Basum
RegionTibet, China
Native speakers
(2,500 cited 1989)[1]
Sino-Tibetan
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
Glottologbasu1243

Basum (autonym: brag gsum 'three cliffs'; Basong 巴松话; Bake[2]) is a divergent Bodish language spoken by about 2,500 people in Gongbo'gyamda County 工布江达县, Nyingtri Prefecture, Tibet, China. Basum is spoken by 13.5% of the population of Gongbo'gyamda County. Glottolog lists Basum as unclassified within Bodish.

Wang (2020) is a grammatical and morphosyntactic description of Basum.[3]

Background

The Basum language is locally known as Bäke (བག་སྐད་), which is derived from brag-gsum skad, meaning ‘the language of the Three Rocks’. There are about 3,000 speakers in Zhoka and Tshongo townships, Gongbo'gyamda County 工布江达县, on the shores of the Basum Lake. Qu, et al. (1989) also reported that Basum is spoken in Cuogao Township 错高乡 and Xueka Township 雪卡乡 of Gongbo'gyamda County 工布江达县, Nyingtri Prefecture, Tibet, China.[4]

Classification

Basum Lake (Basum Tso) in Tibet

Qu, et al. (1989)[1] notes that Basum is mutually unintelligible with and quite different from Gongbu Tibetan (Chinese: 工布话; 11,600 speakers), which is a Central Tibetan language variety closely related to Nyingchi Tibetan (Chinese: 林芝话). Basum is also unintelligible with Niangpu 娘蒲话 (also called Muqu 牧区话), which is a Khams Tibetan language variety spoken by 4,310 people in Jiaxing 加兴 and Niangpu 娘蒲 townships of Gongbo'gyamda County. Qu, et al. (1989:61) notices some lexical similarities between Basum and Cuona Menba (Tawang Monpa), an East Bodish language.[1]

Suzuki & Nyima (2016)[5] consider Basum to be a non-Tibetic language.

Tournadre (2014)[2] classifies Basum (Bake) as an unclassified Bodish language that does not belong to the Tibetic branch. Tournadre (2014: 112) notes that Basum has the negator a-, as opposed to the negator ma- or myi- in Tibetic languages. Also, unlike Tibetic languages, Basum does not palatalize Proto-Bodish *ti- and *si-.

A computational phylogenetic of various languages of Tibet by Jiang (2022) shows that Basum is divergent, and although it shows some similarities with the Medog dialect of Khams Tibetan due to contact, as well as with East Bodish ("Menba" or "Monpa") languages.[6]

Tournadre & Suzuki (2023) suggest that Basum may be related to Dakpa (Tawang Monpa), an East Bodish language, since both languages share many lexical features as well as grammatical morphemes.[4]

Lexicon

Tournadre & Suzuki (2023) lists the following Basum words that have no Tibetic cognates.[4]

GlossBasumClassical Tibetan
sevenˉniːbdun
fourˉpərbzhi
meatˉʔə ȵiːsha
bloodˉkɵʔkhrag
leg´kiːrkang
red´nde ndedmar
stone´tɐ luŋrdo
I´ɦinga
youˉdokhyed, khyod
heˉphokho
negationˉʔɐma

Qu, et al. (1989: 50–51) list the following Basum words with no cognates in neighboring Tibetic languages.[1]

Chinese glossEnglish glossBasum
脚foot, legci¹⁴
酥油yak butterja⁵⁵
盐saltnpo⁵³
一onetɯʔ⁵³
七sevenȵi⁵⁵
走to walknõ⁵³
看to lookɕẽ⁵³
睡to sleepcã¹⁴
坐to sitȵɯ̃⁵⁵
我I (1.SG)hi⁵³
你you (2.SG)nto¹²
他he (3.SG)po⁵³
那thatũ⁵³
多manypi⁵⁵
红rednte¹¹nte⁵³
吝啬stingyphe⁵⁵mu⁵³
一点儿a little, a bitɐ⁵⁵mi⁵⁵
立即soon, quicklya¹¹lu⁵³
全部allnta¹¹le¹⁵
根本basicallyɐ¹¹nɐʔ⁵³
一定definitely, mustsɯ̃¹¹pa⁵³

Other divergent Basum words are (Suzuki & Nyima 2016):[5]

GlossBasum
onetɨʔ
fourbər
fiveŋo
sevenni
you (sg)do
bloodkøʔ
meataȵi
ironl̥ɐʔ
pigpɐʔ

Several hundred Basum lexical items are also documented in Qu & Jing (2017), a comparative survey of Central Tibetan lects.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Qu, Aitang and Gong, Que and Yi, Xi and Jie, Ang 瞿霭堂; 共确; 益西; 结昂. 1989. Wèi cáng fāngyán de xīn tŭyŭ: Bāsōng huà 卫藏方言的新土语——记最近发现的巴松话 Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine. Minzu Yuwen 民族语文 3. 39–61.
  2. 1 2 Tournadre, Nicolas. 2014. "The Tibetic languages and their classification." In Trans-Himalayan linguistics, historical and descriptive linguistics of the Himalayan area. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
  3. ↑ Wang, Sanchuan. 2020. Phonologie et morphosyntaxe du Baké. Doctoral dissertation, Université de Paris 3. (in French)
  4. 1 2 3 Tournadre, Nicolas; Suzuki, Hiroyuki (2023). The Tibetic Languages: an introduction to the family of languages derived from Old Tibetan. Paris: LACITO. p. 680. ISBN 978-2-490768-08-0.
  5. 1 2 Suzuki, Hiroyuki and Tashi Nyima. 2016. ’Bo skad, a newly recognised non-Tibetic variety spoken in mDzo sgang, TAR: a brief introduction to its sociolinguistic situation, sounds, and vocabulary. Fourth Workshop on Sino-Tibetan Languages of Southwest China (STLS-2016). University of Washington, Seattle, September 8–10, 2016.
  6. ↑ Jiang, Huo 江荻 (2022). "Linguistic diversity and classification in Tibet 西藏的语言多样性及其分类". Zhongguo Zangxue 中国藏学. 6. Retrieved 2023-03-16 – via Chinese Tibetology Center 中国藏学研究中心.
  7. ↑ Qu, Aitang 瞿霭堂; Jing, Song 劲松. 2017. Zangyu Weizang fangyan yanjiu 藏语卫藏方言研究. Beijing: Zhongguo Zangxue chubanshe 中国藏学出版社. ISBN 9787802534230.
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