 Oh, hello everyone, my name is Zhang Shuyang, so it's my great pleasure to be here today to give you a brief introduction to Situ Jiarong, a sign language with conservative and complex phonology and morphology. So the presentation is divided into three parts. I'll start by some background information of this language, then the second and the third parts will be a sketch of the phonology and the verbal morphology. So the name Jiarong, which comes from Tibetan and the warm agricultural region of the queen, it's polysemus. Historically, it means the region once ruled by the 18 local chieftains during Ming and Qing dynasties. Nowadays, the term is more often used to refer to the inhabitants of the historical Jiarong region. So they are officially identified as the Jiarong Tibetans by the PRC government. And finally, the term can also be used to designate a very arcade group in the Sino-Tibetan family, that is the Jiarongic languages. These languages are distributed in the mountainous area in southwestern China, so many Ngawa and Gamze autonomous prefectures in Sichuan province. So the Jiarongic group is composed of three branches. We have the western Jiarongic, northern and eastern Jiarong languages. So the eastern Jiarong has another name that is Situ. So Situ and northern Jiarong languages are more closely related to each other and form the Kuo Jiarong subgroup. So the language that we focus on in today's talk is Situ, the eastern Jiarong. The name Situ comes from Chinese, Situ Si, which means the four local chieftains. So Situ language means the language of the four chieftains. Among the three branches in the Jiarongic group, Situ is the most widely distributed one here, so with the largest number of speakers and it also has great internal dialectal diversity, it can be further divided into the northern dialects and the southern dialects. So the northern dialects are mainly distributed in Badkamp County along the Solmong River here. So it is the core region of the Jiarong languages. So these dialects are currently well studied for which we have already some very detailed grammars. Southern Situ dialects are distributed in the south, so in Zanla, Chucheng counties in Nangwa, and some parts of Danba County in Gamze prefecture, but the southern dialects are currently understudied. According to the Lectological Research of Gates, so the number of Situ speakers, I mean both northern and southern dialects, so the number is around 67 to 73,000. However, due to the internal diversity, language vitality may vary according to different dialects, but in general northern Situ dialects are generally unsafe or definitely endangered. These dialects are used mostly by parental generation or up, so they are still transmitted to younger generations but are only used by some children and mainly at home. Normally the children only have a very limited vocabulary. Situ has a very long history of contact with Tibetan and the southwestern Mandarin. For example, there are early Tibetan borrowings which can still reflect the Tibetan second post-fix letter A's, so like in this one, China's customs. Intense contacts with Chinese took place after 1950s, so today the influence is from Chinese continue to increase due to some social economic reasons. I started learning Situ since 2015, so I focused on the Browar dialect, so the name Browar comes from Tibetan, which means between the cliffs, so this dialect is distributed in the border area between Chosya here, West Jeonongic language, and the Situ here. So as you can see in this map, there are six villages here in the Browar township, so the inhabitants here are Situ speakers. There are another three villages located in another river, so they are speakers of Chosya. Here are some photos from my field work, so the two pictures show typical landscape of Browar, so with steep mountains, deep valleys, and swift flowing rivers. The first one is a Situ house located in a very high mountain, so you can see it is surrounded by clouds. These photos are taken during my visit to Browar villages, so the house is located at the foot of the mountain. You can also see the picture in the bottom right corner. Here we have a local dish, a kind of flat noodle soup with fermented salt-turning leaves and sausage. So if you like, you can also add as much chili as possible, so just like the local people do. So now we are moving on to the phonological and morphological sketch of Browar. This is a very special northern Situ dialect, exhibiting many morphophonological ambiguities, so it is not as streamlined as the other Situ varieties, so let's see it together. So Jiarong geek languages are known for their conservative phonology, in particular for their complex initial consonant clusters. Situ dialects also share this feature, so here in Browar, syllables with zero onset are very marginal and are only found with particular prefixes. Normally a syllable contains an onset, so which can have one up to four initial consonants, so for example, the second syllable of this ideal phon, Pstupstwa, has a very complex initial cluster, so here we have four initial consonants. In addition, at the inflectional level, due to the addition of particular suffixes, Situ also allows complex codas, for example, here the first percent dual form of the verb to tie up, it is pronounced as grot, so here we have a complex coda of two consonants due to the addition of the dual first percent suffix. There are in total 43 consonant phonemes in Browar, all can occur as simple onset, but I think the most distinctive feature is that here the plosives and affricates have a four-way contrast between voiceless, unaspirated, voiceless, aspirated, voiced, and