Acknowledgements

As these acknowledgements show, the work before you is the cumulative result of the ideas and thoughts of a great many people who all, in one way or the other, have contributed to this grammar. In the end, however, the responsibility for any errors, mistakes, oversights and flaws lies solely with me.

This grammatical description could not have materialised without the cooperation, support, encouragement and appreciation of the people of the Chug valley. From the moment I walked into the valley till present, this community of 600-odd people has been amazing. We shared laughs about jokes, miscommunications and funny mishaps; joy in communal events and celebrations; tears about people who fell sick or passed away; frustration about lack of electricity, bad roads, government inefficiency and corruption; hang-over headaches; sweat and blisters from agricultural work; and boredom from seemingly endless elicitation and translation sessions. I am deeply impressed by their humility, by how they approach their struggle to eke out a living, by their resilience to countless changes, and by their dedication to maintain their language and traditions despite all odds.

In particular, I owe my immense gratitude to Tow Tsering and Dorji Choijom (‘Awu Ngow’) of Tsangpa. Literally the minute we met they opened their hearts and their house to me. They and their children Sange Thinlay (‘Adaq Thingly’), Phuntsho Choden (‘Awu Phulu’), Sang Tsomu (‘Awu Tato’) and Pema Khandu (‘Adaq Pema’) as well as Tow’s parents, Ayi (grandmother) Jomba and late Atha (grandfather) Kesang, became my family for the past five years. I am indebted to Sir Sang Khandu for initially introducing me to them. I owe a lot of gratitude to all my informants, especially, though by no means exclusively, to Tshegye of Laphyek, Yeshi Tanzin (‘Atha Gatpu’) of Shader and late Pema Dondrup (‘Atha Pyengku’) of Lekuring for providing me with the material to work with. I am grateful to the people of Lish who were willing to help me obtain an overview of their language, which hopefully one day will form the basis for a description of their language, too.

Special credit goes to my colleague and friend Ismael Lieberherr and his wife Teeng for their friendship and support and for hosting me in Tezpur on numerous occasions. Also, many thanks to Sange Tsering and his mum Ana Sang Dema of Bomdila and their relatives in Dirang and elsewhere for generously helping and hosting me from the very start of this journey, and all other friends I made during this PhD work, both in Arunachal Pradesh and beyond.

I would like to express my gratitude to my advisers George van Driem and Madhumita Barbora and their staff for their assistance in securing both the scholarship and the research visa for India and for all the institutional and other support they have provided since the start. Many thanks to the colleagues, staff and students of both Berne University and Tezpur University for their ideas, inputs and friendship. This research would not have been possible without the financial assistance of the Swiss National Science Foundation during the first three years. Gratitude also to the Government of India and the Government of the state of Arunachal Pradesh for allowing me to do my research. I thank the anonymous reviewer of my work for the valuable comments and suggestions.

For all those not specifically mentioned here by name: your friendship and help during this endeavour has been highly appreciated, and you will all be fondly remembered!

Finally, I cannot express how much gratitude I feel to my mum for simply accepting me to live my life the way I do, even when that means I am often far away from her. I am sure my late dad is immensely proud to know his only child finally made it to be a Doctor. Thanks, mum and dad, for everything. Thank you all!