/v/ can be realized as its voiceless equivalent [f], before a voiceless consonant. /v/ is heard as [v] in middle position, and may also be heard as a bilabial fricative [β], in free variation.
[f] can appear in Chinese loans, and can also be heard as a voiceless bilabial fricative [ɸ].
/r/ can be heard as a voiceless retroflex [ʂ] before a voiceless consonant. /r/ is heard as [r] in middle position and can also be heard as a voiced retroflex [ʐ] in free variation.
Data adapted from Lin (1993).[5] Columns indicate the patient, and rows the agent. For example, the item tə-no-n in row "2sg" and column "3" means "you(singular) drive him/her/it/them.two/them".
Some Situ dialects have rich stem changes. For example, stem alternations is quasi-ubiquitous in Brag-bar, observed in both inflectional and derivational morphology.
Inflectional stem alternations in Brag-bar occur in different TAME and argument indexation categories.[6] Generally speaking, stem I is used in most non-past categories as well as inferential past, and stem II in non-inferential past and egophoric present contexts. In most cases, stem II is derived from stem I by tonal inversion between a high and falling tones, sometimes with vowel alternations between the central grade (ə, ɐ, a) and non-central grade (i/u, e/o, iɛ).
Verbs with particular syllable structures distinguish stem I’ or stem II’, sensitive to phonological environment. Verbs with an open syllable and a high tone, as well as those with a closed syllable ending in a stop, distinguish stem I’ from stem I, occurring in non-suffixing non-past and inferential forms; verbs with an open syllable and a falling tone may distinguish stem II’ from stem II in non-suffixing non-inferential past and egophoric present forms. Stem I’ and stem II’ are formed by a unidirectional vowel shift to the non-central grade.
Stem changes are also observed in Brag-bar derivational morphology, governed by a unidirectional tonal alternation rule, either to a high or to falling tone. Tonal alternations are often accompanied with vowel changes, of which the direction is likely to be correlated with the verb stem’s syllable structure. For open syllable verb stems, alternations to high tone happens with vowel shift to the non-central grade, whereas that to falling tone co-exists with vowel shift to the central grade.
Zhang and Fan (2020)[7] show that the Brag-bar terminology preserves indirect traces of the Omaha kinship terminology, characterized by a cross-parallel distinction and skewing rules. Omaha skewing is directly observed in the Japhug terminology and might once have existed in Tangut.[8]
^Lin, Xiangrong 林向荣 (1993). Jiāróngyǔ yánjiū 嘉戎语研究 [A Study on the rGyalrong Language] (in Chinese). Chengdu: Sichuan minzu chubanshe.
^Zhang, S. (2018). "Stem alternations in the Brag-bar dialect of Situ Rgyalrong". Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area. 42 (2): 294–330. doi:10.1075/ltba.18009.zha. S2CID135379266.
^Zhang, Shuya; Fan, Jingming (2020). "Brag-bar kinship system in synchronic and diachronic perspectives". Bulletin of SOAS. 83 (3): 479–503. doi:10.1017/S0041977X2000261X. S2CID229170622.
^Jacques, Guillaume (2012). "The Tangut Kinship System in Qiangic Perspective". In Hill, Nathan (ed.). Medieval Tibeto-Burman Languages IV. Leiden: Brill. pp. 211–257.
