Nepalese Linguistics
Volume 28 November 2013
Chief Editor Prof. Dr. Dan Raj Regmi Editors Dr. Balaram Prasain Mr. Krishna Prasad Chalise
Office Bearers for 2012-2014 President Krishna Prasad Parajuli Vice-President Bhim Lal Gautam General Secretary Kamal Poudel Secretary (Office) Bhim Narayan Regmi Secretary (General) Kedar Bilash Nagila Treasurer Krishna Prasad Chalise Member Dev Narayan Yadav Member Netra Mani Dumi Rai Member Karnakhar Khatiwada Member Ambika Regmi Member Suren Sapkota
Editorial Board Chief Editor Prof. Dr. Dan Raj Regmi Editors Dr. Balaram Prasain Mr. Krishna Prasad Chaise Nepalese Linguistics is a journal published by Linguistic Society of Nepal. It publishes articles related to the scientific study of languages, especially from Nepal. The views expressed therein are not necessary shared by the committee on publications.
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Contents
Shifting linguistic identity of Chepangs Rishiram Adhikari & 1 Ramesh Kumar Limbu Words of human body parts, birds, animals and other insects used among the Boro, Garo, Rabha, Dimasa and Kokborok languages Phukan Ch. Basumatary 7 Coordination in Baram Laxman Chalise 12 Relative clauses in Magahi Shweta Chandra 15 Case marking in Balami Binod Dahal 25 Verb agreement in Majhi Dubi Nanda Dhakal 31 Evidence and stance in Kusunda Mark Donohue and Bhoj Raj Gautam 38 An acoustic analysis of Balami basic vowels Bhoj Raj Gautam 48 Mother tongue-based education and the heritage languages of Nepal Laxman Ghimire 55 Age-related sociolinguistic variation in sign languages, with particular reference to Nepali sign language Upendra Khanal 64 Case marking in Dhimal Karnakhar Khatiwada 71 Clitic -e in Bhojpuri Gopal Thakur 77 Participant Tracking in Nepali Sign Language Narrative Michael W Morgan 86 Negation: evidences from the Dura language Kedar Bilash Nagila 95 Person, number and gender system in Bodo Parijat Narzary 100 Exploring strategies for translation of onomatopoeic words: A case of Muglan Nabaraj Neupane 109 Lexical reduplication in the Chitoniya Tharu Krishna Prasad 117 Paudyal Issues of v-v compounds in Chintang Netra Prasad Paudyal 125 Finite State Approach to Nepali Adjectives Balaram Prasain 132 Subordination in Dumi Netra Mani Rai 137 Discourse continuity in Koyee Tara Mani Rai 146 A Contrastive Study of Chhintang and English Pronouns: Problems and Teaching Strategies Ichchha Purna Rai 155 Multilingualism, domains of language use and language vitality in Magar Kaike Ambika Regmi 160 Contact induced changes in Bhujel Dan Raj Regmi 167 Some perspectives on Maithili Krishna Kumar Sah 177 State restructuring and language policy in Nepal Suren Sapkota 187 Dynamic of Nepali public’s opinion on the linguistic issue Pawan Kumar Sen 197 Puma phonology: a descriptive analysis Narayan Sharma 209 Interactive evaluation of quasi-synonyms extracted from the bilingual dictionaries Potemkin 216 Font identifier and unicode converter for Hindi UmrinderPal Singh, Vishal Goyal 223 Relativization in Maithili Indresh Thakur 228 Tense system in the Bahing language Rajendra Thokar 236 The interaction of weight effects and extrametricality in Nepali
phonetic stress assignment Daniel M. Tucker 245 Status of Limbu mother tongue education in Nepal Govinda Bahadur Tumbahang 251 Linguistic context and language endangerment in Nepal Yogendra P Yadava 260 Importance of paralanguage in learning English as second language Ayesha Zafar 273 Presenditia Presidential speech Krishna Prasad 281 Parajuli List of the life members of linguistic society of Nepal 286
Shifting linnguistic identity of Chepangs Rishiram Adhikari and Ramesh Kumar Limbu
This paper presents the impact of attitude on ongoing economic activities, etc. have created language and identity of Chepangs living in pressure to minority language group to shift from Chitwan. The Chepang is one of the indigenous their traditional language practice in Nepal. nationalities having distinct linguistic identity. Minority languages have been falling under crisis. The main concern of this papeer is to explore socio As a result of being a small linguistic group and economic impacts and speakers’ attitude on the contact with Nepali and English languuages are Chepang language. It discusses how settlement, also key contributing factors for disappearance of socio economic status, education and modernity indigenous languages. impact on shifting language on Chepangs. The The decline of indigenous languages is one of the paper presents three case studies of residents in main causes of shifting linguistic identity from the study area and finds out the factors that show old to new. It also results in a loss of distinct the shifting nature of Chepang language. linguistic identity. Dominant linguistic group 1 Introduction gives pressure to minority language group through creating hegemony. Rai (2008) states that Speakers' attitude and their socio economic status the linguistic hegemony is the main cause of are responsible to the growth and flux of language language shifting in Nepal . Due to causes of in particular community. Moreover, globalization and modernization minority industrialization, globalization and modernization languages and cultural groups are influenced by are the processes that may have impacct upon the dominant linguistic group. At this juncture, language shifting in indigenous communities. this paper briefly seeks to investigate the factors This paper discusses language shifting situation that make small linguistic and cultural group shift on Chepangs living in Shaktikhor VDC of into the larger one. Chitwan, located in southern central part of Neepal. The paper specifically focuses on how the 2 Chepangs and their Geoographical Settlement Chepang language is rapidly shifting froom this Chepang is one of the indigenous nationalities of area. To study the language shifting situation of Nepal inhabiting the centre hilly region mainly in Chepang community, researchers visited the field Chitwan , Makawanpur, Gorkga, Dhading and its and collected data and analyzed the obtained data surrounding areas. The region is scattered on by using cases study research design. Mahabharat range and its basin. It is located at the Some years back, the situation of Chepangs altitude from 600 meter to 1400 meter. Total language was encouraging in Shaktikhor. The population of Chepangs is 68,368 (CBSS, 2011), mother tongue retention was very high in whereas, Chepang language speakers are 36,807 Shaktikhor, particularly in hill area. In this regard which is 0.16% of the total population of Nepal. Adhikari (2006) states, "There is 70% mother The following figure shows the settlement of tong retention in Shaktikhor". It shows that till Chepang. 2006 the situation of Chepang language was strong in the study area. Chepnags could speak their language without any hesitation. But, nowadays, the situation is different as most of the Chepangs love to speak Nepali rather than their own language. Linguistic identity of Chepang is rapidly changing as they switched from Chepang to Nepali language. Individual and collective process of modernization, globalization and ongoing socialization process are also responsible Source: (Adhikari,2013) for this shift. Apart from this, the pressure of Chepang population of Shaktihor VDC is 9418 mass media, social demand of day to day life, which is more than 30% of the total population Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp.1-6
(VDC Report, 2013). The study area is scattered curriculum is still Nepali in government school in Kayar basin and its surrounding area. It lies in and English in private school. Parents and the south face of Mahabharat range. It is children feel that if they do not understand approximately a five-six hours walking distance Nepali, then, they will unable to continue school from the Bharatpur town. education. Most of the Chepangs are involved in farming and The Chepang parents, thus, want language animal husbandry. The area is covered by competency in Nepali and English rather than the community forest and small stream named Kayar. Chepang. Nepal Chepang Association and other The inhabitants of Chepangs are migrated from cultural group have been raising awareness about different regions searching for work and facilities Chepang language and culture; however, Chepang such as farming, cattle rearing and commercial speakers feel the need of improving English and activities. Nepali language competency for getting job and business rather than the Chepang language. In the study areas, Chepang language has been speaking since ancient time although the language Young Chepang people, in Shaktikhor, have is influenced by other Tibeto-Burman and Indio become more educated and fluent in Nepali rather Aryan languages. In the view of Thapa (1975), " than Chepang. Local leaders within the Chepang language is highly influenced by community acknowledge the younger generations Tamang language and in some cases it also as having a greater knowledge of the world [borrowed] words from Nepali language". beyond the community’s boundaries. It is similar to the idea of Luykx(2000) who suggests, "This Language ideologies play important role in shift in the recognition of authority can interrupt language shifting. A positive attitude towards a traditional indigenous age and status hierarchies language supports revitalization and negative and the language preferences that follow with attitudes or ideologies undervalue the these changes in generational experiences" marginalized language and puts on interference categories. In the core and peripheral area, Contrastingly, the older generations usually speak differing degrees of values are attached to the Chepang language in all domains, even if they are Chepang language. For instance, in Bazzar area, in urban centers, and in their festivities. but there is a stigma attached to speaking the young generation hardly use their language even Chepang language where the Chepang language is they live in rural area.The focus on one language overtly devalued by the dominant society. This over another, which is either conscious or leads to Chepang people deny or hide the fact that unconscious, tends to shift over life-cycles and they can speak the language for they have fear of generations. being ostracized. The loss of a language entails the loss of many 3 Factors Affecting on Shifting of Languages important aspects of the culture that enforce to change cultural identity of a particular ethnic Various factors are responsible for shifting group. Hence, whether the language and identity language on Chepang living in the study area. are used between family members, to reminisce or Parents' attitude is one of the important factors for commercial purposes, ethnic identity is which has significant role on shifting of language. interwoven with the language. Parents attitude help develop the mentality of children about language use. If parents use their There are other aspects of identity such as gender, mother-tongue with children then they can learn age and settlement that are important for using the language automatically. But, parents usually language. In rural areas usually women, small teach Nepali to their children before going to the children, and other generations speak their school in the Chepang community. Parents are language though parents force small children to conscious about curriculum. Pre-primary school speak Nepali rather than Chepang language. For
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example, Thuli Kanchhi and her husband Sarke understand Chepang, but avoid identifying both Chepang and Nepali with their children in themselves. It is perceived as being backward their house. The parents believe that learning people. The situation is evident that “last year I Nepali during young age may provide with better met a Chepang boy in Bharatpur. At first, he opportunities in future for children in outside introduced himself as being a Thapa Magar. But, world. after being closed, he silently introduced his real identity as Chepang" (Field Survey, 2013). it Geographically, Chepang speaking area is located shows that Chepang living in urban area and in centre Nepal where there is existences of working with other ethnic people hesitates to Tamage, Gurung, Magar, Newar, Tharu, Dari, identify themselves as Chepang Bhujel and Bahun Chhetri. Bhujel is close to Chepang Language. In Shaktihor VDC, out of 9 Cheapngs living in rural area do not hesitate to wards, Ward numbers 1, 2 and 3 lies in the hilly show their traditional identity. We observed thae area and ward no. 5 is located in plain area. Most situation of Chepang living in Kolar and found of the hill inhabitant Chepangs speaks their that they generally identify themselves quite language but the dwellers of plain area speak clearly as being indigenous, as they dressed in Nepali language. It shows that settlement of traditional colours, wore caps, silver earrings and speaker also plays significant role on shifting of traditional skirts. The women’s attires were quite language. Apart from that, rich and job holder feminine and the image of being a woman was Chepangs living in the hill areas also prefer to very perceptible. The mothers carried their babies speak Nepali. Mass Media and temporary on their back with a piece of cloth called a kumlo. migration also insist Chepangs to adopt Nepali They do not use such kumlo while they come language rather than the Chepang. Most of the down to plain areas as the women in the town programs of TV and Radio are in Nepali centre normally do. They acknowledge that they language. In order to understand worldly are from indigenous descent, and speak Chepang. phenomena and to take entertainment from visual However, we observed that when the residents of and verbal media, both adult and young Chepang the Kolar travel to the town centre they change love to learn Nepali, English and Hindi rather and try to downplay their heritage and the fact than the Chepang. It shows that modernization that they can speak the language for fear of being enforces indigenous language community to shift shunned by the dominant society. Interviewees from old to new and dominant language. Some told me that Chepang is not the language spoken urban migrant youths of second and third in town. The Chepang speakers hide their ability generation identify themselves as Chepang to speak their language in order to blend in with people and even put on traditional dress, but it is mainstream society. During our field visit in plain only for commercial reasons, for instance, area, it was difficult to secure interviewees who displaying their tradition to entertain tourists. were open about their ability to speak Chepang. Such types of commercial activities are focused in However, we met some Chepang speakers in the the town and touristic areas rather than town centre by visiting health post centre. While subsistence farming and agricultural locations. we tried to find respondents with varying ages, The residents speak Nepali and their attire is that gender, socio-economic stages, and levels of of most other developed nations/communities. education, we chose key informants rather than They wear jeans, jackets, caps etc. which shows representative samples, because we needed people that there exists a boundary between the with knowledge of having Chepang or willingness geographical regions in terms of their attitude, to talk about it. It is followed a ‘snowball’ attire and language use. It is also observed that the technique that could help get in touch with the Chepangs dwelling in the town have been local people. We takes three cases and analyze to involved in business. Their identity is not fulfill the purpose of the study. ethnically marked. Some Chepangs speak and
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4 The case studies This case study is an example of an economically motivated language shifting practice and was Case study 1: Sanikanchhi recorded in visit to health post. Some members of The interactions with Sanikanchhi enabled to gain the community negotiate the boundaries an understanding of the generational language according to circumstances. The following is an shifts that occurs in young generation. This study extract to show this situation. is based on the field visit. Sanikanchhi, a teenage Today, the women from the communities came to girl, was quite shy about it before told us that she the Health centre to checkup health. The groups can speak Chepang and that she was very happy were more dispersed than it was expected, so we to participate. She also told that she had a friend, wandered around talking to each small group Maya, who could also speak Chepang. She was of individually. We interviewed one of the mothers, a similar age who agreed to be interviewed. Thulikanchhi who was 31 years old, had a 1 year After waiting for a while, we saw a couple of old daughter and a 5 years old son. When we ask young men. We approached them as we needed to about her ability to speak Chepang with her recruit people of their age. They were interested children she responded: “Now kids don’t speak and begin to talk with us. But, as soon as we Chepang anymore. At home my father speaks a mentioned about Chepang language, they quite little, but I can’t speak Chepang anymore. My arrogantly protested: “Oh no, we don’t speak children no longer understand it…” (Personal Chepang”. “You have to go to the Hill and talk to Interview, 2013). the little old ladies who still speak Chepang, not We asked her if she thought it was important to we”( Field Visit Report,2013). She was in the pass on the language to her children. While she background observing this interaction. We turned said she did, but deep down we got the impression to her to confirm the time for interview with her that she did not believe that it was worth doing. but she immediately became self-conscious and Later, she told that she was a single mother unconfident saying that she didn’t speak Chepang looking for a job. She thought we could help her so there was no point in interviewing her. Her as an outsider with power. We told her that retraction appears to be a direct result of the unfortunately we were looking for a Chepang attitude of the young men we had just spoken speakers but she would not be able to help us as with. We tried to convince her and it took a long she did not like to speak Chepang. We noticed a while for her to agree. Though, she was not big change in her face and immediately she willing to be interviewed in the hotel for fear that said:"I can help you, I speak Chepang "(Personal people might hear. Her friend who had previously Interview) agreed to be interviewed withdrew. During the interview, Saniknchhi totally closed up and her We told her that we needed a Chepang speaker answers were very short. She did not smile and who could speak Chepang and elaborate Chepang persisted that she was not fluent in Chepang, words. She immediately changed the tone and contrary to what she told us three days before. enthusiastically spoke proficiency in the Chepang She did, however, admit discrimination towards language that she had denied speaking a few Chepang speakers at Bazzar and we began to minutes before. The young woman had therefore understand why she had been so shy in the chosen to hide the fact that she was bilingual until beginning. we showed an interest and she could perceive an economic benefit. Case Study 2: Thulikanchhi Thulikanchhi initially gave us the socially The use of a language in Chepang is contingent expected response about her family’s ability to on the framework of social class, values and speak Chepang language. Even though in their symbols, as well as on conventions and the own environment, the Chepang speakers who pragmatics of economic situations. modify their behaviour. This was demonstrated 4
when interviewed people from the Chepang They talked about the discrimination associated community. They generally have a response that, with the language. They told us that if they speak "Here in the highlands, we speak Chepang more. Chepang in town, they are called the names of When we go to the town, we speak Nepali. When animals from the mountain (Phad ka Jantu) or we have visitors and they speak Nepali we speak Pahada ka Chepang. Also, if they speak Chepang Nepali with them, but at home, we mainly speak in front of people who do not know the language, Nepali" (Personal Interview, 2013) they may think that they are speaking badly about them. After the meeting, everybody spoke It shows the surprising attitude of young people Chepang openly between each other. it shows that towards Chepang language. It gives an impression official affiliation and formal application of that those young men we encountered felt insulted Nepali language also responsible to shift by the idea of them being Chepang speakers. language in study area. When we were looking for an interview, we were often told by residents that “I understand a little, 5 Summary but I don’t speak it”. However, as with As represented by the geographical division of Thulikanchhi , we often found out this is not quite Chepang, the research organization has led to the true, often the town’s residents spoke Chepang linguistic identity of Chepang speaker. It interacts fluently, but most people denied it. In this with other factors which impacts the use and situation while looking for a Chepang speaker, if perceived value amongst the local Chepangs. The the people, such as Thulikanchhi, case realized fieldwork reveals that when the residents of hill that Chepang language may provide an economic travel to the town centre, they downplay their benefit they admitted that they could speak or heritage and the fact that they can speak Chepang. understand their language. Such change of When it is out of a need to transact their business behavior is noticed several times in village. it with Nepali speakers and they do not feel fear of shows that finalcial opportunity is compel to her being shuned by the dominant society. Younger to speak Chepang language. However, it he first generations give greater value on Nepali than case the two young Chepnags denies to speak Chepang language. Case 1 demonstrates the because they do not see any commercial benefit in younger generation’s increasing connection with Chepnag language. a world that extends beyond community’s Case 3: Kali Maya boundaries, leading to a rejection of Chepang through peer group pressure. Kali Maya live at Milan Bazar. She is native speaker of the Chepang language and want to There is also little economic benefit to speaking develop fluency in Nepali order to gain access to the town Chepang. The Case 2 suggests that the business and job. For example, social services, things would be different if this were not the even when they are provided in the highlands by situation. Here, Thulikanchhi only admits to visiting professionals, such as traders, speak speaking Chepang when she realizes that there is Nepali language. an economic benefit involved. Case 3 shows the impacts of officially used and formally used One day when we attended a meeting about language on Chepangs. These case studies sanitation and hygiene for the mothers and babies suggest that Chepang language is under threat of the Chepang community at hill area. The and will continue to decline in language status meeting was held in Nepali. After observing the unless it becomes recognized as having tangible meeting, we decided to conduct a group interview functional value, beyond the ideal of symbolic with the residents of the Kolar. When asked what preservation. language they would prefer to communicate during the meeting, they responded that they would be more comfortable if the community health meetings were held in Chepang language. 5
References Adhikari R. 2006. A Sociolinguistic Survey of the Chepang Language of Chitwan District.Kathmandu: Centre Department of English TU [M.A. Thesis] Crystal, D. 2004. The Language Revolution. Cambridge: Polity Press. CBS Report 2011. Kathmandu: Centre Bureau of Statistics. Dixon, R. M. 1997. The rise and fall of languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Harvey, D. 1989. The condition of Post Modernity. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Hornberger, N. H., & Coronel-Molina, S. M. 2004. Chepang language shift, maintenance and revitalization in the Andes: The case of language planning. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 167(1), 9 - 67. Howard, R. 2004. Chepang in Tantamayo (Peru): Toward a "Social archaeology" of language. Internationa lJournal of the Sociology of Language, 167(1), 95 - 118. Luykx, A. 2000. Diversity in the New World Order: State language policies and the internationalization of Quechua. Paper presented at the 2nd Spencer Early Career Institute in Anthropology and Education:"Globalization and Education". Regmi D. R. (2007) The Bhujel Language. PhD dissertation in Linguistics, Tribhuvan University. VDC Report. 2013. Shaktikhor: VDC Office Shaktikhor Thapa B.B.1975. “A Few Days with Chepang”. Madhupark. Kathmandu: Gorkhapatra Santhan Prakashan, 5, 77-87 Personal interviews Personal interview with Thilikanchhi Personal interview with Sanikanchhi Personal interview with Kali Maya
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Words of Human body parts, Birds, Animals and other Insects used among the Boro, Garo, Rabha, Dimasa and Kokborok Languages Phukan Ch. Basumatary The analysis focuses on the structural features of etc. Among these languages Boro, Garo, Rabha, the words relating to human body parts, birds, Dimasa, Kokborok, Tiwa and Deuri are living and animals and other insects used among the usually spoken in the day-to-day life of these cognate languages like Boro, Garo, Rabha, speech communities. It is worth to mention here Dimasa and Kokborok which are spoken in the that Matisoff, Robins Burling and some other North-Eastern states of India. From a typological linguists of TB (Tibeto-Burman) area have analysis it is found that the structural features of popularly used the term of this kind. Structurally the words are closely similar among the these languages have a highest degree of languages. For example, in case of word similarities in case of lexis, grammatical and formation relating the human body parts the syntactical levels. Most of the root words are initial syllable is like a phonemic morpheme or monosyllabic in structure. Some words are sometimes a phoneme and the syllable ending of formed by compounding of two or more than two the word functions as bound base or the bases or bound-bases. Words are derived by independent meaningful morphological unit i.e. a addition of prefix or suffix (-es). word. In some cases words are formed by It is to be noted that the typology of words compounding of two independent meaningful relating to the beings of different kinds are of words of body parts which denotes a word of noun class and these are formed by two different body part. It occurs in Boro and Dimasa linguistic units. This kind of word typology is not languages. Thus relating to the words of birds is exercised or used in any one of the language also similar from a typological view point. families of the world except Tibeto-Burman Regarding the words of birds, the initial syllable languages. Here typology of different words has is an independent and meaningful unit which been observed and analyzed on the concerned refers to bird and the other syllabic unit is related areas; such as words of human body parts, birds to a particular bird. It functions as a bound base and animals, various insects etc. having a striking feature in it. As regards to the word of animals, it is found that the words of 2. Word Typology among the cognate indicating animals are composed of at least two languages of the Boro syllabic units. The initial syllabic unit is a phonemic morpheme and the second syllabic unit The word typology of the cognate languages of is a bound base having specific meaning of the Boro is simple and easy to be understood. Typologically words are identical and genetically different kinds of animals. This typology is similar among the languages of Boro, Garo, Rabha, correspond to each other. Therefore they belong Dimasa and Kokborok. Also they show certain to the same group of languages. Regarding the word of human body parts, birds, animals and amount of evidences of genetic relationship with the Tibeto-Burman origin. All these aspects have insects are similar from the structural view point. been discussed in the paper. These have been discussed with some special references of words from each of the cognates. 1. Introduction 2. 1Words related to human body parts The term Boro-Garo is popularly used among Tibeto-Burman linguists to refer to the mostly In the cognate languages, words related to body similar linguistic group i.e. cognate languages like parts of human being, animals, creatures and Boro, Garo, Rabha, Dimasa, Kokborok, Tiwa, insects, fruits and trees etc. are usually belong to Deuri-Chutiya and Hajong. On the one hand, the the noun class of words. These are formed by term Bodo is also used by G.A. Grierson in the adding affixes with the free morpheme or bound similar purpose to refer to the speech base. communities like Boro, Garo, Rabha, Dimasa, In Boro, words of body parts are formed by two Kokborok, Tiwa, Deuri-Chutia, Hajong, Sonowal morphological units. In case of hand and leg, the Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 7‐11 phonemic prefix {a-} is added with a the foot-palm) and so on. Here ‘yaɔ’ is a mono- morphological unit i.e bound base. For instance: syllabic word which means ‘hand’. {a-khai}>akhái (hand), {a-thiη}>athíη (leg), {a- h h h si}>así (finger), {a-p a}>ap á (palm of hand or Dimasa word ‘k amaɔ’ is used for ‘ear’ while h leg), {a-dɰi}>adɰ́i (calf of leg), {a-gan}>agán ‘k ɰma’ is used for ‘ear’ in Boro. Thus ‘guη’ is (foot step) etc. In case of eye, the consonantal used for ‘nose’ in Dimasa which is similar to phonemic prefix {m-} is connected with particular h Boro word ‘gɔnt ɔη’. In case of eye, the mono- bound bases. For example: {mɔ-gɔn} > mɔngɔn > syllabic word ‘mu’ is used while Boro use mengɔ́n (eye), mɔ-sugur> musugúr (eyebrow) etc. ‘megɔn’. Thus, words related to head and its constituent In Dimasa, in case of other constituent and related parts are {kh -r } > kh r (head), {kh -ga} > kh ga ɔ ɔ ɔ ɔ ɔ ɔ parts of eye, the compounded structure are like as, h h h h > k ugá (mouth), {k ɔ-raη} > k ɔraη> k uráη {mu-gur}>mugur (eyelids), {mu-sraη}>musraη h h h h h (voice, news), {k ɔ-nai > k ɔnai > k anai (hair), (eye brow), {mu-k aη}> muk aη (face) etc. Here all of the structures are composed of two mono- {kh -ma} > kh ma > khama/kh ma (ear) etc. ɔ ɔ ɰ syllabic free morphemes having a meaning of its. These bi-syllabic structure of words are very Stomach related word is {bu-bu}>bubu much complex to analyze whether both of the h linguistic units can be considered as syllable or (intestine). ‘k abaɔ’ is a compounded word having not. But it is clearly understandable that the initial two mono-syllabic morphological segments. Here ‘kha’ is a proto TB root means ‘heart’. It has been linguistic units like kh -, khu- can be related to the ɔ originated in Boro and other cognate languages. mouth. So it is easily assumable that the word ‘khuga’ is derived from the morphological unit. It For example: Br.{bi-kha}>bikha, D.{kha- h h h means mouth. In Boro words related to mouth and baɔ}>k abaɔ, Kb.{bɰ-k a}>bɰk a, Rb.{pi- its constituents begin with a consonantal phoneme kha}>pikha, G.{bi-kha}>bikha. h /k /. Rabha structure is also similar to other cognate Words connected with stomach or belly is {u- languages. Here ‘nuken’/ ‘muken’ denote meaning of ‘eye’ and ‘nu-khaη’/ ‘mu-khaη’ is d i}>ud ́i (stomach), {u-thu-mai}>uthúmái ɰ ɰ composed of two morphological segments. It (navel) etc. Breast and its inter-related words are h h means ‘face’ while ‘nu-ken/mu-ken’ has also the also of two parts, e.g: {bi-k a}>bik a (liver), {bi- same structure. Hand and its constituent body h h bu}>bibu (intestine), {bi-k lɰ}>bik lɰ (gall), parts are usually composed of two morphological h h h h {bi-t ɰi}>bit ɰi (thick blood) etc. Here the initial segments i.e ‘tasi’ means hand. {tasi-k u}>tasik u (finger of hand),{tasi-tala}>tasitala (palm of the syllables are prefix and the remaining segments of h h these words have status of bound base. hand), {ta-t eη}>tat eη (leg). Dimasa structure is also akin to that of Boro Kokborok structure is also same in comparison to structure. The words of body part are composed other cognate languages. Examples: yak (hand), {yak-ra}>yakra (right hand), {yak-si}>yaksi (left of two morphological units. For examples, {ya - ɔ hand), {yak-sku}>yaksku (elbow), {yak- h h p a}>yaɔp a (the palm of the of hand), {yaɔ- pha}>yakpha (palm of hand}, {yak-pai}>yakpai gada}>yaɔgada (right hand), {yaɔ-si}>yaɔsi (foot mark), {yak-si}>yasi (finger), {yak- uη}>yakuη (leg). Here the cited words are (finger), {yaɔ-si-ma}>yaosima (the thumb), {yaɔ- composed of two different segments. Thus {bɰ- si-tam}>yaɔstam (a ring), {yaɔ-si-gur}>yaɔsugur h h slai}>bɰslai (tongue), {bɰ-k a}>bɰk a (liver), (the finger nail), {ya -si-gu}> ya sugu {the ɔ ɔ {bu-kuη}>bukuη (nose), {bu-khuk}>bukhuk h h h knee},{ya -p a-kh r}>ya p ak r (the hollow of h h ɔ ɔ ɔ ɔ (mouth), {mɰ-k aη}>mɰk aη (face) etc. are words of common structure. In these words, the
8 first segment is a prefix and the second one is a gaη}>daugaη (feather of bird), {dau-sa}>dausa root word. (small bird/chicken), {dau-rai}>daurai (peacock), Garo structure of body parts is mostly similar to {dau-dɰi}> daudɰi (egg), {dau-zɰ}>dauzɰ other cognate languages. Words of body parts are (hen), {dau-ma}>dauma (bird of bigger species), composed two morphological segments. In some {dau-zɰla}>dauzla/daula (male bird) etc. structure, the first segment represents as prefix or sometimes it has a meaning of its own. It may be Thus Rabha has also the same structure. Example: clearly intelligible while it is agglutinated with {tɔ}/{tɔk} means bird/chicken. To denote other segments. Some examples may be shown: particular kinds of bird, the word {t }/{t k}is h h ɔ ɔ {bi-}: {bi-k a}>bik a (heart/ liver), {bi- used before morphological units of indicating b k}>bib k (intestine), {bi-g l}>big l (skin). h h ɰ ɰ ɰ ɰ different birds. Example: {tɔ-k a}>tɔk a (crow), Here {bi-} is suffixed as prefix. But in some {t -khur)> t khur>tukhur (dove),{t -raη}>t raη cases, agglutinated morphological segments ɔ ɔ ɔ ɔ represent as bound base or free morpheme. Here (bat), {tɔk-bau}>tɔkbau (owl),{tɔ- are some structures of example-{mɰk- basar}>tɔbasar(wild bird),{tɔ-seη}>tɔseη (egg) h h k aη}>mɰkk aη (face), {mɰk-rɔn}>mɰkrɔn etc. But some words denoting names of birds do not follow this system though basic system is (eye), {m k-ksi}>m ksi (tear), {m k- ɰ ɰ ɰ similar with other cognate languages. h h h h k i}>mɰkk i (eye-excreta), {giη-t iη}>giηt iη Garo words of birds are also similar in structure. (nose), {guη-re}>guηre (mucus), {giη-khi}>giηkhi (dried mucus in the nostril) etc. {dɔ˙ɔ} means bird in Garo. To denote different names of bird, another segment is added with it, Thus {zak} means hand. If another morphological e.g: {d ˙-bak}>d ˙bak (bat), {d ˙- segment is added with this segment, it derives a ɔ ɔ ɔ h h new structure of word having a new meaning. For k a}>dɔ˙k a(crow),{dɔ˙de}>dɔ˙de (peacock), h h example: zak-si>zaksi (finger), zak-si-ma>zak-si- (dɔ˙k ru)>dɔ˙k ru (dove), {dɔ˙-mesal}>dɔ˙mesal ma (thumb finger), zak-asi>zakasi (left hand), h h h h (wild bird), {dɔ˙-p ɔ}>dɔ˙p ɔ (owl) etc. zak-sk ɰl>zaksk ɰl (nail). On the other hand, some words of body parts are Dimasa structure is comparable to other cognates. articulated in a single beat of pulse i.e mono- The word {dau} is used for bird, {dau- h h syllabic in structure. May be mentioned some rak al}>daurak al represents bat, {dau- h h words- sre (tongue), skhu (head), khni(hair), greη k a}>dauk a stands for crow, {dau-di}>daudi is h (bone), k i (stool) etc. used for egg, {dau-bɔηa}>daubɔηa for heron etc. 2.2 Words related to Birds, Animals and Kokborok structure is also similar to other Insects cognate languages. In Kokborok,{tɔk} represents bird. To denote different kinds of birds, some The structure of words used for denoting birds, specific morphological units are added with this animals and other insects are composed of two word. different morphological segments. In all the h h cognates, words related to different kinds of birds Example:{tɔ-k a}>tɔk a (crow), tɔ-bak>tɔbak h h have two segments. In Boro, {dau} means (bat), {tɔk- t u}>tɔk-t u (dove), {tɔk-ling}>tɔkliη bird/chicken; it is a free morpheme and mono- (kite), {tɔk-ma}>tɔkma (hen), {tɔk-sa}>tɔksa syllabic in nature. To denote different kinds of birds, another morphological segment is added (chicken), {tɔk-la}>tɔkla (cock), {tɔk- with the word {dau}. tɰi}>tɔktɰi (egg of bird), {tɔk-huk}>tɔkhuk For example: {dau-sri}>dausri (martin), {dau- (owl) etc. h h k a}>dauk a (crow), {dau-bɔ}>daubɔ (a kind of The words denoting name of some animals are heron), {dau-thu}>dauthu (dove), {dau- composed of two segments. In Boro, such type of 9 composition is occurred frequently, e.g: {mɰ- For example: Br. {mɰ-srɰm}>mɰsrɰm (ant), sa}>mɰsa (tiger), {mɰ-sɰu}>mɰsɰu (cow), G. {mɰ-srɰm}>mɰsrɰm (ant), Kb. {mi- h h {mɰ-k ra}>mɰk ra (monkey), {mu- srum}>misurum (ant). But on the other hand, Rabha and Dimasa do not have this kind of phur}>muphur (bear), {m i-s }>m is ɰ ɰ ɰ ɰ structure, e.g. Rb. {kaη-ku}>kaηku (ant), D. {kai- (buffalo), {man-dab}>mandab (squirrel), {mɰ- siη}>kaisiη (ant). There is also affinity in h h p ɰu}>mɰp ɰu, (mɰ-srɰm}>mɰsrɰm (ant), structure of word denoting fish and something like words, e.g. Br. {na}-fish, G. {na˙th k)-fish, {mɰ-dɰi}>mɰdɰi (porcupine/ a kind of animal ɔ having thorn in its body). Rb. {na}-fish, D. {na}-fish, Kb. {a}-fish. In Kokborok language, {mu-suk}>musuk(cow), 3. Conclusion h h {mɰ-k ra}>mɰk ra (monkey),{mɰ-sa}>mɰsa From a typological investigation it is observed (tiger), {mu-sui}> musui (deer), {man- that the words analyzed above are structurally dab}>mandab (squirrel), {mi-sip}>misip similar and have genetic relationship with each (buffalo), etc. are used in case of different other to some extent to the Tibeto-Burman origin. animals. Here {m-} may be a prefix having On the basis of syllabic structure all of the words phonemic representation. mentioned here are bi-syllabic. Some of the words are composed of two free morphemes and some Dimasa words of referring to animals are also of them are comprised of single phonemic similar to other cognates. For examples: {mu- morpheme and the other is bound base. On the su}>musu (cow), {mi-iuη}>miuη (elephant), {mi- basis of structure the words related to body parts sai}>misai (deer), {mi-si}>misi (tiger) etc. of human beings and birds and various animals, In Rabha, the structure of words relating to insects etc. have genetic relationships with the TB animals has a consonantal phonemic prefix, i.e (Tibeto-Burman) origin. {m}. Abbreviations Example : {ma-su}>masu (cow), {mi-si} > misi (buffalo), {ma-sa}>masa (tiger), {ma-da}>mada Br. Boro (bear), {ma-kra}>makra (monkey), {ma- G. Garo h h D. Dimasa sɔk}>masɔk (deer), {ma-t a}>mat a(iguana), Kb. Kokborok {ma-ba}>maba (horse) etc. Here the initial Rb. Rabha syllable is a prefix of denoting animal while the second or the final syllables are used as bound References bases of indicating different kinds of animals. Barman, R.R (ed.). 1999. Anglo Dimasa Thus Garo structure is also akin to that of other Grammar & Dictionary. Silchar: Graodima cognates. The initial syllable begins with Janadaorine Hoshom. consonantal phonemic prefix {m-}. Baruah, Nagendra Nath. (ed.).1992. Grao Dima Pandar(Dimasa Dictionary). Guwahati: Asam Example: {ma-chu}>matchu (cow), {ma- Prakashan Parishad tma}>matma (buffalo), {ma-tcha}>matcha h Bikash Saha, Sudhanshu.1988. Origin and (tiger), {ma-tchɔk} > matchɔk (deer), {ma-k re} > Structure of Kakbarak. Agartala: Rupali h h h mak re (monkey), {ma-t ram} > mat ram (an Publishing. h otter), {meη-kɔ} > meηkɔ (cat), {ma-k bɰl} > Burling, Robbins.2004. The Language of the h Modhupuri Mandi (Garo), Vol. I (Grammar). mak bɰl (bear) etc. New Delhi: Bibliophile south Asia. In case of names of some small insects generally Chowdhury, Kumud Kundu.2010.kokborok show some degree of similarities in structure. The dhanibichar. Agartala: Akshar Publications. consonantal phonemic prefix is added in case of Dhar, PC. (ed.).1987. Kok-kuthumma. Agartala: the name of ants. Tribal Research Institute. 10
Hagjer, Nirupama (ed).2005.Dimasa Grauren. Haflong: Bira Bhadra Hagjer and his companions. Jose,UV.(ed).2000.Khurangnala. Panbazar: Don Bosco Publications. Rabha Bhasa Parishad.(ed). 2000. Rabha Raothap. Dudhnoi: Rabha Bhasa Parishad.
11
Coordination in Baram Laxman Chalise Nepal Commerce Campus Minbhawan, Kathmandu
This paper presents the coordination process The following tree diagram shows the structure of found in Baram language;one of the endangered coordinate clause. language of Nepal spoken in Gorkha district at Takukot VDC.The coordination process refers to Birds can fly and I can fly the process of syntactic construction where coordinators are used to join two or more than two independent clauses to constitute a sentence.So this paper also presents the coordinators that are used in the process of coordination in Baram language. 1. Introduction1 Coordination is the process of combining two constituents of the same type to produce another large constituent of the same type.
Quirk et al. (1985), two types of coordination are found in English. They are ‘syndetic or linked or Figure 1: Tree Diagram of English Coordination marked by overt signal and asyndetic or unlinked 2 or not overtly marked by signal. Linking words 2. Brief sketch of clause system in Baram are called coordinating conjunctions. Asyndetic Clause refers to a unit of grammatical coordination usually stylistically marked which is organization which is smaller than the sentences, used for dramatic intensification. In it conjoins larger than phrases, words or morphemes. The are generally separated by tone unit boundary in clause can be classified into two categories; speech or by a punctuation writing. Compound independent and dependent. Independent clauses sentence can be formed by co-coordinators ‘and’ are independent to convey the meaning i.e. the ‘but’ and ‘or’. There are certain syntactic features meaning of one clause does not lie on the other of coordinators. clause. Unlike independent clause, the meaning of a) Clause coordinators are restricted to dependent clause lies on the independent clause initial position. clause. b) Coordinated clauses are fixed in a The Baram language has been found rich in both sequence. coordination and subordination. In the process of c) Coordinators are preceded by a coordination,dependent clauses can be conjunction. coordinated without ellipsis of ‘subject’ or any d) Coordinators can link constituents and with the ellipsis of ‘subject or clause conjunction. both ‘subject and ‘verb’ of independent e) Coordinators can link subordinate clause.The coordinators of Baram language found clauses. are
1 This article is based on my M. Ed. thesis entitled ‘Clause combining in Baram and English: a 2 Baram is an endangered language spoken by a comparative study’ submitted to the Department of handful of elderly people in Takukot Village English Education, TU in 2007 Development Committee of Gorkha District Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 12-14 The examples (1a-b) show the co-ordination of sita-e ni-pəDhdi hare u-e phel ki-lik two clauses and (2a) shows the coordination with subject ellipsis and example (b) shows the ellipsis of both subject and verb. The coordinators
hari school-LOC-NPT-go but he-DAT NEG– c. ram-e na ŋi- pəDhdi na kam ŋi-tuk read Ram-ERG neither NPT-read nor work ‘Hari goes to school but he does not read.’ NPT-do ‘Ram neither reads nor works.’ b. Sita-e ni-pəDhdi hare u-e fel ki-lik sita-ERG NPT-read but she- ERG fail In the example (3a)
of the Baram language (LEDBL), Central 5. Juxtaposition Department of Linguistics: TU Payne, T. E. (1997) Describing Morphosyntsx, In Baram, it has been found that two clauses are Cambridge: CUP. coordinated by the process of juxtaposition where Prasain, B and K. P Chalise (2004) A Basic clauses are juxtaposed without any coordinator. Baram-Nepali-English Dictionary, A research Any two constituents; verb or verb phrase, noun report submitted to The National Foundation or noun phrase are combined in this process (4a- for Development of Indigenous Nationalities, b). Kathmandu. (4) a. neŋla njaŋo nicuno Quirk, et al.1985. Comprehensive Grammar of neŋla ŋi-aŋ-o ni-cun-o the English Language. Longman. Millet NPST-fry-IMP NPST-put-IMP [Kansakar et al. 2011]
b. asi aŋmət kiju asi aŋmət ki-ju air rain water PST-come from above [Kansakar et al. 2011] 6. Summary Three types of coordination have been found in this language; simple coordination, correlative coordination and juxtaposition.In simple coordination in Baram two independent clauses are coordinated by free morphemes like
14
Relative clauses in Magahi Shweta Chandra
This paper discusses the structure and position of (perhaps a one- member set) in two steps: a large postnominal, internal and extranominal relative set is specified, called the domain of clauses in Magahi. It also explores the case relativization, and then restricted to some subset function, the syntactic and semantic differences of which a certain sentence, the restricting among relative clauses. sentence is true. The domain of relativization is expressed in surface structure by the head NP and 1. Introduction the restricting sentence by the restricting clause, The Magahi language (also known as Magadhi) is which may look more or less like a surface spoken in the parts of Indian state of Bihar. sentence depending upon the language.’ Magahi is closely related to Bhojpuri and The semantics based definition of Keenan and Maithili, and these languages are sometimes Comrie (1977) will also include participial referred to as a single language, Bihari. Magahi is construction under relative clauses. Consider the a head- final language with Subject– Object– example of relative constructions in Hindi as in Verb as the unmarked word order and has (1). postpositions rather than prepositions. There is no 1. (a) seeta jo calak hai meri patnii hai agreement of verb with number and gender of the Sita REL clever is I Gen wife is subject but only person and honorificity ‘Sita, who is clever is my wife.’ agreement. The most unique features of Magahi are simultaneous agreement of verb with subject (b) vo aurat meri patnii hai jo laal as well as direct object and also agreement of that woman I Gen wife is REL red verb with the addressee, who may not be present sweTar pehane hai at the time of the utterance (Verma, 1991). sweater wearing is A relative clause is a kind of subordinate clause, ‘That woman is my wife who is wearing one of whose arguments shares a referent with a a red sweater.’ main clause element on which the subordinate Thus, we can observe in examples (1a- b), the clause is grammatically dependent. Andrews relative expression used in grammatical (1975: 3) gives semantic- syntactic definitions of description to characterize pronouns which the relative clause as: ‘If a subordinate clause generally may be used to introduce a post modifies (a- crucially undefined term) an NP and modifying clause within a noun phrase and by does so by virtue of the fact that it contains in extension to the clause as a whole (Relative deep structure an NP coreferential to the modified clause). Relative clause formation strategies are NP, then the clause is a relative clause.’ discussed in the following sections: The above definition brings out two important 2. characteristics of relative clause: 2 Relative clause formation strategies
i. Coreferentiality between the head NP and 2.1 Restrictive relative clause formation the relativized NP and strategies ii. The modifying functions of the relative From Keenan and Comrie and Andrews’ clause. definitions we can identify the following syntactic characteristics of restrictive clauses: Keenan and Comrie (1977: 63- 64) on the other hand gives following semantics based definition (a) A restrictive relative clause is an underlying of the relative clause; ‘We consider any syntactic Complex NP with a head NP and S. The object to be an RC if it specifies a set of objects embedded S must contain an NP coreferential to
Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 15-24 the head NP. The embedded coreferential NP can (b) Internal be pronominalized or deleted. After this (c) Extranominal operation, it will be called relativized NP.
(b) The function of S in the construction is to restrict the reference of the head NP. 2. 2. Postnominal relative clause strategy NP In postnominal relative clause strategy, the head NP occurs to the left of the relative clause in Magahi like in Hindi as in (3). NP S 3. (a) U laikaa je laal suT pahinale haii Example (2) is based on the above characteristics that boy REL red suit wearing is of the relative clause. (U) abh- abhi bhaarat se ayalaii he he just India from came is (2) kaar jo arun ne khariidii aur shyam ‘The boy who is wearing a red suit has just Car REL Arun Erg bought and Shyam come from India.’ ne paise diye vo badii hai Erg money gave that big is (b) Okar bahini jekar TaNgaRiya tut ‘Car that Arun bought and Shyam paid for is he Gen sister Rel Gen leg break big.’ gelaii hal ayalaii he In example (2), ‘car’ is the head NP and ‘jo arun went was came is ne khariidii aur shyam ne paise diye’ is a ‘His sister whose leg got broken has conjoined relative clause, the coreferential NP come.’ ‘car’ has been deleted. Further, the conjoined (c) hamar bhaaii je amerikaa meN I Gen brother REL America LOC relative clause restricts or modifies the head NP. raha haii (U) ayalaii he This section is broadly based on Andrews (1975), live Imperf is he ayalai is Keenan and Comrie (1977), Masica (1972), ‘My brother who lives in America has Givón (1975), and Dowing (1978).There are three come.’ types of relative clauses in Magahi. Following Keenan and Comrie, we will discuss two criteria In example (3) ‘U laikaa’ (head NP in (3a)), by which they differ at the surface level. ‘Okar bahini’ (head NP in (3b)), and ‘hamar bhaaii’ (head NP in (3c)) all occur to the left of (i) The first criterion concerns the relative the relative clause in each of the sentences. The position of the head NP and the relative clause at relative clause is introduced by the relativizer j-, the surface structure. which is marked for number and case (i. e. je- kar ‘whose’ in (3b)), which is singular number (ii) The second criterion concerns the manner in and genitive case). The relativized NP is deleted which the case functions of the relativized NP is in each instance. Unlike other strategies to be indicated. The case functions of the relativizer discussed shortly, it is not possible to retain the would indicate the grammatical role of the head coreferential NP in the relative clause, as the NP. ungrammaticality of the following sentence According to the first criterion, there are three shows in Magahi: types of relative clauses in Magahi: 4 (a) * hamar bhaaii je bhaaii amerika I Gen brother REL brother America (a) Postnominal meN raha haii (U) ayalaii he 16
LOC live is he came is chahalii {U } hamar ghar meN ii Ø ‘My brother who lives in America has tarah come.’ liked she I Gen house LOC this like Further, it is also not possible to delete the noun aaye ii ham kaise chahbaii of the head NP if preceded by a determiner as come SUBJN this I Q want Fut illustrated below: How could I wish that the one whom I liked more than my own life should come like this in my house?’
(7) je Ø ho gelaii se Ø to ho gelaii (b) * hamar Ø je bhaaii amerika meN REL happen went that Emph happen I Gen REL brother America LOC went raha haii (U) ayalaii he ab bataawa ki tohaar kaa haal ho. live is he came is now tell Imperf that you Gen Q health is ‘My brother who lives in America has come.’ ‘Whatever was destined to happen, has 2. 3 Internal relative clause strategy happened. Now tell me how you are?’ Following Keenan and Comrie (1977), the term However, it is possible to delete the relativized ‘internal relative clause’ has been used for what is NP and have a copy of the head NP in the main traditionally known as a relative– correlative clause or to retain the relativized NP and have the clause, because in some abstract sense the head head NP copied in the main clause as illustrated NP is assumed to be inside the relative clause at by (8- 9): the surface structure. The NP which appears (8) je/ jaun Ø kal ailaii hal U before the postnominal relative clause in a REL yesterday came was that sentence appears within the internal relative laRakii / laRakiyaa bahut sundar haii clause with the relative marker appended. Some girl very beautiful is linguists, though, regard the correlative NP as ‘The girl who came yesterday is very head NP. The general pattern is that the beautiful.’ relativized NP is generally retained along with the relativizer j- in the relative clause while a (9) je/ jaun laRakii/ laRakiya kal ailaii pronominal copy of the head NP appears in the REL girl yesterday came main clause, as shown in(5- 6). In some fixed hal U laRakii/laRakiyaa bahut sundar expressions, we get the archaic pronominal, se haii ‘that’ (in Hindi so ‘that’), which is shown by was that girl very beautiful is example (7), in Magahi: ‘The girl who came yesterday is very beautiful.’ (5) je laRakii Kal ayalaii hal U Ø 2. 4 Extranominal relative clause strategy REL girl yesterday came was she bahut sundar haii The extranominal relative clause strategy is very beautiful is essentially the minor image of the internal relative ‘ The girl who came yesterday is very clause. The head NP in the main clause is beautiful.’ generally preceded by an indefinite ek ‘one’, koi ‘someone’ as illustrated by (10), or an indefinite (6) jekaraa Ø ham praan se bhii jayaadaa determiner followed by an adjective aisan ‘such’ REL OBJ I life than also more in (11), or can be followed by the adjective aisani ‘such’ as in (12), for instance in Magahi: 17
(10) {koi} laikaa/ laRakaa ayalaii hal je (15) U laRakiya ke bahin aam khaait Someone/one boy came was REL that girl Gen sister mango eat CONT apane ke/ toraa ke dhundhit rahalo hal haii je laRakii kal ihaaN ayal halai you OBJ look for CONT was is REL girl yesterday here came was ‘A certain boy came who was looking for ‘That girl’s sister is eating a mango who you.’ came here yesterday.’ (11) hamaraa ek aisan laRakii chaahii je (16) safal raajnitik uhii howa hathiN I OBJ a such girl want REL successful politician he emph be Imperf are paisa se pyaar na karaa ho Hon money with love not do Imperf be je janata ke jhutho baadaa kar saka hath ‘I want such a girl who does not love REL public OBJ false promise do can is money.’ ‘Successful politician are those who can make false promise to the public.’ (12) ii log hamar biyaah ek aisan these people I Gen marriage a such Example (14) is ambiguous between ‘the girl laikaa se karit hath je came here’ and ‘the girl’s sister came here’. No boy with do CONT are HON REL such ambiguity exists in (15). Further, it is gharjamaii bane la taiyaar he possible to drop the determiner altogether before house son- in-law to become DEF ready is the head NP if the head is generic. In example (17) ghaas ‘grass’ is generic and it is not ‘These people are going to marry me to such preceded by any determiner in Magahi: a boy who is ready to be house son- in – law.’ (17) gaay ghaans khaait/ khaa rahalaii hal cow grass eat CONT was (13) kaun chiiz aisan haii je asaani se je barakhaa meN bahut uga haii Q thing such is REL ease with REL rainy season in very grow Imperf is mil jaa he ‘The cow was eating the grass that grows in obtain go Imperf is abundance in rainy season.’ ‘What is such a thing that can be obtained easily?’ 2. 5 Case coding strategy The case coding strategy involves making of the The head NP can also be preceded by the case function on the relativizer so that the determiner U ‘that’ in the main clause in the restricting sentence can be recovered from the Magahi, as exemplified in 14, 15. The general surface form. NPs in subject, direct object, tendency is, however, to drop the relativized NP. indirect object instrumental, ablative, object of ‘hii’ attached to it and then the order of the comparison, genitive, and locative positions are elements is also changed (Det+ NP – NP+ Det) to accessible to relativization. create relative prominence, as in 16, where Uhii There are two case forms of the relativizer j- in ‘that + emphatic marker’ become ‘Uhii’ and Magahi: the direct form and the oblique form. occurs in example (16) after the head NP raajnitik The direct form of the relativizer in the singular ‘politician’ in Magahi: and plural is ‘je’ and oblique form of the (14) U laRakii ke bahin aam khaait relativizer in singular and plural is ‘jaun’ , that is that girl Gen sister mango eat CONT fully context dependent. Ergative marker is not haii je kal ihaaN aya halai found in Magahi. It is remarkable in Magahi case is REL yesterday here came was function, with plural relative log/ sab are used ‘The sister of the girl who came here alternatively if the plural relativizer is animate yesterday is eating a mango.’ while if it is inanimate being only ‘sab’ is used. In 18
Magahi case function is complex it can only be Object of jaun se jaun se/ decided by using in context because of it variable Comparison REL than REL than relative forms. Thus, the various case functions of /jinkaa se jinkaa se the relative marker used pronominally and REL than /REL than adjectively in Magahi can be presented in Table jaun laikawaa jaun 1. REL boy REL se laikawan se Table 1. Case functions of the relative marker in than than Magahi: Locative jaun/ meN /par jaun/meN Case Singular Plural REL/LOC/ LOC REL/LOC/ Function /pe /par Subject je je LOC LOC REL REL je je laRikawan jaun gauwaaN jaun gauwan REL REL boys REL village REL villages laRakaa/ laRikawa meN meN boy LOC LOC Direct Object je je REL REL jaun Tebalwaa jaun je je kitabawan REL table Tebalwaa REL REL books par/pe REL tables kitaab/kitabwaa jinkaa LOC pe/par book REL OBJ LOC jekara je/ jaun Genitive jekaraa jinkaa REL – OBJ REL REL - Gen REL -Gen je laikaa ke laikawan ke jaun jaun REL boy OBJ boys OBJ REL REL Indirect jekaraa ke/ jekaraa ke laikawaake laikawan ke Object REL OBJ REL OBJ boy Gen boys Gen jinkaa je laikawan 3. Differences among relative clauses REL OBJ REL boys This section, discusses syntactic and semantic je laikawaa ke ke differences among relative clauses. REL boy ke OBJ 3. Syntactic differences Instrumental jekaraa se jinkaa se In this section, syntactic differences among the REL with/ by REL with/ by three types of relative clauses will be discussed. jaun/ je jaun/ je There are several co- occurrences restrictions REL REL among the three types that are discussed below: kalamiyaN se kalamiyan se pen with pens with 3. 1 If the head NP is indefinite Ablative jaun se jinkaa se If the head NP is indefinite, only postnominal and REL with/by REL with/by extranominal relative clauses can occur. Example jaun gauwaN se jaun (18) is acceptable in Magahi because the head NP REL village REL is indefinite and the relative clause is to the right from gauwaN se of the head NP. The same holds true for (19). villages from 19
However, (20) is ungrammatical because the brought PASS was relative clause occurs to the left of the indefinite ‘A few days ago a person was brought head NP, but (21) is ill- formed because the wrapped in a blanket who had blood all over relativized NP cannot be indefinite in Magahi. him.’ (18) kuch din pahile ek adamiyaaN ke Another similar set of examples in Magahi is a few days ago one person OBJ a given in (22), (23), (24) and (25). chadariya meN lapeT- ke (22) U ek jugal joRiya ke jaait dekhalkaii kind of blanket LOC having been wrapped he one two pair OBJ going saw Agr laawal gelaii hal je lahuuluuhaan je saayad janamdin manaawe aayal halaii brought PASS was REL blood- covered REL perhaps birthday to celebrate came hoit halaii was be CONT was ‘He saw a couple going that had perhaps ‘A few days ago a person who was brought come to celebrate their birthday.’ wrapped in a blanket had blood all over him.’ (23) U ek jugal joRiya ke je saayad he one two pair OBJ REL perhaps (19) kuch din pahile ek adamiyaaN je janamdin manaawe aayal halaii jaait a few days ago one person REL birthday to celebrate came was going lahuuluuhaan hoit halaii chadariya dekhalkaii blood covered be CONT was a kind of saw Agr blanket ‘He saw a couple going who had perhaps meN lapeT– ke laawal gelaii hal come to celebrate their birthday.’ LOC having been wrapped brought PASS was (24) * je ek jugal joRiyaa saayad janamdin ‘A few days ago a person who was brought REL one two pair perhaps birthday wrapped in a blanket had blood all over manaawe aayal halaii U jaait dekhalkaii him.’ to celebrate came was he going saw Agr ‘He saw a couple going that had perhaps (20) *kuch din pahile je adamiyaaN come to celebrate their birthdays.’ a few days ago REL person lahuuluuhaan hoit halaii ek adamiyan (25) *je jugal joRiya saayad janamdin blood covered be CONT was one person REL two pair perhaps birthday chadariya meN lapeT – ke manawe aayal halaii U ek (jugal joRiya) a kind of blanket LOC having been wrapped to celebrate came was he one (two pairs) ke jaait dekhalkai laawal gelaii hal OBJ going saw Agr brought PASS was ‘He saw a couple going that had perhaps ‘A few days ago a person was brought come to celebrate their birthday.’ wrapped in a blanket who had blood all over him.’ Postnominal and extranominal relative clauses are alike in their ability to take indefinite head NPs. (21) *kuch din pahile je * (ek ) adamiyaaN a few days ago REL one person 3. 2 Occurrence of quantifiers lahuuluuhaan hoit halaii blood– covered be CONT was Quantifier such as kai ‘several’, kuch ‘some’, sab chadariyaa meN lapeT-ke ‘all’ etc. generally occur with postnominal a kind of blanket LOC having been wrapped relative clauses in Magahi, as shown in (26- 27) are unacceptable because the quantifiers kai and laawal gelaii hal 20
kuch occur with the head NP of an extranominal illustrated in examples (30), (31) and (32). clause in (26) and the relativized NP of an Example (30) is acceptable because the emphatics internal relative clause in (27). However, (28) is bhii, and hii occur after head NPs in the grammatical in Magahi, because the quantifier kai extranominal relative sentences. Example (31) ‘several’ and kuch ‘some’ occur with the head NP and (32) are ungrammatical because the in the postnominal relative clause. emphatics bhii, hii occur after the head NP in internal and postnominal relative clauses. (26) *??{kuch/kai} vidyarthiyan aChaa ank
some/ several students good points (30) chiiD ke jangalwan meN bhaluwan na paawat je kathin pariisram n karath Pine Gen jungles LOC bears not obtain REL hard work not do Imperf {bhii/ hii} howa haii je kabahii - kabahii ‘{Some/ several} students do not obtain also/ Emph be Imperf are REL sometimes good points who do not work hard.’ adamiyan pe hamalaa kar de haii (27) *je {kai/ kuch} vidyarthiyan kathin men LOC attack do give are REL {several/some} students hard ‘In pines forests there are also bears who pariishram na karath U aCha ank sometimes attack men.’ work not do Imperf they good points (31) * je bhaluwan {bhii/ hii } kabahii- na paawath REL bears also/ Emph sometimes not obtain kabahii adamiyan pe hamalaa kar de haii ‘Some/ several students who do not work men LOC attack do give are hard do not obtain good points.’ (U) chiiD ke jangalwan meN howa haii (28) kuch/ kai vidyarthiyan je pariisram they pines Gen jungles LOC be Imperf are some /several students REL work ‘The bears that sometimes attack men are na karath U/Usab aChaa ank na paawath found in pine forests.’ not do Imperf they good point not obtain (32) *bhaluwan {bhii/ hii} je kabahii- kabahii ‘{Some/ several} students who do not work bears also/ Emph REL sometimes hard do not obtain good points.’ adamiyan pe hamalaa kar de haii However, there is an apparent exception to this men LOC attack do give Imperf are generalization in Magahi. In sentence (29), where chiiD ke jangalawan meN howa haii kuch ‘some’ occur in the internal relative clause. pine Gen jungles LOC be Imperf are ‘The bears that sometimes attack man are (29) je kuch ham kahit hi (U) sahii he found in pine forests.’ REL little I say CONT am that correct is ‘Whatever I am saying is correct.’ Further, the discontinuous emphatic markers do not occur in the internal and Post- nominal ‘kuch’ in (29) is not used as quantifier but as a relative sentences. This explains the nominal. Hence, it is not a real exception. This ungrammaticality of (34) and (35). However restriction of quantifier occurrence pairs internal discontinuous markers can occur with the head and extranominal relative clauses. NP in extranominal. This accounts for the 3. 3 Occurrence of emphatics grammaticality of (33). There are emphatics like hii, bhii ‘even’ and (33) ii Thik U hii napawaa haii discontinuous emphatics such as Thiik...hii this exactly that Emph measurement is ‘exact…Emph’ , bilkul…hii ‘absolutely….Emph’ je ham chaahit halii , bas…..hii, ‘roughly.....Emph’, sirf.... hii REL I want Imperf was ‘only….Emph’ that occur with head NPs in extranominal relative sentences in Magahi, as 21
‘This is exactly the same measurement that I ‘The monk who is wearing saffron clothes wanted.’ has come from Patna.’ (34) *??je napawaa ham chahit (37) U jogiya je kesariya kaparawa pahinle REL measurement I want- Imperf that monk REL saffron clothes wearing halii ii thiik U hii haii was this exactly that Emph is haii U paTnaa se ayalaii he ‘This is exactly the same measurement that I is he Patna from came is wanted.’ ‘The monk who is wearing saffron clothes has come from Patna.’ (35) *??U napawaa je ham chaahit (38) U jogiya paTanaa se ayalai he je that measurement REL I want Imperf that monk Patna from came is REL halii ii Thiik U hii haii kesariya kaparawan pahinle haii was this exactly that Emph is saffron clothes wearing is ‘This is exactly the same measurement that I wanted.’ ‘The monk has come from Patna who is wearing saffron.’ This restriction on occurrence of emphatics groups internal and postnominal relative clauses In (36) the presupposition is that there exists a together. monk and he is wearing saffron clothes and the new information is that he has come from Patna. 4. Semantic differences Wh- question will be used as a text to separate We will observe semantic differences in the existential presupposition from existential following section: assertions. What gets questioned generally represents an assertions in the corresponding 4. 1 Existential presupposition vs. existential answer considered from the view point, (36) is assertion responsive to the question, je jogiya kesariya Strawson (1950) states that define referring kaparwan pahinle haii U kahaaN se ayalai he expressions have existential presupposition ‘The monk who is wearing saffron clothes, where associated with them. An existential has he come from ?’ (37) represents the same presupposition associated with them. An presupposition, that there exists a monk and that existential presupposition is associated with any he is wearing saffron clothes and the new referring that succeeds in uniquely identifying a information is that he has come from Patna particular object or an individual. These referring because it is responsive to the question, U jogiya expressions include definite referring expressions. je kesariya kaparawan pahinle haii U kahaN se Specific referring expressions do not have ayalai he? ‘The monk who is wearing saffron existential assertion, associated with them. clothes, he has come from where?’ Further, (36- Considered from this point of view, internal and 37) can be possible answers to a question. post- nominal relative clauses seem to have However, (38) cannot be a possible answer to the existential presuppositions associated with them, question it seems to be responsive to the where as extra- nominal clauses seem to have following question in (39- 40): existential assertions. The following are the (39) U jogiya ke bare meN bataaw examples: that monk Gen about LOC tell Imperf (36) je jogiya kesariya kaparawan pahinle ‘Tell me about that monk?’ REL monk saffron clothes wearing (40) U jogiya ke bare meN kaa kahala haii U paTanaa se ayalaii he that monk Gen about LOC Q said is he Patna from came is ‘What did you say about that monk?’
