The very basics of Tanii syntax : word order (1)

The words in a Tanii sentence have a certain order which is quite different from the word order in English or Hindi. See how puzzling it can be for a non-Tanii speaker:

Mo ngiimi, ngiika lemba hokii tolyiku ho gari pa bagiiku*.
He--me- my village from went down car by carried/brought

In this sentence, the only construction that follows the word order in English is ..... 'my village'...

What does it mean ? Well, simply this :

"He gave me a lift when I was returning from my village."

To explain the rules for this sentence construction alone would require several posts. So let's start here from the very begining, i.e. by outlining the basics of Tanii morphosyntax (word order and sentence construction) in the most simple way:

1. The basic order is Subject-Object-Verb (SOV), that is, Tanii is a verb-final language as are most Tibeto-Burman languages.

Molu yasan mi babindo
S-- -- -O------------ V
They are carrying wood together.

Note 1: Unlike English and many Western languages, it is not always necessary to include a verb.

Insi subu pe ha ?

Is that a mithun (literally. "that mithun + interr. ?")

Siika tarii si hu kii ?
Whose shirt is this ? (lit. 'this shirt whose ?')

Note 2: It is also not necessary to include a pronoun at the begining of every sentence. As a rule, things which are already understood/known or can be deduced from context are often not said. Quite often a simple Object-Verb structure is a complete sentence, ie. the subject is omitted. This is especially true when the subject is a personal pronoun.

Apin diitiiku ha ?
Have you had your lunch/dinner ? (lit. "have already eaten rice ?")

No hokii ?

Where are you coming from (lit. 'where from' ?)

2. Adverbs always occur pre-verbally, although they do not always immediately precede the verb.

Aki hii goropa pido
The dog is barking loudly

Ngo so kiiran adu.
I often come here

3. Adjectives can precede or follow the head noun they qualify.

• labi ala : right hand
• tado tasan: yellow bead or necklace
• ato abi-tarii: own/personal cloth
• kochi haman: bitter vegetable (usual name for the Spiny Sowthisle, Sonchus Asper).
  

But,

• yasan sensii: dried wood
• subu pulu: white mithun
• hime dema: bad/naughty boy
• biidan dara: stiff cliff

Note: a small number of adjectives can occur both before and after a head noun, depending on their use.

anyan niti : new year
niti diiro-yasi : new/modern medicine

Note regarding double adjective (adjective that qualifies another adjective): where English systematically puts it in first position, Tanii rather puts it in second position.

lanchan koman: dark red

pilan ranban: brownish yellow

4. As a rule determiners follow the head noun.

Subu si ano dorrodo

This mithun is very big

But Tanii also has "split determiners". Here, one part precedes the noun while the other part follows it.

hiika hime si

that kid

5. Numerals follow the head noun.

Miyu ako
One person

Subu dornye
Two mithuns

6. When numerals are combined with adjectives, the order is:

Noun-adjective(s)-numeral

Subu atu dore

N---- A --Num.

One mithun calf

alyi anii dorngohe

N----A -----Num.

Five sows/female pigs

alyi-lyinii atu kone

N----A -----A ---Num.

one small female pig.

7. Questions particles occur pre- and post-verbally.

• - a) The question particles or wh- constituents (who, what, when, why, etc.) precede the verb.
  

Molu niida akindo ?
When will they come ?

Mo niido kii Ziro ho dudu ?
How long has he been living in Ziro for ? (lit. since when ?)

• - b) The "yes/no question"particles follow the verb.
  

No aya siido ha ?
Are you alright ?

*Retrieved from "Tanii agun lu'sa" blog.

PB

Grammar

Sentence structure

DA, DO, DU

'DA', 'DO', 'DU' are among the sounds most often heard in Tanii conversation. The reason is, those ‘words’ or particles have two very important grammatical functions which, however should not be confused.

1. Da, du, do as copular verbs or existential verbs

Linguists prefer to call them as copulas, and have noted their presence in many languages. The Tanii copulas “do”, “du”, “da”, in this regard, behave very much like the copula “da” of Japanese language, and occur similarly at the end of the clause or sentence.

San ude ho do.

There is a table in the house (lit. ‘a table lies in the house’)

In the above sentence the copular verb do stands as a single grammatical word, roughly equivalent to the verb "to be". It cannot be seen as a suffixation of the preceding word. The three copulas da, do and du inform about the position, or posture, of the subject.

- da => standing position/posture. Si subu da : Here is a mithun.

- do => lying position/posture. Si tabu sohe do. Here is a snake.

