mongolian literature. Translation as cultural phenomenon influenced the shaping of standard Mongolian, gave rise to terminological clusters in different spheres of written language, such as philosophy, medicine, astrology, etc. The principles of translation that had emerged in the period of Buddhism’s dissemination in Mongolia still remain instrumental enough in performing translations from other foreign languages. Translations from Tibetan of historical, hagiographical, narrative and other compositions constituted an essential part in the reading agenda of Mongols to further influence the latter’s culture at large. So, Mongolian literature entered the literary zone of northern Buddhism. Goals. The study seeks to raise a question on delineation — with certain frames and peculiarities — of Mongolian national literature. We should also keep in mind that some parts of literature stay beyond this zone and were only partially influenced by the examined phenomenon — historical literature, recorded (and published) epic narratives, folk ritual literature, etc. Results. Our insight into the complex of various traditions demarcates the originality of medieval literature of Mongols. So, translations from the Tibetan language can be considered as a fact of Mongolian culture, as a special feature in the development of Mongolian written traditions — but not as part of Mongolian literature proper.

Copyright of Turkbilig/Turkoloji Arastirmalari Dergisi is the property of Turkbilig/Turkoloji Arastirmalari Dergisi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper investigates reduplication in Kua'nsi, a Central Ngwi language of the Sino-Tibetan family, spoken in Yunnan Province, China, by around 5000 speakers. Reduplication is a productive morphological device in Kua'nsi and has complex forms and functions. Although Kua'nsi reduplication shows some similarities with reduplication in other Ngwi languages, it also has reduplicative forms and functions that appear to be cross-linguistically rare. Formally, reduplication in Kua'nsi can be full, partial, or discontinuous. Functionally, it can be used with inflectional and derivational meanings as well as without any semantic or syntactic effect in certain constructions. Some functions of Kua'nsi reduplication appear to be not frequently found across languages. The forms and functions of Kua'nsi reduplication are complex and there is not a one-to-one relationship between the form and function of particular patterns of reduplication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the semantic and syntactic properties of converb markers =Shi, =Zhe, and =Tala in Sinitic varieties in the Qīnghǎi-Gānsù Linguistic Area (qgla), and defines them as converb enclitics rather than conjunctions, modal particles, or other functional words. =Shi is a conditional converb enclitic while =Tala is a terminative converb enclitic; both enclitics derive their respective properties from Altaic languages. The enclitic =Zhe expresses the coordinative and narrative functions, derived from its Altaic source, and the conjunctional function, which is an innovation. The productive use of the converbs coincides with the sharp decline of serial verbs in Sinitic varieties in qgla, and such a phenomenon emerges through intense contact among the Altaic, Sinitic and Tibetan languages in the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. Tibetan literature includes a separate class of commentaries to mantras which can be identified as commentaries to tantric texts. This paper examines A Brief Explanation of the Meaning of the Root Mantra of Vajrakīlaya [Titled] ‘The Heart Essence from an Old Man [Who] Holds Knowledge of the Old Translations School’ by Dongak Chokyi Gyatso (1903–1957). The text is viewed as a typical commentary on a Buddhist mantra with special attention be paid to elements of the Vajrakīlaya mantra as objects of analysis. Goals. The article aims to introduce the commentary to the Vajrakīlaya mantra into scientific circulation and provide insight into meanings of elements within a Buddhist mantra as such. Materials. The study explores A Brief Explanation of the Meaning of the Root Mantra of Vajrakīlaya contained in the second volume (za) of Collected Works by Tulku Sungrab from Nyenmo Monastery (Tib. snyan dgon sprul sku gsung rab pa’i gsung ‘bum) published in three volumes by the Sichuan People’s Publishing House (tib. si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang) in Chengdu, 2006. The Collected Works are included in volumes 21–23 (zha, za, ’a) of the Golog Ancient Books Collection (Tib. mgo log dpe rnying dpe tshogs). Results. The study presents a brief biography of Dongak Chokyi Gyatso, examines the meaning of deity Vajrakīlaya’s name, translates and transliterates A Brief Explanation of the Meaning of the Root Mantra of Vajrakīlaya.

