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Himalayan Linguistics

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Verb inflection in Muklom Tangsa

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Himalayan Linguistics, 18(1)

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Mulder, Mijke

Publication Date
2019

DOI
10.5070/H918142978

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Himalayan Linguistics

Verb inflection in Muklom Tangsa

Mijke Mulder
La Trobe University, Melbourne

ABSTRACT
Muklom Tangsa is a Tibeto-Burman language variety with rich verb inflection that exhibits hierarchical
indexing and a non-canonical inverse system. Indexes will align with S, A, P, or R arguments, depending
on the configuration, but not with the T argument. Inverse marking is triggered by high-ranked P
arguments, i.e. the speech act participant (SAP) P, but also by SAP R and even SAP possessors. Based on
primary data, this chapter provides an overview of verb inflection in Muklom and introduces the personal
pronoun paradigm and possessive determiner paradigm.

KEYWORDS
Tibeto-Burman, Tangsa, Muklom, hierarchical indexing, inverse

This is a contribution from Himalayan Linguistics, Vol. 18(1):214-245.

ISSN 1544-7502
© 2019. All rights reserved.

This Portable Document Format (PDF) file may not be altered in any way.

Tables of contents, abstracts, and submission guidelines are available at

[Link]/uc/himalayanlinguistics
Himalayan Linguistics, Vol. 18(1). © Himalayan Linguistics 2019
ISSN 1544-7502

Verb inflection in Muklom Tangsa1

Mijke Mulder
La Trobe University, Melbourne

1 Introduction
The Muklom people are located in the Southeast of Arunachal Pradesh in India, dwelling in
two clusters of villages in the Changlang District. The oldest group of settlements lies near the district
capital in the Patkai hill range, Changlang Town. From this older cluster, settlers went down and
cleared patches of jungle to found new villages and create fields for growing crops in the plains area
near Kharsang Town, approximately fifty years ago. The people refer to themselves as [muk̚0 lɔm2]
and to their language, which belongs to the Tibeto-Burman family, as [muk̚0 lɔm2 ɹa4] ‘Muklom
speech’. The number of speakers is estimated at a few thousand. While the language is still being
transmitted to the youngest generation, some (mixed) households are switching to Assamese, the
regional lingua franca. The Muklom language has borrowed extensively from this Indo-Aryan
language. Considering the relatively low number of speakers and the growing influence of Assamese
on the language, Muklom must be counted among the many endangered languages of Northeast
India.
As the title of this chapter indicates, the Muklom are part of a larger ethno-cultural group
called Tangsa. People will refer to Tangsa in English as their ‘tribe’. The Tangsa region spans the
India-Myanmar border, but the Muklom reside only on the Indian side. The name Tangsa has been
adopted by scholars as a linguistic unit, which has proven to be quite diverse: Morey (2014b: 63; 2017)
estimates there are approximately 70-80 Tangsa 2 subtribes on both sides of the India-Myanmar
border, each with their own language variety. Sometimes these varieties are mutually intelligible, but
often they are not. Much remains to be done to create a clearer picture of the internal classification
of Tangsa and to determine whether the label Tangsa is even valid as linguistic subgroup, but
fortunately our knowledge of Tangsa varieties has been steadily increasing since the commencement
of the DoBeS project on Tangsa, Tai and Singpho in Northeast India in 2007, directed by Stephen

1
The research on which this chapter is based has been made possible by funds from La Trobe University, Melbourne,
Australia (scholarships LTUPRS and LTUFFRS, grants from HuSS IRGS). This study would not have been possible
without the help and hospitality of many Muklom consultants, mainly from Kuttom, New Chingsa and Kharsang
Town, but also from New Janman and New Khimyong. For help with both verb agreement elicitation and tone
determination, I would like to thank Ms Tchithan Techi and Mr Nongmai Changmi who contributed many hours of
hard work, and I thank also i3 βʌŋ2 Mr Ngulang Changmi, Ms Sunumi Changmi, Mr Phanglong Sajung, Mr Chupan
Changmi, Mr Munkap Khimhun, Mr Munson Khimhun, and Ms Nginnem Changmi. I am grateful to Stephen
Morey, Lauren Gawne, Linda Konnerth and an anonymous reviewer for their comments on this chapter.
2
This includes ‘Tangshang’, see discussion below.
Part II: Tangsa (Northern Naga) Mulder: Verb inflection in Muklom Tangsa

Morey, and the start of language surveys around the same time in Myanmar by the Linguistic Society
Naga Survey Team in cooperation with SIL International (Statezni 2013: 25).
The name Tangsa has been around for a relatively short time span. ‘Tangsa’ was coined by
Indian official Bipin Borgohain (foreword in Barua 1991: vii), who stated that Tang stands for
‘mountain’ and sa means ‘person’. It is unclear from which Tangsa variety he has taken these words.
He refers to the community which he consulted as ‘the tribe’ without specifying their village location
or clan name. Two alternative names exist for this ethno-linguistic group. The first is ‘Tangshang’, a
label that was coined even more recently by the Tangshang Central Culture and Literature
Committee in Nanyun, Myanmar, in 2003. Interestingly, this term is not cognate with the Borgohain’s
Tangsa, but derives from the names of two ancestors in local oral history, the brothers Tangnyu Wang
and Shangnyu Wang3 (Statezni 2013: 5). Currently, Tangsa remains in use in India, and Tangshang
in Myanmar. Ethnologue previously employed yet another label, ‘Tase’, or fully ‘Tase Naga’ (ISO
639-3:nst; Simons and Fennig 2017). However, they have recently switched to ‘Tangsang’ or
‘Tangshang Naga’ (Simons and Fennig 2018).4 The first, ‘Tase’, represents the pronunciation of the
cognate word for ‘Tangsa’ in the Chamchang language variety.
It is important to note that the scope of Tangshang differs significantly from that of Tangsa.
The label Tangshang in Myanmar includes Nocte, Wancho and Tutsa, while in India each of these is
considered a separate group from Tangsa (Statezni 2013: 7). It may be worth noting that of these,
Nocte is suggested as the closest linguistic relative of Tangsa (e.g. Shafer 1953: 228, French 1983: 726,
Burling 1983: 17, Bradley 1997: 21, and Burling 2003: 175). In fact, some language varieties in India
are sub-grouped either as Tangsa or Nocte, depending on the geographical location of its speakers,
rather than based on linguistic grounds. For example, the language of Hakhun and Phong/Phontai
speakers is called Tangsa when they dwell within Tangsa territory in Changlang District or in Assam,
but Nocte when they live in Nocte territory, in the Tirap District of Arunachal (Morey 2017; Dutta
2019). Prior to the coining of the three umbrella terms Tangsa/Tase/Tangshang, the subgroups were
referred to by their subtribe names, with the possible addition of ‘Naga’. Throughout this chapter, the
term Tangsa will be used to refer both to Tangsa and Tangshang, since the Muklom variety, which is
the topic of discussion here, is spoken exclusively within India, where Tangsa is the standard label.
In classifications of the Tibeto-Burman languages of Northeast India, Tangsa has been
subsumed under Northern Naga or Konyak, which together with Boro-Garo and Jingpho forms a
higher subgroup called Sal (e.g. Shafer 1955, Benedict 1972, French 1983, Bradley 1997, Burling
2003, Blench and Post 2015). Linguistic grouping is a topic that still requires much more research,
with a basis of detailed descriptions of the individual language varieties. Published original literature
on Muklom Tangsa remains extremely limited. Morey (2014a: 667; 2015: passim; 2016; 2017), was
the first to carry out fieldwork and analysis based on modern linguistic theory, and there is more work
underway by the author of this chapter, who is carrying out a PhD project focussed exclusively on the
Muklom language variety, and by Kellen P. van Dam who is carrying out a PhD project on tone
systems across Tangsa varieties.5 The earlier, pre-modern linguistics, sources on Muklom Tangsa are:
1) a sixty-six-page description of Muklom including remarks on grammar, phrases with English

3
Wang means ‘king’ or ‘chief’.
4
Information about Tangsa varieties in India from this edition of Ethnologue should be treated carefully, as
information from any source perhaps, since the data presented are limited. Also, some statements are clearly incorrect.
For example, the claim that ‘Kimsing dialect speakers can understand all dialects well’ is far from linguistic reality.
5
Stephen D. Morey is supervising both PhD projects.

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translation and a Muklom-English wordlist by the Language Officer of Changlang in Arunachal

Pradesh, Ngemu (1977), 2) a six-page language sketch by the Director of Research in Arunachal
Pradesh, Das Gupta (1980), and 3) a thirteen-page wordlist by Bandyopadhyay (1989). The language
variety that is being discussed in this chapter is in older sources usually referred to as ‘Moklum’ (e.g.
Das Gupta 1980), but ‘Muklom’ is also found. The latter spelling is preferable, since it reflects native
pronunciation of the name of the subtribe and its language better.
The Muklom language variety exhibits a rich system of verb inflection. Although earlier it
was assumed that all Tangsa varieties had person indexing (Morey 2011a: 98), with the continued
ingathering of new data, it was discovered that a minority, at least three varieties, lack person indexing
entirely. These three varieties are Champang, Pinkhu and Yasawa (Morey 2015: 32). Remarkably, the
closest relative of Champang, Haqchum, does exhibit person indexing. This is a good illustration of
the stunning diversity within the Tangsa ‘language’. Muklom aligns with the majority of Tangsa
varieties in that it does show indexing.
This chapter starts off with a discussion of the personal pronoun paradigm (section 2.1) and
the possessive determiner paradigm (section 2.2), followed by a discussion of equational sentences
(section 3). Its core consists of a description of the verb system of Muklom Tangsa (section 4). This
description builds further on the discussion of the Muklom verb that can be found in Mulder (2018).
Transcriptions are broad, i.e. phonemic, and presented in IPA characters. Superscript numbers
represent tone categories: 1 is a mid-low falling creaky tone, 2 is a high-mid rising-falling or delayed
falling tone, 3 is a mid-level breathy tone, 4 is a glottalized tone, and 0 indicates a toneless syllable.
Each example is accompanied by a reference code to the source. A code with a date in it, such as
(20121105_04), refers to a recording made in the field by the author or by Stephen Morey. A code
starting with the letter S or B refers to utterances recorded in the field in a paper notebook by the
author. Finally, a code starting with ‘MessageExtracts’ refers to forms which were presented by native
speakers through Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp in chat sessions about Muklom grammar. The
field recordings are being prepared to be made available on an online archive platform in the future.