prenasalized series, which is a typical gyronchic feature, but in general the consonant system of Situ is simpler than those of northern and western gyronchic, so Situ has lost most of the uvula consonants. There are eight vowel phonemes in Browar Situ, and the vocaliic structure of Browar distinguishes three aperture levels, high, mid, low, and at each level it distinguishes the central grade from the north central grade, so the north central grade includes both front and back vowels. Here are some examples. So we observe that the mid front vowel A has a conditional variant here before vela codas as in duk duk, so the same goes for the open front vowel ye here, which also has variant ye before vela codas. This can be actually demonstrated by some morphophonological criteria. For example, verbs ending in ye like ve to du, so we're followed by the first person singular suffix n, which is vela, so it is phonetically realized as beyond. So another criterion is vowel alternation, so we observe that for example ye followed by a vela coda has the same alternation pattern as A in an open syllable or followed by other codas. The distinction between the central and north central grade is fundamental with which is the principle rule of vowel alternations attested in various morphological processes. So in Browar a verb can have two to four different verb stems, but vowel alternation only allowed to ablute the grace, so that is between the central and north central grades. Here I quickly show some examples. The first verb gasitas is a two stem verb, so we can see that the central vowel e in stem one shifts to the north central front vowel ye in the stem two sts. The second verb has three stems, but we observe that vowel alternations only happen between the central vowel e here in stem one and the back vowel e in the other two stems, so the same situation is also found with the third verb ganane and the fourth verb ganastabye, so we'll see more details about verb stem alternations later. Tone and accent are also very important in situ dialects, so at the lexical level Browar presents a tripartite opposition between the final penultimate and initial accent, final accent contrast between a high tone and a falling tone, so here are two minimal pairs. Dushbi with the high tone means seed, but dushbi with the falling tone means wheat bran. Gasso so with the high tone means to think, but gasso so with the falling tone means be alive. Penultimate accent is typically associated with reduplicated syllables as in kajiji, sigada, and kei pailolo, butterfly. Words with initial accents are less frequent and are often morphologically complex, as in this one is gubonan. In verbal inflections, the default tone of verb stems are subject to modifications when adding different kinds of prefixes, so the phenomenon is called accentual mobility. Generally speaking, for a verb stem with the high tone, the final accent moves to the penultimate when the conjugated form has more than two syllables. For instance, the verb stem nza with a high tone when prefixed by rara in perfective, the final accent first remains unchanged in the bisilabic form. However, in the tricilabic form raden dan and in the kodri-syllabic form meraden dan, you did not eat it, so the accent shifts to the penultimate. Some prefixes are with accents, so the addition of this kind of prefix neutralizes the tone of the verbal stem. For example, the sensory prefix na itself is accented, so it neutralizes the falling tone of the verb stem in zin, so we have a bisilabic sense reform pronounced as nanzio, he or she or it is eating. From tricilabic forms, the initial accent shifts to the second position, and we have a tricilabic sense reform pronounced as naden zian, you are eating. So now we are in verbal morphology, so the verbal morphology of situ also reflects a general characteristic of the Ho-Jarongbi group, namely the polysynthetic feature with strong tendency to prefixation. But the non-concatenative morphology is as important as prefixation, so in dialectic like Brawash, rich stem changes are what characterize their verbal morphology. In addition, Brawash has a unique feature that is the left-word spreading of the old vocalism in the prefixing chain. So in example one, we have a verb stem containing a lexicalized intransitive visor or here. So the vocalism all spreads leftward and simulates all the three preceding prefix, so we got a form pronounced as monotoken. And this table shows a simplified verbal template of Brawash situ. The affixes added to the verb stem can be divided into three domains. So the domain closest to the basic verb stem is a series of derivational prefixes. Then we have the personal domain, including both personal prefixes and suffixes. The farthest from the basic verb stem is a tense aspect modality evidentiality prefixes as well as two associated emotion prefixes. So sentence two contains a complex verbal form indicated by the red color, but we can decompose it step by step. So this form is based on the root ngig to chase, so from which we have an ambulative verb nanzhenggig to chase in all directions derived by adding a prefix sna and the reduplicating the root. Then based on this ambulative verb, we derive a causative verb by adding the prefix sna nanzhenggig cause to chase in all directions. Then we add the translocative motion prefix xia, so adding a translocative motion to the causative verb, which means cause to go to chase in all directions. Then the verb is conjugated for perfective, marked by the prefix n and the stem two, sanzhenggig. And finally, the conjugated form takes the closed or nominalized ge, signifying that this is a piece of subordination. So due to the