A Grammar of Nuosu.

Acknowledgement; Preface; List of Tables; Abbreviations; 1 The people and their environment; 1.1 Nuosu history; 1.2 Nuosu society; 1.3 Nuosu culture and religion; 2 Language background; 2.1 Genetic affiliation of Nuosu; 2.2 Nuosu and its dialects; 2.3 Literature survey on Nuosu; 2.4 Typological profile of Nuosu; 2.4.1 Phonology; 2.4.2 Morphology; 2.4.3 Syntax; 2.4.4 Pragmatics; 3 Phonology; 3.1 Sounds and tones; 3.1.1 Consonants; A. Stops; B. Fricatives; C. Affricates; D. Nasals and laterals; 3.1.2 Vowels; 3.1.3 Tones; 3.2 Phonological processes; 3.2.1 Creaky voice; 3.2.2 Tone sandhi.

3.2.3 Syllable structure3.3 The logographic script; 3.3.1 Introduction; 3.3.2 Nuosu syllabary; 4 Word structure; 4.1 Word categories; 4.1.1 Open categories; 4.1.2 Closed and semi-closed categories; 4.2 Affixation; 4.2.1 Inventory of prefixes; A. Size prefixes; B. Fruit prefix syp-; C. gga- 'road'; D. co- 'person' (also as free morpheme); E. ddop- 'word'; F. hxie- 'heart'; G. ke- 'mouth'; H. mu- 'place, sky, steam'; I. o- 'head'; 4.2.2 Inventory of suffixes; A. Nominalizer suffixes; B. Gender/age suffixes; C. Adjectivizer suffixes; 4.3 Reduplication; 4.3.1 Nouns; 4.3.2 Classifiers.

4.3.3 Personal pronouns4.3.4 Verbs; 4.3.5 Adjectives; 4.3.6 Colour ideophones; 4.3.7 Idioms; AABB; ABAB; ABCB; ABAC; ABCD; 4.4 Compounding; 4.4.1 Nominal compounds; A and B are unrelated in meaning; A and B are figuratively related; A and B are parallel; A is the material of which B is made; B denotes a part of A; A is the producer of B; A is processed into B; A describes the kind or nature of B; B is a unit of A; A denotes the body part on which B is worn; B is a piece of equipment used in a means of transport, A; B denotes the dwelling or storing place of A.

A denotes the body part of disease BB is a representative symbol for A; A denotes the sign in Chinese zodiac for time unit B; 4.4.2 Verbal compounds; A and B are unrelated; A and B are antonymic; A and B are parallel; B denotes resultative state of A; 4.4.3 Mixed compounds; A is noun and B is verb; A is noun and B is classifier; A is verb and B is classifier; 5 The noun phrase; 5.1 Introduction; 5.1.1 Constructions of the noun phrase; 5.1.2 The order of components in the noun phrase; 5.2 Qualifying nouns; 5.2.1 Noun classifiers; A. Animate sortal classifiers; B. Inanimate sortal classifiers.

C. Diverse small-range sortal classifiersD. Mixed nominal and verbal classifiers; E. Collectivizers; F. Partitioners and subclassifiers; G. Measure Words; H. Auto-classifiers; 5.2.2 Possession; 5.2.3 Adjectival modification; 5.2.4 Nominalization; A. The nominalizer su; B. The nominalizers ddu and dde; C. Appendix: The particle su; 5.3 Quantifying nouns; 5.3.1 Numerals; A. Cardinal numbers; B. Ordinal numbers; 5.3.2 Noun quantifiers; A. The quantifier mu 'whole/all'; B. The quantifier zzix ap zzi 'every'; C. The quantifier kep nyix 'several'; D. The quantifier ax pa 'other'

E. The quantifiers ax nyi 'much' / ix nyi 'few'

This is the first modern grammar of Nuosu written in English. Nuosu belongs to a little known section of Tibeto-Burman. The 2.5 Million ethnic Nuosu are part of the Yi nationality and live in Sichuan (China). This grammar informs Tibeto-Burman linguists, typologists, scholars of language contact and foreign learners of Nuosu.

Print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

In English.

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