2 Personal pronouns and possessive determiners

This section deals with the personal pronoun paradigm and the possessive determiner
paradigm, which are part of the survey designed by the editors of this volume. As will be discussed,
the two paradigms show a high degree in overlap with respect to form. With respect to function,
however, there is a major distinction between the two. While the personal pronoun functions as head
of the NP and can potentially replace a full NP, the possessive determiner modifies the head of an
NP and cannot replace a full NP, hence the latter is referred to as a determiner rather than a pronoun.

2.1 Personal pronouns

The personal pronoun system is presented in Table 1. The personal pronoun forms in the dual
and trial columns are fairly transparent compound forms: the plural form in the last column forms
the base for the dual and trial forms, to which the adjectival numeral two, ni3, or three, tɔm2 is added.
The only form that is not entirely predictable, is the first person dual inclusive hi4 ni3, because it drops
the syllable tʌŋ2 of the plural.

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PERSON SG DU TRL PL
1EX ŋa1 i2 ni3 i2 tɔm2 i2
1IN hi4 ni3 hi4 tʌŋ2 tɔm2 hi4 tʌŋ2
2 nʌŋ1 nɨm1 ni3 nɨm1 tɔm2 nɨm1
3 pi4 nɨŋ2 ni3 nɨŋ2 tɔm2 nɨŋ2

Table 1 Muklom personal pronouns

In the first person plural inclusive hi4 tʌŋ2, the plural element tʌŋ2 cannot be left out. In the
other plural personal pronouns, tʌŋ² is normally absent, as is exemplified by sentence (1), which
contains the plural personal pronoun i2 ‘we’ but no plural marker tʌŋ2. However, the speaker can add
a plural marker if she wishes to emphasize that the referents form a group or that all of them are
involved. Hence, when prompted to translate ‘we all’ ‘you all’ and ‘they all’, consultants sometimes
reply with forms containing tʌŋ2 as in (2)-(4).

(1) i2 ɛ3 tɨl2 sa4 m-i1.

1EX ERG rice [Link] NEG-1PL
‘We do not eat rice.’ (20100124-112046)

(2) i2 tʌŋ2.
1EX PL
‘We all.’ (20121105_04)

(3) nɨm1 tʌŋ2.

2PL PL
‘You(pl) all.’ (20100124-103507)

(4) nɨŋ2 tʌŋ2.

3PL PL
‘They all.’ (20170224_01)

The morpheme tʌŋ2 that functions as a plural or collective marker appears not only in the
realm of the personal pronoun and possessive determiner but can also function as a modifier of
common nouns, as is exemplified in (5), where the marker tʌŋ2 modifies the noun mɨk0 ‘eye’. Plurality
is optionally marked on nouns; a plural referent does not always need to be marked as such, as is
illustrated by example (6), in which mɨk0 has a plural meaning ‘eyes’ but is not explicitly marked as
plural. This sentence is taken from the same terrifying story as (5), about a woman who had a taste
for eyes. We can be sure that she would not have settled for less than both of her husband’s eyes. This
narrative is part of the Run Hun (ɹun3 hun2) cycle, a collection of stories traditionally sung during the
Muklom Mol (mɔl2) festival, which takes place annually in the month of May.

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(5) u3 sa1 mɨk0 tʌŋ2 tʰ-a2 tʰun3 lʌt0

[Link] child eye PL DEF-ABS finish [Link]
pʰʌk0 tɕʌk0.
[Link] PRF
‘She had finished pulling out and eating the eyes of her child.’ (20151208_05)

(6) u3 hɨm2 te2 βa1 mɨk0 tʰ-a2 tat0 lʌt0

[Link] house person M eye DEF-ABS try [Link]
t-a1 ti3.
PST-3 REP
‘She tried to pull the eyes of her husband out.’ (20151208_05)

2.2 Possessive determiners

The possessive determiner precedes the head noun that it modifies, as exemplified in example
(7). Table 2 presents its full paradigm. The carrier phrase used to elicit the possessive pronoun forms
presented in Table 2 is {[Link]} hɨm² ‘{[Link]} house’. The possessive paradigm overlaps
largely with the personal pronoun forms in Table 1, with a few differences that are confined to the
singular column, namely the following three suppletive forms: 1) the first person possessive
determiner is i3 ‘my’ instead of the pronoun form ŋa1 ‘I’, 2) the second person is ba3 ‘your’ instead of
the pronoun form nʌŋ1 ‘you’, and 3) the third person is pi4 or u3 ‘her/his/its’ while in the personal
pronoun paradigm, only has the option pi4 ‘she/he/it’.

(7) hi4 tʌŋ2 tɨn1 ʌ0 tal3.

[Link] heart and mind
‘Our hearts and minds.’ (20170122_03)

PERSON SG DU TRL PL
1EX i 3
i ni
2 3
i tɔm
2 2
i
2

1IN hi4 ni3 hi4 tʌŋ2 tɔm2 hi4 tʌŋ2

2 ba3 nɨm1 ni3 nɨm1 tɔm2 nɨm1
3 u3 ~ pi4 nɨŋ2 ni3 nɨŋ2 tɔm2 nɨŋ2

Table 2 Muklom possessive pronouns

Like the personal pronoun paradigm, the forms in the dual and trial columns are again almost
entirely predictable: the plural form (last column) forms the base for the dual and trial, except with
the first person dual inclusive hi4 ni3 ‘the two of us’, which drops the syllable tʌŋ2 of the plural. Also,
the first person plural inclusive possessive pronoun requires the plural element tʌŋ2 in the first person
plural inclusive, it cannot be left out. This is demonstrated by the expression in (8) which was deemed
ungrammatical by the consultant, as an invalid translation of ‘our house’.

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(8) *hi4 hɨm2.

- house
Intended: ‘Our house.’ (20170224_01)

3 Equational sentences
Muklom has a split system for equational sentences, in the sense that some sentences require
the presence of an equational copula, while others do not. The equational copula is a light verb which
is marked for person and number in the same way as other intransitive verbs and they are therefore
discussed under the intransitive verb in section 4.2. The current section will be confined to the
discussion of sentences which do not require the presence of a light verb: present tense affirmative
equational sentences. Two examples of equational sentences without a light verb are provided in (9)
and (10).

(9) nɨŋ2 ɹ-a2 muk0 lɔm2.

3PL PROX-ABS Muklom
‘They are Muklom.’ (MessagesExtracts_2017)

(10) mi3ka3 n-a2 nɛdɛɹlɛnd te2 nu1 bɔ3.

Mika MED-ABS [Link] person F indeed
‘Mika is indeed Dutch.’ (B1.58)

Past and future tense and negated equational sentences must take a light verb. These three
grammatical categories are overtly marked, but affirmative and present tense are not. Hence, we can
state that overtly marked polarity and tense require the presence of a light verb, while non-overtly
marked polarity and tense do not.
In example sentences (9) and (10), the first NP is marked with absolutive case. In Muklom,
absolutive case is differential, i.e. patient-like arguments can either be marked with absolutive case or
remain unmarked for case. It seems that in equational sentences, however, absolutive marking always
needs to be present on the first NP. This is demonstrated by the following examples of ungrammatical
sentences, (11)-(13). Consultants indicate that ‘something is missing’ in these sentences. The missing
element is the absolutive marker.

(11) *ŋa1 Ø muk0 lɔm2.

1SG Ø Muklom
Intended: ‘I am Muklom.’ (MessagesExtracts_2017)

(12) *pi4 Ø muk0 lɔm2.

3SG Muklom
Intended: ‘He is Muklom.’ (MessagesExtracts_2017)

(13) *e2 ʃi3 mɛŋ2 ʃi3 Ø ʌ0-puŋ2.

[Link] DIST cat DIST Ø NMLZ-white
Intended: ‘That cat is white.’ (B1.73)

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The last sentence can be turned grammatical by adding an absolutive marker a2 to the second
demonstrative determiner ʃi3 ‘that’, as demonstrated in (14). When a demonstrative and case marker
combine, the final vowel of the demonstrative is elided and the syllable retains the tone of the case
marker, so ʃi3 + a2 makes ʃa2.

(14) e2 ʃi3 mɛŋ2 ʃ-a2 ʌ0-puŋ2.

[Link] DIST cat DIST-ABS NMLZ-white
‘That cat is white.’ (B1.73)

Can we call present affirmative equational sentences such as (14) zero-copula constructions?
They indeed do not contain a copula. However, they do contain a linker between the first NP and
the predicate nominal, which in intransitive clauses can be left out without any problem on the single
argument of the clause: the absolutive marker. Perhaps not only demonstratives or personal pronouns
can function as a so-called pro-copula (Stassen 2013), but also differential case markers such as the
Muklom absolutive a2.

4 Verbs
This section discusses the inflection of the verb, in order of increasing valency: intransitives
in section 4.1 and 4.2, transitives in section 4.3, and ditransitives in section 4.4. Since the transitive
and ditransitive paradigms are morphologically complex, and the tables very large, these are presented
in the appendix. However, the intransitive verbs, which are much shorter in length, easily fit into
tables and are presented in the body of this chapter, in section 4.1 below.

4.1 Intransitive main verbs

Table 3 presents an overview of the different forms of the person indexes found in the
intransitive paradigm, with sigma (Σ) representing the verb stem slot. Person is always encoded in the
index, but number distinctions are made only in the first and second person, a pattern which is
common in Tibeto-Burman. In other words, the third person is always marked by a1~a3~ɔ4, not matter
whether the referent is a single entity, or a group of two, three or more. Dual and trial marking are
even more restricted, occurring only in the second person.
Present tense is not overtly marked, but future is overtly marked by means of the prefix n- that
attaches to the following person index and past tense is marked by the prefix t-. The negator m- and
dual number marker ʃ- are prefixed to the person index in similar manner. Dual forms take two
indexes. The inflection of dual forms will be discussed in more detail in the text below. The trial form
tɔm2, on the other hand, is an unbound morpheme.