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The preferred answers to (39), (40), would be U (c) Quantifiers like determiner such as kai ‘many’ jogiya patina se ayalai he aur kesariya and kuch ‘some’ will not occur in those internal kaparawan pahinle haii ‘That monk has come and postnominal relative constructions where from Patna and is wearing saffron clothes’ but there is a pronominal relative constructions or its (38) could be possible answer. If the question test copy in the main clause. is an accepted way to tease out the difference (d) Emphatics such as hii, bhii ‘even’ and between existential presupposition and existential discontinuous emphatic marker like thiik wahii assertion, then U jogiya ‘that monk’ in (38) ‘exact……Emph’ will not occur in internal and represents existential presupposition and paTana postnominal relative constructions. se ayalaii he je kesariya kaparawan pahinale haii represents new information or existential And in semantic differences: internal and assertion. It follows that internal and postnominal postnominal relative constructions will have relative clauses contain existential existential presuppositions associated with them. presuppositions and extranominal relative clauses The extranominal relative clause will be a part of contain existential assertion. This semantic assertion in Magahi. This semantic difference difference lumps internal and relative clauses lumps internal and postnominal relative clauses together in Magahi. together in Magahi. Thus, in nutshell it can be said that in Magahi language relative clause 5. Conclusion formation is restricted rather than free, in the There are three types of relative clauses in same way as other verb final languages like: Magahi: postnominal, internal and extranominal. Hindi, Bhojpuri etc. From linguistic point of view In postnominal relative clause strategy the head Magahi language has rich syntactic and semantic NP occurs to the left of the relative clause in feature like other Indo Aryan languages such as Magahi like Hindi, Bhojpuri etc. In internal Hindi, Bhojpuri, and Maithili etc. relative clause the relativized NP is generally retained along with the relativizer j- in the relative References clause while the pronominal copy of the head NP Andrews, Avery A .1975. A Typological survey appears in the main clause and extranominal of Relative Clauses. Unpublished doctoral relative clause strategy is essentially the mirror dissertation, MIT. image of the internal relative clause. Two criteria Downing, Bruce T. 1978. Some Universal of by which the three types of relative clauses in Relative Clause Structure. In Greenberg. Magahi differ are: at relative position of the head Syntax 1. 375- 418. NP and the relative clause of the surface structure. Givón, T. 1975. On the role of perceptual clues The second one concerns the manner in which the in Hebrew relativization, Afroasiatic case function of the relativized NP is indicated. Linguistics, 2, 1-17. The case function of the relativizer indicates the Keenan, Edward L. and Bernard Comrie. 1997. grammatical role of the head NP. The head NP in Noun Phrase Accessibility and Universal the main clause is generally preceded by an grammar. Linguistic Inquiry 8. 1. 63- 99. indefinite ‘ek’, and ‘koi’. Further, syntactic and Kachru,Yamuna.1966. An Introduction to Hindi semantic difference among three types of relative Syntax. Urban – Champaign: University of clause clear the following facts in Magahi; as in Illinois’. syntactic differences: Masica, Colin. 1972. Relative Clauses in South Asia. In Peranteau, Levi and Gloria, (a) No relativized NP will be indefinite. 198- 204. Chicago: Chicago Linguistics (b) Indefinite head NPs will not occur in the Society. internal and postnominal relative constructions. Strawson, Peter F. 1950. On Referring. Mind. 59. 320– 344 23
Verma, M. K. 1991. Exploring the Parameters of Agreement: The Case of Magahi. Language Sciences 13, 125 - 143.
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Case marking in Balami Binod Dahal [email protected] Balami exhibits consistently ergative-absolutive of transitive clause. Here, the absolutive case is system. The ergative marker -ĩ and the absolutive zero-marked. The instrumental case marker in the marker is zero. The instrumental case marker is Balami language is similar to ergative marker - similar to ergative marker -ĩ/ʌĩ. Genitive case ĩ/ʌĩ. Genitive case marker in the Balami language marker is -ẽ. Dative case marker is -tʌ. The is -ẽ. Dative case marker in the Balami language is -t . In the Balami language, ablative case is the ablative case is marked by -ĩ and -ʌ is the locative ʌ case marker.The allative case marker is -ro and form of a noun which refers to a place from where the comitative case marker is -o. the action of the verb is performed. The ablative case marker in the Balami language is -ĩ. In the 1. Introduction Balami language,-ʌ is the locative case marker. Balami people claim themselves to be an Allative is the form of noun which expresses the indigenous community of Nepal. In National place or thing towards which the action denoted Census Reports, the population of Balami is not by the verb is performed. In the Balami language, available because they have been counted into the allative case marker is -ro. In the Balami Newar community. According to Rastriya Balami language the comitative case marker is -o. Samaj (National Balami Society), the estimated Comitative has no possesive meaning in Balami population of the Balami in Nepal is about 1, as in Kathmandu Newar. Balami Possesive is 07,000. According to the same organization, the differently marked Balami people are scattered in about 21 districts 2. Case marking of the country. There has been no study in Balami with functional perspective. There are three case type typologically; coding semantics roles, coding pragmatic function and This paper attempts the case marking system in coding transitivity. Transitive oriented case the Balami Language with the functional marking: The ergative-absolutive system is typological perspective developed mainly by governed by the principle of transitivity. It is first Givon(2001) and further supplemented by and foremost, a system where case-marking codes Noonan(2003), Dryer(2006). the syntactic distinction between transitive and Balami is consistently ergative-absolutive intransitive clauses. language. Balami exhibit consistently ergative- 2.1 Ergative-absolutive absolutive system which is governed by the principle of transitivity which primarily codes the In an ergative-absolutive language answering to syntactic distinction between the transitive and the classical description(Comrie 1978; Dixon intransitive clause. The intransitive subject is zero 1979), the subject of the transitive clause displays marked. However, the subject of the transitive ergative case-marking, while both the object of sentences is marked by case marker. This type of the transitive and the subject of the intransitive case assignment is homogeneous over the entire clause share an abuslative case-marking, most person and the different case which proves commonly zero. Balami is consistently ergative- absolutive Balami neither shows ‘aspectual split’ as in language. Nepali and Tamang (Paudel, 2006) nor does it Every noun and pronoun takes same case clitics shows split in terms of person as in Kham with different tenses. Ergative case is the case of (Watters, 2002) Balami shows ergative-absolutive the subject of the transitive sentence. The ergative case system in all of the persons and in the case marker is -ĩ. The absolutive case is the case aspects. of the subject of intransitive clause and the object Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 25-30 (2) a. dᶻʌ nigʌ Write 2SG.PST ‘You wrote a book.’ dᶻʌ ni -gʌ 1SG laugh 1SG.NPST j tˢʰʌĩ bu tˢoinʌ ‘I laughed.’ tˢʰʌ -ĩ bu b. dᶻʌ nileu 2SG laugh 2SG.NPST d nil -eu ᶻʌ tˢoi -nʌ 1SG laugh 1SG.NPST write 2SG.NPST ‘I laugh.’ ‘You write a book.’ c. t niŋ i ˢʰʌ ʌ k. unʌĩ bu tˢorʌ tˢʰʌ ni ŋʌi 2SG laugh 2SG.NPST un ʌĩ bu ‘You laughed.’ 3SG ERG book
d. tˢʰʌnilnʌ tˢo rʌ write 3SG.PST tˢʰʌ nil nʌ 2SG laugh 2SG.NPST ‘S/he wrote a book.’ ‘You laugh.’ l. unʌĩ bu tˢoigu e. u nilʌ un -ʌĩ bu u ni -lʌ 3SG ERG book 3SG laugh 3SG.PST tˢo igu ‘S/he laughed.’ write 3SG.NPST f. u nilgu ‘S/he writes a book.’ u nil gu 3SG laugh 3SGNPST The examples from (2a-f) are the sentences with the intransitive verb ‘laugh’ and examples from ‘S/he laughs.’ (2g-l) are the sentences with transitive verb g ‘write’. In the example sentences the form of the dᶻʌĩbutˢogʌ transitive subject and intransitive subject is dᶻʌ -ĩ bu tˢo gʌ different. The intransitive subject is zero-marked like the object of the transitive sentence in all of 1SG ERG book write 1SG.PST the above examples. However, the subject of the ‘I wrote a book.’ transitive sentence is marked by the case clitic - h d ĩ bu t oigu ᶻʌ ˢ ĩ/ʌĩ. This type of case assignment is homogeneous over all of the persons and the different tenses. d -i bu t o Igu ᶻʌ ˢ This proves that Balami is a consistently ergative- 1SG ERG book write 1SG.NPST absolutive language. ‘I write a book.’ (3) a. dᶻʌ nigʌ i. t ĩ bu t og ĩ ˢʰʌ ˢ ʌ dᶻʌ- Ø ni -gʌ -ĩ bu tˢʰʌ 1SG-ABS laugh 1SG.NPST 2SG laugh 2SG.NPST ‘I laughed.’ tˢo gʌĩ 26
5 a. sitaẽ tshẽ b. d ĩ bu t og ᶻʌ ˢ ʌ sita ẽ tshẽ -ĩ bu- Ø dᶻʌ Sita GEN house 1 SG ERG book-ABS ‘Sita's house.’ tˢo -gʌ b. ramẽt e write 1SG.PST ˢʰ ram ẽ ‘I wrote a book’ tˢʰe In the examples 3(b) the ergative case is the case Ram GEN head of the subject of the transitive sentence. The ‘Ram’s head.’ ergative case marker is -ĩ. The absolutive case is the case of the subject of intransitive sentence and Above examples (5a-b) show that the genitive the object of transitive sentence. Here, the marker in the Balami is -ẽ which is suffixed to the absolutive case is zero-marked which is indicated possessor noun. The noun with the genitive case by the symbol - Ø. marker precedes the thing which is possessed.
2.2 Instrumental 2.4 Dative The instrumental case marker in the Balami Dative case marker in the Balami language is -tʌ. language is similar to ergative marker -ĩ/ʌĩ as The examples of the nouns with the dative case given in (4). marker are in (6).
z 4 a. d ĩ kur ĩ paleu z ʌ ʌ 6 a. d ʌĩ sjamitʌ bu boeu z ĩ sjami dzʌ ĩ kurʌ d ʌ 1SG ERG spade 1 SG ERG shyam ĩ pal eu tʌ bu bo INST dig 1SG.NPST DAT book give 'I dig with the spade.' eu 1SG.NPST b. d ĩ k l m ĩ t oigu ᶻʌ ʌ ʌ ʌ ˢ ‘I give a book to Shyam.’ dzʌ ĩ kʌlʌm b. 1SG ERG pen unʌĩ sitɛtʌ kʌlʌũ birʌ un ʌĩ tˢo igu ʌĩ sitɛ INST write 1SG.NPST 3SG ERG Sita ‘I write with a pen.’ tʌ kʌlʌũ bi DAT pen give In the examples (4a-b), the instrumental marker is r -ĩ/ʌĩ which is added to the noun phrase that ʌ functions as an instrument of the action of the 3SG.PST verb. ‘S/he gave a pen to Sita.’ 2.3 Genitive The examples (6 a-b) show that the dative case Genitive case marker in the Balami language is - marker is -tʌ which is added to the noun. In the ẽ. The examples of the nouns with the genitive first example ‘shyam’ is in the dative case while case marker in the language are in (5). in the second example ‘sita’ is in the dative case. 27
2.5 Ablative Ablative is a term which refers to a form of noun b. tebulʌ gilas du which is typically used in the expression of a tebul ʌ gilas range of locative or instrumental meanings. In the table LOC glass Balami language, ablative case is the form of a noun which refers to a place from where the du action of the verb is performed. The ablative case is marker in the Balami language is -ĩ. The ‘The glass is on the table.’ examples of the nouns with the ablative case forms are in (7). In the examples (8a-b) above the nouns sit seat and tebul ‘table’ are in the ablative case forms (7) a. ram g m ĩ w r ʌ ʌ ʌ ʌ which is marked by the locative marker -ʌ. ram ĩ gʌmʌ 2.7 Allative ram SG village ABL Allative is the form of noun which expresses the wʌ rʌ place or thing towards which the action denoted come 3SG.PST by the verb is performed. In the Balami language, Ram came from the village. the allative case marker is -ro. The examples of the nouns with the allative case forms are given b. u baladʌuĩ wʌrʌ below: u -ĩ Baladᶻu (9) a u tˢʰẽro woŋgu 3SG Balaju ABL u t ẽ ro wʌ rʌ ˢʰ come 3SG.PST 3SG house ALL ‘S/he came from Balaju.’ woŋ gu come 3SG.NPST ‘S/he comes toward house.’ In the examples (7a-b) given above, the nouns b gʌmʌ ‘village’ and baladʌu ‘Balaju’ are in the sjam gwaro wʌrʌ ablative case form which is indicated with the sjam gwa ro ablative case marker -ĩ. Shyam farmhoue ALL 2.6 Locative wʌ rʌ Locative is the role of noun phrase that indicates a come 3SG.PST thing or place where a situation, action or event Shyam came towads farmhouse occurs. In the Balami language, -ʌ is the locative case marker. In the above examples (9a-b) the nouns tˢʰẽ ‘house’ and gwa ‘farmhouse’ are in the allative (8) a. hʌri sitʌ pʰʌuteu case forms which is marked by the allative case marker -ro. h ri sit ʌ ʌ 2.8 Commitative Hari seat LOC Commitative is the form of the noun which shows p ut eu ʰʌ the relation with another noun to perform the sit 3SG.NPST event or action denoted by the predicate in the ‘Hari sits on the seat.’ sentence. In the Balami language the commitative
28 case marker is -o. The forms of the nouns which case is zero-marked which is indicated by the are in the commitative role in the sentence are in symbol -Ø.The instrumental case marker in the (10). Balami language is similar to ergative marker - ĩ/ ĩ. Genitive case marker in the Balami language 10) a u ramo t oŋgu ʌ ˢ is -ẽ. Dative case marker in the Balami language u ram o is -tʌ. In the Balami language, ablative case is the 3SG Ram COM form of a noun which refers to a place from where the action of the verb is performed. The ablative t oŋ gu ˢ case marker in the Balami language is -ĩ. In the live 3SG.NPST Balami language,-ʌ is the locative case marker. ‘S/he lives with Ram.’ Allative is the form of noun which expresses the place or thing towards which the action denoted b dᶻʌ pasao tˢoneu by the verb is performed. In the Balami language, the allative case marker is -ro. In the Balami d pasa o ᶻʌ language the commitative case marker is -o. 1SG friend COM Commitative has no possessive meaning in tˢon eu Balami as in Kathmandu Newar. Balami live 1SG.NPST Possessive is differently marked. ‘I live with a friend.’ Abbreviations ɸ Zero element In the examples (10a-b) given above the nouns ABL Ablative ram ‘Ram’ and pasa ‘friend’ are in the comitative ABS Absolutive role in the sentence which is indicated by the ALL Allative comitative marker-o. Comitative has possive COM Comitative menaing in Kathmandu Newar but in Balami DAT Dative possive is markerd by separate marker -ke. ERG Ergative 3. Summary GEN Genitive INST Instrumental Noun phrases are marked for case either with the LOC Locative affixes or with the word order or with the use of NPST Non-past tense categories like prepositions or postpositions. Case PL Plural of the noun phrases are the function of either PST Past tense syntactic role of the noun phrase in the sentence SG Singular structure or semantic role of the noun phrase or both. Balami is consistently ergative- absolutive References language. The intransitive subject is zero marked. Benedict, Paul K.1972. Sino–Tibetan: a However, the subject of the transitive sentences is conspectus. London: Cambridge University marked by case marker. This type of case Press. assignment is homogeneous over the entire person Blake, B. 1994.Case. Cambridge: Cambridge and the different case which proves Balami is University Press. consistently ergative- absolutive language. Dahal, Binod.2012. Nominal Morphology in Every noun and pronoun takes same case clitics Balami (as spoken in Nuwakot with different tenses. Ergative case is the case of District).Tribhuvan University: Unpublished the subject of the transitive sentence. The ergative M.A. Thesis. case marker is -ĩ. The absolutive case is the case Givon, T. 2001.Syntax: An Introduction. Vol.I. of the subject of intransitive sentence and the Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamin object of transitive sentence. Here, the absolutive Publishing Company 29
Regmi, Dan Raj.2007. The Bhujel Language’. Tribhuvan University: Ph D thesis. The field report .2011. Okharpauwa V.D.C, A Balami Language: the field study in Kagati Gau of Nuwakot District. Central Department of Linguistics, T.U. Yadava, Yogendra P.2004. Linguistics: A Basic Course. Kathmandu.
30
Verb agreement in Majhi Dubi Nanda Dhakal
This paper deals with the verb agreement in Majhi. NOM ACC-DAT GEN We need ranges of facts to take into account while 1SG muĩ ‘I’ milai morə discussing the verb agreement in Majhi. In 1PL haĩ ‘we’ haĩlai hamro addition to number, person, gender, and 2SG tui ‘you’ tuilai torə honorificity, verbs also index subject and object in 2SG.H.HON tora ‘you’ toraləkai toraləko transitive and ditransitive verbs. This article tries 2PL toralə ‘you’ toraləkai toraləko to focus the preliminary findings of verb 3SG hoi ‘he/she/it’ hoilai hokrə agreement features found in the Majhi language. 3PL holə ‘they’ holəkai holəko 1. Introduction Majhi has split ergativity based on nominal hierarchy. The first and second person pronouns do Majhi (ISO ‘mjz’) is an Indo-Aryan language not code any ergative marker but the third person spoken in the eastern Nepal mainly in the district pronouns onwards take the ergative marker (see of Ramechap. The previous census (2011) shows DeLancey 1979 for some details). that there are a total of 24422 Majhi mother tongue speakers out of 83727 Majhi people living in The third person pronouns do not make any Nepal. Ethnologue (Eppele et al. 2012) has distinction in terms of honorificity. Since the first, categorized this language as ‘threatened’1. While and second person pronouns do not take the discussing the agreement in Majhi, we will be ergative markers they are not included in Table 1. mainly focused on the controllers and targets as The third person singular and plural pronouns discussed in Corbett (2006). inflect as hoi-nin ‘he-ERG’ and holə-kin ‘they-ERG’ when they inflect forergative case. This paper is organized into seven sections. A brief introduction to the language is given in section 1 3. Tenses and pronouns are discussed in section 2. An Verb morphology is predominantly suffixing in introduction to tenses is given in section 3. We Majhi. It exhibits a contrast of two tenses, viz. past discuss different single agreement features in and non-past as illustrated in (1-2). section 4 and double agreement in section 5. An overview of typological implications of this (1) haĩ git gaitshe discussion is given in section 6. The paper is haĩ git gai-tshe finally summarized in section 7. we song sing-NPST.1PL ‘We sing a song.’ 2. Pronouns (2) dzwãrekin puni bitsar gərle Before moving to verb agreement, it is relevant to dzwã-re-kin puni bitsar mention the pronoun forms in Majhi. Majhi son-in-law-3SG-ERG also thought pronouns show two levels of honorificity in the gər-le second person pronouns but the distinction of do-PST.3SG honorificity is not seen in the third person ‘The son-in-law also thought.’ pronouns. Majhi pronouns and their inflections are mentioned in Table (1). As we see in example (1), the past tense is indexed Table 1: Pronouns and inflections for cases with -le. The past tense marker is also indexed with -n if the subject is the person singular (Table 2). Additionally, the non-past tense is -tsh which 1 refers both to present and future events. Therefore, The data used in this article is mainly from Tamakoshi the differentiating the present and future tenses are dialect of Majhi. I like to thank Mr. Dhan BahadurMajhi for the data of the Majhi language he provided to me and not very significant in Majhi. Consider an example the manuscript of the dictionary (Majhi, forthcoming). (3). This article would not have been possible without his help. Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 31-37 (3) bəltshi thaptshət second person singular pronoun triggers verb bəltshi thap-tshət agreement as illustrated in (6-7). fish hook set-NPST3PL (6) tui dzaitsh əs ‘(They) set the fish-hook (to catch us).’ tui dza-tsh əs As we see in Table (1,3), -tsh is the non-past tense you go-NPST2SG marker followed by person and number of the ‘You go.’ subject (2). (7) tora dzaitshə 4. Single agreement tui dza-tsh ə you go-NPST-2SG.HON The tense markers follow the verb stems, and in ‘You (HON) go.’ turn the agreement markers follow the tense markers in Majhi as shown in Table (2). As illustrated in (6), the second person non- honorific agreement form is -tsəs whereas the Table 2: Conjugation of intransitive verbs honorific agreement form is -tshə in the non-past beg- ‘run’, dza- ‘go’ tense. It is thus obvious that the agreement due to beg- ‘run’ dza- ‘go’ honorificity is evidenced in Majhi. Verb agreement NPST PST NPST PST triggered by honorifiity is also seen in the past 1SG -tshũ -naĩ -itshũ -inaĩ tense. As shown in Table (2), the suffix -ləi agrees 1PL -tshe -le -itshe -ile with the second person singular non-honorific 2SG -tshəs -ləi -itshəs -iləi subject but the suffix -lə is used to index the 2SG.HON -tshə -lə -itshə -ilə second person singular honorific pronoun in the 2PL -tshə -lə -itshə -ilə tpast tense. The coding of honorificity is also seen 3SG -tshəi -le -itshəi -ile in the past tense. 3PL -tshət -la -itshət -ila Majhi exhibits the verb agreement owing to gender The table presents the conjugations of two only in certain verb forms. The feminine intransitive verbs beg- ‘run’, and dza- ‘go’. This agreement suffix is -i as is found in genetically shows that the verbs agree with the subject in related Indo-Aryan languages. However, the person and number. We illustrate the person, gender agreement is indexed neither in the past number, gender, honorificity in this section. tense nor in the non-past tense. Consider following examples. The verbs agree with the gender. Gender (4) tui begtshəs agreement is seen in some other verb forms (viz. tui beg-tshəs perfect, and prospective forms) when they appear you run-NPST.2SG as modifiers. Compare examples (8-9). ‘You run.’ (8) tshõdarị ailə atshə (5) hoi begtshəi tshõdarị a-lə atshə hoi beg-tshəi son come-PRF be.NPST.3SG he run-NPST.3SG ‘(My) son has come.’ ‘He runs.’ (9) tshunenin aili atshi Verb agreement is controlled by person and tshunenin a-li atshi number as illustrated in (4-5). We see that the daughter come-PRF.F be.NPST.3SG.F suffix -tshəs shows the non-past tense agreeing ‘(My) daughter has come.’ with the second person singular subject whereas the suffix -tshəi shows the agreement with the The gender is coded with -i in (9). Unlike (8), third person singular in the non-past tense. where the verb agreement is seen to agree with masculine subject, the agreement with the There are two levels of honorificity in the second feminine subject is seen in (9). We see that the person singular pronoun. The honorificity in the perfect is indexed with -l is followed by the
32 feminine marker -i in (9). We also see verb I-GEN two-CLF daughter be.NPST.3PL agreeing with the feminine subject in the ‘I have two sons.’ prospective form as illustrated in (10). In addition, the copula atsh is used in attributive (10) ghərə dzainari buhari construction as in (14). ghərə dza-inari buhari (14) agi tato atshəi house go-PROS.F daughter-in-law agi tato atshəi ‘The daughter-in-law to go home’ fire hot be.NPST.1SG When participial forms precede the nouns, they ‘The fire is hot.’ agree with the head nouns. Consider examples in The copula ho is used in predicate nominals as (11). shown in (15). Examples follow. (11) morli tshunenin (15) muĩ madzhi ho mor-li tshunenin muĩ madzhi ho die-PRF.F daughter I Majhi be.NPST ‘The dead girl’ ‘I am a Majhi.’ Thus, we see that gender is indexed only in some The copulas atsh- and its past form rəhə- inflect verb forms in Majhi.2 Masica (1991:218) notes that differently with different person, number and gender is a grammatical and syntactic category in honorificity. IA languages. This holds true for Majhi as well. 5. Double agreement Like in main verbs, the Majhi copulas also inflect to agree with the person and number, gender of A more interesting feature characterized in Majhi the subject. Majhi possesses two distinct copular is the double agreement where verb agreement is verbs in Majhi, viz. atsh-, including its past form triggered both by subject and object. This is shown rəhə and ho. The copulas and their conjugations in Appendices (A, B). Appendix A summarizes the are given in Table (3). affixes which are attached to the verbs in the past and non-past tenses in transitive/ ditransitive verbs. Table 3: Conjugations of copulas Similarly, Appendix B illustrates the conjugations atsh- be.NPST’ rəhə- ‘be.PST’ of verb de ‘give’. We will first discuss the 1SG atshũ rəinai transitive paradigms given in Appendices (A, B), 1PL atshe rəile and then we will illustrate them with examples. 2SG atshəs rəiles The inflected forms of the verb de ‘give’ in the 2SG.HON atshə rəilə past and non-past tense have been included in the 2PL atshə rəilə appendix (B). 3SG atshə rəilə 3PL atshət rəila First of all, let’s deal with the inflectional behavior of verbs in ditransitive verbs as given in The copula atsh- is used for locational clauses as Appendices (A, B). As shown in appendices, the in (12) and to show possession (13). subjects are mentioned in the horizontal column (12) muĩ ghərka atshũ and the objects in the vertical column. There are muĩ ghər-ka atshũ some cases where the agreement suffixes I house-LOC be.NPST.1SG combined with tense markers in transitive verbs ‘I am at home.’ are identical to the ones which also occur in intransitive paradigms. So, the transitive verbs in (13) morə duiṭai tshodarị atshət which the inflectional forms are decided only by muĩ-rə dui-ṭai tshodarị atshət the subject are referred to as ‘Only S (Subject) marked’ in Appendix (B). In other words, only 2 Majhi verbs also seem to agree with the dative subjects are marked to them. subjects. We need further study regarding this as other languages also shows this features (see Hook 1990). 33
The object does not control verb agreement when singular tshoḍari ‘son’ whereas in (17) it is the the first person singular subject acts on the second third person plural tshodariḷ ‘sons’. person singular object in both past and non-past Now, let’s turn to the inflections of the ditransitive tenses. Similarly, when the first person plural is verbs in the non-past tense. Consider examples the subject, the object does not control verb (18-19). agreement in the past tense. When the second person pronouns act on the first person pronouns, (18) muĩ hoilai dzal ditshin we don’t see the object triggering the verb muĩ hoi-lai dzal di-tshin agreement. In addition, we see no addressee I he-ACC dzal give-PST1SG›3SG component in the verbs when the subject is the ‘I give him the net.’ second person plural in the non-past tense. (19) muĩ holəkai dzal ditshai Although some verbs are marked only with the muĩ hoi-lai dzal di-tshai subject, there are inflectional slots in the paradigm I he-ACC net give-NPST1SG›3PL where both subject and object are indexed. We are ‘I give him the net.’ going to deal with this in this section. Let’s remember that the first person singular Let’s recall that the suffix -naĩ codes the first subject takes the verb form that ends marker is - person singular subject in the past tense in tshũ in non-past tense. When we compare this with intransitive clauses (see Table 2). When we the inflections of verbs in (18-19), we notice that compare this form with the inflectional suffixes the addressee component is also indexed in the appearing to index the verbs in transitive verbs, we verbs. The suffix -tshin shows that the first person find some differences. We see that the form -naĩ singular subject is acting on the third person also appears when the first person singular subject singular object whereas -tshai codes the first acts on the second person singular in the past person singular subject acting on the third person tense. By contrast, when the first person singular plural object. subject acts on the rest of the pronouns, the forms differ, viz. -lai, -nin. The form -lai indexes the As seen in Appendices (A, B) a number of markers first person subject acting on the second person in Majhi are portmanteau affixes incorporating both the agent and patient components in the plural (PST1SG›2PL) and third person plural verbs. In other words, in addition to the subject, (PST1SG›3PL) in the past tense. Similarly, the suffix -nin indexes the first person singular subject acting the verb also incorporates the addressee components to them. Let’s take the suffix -lte. It is on the third person singular object (PST1SG›3SG). obvious that the -l is the past tense marker. It is Examples follow. not, however, easy to tease apart the rest of its (16) muĩ tshodarilaị dzal dinin component into agent and patient markers. muĩ tshoḍari-lai dzal di-nin Therefore, they have been glossed together in this I son-ACC net give-PST1SG›3SG article. ‘I gave a net to my son.’ As we see in (16-19), for example, Majhi employs (17) muĩ tshodarillaị dzal dilai a number of portmanteau suffixes in ditransitive muĩ tshoḍari-l-lai dzal di-lai and transitive paradigm. For example, the suffix - I son-PL-ACC net give-PST1SG›3PL jak refers to the portmanteau suffix which is the ‘I gave a net to my sons.’ third person singular agent acting on the third person patient. Examples (16-17) illustrate the verb agreement when the first person singular subject acts on the 6. Typological implications third person singular and plural. Despite the fact that the subject is the same in these two examples Some features seen in the preceding sections help us align the Majhi in the context of IA languages the differences result from the objects they incorporate in verb forms. For example, in spoken in Nepal. To begin with, 'Eastern' example (16), the object is the third person languages are characterized by the past tense suffix 34
-l with Marathi (Grierson 1903a:8; Masica IA: Indo-Aryan; INF: infinitive; LOC: locative; NEG: 1991:270; Masica 2005:86). Majhi partially negative; NOM: nominative; NOML: nominalized characterizes this trait as it contains -l/-n to index noun; NPST: non-past; PL: plural; POSB: possibility past tense as well as perfect aspect. Secondly, POSS: pronominal suffix; PRF: perfect; PROH: eastern languages are characterized by 'inflectional prohibitive; PROS: prospective; PST: past; SG: synthesis' compared to western languages. Several singular agreement features are suffixed to the verbs References (Grierson 1903a:7). We see that the Majhi verbs can index both subject and object. Thus, Majhi Corbett, Greville G. 2006. Agreement. Cambridge: shares this features of ‘Eastern’ IA languages. Cambridge University Press. Grierson (1903b:3) states, "Distinction of gender is DeLancey, Scott.1979. An interpretation of split slightly observed in 'Bihari' languages." ergativity and related patterns. Language 57: Grammatical gender distinction is evident in Majhi 626-657. only in certain verb forms. The copula (or Dhakal, Dubi Nanda. 2008. A Grammar of Majhi. auxiliary) batị is common in some eastern IA Kathmandu: Nepal Sanskrit University, ms. languages (Grierson 1903a:8). However, Majhi Dhakal, Dubi Nanda. 2012. Darai Grammar. lacks this feature. Munchen: Lincom Europa. Eppele, John W.; M. P. Lewis, Dan Raj Regmi; Indo-Aryan languages present double and even Yogendra. P. Yadava. (2012). Ethnologue: triple agreement. Double agreement is reported in Languages of Nepal. Kathmandu: Linguistic Rajbanshi (Wilde 2008), Maithili (Yadava 1996, Survey of Nepal and SIL International. 1999), Darai (Dhakal 2012), and Magahi (Verma Grierson, GA. 1903a. Linguistic Survey of India, 1991). In addition, Maithili and Kashmiri show Vol.V. Part I. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. triple agreement (see Yadava 1996, 1999 for Grierson, GA. 1903b. Linguistic Survey of India, Maithili and Raina 1994 for Kashmiri) which is Vol.V. Part II. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. not characterized in Majhi. Grierson, G.A. 1904. Linguistic Survey of India, 7. Conclusion Vol.V, Part I. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. Hook, Peter Edwin. 1990. A Note on expressions The discussion shows that the verbs in Majhi can of involuntary experience in the Shina of indexe the features, such as person, gender, gender Skardu. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and and honorificity. The subject is the controller in African Studies 53.1.77-82. the intransitive clauses but both both subject and Majhi, Dhana Bahadur. (n.d.). Dictionary of Majhi object are the controllers in transitive and language, ms. intransitive subject. The inflectional behavior of Masica, Colin P. 1991. The Indo-Aryan copulas is slightly different when they are used as Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University auxiliaries. When the ditransitive verbs code both Press. the subject and object, Majhi also makes use of Masica, Colin P. 2005. A New Survey of the Indo- pormaneatu suffixes. The agreement features Aryan Languages. Journal of the American evidenced in Majhi are also attested in a number of Oriental Society, Vol.5, 125. 79-89. IA languages, such as Rajbanshi, Maithili, Magahi, Raina, Achla Misri. 1994. Dual and Triple Verbal and Darai. Majhi presents some distinct features of Agreement in Kashmiri. South Asian Language its own in terms of verb agreement. Review.1. 89-102. Abbreviations Wilde, Christopher P. 2008. A Sketch of the 1: first person; 2: second person; 3: third person; Phonology and Grammar of Rajbanshi. ABL: ablative; ALL: allative; CLF : classifier ; Helsenki: University of Helsinki. COM :comitative ; DAT : dative ; ERG: ergative Verma, Manindra K. 1991. Exploring the EVI: evidential marker; F: feminine; GEN: genitive; Parameters of Agreement: The Case of Magahi. Language Sciences 13.2.125-143.
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Yadava, Yogendra P. 1996. Verb agreement in (ed.), The Yearbook of South Asian Languages Maithili. Journal of Nepalese Linguistics. 1.1, and Linguistics. New Delhi, Thousand Oaks 109-121. and London: Sage Publications.139-154. Yadava, Yogendra P. 1999. The Complexity of Verb Agreement in Maithili. In Rajendra Singh
36
Appendix A: Agreement suffixes with the past and non-past tenses
Objects → 1SG 1PL 2SG 2PL 3SG 3PL Subjects ↓
1SG PST - - -nai -lai -nin -lai
NPST - - -tshũ/-sũ -tshjã -tshin -tshai
1PL PST - - -le
NPST - - -tshe -tshjã -tse -sai/-tshai
2SG PST -ləi - - -lsi -lkhən
NPST -tshəs - - disis -tshəs
2PL PST -lə - - dilək -lkhən
NPST -tshə
3SG PST -le -ljas -lja -lte -ljak
NPST -tshəi -tshjas -tshja -tshi -tshjak
3PL PST -ni/-la -la -ljas -lja -ni -ljak
NPST -tshət -tshjas -tshja -tshin -tshjak
Appendix B: Inflections of the verb de- ‘give’ in past and non-past tenses
Objects → 1SG 1PL 2SG 2PL 3SG 3PL Subjects ↓
1SG PST - - Only S marked dilai dinin dilai
NPST - - ditshjã ditshin ditshai
1PL PST - - Only S marked
NPST - - Only S marked ditshjã dithse disai/ditshai
2SG PST Only S marked - - dilsi dilkhən
NPST - - disis Only S marked
2PL PST Only S marked - - dilək dilkhən
NPST - - Only S marked
3SG PST Only S marked diljas dilja dilte diljak
NPST ditshjas ditshja ditshi ditshjak
3PL PST Only S marked diljas dilja dini diljak
NPST ditshjas ditshja ditshin ditshjak
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Evidence and stance in Kusunda Mark Donohue Bhoj Raj Gautam The Australian National University Tribhuvan University [email protected] [email protected]
Kusunda has been described in sketch form though with complications depending on the (Watters et al. 2006), but a number of morphemic person of the subject; and describe the functions and syntactic structures remain unclear. In of the associated motion suffix -taʕŋ, with a brief particular, the Watters et al. description was typological comparison to nearby languages. based on elicited materials, resulting in confusion about some morphemes. Following the collection The paper finishes with a discussion of why the of a naturalistic corpus we discuss the function of functions of -dzi and -taʕŋ were not clear to the two verbal suffixes with interesting uses. authors of Watters et al., with suggestions for greater clarity in data collection. 1. Introduction: Kusunda* 2. Previous descriptions of Kusunda and the Kusunda (ISO code: kgg) is a highly endangered -dzi suffix language isolate spoken in western Nepal (in Most earlier work on Kusunda is confined to Dang-Deukhuri and in Rolpa). Based on our wordlists, and some brief paradigmatic elicitation. survey 2 people speak the language in 2013; this For an overview of most of the literature, see is at variance from the National Census’ report of Watters et al. (2005/2006). Notably lacking is the 28 speakers (2011). The language is typologically category of naturalistic texts (in the sense of van isolated as well a genealogically isolated, with Oostendorp and Zwaan 1994, amongst others). many of the morphological categories found in surrounding languages absent from Kusunda. One The Watters et al. description presents numerous category, evidentiality, has been reported for details of the verbal template in Kusunda. Since many languages of the Himalayan region, but was the language has a number of inflectional not reported in Watters et al.’s (2005/2006) possibilities, no single simple (or complex) description of Kusunda. We present data, based template can describe the language’s verbs; on a large collection of naturalistic texts gathered rather, a number of inflectionally distinct template in a village environment (Donohue 2013), which have to be set up, as shown in Table 1 (drawing indicate that evidentiality is present in Kusunda in on data and analysis from Watters et al.). the form of a verbal suffix -dzi, and that a motion- According to this description agreement can be, associated suffix -ta ŋ is also found, encoding depending on the verb class, prefixal (‘1’), speaker involvement in the outcome of the event. suffixal (preceding TAM marking) (‘2’), suffixal The first of these suffixes was mentioned, but not (following TAM marking) (‘3’), double-suffixing understood, in Watters et al.; the other was not (for the same argument), or absent. TAM marking found in their work. is universally suffixal, but in the case of one verb is not a marked category. This paper presents the description offered in Watters et al.’s account of Kusunda for the -dzi Table 1: Verbal inflection for different verb suffix; presents data showing that evidentiality types (specifically, speaker certainty) is in fact the category encoded by the suffix in Kusunda, Morphemes Example: V tsu ‘exist’ V TAM bəl-n ‘descended’
* V2TAM ə-d-i ‘I became’ Thanks to Gyani Maiya Sen, for sharing her V TAM 3 sip-n-tsi ‘I entered’ knowledge of Kusunda, and funding from the V2TAM 3 hulə-d-n-tsi ‘I cooked’ Australian Research Council through grant 1V TAM t-əm-ən ‘I ate’ FT100100241. Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 38-47
In Watters et al. the suffix -dzi is mentioned, but we disagree with some of the glossing not included explicitly in any description of the conventions employed there. The only exception interaction of different morphemes. Watters et al. to this is that the morpheme -dzi has been glossed (2006: 103) mention that the -dzi suffix is ‘not simply as DZI, pending the analysis to be well understood’, and later state ‘Some presented at the end of this section.) intransitive verbs make use of a suffix -dzi for ʕ adjectivals. This is one of the most puzzling (1) Tsi əgi tu ts-ã -dzi. suffixes we have encountered because of its 1SG live snake 1-see-DZI occurrence in numerous and varied contexts.’ ‘I saw a live snake.’ Watters et al. (2006: 108). (2) Gina amba habə-g-i Examining all occurrences of -dzi in Watters et 3SG meat roast-3-PAST al., we find twelve different descriptions of this morpheme, shown in Table 2. Glosses include tsi ts-ãʕ-dzi. both past and present tense, realis and irrealis, 1sg 1-see-DZI third person, unspecified TAM marker, adjectival, ‘I saw him roasting meat.’ and habitual. (3) Tsi-gimtsi wi ə-g-ən Table 2: Glosses and descriptions for -dzi in 1SG-friend house do-3-REAL Watters et al. (2006) tsi ts-ãʕ-dzi. Page: Description 1SG 1-see-DZI 35 ‘(a frequently occurring) ‘I saw my friend building a house.’ aspectual marker’ 54, 56, 134 3:PAST By contrast, in this next example the verb with a third person subject, ‘hear’, does not take the -dzi 58, 125 PAST suffix. It is not impossible for a third person 70, 71, 119, 127, 130 TAM subject to occur with the -dzi suffix, as shown in 71 3:IRR example (5). 94 ‘third person suffix (+ (4) Tsi wa t-ug-un məbə-g-i. realis)’ 1SG home 1-come-REAL hear-3-PAST 99 HAB ‘He heard me coming home.’ 103 ‘present tense (not well understood)’ (5) Wa u-g-i ip-dzi. 103, 105, 108, 123 TAM (?) home come-3-PAST sleep-DZI 118 ‘adjectivals’ ‘He came home and slept.’ 119 3:REAL Similarly, not all first person subject clauses 123 ?? require the -dzi, as shown in (6) - (7); similarly, the suffix is not found in non-verbal clauses, even 3. Explaining the -dzi suffix when there is a first person participant involved, as shown in (8). We shall now examine some instances of the occurrence of the morpheme from Watter et al.’s (6) Tsi daŋ tʃ-aʕ-an compilation. Note that in all of these examples the 1SG Dang IRR:1-go-SUBORD verb marked with -dzi has a first person subject.
The first three examples denote personally imba-d-i. observed events, either nominal or full sentences. think-1-PAST (Examples taken from Watters et al. are presented ‘I think I will go to Dang.’ with the glosses found in the original, even where
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(7) Tsi pətsəttər bərsə ə-n-i. the subject matter (examples (5), (9) and (10)). 1SG 75 year do-1-PAST The suffix is absent in (4) because the speaker is ‘I am seventy-five years old.’ not trying to assert the truth of the statement, but merely to make a (potentially refutable) (8) Na gimi tsi-yi. observation. Example (6) is a less certain that money 1SG-GEN statement, and so lacks the -dzi suffix. In (7) the ‘That money is mine.’ statement is certain, but there is no assertion These examples present an important dimension involved: firstly, the speaker is not entirely sure of the -dzi suffix: it is used in detecting (and of her actual age, secondly it is not an important asserting) knowledge, by a first person. In part of the local discourse. In (8) both the examples (2) and (3) we saw the assertion not elements of certainty and assertion are found, but only that the subject had witnessed the events being a non-verbal clause the sentence has no host described (roasting meat, building a house), but for -dzi, and so it is not found. also the assertion by the first person speaker that 4. The - ʕ suffix this information is reliable. We have found, using ta ŋ our data, that 26% of clauses in a sample of Unlike -dzi, which is attested but unexplained, the fourteen narrative, descriptive texts employ the - -taʕŋ suffix is completely unattested in Watters et dzi suffix; and all of these expository texts al. (2006). Comparing our corpus and the data involve description of events within the speaker’s reported in Watters et al., we find that the verbs experience. This suffix will henceforth be glossed that we attest with -taʕŋ appear without this suffix as ASSERT, for ‘asserted truth’. in Watters et al. (we also attest the same verbs As shown in example (5), the -dzi suffix is not without -taʕŋ). restricted to first person subjects. Other examples The suffix has been attested so far only with the of -dzi with third person subjects from our corpus two directed motion verbs with ug ‘come’ and u include (9) and (10), describing aspects of ‘take (away)’. The suffix always (in the data traditional life, a domain over which the speaker collected so far) co-occurs with the assertion has certain knowledge (as the only living person suffix -dzi in naturalistic texts (we have elicited to have grown up in a nomadic Kusunda band), sentences with -ta ŋ but without -dzi, but have and so is licensed to assert her knowledge and not heard such sentences spontaneously surety. produced). Further, the -ta ŋ suffix only appears (9) Dzəgui-da wen-wen ə-g-ən-dzi. with third person subjects, implying that it has sick-ACC good-REDUP do-3-REAL- either a pronominal feature, . ASSERT The -ta ŋ suffix is rare, occurring in only 3% of ‘He (the shaman) makes the sick clauses in the fourteen text sample. Based on the ones well.’ fact that it can only occur with ‘come’ and ‘take (10) Jəmpəlaq-da away’, we gloss this morpheme as MOTION, witch-ACC with further elaboration following. The difference pat ə-g-ən-dzi. between a verb with and without -ta ŋ can be kill do-3-REAL-ASSERT hinted at by examining the following two ‘They kill the witch.’ sentences, one from Watters et al., one from our own corpus. In Watters et al.’s sentence the verb We have seen that the -dzi / (-Ø) distinction ‘come’ appears without the -ta ŋ suffix; in our marks a contrast in evidentiality. The suffix is data it almost invariably appears with this suffix. used when the speaker is certain about the In (11) the coming verb does not have a particular state/event, and wishes to assert the truth of that goal, since the subject was not successful in state/event(examples (1) - (3)), or when the reaching the goal ‘home’. In (12), by contrast, the speaker wishes to assert her authority to speak on 40
destination is reached. The suffix -ta ŋ is (27) we find a return to specific activity, the employed in this second case, where the motion taking of the shaman to the river. The most has a specific, achieved goal. interesting aspect of the use of -taʕŋ in these clauses is fact that the anaphora is forwards- Watters et al. (2006): looking in (24), in terms of overt mentions in the (11) Wa u-g-a kʰa:ʕi un-da story: he location that the shaman is taken to is home come-3-IRR NEG path-LOC only mentioned in line (26), and yet it is prominent enough in the speaker’s mind for a use ip-dzi. of -ta ŋ to be licensed. These aspects of the text sleep-ASSERT are summarised in Table 3. ‘He didn’t come home, he slept on the trail.’ (13) Qaitə nu mjɦaq õʕ-dzi bela, next man Kusunda die-ASSERT time Our data: ‘When the next Kusunda has died,’ (12) Wɦa u-taʕŋ-dzi. home come-MOTION-ASSERT (14) ɦuki dzɦakpen ə-g-ən bela, ‘He comes home.’ salt leave do-3-REAL time ‘when it is time to leave the salt,’ Examining a wider range of data, we quickly come to the impression that the -taʕŋ suffix often (15) gina u-taʕŋ-dzi moŋ. has the behaviour of a agreement marker. The 3SG come-MOTION-ASSERT leader following extract from the middle of a text about ‘he comes there, the leader.’ the activities of a shaman, show the use of the - ʕ ʕ (16) ta ŋ suffix with ‘come’ and ‘take away’, and with Gina moŋ u-ta ŋ-dzi an understood or assumed participant. (The text that leader come-MOTION-ASSERT can be accessed online via Donohue 2013). In this moŋ un. extract of fifteen intonation units, with ten main leader hey verbs (underlined), we see ten instances of the ‘The leader comes there; the assertion suffix (plus three more on subordinate leader.’ nominalisations), and four instances of -taʕŋ, very high frequencies in both cases, even for this text (17) Nətn nətn uɦlen in which both morphemes occur at high frequency what what various compared to other narratives we have. We can ə-g-ən-dzi. also see the high frequency of ellipsis of do-3-REAL-ASSERT established arguments; the verb can carry ‘He does different things.’ agreement morphology, but in many cases does not, and yet ellipsis is common. (18) Uɦlen ə-g-ən-dzi. various do-3-REAL-ASSERT Of particular interest is the use of -taʕŋ. Occurring ‘He does different things.’ in (15), (16), (24) and (27), -taʕŋ is used in this text whenever there is a specific location in mind. (19) ɦuki ə nu, In (15), and its repeat in (16), the location is the salt uh that place that has been referred to in (13) and (14): ‘That salt,’ the place where the person has died, the place where the salt-discontinuing ceremony has to be held. Once this location has been established, it is referenced again in (15) with -taʕŋ. In (17) - (23) the text discusses generic activities, and in (24) - 41
(20) Qadzi in-da ə-g-ən bela Table 3. Fifteen lines of text examined for rice feed-PURP do-3-REAL time the assertion and motion suffixes and in-da ə-g-ən-dzi. coding of the key arguments involved feed-PUR do-3-REAL-ASSERT Line Clause Subject? verb leader ‘he feeds the salt at the time of the (13) subord. rice-feeding (ceremony).’ (14) subord. (21) Nu-da pəidzi dzaq ə-de (15) main NP -taʕŋ-dzi NP, subj person-DAT clothes buy do-SEQ • location of (15): subj of (13), obj of (14) g-in-dzi moŋ. (16) main NP ʕ NP, subj 3-bring-ASSERT leader -ta ŋ-dzi ‘(The leader) brings clothes for the • location of (16): subj of (13), obj of (14) people buying them.’ (17) main verb -dzi subj (22) Tul ə-g-ən-dzi (18) main verb -dzi subj wear do-3-REAL-ASSERT (19) – g-in-dzi; (20) main verb -dzi subj 3-bring-ASSERT (21) main NP, verb -dzi NP, subj ‘He brings something to wear;’ (22) main verb -dzi subj (23) bap ə-n-dzi g-in-dzi. (23) main verb -dzi subj spread do-REAL-ASSERT 3-bring-ASSERT (24) main NP, verb -taʕŋ-dzi object ‘He brings something to spread.’ • location of (24): topic of (26) (24) Qadzi in-da ə-g-ən bela (25) subord. rice feed-PURP do-3-REAL time (26) subord. subject ədzi mjɦaq g-u-taʕŋ-dzi. • location of (26): topic in clause other Kusunda 3-take.away-MOTION- (27) main verb -taʕŋ-dzi object ASSERT • location of (27): topic of (26) ‘Other Kusundas take him for the rice-feeding ceremony.’ In (28), showing some later lines in the same text, (25) Qadzi in-da. we see the use of -taʕŋ with a clear sense of rice feed-PURP direction towards the most prominent argument in ‘For the rice-feeding (ceremony).’ that stretch of the discourse – the shaman.
