Himalayan Linguistics

This paper describes the usage of the verb snang in the Zhollam dialect of Gagatang Tibetan, spoken in Weixi County, Diqing Prefecture, Yunnan, China, with comparison to other verbs. The form snang in the Zhollam dialect is pronounced as /¯n̥ɔŋ/ and it is mainly employed as follows: 1) copulative usage: for equational and/or identificational functions for a non-self-oriented speech without any specific evidentiality; 2) existential usage: for both the existence of the subject and the speaker’s intimate awareness of that existence; 3) evidential usage as a verbal suffix: for representing the visual experience for a speech. Of these usages, the first usage is unique to the Zhollam dialect among the Tibetan dialects.