time limits, the folding parts will focus on two aspects, person marking and stem alternations, but actually they are associated with diverse aspects of verbal morphology in bluish, so including the TAM and derivation. Finite verbs in bluish have obligatory person marking. Intransitive verbs distinguish first, second, and third person, and singular, dual, and plural number. So although personal pronouns have an inclusive, exclusive distinction here, this distinction is not expressed in verbal morphology. The person and number suffixes are related to independent personal pronouns, but we also have two prefixes that are not related to the pronouns, so that is d and g. It should also be mentioned that the singular, second person suffix n, it cannot formally appear if the verb stem ends in a closed syllable. So there is a split in third person marking, sensitive to TAM. In non-past, Bravais distinguishes between the dual and plural third person, so marked by two suffixes, whereas in past we only have a non-singular third person indicated by the prefix. So here are two examples. In example three, in factual non-past, the dual third person is marked by the suffix, but in example four, we have a past imperfective situation, so the plural third person is marked by the prefix good. Transitive verbs index two arguments, so the table shows the factual non-past paradigm, so the row indicates patient and column's agent, so most of the person and the number markers are exactly the same as in the intransitive paradigms, but now we have four new affixes. So the forms with the first person agent and the second person patient are marked by a new prefix star here, and those with a second person agent and the first person patient are marked by an additional prefix here. Second, the suffix o marked singular third person agent and in similar to the singular second person suffix no, o cannot be present after closed syllable verb stems. So as you may have already noticed, there is a prefix o present in nearly half of the forms in the transitive paradigm, including those marked by the prefix go, so this is the inverse marker. The presence of the inverse marker o is sensitive to a person hierarchy, so in which the first person ranks highest than the second person, and finally we have the third person. So in the cases where the patient outruns the agent in the hierarchy, namely the cases of two on one, three on one, and three on two, the inverse marker occurs. On the contrary, the one on two, one on three, and the two on three forms are direct and are no marked. So here are some examples. Example 5a has a direct situation with the first person, with the first person acting on a second person patient, so we have the prefix star, so one on two prefix star, but in 5b we have an inverse case with a second person agent acting on a first person patient, so we have the two on one prefix go containing the inverse marker o. So note that the inverse marker o also spreads leftward and simulates initial interrogative prefix mer. The principle also works in mixed situations, so 6a is a direct form and is no marked, where 6b is an inverse case with a third person agent acting on a first person patient, so indicated by the prefix or merged with the preceding prefix, a perfected prefix. In many other Jairon languages, like for example in Japook, the person hierarchy further distinguishes between the proximate third person and the obviative third person, so noted as three prime. The opposition between proximate and obviative is often affected by semantic or pragmatic factors, such as the animacy of the reference, so in example 7 we have an animate agent, the boy, and an inanimate patient, patient skin, so the verb to hide is a direct form, however in example 8 we have an obviative third person agent, the water, which is inanimate and the proximate third person patient, which is animate the boy, sorry him, so the verb to take is marked by the inverse prefix were, so which is cognate with the prefix or in Brauache. Such opposition between the proximate and obviative third person has been neutralized in Brauache, in 9 we have an animate third person agent, she acting on an inanimate patient, the lunch, the verb is a direct form and index the singular third person agent, and in 10 we have the opposite case, so with an inanimate agent the herb acting on an animate patient him, but the verb is still marked as direct, so note that in in 10 since the verb stem ends in a closed syllable, so the singular third person suffix who cannot be present, so again we have the split person marking with two third person participants, so like the intransitive verbs, transitive verbs also distinguish between the dual and the plural third person in non-past marked by personal suffixes, but in the past we only have the non-singular third person marked by prefix or, so in example 11 the plural third person agent the verbs are marked by suffix near in the verb, so in example 12 the agent the two hand women are marked by the prefix or in the verb, so they are non-singular third person agent, so maybe you have already noticed that verbs in the person marking paradigms appear in different stem forms, so indicated by the small capitalized roman numerals here, so this phenomenon is called stem alternations and they're nearly ubiquitous in in brawash and observed in both inflectional and derivational morphology, so I start by inflectional stem alternations which occur in different TAME or argument indexation categories, as shown in this table stem changes are actually as important as prefixes in TAME marking, so the distribution of stem 1 and stem 2 generally reflects the opposition between non-past