A Linguistic Sketch of Kinnauri

Anju Saxena

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Chapter 2 A Linguistic Sketch of Kinnauri

In: The Linguistic Landscape of the Indian Himalayas

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Anju Saxena

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Pages:: 20–168

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004513648_003

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1 Introduction

Kinnauri is subsumed under what is usually referred to as (Standard) Kinnauri in the literature, the Sino-Tibetan (ST) language of Lower Kinnaur. In older literature it is referred to as “Milchan” (Gerard 1841), “Milch(an)ang” (Konow 1909), “Malhasti” (Konow 1909), “Kunawar” (Gerard 1842), “Kanaawarii” (Konow 1905), “(Lower) Kanauri” (Bailey 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1920, 1938), “Kanooringskad” “Kanooreanu skad” (Bailey 1909) and “Kanáwarí” (Joshi 1909). In more recent works the term “Kinnauri” is used to refer to this ST variety (D.D. Sharma 1988; Saxena 1995a, 1995b, 1997b, 2000a, 2000b, 2004, 2007, 2017). According to Ethnologue (Eberhard et al. 2021), its genealogical classification is as follows: Sino-Tibetan > Tibeto-Burman > Western Tibeto-Burman > Bodish > West Himalayish > Kinauri > Kinnauri. The classification according to Glottolog (Hammarström et al. 2020) is: Sino-Tibetan > Bodic > West Himalayish > Western West Himalayish > Kinnauric > Kinnauri.

Chapter 1 provided basic socio-cultural and geographical information on Kinnaur (including Lower Kinnaur). As this region is rather large, with some linguistic differences attributed to regional differences (Bailey 1909, 1920; D.D. Sharma 1988; see also Chapter 5 below), the focus here is on the Kinnauri variety spoken in the Sangla tahsil. The Sangla tahsil belongs administratively to the Kalpa CDB in the Kinnaur district (see Chapter 1). According to the 2011 Indian census, Sangla tahsil has 36 villages (e.g. Kilba Khas, Kanahi, Sapni Khas, Baturi, Barua Khas, Chasu Khas, Kamru Khas, Sangla, Batseri, Rakchham and Chitkul).¹ With the exception of Rakchham and Chitkul, the ST speech of these villages is very similar, with a high degree of mutual intelligibility (cf. the results presented in Chapter 5).

As members of these villages interact actively (e.g. marriages among the members of different villages is commonplace), it is not always possible to determine the exact characteristics of the speech of a particular village. For this reason, the linguistic variety described in this chapter reflects the speech of the ST community of the Sangla tahsil, with the exception of Rakchham and Chitkul. This variety is referred to as Kinnauri here.²

The analysis presented in this chapter represents primarily the speech of Brua and Sangla villages, although some observations are also made concerning Kinnauri of other regions (Lower and Middle Kinnaur). This includes the speech of both older and younger speakers, formally educated and those who did not receive formal education. Our most senior consultant Mrs Jwala Sukhi Negi never left Kinnaur except for some visits to Shimla, the capital city of Himachal Pradesh for health checkups etc. She could understand and speak some Hindi. Similarly, Mrs Krishan Bhagti did not receive formal education. She was born, grew up and still lives in the Sangla region. Among young adult speakers the analysis represents primarily the speech of Santosh Negi (Brua, married to a person from Sangla), Chetan Negi (Sangla) and Priya Negi (Sangla).

2 Phonology

2.1 Consonants

The consonant phonemes of Kinnauri are shown in Table 9 and examples of contrasting minimal pairs are given below. The aspirated consonants have comparatively lower degree of aspiration than in many IA languages. The voiced palatal nasal ɲ is rather infrequent in our material. There is, however, a minimal pair found: -ɲ [-2sg.h] : -n [-2sg.nh].

Table 9

Consonant phonemes in Kinnauri

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatoalveolar	Palatal	Retroflex	Velar	Glottal
Stop	p b	t d			ʈ ɖ	k g
Aspirated stop	pʰ	tʰ			ʈʰ	kʰ
Fricative		s	ʃ				h
Affricate		ʦ ʣ	ʧ ʤ
Aspirated affricate		ʦʰ	ʧʰ
Nasal	m	n		ɲ		ŋ
Lateral		l
Trill		r
Approximant	ʋ³			j

Minimal (or near-minimal) pairs: Consonants
p : b	paŋ	‘lineage’	baŋ	‘foot, leg’
p : pʰ	pja	‘bird’	pʰjaː	‘forehead’
t : d	tammu	‘to smell (tr)’	dammu	‘to roast (tr)’
t : tʰ	taŋmu	‘to observe’	tʰannu	‘to drop (tr)’
t : ʈ	tuŋmu	‘to drink’	ʈuŋmu	‘to plant, to stand (tr)’
ʈ : ɖ	ʈanaŋ	‘shelf’	ɖaːnaŋ	‘punishment’
tʰ : ʈʰ	tʰug	‘at, above’	ʈʰog	‘white’
ʈ : ʈʰ	boʈaŋ	‘soybean-like seeds’	boːʈʰaŋ	‘tree’
k : kʰ	ka	[2sg.nh]	kʰa	‘shit’
k : g	kud	[call.imp]	gud	‘hand, arm’
k : g	rak	‘an alcoholic beverage’	rag	‘stone, rock’
k : g	kar	‘tax’	gar	‘tooth’
d : ɖ	dam	‘good’	ɖam	‘a kind of cattle shed’
h : kʰ	hoŋ	‘insect’	kʰoŋ	[bend.imp]
s : ʃ	sa	[kill.pst]	ʃa	‘meat, flesh’
s : h	seː	[cntr.f]	he	‘again’
t : ʦ	to	[cop], [aux]	ʦo	‘thorn’
ʧ : ʤ	ʧabmu	‘to pull down (tr)’	ʤabmu	‘to come down’
ʧ : ʃ	ʧi	‘grass’	ʃi	‘leaf compost’
ʧ : ʧʰ	ʧu	‘word’	ʧʰu	‘why’
tʰ : ʈʰ	tʰis	‘soft, loose’	ʈʰis	‘join’
ʦ : ʦʰ	ʦam	‘wool’	ʦʰam	‘ladder’
s : ʣ	saŋ	‘a kind of kindling wood’	ʣaŋ	‘gold’
s : ʣ	sod	‘brahmin priest’	ʣod	‘wheat’
s : ʣ	ʦis	‘rotten’	ʦiːʣ	‘thing’
ʦ : ʧ	ʦuː	‘cough (n)’	ʧu	‘soot; word’
d : ʤ	du	[cop], [aux]	ʤu	‘cloud’
m : n	baːm	‘a kind of drum’	baːn	‘bow’
b : m	bal	‘head, top’	maːl	‘wealth’
m : n	gompa	‘leg’	gonpa	‘Buddhist temple’
n : d	no	[3sg.dist.vis]	do	[3sg.dist.nvis]
n : ŋ	rin	‘ell, cubit’	rəŋ	[tell.1/2o.imp]
n : ŋ	an	[3sg.ana]	aŋ	[1sg.nnom]
n : ɲ	-n	[-2sg.nh]	-ɲ	[-2sg.h]
r : l	raŋ	‘horse’	laŋ	‘cow’
l : n	ʋal	‘much, many’	ʋan	‘steam’
ʋ : j	ʋan	‘steam’	jaŋ	‘flea’
b : ʋ	bal	‘head, top’	ʋal	‘much, many’

2.1.1 Consonant Allophony and Variation

ɖ has two allophones: [ɖ] and [ɽ], where [ɽ] occurs intervocalically and [ɖ] occurs elsewhere. For example:

[ʤoɽi]	‘pair’	[malɖogaŋ]	‘life’
[gəɽi]	‘clock’	[kunɖa]	‘statue (of god)’
[reɽu]	‘radio’	[ɖabmu]	‘to pull’
[mʊɽǝlo]	‘limbless’	[bulɖjaːmu]	‘to roast, fry’
[goɽagaɽi]	‘horse carriage’	[ɖig]	‘pot’

The only apparent exceptions to this complementary distribution principle are [ɖʊɖʊ] ‘owl’ and [ʈʰãːɖi] ‘cold’. In both these examples there is a clear [ɖ] intervocalically. But the prosody of these words diverges from the default prosody of Kinnauri words. In these words either there is a pause between the first and the second syllable ([ʹɖʊ.ˌɖʊ]), or the vowel of the first syllable is long ([ʈʰãːɖi]). It is plausible that [ɖʊɖʊ] might perhaps be an onomotopoeic reduplicated form.⁴

Variation is also found in the phonetic realization of ʃ. The allophones are [ʃ] and [ʂ]. According to Takahashi (2001: 104), [ʂ] occurs before back vowels and [ʃ] occurs elsewhere. In our material the younger consultants from Sangla use [ʃ] everywhere (e.g., [ʃɔnʃeres] ‘Saturday’). Both [ʃ] and [ʂ] occur in the speech of the older female speaker from Brua, but without any systematic distribution. In her speech both [ʃ] and [ʂ] occur with both front and back vowels. For example, [ʂɔʂɔ] ‘ripen’, [prɔʃɔl] ‘a type of bread’, [kʰaʂe] ‘rough’, [ʃepa] ‘a dog name’, [bɔʂaŋ] ‘year’, [kiʃaŋ] [1pli]. Furthermore, in her speech, the same lexical item can be rendered once with [ʃ] and on a different occasion with [ʂ] (e.g., [ʂum] ~ [ʃum] ‘three’, [ʃɛkʰi] ~ [ʂɛkʰi] ‘pride’).

In addition, ʤ is realized as [ʤ], [ʒ] and at times, also as [ʐ]. For example, ʤəgmu [ʤəgmu] ~ [ʒəgmu] ‘to break (intr)’.

We also find variation in the pronunciation of recognizably Indo-Aryan (IA) words. For examples, IA lexical items with a [h] are regularly pronounced without [h] in Kinnauri, e.g. [mɛl] ‘palace’, [bramən] ‘priest’, [pɛlɛ] ‘earlier’ and [hã] ~ [ã] ‘yes’. Similarly, IA words with voiced aspirated consonants are regularly pronounced without aspiration (e.g. [b] instead of [bʰ], e.g. [bɛm] ~ [bʰɛm] ‘doubt’). But in the speech of literate Kinnauri speakers we find both the typical Kinnauri pronunciation of IA words without [h] and [bʰ] and also the Hindi pronunciation of the same items with [h] and [bʰ]. Similarly, in particular among literate Kinnauri speakers [ʣ] and [z] are in free variation (e.g. [baʣɛnnu] ~ [bazɛnnu]) ‘to play (intr)’. [pʰ] is also realized as [f] (e.g., sapʰi [safi] ~ [sapʰi] ‘handkerchief, rag’).

According to Takahashi (2001: 104), [ɳ] occurs between vowels and [n] elsewhere. This is not attested in our material, where [n] occurs also intervocalically (e.g., [ganam] ‘bad odor’, [gɔniŋ] ‘tree stem’), but the retroflex nasal [ɳ] is always followed by a retroflex consonant (e.g., [raɳɖɔle] ‘widow’, [raɳɖɔlɛs] ‘widower (negative connotation)’, [maɳʈ(r)] ‘female (animal)’). In each such instance in the speech of the older language consultant, we also get a variant without [ɳ]. Instead the adjacent vowel is nasalized: [rãɖole], [rãɖɔlɛs], [mãʈ(r)]. Distinct from this the younger consultants from Sangla village use [n] in these words.

Consonant variation is also found in the word-final position. While b, d and g are consistently realized as voiced stops word-initially, and even though the voicing is largely retained in word-final position, there are some instances where, in casual speech, the word-final voiced stops were realized as voiceless stops or as voiced fricatives. When asked to repeat, language consultants invariably produced a voiced consonant. The following examples represent the Brua variety.

tag	[tag] ~ [tak]	‘pus’
ʃag	[ʃagEQ031A] ~ [ʃakEQ031A]	‘birch’
ʃub	[ʂub] ~ [ʂuβ]	‘foam’
ʦʰag	[ʦʰag] ~ [ʦʰaɣ]	‘light’ (n)
mig	[mɪg] ~ [mɪɣ]	‘eye’
baŋmod	[baŋmɔd] ~ [baŋmɔð]⁵	‘footprint’
raːg	[raːg] ~ [raːɣ]	‘green, blue’
ʣabug	[zabug] ~ [zaβuɣ]	‘claw’
ʈəgmu	[ʈ(r) əgmu] ~ [ʈ(r) əɣmu]	‘to break’

In some cases the duration of the word-final stop is very short, although the language consultants can still identify the consonant. This is indicated in the phonetic transcription used here as unreleased stops (˺). For example, [jʊme] ~ [jʊmɛd˺] ‘mother-in-law, mother’s brother’s wife’, [ʧʰad˺] ‘son-in-law’, [bɪd˺] ‘shoulder’, [bɔd˺] ‘dead skin (due to e.g., illness), bark, peel’, [karkɛb˺] ‘awl’, [bɔk˺] ‘hot’, [bɔnsak˺] ‘wild entities (animal, plant)’. However, when a plural marker is affixed to a noun, the stem final consonant occurs explicitly. For example, [ʧɪmɛd˺] ‘girl, daughter’, [ʧɪmedɔː] [girl.pl].

2.1.2 Syllable Structure and Consonant Clusters

The attested syllable structures in my data are shown in Table 10. The syllable nucleus is always a single (short or long) vowel. Hence, description of the syllable structure of Kinnauri boils down to describing possible syllable-initial and final consonant clusters.

Table 10

Attested syllable structures in Kinnauri

CV	do	[3sg.dist.nvis]
	ʃa	‘meat, flesh’
CVC	rag	‘rock, stone’
	pom	‘snow’
CCV	pʰjaː	‘forehead’
	kraː	‘hair’
CCCV	(s)kjo-	‘male (animal)’
CCVC	djaːr	‘day’
	(s)kar	‘star’
CCVCC	bjonʦ	‘grasshopper’
	krũːnʦ	‘elbow’
CVCC	holɖ	‘flood’
V	uː	‘flower’
VC	ag	‘cave’
	om	‘path’
VCC	uʃk	‘old (non-human)’
	oms	‘before’

2.1.2.1 Word-Initial Clusters

There is a limited number of word-initial three-consonant clusters, all of the form sibilant + stop + approximant (e.g. (s)kjo- ‘male (animal)’) in the speech of some older speakers. Younger speakers consistently provide the forms without the first consonant. Otherwise initial clusters are of the form stop + [r/l/j/ʋ] (only [pʰ] and [kʰ] occur aspirated), sibilant + stop, sibilant + approximant, [ʤ] + [r/ʋ] and [ʋ] + [j]. See Table 10. and additional examples in Table 11.

Table 11

Word-initial consonant clusters

[pr]	pramu	‘to spread’	[st]	stal	‘plough’
[pj]	pja(ʦ)	‘bird’	[tr]	tremu	‘to knead’
[br]	bragmu	‘to chew’	[sk]	(s)kad	‘voice’
[bj]	bjomu	‘to go’	[sʋ]	sʋamu	‘to spoil, ruin’
[tʋ]	tʋaːr	‘Sunday’	[ʣj]	ʣiʋa	‘heart, soul, spirit’
[tj]	tjoŋ	‘more’	[ʣʋ]	ʣʋalno	‘shining’
[dʋ]	dʋǝnnu	‘to come out’	[sj]	sjano	‘old (human)’
[ɖj]	djaːr	‘day’	[kʰj]	kʰjar	‘goat’s wool blanket’
[kr]	kraː	‘hair’	[ʃʋ]	ʃʋiːg	‘red’
[kʋ]	kʋasmu	‘to boil’	[pʰr]	pʰralmu	‘to fell’
[kj]	kjar	‘plait, braid’	[kʰr]	kʰramu	‘to be late’
[gr]	gruːmu	‘to burn (intr)’	[ʤr]	ʤrakʰraŋ	‘bush with thorns’
[gʋ]	gʋamu	‘to jump’	[ʤʋ]	ʤʋarat	‘jewel’
[gj]	gjaːmu	‘to want’	[ʋj]	ʋjapar	‘business’
[pʰj]	pʰjaː	‘forehead’	[kʰʋ]	kʰʋaʧimu	‘to boil’
			[mj]	mja	‘day’

2.1.2.2 Word-Final Clusters

Word-final consonant clusters are of the form [nasal/liquid + stop/affricate], [fricative + stop], [stop + affricate] and also [t + k]. See Table 10. Additional examples are provided in Table 12.

Table 12

Word-final consonant clusters

[kʦ]	botokʦ	‘spider’	[mp]	lomp	‘small kerosene lamp’
[tk]	ʦʰatk	‘light’	[nʦ]	bjonʦ	‘grasshopper’
[ms]	oms	‘before’	[mʦ]	gumʦ	‘knife’
			[ns]	lesəns	‘license’
[nt]	banbant	‘much’	[nʈ]	ʈenʈ	‘tent’
[nɖ]	homaŋ kunɖ	‘altar’	[nʈʰ]	banʈʰ	‘share, portion’
[ŋk]	raŋk	‘high, tall’	[rt]	ʃǝrt	‘bet’
[st]	ʧust	‘clever’	[ʃk]	kʰuʃk	‘dry (inan. objects)’
[mb]	bomb	‘bomb’	[nʧ]	kunʧ	‘wide (inan. objects)’
[lɖ]	holɖ	‘flood’	[pʦ]	pətrapʦ	‘kidney’
[lk]	melk	‘low’	[rg]	sorg	‘heaven’
[rk]	surk	‘salty, sour’	[rʦ]	ʦʰarʦ	‘dry (e.g. grass)’
[rs]	nors	‘nurse’	[rʧ]	bǝrʧ	‘leave behind’

2.1.3 Geographical Variation in the Consonant System

On the whole, the speech varieties of Kinnauri speakers of the Brua and the Sangla villages are very similar, including their judgements concerning various aspects of Kinnauri grammar. But there are some minor differences which can be attributed to dialect differences. According to the locals the Kinnauri speech of the Brua village represents the Tukpa Kinnauri variety, while the speech of the Sangla village represents a form of speech associated with the Razgramang variety.

Table 13

Dialect variation: [ʈ(ʰ)(r)] and [ʧ(ʰ)(r)]

	Razgramang (Sangla)	Tukpa (Brua)
liːʈ	[liʈ(r)], [liʧʰ(r)]	[liʈ(r)], [liʧʰ(r)]	‘egg’
ʈʰanaŋ	[ʈʰanaŋ], [ʧʰ(r)anaŋ]	[ʈʰ(r)anaŋ], [ʧʰ(r)anaŋ]	‘ice’
ʈʰab	[ʈʰab˺], [ʧʰ(r)ab˺]	[ʈʰ(r)ab˺], [ʧʰ(r)ab˺]	‘lung’
ʈod	[ʈɔd˺], [ʧ(r)ɔd˺]	[ʈ(r)ɔd˺], [ʧ(r)ɔd˺]	‘disease’
ʈəgmu	[ʈəgmu], [ʧ(r)əgmu]	[ʈ(r)əgmu], [ʧ(r)əgmu]	‘to break’
manʈ-	[mãʈ], [mãnʈ]	[maɳʈ(r)]	‘female (animal)’

In a restricted set of Kinnauri lexical items, variation is noted between [ʈ] and [ʧ] and between [ʈʰ] and [ʧʰ] in both varieties. In this set, as illustrated by the examples in Table 13, in the Tukpa (Brua) variety a short [r] is heard after both the [ʈ(ʰ)] and the [ʧ(ʰ)] variants.⁶ Distinct from this, in the speech of the Razgramang (Sangla) speakers, a short [r] is heard mostly in the [ʧ(ʰ)] variants of this set.