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PERSON PRS FUT PST NEG

1SG Σ ʌŋ3 Σ n-ʌŋ3 Σ t-ʌŋ1 Σ m-ɔŋ1
1PL Σ i3 Σ n-i3 Σ t-i1 Σ m-i1
2SG Σ u3 Σ n-u3 Σ t-u1 Σ m-u1
2DU Σ ʃ-ɨn2 Σ ʃ-ɨn2 n-ɨn3 Σ ʃ-ɨn2 t-ɨn1 Σ ʃ-ɨn2 m-ɨn1
2TRL Σ tɔm2 ɨn2 Σ tɔm2 n-ɨn3 Σ tɔm2 t-ɨn1 Σ tɔm2 m-ɨn1
2PL Σ ɨn2 Σ n-ɨn3 Σ t-ɨn1 Σ m-ɨn1
3 Σ a3 Σ n-a3 Σ t-a1 Σ m-ɔ4

Table 3 Intransitive person indexes

Table 3 shows that the phonological form of the indexes differs slightly between tenses and
between affirmative and negative. Some Tangsa varieties exhibit two sets of indexes, one with plosive
codas and one with nasal or no codas (Morey 2015: 33, current volume). The Muklom person indexes
do not show a division based on the coda, but we can group indexes according to the tone they carry:
present and future tense mostly carry third tone, while past tense and the negated verb mostly carry
first tone. The odd ones out with respect to tone marking in Table 3 are 2PL index ɨn2 and on the third
person index ɔ4. These are definitely deviant forms: it has been confirmed with different consultants
that the present tense 2PL index carries second tone and not the expected third tone, and that the
third person negative carries fourth tone and not the expected first tone. Past and negative indexes
cluster together not only in Muklom, but also in some other Tangsa varieties. Morey (2016: 2, current
volume) reports that out of a sample of 25 Tangsa varieties, six have similar indexes (with a plosive
coda) for the past and negative paradigms, as opposed to the future paradigm: Ngaimong, Joglei,
Muishaung, Mungre, Haqchum, and Hakhun. In the same sample of 25 Tangsa varieties, we see that
some associate past and negative with first tone, though the number of varieties that exhibit third
tone in these paradigms is higher. Future tense is more often associated with second tone, though
some future indexes in the sample do carry third tone. Morey (2016) does not present tense paradigms,
as this tense involves non-cognate constructions across Tangsa varieties (Morey, p.c.), so we will not
compare present tense paradigms here.
Table 3 also shows the occurrence of two vowel changes under the influence of the negator
m-: ʌ  ɔ in the first person singular index, as illustrated by (15) and (16), and a  ɔ the third person
index, exemplified by (17) and (18).

(15) pi4 a3 tɨl2 sa4 a3 .

3SG ERG rice [Link] 3
‘He eats rice.’ (20121103_04)

(16) pi4 a3 tɨl2 sa4 m-ɔ4.

3SG ERG rice [Link] NEG-3
‘He does not eat rice.’ (20121103_04)

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(17) ŋa1 a3 tɨl2 sa4 ʌŋ3.

1SG ERG rice [Link] 1SG
‘I eat rice.’ (2009Tascam-001)

(18) ŋa1 a3 tɨl2 sa4 m-ɔŋ1.

1SG ERG rice [Link] NEG-1SG
‘I do not eat rice.’ (20100124-112656)

Complete intransitive paradigms were collected for the verbs u0kat0 ‘to go’6 and u0ʝɨp0 ‘to sleep’.
Since the paradigms of the two verbs are identical, only one of the two is presented in tables in this
section, the verb ʝɨp0 ‘sleep’, but example phrases of both verbs are discussed in the text.
Table 4 shows the present tense forms of ʝɨp0 ‘sleep’. All person indexes carry third tone, except
for the second person plural, which carries second tone. It should be pointed out that there is no
distinction between exclusive and inclusive in person marking like there is in the pronoun paradigms.
There is also no distinction between third person singular and plural as there is in the pronoun
paradigms.

PERSON SG DU TRL PL
1 ʝɨp ʌŋ
0 3
ʝɨp i
0 3
ʝɨp i
0 3
ʝɨp i
0 3

2 ʝɨp0 u3 ʝɨp0 ʃ-ɨn2 ʝɨp0 tɔm2 ɨn2 ʝɨp0 ɨn2

3 ʝɨp0 a3 ʝɨp0 a3 ʝɨp0 a3 ʝɨp0 a3

Table 4 Present affirmative paradigm for ʝɨp0 ‘sleep’

Trial marking can be replaced by plural forms without affecting grammaticality, and for some
speakers the same applies to the dual. Some consultants have claimed, however, that while it is
acceptable to trade trial marking for plural marking when addressing a group of three, the dual must
always be used when addressing two persons or two animals and cannot be swapped for plural
marking. This discrepancy between metalinguistic judgement and actual language use can be
explained in two ways: either the metalinguistic knowledge of these speakers does not match with
their actual linguistic performance, or they may be right about their own linguistic performance, but
there may be a difference in the rules for dual marking between speakers, with dual marking being
compulsory for some, but not for others. An example of dual-plural alternation is provided in (19)
and (20). One consultant, when prompted to translate ‘you two go’ provided both (19) and (20). These
are declarative sentences.

6
The reader may notice that in examples provided throughout this chapter, the verb root of ‘go’ is ka1~ka3 instead of
kat0. This is not a mistake, but a case of ‘stem alternation’: the first is the general verbal root, the second a verbal root
that occurs directly preceding a person index, and the third is a nominal root. Inflected verbs take a verbal root, and
the nominalizing prefix u0-, which derives a noun from a verb, attaches to the nominal root.

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(19) nɨm1 ni3 ka3 ɨn2.

2PL two go 2PL
‘You two are going.’ (20170224_01)

(20) nɨm1 ni3 ka1 ʃ-ɨn2.

2PL two go DU-2PL
‘You two are going.’ (20170224_01)

Table 5 presents the past intransitive paradigm. All person indexes that follow the past tense
marker t- carry first tone. The past tense dual requires a double person index. The first index carries
second tone as in the present tense paradigm, while the second that immediately follows the past
tense marker carries first tone. The dual form is glossed in (21). The trial does not have a double index.

PERSON SG DU TRL PL
1 ʝɨp t-ʌŋ
0 1
ʝɨp t-i
0 1
ʝɨp t-i
0 1
ʝɨp t-i
0 1

2 ʝɨp0 t-u1 ʝɨp0 ʃ-ɨn2 t-ɨn1 ʝɨp0 tɔm2 t-ɨn1 ʝɨp0 t-ɨn1
3 ʝɨp0 t-a1 ʝɨp0 t-a1 ʝɨp0 t-a1 ʝɨp0 t-a1

Table 5 Past affirmative intransitive paradigm for ʝɨp0 ‘sleep’

(21) ʝɨp0 ʃ-ɨn2 t-ɨn1

be DU-2PL PST-2PL
‘the two of you were’

In the future intransitive paradigm, presented in Table 6, we see that all person indexes that
follow the future tense marker n- carry third tone. As in the past tense paradigm, the second person
dual marker ʃ- is followed by an index that carries second tone. The consultant provided for the second
person dual in the future tense of ‘to go’, both a phrase without and a phrase with dual marking.
Although the following issue falls outside the scope of verb inflection, it is interesting to note
that the exact sentence provided as translation of ‘you three went’, (22), contains a distributive prefix
that can attach to numerals: tʰʌ0-. In the translation of the same sentence that the consultant provided
for the other verb, ʝɨp0 ‘sleep’, the prefix did not occur, see (23).

(22) nɨm¹ tʰʌ0-tɔm2 ka1 tɔm2 t-ɨn1.

2PL DISTR-three go TRL PST-2PL
‘Each of you three went.’ (20170224_01)

(23) nɨm¹ tɔm2 ʝɨp0 tɔm2 t-ɨn1.

2PL TRL sleep TRL PST-2PL
‘The three of slept.’ (20170224_01)

The distributive marker tʰʌ0- in (22) is homophonous with two other elements in the domain
of the NP: 1) a prefix that has been found in a few lexemes, see (24), which appears to have a deictic
function, ‘this’, and 2) one of the ‘prefixes’ that is found in the numerals. TB languages often exhibit a

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numeral system in which the numerals 1 to 10 consist of a core element, the second syllable, and a set
of prefixes for the first syllable. The distribution of these prefixes, i.e. which numeral goes with which
prefix, differs between languages. Muklom shows the prefix tʰʌ0- only in the numeral ‘six’, as shown
in (25). It is unclear whether the morpheme tʰʌ0- in (22) is etymologically related to the prefix in (24)
or (25). Another possibility is that the distributive prefix derives from a phonologically reduced
classifier.

(24) tʰʌ0-nɛ4 ‘today’

tʰʌ-0ʝi2 ‘all’
tʰʌ0-ni3 ‘both’

(25) ʌ0-ʃɛ1 ‘one’

ʌ0-ni3 ‘two’
ʌ0-tɔm2 ‘three’
bʌ0-li3 ‘four’
bʌ0-ŋa3 ‘five’
tʰʌ0-ɹɔk 0 ‘six’
sʌ0-nʌt0 ‘seven’
ʌ0-ʃʌt0 ‘eight’
ʌ0-kʰu1 ‘nine’
ʌ0-si2 ‘ten’

Table 6 presents the future tense paradigm of the intransitive verb. All person indexes carry
third tone, except the index that directly follows the dual marker ʃ- in the second person dual, which
carries second tone.