Introduction. In the modern Buryat society, the knowledge of one’s own history, roots, culture, and language is becoming increasingly important. There is also a growing interest in genealogical research as many have started to search for data about their ancestors and their family trees in various archives. To illustrate, one may mention an increasing number of requests made for materials on the lineage and pedigrees of Buryats kept in the Center of Oriental Manuscripts and Xylographs of the Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist, and Tibetan Studies of the Siberian Branch of the RAS. The aims of the present article are, firstly, to add to the data on the Khargana clan of Khori Buryats and, secondly, to investigate the background of Galsan-Zhinba Dylgirov (1816–1872?), an outstanding Buryat religious enlightener of the nineteenth century. The research is based on textological, comparative-historical and historical-biographical methods. Data. The article draws on the evidence contained in Dylgirov’s autobiography written in Tibetan in 1864-1872 and xylographed in the Tsugol Datsan. Dylgirov’s lineage is cited in the first chapter of the book and could be read only by few of those who were literate in Tibetan. Results. The lineage goes back to eight generations, including Dylgirov himself, and covers over 150 years. The origin of the family associates with the ancestor known as Shonoguleg who lived at the turn of the eighteenth century. Of particular interest are also legends and stories that supplement the family history. The examination of the lineage sheds light on the origin of the ethnonym Baatarzhan, a branch of the Khargana clan. Also, the family history contains new data on the Buryat self-governing administration before the first third of the nineteenth century. Clearly, the data of Dylgirov’s autobiography may be useful for further genealogical research.

Updating dialect maps requires extensive language surveys. Geographic methods can be applied to identify relatively stable boundaries of dialect and subdialect areas, allowing language surveys to focus on boundaries that may change and thereby reduce survey costs. Certain scholars have pointed out that the watershed boundary can be employed as the boundary of Tibetan dialect areas. This paper adds that the lowest-grade road breakpoint line and no-man's-land boundary can also be used as essential indicators for determining stable (sub)dialect area boundaries. Combined with the revised First Law of Geography and the method of superposition analysis of geographic elements, this study identifies indicators that affect the stability of the Tibetan (sub)dialect area boundaries and evaluates the stability of each boundary segment. Due to the particularity of the study area, most Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (Chinese part) (sub)dialect area boundaries are stable. In addition, boundary inaccuracies caused by defects in the distribution of language survey samples can be identified by geographic approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sorting the Tibetan language quickly and accurately requires first identifying the component elements that make up Tibetan syllables and then sorting by the priority of the component. Based on the study of Tibetan text structure, grammatical rules and syllable structure, we present a structurebased Tibetan syllable recognition method that uses syllable structure instead of grammar. This method avoids complicated Tibetan grammar and recognizes the components of Tibetan syllables simply and quickly. On the basis of identifying the components of Tibetan syllables, a Tibetan syllable sorting algorithm that conforms to the language sorting rules is proposed. The core of the Tibetan syllable sorting algorithm is a hash function. Research has found that the sorting of all legal Tibetan syllables requires eight components of information. The hash function is based on this discovery and can be assigned corresponding weights according to different sorting verify the effectiveness of the Tibetan sorting algorithm, we established an experimental corpus using the Tibetan sorting standard document recognized by the majority of Tibetan users, namely the New Tibetan Orthographic Dictionary. Experiments show that this method produces results completely consistent with standard reference works, with an accuracy of 100%, and with minimal computational time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present the first-ever procedure for identifying highly similar sequences of text in Chinese and Tibetan translations of Buddhist sūtra literature. We initially propose this procedure as an aid to scholars engaged in the philological study of Buddhist documents. We create a cross-lingual embedding space by taking the cosine similarity of average sequence vectors in order to produce unsupervised similar cross-linguistic parallel alignments at word, sentence, and even paragraph level. Initial results show that our method lays a solid foundation for the future development of a fully-fledged Information Retrieval tool for these (and potentially other) low-resource historical languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the current results of an ongoing study of the possibilities of fine-tuning automatic morphosyntactic and semantic annotation by means of improving the underlying formal grammar and ontology on the example of one Tibetan text. The ultimate purpose of work at this stage was to improve linguistic software developed for natural-language processing and understanding in order to achieve complete annotation of a specific text and such state of the formal model, in which all linguistic phenomena observed in the text would be explained. This purpose includes the following tasks: analysis of error cases in annotation of the text from the corpus; eliminating these errors in automatic annotation; development of formal grammar and updating of dictionaries. Along with the morpho-syntactic analysis, the current approach involves simultaneous semantic analysis as well. The article describes semantic annotation of the corpus, required by grammar revision and development, which was made with the use of computer ontology. The work is carried out with one of the corpus texts – a grammatical poetic treatise Sum-cu-pa (VII c.