ʕ (26) Kʰola tə ɦulab ə-n-da; (28) Ɲã di getse dzəgui gəje, river CONTR cook do-REAL-PURP wife child sick if ‘At the river, to cook;’ ɲãʕdi-ba u-taʕŋ-dzi. wife-ALSO come-MOTION-ASSERT (27) G-u-taʕŋ-dzi. ‘If the woman is sick, the wife also 3-take.away-MOTION-ASSERT comes to him.’ ‘They take him away.’ We can summarise the findings. The -ta ŋ suffix marks directed or associated motion, with strong pragmatic implications: the motion must be towards the most prominent location in the local discourse, even if that location has not yet been
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mentioned overtly: prominence is a matter of the the verb is marked with the realis, and that realis speaker’s preferences. Indeed, details of location is followed by the asserted evidence suffix. of the goal of the motion does not even have to be (30) known to the speaker, as long as it is Tsi qasn wɦi pragmatically salient. In (29) the speaker 1SG one house describes how birds of prey come and fly away ə-t-n-dzi. with young chickens; their nests are in the jungle, do-1-REAL-ASSERT at unspecified locations, but they are ‘I want to build a house.’ or pragmatically salient in the context of the ‘I must build a house.’ utterance and its real-world context. We believe the suffix to be the same, with the (29) ɦana g-u-taʕŋ-dzi, difference being one of interpretation of the where 3-take.away-MOTION-ASSERT central notion of ‘assertion’. When the speaker
ʕ reports her own assertion, she has access to the ɦana g-u-ta ŋ-dzi. inner workings of her own mind, and can assert where 3-take.away-MOTION-ASSERT desires and deontic needs. When the speaker ‘It takes (them) away to (the nest).’ asserts events that have been undertaken by a From this analysis it follows that the suffix -taʕŋ third person, for which she has no direct can have an ‘applicative-like’ or ‘dative-like’ knowledge of the state of the subject’s mind, she function, in that it implies motion with a can only report on the workings of her own mind, participant, or towards a participant. Additionally, and so assert the truth status of that event; that is, that she is a reliable witness to the event. because -taʕŋ is only found when the sentence contains a high degree of ‘speaker involvement’, We have only limited data on the use of -dzi with it frequently co-occurs with the assertion second person subjects. In (31) we have a evidential suffix. sentence in which a daughter was insisting that her mother should stay with her for a few more 5. Further notes on the -dzi suffix days, asking when the next time a visit might We should also note other uses of the -dzi suffix happen. She uses a second person verb with realis that are logical, but nonetheless noteworthy, and assertion marking. The -dzi cannot be extensions of the assertion/speaker knowledge referring to the speaker’s state of mind, since the senses described in section 3. The essential speaker does not know when the desired state of description of evidentiality is most unproblematic affairs will come about; yet there is definitely an when a (first person) speaker reports on a third element of the speaker wanting the nugun event to person subject’s activities. We have seen that this take place. The speaker cannot be asserting the same suffix can also be used with a first person truth of future, questioned event, yet there is an subject, in examples (1) – (3), and here the element of assertion of the truth that it will not be evidential interpretation is present, but some easy to arrange a subsequent visit. We suggest element of speaker assertion is also found. There that with second persons we find that the are other instances of the use of -dzi in which interpretation of -dzi is half-way in between the ‘assertion’ is the strongest semantic factor that preferred interpretation found with first persons can be singled out, and the only trace of and that found with second persons. ‘evidentiality’ lies in the speakers assertion of the future evidence. In (30) the translation is not past; the event described (tsi qasn wɦi ətn) is not yet real, and yet
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(31) Qaitə fera əsa. Qiang (LaPolla and Huang 2003) next time when (32) the: de-xtse. n-ug-(u)n-dzi nu. 3SG DIR-go.away 2-come-REAL-ASSERT 2SG ‘S/he went away.’ ‘Next time, when will you be able to come?’ (33) the: ɦa-qə-i ŋua? 3SG DIR-go-HEARSAY QUESTION 6. Conclusion ‘Did he go?’ We have seen that the suffix -dzi is a suffix that marks speaker assertion; it belongs to the Nepali category of morphemes that mark epistemic (34) U ga-eko information, evidentiality and egophoricity. The 3SG go:PAST-PTCPL ʕ other suffix under discussion, -ta ŋ, marks ‘S/he’s gone.’ associated motion with a high level of pragmatic salience. (35) U ga-eko re. 3SG go:PAST-PTCPL HEARSAY These suffixes were hard for earlier researchers to ‘S/he’s gone, so I’ve heard.’ identify for two reasons. The first reason is that of Similar confusion is found with the associated expectation, in that the Kusunda morphological categories do not map on to typical Himalayan motion suffix. Since the -ta ŋ suffix is used to categories. Secondly, the circumstances in which monitor pragmatically-salient locational information, it would be very hard to discover in a earlier data was collected were not conducive to fixed interior location using direct elicitation, the elicitation of these morphemes. since there is no locational context. Furthermore, When it is encoded by means of verbal or phrasal a typical Himalayan directional system contrasts morphemes, the evidentiality system of a typical more than one different kind of motion, and Himalayan language marks the contrast between typically has a semantic orientation that is hearsay/indirect knowledge on the one hand, with (purely?) based on absolute direction. The an overt morpheme, contrasted with a more following Dhimal examples show part of the ‘certain’ category that is morphologically null.. paradigm of directional suffixing in Dhimal, For instance, examine the following sentences which contrasts five different suffixes in the same from Qiang and from Nepali. In both these position, one of which (-lha ‘intentive’) has a languages, typical of other languages of the modal sense, one has an applicative sense (-dhi ‘relinquitive’), and three of which have primarily region, the hearsay category is marked, and the Ø- directional meaning. In addition to the two marked category is the one associated with specific suffixes illustrated here, there is a third personal assertion or knowledge. This is the suffix (-gil ‘indeterminate’). reverse of the Kusunda system described here, in which asserted knowledge is marked overtly, and Dhimal (King 2009) the Ø-category is used for hearsay (see also, eg., Delancey 2001, Grunow-Hårsta 2007, Lidz 2007, (36) tauli to:-pa-nha? Post 2010, Satoko 2007, and others on this topic; towel move-VENITIVE-2 note that this is an areal, not global, tendency; see ‘Did you bring the towel in?’ Chafe and Nichols 1986). (37) Heʔ-kilo cum-pu-a-na? how.many-kilo hold-DISTAL-FUT-2 ‘How many kilos do you want to take?’
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The other reason why Watters et al. failed to Table 4. Stories examined for the assertion analyse the -dzi suffix as a marker of and motion suffixes evidentiality, or to even elicit the ʕ suffix, -ta ŋ Frequency Date Days concerns the manner of data collection. It is true that direct elicitation is a useful, fast, and -dzi -taʕŋ-dzi recorded passed* necessary tool, but it can only be effectively Survive breaking stones: applied after some knowledge of the language’s 0% 0% 31st Jan 1 structures is already available, through the Bow and arrow: observation of naturalistic data. 8% 3% 2nd Feb 3 When we examine the fourteen texts that form the Food pollution: corpus used in this study we find that there is a 8% 0% 19th Feb 20 clear correlation between the kind of material described in the narratives and the frequency with Nothing to eat: which the two morphemes in question are 8% 0% 31st Jan 1 employed. To discuss just the extreme cases, in Firewood: the text ‘Survive breaking stones’, which talks 8% 0% 13th Feb 14 about how the speaker had been making a living Hunt: breaking up stones for use in cement, there are no st instances of either -dzi or -taʕŋ. The subject matter 12% 0% 31 Jan 1 is such that the speaker is sure of the truth of the Kusunda language: utterances, but does not see any need to assert, or 16% 0% 31st Jan 1 to associate any particular pragmatic salience to Our jungle lifestyle: any of the utterances. By contrast, in the text ‘Go 18% 0% 1st Feb 2 different places’ the speaker is talking about the activities of her parents and other adults in the Jungle village: Kusunda band in which she grew up, and their 21% 5% 30th Jan 0 nomadic lifestyle. This is a text that involves a Dance: high degree of emotional involvement, and a lot 33% 6% 31st Jan 1 of pragmatically salient material, and it includes many instances of both -dzi or -taʕŋ. This is a Shaman: th strong indication that native speaker intuitions, 43% 19% 15 Feb 16 and not prescriptive judgements, are the best kind Bow and arrow game: of data to collect, and that naturalistic texts that 45% 1% 2nd Feb 3 uncover new morphemes and new contexts for Dance, sing and love: their use are the best way to find contexts in rd which cross-linguistically unusual structures 46% 2% 3 Feb 4 emerge. Go different places: 62% 15% 1st Feb 2 *Since start of fieldwork With -taʕŋ in particular we can see that there is a correlation between the degree of familiarity that the Kusunda speaker felt with the researchers and the number of instances of -taʕŋ that surface in the texts. Some texts do not contain material that is relevant to the motion aspects of -taʕŋ, but there is
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nonetheless an overall correlation (r = 0.21, Satoko, Shirai. 2007. Evidentials and evidential- Pearson’s correlation) between the length of time like categories in nDrapa. Linguistics of the that the linguists had been working with the Tibeto-Burman Area 30 (2): 125-150. speaker and the use of the pragmatically Van Oostendorp, Herre, and Rolf A. Zwaan. informative morphemes. 1994. Naturalistic Text Comprehension. Norwood: Ablex. We have seen that evidentiality and stance are Watters, David E., with Yogendra P. Yadava, marked on the verb in Kusunda, as are Madhav P. Pokharel and Balaram Prasain. pragmatically salient goals. We have also seen 2006. Notes on Kusunda grammar. Himalayan that being too well-versed in the typological Linguistics Archive 3: 1-182. (Previously normalcies of an area can make departures from published as Watters et al. 2005. Notes on those norms hard to detect, even for experienced Kusunda Grammar. Kathmandu: National language workers. Similarly, even experienced Foundation for the Development of linguists cannot investigate much of the Indigenous Nationalities.) uniqueness of languages by elicitation alone, since the manner of data collection influences the kind of data collected. For a full investigation of the quirks of a language, a maximal corpus of naturalistic data is essential.
References Central Bureau of Statistics. 2012. National Population and Housing Census 2011. Government of Nepal: Kathmandu. Chafe, Wallace, and Johanna Nichols, eds., 1986. Evidentiality: the linguistic coding of epistemology. Norwood: Ablex. DeLancey, Scott. 2001. The mirative and evidentiality. Journal of Pragmatics 33: 369- 382. Donohue, Mark. 2013. Kusunda linguistics. (http://kusunda.linguistics.anu.edu.au) Grunow-Hårsta, Karen. 2007. Evidentiality and Mirativity in Magar. Linguistics of the Tibeto- Burman Area 30 (2): 151-194. King, John T. 2009. A grammar of Dhimal. Leiden: Brill. LaPolla, Randy, and Chenglong Huang. 2003. A Grammar of Qiang, with Annotated Texts and Glossary. Berlin: Mouton DeGruyter. Lidz, Liberty A. 2007. Evidentiality in Yongning Na (Mosuo). Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 30 (2): 45-87. Post, Mark W. 2010. On the frontiers of person- marking and evidentiality: Egophoricity and alterphoricity in Tibeto-Burman. MS, The Cairns Institute, James Cook University. 46
An acoustic analysis of Balami basic vowels Bhoj Raj Gautam [email protected] In this paper, the acoustic cues for the vowels, were recorded with three male and two female characteristic vocal tract resonances called formants, speakers. are measured for both male and female Balami speakers and the average formant frequency values for The study is organized in terms of vowel formant male and female speakers are plotted in the acoustic frequency values measurement for both male and vowel space separately and in comparison as well. female Balami speakers in section 3 including the Next, the sample spectrograms for each vowel are formant frequency values plot in F1 versus F2 given. plane. Section 4 is the list of sample spectrograms 1. Introduction for each vowel. Finally, the conclusion is given in section 5. The term Balami is both an ethnonym and a glottonym. According to the Rastriya Balami 3. Formant frequencies Samaj (National Balami Society), the Balami The relevant acoustic cues for the vowels are the people are scattered in about 21 districts of the formant frequency values, which indicate the country and the estimated population in Nepal is prominent resonances of the vocal tract. The about 1, 07,000. The major settlements of people acoustic input or the source signal for the vowels are in the parts surrounding Kathmandu valley is the vibrating vocal folds which vibrate in including Nuwakot, Dhading, Makanwapur and multiple frequencies and that is filtered by the Sindhupalchok districts. They are also found in vocal tract function. The change of the vocal tract Kathmandu, Dolakha, Baglung, Kavre, Lalitpur, shape depending upon the position of articulators Bhaktapur, and in a few number in many other acts as the acoustic filter and the prominent districts. resonances characterizing that vocal tract are The Balami language is one of the Tibeto-Burman called the formants and they are measured in languages spoken in Nepal and it is genetically terms of their location in the frequency spectrum. closer to Newar. The present study is based on the The invariant acoustic cues for the vowels are the Balami spoken in the Kagatigaun of Okharpouwa formant frequency values. O’connor (1973) says V.D.C. in Nuwakot district. that “vowels generally have more than three Balami has nine basic vowels. There are four formants (F4, F5 etc.) but these higher formants front, three back and two central vowels in the don’t seem to be needed for specifying vowels language. In terms of the height of the tongue and are more connected with identifying the voice body, there are three high, five mid and one low quality of the particular speaker” (p.87). Thus, the vowel. first two formants of the vowels are important acoustic cues since the change in the vowel 2. Methodology quality is accompanied by the corresponding For the study, a list of monosyllabic words of the changes in the formant frequencies. form CV containing all the vowels in the For the Balami basic vowels, first two formant language was collected. These words were frequency values were measured for both male combined with another constant word so that the and female speakers. vowels occur in between two consonants. They were recorded in the normal utterance situation of 3.1 Vowel formant frequencies in male the form ‘I said…’. speakers The recording was done with the Sony ECM- For the study, two male speakers were selected MS908C Electret Condenser Microphone and and recorded. Of them, Hira Balami was forty EDIROL R09HR recorder. The target utterances years old and Jit Balami was sixty seven years old. The first two formant frequency values of the Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 48-54 vowels produced by male speakers were measured individually and in average and that is 3000 given in table 1. F2
The average first formant (F1) and the average 2000 second formant (F2) values given in table 1 are displayed in more stylized form in figure 1. 1000 F1 ] ɨ [ 376 427 401 1809 1784 1796 [i] [e] [ɛ] [æ] [a] [ʌ] [o] [u] [ɨ]
Figure 1: Average first formant (F1) and second [u] 380 379 379 865 933 1002 formant (F2) values measured for vowels produced by male Balami speakers displayed in stylized form [o] 467 471 469 961 1083 1022 -3000 F2 -500 -200
] i ʌ [ 640 605 622 1296 1081 1188 i1 ɨ u e e1 o ɛ F1
[a] o1
771 758 764 ʌ 1543 1492 1517 æj vowels vowels a [æ] 644 647 645 1849 1614 1731 -1000 Figure 2: Average first formant (F1) and second ]
ɛ formant (F2) values measured for vowels [ 468 483 475 2086 2004 2045 produced by male Balami speakers plotted in the F1 versus F2 plane Figure 2 is the plot of the average first formant [e] 413 454 433
2334 2086 2210 (F1) and average second formant (F2) of each vowel in the acoustic vowel space. As the figure shows, the vertical line indicates the first formant (F1) while the horizontal line indicates the second [i] 341 335 338 2467 2365 2416 formant (F2).
3.2 Vowel formant frequencies in female speakers For the study, two female speakers were selected Jit Hira Av. Jit Hira Av. and recorded. Of them, Sapana Balami is thirty- five years old and Saraswati Balami is fifty-one years old. The first two formant frequency values Table 1: Individual and average formant frequency values of vowels in male speakers. speakers. male in vowels of values frequency formant average and Individual 1: Table F1 F2 49 measured for each of the vowels produced by Figure 3: Average first formant (F1) and second female Balami speakers are in table 2. formant (F2) values measured for vowels Table 2 presents the formant frequency values for produced by female Balami speakers displayed in both female speakers individually and in average. stylized form The average formant frequency values of the vowels given in the table are presented in more stylized form in figure 3. 4 Figure 4 is the plot of the average F1 and F2 values measured for each vowel. This produces 3 F2 the acoustic vowel space for the female Balami speakers comparable to the acoustic vowel space 2 in figure 2 for male speakers.
1 Table 1 and its more stylized display in figure 1, Hz. and table 2 and its more stylized display in figure (in F1 3 show that the first two formant frequency th). [i] [e] [ɛ] [æ] [a] [ʌ] [o] [u] [ɨ] ] ɨ [ 340 375 357
1775 1783 1779 Figure 4: Average first formant (F1) and second formant (F2) values measured for vowels produced by female Balami speakers plotted in [u] 347 408 377 935
1080 1007 the F1 versus F2 plane values for each vowel is unique and the characteristic of the vowel. [o] 522 467 494 F2 1155 1126 1120 -200
] i1 ʌ
[ i ɨ u 684 661 672 1477 1396 1436 -500 e o [a] 839 805 822 ɛe1 1807 1818 1812
vowels vowels F1 o1ʌ [æ] 765 677 721 2046 2204 2125 æj -3000 a ] ɛ [ 510 583 546 2340 2412 2376 -1000
[e] 458 470 464 2693 2577 2635 As we move from the front vowels to the back vowels, the second formant value is continuously
[i] decreasing. It means that F2 is the highest for the 380 375 377 2820 2773 2796 vowel [i] while it is lowest for the vowel [u]. Here, F2 corresponds to the articulatory
parameter of backness of the tongue body. Likewise, F1 is lower for the high vowels and
Sapana Saraswati Av. Sapana Saraswati Av. higher for the low vowels. The sound [a] has the highest F1. F1 decreases as the height of the F1 F2
Table 1: Individual and average formant frequency values of vowels in female speakers. speakers. female in vowels of values frequency formant average and Individual 1: Table tongue body goes high. Here, F1 corresponds to 50 the articulatory parameter of height of the tongue resonance frequency of male vocal tract. This fact body with inverse relation. is confirmed by the study of Peterson and Barney (1952) and Hillenbrand, Getty, Clark & Wheeler 3.3 Acoustic vowel space comparison (1995). In section 3.1, first two formants for each of the But, the important fact is that the ratio of formant Balami vowels produced by male Balami frequency difference of the different vowels for speakers were measured and the average formant male and female speakers is similar. This means frequency values were calculated. The average F1 that, for example, the difference between F1 of and F2 was plotted in the acoustic vowel space vowels [i] and [e] for female is eighty seven hertz and this characterizes the vowels produced by while for male it is ninety five hertz which is male Balami speakers. Likewise, in section 3.2, similar. It is the ratio difference of frequency F1 and F2 were measured for each of the vowels values of formants rather than exact frequency produced by female Balami speakers and the values which is important for the vowel system of average F1 and F2 were calculated. Then, these a particular language. Thus, we have similar values were plotted in F1 versus F2 plane and this acoustic vowel space for male and female Balami characterizes the vowels produced by the female speakers though the acoustic vowel space for Balami speakers. female is slightly larger. As we see the F1 and F2 values for male and female speakers in table 1 and table 3, they are The central vowel [ɨ] which is front for male comparable in many ways. The slightly higher F1 speaker is exactly at the centre for the female of [i] sound for female than for the male is speakers. This can be explained in terms of the accompanied by all other vowels except [u] and fact that female speakers are more conservative to their sounds than male speakers. The male people [ɨ]. For [u] F1 is two hertz less for female than for in the Balami community have much wider male and for [ɨ] F1 is forty four hertz less for communication with outside people than the female than it is for male. As for F2, the higher female people who live most of the time at home F2 of [i] sound for female speaker is accompanied and do the household chores and thus lack by all other vowels except [ɨ] which has slightly communication with the outside people. lower F2 for female than it is for male. The Figure 5: Average first formant (F1) and second difference in the formant frequencies for male and formant (F2) values of the vowels plotted in F1 female speakers is accompanied by the difference versus F2 plane for male Balami speakers (broken of vocal tract shapes for male and female lines) and female Balami speakers (straight lines) speakers. Bordon & Harris (1980) has said that a female vocal tract is not only smaller than male vocal tract but females have a different vocal tract shape with female vocal tract shape shorter by about 2 cm in the pharynx while only 1.25 cm shorter in the oral cavity. The two acoustic vowel space for male and female Balami speakers can be presented in the same acoustic vowel space as in figure 5. Figure 5 shows that the acoustic vowel space for both male and female speakers are similar in the shape though the size of acoustic space for male and female speakers is different. Female acoustic vowel space is larger than the male acoustic vowel space. This is because resonance frequency of female vocal tract is relatively higher than the 51
-3000 F2 -500 -200 i ɨ i1 i i1 uu e e e1 ɨ o ɛ o e1 ɛ Hz) (in Frequency F1 j o1ʌ æ ʌo1 j æ a a Time (in sec.) Figure 8: Spectrogram and formant contour of the -1000 Balami vowel [ɛ] 4. Sample spectrograms The sample spectrograms with formant contour for each of the vowels in Balami are given in figure 6–figure 14. Figure 6: Spectrogram and the formant contour of the Balami vowel [i] Frequency (in Hz) (in Frequency
Time (in sec.) Figure 9: Spectrogram and formant contour of the Balami vowel Frequency (in Hz) (in Frequency [æ]
Time (in sec.) Figure 7: Spectrogram and formant contour of the Balami vowel [e] Frequency (in Hz) (in Frequency
Time (in sec.)
52
Figure 10: Spectrogram and formant contour of Figure 13: Spectrogram and formant contour of the Balami vowel [a] the Balami vowel [u] Frequency (in Hz) (in Frequency Hz) (in Frequency
Time (in sec.) Time (in sec.) Figure 11: Spectrogram and formant contour of Figure 14: Spectrogram and formant contour of the Balami vowel [ʌ] the Balami vowel [ɨ] Frequency (in Hz) (in Frequency Frequency (in Hz) (in Frequency
Time (in sec.) Time (in sec.) 5. Summary Figure 12: Spectrogram and formant contour of In the acoustic analysis of the vowel sounds in the the Balami vowel [o] Balami language, the first formant (F1) and second formant (F2) are identified as the acoustic cues and they are measured for both male and female Balami speakers individually and in average. The average F1 and F2 was plotted in F1 versus F2 plane for male and female speakers separately and later compared them plotting them in the same acoustic vowel space. The study shows that female acoustic vowel space is slightly larger compared to the male acoustic vowel space
Frequency (in Hz) (in Frequency which is because of the difference of the vocal tract shapes in male and female speakers. Though the exact formant frequency values of the vowels produced by male and female speakers differ, the Time (in sec.) 53 ratio of the difference of the formant frequency values of the different vowels is similar for both male and female speakers. This shows that the general shape of the acoustic vowel space is more important than the exact formant frequency values in the vowel system of a particular language. Furthermore, the study shows that female speakers seem more conservative to the sounds of the language than the male speakers who are more in contact with outside people and liable to have influences from other languages. References Borden, Gloria J. & Katherine S. Harris. 1980. Speech science primer: Physiology, acoustics and perception of speech. Baltimore: The Williams and Wilkins Company . Catford, J. C. 1977. Fundamental problems in phonetics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Catford, J. C. 1988. A practical introduction to phonetics. London: Oxford University Press. Ladefoged, Peter. 1975. A course in phonetics. USA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. Laver, John. 1994. Principles of phonetics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pokharel, Madhav P. 1989. Experimental analysis of Nepali sound system. Deccan College: PhD dissertation. Reetz, Henning & Allard Jongman. 2009. Phonetics: transcription, production, acoustics and perception. Oxford: Wiley- Blackwell
54
Mother tongue-based education and the heritage languages of Nepal Laxman Ghimire
Mother tongue-based education aims to enhance was unsatisfactory. In spite of the constitutional learning opportunities and ensures linguistic recognition and policy of the government, only human rights for all students. It also contributes two mother tongue schools were established; the for the maintenance of diverse mother tongues. first Newar school in Kathmandu and one Magar However, the non dominating heritage languages school in Kaski (Shrestha & Hoek, 1995). are not taken at the center in the mother tongue- The interim constitution of Nepal (2007) has based education program in Nepal. granted the right for language communities to 1. Introduction operate mother tongue schools and the government of Nepal has agreed to abide most of Nepal is one of the linguistically diverse countries the important human rights documents of the in South Asia accommodating more than 123 United Nations. The focus of mother tongue- languages belonging to four language families: based education has been shifted towards the Indo-Aryan, Tibeto-Burman, Austro-Asiatic and access and success of basic education. This is a Dravidian in addition to Kusunda, a language kind of paradigmatic shift in the educational isolate. A large number of languages in Nepal are language policies of Nepal. Nepal, along with the threatened to disappear due to small number of nations of the world, expressed its commitment speakers, limited domains of language use and for Education for All (EFA) by the year 2015. weaker intergenerational transmission. About 73 The policy makers have become aware that the percent of the country’s population speaks five EFA goals could not be achieved unless the major languages, namely Nepali, Maithili, mother tongues are employed as the instructional Bhojpuri, Tharu and Tamang, while there are only medium at the early basic education. It is about six percent of the population to speak 109 expressed, explicitly, in Nepal’s EFA National languages (CBS, 2012). Plan of Action (2003). The same spirit is reflected Nepal National Education Planning Commission on the National curriculum framework (2005) and (NNEPC, 1956), which established the foundation School Sector Reform Plan (2009). The of education system in Nepal, recommended government of Nepal has also promulgated a Nepali language for the medium of education. crucial document for the implementation of The choice of Nepali was supported with the mother tongue-based multilingual education arguments such as the uniformity in curriculum, (MTB MLE) program in Nepal; The Multilingual availability of teachers, feasibility to develop Education Implementation Guidelines (2010). learning materials etc. The spirit of NNEPC was In spite of the efforts of the government and the further intensified by National Education System language communities to transform the early Plan (NESP, 1971). NESP embedded a political basic education into the framework of mother agenda in educational language policy and tongue-based education, the implementation of attempted to maintain one language one nation the program is quite unsatisfactory. The program policy (Yadav, 1990; Awasthi, 2004). is operated in few schools1 and it is limited in the
The constitution of Nepal (1990) recognized all the mother tongues of the country as national 1 Mother tongue-based education program is operated languages and granted rights to the language in 24 schools by the year 2013 as reported by Dr. Lava communities to operate mother tongue schools. Dev Awasthi, Director General in the Department of But, the constitutional provision could not Educaiton, in a language policy workshop organized motivate the language communities to initiate jointly by the Department of Education and Nepal mother tongue schools. The response of language Academy in Kathmandu. communities to initiate mother tongue schools
Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 55-63 locally dominant mother tongues, while the percent of population. UNESCO (2003) presents heritage languages of the minority students are the factors affecting language vitality as not included in the mother tongue-based intergenerational language transmission, absolute education system. In most cases, these students number of speakers, proportion of speakers within are misrepresented as Nepali language speakers. the total population, trends in existing language domains, response to new domains and media, 2. Situation of heritage languages in Nepal and materials for language for language education Linguistic diversity of Nepal is characterized with and literacy. Dozens of languages of Nepal are the large population speaking few languages and severely/critically endangered, if the languages the small population speaking large numbers of are examined under these factors. Thirty languages. Small size of population and language languages each have lower than ten thousand shift are the major factors for the marginalization speakers, 17 languages each have lower than one of heritage languages. Language endangerment is thousand speakers and there are twelve languages another crucial character of the linguistic diversity with lower than one hundred languages. All these of Nepal. Many heritage languages are either 74 languages have only 0.58 percent of speakers endangered or on the way of endangerment. in the total population of the nation. The heritage Decreasing intergeneration language transmission languages are restricted only for the home use. is one of the factors pushing languages into Only eleven languages of Nepal have full endangerment (UNESCO, 2003). New generation language resources, such as newspaper, magazine, cease to speak the heritage languages if these journal, literature etc. and the heritage languages languages fail to provide employment either do not possess any language resources or opportunities and economic prosperity. Mother have negligible resources (Yadava, 2008). tongue-based education not only transfers the Language shift is in acceleration among the heritage languages to the new generation, it also heritage language population and the efforts of expands the domains of language use and, language maintenance are ineffective. Magar consequently, opens up the employment people in Myagdi lost their language several years opportunities for those who are proficient in the ago and Chhantyal children, who are in lower heritage languages. Teaching mother tongues, grades in school, have begun to stop speaking textbooks writing, and other similar jobs can be their ethnic language even at home (Ghimire, created. Beyond educational improvement and 1999). Many languages have also undergone promotion of linguistic diversity, the program has through the same process of language shift. the social, economic and political consequences. Preservation of these heritage languages is Table 1 presents the heritage languages of Nepal important because of their cultural, ecological and with less than 10,000 speakers. linguistic values. These languages are the source Table 1: The heritage languages of Nepal of indigenous knowledge and skills. SN Number of Number of Percentage The policy of mother tongue-based education Languages Speakers does not cover most of the heritage languages of 1 37 1000-10000 0.54 Nepal and the students speaking these marginalized languages are forced to get 2 24 100-999 0.04 education in the non-mother tongue medium. The 3 13 Below 100 0.00 heritage languages are categorized as unfeasible to operate mother tongue-based education Total 74 0.58 program2.
Source: Central bureau of statistics (2012) Table 1 presents the status of heritage languages 2 The policy documents such as the report of the on the basis of the absolute number of speakers. National Languages Planning Recommendation There are 74 languages spoken by only 0.58 Commission and the opinion of some scholars such as Yadav (1992) state that it is impossible to operate 56
3. Heritage languages in the Educational the policy and plan in education under the broader language policies of Nepal political ideology. Educational language policies in Nepal have been Scholars and linguists criticize Nepal’s language dominated by the monolingual ideology and do policies in education as neglecting minority not consider the heritage languages as important languages (Yadav, 1990; Yadav, 1992; Awasthi, as the dominant languages to be used in 2004 & Yadava, 2007) for a long time. The policy education. The earlier policies focused on a single has shifted from monolingualism towards dominant language, while the later policy multilingualism along with the political change includes some more strong mother tongues, but from single party system to multiparty system in not all heritage languages of the nation. The latest 1990. Such an ideological change in the policy of mother tongue-based education does not educational language policy of Nepal can be recommend any model to incorporate diverse discussed as the greater political influence over heritage languages in the mother tongue-based the educational language policies. education program. The heritage languages with Eagle (2008:17) suggests that to understand the small population and living in oral tradition are intricacies of the language problem and the not considered appropriate to deliver education. multilingual and multicultural make up of the Mother tongue-based education is interpreted, nation, several background factors need to be mostly, as the education in the medium of non- considered. Reisigl and Wodak (2009) state that a Nepali and non-English languages and the model particular language policy may work to maintain of education in the medium of any mother the existing social order and power distribution or tongues other than these two languages are to challenge the existing power relation. Tollefson defined as mother tongue medium of education, (2002) explains how the language policy debates which is limited to the locally dominant mother reflect the struggles for power relation in the tongues. Therefore, students with heritage society. Nepal’s educational language policies can language background in the multilingual also be observed under the same framework. classrooms have to learn through other’s mother Ghimire (2011) discusses the educational tongue (Ghimire, 2012). language policies in Nepal as representation of The language issues have entered in education as power struggle and the different political ideals in the external factors and not as the essential aspect Nepali society. of pedagogy. Politics and the question of power Tollefson (2002) argues that conflicts about relation among the social groups in Nepali society language policy usually have their source in have great influence over the formulation and group conflicts in which language symbolizes execution of educational language policies. Most some aspect of a struggle over political power and language matters in Nepal have not been planned; economic resources. The selection of English in they have evolved in response to historical the first modern school of Nepal and the circumstances (Eagle, 2000:4). The educational recognition of Nepali as the core language for language policies were also formed in response to medium of education during the Panchyayat social, political and historical context. The regime are some examples of the educational government formed several commissions and language policies reflecting a social order and expert groups for the educational reform in order power relation among the social groups. to satisfy peoples’ desire of change and to improve the quality of education. However, the The shift from monolingualism towards commissions and the expert groups recommended multilingualism in the educational language policies is observed as an ideological shift in the sociopolitical context. The objectives of education are also oriented towards the political goals of the mother tongue-based education in the languages state. So, the educational language policies of the without written tradition, dictionary, grammar, and learning resources. state reflect the goals of language proficiency that 57 the state expects in the future citizen (Skutnabb- suggested that almost everyone could understand Kangas & Mohanty, 2009). Nepali as it was the official language and lingua franca at the national level. The commission The Nepal National Education Planning recommended that the Sanskrit and English Commission (NNEPC, 1956), National medium of education could not satisfy the need of Educational System Plan (NESP, 1971), National rural people and Nepali should be employed as Languages Planning Recommendation medium of education from primary school up to Commission (Yadava & Grove, 1994), Nepal university level. Education for All, National Plan of Action (NPA, 2003), National Curriculum Framework (NCF, The report of NNEPC (1956) has been criticized 2005), School Sector Reform Plan (SSRP, 2009) as the manifestation of one language construct. and Multilingual Education Implementation The commission placed emphasis on the Guidelines (2010) are the major instruments universalization of primary education and on the shaping the educational language policies of improvement of service delivery systems across Nepal. the country. But, ‘the report failed to recognize the role of diverse mother tongues in education. The first modern school of Nepal, Durbar School, Instead, the report placed emphasis on was an English medium school that was introducing reduction of multilingualism’ established in 1854 for the children of ruling (Awasthi, 2004, 34). Ranas. The focus shifted towards Nepali as the medium of education, during the Panchyayat and The report of All Round National Education ultimately towards the mother tongues of the Committee (ARNEC) and New Education System nation after the restoration of multiparty political Plan (NESP) also favored Nepali as the sole system in 1990. However, the policies for the medium of education for school education. The language of education after the commitments of ARNEC (1961) recommended that in every the Government of Nepal to the World primary and secondary schools Nepali should be Declaration of Education for All (1990) and employed as the medium of education, except for Dakar Framework of Action (2000) are, language subjects. NESP (1971) contributed to significantly, directed towards ensuring access establish Nepali as the only language to be and quality of education. The government of employed as the language of education in the Nepal has been convinced to recognize the role of schools of Nepal. diverse mother tongues in education in order to The educational language policies developed achieve its educational goals. during the Panchyayat regime focused on the use The report of Nepal National education planning of Nepali and proclaimed linguistic nationalism. commission (NNEPC, 1956) developed a The Nepali language became a part of the foundation for educational system of Nepal. The nationalistic movement across the country commission received conflicting suggestions (Awasthi, 2004). NESP (1971) recommended regarding the medium of education in the schools. Nepali as the medium of education for primary Mother tongue-based education could enhance the and secondary education. However, it was literacy development, maintain social harmony recommended that the teachers could use local among the language groups and the government languages to explain lessons if the children could would earn credit were among the arguments not understand Nepali language. Prior approval given for employing the mother tongues as from the government was made essential in order medium of education. On the other hand, the to use other languages as the medium of educationists suggested the committee to education. Some national and international recommend Nepali, national language, as the languages were also recommended as optional language of education because the mother tongues subjects in school syllabus such as Sanskrit, did not possess dictionaries, grammar and English, French, Russian, German, Japanese, producing textbooks in these languages was Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese, Hindi, Tibetan, difficult and expensive. Similarly, it was 58
Urdu, Arabic, Farsi, Maithili, Bhojpuri and employed as the medium of education, except for Newari. language subjects at primary level. The constitution of Nepal (1990) not only National Languages Policy Recommendation recognized the native mother tongues as national Commission (Yadava & Grove, 1994) addresses languages but also clearly stated that language the language problems in Nepal in the context of communities should have a right to operate constitutional recognition to the national mother tongue schools up to primary level (grade languages, mother tongues. It recommended to 5). The constitutional recognition established a begin language planning for the development of foundation for mother tongue-based education in national languages and to employ them in Nepal. National Education Commission (NEC, education as instructional medium as well as to 1992) was formed to respond the aspirations of identify the possible domains for the national people in a new political environment. The languages. Mother tongue schools up to primary commission recommended mother tongues, non- level shall be opened in the areas where there are Nepali languages, to be employed as medium of monolingual students (Yadava & Grove, 1994, education for the children, whose mother tongue 37). But, the report does not address the need of is not Nepali. The commission recommended that mother tongue-based education in linguistically if the mother tongues lack educational materials heterogeneous communities. In the schools with a such as textbooks, grammar, and dictionaries etc, predominantly multilingual context, it would be Nepali could be employed as the medium of appropriate to adopt the language of the nation3, education along with the explanation and i.e. Nepali, as the medium of education (Yadava instruction support from mother tongues. & Grove, 1994, 38). The report of high level national education Nepal’s commitment to achieve the EFA commission (HLNEC, 1999) recommended the (education for all) goals has brought the mother government to develop curriculum, textbooks, tongues into the fore of educational language dictionaries, language teachers and teacher policies. Nepal’s Education for All National Plan training programs in order to begin education of Action (NPA, 2003) links the language of through the medium of mother tongues. It also education to the achievement of educational suggested upgrading the standard of Nepali goals. NPA (2003) addresses the commitments of language to cope the need of science and the governments of the world in the Dakar technology. Bilingual education program was first Framework of Action (2000) and maintains that recommended in the report of HLNEC (1999) the use of mother tongues is essential for better with a view that it promotes harmony among the educational achievement. Nepal’s EFA national language groups in the nation and to facilitate plan of action has incorporated one more goal to transition from mother tongue to the national the six goals set by Dakar forum for the year language, i.e. Nepali. 2015. Ensuring the rights of indigenous people and linguistic minorities to quality basic and The report of high level committee in education primary education through their mother tongue (HLCE, 2002) presented the educational situation has become the seventh goal of Nepal’s EFA of the nation and developed strategies to address program (NPA, 2003) the problems. In the situation of constitutional recognition of mother tongues as instructional National Curriculum Framework (NCF, 2005) medium and people’s desire to employ English as maintains the provision of local curriculum. instructional medium from grade one, the Curriculum and learning materials can be committee recommended to review the existing curriculum and to develop a policy for curriculum and textbooks. HLCE (2002) recommended that 3 The constitution of Nepal (1990) recognized Nepali, a the Nepali and English should be used as subjects lingua franca at the national level, as language of the from grade one and the mother tongues should be nation and other mother tongues, non-Nepali languages, as national languages. 59 developed under the broad national framework The ratification of the international human rights and the local languages (mother tongues) can be and educational instruments indicates that the used as medium of education. The school can heritage languages would be recognized and offer mother tongue-based education as per the supported. However, the implementation of the demand of the community. policies shows that the heritage languages are still neglected and are ignored for preservation and School Sector Reform Plan (2009) maintains that promotion. Mother tongue-based education has the use of mother tongues at Early Childhood been recommended in general and the policy does Education and Development (ECED) should be not specify the models and frameworks to use the strategy in order to ensure the rights of the heritage languages in education, while these children to learn in their own mother tongues. It languages require well-specified models in order also maintains that the goal of basic education as to ensure their use in education. The teachers are to ensure equitable access to quality education not trained to manage classroom multilingualism. through a right-based approach and promotion of The multilingual education program has been a child friendly environment in schools. designed to develop multilingual proficiency in Multilingual education implementation guideline the individuals, but not to deliver education in the (2010) attempts to regulate the MLE schools and multiple mother tongues including the heritage prescribes a uniform model of MLE in the nation. languages of few students. The covert form of Article 4.1 of the guideline states that mother educational language policies of Nepal does not tongue can be used as the medium of instruction address heritage languages and the linguistic up to basic level (grade 8). It also states that diversity of the nation. The shift in the policy in mother tongue should be the medium of the post 1990 era is also limited to promote only instruction in ECED (article 4.2). Article 4.3 few locally dominant mother tongues. Even the states that mother tongue can be used as the mother tongue-based education policy does not medium of instruction in grade 1-3 of basic recognize the learning need of the students with education, except language subjects. Nepali and heritage language background, who are in English along with the mother tongues are minority in the classroom and the revitalization of recommended to be used as medium of education heritage languages in order to promote linguistic in grade 4-5 of basic education (article 4.4). diversity of the nation. Mother tongues should be used as subjects in 4. Education in heritage languages grade 6-8 of basic education, but the mother tongues can be continued as medium of Operating mother tongue-based education in all instruction if the schools want (article 4.5). heritage languages of the nation is challenging, but necessary. It requires strong commitment of Nurmela et al (2011) relates the mother tongue- the government as well as collaborative efforts based education to the legal and moral obligation from government, language communities, and of the government and discuss the international social organizations. Mother tongue-based human right instruments that Nepal has ratified. education contributes for delivering good quality Among these instruments, two major UN education, promoting linguistic human rights, instruments are more important regarding the social equality, and linguistic diversity. rights of indigenous peoples and the use of mother tongues in education. First instrument is The students with heritage language backgrounds an International Labor Organization (ILO) face educational challenges at schools because of convention No. 169 on indigenous and tribal the language employed as medium of education is peoples in independent countries. Second unfamiliar for them. Children are unfamiliar to instrument is United Nations’ general assembly the school environment, teachers and the Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples language used in the school. UNESCO (1953) (UNDRIP). As a treaty, ILO 169 creates legal states that the children can learn better through obligation to the government of Nepal and the the medium of the mother tongue because it helps UNDRIP can only give moral pressure. them to formulate and express the ideas about 60 themselves and the world where they live. At the human rights. The author argues that changing the world education forum in Dakar in 2000, the language preferences or broadening them would world leaders agreed to achieve six goals in improve the life chances of those minority education. Ensuring access to complete free and language individuals and groups who are compulsory education of good quality for all presently disadvantaged in their access to and children, particularly girls, and children from participation in public services. ethnic minorities was one of the goals that the Paulston & Heidemann (2006) discuss Basque world leaders agreed to achieve by 2015 language revitalization in France through its use (UNESCO, 2007). in education. They state that a small group of Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Basque parents organized a Basque language pre- Rights (1948) maintains that everyone has a right school in 1960s and by 1990 over a dozen schools to education, which is characterized to promote were established and the enrollment had grown understanding, tolerance, and friendship among from 8 students to over 830. The Basque language all nations, religious, or racial groups. It also revitalization effort was known as ikastola declares that the parents have a prior right to movement and the entire activities were financed choose the kind of education to be delivered to by the local resources and the free labor of the their children. The spirit of the declaration is to parents. In 1994, the French government ensure equality and freedom among the recognized the school system and agreed to individuals and to protect their fundamental provide for teacher salaries. rights. In the context of mother tongue-based The principles of linguistic human rights entail education, article 26 can be interpreted as the that the state should grant the right to education in declaration to promote the kind of education the medium of the mother tongues for everyone as accepted by parents and not discriminating a part of basic fundamental rights. It is the anyone in the classrooms based on their language responsibility of the government and the language background. communities to generate the required resources Linguistic human rights entail the fundamental for using every language as the medium of rights of the individuals to use, preserve and education in the classrooms. Languages, either promote their mother tongues and the right to big or small, are capable to conduct learn the languages that they want to become communication and, therefore, can be used in proficient. Skutnabb-Kangas (2006) discusses education. No language is unfeasible to deliver educational linguistic human rights as the right to good quality education in the early grades. If a have the basic education mainly through the language can serve the communication at home, it medium of the mother tongue and the right to can serve, equally, for the communication in the learn the official/dominant language well. She school. argues that linguistic human rights (a) prevent 5. Summary linguistic genocide, (b) promote integration and defending people against forced assimilation, (C) The mother tongue-based education has been promote positive state policies towards minority linked to the multiple fields. It is shaped by languages, (d) promote the maintenance of the various non-pedagogical factors such as world linguistic diversity, and (e) promote linguistics, social, economic, cultural, and conflict prevention and self determination. politics. However, the primary focus of the program is to improve the access and quality of May (2006) argues that the pejorative positioning basic education as well as to promote linguistic of minority languages and their speakers led to and cultural diversity. Nepal has developed the advocacy of minority language rights, which supportive policies for the mother tongue-based includes four principal concerns; (a) language education, but does not provide specific shift and loss, (b) nationality, politics, and the frameworks to incorporate the diverse heritage minoritization of languages, (c) language languages in the linguistically heterogeneous replacement and social mobility, and (d) linguistic 61 classrooms. Therefore, the mother tongue-based Nepal education for all: National plan of action. education program is also restricted in the few 2003. Kathmandu: Government of Nepal. locally dominant mother tongues and the students National curriculum framework for school speaking heritage languages, who are in minority education (pre-Primary to 12) in Nepal. 2005. in the classrooms, are discriminated. Bhaktapur, Nepal: Curriculum Development References Centre. Interim constitution of Nepal. 2007. Kathmandu: Awasti, Lava Deo. 2004. Exploring the Nepal Law Books Society. monolingual school practices in multilingual School sector reform plan 2009-2015. 2009. Nepal. Copenhagen, Denmark: University of 2009. Kathmandu: Ministry of Education. education dissertation. Bahubhasik sikshya karyakram karyanwayan Central Bureau of Statistics. 2012. National nirdeshikaa (Multilingual Education Program Population and housing census 2011t. Implementation guideline). 2010. Kathmandu: Kathmandu: Government of Nepal. Ministry of education. Eagle, Sonia. 2000. The language situation in May, Stephen. 2006. Language policy and Nepal. In Richard B. Baldauf Jr and Robert B minority rights. In Ricento, Thomas (ed.), An Kaplan (eds.), Language planning in Nepal, introduction to language policy: Theory and Taiwan and Sweden, 4-59. Clevedon: method, 255-272. UK, USA, Australia: Multilingual matters Ltd. Blackwell Publishing. Eagle, Sonia. 2008. The language situation in Nurmela, Iina, Lav Deo Awasthi & Tove Nepal. In Robert, B. Kaplan & Richard B. Skutnabb-Kangas. 2011. Enhancing quality Baldauf Jr. (eds.), Language planning and education for all in Nepal through indigenized policy, 1, 170-225. Clevedon: Multilingual MLE: The challenge to teach in over a matters. hundred languages. In Skutnabb-Kangas & Ghimire, Laxman. 1999. Paschim Myagdi Kathleen Heugh (eds.), Multilingual education Chhetrama Boline Nepali Bhasako Swarup (A works: From the periphery to the center, 176- variety of Nepali language as spoken in West 203. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan. Myagdi). A term paper presented to the Paulston, Christina Bratt & Kai Heidemann. Mahendra Multiple Campus, Baglung. 2006. Language policies and the education of Ghimire, Laxman. 2011. Ideologies in the linguistic minorities. In Ricento, Thomas educational language policies of Nepal. (ed.), An introducation to language policy: Kathmandu. Nepalese Linguistics, 26. 36-44. Theory and method, 292-310. UK, USA, Ghimire, Laxman. 2012. Mother tongue Australia: Blackwell Publishing. instruction in multilingual classrooms of Reisigle, Martin & Ruth Wodak. 2009. The Nepal. Nepalese Linguistics, 26. 53-59. discourse historical approach. In wodak, Ruth Nepal National Education Policy Commission. & Michael Meyer (eds.), Methods of critical 1956. Kathmandu: The government of Nepal. discourse analysis, 87-119. London: Sage All Round National Education Commission. publication. 1961. Kathmandu: Government of Nepal. Shrestha, Bal Gopal and Bert Van Den Hoek. National Education System Plan. 1971. 1995. Education in mother tongue: the case of Kathmandu: Government of Nepal Newari. Contributions to Nepalese Studies, The constitution of Nepal. 1990. Kathmandu: 22. 73-86. Nepal law books center. Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove. 2006. Language policy National Education Commission. 1992. and linguistic human rights. In Ricento, Kathmandu: Government of Nepal Thomas (ed.), An introducation to language High Level National Education Commission. policy: Theory and method, 273-291. UK, 1999. Kathmandu: Government of Nepal. USA, Australia: Blackwell Publishing. High Level Commission of Education. 2002. Kathmandu: Government of Nepal.