PERSON SG DU TRL PL
1 ʝɨp0 n-ʌŋ3 ʝɨp0 n-i3 ʝɨp0 n-i3 ʝɨp0 n-i3
2 ʝɨp0 n-u3 ʝɨp0 ʃ-ɨn2 n-ɨn3 ʝɨp0 tɔm2 n-ɨn3 ʝɨp0 n-ɨn3
3 ʝɨp0 n-a3 ʝɨp0 n-a3 ʝɨp0 n-a3 ʝɨp0 n-a3

Table 6 Future affirmative intransitive paradigm for ʝɨp0 ‘sleep’

Table 7 shows the present tense negative paradigm. The negator always follows the main verb
and person indexes attach to the negator. Like the past tense, negative forms are characterised by first
tone on the person index, be it that the third person carries tone four instead. Two vowel changes
occur after the negator m-: the vowel ʌ of the first person singular changes to ɔ, and so does the vowel
a of the third person index. The negated dual form must take two person indexes. The trial does not
take a double index.

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PERSON SG DU TRL PL
1 ʝɨp0 m-ɔŋ1 ʝɨp0 m-i1 ʝɨp0 m-i1 ʝɨp0 m-i1
2 ʝɨp0 m-u1 ʝɨp0 ʃ-ɨn2 m-ɨn1 ʝɨp0 tɔm2 m-ɨn1 ʝɨp0 m-ɨn1
3 ʝɨp0 m-ɔ4 ʝɨp0 m-ɔ4 ʝɨp0 m-ɔ4 ʝɨp0 m-ɔ4
Table 7 Present negative intransitive paradigm for ʝɨp0 ‘sleep’

A striking feature of this language is that verbs can take either a tense marker or a negator,
but not both at the same time. Hence a clause with both a tense marker and a negator requires the
presence of an auxiliary, a light verb, to carry the second marker. It would be interesting to find out
whether such a construction is unique to Muklom or that it occurs in other Tangsa varieties as well.
In the few modern linguistic descriptions that we have, we encounter the following two patterns for
verbs in general, not restricted to copulas: 1) negation and tense co-occur on the same verb stem, or
2) negation and tense do not co-occur at all in the same clause. An example of the first is Hakhun
Tangsa, which shows verbal complexes with the order verb stem > past tense > negation > person index
(Boro 2017: 337), and another order in which the negator precedes the verb, negation > verb stem >
present tense > person index (Boro 2017: 329). Another related language variety that allows negation
and tense to occur on the same verb, is Hawa Nocte.7 In Nocte, negation can precede the verb while
the tense marker follows, as in the order negation > verb stem > future tense (Rahman 2016:82), or stand
between the verb stem and the tense marker, as in the order verb stem > negation > past tense > person
index (Rahman 2016: 81). An example of the second, a variety in which negation and tense have not
been found to co-occur within the same clause, is Cholim Tangsa, as Morey (2011a: 89) reports: ‘The
negative marker cannot co-occur with any of the other markers and temporal and aspect marking
such as future/irrealis, past and continuous cannot be marked on a negated clause.’
Table 8 shows the past tense negative. As mentioned, tense and negation cannot co-occur on
the same verb stem. Therefore, the auxiliary ʌŋ2 ‘be’ must be added to carry the tense marker, while
the main verb carries the negator m-. In the negative past and future, ‘redundant’ person marking
occurs: the single argument of the verb will be marked double, first after the negator, then after the
tense marker. Indexes always carry the tone that is associated with the directly preceding grammatical
morpheme. For example, the indexes in Table 8 that follow the negator are identical to the present
tense negative indexes in Table 7, while the indexes that follow the past tense marker t- in Table 8 are
identical to the affirmative past tense indexes in Table 5. An example of a negative past tense clause
with double indexing, in this case third person markers ɔ4 and a1, is provided in (26).

(26) pi4 a3 kɔ4 m-ɔ4 ʌŋ2 t-a1.

3SG ERG give NEG-3 be PST-3
‘He did not give it (to him).’ (20121103_04)

7
In India, Nocte is considered separate from Tangsa, but in Myanmar, Nocte is subsumed under the large umbrella
of Tangshang.

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PERSON SG DU TRL PL
1 ʝɨp0 m-ɔŋ1 ʌŋ2 t-ʌŋ1 ʝɨp0 m-i1 ʌŋ2 t-i1 ʝɨp0 m-i1 ʌŋ2 t-i1 ʝɨp0 m-i1 ʌŋ2 t-i1
2 ʝɨp0 m-u1 ʌŋ2 t-u1 ʝɨp0 ʃ-ɨn2 m-ɨn1 ʝɨp0 tɔm2 m-ɨn1 ʝɨp0 m-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 t-ɨn1
ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 t-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 tɔm2 t-ɨn1
3 ʝɨp0 m-ɔ4 ʌŋ2 t-a1 ʝɨp0 m-ɔ4 ʌŋ2 t-a1 ʝɨp0 m-ɔ4 ʌŋ2 t-a1 ʝɨp0 m-ɔ4 ʌŋ2 t-a1

Table 8 Past negative intransitive paradigm for ʝɨp0 ‘sleep’

All forms include two person indexes, except the dual, which contains the remarkable number
of four person indexes. Both the main verb and the auxiliary can be accompanied by a dual marker,
and since each dual marker takes its own person index, as do the negator and past tense marker, the
total comes to four. Indexes that directly follow the dual marker ʃ- always carry second tone.
As mentioned, the dual and trial forms can be replaced by the general plural forms. Another
example of this was encountered during the elicitation of the past negative dual. When the consultant
was asked to translate ‘you two did not sleep’, she provided both a general plural form, as shown in
(27), and a form with dual markers, as shown in (28). In both sentences, she does include the adjectival
numeral ni3 ‘two’ after the pronoun nɨm1 ‘you (plural)’.

(27) nɨm1 ni3 ʝɨp0 m-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 t-ɨn1.

2PL two sleep NEG-2PL be PST-2PL
‘You two did not sleep.’ (20170224_01)

(28) nɨm1 ni3 ʝɨp0 ʃ-ɨn2 m-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn² t-ɨn1.

2PL two sleep DU-2PL NEG-2PL be DU-2PL PST-2PL
‘You two did not sleep.’ (20170224_01)

Another variation is possible for the second person dual. The verb complex that includes the
dual marker ʃ-, as in (28), may drop the auxiliary. For example, when asked to translate ‘you two did
not go’, the consultant provided both a translation without auxiliary, as shown in (29) and a translation
with an auxiliary ʌŋ2 ‘be’, see (30).

(29) nɨm1 ni3 ka1 ʃ-ɨn2 m-ɨn1 ʃ-ɨn2 t-ɨn1.

2PL two go DU-2PL NEG-2PL DU-2PL PST-2PL
‘The two of you did not go.’ (20170224_01)

(30) nɨm1 ni3 ka1 ʃ-ɨn2 m-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 t-ɨn1.

2PL two go DU-2PL NEG-2PL be DU-2PL PST-2PL
‘The two of you did not go.’ (20170224_01)

In the negative past, variation occurs in the use of trial forms as well. The verbal complex may
contain 1) two trial markers, 2) one trial marker, or 3) no trial marker, i.e. be equivalent to the general
plural from. When just one trial marker is used, it may either occur after the main verb, as in (31) and
(32), or after the auxiliary, as in (33). An example with two trial markers is provided in (34).

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(31) nɨm1 tɔm2 ʝɨp0 tɔm2 m-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 t-ɨn1.

2PL TRL sleep TRL NEG-2PL be PST-2PL
‘The three of you did not sleep.’ (20170224_01)

(32) nɨm1 tɔm2 ka1 tɔm2 m-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 t-ɨn1.

2PL TRL go TRL NEG-2PL be PST-2PL
‘The three of you did not go.’ (20170224_01)

(33) nɨm1 tɔm2 ka1 m-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 tɔm2 t-ɨn1.

2PL TRL go NEG-2PL be TRL PST-2PL
‘The three of you did not go.’ (20170224_01)

(34) nɨm1 tɔm2 ʝɨp0 tɔm2 m-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 tɔm2 t-ɨn1.

2PL TRL sleep TRL NEG-2PL be TRL PST-2PL
‘The three of you did not sleep.’ (20170224_01)

The vowel of the auxiliary ʌŋ2 ‘be’ sometimes assimilates to an immediately preceding vowel.
In the negative past tense paradigm, the vowel of the auxiliary can assimilate to the vowel of the
preceding person index. Sentence (35) shows how ʌŋ2 has changed to ɔŋ2 following the third person
index ɔ4, and sentence (36) shows assimilation to the preceding first plural index i1.

(35) pi4 ka1 m-ɔ4 ɔŋ2 t-a1.

2SG go NEG-3 be PST-3
‘She did not go.’ (20170224_01)

(36) hi4 tʌŋ2 ka1 m-i1 iŋ2 t-i1.

1IN go NEG-1PL be PST-1PL
‘We did not go.’ (20170224_01).

Moving from negative past tense on to future tense, we see the same mechanisms with respect
to number of indexes and the use of auxiliaries. Again, the consultant provides both a sentence
without dual marker for the second person dual, as shown in example (37), and a sentence with dual
markers, as shown in (38). The consultant took a bit of time to find the correct forms for the second
person trial. Similarly, for the negative future of ka1 ‘go’, the consultant responded both with a sentence
that contained two trial markers, as shown in (39), and with a sentence which had no trial marker on
the main verb, as shown in (40). The full paradigm of the negative future is provided in Table 9.

(37) nɨm1 ni3 ka1 m-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 n-ɨn3.

2PL two go NEG-2PL be FUT-2PL
‘The two of you will not go.’ (20170224_01).

(38) nɨm1 ni3 ka1 ʃ-ɨn2 m-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 n-ɨn3.

2PL two go DU-2PL NEG-2PL be DU-2PL FUT-2PL
‘The two of you will not go.’ (20170224_01).

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(39) nɨm1 tɔm2 ka1 tɔm2 m-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 tɔm2 n-ɨn3.

2PL TRL go TRL NEG-2PL be TRL FUT-2PL
‘The three of you will not go.’ (20170224_01).

(40) nɨm1 tɔm2 ka1 m-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 tɔm2 n-ɨn3.

2PL TRL go NEG-2PL be TRL FUT-2PL
‘The three of you will not go.’ (20170224_01).

