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Horpic denotes a cluster of little-explored languages under the Rgyalrongic subgroup of Qiangic in Sino-Tibetan. Upper Donggu, spoken in Rongbrag County of Dkarmdzes Prefecture, is a previously unknown dialect of Central Horpa, a major language within Horpic. Upper Donggu makes a phonemic distinction between modal and slack phonation. This remarkable feature not only contrasts lexical meanings, but also plays a role in verb-stem and other morphological formations. Sorting out the origins of slack phonation in Upper Donggu is still a daunting task, but partial correspondences in vocabulary and inflectional morphology can be established between Upper Donggu slack syllables and syllables in other Central Horpa varieties bearing low tone or voiceless aspirated fricative onsets. This suggests that phonation in Upper Donggu is a conservative feature that provides valuable clues to the origin of …