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scene text detection is an important research branch of artificial intelligence technology whose goal is to locate text in scene images. In the Tibetan areas of China, scene images containing both Tibetan and Chinese texts are ubiquitous. Thus, detecting bilingual Tibetan-Chinese scene texts is important in promoting intelligent applications for minority languages. In this study, a scene text detection database for bilingual Tibetan-Chinese is constructed using a manually labeled method and an automatic synthesis method, and a text detection method is proposed. First, we predict a text rectangular region and the text center region for each text instance and simultaneously learned the expansion distance of the text center region. Second, based on the classification score of the text center region and the text rectangular region, we obtain the final confidence of each text instance and then filter out the text center region with lower confidence. Third, through the learned expansion distance, the full-text instance from the remaining text center region is recovered. The results show that our method obtains good detection performance; it achieves an accuracy of up to 75.47% during the text detection phase, laying the foundation for scene text recognition in the subsequent step. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. Concerns for the health of community members are universally widespread and most essential at all times. The significance attached by the Kalmyks and their ethnic ancestors Oirats to the nation’s physical health can be traced in various sources, including medical essays (Gyuzhi and related comments, lhantabs, etc.), dhāraṇī texts and astrological collections. Materials and Methods. The paper introduces a textual analysis of the mentioned Clear Script (Oirat-language) collection containing minor Tibetan-language fragments, and employs research methods of auxiliary historical disciplines. Results. While purely medical texts prescribed specific diagnostic and healing methods, astrological works tended to focus on preventive measures and recommendations for maintaining health and social well-being. Available Kalmykia-based collections of Buddhist written monuments once owned by priests with differing Buddhist expertise (medicine, astrology, and philosophy proper) — also differ structurally, thematically, and functionally. One such collection used to belong to the astrologer Borlga Utnasna Serksh (Chkalovsky village, Ketchenerovsky District, Kalmykia), and includes separate independent works, thematic clusters of texts, and graphic images. Kalmyk astrologers considered periods of human life in accordance with Buddhist knowledge and ideas of life components that emphasized — when it came to a certain individual and his/her birth circumstances — respective new year (Oriental) dates, place of a year in the 12-year animal cycle, actual period of the five (or primary) elements, menge (congenital marks), etc. In astrological practices, special attention was (and still is) paid to the removal of ‘obstacles’ resulting from the ‘disharmony’ (Oir. xarši) between bride and groom’s birth years (and what should be done thereto); the latter also received recommendations explaining which deity was supposed to bless the marriage. Conclusions. The examined texts are a valuable historical source providing insights into actual practices of Kalmyk astrologers (Kalm. zurхači) and ethnic standards of behavior prescribed by astrology, and how the latter accumulated worldview attitudes and orientation patterns developed by Buddhist dogma at large.

Historical sources provide variety of Tibetan and Mongolian terms that were related to the position of regent in the Tibetan government of the XVII-XVIII centuries: desrid, deba, gyaltsab, gyalpo, miwang, nominhan and others. Probably, such a variety is associated not only with the constant changes of regent role and functions in some periods of Tibetan history, but also with the specifics of the relationship between politics and religion in a Buddhist state, as well as with the influence of Qing Empire. An analysis of the listed items in the context of the Tibetan system of government will allow classifying them by meaning and historical periods, to identify differences from the classical European concept of regent. It also helps to study some details of the regency history in Tibet, which has only few researches at the moment.

The paper addresses the problem of studying the vocabulary of translated written Oirat-language monuments in comparison to their Tibetan-language originals. It briefly describes the lexicographic works based on materials from ancient Buddhist sources and available to modern Oiratologists. In addition, it examines some issues of studying the language of the monuments through the use of modern computer programs, provides examples of text processing, and analyzes the results obtained.