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Skutnabb-kangas, Tove & Ajit Mohanty. 2009. Department of Linguistics, Tribhuvan Policy and strategy for MLE in Nepal. University. Bhaktapur, Nepal: Department of education. Tollefson, James W. 2002. Language policies in education: Critical issues. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum associate inc. UNESCO. 1953. The use of vernacular languages in education. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0000/00002 8/002897EB.pdf. (accessed in March 2010.) UNESCO. 1990. World declaration on education for all. http://www.unesco.org/education/pdf/JOMTI E_E.PDF. (accessed in December 2011.) UNESCO. 2000. World Education Forum: The Dakar Framework for Action. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/00121 1/121147e.pdf. (accessed in March 2010.) UNESCO. 2003. Language vitality and endangerment. Document submitted to the International expert meeting on UNESCO program safeguarding of endangered languages: Paris: USESCO. UNESCO. 2007. Advocacy kit for promoting multilingual education: Including the excluded. Bangkok: UNESCO. Yadav, Ramavatar. 1992. The use of the mother tongue in primary eduation: Nepalese context. Contributions to Nepalese Studies 19. 177- 190. Yadav, Shreekrishna. 1990. Language planning in Nepal: an assessment and proposal for reform. Rajasthan: University of Rajasthan Dissertation. Yadava, Yogendra p. 2007. Linguistic Diversity in Nepal: Perspectives on Language Policy. Kathmandu: International Seminar on Constitutionalism and diversity in Nepal, CNAS, 22-24 August, 2007. Yadava, Yogendra Prasad. 2008. Linguistic diversity Nepal: Situation and policy planning. Social inclusion research fund (SIRF). Kathmandu: SNV. Yadava, Yogendra Prasad & Carl Grove (eds.). 2008 [1994]. The Report of National Languages Policy Recommendation Commission (English translation by Dubinanda Dhakal). Kathmandu: Central
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Age-related sociolinguistic variation in sign languages, with particular reference to Nepali sign language Upendra Khanal [email protected]
2012), and the population is 26,620,809 (CBS 1 Introduction 2011). Kathmandu is the biggest city of Nepal, as NSL is one of the younger languages among the well as the capital, with an estimated population different languages of Nepal. In this article an of 1,740,977 (CBS 2011). attempt to analyze lexical variation in Nepali Sign 3 Historical context of the NSL community Language will be made, in the context of the older and younger generations of deaf people in 3.1 Population Kathmandu. Lexical variation has been found to Nepal is a nation without specific population data exist in most sign languages by age, region, regarding people with disabilities. Earlier study ethnicity etc. which occurs due to changes in the by the National Planning Commission and language and how it is used. This change is being UNICEF in 1999 estimated the population of the analyzed in NSL in this article, through Deaf at 48,300 in 1999. Later, the Central Bureau comparing the signs of different generations. of Statistics (CBS) estimated sign language users Experimental study of NSL vocabulary enables us to number 5,743 in the 2001 census, Yadhav to evaluate NSL users and classification of the (2007) has given similar number to CBS which lexical variation of NSL, considering linguistic shows NSL as the 39th largest-used language in aspects of sociolinguistic variation in sign Nepal, with 0.03% of the population being NSL languages. Mostly this article is focused on users. However, the National Deaf Federation finding out the lexical or sub-lexical variation in Nepal (NDFN) does not agree with the data. The NSL, and the variation patterns according to the Federation estimates that there are 192,000 deaf social factor of age, and due to historical change. people throughout Nepal and estimates that 10,000 deaf are NSL users, and the remainders do The article is organized as follows: (1) Nepal’s not yet have access to NSL. sociolinguistic Context; (2) Historical context of the NSL community; (3) Development of NSL; 3.2 Development of NSL (4) Comparison of the NSL of Older Deaf and The exact history of sign language in Nepal is Deaf Youths; (5) Conclusion. uncertain; still the language probably was in 2 Nepal’s sociolinguistic context existence earlier than the first school for the deaf established in 1966. The first batch of deaf that Nepali Sign Language is the native language of attend the deaf school in Kathmandu were the deaf community of Nepal. Nepal is home to however probably the first to use sign language in over 100 officially recognized caste and ethnic a group. So, to find out when NSL formally groups who speak around 92 languages officially- started we have to follow them because we do not recognized by the state (Yadhav 2007). Other data have any written evidence or history of NSL published in the web edition of the Ethnologue before that (Sharma 2003). The first ever states: “The number of individual languages listed identified sign collection was conducted from for Nepal is 126. Of those, 124 are living 1985 onwards with the support of Patricia Ross, a languages and 2 have no known speakers.” Peace Corps volunteer (Acharya 1997). Most the (Lewis, M. Paul, 2009). NSL is one of the deaf believe that Ross was the pioneer of sign younger among these languages. language research in Nepal. Ross has written: China lies to the north and India surrounds it to “The initial stumbling block in initiating total the east, south & west. The area of Nepal is communication in Nepal was the lack of any 147,181 square kilometers (Nepal Government recorded sign language. People did not know that
Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 64-70 there was a fully developed system of Nepali isolated deaf together; and the establishment of signs. Despite the fact that sign was not used in the deaf association helped deaf organize the schools, the deaf people, out of their own need together, and as one result he earlier version of to communicate, had developed an intricate sign language was transformed into NSL, which system of signs” (Ross 1990:14). This statement the deaf community in Kathmandu has now been is enough to highlight that Nepali Sign Language using since the early 1980’s (Acharya 1997). was in existence before Ross arrived. Although sign language was originally banned in 3.3 Education the deaf school, deaf youth made an effort to keep it alive during their gathering in weekends. Later The first school for the deaf was established in they established the Kathmandu Association of 1966, by an ENT doctor in a room of Bir Hospital the Deaf (KAD), KAD developed a one-handed in Kathmandu, and it later was moved to DEVNAGARI finger spelling system with the Balmandir in Naxal. The aim of the establishment support of UNICEF (Acharya 1997). Upon the of the school was to teach speech therapy to deaf arrival of Ross, KAD supported her to collect sign children to help them learn to speak (Prasad language words to draft a first dictionary of NSL. 2003). After that Deaf schools were established in This Nepali Sign Language Dictionary was five regions of Nepal under the Welfare Society published as Ross P, and Devkota NK 1990. for the Hearing Impaired (WSHI). The number of the deaf schools has now increased to eighteen, “Age stratification of linguistic variables . . . can with some of them being established by deaf reflect change in the speech of a community as it associations. moves through time (historical change), and change in the speech of the individual as he or she 1. Development of NSL moves through life (age grading)” (McKee & Although it is probable that some sign-based McKee 2011: 487). Therefore, the signs collected system of communication existed before the in the first Nepali Sign Language Dictionary are establishment of the first deaf school in 19661 and mostly based on the indigenous signs used by the it is also probable that such systems of first batch of students at the deaf school in communication developed further until the first Kathmandu (Ross P, Devkota NK 1990). deaf association was established in 1980, there is However some of the signs were collected from no actual evidence or documentation which other cities. indicates the nature of those sign-based systems, Most of the first and second generations of the nor the extent to which those systems may (or deaf who can be said to use the present format of may not) have contributed to the eventual NSL2 attended the deaf school where they were development of the sign language we now know taught according to oralist methods. Most are of as Nepali Sign Language. We know that deaf from Newar families or other families based in the deaf were using a gestural system, and that Kathmandu. They were partly capable of lip- eventually what we have is Nepali Sign reading in Nepali and/or Newari. Many Language, but the exact path is unknown, as too Nepali/Newari daily-use words which are is the question as to whether perhaps earlier monosyllabic are the most commonly used words systems of communication may in fact have which can be easily understand through lip- qualified as language (rater than just gesture). The reading. However, this lip-reading was just used establishment of the deaf school helped to bring in daily life and household conversation, and this was generally mixed with gesture for better 1 By the way these comments are based on repeated understanding. contact with numerous older deaf whose age is above 60 who have taken part in the “Older Deaf Peoples Day Care” programme run by Kathmandu Association 2 By the way this conclusion is based on stories told by of the Deaf. They point out that they lead a very the first generation of the deaf in Nepal, collected isolate life in past, with little or no real when I was an active member of Deaf history group in communication during their youth. Kathmandu Association of the Deaf. 65
Most of them used mouthed Nepali with limited mostly focusing on spoken language grammar3. sign language. In the first generation of deaf who “Linguistic descriptions of ASL emphasize its attended the oral deaf school, diversity in difference from English and often ignore the language use can be found. Education emphasized aspects of ASL that are influenced by English. acquisition of spoken Nepali language among One result of this is that some deaf people whose deaf, so mouthed Nepali was present in the earlier language has been influenced by English are not version of NSL. comfortable with saying that they use ASL.”(Lucas 2004:17) A notable fact is that the Some deaf who learned written language in Nepali deaf community still has not realized that school were better capable of using finger the language that teachers use in Deaf schools is spelling which was developed by them in the late not actually NSL, but rather is Sign Supported 1980’s. Still most deaf who attended deaf school Nepali (SSN) or Signed Nepali (SN), where signs at this time do not use finger spelling frequently, are placed in the order of the grammar of Nepali or are confused during use. This variation is found Language. The translation of interpreters during within the first generation of the deaf (Devkota the deaf-hearing communication, meetings with NK 1993:8). hearing peoples, and workshops as well generally Even among Deaf who use lip-reading during is not in NSL but rather in SSN or SN. family communication, this process was missing 2. Comparison of the NSL of older deaf and during deaf-to-deaf communication. The youths: generation that was educated after the adoption of the finger spelling and after the publication of the “ASL users are also aware of sociolinguistic first Nepali Sign Language Dictionary have variation in ASL. However, there are many continuously been using the NSL. Standardized aspects of that variation that have yet to be NSL has made their communication different explored” (Lucas 2004:77). This happens in the from the first generation of NSL users in Nepal. case of NSL too as there has been no research of The NSL users of this generation have produced a Nepali Sign Language within a purely linguistic vast variation along the different axes of framework. The two most recent research sociolinguistic variation, as I have repeatedly publications (Green 2003; Hoffmann 2008) were noticed during a decade personnel observation. both from a Linguistic anthropology perspective. We can say, for example, that the NSL of Some other research has been conducted in Kathmandu has some differences from the NSL of education of the Deaf, but these do not touch on Pokhara and vice versa, although in this article we linguistic issues. The full scope of variation are looking only at variation in Kathmandu by within Nepali Sign Language between age age. generations cannot be demonstrated within the limits of this paper and without further research. We can make some generalizations about deaf Nonetheless, a comparison of the two sign youth and NSL. Deaf who are educated at deaf language dictionaries published at different times, schools are capable of written Nepali and (some) combined with personnel observation of the English. Study states that deaf use written words, variation, helps us see that the following types of but not with the spoken language’s grammar. Very difference occur between the old and new signs: few deaf (probably only post-lingual deaf) who have learned Nepali as their first language can 1. Differences in signs used: 4 Most of the signs conduct clear written communication with used by Deaf of the older and current generations hearing people; among them most have good Nepali but poor English. In Nepal no special 3 By the way I mean that Sign Supported Nepali (SSN) curriculum for the deaf has been designed, and or Signed Nepali (SN) is used in school where sign deaf children learn English and Nepali as are placed in the order of Nepali grammar not NSL. additional languages from kindergarten level, 4 By the Way a large portion of the lexical variation in Nepali Sign language is mostly due to the influence. Finger spelling was developed in mid 1980’s and before that the northern variety of sign language was 66 show differences in the lexical item. Either or Dictionary Language both variants may be indigenous, or they may be (Ross P, Devkota NK Dictionary borrowed. An example where we can see such 1990: 42) (Acharya K, Sharma full lexical replacement is the sign the domestic D 2003:48) animal ‘Ox’, older sign for Ox represent by hand 3. Use of Finger spelling, and finger spelling placed on the middle of the shoulders referring to incorporation: “Woll (1991) found that there the risen muscles in the Ox’s shoulder, has been were many features that differentiated older and replaced by cow and plowing land using the younger signers. Older signers used more finger traditional HALO instrument, which is used only spelling and had less clear mouthing patterns than with an Ox. the younger signers. Younger signers showed more influence from English in their signing” (Lucas 2004:87). But in NSL Older signers use less finger spelling of words, and also incorporate finger spelling hand shapes less often ( although with some individual signs more often), so that older signers for example sign TEA with a C hand shape like holding a cup while younger signers sign it with a "CH" finer spelling hand shape. Older Sign Current sign In the old sign it was referred by the C hand shape [Nepali Sign [Nepali Sign with location in the lower lips, now this have been Language Dictionary Language Dictionary replaced by L hand shape (but with the middle (Ross P, Devkota NK (Acharya K, Sharma finger also extended) with location in the lower 1990: 16)] D 2003:25)] lips. 2. Difference in phonology of individual signs For this we can go to the sign of SAMOSA where movement and hand shapes completely changed. The older sign had L hand shapes joining together and moving to both sides making baby G hand shapes. In the newer sign, it been completely changed with O hand shapes on the right side.
Older Sign Nepali Current Sign Sign Language Nepali Sign Dictionary Language Dictionary (Ross P, Devkota (Acharya K, Sharma NK 1990: 46) D 2003:51) Contact influences and Borrowing can be another part of the finger spelling incorporation. As with
Older Sign Current sign Sutton’s observation that in BSL it has been noted Nepali Sign language Nepali Sign that Israeli Sign Language is influencing the signing of British Jewish deaf people, as many Jewish deaf people visit Israel and are not influenced by finger spelling and the southern increasingly adopting Israeli signs (as per Lucas variety was somewhat influenced by BSL (or ISL) 2004:88), so too in NSL, as the result of finger spelling which was used along Nepal’s interaction with international deaf becoming more southern border. Some of the signs collected from the widespread and with the arrival of more and more southern part represent the BSL/ISL finger spelling deaf tourists in Nepal, and this contact has as well, and appear among the signs collected in the Dictionary edited by Ross & Devkota 1985. supported lexical borrowing as a source for 67 variation in NSL. Some older signs are also found differences: no mouthing vs. mouthing of Newari to be borrowed, which we can see in example of or a regional language of NSL user vs mouthing the signs in the kinship, with the older sign for of Nepali and probably vs. NSL “mouth gesture”6. ‘uncle’ (mothers brother) borrowed from ISL, 5. Fluency: As already described above in the represent through the BSL U shaped hand before Older signers tended to be less or more fluent the indicating male touching moustache, have (depending on the individual’s language been replaced M hand shape in same position and acquisition background), and their sign may have movement to represent NSL finger spelling of had a smaller vocabulary, because NSL during the MA. 1980’s was standardized based only on a few
cities. Northern dialect could be different from southern or other dialects. These differences are attributed to: 1. the small number of deaf families, making for a discontinuity between generations; 2. Changes in the educational system; and 3. changing technology. Woll also found lexical differences between older and younger signers and across regions (Lucas 2004). In Nepal, the
Older sign Current sign younger generation of signers is more influenced Nepali Sign language Nepali Sign from Nepali and English. In addition, their NSL Dictionary Language Dictionary vocabulary is greater than that of the older (Ross P, Devkota NK (Acharya K, Sharma generation of the NSL users. For the example, 1990:06) D 2003:09) older generation signers know little or nothing about computer technology or the signs related to Another example of a borrowed sign is the sign this technology, while the younger generation has ACCEPT, borrowed from ASL and finally a high level of fluency in this field. th approved during the 5 National NSL Approval “Lexicostatistical comparisons between NZSL, Convention in 2003, after many years in use. BSL, and Auslan show that NZSL is a member of There is more borrowing in signs nowadays. the British Sign Language family, known as Older signers are less influenced by foreign sign BANZSL (Johnston 2003a; McKee and Kennedy languages. This is affecting the current 2000). However, is not easy to trace the original generation’s lexicon and grammar. Younger pathway between BSL and the development of the signers are using more borrowed words with NZSL variety” (Mackee and Mackee 2011:490). NSL. The same happens in the case of NSL; Woodward 4. Use of mouthing: Observations have shown pointed towards the possible link between NSL that older signers mouthing was used more when and the sign language(s) of the Indian they sign, and also the mouthing was different, in subcontinent (Woodward 1993), and Zeshan as some cases less too. In Newar families, as I have well in her research on the Sign Language in indicated above, there was some mouthing in Indo-Pakistan (Zeshan 2000) had the same Newari5, which however now is no longer present assumption. Although the current NSL does not in the younger generation of NSL use. Thus, there follow the original Indian Sign Language, early used to be present the use of different regional NSL does contain some indigenous signs of languages (in the form of mouthing) in NSL northern India, and original source of those which is not present now. So there are
6 By “mouth gesture” I mean pattern of mouth shapes 5 By the way, most of the Newar deaf of the older and movements that deaf use while signing which generation uses “LA” mouthing with NSL sign of really do not represent a spoken language, like while WATER, this continues with other words too. This signing DEAF a NSL user may product mouthing shows the different between mouthing between “DAAP” which doesn’t represent either English or to Newar and non-Newar signer. Nepali. 68 indigenous signes was Saryau Serchan, a deaf 4. Conclusion adult taught in the Deaf school of Gorakhpur “Age grouping is used in this study to capture the (Sharma 2003:23). In addition, Pulak Murkhajee, effects of historical change over time (“apparent a Indian deaf adult, spent a couple years in time”) rather than age-graded linguistic features Kathmandu as volunteer advisor for the deaf that might change throughout an individual’s association of Kathmandu.7 lifespan” (Mackee and Mackee 2011:495). The 3. Deaf and languages in contact in NSL process from Gestural system, to indigenous community home signers, to an emergent signing community, finally to standardized NSL, has manifest itself in Deaf around Nepal enter Kathmandu for job, the linguistic variation found in the NSL used by education, multipurpose training and other different generations of deaf in Nepal. NSL activities. This effort brings some of their variation may have evolved through the indigenous local signs which later are adopted by generations. Unfortunately, to date, insufficient the deaf of Kathmandu and come into use linguistic research has been undertaken on this nationwide. situation, and this paper aims to shed some light NSL itself is a natural language established by the on lexical variation of the NSL of 1980’s and deaf community of the Kathmandu Valley and 2000’s, through the study of the deaf community other areas of the country, but we cannot deny the of Kathmandu and vice versa. As Kathmandu is influence of other sign languages. If we compare an important place in Deaf Nepal, it has language NSL with other sign languages that it had contact diversity, and this can be seen in a sociolinguistic with during its initial stage of formation and sign study of NSL. In addition, NSL that originated collection, we can see this influence. Foreigner from youths of Kathmandu in the 1980’s is now deaf mostly come via Kathmandu, coming in influencing the nation, through various means. contact with the deaf in the tourist areas of The most important of these means are deaf Kathmandu. Their destination will be deaf youths connecting with Kathmandu and also deaf associations, especially KAD. schools are the other means. Following a year of collaboration and research with both generations Meeting with foreign deaf leads Nepali deaf to of deaf Nepal, this essay documents the history of communicate either using international signs, or NSL and signing differences between the two to use English mouthing with Nepali signs. generations in Kathmandu. Sometime we can see deaf using halting ASL, where some words are borrowed from ASL and References others from NSL but the grammar remains that of Acharya, K. Sharma, D. 2003. Nepali Sign NSL or SSN. As well, due to the influence of deaf Language Dictionary. Nepal National visitors, now deaf in Kathmandu are capable to Federation of the Deaf & Hard of Hearing use some ASL phrases too. In some cases if the (NFDH). Kathmandu. Quality Printers deaf interact together for a longer time some of Acharya, K. 1997. A history of the Deaf in Nepal. the signs are exchanged and form a mixed signing Kathmandu: Nepal National Federation of the which later forms a pidgin SL. Deaf and Hard of Hearing, (unpublished paper) CBS. 2012. http://census.gov.np/ Devkota, N. K. 1993. Atit Ko smarran. Voice of 7 By the way this observation is based in the memories the Deaf. Kathmandu. Kathmandu Association of Mr. Raghav Bir Joshi, now MP, and one of the of the Deaf. Year 1 Vol 1 (p8) older generation of deaf and a photographer in the Green, E. M. 2004. Hands that speak: An sign language collection project in 1985-1989. It was Ethnography of Deafness in Nepal. BA Thesis, recorded while group work of Deaf history collection Amherst College, USA (unpublished Paper) group in Kathmandu Association of the Deaf. Kiran Hoffmann, E. G. 2008. Standardization Beyond Acharya also indicated this in his article “A history of Form: Ideologies, Institutions, and the the Deaf in Nepal”. 69
Semiotics of Nepali Sign Language. PhD dissertation, The University of Michigan Lewis, M. Paul (ed.), 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com/. Lucas, C. 2004. The Sociolinguistic of Sign Languages. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press MacKee, R. & MacKee, D. 2011. Old Signs, New Signs, Whose Signs? Sociolinguistic Variation in the NZSL Lexicon: Sign Language Studies Vol. 11 No. 4 (485-527) Nepal Government. 2012. Country Profile. http://www.nepalgov.gov.np/?option=ngdir&p age=countryprofile NPC. 1980. Report on Sample Survey of Disabled Persons in Nepal 1980, Katmandu. NPC. 1999. A Situation Analysis on Disability in Nepal, 1999 (unpublished) Volume–I, National Planning Commission Secretariat, UNICEF, New ERA Ltd., 1999. Prasad, L. N. 2003. Status of people with disability in Nepal. Kathmandu: Modern Printing Press. Ross, P. & Devkota, N. K. 1989. Nepali Sign Language Dictionary: The Welfare Society for the Hearing Impaired. Kathmandu: Shayogi Press Ross, P. 1990. Nepali Sign Language Dictionary, Peace Crops Times, January/February 1990, Washington, D.C.: Peace Corps Sharma, S. 2003. Nepali Sanketik Bhasa Ko Udbhab Ra Bikash. Kathmandu: Tribhuvan University M.A. thesis. Wolrd Bank. 2001. World Development Report 2000-2001 Woodward, J. 1993. The Relationship of Sign Language Varieties in India, Pakistan, & Nepal. Sign Language Studies, 78:15-22 Yadhav, Y. P. 2007. Linguistic Diversity in Nepal Perspectives on Language Policy. Department of Linguistics, Tribhuban University, Kathmandu Nepal. Zeshan, U. 2000. Sign language in Indo-Pakistan: a description of a signed language. Philadelphia, PA & Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 70
Case marking in Dhimal Karnakhar Khatiwada [email protected]
This paper analyzes the case marking in Dhimal. structures in a clause. In section 4 the conclusion The main 'adaptive-imperative' of case marking of the study is presented. in Dhimal is to code the pragmatically-oriented 2. Basic assumptions nominative-accusative case-marking scheme. Dhimal has adopted the dative subject Grammatical case marking is generally referred to construction under the influence of the Indo- as primary morphological coding property of the Aryan languages (King, 2009). It employs the syntactic or grammatical relations, viz. subject pragmatically-oriented nominative-accusative and primary objects (patient and dative) in a case marking system. clause. Typologically the languages of the world reveal remarkable diversity in grammatical case 1. Introduction marking. Three different systems have been This paper examines the case marking in Dhimal. observed so far, namely, active stative (coding Dhimal is one of the Tibeto-Burman languages semantic roles), ergative-absolutive (coding spoken by a minority group of the same name pragmatic function) and nominative-accusative residing mainly in the far south-eastern Tarai (coding transitivity) (Givón 2001a: 201). Dhimal region of Nepal. The population of Dhimal case marking system employs pragmatically mother tongue speakers amounts to 19,300 in oriented nominative-accusative case marking Nepal (CBS 2011).1 Some hundreds of Dhimal strategy. It treats S and A the same, and P speakers are also reported to be found in differently. This phenomenon is shown in the Darjeeling district of West-Bengal, India. figure (1). Hodgson (1847/1880) is the description of the Dhimal language spoken in Darjeeling without any mention of Dhimal language spoken in Nepal S at that time. Dhimal language is described as having two dialects viz. eastern and western by P A the previous researchers. King (1994, 2009), Cooper (1999) and Khatiwada (1999) put some examples to distinguish the varieties. However, it Figure1: Dhimal case marking strategy is still to be investigated whether the differences are enough to have the status of different dialects Thus, in Dhimal, the subject of an intransitive or they are only the spoken varieties. The construction and the agent of a transitive different case marking systems displayed in both construction are treated in one way dialects, are treated contrastively. (nominatively) and the patient of a transitive This paper is organized into four sections. Section construction is treated differently. This 2 presents the basic assumptions of the phenomenon is exemplified from Dhimal as in functional- typological grammar. Section 3 looks (1a, b). at the case role inflections which signal the (1) a. syntactic relationship between the words or na-ɸ dzim-kʰe-na 2SG-NOM sleep-IMPF-2SG 'You sleep.' 1 The total population of Dhimal in Nepal is 26,298 as reported in the census (2011).
Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 71-76 b. na-ɸ wa-seheŋ danai-kʰe-na subject pronouns are encoded in the verbal 2SG-NOM 3SG-ACC beat-IMPF-2SG complex in Dhimal. It displays the grammatical 'You beat him.' relation of the pronominal subjects with the verb. A noun phrase may be case marked to signal the The subject of the intransitive construction (1a) syntactic relationship at the phrasal and sentence and the agent of the transitive construction (1b) level. Table 1 presents the case role inflection for are zero marked, whereas the patient of the different cases in Dhimal. transitive construction (1b) is accusative marked in Dhimal. Table 1: Case role inflections in Dhimal This study is based on both primary and Case role Cases Gloss secondary data. The primary data for the western inflections variety of Dhimal were elicited from the speakers - ø Nominative NOM residing in and around Damak municipality and -seheŋ ~-heŋ~-eŋ Accusative/Dative ACC/DAT the data for the eastern variety were elicited in -ko Genitive GEN and around Mechinagar municipality of Jhapa -hoi/-aŋ Instrumental INST district. The secondary data are based on Grierson -so Ablative ABL (1847/1880); Khatiwada (1999); and, King -ta locative LOC (2009). I have used the examples from the -dopʰa Comitative COM recorded natural texts but some instances are also Allative ALL elicited through translation method. Primary data -bʰari were cross-checked with the other native speakers Table 1 shows Dhimal case markers that encode of the same area. the case role inflections in Dhimal. In the Morphological case marking of an NP is one of following section, we briefly discuss the cases the overt coding properties of grammatical with the specific case role inflections. relations, others being the word order and verb 3.1 The nominative agreement (Givón 2001a:175). Case marking is a morphological overt-coding property of Case marking in Dhimal is governed by grammatical relations: subject, direct object and pragmatic orientation. Thus, the subjects of both indirect object. Such grammatical relations are transitive and intransitive constructions are encoded in the noun phrases by case role equally marked with zero as in (2). inflections. Similarly, they can also be indexed by (2) a. ka- dzim-g a pronominal verb agreement in the verbal ɸ ʰ complex. The case marking of the subject and I-NOM sleep-PST.1SG direct object, two 'grammaticalized' grammatical 'I slept.' b. relations is primarily governed by three ka-ɸ um-ɸ tsa-gʰa functional-adaptive imperatives, viz. coding I-NOM rice-ACC eat-PST.1SG semantic roles, coding pragmatic function and coding transitivity. Though individual languages 'I ate rice.' may enjoy adaptive compromise, most languages dedicate their indirect object case marking almost In the example (2a, b) the subjects of both exclusively to marking semantic roles (Givón, intransitive and transitive construction are zero- 2001a:198). marked. The subject as full-NP displays the same case 3. Case role inflections marking morphology as shown in (3a, b). In addition to the nominative-accusative case marking system, first person and second person
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(3) a. wadzan-ɸ leŋ-hi As shown in the example (5) the dative marker boy-NOM laugh-PST displays its function of an indirect object. 'The boy laughed.' The same morpheme is realized as -heŋ an in example (6). b. wadzan- me sa- pi -hi ɸ ʔ ɸ ʔ (6) ka ram-heŋ boy-NOM goat-ACC sell-PST ISG Ram-DAT 'The boy sold the goat.' h kitab- pi-g a Unlike the first and second person pronouns the ɸ third person pronouns and full-NP subjects do not book- ACC give-PST.1SG have agreement with the verb as shown in the 'I gave a book to Ram.' examples (3a, b). As shown in the example (6) the dative marker is 3.2 The accusative realized as -heŋ for the function of an indirect object. The patient of a transitive construction is marked in Dhimal in two different ways. The inanimate Sometimes the dative morpheme is realized as -eŋ patient is zero marked just like the subject of an an in (7). intransitive construction and agent of the (7) ram-eŋ mʰitu-hi transitive construction is marked by the Ram-DAT be.hungry-PST accusative case, i.e zero marked as in (3b). On the 'Ram is hungry.' other hand, the animate patient is marked by -seheŋ, -heŋ or -eŋ as in examples (4a, b). The example (7) is an example of dative subject construction in Dhimal. Since dative subject is not (4) a. bedzan- kai-hi wadzan-ɸ a characteristic feature of the Tibeto-Burman heŋ languages, it is an influence of the Indo-Aryan boy-NOM girl-ACC call-PST languages (King 2009:90). 'The boy called the girl.' 3.4 The genitive b. na-ɸ ka-seheŋ danai-nʰa 2SG-NOM 1SG-ACC beat-PST.2SG Genitive case in Dhimal is encoded by the suffix - 'You beat me.' ko, which is used to denote a possessive Unlike the example (3b), the animate nominal relationship between nouns. It follows the patient in (4a) and pronominal patient in (4b) are possessor and precedes the possessed nouns as in marked by the accusative case marker -seheŋ or - (8). heŋ. (8) wa bo-mi-ko si-ta 3.3 The dative 3SG other-HCL-GEN house-LOC nokər hi-ka hi-gʰa-hi The dative case is primarily used to express the servant stay-NMLZ be-PH-PST syntactic relationship of indirect object in clause 'He stayed as a servant at some other's house.' level. In Dhimal, dative case role is marked by the accusative marker -seheŋ~-heŋ or ~-eŋ just like The genitive marker is followed by the emphatic exemplified in (3a,b). The beneficiary/recipient marker -ŋ when more emphasis in required as in patients are dative-marked as in (5). (9) (5) wa ka-seheŋ atuisa (9) ela-so bewalai-ko-ŋ 3SG 1PL-DAT a.little now-ABL woman.PL-GEN-EMPH bilaiti pi-hi əd ikar jen-aŋ potato- ɸ give-PST ʰ 'He gave me some potatoes.' right be-FUT 73
'Now onward only the women will be The eastern dialect of Dhimal employs the powerful.' instrumental marker -aŋ as shown in the examples (11a, b).3 The genitive case does not show agreement to the verb. It agrees with the head noun which shows 3.6 The ablative agreement with the finite verb. The ablative case in Dhimal is marked by the 3.5 The instrumental suffix -so, sometimes followed by emphatic marker -ŋ, as in (12a, b). The instrumental case is used to mark a tool, by which an agent accomplishes an action. The (12) a. na hasu-so-ŋ instrumental is marked by the suffix -hoi in the 2SG who-ABL-EMPH western dialect whereas the same is marked by dzota tsol-nʰa the suffix -aŋ in the eastern dialect as in (10a, b) 2 shoe buy-PST.2SG and (11a, b). Hodgson (1847) mentions -doŋ as 'With whom did you buy the shoes?' an instrumental marker in his data. The b. kisan tai-ko miliŋ-so lohi morpheme -doŋ is used as an emphatic marker in farmer self-GEN farm-ABL come.PST the present-day Dhimal language. 'The farmer came from his field.' (10) a. wa lat̺ʰi-hoi puhyã se ʔ-hi Ablative case is also employed in the temporal 3SG stick-INST snake kill-PST sense as in (13a, b). 'He killed the snake with the stick.' (13) a. wa andzi-so-ŋ 3SG yesterday-ABL-EMP b. kati-hoi katʰe ma-tˢeʔ lo-ka Knife-INST wood NEG-cut.IMP mantʰu 'Don't cut the wood with the knife.' come-NMLZ NEG.be.EXT 'He hasn't come since yesterday.' The instrumental marker in the western variety is -hoi. In contrast to this, the eastern variety b. ka rʰima-so-ŋ employs -aŋ as the instrumental case marker as in 1SG morning-ABL-EMP (11a, b). haidoŋ ma-tsa-gʰa (11) a. wa laʈʰi-aŋ puhyã seʔ-hi whatever NEG-eat-1SG.PST 3SG stick-INST snake kill-PST 'I didn't eat anything since 'He killed the snake with the stick.' morning.' The temporal sense encoded by the ablative b. kati-aŋ kaʈʰe ma-tˢeʔ marker, sometimes followed by the emphatic knife-INST wood NEG-cut.IMP marker -aŋ/-ŋ is shown in (13a, b). 'Don't cut the wood with the knife.' 3.7 The locative Th locative case marker in Dhimal is -ta. It functions as a spatial, temporal and locational goal as in (14).
2 King (2009) reports an alternative but uncommon 3 The differences in the instrumental markers witness instrumental marker -au, which is not witnessed in my the differences in the two varieties (dialects) of the data so far. language.
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(14) ka hisika siŋ-ta (17) a. obalai dera-bʰari hane-hi 1SG what.kind tree-LOC 3PL village-ALL go-PAST hy-aŋ-ka ela 'They went towards the village.' sit-FUT-1SG now 'What kind of tree shall I sit in now? b. pokʰəri-bʰari kʰaŋ-labelau Temporal location also is marked by -ta as in (15) pond-ALL watch-TEMP (15) ka ma-hi-ka bela-ta na dzʰəkəkəməkkə tiŋ-hi aŋ 1SG NEG-be-NML time-LOC 2SG brightening see-PST QUOT wa-ko tsʰuri tsalai-nʰa '(He) saw a dazzling light when looked towards the pond.' 3SG-GEN knife use-PST.2SG 'Did you use his knife when I was not there? As shown in (17a, b) the allative marker -bhari in 3.8 The commitative Dhimal encodes the meaning 'towards' a certain location. The commitative case in Dhimal is marked by the 4 Summary morpheme –dopʰa. It denotes an associate of the agent, patient or dative of the event, whose role in In this paper, I have described the case marking the event is similar, but is not as important. schemes in Dhimal. Dhimal employs nominative- Examples are (16a, b). accusative case-marking system. Dhimal also displays pronominal verb agreement in first (16) a. kaŋko sanaiti-ko tsan person and second person pronouns with three 1SG-OBL-GEN friend-GEN son numbers in western variety and singular and wa-ko one-dopʰa plural numbers in eastern variety. The cases 3SG-GEN y.sister-COM nominative, accusative, dative, instrumental, bihu paka hi genitive, locative, allative and commitative are marriage do-NMLZ be marked to code syntactic relations in the clause. 'My friend's son has married to his The main 'adaptive-imperative' of case marking in sister.' Dhimal is to code the pragmatically-oriented nominative-accusative case-marking scheme. The b. ka te barka dzagir tsa-ka inanimate patient is zero marked whereas the 1SG TOP big service eat-NMLZ animate and pronominal patients are marked h dyaŋ do pʰa k iniŋ han-aŋ-ka morphologically. The accusative and dative cases are marked by the same marker. Dhimal has person with Only go-FUT-1SG 'I shall go only with a person (who has) adopted the dative subject construction under the an attractive job.' influence of the language of wider communication viz. Nepali. As in the examples (16a, b) the comitative or associative meaning of the nominal is encoded by Abbreviations the comitative marker –dopʰa. ɸ zero/null INST instrumental 3.9 The allative 1 first person INTEN intentive 2 second person LOC locative The allative marks motion of the referents 3 third person NEG negative towards a goal. It is indicated by the morpheme ABL ablative NMLZ nominalizer -bʰari as in (17). ACC accusative NOM nominative COM comitative PERF perfective DAT dative PH past habitual 75
EMP emphatic PIMPF imperfective in Nepal”. Invited talk presented at the EXT existential PL plural Dialogue of Cultures, University of GEN genitive PROG progressive Reykjavik.Availableat:http://archiv.ub.uni- HCL human classifier PST past heidelberg.de/savifadok/volltexte/2008/201/p QUOT Quotative SG singular df/Iceland_Talk_Handout.pdf IMP imperative TEMP temporal Regmi, Dan Raj. 2010. "Grammatical case IMPF imperfective TOP topicalizer marking in Bhujel, Chepang and Bankariya" Linguistics: The Kathmandu Linguistic References Circle Newsletter, Vol. 9:1, 6-12. Cooper, Kathrin. 1999. "Dhimal." In Yadava, Regmi, Danraj. 2012. A grammar of Bhujel. Y.P. and Warren, H. Glover (eds). 26-44. LINCOME EUROPA. Dryer, Matthew S. 2006. "Descriptive Theories, Yadava, Yogendra Prasad and Warren, W. Explanatories Theories, and Basic Linguistic Glover. (eds). 1999.Topics in Nepalese Theory." In Felix, Ameka; Alan Dench; and linguistics. Kathmandu: Royal Nepal Nicolas Evans (eds.) Catching Language: Academy Issues in Grammar Writing. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 207-234. Givón, T. 2001a. Syntax: An Introduction, vol.1. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Givón, T. 2001b. Syntax: An Introduction,vol.2. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Government of Nepal. 2012.National population and housing census 2011. Kathmandu: CBS. Hodgson, Brian Houghton. 1847/1880. "On the Kocch, Bodo and Dhimal tribes." Miscellaneous essays: Relating to Indian subjects 1. 1-155. Reprinted in1880. London: Trübner and Company. Khatiwada, Karnakhar. 1999. Dhimal verb morphology. MA dissertation. Tribhuvan University. Khatiwada , Karnakhar. 2013. "Differences in Eastern and Western Dhimal." CERID journal TU, to appear. King, John T.1994. "Picking up where Hodgson left off: Further notes on Dhimal." Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 17.2: 121-32. King John T. 2009. A Grammar of Dhimal. LEIDEN BOSTON: BRILL. Noonan, Michael. 2005. “Language documentation and language endangerment 76
Clitic -e in Bhojpuri Gopal Thakur Lohar From functional typological view, clitic -e does 2. Clitic vs. affix not fall in any of the 'parts of speech' in Bhojpuri Zwicky and Pullum (1983) list a set of criteria but it is multifunctional being a clitic in the for distinguishing clitics from inflectional affixes language. In this context, this paper is an attempt and arrive at an unconventional conclusion that to examine the clitic -e in Bhojpuri from formal the English contracted negator n't behaves like and functional perspectives with facts and an inflectional affix rather than a clitic. Zwicky findings. and Pullum's prominent criteria are: degree of 1. Background selection, arbitrary gaps in the set of combinations and morphophonological Certain bound morphemes are neither clearly idiosyncrasies. They are briefly summarized as independent words nor clearly inflectional follows: affixes in a number of languages. Such phenomena with problematic forms exist in A. The degree of selection between the clitics many languages of the world, including English, and the words preceding them is low; in generally treated as an acategorematic as they do other words, clitics can attach to words of not readily fit into a standard description of 'parts virtually any category: of speech' (Yadav, 1991:123). 1. The person I was talking to's going to In this context, this paper is an attempt to be angry with me. [preposition] examine the clitic -e in Bhojpuri from formal and 2. The ball you hit's just broken my room functional perspectives and to talk about such window. [verb] phenomenon discussed in other Indo-Aryan language like Maithili. 3. Any answer not entirely right's going to be marked as an error. [adjective] Initially e is the proximal demonstrative adjective as well as adverb in Bhojpuri: e ɡɑ̃o 4. The drive home tonight's been really easy. [adverb] 'this village', e ʈʰɑ̃o 'this place/here' and e ber 'this time/now'. The inflectional affixes, by contrast, are quite Besides, e is the exclusive emphatic marker in specific in their selections of stems: the plural Bhojpuri translated into English as 'only' or attaches only to noun stems, the past only to verb 'alone' attaching to the end of host words and are stems, the superlative only to adjective and clearly enclitic: syam-e 'only Shyam'. adverb stems. Such phenomenon occurs in other Indo-Aryan Like in English, -e in Bhojpuri also can attach to languages, i. e., Maithili: ram-e 'only Ram'. But words of virtually any category: in Bhojpuri such phenomenon seems more 1. ram-e eso pas kʌri 'Only Ram will pass (the functional. exam) this year.' [noun] In Bhojpuri, -e stands as marker of dative/anti- 2. moɦʌn kitab pʌɽ -e 'Mohan used to read a dative, instrumental and locative cases as well as ʰ book.' [verb] marker of reason, converb, tense and so on. In this context this paper is an attempt to 3. babuji bʰukʰ-l-e cʌl ʌini 'Father returned examine the –e construction in Bhojpuri from hungry.' [adjective] formal and functional perspectives. This paper consists of four sections. Section 1 is and 4. tu nic-e bʌiʈʰ 'Sit downside only.' [adverb] introduction, section 2 clarifies clitic vs. affix, B. There are no arbitrary gaps in the set of host- section 3 discusses functions of clitic -e and clitic combinations. But such arbitrary gaps section 4 supplies summary of the work. Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 77-85 do occur occasionally in inflectional contrasted with clitics. In other words, it can be paradigms, as is well known; e. g., the concluded that clitics are placed between affixes English verb stride anomalously lacks a past and words. Zwicky (1985) has also demonstrated participle. Likewise, arbitrary gaps within a some tests: single category exist with regard to n't: * A. Phonological tests include internal/external mayn't, * amn't. sandhi, word/phrase domains in prosodic Ragarding clitic -e in Bhojpuri, no arbitrary phonology and word/phrase domains in gap is found in the host-clitic combinations, segmental phonology; and initially observe clitic forming a phonological unit with an e. g., as observed in rame, pʌɽʰe, bʰukʰle and nice shown in A. But arbitrary gaps independent word. within a single category exist regarding In Bhojpuri, clitic -e normally forms a inflectional paradigms. We have suffix -i as phonological unit: a feminine marker but we can see arbitrary gaps in some contexts such as *loɦari ram ram-e 'only Ram' 'female blacksmith', *sʌsuri 'mother-in-law' kʰet kʰet-e 'on the farm' as unmarked forms are loɦʌin or loɦarin and sas or sasu respectively. pias pias-e 'because of thirst' C. No morphophonological idiosyncrasies exist B. Accentual test observes clitics as dependent within clitic groups. Hosts are unaffected by and words as independent accentually but the clitics. But for inflectional formations, the test lacks reliablility as some languages morphophonological idiosyncrasies are very do permit clitics to be accented in certain common. n't also displays a number of circumstances such as for emphasis or morphophonological idiosyncrasies (Yadav, contrast. 1991: 125): In Bhojpuri, clitic -e is generally accented as do don't u → o (vowel change) primary stress in the context of emphasis. will won't l → φ (deletion and vowel C. Tests using similarities between clitics and inflectional affixes include binding, closure, change) i → o construction, ordering, distribution and shall shan't l → φ (deletion but no vowel complexity concluding that clitics are affix- change) like in contrast of independent words as they resemble inflectional affixes. must mustn't t→φ (deletion accompanied by syllabicity) In Bhojpuri, clitic -e is bound. In Bhojpuri, there is a plural marker suffix -ʌn, D. Syntactic tests include deletion, replacement which exhibits idiosyncrasies and movement concluding that a word can morphophonologically: serve as a syntactic constituent, and therefore can be subject to syntactic ɦʌsua 'sickle' ɦʌsuʌn a→φ (deletion of processes; a clitic, however, is only a proper vowel) part of a word-like construct and should be immune to such processes. ɡao 'village' ɡʌuʌn a→ʌ and o→u (change of vowel) In Bhojpuri, clitic -e is only a proper part of a word-like construct. It does not exhibit Moreover, Zwicky (1985) observes clitics to syntactic processes like deletion, have some properties of affixes (especially replacement and movement. inflectional affixes) when contrasted with independent words; and words to have some of E. A test derived from interface assumptions the properties of syntactic phrases when concludes that a clitic group — a 78
combination of a host word with its clitics Dative/Anti- — should not be available when syntactic dative rules apply because cliticization occurs in a Case component which is ordered after syntactic Instrumental
rules apply. Locative Such is the case in Bhojpuri also as clitic -e Reason is not independently ordered when syntactic Reason rules apply. Emphatic Clitic - Emphasis Clitic -e has its root initially in Sanskrit. In e Sequential Converb Sanskrit, evʌ 'only' is the emphatic marker Simultaneous postposition: sʌtyʌm evʌ 'truth only' becomes Purpose sʌtyʌm-evʌ when the two words are uttered Goal under the sandhi rule. sʌtyʌm comes to be sac Simple Present Tense and evʌ shortens to -e as a clitic and comes to be Simple Past sac-e 'truth only' in Bhojpuri. Likewise, -e is a locative marker suffix in Sanskrit: ɡrh-e̥ 'at home'. 3.1 As a dative/anti-dative case marker Clitic -e as a locative is true copy of Sanskrit in Dative or anti-dative case in Bhojuri is generally Bhojpuri and it becomes ɡʰʌr-e 'at home'. marked with postposition ke: 3. Clitic -e in Bhojpuri 2) a. ɦʌm ram ke Clitic -e in Bhojpuri is multi-functional. It can ciʈʈʰi likʰ-ni occur with different parts of speech in different I Ram DAT letter eat- functions as in (1). PST 'I wrote a letter to Ram.' 1) a. ram aj-e ɡʰʌr-e a-il hʌ Ra today- home- come be. b. raju moɦʌn ke piʈ-l-ʌk m CLT CLT -PP NPT Raju Mohan ADT beat.PST. 'Ram has come home only today.' NH 'Raju beat Mohan.' b. mʌŋru kalʰ-e ɡãw-e ɡʌ-il Mangaru yesterday village- go- Case marker ke has expressed dative in 2(a) and -CLT CLT PST anti-dative in 2(b) respectively. But the case 'Mangaru went to village only yesterday.' marker ke is simply replaced by clitic -e in Bhojpuri: Among the illustrations above, clitic -e with ɡʰʌr 3) a. ɦʌ ɦ 'home' in 1(a) as well as with ɡão 'village' in 1(b) m to -e pʌɽʰ -ʌi-ni has come as locative but with aj 'today' in 1(a) I you- CLT teach- PST 'I tought you.' and kalʰ 'yesterday' in 1(b) as exclusive emphatic. The illustrations 1(a–b) demonstrate b. raju ɦʌ ʈ ʌ that -e can meet all the criteria Zwicky and m-e pi -l- k Pullum (1983) and Zwicky (1985) have tested to Raju 1S-CLT beat- PST.NH be clitics in Bhojpuri. Moreover, table 1 presents 'Raju beat me.' all possible functions of clitic -e in Bhojpuri. As illustrated in 3(a–b), clitic -e in Bhojpuri Table 1: Functions of Clitic -e in Bhojpuri functions as dative and anti-dative markers being attached with personal pronouns. 79
3.2 Instrumental case Besides, Bhojpuri has also innovation to mark locative with clitic -e. It is copied from Sanskrit, The general instrumental case marker in already described: Bhojpuri is se:
7) a. ɡ ʌr-e cʌl-φ 4) a. kʌlʌm se lik -a-la ʰ ʰ house-CLT walk.IMP.NH pen INS write- NPT.PASS 'Walk into house.' 'It is written with pen.' 'Let's go home.'
b. se kam ho-la ɦãtʰ b. babuji bʌjar-e ɡʌ-il ba-ɽẽ I INS work be.NPT.PASS Raju market- go-PP be- 'Work is done with hand.' CLT NPT.H 'Father has gone to market.' But Bhojpuri has property to mark the instrumental case with clitic -e instead of the c. jφ-o case marker ke: kʰet-e field-CLT go.IMP.NH 'Go to the cultivated field.' 5) a. biya ɦãtʰ-e ukʰaɽ-φ seedlings hand-CLT uproot.IMP.NH d. sĩɽ i-e cʌɽ -φ 'Uproot the seedlings with hand.' ʰ ʰ ladder-CLT climb.IMP.NH 'Climb up the ladder.' b. aɦʌn lat-e kʌr-φ mud foot-CLT do.IMP.NH As in 7(a–d), the clitic -e is realized as locative, 'Knead the mud with foot.' being attached with nouns in Bhojpuri. It is in continuity of Sanskrit tradition: ɡr ɦ-e 'in house'. c) raju ɦʌm-e dãt-e kaʈ le-lʌk Raju 1S-CLT tooth- cut take. 3.4 Reason CLT PST. Bhojpuri has a tradition to mark reason with NH clitic e with nouns: 'Raju bit me (with teeth).' 8) a. pias-e bol -ʌl ja-t As illustrated in 5(a–c), clitic -e functions as nʌikʰe instrumental marker being attached with nouns, thirst speak- be-neg. go- replacing the case marker se. -clt inf 3s.npt iprf 3.3 Locative case 'It's difficult to speak because of thirst.' The general locative markers in Bhojpuri are mẽ b. jaɽ-e nin nʌik e pʌr-ʌt and pʌr: ʰ cold- sleep be-NEG. lay-IPRF CAU 3S.NPT 6) a. mẽ ʌ ɡʰʌr c l-φ 'It's difficult to sleep because of cold.' house LOC walk.IMP.NH 'Walk into house.' 8(a–b) illustrates clitic -e marks reason being b. ʌ attached with nouns. cʰʌppʌr p r cʌɽʰ-φ roof LOC climb.IMP.NH 'Climb on the roof.' 3.5 Emphasis 80
killed by Ram.' Bhojpuri has the adverb kʰali to express exclusive emphasis: But these all adverbs of emphasis are naturally expressed in Bhojpuri by clitic -e: 9) a. ɦʌm am kʰali kʰa-em I EMP mango eat-FUT 11) a. toɦʌra kʌɦ-ʌl-e ke 'I 'll eat mangoes only.' 2.POSS say-PP-CLT PUR deri ba
b. tu k ali pẽɽ ɡʌn-i-ɦʌ late be.3S. NPT ʰ 'Only you have to say.' you EMP tree count- FUT.2.MH 'You'll only count the trees.' b) duniya mẽ nepal-e ɡulam world LOC Nepal- CLT slave
But nowadays Bhojpuri has kewʌl and ɦi at the nʌikʰe bʰʌ-il place as Hindi influence and matr as the Nepali neg.NP be-PP one. : 'Only Nepal has not experienced colonialism in the world.' 10) a. kewʌl tere kʌɦ-ne ki kewʌl toɦʌra kʌɦ-la ke c) taɽka ke mar-ʌl ram-e EMP 2.POSS say-PP PUR Tadka ACC kill-PP Ram- CLT se sʌmb ʌv rʌɦ-e deri ɦɛ (Hindi) ʰ INS possible live-PST deri ba (Bhojpuri) 'Tadka was only possible to be killed late be.3S.NPT by Ram.' 'Only you have to say.' The illustration 11(a–c) demonstrates clitic e being b. duniya mẽ nepal ɦī attached with nouns and verbs functions as duniya mẽ nepal ɦi exclusive emphatic marker. world LOC Nepal EMP
3.6 As a sequential converb ɡulam ɦua ɦɛ nʌɦī Sequential converb marker suffix in Bhojpuri is – (Hindi) ke in general. It is added in the verb-root to ɡ ulam nʌikʰe bʰʌ-il construct a sequential converb: (Bhojpuri) slave neg. NPT be-PP 12) a. k a-ke sut-i-ɦʌ 'Only Nepal has not experienced ʰ eat-SEQ sleep-IMP.MH colonialism in the world.' 'Sleep after meal.'
c) taɽka-lai mar-nu matrʌ b. iskul se a-ke k ʌ-i-ɦʌ taɽka ke mar-ʌl matr ʰ school SRC come- eat- Tadka ACC kill-PP EMP SEQ IMP.MH ram-baʈʌ sʌmbʰʌb tʰiyo 'Have your meal after having come (Nepali) from school.' ram se ʌɦ sʌmbʰʌo r -e (Bhojpuri) Besides, -ʌl, -il and -wʌl are the infinitive and Ram INS possible live-PST participle marker suffixes in Bhojpuri. But these 'Tadka was only possible to be 81 suffixes are again attached with clitic -e final to be c. u bʌjar se a-wʌte formed as -ʌle, -ile and -wʌle to construct he market SRC com-ISEQ sequential converbs in Bhojpuri. But ʌ simply omitted and w turns to o under cliticization: pʌr rʌɦ-ʌl lay live-PST.NH 13) a. ɦʌm bʌjar se am 'He fell ill immediately after having I market SRC mango come from market.' kin-le a-em buy- SEQ come-FUT Illustrations 13(a–c) and 14(a–c) demonstrate that 'I'll come having bought a mango clitic -e function as sequential converb marker from market.' combining with either participle or imperfective forms of verbs.
b. u ʌ se t ɡʰʌr-ɦi 3.7 As a simultaneous converb he PAR home-EMP SRC The perfective markers -ʌl, -il and -wʌl are ʌ a-il rʌɦ-e kʰ -ile followed by clitic -e to reshape them into eat- SEQ come- live- imperfective with -ʌle, -ile and -wʌle final with PP PST.NH verb-roots. Earlier, those imperfective verb 'He had already come having meal patterns have already been described as sequential from home only.' converbs:
c. ɦʌ ʌ ʌ se ɡʌ mni kary kr m -ole 15) a. babuji cor ke we program SRC sing- Father thief ACC SEQ pʌkʌɽ-le ʌ-ini bʌjʌ-ole a-wʌt rʌɦ-ni catch-SIM come-PST.H ring- SEQ come-IPRF live- 'Father came catching the thief.' PST 'We had been coming having sung b. tu kuʈum log ke and played music from programme.' you guest PL ADT rʌɦ ɡʌ-ilʌ Likewise, -t, -ʌt and –wʌt are imperfective marker bʌiʈʰʌ-ole suffixes in Bhojpuri. But they are followed by sit-SIM live go-2.PST.MH clitic -e to function as immediate sequential 'You remained letting the guests sit converbs in Bhojpuri: so long.' c. ɡʌya ɡʌya ɡʌ-il se 14) a. lʌika k a-te sut ɡʌ-il ʰ Gaya Gaya go-PST.NH CMP boy eat- sleep go- ɡʌ-ile rʌɦ ɡʌ-il ISEQ PST.NH 'The boy slept immediately after go-SIM live go-PST.NH meal.' 'Gaya went Gaya and continued living there.'
b. ɦʌm pani pi-te As already mentioned in 15(a– c), -t, -ʌt and -wʌt I water drink-ISEQ suffixes are generally imperfective markers but cʌl de-ni combined with clitic -e final are used as immediate walk give-PST sequential converbs: 'I walked immediately after drinking water.' 16) a. tu rasta mẽ ɦʌ̃s- jʌ-i-ɦe te 82
you way LOC laugh go- Bhojpuri verbs take -la, -le and -li suffixes in root -SIM IMP.NH following suffix -e. But to express habitual 'Go laughing on the way.' context, frequently in proverbs, the root ends with only clitic -e:
b. u rʌɦ-ʌl rat-bʰʌr kʰa-te 18) a. so-e se he night- eat-SIM live- kʰo-e whole PST.NH sleep-CLT CMP lose-CLT 'He went on eating whole night.' 'The one, who sleeps, loses.'
c. ɦʌmni ɡa-wʌte b. se pa-we rat-bʰʌr dʰa-we we night-whole sing-SIM follow-HAB CMP get-HAB rʌɦ-ni 'The one, who keeps following, wins.' live-PST c. ʌ se 'We went on sining whole night.' k r-e dʰʌr-e work-CLT CMP store-CLT As mentioned in 16(a–c), clitic -e functions as 'The one, who sows, reaps.' simultaneous converb marker with verbs in imperfective mood. d. de-l na kʰʌri kʰa-e 3.8 Purpose give-PP chalk NEG eat-CLT bɛla caʈ-e ja-e The general infinitive and past participle in kolʰ Bhojpuri are expressed with suffixes -il, -ʌl and - ox peeler lick- go-CLT wʌl in verb-root. But clitic e with verb root also INF.P expresses purpose infinitive: 'The ox goes to lick the peeler without eating the chalk.' (Lit.) 'Deny the meal, lick the plate.' 17) a. cʌl-ʌ kʰa-e walk-IMP.MH eat-CLT Clitic -e functions as habitual infinitive, being 'Let's go to have meal.' attached with verb-root in Bhojpuri, as illustrated in 18(a–d). Bhojpuri proverbs have such b. ʌɦ ɡʌ m es pʌɽʰ - e -il peculiarity. Mahesh read-CLT go-PP 3.10 Imperative ba be-3S.NPT.NH Generally the senior commands the junior one. But 'Mahesh has gone to read.' the close youngsters in Bhojpuri are commanded with non-honorificity by uising clitic e following
c. mai ɡʌ-il suffix -iɦ with the verb root: kʰia – we mother feed-INF.P go-PP 19) a. jʌ-iɦe ba-ɽi dʰire be-3.F.NPT.H slowly go-IMP.NH 'Mother has gone to feed.' 'You'll be going slowly.' 'Go slowly.' As mentioned in 17(a–c), clitic -e functions as purpose marker or uttaarka lik kriya as per traditional grammar, when attached with verb-root b) nimʌn se in Bhojpuri. But causative verb in infixed with -w bʌiʈʰ-iɦe before e as demonstrated in 17(c). good with sit-IMP.NH 'You'll be sitting well.' 3.9 As simple present marker 83
'Sit properly.' 1 first person 3 third person As mentioned in 19(a–b), clitic e with verb-root ACC accusative suffixed by –iɦ functions as imperative marker in ADT anti-dative Bhojpuri. CAU causative CLT clitic 3.11 Simple past CMP complementizer Clitic -e in Bhojpuri is also used to mark the DAT dative simple past tense: EMP emphatic EX exclusive 20) a. ego raja rʌɦ-e F feminine FUT Future one king live-3.SG.PST.NH 'Once upon a time there was a king.' GEN genitive H honorific
b. u sikar-e HAB habitual kʰel-e IMP imperative he prey-CLT play-3.SG.PST.NH INF infinitive 'He used to hunt only.' INS instrumental IPRF imperfective 4. Summary ISEQ immediate sequential converb Bhojpuri has a number of -e constructions that LOC locative look like suffixal. But -e in Bhojpuri is a clitic, not M masculine a suffix, as it meets typological tests Zwicky and MH mid-honorific Pullum (1983) and Zwicky (1985) have impirically NEG negative prescribed. Section 1 of this paper introduces with NH non-honorific properties of clitic with special reference to clitic - NPT non-past e in Bhojpuri. Section 2 discusses clitic vs. suffix PAR particle with tests formulated by Zwicky and Pullum PASS passive (1983) and Zwicky (1985) and -e in Bhojpuri has PL plural been tested. Section 3 has discussed functional POSS possessive perspectives of clitic -e in Bhojpuri. There are ten PP past participle types of functions explained in this paper, e. g., PRF perfective dative/anti-dative, instrumental and locative case PST past tense marker, reason marker, exclusive emphatic marker, PUR purpose sequential and simultaneous converb marker, S singular purpose marker, imperative marker, and simple SEQ sequential converb present and simple past tense marker. Its SIM simultaneous converb distribution is also high being attached with nouns, SRC source pronouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs, too. The last section summarizes the work. This paper has sited different contexts of Bhojpuri discourse, based on central Bhojpuri dialect of western Bara and Parsa districts in Nepal. From functional typological perspectives, this paper is an attempt to examine whether a single form can perform a number of functions. The facts and findings show that -e in Bhojpuri is a multifunctional clitic. References Abbreviations Ashka, Gopal, Gopal Thakur, Rakesh Singh, Mukunda Acharya & Sunil K. Adhikari. 2002. 84
Bhojpuri Class 9. Sanothini, Bhaktapur: Ministry of Education and Sports, Curriculum Development Centre. Ashka, Gopal, Gopal Thakur, Rakesh Singh, Mukunda Acharya and Sunil K. Adhikari 2003. Bhojpuri Class 10. Sanothini, Bhaktapur: Ministry of Education and Sports, Curriculum Development Centre. Lohar, Gopal Thakur. 2006. A sociolinguistic survey of the Bhojpuri language (in Nepal). Kathmandu: The Tribhuvan Unidversity dissertation. Sharma, Vishwambhar Kumar & Gopal Ashka. 2007. Bhojpuri Byakaran (Bhojpuri Grammar). Birganj: District Development Committee, Parsa. Shukla, Shaligram. 1981. Bhojpuri Grammar. Washington D. C.: Georgetown University. Yadav, Ramawatar. 1991. Clitic Versus Affix: Maithili e and o. Contribution to Nepalese Studies 18(2). 123-132. Zwicky, Arnold M. 1985. Clitics and Particles. Language 61(2). 283-305. Zwicky, Arnold M. & Pullum, Geoffery K. 1983. 'Cliticization vs. Inflection: English n't', Language 59(3). 502-513.
