Abstract:

This dissertation is a study of the main grammatical structures of Hile Sherpa, which is a subdialect of the Solu dialect of Sherpa. It is spoken in the southeastern part of the Solukhumbu District of Nepal, by the inhabitants of at least two villages, Hile and Kurima. The two villages are respectively located on the north and south faces of a valley.

Sherpa has four tones which are realized over the word as a whole and not individual syllables, except, of course, when the word is monosyllabic. The four word tones are high, high-falling, low, low-rising. There are 34 consonant phonemes which include a palatal stop series and affricates. There are 8 basic oral vowels with 8 corresponding nasal vowels that are more restricted in their distribution than the oral vowels. Syllabic structure is (C) V (C).

There is split ergativity based on the aspect of the main verb of a clause. The subject is in the unmarked or nominative when the verb root is imperfective and in the genitive when the verb root is perfective.

Sherpa has evidential marking that is based on whether or not the speaker was present at the inception of an event or action. Additionally, verbs are also inflected based on the speaker's knowledge of an action's volitionality.