Speaker’s rectifying particle Hearer’s agreement particles

This is from a closing statement of a letter which seeks to convince the uncles to give a helping hand to weak grandma. Writer is in Kathmandu and the uncles are in the village.

10.2.8 Speaker’s rectifying particle

Unlike the previous particle de ek the speaker’s rectifying particle atta SRP occurs at the beginning of a speech act sentence. Speaker refutes the assertion of the hearer or a third person and gives his own superior opinion. He may rectify his own earlier statement too. The following examples illustrate this. 10.66 raŋ-la mi tɕik-ki ɕok si-kuk. 2SG-DAT man INDF-ERG come[IMP] say-PROG;VIS atta mit-sir-et. SRP NEG-say-INCH ‘A man says to you, “Come” No, in fact he doesn’t.’ 10.67 ni u-la ajekp-e utsi khan ʈ-e phits-e dzii-pa bek=ka that-DAT ajekpa-ERG EXPR what-GEN child-GEN beauty-HUM1 COP=Q t ɕhi-pa bet. ni phits-e lel-la dzii ʈhaa ni say-NMLZ;Q AUX child-ERG response-DAT beautiful become DM pha tha ŋ ma tɕem-m-e phitsa bet tɕhi-pa bet. father and mother with-F2-GEN child COP say-NMLZ;Q AUX ni jaŋ ajekp-e atta dzii-na dzii-tɕe CONTR2 ajekpa-ERG SRP be.beautiful-NFNT1 be.beautiful-SBJV taa-p-e ɕʏ ɕʏ ʏt min-tuk tɕhi-pa bet. TE70 fulfill-NMLZ;Q-GEN trace trace INCLN NEG-EXIST.VIS say-NMLZ;Q AUX ‘Ayekpa said to her, “Where does the beauty of you child come from?” She replied saying, “As for my beauty, I am a child who has father and mother.” Then Ayekpa said, “Quite the contrary, I do not actually see any trace whatsoever where the beauty has come from.”’ The debate continues and the smart girl finally outwits Ayekpa.

10.2.9 Hearer’s agreement particles

If the hearer agrees he uses one of the following particles: lasso honorific, lawu, joŋ. In connection with commands these particles are used only with children. I use the same grammatical tag for all three particles: hearer’s agreement particle, HAP. Consider the following examples. 10.68 ŋ-e pajisak bin joŋ jo=kaŋ? lasso 1SG-ERG money give intend EXIST=SHC HAP[HON] ‘I’ll give you some money, is it okay?’ Or: ‘I’ll give you some money, okay?’ ‘Okay.’ 10.69 t ɕhu khur-let jo=kaŋ? lawu water bring-SCI EXIST=SHC HAP ‘Go and bring some water, will you?’ ‘I’ll do it.’ In addition to these two particles in 10.68 and 10.69 there is one more particle that marks the hearer’s agreement to speaker’s request. This particle may occur without the summoning for hearer’s confirmation particle, SHC. However, the speaker does make a request of some kind to the hearer. The particle is joŋ. This particle is less frequent than the other two. The next example comes from a text which describes the early history of Lhomis. The story has rather violent turns. The hearer finally consents to kill the third person in this story but only after a long episode of speaker making polite requests and promising all kinds of rewards. 10.70 waɕɕi kuttɕi set-na tir-ro tɕhi ɕu-wa dʑap. please please kill-NFNT1 give-AID do;VBZR[IMP] request-NMLZ;Q VBZR[PST] hi-ni pupu tsʏntɕuŋ-ki joŋ tɕhi-pa bet. TE17 this-ABL pupu tsʏntɕung-ERG HAP say-NMLZ;Q AUX ‘Mintɕung Ngøruk begged saying, “Please do kill him.” Then Pupu tsʏntɕung said, “Okay, I’ll do it.”’

10.2.10 Confirmation