PERSON SG DU TRL PL
1 ʝɨp m-ɔŋ ʌŋ n-ʌŋ
0 1 2 3
ʝɨp m-i ʌŋ n-i
0 1 2 3
ʝɨp m-i ʌŋ n-i
0 1 2 3
ʝɨp m-i ʌŋ2 n-i3
0 1

2 ʝɨp0 m-u1 ʌŋ2 n-u3 ʝɨp0 ʃ-ɨn2 m-ɨn1 ʝɨp0 tɔm2 m-ɨn1 ʝɨp0 m-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 n-ɨn3
ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 n-ɨn3 ʌŋ2 tɔm2 n-ɨn3
3 ʝɨp0 m-ɔ4 ʌŋ2 n-a3 ʝɨp0 m-ɔ4 ʌŋ2 n-a3 ʝɨp0 m-ɔ4 ʌŋ2 n-a3 ʝɨp0 m-ɔ4 ʌŋ2 n-a3

Table 9 Future negative intransitive paradigm for ʝɨp0 ‘sleep’

4.2 Equational copulas

The language has a light verb /ʌŋ2/ ‘be’ which is used not only as an auxiliary with main verbs
to carry certain verbal markers (see section 4.1) but also functions as copula in equational sentences
that are overtly marked for tense or are negated. Equational clauses that are not overtly marked for
tense or are negated do not require the presence of a light verb (see section 3 ). The inflection of the
light verb /ʌŋ2/ in equational clauses is identical to the inflection of main verbs (see section 4.1), with
the same order of elements, the same pattern of tones on indexes, and the same vowel changes after
the negator. An example of an equational clause with light verb is provided in (41). In this sentence,
the purpose of the light verb is to carry the negator m-.

(41) pi4 n-a2 muk0 lɔm2 ʌŋ2 m-ɔ4.

3SG MED-ABS Muklom be NEG-3
‘He is not Muklom.’ (MessagesExtracts_2017)

Like main verbs, the light verb can take either a tense marker or a negator, but not both at the
same time. Hence an equational sentence with both a tense marker and negator requires the presence
of two light verbs, each carrying one of the two markers. The Muklom equational construction with
two light verbs is illustrated by sentence (42) which contains both the negator m- and past tense
marker t-. When two light verbs are present, the first will always carry the negator, and the second
will carry the past tense marker t- or future tense marker n-.

(42) pi4 ʃ-a2 muk0 lɔm2 ʌŋ2 m-ɔ4 ʌŋ2 t-a1.

3SG MED-ABS Muklom be NEG-3 be PST-3
‘He was not Muklom.’ (MessagesExtracts_2017)

As mentioned, the present affirmative does not require a copula. It is possible, however, to add
a copula if we want to emphasize that something is indeed or really the case. The copula will be the
same as in other configurations, ʌŋ2 ‘be’, and will take person indexing as normal, as exemplified in
(43) and (44).
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(43) ŋa1 ɹ-a2 muk0 lɔm2 ʌŋ2 ʌŋ2.

1SG PROX-ABS Muklom be 1SG
‘I am (really) Muklom.’ (MessagesExtracts_2017)

(44) pi4 n-a2 muk0 lɔm2 ʌŋ2 a3 .

3SG MED-ABS Muklom be 3
‘He is (really) Muklom.’ (MessagesExtracts_2017)

The full paradigms of the equational copula are provided below, starting with the emphatic
present affirmative. In each table, the dual and trial forms are different from the plural column only
in the second person. In speech, dual and trial forms are optional, one can alternatively employ the
regular plural. The trial marker tɔm2 is identical to the adjectival numeral tɔm2 ‘three’, but the dual
marker ʃ- is entirely different from the adjectival numeral ni2 ‘two’. Looking at the ordering of
elements, we see that the dual and trial markers are located closer to the copula root ʌŋ2 than the
person index.

PERSON SG DU TRL PL
1 ʌŋ2 ʌŋ3 ʌŋ2 i3 ʌŋ2 i3 ʌŋ2 i3
2 ʌŋ2 u3 ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 ʌŋ2 tɔm2-ɨn2 ʌŋ2 ɨn2
3 ʌŋ2 a3 ʌŋ2 a3 ʌŋ2 a3 ʌŋ2 a3

Table 10 Present affirmative equational copula paradigm (emphatic)

PERSON SG DU TRL PL
1 ʌŋ t-ʌŋ
2 1
ʌŋ t-i
2 1
ʌŋ t-i
2 1
ʌŋ t-i
2 1

2 ʌŋ2 t-u1 ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 t-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 tɔm2 t-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 t-ɨn1
3 ʌŋ2 t-a1 ʌŋ2 t-a1 ʌŋ2 t-a1 ʌŋ2 t-a1

Table 11 Past affirmative equational copula paradigm

PERSON SG DU TRL PL
1 ʌŋ n-ʌŋ
2 3
ʌŋ n-i
2 3
ʌŋ n-i
2 3
ʌŋ n-i3
2

2 ʌŋ2 n-u3 ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 n-ɨn3 ʌŋ2 tɔm2 n-ɨn3 ʌŋ2 n-ɨn3
3 ʌŋ2 n-a3 ʌŋ2 n-a3 ʌŋ2 n-a3 ʌŋ2 n-a3

Table 12 Future affirmative equational copula paradigm

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PERSON SG DU TRL PL
1 ʌŋ2 m-ɔŋ1 ʌŋ2 m-i1 ʌŋ2 m-i1 ʌŋ2 m-i1
2 ʌŋ2 m-u1 ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 m-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 tɔm2 m-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 m-ɨn1
3 ʌŋ2 m-ɔ4 ʌŋ2 m-ɔ4 ʌŋ2 m-ɔ4 ʌŋ2 m-ɔ4

Table 13 Present negative equational copula paradigm

As discussed above, the copula can carry a tense marker or a negator, but not both at the same
time. An equational sentence that is marked for tense and negation therefore contains two copulas,
the first carrying negation and the second carrying tense, as can be seen in Table 8 and Table 9. The
dual and trial marker appears on both copulas, resulting in the complex second person dual and trial
forms with a whopping amount of four person indexes. These forms are presented along with full
glosses in (45) and (46).

(45) ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 m-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 t-ɨn1

be DU-2PL NEG-2PL be DU-2PL PST-2PL
‘the two of you were not’

(46) ʌŋ2 tɔm2 m-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 tɔm2 t-ɨn1

be TRL NEG-2PL be TRL PST-2PL
‘the three of you were not’

PERSON SG DU TRL PL
1 ʌŋ2 m-ɔŋ1 ʌŋ2 m-i1 ʌŋ2 m-i1 ʌŋ2 m-i1
ʌŋ2 t-ʌŋ1 ʌŋ2 t-i1 ʌŋ2 t-i1 ʌŋ2 t-i1
2 ʌŋ2 m-u1 ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 m-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 tɔm2 m-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 m-ɨn1
ʌŋ2 t-u1 ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 t-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 tɔm² t-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 t-ɨn1
3 ʌŋ2 m-ɔ4 ʌŋ2 m-ɔ4 ʌŋ2 m-ɔ4 ʌŋ2 m-ɔ4
ʌŋ2 t-a1 ʌŋ2 t-a1 ʌŋ2 t-a1 ʌŋ2 t-a1

Table 14 Past negative equational copula paradigm

The paradigm of the future negative in Table 15 follows the same order of elements as the
past negative in Table 14. The most complex forms, the dual and trial second person, are provided
with glosses in (47) and (48).

(47) ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 m-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 n-ɨn3

be DU-2PL NEG-2PL be DU-2PL FUT-2PL
‘the two of you will not be’

(48) ʌŋ2 tɔm2 m-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 tɔm2 n-ɨn1

be TRL NEG-2PL be TRL FUT-2PL
‘the three of you will not be’

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PERSON SG DU TRL PL
1 ʌŋ2 m-ɔŋ1 ʌŋ2 m-i1 ʌŋ2 m-i1 ʌŋ2 m-i1
ʌŋ2 n-ʌŋ3 ʌŋ2 n-i3 ʌŋ2 n-i3 ʌŋ2 n-i3
2 ʌŋ2 m-u1 ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 m-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 tɔm2 m-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 m-ɨn1
ʌŋ2 n-u3 ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 n-ɨn3 ʌŋ2 tɔm2 n-ɨn3 ʌŋ2 n-ɨn3
3 ʌŋ2 m-ɔ4 ʌŋ2 m-ɔ4 ʌŋ2 m-ɔ4 ʌŋ2 m-ɔ4
ʌŋ2 n-a3 ʌŋ2 n-a3 ʌŋ2 n-a3 ʌŋ2 n-a3

Table 15 Future negative equational copula paradigm

4.3 Transitive verbs

This section discusses the inflection of transitive verbs. Two striking features of the Muklom
transitive paradigm, and also of the ditransitive paradigm as we will see in section 4.4, are hierarchical
indexing and inverse marking. Forms were collected of two verbs, namely kʰi3 ‘see, look at’ and βat0
‘hit’. Since no differences were found between the forms of the two verbs and to save space, only for
βat0 ‘hit’ the full paradigm is presented, in Table 20-25 in the appendix.

4.3.1 Hierarchical person indexing

In intransitive clauses, indexing on the verb invariably corresponds to the single argument (S)
of the verb. Transitive clauses involve an agent-like argument (A) and a patient-like argument (P). In
Muklom, the index of a transitive clause corresponds either to A or P, depending on the configuration
of arguments. For example, in sentence (49), a second person A argument acts upon a third person P
argument, 2→3, and the index u1 corresponds to the A argument. Yet in example (50), where a third
person A acts upon a second person P, 3→2, the index u3 corresponds to the P argument. The reason
for this difference is that Muklom shows hierarchical indexing, i.e. the ranking of the argument is a
determining factor in the selection of the person index. Examples (49) and (50) show us that the
second person is higher in rank than the third person; preference is given to the second person over
the third person in person indexing.

(49) nʌŋ1 a3 mi4 nu1 βat0 t-u1.

2SG ERG person female hit PST-2SG
‘You(sg) have hit the woman.’ (B1.85)

(50) nɨŋ2 a3 nʌŋ1 βat0 ta4 pʰ-u3.