In the Tukpa variety, a short [-r] is also heard after a retroflex consonant ([ʈ(ʰ)]) in lexical items which do not show the [ʈ] and [ʧ] variation, as shown in Table 14.

The corresponding lexical items in closely related Kanashi have [ʧ], and [ʃ] in one instance (‘ice’). See Table 15.

Table 14

Dialect variation [ʈ(ʰ)(r)] without [ʧ(ʰ)(r)]

Phonemic representation	Razgramang (Sangla)	Tukpa (Brua)
ʈʰo	[ʈʰo]	[ʈʰo], [ʈʰro]	‘charcoal’
ʈʰog	[ʈʰog]	[ʈʰog], [ʈʰrog]	‘white’
paːʈ	[paːʈ]	[paːʈ], [paːʈr]	‘ankle’
ʈuʈu	[ʈuʈu]	[ʈuʈu], [ʈruʈru]⁷	[swell.pfv]
kjarʈʰaŋ tʰomu	[kjarʈʰaŋ tʰomu]	[kjarʈʰaŋ tʰomu], [kjarʈʰraŋ tʰomu]	‘to carry under the arm’

Table 15

Kanashi counterparts of Kinnauri [ʈ(ʰ)(r)] and [ʧ(ʰ)(r)]

	Razgramang (Sangla)	Tukpa (Brua)	Kanashi
liːʈ	[liʈ(r)], [liʧʰ(r)]	[liʈ(r)], [liʧʰ(r)]	[li(ː)ʧ]	‘egg’
manʈ-	[mãʈ], [mãnʈ]	[maɳʈ(r)]	[mĩʧ], [miʧ]	‘female’
ʈʰo	ʈʰo	ʈʰ(r)o	[ʧopʈu]	‘charcoal’
ʈʰog	[ʈʰog]	[ʈʰ(r)og]	[ʧʰo(g)]	‘white’
ʈuʈu	ʈuʈu	[ʈ(r)uʈ(r)u]	[ʧuːrʣ]	‘swelling’
ʈʰanaŋ	[ʈʰanaŋ], [ʧʰ(r)anaŋ]	[ʈʰ(r)anaŋ], [ʧʰ(r)anaŋ]	[ʃaɳaŋ], [ʃanaŋ]	‘ice’

It is important to note that this type of variation occurs in a restricted set of words. In the following instances the retroflex stop consonant [ʈ(ʰ)] occurs without an [r] in both the Razgramang and Tukpa varieties.

In words where [ʈ(ʰ)] is immediately followed by the transitivizer -jaː (e.g. meʈjaːmu ‘to gather (tr)’).
In words where [ʈ(ʰ)] is immediately followed by the detransitivizer -ed (e.g. meʈed-o [gather(intr)-prog])
[r] does not occur in recognizably IA words with retroflex consonants (e.g. beʈa ‘son’).

2.2 Vowels

Table 16 shows the oral vowel phonemes of Kinnauri and a list of minimal pairs is provided below. See Section 2.2.2 for a discussion of the phonemic status of nasal vowels.

Table 16

Vowel phonemes

i, iː		u, uː
e, eː	ə	o, oː
	a, aː

Minimal (or near-minimal) pairs: Vowels
i : e	ʧimu	‘to wash’	ʧemu	‘to write, to draw’
e : a	eŋe	‘fourth day after today’	aŋ	[1sg.nnom]
ə : a	əpa	‘father-in-law’	api	‘grandmother’
a : i	ka	[2sg.nh]	ki	[2sg.h]
o : u	pʰor	‘floor’	pʰur	‘boil, blister’
i : u	kim	‘house, home’	kum	‘pillow’
i : iː	ligmu	‘to put on’	liːg	‘heavy’
e : eː	le	‘day’	le	‘tongue’
a : aː	ka	[2sg.nh]	kaː	‘walnut’
a : aː	rag	‘stone, rock’	raːg	‘green, blue’
o : oː	kʰolaŋ	‘threshing floor’	kʰoːlo	‘box’
u : uː	sumu	‘to bathe (tr)’	ʃuːmu	‘to preach’
o : aː	om	‘path, mountain pass’	aːm	‘mango’

Vowel length is phonemic in Kinnauri, although I have found no instances of disyllabic words which have long vowels in both syllables. Minimal pairs for vowel length are also provided among the examples above. It is important to note that the difference between long and non-long vowels is fairly small. Thus, there is very little difference in length between raŋ ‘horse’ and raːŋ ‘mountain’ in (1). See also Figure 5.

(1)

raŋ-rǝŋ

raːŋ

den

bjo-k

horse-com

mountain

over

go-1sg

‘(I) went over the hill with (my) horse.’

When a vowel-initial suffix is added to a stem which ends in a vowel, there is an intervening [j] or [ʋ], the former occurs with front vowels and the latter with back vowels. E.g. ʃi-e rəŋ [die-mnr com] [ʃije rǝŋ] ‘at the time of (his) death’.

2.2.1 Vowel Allophony and Variation

Some variation is found in the phonetic realization of vowel phonemes in Kinnauri. The phonetic realization of vowel phonemes varies both within the speech of an individual and across speakers: i is realized along the entire spectrum of [i]–[ɪ]. Similarly, u : [u]–[ʊ], e : [e]–[ɛ], o : [o]–[ɔ] and a : [a]–[ɐ]–[ɑ].

2.2.1.1 o : [o] ~ [ɔ]

In several cases, the same word is pronounced with [o] in one sitting and [ɔ] in another by the same speaker (e.g. [kɔʧaŋ] ~ [koʧaŋ] ‘direction, side’) and across speakers (e.g. [rãɖɔle] ~ [rãɖole] ‘widow’). At the same time, some systematic distributional tendencies are also observed:

First, o tends to be realized as [ɔ] before a consonant cluster. Example: [hɔlɖ] ‘flood (N)’, [ɔms] ‘before’, [sɔrg] ‘heaven’. Second, word-initially o tends to be realized as a [ɔ]. Third, in di-/polysyllabic words which contain o in consecutive syllables, there are a few lexical items with either [o] or [ɔ] in both syllables ([poʈo] ‘seed’, [bɔtɔkʦ] ‘spider’, [bɔʈɔn] ‘button’, [dɔrɔm] ‘religion’), but more frequently in such disyllabic lexical items [o] occurs in one syllable and [ɔ] in the other (e.g. [ɖɔrko] ‘skeleton’, [kɔkpol] ‘a kind of cheese’, [pʰɔgdori] ‘felt’, [tɔŋlo] ‘acorn, cone’, [sɔkʰo] ‘scorpion’, [sɔrglok] ‘heaven’ and [ɪbrobɔr] ‘similar’).

2.2.1.2 e : [e] ~ [ɛ]

As was the case with [o] and [ɔ], variation is found both within and across speakers. One example of variation within the speech of one speaker: [damɛs] ~ [dames] ‘ox’, [kɔnes] ~ [kɔnɛs] ‘male friend of a man’.

There is also some systematicity where the distribution of [e] and [ɛ] holds across speakers.

First, there is some dialectal variation among my language consultants. In the speech of Brua village, in some compound words where the first member is meː ‘fire’, its vowel is realized as [ɛ] (e.g. [mɛʃɪŋ] ‘match’, [mɛhoŋ] ‘firefly’), but the vowel quality does not change in [melɪŋ] ‘fireplace, oven’. The language consultants from Sangla, however, consistently have an [e] in all the compounds involving meː ‘fire’.

Secondly, in recognizably IA words, Kinnauri tends to retain the IA vowels [e] and [ɛ]. For example, [sɛnɖal] ‘sandal’, [ʃɛ(ː)r] ‘town’, [tʰɛlaː] ‘bag’, [deʃaŋ] ‘village, country’, [kaleʤi] ‘liver’, [mela] ‘carnival’.

Third, the distribution of [e] and [ɛ] seems to be sensitive to stem structure. In many stems ending in -e(C) this e is pronounced [e] when stem-final, but [ɛ] when followed by a stem consonant, e.g. [jʊme] ~ [jʊmɛd˺] ‘mother-in-law’, [rãɳɖɔle] ‘widow’ ~[rãɖɔlɛs] ‘widower’.

In particular, intransitive verbs formed with the suffix -ed show [ɛ] in forms where the stem ends in a consonant, i.e., in the allomorphs -ed and -en (the latter occurring in the infinitive: -ed-mu > -ennu; see Section 4.1.3.4.2), while in the reduplicated perfective, where the stem ends in -e, this is pronounced [e]. This variation in vowel quality does not occur in verbs with a single stem ending in -e. In these cases [e] occurs in all forms, as expected:

Infinitive	Progressive	Perfective
polʈen-nu [pɔlʈɛnnu]	polʈed-o [pɔlʈɛdo]	polʈe~ʈe [pɔlʈeʈe]	‘to turn around’
ʈʰuren-nu [ʈʰʊrɛnnu]	ʈʰured-o [ʈʰʊrɛdo]	ʈʰure~re [ʈʰʊrere]	‘to run’
ʃen-nu [ʃɛnnu]	ʃed-o [ʃɛdo]	ʃe~ʃe [ʃeʃe]	‘to send’
ren-nu [rɛnnu]	red-o [rɛdo]	re~re [rere]	‘to sell’
halaŋ he-mu [halaŋ hemu]	halaŋ he-(j)o [halaŋ he(j)o]	halaŋ he~he [halaŋ hehe]	‘to plough’
tre-mu [tremu]	tre-jo [trejo]	tre~tre [tretre]	‘to knead’

2.2.2 Nasal Vowels

Vowels preceding nasal consonants are regularly nasalized. However, in a restricted set of words nasalized vowels occur, even when there is no nasal consonant following it. For example ɖãs ‘gnat’, tãziraŋ ‘a horse name’, suãraŋ ‘monday’, sujĩ ‘tailor (who makes traditional cap and coat)’, ũʈ ‘camel’.⁸ There is at least one minimal pair: bas ‘fragrant’ : bãs ‘bamboo’, both IA. If nasal vowels have a phonemic status, it is marginal at best. In this chapter, nasalization will be marked only when there is no following nasal consonant following a nasalized vowel.

2.3 Morphophonological Stem Alternations

2.3.1 Nominal Morphophonology

Kinnauri has two kinds of systematic stem alternation which recur in several places in the nominal inflectional system, triggered by particular suffixes.

Polysyllabic stem truncation: As we will see, when certain inflectional suffixes are added to a disyllabic or polysyllabic noun stem ending in -aŋ, -iŋ or -es, this final part of the stem is replaced by the inflectional suffix.

Final vowel elision: When certain vowel-initial inflectional suffixes are added to a disyllabic or polysyllabic stem ending in -a or -e, the stem-final vowel is deleted (stems in -a) or replaced by a high glide (stems in -e). This is normally accompanied by a lowering of the suffix vowel (-u > -o).

2.3.2 Verbal Morphophonology

There are some verbs (e.g. bənnu ‘to come’, lonnu ‘to tell’, sannu ‘to kill’, ʋannu ‘to laugh’, as well as all intransitive verbs formed with the suffix -ed; see Section 4.1.3.4.2), which have three stem allomorphs whose distribution is morphophonologically determined: -V, -Vd, and -Vn.

The n-final allomorph appears in the infinitive, which ends in -nnu in these verbs (e.g. sannu ‘to kill’), most likely due to a mutual assimilation process between the stem-final -d and the affix-initial -m, where the d assimilates in nasality and the m in place of articulation.

The d-final allomorph appears in the following contexts: In the progressive aspect (e.g. sad-o [kill-prog]); when the manner marker -e is suffixed to the verb (e.g. ʋad-e [laugh-mnr]) and in the imperative (e.g. sad [kill.imp]).

The vowel-final allomorph appears in the past tense (e.g. sa-kjo [kill-pst]) and in the reduplicated perfective (e.g. sa~sa [kill~pfv]). The default verbal past tense markers are -gjo and -ge, but with this set of verbs the past tense markers are realized as -kjo and -ke/-ki.⁹

V (inf)	V (pst)	V (pst-3sg.h)	V (prog)
lonnu	lo-kjo	lo-ki-ʃ	lod-o	‘to tell’
bənnu	bə-kjo	bǝ-ki-ʃ	bǝd-o	‘to come’
tonnu	to-kjo	to-ki-ʃ	tod-o	‘to take out’
ʋannu	ʋa-kjo	ʋa-ki-ʃ	ʋad-o	‘to laugh’
tannu	ta-kjo	ta-ki-ʃ	tad-o	‘to do’

2.4 Suffix Suppletion

Some inflectional categories in Kinnauri exhibit suffix suppletion, with (morpho)phonologically determined distribution of the alternants. This holds for the dative (-u/(-)pəŋ; Section 3.2.4.3), for the perfective (-is/[~red]; Section 4.5.2.2), for the habitual (-id/-ʦ; Section 4.5.2.3), and marginally for the locative (-o/-r; Section 3.2.4.5). In all these cases, we seem to be dealing with genuine suppletion, and not, e.g., distinct items with overlapping functions.

3 Noun Phrase

3.1 Noun Phrase Structure

The noun phrase in Kinnauri has the following basic structure:

(dem / NP_POSS) (Num) ((Adv) Adj) N(-dim)(-pl/-du)(-case)(-emp) (foc/too)

For example:

(2)

do

tiʃ

ʋal

gaʈo-ʦ

ʦʰeʦa-ʦ-oː-s

le

dem.dist.nvis

seven

very

small-dim

girl-dim-pl-erg

too

‘Those seven very small girls, too, …’

(3)

ka-s-i

ta

rəŋ-o-n

2sg.nh-erg-emp

foc

tell.1/2o-pst-2sg.nh

‘You (yourself) told (me that).’

The N can consist of a title plus a name. In such cases both orderings, [name title] and [title name], are possible.

(4)

daʃratʰ

raːʣ-o

ʃum

raːni

i.name

king-poss

three

queen

‘The three queens of King Dashrath’

(5)

dok

raːʣa

daʃratʰ-is

then

king

i.name-erg

‘Then the king Dashrath …’

In some discourse contexts, the emphatic marker may precede the locative case marker (e.g., obor-i-o [dungeon-emp-loc]). The most frequent order is, however, where the emphatic marker occurs after the case marker.

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do

rapja

neraŋ-o-i

bəd-o

du-gjo

3sg

a.bird

near-loc-emp

come-prog

aux-pst

‘She was coming near the bird.’

We now turn to a description of the components of the noun phrase.

3.2 Nouns

3.2.1 Noun Structure and Word Formation

3.2.1.1 Noun Structure

Most nouns in Kinnauri are monosyllabic or disyllabic.¹⁰ Monosyllabic nouns can end in both vowels and consonants, e.g.:

ti	‘water’	pju	‘mouse’	ʃub	‘foam’
kraː	‘hair’	(s)kad	‘language’	ʧʰaŋ	‘boy’
uː	‘flower’	mig	‘eye’	ʣod	‘wheat’
haːp	‘jackal’	ʦam	‘wool’	(s)kar	‘star’

Disyllabic nouns in Kinnauri often end in -Vŋ, -Vs or -pa. Disyllabic nouns may, however, also end in other syllables. The endings -Vŋ and -Vs appear on IA loanwords and words of unknown etymology (nouns and adjectives), never on ST items, and seem to function as adaptive markers, which simultaneously accomodate the non-ST items to the inflectional system of Kinnauri, and mark them as foreign. They show special behavior in derivation¹¹ and inflection (see below).

ɖejaŋ	‘body’	eraŋ	‘hunting’
ɖokʰaŋ	‘mountain’	kʰiraŋ	‘milk’
bruaŋ	‘a village name’	raːpaŋ	‘a village name (Sapni)’
koʈiŋ	‘a kind of basket’	baniŋ	‘pots and pans’
gaʧʰiŋ	‘traditional belt’	ʈʰepaŋ	‘traditional cap’
bitiŋ	‘wall’	gubiŋ	‘storey, level’
dames	‘ox’	sapes	‘snake’
ʧʰunpa	‘maidservant’	gompa	‘step’
bospa	‘ash’	ʃupa	‘evening’
sutʰon	‘traditional trousers’	june	‘sun’
sokʰo	‘scorpion’	ʧimed	‘daughter’
əkʰa	‘pain’	ʦʰemar	‘lizard’

There are some nouns in Kinnauri which are longer. Most of them are, however, compounds (e.g. kaːnaŋ-kʰə [ear-shit] ‘earwax’) or seemingly compounds (e.g. ʤanekaŋ ‘marriage’, purʧuʈiŋ ‘dust’).

As the examples below illustrate, there are no structural differences between (i) count and mass nouns, (ii) concrete and abstract nouns, and (iii) inanimate, animate and human nouns. Such nouns can be mono- or disyllabic, ending in similar vowels and consonants.

Count nouns		Mass nouns
(s)toː	‘face’	(s)puː	‘body hair’
pja	‘bird’	ʦʰa	‘salt’
rud	‘horn’	kʰod	‘dandruff’
mi	‘man’	meː	‘fire’

Concrete nouns		Abstract nouns
bal	‘head, top’	laːn	‘air, wind’
ɖokʰaŋ	‘mountain’	miʧʰaŋ	‘envy, jealous’
rag	‘stone, rock’	ʦʰag	‘light (n)’

Inanimate nouns		Animate nouns
ʣaŋ	‘gold’	raŋ	‘horse’
tromaŋ	‘copper’	ʃokraŋ	‘orphan’
ʋaː	‘nest’	pja	‘bird’

3.2.1.2 Word Formation of Nouns

In Kinnauri there is a small set of derivational morphemes deriving nouns from nouns. These are maɳʈ-, (s)kjo-, bi-, ran-, -(o)nig and -ʦ. With the exception of -ʦ (which also attaches to other parts of speech), they are not productive in the modern language.

manʈ-	‘female (animals)’	manʈ-kukəri	‘hen’
(s)kjo-	‘male (animals)’	(s)kjo-kukəri	‘cock/rooster’
bi-	‘step- (kinship)’	bi-bon, bi-boba	‘stepfather’
bi-	‘step- (kinship)’	bi-ama, bi-mən	‘stepmother’
ran-	‘defective’	ran-ʦʰesmi	‘widow’
-onig	[-female]	rikʰ-onig	‘she-bear’
-onig	[-female]	sod-onig	‘priest’s wife’
-ʦ	[-dim]	pja-ʦ	[bird-dim]
-ʦ	[-dim]	ʦʰeʦa-ʦ	[girl-dim]

A more productive process of forming complex nouns is compounding. By “compound” in this work I mean a single word unit, which consists of at least two independent stems. Most frequently the compounds in Kinnauri consist of two stems. Structurally, they are made up by N-N or Adj-N.

