I've recently been trying to focus more on my dissertation at the expense of my regular posting. My apologies, but I hope you'll understand that I really have to write this sucker. There are a ton of tantalizing jobs out there right now for which I am unable to apply. I'm afraid if I don't write it soon there will be none when I eventually do finish. 1) Xinhua, C's news service announced that reconstruction has been completed in Yushu. I myself am skeptical. That would represent some serious steps forward in the last four months. It's not that C is incapable of making such giant leaps, it's more that things were still so far from complete when I was there last, that I have trouble believing that reconstruction really is complete already. I'll go back next summer (it's too cold now) and update you. 2) Here's a little saying from Khams that I learned the other day: ja ma gi la pa tsei ma (ja ma gi lag pa tsha ma). The saying itself is fun, though not particularly illuminating: "the cook's hands don't get hot." But there's a fin little grammar point worthy of mention. At least in Skye dgu (Jyegu,Jjiegu, choose whichever Romanization makes you most comfortable) the dialect (known as ga skad, pronounced gaw kay where the /k/ is an unaspirated and voiceless consonant) removes auxiliaries for the negatives of general and generalizable situations. This is really interesting to me. Similarly, if you want to ask someone if something is far away you may ask thag ring e 'dug (pronounced something like taw rain e doh… for that last bit, think about Homer Simpson's famous D'oh!). If the place is close, your respondent might say thag ma. That's almost like saying "it's not a distance" I think that's neat. 3) WeChat is a really interesting space in which to examine the diffusion of ideas within the Tbtn cultural realm. More on this in the future perhaps. 4) If you aren't on the AAS-Tib. list, OR looking at my WeChat, AND interested in downloading parts of Hor gtsang 'Jigs med's Mdo smad lo rgyus chen mo "A Big/Great History of History in A mdo," check out the following website: http://sangdhor.com/blog_c.asp?id=12669&a=nome That's all for now. As worldly expats are apt to say: Ch
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About TimAs you can see elsewhere on this webpage, I conduct research on ethnic minorities in western China. This blog offers semi-academic musings on the minutiae of daily life out here--the sort of information otherwise destined for footnotes. Categories |