Tibetan dining etiquette: A sociolinguistic analysis of a normative discourse text in Stau

Author(s): Gates, Jesse; ཐབ་བསན་ཉ་མ་, Tub.bstan.nyi.ma; ཚ་རང་རལ་མཚན༏, Tshe.ring Rgyal.mtsan | Abstract: The primary objective of this article is to provide a transcription, glossing, and translation of a recent oral presentation called རའ་ཐབ་བསན་ཉ་མ་ག་ཟ་མ་ལགས་སར་ཞབ་ཆ་ད་དག་སང་བད་ (henceforth ZML), which can be translated as “Stau Tub.bstan.nyi.ma's Detailed Commentary on Dining Etiquette," made over social media in the Stau language. ZML provides an example of the role of social media in language use among a language with relatively few speakers in the Sichuan Ethnic Corridor of China and provides data for studying the influence of Tibetic languages on Stau from the standpoint of loanwords. ZML is also a source of anthropological and sociolinguistic data; giving insight into a prescriptive approach to behavior, normative discourse, and identity formation. In addition, a preliminary representation of Stau using the Tibetan (Sambhota) script is given in this paper.