N-N
meʃiŋ	meː+ʃiŋ	[fire+wood]	‘match’
mehoŋ	meː+hoŋ	[fire+worm]	‘firefly’
ʋasjaŋ	ʋas+jaŋ	[honey+fly(n)]	‘bee’
misti	mig-s+ti	[eye-lnk+water]	‘tear’

Adj-N
rokmig	rok+mig	[black+eye]	‘pupil’
pəʣər	pə+ʣər	[four+corner]	‘square’

The following phonological modifications have been observed to occur when the element stems become a part of a nominal compound. The vowel of the first stem is reduced (e.g., [i] > [ɪ], [iː] > [i]). For example, ti+daːmes [water+ox] > [tɪdamɛs] ‘(non-castrated) bull’. When the first component of a compound ends with an adaptive marker (-Vŋ), the adaptive marker is frequently deleted (e.g. boniŋ+sak [forest+wild.creature] > [bɔnsak] ‘wild animal’, boniŋ+mi-ʦ [forest+man-dim] > [bɔnmiʦ] ‘fairy, elf’, haraŋ+koʈiŋ [bone+kind.of.basket] > [harkɔʈɪŋ] ‘skull’).

Further, if the first stem ends in a consonant, in some cases, the stem final consonant is deleted (e.g. gud+sab [hand+narrowness] > [gʊsab] ‘glove’, piːg+jaŋ [yellow+flea] > [pijaŋ] ‘wasp’, juŋʣ+riŋʣ [brother+sister] > [jʊŋrɪŋ]¹²) or it gets assimilated for voicing (e.g. sag+ti [core+water] > [sagti] ~ [sakti] ‘whirpool’). There does not seem to be any specific phonological context which determines when a final consonant will be deleted. In the following examples, the phonological shape of the first component of a compound remains unaffected.

migbod	mig-bod	[eye-skin]	‘eyelid’
sakpju	sak-pju	[wild.creature-rat]	‘outdoor rat’
bonpraʦ	bon-praʦ	[father-finger]	‘thumb’
ʋasjaŋ	ʋas-jaŋ	[honey-fly(n)]	‘bee’
balrig	bal-rig	[head-louse]	‘head louse’
baŋmod	baŋ-mod	[foot-impression]	‘footprint’
mənbon	mən-bon	[mother-father]¹³	‘parents’

In a restricted sub-set an additional -s¹⁴ occurs as a linking element between the stems (e.g. mig-s-ti [eye-lnk-water] > [mɪsti] ‘tear’, mig-s-pu [eye-lnk-body.hair] > migspu ‘eyebrow, eyelash’).¹⁵

3.2.2 Number

Generally, a two-way number distinction—singular vs. plural—is made in Kinnauri nouns (but see Section 3.3.2.1 below for some instances of dual marking). The singular is zero-marked. Mass nouns such as ti ‘water’, meː ‘fire’, ʤu ‘clouds’ do not take a plural marker. Similarly, nouns denoting unique natural objects such as ‘sky’, ‘moon’ and ‘sun’ do not take the plural marker.

The following plural markers are found in our material: -aː, -eː, -oː/-goː and lengthening of the stem-final vowel. The distribution of the plural markers on nouns is not completely systematic, but some tendencies are observable.

Nouns which end in one of the adaptive markers (-Vŋ/-Vs) permit polysyllabic stem truncation (see Section 2.3.1) and the plural marker -aː is added to the resulting truncated stem. Additionally, with noun stems ending in the front-vowel adaptive suffixes -iŋ/-es, a -j normally appears between the truncated stem and the plural ending.

Singular	Plural
haraŋ	har-aː	‘bone’
ãʤaŋ	ãʤ-aː	‘intestine’
moraŋ	mor-aː	‘mask for gods made of gold/silver’
ʈaːnaŋ	ʈaːn-aː	‘jewelry’
ɖokʰaŋ	ɖokʰ-aː	‘mountain’
dames	dam-aː	‘ox’
bitiŋ	bitj-aː	‘wall’
takʃuliŋ	takʃulj-aː	‘nostril’
ores	orj-aː	‘carpenter, name of a social group’
banes	banj-aː	‘pot’
kones	konj-aː	‘male friend of a man’
gales	galj-aː	‘abuse’

In nouns with the adaptive markers, the adaptive suffix can be retained—apparently with no difference in meaning. In such instances the regular plural marker -oː/-goː occurs.

Singular	Plural
gaːraŋ	gaːraŋ-oː, gaːr-aː	‘river’
ɖejaŋ	ɖejaŋ-oː, ɖej-aː	‘body’
koʈiŋ	koʈiŋ-oː, koʈj-aː	‘basket which is carried on the back’
junnaŋ	junnaŋ-oː, junn-aː	‘mortar’
hasgoʈaŋ	hasgoʈaŋ-oː, hasgoʈ-aː	‘hand.grinding.stone’
patʰraŋ	patʰraŋ-oː, patʰr-aː	‘leaf’

In a few nouns, the stem-final vowel is lengthened to mark plurality by our Tukpa language consultant, but our Razgramang (Sangla) younger language consultants did not permit vowel lengthening as a plural marking device here, instead selecting -goː as the plural marker in all the following examples, except ‘sheep/goat’ (which is also irregular in losing the stem-final consonant).

Singular	Plural
ate	ateː, ate-goː	‘older brother’
rikʰa	rikʰaː, rikʰa-goː	‘bear’
le	leː, le-goː	‘tongue’
mi	miː, mi-oː, mi-goː	‘man’
ʣed	ʣeː	‘sheep/goat’

In a restricted set of nouns the plural marker is -eː.

Singular	Plural
roʈ	roʈ-eː	‘chapati’
ʦʰatig	ʦʰatig-eː	‘mosquito’
elkar	elkar-eː	‘minister’
riŋʣ	riŋʣ-eː	‘sister’
sok	sok-eː	‘co-wife’
haːp	haːp-eː	‘jackal’
gambuːʈ	gambuːʈ-eː	‘boot’

The plural marker -eː also occurs with the numeral id ‘one’, forming a generic pronoun (7–8).

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id-eː-s

aŋ

ʧʰaŋ-ʦ

lod-o

du

one-pl-erg

1sg.nnom

boy-dim

tell-prog

aux.prs

‘Some are saying: “(You are) my son”.’

(8)

id-eː-nu

naːne

lod-o

one-pl-dat.pl

aunt

tell-prog

‘(He is) calling some (women) “Aunt”.’

In the remaining cases, the default plural marker is -oː/-goː, where -goː [gɔː] occurs after a stem-final vowel and -oː [ɔː] after a stem-final consonant. These plural markers also occur after an agentive nominalizer. The plural marker -aː/-gaː, too, occurs in our material, e.g. baniŋ : baniŋ-aː ~ banj-aː ‘kitchen utensils’. According to our Sangla consultants -aː/-gaː reflects the speech of some other Kinnauri varieties, but not that of Sangla.

Singular	Plural
tʰar	tʰar-oː	‘leopard’
rag	rag-oː	‘stone, rock’
krog	krog-oː	‘ant’
raŋ	raŋ-oː	‘horse’
mig	mig-oː	‘eye’
gud	gud-oː	‘hand, arm’
kʰjar	kʰjar-oː	‘blanket made of goat’s hair’
stal	stal-oː	‘plough’
gar	gar-oː	‘tooth’
ʧin	ʧin-oː	‘fingernail’
ʃiŋ	ʃiŋ-oː	‘wood’
kep-ʦ	kep-ʦ-oː	‘small needle’
mul	mul-oː	‘silver’
mig	mig-oː	‘eye’
bed	bed-oː	‘traditional doctor’
bod	bod-oː	‘peel’
ʧimed	ʧimed-oː	‘girl, daughter’
gone	gone-goː	‘wife’
piʃi	piʃi-goː	‘cat’
ama	ama-goː	‘mother’
lanʦjaː	lanʦjaː-goː	‘maker’
bore	bore-goː	‘brother’s wife’
gora	gora-goː	‘stone.house’
porʣa	porʣa-goː	‘citizen’
sjano	sjano-goː	‘old man’
jaŋʣe	jaŋʣe-goː	‘old woman’
ʣuʈi	ʣuʈi-goː	‘hair ribbon’
pʰoʃa	pʰoʃa-goː	‘deer meat’
raːni	raːni-goː	‘queen’

The plural marker occurs also in noun phrases which include a numeral.

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niʃ

ʧimed-oː

to-ke

two

girl-pl

cop-pst

‘There were two girls.’

3.2.3 Gender

Gender is not a grammatical category in Kinnauri nouns, other than in the restricted sense that the language has a “variable” class of adjectives, which distinguish a masculine and a feminine form reflecting natural sex in animate nouns (see Section 3.4). There are also some word-formation devices for creating nouns denoting female and male humans and animals.¹⁶ With two exceptions to be described below, these processes are not productive.

A few nouns denoting female referents end in -mo or in -ma (e.g. ama ‘mother’). In Tibetan loanwords, Tibetan rules for gender distinction are followed (for example ʣo ‘mountain ox’ : ʣomo ‘mountain cow’).

Further, with animal names the gender distinction can be encoded by means of the prefixes (s)kjo- and manʈ-. (s)kjo- denotes male and manʈ- denotes female animals. As the following examples illustrate, the ST gender prefixes (s)kjo- and manʈ- can also be affixed to loan nouns in Kinnauri. However, (s)kjo- and manʈ- do not occur frequently in natural texts.

(s)kjo-raŋ	‘stallion’	manʈ-raŋ	‘mare’
(s)kjo-kui	‘dog’	manʈ-kui	‘bitch’
(s)kjo-kukəri	‘rooster’	manʈ-kukəri	‘hen’
(s)kjo-piʃi	‘cat (male)’	manʈ-piʃi	‘cat (female)’
(s)kjo-tʰar	‘leopard (male)’	manʈ-tʰar	‘leopard (female)’
(s)kjo-kangaru	‘kangaroo (male)’	manʈ-kangaru	‘kangaroo (female)’

There is also a restricted set of feminine nouns characterized by the suffix -onig, e.g.:

rakses	‘demon’	raksonig	‘demoness’
rikʰa	‘bear’	rikʰonig	‘she-bear’
suːres	‘pig (male)’	suːronig, manʈ-suːres	‘sow’
sod	‘priest’	sodonig	‘priest’s wife’
ores	‘male belonging to a certain caste’	oronig	‘female belonging to a certain caste’

A possible IA influence could be seen in some noun pairs, where the feminine noun forms end in -i or -e, and the corresponding masculine forms in most cases end in an -o.

laro	‘bridegroom’	lari	‘bride’
ʤaro	‘deaf (m)’	ʤare	‘deaf (f)’
kano	‘one-eyed (m)’	kane	‘one-eyed (f)’
ʃaro	‘beautiful (m)’	ʃare	‘beautiful (f)’
ʧores	‘thief (m)’	ʧore	‘thief (f)’

The following two almost-grammatical processes are, however, productive. In the agentive nominalization the choice of the nominalizers: -ʦjaː and -ʦeː, signals gender, where -ʦjaː denotes male referents and -ʦeː denotes female referents.¹⁷

gas-oː ʧi-ʦjaː	‘washer of clothes (m)’	gas-oː ʧi-ʦeː	‘washer of clothes (f)’
gas-oː pon-ʦjaː	‘tailor (m)’	gas-oː pon-ʦeː	‘seamstress (f)’
ne-ʦjaː	‘knower (m)’	ne-ʦeː	‘knower (f)’

In the contrastive specifier markers too, a gender distinction is made: -sjaː [-cntr.m] and -seː [-cntr.f]. For example, ʧad-sjaː [son.in.law-cntr.m] and ʧimed-seː [girl-cntr.f].¹⁸

The gender distinction is also indicated in the terms used to describe inhabitants of villages in Kinnaur or of Kinnaur. This is done by affixing two distinct sets of bound morphemes to the village name (see Table 17). In some cases the stem is modified in the process. The -pa and -meʦ suffixes are ST in origin, while the other suffixes appear to be IA.

3.2.4 Case

The case markers in Kinnauri are shown in Table 18. The nominative is unmarked. Other case markers are suffixes.¹⁹ They are generally agglutinated to the last element of the noun phrase, normally a noun or pronoun (in the singular, dual or plural), although it also appears in headless NP s, e.g., added to an adjective or numeral.

3.2.4.1 Nominative

The nominative form is the stem of a noun or pronoun without any other case suffixes. This form can be used for subjects (intransitive and transitive)—i.e., the NP triggering subject indexing in the verb—and direct objects.

Table 17

Place names and nouns denoting inhabitants

Official name	Place name in Kinnauri	Men (or people) from this place	Women from this place
Kinnaur	kənoriŋ	kənores	kənorije
Baturi	boʈriŋ	boʈres	boʈre(ʦ)
Batseri	boseriŋ	boseres	bosere(ʦ)
Kanai	kone	konpa	konmeʦ
Kamru	mone	monpa	monmeʦ
Pangi	paŋe	paŋpa	paŋmeʦ
Bhaba	ʋaŋpo	ʋaŋpa	ʋaŋmeʦ
Sangla	saŋla	saŋlagja, saŋlagpa, saŋlakpa	saŋlage
Kothi	koʃʈampi	koʃʈampa, koʃʈampipa	koʃʈammeʦ, koʃʈampimeʦ
Poo	puː	pupa	pumeʦ
Kadogri	kaːɖogri	kaːɖogripa	kaːɖogrimeʦ
Nako	nako	nakopa	nakomeʦ
Leo	lijo	lijopa	lijomeʦ
Kanam	kanam	kanampa	kanammeʦ
Sungra	grosnam	grosnampa, grospa	grosmeʦ, grose
Purbani	pənnam	pənnampa, pənnamja	pənnammeʦ, pənname
Punang	punaŋ	punaŋpa	punaŋmeʦ, puːneʦ
Brua	bruaŋ	brumpa	brumeʦ
Shong	ʃoŋ	ʃompa	ʃomeʦ
Chansu	ʧaːsaŋ	ʧaːsaŋpa	ʧaːsaŋmeʦ, ʧaːse
Labrang	labraŋ	labraŋpa	labraŋmeʦ, labre
Rarang	raraŋ	raraŋpa, rapa	raraŋmeʦ, rameʦ
Nichar	nalʦe	nalʦinpa	nalʦinmeʦ
Telangi	tele	teliŋpa	teliŋmeʦ
Kilba	kilba	kiliŋpa	kiliŋmeʦ
Chitkul	ʧʰitkul	ʧʰitkulja, ʧʰitkula	ʧʰitkulmeʦ, ʧʰitkule

Table 18

Case markers in Kinnauri

Case	Case marker(s)
Nominative	Ø
Ergative/instrumental	-is/-s
Dative	-u, -n(u), (-)pəŋ
Possessive	-u, -n(u)
Locative	-o, -n(o), -r
Ablative	-ʧ
Comitative	(-)rǝŋ
Manner	-e

3.2.4.2 Ergative/Instrumental

The case marker -is/-s functions both as an ergative marker and as an instrumental marker. It has two allomorphs: -s and -is [ɪs] ~ [ǝs].²⁰ Their distribution is phonologically determined: -s occurs with stems ending in a vowel and -is occurs with stems ending in a consonant.

The ergative marker occurs only on the subject of transitive verbs,²¹ but its occurrence is not obligatory. Examples (10–13) show that the occurrence of the ergative marker is not restricted to any specific tense, aspect or person. These examples further illustrate that the ergative marker occurs in descriptive narration (10, 12), as well as inside direct speech (11) and in clauses which introduce direct speech (12).

(10)

ruʣa²²-ʦ-is

id

kuʈon

pʰjo-gjo

o.man-dim-erg

one

demon(f)

take.away-pst

‘The old man took away a female demon.’

(11)

ki-s

ase

taː-ti-ɲ

2sg.h-erg

torture(n)

keep-fut-2h

‘You will torture (her).’

(12)

ʃepa

rǝŋ

ʃampa-ʦ-is

lod-o

i.name

com

i.name-dim-erg

tell-prog

‘Shepa and Shampa were telling.’

(13)

do

tʰar

ʧʰaŋ-ʦ-oː-s

ta

ne-o

du

dem.dist.nvis

leopard

child-dim-pl-erg

foc

know-prog

aux.prs

‘Those leopard cubs are knowing (know) (this).’

Kinnauri allows both an ergative and a dative marker in a simple finite clause. For example:

(14)

do-s

id

ʃu-pǝŋ

piʤ-a

3sg-erg

one

god-dat

pray-pst

‘He prayed to one god.’

The only bound morpheme which may be suffixed to the ergative marker is the emphatic suffix -i (see example 15). Discourse markers which refer to an NP (e.g. ta in example 15) occur after the NP.

(15)

ka-s-i

ta

rəŋ-o-n

2sg.nh-erg-emp

foc

tell.1/2o-pst-2sg.nh

‘You (yourself) told (me that).’

The ergative marker in Kinnauri narratives functions as a linguistic tool to describe a shift in perspective (Saxena 2007). An examination of the occurrence of the ergative marker in traditional narratives shows that the ergative marker occurs almost obligatorily on the subject in the he said-construction (the direct-speech introducing statement “he said: Direct speech”). The occurrence of the ergative marker here can be seen as a deictic marker which draws the listener’s attention to the change in the mode of narration—from the descriptive to the expressive mode. Similarly, the ergative marker in other contexts in narratives occurs regularly in situations where the clause describes something which runs counter to expected behavior (including social norms). The ergative marker in such situations, too, functions as a discourse marker, the aim of which is to highlight the shift in the perspective—to draw the listeners’ attention away from the default expectation mode.²³

The case marker -is/-s also functions as the instrumental case marker. As an instrumental marker, it occurs with both concrete and abstract nouns.

(16)

isan

ta

rakses-is

bukraŋbuk

bal-is

boːʈʰaŋ-u

ran-gjo

briefly

foc

demon-erg

with.a.thud

head-ins

tree-dat

give-pst

‘For a while, the demon banged the tree with (his) head.’

(17)

radʰa-s

gas-oː

ti-s

ʧi-o

i.name-erg

garment-pl

water-ins

wash-pst

‘Radha washed clothes with water.’

(18)

du

ɲum-s²⁴

ʋal

kʰuʃ-is

ɲal-is

du-gjo

3sg.poss

after-ins

much

happiness-ins

enjoyment-ins

cop-pst

‘After that, (they) lived with much happiness and enjoyment.’

(19)

peʈiŋ

əkʰa-s

ʃi-o

du-k

stomach/belly

pain-ins

die-prog

aux-1sg

‘(I) am dying of stomach/belly ache.’

The instrumental marker also occurs with directional expressions, such as beriŋ ‘outside’, tʰug ‘above’.

(20)

ʧʰad-sjaː

tʰug~tʰug-s²⁵

bjo~bjo

son.in.law-cntr.m

above~echo-ins

go~pfv

‘The son-in.law went up there.’

3.2.4.3 Dative²⁶

The dative case markers are -u and (-)pəŋ in the singular and -n(u) in the plural. -nu and -n are interchangeable, without any apparent change in the meaning, although -n tends to occur more frequently in fast speech.²⁷ The dative suffixes never trigger polysyllabic stem truncation.

With nouns in the singular, the dative marker -u occurs predominantly with stems ending in a consonant and (-)pəŋ occurs predominantly with stems ending in a vowel. There are, however, instances in narratives and in the direct-elicited material, of one and the same noun taking the dative marker -u at one place and (-)pəŋ at another.

Nom	Dat		Nom	Dat
baiʦ	baiʦ-u	‘y. sibling’	maːduri	maːduri(-)pəŋ	‘i.name’
pjaʦ	pjaʦ-u	‘(small) bird’	ʦʰesmi	ʦʰesmi(-)pəŋ	‘woman’
ɖig	ɖig-u	‘pot’	mi	mi(-)pəŋ	‘man’
bakʰor	bakʰor-u	‘goat’	ʧʰanli	ʧʰanli(-)pəŋ	‘shawl’
ʧʰaŋ	ʧʰaŋ-u	‘boy’	raːni	raːni(-)pəŋ, raːni-u	‘queen’

(21)

ʈan-aː~tʰanaː

ʦeik

raːni-u

ran~ran

jewelry-pl~echo

all

queen-dat

give~pfv

‘(The king) gave all, jewelry etc, to the queen.’