85
Participant tracking in Nepali sign language narrative Michael W Morgan
Story-tellers use the morpho-syntactic devices • For a storyteller o be successful in storytelling, available in the language to narrate the the audience must (minimally) be able to follow interaction of characters and events in such a way WHO did WHAT to WHOM; i.e. to track that their audience is able to track WHO did participants. (Tracking events is also important; WHAT to WHOM. This paper looks at participant however, in this paper we will focus only on tracking devices in narratives in a little-studied participants.) 1 language of Nepal: Nepali Sign Language. 2. Background on Nepali sign language 1. Introduction Although we can speak of Nepali Sign Language 1.1. Theory meets practice (hereafter abbreviate: NSL) as the national sign Documentation of a language can produce a very language of Nepal and the preferred language of thick reference grammar of 568 or so pages; the Deaf community in Nepal, it is in fact not used by all deaf2, nor is it the only sign language however, if it doesn’t talk about how things work 3 in actual discourse, it isn’t saying much about the in Nepal . Due to the central role played by language in question as it is actually used. After schools for the deaf in the acquisition of NSL by all, we all speak not in sentences – the favorite deaf children, the language is primarily used by topic both of reference grammars and so-called Deaf in Kathmandu, Pokhara, and other towns theoretical linguists. Rather, we speak in which have schools for deaf. discourse, a messy level of language analyzable While Ethnologue (Eppele, et all, 2012) gives the only in terms of 'units' of language both shorter number of “speakers” as 5,740 (following to the than the sentence, and also much longer than a 2001 census), in fact the number is either much single sentence. lower (if we limit the count to people who 1.2. Pre-theoretic axioms acquired NSL in a manner similar to how native speakers of spoken language acquire their In terms of discourse and how it is to be analyzed, language), or else much larger (if we include all we take as givens several axioms: members of the signing Deaf community). • Speakers of all languages love to tell stories. Ethnologue also states that “[m]ost are monolingual”. This, however, seems clearly not to • Storytellers have at their disposal whatever be the case – at least not if we stipulate that range of morpho-syntactic devices present in their bilingualism in Nepali does not have to be via the language to present the interaction of characters spoken mode, nor does it have to be full and and events.
2 The perceptive reader will have noted a distinction in 1 I would like to express my gratitude here to: Deaf in the preceding sentence between 'deaf' and 'Deaf'. Kathmandu and Pokhara who agreed to participate in Although in fact there are a number of complicating the first stages of the NSL corpus collection project, factors, both theoretical and practical, this usage to those who agreed to have their signing videoed and (common in discussions of sign language since the used in the corpus and in other studies such as this 1970s) distinguishes between persons who merely one, to Deaf students in India and Ethiopia who have have a medical condition (severe hearing loss) and allowed me to actively formulate many of the ideas those persons who can be said to belong to a contained herein and who provided feedback on those linguistic and cultural community, primary but not ideas, and so especially to Upendra Khanal, who fits sole criterion for membership into which is preferred into all three categories, and whose own narrative use of a sign language. Members of this latter group served as the source of the photos illustrating this are referred to by the capitalized 'Deaf'. paper. 3 In addition to NSL, Eppele, et al (2012) list three so- called village sign languages Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 86-94 balanced. Most Deaf, especially those who have only pidgin-like command of NSL, and others gone through Deaf schools – which are, after all, whose NSL signing is virtually indistinguishable one of two central foci of NSL acquisition and use from younger fluent, “native” signers5. This leads –, are at least somewhat bilingual in written one to assume (although there are no records of Nepali as well. The importance of this this period to corroborate) that the fluent, native- bilingualism for linguists studying NSL is the like signers among this cohort must have been influence spoken/written Nepali grammar and exposed to NSL during the period of language grammatical structures have on signing, giving acquisition. Thus there must have been an NSL, rise not only to a signed version of Nepali (called even if it was very different from what we now variously, but Signed Nepali), which, although know of as NSL, even before the founding of expressed manually/visually actually follows the schools for the deaf. 4 rules of Nepali and not of NSL. As for the second false belief, pace previous Two common (but probably false or “semi-false”) publications (Woodward 1993; Zeshan 2000) NSL beliefs about NSL are that it did not exist prior to is not clearly related to ISL (nor to Pakistani Sign the opening of schools for the deaf, and that it is Language, which Zeshan subsumes under a single either a dialect of or at least closely related to, Indo-Pakistani Sign Language). Although there is Indian Sign Language (ISL). clearly a sizable ISL element in NSL, most While NSL has indeed developed considerably (at probably they are borrowed, or else, some of it least with regard to the lexicon) over the past 30 anyway, part of a common South Asian gestural system which is one component of both years (since schools for the deaf started to use 6 sign language in instruction), if we look at signers languages. who were in the first cohorts of these schools, we see two extremes: one group who clearly have
4 Actually, although no studies of Signed Nepali have 3. Discourse referents and argument structure yet been published, analysis of examples in our Texts, as first discussed in detail by Halliday and corpus which have been analyzed show that Signed Hassan (1976), manifest coherence and cohesion. Nepali follows only some of the rules of spoken/written Nepali (notably word order rules and use of certain function words and case markers). 5 By 'virtually indistinguishable' I do not mean of Furthermore even these rules are followed course that age-related variation features are not inconsistently, resulting in what might more present; rather I mean that the overall morpho- accurately be called “Signed Broken Nepali”. syntactic complexity and other gross linguistic features of these older signers is every bit as fully Although it should be noted that the prime 'language-like' as third generation fluent signers. Also practitioners of this Signed Nepali are hearing signers note that the term “native” here has a somewhat (e.g. teachers of the deaf and NSL interpreters), Deaf different meaning than usual, since few deaf are born themselves, when confronted with non-fluent hearing into families with parents or elder family members signers and when in situations where Nepali is felt to who are fluent in NSL, and so almost all deaf acquire have more prestige (e.g. in schools classrooms), also NSL not from birth, but from “first contact” (which is use Signed Nepali, often sliding back and forth along usually when they are enrolled in a school for the a continuum between this Signed Nepali and a less deaf). bastardized NSL. While such signing has traditionally been included under the rubric of “code switching”, 6 Another possible scenario, which I think is less likely, to emphasize the fact that it is often not a simple is that if NSL was related to ISL at some point in the “either./or” situation but rather an adjustment of past, since that time there has been sufficient signing along a continuum moving closer to Signed vocabulary replacement, as well as restructuring that Nepali or closer to NSL, I have termed it – originally it is no longer appropriate to say that NSL and ISL in the context of Ethiopia and Ethiopian Sign belong to the same language or even to the same language but equally applicable to Nepal and NSL – language family (Morgan 2012). Strange though this “code sliding” (Morgan 2009), statement may seem, this is precisely what happens with creoles, and also with mixed languages. 87
That is to say, in layman’s terms, a good text For example, in the following short narrative (narrative, etc) must somehow fit together as a example, one and the same referent is encoded in whole (coherence) and also “flow” with one successive clauses in a number of different ways: sentence connecting to the next (cohesion). 2. Once upon a time there was a little girl. Her Restricting the focus to the topic of the present name was Goldilocks. She lived with her paper, this means that, in order to fulfill the grandmother, who had raised her since she was communicate functions of a narrative, the signer a baby. must minimally encode the argument(s) (= participants) of successive clauses in such a way One day Goldilocks went for a walk in the that it is possible (or indeed, if s/he be a good woods, and Ø came upon a little brick house. Ø storyteller, easy) for the addressee to follow what Overcome by curiosity like all little girls, she is happening, and always be able to know who is entered the house. There was nobody at home. doing what to whom. That is, the narrative must All bold-face words (and Øs) refer to the same be presented in such a way that allows for the referent (i.e. Goldilocks), and until the last various morpho-syntactic (and other) forms use sentence there is a continuity of focus on this by the narrator to be decoded in a correct and referent, and (again, until the final sentence) the meaningful way. grammatical subject – the center of focus – Much theoretical treatment of syntax acts as if it remain the same. Despite this continuity of focus and of grammatical subject, the manifestation of were indifferent whether a verb frame: GIVE(N1, 7 the focused referent changes from clause to N2,N3) is manifest as: clause, from indefinite noun phrase, to proper 9 1a. [SITA]1 gave [the BOW]2 [to RAMA]3. noun , to pronoun, back to proper noun, to a sequence of zeros, and finally back to a pronoun. 1b. [Jānaki]1 gave [the weapon]2 [to Lakshman’s brother]3. 4. Rules for participant encoding
1c. [That most loyal of all women]1 gave [Shiva It is assumed there are “rules” (albeit perhaps Dhanush]2 [to Lord Vishnu’s seventh Early somewhat flexible rules) which “govern” choice incarnation]3. of how referent NP “slots” are filled. It is assumed 1d. [SHE] gave [IT] [to HIM]3. that these “rules” function to aids the “listener” 1 2 track the various referents through the course of In (many approaches to) syntax we have simply: the narrative. It is further assumed that a number a. Each argument “slot” is an NP. b. There are of factors influence these “rules”: role in “NP Rewrite Rules”. c. Apply them. information structure, grammatical role, position on animacy scale, role in preceding text, role in In discourse however, and especially in narrative following text, etc. discourse, it is (usually) not indifferent whether, for example in English narrative, the NP in a Such rules have been proposed for a number of given clause is a) an indefinite noun , b) a definite languages, and within a variety of theoretical noun, c) a synonym, hyponym, etc,, d) a frameworks. For example, Poopatwiboon (1982) modified noun or noun phrase, e) a proper noun, presents a detailed list of participant reference f) a pronoun, or g) a “zero”.8 rules for Northern Khmer (spoken in Thailand).
7 Where N , N and N are the agent, patient and 1 2 3 exactly that (i.e. gesture occurring with speech), there recipient nominal arguments. is also the (theoretical) possibility that gesture 8 It should be pointed out that studies of spoken replaces speech and could be the sole manifestation language discourse have tended to look at written of an argument (different from zero). texts only, and even when they have ventured to non- 9 This presentation is a bit of a fudge of course, given written spoken texts, they have tended to ignore co- that in this clause the proper name is not the speech gesture as an option for manifesting sentence grammatical subject, but merely co-referential to it. arguments. Even if typically co-speech gesture is 88
One theory which has attempted to languages (as a base of reference) and in Nepali “mathematicized” the rules of participant Sign Language (and also other sign languages encoding is Centering Theory10. According to this which have been studied in this respect to date). theory, each sentence (or clause) has two 5. Outline of current research on NSL (potential) centers: a current center (in English – Data for the current study come from a parallel and Nepali – almost invariably the grammatical project which aims to develop a corpus of natural subject) which is the main/most important “focus” Nepali Sign Language discourse. Although the of the sentence, and a forward-looking center goal is to collect and analyze NSL discourse from a wide variety of genres, both monologic (such as (which is that argument from among the which is story-telling, personal narratives, lectures, etc) most likely to be picked up as the current center and dialogic (including “true” dialogue, but also 11 of the following sentence/clause. such things as interviews),, to date, only Regardless of the theory, and presumably also monologic narratives have begun to be collected. regardless of the language, tracking participants These are both personal narratives and also story involves: (re)-tellings. As only the last of these have begun to be analyzed, the data for the current study is •Introducing participants from this type of discourse, and so the •Maintaining focus on a given participant conclusions apply – until further types are also •Shifting focus from one participant to another analyzed and compared at least) – to this type of (and back) as events dictate narrative only. • Reintroducing a participant, or bringing focus Data collected to date have been from (both back onto a participant which had previously prelingually and postlingually) Deaf signers in gone out of focus Kathmandu Valley and Pokhara. For the narrative retellings serving as data for the current paper, Such shifts can be more or less expected, more or deaf informants in Kathmandu and Pokhara were less felicitous, more or less “smooth”. Various shown a 7 minute Tom and Jerry cartoon (episode morpho-syntactic and lexical devices are used to “The Brothers Carry-Mouse-Off”). After help make transitions/shifts as “easy” as possible watching it (as many times as they wanted) they In the section below, we will discuss some of were videoed retelling the cartoon (or as much as these morpho-syntactic devices, both in spoken they remembered) in NSL. The benefit of using such cartoons (and also 10 A bibliography of works on or works cartoons and movies produced in the era before applying Centering Theory would be quite long. For a “talkies”12) for sign language data collection is practical introduction one might profitably consult that they are fully accessible and fully any number of coherent short presentations of the comprehensible to Deaf as there is no spoken theory being applied to specific languages, such as dialogue, and general no or limited written text. (Di Eugenio 1998; Walker, Cote, and Iida 1994; Aroonmanakun 1997; and Turan 1998) where the As the corpus is still small and analysis still “a theory is applied to Italian, Japanese, Thai, and work in progress”, the aims of this paper are Turkish, respectively. illustrative rather than comprehensive. 11 While many of the concerns of Centering Theory are also addressed under the notion of “cohesion” in the early work of Halliday and Hassan 12 In addition to Tom and Jerry, which has been (1976), it should be noted that cohesion is a much the “stimulus” for narrative discourse collected for broader concept, including all instances of cohesion, NSL, silent movie era Felix The Cat cartoons have while Centering Theory focuses only on “centers” , been used by the author to collect narrative in Indian i.e. on cohesion of the grammatical subject/focus. In Sign Language (ISL) and Ethiopian Sign language addition, the raison d'être of Centering Theory is (YMSQ). Comparisons made at the end of this paper anaphora resolution. are based largely on an analysis of narrative in these two other sign languages. 89
6. Encoding discourse referents in NSL • (zero) narrative Starting our presentation from the more familiar Fig. 2: Potential mechanisms for coding territory of spoken-language, discourse, and participant referents in NSL discourse choosing a language familiar to all, in English verbal arguments (be they subject/current centers or other) can be manifest in a number of ways: In fact, in sign language discourse several of these may be articulated simultaneously14. To take an • full noun example from one of the narrative retellings, we see the following “bi-clausal” event (1a and 1b (including proper and common nouns, and form the first “clause, 2a-2c the second): also expanded nouns – i.e. noun phrases) 15 3. Lx FALL • pronouns HS CL:animal • zero Sp [window] Fig. 1: Potential mechanisms for coding RS [mouse] participant referents in English discourse EA 'whistle' Combined and translated into English this Full noun becomes: “And so Jerry (the mouse) whistled and If now we compare the list of potential ways then Tom (the cat) fell out the window” – produce participant referents can be manifest in signed by a rather complex interplay of coding narrative discourse, we find a much more mechanisms, but in fact containing a single complicated and longer list, shown in Figure 2: articulated lexical sign (i.e. FALL). Since what these various categories might look • noun like will be unfamiliar to most spoken-language (including: common noun or name signs, readers of this journal, photo examples illustrating the more important of them are provided here in modified noun, synonym, hyponym, etc) Figure 3: • pronoun (index point) Figure 3: examples of various participant coding mechanisms in NSL discourse • eye gaze indexing
• spatial indexing sign language, and also the beginnings of an understanding of how embodied action fits in the • agreement bigger picture, on the edge of (but within) parole. • classifier incorporation 14 It appears, in fact that certain verb types • embodied action13 (such as the verb LOOK-AT) are almost invariably accompanied by embodied action, that is, the signer himself also shift his facing and gaze, generally in the same direction as the manual Agent-to-Patient 13 We must be careful not to confuse this agreement direction (with the signer embodying the inclusion of embodied action as a fully legitimate agent referent), or else (less commonly it seems) mechanism within NSL with a return to the days embodying the patient (for example, looking away, when all sign language was viewed as 'mere' gesture when the patient is ignoring the gaze of the agent). and mime. And the careful distinction is possible 15 The various “tiers” here are: Lx = lexical because, now as opposed to 60 years ago, we have a sign, HS = hand-shape (classifier). Sp = spatial good understanding of the distinction between indexing, RS = role shift, and EA = embodied action. iconicity within language (having mostly cleared up Following accepted sign linguistic glossing practice, the misunderstanding of de Saussure's notion of words in small capitals represent lexical signs. arbitrariness), of the rule-ordered systemmaticity of 90
f. agreement (hand) and embodied action (signer's head), both = LOOK-AT
a. lexical noun = MOUSE b. pronoun
g. lexical sign BOX with spatial indexing and gaze = located at (signer's) left = BOX 7. Data Analysis Example As stated above, the purpose of this paper is not to provide a comprehensive summary analysis of participant tracking in , but rather to provide and introduction, and overview, and now finally, an c. classifier (hand on head) = MOUSE + example from actual NSL discourse. If we look at embodied action (facial expression) = CAT one of the videoed retellings, the initial eleven event “clauses” can be summarized as follows: 4a. [CM] [M] [M] [M] [CM] [MC] [M] [M] [M] [C] ... where each pair of square brackets represents an event “clause, and contains the participant(s) involved (either M for Jerry the mouse, or C for Tom the cat, or both, in the case of both are involved, e.g. as agent and patient, or in reciprocal action). Taking this same sequence and d. classifier (index finger) = MOUSE + embodied looking at how each participant is encoded, we action (gaze+facial expression) = CAT have the following: 4b. [LL] [L] [E] [E] [E] [L+CC] [GA] [E] [Ø] [C] [LE] ... where L indicates the participant is encoded by a lexical sign, C by a hand-shape classifier, A by agreement (marked in the verb), E by embodied action, G by gaze, Ø a zero (i.e. clause without any encoding of participant, e.g. a verb sign which shows neither agreement nor subject/patient incorporation) and combinations e. embodied action = LAYS-BACK-RELAXING of these in the case where a single event “clause is encoded in more than one way. Already from this very short segment of narrative we see a pattern emerging, from which several general rules can be formulated:
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Rule 1: when a participant is introduced the first However, of course, since NSL – as too other sign time, it is expressed as a lexical sign languages – seems16 to have a wider range of The first introduction in the given case, the first morpho-syntactic and other mechanisms at its “clause” is in fact the “title” of the narrative “Cat disposal for expressing and tracking participants. and Mouse story” As with other sign languages, the fact of this multitude of other devices available means that Rule 2: When there is a shift in focus to a lexical and/or pronominal referencing density different participant (i.e. back to a participant may be lower than in spoken languages. It also which had been introduced previously, but which means that many expected “zeros” may in fact be had gone “out of focus”), here too the participant filled by some of these other means (e.g. is expressed as a lexical sign. embodied action, or gaze). An example of this is seen in the last clause in the If, now we compare the tentative preliminary sequence above, where the shift in focus is from results from NSL narrative to narratives in other the mouse to the cat. sign languages we have looked at, it seems that Rule 3: where the focus is being maintained, perhaps a few of these devices (e.g. spatial participant is expressed non-lexically. indexing) are less common in NSL discourse than in other sign languages studied, and that lexical As for the possible non-lexical expressions, in the referencing density may be a bit more common given instance embodied action predominates, but than in other sign languages. But, of course, our we also see examples of gaze, agreement and analyzed corpus of NSL discourse is still small, classifier constructions. The fact that embodied and we these results may deviate slightly as we action predominates is perhaps, in the opinion of analyze more signers and more narratives – and of this researcher, a result of the sub-genre (action course as we start to look at other types of (less narrative), but also of the engaging style of the action-oriented) narratives and also at non- given narrator. Less skilled and less engaging narrative genres. narrators in the sample of narratives so far analyzed use embodied action significantly less Finally, some advice for spoken language frequently. linguists: What at first glance may seem to be a breaking of Depending on your theory of Language, you may this rule in the second clause above (with [M] chose to view some of the mechanisms used in being expressed lexically (as [L]), is however narrative as outside of the domain of the motivated by Rule 1. Although MOUSE appears Linguistic Semiotic, strictly defined. Traditionally, already to be in focus in the previous clause such ignored mechanisms included all the various where it was lexically-expressed, in that clause types of “gesture”. (the “title” of the narrative) the focus was on both For spoken language (which uses the aural-oral CAT and MOUSE taken together, and so this is not a channel for transmission and reception), manual case of the focus being maintained, but rather a and other gestures (which use the visual modality) shift from focus on M and C jointly (in the title) are easy to ignore, and to exclude from the field to focus on M alone (in the second clause ). of inquiry. However, viewed from the standpoint 8. Conclusion of sign languages, where language and “gesture” both occur in the visual modality, such hard and Even from the above short analysis we can in fact proffer several conclusions, tentative to be sure, but nonetheless likely to be worthy of 16 Here the qualifier “seems” is used consideration: intentionally, since some of the “seeming” is illusory, the result of the unnatural hard-and-fast distinction The rules adduced above from the NSL narrative made between language and gesture by most spoken- example coincide extremely well with those of language analysts, and the fact that they therefore Centering Theory, and with those adduced for a decide to exclude all consideration of gesture in their considerable number of other, spoken languages. analyses.
92 fast distinctions are much harder to make, and Education, vol. 9, ed. by Yoshiko Tamaru and harder still to justify. Thus, one lesson spoken- Donna Fujimoto. 53-68. Yamato-machi, language linguists should take home from studies Japan: International University of Japan. of the interplay of sign language and gesture in Morgan, Michael W. 2009. Complexities of deaf discourse is that, whatever a priori, Ethiopian Sign Language Contact Phenomena axiomatic theoretical stance you may take, & Implications for AAU. Paper presented at language and gesture are in fact clearly a part of a Language Contact and Interactions single, broader Communicative Semiotic, and thus Conference held at Alliance Éthio-Française, 9 gesture cannot be viewed as irrelevant to the April 2009. Abstracted at: French Centre for analysis of language, especially real language, as Ethiopian Studies, National Centre for it occurs in the context of communication.17 Scientific Research in France: References http://www.cfee.cnrs.fr/ and accessible at: http://www.academia.edu/ Aroonmanakun, Wirote (1997) Referent 1230482/Complexities_of_Ethiopian_Sign_La Resolution for Zero Pronouns in Thai. In nguage_Contact_Phenomena_and_Implication Southeast Asian Linguistics Studies In Honor s_for_AAU of Vichin Panupong. ed. by Arthur S. Morgan, Michael W. 2012. Through and Beyond Abramson. 11-24. Bangkok: Chulalongkorn the Lexicon: A Semiotic Look at Nepal Sign University Press. Language Affiliation. Paper presented at the Di Eugenio, Barbara. 1998. Centering in Italian. Twentieth Himalayan Languages Symposium. In Centering Theory in Discourse, ed. by M. Varanasi. A. Walker, A. K. Joshi, and E. F. Prince. Poopatwiboon, Somkiet. 1982. Participant Oxford: Oxford University Press. chapter 7, reference in Northern Khmer. Mon-Khmer 115-138. Studies 11. 115-27. Enfield, Nicholas. 2009. The Anatomy of Turan, Umit. 1998. Ranking forward-looking Meaning: Speech, gesture, and composite centers in Turkish: Universal and language- utterances. Cambridge Cambridge University specific properties. In Centering Theory in Press. Discourse. ed. by M. A. Walker, A. K. Joshi, Eppele, John W., M. Paul Lewis, Dan Raj Regmi, and E. F. Prince. Chapter 8, 139-160. Oxford: and Yogendra P. Yadava. 2012. Ethnologue Oxford University Press. Languages of Nepal. Kathmandu, Nepal: Walker, Marilyn; Cote, Sharon; and Iida Masayo. Linguistic Survey of Nepal and Central 1994. Japanese discourse and the process of Department of Linguistics, Tribhuvan centering, Computational Linguistics, 20/2: University. 193-232. Morgan, Michael W. 1998. Language and Gesture Woodward, James C. 1993. The relationship of in JSL Discourse: Interplay of Icon and Index. sign language varieties in India, Pakistan, and Working Papers on Language Acquisition and Nepal. Sign Language Studies 78: 15-22. Zeshan, Ulrike. 2000. Gebärdensprachen des 17 Although I am not sure when I started to refer to the Indischen Subkontinents. Ph.D. dissertation. Communicative Semiotic, my first published move in Munich: LINCOM Europa. this direction, and the first that indicated that the analysis of sign language discourse should cause all linguists to rethink what are generally the all too narrow limits we impose on the field of linguistics (e.g. a linguistics which excludes the study of gesture as it occurs with speech in narrative) is to be found in (Morgan 1998). One recent work which does a very good job arguing for such a rethinking for spoken languages is (Enfield 2009) which examines pointing gestures within Lao discourse.
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Negation: Evidences from the Dura language Kedar Bilash Nagila [email protected]
The Dura, one of the seriously endangered standard negation means a basic ways of a Tibeto-Burman languages spoken by the Dura language has for negating declarative verbal people in Lamjung in Gandaki zone in west Nepal clauses. In other words it refers to basic clausal has /mo/mapi/ muni/ /ta /markers to negativise negative construction(s) language. SN was sentences. referred to as the basic way (or ways) a language has for negating declarative verbal main clauses. 1. Introduction The term SN originates from Payne's (1985) well- Van Driem (2001: 811) has classified the Dura known article on the typology of negation; he language as West Himalayish Sub Group of the characterizes SN as follows: By ‘standard’ Tibeto-Burman group. Originally, the Dura negation, we understand that type of negation that people migrated from Purang of China to can apply to the most minimal and basic Karnali Valley and then moved to eastward of sentences. Such sentences are characteristically Nepal in the sixteenth century. The main clauses and consist of a single predicate autoglotynym of the language is the Tandrange with as few noun phrases and adverbial Kura and the hetroglotonym is Khamlyamkhulung modifiers as possible. With this trait as a guide, Kura ,PokhariThoke Bhasha. The number of the we can identify standard negation in more native speakers is decreasing to 2,156 (CBS 2010) complex sentences... (Payne 1985: 198 requoted from 5,169 (CBS 2001) in the population census from Miestamo1973:39) .The languages of the and is on the verge of extinct .The Gurung and world can have several negative constructions. Magar living in Pokhari Thok speak it in all Some of them can be analyzable as SN and some domains. Many researchers, scholars and linguists can’t. The above definition contains following (Bandhu 2001; Lewis 2009; Moseley 2007) have restrictions that determine the limits of SN: treated the Dura language as the extinct language verbal, declarative, main clause, productive, and but this researcher has been working on the Dura general. Let us first examine the distinction language for the last eight years and encountered between declaratives and non- declaratives. the fluent Gurung speakers of the language. Different negative constructions may be used Because of several sociolinguistic factors, Dura with different grammatical categories, and if one have adopted Gurung, Thapa, Rana, Gurung- is dealing with indicatives in each case there is Dura,Dura-Gurung Ale Magar as their surnames. no reason to say that one of the constructions is SN and the other ones are not. I would like to 2. Theoretical background illustrate this with clauses from the Dura This paper mainly describes and discusses on language. Later on, Pyane (2007:282) has stated negative markers and how clauses are negated that negative clauses usually occur in some and presents and reviews the effect of Nepali context of some presupposition, functioning to language in the Dura language. Negation means negate and counter –assert that presupposition. simply stating that proposition is not true. The notion of affirmative and negative is encoded Turning affirmative sentence into negative can in the world languages. The restriction is only on have many interesting effect on many level of clause negation. There are two negative markers languages. The semanticists tell us that the /mo/ma/mu/ in assertive and / ta / in imperative meaning of the various elements of sentences clause structure in the Dura language. There is no can be affected by negation and the pragmaticist agreement of number person and gender to the says negations are used differently in different verb while making negation in the clauses. The context. According to Miestamo (1973:1), the basic word order of the Dura language is SVO Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 95-99 and verb final language. Relatively, the word information about the location in time of the order is free and SVO does not seem to be event (or state) that the verb denotes. The canonical in this language. same assumption holds to be applicable in the case of the tense distinction in the Dura The propositions that stand for acceptance is language. known as affirmative and deny or prohibition are assumed as the negative proposition in the Dura 4. Negation and aspects language Aspect indicates temporal structures of an event, 3. Negation and tense i.e. the way in which the event occurs in time (on-going or completed, beginning, continuing or In traditional grammar negation denotes to ending). The most important aspectual distinction prohibition or deny in proposition. According to in natural language is perfective and imperfective. Bhat (1999:13), tense is inflectional markers of The following example (2a-d) illustrates the the verb for denoting the temporal location of negation process. event (or situation. Similarly, the notion of tense is related to time reference. In the Dura language 2. a. Ni mo- kHai there are two tenses contrast: past and non past. I NEG- come. Negation occurs in both past and non past tenses ‘I did not come.’ in the Dura language. I would like to exemplify it in the following sentences (1a-c). b. Ni mo-khai-du-mu I NEG-come-NPT (1) a. Ni bHaka mo-co-ba. ‘I was not coming ‘ I- rice- NEG-eat-NPT ‘I do not eat rice ’. c. Ni mo- kHai-du I NEG-come-NPT b. Ni katHa mo- cHi-da. ‘I have not come’ we -story-NEG-tell ‘We did not tell a story’. d. kHai-po-muni-una. I come-IDENT-COP-NEG-PT c. hejro-domo pau rHo-ba ‘I had not come’. they-PL- tomorrow -come-NPT ‘They will come tomorrow’. Notice that the two pairs of sentences (2a-d) and given above from above differ another in These sentences are taken from the text I have terms of aspectual distinction. The pair (2a-d) collected from the native speakers of the Dura denotes an ongoing event i.e. imperfective. The language though their surname is Gurung. The pair (3a-b) denotes a completed event i.e. example (1a) has non- past tense marker /ba/ in perfective aspect. While forming the sentence the verb /c#o / ‘eat’ and /mo/ is prefixed to verb (2a) the negative marker is prefixed to the verb to negativise in meaning. The sentence (1b) is in khai ‘come’ .The tense marker /da/is default or the past tense and the suffix/da/ is suffixed to the deleted .The sentence (2b)is formed negative verb, /cHi tell’. The negation is made prefixing the negative prefix to the verb and the prefixing the marker /mo/ to the verb in this tense marker - dumu which is the progressive sentence. Similarly, the sentence (c) tense marker in the Dura language is not demonstrates that the negation in the non past deleted . In the sentence (3a) the negation is made tense. The use of temporal adverbial pau prefixing the negative marker /mo/ to the verb. ‘tomorrow’ denotes the future action or future The perfect tense marker /du/ is not deleted while tense in the Dura language. Bhat (1999:35) has making the sentence negative. The sentence (3b) stated that temporal adverbials have the function is changed into negative inserting the negative of modifying the temporal character of the verb particle /muni /in the verb in which tens ,or rather that of providing additional distinction is shown by the auxiliary (copular) 96 verb /po / and aspect distinction is by the aspect c. k iu-na khai-ge suffix /una/ occurring with main verb khai House-Loc go-HOR ‘Let’s go to house’ 4. Negation in imperative mood The negative imperative clauses are formed by d. kiu-na ma-khai-ge adding one of the negative prefixes /mo/ and House-LOC NEG-go-HOR /ta / to the main verb. There is only one form of ‘Let’s not go to house’. second person pronouns in the Dura language. 6. Negation and copular and auxiliary verbs That is /no/ in both formal and informal or let’s very formal .Since the verb morphology According to Anderson(2006:30) the most basic illustrates that the presence of pronoun is and geographically widespread functions of optional. While forming the negative sentence auxiliaries verbs construction cross-linguistically the prefix /ta/ is prefixed to the verb. Let’s are to encode tense aspect and mood categories that subdivide first past and future then within consider the following demonstrations (3a-c). each categories there are various fine grained 3. a. m√He ta-kiu shades of remoteness and immediateness in Local wine NEG-drink particularly in past and future. There are two ‘Do not drink local wine’. copular verbs in the Dura language: The Dura language has two main copular verbs. They b. hui-so ta-kHai serve all existential. locational, attributive and he -COM NEG-Go possessive functional. Negation of the copular ‘Do not go with him.’ clauses is formed by the use of the negative particle /mapi/ and muni/.Let’s consider the c . tutu ta-khai following examples (5a-e). Down-NEG-GO ‘Do not go down’ 5. a. i kiu le This- house -IDENT-COP-NPT The examples (2a-c) show the negation in ‘This is a house’ Imperative mood in the Dura language. The negative marker /ta /is prefixed to the main verb b. i kiu mapi to make negative imperative clause. The negative This house NEG.NPT marker /ta/ does not occur in non -imperative ‘This is not a house’ contexts. c. Ni kiu-na po 5. Negation and hortative mood I house-LOC -EXIST-COP-NPT I am in the house’. The hortative suffix to the verb is < ge > in the Tandrange Dura language. It is mainly used to d. Ni kiu-na muni encourage the speakers or someone to action in I house-LOC NEG-NPT this language. Let’s consider the following ‘I am not in the house’. examples as in (5a- d).While forming negative sentences the negative prefix /mo/ is prefixed e. Ni kiu-na muni -una to the main verb as in (4a-d). I house-LOC NEG- PT ‘I was not in the house’. 4 a. hetto c#o-ge This- much -eat-HOR 6. Negative suffixes in conditional clauses ‘Let’s eat this much’ The conditional marker suffix is /cHise/ in the Dura language. The negative prefixes in the b. hetto mo-c#o-ge conditional clauses are conditioned by the tense This- much- NEG -eat-HOR they carry. Therefore, the conditional clause in Let’s not eat this much’. 97 the past tense even if it is hypothetical takes the symmetric i.e. a simple way of changing truth prefix
DuraSewaSamaj.2060.Dura Bhashako Sabdhakos (AGlossary of Dura language) Kathmandu: Dura Service Society Ghimire,Muktinath.1992/2049vs.DuraBhasako Bayakarantamk Swarup. (A Sketch Grammar of the Dura Language) Unp. Thesis, Tribhuvan University. Gurung, G.M. 1988. The process of identification and Change: The Dura of West Nepal, Kailash, a Journal of Himalayan Studies.1- 2.Kathmandu Kumar Rajesh.(eds.)2006. Negation and licensing of Negative Polarity Items in Hindi Syntax .New Work and London: Routledge Taylor and Francis group. Lester, P. and Zhou, F. 2001.“Negation in Qiang grammar", Linguistics of the Tibeto- Burman Area, vol. 24. 2, pp.189-203. Lewis,M.P.(ed.).2009.Ethnologue.SILinternationa l Dallas. Sixteenth edition. Martine,M.2003.Tamang.The Sino Tibetan languages, ed. RandayLa Polla, and Graham Thurguood, London and New York : Routledge Mosely, C. (ed.). 2007. Encyclopedia of the world’s endangered languages, London/New York: Routledge59-63, Payne, E. Thomas.2007. Describing Morphosyntax: A guide for Field linguist. Ninth edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Payne Thomas E. and David Weber (eds.) 2007. Perspective of Grammar Writing. Amsterdam,
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Person, number and gender system in Bodo Parijat Narzary
This paper deals with the features (i.e. person 2.1 Persons of Bodo pronoun number and gender) of the noun. It also aims to Bodo pronouns represent all the three persons. In explore and explain the forms and functions of Bodo the personal pronoun does not show any inflectional markers that contribute into making gender distinction. The pronoun of Bodo can be of noun morphology in Bodo. classified into six main classes, Personal Pronoun, 1 Introduction Demonstrative Pronoun, Interrogative Pronoun, Relative Pronoun, Reflexive Pronoun and The Bodo people are Sino-Tibetan origin of Possessive Pronoun.Given below is the table of Mongoloid group. They are one of the indigenous the pronoun in Bodo with respect to persons. ethno-linguistic groups of present north-eastern India who belong to Tibeto-Burman language 2.2 Personal pronouns family. Bodo spread in different parts of north- Table 1: The personal pronouns eastern India and in other parts of India as well as in the neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, Person Singular Plural st Nepal and Bhutan but majority of the population 1 Aŋ (I) zəŋ (we) is in Assam. But the Bodo people from these 2nd nəŋ (you) nəŋsər (you Pl) countries gather once a year in India during the nəNthAN (you hon) nəNthANmən (you Pl Hon) Bathou festival, a religious festival of the Bodos. 3rd biyə(s/he) bisər (they) bithAN (s/he Hon) bithANm↔n (they Hon) 2 Person The category of person in linguistics is used to Honorific is addressed to someone elderly based mark some kind of deictic reference for the on formality, social distance, or someone who participants in an event. These participants are holds a high position or rank in government known as the speaker, the listener and the services or jobs. person/thing being talked about by the speaker Table 2 shows the different grammatical functions and listener. In other words, these participants are of the pronouns in Bodo: a must in every possible linguistic event. Grammar labels these participants as 1st person, Table 2: Different functions of the pronouns 2nd person and 3rd person respectively. Subject Direct Obj Indirect Possessive/ It is, however, interesting to explain the roles of Pronoun Pronoun Obj Genitive these participants in a slightly different context. Pronoun Pronoun h Imagine, someone is reading a book, let us say Aŋ (I) ANk əu Aŋnə(me) Aŋni (my) GBT (Government and Binding Theory), and the (me) topic s/he is reading is ‘Case filter’. How should nəŋ nəŋkhəu nəŋnə nəŋni (your) we put the aforementioned deictic pronominal (you) (you) (you) participants in place in this context? The biyə bikhəu binə bini explanation should come as, Liliane Haegeman is (s/he) (her/him) (her/him) (her/his) the first person (author) and someone (the reader) zəŋ (we) zəŋkh↔u zəŋnə (us) zəŋni (our) is the second person and ‘Case filter (the topic) is (us) the third person.The above mentioned h categorization or classification of person seems to nəŋsər nəŋsərk əu nəŋsərnə nəŋsərni be relevant in Bodo also. Similarly deictic (you pl) (you pl) (you pl) (yours pl) reference for participants in different speech bisər bisərkhəu bisərnə bisərni events gives different personal pronominal terms. (they) (them) (them) (their)
Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 100-108 2.3 Demonstrative pronouns pronoun according to human and non-human. The table 4 shows it. The demonstrative pronouns indicate something which is close to the speaker, or probably Table 4: ‘This’ and ‘that’ something which is in the hand of the speaker, or Singular Plural something which the speaker can touch or show from a distant. Examples bi (this) bis´r(these) +human bepH´r(these) –human (a). This is a book. b´i (that) b´is´r(those) +human (b). These are my books. b´ipH´r(those) –human Both the sentences indicate something which is 2.4 Interrogative pronouns close to the speaker. Example (a) is used for singular and example (b) for plural. Same goes In Bodo, interrogative pronoun is formed by for the demonstrative pronoun /that/ and /those/. question markers which follow the pronouns. The only difference is /that/ is for singular and the Interrogative pronouns are used to ask questions. later for plural. So, it represents the thing that one does not know. The common interrogative pronouns are who, Table 3: The demonstrative pronouns whom, what and which. Also the possessive Demonstrative Meaning Deictic reference pronoun whose can also be an interrogative in Bodo possessive pronoun. List of interrogative pronouns are shown below. e This Indicates what is b Table 5: The interrogative pronouns near the speaker Subject Object b´i That Indicates what is Person Who Whom far from the speaker Thing What Person/thing Which bes´r These Indicates what is Person Whose Possessive near the speaker The examples 1(a) and 1(b) make it clearer. The b is r Those Indicates what is far ´ ´ noun phrase that the interrogative pronoun from the speaker represents is shown in bold. beAç Here Indicates what is 1.(a) pçrAisAli-kH´u s´r nAgAr-k´? near the speaker school-Acc who.QM leave-Pst (Int) ‘Who left the school?’ b i There Indicates what is far ´ Aç (b) s r p r is li-k u n g r-k ? from the speaker ´ ç A A H´ A A ´ who-QM school-Acc leave-Pst (Int) ‘Who left the school?’ be This Indicates what is one’s near the speaker The above interrogative pronoun serves as the subject interrogative pronoun. Here 1(a) serves as b´i That Indicates what is far a question for interrogative pronoun ‘who’. Both one’s from the speaker 1(a) and (b) are grammatically correct.
2.(a) s´r-nAç s´N-n´? From the above table, in Bodo we can see that whom-QM-Poss(-animate) ask-Dat there is no difference between ‘this’ and ‘this ‘Whom to ask?’ one’. And the same goes for ‘that’ and ‘that one’. (b) However there is a difference in demonstrative s´N-n´ s´r-nAç ask-Dat whom-QM-Poss(-animate) 101
‘Whom to ask?’ The examples 5(a) and (b) are also the interrogative question and answer to it. It takes (c) hAtHAi-Aç s´r-kH´u nu-Am´n? market-Loc whom-Acc see-Pst the position of subject. ‘Whom did you see in the market?’ 6. (a) bçbe pH´i-gr´A? dAçd´i nA dAç? Which come-first egg or chicken (d) AN bi-kH´u hAtHAi-Aç nu-d´Nm´n I- him- market- see-Pst ‘Which came first? Egg or the chicken? S Acc Loc In 6(a), the interrogative pronoun which acts as a ‘I saw him in the market.’ subject whereas 6(c) the interrogative pronoun Here 2(a) is a grammatical question and it cannot /bçbe/, when suffixed with /-z´N/ is understood be switched as in 1(a) and (b) for 2(b) is an easily that an instrument is required even without ungrammatical question marker. The interrogative adding the word hammer as in 6 (b). pronoun ‘whom’ in Bodo always stays as an (b) biy´ bçbe? hAturA- de- lug´i- object. Examples 2(c) and (d) works as the object z´N n´ d´N? interrogative pronoun. s/he Which Hammer- hit- Want Inst Abl 3.(a) n´N s´r-n´ h´-d´Nm´n? ‘By which hammer does she wants to hit’ you- whom-QM-Dat give-Pst 2S (c) bçbe? -z´N ‘To whom you gave’? Which Inst ‘By which’. (b) AN niz´m-n´ h´-bAi I-1S nizwm-Dat give-Pst (d) biy´ jitA-ni hAturA-z´N de- lug´i-´ n ‘I gave to Nizwm’. ´ s/he Jita- hammer-Inst hit- want- Gen Abl Pres The above interrogative pronoun ‘nizwm-n´’ is ‘She wants to hit with Jita’s hammer’ the position of indirect object which has been questioned and thus it functions as the indirect The pronoun when it occurs with the possessive interrogative pronoun. The past marker / h - marker, indicate possessive question, indicating to ´ whom the person or object referred to, belongs. d´Nm´n/ can also be said as /h´-A/ or /h´-kH´/ in Example 7(a) proofs that: the spoken form. 7.(a) biy´ s´r-ni pHisAz´ 4.(a) n´N mA kAlAm(gAsin´)-d´N? she whose daughter you-2S what-QM do-Pres.PROG. ‘Whose daughter is she?’ ‘What are you doing?’ 2.5 Relative pronouns (b) AN kçntHAi lir-gAsin´-dçN I-1S poem The relative pronoun ‘who’ and ‘that’ in Bodo has write-Pres.PROG. the same morpheme if Bodo grammar is ‘I am writing a poem’. described in terms of English grammar.Here in Example 4(a) and (b) are the examples of the sentences below, the nominative marker interrogative pronoun ‘what’, ‘kçntHAi’ shows occurs with adjective. So in Bodo relative that it is marked as an object to its corresponding pronoun, the adjective takes the nominative case question ‘what’. marker /-A/ or /-yA/. But in the sentence number 8(b), when the relative pronoun ‘who’ is removed 5.(a) mA zAzen-kH´? the nominative marker is removed from adjective what-QM start-Pst (Int) and is suffixed to noun. ‘What’s started?’
(b) sinemA-yA zAzen-bAi cinema – Nom start-Pst ‘Cinema started’. 102
8.(a) b´is´ gçtHç zAi- somAina bin gçtHç 10(a) z´N gAçkH´un´ çn-´ r -pH´r pH´ -yA i -pH´r we-1Pl ourselves love-Pres r Dem child Rel beautiful His child ‘We love ourselves.’ -Pl -Pl -Nom -Pl (b) z´N z´NkH´un´ çn-´ ‘Those children who are beautiful are his we-1Pl ourselves love-Pres children’ ‘We love ourselves.’ (b) b is r n i-n - g t - ini g t - ´ ´ A ´ ç Hç b ç Hç The same goes for the free morpheme ourselves m z p r- p r ´ AN H´ A H´ /z k un /, it is used mostly in the spoken form Dem look-Dat- child-Pl- His child-Pl ´N H´ ´ good Nom rather than in writings. Both /z´NkH´un´/ and ‘Those beautiful children are his children’ /gAukH´une/ are acceptable. (c) z i subu - t b undu- t b sik r- A N HA HA A ´ 11.(a) n´N n´NkH´un AinA- nu-d´N p r- y´-A H´ A ´ iAç Rel people- early sleep- early wake- you-2S yourself mirror- see-Pst Pl Pres Pres Loc ‘People who sleeps early wakes up early’. ‘You saw yourself in the mirror.’ (d) bizAb zAi-hA muN dçN (b) n gk un in - nu- book Rel-Poss name have ´N Aç H´ A A d ‘The book that has a name’. ´ iAç ´N you-2S yourself mirror- see- 2.6 Reflexive pronouns Loc Pst Reflexive pronoun is used in grammatical ‘You saw yourself in the mirror.’ description to refer to a construction where the (c) n´Nser n´Ns´rkH´un´ AinA- nu- subject and the object relate to the same entity. iAç d´ Table 6: The reflexive pronouns N you- yourselves mirror- see Singular Plural 2Pl Loc - k un /g Myself z k un / Ourselv Pst AN H´ ´ Aç ´N H´ ´ ‘You saw yourselves in the mirror.’ kH´un´ gAçkH´un´ es n´NkH´un´/ Yourself n´Ns´rkH´un Yoursel (d) n´Nse gAçs´rkH´un´ AinA- nu- d gAçkH´un´ ´/gAçser ves r iAç ´N kH´un´ you- yourselves mirror- see- gAçkH´un´ himself/hers gAçs´rkH´un Themse 2Pl Loc Pst elf ´ lves ‘You saw yourselves in the mirror.’ The same rule goes for 2nd person as in the 1st 9.(a) a k un n- AN N H´ ´ ç ´ person. The only difference is /-s r-/ has to be I-1S Myself love-Pres ´ infixed in between /gAçkH´un´/ for the plurality ‘I love myself.’ of ‘yourselves’, for there is no plurality of ourselves in the 1st person plural. It is simply (b) AN gAukH´un´ çn-´ I-1S Myself love-Pres marked /gAçkH´un´/ which is used for all the ‘I love myself.’ singular reflexive pronouns. The morpheme /gAukH´un´/ or /ANkH´un´/ is 12.(a) biy´ gAçkH´un´ AinA-iAç nu-´ used when the 1st person singular acts on itself. he-3S himself mirror- see- The morpheme/g uk un / is mostly used in the Loc Pres A H´ ´ ‘He sees himself in the mirror.’ written standard in Bodo, whereas /ANkH´un´/ is equally correct but is used mostly in the spoken form. 103
3.1 Binary number system in Bodo (b) bis´r-´ gAçs´r AinA-iAç nu- kH´un´ d´N Number in Bodo is distinguished into singular they- themselves mirror- see- and plural only. Plural is expressed by different Nom Loc Pst suffixes such as /-m´n/ and /-pH´r/. There is ‘They saw themselves in the mirror.’ nothing like dual number in Bodo. The singular For 3rd person singular an plural we have only two forms of nouns are always identical with the forms both in the standard spoken and writing corresponding root lexical forms. Bodo has a form in Bodo. That is /gAçkH´un´/ for device of referring to groups of ‘two’, which generally go as pairs. For example, /d tu z r - ‘himself/herself’ and /gAçs´r kH´un´/ for Aç ç A ‘themselves’. se/ which means a pair of dove. So as in a pair of betel nut /gçi zçrA-se/. But for a pair of horse it is From the examples above from 9-12 we can see /gçrAi hAli-se/. But these forms cannot be that the marker /-g uk un / is used when a A H´ ´ considered as dual number or classifiers though person or thing acts on itself. It is one of the Bodo has numeral classifiers. Here they are common markers for self. examples of quantification of the objects ‘bird’ 2.8 Possessive pronouns and ‘cow’, which has been called in this paper as ‘binary number system’. A possessive pronoun indicates that the pronoun is acting as the marker of possession and defines 3.2 Plural morphemes who owns a particular object or person. The Bodo inflects the plural forms of nouns by adding possessive pronoun in Bodo is morphologically plural bound morpheme /-pH↔r/ to the noun. For indicated by the genitive marker /ni/ following the example: personal pronouns.
