On Limbu directionals and locative expressions

L'orientation spatiale et les expressions locatives en limbu

Boyd Michailovsky (1)

1 LACITO - Langues et civilisations à tradition orale

The Tama Khola dialect of Limbu (Kiranti, Tibeto-Burman, Nepal) is found to exhibit what has been called "vertical case" ('up at', 'down in') in other Kiranti lanugages, but which is not reported from other Limbu dialects. It appears to be unique among Kiranti languages in distinguishing topographic (uphill/upstream vs downhill/downstream) from gravitational up and down. Thus it has a five-term directional system where other Kiranti languages have a three-term system. The origin of the single locative case marker reported in other Limbu dialects is discussed.

Mots clés: limbu; kiranti; locative; vertical dimension

Domaines: Linguistique

Boyd Michailovsky. On Limbu directionals and locative expressions. Mark W. Post; Stephen Morey; Scott DeLancey. Language and culture in Northeast India and beyond: in honor of Robbins Burling, A-PL 23, 2015, Asia-Pacific Linguistics, 9781922185266 (print book); 9781922185259 (ebook). ⟨halshs-01485295⟩