-n(u) occurs only with plural arguments. The language consultants exhibit free variation between -nu and -n in their speech.

(22)

gə

mi-oː-nu²⁸

ʃa

ran-ta-k

1sg.nom

man-pl-dat.pl

meat

give-fut-1sg

‘I will give meat to the men.’

The following examples illustrate -u and (-)pəŋ with singular direct objects and -n(u) with plural nominal direct objects.

(23)

do-s

do

ʦiʈʰi(-)pəŋ

ʦer-ʦ

3sg-erg

dem.dist.nvis

letter(-)dat

tear-hab

‘He tears up that letter.’

(24)

ʧimed-u

ku~ku

daughter-dat

call~pfv

‘(He) called (his) daughter.’

(25)

ʦeik

ʧimed-oː-nu

ʣaː-u

du-gjo

all

daughter-pl-dat.pl

eat-prog

aux-pst

‘(The demon) was eating all the daughters.’

The occurrence of the dative marker is, however, not obligatory. In natural discourse its occurrence correlates strongly with semantic factors such as animacy and definiteness, where direct objects which are higher on the animacy and agency hierarchies tend to receive an explicit case marker.

As is the case with many South Asian languages, Kinnauri, too, has the dative experiencer construction; see Section 5.1.

3.2.4.4 Possessive

The possessive markers in Kinnauri are -u in the singular and -n(u) in the plural. -nu and -n are interchangeable, without any apparent change in meaning.

(26)

id

jaŋʣe-ʦ-u

kim-o

toʃ-gjo

one

o.woman-dim-poss

house-loc

sit-pst

‘(They) stayed at an old woman’s house.’

(27)

ʃum

ate-goː-nu

bore-goː

ʋal-i

mari

ʦʰeʦ-aː

du-gjo

three

o.brother-pl-poss.pl

brother’s.wife-pl

much-emp

bad

woman-pl

cop-pst

‘The wives of (her) three brothers were very bad women.’

The possessive singular suffix -u optionally triggers polysyllabic stem truncation (see Section 2.3.1), being realized as -o in this case (e.g., boːʈʰaŋ ‘tree’, boːʈʰ-o [tree-poss]). It also optionally triggers final vowel elision (see Section 2.3.1).

Nom	Poss		Nom	Poss
ri	rj-u, ri-u	‘a kind of tree’	jaŋʣe	jaŋʣj-o, jaŋʣe-u	‘old woman’
dasi	dasj-u, dasi-u	‘female servant’	ʃibʤi	ʃibʤi-u	‘i.name’
sena	sen-o, sena-u	‘army’	laːʧʰa	laːʧʰ-o, laːʧʰa-u	‘metal’
ate	atj-o, ate-u	‘older brother’	rikʰa	rikʰ-o, rikʰa-u	‘bear’

The following examples illustrate the attributive use of the possessive markers with singular and plural possessors.

-u		-n(u)²⁹
atjo kim	‘o.brother’s house’	ategoːn(u) kim	‘o.brothers’ house’
atjo rim	‘o.brother’s field’	ategoːn(u) rim	‘o.brothers’ field’
atjo pǝ boːʈʰaː	‘o.brother’s four trees’	ategoːn(u) pǝ boːʈʰaː	‘o.brothers’ four trees’
miu ʧimedoː	‘the man’s daughters’	minu ʧimedoː, mijoːnu ʧimedoː	‘the men’s daughters’

3.2.4.5 Locative

The locative markers are -o, -n(o) and -r. Of these, -o and -n(o) are productive: -o occurs in the singular (with stems ending in both consonants and vowels³⁰) and -n(o) in the plural. -no and -n are interchangeable, without any apparent change in the meaning.

Nom	Loc Sg	Loc Pl
kim	kim-o	kim-oː-n(o)	‘house’
deʃaŋ	deʃaŋ-o, deʃ-o	deʃaŋ-oː-n(o), deʃ-aː-no	‘village’
ʈʰepiŋ	ʈʰepiŋ-o	ʈʰepiŋ-oː-no, ʈʰepjaː-n(o)	‘traditional cap’
le	le-o	le-oː-n(o)	‘tongue’
pagaɽi	pagaɽi-o	pagaɽi-oː-no	‘turban’

(28)

obor³¹-o

ʃe-ta-k

dungeon-loc

send-fut-1sg

‘(I) will send (this person) into the dungeon.’

(29)

dok

om-oː-no

bospa

raʃaŋ-oː

kis-i

ni-ʦ

to

then

path-pl-loc.pl

ash

pile-pl

many-emp

stay-hab

aux.prs

‘Then, on the way there are lots of piles of ashes.’

The locative marker -r occurs only with demonstrative pronouns.

(30)

do-r

pʰolaŋ

lag-e-kjo

dem.dist.nvis-loc

fruit

attach-intr-pst

‘There fruits came.’

(31)

gə

hojo-r

to-k

1sg.nom

dem.prox-loc

cop-1sg

‘I’m here.’

The locative singular marker -o optionally triggers polysyllabic stem truncation (see Section 2.3.1):

Nom	Loc		Nom	Loc
boːʈʰaŋ	boːʈʰaŋ-o, boːʈʰ-o	‘tree’	pabaŋ	pabaŋ-o, pab-o	‘pasture’
panʈʰaŋ	panʈʰaŋ-o, panʈʰ-o	‘floor’	maʤaŋ	maʤaŋ-o, maʤ-o	‘middle’
kʰakaŋ	kʰakaŋ-o, kʰak-o	‘mouth’	kʰuraŋ	kʰuraŋ-o, kʰur-o	‘stable’
baniŋ	baniŋ-o, banj-o	‘pots/pans’	ɖibaːliŋ	ɖibaːliŋ-o, ɖibaːl-o	‘swamp’

It also triggers final vowel elision (see Section 2.3.1). In the case of diʃa ‘direction’ both diʃ-o and diʃa-o are permissible.

Nom	Loc		Nom	Loc
laŋka	laŋk-o	‘p.name’	ɖoŋa	ɖoŋ-o	‘tree stump’
ʣaga	ʣag-o	‘place’	bagiʦa	bagiʦ-o	‘garden’
ʣila	ʣil-o	‘district’	diʃa	diʃ-o, diʃa-o	‘direction’

With stems ending in other vowels, the locative marker -o is affixed to the final vowel of the noun stem. In fast speech, in noun stems ending in -o, one does not always hear both the stem final vowel and the locative marker, but when asked, the language consultants provide a long -o and separate the noun stem and the locative marker. When the stem ends with a front vowel, this stem final vowel can be realized as -j before the locative marker.

Nom	Loc		Nom	Loc
raɳɖole	raɳɖole-o	‘widow’	prai	prai-o	‘in-law’
nane	nane-o	‘aunt’	dorko	dorko-o	‘skeleton’
kui	kui-o	‘dog’	to	to-o	‘face’
nukuri	nukuri-o	‘employment’	ʦaku	ʦaku-o	‘knife’
ʦiʈʰi	ʦiʈʰi-o	‘letter’	kʰou	kʰou-o	‘food’

Nouns in the locative are sometimes lexicalized into adverbs. For example, djaːr-o [day-loc] ‘daily’.

3.2.4.6 Relationship among the Dative, Possessive and Locative Case Markers

As seen above, the dative, possessive and locative case markers coincide in form to some extent. Nevertheless, there are distributional facts which support the division made here into three different case forms.

Firstly, even if there is some overlap in form, there are also unambiguous exponents of each of the three cases. Thus, (-)pəŋ is an exclusive signal of the dative (after a stem-final vowel).

The locative marker always has the vowel -o, never -u. Hence, -u/-nu can only ever signal dative or possessive.

The dative singular suffix never triggers polysyllabic stem truncation, while both the possessive and locative singular suffixes are optionally accompanied by this morphophonological alternation.

Possessive and to some extent locative singular both trigger final vowel elision, which the dative singular does not (since it has a completely different allomorph after vowel-final stems: (-)pəŋ). With stems ending in -e, the stem-final vowel may disappear in the locative (just as in the possessive), but normally it is reduced to a glide (-j) instead.

Table 19 shows some concrete examples of how these differences manifest themselves.

Table 19

Dative–possessive–locative with different stem types

Stem type	Nominative	Dative	Possessive	Locative
Adapted IA	boːʈʰaŋ ‘tree’	boːʈʰaŋ-u	boːʈʰaŋ-u, boːʈʰ-o	boːʈʰaŋ-o, boːʈʰ-o
e-final	ate ‘o.brother’	ate(-) pəŋ	atj-o	atj-o
C-final	kim ‘house’	kim-u	kim-u	kim-o
V-final	boba ‘father’	boba(-) pəŋ	bob-o	bob-o

3.2.4.7 Ablative

The case marker -əʧ/-ʧ functions as the ablative marker. -əʧ occurs with stems ending in a consonant and -ʧ occurs with stems ending in a vowel or in a nasal. The ablative marker occurs in the following structures: N-abl, N-loc-abl and N-poss dok-abl.³² N-abl and N-loc-abl occur only with non-human head nouns, where n-loc-abl occurs with nouns whose referents are physically or conceptually viewed as finite, with clearly defined boundaries; N-abl occurs elsewhere. N-poss dok-abl occurs only with human head nouns.

ham-ʧ	[where-abl]	‘from where’
dilli-ʧ	[p.name-abl]	‘from Delhi’
dəŋ-ʧ	[over.there(nvisible)-abl]	‘from over there’
dusraŋ-o-ʧ	[chimney-loc-abl]	‘from inside of the chimney’
ti-o-ʧ	[water-loc-abl]	‘from inside of the water’
lag-o-ʧ	[sleeve-loc-abl]	‘from inside of the sleeve’

(32)

kuʈon-u

ʧimed-u

dokʧ

ʈaːn-aː

gas-oː

kʰaŋ~kʰaŋ

witch-poss

daughter-poss

from

jewelry-pl

garment-pl

grab~pfv

‘(He) grabbed jewelry and clothes from the witch’s daughter.’

3.2.4.8 Comitative

The case marker (-)rǝŋ functions as the comitative (or associative) marker,³³ with a ‘together with, along with’ interpretation. Unlike other case markers, in most cases (-)rǝŋ patterns prosodically like an independent word, a postposition rather than a suffix, although it does also sometimes behave like a bound suffix (e.g., tʰar-rǝŋ laŋ [tʰarǝŋ laŋ] ‘the leopard along with the cow’).

(33)

do

rag-u

joʈʰaŋ

id

raksonig

an-u

tiʃ

ʧʰaŋ-aː

rǝŋ

ni-ʦ

du-gjo

dem.dist.nvis

stone-poss

under

one

demon(f)

3sg.ana-poss

seven

child-pl

com

stay-hab

aux-pst

‘Under that stone a demoness used to live along with her seven children.’

(34)

gǝ

ki-n

rǝŋ

dəŋ

bjo-k

1sg.nom

2sg.h-poss

com

over.there(nvisible)

go-1sg

‘I went there with you.’

(35)

santoʃ

ʧʰoŋmi

rǝŋ

bjo

i.name

husband

com

go.pst

‘Santosh went with (her) husband.’

While the comitative marker occurs predominantly with human nouns, there are also instances of (-)rǝŋ occurring with non-human, animate nouns and with inanimate nouns.

(36)

miː=le

hatʰi

rǝŋ

bjo-gjo

man.pl=too

elephant

com

go-pst

‘Men, too, went along with the elephant.’

(37)

maːr

rǝŋ

duː

gjaː-ti-ɲ-a

butter

com

salted.porridge

want-fut-2h-q

‘Do (you) want butter with salted porridge?’

(38)

raːʣa

gaʤa=baʤa

rǝŋ

raːni

pʰjo-mu

bǝ-ki-ʃ

king

pomp=echo

com

queen

take.away-inf

come-pst-3h

‘The king came with pomp etc. (and show) to take the queen.’

(-)rǝŋ is also used to form a coordinate construction with the structure: N (-)rǝŋ N((-)case marker³⁴).

(39)

ama

rǝŋ

boa

lo-ʃi-gjo

mother

com

father

tell-mdl-pst

‘Mother and father told themselves:’

(40)

jug

rǝŋ

tʰug

haled-o

du-gjo

down

com

over.above

roam-prog

aux-pst

‘(The mouse) was roaming up and down (on all the floors of the house).’

(41)

june-rǝŋ

golsaŋ-u

dǝŋ

krab-o

krab-o

sun-com

moon-poss

near

cry-prog

cry-prog

‘To Sun and Moon, (she) is crying (complaining), crying’

The comitative marker also follows the verb in non-final clauses. The verb in such constructions has either a nominalized verb form or is immediately followed by the manner marker -e. Such non-final clauses have a temporal adverbial interpretation.

(42)

nǝŋ

pǝn-nu

rǝŋ

ʧʰaŋ-u

boːʈʰ-o

ʦʰu~ʦʰu

du

over.there(visible)

reach-inf

com

boy-dat

tree-loc

tie~pfv

aux.prs

‘As soon as (he) reached over there, (he) tied (the) boy to the tree.’

(43)

dok

ner-o

ner-o

bǝd-e

rǝŋ

trǝʋal-u

kʰoŋ-o

du

then

near-loc

near-loc

come-mnr

com

sword-dat

turn-prog

aux.prs

‘Then while coming near (closer), he is turning the sword.’

3.2.4.9 Manner

The case marker -e forms constituents answering questions like: “How?”, “In what manner?”, “By which means?”.³⁵

bal-e tʰomu	[head-mnr to carry]	‘to carry on head’
bid-e tʰomu	[shoulder-mnr to carry]	‘to carry on shoulder’
ek-e bjomu	[one-mnr to go]	‘to go together or to accompany’

raŋ-e³⁶	[exterior.of.a.shoulderblade-mnr]
bag-e	[last.place.in.traditional.dance-mnr]
bal-e	[head-mnr] ‘first in a queue’
kal³⁷-e	[last.in.a.queue-mnr]

The manner marker -e can be affixed to demonstrative pronouns (e.g. (ho)do (dist, non-visible), (ho)jo³⁸ (prox), no (dist, visible)) for expressing, e.g., ‘in this manner’, ‘in that manner’. When -e is affixed to the demonstrative pronouns, the stem final vowel is lost and the resulting forms are hod-e, hoj-e hoʤ-e and ne, respectively.

(44)

gə

hojo-r

hoj-e

to-k

1sg.nom

dem.prox-loc

dem.prox-mnr

cop-1sg

‘I am in this (the tree) like this (in this manner).’

(45)

niʃi

ta

hoj-e

pǝ~pǝ

1du.incl

foc

dem.prox-mnr

reach~pfv

‘(We) two reached (the palace) in this condition.’

(46)

ne

ʧʰǝ

lod-o

du -n

dem.dist.vis.mnr

what

tell-prog

aux-2nh

‘What are (you) telling like that?’

Further, -e occurs with the third person anaphoric pronoun an (see Section 3.3.2). an-e has an intensifying function (‘(all) by him/herself’).

(47)

dok

an-e

bjo-ge-ʃ

then

3sg.ana-mnr

go-pst-3h

‘Then (he) himself went.’

The manner marker -e also occurs with the IA numeral ek ‘one’. ek-e indicates togetherness.

(48)

do

niʃ

ek-e

bjo-gjo

3sg

two

one-mnr

go-pst

‘Those two went together.’

Finally, -e is also suffixed to the verbs of non-final clauses. Such clauses have an adverbial interpretation. In many—though not in all constructions, the comitative marker (-)rǝŋ follows the non-final verb with -e.

(49)

gas-oː

ʧi-e

rǝŋ

id-is

ʧimed-u

lod-o

garment-pl

wash-mnr

com

one-erg

girl-dat

tell-prog

‘At the time of washing (their) clothes, one (woman) is telling the girl:’

3.3 Pronouns

3.3.1 Demonstrative Pronouns

The demonstrative pronouns are (ho)do [dem.dist.nvis], (ho)no [dem.dist.vis] and (ho)ʤo ~ (ho)jo [dem.prox] in the singular, and the corresponding plural forms are (ho)do-goː, (ho)no-goː and (ho)ʤo-goː, (ho)jo-goː. The shorter forms are used as third-person personal pronouns (see Section 3.3.2).

Plural forms can be used with singular head nouns, as a marker of respect (e.g. do-goː lamaː [dem.dist.nvis-pl lama.sg] ‘that lama’). The opposite can happen in non-honorific situations, where the singular demonstrative form occurs with plural head nouns, for example, do kim-oː [dem.dist.nvis.sg house-pl] ‘those houses’, do ʦʰesmi-goː [dem.dist.nvis.sg woman-pl] ‘those women’.

3.3.2 Personal Pronouns

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1	gə (nom), aŋ (nnom)	kiʃaŋ	niŋo (excl), kiʃaː (incl)
2nh	ka	kaniʃ	kano, kanegoː³⁹
2h	ki⁴⁰	kiʃi, kisi	kino, kinogoː*
3	do (dist, nvis) no (dist, vis) ʤo (prox) an (ana)	doksuŋ noksuŋ ʤoksuŋ anegsuŋ	dogoː⁴¹ nogoː ʤogoː anegoː

The 1sg person pronoun has two forms, referred to here as nominative and non-nominative. gǝ [1sg.nom] is used as subject and also to form the ergative: gǝ-s. The non-nominative pronominal form aŋ [1sg.nnom] is used as object, as possessive and as the stem to which other case suffixes are added (including those for dative and possessive). In the reflexive construction, the dative case marker is affixed to the non-nominative pronominal form.

The dative forms of the personal pronouns are as follows:

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1	aŋ-u	niʃ-u	niŋo-n(u) (excl), kiʃaː-n(u) (incl)
2nh	ka-nu	kaniʃ-u⁴²	kano-n(u)
2h	ki-nu	kis-u	kino-n(u)
3	do-pəŋ, du⁴³		do-goː-n(u)
	no-pəŋ, nu		no-goː-n(u)
	ʤo-pəŋ, ʤu		ʤo-goː-n(u)

Both (-)pəŋ and -u are permissible with third person pronouns (e.g. do-pəŋ [dɔpəŋ] and du for the 3sg.dist pronoun), without any apparent difference in meaning; -nu occurs with 2sg pronouns and -u with dual pronominal forms.

The possessive forms of the personal pronouns are as follows:

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1	aŋ	kiʃaŋ-u	niŋo-n(u) (excl)
			kiʃaː-n(u)⁴⁴ (incl)
2h	ki-n⁴⁵		kino-n(u)
2nh	ka-n⁴⁶		kanegoː-n(u), kano-n(u)
3	an (ana)	anegsuŋ⁴⁷-u (ana)	anegoː-n(u) (ana)
	du/do-u (nana)	doksuŋ-u (nana)	noksuŋ-u (nana)
	ʤu (nana)		dogoː-n(u) (nana)
	nu (nana)		ʤogoː-n(u) (nana)
			nogoː-n(u)⁴⁸ (nana)

As stated above, the third person pronouns are the short forms of the demonstrative pronouns (see Section 3.3.1). As with demonstrative pronouns the plural forms of the personal pronouns (e.g. dogoː and nogoː) can also occur with a singular referent, as a marker of respect.