Table 7: The possessive pronouns Singular Plural
st 1 S. Poss. /ANni/ ‘my’ 13(a) gçtHç ‘child’ gçtHç-pH↔r ‘children’ st (b) m nsi ‘man’ m nsi-p ↔r ‘men’ 1 Pl. Poss. /z´Nni/ ‘our’ A A H nd (c) rAiz´ ‘society’ rAiz´-pH↔r ‘societies’ 2 S. Poss /n´Nni/ ‘your ’ (d) hAluA ‘farmer’ h lu - p ↔r ‘farmers’ nd A A H 2 S. (Hon) Poss /n´NtHANni/ ‘your’ Besides, /-ph↔r/ Bodo has different plural 2ndPL. Poss /n s rni/ ‘your’ ´N ´ marker for kinship terms. For example: 3rdS. Poss /bini/ ‘his/her’ rd Singular Plural 3 S. (Hon) Poss /bitHANni/ ‘his/her’ rd 14.(a) AdA ‘brother’ AdA- ‘brothers’ 3 Pl. Poss /bis´rni/ ‘their’ m↔n rd 3 Pl. (Hon) Poss /bitHANm´nni/ ‘his/her’ (b) Abç ‘elder sister’ Abç- ‘elder m↔n sisters’ 3 Number (c) Ag↔i ‘younger Ag↔i- ‘younger Bodo has a morphological number. Number can sister’ m↔n sisters’ be classified as single, dual and plural. Many (d) ApHA ‘father’ ApHA- ‘fathers’ languages including Sanskrit show three systems m↔n of number i.e. Single, Dual and Plural. However, From the examples of 14(a) to 14(d), we can most of the modern languages do not have the explain that [-m↔n] and [-p ↔r] are the plural dual number as a grammatical category. For H example, English is one of the languages where morphemes in Bodo where each of these bound the number is distinguished between singular and morphemes occurs with human nouns, non- plural with several strategies to form the plurals. human nouns and pronouns the markers. [-m↔n] 104 is usually used with humans, specifically for raise a question marker with /mAmA/. If more kinship terms.[-pH↔r] is used with humans. than one person is present, the questioner will ask with the plural marker /s rs r/. And so it for 3.3 Plurality on collective nouns ´ ´ /bçbebçbe/. However, some nouns do not have suffixes to be marked as plural, such as mass nouns or 17. Singular Plural English collective noun. Therefore in such cases many, (a) mA mAmA what lots etc. can be added to the noun to show the (b) s´r s´rs´r who number. For example: (c) bçb´ bçb´bçb´ which (d) pHAi pHAipHAi where 4 Gender English Bodo Gender is a grammatical category, a category of words having the same grammatical properties, 15.(a) A hive of bees tubur-se bere feminine, masculine and neuter. According to group-one bee thesaurus a grammatical category in inflected languages governing the agreement between (b) A troop of dancer hAnzA-se m´sAgrA nouns and pronouns and adjectives; in some languages it is quite arbitrary but in Indo- group-one dancer European languages it is usually based on sex or animateness. Feminine gender is that which refers (c) A herd of cattle pAl´-se m´s´u chiefly (but not exclusively) to females or to
group-one cow objects classified as female. Masculine gender is that which refers chiefly (but not exclusively) to 3.4 Plurality in reduplication males or to objects classified as male. Neuter gender is a gender that refers chiefly (but not In Bodo we have reduplicated words. Most of exclusively) to inanimate objects (neither them are adjectives and we can have pluralisation masculine nor feminine). by reduplication. In such cases there is no need of adding plural suffix to the head noun. The However, languages use an arbitrary means in adjectives are pluralised through the process of determining the gender of the objects (noun). In reduplication. For example: other words, if a language has a grammatical category it requires every noun to be either REDUPLICATED ADJECTIVES +NOUN masculine or feminine. For example, in Hindi, we 16.(a) m↔zAN m↔zAN nç ‘good houses’ have ‘mez’, ‘table’ which is told to be masculine, good good house however ‘kurshi’, ‘chair’ is feminine. The basis of this type of gender classification in Hindi and (b) g↔dAn g↔dAn gçslA ‘new clothes’ many other languages is mostly arbitrary. new new cloth The linguistic notion of the natural gender is However, the reduplicated adjectives can follow distinguished in almost every language on the the noun to indicate plurality. Even if the noun basis of the biological differences of gender. precedes the reduplicated adjective, it would not However, we can also observe that languages change the meaning. which have gender as the basis means to differentiate the gender of noun, they use ± 3.5 Plurality on interrogative pronoun human, or ± animacy to mark masculine, The plurality on interrogative is used when a feminine and neuter. So, a neuter gender is person wants to get more than one thing. If more generally the gender of inanimate things in that than one object is present in the room one will language. It is also observed that these two
105 parameters of gender distinctions interact closely Masculine Feminine with each other in many languages. 20. (a) n´mpA ‘your father’ n´mA ‘your mother’ Some of the language which belongs to (b) n´mb↔u ‘your n´mb↔i ‘your grammatical category visualizes every noun as grandfather’ grandmother’ masculine or feminine and other word classes (c) n´mtH↔i ‘your n´mAd↔i ‘your such as adjectives and verbs are also made to uncle’ aunty’ agree along with the subject and object nouns to (d) n´mAyçN ‘your n´mAyçN ‘your show the gender agreement. In Bodo, gender is of uncle’ aunty’ natural type which shows the difference between (e) n´NdA ‘your elder n´mbç ‘your elder feminine and masculine. However, some sporadic brother’ sister’ marking of gender on the basis of biological The above terms of reference is right but does not differences is given to some set of nouns. sound so polite. So people used you+genitive+ 4.1 Derivation of feminine forms by suffixation terms of address to sound more polite. The terms of reference for pronoun ‘s/he’ is Bodo employs feminine suffixation to nouns shown in the table 8. which r mostly masculine as can be seen in the data 18 (a) to 18 (d) where the feminine bound Table 8: The terms of reference for pronoun ‘s/he morpheme is /-i/ and in some rare cases its /-u/. Masculine Feminine For example: 21.(a) bipA ‘his/her bimA ‘his/her mother’ Masculine Feminine English father’ 18. (a) beŋgA beŋgi deaf (b) bidA ‘his/her elder bibç ‘his/her elder (b) tçgAisula tçgAisuli liar brother’ sister’ (c) balçndA balçndi widower/ widow (c) bib↔u ‘his/her bib↔i ‘his/her grandfather’ grandmother’ (d) hAitA hAitu/gAide short people (d) bihAç ‘his/her bikunz↔ ‘his/her The male female contrast of + human nouns is father-in-law’ mother-in-law’ denoted by means of suppletion. Against some (e) bikth↔i ‘his/her bimAd↔i ‘his/her words referring to masculine gender there are uncle’ aunty’ corresponding lexical items referring to feminine. (f) bimAi ‘his/her biman´i ‘his/her aunty’ For example: uncle’ Masculine Feminine nd In case of reference for the 3 person /n´-/ is 19.(a) ApA ‘father’ Ai ‘mother’ replaced with /bi-/. (b) d ‘elder bother’ b ‘elder sister A A A ç Terms of Address (c) phçNbAi ‘younger binAnAç ‘younger Masculine Feminine brother’ sister’ (d) pis l ‘son’ pis z↔ ‘daughter’ A A A 22.(a) ApA ‘father’ Ai ‘mother’ (e) h↔uw ‘male’ hinz ‘female’ A Aç (b) Ab↔u ‘grandfather’ Ab↔i ‘grandmother’ 4.2 Gender of kinship term (c) Ad↔i ‘uncle’ mAd↔i ‘aunty’ (d) AmAi ‘uncle’ An↔i ‘aunty’ In Bodo kinship terms could be viewed from two (e) y ‘uncle’ y ‘aunty’ angles that are terms of address and terms of A çN A çN (f) d ‘elder brother’ b ‘elder sister’ reference. A A A ç Terms of Reference Here the interesting part is there is no gender for great grandfather and great grandmother. And The terms of reference for pronoun ‘you’. For also for father’s elder brother and his wife, and example: for mother’s elder sister and her husband, all of
106 them being addressed as /AyçN/. If one wants to know the exact reference then one has to suffix 26.(a) bçkHAli ‘baby sitter’ male or female after the morpheme /AyçN/ like (b) tHçNAli ‘naughty girl’ (c) dumg ri ‘spinster’ /AyçNhinzAç/ for aunty and /AyçN h↔uwA/ for A A uncle. 5. Summary In case of comparison between terms of address Bodo seems to have deictic reference for and reference, one might feel that /-i/, /-pA/, /-dA/, participants in different speech events where it /-bç/, /-b´u/, /-b´i/, /-d´i/, /-mAi/, /-n´i/, and /- gives different personal pronominal yçN/ are the root words of mother, father, brother, terms.Number as a grammatical category is sister, grandmother, grandfather, uncle and aunty. relevant only to the numeral difference of nouns But without the affixation of /n -/, /bi-/ and / -/ it and pronouns in Bodo. The notion of masculine ´ A and feminine in Bodo does not have any is not meaningful, meaning it would be some grammatical agreement. One need not know the other terms. gender of the noun to use them in the sentence In Bodo, affixation plays an important role. In structure. some cases by affixing some morphemes to the Abbreviations common noun, masculine and feminine genders of that class (common noun) can be distinguished. 1 First Person For example: 2 Second Person 3 Third Person s↔im ‘dog’ 23.(a) A Abl Ablative s↔imAbANgrA ‘male dog’ Acc Accusative s↔imAbANgri ‘female dog’ Dat Dative (b) çmA ‘pig’ Hon Honorific çmAbundA ‘male pig’ Inst Instrument Int Interrogative çmAbundi ‘female pig’ Loc Locative (c) b´rmA ‘goat’ Nom Nominative b rm ph nth ‘male goat’ ´ A A A Pl Plural b rm ph nti ‘female goat’ ´ A A Poss Possession In Bodo, we can also have some common gender. Pres Present This common gender does not uniquely represent PROG Progressive masculine or feminine including human nouns Pst Past and adjectives. For example: QM Question Marker Rel Relative pronoun 24.(a) zAçzA (twins) S Singular (b) bigumA (owner) (c) mAçriA (orphan) References However, in Bodo we also have a unique Blake, Barry J. 2001. Case (2nd edition). masculine gender which has no corresponding Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. females. For example: Bordoloi, B. N. 1987. Tribes of Assam Part-I. Tribal Research Institute, Guwahati, Assam. 25 (a) kHAsi ‘castrated male animal’ Corbett, G. 1991. Gender. Cambridge: Cambridge (b) lAçkHAr ‘cow boy’ (c) b d ri ‘wood cutter’ University Press. A A Corbett, G. 2000. Number. Cambridge: Similarly Bodo also has certain unique forms for Cambridge University Press. female like the unique masculine. For example:
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Das, P. K. 2012. Bhojpuri Grammar, Muenchen: Lincoln Europa (in press). Grierson, G.A. 1903. Linguistic Survey of India,TibetoBurman family, Bodo-Naga and KachinGroups.Vol.III, Part-II. Delhi: Low Price Publication. Narzary, P. 2012. Noun Morphology of Bodo, M.Phil Dissertation, Delhi University. Siewierska, A. 2004.Person. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Exploring strategies for translation of onomatopoeic words: A case of Muglan Nabaraj Neupane
The present article aims at exploring Written by a prolific writer and a professor of onomatopoeic words in Muglān and the English and translated by the collaboration of the strategies applied in translating them. Eighty- author himself with a university teacher, eight cases of onomatopoeic words are Lekhnath S Pathak, Muglān is a Diaspora fiction, extracted from the novel and ten strategies are which is capable of depicting plight of rustic and found, namely, borrowing, cultural substitution, hapless Nepali youths, Thule and Sutār, at home omission, explicative paraphrases, using verbs, and abroad (Neupane, 2013). It realistically nouns, adverbs, adjectives, idioms and portrays how Nepalese wild flowers wither into combination of the words. the swamp of material prosperity. However, the author seems optimistic and writes, "I alone know 1 Introduction that one day Sutār will return and the tale will end In everyday communication, onomatopoeic words with a victory" (Bhattarai, 2012, p. 168). Since frequently occur. In the context of Nepali the novel is based on meek and rustic youths' life language, they are widely used in communication, there is excessive use of onomatopoeia and the literary texts, child language, advertisement and translator/author is from the same background, pop culture (Chapagain, 1994, & Adhikari, 2010). which justifies the rationale of the selection. The abundant use of onomatopoeia in Nepali Based on the aforementioned context, the present poses problems to its learners, foreigners, article aims at: (a) exploring onomatopoeia in the translators, teachers and all the concerned Nepali novel Muglān, and (b) appraising the scholars. Pedagogically, the study of strategies used for translating onomatopoeia in the onomatopoeia is of great help and value to the translated version. vocabulary learning as onomatopoeia shares a good deal of vocabulary store in Nepali. 2 Review of related literature and theoretical Likewise, they are problematic in the context of a framework linguistic theory of arbitrariness, which claims Onomatopoeia is the sound or combination of that there is not direct link between sound and sounds in a word which imitates or suggests what meaning. On the contrary, onomatopoeia suggests the word refers to. For example, 'meow' suggests that sound and meaning are closely associated. that it refers to the sound of a cat. It also denotes For example, 'crow' is a sound, which signifies to the use of word that sounds similar to the noise the sound of a bird 'crow'; 'thud' is a sound, which described. In Crystal's (2003) words, implies the sound produced when a book is onomatopoeia, also called sound symbolism, is thrown onto the ground. polysemic, generally reduplicative and is Nepali has a huge store of onomatopoeia but classified into two: (a) sound imitation, and (b) English has a small store of it (Adhikari, 2010, & manner imitation. The former refers to the Sugahara, 2010). In this context, the study of the physical, audible noises, related to the actions or translated work from Nepali to English is really movements of people, animals and things. The significant and justifiable. latter shows feelings and figurative expressions about objects and natural surroundings and in it Onomatopoeic words are profusely used in sound plays no any role. For example, rattle, literary works, especially in novels to present a tinkle, rustle, among others indicate audible vivid image of the events. They are primarily noises and therefore they are instances of sound used to show colloquialism and reality of imitation but twinkle, grin, shriek, among others happenings. Out of many Nepali novels, I have indicate only physical states but not sounds and found Muglān an exemplary novel of such words. so, they are instances of manner imitation. Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 109‐116 Therefore, onomatopoeia is a word to incorporate speed and inanimate beings. Therefore, both sound and manner imitation. However, onomatopoeic words relate sounds with meaning. Chiarantano (2006) has asserted that Regarding the derivation of the term 'anukaran'̣ onomatopoeic words mimic the sound they (onomatopoeia), Chapagain (1994) has written represent and the sound of the word imitates the that it is derived from Sanskrit root 'kri/kr'̣ by object makes. They signify the signifiers and are adding 'anu' prefix and 'lyut' suffix. Therefore, associated to the object they describe. For 'anukaraṇ' includes imitation of any object, example, meow (cat's sound), quack (duck's thought or work. It not only incorporates sounds sound), hiss (snake's sound), thud (sound produced by objects or movements but also produced when a book hits the ground), click sensual feelings of qualities of animate or (sound of light switch), and so on. This list shows inanimate beings. He further mentions that Vedic that onomatopoeic words are used as nouns or and Laukik Sanskrit are the sources of Nepali verbs. The main difference between Crystal onomatopoeic words. Although such words are (2003) and Chiarantano (2006) is that the former oral in nature and they belong to the oral tradition, includes two types of onomatopoeia (i.e. sound one has to depend only on the written source. and manner) but the latter excludes manner Therefore, Rigveda is the first written source of imitation. Following Crystal's (2003) line, Inose Nepali onomatopoeic words. Chapagain (1994) (2007) has distinguished onomatopoeia (words has also compared trends of onomatopoeia in 16 that imitate real sounds or human or animal voice Indo-European and non-Indo-European languages or otherwise) with mimetic words (words that with Nepali language to show that there are some phonetically express that do not produce sounds, parallel features of onomatopoeia in these such as an emotion, a movement or state of languages. He has, moreover, taken 144 things). Inose's (2007) distinction implies that onomatopoeic words from Sanskrit and Prakrit onomatopoeic words exclude mimetic words. languages, and analysed them to show how This is the point where Crystal (2003) and Inose Nepali words have come from these languages. (2007) mismatch. Similarly, Lili (2008) has Similarly, Goettel (2013) has written that the term observed onomatopoeia as the imitation of natural 'onomatopoeia' is derived from Greek words sounds in word form and onomatopoeic words as 'onoma' (name) and 'poieo' (make/do). So, it direct descriptions of sounds, which have vivid refers to the making of names by use of words. effect. This perception is also similar to This view seems parallel to one theory of origin Chiarantano (2006). On the other hand, Xi (2010) in language, which reads that language is has gone beyond defining onomatopoeia and originated from the imitation of sounds of the conceded that it creates ambiguity in the language world. Goettel (2013) has further written that because it shows widespread polysemy. Showing every language has onomatopoeic words but there the polysemic nature of onomatopoeia, Xi (2010) are variations in different languages. For example, reminds Crystal's (2003) views. Likewise, meow (English), miauw (Dutch), miyau Sugahara (2010) has written, "Onomatopoeia is a (Hebrew), myaun (Nepali), and so on. Similar special language expression because its claim is seen in Elizabeth (2013), which has phonological form appears to be more directly mentioned that onomatopoeia is the creation/use associated with its meaning. Onomatopoeic words of words that sound like the items or actions they can convey imaginative, animated and name or refer to. Elizabeth (2013) has further picturesque meanings that ordinary words do not written that onomatopoeia is a rhetorical device (a indicate" (p. 1). Therefore, there is close language technique/device used to create an effect association between sound and meaning in case of in or for the reader) and it differs from cacophony onomatopoeia. This claim goes against arbitrary (harsh sound/effect) and euphony (harmonious nature of language. In Nepalese context, Adhikari use of sounds). Therefore, onomatopoeia, in this (2010) has written that onomatopoeic words have study, refers to the imitation of sound or manner, been developed through human attitude to imitate which signifies the direct association to its the sounds produced by things, animals, nature, meaning. 110
To categorize onomatopoeic words, Adhikari's example, Japanese is speculated to have 2000 to (1998 & 2010), Lili's (2008), and Elizabeth's 45000 onomatopoeic words. The study has (2013) works are remarkable. Adhikari (1998) has presented nine grammatical classes of asserted that onomatopoeic words are mainly onomatopoeia in English: verbs, nouns, adverbs, formed by reduplication process, in which adjectives, interjections, gerundives, ing-suffixed phonemes, syllables, or words recur from two to adjectives, ed-suffixed adjectives and other ing- seven times. For example, sal > salala, salalala suffixed classes. Out of them, the most frequent …salalalalalalala. Extending this view, Adhikari's ones are verbs (87.8%), followed by nouns (2010) has presented structural classification, (78.8%). It implies that onomatopoeic words, in which classifies onomatopoeic words in the English, generally function as either verbs or following three different types. nouns and frequently occur as verbs. In contrast to Adhikari's (2010) and Sugahara's (2010) Phonemic duplication structural and grammatical classification, There is duplication of consonants and vowel in Elizabeth (2013) has presented six notional types this category. For example: ṭakka (way of of onomatopoeic words: (a) mechanical, e.g. stopping), phutta (swift movement), ghyācca buzz, click, clatter, (b) fast motion, e.g. whoosh, (stop vehicles suddenly), jhilikka (flash), suruppa zing, zoom, (c) musical, e.g. ting, jingle, honk, (a way of drinking something), musukka (smile), rattle, (d) food preparation and eating, e.g. munch, curlumma (to plunge), garlyāmma (sound of tree nibble, crunch, (e) fighting, e.g. smash, bang, falling), sirra (blow wind), etc. bow, and (e) animals, e.g. meow, oink, cluck, moo, etc. Syllabic duplication Regarding translation strategies for onomatopoeic There is duplication of syllables as they are or words, Flyxe (2002) has found six ways, which with some modification. For example: dandan (of include: (a) adjectives, (b) adverbs, (c) verbs, (d) fire), dhukdhuḳ (sound of heart beat), magmug explicative paraphrases, (e) onomatopoeia (and (scent), kapakap (eat quickly), bhatbhati (a way of mimetic words), and (f) omission. To conclude burning), khāskhus (to talk), siriri (blow wind), this way, there is collection of 275 cases of etc. onomatopoeia and their Swedish translations, Word duplication collected from Yoshimoto Banana's Kichin, Endo Shusaka's Sukyndaru and Miyazawa Kenji's There is duplication of words as they are or with Nametokoyoma no Kuma, Shikaodori no hajimari some modification in this case. For example, and Yodaka no hoshi. These novels have three maryān maryān (munch), dhurudhuru different Swedish translators. Finally, the study (weep bitterly), lakharlakhar (walk aimlessly), presents that omission is used in translation hsyān phasyān (hustle and bustle), etc. because of the differences in sentence structures In a comprehensive study of onomatopoeia based across languages and the necessity of a lengthy, on phonetic, semantic and syntactic functions, detailed explanation in the target language. It structure and usages as well as its rhetoric implies that omission is not a good method of functions, Lili (2008) has classified onomatopoeic translation and one should try to offer explicative words into two types: primary and secondary. paraphrases in case of an onomatopoeia with a Primary types can be classified further into three high degree of lexicalization. Likewise, Inose types, such as animal, human-related and natural (2007), by collecting and analyzing 300 cases phenomenon-related. Secondary types consist of from the Japanese novel Sputnik no koibito by phonaesthemes and kinaesthemes. This is use- Haruki Murakami, has found nine methods in based classification. Similarly, by studying 287 translating Japanese onomatopoeic and mimetic English onomatopoeic words collecting from words in literature into Spanish and English: (a) Oxford English Dictionary, Sugahara (2010) has adverbs, (b) adjectives, (c) verbs, (d) nouns, (d) written that some languages possess a few such idioms, (e) onomatopoeia in the target language, words whereas some others possess many. For (f) explicative paraphrases, (g) combination of 111 words, and (h) omission. This study has identified 4 Result and discussion that most Japanese onomatopoeic words function Out of several onomatopoeic words in the original mainly as adverbs. Further, it has suggested, as version, eighty-eight cases are primary ones. The Flyxe (2002), that omission is not a desirable purposively selected cases have been translated method of translation. When there is no by use of ten strategies. There are two types equivalent word in the target language, the strategies. One type includes translation by one translator should consider using other resources equivalent word/phrase (i.e. noun, adjective, such as explicative paraphrases or combination of adverb, verb, idiom, cultural substitution) and in various words. case of non-equivalents; there is use of The aforementioned strategies are replicated, with explicative paraphrases, the combination of two some modifications and additions, in this study, or more words borrowing or omission. which frames the following 10 strategies to Borrowing observe how onomatopoeic words in Nepali novel Muglan have undergone English renderings: (a) Borrowing has been used in case of non- borrowing, (b) cultural substitution, (c) omission, equivalents. It is used if some culture-specific (d) explicative paraphrases, (e) using idioms, (f) terms do not exist in the target language. In it, using adjectives, (g) using nouns, (h) using verbs, Nepali words are translated in English on the (i) using adverbs; and (j) combining different type basis of source language (SL, i.e. Nepali) of words. pronunciation and orthography. Such words become loan words or imported words (Neupane, 3 Methodology 2011). Even within this strategy, two sub- The design of the study is qualitative and based categories are found: in some cases, there is no on secondary sources of data extracted from a any change in orthography while in others there is novel by Govinda Raj Bhattarai, Muglān and its slight modification. Tin tin -ting ting, kwā..kw̃ ā ̃ translation into English. The novel consists of five - kwa..kwa..kwa, hau..hau - hau..hau, ambā̃ - chapters, from which onomatopoeic words in the ambān and so on are some instances of non- Nepali version and their translations have been modification in translation. On the other hand, extracted. The author of the original version has suiyyā-soo/cooooo, wāĩ..wāĩ - bāin, sararra - four novels, Manipurko Ciṭhi, Muglān, Sukarātkā ssrrrrrr and so on are some exemplars of slight Pāilā and Sukarātko Diari for his credit. Out of modication is orthography. The problem with this them, Muglān is a rich store of onomatopoeic strategy is whether the English readers understand words, which are culture-specific. the original sense of the Nepali version or not. For overcoming such problem, brief explanation The data consists of 88 onomatopoeic words should be given either along with the words or in (appendix I) which imitate sound and manner of the footnote form. speech, object, animal, human being and others. The words in Nepali and their corresponding Cultural Substitution translations in English are observed in both This strategy is effective if the source language original and translated versions. These sets are (SL) and target language (TL) (in this study, categorized on the basis of ten strategies used for Nepali and English, respectively) terms share the translations. There of the strategies (i.e. some commonalities. It implies that in case of borrowing omission and cultural substitutions) are equivalence between SL and TL, cultural notional, whereas remaining seven are substitution is possible. In this study, SL term grammatical categories. Each of the categories is 'pwāk..pwāk' refers to the horn of rickshaw and assessed with illustrative instances to draw the TL term for the same is 'honk…honk'. Some inferences. other instances of this category are: khuiya - ughhh…, khui…khui- whew, phussa - whzzzzzzz…, ũ…ũ..ũ - y…a, ya… y..a, among
others (see appendix I for detail). In these 112 instances, the translator has attempted not to leave Using Noun gaps. However, the original sense of SL has not Nouns have been used in TL version to translate been always retained in TL. For example, jhyām - SL adjectives. For example, dhỵ āk dhỵ āk- knock, jhyām has been rendered into English 'bang… jhilika jhilika- spark, bhwākka bhwākka- ṭhud and bang'. Nepali term 'jhyām jhyām' is the sound, so on. In these cases, a single word is used. which is produced when crowbar strikes on the However, in some cases, noun phrases are also surface of a hard rock. On the other hand, used. For example, chapāchapī- swift stroke, syā̃ 'bang…bang' is any general sound produced when syā̃- short of breath, among others. In these striking something deliberately and violently, instances, approximately equivalent terms are often in order to make a loud noise, for example, used. banging on the door, banging the fist on the table, and so on. Despite this, the translator has used Using Verb this strategy to give only the general impression As I have seen, SL onomatopoeic verbs (e.g. of the SL into the TL. phwā ̃ phwā̃ garnu, n issa garnu, sottar pārnu) Using Adverb and adjectives (e.g. phil phil phil, karyāp karyāp, maryān maryān ) are translated into TL verbs. Out of eighty-eight cases, only one adjective in This strategy has been used as equivalent terms in the SL has been translated into the TL by using SL and TL. For example, 'hwā̃ hwā̃ garnu' has adverb. SL term 'takryāk tukruk' refers to a been rendered into 'to wail'. The SL term refers to lonesome state of the trees or scattered trees. It 'cry with loud noise' whereas 'to wail', is to 'cry or has been rendered into TL using adverb 'here and complain about something in a loud shrilling there', which cannot retain the original sense of voice'. However, there are some uneven cases. the SL. For example 'maryān maryān ' refers to chew Using Adjective popcorn primarily but 'munch' indicates to chew anything with much movement of the jaw. So, Only two cases are found under this strategy: partial equivalence is seen in this case. Otherwise, hwāssa gandha- strange smell and huiyā̃ huiyā-̃ translation by using verb is found an effective howling. In these examples 'hwāssa' is an way of translating onomatopoeic words. adjective, which has been rendered into adjective 'strage' but 'huiyā̃' is a noun, which has been Combination of Words rendered into adjective. It implies that there is Out of eighty-eight cases, only three are found change of grammatical category in this strategy. into this strategy: hapyāk hapyāk garnu- to pant Yet, the original term 'hwāssa' gives derogatory heavily (v. + adv.), jilililili- flickering sparks (adj. sense (i.e. bad smell) and it has been rendered +n.), and khititi khititi- laugh senselessly (v. + into a neutral term 'strange'. Therefore, the adv.). translator should be very much conscious to retain parallel terms in SL and TL. This strategy is used if not an exact word of SL is not found in the TL. It is a way of interpreting SL Using Idiom terms by use of multiple words in TL. It has been To give vivid images, idioms could be good for used only if there is lack of proper single term, translating onomatopoeic words. However, it is equivalence in TL. very difficult to find a TL idiom that corresponds Explicative Paraphrase with SL onomatopoeic word. This is the reason why the translator has used only one case of this In case of non-equivalence across languages, the strategy, e.g. chi chi ra dur dur garnu- to turn up translator explains by paraphrasing strategy. In the noses. The meaning of SL term is to loathe this study, the use of explicative paraphrase is something and sense of TL is to avoid something. very common in translation. When using this Therefore, translation gives general impression of strategy, the translators should be very careful lest the phrase in SL. too redundant items can be added, which breaks
113 the natural fluency in the translated version. and j) strategies. The study also shows that use of Otherwise, it is a good way translating explicative paraphrase is far better than other onomatopoeia. For example, kyāu kyāu - cries of strategies used in case of non-equivalence. the monkeys, dhỵ āmma - a loud thundering References sound, tyāk tyāk - the rhythmic beat of strike of hammer and so on. Adhikari, Hemangaraj. 1998. Samasāmayik Nepali byakaran (2nd ed.). [Contemporary These examples show that paraphrases can be Nepali grammar]. Kathmandu: Vidyarthi used to give general impression of the terms. It is Pustak Bhandar. better than omission strategy. Adhikari, Hemangaraj. 2010. Prayogātmak Omission Nepali byākaran ̣ (3rd ed.). [Practical Nepali grammar]. Lalitpur: Sajha Prakashan. In this study, mostly the terms referring to Bhattarai, Govinda Raj. 2011. Muglān. physical state, action, and feeling are omitted. For Kathmandu: Oriental Publication. example, burururu…, hurururu, ghyācca, Bhattarai, Govinda Raj. 2012. Muglān (L. S. sirin ga, phirirī, casakka casakka, bhatryāk Pathak trans.). Kathmandu: Oriental bhatryāk, among others. Because of their Publication. omission, the original sense in SLT has been lost Chapagain, Narendra. 1994. Nepali in the TLT and therefore omission is not a desirable strategy. anukaraṅātmak sabdako byutpatisrot biśleṣanạ [Derivative source analysis of Onomatopoeia is cultural phenomenon. Highly Nepali onomatopoeic words]. Biratnagar: cultural terms are difficult to translate and Prativa Puraskar Pratisthan. therefore translators prefer omitting them. The Chiarantano, Stefano. 2006. Onomatopoeia. next reason why the terms are omitted in Online: www.tefl.net/esl- translation is because of their unimportance as articles/onomatopoeia.htm. translators may think. However, these are not Crystal, David. 2003. The Cambridge always the cases. For the interpretation of the text, encyclopedia of language (2nd ed.). onomatopoeic words play significant role. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Therefore, it is advisable not to omit them but to Elizabeth, Mary. 2013. What is onomatopoeia? use strategies such as explicative paraphrases or Online: www.wisegeek.org/what-is- combination of different words. onomatopoeia.htm. 5 Summary Flyxe, Martin. 2002. Translation of Japanese onomatopoeia into Swedish (with focus on Onomatopoeia is a special feature of Nepali lexicalization). Africa & Asia 2. 54-73. language and therefore it occupies a vital position Online: in oral and written communication. They are www.spark.gu.se/digitalAssets/1324/1324040 adhered to the culture. Translating onomatopoeic _translation-of-japanese.pdf. words is one of the hurdles one encounters while Goettel, Diane. 2013. What are onomatopoeic attempting to transfer meaning across languages. words? Online: www.wisegeek.com/what-are- Yet, such words have been translated by using onomatopoeic-words.htm. particular strategies, which are notional and Inose, Hiroko. 2007. Translating Japanese grammatical. The strategies used to translate onomatopoeia and mimetic words (98-116). onomatopoeic words of Muglān (a diasporic Online: novel) are: (a) borrowing, (b) cultural http://isg.urv.es/library/papers/inoseonomatop substitution, (c) adverbs (d) adjectives, (e) idioms, oeia.pdf. (f) nouns, (g) verbs, (h) combination of words, (i) Lili, Dong. 2008. Onomatopoeias in modern explicative paraphrases, and (j) omission. In cases English. A master's thesis, Zhejiang of equivalents in SL and TL, first six (b-g) University. strategies have been used and the cases of non- equivalents lead in using remaining four (a, h, i 114
Neupane, Nabaraj. 2011. Translation strategies. catatara… - trrrrrrrr… Shiksya Sandesh 2. 31-38. Neupane, Nabaraj. 2013. Culture-bound terms tyākryāk tyākryāk- tuk…tuk… and their translations in Muglān: An Omission exploration into strategies. Prithvi 6. 15-26. Sugahara, Takashi. 2010. Onomatopoeia in burururu… - spoken and written English: Corpus-and jhyāppa-jhyappa - usage-based analysis. A PhD thesis, Hokkaido phussa-phussa - University, Japan. Xi, Wang. 2010. A cognitive study of the semantic hururururu - extension mechanism of onomatopoeic words ghyācca - in English. A master's thesis, Sichuan so…so - International Studies University. cĩ…cĩ -
jhyāũ jhyāũ - Appendix I siriṅga - Borrowing sarlāṅ surluṅ - suiyyã - sooo/cooooo jhyāmma - chyāk chyāk chus - chhyak chhyak chhus ryāĩ ryāĩ - sararra - ssrrrrrr khwāk khwāk - ũh…ũh - uh…uh sirirī - tiṅ tiṅ - ting-ting phirirī - durra…durra - drrrr…drrrrr ganamana jhyāĩ - duruṅ duruṅ - druung druung casakka casakka - hau…hau… - hau…hau… lyākhryāk lyākhrayāk - kwā…kw̃ ā ̃ kwā ̃ - kwa…kwa…kwa bhatryāk bhatryāk - wāĩ…wāĩ - bāin phui phui - ambā ̃ - ambān Using Adverb kurre … - kurrrrrrre… tkryāk tukruk - here and there hurururururu … - hurururururu… Using Adjective Cultural Substitution hwāssa gandha - strange smell pwāk…pw̃ āk̃ - honk…honk huiyā ̃ huiyā ̃ - howling swā…sw̃ ā ̃ - Zz…zzz…zzz…zzz ghwār̃ ghwār̃ - ghrrr..ghrrr..ghrrr.. Using Nouns khuiya - ughhh… dhyāk dhyāk - knock phussa - whzzzzzzz… siririri…hāwā - gale of wind ũ…ũ…ũ…- y…a…ya…y..a../uh…uh…uh chapāchapī - swift stroke hwārra..hwārra - hrrrrr…hrrrrrr jhilika jhilika - spark tiṅtiṅ…tiṅtiṅ - trrrrring…trrrrring/ ting…ting syā ̃ syā ̃ - short of breath khui…khui - whew khui…ya - defeated sigh jhyāmjhyām - bang…bang bhwāṅ…bhwāṅ - dog's barking 115 sararra …phururu-puff and cough swāṭhṭha swāṭhṭha- sound of whipping bhwāka…bhwāka - thud pyā…pul̃ ṭuṅ…pulṭuṅ… pulṭuṅ… cyānā pulṭuṅ jhyaĩ - the tune of panche bājā Using Verbs tuthu…ḍī - the bulging of narsinga phwā ̃ phwā ̃ garunu - snore charlyāṅ charlyāṅ- clinking of the chains jhwāssa parnu - strike
ṅissa garnu - to grin ṭhas ṭhas kanu - to pant and puff sottar pārnu - to raze countless trees ghwār…ghwār - snore khwāṅ khwāṅ khoknu - to keep coughing non- stop sukka sukka garnu - sob kikrikka dallo parnu - to bundle up charchari ragat bagnu - to squirt and blood phil phil phil - flutter karyāp karyāp - crackle maryāṅ maryāṅ - munch khihiryāunu - to be pungent hwā ̃ hwā ̃ garnu - to wail
Using Idiom chi chi ra dur dur garnu - to turn up the noses
Combination of Words hapyāk hapyāk garnu - to pant heavily (v. + adv.) jhililililī - flickering sparks (adj.+ n.) khititi khititi - laugh senselessly (v. + adv.)
Explicative Paraphrases kyāu kyāu - cries of the monkeys talyāk tuluk ghar - the houses standing unevenly jhamakkai sājhã parnu - it got completely dark cuiyã…katata…jhyāmma -screeching noise and smashing sound dhyāmma - a loud thundering sound tyāk…tyāk - the rhythmic beat of strike of hammer bhwāṅ…durururu - loud exploding noise 116
Lexical reduplication in the Chitoniya Tharu Krishna Prasad Paudyal [email protected]
Lexical reduplication in the Chitoniya Tharu can Tharu employs reduplication process for various be classified into three types: word reduplication, pragmatic purposes. As usual, reduplication in the compounding and echo formation. In word Chitoniya Tharu can be classified structurally into reduplication we reduplicate the complete word, two classes: lexical and morphological.2 The part of it, or can form a discontinuous lexical reduplication can further be classified into reduplicated structure. The Chitoniya Tharu three types: word reduplication, compounding, reduplicates nouns, pronouns, modifiers, and echo-formation (Abbi 1990:172, 2001:162; quantifiers, question words, relatives and Parimalagantham 2009:23). Word reduplication correlatives, and verbs. The reduplication in this may be of three types: complete, partial, and language has several functions like discontinuous. The discussion in this paper is intensification, plurality, accentuation, continuity limited to the lexical reduplication processes and exclusiveness. exhibited in the Chitoniya Tharu. 1 Introduction 2 Lexical reduplication The Chitoniya Tharu is one of the varieties of the According to Abbi (2001:165), “lexical Tharu language spoken in the Chitwan and reduplication refers to a complete or partial Nawalparasi districts of central and western repetition of a word / lexeme. Complete lexical Nepal. Although CBS (2012:164) does not reduplication is constituted of two identical classify the Tharu varieties as such, and lumps all (bimodal) words.” In this section, we will discuss the varieties together under one umbrella term the subtypes of lexical reduplication in the Tharu, Epple et al. (2012:88-91) classify the Chitoniya Tharu. Tharu language into five varieties: the Rana, the 2.1 Complete word reduplication (CWR) Dangaura, the Kathariya, the Chitoniya, and the Kochila Tharu. These loconyms or ethnonyms are Word reduplication may be complete, partial, and commonly used to refer to both the types of discontinuous (Parimalangham 2009:24). Before varieties: the ethnic and the linguistic. The discussing partial and discontinuous Chitoniya Tharu is an Indo-Aryan language that reduplication, we will proceed to discuss the follows the nominative-accusative case marking complete word reduplication in the Chitoniya system. The present work discusses the Tharu. Analogous to other South-Asian reduplication processes attested in the Chitoniya languages, the Chitoniya Tharu employs Tharu. The discussion is based on Abbi (1990, reduplication of nouns, pronouns, modifiers, 2001), and Dixon (2010), though several other quantifiers, question words, relatives and works were also consulted. correlatives, and finite verbs for various pragmatic purposes. The reduplication processes Reduplication is a morphological process in and semantic modification of each of them is which all or a part of a lexical item is repeated discussed in the paragraphs that follow. with semantic modification (Abbi 1990:171, 2001:162; Dixon 2010:140). It is a common morphological process in the South-Asian final -CV, such as horo ‘pull’, ho-horo ‘pull a little languages. Languages may employ multiple bit’, horo-horo ‘pull with great force’, horo-ro ‘keep reduplicative patterns.1 However, the Chitoniya on pulling hand over hand, until the end. 2 Both Abbi (2001:163) and Parimalagantham (2009:23) use the term ‘expressives’ to refer to the 1 Aikhenvald (2007:23-4) mentions three different morphological reduplication which includes sound process of reduplication in Jarawara, each with a symbolism, mimic words, iconicity, and distinct meaning: initial CV-, initial CVCV-, and onomatopoeia. Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 117-124 2.1.1 Reduplication of nouns muĩ yaju bəjar –e bəjar 1SG today market -EMPH REDUP Reduplicative construction in the Chitoniya Tharu is not a word formation process as it is in many of gʰum -l -hĩ the world languages. It is rather “a stylistic walk -PST - 1SG device”, as Abbi (2001:166) says, “used for run - PROG be.PRS -3SG emphasis.” Reduplication of nouns in the ‘I waked though the market today.’ Chitoniya Tharu carries three different functions: distributiveness, emphasis, and plurality. Let us In both the examples (2a-b) we notice that the consider the examples in (1a-b). emphatic clitic -e is attached to the root of the reduplicants. The reduplicative construction in (1) a. des desəkə riti tʰiti bəɖəyi (2a) kuləwe kuləwa emphasizes the sense of the root, whereas the one in (2b) bəjare bəjar des des -kə riti tʰiti connotes the sense of plurality and country REDUP- GEN culture distributiveness along with that of intensification,
bəɖ-əyi and means ‘each and every street of the market’. be.PRS -3PL 'Every country has its own culture.' Furthermore, reduplication of a noun is also (JF.BM-78.001) employed for the purpose of accentuation, as Abbi (2001:166) states, even in the Chitoniya b. jat jatəkə b asa bə əyi ʰ ɖ Tharu. The examples in (3a-b) are illustrative. jat jat -kə bʰasa (3) a. caste REDUP- GEN language mor bəriyama tiune tiuna bəɖəu mor bəriya -ma tiuna -e bəɖ -əyi my field -LOC vegetable -EMPH be.PRS -3PL tiuna 'Every ethnic group has its own bəɖ -əu language.' (JF.BM-78.002) REDUP be.PRS -3SG ‘There is a lot of vegetable in my field.' The reduplication of des ‘country’ in (1a) and jat b. mor j inki beṭəwa yaju ‘caste’ in (1b) perform the distributive function ʰ connoting ‘each and every’. It is to be noted that mor jʰinki beṭəwa yaju in such cases the root is simply reduplicated my small son today without any morphophonological alterations, and bʰate bʰat wokeliyə the case markers are affixed to the reduplicant, as b at -e b at woka -l -iyə in (1a-b) above. In the reduplicative constructions ʰ ʰ with a noun, sometimes, the emphatic clitic -e is rice-EMPH REDU vomit-PST -3SG attached to the base after it is reduplicated. Such P reduplications have the same functions: ‘My small son vomited a lot of rice intensification and distribution as in (2). today.' The reduplicative constructions in both the (2) a. u cʰəũɖ kuləwe kuləwa examples highlight the sense of the root, and mean ‘a lot of’ in both the sentences. u cʰəũɖ kuləwa –e kuləwa that boy canal -EMPH REDUP 2.1.2 Reduplication of pronouns dərukəyi bəɖiyə Reduplicative constructions are attested with dəruk -yi bəɖ -iyə pronouns as well. In the case of pronouns, reduplication carries the notion of exclusiveness run - PROG be.PRS -3SG (Abbi 2001:166) as well as intensification. With ‘The boy is running along the canal.’ b muĩ yaju bəjare bəjar gʰumləhĩ 118
the pronominal roots, the emphatic clitic -hĩ is kəriya kəriya mənse optionally attached to the base (4c). kəriya kəriya mənse black REDUP man (4) a. hunkəhĩ hunkəhĩ milke ‘From Australia there used to come hunka -hĩ hunka -hĩ mil -ke dark people.’ (PLS.JRC-70.053) they -EMPH REDUP meet -SEQ b. jəbbəɖ jəbbəɖ pəhəɖləu kʰəsi kaṭke kʰeləyi jəbbəɖ jəbbəɖ pəhəɖ -l -əu kʰəsi kaṭ -ke kʰa -l -əyi large REDUP yield -PST -3PL goat cut -SEQ eat -PST -3SG
‘They cut the castrated goat and ate (The potatoes) yielded very themselves.' large.’(JOW.BRM-56.026)
b. u cʰəuɖi yəpnehĩ yəpnehĩ The reduplicative constructions in (5) intensify the roots kəriya ‘black’ in (5a), and jəbbə ‘big’ u cʰəuɖi yəpnehĩ yəpnehĩ ɖ that girl herself REDUP in (5b). Moreover, the reduplicated modifiers morəke gəriyoyi express the notion of exclusiveness as well, as mor -ke gəriya -yi illustrated in (6a-b). I.OBL -DAT scold -PROG (6) a. yəhəwã kʰali dʰənik dʰənik ‘That girl is scolding me herself yəhəwã kʰali dʰənik dʰənik (without any reason).' here only rich REDUP c. tohəra səbʰə yapən yapən mənse pədʰ̣ səu tohəra səbʰə yapən yapən mənse pədʰ̣ -s -əu 2PL REFL REDUP man read -PRS -3PL
gʰər jahə 'Only rich people study here.’ gʰər ja -hə (PLS.JRC-70.110) house go -IMP b. əre pəkəli pəkəli yəməwã ‘You all go to your own house.’ əre pəkəli pəkəli yəməwã In these examples, the reduplication of the third VOC ripe REDUP mango person plural pronoun hunka ‘they’ in (4a), and məture ṭurəsi ho that of the reflexive pronoun yəpnehĩ ‘oneself’ in məture ṭur -si ho (4b) connote the notion of 'exclusiveness'. It only pluck -IMP PRT emphasizes on the sense of ‘no one else but ‘Hey, pluck only the ripe mangoes.’ itself’. Similarly, the repetition of the possessive reflexive yapən in (4c) intensifies the notion of Although the sense of exclusiveness is expressed the root. by the reduplicative construction itself, 2.1.3 Reduplication of modifiers sometimes, the limiters like kʰali and məture are The reduplication of modifiers functions as also used, as in (6a-b) above. intensifier even in the Chitoniya Tharu, as 2.1.4 Reduplication of quantifiers Aikhenvald (2007:23) finds in the Oceanic languages. Both numeral and non-numeral quantifiers are used in the reduplicative constructions in the (5) a. əstreliyase yəbəyi Chitoniya Tharu. Reduplicative constructions of əstreliya -se ya -b -əyi quantifiers denote the sense of intensification (7a- Ausralia -ABL come -FUT -PROG b), and that of distributiveness (7c). 119
(7) a. herəhi ta uwə car bulsəhi her -hi ta uwə car bul -s -hi look -IMP PRT 3SG four walk -PRS -2SG car go cirəiyã marliyə ‘With whom do you walk?’ car -go mar -l -iyə REDUP -NCLF kill -PST -3SG c. wəhəwã kun kun yail hələyi? ‘Look, he has killed four birds.’ wəhəwã kun kun there who REDUP b. du dugo duləhi lele yəbəyi bəɖ -iyə ya -il hə -l -əyi du du -go duləhi come -PRF be -PST -3PL
two REDUP -NCLF wife ‘Who had com there?’ le -le ya -b -yi take -PRF come -FUT -PROG The question in (8a) connotes that there are more bəɖ -iyə than two entities in the photograph. Similarly, the be.PRS-3SG question in (8b) indicates that the listener walks with more than one person and the one in (8c) '(He) is coming with two wives.’ shows that there must have come more than one (JF.BM-78.630)’ people. c. həmar baba həmərake dəs 2.1.6 Reduplication of relatives and həmar baba həməra -ke dəs correlatives our father 1PL -DAT ten dəs rupəiya deliyə The reduplicated relative and correlative dəs rupəiya de -l -iyə pronouns in relative and correlative constructions REDUP rupee give -PST -3SG have emphatic as well as exclusive connotations ‘Our father gave us ten rupees each.’ in the Chitoniya Tharu. Let's consider the examples in (9a-c). 2.1.5 Reduplication of question words (9) a. Question words can also be reduplicated in the tor dao jətʰi jətʰi Chitoniya Tharu. The reduplicated question words tor dao jətʰi jətʰi indicate plurality as well as intensification. A your mother what REDUP question word is never reduplicated to talk about kəhəsihe tətʰi tətʰi kərəhi a single entity in question. The examples in (8a-c) kəhə -s -ihe will illustrate the case. tətʰi tətʰi say -PRS -3SG that REDUP (8) a. yi pʰoṭəwama tui kətʰi kərəhi kər -hi yi pʰoṭəwa -ma tui kətʰi do -IMP this photo -LOC 2SG what
kətʰi dekʰəyi bəɖəhi? ‘Do whatever your mother says.’ kətʰi dekʰ -yi bəɖ -hi b. muĩ jəkərake jəkərake REDUP see -PROG be.PRS -2SG muĩ jəkəra -ke jəkəra -ke 1SG whom REDUP ‘What can you see in this photograph?’ bəlobəhĩ uhe uhe məture yəihe (FS_DR&RM.001) bəla -b -hĩ uhe uhe b. tui kakər kakər saŋe bulsəhi? call -FUT -1SG that REDUP tui kakər kakər saŋe məture ya -ihe 2SG whose REDUP with only come -IMP 120
‘Only those people come whom I will b. yaju dinbʰər muĩ call.’ yaju dinbʰər muĩ c. jakər jakər g ər jaeke ʰ today all day 1SG jakər jakər g ər ja -eke ʰ uṭʰle utʰ̣ le kam kərləhĩ whose REDUP house go -INF utʰ̣ -le utʰ̣ -le kam mən bə əu jahə ɖ stand -PRF REDUP work mən bəɖ -əu ja -hə kər -l -hĩ heart be.PRS -3PL go -IMP do -PST -1SG ‘Whoever wants to go home go.’ ‘I worked the whole day standing.’ In the examples in (9), the reduplicated relatives The examples in (10) show that the Chitoniya and correlatives connote the notion of Tharu mostly reduplicates the simultaneous intensification and that of exclusiveness converbial form (10a), and perfective form (10b) simultaneously. The reduplicated relatives and of the verbs. correlatives jətʰi jətʰi and tətʰi tətʰi in (9a) and 2.2 Partial word reduplication (PWR) jəkərake jəkərake and uhe uhe in (9b) exclude everything not mentioned here. Similarly, jakər In partial word reduplication, the initial phoneme jakər in (9c) emphasizes only the person who or syllable of the root is replaced by another ‘wants to go home’. Everything else is excluded. phoneme or syllable. The reduplicated word is known as an echo word and the process is called 2.1.7 Reduplication of verbs echo-formation. The echo words are semantically As Dixon (2010:140) states about the languages empty and cannot occur independently in a in general, reduplication of verb in the Chitoniya sentence. They always occur with the base words Tharu connote iterativity and continuity along and simply connote the sense ‘and the things like with the sense of intensification. The Chitoniya that’ (Masica 1991: 80). Stylistically, echo Tharu does not allow the reduplicative formations are considered to be of “the constructions for the finite verbs. Instead, as Abbi substandard” or “the informal” expressions (2001:167) states, it reduplicates the non-finite (Parimalagantham 2009: 28), and pragmatically, forms of the verbs and uses them “in adverbial they connote “casualness and non-specificity” position to designate various aspects”. The (Abbi 2001: 169). reduplicated non-finite verbs function as Echo formation is one of the areal features of the intensifiers showing continuity or iterativity, as South Asian languages, and is also attested in the illustrated in (10a-d). Chitoniya Tharu. It is mostly employed in the verbs and nouns, less frequently in adjectives and (10) a. rojikə baba k etəwama ʰ adverbs, and rarely in other word classes. The roji -kə baba kʰetəwa -ma word class of the root influences the echo roji -GEN father field -LOC formation process in this language. In the echo kam kərte kərte mərliyə formation process of the verbal roots, the vowel kam kər -te kər -te sound of the initial syllable gets modification, work do -SIM REDUP whereas in that of the non-verbal roots, it is the mər -l -iyə initial consonant phoneme that is substituted. die -PST -3SG 2.2.1 Echo formation of verbs ‘Roji’s father died while working in the field.’ While forming an echo word of the verbal roots, the high front vowel i and high and mid back
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vowels u and o of the initial syllable are modified Sometimes, the whole initial syllable is replaced into a in the echo words, as illustrated in (11). by the high back vowel u. It happens with the words consisting of front or back high vowels in (11) Base gloss echo-formation the initial syllable. The examples are in (15). pi ‘drink’ pi pa- cir ‘split’ cir car- (15) bʰita 'wall' bʰita uta cʰipa nijʰ ‘cook’ nijʰ najʰ- 'plate' cʰipa upa diya 'lamp' diya uwa hũɖ ‘stir’ hũɖ hãɖ- guro 'priest' guro uro rop ‘plant’ rop rap- muɖi 'head' muɖi uɖi juta dʰo ‘wash’ dʰo dʰa- 'shoes' juta uta Similarly, the low back vowel a in the initial syllable is modified into the high back vowel u, as Though rare, we have evidences of the replacer pʰ in (12). in the Chitoniya Tharu. It seems to be lexically conditioned. The examples are in (16). (12) cʰaɖ 'leave' cʰaɖ cʰuɖ- mar 'kill' mar mur- kaṭ (16) sisa ‘bottle’ sisa pʰisa 'cut' kaṭ kut-̣ suər ‘pig’ suər pʰuər 2.2.2 Echo formation of non-verbal roots 2.3. Discontinuous reduplication The initial consonant phoneme is substituted by The basic principle of reduplication is that “the several, though fixed, sounds while forming an reduplicative copied strings are typically adjacent echo word of a non-verbal word. The most to each other at the surface” and this principle is common replacer sound, as Abbi (2001:168) calls known as Adjacent String Hypothesis (Kirchner it, in the Chitoniya Tharu is the alveolar fricative 2010:24). However, there are languages in which s which is also common in Nepali as well. The an extra element is introduced between the base examples are listed in (13). and the reduplicant, and consequently the (13) nun 'salt' nun sun reduplicant is separated from the base. Such yalo 'potato' yalo salo discontinuous reduplication process is in vogue in tiuna 'vegetable' tiuna siuna many of the NIA languages, and the Chitoniya yəcar 'pickle' yəcar səcar Tharu is one of them. Such extra element is “usually a postposition or an empty syllable” and kaṭʰ 'wood' kaṭʰ satʰ̣ such constructions are used to refer to extremities mit 'ritual friend' mit sit (Abbi 2001:170). The postpositions or empty The next most frequently used replacer is the syllables interrupting the base and reduplicant are labial approximant w, one of the most common unique in each language. The Chitoniya Tharu replacer in NIA. The examples are listed in (14). employs a negative morpheme nə and the ablative marker se between the base and the reduplicant. (14) pani 'water' pani wani The examples are given in (17) and illustrated in kʰana 'meal' kʰana wana (18) and (19). lwaṭa 'small pitcher' lwaṭa watạ (17) bəhut se bəhut sasu 'mother in law' sasu wasu yəpnəhĩ se yəpnehĩ hər 'plough' (n) hər wər kəhəwã nə kəhəwã nãk 'nose' nãk wãk kəkərəhũ nə kəkərəhũ ṭopi 'cap' ṭopi wopi kət iyo nə kət iyo ṭẽ 'eye' ṭẽ wẽ ʰ ʰ ɖ ɖ ɖ kəsnuk nə kəsnuk kiho nə kiho 122
Tharu. In this language, words belonging to any (18) a. bəhut se bəhut bat kəreke rəhələu word class like nouns, pronouns, modifiers, bəhut -se bəhut bat quantifiers, question words, relatives and much -ABL REDUP talk correlatives, and verbs can be reduplicated. While kər -eke rəh -l -əu reduplicating nouns and pronouns, the emphatic do -INF remain -PST -3PL clitics -e and -hĩ are attached to the base, whereas ‘We had to talk much.’ other word classes are reduplicated without any morphophono-logical modification. The b. yəpnehĩ se yəpnehĩ uwə reduplication in this language has several yəpnehĩ -se yəpnehĩ uwə functions like intensification, plurality, oneself -ABL REDUP 3SG accentuation, continuity and exclusiveness. We baur bʰeliyə have partial reduplication as well. However, two different processes are employed to derive echo baur b e -l -iyə ʰ words based on the word class of the base. While loafer become -PST -3PL echo forming verbs, mostly monosyllabic, the ‘We had to talk much.’ vowel of the initial syllable is modified into a or u, and no change in consonant occurs. In the case (19) a. kiho nə kiho tə kʰahi ! of non-verbal reduplication, it is the initial kiho nə kiho tə consonant sound that gets substituted. The what NEG REDUP PRT replacer sounds are s, w, u, and pʰ listed in the kʰa -hi order of frequency. The Chitoniya Tharu also eat -IMP allows discontinuous reduplication and the interrupting elements are the negative morpheme ‘Please eat something or other.’ nə and the ablative marker se. b. kəkərəhũ nə kəkərəhũke Abbreviations kəkərəhũ nə kəkərəhũ -ke
someone NEG REDUP -DAT ~ : Nasalization 1 : First person tə kəhəke gelə həliyə 2 : Second person 3 : Third person tə kəh -ke ja -lə ABL : Ablative ABS: Absolutive PRT say -SEQ go -PRF DAT : Dative CLF: Classifier hə -l -iyə EMPH : Emphatic FUT: Future be -PST -3SG GEN : Genitive HON.: Honorific
‘(He) must have told someone or IMP : Imperative INF : Infinitive the other before going.’ LOC : Locative NEG : Negative OBL : Oblique PART : Particle 3. Conclusion PL : Plural PROG: Progressive PRF : Perfective PRS : Present We have noticed in the discussion that PRT : Particle PST : Past reduplication can be broadly classified into lexical REDUP : Reduplication REFL : Reflexive SEQ and morphological reduplications. Lexical : Sequential SG : Singular reduplication can again be subdivided into word reduplication, echo formation, and compounding. References In word reduplication itself, we can reduplicate Abbi, Anvita. 1990. Reduplication in Tibeto- the complete word, part of it, or can form a Burman languages of South Asia. Southeast discontinuous reduplicated structure. In this Asian Studies, Vol. 28, No.2. 171-181. article we have only discussed the lexical reduplication, except compound, in the Chitoniya 123