3PL ERG 2SG hit PST INV-2SG
‘They have hit you(sg).’ (B1.86)

We can describe the pattern of indexing in Muklom as follows: indexes align with the S/A
arguments of the clause, except when a third person A acts upon a first or second person P argument,
in which case indexes align with the higher ranked P argument. In other words, speech act
participants (SAPs) have a higher status than non-SAP arguments in verb indexing, as is visualised
by the person hierarchy in Figure 1.

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SAP non-SAP

1st person / 2nd person > 3rd person

Figure 1. A hierarchy for person indexing in Muklom

Looking at hierarchical indexing cross-linguistically, we see that languages employ different

person hierarchies. In some languages second person outranks first person, for example in the
Nakh-Dagestanian language Icari Darci (Sumbatova and Mutalov 2003; Jacques and Antonov 2014:
309), while some other languages rank first person higher than second, for example Hakhun Tangsa
(Boro 2012; DeLancey 2017: 90). In Muklom, first and second person are equal in ranking; first does
not have priority over second, and neither does second take priority over first. If the two arguments
of the transitive clause are both SAPs, it is the semantic role of the arguments that determines which
is indexed on the verb: the A argument is given priority. Cross-linguistically we see that languages do
not always prioritize the A argument in SAP→SAP configurations. In fact, Tibeto-Burman
hierarchical systems more often give preference to the P argument over the A argument in clauses
that contain two SAP arguments, according to DeLancey (2017: 87).
Many TB languages exhibit hierarchical indexing, and some argue that this feature of the
verbal domain can be reconstructed as far back as the level of Proto-TB (DeLancey 1981, Bauman
1975). Non-hierarchical indexing, i.e. consistent indexing of the A or S argument, would then be an
innovation. Most Tangsa varieties, based on current data, appear to lack hierarchical indexing (Morey
2011a: 96, current volume), but Muklom is not the only variety that has this indexing system: Hakhun
has already been reported to exhibit hierarchical indexing (Morey 2011b: 677; Boro 2017, current
volume) and Phong as well (Dutta current volume). It is not unlikely that, as data from more varieties
is collected and analysed, more varieties may be found to show hierarchical indexing, as closely related
languages such as Nocte and Jingpho (DeLancey 2011) also have it.
An overview of transitive indexes in the present tense is provided in Table 16. For some cells,
alternative forms exist, but these will be discussed separately and presented in Table 18. For transitive
indexes in the other tenses and their negative paradigms, see Table 20-25 in the appendix. For easy
comparison, the intransitive indexes are listed in the last column of Table 16. The tone marking on
the indexes differs slightly from the intransitive present tense paradigm: the first person singular index,
ʌŋ2, carries second tone instead of the expected third tone. The sigma (Σ) represents the verb stem.
Note the presence of pʰ- between the verb stem and the index in some of the cells. This is the inverse
marker which will be discussed in section 4.3.2.

P
1SG 1PL 2SG 2PL 3 S
A
1SG Σ pʰ-ʌŋ2 Σ pʰ-ʌŋ2 Σ ʌŋ3 Σ ʌŋ3
1PL Σ pʰ-i3 Σ pʰ-i3 Σ i3 Σ i3
2SG Σ pʰ-u3 Σ pʰ-u3 Σ u3 Σ u3
2PL Σ pʰ-ɨn2 Σ pʰ-ɨn2 Σ ɨn2 Σ ɨn2
3 Σ pʰ-ʌŋ2 Σ pʰ-i3 Σ pʰ-u3 Σ pʰ-ɨn2 Σ a3 Σ a3

Table 16 Transitive person indexes, present tense

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Table 16 shows the alignment of indexing: most forms align with the A on the left, but four
cells align with the P above. For clarity’s sake, the configurations that show P-indexing have been
shaded in Table 17 below. The possible configurations of arguments in transitive clauses are divided
into three domains ( Jacques and Antonov 2014: 302): 1) the local domain, in which an SAP acts
upon another SAP, i.e. 1→2 and 2→1, 2) the mixed domain, which involves an SAP-argument and
a non-SAP argument, i.e. 1/2→3 and 3→1/2, and 3) the non-local domain, in which a non-SAP acts
upon another non-SAP, i.e. 3→3. We can summarize hierarchical indexing in Muklom as follows: in
the mixed domain, position on the person hierarchy regulates indexing, while in the local domain,
semantic role determines index alignment, i.e. automatic alignment with A, the Agent-like argument
of the transitive clause. We cannot make any claim about the non-local domain. Since third person
indexes do not encode number, it cannot be determined whether they align with A or with P.

P
1SG 1PL 2SG 2PL 3
A
1SG
local
1PL
mixed
2SG
local
2PL
non-
3 mixed
local

Table 17 Indexing of P (shaded) versus indexing of A (white)

We have negative evidence to support that semantic role determines alignment in the local
domain: indexing of P is deemed ungrammatical. Sentences (51) and (52) illustrate the local
configurations 1→2 and 2→1 respectively and are grammatical utterances. The indexes align with
the A arguments of the clause. When the indexes are changed to align with the P argument of the
clauses, as in (53) and (54), this is found ungrammatical by consultants.

(51) ŋa1 a3 nʌŋ1 βat0 ta4 pʰ-ʌŋ2.

1SG ERG 2SG hit PST INV-1SG
‘I have hit you(sg).’ (B1.86)

(52) nʌŋ1 a3 ŋa1 βat0 ta4 pʰ-u3.

2SG ERG 1SG hit PST INV-2SG
‘You(sg) have hit me.’ (B1.86)

(53) * ŋa1 a3 nʌŋ1 βat0 ta4 pʰ-u3.

1SG ERG 2SG hit PST INV-2SG
Intended: ‘I have hit you(sg).’ (B1.86)

(54) * nʌŋ1 a3 ŋa1 βat0 ta4 pʰ-ʌŋ2.

2SG ERG 1SG hit PST INV-2SG
Intended: ‘You(sg) have hit me.’ (B1.86)
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As mentioned, for some configurations, alternative forms exist. While collected data indicate
that there is only one possible index in each of the white cells of Table 17, the configurations in which
P outranks A, represented by the shaded area in the same table, have more possible indexes. The
default strategy seems to be alignment with the higher ranked P but indexing of the lower-ranked A
is also possible. Further, the inverse marker pʰ- is sometimes dropped. Table 18 repeats the default
3→SAP forms from Table 16 and adds the alternative forms pʰa3 and a3.

P
1SG 1PL 2SG 2PL
A
Σ pʰ-ʌŋ2 Σ pʰ-i3 Σ pʰ-u3 Σ pʰ-ɨn2
3 Σ pʰ-a3 Σ pʰ-a3 Σ pʰ-a3 Σ pʰ-a3
Σ a3 Σ a3 Σ a3 Σ a3

Table 18 Alternative indexes for 3→SAP

The choice for alignment with a lower-ranked A instead of a higher-ranked P perhaps

depends on pragmatic considerations. When a speaker uses the form pʰa3, they perhaps do so to
emphasize the role of the A referent. Interestingly, a younger consultant first found indexing of the
A referent unacceptable, but when a few older consultants who also were present during the elicitation
session objected to this grammaticality judgement, the younger speaker changed their mind and
added that indexing of the lower-ranked A is acceptable ‘in the right sentence’. More research is
needed to confirm whether pragmatics indeed determines the alignment of the index. The third index,
a3, lacks the inverse marker ph-. It is suspected that syntax plays a role here, as one consultant indicated
that dropping the inverse marking is acceptable on the condition that ‘you add something to complete
the sentence’. This perhaps indicates that this form may be used in subordinate but not in main
clauses. This is a topic for further investigation.

4.3.2 The inverse marker

In transitive clauses, Muklom uses an inverse marker to signal that P is an SAP. Cross-
linguistically, inverse marking is rare, but it is not uncommon among TB languages, as has been noted
by, for example, Ebert (1987: 477). The Muklom inverse marker is pʰ-, with an allomorph pʰʌ0- in
future tense clauses. The inverse is deictic in origin, deriving from the cislocative marker pʰ-~pʰʌ0-.
Cislocatives are a common source for inverse markers (see Gildea and Zúñiga 2016). Muklom has
two other homophonous markers, the ingressive and the adhortative, which derive from the same
source. All four markers take the same slot in the verbal complex, between the verb stem and the
person index.
The distribution of the inverse marker in Muklom is indicated in Table 19 by means of
shading. However, remember that the inverse marker may be dropped in some circumstances in the
mixed domain, as discussed in section 4.3.1.

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P
1SG 1PL 2SG 2PL 3
A
1SG
local
1PL
mixed
2SG
local
2PL
non-
3 mixed
local

Table 19 The distribution of the inverse marker in Muklom

In typology, we distinguish between canonical and non-canonical inverse systems. An inverse

system is canonical if it marks the verb when P outranks A on a referential hierarchy ( Jacques and
Antonov 2014: Table 2). In Muklom, which follows the person hierarchy 1/2>3, this would include
only the configurations 3→1 and 3→2. This is the area of the paradigms in which we encounter P
alignment of the index (Table 17), but the inverse marker pʰ- (Table 19) extends beyond the scope of
the canonical inverse system into the local domain. We cannot fully account for the distribution of
the inverse by evoking a referential hierarchy. In other words, Muklom exhibits a non-canonical
inverse system. Such systems are not uncommon cross-linguistically ( Jacques and Antonov 2014).
In Muklom, speakers not only use the inverse marker in transitive clauses with an SAP P-
argument, but also use it in ditransitive clauses to mark the presence of an SAP Recipient, and it may
even occur with SAP Possessors. Sentence (55) presents an example of pʰ- used in a ditransitive clause
to signal the presence of an SAP Recipient, here ŋa1 ‘I’. Ditransitive clauses are further discussed in
section 4.4. Sentence (56) illustrates how the possessive determiner ba3 ‘your(sg)’ triggers the presence
of the inverse marker in an intransitive clause.

(55) nɨŋ2 a3 ŋa1 ma3 bɔ3 ti1 kɔ4 ta4 pʰ-ʌŋ2.