(50)

do-goː

ɖokʈar

to-ke-ʃ

3-pl

doctor

cop-pst-3h

‘S/He was a doctor.’

(51)

no-goː

ɖokʈar

to-ke-ʃ

3-pl

doctor

cop-pst-3h

‘S/He was a doctor.’

(52)

kino

ɖokʈar

to-ke-ʧ

2pl.h

doctor

cop-pst-2pl.h

‘You (pl) were a doctor.’

The most common usage of third-person anaphoric pronouns is as reflexive pronouns (see Section 3.3.4). The third-person anaphoric pronoun also functions as an emphatic pronoun, where it can be preceded by its head noun or a regular (non-anaphoric) third-person pronoun.

(53)

do

an

tʰas~tʰas

du-gjo

3sg

3sg.ana

hear~pfv

aux-pst

‘He himself heard (this).’

(54)

mohan-is

kuaŋ-o

laːŋ

ʃe~ʃe

an-i

ʃi~ʃi

i.name-erg

well-loc

jump(n)

send~pfv

3sg.ana-emp

die~pfv

‘Mohan jumped into the well and died.’

In such cases, the case marker may appear both on the head noun and on the anaphoric pronoun.

(55)

do-s

an-is

ʧe~ʧe

3sg-erg

3sg.ana-erg

write~pfv

‘He himself wrote (a letter).’

3.3.2.1 Dual Number in Pronouns

Personal pronouns can be marked for dual number.

kiʃaŋ functions as the first person dual pronoun.

(56)

kiʃaŋ

ʤanekaŋ-o

bə-te

1du

wedding-loc

come-fut.1du

‘We (two) will come for the wedding.’

-suŋ is suffixed to third person pronouns to indicate duality. It also emphasizes togetherness. This suffix is attached to a special stem of the third person pronouns, which ends in -k (dok-suŋ, nok-suŋ, ʤok-suŋ, anek-suŋ) or in -g (aneg-suŋ). These pronominal stems do not occur in any other context, except possibly in the ablative form dokʧ (see Section 3.2.4.7). Possibly, these represent apocopated plural forms (with assimilative devoicing of g before the s of -suŋ).

dok-suŋ	[3sg-du]	‘those two (who are not in sight)’
nok-suŋ	[3sg-du]	‘those two (who are in sight)’
ʤok-suŋ	[3sg-du]	‘these two (who are in sight)’

In natural discourse -suŋ rarely occurs with common nouns. However, in direct-elicitation language consultants accepted -suŋ with a few [+human] common nouns.

ʦʰeʦaʦ-suŋ	‘girl-du’	tete-suŋ	‘grandfather-du’
ɖekʰraːʦ-suŋ	‘young man-du’	ruʣa-suŋ	‘o.man-du’
* ʦʰesmi-suŋ	‘woman-du’	* kim-suŋ	‘house-du’
* mi-suŋ	‘man-du’	* boːʈʰaŋ-suŋ	‘tree-du’

-suŋ also occurs as a verb indexing marker with third person dual subjects. Its occurrence is, however, not obligatory. More frequently the plural indexing marker occurs also with dual subjects.

(57)

sjano

mi

rǝŋ

an-u

ʦʰesmi

ʤanekaŋ-o

bə-ti-suŋ

old

man

com

3sg.ana-poss

woman

wedding-loc

come-fut-3nh.du

‘The old man and his woman (= his wife) will come for the wedding.’

(58)

sjano

mi

rǝŋ

ʦʰesmi

ʤanekaŋ-o

bə-suŋ

old

man

com

woman

wedding-loc

come-3nh.du

‘The old man and woman came for the wedding.’

(59)

sjano

mi

rǝŋ

ʦʰesmi

ʤanekaŋ-o

bə~bə

to-ge-suŋ⁴⁹

old

man

com

woman

wedding-loc

come~pfv

aux-pst-3nh.du

‘The old man and woman came for the wedding.’

(60)

sjano

mi

rǝŋ

ʦʰesmi

ʤanekaŋ-o

bə~bə

to-ke

old

man

com

woman

wedding-loc

come~pfv

aux-pst

‘The old man and woman came for the wedding.’

The numeral niʃ ‘two’ occurs, at times, after the second and third person pronouns to indicate duality.

do-niʃ	[3sg-two]	‘those two’
ka-niʃ	[2sg.nh-two]	‘you two’
kiʃi,⁵⁰ ki-niʃ	[2sg.h.two], [2sg.h-two]	‘you (h) two’

Without a preceding pronoun niʃi⁵¹ has a first person dual inclusive interpretation.

(61)

niʃi

ʤanekaŋ-o

bə-ti-ʧ

1dui

wedding-loc

come-fut-1ple

‘We (two) will come for the wedding.’

3.3.3 Interrogative Pronouns and Adverbs

Some interrogative pronouns (and adverbs) in Kinnauri are:

hat	‘who, which’	tʰu, ʧʰu⁵²	‘why’
ham	‘where’	teta, te, tetra	‘how much, many’
ʧʰəd, ʧʰa⁵³	‘what’	teraŋ, tetraŋ	‘when’
hala	‘how (action)’	hales	‘how (quality)’

te ‘how much’ is frequently repeated (i.e., te~te [te~echo]). For example, a group of customers in a shop can use te~te to ask how much each one of them owes. tetra ‘how much’ is used when asking about one specific object. teraŋ ‘when’ is an open question. The speaker does not have any specific time-frame in mind. It could be today, tomorrow, in one month or one year or in distant future. When there is a more specific time-frame in mind (e.g. ‘after lunch today’, ‘before 10pm’), tetraŋ is used instead. See also Section 5.2.

3.3.4 Reflexive Pronouns

As mentioned above, Kinnauri has distinct subject and non-subject pronominal forms for the first person singular (gǝ vs. aŋ; see Section 3.3.2), and it is the latter form which is used as the first-person singular reflexive pronoun. In the third person, the anaphoric pronouns an, anegsuŋ and anegoː are used as the reflexive pronouns. In all other cases the same pronominal forms occur in both subject and non-subject positions (including with the ergative marker). In the reflexive pronoun construction, the dative marker is affixed to the pronoun in the direct object position.

(62)

maŋ-o

gǝ-s

aŋ-u

sa-k

dream-loc

1sg-erg

1sg-dat

kill-1sg

‘In the dream I kill myself.’

(63)

maŋ-o

kiʃaŋ-is

kiʃaŋ-u

sa~sa

dream-loc

1du-erg

1du-dat

kill~pfv

‘In the dream we (two) killed ourselves.’

(64)

maŋ-o

niŋo-s

niŋo-nu

sa~sa

dream-loc

1ple-erg

1ple-dat.pl

kill~pfv

‘In the dream we killed ourselves.’

(65)

do-s

an-u-i

lo-kjo

3sg-erg

3sg.ana-dat-emp

tell-pst

‘He told himself.’

(66)

do-goː-s

ane-goː-n(u)

taŋ~taŋ

3-pl-erg

3pl.ana-pl-dat.pl

observe~pfv

‘They looked at themselves.’

As will be discussed in Section 4.1.3.3, the middle voice marker -ʃi also occurs in the reflexive construction. As the examples (67–68) illustrate both the reflexive pronoun and the middle marker -ʃi can co-occur in the same clause.

(67)

niŋo

niŋo-nu

kʰja-ʃ-o

du-ʧ

1ple.nom

1ple-dat.pl

see-mdl-prog

aux-1ple

‘We (excl) saw ourselves (in the mirror).’

(68)

kiʃaː

kiʃaː-nu

kʰja-ʃ-o

to-me

1pli.nom

1pli-dat.pl

see-mdl-prog

aux-1pli

‘We (incl) saw ourselves (in the mirror).’

3.4 Adjectives

Adjectives in Kinnauri precede their head nouns.

(69)

ʃum

uʃk

kim-oː

three

old

house-pl

‘Three old houses’

(70)

do-s

ʈʰog

rǝŋ

rok

gas-oː

gaʤ-is

du

3sg-erg

white

com

black

garment-pl

wear-pfv

aux.prs

‘He has worn black and white clothes.’

(71)

ʧʰaŋ

ka

boːlaː

gaːraŋ-u

ner-o

tʰa-bjo

child

2nh

rough

river-poss

near-loc

proh-go

‘Child, don’t go near the rough river!’

(72)

dam

gas-oː

ʈan-aː

taŋ~taŋ

good

garment-pl

jewelry-pl

observe~pfv

‘(She) looked at nice clothes and (pieces of) jewelry.’

(73)

imandaːr

ʧʰaŋ

dake

ma-taŋ-ʦ

honest

boy

problem

neg-observe-hab

‘The honest boy does not have (any) problem(s).’

As is the case with nouns, most adjectives, too, are mono- or disyllabic in Kinnauri. As with nouns, some disyllabic adjectives, too, end in -aŋ.

dam	‘good’	tʰaːsaŋ	‘bottom’
kaːg	‘bitter’	ajãːraŋ	‘dark’
bok	‘hot (objects)’	ʦuʈkaŋ	‘quiet’

Quantifiers such as ‘all’, ‘whole’, etc., pattern like adjectives.

dam bataŋ	[good news]	‘good news’
ʦeik kʰiraŋ	[all milk]	‘all milk’
gui raːtiŋ	[whole.duration night]	‘whole night’⁵⁴
ʃar-e ʦʰeʦaʦ	[beautiful-f girl]	‘beautiful girl’
ɖekʰres mi	[male man/person]	‘male (of any age)’

Modifying adverbs, such as ʋal ‘much’, bodi ‘more, much (cnt)’, goma ‘very’, san ‘some’ and kjalekʰa ‘enough, sufficient’ precede adjectives.

(74)

ʃiml-o⁵⁵

mosam

ʋal-i

dam

p.name-poss

weather

much-emp

good

‘Shimla’s weather is very good.’

(75)

do-mja⁵⁶

san-ʦ

dam

haʧ-is

dem.dist.nvis-day

some-dim

good

become-pfv

‘That day (she) got a bit better.’

3.4.1 Adjective Inflection

Used attributively, i.e. in combination with a head noun, adjectives in Kinnauri behave similarly to IA adjectives with respect to gender inflection, and optionally also with respect to number marking. As in IA languages, Kinnauri distinguishes between a category of “invariable” adjectives and one of “variable” adjectives (Masica 1991: 250–251).

3.4.1.1 Invariable Adjectives

The adjectives in this category do not inflect for gender and/or number of their head nouns. In the following examples, the same adjectival form occurs with singular and plural head nouns, as also with male and female head nouns.

Invariable adjectives: gender and number
sjano mi	‘old man’	sjano ʦʰesmi	‘old woman’⁵⁷
ɖalɖis mi	‘poor man’	ɖalɖis ʦʰesmi	‘poor woman’
saukar mi	‘rich man’	saukar ʦʰesmi	‘rich woman’
braːʈ mi	‘stingy man’	braːʈ ʦʰesmi	‘stingy woman’
teg mi	‘older man’	teg ʦʰesmi	‘older woman’
ʃuʃkes mi	‘clean man’	ʃuʃkes ʦʰesmi	‘clean woman’
baːdur mi	‘brave man’	baːdur ʦʰesmi	‘brave woman’
ʦəlak mi	‘clever man’	ʦəlak ʦʰesmi	‘clever woman’
mari ʧʰaŋ	‘weak boy’	mari ʦʰesmi	‘weak woman’
muʃʈiŋ ʧʰaŋ	‘strong boy’	muʃʈiŋ ʦʰesmi	‘strong woman’
aːlsi ʧʰaŋ	‘lazy boy’	aːlsi ʦʰesmi	‘lazy woman’
dam ʧʰaŋ	‘good boy’	dam ʦʰesmi	‘good woman’
salgi ʧʰaŋ	‘naked boy’	salgi ʦʰesmi	‘naked woman’
ãdoliŋ ʧʰaŋ	‘blind boy’	ãdoliŋ ʦʰesmi	‘blind woman’
saukar ʧʰaŋ-oː	‘rich boys’	saukar ʦʰesmi-oː	‘rich women’
baːdur ʧʰaŋ-oː	‘brave boys’	baːdur ʦʰesmi-oː	‘brave women’
ɖalɖis ʧʰaŋ-oː	‘poor boys’	ɖalɖis ʦʰesmi-oː	‘poor women’
mari ʧʰaŋ-oː	‘weak boys’	mari ʦʰesmi-oː	‘weak women’
muʃʈiŋ ʧʰaŋ-oː	‘strong boys’	muʃʈiŋ ʦʰesmi-oː	‘strong women’
aːlsi ʧʰaŋ-oː	‘lazy boys’	aːlsi ʦʰesmi-oː	‘lazy women’
dam ʧʰaŋ-oː	‘good boys’	dam ʦʰesmi-oː	‘good women’
salgi ʧʰaŋ-oː	‘naked boys’	salgi ʦʰesmi-oː	‘naked women’
ãdoliŋ ʧʰaŋ-oː	‘blind boys’	ãdoliŋ ʦʰesmi-oː	‘blind women’

3.4.1.2 Variable Adjectives

Some adjectives of the variable category have distinct adjectival forms with animate and inanimate head nouns. E.g., for ‘black’, rok is the form used with inanimate nouns, while with humans (e.g. ‘black, dark-skinned (man woman)’), we get either rokalo (m) and rokale (f), or the adjective paŋk ‘dark-skinned (man/woman)’.

Adjectives in this category display complex behavior. In the following examples adjectives can optionally inflect for number, but not for gender. The adjective in this sub-set takes the plural marker -oː/-goː or -eː (with both masculine and feminine head nouns). As with nouns, which adjectives take -eː or -oː/-goː is lexically determined. The plural marker is optional on adjectives in this set, however.

gaʈo ʧʰaŋ	‘small boy’	gaʈo ʦʰeʦaʦ	‘small girl’
raŋk ʧʰaŋ	‘tall boy’	raŋk ʦʰeʦaʦ	‘tall girl’
nakiʦ ʧʰaŋ	‘thin boy’	nakiʦ ʦʰesmi	‘thin woman’
soukar mi	‘rich man’	soukar ʦʰesmi	‘rich woman’
teg mi	‘big man’	teg ʦʰesmi	‘big woman’
braːʈ mi	‘stingy man’	braːʈ ʦʰesmi	‘stingy woman’
gaʈo-goː ʧʰaŋ-oː	‘small boys’	gaʈo-goː ʦʰeʦaʦ-oː	‘small girls’
raŋk-eː ʧʰaŋ-oː	‘tall boys’	raŋk-eː ʦʰeʦaʦ-oː	‘tall girls’
nakiʦ-eː ʧʰaŋ-oː	‘thin boys’	nakiʦ-eː ʦʰesmi-oː	‘thin women’
soukar-eː mi-goː	‘rich men’	soukar-eː ʦʰesmi-oː	‘rich women’
teg-eː mi-goː	‘big men’	teg-eː ʦʰesmi-oː	‘big women’
braːʈ-eː mi-goː	‘stingy men’	braːʈ-eː ʦʰesmi-oː	‘stingy women’
raŋk-eː ʧʰaŋ-o	‘tall boys’	raŋk-eː ʦʰetsaʦ-oː	‘tall girls’

Distinct from this, some adjectives which take the adaptive marker -Vs with masculine singular head nouns, also permit inflection for the natural gender of the animate head noun. The masculine marker in such instances is -a and the feminine marker is -e. As can be seen in the examples below, with masculine head nouns both the default adjectival form with the adaptive marker and truncated adjective with the masculine marker -a are permitted. The corresponding feminine forms take the suffix -e.

moʈʰes ɖekʰraːʦ, moʈʰ-a⁵⁸ ɖekʰraːʦ	‘fat y.man’	moʈʰ-e ʦʰeʦaʦ	‘fat y.woman’
laʈas mi, laʈ-a mi	‘mute man’	laʈ-e ʦʰesmi	‘mute woman’
ʧʰoʈas ʧʰaŋ, ʧʰoʈ-a ʧʰaŋ	‘short boy (in height)’	ʧʰoʈ-e(-ʦ) ʦʰesmi	‘short woman’
kan-es ʧʰaŋ, kan-a ʧʰaŋ	‘blind boy’	kan-e ʦʰesmi	‘blind woman’
ʃares mi	‘handsome man’	ʃar-e ʦʰesmi	‘handsome woman’

In this set of adjectives, the singular and plural forms are the same (cf. the examples above and below).

moʈʰes ɖekʰraːʦ-oː, moʈʰ-a ɖekʰraːʦ-oː	‘fat y.men’	moʈʰ-e ʦʰeʦaʦ-oː	‘fat y.women’
laʈ-a ɖekʰraːʦ-oː	‘mute y.men’	laʈ-e(-goː)⁵⁹ ʦʰesmi-oː	‘mute women’
ʧʰoʈ-a ʧʰaŋ-oː, ʧʰoʈas ʧʰaŋ-oː	‘short boys’	ʧʰoʈ-e ʦʰesmi-goː	‘short women’
kan-a mi-oː	‘blind men’	kan-e tsʰesmi-oː	‘blind women’

It is possible that gender as a grammatical category is finding its way into Kinnauri. If a particular adjective which inflects for gender can occur with inanimate head nouns, the inanimate head noun takes the feminine adjectival form. For example, ʃar-eː ɖani(ʦ) ‘beautiful hill’; ʃar-eː rag ‘beautiful stone’. Even though adjectives which inflect for number with animate head nouns in principle permit number agreement with inanimate head nouns, this is only marginally acceptable (uʃk-e gas-oː ‘old garments’; rok(-e) patraŋ-oː ‘black leaves’).

As seen in the examples above, the plural form of adjectives which permit number inflection may also occur with explicit head nouns. But if the identity of the head noun is clear in a given context, the head noun need not occur explicitly. The form of the adjective remains the same irrespective of if the head noun is there explicitly or not. When an adjective occurs without a head noun, the same nominal inflectional endings are affixed to the adjectives.

(76)

ʦeik-u-i

ʣaː-mu

ran-gjo

all-dat-emp

eat-inf

give-pst

‘(They) gave (food) to everyone to eat.’

3.4.2 Predicative Adjectives

Apart from adjectives functioning as a modifier to a nominal argument, they also occur as the second argument in predicative constructions. As seen in example (74) above, the copula is not obligatory.

(77)

gǝ

dam

to-k

1sg.nom

good

cop-1sg

‘I (m,f) am good (well).’

(78)

gǝ

moʈʰe

to-k

1sg.nom

fat.f

cop-1sg

‘I (f) am fat.’

(79)

gǝ

moʈʰes

to-k

1sg.nom

fat.m

cop-1sg

‘I (m) am fat.’

(80)

niŋo

moʈʰaː

to-ʧ

1ple

fat.m.pl

cop-1pl

‘We (m) are fat.’

(81)

niŋo

moʈʰe-goː

to-ʧ

1ple

fat.f.pl

cop-1pl

‘We (f) are fat.’

3.4.3 Degrees of Comparison

Adjectives have no comparative forms. Comparison is expressed by affixing a combination of the locative marker (-o) and the ablative marker (-ʧ) to the standard of comparison.

(82)

sjo

dakʰaŋ-o-ʧ

sost-aː

du

apple

grape-loc-abl

cheap-pl

cop.prs

‘Apples are cheaper than grapes.’