This exploratory study focuses on the use of hearsay evidential marking in the course of storytelling in a Tibetic language, Lhagang Tibetan, combining a descriptive linguistic approach with a literary-theoretic analysis. Tibetic languages generally possess a morpho-syntactically encoded evidential-epistemic system, in which the hearsay evidential represents a non-first-hand information source. However, we find a random use of the hearsay evidential marker in the oral literature of Lhagang Tibetan, although it has been transmitted from one generation to another by storytellers. The article aims to provide a reasonable explanation for the use of the hearsay evidential in storytelling. It proposes that hearsay evidential marking reflects the speaker's attitude towards the utterance to either avoid full responsibility for the utterance or enhance the utterance's authenticity. The former objective principally appears in telling a story based on a weak memory of the story; the latter appears in telling a legend. This explanation is supported by oral literature theory, especially the arguments regarding the difference between folktales and legends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs a case study with Amdo Tibetan children to demonstrate the benefits of narrative elicitation for ethnographic language socialization research in under-studied languages. Primarily by examining spontaneous verbal interaction, existing language socialization research has demonstrated how salient grammatical resources shape children's understanding of cultural belief systems pertaining to sociality and the appropriate display of emotion. However, spontaneous data do not always capture children's full linguistic repertoires and competencies, and may therefore present a partial picture of their mastery over particular grammatical systems. One such area that remains to be studied is how children use interactional cues to build their emerging knowledge of grammatical perspective marking in Tibetan languages. This paper integrates narrative elicitation with ethnographic methods from language socialization to examine how Amdo Tibetan children mark perspective using evidentiality, the grammatically-obligatory encoding of knowledge source, an area not frequently documented in language socialization studies. Language socialization research involved 15-months of participant observation, audio-video recording, and analysis of spontaneous interactions with children aged 1–4. This ethnographic research found that adults' narratives highlighted local theories about the importance of compassion (Tib. snying rje) by using grammatical evidentiality to emphasize characters' direct experiences in the story-world. However, grammatical evidentiality was under-represented in children's spontaneous talk. To provide further insight into children's mastery of evidentiality in this culturally salient communicative genre, I conducted narrative elicitation tasks with seven Amdo Tibetan children, aged 2–7. By framing narrative elicitation tasks as forums for social interaction in family homes, I adapted a method traditionally used in experimentation to complement the study of naturalistic interaction. Interaction analysis of the elicited narratives found that family members positioned young children as novice narrators, leading to dialogic rather than monologic narratives. Young children co-constructed shared perspectives on narrated events, and used evidentiality in conventionalized ways by mirroring the grammatical forms of adults' previous utterances. By adapting narrative elicitation tasks to language socialization's ethnographic methods, this paper models how qualitative researchers can locate patterns in children's experiences of language across complementary settings of data collection, an endeavor that is particularly important to research with child speakers of under-documented languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Situated in the contemporary contexts of Tibetan language movement and development in the education field, this article draws attention to the interactional nature of state-society relations and dynamic language ideologies in Tibet. It focuses on the ideological process underlying the discursive sensemaking patterns in official remarks and Tibetan reactions in the aftermath of a high-profile state intervention to reform Tibetan education in one part of the Tibetan region of Amdo in China. Although Tibetan people's concerns over language education and appeals to 'Tibetanness' empower them in resisting the repressive policy interventions from local authorities, this resistance also deploys the same metanarrative of legitimation that is fostered in state propaganda. As a result, Tibetan people's appeal to 'pure' language ideology accommodates speakers as much as it sets boundaries in the Tibetan society in the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, speech recognition technology for majority languages has been applied in wireless communication devices successfully. However, as a minority language, Tibetan has very limited resources for conventional automatic speech recognition. It lacks of enough data, sub-word units, lexicons, and word inventories for some dialects. In this paper, we present a multitask end-to-end model to perform simultaneous Tibetan speech content recognition, dialect identification, and speaker recognition. This model avoids processing the pronunciation dictionary and word segmentation for new dialects while allowing for training three tasks in a single model. We build the multitask recognition framework based on WaveNet-CTC. The dialect information and speaker ID are used in the output for training. The experimental results show that our method has better performance compared with a task-specific model.