- du => sitting position/posture : Aki hii intosi du. A dog is sitting there.

Note: elements of landscape (forest, mountain, river, ….), houses, buildings, furniture and objects in general are conceptualised as being in a lying posture, whereas plants, esp. those having a straight stem or trunk (bamboos, canes, maize, etc.) are regarded as being in a sitting posture.

Intosi putu puro puye do. There is/lies one big mountain.

Bachin more ho ahi du. Bachin is a fruit that grows in the wild.

The common negative form of the three copular verbs is nyima.

Mo kii aki nyima. He has no dog.

As others verbs, the copular verbs da, do, and du combine with various suffixes inflecting them. Among those are:

Alyin apin diidu doku (do+ku). It's dinner time.

Yo nyima pa apin adin doye (do+ye). there was no meat, only rice was available.

Sii inso dane (da+ne). The cow was here/ There was a cow here.

Sipun ngo ano renge la dato (da+to). These days I have been feeling very tired.

No no ho date he ? (da+te). Where have you been ?

Yani kapyo lala la denki dota (do+ta). Yani is beautiful and sincere too.

Liihi do nii, subu so datii do (da+tii). There are footprints, so (I guess) there was a mithun here.

The past tense of the negative form is nyimane or nyimatii.

Bilo anyan ho siisi ka niti diiro-yasi si, Tanii lemba ho nyimatii.

In olden days there were no modern medicines in Tanii villages.

Other derivations are possible:

Sanii-sanko nyima koda miyu sanko nyikinma.

Without trees there could not be a place for humans to live.

In all cases, these derivated forms of da, do, du should be separated from the nouns, adverbs, prepositions or particles that precede.

2. DO, du as verbal suffixes

The existential verbs da, do, du, must be distinguished from their homophons appearing as verbal suffixations. For, among the many verbal suffixes used in Tanii language to inflect the verb, -do and -du are also found. As they too almost always occur in the last position, the possibility that these suffixes derive historically from the corresponding existential verbs cannot be ruled out. However, today they do not constitute grammatical words, in that they cannot stand alone but are dependent of a root verb that precedes. They are, in fact, part of the “conjugated” (or inflected) form of the verb, often occuring in combination with other suffixes.

Aba yayi lyodo. Daddy is tearing the outer skin of the bamboo.

That -do and -du are verbal suffixes here - and not copular verbs, is demonstrated by the fact that they also inflect the copular verbs themselves:

Subu hii more sansu ho dadu. Mithuns live in forests (in general).

Mo niido kii Ziro ho dudu ? How long has she been living in Ziro for ?

Anyan yanhe ho piilo barne dodu ? How many months are there in a year ? (general statement)

There are also semantic differences : -do and -du as verbal suffixes do not inform about the position of the subject (standing, sitting, lying), but specify the tense, mood or aspect of the verb.

- do :

o marker of the present tense or the present continuous.

No ludo. You are talking/speaking.

o Marker of the proximal past.

Obin ludo mo ami riibitalyi la. Obin said that he would buy a cat.

- du :

o marker of present tense, esp. the present continuous, first pers. sing.

Ngo adu. I'm coming.

o habitual present (used as a general statement to suggest things that occur in the present but not necessarily happening right now).

Dula lo aki randu. One ties dogs with ropes.

To summarize, when writing Tanii it is important that we do not confuse these two sets of words:

- Copular verbs da, do and du should stand alone, separated from the word that precedes:

Nehe baji do ? What time is it ?

Mokii oho hinhe du. She has three children.

- On the contrary, verbal suffixes -do and -du, because of their dependent nature, should be written attached to the verb root or to the adjective root. Here, only the root altogether with its suffix has the status of a grammatical word:

No ludo. You are talking/speaking.

PB

Grammar
Copulas

Customary measures (1) Lengths

In Tanii, as in all traditional measuring systems, short distance units of length are based on the dimensions of the human body: the finger, hand, arm, span, foot and pace. As metrication proceeds in education, trade, administration and science, they are less and less in use. They should not be forgotten however, as they are unlikely to disappear completely from the language. In other places adoption of the metric system took several centuries, and even in countries where it is largely complete nowadays such as for eg. the USA, many people in their daily lives still use the "foot", the "mile", the "pint", the "ounce" or the "gallon"...

The Tanii basic unit of linear measure is the width of one finger. Interestingly, as pointed out by Dani sulu, this unit has got two distinct names in Tanii, the use of which varies according to what is actually measured:

• ha is used for measuring heights of small size.

• Arii hane podoku ?
• How high has the horn grown ? (in finger widths)
  

Behe (or byapu) hanye paye chadoku.
The bamboo shoot has grown to about two fingers widths high.