Abbi, Anvita. 2001. A manual of linguistic fieldwork and structures of Indian languages. München: Lincom Europa. Aikhenvald, Alexamdra Y. 2007. Typological distinctions in word formation. In Timothy Shopen (ed.), Language typology and syntactic description. Vol. III, 1-65. Dixon, R.M.W. 2010. Basic linguistic theory. Vol. I & II. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kirchner, Jesse Saba. 2010. Minimal reduplication. University of California, Santa Cruz. Ph. D. diss. Masica, Colin P. 1991. Indo-Aryan Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Parimalagantham, A. 2009. A study of structural reduplication in Tamil and Telugu. Hyderabad: P.S. Telugu University Ph. D. diss. Payne,Thomas E. 1997. Describing Morphosyntax: A guide for field linguist. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Issues of v-v compounds in Chintang Netra Prasad Paudyal University of Kiel Like in other South Asian languages, verbal ticed that most, if not all, speakers are bilingual compounding is an extremely productive with Nepali, the Indo-Aryan lingua franca of Nep- phenomenon in Chintang (Sino-Tibetan Kiranti). al. Some speakers are trilingual with Bantawa, one However, unlike in Indo-Aryan languages of the of the most widely spoken Kiranti languages of the region, one of the essential properties of Chintang region. Monolingualism of Chintang is now re- v2s is that they require a disyllabic unit as a host stricted to a handful of elderly persons, especially to maintain their prosodic subcategorization con- women. But most children still acquire Chintang straint (Bickel et al. 2007, Paudyal 2013). This as their first language, especially in Gaurong Tole paper describes the structure and properties of v-v and some other areas of Mulgāũ. The present so- compounds in Chintang. cial situation contributes to the fact that the Chin- 1. Introduction1 tang language is increasingly being supplanted by Nepali and Bantawa. One of the most important Chintang (ISO636.3: ctn) is spoken by the Chin- factors of language shift in Chintang is mixed mar- tang Rai people in Chintang VDC (Village Devel- riage between Chintang and other language opment Committee) of Dhanakuṭā district, close to groups. the Saptakośi river confluence on the southern Genealogically, Chintang belongs to the Kiranti foothills of the Himalayas. Recently, the name subgroup of the large Tibeto-Burman (Sino- became an ethnic category when it turned out that Tibetan) family. Within Kiranti, Bickel (2008) the original inhabitants of Chintang have a sepa- identified Chintang as Central-Eastern > Greater rate Kiranti language. Apart from Chintang, a Eastern > Eastern > Greater Yakkha. The nearest small number of speakers of Chintang are also linguistic relatives within Kiranti are the neigh- found at Triveni in Āhāle VDC, which is in 3 bouring languages Athpare, Belhare, and Chɨlɨng hours trekking distance from Chintang in south. (also pronounced as Chiling or Chulung). There There is no reliable scientific census report availa- ble to show the exact number of Chintang speak- are two major dialects (Mulgāũ and Sambugāũ) ers. However, Chintang and Puma Documentation named after the areas where they are spoken. The Project (CPDP) estimates not less than 5,000 Sambugāũ dialect is more influenced by Bantawa people who speak this language as their mother and Nepali, while the Mulgāũ variety still pre- tongue. The main Chintang-speaking villages are serves its uniqueness. The difference between Mulgāũ (from Nepali mul ‘main’ and gāũ ‘vil- these two dialects is found only in some parts of lage’) and Sambugāũ. the morphology and lexicon, but not in the syntax. During my fieldwork in the above two Chintang Although there are different types of complex pre- dicates in Chintang, in this article, I confine myself villages and also in Triveni (Āhāle VDC), I no- to v-v compounds and present a brief overview of Chintang v-v compound forms in terms of both 1 Research on Chintang was started in 2004 by Chintang their morphological structure and syntactic and Puma Documentation Project, financed by the functions. In section 2, I offer a brief review of Volkswagen Foundation (DOBES Grant Nos. BI 799/1-2 complex verbs forms in the languages of Nepal. In and II/81 961). I also acknowledge the DAAD section 3, I describe the different types of Chintang scholarship (A/06/91690) to conduct my PhD research v2s including their morphological behaviour and on Chintang. I use both the corpus and elicited data in functions. Finally, I briefly summarize the major this article. The examples without a reference were elicited during my fieldwork in Autumn of 2008 and characteristics of v-v forms in section 4. spring of 2010. This paper was presented in the tyopological research colloquium at the University of Leipzig in 2011. Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 125-133 2. The complex verb forms structurally distinct, they share some interesting similarities, for example, in all cases the element Complex verbal forms have been studied in the right position gets full inflection, and in all extensively in Indo-Aryan and Dravidian, but forms there is a possibility to intrude endoclitics relatively less attention is paid in Tibeto-Burman between two verb forms. As stated earlier, in this languages. Though this phenomenon occurs paper, I focus only on compound verbs. productively in Kiranti languages, there is no such studies dedicated to compound verbs in Kiranti 3. The v-v compounds in Chintang subgroup. Nonetheless complex predicates are Before describing the compound verb forms, we attested in a number of Kiranti languages (e.g., introuduce the morphological structure of both the Belhare (Bickel 1996), Athpare (Ebert 1997a), simple and complex verb forms in Chintang. A Bantawa (Doornenbal 2009), Camling (Ebert large number of Chintang verbs have a 1997b), Kulung (Tolsma 1999), and Thulung monosyllabic root; a typical syllable structure is (Lahaussois 2002)). However, the literature CVC when they appear without possible augments discussing complex predicates involves a muzzy -t, and -s. In these two augments, -t is described as diversity of analyses and terminology. For a Proto-Tibebto-Burman *-t, which is usually example, Weidert & Subba (1985), Tolsma (1999), reconstructed as a “directive’’ or applicative Rutgers (1998) use the term ‘auxiliary’, Opgenort marker, and -s as a reflex of the proto-Tibeto- (2002) describes this feature as ‘motionalisers’, Burman causative augment *-s (Wolfenden 1929, van Driem (1987, 1993) and Lahaussois (2002) Michailovsky 1985, van Driem 1993, Bickel et al. use the term ‘aspectivizers’, Ebert (1997a/b) uses 2010). There are a large number of verb-stems the term compound verb in her works on Camling which still preserve these augments in Chintang, and Athpare. However, for the sake of clarity and for example, lut-t ‘press down’, lu-t ‘tell brevity, I refer the vectors simply as v2s in this someone’, lu-s ‘tell’ (antipassive). There are also work (see Table 1 for a list of v2s). few polysyllabic verbs which contain a preverbal During my analysis of the Chintang corpus, I element and a verb. With such polysyllabic verbs, found basically three types of complex predicates only the rightmost syllable behaves like a regular in this language. The first and also the most stem consisting of a root and an augment. For productive one is the compound verb form which example, in the form khasɨŋs- ‘ask’, only the is a multi-verb construction in which the first verb second part of the verb sŋ-s, is the regular verb stem (∑) is followed by one or more vector verbs ɨ that semantically modify it. Such forms have been stem; the preverbal part kha- behaves like a described variously as compound verb, explicator morphologically separate item, in spite of the compound verbs, complex predicates, composite lexical unity of the two parts. The full form of a predicates or serial verbs in South Asian verb stem can be realized only before vowels. No linguistics. This is a pervasive feature of the verb stems (∑) can occur on their own. They must languages of South Asia and the greater Himalayan be inflected including prefixes and suffixes before region (Hook 1974, Masica 1976, Mohanan 1990, they are used for a particular purpose. In van Driem 1990, Butt 1993, Pokharel 1999). The compound verbs, there are usually more than one second complex predicate construction is a pre- inner stem due to the result of verbal compounding verb and a stem construction in which two of two lexical stems. Here the second verb stem, elements combine to form a single semantic which is described as a v2, can also have a regular predicate. They both make a single lexeme, but can root + augment structure. As all the stems of the be separated by endoclitics and prefixes usually Chintang verbs (including the rightmost syllable of hosted by the stem (∑). The third type of complex pre-verb and stem form) constitute a single form is a verbal compound in which the second syllable, the v2-stems cannot directly combine verb is fully inflected while the first verb, which is with them. One of the essential properties of always a loan from Nepali, is marked only with a Chintang v2 is that they require a disyllabic unit as verb nativizer morpheme -e. Although these three a host (prosodic subcategorization constraint, types of complex predicate constructions are Bickel et al. 2007). If there is not any inflectional suffix available to combine with the first ∑, an 126 epenthetic element -na is used to fulfill the suffixes such as -ŋ ‘1SG.A’ and -m ‘1NSG.A’ requirement. As soon as the first ∑ becomes di- including the third person undergoer -u ‘3P’. syllabic, a v2 is combined with it, then the output Examples (2a) and (3a) show that the compound is a derived stem ∑ which hosts a complete set of verb forms mettuŋbidukuŋ ‘to do for someone’ and inflectional affixes. The first ∑ is commonly huguŋbidukuŋ ‘to pay for someone’ have both inflected for one suffix, and the ∑ (the derived actor and undergoer suffixes marked on both one) with full range of inflectional affixes. member of the compounds. However, in examples Interestingly, in this regard, the derived ∑ also (2b) and (3b) only the undergoer is marked on the copies the markers which are already there in the verbs. v1. There are extremely few cases, for example, (2) a. mett-u-ŋ-bid-u-ku-ŋ the third person singular intransitive nonpast do-3P-1SG.A-BEN-3P-NPST-1SG.A subjunctive, which do not take any affix markers. b. mett-u-bid-u-ku-ŋ Table 1. The most common v2 verbs with their do-3P-BEN-3P-NPST-1SG.A function and meanings in Chintang Both: ‘I (will) do it for him.’ V2s Grammatical Lexical (3) a. hug-u-ŋ-bid-u-ku-ŋ function meaning pay-3P-1SG.A-BEN-3P-NPST-1SG.A -bid Benefactive I ‘give’ b. hug-u-bid-u-ku-ŋ -hatt Completive I ‘go/bring’ pay-3P-BEN-3P-NPST-1SG.A -gond Ambulative ‘search’ Both: ‘I pay for him.’ -li Return ‘back’ But if the first ∑ is followed by the past tense -yuŋ Durative ‘keep’ marking suffix -a, the person marking suffix is also -dhend - ‘put’ included. This is not obligatory, but it is very -loĩ - ‘take out’ common to include the person marking suffix in -dhett Beneactive II - such cases. This can be seen in examples (4a,b). -mett Causative ‘do’ (4) a. chapt-a-ŋ-bid-e-he~ -ci Completive II ‘eat’ write-PST-1SG.A-BEN-PST-1SG.A.PST -si/-set - ‘die/kill’ ‘I wrote it for (them).’ -dhend ‘put’ b. khatt-a-ŋ-bid-e-he~ The examples in (1a) and (1b) illustrate the take-PST-1SG.A-BEN-PST-1SG.A.PST morphological and phonological structure with the ‘I took it for (him/her).’ v2 stem -bid, which literally means ‘give’ and However, as I stated earlier, when there is no functions as a benefactive in this context, and - inflectional suffix to combine with the ∑, an gond ‘ambulative’. epenthetic morpheme -na appears in-between the first ∑ and v2s, which consequently fulfills the di- (1) a. [ ∑´ (ᵩ [ ∑ mett]-u)-bid]-u-ku-ce syllabic constraint of the ∑. In 'Free Prefix do-3P-BEN-3P-NPST-3NSG.P ordering in Chintang', Bickel et al. (2007) report ‘S/he does it for them.’ that there are two such cases under which no suffix is available for the ∑: the first one is with the non- b. [ ∑ (ᵩ [ ∑ rɨkt]-a)-gond]-a-c-a past maker -no/-nok suffix (5a) and (5b), which chase-IMP-AMB-IMP-D-IMP appears only on the v2; and the second condition ‘Chase away.’ emerges in third person singular intransitive [CLLDCh4R13S04.478] subjunctive forms (5c), which do not bear any suffixes. Inflectional suffixes can appear on both parts of the compound forms. Like in the above examples, (5) a. li-na-haʔ-no generally, only one suffix is attached to the v1 to be-NA-CML-NPST form a di-syllabic host. But some speakers in some ‘It becomes.’ [CLDLCh3R01S04.064a] cases also include the person marking nasal- 127 b. mett-na-bi-no b. ko-na-a-gon-no do-NA-BEN-NPST walk-NA-2SG-AMB-NPST ‘S/he does it for (someone).’ Both: ‘You (will) walk around.’ c. tan-na-yak=lok khic-nu porne However, prefixes cannot satisfy the requirement jump-NA-TEL=SIM record-INF of disyllabic host. So, the ∑ is inflected with the should.be past tense marker -a in (7), and the epenthetic -na ‘She should be recorded when she in (8), when there is no any suffixes in the first jumps.’ stem. Moreover, an epenthetic marker also appears when Interestingly more than one v2 can be combined the v2 is in hortative mood (6a), and also in the with a lexical verb, although this is not very nonpast subjunctive forms usually followed by the frequent like in Nepali (e.g., khai-di-hal-nu ‘eat- temporal sequential and temporal particle, as in give-put’). In the Chintang corpus, maximum three (6b) and (6c). v2s have been attested only with a single lexical verb. This type of compound is formed to give an (6) a. ca-na-ca=ne na extreme focus on the action. eat-NA-CML=HORT INSIST ‘Let her eat!’[CLDLCh2R02S02.274] (9) a. kɨp-ma-dheĩ-ma-bi-ma cut-INF-put-INF-BEN-INF b. huĩ man-na-haiʔ pache ‘It should be cut right away.’ DEM finish-NA-CML SEQ ‘After finishing that’ b. khamd-u-c-o-hatt-u-bid-a [CLDLCh2R02S02.588] chew-3P-CML-3P-CML-3P-BEN-IMP ‘Eat by chewing it!’ c. i-pakku=te thuŋ-na-di [CLLDCh1R03S01.0464] 2SG.POSS-uncle=FOC drink-NA-TEL pacche ololowa raiʔ-ma Generally, it is not possible to have the same SEQ IDEOPH make.noise-INF vector verb twice in a single compound verb. ‘Your uncle makes noise after There is only one example in our corpus where the drinking (alcohol).’ completive vector appears twice in a single [CLDLCh3R01S02.491] compound verbal form. But examples like in (10b) can be elicited Unlike in Athpare (Ebert 1997, p 71) and Bantawa (Doornenbal 2009, p 252), where prefixes appear (10) a. lon-na-haiʔ-waʔ-na-haiʔ as a rule only on the ∑, in Chintang prefixes can walk-NA-CML-TEL-NA-CML also appear on v2s just like suffixes. The following ‘S/he might walk.’ examples illustrate this with prefix u- ‘3NSG’. In [CLDLCh3R01S04.069] examples (7a) and (8a) the prefixes u- 3NSG and a- b. khamd-u-c-o-hatt-u-bid-u-hatt-e 2SG appear before the ∑, but in the examples (7b) chew-3P-CML-3P-CML-3P-BEN-3P-CML-PST and (8b) the same prefix appears before the v2. ‘He already ate by chewing it.’ These two orders are free variants of each other. (see Bickel et al. 2007 for a detail picture of The v1 and v2 compounds are usually so tightly grammatical and phonological word domains.) fused that they have lost their structural and semantic independence. In most of the cases, such (7) a. u-hab-a-gond-e compounds are contiguous; the only constituents 3NSG-cry-PST-AMB-PST that can freely intervene between the two verbs are b. hab-a-u-gond-e clitics. However, this type of interruption is not cry-PST-3NSG-AMB-PST critical for complex predicates and it is not unique Both: ‘They cried.’ to either Chintang, Belhare, a neghboring language (Bickel 1996:56) or a cross-linguistic perspective (8) a. a-ko-na-gon-no in South Asia. 2SG-walk-NA-AMB-NPST 128 The examples in (11a) and (11b) show that the (14) a. kha-u-khu mett-a-k-e restrictive particle =le and the focus particle =ta 1NSG.P-3NSG.A-carrycause-PST-IPFV-PST appear between the two verbs. The examples in ‘They made us carry it.’ (12a,b) illustrate that the emphatic particle =lo can [Bickel et al. 2007] appear inside the verbal complex or outside of the b. hunce-ko khu-ma-ce complex predicate. 3NSG-GEN carry-INF-NSG (11) a. pin-na=le-gon-no khu kha-u-mett-a-k-e run-NA=RESTR-AMB-NPST carry 1NSG.P-3NSG.A-cause-PST-IPFV-PST ‘She only runs away.’ ‘They made us carry their loads, luggage [CLLDCh4R11S06.587] or whatever stuff.’ [rana_pilgrim.061] b. thab-a=ta-ci-e The auxiliary mett- basically functions as a causa- come.level-PST=FOC-CML-PST tivizer, which adds a causer to the clause in the ‘She came.’ [warisama_talk.115] position of the subject. It can appear with both intransitive and transitive verbs. Added to intransi- (12) a. kɨp-ma=lo-dheĩ-ma naŋ tive verbs, the causative structure is transitivizing. cut-INF=SURP-put-INF BUT b. The causer is added as the subject of the clause, kɨp-ma-dheĩ-ma=lo naŋ while the former intransitive subject (S) is turned cut-INF-put-INF=SURP BUT into the primary object of the verb derived by the Both: ‘It should be cut.’ causative. This phenomenon is shown in the fol- [CLDLCh2R02S02.170] lowing table: Moreover, the two verbs of a complex predicate Table 2: Causative derivation with intransitive cannot be scrambled. They can be moved only as a verbs single unit. Any attempts to separate one of the Intran. Clause: S main verbs from its v2 compound are ill-formed. Trans. Clause: A(=causer) P(=former S) Like simple verbs, compound verbs can also V-CAUS appear in the infinitival form of the verb (12a,b) above or being inflected for the imperatives, as In the following examples, the intransitive verbs shown in (13a,b). hap ‘cry’, peĩ ‘fly’ and im ‘sleep’ are the base for the causative, leading to the transitive form hap (13) a. tɨŋs-ɨ-bid-a na mett- ‘cause someone to cry’, peĩ mett- ‘cause kick-3P-BEN-IMP INSIST something to fly’, and im mett- ‘cause someone to ‘Please kick on it.’ sleep’. [CLLDCh4R14S02.0628] (15) a. abo hap mett-e gonei b. ho mo rɨkt-a-gond-a-c-a now cry cause-PST ATTN 1 well CIT chase-IMP- ‘Now, she made him cry!’ AMB-IMP-D-IMP [Fieldwork_2010] ‘Yes, chase in this way!’ b akka peĩ mett-u-ku-ŋ [CLLDCh4R13S04.478] 1s fly cause-3P-NPST-1SG.A However, unlike v2 stems, auxiliaries are full- ‘I make (the dove) fly.’ fledged stems on their own, and so they do not [CLLDCh3R05S01 031] require disyllabic hosts. Instead they form periph- c. im met-na-ŋ-na-c-e aya rastic constructions together with a lexical verb sleep cause-REFL-PERF-REFL-REFL-PST (Bickel et al. 2007). In this case, either the lexical EXCLA verb (14a) or the auxiliary stem can be inflected, ‘Oh She has put herself to sleep.’ as in (15a). ǃ [CLDLCh2R02S02.564]
129 (16) hap na-mett-e the Chintang corpus. One of the major essential cry 3>2-CAUS-PST properties of Chintang v2s is that they require a ‘Did he make you cry?’ disyllabic host to maintain their prosodic [CLLDCh1R04S06.1547] subcategorization constraint. So the (v1) is augmented or supported by inflectional suffixes. If When the causative is added to the transitive verb, there is no any inflectional suffix available to the valency of the verb is not changed, but the sub- combine with the ∑, an epenthetic element ject and object positions are occupied by other originates automatically to fulfill the disyllabic participants than in the non-derived form: the requirement. Inflectional suffixes appear on both causer of the action appears in the subject position, the v1 and v2, but only the v2 is marked with the the former subject is changed into a primary object complete set of affixes. Clitics can intervene and the former primary object disappears from the between the two verbs. cross-reference marking in the verb. This is dem- onstrated in the following table: Abbreviations Table 3: Causative formation with transitive verbs 1 first person 2 second person Trans. Clause: A P V 3 third person Caus. Clause: A(=new) G(=former A) A agent T(=former P) V-CAUS AMB ambulative In the following example, the mother makes the ATTN attentive particle elder sister carry her sibling. The transitive verb BEN benefactive khur- ‘carry’ is the input for the causative to form CAUS cause khumett- ‘make someone carry something’. In this CIT citation particle form ‘elder sister’ is the object of the clause. CML completive D dual (17) amma-ŋa nicha u-nicha DEM demonstrative mother-ERG elder.sister 3sPOSS- ERG ergative case sibling EXCLA exclamatory particle khu mett-e FOC focus particle carry cause-PST G goal argument ‘The mother caused the elder sister to carry GEN genitive case her sibling.’ [Fieldwork_2010] HORT hortative case IDEOPH ideophone In a historical paper on compound verbs in Indo- IMP imperative Aryan languages, Sen (1968) notes that compound INF infinitive verbs represent highly polished style and are used INSIST insistive particle frequently in the ceremonial variety of a language. IPFV imperfective However, this is not the case in the Kiranti NA epenthetic languages including in Chintang. The study of the NPST nonpast Chintang corpus shows that the compound verb NSG non-singular forms are equally productive both in the day-to- P patient day and in the ritual variety of the Chintang PERF perfective language. POSS possessive 4. Summary PST past PTCL particle Like in many other South Asian languages, there is REFL reflexive an extensive use of v-v compounds in Chintang. RESTR restrictive particle Among the three different types of complex S subject predicates available in this language, the verbal SEQ sequential (v1+v2) compound is the most productive one in SG singular 130 SIM simultaneous Michailovsky, Boyd. 1985. Tibeto-Burman dental SURP surprise particle suffixes: evidence from Limbu. In Graham T theme argument Thurgood, James A. Matisoff & David Bradley TEL telic (eds.), Linguistics of the Sino-Tibetan Area:The State of the Art, 363 -- 375. Canberra: Pacific References Linguistics. Bickel, Balthasar, Manoj Rai, Netra Prasad Mohanan, T. 1990. Arguments in Hindi. PhD Paudyal, Goma Banjade, Toya Nath Bhatta, thesis, Stanford University. Martin Gaenszle, Elena Lieven, Ichchha Purna Opgenort, Jean Robert. 2002. The Wambule Rai, Novel Kishore Rai, and Sabine Stoll. 2010. Language. Grammar, Lexicon, Texts and The Syntax of three-argument verbs in Cultural Survey of a Rai- Kiranti Tribe Chintang and Belhare (Southeastern Kiranti). of Eastern Nepal. Ph.D. Thesis, Leiden In Malchukov, A., M. Haspelmath, & B. University, Amsterdam. Comrie (eds.) Studies in ditransitive Paudyal, Netra Prasad. 2013. Aspects of Chintang constructions: a comparative handbook, 383- Syntax. PhD Thesis, University of Zurich, 408. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Switzerland. Bickel, Balthsar. 2008. Aspects of Kiranti syntax: Pokharel, Madhav P. 1999. Compound verbs in grammatical relations. Paper presented at Nepali. In Contributions to Nepalese Studies. the Central Dept. of Linguistics, Tribhu- Vol. 18. No. 2: 149-173. van University, Kirtipur, August 14, 2008. Rutgers, Roland. 1998. Yamphu: Grammar, Texts Bickel, Balthar, Manoj Rai, Netra Prasad Paudyal, & Lexicon. Leiden: Research School CNWS. Goma Banjade, Toya Nath Bhatta, Martin Sen, Sukumar. 1968. Compound verbs in Indo- Gaenszle, Elena Lieven, Ichchha Purna Rai, Aryan languages. Indian Linguistics 27:21-5. Novel Kishore Rai, and Sabine Stoll. 2007. Tolsma, Gerard Jacobus. 1999. A grammar of Free prefix ordering in Chintang. Language. Kulung, Universiteit Leiden: Ph.D. Vol. 83, 44-73 dissertation. Bickel, Balthasar. 1996. Aspect, Mood and Time in Van Driem, George. 1987. A grammar of Limbu. Belhare. Studies in the Semantics – Pragmatics Ph.D. thesis, Leiden University, Berlin. Interface of a Himalayan Language. Universität van Driem, George. 1993. A Grammar of Dumi. Zürich Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Butt, Miriam. 1995. The Structure of Complex van Driem, George. 1990. ‘An exploration of Predicates in Urdu Stanford, CA: CSLI Proto-Kiranti verbal morphology’, Acta Publications. (Ph.D. Thesis, 1993) Linguistica Hafniensia 22:27-48 Doornenbal, Marius Albert. 2009. A Grammar of Weidert, Alphons and Bikram Subba. 1985. Bantawa, LOT Publications, Utrecht, The Concise Limbu Grammar and Dictionary. Netherlands. Amsterdam: Lobster. Ebert, Karen H. 1997a. A Grammar of Athpare. Wolfenden, Stuart N. 1929. Outlines of Tibeto- Lincom Europa. Munich Buman linguistic morphology. London: Ebert, Karen H. 1997b. Camling. Lincom Europa. Royal Asiatic Society. Munich Hook, Peter. E. 1974. The Compound Verb in Hindi. Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies: The University of Michigan.
Lahaussois, Aimee. 2002. Aspects of the grammar of Thulung Rai: an endangered Himalayan language. Ph.D. Thesis, University of California. Masica, Colin P. 1976. Defining a Linguistic Area: South Asia. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 131 Finite state approach to Nepali adjectives Balaram Prasain Central Department of Linguistics, TU
This paper attempts to group Nepali adjectives group of non-o-ending adjectives take feminine according to their formal behavior and gender marker and another sub-group, especially implement them to create finite state transducer Sanskrit loan adjectives, inflects for comparative for each group. All the finite state transducers and superlative forms. Table 3.45 lists some o- are composed into a single one, which can ending and some non-o-ending adjectives. analyze and generate the adjectives in Nepali Table 1: O-ending and non-o-ending adjectives according to two-level morphology: lexical level and surface level. Devanagari script is employed O-ending Non-o-ending while creating the finite state transducers. ramro 'good' ʌsʌl 'good' 1. Background kalo 'black' tsʌtur 'clever' Adjectives in Nepali are the words indicating kʰʌsro 'coarse' lʌgʰu 'small' quality, quantity and frequency generally mʰito 'sweet' purwija 'related to modifying the nouns. The adjectives show various east' kinds of morphological features such as stem final: o-ending and non-o-ending, number, b. Number gender, honorificity, form and degree. Adjectives in Nepali show two dimensions of The approach applied for this study is finite state number: singular and plural. The number technology based on two-level morphology distinction is found only in o-ending adjectives. Koskeniemmi 1983). The theoretical concepts ( The citation form of o-ending adjective as are discussed elsewhere in Prasain (2012) and ramro further details can be found in Jurafsky and in (1) changes to the a-ending as ramra in (2) for Martin (2000). Analyzed adjectives, along with plural. morphological tags have been implemented into (1) the computer for computational purpose using the euta̺ ramro keto̺ a-jo Xerox Finite State Toolkit developed by Beesley one.CL good.SG boy.SG come-PST.3SG.MASC and Karttumen (2003). 'A handsome boy came.' The paper is organized into four sections. Section (2) duita̺ ramra keta̺ a-je 2 describes the characteristic features of Nepali two.CL good.PL boy.PL come-PST.3PL adjectives; section 3 classifies the adjectives 'Two handsome boys came.' according to their formal behavior and creates finite state transducer for each group. Section 4 Table 2 lists some adjectives that show the summaries the findings. singular and plural form and this number feature in the adjectives agree with the number feature of 2. Characteristics of adjectives in Nepali the head noun in the noun phrase. a. Significant stem finals Table 2: Number: singular and plural The adjectives in Nepali, like that of nouns, show good black coarse old the binary division between o-ending adjectives Singular ramro kalo kʰʌsro budʰ̺ o and non-o-ending adjectives. The o-ending Plural adjectives inflect for number, gender, form and ramra kala kʰʌsra budʰ̺ a honorificity. These adjectives agree with the features carried over by the head nouns that they modify. The non-o-ending adjectives are not consistent in their formal behavior. Rather a sub- Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 134-138 c. Gender (6) euta̺ ramra keta-le̺ one.CL good.SG boy.OBL-ERG Adjectives in Nepali that are o-ending show prʌstaw rakʰ-eko tsʰʌ masculine and feminine gender. The o-ending proposal keep-PERF be.NPST.3SG.MASC adjective such as ramro in (3) changes to the iː- 'A handsome boy has proposed.' ending as in (4) showing masculine and ramriː Table 4 lists some examples of adjectives feminine alternation. Some of the non-o-ending showing the direct and oblique forms adjectives change into feminine adjective with the Table 4: Form: direct and oblique suffix -niː (alternatevely -iniː and -eniː). good black coarse old Direct kalo (3) euta̺ ramro keto̺ ramro kʰʌsro budʰ̺ o Oblique one.CL good.SG boy.SG ramra kala kʰʌsra budʰ̺ a a-jo e. Honorificity come-PST.3SG.MASC Adjectives in Nepali show two levels of 'A handsome boy came.' honorificity: non-honorific and honorific. The o- (4) euta̺ ramri keti̺ ending adjectives as ramro in (7) changes into a- one.CL good.FEM boy.FEM.SG ending as in (8) showing non-honorific ramra a-i and honorific, respectively. come-PST.3SG.FEM 'A beautiful boy came.' (7) tʌ̃ ramro 2SG.NHON good.NHON Table 3 lists some examples of adjectives tsʰʌs showing the gender change. The gender be.NPST.2SG.NHON distinction depends on the head noun. If head 'You are good.' noun refers to human, then only the gender is functional. (8) timi ramra tsʰʌu Table 3: Gender: masculine and feminine 2SG.HON good.HON be.NPST.2SG.HON 'You are good.' Good black clever rural Masc Table 5 lists some examples of adjectives ramro kalo tsʌturʌ pakʰe showing the honorifcity. Fem ramriː kaliː tsʌturniː pʌkʰiniː Table 5: Honorificity: non-honorific and d. Form honorific Adjectives in Nepali show two forms: direct and good black coarse old oblique. The o-ending adjective as ramro in (5) Non- ramro kalo kʰʌsro budʰ̺ o honorific shows oblique form and it changes to a-ending as Honorific ramra kala kʰʌsra budʰ̺ a in (6) showing oblique form. ramra (5) euta̺ ramro keto̺ f. Degree one.CL good.SG boy.SG Native adjectives in Nepali do not inflect for a-ũdʌi tsʰʌ degree. The degrees in adjectives are handled come-IMPER be.NPST.3SG syntactically. But the Sanskrit loan adjectives 'A handsome boy is coming.' show three levels of degree morphologically: positive, comparative and superlative. The 135 positive adjective is unmarked as njuːnʌ in (9). Table 7: O-ending adjectives The comparative degree is indicated by a suffix - Tags good Black coarse old tʌr as njuːnʌ-tʌr in (10) and superlative by a +ADJ+SG ramro kalo kʰʌsro budʰ̺ o suffix -tʌm as njuːnʌ-tʌm in (11). +ADJ+PL ramra kala kʰʌsra budʰ̺ a ɦamro amdani njuːnʌ tsʰʌ (9) +ADJ+OBL ramra kala kʰʌsra budʰ̺ a our income less be.NPST.3SG.MASC +ADJ+HON 'Our income is less.' ramra kala kʰʌsra budʰ̺ a +ADJ+FEM (10) ɦamro amdani njuːnʌ-tʌr ramri kali kʰʌsri budʰ̺ i
our income less-COMP The finite state transducer illustrated in Figure 1 tsʰʌ is capable of analyzing and generating the o- be.NPST.3SG.MASC ending adjectives and their forms illustrated in 'Our income is lesser.' Table 8.
(11) ɦamro amdani njuːnʌ-tʌm our income less-SUPL tsʰʌ be.NP.3SG.MASC 'Our income is least.' Table 6 lists some examples of Sanskrit loan adjectives that show three degrees.
Table 6: Degree: positive, comparative and Figure 1: A finite state transducer for o- superlative ending adjectives Tags less rigorous The phonological rules given in PR 1 are POSIT njuːnʌ gʌɦʌnʌ compiled into a finite state transducer and COMP composed with finite state transducer illustrated njuːnʌ-tʌrʌ gʌɦʌnʌ-tʌrʌ in Figure 1. SUPER njuːnʌ-tʌmʌ gʌɦʌnʌ-tʌmʌ PR 3.9 3 Classification of adjectives i. Stem final vowel ◌ो o of the o-ending On the basis of characteristic features of adjectives of the lower language (.i.e, surface adjectives in Nepali as discussed in (3.4.1), the level) is changed to vowel ◌ा a for plural, adjectives are classified into two major groups. oblique and honorificity. The first one is o-ending adjectives whereas the second one is non-o-ending adjectives. Regular expression: ◌ो -> ◌ा || _ .#. a. O-ending adjectives ii. Stem final vowel ◌ो o of the o-ending adjectives of the lower language (.i.e, surface All the o-ending adjectives are grouped in a level) is changed to vowel for feminine class. The adjectives in this group inflect for ◌ी iː number, gender, form and honorificity. The gender. inflection in the adjectives has direct relation with Regular expression: ◌ो -> ◌ी || _ .#. the head noun which it modifies because there is feature agreement between head noun and b. Non-o-ending adjectives modifier adjective. Table 7 lists some examples of o-ending adjectives. Non-o-ending adjectives in Nepali form a group which includes both marked and unmarked 136 adjectives. Marked adjectives mean those which Regular expression: य ◌ा -> [ ] || _ न ◌ी .#. take some sort of marking such as feminine marker, comparative marker and superlative Type 2 Those non-o-ending adjectives in Nepali maker. that inflect for comparative and superlative forms are grouped in this class. The adjectives in this i. Marked adjectives group, in fact, are Sanskrit loan adjectives. The Type 1: Those non-o-ending adjectives in Nepali adjectives in this group take the comparative that inflect for gender: masculine and feminine marker -tʌrʌ and superlative maker -tʌmʌ have been grouped in this class. The citation form forming the comparative and superlative forms is masculine in gender and maker -niː-iniː when respectively. Table 9 lists some examples of suffixed to changes to feminine gender. Table Sanskrit loan adjectives. 3.52 lists some adjectives of this group. Table 9: Type 2 marked adjectives Table 8: Type 1 marked adjectives Tags less small Tags clever cunning of east +ADJ+POSIT njuːnʌ lʌgʰu ADJ+MASC tsʌturʌ dʰurtʌ purwija +ADJ+COMP njuːnʌ-tʌrʌ lʌgʰu-tʌrʌ ADJ+FEM tsʌturni dʰurtini purwini +ADJ+SUPER njuːnʌ-tʌmʌ lʌgʰu-tʌmʌ The finite state transducer illustrated in Figure 2 The finite state transducer illustrated in Figure 3 is capable of analyzing and generating the non-o- is capable of analyzing and generating the non-o- ending type 1 adjectives and their forms ending type 2 adjectives and their forms illustrated in Table 8. illustrated in Table 9. In this class of adjectives, no rules are involved.
Figure 2: A finite state transducer for Figure 3: A finite state transducer for Type 1 marked adjectives Sanskrit loan adjectives The phonological rules involved in this process ii. Unmarked adjectives are given in PR 1 which are compiled and composed with finite state transducer illustrated All those non-o-ending adjectives in Nepali which in Figure 2. never take any marker are grouped in this class. The adjective in this class remains unaltered. PR 2 Table 10 lists some examples of unmarked i. Halant ◌् is inserted between consonant adjectives.
symbol and feminine gender marker नी niː at
the surface level. Table 10: Unmarked mdjectives Regular expression: [. .] -> ◌ ् || liquids _ न ◌ी Tags gentle bad new rich .#. +ADJ ʌsʌlkʰʌrab nʌjã dʰʌni ii. या ja is deleted before the feminine gender The finite state transducer illustrated in Figure 4 marker नी niː at the surface level. is capable of analyzing and generating the non-o- 137 ending unmarked adjective forms illustrated in References Table 10. Adhikari, Hemanga. 2062VS. Samasaamayik Nepali vyakaran (Contemporary Nepali grammar). 3rd edn. Kathmandu: Vidhyarthi Pustak Bhandar. Beesley, Kenneth R. and Lauri Karttumen. 2003. Finite state morphology. CSLI Publications. Jurafsky, Daniel and James H. Martin. 2000. Speech and language processing: an introduction to natural language processing, Figure 4: A finite state transducer for unmarked computational linguistics and speech adjectives recognition. Pearson Education. The finite state transducers in Figure 1, 2, 3 and 4 Koskeniemmi, Kimmo. 1983. Two-level are combined into a single finite state transducer morphology: a general computational model using composition operator .o. which can analyze for word-form recognition and production. and generate Nepali adjectives. Ph.D. thesis. University of Helsinki. Prasain, Balaram. 2012. A computational analysis 4 Conclusion of Nepali morphology: A model for natural On the basis of formal behavior, Nepali adjectives language Processing. Ph.D. diss, Tribhuvan are classified into major two classes: o-ending University, Kathamndu. and non-o-ending. Non-o-ending adjectives are further classified into marked and unmarked classes. For each group, the finite state transducers are created and composed into single transducer which can analyze and generate Nepali adjectives according to two-level morphology. Abbreviations
1 = First Person 2 = Second Person 3 = Third Person ADJ = Adjective CL = Classifier COMP = Comparative FEM = Feminine HON = Honorific IMPER = Imperfect MASC = Masculine NPST = Non-past OBL = Oblique PERF = Perfect PL = Plural POSIT = Positive PST = Past SG = Singular SUPER = Superlative
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Subordination in Dumi Netra Mani Rai [email protected]
This paper attempts to describe the subordination of the east Himalayish languages of Tibeto- in Dumi. It exhibits three basic types of Burman family. Dumi is a minor ethnic group in subordinate clauses (complement, relative and eastern Nepal, most of them living in hilly area of Northern Khotang district in the Sagarmatha zone adverbial). There are two types of both of eastern Nepal. complement clauses (subject and object) and relative clauses (non-finite and finite). Based on The Dumi people living in the Makpa, Jalapa and situational contexts, Dumi employs the adverbial Kharmi areas call their language Dumi Brʌ 'Dumi clauses: time, location, conditional, concessive, language' whereas it is pronounced as 'Dumi Bʌ manner, purpose, reason etc. or, Bo 'Dumi language' in Baksila and Sapteshwor areas. There is to some extent variation in 1. Introduction pronunciation and vocabularies. The language This paper attempts to examine the subordination transmission is gradually declining in Kharmi, in Dumi. The description is within the functional Sapteshwor, Baksila, Jalapa and Makpa in typological framework primarily developed by descending order and the majority of speakers Lehmann (1988), Givón (2001), Haspelmath except in Makpa area are quite limited aged Dumi (2004) and Payne (2006). Forming the continuum people. in between the highest and the least degree of The origin of the Dumi language is especially the grammatical integration in a natural language, five VDCs (i.e. Makpa, Jalapa, Baksila, Kharmi there occur complex expressions like serial verb and Sapteshwor) in northern Khotang district of constructions, complement clauses, adverbial eastern Nepal. It is currently noticed that the clauses, clause chains, relative clauses and language has mainly three dialects distinctly coordination. The main purpose of this study is to separated with the geographical boundaries: analyze one of the morphosyntactic strategies (i.e. western (Makpa area), southern-east (Jalapa- subordination) employed to form the complex Kharmi) and northern-east (Baksila-Sapteshwor). constructions in Dumi. There exists different ways of combining basic Although some linguistic works have been done in clauses to form more complex structures: non- Dumi, there is still no document that studied on finite clauses and finite clauses. In this paper, we the subordination in this language. From formal will discuss several morphosyntactic strategies and functional perspectives, no attempt has yet employed to form such complex construction that been made to provide a detailed analysis and involve combinations of clauses in Dumi. This description of the complex expressions in this study is based on the primary data which is language. elicited in recent sociolinguistic field survey Dumi is potentially endangered (Yadava, 2001) (2013) carried out by the Linguistic Survey of and preliterate language spoken by an estimated Nepal 'LinSuN' in the origin of Dumi in northern 2,550 (Rai and Thokar, 2013) of 7,638 (i.e.33.4%) Khotang district of eastern Nepal. 1 ethnic Dumi . Along with other Kirati languages, Subordination refers to a morphosyntactic process Dumi has been classified as one of the members of combining two clauses. Defining 'subordination', Crystal (1997:443) expresses his 1 National Census of Nepal 2011 view that it is a grammatical process of linking linguistic units so that they have different Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 139-147 syntactic status, one being the dependent upon the In (1a), the case relation of the complement is other and usually a constituent of the other.' ablative, marked by the suffix –la 'from' in Dumi. Non-reduced nominalized clauses can be In this grammatical strategy to form complex complements to verbs of cognition or sensation as expressions, one clause is dependent on or is in (1b). embedded to the other. Syntactically, the subordinate clause is not equal to the main clause (1b) aŋu odusumua ki dʰitʰʌtnim doktu as it is dependent. According to Kroeger (2005), a subordinate clause is one which functions as a aŋu-a o-dusu-mu-a dependent rather than a co-head. In this paper, we 1SG-ERG 1SG.GEN-friend-PL-ERG will discuss three basic types of subordinate clause: Complement clauses, Relative clauses and ki dʰi-tʰʌt-nim dok-tu Adjunct or Adverbial clauses. yam dig-PROG-NMLZ see-1SG.PST Describing the subordination as the ‘I saw that my friends were digging morphosyntactic processes of the complex yam.’ expressions in Dumi, this paper is basically In (1b), the verb dʰitʰʌtnim 'digging' shows the organized into four sections. In section 2, we nominalized clauses as complements of cognition examine the complement clauses. Section 3 looks or sensation. at relative clauses. In section 4, we deal with the adverbial clauses. Finally, in section 5, we There are two types of complement clauses: subject complement and object complement. In summarize the major findings of the paper. Dumi, these both complement clauses are non- 2 Complement clauses finite clauses. In functional perspective, complement clause is 2.1 Subject complement clauses also known as the verbal complement. The In Dumi, subject complement clauses occur in the complement clauses function as subject or object initial position of the matrix clause as in (2a-b). arguments of other clauses (Givón, 2001). Syntactically, the subordinate clauses embedded (2a) kʰliba tˢamum tuma ugo tˢaiju in the verb phrase. According to Kroeger (2005), complement clauses are clauses that occur as kʰliba tˢam-umtum-a complements of a verb and are required the sub- dog lose- NMLZ matter-ERG categorization features of the verb. The subordinate clause can be identified as a u-go tˢai-ju complement clause as in (1a). 3SG.GEN-soul make upset-PST
(1a) aŋu norola tambi pijom 'That the dog lost made her upset.' aŋu noro-la
1SG noro- ABL tambi pi-jom here come-PERF 'I came here from Norung.'
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tˢuk-tani (2b) tˢu tˢʰukum tuma unu hursi know-PL.NPST tˢu tˢʰuk-um 'Everyone knows that the earth is baby born-NMLZ round.' tum-a u-nu In (3a), the clause with non-finite forms of the 3SG.GEN-soul matter-ERG verb kilta 'windy' is the complement clause which hurs-i functions as the object argument of the finite verb gota. Likewise, the clause with non-finite forms of be happy-3SG.PST the verb gota 'is' is the complement clause which 'Child's birth made him happy.' functions as the object argument of the finite verb In (2a), the clauses with non-finite verb form tˢuktani in (3b). tˢamum 'lost' is the complement clause which 3. Relative clauses functions as the subject complement (i.e. Relative clauses are also known as adnominal nominalized forms) of the finite verb t aiju 'made ˢ clauses and are attributed nominalized clauses. upset'. Similarly, in example (2b), the clause with The nominalizer agrees in number with the head non-finite verb form tˢʰukum 'born' is the nouns. They are either maximally reduced complement clause which functions as the subject participial clauses, or they contain fully marked complement (i.e. nominalized forms) of the finite verbs followed by a nominalizer as in (4a-c). verb hursi 'made happy'. (4a) amua pʰiŋnim alʌmdzʌm mambi gota. 2.2 Object complement clauses a-mu-a pʰiŋ-nim In Dumi, the object complement clauses occur in 2 SG.GEN -mother-ERG send-NML the initial position of the matrix clause same as the subject complement clauses, as in (3a-b). a-lʌmdzʌm mambi got-a. 2SG.GEN-food there be-NPST (3a) hi kilta aksa aŋulai lʌm gota ÔYour food which your mother sent you hi kilt-a ak-sa is over there. wind blow-NPST say-NMLZ Õ
aŋu-lai lʌm got-a (4b) um asu aksa aŋua tˢuktum gota. 1SG-ERG aware be -NPST umasu ak-sa 'I am sure that it will be windy.' 3SG who say-NML aŋu-a tˢuk-tum got-a. (3b) tʰampu kʰriripa gota aksa dzʰaraa 1SG -ERG know-PERF be-NPST tˢuktani ‘I have known who she is.’ tʰampu kʰriripa got-a earth round be-3SG. NPST ak-sa dzʰara-a say-NMLZ everyone-ERG 141
(5c) aŋua daptum tˢi limsa gota aŋu-a dap-tum tˢi (4c) ania akimbi hamhʌmmulai mo abini ? 1SG-erg taste-NMLZ local beer
ani-a kim-bi limsa got-a 2SG-ERG house-LOC sweet be-NPST ham-hʌ-m-mu-lai mo 'The local beer I tasted is sweet.' PL-come-PERF-PL-DAT what In (5a-c), lʌlʌ tupsa, dza dzim and daptum tˢi pre- a-bi-ni. modify the head minu, tˢu:tˢu and tˢi thereby 2-give-PL .PST function as nominal modifiers. the nominalized ‘What did you give to them who came to your house?’ verb tupsa in the relative clause lʌlʌ tupsa in (5a) refers to the activity that minu performs or the In (4a-c), the verbs pʰiŋnim 'sent', tˢuktum quality that the head possesses. Similarly, in (5b) 'known' and hamhʌm 'come' with the nominalizer the verb in perfect aspect dzim in the relative show the relative or adnominal clauses in the respective situations. clause dza dzim restricts the head tˢu:tˢu with the reference to the activity that the head has In Dumi, relative clauses are pronominal as they occur as nominal pre-modifiers to the head as in performed. Likewise, (5c) the verb in perfective (5a-c). aspect daptum in the relative clause daptum tˢi restricts the head tˢi with the reference to the (5a) lʌlʌ tupsa minu asnʌmka mitˢi quality that has shown/performed. lʌlʌ tup-sa minu 4. Adverbial clauses ornament make-NMLZ man Adverbial clause is also known as the adjunct asnʌmka mitˢ-i clauses which functions as an adjunct or adverbial yesterday die-PST element of another clause. In Dumi, it is employed adverbial clauses to provide the situational context 'The man who made ornament died for the event as described in the main clause. yesterday.' Adverbial or manner clause marked by <-tʰe>, specify the way in which an action is carried out. (5b) dza dzim tˢu:tˢu supʰu They are attributed to the verb and hence is ‘adverbial’ and consequently take the position dza dzi-m before the verb as in (6a-b). rice eat-PERF (6a) hopubrʌ kʰanotʰe adzeta tˢu:tˢu supʰ-u hopu-brʌ kʰan-o-tʰe child be full-PST own-language well-IPFV-MAN 'The child who ate rice became full.' a-dze-ta
2-speak-IPFV ‘You speak own language well.’
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(7b) aŋua brʌttoka um tambi pita (6b) u-mupu bʰentʰe jʌkto aŋu-a brʌt-to-ka
u-mupu bʰen-tʰe 1SG-ERG call-NMLZ-after 3SG.GEN-stomach become full-MAN um tambi pita
jʌk-to 3SG here come feed-1SG:NPST ‘I feed him to make his stomach full.’ 'She will come here after I call her.' In (7a-b), the subordinators have been affixed to In (6a-b), the verbs kʰanotʰe and bʰentʰe refer to the root of the verbs of the subordinate clauses. the adverbial or manner clauses. The forms of the verbs in both examples are in Functionally, there are seven types of complex non-finite forms. expressions categorized as adverbial clauses: time 4.2 Location adverbial clauses adverbial, location adverbial, manner adverbial, purpose adverbial, reason adverbial, concessive Dumi employs the interrogative pronoun kʰʌmu adverbial and conditional adverbial. The function, 'where' to indicate location in the subordinate form and distribution of such adverbial clauses are clauses as in (8a-b). discussed below: (8a) ani kʰʌmu akʰusta mambiŋa aŋu jo 4.1 Time adverbial clauses kʰusto In Dumi, the time adverbial clauses are non-finite ani kʰʌmu a-kʰust-a clause, which are used to provide information about the relative temporal ordering of the two or 2SG where 2-go-2SG. NPST more events. The verbs in the adverbial clauses mambi-ŋaaŋu are typically morphologically marked by two types subordinating affixes -lamlu 'before' and –ka there-EMPH 1SG 'after'. The verb marked by the suffix -lamlu ' before' indicates the preceding event whereas the jo kʰust-o verb affixed by -ka 'after' signifies events as in PRT go- 1SG.NPST (7a-b). 'I will go there where you go.' (7a) kathmandu pinalamlu aŋu luklabi moŋu (8b) um kʰʌmbi hota mambiŋa aŋu jo moto Kathmandu pina-lamlu ani kʰʌmu a-kʰust-a Kathmandu come-before 2SG where 2-go-2SG. NPST aŋu lukla-bi mo-ŋu mambi-ŋaaŋu
1SG Lukla-LOC be-1SG.PST there-EMPH 1SG 'I lived in Lukla before I came in jo kʰust-o Kathmadu.' PRT go- 1SG.NPST
'I will be there where he comes.'
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Unlike the time adverbial clauses in (8a-b), the 4.4 Purpose adverbial clauses location adverbial clauses are finite subordinate Dumi employs non-finite form of the verb two clauses having independent aspect/tense marking types of subordinators to form purpose adverbial in their verbs in Dumi. clauses. They are affixed to the root of the verbs 4.3 Manner adverbial clauses as in (10a-c).
The manner adverbial clauses formed by (10a) uma nu tuna sodza jukta employing the interrogative pronouns are finite um-a nu tu-na subordinate clauses in Dumi as in (9a). 3SG-ERG name keep-INF (9a) aŋua mo asto mam ŋa muta sodza jukt-a aŋu-a mo ast-o money distribute-NPST 1SG-ERG what say-1SG.NPST 'He distributes money to be mam ŋa mut-a famous.'
that EMPH do-3SG.NPST (10b) pipi dumkubi nini hamhʌlʌ ‘(He) does what I say.' pipi dum-kubi In (9a), the clause with the interrogative pronoun grandmother meet-PURP mo ‘what’ is the manner finite subordinate clause nini ham-hʌ-lʌ in Dumi. aunt HON-arrive-PST The manner adverbial clauses are non-finite ‘Aunt arrived to meet clauses embedded in the matrix clause in Dumi as grandmother.’ in (9b).
(9b) ania tˢia sekʰe tum amuta (10c) uŋku anilukubi huk-ta
ani-a tˢi-a uŋku ani 1PL (excl.) 2SG 2SG-ERG local beer-ERG lu-kubi huk-ta se-kʰe tum take-PURP come-1PL(excl.)-IPFV got drunk-NMLZ talk ‘We will come to take you.’
a-mut-a It is quite obvious from the example in (10a-c) 2-do-2SG.NPST that the purpose adverbial clauses are non-finite clauses. In (10a) the verbal affix -na ‘to’ has been ‘You talk as if you got drunk.' employed as a subordinator to form a purpose clause. In (10b-c), both main and subordinate In (9b), non-finite clause embedded in the matrix clauses have the equi-subjects, which are deleted clause employs heŋa 'as same as' in the complex in the subordinate clauses. subordinate clause. In (10b-c), the verbal affix -kubi ‘for’ is used for
the purpose adverbial clause. In (10b), the speaker tells a person to arrive for the purpose of meeting her grandmother. Likewise, the speaker tells a 144
person to come for the purpose of taking her/him lang.-ABL 3PL-speak-IPFV-CONC in (10c). susu-brʌ hul-detta-ni 4.5 Reason adverbial clauses Nepali-language mix- IPFV-3P The non-finite form of the reason clause consists L of the root of the verb affixed by the nominalizer - ‘Nowadays all even if they speak m followed by the ergative/instrumental case own-language they mix with Nepali.’ marker -a as in (11a-b). (11a) swaalʌma tˢu:tˢua boloŋa dudu tuŋu (12b) um sampel tˢʰuku kʰojo sampʰarsa swaa-lʌm-a tˢu:tˢu-a mota hungry-NMLZ-ERG child- ERG umsampel tˢʰuk-u 3SG weak be-PST bolo-ŋa dudu tuŋ-u kʰojo sampʰarsa mot-a early-EMPH milk drink-NPST although couragious be-NPST 'The child drank milk early because 'Although he is weak, he is she was hungry.' courageous.'
(11b) hu jema kʰliba dzʰitˢi (12c) pabi natˢur muta kʰojo dzʰaraa hu-jem-a kʰliba jattani pabi natˢur mut-a rain fall-ERG dog Pabi do-NPST dzʰitˢ-i jealous kʰojo dzʰaraa jattani get wet-NPST although everyone like-NPST 'The dog got wet because it rained.' 'Although Pabi is jealous, everyone In (11a-b), adverbial clauses of reason are formed by the use of a cluster of subordinating likes him.' morphemes: -m-a 'because'. The concessive adverbial clauses in (12a-c) are 4.6 Concessive adverbial clauses non-finite clauses. 4.7 Conditional adverbial clauses In Dumi, the root of the verb is suffixed by –kʰojo in order to reflect a contrast of some sort between Dumi makes use of two types of conditional clauses: probable and hypothetical. The root of the the main and the subordinate clause as in (12a-c). verb is affixed by the marker –kʰo in the probable (12a) atasaba dzʰara hopu brʌlaka type of conditional clause as in (13a-c). hamdzetakʰojo susubrʌ huldettani atasaba dzʰara hopu nowadays all own brʌ-laka ham-dze-ta-kʰojo
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(13a) hu jetakʰo asijo hamhotano of them are non-finite clauses and are embedded within the matrix. hu jet-a-kʰo There are two types of relative clauses: non-finite rain fall-NPST-COND and finite. The non-finite relative clauses are asijo ham-hot-a-no formed by nominalization whereas the finite relative clauses are formed by employing nobody PL-present-NPST-NEG interrogative pronouns. Dumi employs different types of adverbial clauses like time adverbial 'If it rains, no one will present.' clauses, location adverbial clauses, conditional adverbial clauses, concessive adverbial clauses, (13b) ani kʰʌksakʰo aŋu jo kʰusto manner adverbial clauses, purpose adverbial clauses, reason adverbial clauses to provide the ani kʰʌk-sa-kʰo situational context for the event (or state) 2SG go-NMLZ-COND described in the main clause. The verbs in aŋu jo kʰust-o majority of the adverbial clauses in Dumi are morphologically marked by subordinating affixes. 1SG EMPH go-1SG.NPST ‘If you go, I shall also go.’ Abbreviations 1 first person (13c) nam gʰrimtakʰo um pitanʌ 2 second person 3 third person nam gʰrim-ta-kʰo ABL ablative sun set-3SG.NPST-COND ABS absolutive COM Comitative um pi-ta-nʌ CONC Concessive 3SG come-NPT.1SG-NEG COND conditional ‘She will not come if it becomes dark.’ DAT dative EMPH emphatic In (13a-c), the conditional clauses are expressed ERG ergative with the help of a topic marker preceded by a excl. exclusive conditional particle -kʰo, as in jetakʰo, kʰʌksakʰo, GEN genitive gʰrimtakʰo show the conditional markers. HLH Himalayish HON honorific 5. Summary IMP imperative The evidence presented in this paper suggests that IMPER imperfective there is the morphosyntactic strategies called incl. inclusive 'subordination' employed to form the complex INF infinitive constructions in Dumi. The description is within INSTR instrumental the functional typological framework. The IPFV imperfective subordinate clause functions as a dependent, LG language rather than a co-head. The three basic types of LOC locative subordinate clauses are: complement clauses, MAN manner relative clauses and adverbial clauses. There are NEG negative two types of complement clauses: subject NMLZ nominalizer complement and object complement clauses. Both NPST non-past PL plural
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PERF perfective PROG progressive PRT particle PST past PURP Purposive SG singular References Central Bureau of Statistics. 2011. Population Census 2011: National Report. Kathmandu: Central Bureau of Statistics. Ebert, Karen. 1997. A Grammar of Athpare. LINCOM EUROPA, LINCOM STUDIES IN ASIAN LINGUISTICS Givón, Talmy. 2001. Syntax: An introduction, vol. 1. John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam/Philadelphia Givón, Talmy. 2001. Syntax: An introduction, vol. 2. John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam/Philadelphia Haiman, John and Sandra A. Thompson, eds. 1988. Clause Combining in Grammar and Discourse. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Haspelmath, Martin, ed. 2004. Coordinating constructions. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Haspelmath, Martin, ed. 2004. Coordinating constructions. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Kroeger, Paul R.2005. Analysing Grammar: An introduction. Cambridge University Press. Payne, Thomas E.1997. Describing Morposyntax: A Guide for Field Linguists.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Payne, Thomas E.2006. Exploring Language Structure: A Student’s Guide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rai. Netra Mani. 2008. Dumi verb morphology. M.A. Thesis. Kathmandu: Central Department of Linguistics, T.U. Regmi, Dan Raj. 2011. "Clause combining strategies in Bhujel: A Tibeto-Burman language of Nepal." Curriculum Development Journal, volume 25. van Driem, George. 1993. A Grammar of Dumi. Mouton Grammar Library 10. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin, New York. 147
Discourse continuity in Koyee Tara Mani Rai [email protected]
This paper attempts to analyze the discourse in Discourse is a human communication (Payne, Koyee within the theoretical frame work (Givón, 1997:344). It normally consists of strings of 1983a; and Payne, 1997). Discourse has tri- clauses, i.e. linguistic instantiations of partite propositions which are surfaced as topic, 3 proposition . There are three types of continuity: action and thematic continuity. In Koyee, discourse continuity has been employed under the topic/participant, action continuity and thematic tri-partite propositions where topic or participant (Givón 1983a:7). This division is reasonably continuity tends to appear much more productive well-defined and serves as the convenient than those of other propositions in terms of framework regarding the discourse-structuring morphosyntactic level. devices of a language. Also these three 1. Introduction continuities bridge the gaps between the macro and micro organizational levels of language. Koyee1 is one of the Rai Kiranti languages of the Himalayish sub-group within Tibeto-Burman Of the three, thematic continuity is considered group of Sino-Tibetan language family. The term overall matrix for all other continuities in the 'Koyee' refers to the people as well as the discourse. It also preserves topic and action continuity. The implicational hierarchy is given in language they speak. Although Koyee language is (2). We organize this paper into five sections. We originally spoken in Sungdel and Rawa Dipsung, discuss topic/ participant continuity in section 2. it is also spoken in some other places of Jhapa, Section 3 analyses the action and 4 invstigates the Morang, Sunsari, Kathmandu districts by the thematic continuity. We summarize the findings migrated Koyee speakers. The latest Census 2011 of the paper in section 5. gives the number of mother tongue speakers as (2) THEME> ACTION> TOPICS/PARTICIPANTS 1,271 which is 0.0054 percent of the total 2. Topic/participant continuity population 26,494,504. But the distribution of the speakers mentioned in the Census 2011 is not Topic continuity refers to the fact that discourse reliable which needs more exploration. There are tends to evoke the same referents over and over no obvious dialects in Koyee language 2 . again (Payne, 1997:344). Pronouns and other referential devices are morphosyntactic means of However, Hanßon (1991) mentions that there are expressing this kind of continuity, as well as its two dialects namely, Sungdel and Behere (Byare). converse, topic discontinuity that precede new unexpected referents. Typologically, there are 1 The original speakers of this language prefer to be certain domains of topic continuity (ibid, 1997: called as Koyee. However, Hanβon (1991) has 345) as in (1). mentioned that renderings like Koi or Koyi [sic] (1) Topic (referential) continuity (Koyee) from Koyu or Koyo appeared to result through a strong tendency in • anaphoric zero; this language to pronounce a disyllabic of two • verb coding (or anaphoric vowels, not as diphthongs. As the ethno names like Koyu in Bhojpur, Koi, Koimee in Udayapur are prevalent where they do not speak Koyee language. 3 Givón (1883:5) states that the intuition, expressed Koyu people in Bhojpur have adopted Bantawa under whatever terminology, which lead to shifting language whereas they have switched to Kirati the attention of the linguist from the purely structural Rodung (Chamling) language in Udayapur. notion of 'subject' toward the more discourse- 2 Toba et al (2002) has shown no dialects in Koyee in functional notion of 'topic' or under some other guises the UNESCO Language Survey Report. 'theme', may be traced back to a number of sources. Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 148‐156 /grammatical agreement); • unstressed (clitic) pronouns; (3) a. • stressed (independent) pronouns; pikute kimbi kʰutsa • demonstrative pronouns; pikute kim-bi kʰuts-a • full noun phrases; Pikute house-loc go-PST • specified noun phrases; ‘Pikute went to house…' • modified noun phrases; • special constituentorders, e.g. ,,,, b. dʰanʌ gʰãsa kʌ fronting;
• "voice" alternations, e.g. active, dʰanʌ gʰãsa kʌ passive, antipassive, and inverse; 3SG grass com • "switch reference" systems sʌ hʌ: Givón (1983:17) notes that there is a scale of sʌ hʌ cross-linguistic coding devices which may be fire wood bring-PST employed to indicate topic continuity in 'Then, brought the firewood and discourse, ranking from the most continuous to grass.' the most discontinuous. The topic/participant in (3b) is coded by the (2) Most continuous/ accessible topic anaphoric zero, which is used for the most Zero anaphora continuous topic. The referent of this zero has been expressed as Pikute ‘name of the person’ in Unstressed anaphoric pronouns/bound (3a). pronouns or grammatical agreement 2.2 Stressed independent pronouns Stressed independent pronouns Zero anaphora and independent pronouns are used R-dislocated DEF-NPs in the contexts of maximal referential continuity Neutral ordered DEF-NPs whereas the stressed independent pronouns are used in the contexts of referential discontinuity. L-dislocated DEF-NPs The stressed independent pronouns are used when Y-movedNPs(contrastive topicalization) there is potential ambiguity because of the occurrence of two or more referents of the equal Cleft/focus constructions rank which can be observed in the examples (4a). Referential indefinite NPs (4) a. kukuwa umnnʌ jaŋalʌi bʰaʔa Most discontinuous/ inaccessible topic kuku-wa um-nʌ 2.1 Zero anaphora maternal uncle-ERG 3SG-GEN s h : Zero anaphora or anaphoric zero (as in ʌ ʌ terminology of Pyane, 1997: 345) is used in the sʌ hʌ contexts of maximal referential continuity in fire wood bring-PST Koyee. The antecedents of the anaphoric zero 'Then, brought the firwood and may be a full-NP, anaphoric zero or pronoun, are grass.'
found significantly in the immediately preceding clauses (Givón, 2001: 418). Consider the (5) a. kukuwa umnʌ following examples: kuku-wa umu maternal uncle-ERG 3SG jaŋalai b a a ʰ ʔ
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jaŋa-lai bʰaʔa (7) a. VS > SV then call -PST b. VO > OV 'Then maternal uncle called to his In the scale (7a-b), the left-most element codes nephew,' the more continuous topics, right-most less continuous topics. b. d an umu pak abi k utsa ʰ ʌ ʰ ʰ Before we discuss the implicational scale as in dʰanʌ umu pakʰa-bi (7a-b) can be employed in Koyee or not, we then 3SG earth-LOC examine the word order phenomena in the kʰutsa language.The order of the constituents of simple transitive clause, viz. S, O and V as in (8a). kʰuts-a go-PST (8) a. umwa buʌ bʰeʔe (SOV) ‘Then he went down the earth.' um-wa buʌ bʰeʔ-e In (5a) there are two potential referents, kuku um -ERG flower bring-NPST ‘maternal uncle’ jaŋa ‘nephew’ for the third person pronoun umu in (5b). Thus, in (5b) the 'S/he brings flower.' personal pronoun has been stressed so that it refers to the nephew of 'maternal uncle', not 'the b. umwa bʰeʔe buʌ (SVO) 'maternal uncle.' um-wa bʰeʔ-e buʌ 2.3 R-dislocation, neutral word order and L- dislocation um -ERG bring-NPST flower 'S/he brings flower.' R-dislocation, neutral word order and L-location are precise to the word order which is one of the major coding devices for topic continuity. A c. bʰeʔePikutewabuʌ (VSO) natural language may employ two devices: R- b e -e pikute-wa bu dislocation vs. L-dislocation. These two devices ʰ ʔ ʌ are particularly applicable to the rigid word-order bring-NPST Pikute-ERG flower such as English (SVO) or Japanese (SOV) 'It is Pikute, as for bringing, he (Givón, 1983:19). The specific scalar prediction does.' in such languages is thus:
(6) R-dislocation>neutral word-order>L- d. b e e umwa bu (VOS) dislocation ʰ ʔ ʌ bʰeʔ-e buʌ pikute-wa We can see this word order in the table1.2 below bring-NPST flower Pikute-ERG encoding R-dislocation, neutral word order and L- dislocation. 'It is flower, as for bringing, which Pikute does.' Figure 1.2Word order in the noun phrases e. bʰeʔe umwabuʌ (OSV) R-dislocation neutral L-dislocation buʌ pikute-wa bʰeʔe flower Pikute-ERG bring-NPST The scale in (6) presents that the left-most on the scale codes more continuous and right-most more 'As for flower, it is Pikute, who discontinuous ones (Givón,1983:19). Almost brings it.' similar type of scale given in (6) can be made in the languages with pragmatically controlled flexible word-order language as in (7). 150
f. bʰeʔe Pikutewa buʌ (OVS) (9) a. umwabuʌbʰeʔe (SOV) buʌ bʰeʔe pikute-wa um-wa buʌ bʰeʔ-e flower bring-NPST Pikute-ERG um-ERG flower bring-NPST 'As for flower, Pikute brings it; he 'Pikute brings flower.' does not do anything else.'
