Dulong texts: seven fully analyzed narrative and procedural texts

• Main Author: LaPolla, Randy J.
• Other Authors: City University of Hong Kong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2024
• Subjects: Arts and Humanities
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/178049
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Dulong is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Gongshan Dulong and Nu Autonomous county in Yunnan, China, by members of the Dulong nationality (pop.: 6,000), and part of the Nu nationality (roughly 6,000 people). The First Township dialect, represented by the texts below, is spoken in Dizhengdang village, in a relatively inaccessible area of the Dulong River valley, just south of the border of the Tibetan Autonomous Region not far from the border of Myanmar (Burma). The affiliations of the language are still unclear. Most scholars put it together with the Jinghpaw language, but there is suspicion that the resemblances are simply due to contact at an earlier period. Certain key types of morphology, such as the reflexive/middle marking, are not shared by Jinghpaw, and are instead shared by the Kiranti languages of Nepal (see LaPolla 1996, 2000b).