One of the hallmarks of the Xi Jinping era in the People's Republic of China (PRC) has been a sustained attack on civil society, coupled with discursive shifts that attempt to undermine the universality of human rights. This article examines Tibetan language activism in this context, looking at challenges both for and of rights. I argue that the challenge for rights – namely, the state's increasing hostility – is offset somewhat by the slow growth, transnational nature and ample resourcing of the emerging discourse of language rights among Tibetans. On the other hand, I argue that challenges of rights – namely, the differential distribution of the "right to have rights" – present a more intractable problem. I demonstrate this by showing how current discourses among Tibetans in the PRC claim rights for some languages but not others, effectively erasing the "right to have rights" of certain Tibetan populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the realis converbs and irrealis converbs in Hwari (Dpa' ris) Tibetan, an Amdo Tibetan dialect spoken in Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County, Wuwei City, Gansu Province, China. One peculiarity of Hwari Tibetan morphosyntax is the existence of a large set of converbal suffixes. A survey of previous descriptions reveals a lack of consensus in the analysis of these converbs. They have been included in the framework of Written Tibetan too often, which has led to confusion regarding their typological status. A primary objective of our paper is to rectify this approach by describing the language on its own terms by comparing the morphosyntactic behavior of eight selected suffixes with regard to relevant criteria, such as realis and irrealis. This empirical research feeds back into the theoretical discussion, as it shows that the Hwari Tibetan converbs can be described using conventional typological concepts if construed appropriately. Our second objective is to explain the semantic and pragmatic properties of these converbs, particularly -na and -ta. The conclusion is that the two converb types are located along a continuum from realis/irrealis to positive/negative, thus constituting an instantiation of syntax-semantics isomorphism. The clause chaining in Hwari Tibetan is representative. By describing the converbs in Hwari Tibetan from the perspective of realis and irrealis, and by focusing on the syntactic properties and pragmatic features of -Ce in realis converbs and -Ca in irrealis converbs, it is revealed that the irrealis converbs -na and -ta function in a unique way in Hwari Tibetan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on first-hand data obtained during fieldwork, our article analyses numerals and frequently employed numeral classifiers of Darmdo Minyag. Numeral classifiers are obligated to follow a numeral when counting. There are three different roots for 'ten': /ɦa~ʁo/ used in the numbers 10–19; /ʁuɑ/ used in the numbers 20–49; and /ɡa/ used in the numbers 50–99. The presence of multiple roots for 'ten' with an initial glottal, uvular or velar stop or fricative has been attested in many languages of the Qiangic area. Although Tibetan forms may be used for all numerals, native forms up to 99 have been attested in Darmdo Minyag. The influence of Tibetan on cardinal and ordinal numerals, approximate, multiple and fractional numbers is noted as well. Darmdo Minyag has a rich inventory of sortal and mensural classifiers. Shape is the most important feature according to which nouns are categorized. Mensural classifiers may be divided into arrangement classifiers and units of measure. Units of measure are of two types: the first acts as a classifier, the second type is a [noun numeral+classifier] construction. Darmdo Minyag has two types of verbal action classifiers: several verbal action classifiers of unknown origin which modify semantically rich verbs, and numeral-verb combinations which modify a semantically empty verb. The main functions of classifiers are classification and individualization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Language Problems & Language Planning is the property of John Benjamins Publishing Co. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This response to Jacques' paper (of this volume, JSEALS 14.1:32-38) suggests a revision of the temporal frame of the morphological processes discussed by Jacques. It agrees on the reconstructed sequence of derivation by means of a transitivising and voicing prefix that was followed by Schiefner's law but dates both processes to stages in the history of the Trans-Himalayan family that preceded the formation of Proto-Tibetic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides arguments in favor of the hypothesis that in two voice alternations in Tibetan (marking transitivity and TAME, respectively), the unvoiced form is primary, and its voiced counterpart the derived form. This hypothesis has consequences for the history of the voicing alternation in Trans-Himalayan in general, and also for the reconstruction of voiced affricates vs. fricatives in pre-Tibetan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The book under review serves as a significant contribution to the field of Trans-Himalayan linguistics. Designed as a vade mecum for readers with little linguistic background in these three languages, Nathan W Hills work attempts，on the one hand，a systematic exploration of the shared history of Burmese> Tibetan and Chinese, and，on the other, a general introduction to the reader interested in obtaining an overall understanding of the state of the art of the historical phonology of these three languages. Whilst it is acknowledged that the book in question has the potential to be a solid contribution to the field，it is also felt that few minor