(83)

hojo

mi

ʦʰesmi-o-ʧ

soukar

du

dem.prox

man

woman-loc-abl

rich

cop.prs

‘This man is richer than the woman.’

(84)

bəgiʦ-o

sjo

ʣaŋgal-o

seo-ʧ

em

du

orchard-poss

apple

forest-poss

apple.loc-abl

sweet

cop.prs

‘The orchard’s apples are more tasty than wild apples.’

(85)

hojo

ʧʰaŋ

hodo-ʧ

gaʈo-ʦ

du

dem.prox

child

dem.dist.nvis-abl

small-dim

cop.prs

‘This child is younger than that one.’

The superlative is expressed by putting either ʦeik-o-ʧ [all-loc-abl] or ʣo [sup] before the adjective.

(86)

ʤo

ʦeik-o-ʧ

teg⁶⁰

gaːraŋ

du

3sg.prox

all-loc-abl

big

river

cop.prs

‘This is the longest river.’

(87)

do

ʦeik-o-ʧ

takraː

du

3sg

all-loc-abl

strong

cop.prs

‘He is the strongest amongst all.’

(88)

id

ʃare-ʦ

pja-ʦ

ʣo

gaʈo-ʦ

ate-o

ɲums

bəd-o

du-gjo

one

beautiful.f-dim

bird-dim

sup

small-dim

brother-poss

after

come-prog

aux-pst

‘One beautiful bird was coming after (following) the youngest brother.’

3.5 Numerals

Like adjectives, numerals in Kinnauri precede their head nouns. Modifying adjectives occur between a numeral and the head noun. In Kinnauri the plural marker may also appear in a noun phrase which contains a numeral (89), although its appearance is optional with numerals (90).

(89)

ʃum

uʃk

kim-oː

three

old

house-pl

‘Three old houses’

(90)

hodo

niʃ

pʰolaŋ

lig-ʃ-is

bjo-o

du

dem.dist.nvis

two

fruit

put-mdl-pfv

go-prog

aux.prs

‘Having taken those two fruits, (he) is going.’

3.5.1 Nondecomposable Numerals

The numerals in Kinnauri which are not (synchronically) decomposable into simpler parts—“atoms” in the sense of Greenberg (1978)—are those for 1–11, and the numerals for ‘twenty’, ‘hundred’ and ‘thousand’. These numerals are as follows.

id	‘one’	ʈug : rug⁶¹	‘six’	sigid	‘eleven’
niʃ	‘two’	(s)tiʃ	‘seven’	niʣa	‘twenty’
ʃum, sum	‘three’	re	‘eight’	ra	‘hundred’
pə	‘four’	(s)gui	‘nine’	həʣar	‘thousand’
ŋa	‘five’	se	‘ten’

sigid ‘eleven’ and niʣa ‘twenty’ are in all likelihood historically derivable from the combinations se ‘ten’ plus id ‘one’ and niʃ ‘two’ plus se ‘ten’, respectively. Except for the IA loanword həʣar ‘thousand’, the nondecomposable numerals in Kinnauri are of ST origin. See also Chapter 5 for numerals in other ST varieties of Kinnaur. In modern times the use of Hindi numerals is gaining ground.

3.5.2 Complex Numerals

The remaining numerals are complex, formed from nondecomposable numerals (and recursively from other complex numerals) by formal devices corresponding to the arithmetic operations multiplication, addition and (rarely) subtraction.

The hundreds are formed by multiplication, formally expressed as juxtaposition of the terms for 2–9 and ra ‘hundred’, e.g., ŋara ‘five hundred’.

There are two ways of forming numerals higher than 1,000, corresponding to the patterns sigid ra [eleven hundred] and həʣar-is ira [thousand-ins one.hundred] ‘1,100’.⁶²

The Kinnauri numeral system is basically vigesimal, i.e., the interval between 20 and 100 is subdivided into twenties, not into decades, e.g. niʣ-o sigid [twenty-nlc eleven] ‘thirty-one’. The words for the decades 30–90 are as follows.

niʣo se	‘thirty’	ʃumniʣa	‘sixty’	pəniʣa	‘eighty’
niʃniʣa	‘forty’	ʃumniʣo se	‘seventy’	pəniʣo se	‘ninety’
niʃniʣo se	‘fifty’

The words for the units (1–19) are added after ‘ten’ and the terms for twenties, with an intervening connecting morph -o/-a(ː) (-nlc). This could be an original possessive or locative suffix.⁶³ E.g., s-a pa/s-o pa [ten-nlc four] ‘fourteen’, s-o ŋa [ten-nlc five] ‘fifteen’, niʣ-o s-o rug [twenty-nlc ten-nlc six] ‘thirty-six’, niʃ-niʣ-o gui [two-twenty-nlc nine] ‘forty-nine’, ʃum-niʣ-o s-a pa [three-twenty-nlc ten-nlc-four] ‘seventy-four’.

Complex numerals in Kinnauri can also be formed by subtraction. The smaller subtracted value appears before the larger base value (a decade), with the expression ma(ː)ts [neg.cop] ‘without’ (see Section 4.6.1)—or alternatively the IA loanword kam ‘less’—between the two expressions. E.g, ŋa maːts ʃum-niʣa [five neg.cop three-twenty] ‘fifty-five’, ʃum maːts pa-niʣ-o se [three neg.cop four-twenty-nlc ten] ‘eighty-seven’.

4 The Verb Complex

The verb complex in Kinnauri exhibits one of the following structures.

Copula construction:	(neg-)cop(-tns)-idx
Non-copula	(proh/neg-)V(-o.idx/mdl)-tns-idx
constructions:	N Vlight-tns-idx
	V.pfv Vlight(-o.idx/mdl)-tns-idx
	V(-o.idx)-asp (aux(-tns)-idx)
	N Vlight-asp (aux(-tns)-idx)
	V.pfv Vlight(-o.idx)-asp (aux(-tns)-idx)

In non-copula constructions the following combinations are attested in our material:⁶⁴

V-jaː-mdl(-tns)-idx		V-jaː-o.idx(-tns)-idx
V(-mdl)-tns-idx		V-o.idx-tns-idx
V-ed-tns-idx
V.intr(-tns)-idx

In the following sections, we describe the structure of verb lexemes, including valency-changing morphology, subject and “object” indexing, and the two main types of construction listed above, copula and non-copula constructions with their accompanying tense and aspect markers. Negation and imperatives/prohibitives are treated in separate sections.

4.1 Verb Lexemes and Their Structure

4.1.1 Simplex Verbs

The simplex verbs, like nouns and adjectives, are mostly mono- or disyllabic. There are no formal characteristics which distinguish different semantic classes of verbs, as can be seen from the following examples.

onnu	‘to be hungry’	kriŋmu	‘to shiver’
pʰasmu	‘to vomit’	gismu	‘to sneeze’
bjomu	‘to go’	bənnu	‘to come’
bragmu	‘to chew’	koːrmu	‘to dig’
tuŋmu	‘to drink’	məlmu	‘to cut’
ʦʰunnu	‘to tie’	ʧimu	‘to wash’
gomu	‘to understand’	gjaːmu	‘to want’
nemu	‘to know’	ʦalmu	‘to feel, to think’
tammu	‘to smell’	ʈʰəŋmu	‘to touch’
kunnu	‘to call’	lonnu	‘to tell.n1/2o’

Unlike other ST languages of this region such as Bunan and Navakat, verbs in Kinnauri do not have different verb forms for honorific and nonhonorific subjects, beyond the use of the plural marker with singular subjects.

4.1.2 Complex Verbs

Complex—multi-word—verbs are frequently encountered in Kinnauri. One of the two main types consists of a nominal argument followed by a light or support verb. A frequently occurring verb in such constructions is lannu ‘to do, to make’. The nominal argument in this construction contains the primary semantic content, while the verb takes the verbal inflectional endings.

maʤbur lan-nu	[helpless(n) make-inf]	‘to force’
bok lan-nu	[warm(n) make-inf]	‘to warm’
puʤa lan-nu	[prayer(n) make-inf]	‘to pray’
puʤa ma-lan-nu	[prayer(n) neg-make-inf]	‘to not pray’
sapʰ lan-nu	[clean(n) make-inf]	‘to clean’
ipəŋ lan-nu	[save(n) make-inf]	‘to save’
məna lan-nu	[refuse(n) make-inf]	‘to refuse’

Unlike instances where lannu ‘to make’ functions as a lexical verb, in this complex verb construction the dative marker does not occur after the nominal component of the verb complex (e.g. after maʤbur ‘helpless(n)’ in maʤbur lannu ‘to force’), suggesting that the noun (maʤbur ‘helpless(n)’ here) forms part of the complex verb. Further, in many cases an additional argument occurs in such constructions, which optionally can take the dative marker (91–92).

(91)

ama-s

kim-u

sapʰ

lan-a-ʃ

mother-erg

house-dat

clean(n)

make-pst-3h

‘Mother cleaned the house.’

(92)

ama

niʃ-u

ʦeik-is-i

ase

taː-ʧ-o

du

mother

two-dat

all-erg-emp

torture(n)

keep-1/2o-prog

aux.prs

‘ “Mother, everyone is torturing us (two).” ’

The negative marker (including the prohibitive marker) is, however, affixed to the verb (e.g., puʤa ma-lan-nu [prayer(n) neg-make-inf] ‘to not pray’).

The compound verb construction is the other frequently used complex verb construction in Kinnauri. Here the main verb (in the perfective) is followed by a light or vector verb such as nimu ‘to stay’, rannu/kemu ‘to give’, bjomu ‘to go’, taːmu ‘to keep’ or ʃennu ‘to send’. The vector verb may be followed by an auxiliary. Each vector verb adds a specific semantic dimension to the main verb. For example, the vector verb nimu ‘to stay’ indicates the continuation of the state indicated in the main verb.⁶⁵ The verbs ʃennu ‘to send’ and rannu/kemu ‘to give’ as vector verbs indicate the completeness or totality of the action expressed in the main verb. All instances of these vector verbs involve active main verbs.⁶⁶

(93)

kim-o

[toʃ-is

ni-ʦ

du-gjo]

house-loc

[sit-pfv

stay-hab

aux-pst]

‘(He) used to sit at home.’

(94)

do-s

kʰou

[ʣaː~ʣaː

ʃe~ʃe]

3sg-erg

food

[eat~pfv

send~pfv]

‘He ate (up everything).’

4.1.3 Valency Changing Mechanisms

Transitivity is determined only by means of formal criteria—transitive verbs can take objects. Objects do not need to be explicitly present in order for a verb to be considered transitive. Intransitive verbs take nominative subjects. Subjects of transitive verbs can be either in the ergative or in the nominative. Objects can be in the dative or in the nominative. The case marking possibilities in simple transitive clauses (except with ditransitive verbs and the verb ‘to say’) with explicit A and O are (nominative left without indication):

A-erg	O-dat	V
A-erg	O	V
A	O	V
A	O-dat	V

(95)

raːni-s

do

niʃ-u

taŋ-gjo

queen-erg

dem.dist.nvis

two-dat

observe-pst

‘The queen saw those two.’

(96)

raːm-is

rak

tuŋ~tuŋ

i.name-erg

alcohol

drink~pfv

‘Ram drank alcohol.’

(97)

ama

pol-eː

lan-ʦ

mother

fried.bread-pl

make-hab

‘Mother makes (prepares) fried bread.’

(98)

hat-u

raːʣa⁶⁷

ʦum-ta

who-dat

king

catch-fut

‘Whom will (they) catch (as their) king.’ (Who will become the king?)

(99)

aŋ-u

ʋal-i

ʤãŋk

bǝ

1sg-dat

much-emp

very warm (weather)

come.pst

‘I felt very hot.’

In ditransitive clauses where both a direct object and an indirect object occur, the indirect object gets the dative marker, and the direct object remains in the nominative.

(100)

gǝ-s

ka-nu

id

bakʰor

ke-ta-k

1sg-erg

2sg.nh-dat.pl

one

goat

give.1/2o-fut-1sg

‘I will give a goat to you.’

(101)

raːʣa-s

raːni-pəŋ

nukur*-u

ran-o

king-erg

queen-dat

servant*-dat

give-pst

‘The king gave the servant to the queen.’

(102)

do-s

uː-nu⁶⁸

ti

ran-o-ʃ

3sg-erg

flower-dat.pl

water

give-pst-3h

‘She gave water to the flowers (plants).’

(103)

do-s

uː-pəŋ⁶⁹

ti

ran-o-ʃ

3sg-erg

flower-dat

water

give-pst-3h

‘She gave water to the flower (SG).’

4.1.3.1 (De)transitivizing Voicing Alternation

Most Sino-Tibetanists posit an original de-transitivizing prefix *n- whose reflex in modern forms is voicing of the root-initial consonant. In a small set of verbs, when the intransitive verb form begins with a voiced obstruent (a stop or an affricate), the corresponding transitive verb form begins with a voiceless consonant. This is also observed in Kinnauri, although not as a productive process. In such verbs the transitive marker -jaː is not permitted (see Section 4.1.3.4.1 for -jaː).

V (intr)	V (tr)
bəŋmu	pəŋmu	‘to fill’
bogmu	pogmu	‘to burn’
grumu	krumu	‘to burn (food items)’
bannu	pannu	‘to cook’
bjugmu	pjugmu	‘to blow off fire’
gjulmu	kʰjulmu	‘to scrape’
ʤogmu	ʧogmu	‘to drip’
bralmu	pʰralmu	‘to fall, to fell’

The middle marker -ʃi (see Section 4.1.3.3), too, can be affixed to some transitive verbs of this set to decrease their valency, e.g., pog-ʃi-mu ‘to get burnt by inadvertently touching a hot pan’ < pogmu ‘to burn (tr)’.

4.1.3.2 The Transitivizing Prefix s-

There are some Kinnauri transitive verb forms in the speech of older consultants (or attested in the examples provided in older literature) which contain the prefix s-. For example, (s)kʋamu ‘to jump (tr)’, (s)tugmu ‘to push’. Bailey (1920) provides the following: tuŋmū ‘to drink’ : stuŋmū ‘to cause to drink, give to drink’. In all such cases, the forms without the prefix also occur as independent transitive verbs. It is noteworthy that some language consultants (especially the younger ones) use and recognize only the variants without the prefix s-.

4.1.3.3 The Middle Marker -ʃi

Kinnauri has a multifunctional verbal suffix -ʃi with cognates in several other ST languages.⁷⁰ This suffix is realized as -ʃ when the suffix following it starts with a vowel. The -ʃ in -ʃi never assimilates to surrounding consonants or vowels (e.g. with regard to voicing), which otherwise is a common phenomenon in Kinnauri. With a restricted set of verbs, however, it is realized as -ʧi, and not as -ʃi (e.g., legmu ‘to burn’, legʧimu [lɛkʧimu] ‘to get burned’, but not *legʃimu). With all other verbs -ʧ as the middle marker is not permitted. The distribution of the middle marker -ʃi and -ʧi is not morphophonologically conditioned. It is unclear why some verbs take -ʧi, and not the default -ʃi. It is possible that forms with -ʧi are borrowed from some other language.

Kinnauri -ʃi expresses functions which are typically associated with the middle marker, as shown below, but it also occurs in some other, distinctly non-middle constructions. However, regardless of the varying semantics of the verbs containing -ʃi, it will be consistently referred to and glossed as “middle” (mdl) in this chapter, including the word list in Appendix 2A.

(104)

sapes-is

radʰa-pəŋ

ʈok~ʈok

snake-erg

i.name-dat

sting.pfv

‘The snake stung Radha.’

(105)

gə

ʈok-ʃi-s

to-k

1sg.nom

sting-mdl-pfv

aux-1sg

‘I am bitten (by a snake).’

(106)

sapes-is

aŋ-u

ʈok-ʧ-is

snake-erg

1sg-dat

sting-1/2o-pfv

‘The snake stung me.’

The middle marker occurs with both ST and non-ST verbs. Among non-ST verbs, the focus here will be on IA loans. With IA verbs, as can be seen in the examples provided here, it occurs only on verb stems which contain the transitive marker -jaː (see Section 4.1.3.4.1).

ST/IA	V (tr)	V (mdl)	V (intr)
ST	pramu	praʃimu		‘to spread’
ST	ʧimu	ʧiʃimu		‘to wash’
ST	tʰannu	tʰaʃimu		‘to drop’
ST	sǝrmu	sǝrʃimu		‘to wake up’
IA	polʈjaːmu	polʈjaːʃimu	polʈennu	‘to turn (around)/roll’
IA	rokjaːmu	rokjaːʃimu	rukennu	‘to stop’

Kinnauri has a reflexive construction involving a transitive verb and a reflexive (anaphoric) pronoun, with the verb form remaining the same in a regular transitive clause. Most likely this reflexive construction in Kinnauri is due to its contact with IA languages.

(107)

do-s

an-u

kʰjo-o

du

3sg-erg

3sg.ana-dat

see-prog

aux.prs

‘S/He is seeing her/himself (in the mirror).’

As in many other ST languages, a reflexive reading in Kinnauri can also be accomplished by suffixing the middle marker -ʃi to a transitive verb. The reflexive pronoun is optional in constructions with the middle marker (67–68, repeated here slightly modified as 108–109).

(108)

niŋo

(niŋo-nu)

kʰja-ʃ-o

du-ʧ

1ple.nom

(1ple-dat.pl)

see-mdl-prog

aux-1ple

‘We (excl) are seeing ourselves (in the mirror).’

(109)

kiʃaː

(kiʃaː-nu)

kʰja-ʃ-o

to-me

1pli.nom

(1pli-dat.pl)

see-mdl-prog

aux-1pli

‘We (incl) are seeing ourselves (in the mirror).’

The middle marker occurs also in reciprocal constructions.

(110)

do-goː

me

ama-bua

taŋ~taŋ

du

3-pl

yesterday

mother-father

observe~pfv

aux.prs

‘Yesterday they looked at (someone’s) parents.’

(111)

do-goː

me

taŋ-ʃ-is

du

3-pl

yesterday

observe-mdl-pfv

aux.prs

‘Yesterday they looked (at one another).’

The reciprocal construction with -ʃi, too, can optionally contain the anaphoric pronoun.

(112)

ʦʰets-oː

(ane-goː)

baːt-jaː-ʃ-o

du

woman-pl

ana-pl

talk-tr-mdl-prog

aux.prs

‘The women are talking among themselves.’

(113)

ʧʰaŋ-oː

(ane-goː)

kul-ʃ-o

du

child-pl

ana-pl

beat-mdl-prog

aux.prs

‘The children are fighting among themselves.’

As in several other ST languages, in Kinnauri too, -ʃi as the middle marker is used to decrease verbal valency. Thus, the ergative and the dative marker are not permitted on the core arguments of a transitive verb when the middle marker -ʃi has been added to it, while with the same verb without the middle marker, the core arguments may take the ergative and the dative marker.

(114)

ʧʰaŋ-oː-s

ʈokʰ-jaː-o⁷¹

lod-o

du

boy-pl-erg

call.out-tr-prog

tell-prog

aux.prs

‘The boys are telling (others), by calling out to (them).’

(115)

ʧʰaŋ-oː*-s

ʈokʰ-jaː-ʃ-o

lo-ʃ-o

du

boy-pl*-erg

call.out-tr-mdl-prog

tell-mdl-prog

aux.prs

‘The boys are telling one another, by calling out to one another.’

Alternatively, the original subject can be suppressed (117, 119 compared to 116, 118).