Byago siiran hii hanye paye riibii mi pole chado.
The post of the front verandah rises two finger widths above the railings (?)

• tiŋ is used for measuring breadths of small size.

Ngo lachi tiŋnge tere ngiika kidi dalyi ho sulu milley boki ninte mah (spelling yet to be checked).
I won't allow even a width of finger from my land for the fencing.

Thus, the smallest series of lengths can be counted this way:

• hahe/haye, or tiŋnge: the width of a finger.
  
• 

• hanye or tiŋnye => 2 fingers: the width of 2 fingers kept together.
• 
• hahiŋhe or tihiŋhe => 3 fingers: the width of 3 fingers kept together.
• 

• haphe or tiŋphe (tiŋpye in Hija) => 4 fingers: the width of 4 fingers kept together.
• 
• The other units are:
  

• naŋnge => palm : a hand-breadth, or the five fingers kept together.

• This unit can be used in combination with finger widths. For example:
  

• Yo aso hii naŋnge la tiŋnye do
• The breadth of that piece of bacon is one hand palm and two fingers.
  
• 
  
• hiŋkhehe => shaftment: the width of the hand and oustretched thumb (roughly equal to 2 palms)
• 
• ladii goye => hand span (1): distance from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the forefinger, when the hand is fully extended.
• 
  
• 
• laso goye => hand span (2): distance from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the middle finger of an outstretched hand.
• 
  
• 

• ladu tuhe/tuye => cubit, forearm: distance from the elbow (ladu miru/ladu milyin) to the finger tips.
• 

• ? : distance from the shoulder to the tip of the middle finger.

• lyeŋnge-khupohe (as spoken in Hari and Bulla) or lyiŋnge-khupohe (as spoken in Hija), or ala lyeŋnge-khupohe/ ala lyiŋnge-khupohe : distance from the shoulder to the fingers of the opposite hand.

• lyeŋnge (Hari, Bulla) or lyiŋnge (Hija), or ala lyeŋnge/ala lyiŋnge=> fathom: the distance between the fingertips of both hands when the arms are raised horizontally on the sides.
  
• 
• dahe/daye => pace: the distance from where one foot is set down to where the other is set down.
• 
• The word danye (two paces or steps) conveys the more general sense of "at a walkable (yet unspecified) distance":
  

Lemba hokii danye dalin la school doda do
The school is located within walking distance/
at a walkable distance from the village.

The above information is still uncomplete. So far the name of the unit for measuring one full arm and shoulder is not known. We also do not know whether the length of joints of fingers is used as a unit, as was for eg. the English "nail" (length of the last two joints of the middle finger). Nor do we know the relationship of one unit to the others: how many fingers for a hand span, how many feet in one pace, how many hands for a fathom, etc. If you have some additional information regarding this topic, kindly share it with us.

PB

Apatani language
customary measures

Division of the day

At least 18 expressions are used in Tanii to distinguish stages of the day and night. As can be seen from the sketch below, these are particularly concentrated at points of transition such as dawn and the darking time of dusk.

1. 1. paro ronge khonii : first crowing of the rooster before dawn
2. 2. paro ronye khonii : second crowing of the rooster.
3. 3. aro jimi jama : dawn (lit. "hazy morning")
4. 4. aro konchi : early morning
5. 5. danyi chadu : sunrise
   
6. 6. aji indu : time for going to paddy field (8: 30-9:30 am)
7. 7. alo apin diidu : lunch time
8. 8. alo liipa : noon
9. 9. alyin dalyi : afternoon
10. 10. alyin apin piichan miidu : dinner cooking time (3-4 pm)
11. 11. aji inii adu : returning from fields (5-6 pm)
12. 12. danyi adu : sunset
    
13. 13. alyin : evening
14. 14. alyin jimi jama : late evening, dusk (lit. "hazy evening").
15. 15. alyin kamo (lit. "dark evening")
    
16. 16. piilo karlindo : moon is appearing in the sky.
17. 17. ayo liipa : middle of the night/midnight
    
18. 18. ayo-yolyan : late in the night (lit."late night").

