Hkongso Grammar Sketch

185 Pages·01.361 MB·English

by  Jonathan Michael Wright

Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics
Thesis Approval Sheet
This thesis, entitled
Hkongso Grammar Sketch
written by
Jonathan Michael Wright
and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts
with major in
Applied Linguistics
has been read and approved
by the undersigned members of the faculty
of the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics

_____________________________________________
Dr. Paul R. Kroeger

_____________________________________________
Dr. Michael E. Boutin

_____________________________________________
Dr. J. Fraser Bennett

_____________________________________________
Date signed
Hkongso Grammar Sketch

By
Jonathan Michael Wright

Presented to the Faculty of
the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

Master of Arts
with major in
Applied Linguistics

Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics
June 2009
© 2009 Jonathan Michael Wright
All Rights Reserved
THESIS DUPLICATION RELEASE
I hereby authorize the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics Library to duplicate this
thesis when needed for research and/or scholarship.

Agreed:
ABSTRACT

Hkongso Grammar Sketch

Jonathan Michael Wright
Master of Arts
with major in
Applied Linguistics
The Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics, June 2009

Supervising Professor: Paul R. Kroeger

This thesis presents a descriptive, typological sketch of Hkongso phonology and
grammar. Hkongso is a Tibeto-Burman language in Southern Chin State, Myanmar, and
is spoken northeast of Paletwa along the Paletchaung and Michaung rivers. The Hkongso
population is under 10,000. Hkongso has five contrastive tones, no inflectional
morphology, and very little derivational morphology.
Hkongso is linguistically related to the Anu of Myanmar and the Mru of Bangladesh
but differs grammatically from the Chin languages around it. Hkongso has no classifier
system, no verb stem alternation, and is SVO. Other word order characteristics include
NAdj, RelN, DemN, NNum, AdjDeg, and NegV, which are most similar to the Karen
languages of Myanmar.
Pre-verbal operators include negation and ability. Clause-final operators include
TAM and subject agreement markers. In addition to coordinate and subordinate clauses,
Hkongso also has clause-chaining and serial verb constructions.
Dedicated to the Hkongso people, who have longed for the written word for so many
years.
v i
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Glory and thanks goes first to the creator of all languages.
I would like to thank my advisor Dr. Paul Kroeger for his constant guidance
throughout the process of writing. He mentored me in many ways. He taught me to be
persistent in finding answers and to question everything. His guidance brought about the
confidence in me needed to complete this work.
I count it a privilege to have the guidance of Dr. Michael Boutin. He took the time to
teach me the technical details of writing and his editorial remarks were tremendously
helpful.
I am honored to have Dr. Fraser Bennett direct me in the process. His remarks on
Tibeto-Burman phonology and grammar were essential to helping me grasp what occurs
in Hkongso. I am grateful to have had his input in this paper.
I am indebted to Saya Kyaw Kyaw. His brilliance as a language associate was
indispensable. Without him I would not have been able to complete this paper. I count it a
great honor to know him and be considered his friend.
Finally, I would like to thank my family for being there for me throughout this
process. My wife, Erin, was a continual source of encouragement. She believed in me at
times when I did not believe in myself. Thank you.