(116)

gǝ

pitaŋ

pid-o

du-k

1sg.nom

door

close-prog

aux.prs-1sg

‘I am closing the door.’

(117)

pitaŋ

pi-ʃ-o

du

door

close-mdl-prog

aux.prs

‘The door is closing (on its own).’

(118)

mi-s

murti

ti-o

bojaː~jaː

ʃe~ʃe

man-erg

statue

water-loc

flow.tr~pfv

send~pfv

‘The man floated ([+control]) the statue in the water.’

(119)

ŋa

ʧʰaŋ-oː

ti-o

bo-jaː-ʃ-is

du-ge

five

boy-pl

water-loc

flow-tr-mdl-pfv

aux-pst

‘Five boys were swept ([-control]) into the water.’

-ʃi in Kinnauri occurs also in constructions which are not normally associated with the middle voice.

First, there is a kind of generalization of the reflexive usage of -ʃi in Kinnauri, reminiscent of possessor raising (Deal 2017), where the verb retains the object or other non-subject argument, and -ʃi indicates that its referent belongs to the subject, e.g., through a kinship relation, or by being part of their body (the subject doing something to/with their body part) or through possession/ownership.

(120)

do

raːʣkumar

an-u

ʈʰepiŋ-o

ʦisaŋ

lig-ʃ-is

kim-o-ʧ

dʋǝ~dʋǝ

bjo-gjo

dem.dist.nvis

prince

ana-poss

cap-loc

flour

put-mdl-pfv

house-loc-abl

come.out~pfv

go-pst

‘That prince, taking flour in (his) cap, came out of the home and went.’

(121)

bag-e

bal-e

pitaŋ

lig-ʃ-is

rear.of.dance-mnr

head-mnr

door

put-mdl-pfv

‘(The priest’s wife said: “the smart prince) is dancing, carrying (our home’s main) door on (his) head”.’

(122)

raːʣa

somsi

raŋ-u

den

ʃog-ʃ-is

ane-nu

dǝrbar-o

bǝ-ʧ-is

king

early.morning

horse-poss

on

ride-mdl-pfv

ana.pl-poss

court-loc

come-mdl-pfv

‘the next day the king rode on (his) horse, and came to (his) court.’

Second, -ʃi occurs in constructions where it highlights that more than one person is involved in an activity and that the action is done collectively. The corresponding clauses with singular subject occurs with the same verb, but without -ʃi. This happens with both transitive (123–126) and intransitive (127–128) verbs.

(123)

nane

ʧʰu

krab-o

du-ʃ

aunt

why

cry-prog

aux.prs-3sg.hon

‘aunt, why is (she) crying?’

(124)

isan

ta

krab-ʃ-o

du

briefly

foc

cry-mdl-prog

aux.prs

‘For some time (those two) are crying.’

(125)

raːʣa

hal-ed-o

du

king

walk-intr-prog

aux.prs

‘The king is taking a walk’

(126)

kon-jaː

ek-e

hale-ʃ-o

du

friend-pl

one-loc

walk-mdl-prog

aux.prs

‘Friends are walking (together).’

(127)

do-goː

ʃum-is

ʦʰeʦaʦ-u

san-ǝm

rujaː-ʃ-is

du-gjo

dem.dist.nvis-pl

three-erg

girl-dat

kill-nmlz

prepare-mdl-pfv

aux-pst

‘Those three (sisters-in-law) prepared to kill the girl.’

(128)

ʃum-ki⁷²

lo-ʃ-o

du

three-emp

tell-mdl-prog

aux.prs

‘All three are telling (at the same time to one another).’

-ʃi also occurs in constructions where the agency/volitionality of the subject is emphasized; that the subject acted on his/her own free will. The regular active clause case marking on core arguments is retained. This usage has been reported as the primary function of cognate items in the Macro-Tani languages by Modi and Post (2020) under the label “subject autonomy”.

(129)

somsi

sǝr-o

du

early.morning

rise-prog

aux-pst

‘In the early morning (the prince) is waking up.’

(130)

jaŋʣe-s

raːtiŋ

sǝr-ʃ-is

do

ɖig-u

maŋ-gjo

o.woman-erg

night

rise-mdl-pfv

dem.dist.nvis

pot-dat

hide-pst

‘In the night the old woman woke up (and) hid the bowl [she woke up in the middle of the night as she wanted to hide the bowl before everyone else wakes up in the morning].’

(131)

ʧoraː

saŋ-ʃ-is

ʧʰǝʦ-i

maː-ʦ

ʦeik

luʈjaː~ʈjaː

thief.pl

enter-mdl-pfv

some-emp

neg.aux-hab

all

loot.tr~pfv

‘(The priest’s wife said:) “thieves entered the house. Nothing is there (= left). (They) looted (us).” ’

Finally, the verb forms with the middle marker can also occur in non-final clauses. For example in relative clauses (e.g. gjaː-ʃ-id [want-mdl-hab] ‘(the queen) who is desired)’ and in non-final clauses in a complex construction.

(132)

niʃ -i

ʧʰaŋ-oː

krab-ʃ-o

krab-ʃ-o

ma-han-am

nipi

sunts-jaː-ʃ-o

du-gjo

two-emp

child-pl

cry-mdl-prog

cry-mdl-prog

neg-can-nmlz

after

think-tr-mdl-prog

aux-pst

‘Those two children, sobbing, after not agreeing (to stay behind), were (collectively) thinking’

4.1.3.4 (De)transitivizing Morphology in IA Loanwords

In a subset of IA loanwords, -e/-ed/-en is suffixed to form an intransitive verb and -j/-jaː in the same slot is suffixed to form the corresponding transitive verb.

V (intr)	V (tr)
polʈennu	polʈjaːmu	‘to turn around, to roll’
baːsennu	baːsjaːmu	‘to smell’
paːlennu	paːljaːmu	‘to grow’
bojennu	bojaːmu	‘to float, to blow’
somʣennu	somʣjaːmu	‘to understand’
ʤonlennu	ʤonljaːmu	‘to swing’

Both suffixes are subject to morphophonologically conditioned variation (see Sections 2.3.2 and 4.5.2.4).

4.1.3.4.1 The Transitive Marker -j/-jaː

All Kinnauri disyllabic verb stems with -j/-jaː in the final syllable are transitive verbs.⁷³ The allomorph -j appears before the progressive aspect marker -o (see Section 4.5.2.4), and -jaː occurs in all other contexts. -j/-jaː is suffixed to IA loans and to verbs of unknown etymologies, but never to ST verbs. All the following verbs are of IA origin.

monjaːmu	‘to make someone agree’
pʰuljaːmu	‘to blow (something)’
arjaːmu	‘to call (someone)’
somʣjaːmu	‘to explain (something)’
pʰikjaːmu	‘to throw (something)’
polʈjaːmu	‘to flip over (e.g. bread, quilt)’
ʦʰuʈjaːmu	‘to release (something)’
toljaːmu	‘to weigh (something)’

Once the transitivizer -j/-jaː is affixed to the verb stem, it becomes part of the lexical item, which then undergoes the same processes as a regular lexical verb. As we will see in Section 4.5.2.2, the monosyllablic verb stem is reduplicated in the perfective aspect, if the verb stem does not end in -ʧ or -ʃ. If the verb stem is disyllabic, there is partial reduplication, where only the second syllable is reduplicated. In the perfective form of the verb stems with -j/-jaː, it is the last consonant of the penultimate syllable together with the final syllable (-jaː) which is reduplicated.

V (tr, inf)	V (pfv)
pʰikjaːmu	pʰikjaːkjaː	‘to throw (something)’
ʦʰinjaːmu	ʦʰinjaːnjaː	‘to cut (e.g. vegetables)’
polʈjaːmu	polʈjaːʈjaː	‘to flip over (e.g. bread)’
bodjaːmu	bodjaːdjaː	‘to increase (something countable)’
rokjaːmu	rokjaːkjaː	‘to stop (someone)’
meʈjaːmu	meʈjaːʈjaː	‘to gather (something)’
kuʃjaːmu	kuʃjaːʃjaː	‘to wipe, to sweep (something)’
ʤonljaːmu	ʤonljaːljaː	‘to swing (something)’
ʤekʰjaːmu	ʤekʰjaːkʰjaː	‘to rub (e.g. clothes)’
ʃoʈʰjaːmu	ʃoʈʰjaːʈʰjaː	‘to leave (something)’

4.1.3.4.2 The Intransitive Marker -e/-ed/-en

Disyllabic verb stems with -e/-ed/-en as the final syllable are intransitive verbs in Kinnauri. As was the case with the transitive marker -j/-jaː above, -e/-ed/-en too occurs only with IA loans or verbs of unknown etymology, never with ST verbs. The suffix appears in three different shapes determined by morphophonological context; see Section 2.3.2.

As some of the previous as well as the following examples show, some verbs permit two de-transitivized verb forms, one with the middle marker and another with the intransitive marker -e/-ed/-en.

V (tr)	V (mdl -ʃi)	V (intr -ed)
polʈjaːmu	polʈjaːʃimu	polʈennu	‘to flip’
baːsjaːmu	baːsjaːʃimu	baːsennu	‘to smell’
paːljaːmu	paːljaːʃimu	paːlennu	‘to grow’
ɖubjaːmu	ɖubjaːʃimu	ɖubennu	‘to drown’
somʣjaːmu	somʣjaːʃimu	somʣennu	‘to explain’
sikjaːmu	sikjaːʃimu	sikennu	‘to move’
bodjaːmu	bodjaːʃimu	bodennu	‘to increase’
rokjaːmu	rokjaːʃimu	rukennu	‘to stop’
ʤonljaːmu	ʤonljaːʃimu	ʤonlennu	‘to swing’

In such instances there seems to be some difference in their distribution: -e/-ed/-en occurs with singular subjects, while -ʃi (i.e., -jaː-ʃi), has the interpretation that more than one participant is involved and that they acted collectively:

V (intr -ed)		V (mdl -jaː-ʃi)
polʈennu	‘to turn around, to roll’ (sg)	polʈjaːʃimu	‘to turn around, to roll’ (pl, collectively)
baːsennu	‘to smell’ (sg)	baːsjaːʃimu	‘to smell’ (pl, collectively)
paːlennu	‘to grow’ (sg)	paːljaːʃimu	‘to grow’ (pl, collectively)
bojennu	‘to float, to blow’ (sg)	bojaːʃimu	‘to float, to blow’ (pl, collectively)
rukennu	‘to stop’ (sg)	rokjaːʃimu	‘to stop’ (pl, collectively)
somʣennu	‘to understand’ (sg)	somʣjaːʃimu	‘to understand’ (pl, collectively)
ʤonlennu	‘to swing’ (sg)	ʤonljaːʃimu	‘to swing’ (pl, collectively)

However, as the following examples show, some verbs which take the transitive marker -j/-jaː, do not permit the intransitive marker -e/-ed/-en.

V (tr -jaː)	V (mdl -jaː-ʃi)	V (intr -ed)
ʈ(r)uːtʰjaːmu	ʈ(r)uːtʰjaːʃimu	*ʈ(r)uːtʰennu	‘to squeeze’
ʃoʈʰjaːmu	ʃoʈʰjaːʃimu	*ʃoʈʰennu	‘to leave’
pʰurkjaːmu	pʰurkjaːʃimu	*pʰurkennu	‘to blow’
arjaːmu	arjaːʃimu	*arennu	‘to call’
pʰikjaːmu	pʰikjaːʃimu	*pʰikennu	‘to throw’
ʦʰinjaːmu	ʦʰinjaːʃimu	*ʦʰinennu	‘to cut’
ʤekʰjaːmu	ʤekʰjaːʃimu	*ʤekʰennu	‘to rub’
toljaːmu	toljaːʃimu	*tolennu	‘to weigh’
meʈjaːmu	meʈjaːʃimu	*meʈennu	‘to gather’
kuʃjaːmu	kuʃjaːʃimu	*kuʃennu	‘to wipe/sweep’
meʈjaːmu	meʈjaːʃimu	*meʈennu	‘to gather’

In this set of verbs, as the following examples illustrate, the verb form with the middle marker occurs with singular as well as plural subjects. It is unclear why the -ed verb forms are not permitted with this set of verbs.

(133)

id

kamiːʣ

laːn-is

pʰik-jaː-ʃ-is

du

one

shirt

wind-ins

throw-tr-mdl-pfv

aux.prs

‘One shirt fell down in the wind.’

(134)

ʦeik [ʦei]

kamiːʣ-eː

laːn-is

pʰik-jaː-ʃ-is

du

all

shirt-pl

wind-ins

throw-tr-mdl-pfv

aux.prf

‘All shirts fell down in the wind.’

4.2 Subject Indexing

Both nominative and ergative subject arguments control subject indexing. The subject indexing markers occur in both copula and non-copula constructions. Table 20 presents the subject indexing markers. -oː functions as the plural indexing marker with 2nh and 3h and -suŋ functions as the dual subject indexing marker with 3nh. In natural discourse the plural marker does not occur obligatorily with plural subjects. Similarly, with dual subjects, the plural marker -oː occurs more frequently than the dual indexing marker -suŋ.

Table 20

Subject indexing markers

Person	SG	PL/DU
1	-k	-ʧ (du, ple), -me (pli)
2nh	-n	-n(-oː) (du, pl)
2h	-ɲ	-ʧ (du, pl)
3nh	Ø	Ø (du, pl), -suŋ (du)
3h	-ʃ	-ʃ(-oː) (du, pl)

4.3 “Affected Object” Indexing

The object indexing marker is -ʧ/-ʧi (except with the verbs ‘to give’ and ‘to tell’ where there is a change in the verb form; see below) is suffixed to the verb. When the following suffix begins with a vowel, the -ʧ allomorph appears. The object index occurs with speech act participants in both singular and plural.

The characterization “most affected object” captures the distribution of the “1st/2nd object” index better than simply calling it an “object” marker. -ʧ/-ʧi occurs when a speech act participant is the most affected—zero or dative marked—participant in a clause (finite or non-final). This could be a patient, a recipient, or a beneficiary, including a speech act participant in the “subject” position in dative subject construction (see below). The speech act participant is [-control] in such constructions.

(135)

dok

meː

leg-ʧ-a-k

then

fire

burn-1/2o-fut-1sg

‘I will set you on fire.’

(136)

aŋ-u

ama-boba-s

birmaʧʰosten

rakses-u

dor

ʃe-ʧ-is

1sg-poss

mother-father-erg

i.name

demon-poss

near

send-1/2o-pfv

‘My parents sent me with the demon Birma Chostin,’

(137)

gə

me

ki-n

dokʧ

ral

un-ʧi-mu

to-ʧ-e-k

1sg.nom

yesterday

2sg.h-poss

from

rice

take-1/2o-inf

aux-pst-1sg

‘Yesterday I was (thinking of) taking rice from you.’

The “object” index marker -ʧ/-ʧi, like middle -ʃi, does not assimilate. The exception is a set of verbs where the object index is realized as -ʤ/-ʤi, but never as -ʧ/-ʧi. In my material, this applies to the following verb stems: ʣaː- ‘eat’, gjaː- ‘want’, mjaː- ‘not.want’, kʰo- ‘skin(v)’, and ruŋ- ‘watch’. A few verbs (e.g. pʰjo- ‘take away’, taː- ‘put’) seem to permit both -ʧ/-ʧi and -ʤ/-ʤi as the object marker.

(138)

boba-s

gaːraŋ-u

deŋ-staŋ

kǝr-ʧ-is

kiʃaŋ-u

id-u

nǝŋ

pʰjo-ʧ-is

id-u

ʤaŋ

taː-ʤ-is

dok

kiʃaŋ-u

dobi

bajaːraŋ-is

pal-jaː-ʧ-is

father-erg

river-poss

there-until

bring-1/2o-pfv

1du-poss

one-dat

there

take.away-1/2o-pfv

one-dat

there

put-1/2o-pfv

then

1du-dat

washerman

couple-erg

raise-tr-1/2o-pfv

‘ “(Our) father took us to the river. He took away one of us. The other one was left there. Then the washerman couple raised us two.” ’

(139)

aŋ-u

pʰjo-ʤi-mu

1sg-dat

take.away-1/2o-nmlz

‘While coming to take me,’

The object indexing marker occurs when the speech act participant is the most affected argument in a clause. If the proper conditions are met, both subject indexing and object indexing can occur in the same clause. The object indexing marker occurs before the tense/aspect markers.

(140)

do-s

aŋ

dokʧ

rupja

un-ʧ-e-ʃ

3sg-erg

1sg.nnom

from

money

ask-1/2o-pst-3h

‘S/He then asked me for money.’

(141)

aŋ-u

birma=ʧʰosten

rakses-u

dor

ʃe-ʧ-is

1sg-dat

i.name

demon-poss

near

send-1/2o-pst

‘I was sent with the demon Birma Chosten.’

(142)

do-s

aŋ-u

kamaŋ

rju-ʧ-e

3sg-erg

1sg-dat

work(n)

make.do-1/2o-pst

‘S/He made me do the work.’

(143)

do

raːm-u

kamaŋ

rju-o

3sg

i.name-dat

work(n)

make.do-pst

‘S/He made Ram do the work.’

(144)

maŋ-o

aŋ-u

rakses-is

ʣaː-ʤ-e

dream-loc

1sg-dat

demon-erg

eat-1/2o-pst

‘In the dream the demon ate me.’

(145)

raːm-is

aŋ-u

ʣali

baːt-en-nu

ʃe-ʧ-e

i.name-erg

1sg-dat

lie(n)

talk-intr-inf

send-1/2o-pst

‘Ram made me tell a lie.’

Clauses involving the object indexing marker can have all three persons as their subjects (see examples above and below). The subject indexing marker remains the same (including its placement), as described in Section 4.2.

(146)

aɲaːres-o

raːm-is

aŋ-u

taŋ-ʧ-e-ʃ

darkness-loc

i.name-erg

1sg-dat

observe-1/2o-pst-3h

‘In the darkness Ram saw me.’

(147)

do-s

lo-kjo

“gjaː-ʤ-a-k

gjaː-ʤ-a-k”

3sg-erg

tell-pst

want-1/2o-pst-1sg

want-1/2o-pst-1sg

‘He (= the priest) said: “I want, I want (you as my servant).” ’

Although -ʧi is the default object indexing marker, in the case of the verbs ‘give’ and ‘tell’ there is verb stem suppletion instead. The stem variants kemu [to.give.1/2o]⁷⁴ and rəŋmu [to.tell.1/2o]⁷⁵ occur when the clause has a speech act participant as affected object; the variants rannu ‘to give’ and lonnu ‘to tell’ occur with third person objects. The object indexing marker -ʧ/-ʧi does not occur with these verbs.⁷⁶

(148)

arʤun-is

mohan-u

kǝtab

ran-o-ʃ

i.name-erg

i.name-dat

book

give-pst-3h

‘Arjun gave a book to Mohan.’

(149)

ama-s

aŋ-u

kʰou

ker-o-ʃ

mother-erg

1sg-dat

food

give.1/2o-pst-3h

‘Mother gave me food.’

(150)

ka-s-i

hudu⁷⁷

lo~lo / *rəŋ~rəŋ

2sg.nh-erg-emp

dem.dist.nvis.dat

tell~pfv

‘You (yourself) told (this) to him.’

(151)

raːm-is

ki-nu

rəŋ~rəŋ / *lo~lo

i.name-erg

2sg.h-dat.pl

tell.1/2o~pfv

‘Ram told (this) to you.’

