Discussion on the names for the Western rGaylrong languages

[Lhundrop]

>> Dear Guillaume,
>> 
>> Thank you for including me in the list and Hi to the members in the loop.
>> 
>> I am very interested in this topic for a number of reasons. One being that I am a native speaker of Ergong/sTau/Daofu and I have been doing Language and Horpa/Daofu Culture documentation for some years. Given the fact that there is a lack of consensus among linguists interested in rGaylrongic languages in terms of what terms/names to use to refer to this particular languages and its speakers I am confronted with difficulties in choosing the appropriate terms for the language and the Horpa people. 
>> 
>> In the past I preferred Ergong ( Not knowing that Ergong is an entirely made up and offensive name, until now, would like to know why this is so.), here is my etymological analysis of Ergong---local legends suggest its origin could be Tibetan (ཡར་སྒོ)༷ YarSgo-it was then phonologically translated into Chinese-尔龚(Ergong)-then, not knowing its Tibetan orgin, researchers adopted the Chinese Pinyin system (er gong)--thus Ergong has become a popular choice among researchers. However, the fact of the matter is that native speaker of Ergong, either from Daofu County, or Brag 'go  (Ch. Luhuo) County, or DanBa County are oblivious of the term themselves, even though the term Ergong and its related folk ledgends are popular among those literate Ergong speakers.
>> 
>> Ergong is often referred to and understood as rTau/Daofu by/among the larger Tibetan cultural areas, most often by Chinese scholars as well. However, as pointed out by Dr. Guillaume it may sound sino-centric and the term Daofu language somehow excludes Ergong spoken by people outside the geographical boundaries of Daofu County. The Tibetan spelling sTau denotes a similar assumption of Daofu spoken only within the boundaries of the jurisdiction of Daofu County. 
>> 
>> 6) There is an alternative name for the language rəsɲəske which would be translitterated into Tibetan as Risnyuskad. This is the preferred name for the language by our collaborator Lobsang Nima but I wonder if other people use it too.
>> 
>> rəsɲəske---rəsɲə,  ske is language, i wonder what rəsɲə is? never heard of this term, would be interesting to know.
>> 
>> Tre-Hor which appears to be relatively well known among Tibetan people from everywhere and which designates an area larger than Rtau rdzong itself. It is a very strange name (Tibetan words do not normally contain tr-), but I personally would favour it.
>> 
>> Above is exactly right. I wonder if people are aware that Tre-Hor is often used to refer to the Number third-region, out of four, of Luhuo County-the cultural region of Tre-Hor was one of the ancient Five Hor States. The Tre-Hor people don't speak Ergong-they speak what is similar to Kham Tibetan and culturally they are more similar to Tibetans in further north to Ganzi cCounty and Dege County. 
>> 
>> I personally prefer Horske; ske means language in Tibetan-and Ergong speakers also useske to refer to language, why Hor? because a) Daofu and Luhuo have the majority of Ergong speakers--they still speak Ergong as mother-tongue; b) Daofu and Luhuo are the center of the ancient Five Hor States--thats where Hor comes from; c) natives of Daofu and east Luhuo are culturally referred to as Hor people or some people use Horpa people--pa here is redundant  as it means people itself, d) the denotation of Hor is transborder--encompassing all the cultural Hor area-which seem to be the home of DaoFu/Ergong/Stau language- which are apart now. 
>> 
>> 
>> Looking forward to hearing more suggestions and comments.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Cheers
>> Tunzhi/Herbert

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