The day is broadly divided into four periods: aro (morning), alo (day),alyin (evening), ayo (night), each of them further subdivided into several moments. As one may expect, Tanii language is much less specific about time during the night. It is to be noted that there is no specific word for "afternoon", that period of the day (alyin dalyi) being simply named in reference to the evening. The early stages of dawn are marked by a "first crowing of the rooster" (paro ronge khonii), followed by a second crowing (paro ronye khonii) which seems to mark the real dawn. In olden days both were probably important in directing domestic activities. Early morning (aro konchi) begins with a period of morning twilight between darkness and sunrise, and similarly evening begins with a period of evening twilight, when the sun has set but the darkness is not yet complete. Significantly, these moments are named respectively "hazy morning" (aro jimi jama) and "hazy evening" (alyin jimi jama), in reference to the mist cover which is a common sight of the Apatani Valley (see some pictures here) The "hazy evening" is followed by a "dark evening" (alyin kamo) that also marks the transition from day to night. The moment the sun is at its zenith is the "middle of the day" (alo liipa). Symetrically there is a "middle of the night" (ayo liipa), just as in English with "midday" and "midnight". The stages of the day are further delineated with references to routine tasks such as going to and from paddy fields, preparing of having meals.

PB & TT

New year is the time to celebrate

                               &  weave new dreams,

to realise how great was the last year

                              &  cherish the memories,

to wish and pray for a prosperous year ahead

                              & realise new dreams.

                  

Today, yesterday, tomorrow

1. The formation of adverbs refering to past or present days (as well as past or present years) is quite regular in Tanii:

	-lo	-yo	-ro	-lyin	-nyan
a-	alo day	ayo night	aro morning	alyin evening	anyan year
si(i)	si(i)lo today	si(i)yo tonight	si(i)ro this morning	si(i)lyin this evening	si(i)nyan this year
bii	biilyo yesterday	biiyo yesterday night/ last night	biiro yesterday morning/ last morning	biilyin yesterday evening/ last evening	biinyan last year
ko	kolo day before yesterday	koyo day before yesterday night	koro day before yesterday morning	kolyin day before yesterday evening	konyan 2 years ago

The only exception is biilyo (yesterday).

Note: In day-to-day conversation, kolo (day before yesterday) can have a broader sense and convey the meaning of "a few days back".

Ngo Mumbai ho kolo aku.
I arrived in Mumbai a couple of days back.

Another synonym is lonyi-lohin (literally '2-3 days') :

Lonyi-lohin kapyopa, ngo nii mi kapato.
I saw you some days back

Similarly, siinyan-siilo (literally 'this year-today') can be translated as "nowadays".

biinyan means "last year" and konyan "the year before last year" or "two years ago". Taken together, the two words biinyan-konyan convey the meaning of "in past years".

2. For refering to coming days, the formation of compound words is different : here the root -da is used with various prefixes :

D+1	D+2	D+3	D+4
arda	rida	riiboda	riikhiida/riipoda
tomorrow	day after tomorrow	three days hence	four days hence

Further specification (morning, evening, night) is made by adding corresponding words (aro, alyin, ayo). There are 2 exceptions : konda (tomorrow morning) and ri aro (day after tomorrow morning).

	morning	evening	night
D+1	konda tomorrow morning	arda alyin tomorrow evening	arda ayo tomorrow night
D+2	ri aro day after tomorrow morning	rida alyin day after tomorrow evening	rida ayo day after tomorrow night
D+3	riiboda aro 3 days hence morning	riiboda alyin 3 days hence evening	riiboda ayo 3 days hence night

Note: arida and arda-rida (literally" tomorrow-day after tomorrow") are used for counting an unspecified number of days. Both can be translated either as "in coming days" or as " in future".

Arda-rida ngo Korea inchi
I will (surely) go to Korea in future.

The formation of adverbs refering to coming years is based on the same general principle (various prefixes + da), but is not regular. For coming months there are no specific words but cricumlocutions : alyinii piilo => literally 'coming month', alyinii piilo barnye nii (lit. 'the second of coming months'), alyinii piilo barhin nii (lit. 'the third of coming months'), etc.

	DAY	MONTH	YEAR
+1	konda tomorrow	alyinii piilo next month	diirada next year
+2	rida day after tomorrow	alyinii piilo barnye nii two months hence	lonyada two years hence
+3	riiboda	alyinii piilo barhin nii three months hence	loyida (lohida ?) three years hence

Note 1 :
Lonyada could derive from : lo + nye (2) + da.
Loyida might be 'lohida' and thus derive from : lo + hin (3) + da (in Tanii the final n of 'hin' usually drops before l).

Note 2:
The same way arda-rida (literally "tomorrow-day after tomorrow") means "in coming days" or "in future", diira-lonyan (literally "next year-year after next year) can be translated as "in coming years" or " in future". Similarly loyida or lohida (3 years hence) can convey the general meaning of "in coming years".

PB

Apatani grammar
adverbs of time