3PL ERG 1SG DAT papaya fruit give PST INV-1SG
‘They gave papaya to me.’ (B1.86)

(56) ba3 kʰak0 βaŋ3 na3 ŋɨn2 tʰʌ0-lʌt0 ka1 pʰ-a3.

[Link] bag from LOC money [Link] go INV-3
‘Money is sticking/coming out of your bag.’ (B1.133)

An interesting feature of the inverse marker is its position relative to the tense markersː while
the inverse follows the past tense marker ta4, as can be seen in sentence (55), it precedes the future
tense marker n-, as illustrated by example (57). In the latter case, not the form pʰ-, but its allomorph
pʰʌ0- must be used, so that the creation of a consonant cluster is avoided.

(57) nɨm1 ni3 a3 i2 βat0 pʰʌ0-n-ɨn3.

2PL two ERG 1EX hit INV-FUT-2PL
‘You two will hit us.’ (20151228_01)

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4.4 Ditransitive verbs

The ditransitive paradigms are identical to the transitive paradigms listed in Table 20-25, the
only difference being that the Theme argument (T) cannot trigger index alignment but the Recipient
argument (R) can. Similarly, in the ditransitive paradigm, the inverse marker pʰ- signals the presence
of an SAP R, and not of an SAP T. Alignment of the index with R and inverse marker for a higher-
ranked R are both illustrated by sentence (58). The personal pronoun ŋa1 ‘I’ is marked as R by means
of the postposition ma3 ‘to’. The index ʌŋ2 aligns with this first person pronoun, and not with the S,
nɨŋ2 ‘they’, or with the T, bɔ3 ti1 ‘fruit’. The inverse is not triggered by the T, bɔ3 ti1 ‘fruit’, which is nor
an SAP, but by the R, ŋa1 ‘I’, which is an SAP.

(58) nɨŋ2 a3 ŋa1 ma3 bɔ3 ti1 kɔ4 ta4 pʰ-ʌŋ2.

3PL ERG 1SG DAT papaya fruit give PST INV-1SG
‘They gave papaya to me.’ (B1.86)

Finally, although the example sentences do not mark P arguments with absolutive case, it
must be stressed that it is possible to do so. As opposed to ergative marking, which always must be
present, absolutive marking is differential. The mechanisms behind absolutive marking are a topic for
further investigation, but anecdotal evidence suggest that topicality and definiteness may play a role.

5 Discussion
Muklom is a language with rich verb inflection that exhibits hierarchical indexing and a non-
canonical inverse system. Indexes will align with S, A, P, or R arguments, depending on the
configuration, but not with the T argument. Inverse marking is triggered by high-ranked P arguments,
i.e. SAP P, but also by SAP R and even SAP possessors. We can conclude that verb marking and NP
marking are relatively disintegratedː the system of expressing semantic roles by case markers or
postpositions does not nicely align with the system of indexing and inverse marking on the verb. This
structure, commonly found among TB languages, is what Bickel (2000) refers to as ‘associative
agreement’, as opposed to ‘integrative agreement’, which nicely aligns NP and verb domains.
Two of the many interesting topics that remain for future research areː 1) the role of
pragmatics in configurations where both indexing of the P and indexing of the A is possible, and 2)
the role of definiteness and topicality in differential absolutive case marking.

A B B R E V IA T I O N S

ABS absolutive NEG negative

DAT dative NMLZ nominalizer
DEF definite [Link] non-proximal
DIST distal PL plural
DU dual POSS possessive
ERG ergative PRF perfective
EX exclusive PROX proximate
F female PST past
FUT future REP reportative

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IN inclusive SG singular
INV inverse TRL trial
MED medial

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Appendix: Full transitive paradigms

To obtain the paradigm of the ditransitive verb kɔ4 ‘give’, one simply replaces the stem βat0 in the following tables by the stem kɔ4,
since the verb endings of the ditransitive paradigm are identical to those of the transitive paradigm.

P 1 2 3
A SG [Link] [Link] [Link] [Link] SG DU PL SG DU PL
1 SG βat pʰ-ʌŋ
0 2
βat pʰ-ʌŋ
0 2
βat pʰ-ʌŋ
0 2
βat ʌŋ
0 3
βat ʌŋ
0 3
βat0 ʌŋ3
[Link] βat0 pʰ-i3 βat0 pʰ-i3 βat0 pʰ-i3 βat0 i3 βat0 i3 βat0 i3
[Link] βat0 pʰ-i3 βat0 pʰ-i3 βat0 pʰ-i3 βat0 i3 βat0 i3 βat0 i3
[Link] βat0 i3 βat0 i3 βat0 i3
[Link] βat0 i3 βat0 i3 βat0 i3
2 SG βat0 pʰ-u3 βat0 pʰ-u3 βat0 pʰ-u3 βat0 u3 βat0 u3 βat0 u3
DU βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2
pʰ-ɨn2 pʰ-ɨn2 pʰ-ɨn2
PL βat0 pʰ-ɨn2 βat0 pʰ-ɨn2 βat0 pʰ-ɨn2 βat0 ɨn2 βat0 ɨn2 βat0 ɨn2
SG βat0 pʰ-ʌŋ2 βat0 pʰ-i3 βat0 pʰ-i3 βat pʰ-i
0 3
βat pʰ-i
0 3
βat pʰ-u
0 3
βat ʃ-ɨn
0 2
βat pʰ-ɨn
0 2
βat0 a3 βat0 a3 βat0 a3
3 pʰ-ɨn2
DU βat0 pʰ-ʌŋ2 βat0 pʰ-i3 βat0 pʰ-i3 βat0 pʰ-i3 βat0 pʰ-i3 βat0 pʰ-u3 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 pʰ-ɨn2 βat0 a3 βat0 a3 βat0 a3
pʰ-ɨn2
PL βat0 pʰ-ʌŋ2 βat0 pʰ-i3 βat0 pʰ-i3 βat0 pʰ-i3 βat0 pʰ-i3 βat0 pʰ-u3 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 pʰ-ɨn2 βat0 a3 βat0 a3 βat0 a3
pʰ-ɨn2

Table 20 Present transitive paradigm of βat0 ‘hit’

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P 1 2 3
A SG DU PL SG DU PL SG DU PL
1 SG βat0 pʰʌ0-m-ɔŋ1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-ɔŋ1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-ɔŋ1 βat0 m-ɔŋ1 βat0 m-ɔŋ1 βat0 m-ɔŋ1
DU βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 m-i1 βat0 m-i1 βat0 m-i1
PL βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 m-i1 βat0 m-i1 βat0 m-i1
2 SG βat0 pʰʌ0-m-u1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-u1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-u1 βat0 m-u1 βat0 m-u1 βat0 m-u1
DU βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2
pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 m-ɨn1 m-ɨn1 m-ɨn1
PL βat0 pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 βat0 m-ɨn1 βat0 m-ɨn1 βat0 m-ɨn1
3 SG βat0 pʰʌ0-m-ɔŋ1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-u1 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 βat0 m-ɔ4 βat0 m-ɔ4 βat0 m-ɔ4
pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1
DU βat0 pʰʌ0-m-ɔŋ1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-u1 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 βat0 m-ɔ4 βat0 m-ɔ4 βat0 m-ɔ4
pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1
PL βat0 pʰʌ0-m-ɔŋ1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-u1 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 βat0 m-ɔ4 βat0 m-ɔ4 βat0 m-ɔ4
pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1

Table 21 Present negative transitive paradigm of βat0 ‘hit’

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P 1 2 3
A SG [Link] [Link] [Link] [Link] SG DU PL SG DU PL
1 SG βat0 ta4 βat0 ta4 βat0 ta4 βat0 t-ʌŋ1 βat0 t-ʌŋ1 βat0 t-ʌŋ1
pʰ-ʌŋ2 pʰ-ʌŋ2 pʰ-ʌŋ2
[Link] βat0 ta4 βat0 ta4 βat0 ta4 βat0 t-i1 βat0 t-i1 βat0 t-i1
pʰ-i3 pʰ-i3 pʰ-i3
[Link] βat0 ta4 βat0 ta4 βat0 ta4 βat0 t-i1 βat0 t-i1 βat0 t-i1
pʰ-i3 pʰ-i3 pʰ-i3
[Link] βat0 t-i1 βat0 t-i1 βat0 t-i1
[Link] βat0 t-i1 βat0 t-i1 βat0 t-i1
2 SG βat0 ta4 βat0 ta4 βat0 ta4 βat0 t-u1 βat0 t-u1 βat0 t-u1
pʰ-u3 pʰ-u3 pʰ-u3
DU βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2
ta4 pʰ-ɨn2 ta4 pʰ-ɨn2 ta4 pʰ-ɨn2 t-ɨn1 t-ɨn1 t-ɨn1
PL βat0 ta4 βat0 ta4 βat0 ta4 βat0 t-ɨn1 βat0 t-ɨn1 βat0 t-ɨn1
pʰ-ɨn2 pʰ-ɨn2 pʰ-ɨn2
SG βat0 ta4 βat0 ta4 βat0 ta4 βat0 ta4 βat0 ta4 βat0 ta4 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 ta4 βat0 t-a1 βat0 t-a1 βat0 t-a1
3 pʰ-ʌŋ2 pʰ-i3 pʰ-i3 pʰ-i3 pʰ-i3 pʰ-u3 ta4 pʰ-ɨn2 pʰ-ɨn2
DU βat0 ta4 βat0 ta4 βat0 ta4 βat0 ta4 βat0 ta4 βat0 ta4 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 ta4 βat0 t-a1 βat0 t-a1 βat0 t-a1
pʰ-ʌŋ2 pʰ-i3 pʰ-i3 pʰ-i3 pʰ-i3 pʰ-u3 ta4 pʰ-ɨn2 pʰ-ɨn2
PL βat0 ta4 βat0 ta4 βat0 ta4 βat0 ta4 βat0 ta4 βat0 ta4 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 ta4 βat0 t-a1 βat0 t-a1 βat0 t-a1
pʰ-ʌŋ2 pʰ-i3 pʰ-i3 pʰ-i3 pʰ-i3 pʰ-u3 ta4 pʰ-ɨn2 pʰ-ɨn2

