Argument indexation in Stau from a cross-dialectal perspective Jesse P. Gates (EHESS/CRLAO, Southwest Minzu University) ’ja’ dpal འཇའ་དཔལ་ (Southwest Minzu University) November 26, 2017 1. Introduction This paper analyzes the argument indexation system in the Mazi variety of Stau, comparing and contrasting with two other varieties of Stau; namely Khang gsar and Dge bshes. In Khang gsar, as in most Rgyalrongic languages, the second person object of an transitive verb is unmarked, and thus “the absence of any suix in the 1→2 form is expected” (Jacques et al. 2014: 87). Dge bshes only partly meets this expectation by not altering the vowel of the verb stem in 1→2, but does add the second person suix -n, aligning with the O. However, Mazi uses the suix - ɑ̃ for marking 1→2, aligning with the A, and does not add the second person suix -n. Other diferences with Khang gsar include the following: Mazi and Dge bshes use the suix -j in 2sg→3, but not in 2pl→3 (Khang gsar uses -j for all 2→3 constructions); and Mazi uses the second person marking suix -n in intransitive second person and transitive second person plural conjugations aligning with the A (this suix is absent in Khang gsar as previously described (Jacques et al. 2014). Khang gsar and Dge bshes use the same strategy in marking 2→1 with the - m/ɑ̃ suix, whereas Mazi uses the -j suix for 2sg→1 and the bare stem plus -n for 2pl→1. Dge bshes is an outlier in being able to optionally mark 3→2 with -n, something Mazi and Khang gsar do not do. All Dge bshes irst person rhymes that alternate change to õ, difering with Mazi’s irst person rhymes which all change to ɑ̃ , and with Khang gsar which changes to m. 2. Vowel fusion In Stau, argument indexation is primarily accomplished by a complex pattern of vowel alternations. In order to understand these vowel alternations it is necessary to give a brief explanation of Stau vowel fusion/sandhi in verbs. 1 Jacques et al. (2014: 86) and (2017: 599) propose a number of vowel fusion processes for the Khang gsar variety of Stau, which can also account for the vowel alternations that can be observed in Mazi (as was done in Gates 2017) 1 In Khroskyabs, Lai 2015 accounts accounts for these vowel alternations as “vowel sandhi” and uses the term “person agreement.” 1