and past, so but we have two exceptions, the euphoric present selects the stem 2 but inferential past including inferential perfective and imperfective selects stem 1, the stem 2 is derived from stem 1 most often by tonal inversion, so for example ganpard to cell distinguishes two stems, so we have the stem 1 part which is with the high tone and its stem 2 is generated by tonal inversion, so we have mpard with the falling tone, in example 13a and the stem 1 part is selected for the factional non-past and in 13b which is a past perfective situation, so we can see that it is a stem tune part that is used, for some verbs tonal alternation is accompanied with vowel alternation, so for the second verb gajuk to run, the second stem the stem 2 is derived by both tonal and vowel alternations, so in example 14a and the stem 1 appears in sensory and in 14b in euphoric present, we have the stem 2 rujik, so gajuk, i am running in brawaj a considerable number of verbs have more than two inflectional stems, this is different from most described situ dialects normally distinguishing at most two inflectional stems, so verbs with multiple inflectional stems in brawaj are usually found with particular syllable structures, so we are first to take a look at of the verbs distinguishing the stem 1 prime, stem 1 prime is sensitive to phonological environment, so verbs having stem 1 prime are with a high tone and either have an open syllable or ends in stock coda, so in this case the stem 1 prime is distinguished from the stem 1 by a vowel shift to the non-central grade in a high tone non-suffixing environment, so here we have an example so the verb gaviet to put on clothes is a three stem verb so we can see that in the factual non-past paradigm here the stem 1 what with central grade is used in the forms with person in degradation and suffixes since the verb ends in a stock coda a singular second and the third person forms have no personal suffixes here so in these two forms we have the stem 1 prime yet with the non-central grade stem 2 prime and in the opposite equivalent of stem 1 prime so the principle is the same normally an open syllable verb with fulling tone is possible to have an additional stem 2 prime so this time it is the open syllable with fulling tone the syllable structure the stem 2 prime is distinguished from stem 2 due to the tonal inversion from the stem 1 so stem 2 in this case has a high tone so in a similar way inside all the forms potentially selecting the stem 1 those without a person in degradation suffix will have stem 2 prime so this can be illustrated by the perfective paradigm of the verb gaviet to do so stem 2 what with the central grade appears in the forms with person suffixes here as previously explained the non-singular third person of a transitive verb is marked by the prefix so we have no personal suffix here so this form the non-singular third person in perfective this form selects a stem 2 prime yet with a non-central grade the revision of stem alternations are rare in other jargon geek languages but are frequent in bluish so for the derivations for the derivations requiring stem alternations the rule can be described as a primary unidirectional tonal alternation accompanied with vowel alternation in the process is requiring alternations to the high tone an open syllable or stop ending verb shifts to shifts additionally to the non-central grade in the derived forms so for instance in the derived auto-benefactive verb gaviet to do for oneself we have the high tone and non-central grade and the second example is an applicative derived by the suffix term so the basic in transitive verb gattet is with the central grade and the falling tone but we have the derived form with the high tone and non-central grade as to the derivational process is requiring alternation to the falling tone an open syllable verb stems have an additional vowel alternation to the central grade so for example by adding the prefix sa to the verb gaviet to do we have the applicative noun sava so the place to do or the instrument with which we do so the applicative noun sava is with the falling tone and the central grade the second example is a reciprocal verb gonadzeze so this verb is derived by the prefix or and the redeplication so it also presents alternation to the falling tone and the central grade with regard to the basic form ganadze which is with the high tone and non-central grade so in summary from stem alternation we actually see different aspects of verbal morphology in blauertz-stu so at the derivational level the derived form may show stem alternations with regard to the basic form then at the inflectional level different inflectional stems occurs in different TAME and person indexation categories moreover since stem alternations in blauertz are also correlated with syllable structure basically if the derived verb has a different rhyme due to derivational stem changes so it can have a different inflectional alternation pattern this can be illustrated by the verb gaviet so we can see the basic verb gaviet to do distinguish the stem to prime but the derived auto-benefactive verb to do for oneself this and the derived form distinguish stem one prime so i'll stop here and the interesting aspects of sutu are far more than those introduced in today's talk and i think that the complexity of gyronchic languages are also the reason and why they are so fascinating so i will end today's talk with this beautiful photo of the barricam city the capital of the gyron world i hope that one day you can also come to barricam and feel the charm of sutu gyron and also the hospitality of the local people so thank you very much and thanks for watching