Table 22 Past transitive paradigm of βat0 ‘hit’

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 Himalayan Linguistics, Vol 18(1)

P 1 2 3
A SG DU PL SG DU PL SG DU PL
1 SG βat0 pʰʌ0-m-ɔŋ1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-ɔŋ1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-ɔŋ1 βat0 m-ɔŋ1 βat0 m-ɔŋ1 βat0 m-ɔŋ1
ʌŋ2 t-ʌŋ1 ʌŋ2 t-ʌŋ1 ʌŋ2 t-ʌŋ1 ʌŋ2 t-ʌŋ1 ʌŋ2 t-ʌŋ1 ʌŋ2 t-ʌŋ1
DU βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 m-i1 βat0 m-i1 βat0 m-i1
ʌŋ2 t-i¹ ʌŋ2 t-i1 ʌŋ2 t-i1 ʌŋ2 t-i1 ʌŋ2 t-i1 ʌŋ2 t-i1
PL βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 m-i1 βat0 m-i1 βat0 m-i1
ʌŋ2 t-i1 ʌŋ2 t-i1 ʌŋ2 t-i1 ʌŋ2 t-i1 ʌŋ2 t-i1 ʌŋ2 t-i1
2 SG βat0 pʰʌ0-m-u1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-u1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-u1 βat0 m-u1 βat0 m-u1 βat0 m-u1
ʌŋ2 t-u1 ʌŋ2 t-u1 ʌŋ2 t-u1 ʌŋ2 t-u1 ʌŋ2 t-u1 ʌŋ2 t-u1
DU βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 m-ɨn1 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 m-ɨn1 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 m-ɨn1
pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 t-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 t-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 t-ɨn1
ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 t-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 t-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 t-ɨn1
PL βat0 pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 βat0 m-ɨn1 βat0 m-ɨn1 βat0 m-ɨn1
ʌŋ2 t-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 t-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 t-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 t-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 t-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 t-ɨn1
3 SG βat0 pʰʌ0-m-ɔŋ1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-u1 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 βat0 m-ɔ4 βat0 m-ɔ4 βat0 m-ɔ4
ʌŋ2 t-ʌŋ1 ʌŋ2 t-i1 ʌŋ2 t-i1 ʌŋ2 t-u1 pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 t-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 t-a1 ʌŋ2 t-a1 ʌŋ2 t-a1
ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 t-ɨn1
DU βat0 pʰʌ0-m-ɔŋ1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-u1 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 βat0 m-ɔ4 βat0 m-ɔ4 βat0 m-ɔ4
ʌŋ2 t-ʌŋ1 ʌŋ2 t-i1 ʌŋ2 t-i1 ʌŋ2 t-u1 pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 t-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 t-a1 ʌŋ2 t-a1 ʌŋ2 t-a1
ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 t-ɨn1
PL βat0 pʰʌ0-m-ɔŋ1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-u1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 βat0 m-ɔ4 βat0 m-ɔ4 βat0 m-ɔ4
ʌŋ2 t-ʌŋ1 ʌŋ2 t-i1 ʌŋ2 t-i1 ʌŋ2 t-u1 ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 t-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 t-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 t-a1 ʌŋ2 t-a1 ʌŋ2 t-a1

Table 23 Past negative transitive paradigm of βat0 ‘hit’

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P 1 2 3
A SG [Link] [Link] [Link] [Link] SG DU PL SG DU PL
1 SG βat0 pʰʌ0-n-ʌŋ3 βat0 pʰʌ0-n-ʌŋ3 βat0 pʰʌ0-n-ʌŋ3 βat0 n-ʌŋ3 βat0 n-ʌŋ3 βat0 n-ʌŋ3
[Link] βat0 pʰʌ0-n-i3 βat0 pʰʌ0-n-i3 βat0 pʰʌ0-n-i3 βat0 n-i3 βat0 n-i3 βat0 n-i3
[Link] βat0 pʰʌ0-n-i3 βat0 pʰʌ0-n-i3 βat0 pʰʌ0-n-i3 βat0 n-i3 βat0 n-i3 βat0 n-i3
[Link] βat0 n-i3 βat0 n-i3 βat0 n-i3
[Link] βat0 n-i3 βat0 n-i3 βat0 n-i3
2 SG βat0 pʰʌ0-n-u3 βat0 pʰʌ0-n-u3 βat0 pʰʌ0-n-u3 βat0 n-u3 βat0 n-u3 βat0 n-u3
DU βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2
pʰʌ0-n-ɨn3 pʰʌ0-n-ɨn3 pʰʌ0-n-ɨn3 n-ɨn3 n-ɨn3 n-ɨn3
PL βat0 pʰʌ0-n-ɨn3 βat0 pʰʌ0-n-ɨn3 βat0 pʰʌ0-n-ɨn3 βat0 n-ɨn3 βat0 n-ɨn3 βat0 n-ɨn3
SG βat0 pʰʌ0-n-ʌŋ3 βat0 pʰʌ0-n-i3 βat0 pʰʌ0-n-i3 βat0 pʰʌ0-n-i3 βat0 pʰʌ0-n-i3 βat0 pʰʌ0-n-u3 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 pʰʌ0-n-ɨn3 βat0 n-a3 βat0 n-a3 βat0 n-a3
3 pʰʌ0-n-ɨn3
DU βat0 pʰʌ0-n-ʌŋ3 βat0 pʰʌ0-n-i3 βat0 pʰʌ0-n-i3 βat0 pʰʌ0-n-i3 βat0 pʰʌ0-n-i3 βat0 pʰʌ0-n-u3 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 pʰʌ0-n-ɨn3 βat0 n-a3 βat0 n-a3 βat0 n-a3
pʰʌ0-n-ɨn3
PL βat0 pʰʌ0-n-ʌŋ3 βat0 pʰʌ0-n-i3 βat0 pʰʌ0-n-i3 βat0 pʰʌ0-n-i3 βat0 pʰʌ0-n-i3 βat0 pʰʌ0-n-u3 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 pʰʌ0-n-ɨn3 βat0 n-a3 βat0 n-a3 βat0 n-a3
pʰʌ0-n-ɨn3

Table 24 Future transitive paradigm of βat0 ‘hit’

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Himalayan Linguistics, Vol 18(1)

P 1 2 3
A SG DU PL SG DU PL SG DU PL
1 SG βat0 pʰʌ0-m- βat0 pʰʌ0-m- βat0 pʰʌ0-m- βat0 m-ɔŋ1 βat0 m-ɔŋ1 βat0 m-ɔŋ1
ɔŋ1 ɔŋ1 ɔŋ1 ʌŋ2 n-ʌŋ3 ʌŋ2 n-ʌŋ3 ʌŋ2 n-ʌŋ3
ʌŋ2 n-ʌŋ3 ʌŋ2 n-ʌŋ3 ʌŋ2 n-ʌŋ3
DU βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 m-i1 βat0 m-i1 βat0 m-i1
ʌŋ2 n-i3 ʌŋ2 n-i3 ʌŋ2 n-i3 ʌŋ2 n-i3 ʌŋ2 n-i3 ʌŋ2 n-i3
PL βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 m-i1 βat0 m-i1 βat0 m-i1
ʌŋ2 n-i3 ʌŋ2 n-i3 ʌŋ2 n-i3 ʌŋ2 n-i3 ʌŋ2 n-i3 ʌŋ2 n-i3
2 SG βat0 pʰʌ0-m-u1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-u1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-u1 βat0 m-u1 βat0 m-u1 βat0 m-u1
ʌŋ2 n-u3 ʌŋ2 n-u3 ʌŋ2 n-u3 ʌŋ2 n-u3 ʌŋ2 n-u3 ʌŋ2 n-u3
DU βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 m- βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 m- βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 m-
pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 ɨn1 ɨn1 ɨn1
ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 n-ɨn3 ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 n-ɨn3 ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 n-ɨn3 ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 n-ɨn3 ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 n-ɨn3 ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 n-ɨn3
PL βat0 pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m- βat0 pʰʌ0-m- βat0 m-ɨn1 βat0 m-ɨn1 βat0 m-ɨn1
ʌŋ2 n-ɨn3 ɨn1 ɨn1 ʌŋ2 n-ɨn3 ʌŋ2 n-ɨn3 ʌŋ2 n-ɨn3
ʌŋ2 n-ɨn3 ʌŋ2 n-ɨn3
3 SG βat0 pʰʌ0-m- βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-u1 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 βat0 m-ɔ4 βat0 m-ɔ4 βat0 m-ɔ4
ɔŋ1 ʌŋ2 n-i3 ʌŋ2 n-i3 ʌŋ2 n-u3 pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 n-ɨn3 ʌŋ2 n-a3 ʌŋ2 n-a3 ʌŋ2 n-a3
ʌŋ2 n-ʌŋ3 ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 n-ɨn3
DU βat0 pʰʌ0-m- βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-u1 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 βat0 m-ɔ4 βat0 m-ɔ4 βat0 m-ɔ4
ɔŋ1 ʌŋ2 n-i3 ʌŋ2 n-i3 ʌŋ2 n-u3 pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 n-ɨn3 ʌŋ2 n-a3 ʌŋ2 n-a3 ʌŋ2 n-a3
ʌŋ2 n-ʌŋ3 ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 n-ɨn3
PL βat0 pʰʌ0-m- βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-i1 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-u1 βat0 ʃ-ɨn2 βat0 pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 βat0 m-ɔ4 βat0 m-ɔ4 βat0 m-ɔ4
ɔŋ1 ʌŋ2 n-i3 ʌŋ2 n-i3 ʌŋ2 n-u3 pʰʌ0-m-ɨn1 ʌŋ2 n-ɨn3 ʌŋ2 n-a3 ʌŋ2 n-a3 ʌŋ2 n-a3
ʌŋ2 n-ʌŋ3 ʌŋ2 ʃ-ɨn2 n-ɨn3

Table 25 Future negative transitive paradigm of βat0 ‘hit’

244