issues can be also addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The political reforms made along the Gansu-Kökenuur border in the aftermath of the Lubsang-Danzin Rebellion (1723-4) represented the first significant change to that frontier to occur in centuries. Only recently have scholars begun to consider the repercussions of these changes for the powerful religious institutions of this region known as Amdo. This article utilises Chinese histories, Tibetan-language materials and Chinese-language land deeds from the eighteenth century to illustrate the drastic increase in imperial oversight and regulation of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and monastics in Amdo, especially those of the Xining River watershed. Significantly, the policies and practices directed toward these monasteries and monastics were those traditionally employed for Chinese Buddhists of the empire's interior. In addition, the reforms introduced in the Xining region helped to set the tone and precedents for how the Qing would later engage with monasteries and monastics elsewhere in Amdo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors present to the readers’ attention their attempt to observe the collection of old written manuscripts in the Tibetan language stored in Khovd State University (Khovd, Mongolia), as well as the specimen of scientific descriptions of some of these manuscripts. The Manuscripts with Written texts in the Tibetan language were in use and they are in use till nowadays among Buddhist clerics and secular adherents of the Buddhism in Kalmykia as well in some other regions where the peoples of Mongolian group related to Oirats and Kalmyks live now - in the Western aimaks (provinces) of Mongolia, Sinxiang Uigur Autonomous territory in the Peoples’ Republic of China. These handwritten books and the collections of such books which have remained to the beginning of the 21st century, give us the opportunity to note and describe some common features and to reveal the differences, penetrations concerning features and distribution of northern Buddhism, its schools and directions, features of cult systems of Buddhist faiths of the specified regions, as well as the literary activity and the practices of translations in various territories of Mongolian and Oirat peoples. Among these works which were in use among Western Mongols are “The Hymn-praise to a line of reincarnations of the Dalai-lama XIII Ngag dbang Blo bzang rGya mtsho” (tib. khyab bdag ’khor lo’i mgon po ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtshos ’khrungs rab gsol ’debs bzhugs so); “Prayer about a birth in Shambhala” (tib. grub pa’i gnas mchog dpal ldan shambha lar skye ba’i smon tshig ka lā bar ’jug pa zhes bya ba bzhugs so); one of the major Tantric texts - the Tibetan original of the well-known Buddhist composition “Mañjuśri-nāma-saṃgīti” or “The true pronunciation of names of Mañjuśri” (tib. bcos pa’i chos brgyad kyas bsdus pa zhugs so); copies of the sample of the literature of Prajñāpāramitā whom is “The Diamond sūtra” (tib. ’phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa rdo rje gcod pa zhes bya ba bzhugs so); the prayer turned to Nāgārjuna, the Indian founder of a Mahāyāna, the author of texts of its first school - Mādhyamika (тиб. dpal dkon ’phags pa klu sgrub gyi smon lam zhes bya ba bzhugs so), etc.

Zaya Pandita Namkhai Jamtsu’s translated works are distin guished by high degree of accuracy in the translation of grammar peculiarities of the written Tibetan language into the Oirat language. The article considers the peculiarities of functioning of the two semantically close adjectival interrogative pronouns ali and aliba as Tibetan equivalents of the interrogative pronouns gang and its forms: gang rnams и gang yang in the Oirat translation of the Tibetan sutra „King of Aspiration Prayers‟. The article observes the principle of the translator’s selecting the Oirat equivalents to every Tibetan words and reveals the difference between the pronouns ali and aliba. The first of them has an interrogative function, while the second expresses generalization, imprecision and uncertainty.

This report presents basic wordlists from seven closely related East Bodish languages from Bumthang, northern Trongsa and far eastern Wangdue Phodrang districts in Bhutan. These wordlists are analysed, with lexico-statistical comparison to other languages of the region (East Bodish, Central Tibetan, and Indic), and preliminary notes on phonological processes and sound correspondences and change within the Bumthang varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper discusses the hypothesis according to which a devoicing sound shift *sb- > sp-, *sd- > st-, *sg- > sk- took place in pre-Tibetan. I show that all examples supporting this putative sound shift have better explanations, and that this hypothesis creates more problems than it solves. In addition, I discuss data from modern Tibetic varieties, showing that no typological parallel for such a sound shift is attested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay dramatizes three key characteristics of dialogue shared between Eastern and Western voices. They have been vividly enacted during the first author's ongoing 7-year ethnographic encounters with Tibetans organizing through communicative relationships to preserve their mother tongue. Emerging from the intertexuality among Zhuang Zi's and Martin Buber's ideas and the (auto)ethnographic activities involved in composing this account, the characteristics include boundless bound (the cultivation of immanent freedom), purposeless purpose (dialogue as a process and context for purpose to evolve), and being while becoming (creativity in momentary transformation). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]