Verb stem alternation in Pangwa Tangsa

Tangsa is a very linguistically diverse group spoken on the India-Myanmar border, with around 80 distinct and named varieties, many of which are mutually intelligible but many of which are not. In Myanmar, the Tangsa sub-tribes are grouped under Tangshang Naga.

This paper examines and exemplifies the phenomneon of verb stem alternation, whereby a single verb has two stems, a verbal stem, which is demonstrated to be the ‘base’ or underived form, and a nominal stem which has different form, most frequently a different tone category.

As with other Tibeto-Burman languages, both the forms and the functions of the stem alternations in the Tangsa varieties show considerable diversity. In the Tangsa varieties treated here, one of the stems, which we term the verbal form, is clearly the underived root and the alternate stem is derived from it. The most frequent way of forming an alternate stem is a change of tone category, keeping the vowel and any final consonants the same. In multiple cases in one Tangsa variety there is an alternate stem carrying a different form, and in a related variety there is no alternation between the stems.

The verbal and nominal stems for 151 roots in the Mueshaung and Ngaimong varieties will be compared, and the findings of this comparison will be enhanced by observations of stem alternation from other Tangsa varieties.