[Tibeto-burman-linguistics] Dictionary of Duhumbi

[T B]

After an initial glitch due to issues with the quality of the
illustrations, I am pleased to announce that the “Duhumbi Dictionary” is
now available for dispatch.

This illustrated dictionary of 284 pages is the third and last publication
resulting from the PhD research that I conducted in Arunachal Pradesh,
India, between 2012 and 2017. The “Grammar of Duhumbi (Chugpa)” (Leiden:
Brill, ISBN 978-90-04-40947-7) is a 763-page grammatical description of the
Duhumbi language. The “Duhumbi Storybook” (Arnhem: Monpasang Publications,
ISBN 90-818610-1-8) is a 219-page book with stories in Duhumbi, translated
in English and Hindi.

Together, these three publications shed light on the Duhumbi language
(a.k.a. Chug Monpa, Chugpa, Western Kho-Bwa, Kho-Bwa, Tibeto-Burman),
spoken by 600 people in the Chug valley, Dirang circle, West Kameng
district, Arunachal Pradesh. The Duhumbi language is not intelligible to
any other language except Khispi (Lishpa), spoken in a village 6 kilometres
away. These publications also provide a rare insight into the history,
culture, customs, habits, religious beliefs, and livelihoods of the Duhumbi
people. As development and changes in the valley are rapid, much of this
information will be lost in the coming years.

The “Duhumbi dictionary” is printed on 90 grams paper in an easy-to-hold
and easy-to-use 17 x 24 centimetre format with a reading ribbon. The
dictionary has an explanation of the pronunciation of Duhumbi and the
Duhumbi alphabet in Roman (English) and Uchen (Tibetan) scripts. The
dictionary also has a reverse English-Duhumbi list. The dictionary has
entries of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and other parts of speech, but also
grammatical morphemes. There are explanations and examples for many of the
entries. Because of the long history of language contact between Duhumbi
and Tshangla, Brokpa, Tibetan and Tawang Monpa, there are many terms from
these languages that entered Duhumbi as loans, and the dictionary will also
be useful for comparative purposes. I wish to apologise for not having been
able to provide Hindi translations for the dictionary entries.

The dictionary is richly illustrated with colour images and contains a link
to an online database where the pictures can be downloaded for larger sized
images. There are pictures of everyday use items, plants and animals,
tools, agricultural practices. Some of the items are so rare now, only a
single example could be found in the whole valley. A few items are not
available at all anymore.

This dictionary is a non-profit publication, and the main goal is to
provide free copies to the speakers of Duhumbi in Arunachal so that they,
and their children and grandchildren, can use it as support to keep their
language alive. For every copy sold at the rate of €50.00, a free copy will
be distributed in Chug. The weight of the dictionary is approx. 650 grams,
estimate for postage €14.30 within Europe, €18.30 outside Europe.

Please advertise this publication among interested individuals or ask your
institute library to order one. All orders and requests can be sent to
monpasang at gmail.com. Thank you!

Tim Bodt.
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