Dissertation Research: The Dolakhali Dialect and the Development of Newari Morphosyntax

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Dolakhali is a hitherto little known dialect of Newari, a Tibeto- Burman language of Nepal. It is closely related to the better- known Kathmandu dialect of the same language, but it has strikingly different verb morphology, and the two dialects are mutually unintelligible. Products of this project include a grammatical description of Dolakhali and the data for a comparative study that will focus on the divergent morphosyntactic systems of the Dolakhali and Kathmandu dialects. The primary areas for comparison are the structure of relative clauses and nominalizations, clause chains and the grammaticalization of verbs to auxiliaries, and finite verb morphology. The close genetic relationship of Dolakhali and Kathmandu Newari, as well as the existence of written Kathmandu Newari texts dating back to the fourteenth century provide an excellent basis for a well-documented historical study, which can contribute to the body of literature on historical syntax. It may also resolve questions of the relationship of Newari to other languages of Nepal, and it will definitely provide a data source for future cross-linguistic studies on typologically dissimilar languages.