The name Japhug (IPA: [tɕɤpʰɯ]; Tibetan: ja phug; Chinese: 茶堡; pinyin: Chápù) refers in Japhug to the area comprising Gsar-rdzong and Da-tshang, while that of Gdong-brgyad is also known as IPA: [sɤŋu] (Jacques 2004), but speakers of Situ Gyalrong use this name to refer to the whole Japhug-speaking area.
However, [y] is found in the speech of all Japhug speakers in Chinese loanwords such as 洋芋
However, Japhug does have few adverbializing derivations that display functions for oblique cases, for example, the comitative kɤ́- and perlative reduplication.
It has two clitic number determiners, dual ni and plural ra, both do not have syntactic relationship with noun argument.
[3] In Japhug, verbal inflection is overwhelmingly dominated by prefixes, though it does support limited suffix slots.
maLKtú-wɣ-ndzaIPFV-INV-eattɕe,LKɲɯ-kɯ-z-nɯtɯfɕɤlIPFV-general:S/O-CAUS-have.diarrheaɕtibe.AFF:FACTma tú-wɣ-ndza tɕe, ɲɯ-kɯ-z-nɯtɯfɕɤl ɕtiLK IPFV-INV-eat LK IPFV-general:S/O-CAUS-have.diarrhea be.AFF:FACT"If you eat mold, it causes you diarrhea.
The complex verb, formed from the prefixation of a noun-verb compound, has its direction following the head movement with a strong head-final tendency.
Japhug likely has an antipassive NI effect; the noun incorporation subject is not marked with the ergative.