Topographical Deixis and the Tani Languages of North East India

Abstract

Many if not most Tibeto-Burman languages exhibit a means of referencing the location or trajectory of a referent in terms of one of three topographically-oriented planes: upward, downward and on the same or an unknown level (as a shifting reference point). ... In this paper, I will introduce the term topographical deixis to describe this sort of system as it is found in the Tani languages, which constitute a medium-sized branch of Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, North East India, as well as in small numbers in Tibet (Sun 1993). Although a survey of topographical deixis and related systems in Tibeto-Burman has been initiated and remains ongoing (Post in preparation), in this paper I will mainly restrict discussion to an explication of the system as it operates in those Tani languages which exhibit it. The paper is thus primarily descriptive in intent, and may also, I hope, be used as a benchmark reference for the study of similar and possibly related systems in other North East Indian languages.