Basum language

Basum
Region	Tibet, China
Native speakers	(2,500 cited 1989)[1]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Bodish (unclassified) Basum; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Glottolog	basu1243[2]

Basum (autonym: brag gsum 'three cliffs'; Basong 巴松话; Bake^[3]) 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.

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 (Qu, et al. 1989).

Classification

Basum Lake (Basum Tso) in Tibet

Qu, et al. (1989) 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.

Suzuki & Nyima (2016)^[4] consider Basum to be a non-Tibetic language.

Tournadre (2014)^[3] 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-.

Lexicon

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

Chinese gloss	English gloss	Basum
脚	foot, leg	ci¹⁴
酥油	yak butter	ja⁵⁵
盐	salt	npo⁵³
一	one	tɯʔ⁵³
七	seven	ȵi⁵⁵
走	to walk	nõ⁵³
看	to look	ɕẽ⁵³
睡	to sleep	cã¹⁴
坐	to sit	ȵɯ̃⁵⁵
我	I (1.SG)	hi⁵³
你	you (2.SG)	nto¹²
他	he (3.SG)	po⁵³
那	that	ũ⁵³
多	many	pi⁵⁵
红	red	nte¹¹nte⁵³
吝啬	stingy	phe⁵⁵mu⁵³
一点儿	a little, a bit	ɐ⁵⁵mi⁵⁵
立即	soon, quickly	a¹¹lu⁵³
全部	all	nta¹¹le¹⁵
根本	basically	ɐ¹¹nɐʔ⁵³
一定	definitely, must	sɯ̃¹¹pa⁵³

Other divergent Basum words are (Suzuki & Nyima 2016):^[4]

Gloss	Basum
one	tɨʔ
four	bər
five	ŋo
seven	ni
you (sg.)	do
blood	køʔ
meat	aȵi
iron	l̥ɐʔ
pig	pɐʔ

References

↑ Qu et al. 1989
↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Basum". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
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.
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.

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 tŭŭ: Bāsōng huà 卫藏方言的新土语——记最近发现的巴松话. Minzu Yuwen 3. 39-61.

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[1] Qu et al. 1989

[Glottolog-2] Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Basum". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

[Tournadre2014-3] 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.

[SuzukiNyima2016-4] 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.