[February 4, 2009]
vi i
TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT..............................................................................................................................................V
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.......................................................................................................................VII
LIST OF TABLES.........................................................................................................................................X
LIST OF FIGURES.......................................................................................................................................XI
LIST OF MAPS...........................................................................................................................................XII
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.........................................................................................................................XIII
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................1
1.1 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY.........................................................................................................1
1.2 PROCEDURE OF THE STUDY...........................................................................................................1
1.3 LITERATURE REVIEW....................................................................................................................3
1.4 THE HKONGSO PEOPLE..................................................................................................................5
CHAPTER 2: PHONOLOGY AND MORPHOLOGY...........................................................................12
2.1 SYLLABLES.................................................................................................................................12
2.2 PHONEMES..................................................................................................................................17
2.3 PROSODIC FEATURES...................................................................................................................29
2.4 MORPHOLOGY.............................................................................................................................30
CHAPTER 3: NOUN PHRASES...............................................................................................................34
3.1 STRUCTURE AND ORDER OF CONSTITUENTS................................................................................34
3.2 NOUN PHRASE COORDINATION....................................................................................................39
3.3 POSSESSION................................................................................................................................42
3.4 QUANTIFICATION........................................................................................................................43
CHAPTER 4: CLAUSE STRUCTURE....................................................................................................49
4.1 BASIC ORDER OF CLAUSE CONSTITUENTS....................................................................................49
4.2 GRAMMATICAL CASE..................................................................................................................53
4.3 POSTPOSITIONAL PHRASES..........................................................................................................58
4.4 TOPIC..........................................................................................................................................67
4.5 CLAUSE CONSTITUENT MARKING................................................................................................69
4.6 WORD ORDER CHARACTERISTICS OF HKONGSO..........................................................................70
CHAPTER 5: PRE-VERBAL AND CLAUSE-FINAL OPERATORS..................................................77
5.1 STRUCTURE.................................................................................................................................77
5.2 PRE-VERBAL OPERATORS............................................................................................................78
5.3 CLAUSE-FINAL OPERATORS.........................................................................................................81
CHAPTER 6: NON-VERBAL PREDICATES.........................................................................................99
CHAPTER 7: WORD CLASSES.............................................................................................................104
7.1 NOUN........................................................................................................................................104
7.2 NOUN PHRASES.........................................................................................................................110
7.3 VERB.........................................................................................................................................113
7.4 ADJECTIVE................................................................................................................................114
7.5 ADVERB....................................................................................................................................119
CHAPTER 8: SENTENCE TYPES.........................................................................................................121
8.1 STATEMENTS (DECLARATIVE)...................................................................................................121
vi ii
8.2 QUESTIONS (INTERROGATIVE)..................................................................................................122
8.3 COMMANDS (IMPERATIVE)........................................................................................................127
8.4 ILLOCUTIONARY FORCE............................................................................................................128
8.5 QUOTE STRUCTURE...................................................................................................................129
CHAPTER 9: CLAUSE COMBINATIONS...........................................................................................132
9.1 COORDINATION.........................................................................................................................134
9.2 SUBORDINATION.......................................................................................................................137
9.3 MEDIAL CLAUSES.....................................................................................................................151
9.4 SERIAL VERB CONSTRUCTIONS..................................................................................................157
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................165
VITA...........................................................................................................................................................169
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Major syllable structure......................................................................................13
Table 2: Minor syllables in polysyllabic words................................................................14
Table 3: The semivowel /w/.............................................................................................15
Table 4: The semivowel /j/...............................................................................................16
Table 5: Consonant phonemes..........................................................................................18
Table 6: Prenasalization....................................................................................................25
Table 7: Homorganic prenasals........................................................................................25
Table 8: Consonant distribution........................................................................................26
Table 9: Vowel Phonemes................................................................................................27
Table 10: Vocoid sequences.............................................................................................27
Table 11: Tones.................................................................................................................29
Table 12: Noun phrase structure.......................................................................................34
Table 13: Subject agreement markers...............................................................................55
Table 14: Postpositions.....................................................................................................66
Table 15: NP markers.......................................................................................................70
Table16: Pre-verbal operators...........................................................................................77
Table 17: Clause-final operators.......................................................................................78
Table 18: Negation............................................................................................................78
Table 19: Clause-final operators.......................................................................................81
Table 20: Aspectual auxiliaries.........................................................................................87
Table 21: Modality............................................................................................................91
Table 22: Tense.................................................................................................................92
Table 23: Mood.................................................................................................................97
Table 24: Pronouns.........................................................................................................112
Table 25: Pre-verbal operators........................................................................................113
Table 26: Question words...............................................................................................124
Table 27: Coordinators...................................................................................................137
Table 28: Adverbial subordinating conjunctions............................................................142
Table 29: Medial clause conjunctions.............................................................................157
x