The object index marker is also suffixed to verb stems with the transitive marker -j/-jaː. For example,

(152)

raːm

aŋ-u

id

baːtaŋ

somʣ-jaː-ʧ-e⁷⁸

i.name

1sg-dat

one

talk(n)

understand-tr-1/2o-pst

‘Ram explained me one thing.’

(153)

do-s

aŋ-u

tol-jaː-ʧ-o

to-ʃ

3sg-erg

1sg-dat

weigh-tr-1/2o-prog

aux-3h

‘He is weighing me.’

(154)

ki

aŋ-u

somʣ-jaː-ʧi-ɲ-a

2sg.h

1sg-dat

understand-tr-1/2o-2h-q

‘Will you explain (X) to me?’

The object index marker (or the corresponding suppletive verb stem) also occurs in non-final clauses, nominalized clauses (e.g. ke-ma ‘(if it is) given to me …’ from kemu ‘to give-1/2o’) as well as in finite verbs.

The dative-marked argument in the dative experiencer construction does not control subject indexing (see Section 5.1). If the dative-marked argument is a speech act participant, it triggers object indexing instead, suggesting that it has not yet acquired the full subject status.

(155)

ki-nu

əkʰa

ker-o

du-ge

2sg.h-dat.pl

pain

give.1/2o-prog

aux-pst

‘You were having pain.’

As described in Section 4.2, Kinnauri has -ʧ also as the subject index marker with 1du, 1ple, 2du and 2pl subjects. The subject index marker -ʧ and the object index marker -ʧ/-ʧi occur in two different slots; further, the subject index marker is never realized as -ʤ/-ʤi, which, as shown above, is the case with the 1/2o marker. This is the case in both declarative and imperative clauses.

(156)

ki-s

aŋ

dokʧ

rupja

un-ʧ-e-ʧ

2sg.h.erg

1sg.nnom

from

money

take-1/2o-pst-2du/pl.h

‘You asked me for money.’

(157)

kiʃaŋ-s

ki-n

dokʧ

rupja

un-ʧ-e-ʧ

1du-erg

2sg.h-poss

from

money

take-1/2o-pst-2du/pl.h

‘We (dual) asked you for money.’

(158)

kino-s

aŋ

dokʧ

rupja

un-ʧ-e-ʧ

2pl.h-erg

1sg.nnom

from

money

take-1/2o-pst-2du/pl.h

‘You (hon, pl) asked me for money.’

(159)

hod-e

rǝŋ

aŋ-u

baːt-jaː-ʤi-ri-ʧ

dem.dist.nvis-loc

time

1sg-dat

talk-tr-1/2o-imp-2du/pl.h

‘(When you will get tired,) that time you call me.’

Similarly, the following examples illustrate the difference between the 1/2 affected participant marker -ʧ/-ʧi and the middle marker allomorph -ʧi.

(160)

somsi

sǝr-o

du

morning

raise-prog

aux.prs

‘In the morning (the prince) is raising (the priest from his sleep).’

(161)

nasom

niŋo-nu

le

sǝr-ʧi-ra

tomorrow

1ple-dat.pl

emp

raise-1/2o-imp

‘Tomorrow you should wake me up!’

(162)

ʦʰeʦaʦ-oː

sǝr-ʃ-e

girl-pl

raise-mdl-pst

‘The girls woke up (on their own).’

This category is slightly reminiscent of egophoricity in Tibetic (e.g., in Navakat; see Chapter 3), in that it concerns SAP verb arguments. The similarity ends there, however, since the referent of the object index marker remains the same in declaratives and in interrogatives. The “Object” index (including verb suppletion of ‘give’ and ‘tell’) in Kinnauri occurs everytime we have a speech act participant as the most affected participant (including in the dative subject construction, see below).

And lastly, the deictic center in Kinnauri is broader than in some other ST languages such as Lhasa Tibetan and Ladakhi in that in Kinnauri it includes second person. In Lhasa Tibetan and Ladakhi a distinction is made between first vs. non-first person, while in Kinnauri it is third person vs. non-third person.

4.4 Copula Constructions

to, du and ni function both as equational and existential copulas (glossed here as [cop]).⁷⁹ The copulas to and du occur in non-future tenses, where clauses involving the copula to may occur with all three persons as their subjects; the copula du occurs here only with third person subjects. The copula ni, on the other hand, occurs in all tenses. In the future tense it occurs with all persons, where it takes the tense and subject indexing markers, but in the past and present tenses it occurs only with third person subjects, where it does not take any inflectional ending.

(163)

gǝ

maʃʈor

to-k / *du-k

1sg.nom

teacher

cop.prs-1sg

‘I am a teacher.’

(164)

ka

maʃʈor

to-n / *du-n

2sg.nh

teacher

cop.prs-2sg.nh

‘You are a teacher.’

(165)

kǝtab

dam

to / du / ni

book

good

cop.prs

‘The book is good.’

(166)

id

raʣa

du-gjo

one

king

cop-pst

‘There was a king.’

The distribution of to, du and ni with third person honorific and non-honorific subjects is semantically conditioned. The semantic interpretations of to and du with honorific subjects are different from their interpretations with non-honorific subjects.

We will first consider the semantic interpretations associated with the copulas in clauses involving non-honorific subjects.

to in such constructions indicates that the subject is somehow related to the speaker. This may either be because they are members of the same family or because they are in physical proximity to each other.

du occurs in contexts where the subject does not belong to the speaker and the speaker has no information or knowledge about the subject.

ni occurs where the hearer has some doubts either about the very existence of the subject, or in identifying the subject as either A or B, while the speaker definitely knows the answer (either because they saw it themselves or because they have some way of knowing the truth).

to is used in example (165), when the book either belongs to the speaker or is in their possession; du is used when the book neither belongs to the speaker nor is in their possession; ni is used if the hearer has some doubts concerning the book being good, while the speaker knows that it is good.

The distribution and the semantic interpretations of the copulas (to, du and ni), as described here, remain the same in the past tense.

The choice of the copulas to and du with honorific subjects in the copula constructions is, on the other hand, determined by the animacy of the subject. In non-experiencer subject copula constructions, to-ʃ occurs with animate subjects and du-ʃ occurs with inanimate subjects. The semantic interpretation of ni with honorific subjects remains the same as with non-honorific subjects (see above).

(167)

sudeʃ

ʃare

to-ʃ / *du-ʃ

i.name(f)

beautiful.f

cop-3h

‘Sudesh is beautiful.’

(168)

sudeʃ

ʃare

to-ke-ʃ / *du-ge-ʃ

i.name(f)

beautiful.f

cop-pst-3h

‘Sudesh was beautiful.’

(169)

do-goː-nu

gas-oː

dam

du-ge(-ʃ) / *to-ke(-ʃ)

3-pl-pl.poss

garment-pl

good

cop-pst(-3h)

‘Their clothes were good.’ (With inanimate subjects du is permitted.)

(170)

ki-n

gas-oː

dam

du-ge(-ʃ) / *to-ke(-ʃ)

2h-poss

garment-pl

good

cop-pst(-3h)

‘Your clothes were good.’ (With inanimate subjects du is permitted.)

Tables 21–23 present the Kinnauri copula paradigms in the past, present and future tenses in the declaratives. Here we can see the distribution of the copulas as well as the distribution of the subject indexing markers. As we can see in these paradigms, while the copula du takes the past tense marker -ge and -gjo (du-ge, du-gjo), the other copula to takes the past tense markers -ke and -kjo (to-ke, to-kjo). As we saw in Section 2.3.2 above, the past tense marker -kjo occurs with a sub-set of verbs where the verb-stem historically had a final -d. Since the copula to also takes the past tense marker -kjo, it is possible that the copula to historically had a stem-final -d.

Table 21

Kinnauri copula paradigm (declaratives): Past tense

Person	SG	PL
1	to-ke-k	to-ke-ʧ (du, ple), to-ke-me (pli)
2nh	to-ke-n	to-ke-n(-oː) (du, pl)
2h	to-ke-ɲ	to-ke-ʧ (du, pl)
3nh	to-ke, du-ge, to-kjo, du-gjo	to-ke, du-ge, to-kjo, du-gjo (du, pl)
3h	to-ke-ʃ, du-ge-ʃ	to-ke-ʃ(-oː), du-ge-ʃ(-oː) (du, pl)
3du.h		to-ke-suŋ, du-ge-suŋ (du), ni

Table 22

Kinnauri copula paradigm (declaratives): Present tense

Person	SG	PL
1	to-k	to-ʧ (du, ple), tonne⁸⁰ (pli)
2nh	to-n	to-n(-oː) (du, pl)
2h	to-ɲ	to-ʧ (du, pl)
3nh	to, du, ni	to, du, ni (du, pl)
3h	du-ʃ, to-ʃ, ni	to-ʃ(-oː), du-ʃ(-oː), ni (du, pl)
3du.h		to-suŋ, du-suŋ, ni (du, pl)

Table 23

Kinnauri copula paradigm (declaratives): Future tense

Person	SG	PL
1	ni-tə-k	ni-ti-ʧ (du, ple), ni-te (du, pli)
2nh	ni-tə-n	ni-ta⁸¹-n(oː) (du, pl)
2h	ni-ti-ɲ	ni-ti-ʧ (du, pl)
3nh	ni-to	ni-to(-goː) (du, pl)
3h	ni-ti-ʃ	ni-ti-ʃ(-oː) (du, pl)
3du.h		ni-ti-suŋ (du), ni (du, pl)

Although the occurrence of the copula is not obligatory in declaratives, it occurs rather frequently.

(171)

ʦʰeʦaʦ-u

naːmaŋ

laʈeserzaŋ

girl-poss

name

i.name

‘The girl’s name (was) Latiserzang.’

(172)

toro

ta

ama

dam

to-ʃ

today

foc

mother

good

cop-3h

‘Today mother is (feeling) good.’

While the copula du is not acceptable in declaratives with honorific human subjects, it is permitted in the corresponding interrogative sentences with (honorific) subjects:

(173)

boa

kim-o

to-ʃ / *du-ʃ

father

house-loc

cop-3h

‘Father is at home’ (Both when the speaker has seen him at home and when the speaker draws inference.)

(174)

boa

kim-o

du-a / to-a /

to-ʃ-a / du-ʃ-a

father

house-loc

cop-q

cop-3h-q

‘Is father at home?’

(175)

baːdur

kim-o

du-a / to-a

(Nepali.)farm.hand

house-loc

cop-q

‘Is the Nepali worker at home?’

(176)

ki-n

baja-ʦ

kim-o

du-a / ?to-a /

to-ʃ-a / du-ʃ-a

2sg.h-poss

brother-dim

house-loc

cop-q

cop-3h-q

‘Is your brother at home?’

In possessive constructions while the copula to is preferred with human subjects, the copula du is also acceptable among equals. This happens also with third person honorific subjects.

(177)

aŋ

ʧʰaŋ

dam

to / du /

to-ʃ / du-ʃ

1sg.nnom

child

good

cop.prs

cop.prs-3h

‘My son is good.’

(178)

ki-n

ama-boa

dam

to-ke-ʃ / du-ge-ʃ /

du-ge

2sg.h-poss

mother-father

good

cop-pst-3h

cop-pst

‘Your parents were good.’

(179)

ki-n

ʧaʰŋ-oː

dam

du-ge / to-ke⁸²

2sg.h-poss

child-pl

good

cop-pst

‘Your children are good.’

(180)

do-goː-nu

ʧaʰŋ-oː

dam

to-ke-ʃ / du-ge-ʃ /

to-ke / du-ge

3-pl-pl.poss

child-pl

good

cop-pst-3h

cop-pst

‘Their children are good.’

(181)

ki-n

kui

ruʣa

du / to /

*du-ʃ / *to-ʃ

2sg.h-poss

dog

old

cop.prs

cop.prs-3h

‘Your dog is old.’

Whether the object is honorific or nonhonorific (e.g. difference between a religious book and a fiction book) is not a significant factor in the choice of the copula. As we can see below the copula choice remains the same with both a religious and a non-religious book.

(182)

aŋ

kataːb

dam

to / du /

*to-ʃ * / du-ʃ

1sg.nnom

book

good

cop.prs

cop.prs-3h

‘My book (fiction) is good.’

(183)

aŋ

pothi

dam

du / to /

*to-ʃ * / du-ʃ

1sg.nnom

religious.book

good

cop.prs

cop.prs-3h

‘My religious book is good.’

Similarly, the copula choice is not sensitive to if the information which the listener receives is new to the listener or not.

(184)

aŋ

dəŋ

(hodo)

kitab

to / *du

1sg.nnom

com

(dem.dist.nvis)

book

cop.prs

‘I have that book.’ (This occurs regardless of whether the listener knows which book is being referred to.)

(185)

aŋ

dəŋ

id

kinori

ʃol

to / *du /

*to-ʃ / *du-ʃ

1sg.nnom

com

one

kinnauri

shawl

cop.prs

cop.prs-3h

‘I have a kinnauri shawl.’ (This occurs regardless of whether the listener knows which shawl is being referred to.)

4.5 Non-Copula Constructions

4.5.1 Non-Copula Constructions without Auxiliaries

The indexing markers are already described above. Here we will describe the tense distinction. In this finite verb structure a future and past tense distinction is made. This non-copula construction does not occur in the present tense.⁸³

4.5.1.1 Future Tense

The future tense markers (-a/-ta, -i/-ti, -o/-to) and their distribution here are the same as in the copula constructions (see Tables 23 and 26 above). The future tense marker -a/-ta occurs with 1sg, 2sg.nh and 2pl.nh subjects. -a occurs with verb stems ending in ʧ or ʃ and -ta elsewhere.

(186)

pan-ʦ-i

poʧ-a-k

grinding.stone-dim-emp

search-fut-1sg

‘(I) will search for a grinding.stone.’

(187)

gǝ

ta

ʦeik-u

lo-ta-k

1sg.nom

foc

all-dat

tell-fut-1sg

‘I will tell everyone.’

(188)

ka

ʧʰǝ

gjaː-ta-n

2sg.nh

what

want-fut-2sg.nh

‘What do you want?’

As is the case in the copula construction, the future tense marker -i/-ti occurs, here, too, with 1pl.excl, 2sg.h, 3sg.h and 3pl.h. -i occurs with verb stems ending in -ʧ or ʃ, and -ti elsewhere.

(189)

niŋo

ham

bjo-ti-ʧ

1ple

where

go-fut-2du/pl.h

‘Where will we go?’

(190)

ʤo

ki

ʧʰǝ

baːtaŋ

ʃe-ti-ɲ

dem.prox

2sg.h

what

talk (n)

send-fut-2h

‘What are you saying to her!? (to express astonishment)’

(191)

dogoː⁸⁴

raːʣgadi-u

den

ma-toʃ-i-ʃ

3pl

throne-poss

on

neg-sit-fut-3h

‘He will not sit on the throne.’

(192)

jumed

tʰas-ti-ʃ

mother.in.law

hear-fut-3h

‘(Your) mother-in-law will hear (the noise).’

The future tense marker -o/-to occurs with 3sg.nh and 3pl.nh subjects. -o occurs with verb stems ending in -ʧ or -ʃ and -to elsewhere.

(193)

ŋa

ʧʰoŋ-oː

rǝŋ

ʃadi

haʧ-o

five

husband-pl

com

wedding

become-fut

‘(Dropadi) will marry with five husbands.’

(194)

ʤo-s

kʰou

ke-to

3sg-erg

food

give.1/2o-fut

‘S/He will give (you) food.’

(195)

baniŋ

ʤǝg-to

pot

break-fut

‘The pot will break.’

(196)

baniŋ-oː

ʤǝg-to

pot-pl

break-fut

‘The pots will break.’

In addition, a future marker -e/-te occurs in narrative text with 1du subjects. -e occurs after the middle voice marker -ʃ,⁸⁵ while -te occurs with transitive verb forms. It has a cohortative (‘let’s’) interpretation.⁸⁶

(197)

ʤanekaŋ

bjo-mu

ʈu-jaː-ʃ-e

wedding

go-inf

get.ready-tr-mdl-chrt

‘Let’s get ready for the wedding.’

(198)

ʤanekaŋ

bjo-mu

ʧʰaŋ-u

ʈu-jaː-te

wedding

go-inf

child-dat

get.ready-tr-chrt

‘Let’s get the child ready for the wedding.’

(199)

ʃel-ʃ-e

smear-mdl-chrt

‘Let’s smear oil!’⁸⁷

(200)

tete-pəŋ

telaŋ

ʃel-te

grandfather-dat

oil

smear-chrt

‘Let’s smear some oil on grandfather!’

4.5.1.2 Past Tense

The past tense markers which occur in this finite verb structure are: -ge/-gi/-ke/-ki, -gjo/-kjo, -a/-ja, -gjə, -e, -o and Ø. They are grouped here in three sets: Set 1: -ge/-gi/-ke/-ki, -gjo/-kjo, and Set 2: -o, -a/-ja, -e, Ø and Set 3: -gjə.

Set 1 occurs in both copula and non-copula constructions, where -gjo/-kjo occurs with third person (sg, pl) non-honorific subjects.⁸⁸

The k-initial allomorphs in Set 1 appear after voiceless consonants and also in some other contexts, notably in verbs whose infinitives end in -nnu. For example, bə-kjo, bə-ki-ʃ (bəd-o ‘come-prog’, bənnu ‘to come’), sa-kjo (sad-o [kill-prog], sannu ‘to kill’).

Further, the past tense marker in non-copula constructions is always followed by the honorific marker -ʃ. The forms without the honorific marker are unacceptable (e.g. *lo-ke [say-pst] but lo-ki-ʃ is acceptable, *kar-ge [bring.1/2o-

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About

Chapter 2 A Linguistic Sketch of Kinnauri

1 Introduction

2 Phonology

2.1 Consonants

Table 9

2.1.1 Consonant Allophony and Variation

2.1.2 Syllable Structure and Consonant Clusters

Table 10

2.1.2.1 Word-Initial Clusters

Table 11

2.1.2.2 Word-Final Clusters

Table 12

2.1.3 Geographical Variation in the Consonant System

Table 13

Table 14

Table 15

2.2 Vowels

Table 16

(1)

2.2.1 Vowel Allophony and Variation

Figure 5

Figure 5

Figure 5

2.2.1.1 o : [o] ~ [ɔ]

2.2.1.2 e : [e] ~ [ɛ]

2.2.2 Nasal Vowels

2.3 Morphophonological Stem Alternations

2.3.1 Nominal Morphophonology

2.3.2 Verbal Morphophonology

2.4 Suffix Suppletion

3 Noun Phrase

3.1 Noun Phrase Structure

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

3.2 Nouns

3.2.1 Noun Structure and Word Formation

3.2.1.1 Noun Structure

3.2.1.2 Word Formation of Nouns

3.2.2 Number

(7)

(8)

(9)

3.2.3 Gender

3.2.4 Case

3.2.4.1 Nominative

Table 17

Table 18

3.2.4.2 Ergative/Instrumental

(10)

(11)

(12)

(13)

(14)

(15)

(16)

(17)

(18)

(19)

(20)

3.2.4.3 Dative26

(21)

(22)

(23)

(24)

(25)

3.2.4.4 Possessive

(26)

(27)

3.2.4.5 Locative

(28)

(29)

(30)

(31)

3.2.4.3 Dative²⁶