Tibeto-Burman Dental Suffixes: Evidence from Limbu (Nepal)

International audienceLimbu is a language of the Kiranti or East Himalayish group of Tibeto-Burman, spoken in far eastern Nepal and neighboring India. Limbu verbal bases can be straightforwardly reconstructed with the forms CV, CVC, or CVCC. Word-families are presented as evidence of a no-longer productive system of verb-root suffixation, in which the suffix -t served to form derivatives with applicative/directive sense, and -s to form derivatives with causative sense. There is also evidence for reflexive -s. These observations apply quite regularly in word-families, In CVCC bases, the postfinal C can only be t or s, suggesting that all are suffixed. However these include many verbs which do not belong to word-families, and do not appear to have either applicative, causative, or middle/reflexive sense,"Deponent" verbs with suffixed morphology indicating object agreement with a non-agentive actant but no agent all have the form CV(C)t, , consistent with the presence of the applicative suffix. Ex. cikt- 'to feel cold'.Word-families in which non-causative verbs with unaspirated stop initials have causative partners with aspirated initials are evidence for one or more kinds of prefixal derivation. Prefixal derivation is widely observed in Tibeto-Burman