There are acceptable clauses (8a-f) in Koyee as b. bʰeʔe pikutewa buʌ (OSV) presented above. But we can argue that SOV in bu pikute-wa b e e (8a) is the neutral or basic constituent order in ʌ ʰ ʔ Koyee. If we observe the constituent orders then flower Pikute-ERG bring-NPST we find the same type of word order in the 'As for flower, it is Pikute, who Tibeto-Burman languages. brings it.' We can see the phonological rules4 employed in It is evident from (8a-b) that the clause (8a) codes the examples (8a-f) where we find all the six the more continuous topics than the clause in clauses lexically possible. However, we can argue (8b). that SOV in (8a) is the neutral or basic constituent 2.4Y-movedNPs (contrastive topicalization) order in Koyee. Since SOV is a common neutral word-order in other Tibeto-Burman languages Y-moved NPs are used while fronting contrasted like Thulung (Allen, 1975), Bantawa (Rai, 1985) topic. This is used functioning as the subjects or and Doornenbal (2009), Dumi (van Driem, 1993), the objects to the clause initial positions as in (9). Athpare (Ebert, 1997), Yamphu (Rutgers, 1999), (9) a. buʌPikutewabʰeʔe (OSV) Wambule (Opgenort, 2004), Jero (Opgenort, bu pikute-wa b e e 2005), Koits-sunuwar (Rapacha,2005), Chatthare ʌ ʰ ʔ Limbu (Tumbahang, 2007), Sunuwar (Borchers, flower Pikute-ERG bring-NPST 2008), Khwopa Newar (Regmi, 2012), Bhujel 'As for flower, it is Pikute, who (Regmi, 2012),Koyee also belongs to this brings it.' category. b. Phonological rules may be employed as in the sʌ umwa bʰeʔe (OSV) examples (8a-f). A basic clause, e.g. (8a) carries a sʌ pikute-wa bʰeʔe falling tone. In a basic clause the verb bears the wood Pikute-ERG bring-NPST tonic stress. In a pragmatically marked clause, 'As for firewood, it is brother, who e.g. (8b-f) the deviated constituent bears the tonic brings it.' stress in Koyee. Thus, the verbs in (8b-d) and the objects in 8(e) and 8(f) bear the tonic stress. The In (9a-b) direct object buʌ ‘flower’ and sʌ constituents which occur clause finally as in (8b- 'firewood' are placed to the clause initial position f) are normally uttered with a slightly rise tone. for the contrastive topicalization. Pragmatically marked clauses as in (8b-f) are uttered with a fall-rise tone. 2.5 Cleft/focus constructions Let us examine the implicational prediction given Koyee does not employ the cleft/focus in (8b) in the clauses in (9a-b). constructions as we find in the fixed word-order language English. In Koyee, the functions of the noun phrases are specified by using the case inflections. The noun phrases functioning as the 4 Givón (1983:18) claims the scale of phonological size subjects or objects are placed just before the verbs more continous/accessible to more discontinous/ or predicates as in (10). inaccecebile topics: Zero anaphora > unstressed/ bound pronouns('agreement') > stressed/independent pronouns, full NPs.
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(10) a buʌ pikutewabʰeʔe (OSV) b. dʰam dzebalabiʔ sʌmnam pikute-wa buʌ bʰeʔe dʰam dzebala-biʔ sʌmnam flower Pikute-ERG bring-NPST that cage-LOC last night 'As for flower, it is Pikute, who sjala sitsam tsʰaʔ brings it.' sjala sits-a-m tsʰaʔ In (10a) the subject ‘Pikute’ is moved from its Jackal sits-PST-NMLZ HS clause initial position to the pre-verbal position for the focus. 'A jackal had been trapped previous night.' 3 Action continuity
Givón (1983:8) claims that action continuity c. pikute detka keʈa pertains primarily to temporal sequentiality within pikute det-ka thematic paragraph. Most commonly, within a keʈa thematic paragraph actions are given primarily in name tell-ADJV boy the natural sequential order in which they actually arko delbiʔm occurred, and most commonly there is small if any temporal gap- or pause-between one action arko del-biʔ-m arko and the next. The actions, in a natural language, next village-LOC-NMLZ next are primarily organized in the thematic paragraph b ja m ts a in the natural sequential order in which they ʰ ʔ ʰ ʔ actually occurred in the narrative discourse. Such bʰjaʔ-m tsʰaʔ continuity is, in general, coded by the tense- come-NMLZ HS aspect-modality within the clause. In Koyee, nominalization may play the role of temporal 'A boy named Pikute from the next sequentiality. village had been through the same way.' (11) a. oko pʰopʰowa
oko p op o-wa ʰ ʰ d. ʌni dzebala dʰokʰotsʰaʔ nʌ one uncle-ERG dzebala sjala setka dzebala ʌni dʰokʰo-tsʰaʔ-nʌ sjala set-ka dzebala and cage see.PST-HS-SEQ jackal kill-ADJV cage manmanbiʔŋʌ hʌinʌ dʰoʔnimtsʰaʔ manman-biʔ-ŋʌ hʌi-nʌ dʰoʔni-m tsʰaʔ innerly-LOC-EMPH ADV keep-NMLZ HS idʌ dʰoʔdani 'One of the uncles had kept a trap to kill the jackal.' idʌ dʰoʔ-dani
this see-3SG.NPST tsʌtsatsʰaʔ tsʌts-a tsʰaʔ escape-PST HS 'And he opened it as he thought how the trap is used but the trapped jackal escaped away at the same moment. 152
b. dʰambiʔka pʰosi e. jokka lʌŋka pʰopʰo dʰam-biʔka pʰosi jokka-lʌŋka pʰopʰo that-ABL a pot below-ABL uncle k apmu ts o jʌ kʰuŋatʰʌtsanim ʰ ʰ ʔ k apmu ts o jʌ kʰuŋa-tʰʌ-tsa-ni-m ʰ ʰ ʔ OBLG also see-CONT-PST-3PL-NMLZ put 'Then, we place the pot phosi'. pikutewa dʰokʰotsʰaʔ pikute-ERG dʰokʰo tsʰaʔ Pikute see.PST HS c. dʰanʌ pʰosi dʰobiʔka 'Pikute saw uncle coming up from down.' dʰanʌ pʰosi dʰo-biʔka then a pot above-ABL The examples (11a-c) constitute a thematic tsin dipmu tsʰoʔ paragraph of a narrative (though not complete) in tsin dipmu tsʰoʔ Koyee. The event in (11a) is indicated by wine put OBLG nomilizer <-ka> in the verbal word semu ‘kill’. 'There after, there should be The verbal word in (11b) affixed by the past tense poured the arrac jand inside the marker <–a> to show the sequence of the events. post.' In (11c), we find the nominlizer and past tense marker <-m> and <-Ø> respectively. The state d. type of ‘event’/context in this thematic paragraph dʰanʌ pʰoŋga dipmu tsʰoʔ dʰokka is marked by time stable nominalized verb form. dʰanʌ pʰoŋga The verbs in (11d-e) function as the setting in the There after a kind of pot narrative discourse. dipmu tsʰoʔ dʰokka The nominalized clauses have discourse function dipmu tsʰoʔ dʰok-ka of expressing the sequential order in that can be put-INF OBLG above-ADJV observed in a procedural discourse in Koyee. In such clauses, the verb is affixed exclusively by 'Then, there should be added the the nominalizer <–m> and <-ka>. Let us painee, a kind of pot.' consider a procedural text which presents how arrack or alcohol is prepared as in (12). e. dʰanʌ sano bʰitrʌŋʌ nani dʰanʌ sano bʰitrʌ-ŋʌ (12) a. pʌila min dʰum then small inside-EMPH pʌila min dʰum dipmu tsʰoʔ at first fire meet nani dip-mu tsʰoʔ
mu tsʰoʔ small pot put-INF OBLG mu tsʰoʔ 'Then, there should be placed a small pot called nani.' do OBLG
'At the beginning, we need to fire the oven.'
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(13) dʰimto kʰutsani tʰeʔe tokhaimu-ni f. ʌni bʰaʈa dʰim-to tʰeʔe RED go-3PL HS ʌni bʰaʈa 'Then Sodel concluded that the and a type of pot place must be very much fertile dipmu tsʰoʔ where ever these dogs have dip-mu tsʰoʔ reached. So they followed the dogs put-INF OBLG where it took.' 'And there should be placed a pot a) Chain initial topic called bhata.' (i) Characteristically a newly introduced,
newly- changed or newly-returned topic; g. dʰanʌka pogorja bʰʌimu tsʰoʔ thus d an -ka pogorja ʰ ʌ (ii) Characteristically a discontinuous topic there after-ADJV cloth in terms of the preceding discourse context; but dʰanʌka pogorja bʰʌimu tsʰoʔ (iii) Potentially- if an important topic- a bʰʌi-mu tsʰoʔ rather persistent topic in terms of the tie up-INF OBLG succeeding discourse context. 'Thereafter, there should be tied up with the clothes called patuka.' (b) Chain medial topic (i) Characteristically a continuing h. dʰanʌ tsinbiʔ panlaimu tsʰoʔ /continuous topic in terms of the dʰanʌ tsin-biʔ preceding discourse context; and also there after wine-LOC (ii) Characteristically persistent- but not panlaimu tsʰoʔ maximally so- in terms of the succeeding pan-lai-mu discourse context, even when an tsʰoʔ important topic. water-take ou-INF OBLG 'Then, the water must be poured (c) Chain final topic into the arrack.' (i)Characteristically a continuing/ continuous topicin terms of the 1.4 Thematic continuity preceding discourse context; but Givón (1983: 8) states: thematic continuity is the overall matrix for all other continuities in the discourse. (ii) Characteristically a non-persistent topic It is the hardest to specify, yet it is clearly and in terms of the succeeding discourse demonstrably there. Statistically, it coincides with topic context, even if an important and action continuity to quite an extent within the In a narrative in Koyee, the clauses with the verb thematic paragraph. The thematic paragraph is by definition about the same theme. Most commonly, it marked by reduplication indicate the thematic also preserves topic and action continuity. continuity in the thematic paragraph. Consider the following examples: He further notes that there are three major positions of the thematic paragraph functionally as given in (13).
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(14) a. katʰmandu kʰʌtʌnʌ In each clause in (15a-c) the verb is nominalized by the suffix < -m, -ka >. Such clauses code the kat mandu k -t -n ʰ ʰʌ ʌ ʌ continuity of theme in Koyee. The clauses with Kathmandu go-NPST.1SG-GEN the nominalized forms of the verbs are presented dokan muto muto in the following examples in (16a-c) which code dokan mu-to mu-to the thematic continuity in Koyee. shop do-SIML RED (15) a. tʰanbiʔka ɦokimme umbiʔ detsukʌ lʌmtʰisu tʰan-biʔka ɦoki-m-me de-tsu-kʌ de-tsu-kʌ place-ABL return-NMLZ-TEMP tell-1SG.PST- tell-1SG.PST- 'Returning from shrine, 1PL.EXCL 1PL.EXCL 'Thinking to keep shop, I went to b. dʰambika okoŋʌ litsam Kathmandu.' litsa-m dʰam-bika oko-ŋʌ that-ABL one-EMPH die-NMLZ b. dʰanʌ sodel de matʰeʔe dʰajedjanikʰa dʰanʌ sodel de
here after Sodel tell ma-tʰeʔe dʰaje dja-ni-kʰa TEMP-HS that tell-3PL-COND tʰeʔe lou sapki nũsi dʰumsatsʌwa bʰaʔnim go tʰeʔe lou sapki-nũsi d umsa-ts -wa b i-a -ni-m HS VOC hunting dog-DU ʰ ʌ ʰ ʔ elder-PL-ERG say-PST-PL-NMLZ 'According to our forefathers, only one g pa k utsasi l mbo ʌ ʰ ʌ gorilla was saved alone.' gʌpa khaimu-si lʌmbo where go-DU ALL c. dusʌba ɦobunʌ bʌʔʌ tsʌpka
walekʰa dipukʰa godi dusʌba bʌʔʌ tsʌp-ka walekʰa dipukʰa godi nowadays language write-NMLZ fertile land inside mutʰʌdʌnʌ koji:sakʰam
mu-tʰʌ-dʌ-nʌ koji ts dja di t e en ʰʌ ʔ ʰ ʔ ʌ do-CONT-1SG.NPST-GEN koyeee tsʰʌ de tʰeʔe-nʌ s st abi kama mut d be.PST tell HS-SEQ ʌ ʰ ʰʌ ʌ sʌstʰa-bi mu-tʰʌ-dʌ d am sapki get k Genek ag i ʰ ʌ ʌ ʌ ʰ institution-LOC do-CONT-NPST sapki dʰam 'Nowadays I am writing for my that hunting dog language and working for Koyee Rai society.'
In examples (14a-b) the reduplicated forms of the 1.5 Summary verbs with their glossing have been underlined. In this paper, we dealt with the discourse The clauses with such forms of the verb apart continuity in Koyee. We discussed three types of from indicating simultaneous converb have continuities: topic, action and thematic. There are discourse function of coding the thematic different types of morphosyntactic devices used in continuity in Koyee. the domains of topic continuity, action continuity and thematic continuity at the multi-propositional
155 discourse level. Zero anaphora or anaphoric zero PST = Past is used in the contexts of maximal referential SG = Singular continuity in Koyee. The unstressed anaphoric SEQ = Sequential pronouns are not realized the way we do not find SIM = Simultanous in Sinetic languages. But stressed independent pronouns are used in the contexts of referential References discontinuity. The stressed independent pronouns Allen, J.R.1997. Sketch of Thulung Grammar. are used when there is potential ambiguity New York: Cornell University because of the occurrence of two or more Central Bureau of Statistics.2011. Population referents of the equal rank. Like other Tibeto- Census.National Planning Commission Burman languages, Koyee exhibits SOV as the (NPCE), Kathmandu, Nepal. basic word order. However, there is the Ebert, Karen H.1994. The Structures of Kiranti permutation of the constituents in the simple Languages. Zurich: ASSAS transitive clause. In Koyee, a constituent may be Doornenbal, Marius. 2009. A Grammar of fronted to mark contrastive topicalization. Koyee Bantawa. The Netherlands: LOT does not employ the cleft/focus constructions as Givón, T. 1983." Topic continuity in Discourse: we find in the fixed word-order language English. The functional Domain of Switch Reference." The noun phrases functioning as the subjects or in John Haiman, and Pamela Munro, eds. objects are placed just before the verbs or Hanβon, Gerd .1991.The Rai of Eastern Nepal: predicates. The referential indefinite noun phrases Ethnic and Linguistic Grouping Findings of code the most discontinuous topics in the the Linguistic Survey of Nepal; Werner Winter language. In the domain of action continuity ed. Kathmandu: LSN and CNAS. tense/aspect markers and nominalized clauses are used as morphosyntactic devices in Koyee. The Opgenort, Jean R. 2004. A Grammar of Wambule. narrative and procedural discourse show the Leiden. Boston: Brill sequentiality of events in Koyee. The thematic Opgenort, Jean R. 2005. A Grammar of Jero. continuity is realized as the sequential converbal Leiden. Boston: Brill and nominalized clauses in Koyee. Payne, Thomas E.1997.Describing Morpho- Abbreviations Syntax, Cambridge: Cambridge University 1 = First person Press. 2 = Second person Rai, Novel.K. 1985. A Descriptive Grammar of 3 = Third person Bantawa. An unpublished PhD thesis ABL = Ablative submitted to University of Pune. ABS = Absolutive Regmi, Dan Raj.2007.The Bhujel Language: An CAUS = Causative unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, T.U. COM = Commitaitve Rutgers, Roland.1998. Yamphu: Grammar, text DAT = Dative and lexicon. Leiden. The Netherlands: DIST = Distal Research school CNWS DU = Dual van Driem, G.2003. A Grammar of Limbu. Berlin: ERG = Ergative Mouton de Gruter GEN = Genitive INCL. = Inclusive LOC = Locative NEG = Negative NMLZ = Nominalizer NPST = Non-past PL = Plural POSS = Possessive PRF = Perfective 156
A contrastive study of Chhintang and English pronouns: Problems and teaching strategies Ichchha Purna Rai Dhankuta Multiple Campus, Dhankuta
This paper deals with personal pronouns of both 2. Personal pronouns Chhintang1 and English2 in general and attempts Chhintang personal pronouns are categorised into to compare and contrast between them in three types in terms of person viz. first, second particular. Further, it discusses the pedagogical and third and singular, dual and plural in terms of strategies for both learners. numbers. All of them are described below. In 1. Background contrast, English personal pronouns are divided into three categories viz. first, second and third Chhintang is an endangered Kirati language and two categories viz. singular and non-singular belonging to the Tibeto-Burman language family. in terms of number. This language is spoken in Chhintang VDC of Dhankuta district, Eastern Nepal. Total 2.1 First person pronouns population of this language is 3,712 and its SIL The first person pronoun denotes the addressor or code is ctn. This is SOV language which includes the speaker (Rai, 2007, 2013). There are five some features such as postpositions, noun head types of first person pronouns in Chhintang. They final, no genders, up to 4 prefixes which are free are shown in the following examples. ordering (Bickel et al., 2007), up to 7 suffixes, clause constituents indicated by case marking, 1. a. akka hapmaʔã verbal affixation marks person, number, ergativity, tense and aspect, no voice and no tone akka hap-aʔã (Ethnologue, 2012). In contrast, English is SVO 1SG weep-1A.NPST language belonging to Indo European language ‘I weep.’ family which consists of some features such as b. anci hapceke prepositions, genders, voices; verbal affixation anci hap-ce-kV doesn’t mark person, number and ergativity. So, 1DU.INCL weep-DU-NPST these two languages are quite different to each ‘We two (including the hearer) weep.’ other. c. ancaŋa hapcekeŋa Pronouns are grammatical forms that substitute in ancaŋa hap-ce-ke-ŋa some way for an NP or for an entire clause 1DU.EXCL weep- DU-NPST-EXCL (Cowan, 2009). Personal pronoun is one of the ‘We two (excluding the hearer) weep.’ basic components of any language. So it is important to make compare and contrast between d. ani habiki them if we intend to teach any language as the ani hab-i-kV second language. 1PL.INCL weep-PL-NPST ‘We all weep.’ e. aniŋa hapcekeŋa aniŋa hap-ce-kV-ŋa 1PL.EXCL weep- PL-NPST-EXCL 1 I visited Chhintang in August, 2013 for last trip. I ‘We all (but excluding the hearer) weep.’ was familiar with Chhintang when I spent there for Here puzzling concept in Chhintang is that first five years under Chintang Puma Documentation person pronouns is exclusive and inclusive. The Project from 2004-2008. I further collected the data from several native speakers. Particularly, I am concept of the exclusive and inclusive can be thankful to Mr. Lokendra Tele for Chhintang data. distinguished by the hearer distinction. If the 2 For English data, I have consulted the book “The hearer is included, that is inclusive and if the Teacher’s Grammar of English” written by Ron hearer is excluded, that is exclusive. So, in Cowan (2009). Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp.157-161 Chhintang, ‘we’ is realized as four different In contrast to Chhintang, English has only one terms. pronoun expressing the second person. There is no number distinction in second person pronoun. In contrast to Chhintang, English has only two Like the first person pronouns, it has no two first person pronouns in terms of number but two forms in terms of case. They are shown in the different forms in terms of case. They are shown following examples. in the following examples. 4. a. You eat rice. 2. a. I eat rice. 2 SG/PL.NOM eat rice 1SG.NOM eat rice. b. Ram hit-s you. b. Ram hit-s me. Ram hit-3SG 2SG/PL.ACC Ram hit-3SG 1SG.ACC In English, this pronoun is a neutral term which c. We eat rice. represents all number by only one term. There is 1NSG eat rice. no honoroficity and different forms in terms of d. Ram hit-s us case. Ram hit-3SG 1DU.ACC 2.3 Third person pronouns In English, there are only two first person The third person pronouns refer to the person or pronouns which represent only singular and non- thing except the speaker and hearer or addressor singular and no distinction between dual and and addressee (Rai, 2007, 2013). In Chhulung, the plural. Further, there is no concept of the third person pronouns seem to be more inclusiveness and exclusiveness but there are two problematic since they are really demonstrative forms as a nominative case and accusative case. ones rather that pronouns. They are shown in the 2.2 Second person pronouns following examples. The second person pronouns refer to the hearer or 5. a. huŋgo imno the addressee (Rai 2007, 2013). In Chhintang, huŋgo im-no there are three types of second person pronouns in 3SG sleep- NPST terms of number. They are shown in the following ‘S/he sleeps.’ examples. b. hunce uimceke 3. a. hana ahapno hunce u-ims-ceke hana a-hap-no 3DU 3-sleep-DU.NPST 2SG 2-weep -NPST ‘They two sleep.’ ‘You weep.’ c. hunce uimno b. hanci ahapceke hunce u-im-no hanci a-hap-ce-kV 3PL 3-sleep-NPST 2DU 2-weep-DU-NPST ‘They all sleep.’ ‘You two weep.’ In Chhintang, there is interesting feature in third c. hani ahabiki person pronouns, especially in dual and plural. hani a-hab-i-kV For both dual and plural, there is a single term but 2PL 2-weep -PL-NPST whether it represents a dual or plural is resolved ‘You all weep.’ by a verbal affixes. For dual, there should be a dual marker in verbal affixes and for plural, there In Chhintang, there is only number distinction and should be a plural marker in verbal affixes. So, no honoroficity in second person pronouns. These such puzzling is resolved by a verb. three terms can be used for everybody whether s/he possesses the highest rank. In contrast to Chhintang, English has relatively more numbers of the third person pronouns. The
158 third person pronouns are relatively complex in one neutral term such as ‘hunce’ but whether it is their nature in terms of gender distinction. They a dual or plural is resolved by a verbal affixes. are shown in the following examples. English has gender distinction in the third person pronouns whereas there is no concept of the 6. a. He eat-s rice. genders in Chhintang. The following examples 3SG.M.NOM eat-3SG.NPST rice. and interpretations will make it clear the areas b. Ram hit-s him where they find them difficult to use the Ram hit-3SG.NPST 3SG.M.ACC pronouns. c. She eat-s rice. For English learners of Chhintang, they find it 3SG.F.NOM eat-3SG.NPST rice. difficult to use the first person pronouns since there are four terms for realizing ‘we’. Further, e. Ram hit-s her there are pronouns in Chhintang which express Ram hit-3SG.NPST 3SG.F.ACC the exclusiveness and inclusiveness. This concept f. It play-s a key role is found in the Chhintang language like other 3SG.N.NOMplay-3SG.NPSTa key role. Kirati languages (Rai, 2007). The concept of exclusive and inclusive can be resolved by the g. Ram buy-s it. hearer distinction. The pronouns which express Ram buy-3SG.NPST 3SG.N.ACC. the exclusiveness exclude the hearer and the h. They eat rice. pronouns which express the inclusiveness include 3NSG.NOM eat rice. the hearer. Further, there are not only four terms for 'we' but also each of them takes different i. Ram hit-s them. verbal form. So, English learners may commit a Ram hit-3SG.NPST 3NSG.ACC mistake to use the pronoun and its respective verb. For example, when they want to say a In the third person pronouns in English, there are sentence 'we sleep' in Chhintang, they confuse to the terms expressing three genders viz. male, select whether anci or ani or anciŋa or aniŋa is female and neutral genders. Further, all of them correct one. They fail to select the proper pronoun have their different forms in terms of case except in Chhintang for 'we' in their beginning of the one ‘it’. The pronoun ‘it’ is a neutral pronoun learning stage. which has no different form for accusative case. Similarly, there is a clear distinction between dual 3. Problems: Contrastive analysis and plural in Chhintang but these features cannot When we compare and contrast between them, we be found in English so English learners can find it get a number of contrasting features which are difficult to use it properly. If there are two or described below. Chhintang has 11 personal more than two, they should be addressed by pronouns whereas English has only 7 personal different terms but in English, there is no term to pronouns for nominative case and 5 other forms make distinction between dual and plural. For for accusative case. There is no different term of example, English learners face problem to use the Chhintang personal pronouns for nominative and pronouns such as hana (singular 'you'), hanci accusative case whereas there are different forms (dual 'you') and hani (plural 'you'). All of these of English personal pronouns for nominative and Chhintang pronouns are replaced by only one accusative case. English has no dual and plural English pronoun 'you'. So, when the English distinction whereas Chhintang has clearly dual learners want to use 'you, they fail to interpret and plural distinction. Similarly, English has no which term is correct for what situation. concept of the exclusiveness and inclusiveness Similarly, for English learners find another term whereas Chhintang has the concept of both difficult to use. That is ‘hunce’. The term hunce exclusiveness and inclusiveness. English has represents both dual and plural third person some neutral term such as ‘you’ which represents pronoun in Chhintang. Whether the term hunce is the singular, dual, plural whereas Chhintang has representing a dual pronoun or plural pronoun is 159 puzzling. But, it can be only resolved by a verbal comes) can be translated as 'she' comes by form. The term hunce used as a dual takes Chhintang learners. There is not distinction uimsace and the term hunce used as a plural takes between 'she' and 'he' in Chhintang. Both 'she' and uimse. 'he' are replaced by a single term huŋgo. Similarly, English learners can be confusion to 4. Teaching strategies address a male or female. In English, there is Pronoun is one of the universal features of the gender distinction whereas Chhintang has no languages of the world. There should be the gender distinction. In English, 'he' is only used for element which should be substituted by a male, 'she' is only used for female and 'it' is used pronoun. The substituted element is called the for neutrality. But, all of these English pronouns antecedent of that pronoun. So, there is the are replaced by only one term 'huŋgo' in connection between the antecedent and pronouns. Chhintang. The connection between pronouns and their For Chhintang learners of English, they find it antecedents is called anaphora. The anaphora can difficult to use the nominative and accusative be intersentential and intrasentential. If we don’t forms of pronouns according to case system. In understand the types of anaphora, sometimes, it Chhintang there are no different terms for can create problem while teaching and learning nominative and accusative case. Nominative and the pronouns. accusative cases are unmarked and represented by In some cases, Chhintang personal pronouns can the same term. But, English has different terms be dropped since it can be understood by it verb for accusative case. For example, 'He' does not form but it is impossible in English. In case of the represent only third person singular male but also use of the pronouns, the students commit errors in represent nominative case. If there is 'him' in a different ways. Some of them are: (1) selecting sentence, 'him' represents third person singular incorrect pronouns; (2) inserting unnecessary male and accusative case. So, the case is changed, pronouns; (3) misidentifying antecedents; and (4) the term is automatically changed in English but omitting obligatory pronouns (Cowan, 2009). So, not in Chhintang. The term huŋgo counterpart of these issues should be paid more attention while 'he/him' can be used for both cases in the place of teaching and learning pronouns. 'he' as a nominative case and 'him' as an accusative case. So, Chhintang learners fail to use In the case of teaching Chhintang pronouns to the the different terms for different cases. English learners and teaching English pronouns to the Chhintang learners, there is danger of L1 Similarly, there is no dual and plural distinction in influence to the L2 learning. As Lado puts it English so Chhintang learners find it difficult. “individuals tend to transfer the forms and Chhintang has the concept of the dual and plural. meanings and the distribution of forms and It they try to generalise such concept in English, meanings of their native language and culture to they can be confusion. the foreign language and culture” (Lado, 1957). For Chhintang learners, the second person So, while teaching the pronouns, the transfer pronoun ‘you’ is also problematic since it is theory should be kept in mind since where there neutral term for all singular, dual, plural, are differences between them, these create nominative and accusative form in English. So, difficulty and hinder the learning. Differences they may face difficulty while using the pronoun should be paid attention while teaching. In the 'you'. case of teaching Chhintang pronouns to the English learners, exlusiveness, inclusiveness, dual Similarly, they find it difficult to use the pronouns and plural distinction should be focused on which express the gender distinction. There are heavily whereas in the case of teaching English three types of gender distinctions viz. male, pronouns to the Chhintang learners, gender female and neutral in English. So, they can be distinction, nominative and accusative forms, confusion to select the proper term for proper some neutral terms should be given emphasis. For gender. For example, huŋgo Ram tano (Ram (he) teaching the pronouns, we can adopt the teaching 160 strategies. One of the best way to teach the pronouns is a strip story. A strip story is a set of individual sentences written on strips of paper or on the board. Each sentence contains no pronouns. The job of the students will make ordering the sentences so that they make a coherent story and they use the pronouns where they are required to replace NPs that have already been found in a previous sentence. In this way, we can teach the pronouns successfully.
Abbreviations 1 first person 2 second person 3 third person A agent ACC accusative DU dual EXCL exclusive F female INCL inclusive M male N neutral NOM nominative NPST non-past NSG non-singular PL plural SG singular
References Bickel et al. 2007. Free prefix odering in Chintang. Language, 83, 44-73 Cowan, Ron. 2009. The teacher’s grammar of English. New York: Cambridge university press Eppele, John W., Lewis, M. Paul, Regmi, Dan Raj, Yadava, Yogendra P. 2012. Ethnologue: Languages of Nepal. Kathmandu: Central Department of Linguistics, Tribhuvan University.Cowan, 2009 Lado, Robert. 1957. Linguistics across cultures. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan press. Rai, Ichchha Purna. 2007. Personal pronouns in English and Chhulung: A contrastive study. Journal of NELTA, 12, 102-107. Rai, Ichchha Purna. 2013. English personal pronouns: EFL problems and pedagogical strategies. Journal of Rupantaran, 1, 53-57.
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Contact induced changes in Bhujel Dr. Dan Raj Regmi Bhujel, a seriously endangered Tibeto-Burman indigenous languages. 44.6 % of the total language of Nepal, because of the long and population is mono-lingual speakers of Indo- intense contact, especially, with Nepali (an Indo- European Nepali, the official language. The rest Aryan language), exhibits lexical, phonological, are all fluent in varying degrees in Nepali. Nepali morphological and syntactic features which cut has not discouraged to encroach steadily on the across the language family. Such phenomenon is other languages of the country, both in terms of common in other Tibeto-Burman languages as the continued rise in the percentage of effectively well (Abbi, 2001; Subbarao, 2000; Noonan, monolingual speakers and in terms of contexts of 2003). use among those who continue to speak the other languages (Michael Noonan (2008:82). 1. Introduction Due to the long and stable language contact This paper is an attempt to provide a description accompanied by bilingualism, many Tibeto- and analysis of contact-induced language change Burman languages are gradually losing their in Bhujel, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Sinospheric structural features and sharing many Nepal. There are two goals of this paper. The first common Indo-Aryan or South Asian linguistic goal is to examine the sociolinguistic situations features (Abbi, 2001; Subbarao, 2000, 2012). existing between the speakers of the recipient (i.e., Bhujel) and the donor (i.e., Nepali) language. Bhujel, too, because of the long and intense The second goal is to look at the contact induced contact with Nepali, an Indo-Aryan language, changes in Bhujel at the lexical, phonological and exhibits some phonological as well as morphosyntactic levels. Siemund (2008:1) makes morphosyntactic features which cut across the a remark that “…language contact over time will language family. It has lost its tone and makes use change the languages involved, but despite this of the dative subject construction and correlative seemingly obvious fact, robust models accounting relative clauses as in Nepali. However, no attempt for contact-induced change are still at a has been made to analyze such contact induced premium.” He further remarks that “…languages changes in Bhujel. can influence one another in a situation of contact, This paper is organized into four sections. In but predicting the outcome of a language contact section 2, we present an overview of the situation remains an immensely challenging task.” sociolinguistic situation of the donor language, This paper, contrary to the systematic comparison i.e., Nepali and Bhujel. Section 3 presents the of and across language contact situations, has linguistic outcomes of the contact Bhujel with focused on the analysis of individual situation of Nepali. In section 4, we summarize the findings of 1 language contact for two reasons. The first is that the paper. there is a dearth of systematic descriptions of the languages for comparisons. The second one is that 2. Sociolinguistic situation the models so far practised cannot be insightfully Nepali is spoken as mother tongue by 44.6 percent employed in sociolinguistic context of Nepal. (11,826,953) of the total population (CBS, 2012). Nepal presents a complex panorama ethnically It is widely used in different domains of language and linguistically. There are more than 123 use in Nepal. However, Bhujel is an endangered languages spoken in the country with about 83 the and preliterate Tibeto-Burman language spoken by about 3,923 ethnic Bhujel, most of them living 1 “Current interest in language contact research along the Mahabharata mountain range of has clearly shifted from the analysis of Tanahun, Gorkha, Chitwan and Nawalparasi individual situations of language contact to a districts of Nepal (Regmi, 2012b). That is, this systematic comparison of and across language language is spoken by 21,715 (i.e. 18.3%) of the contact situations.” (Siemund, 2008:3) 1, 18,650 ethnic Bhujel/Gharti (CBS, Nepal, 2012). As a result, there appear encouraging Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 169-178 figures of the Bhujel speakers in other parts of the greater substitution of Nepali loans. van Driem country. Map 1 presents the area where Bhujel is (2001:786-90) relying on Caughley (1999) notes mainly spoken in Nepal. that ‘Bujheli’ spoken by between two and five thousand speakers of Chepang residing in Tanahun district to the west of Narayani River is a dialect of Chepang. 2.2 History of social relations Bhujel and Tamang (2001) identifying Bhujel as one of the indigenous nationalities of Nepal, mainly living in Baglung and Tanahun districts of Nepal from time immemorial, claims that they have their own history, traditions and cultures. The Bhujel living in Tanahun district only have their language. They claim that the Bhujel had Map 1: Bhujel speaking area in Nepal their independent state in Dhor region. In 1315 AD (13 72 VS) they were defeated and divorced Even today, Bhujel is a marginalized ethnic group from the state by the successors of Dugar Singh of Nepal. Sankoff (2001) notes that the linguistic Malla, who had established Galkot and Rukum outcomes of language contact are determined in states. This incident brought a turning point in the large part by the history of social relations among life of the Bhujel. Some of them lived their life as populations, including economic, political and captives and many of them fled in small groups to demographic factors. We discuss them as different parts of Nepal. This study envisages that follows: a small group of Bhujel in search of a secluded 2.1 Identification place where they could save their life and prestige happened to come to rugged and remote parts of Prior to Caughley (1982) neither the Bhujel Tanahun as shown in Map 1. people nor their language was known to the world. However, unfortunately, he then assumed They have been living in these parts since then. that the Bhujel is another group of Chepang living The ancestral place of the Bhujel is Bhuji region across the Narayani River to the west. He named (the western part of Baglung district) where Kham their form of speech as Gharti and considered is spoken. The main settlements of the Bhujel are Gharti as a sub-dialect of western dialect of in Palpa, Tanahun, Kaski, Baglung, Gorkha, Chepang. In search of further evidences to prove Lamjung and Syangja. They argue that the Bhujel that Bujheli (Bhujel) and Chepang are very close and Chepang are not ethnically related. Rather relatives, Caughley (1999) compared Bujheli and they may be related to Magar since there is very Chepang in the domains of phonology, close affinity between Magar and Bhujel in morphology, syntax and lexicon. religion, cultures and traditions. He notes that the Bhujeli speaking Gharti may be 2.3 Mother tongue proficiency the descendents of a Kham Magar group that Mother tongue proficiency (in speaking, reading settled in the low hills and assimilated and writing) in Bhujel speech communities is not linguistically to the Chepang. Especially, in the encouraging /satisfactory at all. To measure in domain of lexicon (Swadesh 100 word list), he terms of three degrees: very well, some and only a has claimed 98% similarity between Bujheli and little, only about 50% of the respondents have Chepang. been found speaking the language very well.2 He has also discovered many similarities as well as differences between the two languages in the 2Sociolinguistic questionnaire A was administered domains of phonology, syntax and semantics. in the informants from the selected reference Unlike Chepang Bujheli is characterized by much points of survey in Bhujel. 170
Table 1 presents a situation of mother tongue 2.4 Bilingual ability proficiency in speaking in Bhujel speech Bhujel is a bi/multilingual community. All Bhujel communities. can speak Nepali, a language of wider Table 1: Mother tongue proficiency in speaking in communication in the area. Some Bhujel do not Bhujel speech communities speak Bhujel as their mother tongue. As the Bhujel in Tanahun are living in proximity with SPEAKING (n=50) Gurung and Magar, they can also speak Gurung Degrees Male Female Total and Magar apart from Nepali. Some Bhujel also n=18 n=32 can also languages like Chepang, Ghale, Newar VERY 8(44.4%) 17(53.1%) 25(50%) and English. Table 3 shows the present picture of WELL bi/multilingualism in Bhujel. SOME 7(39%) 6 (19%) 13(26%) Table 3: Multilingualism in Bhujel speech ONLY A 3(17%) 9 (28.1%) 12(24%) LITTLE community (n= 82) Languages No of Percentage Table 1 clearly shows that 26% of the total speakers respondents speak their mother tongue some. 1. Nepali 82 100% Similarly, 24 % of the total respondents speak 2. Bhujel 74 90.24% their mother tongue only a little. It means that 3. Gurung 29 35.36 % around 50% of the total respondents are not good 4. Magar 23 28.04% at speaking the mother tongue. Table 2 presents 5. Hindi 4 4.87% the mother tongue proficiency in reading and 6. Ghale 1 1.21% writing in Bhujel speech communities. 7. English 1 1.21% Table 2: Mother tongue proficiency in reading and 8. Chepang 1 1.21% writing in Bhujel speech communities 9. Newar 1 1.21% READING AND WRITING Table 3 shows that 90.24% of the total (n=13) respondents speak their mother tongue whereas Degrees Male Female Total cent percent Bhujel speak Nepali. However, the n=8 n=5 Bhujels in different key points present different VERY 5(64.5%) 5(38.5%) degree of bilingual ability measured by using WELL Sentence repetition test (SRT). SOME 1(14.5%) 1(20%) 2(15.4%) SRT is a tool developed by Carla Radloff (1991) ONLY A 2(25%) 4(80%) 6(46.2%) based on the idea that a person’s ability to repeat LITTLE sentences in a second language can be an Table 2 shows no female respondent can read and approximate measure of his or her bilingual write in mother tongue. It is also clear that 46.2% ability. Nepali SRT, developed by Varenkamp can read and write their mother tongue only a (1993) for bilingual survey, consists of a set of little. Only 38.46% responded that they can read carefully selected and recorded sentences in and write their mother tongue very well. It is Nepali. In SRT, the sentences start rather simply obvious from this discussion that Bhujel speech and gradually become more difficult. The length communities are deprived of literary in the mother of the sentences as well as the complexity of the tongues. grammar slowly increases. Table 4 presents the percentages of the subjects scoring at different RPE (reported proficiency evaluation) levels at the three key points in Bhujel speech communities. The key points include
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Kulmun (KLN), Arthumpka (ATK) and Andimul related to different semantic domains from Nepali (ADL) in Tanahun district of Nepal. (N) to Bhujel (B). Table 4: Percentages of the subjects scoring at Table 5: Borrowing of nominals related to different RPE levels different semantic domains from Nepali to Bhujel RPE KLN ATK ADL % in Semantic domains Total % Level average 1. Earth and sky 87 59.7% 1+ 15% 16% 4.7% 11.9% 2. Time and weather 86 86% 2 30% 11.1% 9.5% 16.8% 3. Occupation and 143 49.6% 2+ 15% 16.6% 14.2 % 15.3% titles 3 20% 16.6% 38.0% 24.9% 4. Language and ideas 34 76.5% 3+ 25% 38.8% 23.8% 29.2% 5. Beliefs and feelings 134 95.5% and above 6. Wealth 25 92% 7. Parts of the body 122 68.8% Table 4 shows that no person who was tested for 8. Disease and 74 83.7% the ability of bilingualism in received less than 1+ treatment RPE level. On the average, 54.13% people can 9. Types of house 28 92.8% understand Nepali at a high level (3 and 3+ RPE 10. Village and city 37 78.3% levels, very good and good level). 11. Utensils 82 95.1% 12. Arms and 67 92.5% To sum up, all the people in Bhujel community ammunitions can speak Nepali. However, not all the Bhujel can 13. Musical instruments 39 100% speak their mother tongue. Apart from Nepali, 14. Foods, clothes and 174 90.2% they can speak Gurung and Magar living around ornaments Gurung and Magar community. Some Bhujel also 15. Reading and writing 32 84.3% can speak languages like Chepang, Ghale, Newar 16. Animals and their 93 81.7% and English. Bhujel community is gradually organs shifting to Nepali, a language of wider 17. Birds and insects 91 48.3% communication in the reference points of the 18. Plants 115 86.9% survey. There is no monolingual in Bhujel, the mother tongue. Children do not speak Bhujel as 19. Fruits and flowers 90 93.3% mother tongue in Bhujel community. Middle 20. Cultivation 158 93.6% aged and old people, the leaders of the 21. Transportation 19 100% community, businessmen, the teachers and 22. Human relations 30 96.6%) students are bilingual in both Nepali and Bhujel. Table 5 shows that 88.1% words in nominal forms 4. Linguistic outcomes of the contact have been borrowed from Nepali. In the same way, many words in adjectival forms have been Thanks to the long and intense contact, especially, borrowed from Nepali Based on Basic with Nepali (an Indo-Aryan language), exhibits Vocabulary, CDL, TU). Table 6 presents the lexical, phonological, morphological and syntactic situation of borrowing of adjectival of different features which cut across the language family. We semantic domains from Nepali (N) to Bhujel (B). discuss them as follows.
4.1 Lexical outcomes
Bhujel has borrowed massively from Nepali (Caughley, 1999). Table 5 presents the situation of borrowing of nominals (Based on Basic Vocabulary, CDL, TU)
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Table 6: Borrowing of adjectival related to Table 7: Words borrowed in Bhujel as they appear different semantic domains from Nepali to Bhujel in Nepali Semantic domains Total % Bhujel Nepali a. tara tara ‘star’ 1. Earth and sky 30 96.6% b. bhir bhir ‘cliff’ 2. Time and weather 37 81% c. pul pul ‘bridge’ 3. Occupation and titles 52 23% d. tusaro tusaro ‘frost’ 4. Language and ideas 26 11.5% e. manche manche ‘man’ 5. Beliefs and feelings 76 77.6% f. kaka kaka ‘uncle’ 6. Wealth 23 91.3% g. sala sala ‘brother-in- 7. Parts of the body 74 79.7% law’ 8. Disease and treatment 21 57.1% h. citrə citrə ‘drawing’ 9. Types of house 68 47% i. dukh dukh ‘trouble’ 10. Village and city - - j. pap pap ‘sin’ 11. Utensils 40 72.5% k. devi devi ‘goddess’ 12. Arms and 37 72.9% l. gala gala ‘chin’ ammunitions m. rog rog ‘disease’ 13. Musical instruments 29 2.9% n. khət khət ‘scar’ 14. Foods, clothes and 206 67.8% o. bar bar ‘fence’ ornaments p. sirək sirək ‘quilt’ 15. Reading and writing 26 7.7% q. udus udus ‘bug’ 16. Animals and their 20 75% organs Bhujel has borrowed such forms of the words 17. Birds and insects 49 6.1% which are used in Nepali in the areas where 18. Plants 43 4.6% Bhujel is spoken. Table 8 presents some such 19. Fruits and flowers 41 2.8% words in Bhujel. 20. Cultivation 55 1.8% Table 8: Words borrowed from local dialects of 21. Transportation 29 34.4% Nepali 22. Human relations 51 100% 1033 842 Bhujel Nepali a. jimin prithvi ‘world’ Table 6 shows that 81.5% in the adjectival forms b. səmthər məidan ‘plain’ have been borrowed from Nepali (Based on Basic c. bhel badhi ‘flood’ Vocabulary, CDL, TU). d. tasya juwade ‘gambler’ h It is also to be noted that out of 210 standardized e. hiduwa g umənte ‘nomadic’ wordlist (used by LinSuN), 27.1% words have f. bədəmas ənnyayi ‘criminal’ been borrowed from Nepali and around 34% from g. sahu dhəni ‘rich’ Chepang (Regmi, 2012a). Similarly, out of 100 h. jannya jhakri ‘shaman’ Swadesh wordlist, 8 words have been borrowed h h from Nepali. i. bic e bicc i ‘scorpine’ j. kədəu kodo ‘millet’ Bhujel has borrowed words from Nepali in k. məkai məkəi ‘maize’ different ways as well. Table 7 presents some words which have been borrowed as they appear Bhujel attaches native suffix to the Nepali roots in Nepali. which have been slightly nativized in Bhujel. Table 9 presents some such words in Bhujel.
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Table 9: Words consisting of native suffix and 4.2 Phonological outcomes Nepali root slightly nativized in Bhujel Because of the long and intense contact with Bhujel Nepali Nepali, Bhujel is gradually adopting some a. bacə-məy jiunu ‘survive’ prominent features of Nepali phonology. It has b. bəcai-məy bəcaunu ‘protect’ lost tone and glottal stops which its relative c. umkay-məy umkənu ‘escape’ language, i.e., Chepang still retains. It has adopted six vowel system against five vowels as proposed d. cəlai-məy cəlaunu ‘move’ in Benedict (1972). Table 11 summarizes a few e. khyau-məy khiyaunu ‘row’ salient phonological features in Bhujel and f. khicəu-məy khicnu ‘draw’ Nepali. g. metay-məy metnu ‘erase’ h. bujhə-məy bujhnu ‘know’ Table 11: Summary of the few salient i. cinay-məy cinnu ‘recognize’ phonological features in Bhujel and Nepali j. jəcəu-məy jacnu ‘examine’ k. bhər-məy bhərnu ‘fill’ Features Bhujel Nepali 1. Tonality absent absent Bhujel adapts Nepali roots before suffixing the 2. Vowels six six infinitizer/nominalizer -məy. Table 10 presents 3. Murmur found with Found only some such words in Bhujel. stops, trills, with stops Table 10: Words adapted before suffixing laterals and and affricates infinitizer/nominalizer -məy affricates 4. Voiceless & distinctive distinctive in Bhujel Nepali voiceless mainly in all positions a. nyam lagə- gham lagnu ‘sunshine’ aspirate word-initial [initial, məy distinction position medial, final] b. tətay-məy tətaunu ‘to make hot’ c. lyam kətay- bato katnu ‘to cross the 5. Voicing only in stops distinctive in məy road’ all positions d. biswas biswas ‘to believe’ 6. Nasal four six rakh-məy gərnu vowels e. dekha pərə- dekhapərnu ‘to appear’ 7. Stress predictable predictable məy from the from the f. maya marə- mayamarnu ‘to lose hope’ orthography orthography məy g. bicet ge- bicethunu ‘to be in coma’ 4.3. Morphosyntactic outcomes məy h Both Nepali and Bhujel allow AN word order. h. bəndə rak - bəndəgərnu ‘to close’ The ‘dative subject’ construction is a prominent məy feature of Nepali syntax. It is coded by the suffix - i. le rəsay- jibro ‘to water’ lai in Nepali whereas it is encoded by –kay in məy rəsaunu Bhujel. In such construction, the most animate h j. dut cyur- dud ‘to milk’ argument is rendered in the case ordinarily məy duhunu assigned to indirect objects and, moreover, k. səmmyay- səmmyaunu ‘to level’ acquires many of the characteristics of subjects in məy the language. l. khali rakh- khaligərnu ‘to vacate’ məy Semantically, dative subjects are typically non- volitional experiencers (Noonan, 2006). Such construction is also characteristic of the Bhujel language. The Nepali classifier system is quite 174 simple, consisting only of a human/non-human Table 12: Summary of the morphosyntactic distinction. The suffix -jəna is used for human and features in Bhujel and Nepali -wota is used for non-human nouns in Nepali. In Features Bhujel Nepali Bhujel, -bon is used for human and -jyo is used 1. Word order: AN for non-human. In the related language Chepang, √ √ 2. Dative subject such distinction is not attested. It can be surmised √ √ construction that such distinction found in Nepali has been 3. Numeral classifiers borrowed in Bhujel. √ √ 4. Correlative √ √ Bhujel has borrowed the pattern of correlative constructions constructions from Nepali. In Nepali, such 5. Perfective and √ √ constructions are frame by using jo… tyo. imperfective relative However, interrogative pronouns are used for clauses such purpose in Bhujel. 6. Conjunctions √ √ 7. Simultaneous and √ √ Perfective and imperfective relative clauses are sequential converbs formed by nominalization both in Nepali and 8. Free-standing √ √ Bhujel. In Bhujel, perfective and imperfective are nominalized clauses marked by the morpheme -o and -məy, 9. Complement clauses √ √ respectively. In Nepali, they are marked by -erə- 10. Numeral system √ √ and -nu, respectively. Both languages have 11. Causativization √ √ simultaneous and sequential converbs. In Nepali, 12. Passivization x √ simultaneous and sequential constructions are 13. Verbal with nominal marked by -dəi and -erə/gəri where as in Bhujel √ √ and adjectival they are encoded by -thəi and -bet, respectively. functions Both languages present the free-standing nominalized clauses. In Bhujel, such clauses are Some constructioins such as dative subject followed by followed by copula na/mutona. In constructions, correlative constructions, complementation, and constructions related to Nepali, such nominalized clauses are followed by disjunctions, adversative coordination and chə/ho/ thiyo. These languages differ in exclusion typically exemplify the cases of contact morphological valence changing strategies. In induced morphosyntactic outcomes in Bhujel. Nepali, there are both causative and passive They are briefly exemplified as follows: constructions whereas in Bhujel there is only causative construction, not passive. Table 12 (1) Dative subject constructions summarizes the morphosyntactic features in a. ŋa-kay yoŋkray lag-al 1SG-DAT hunger feel-PST Bhujel and Nepali. Both languages have verbal ‘I felt hungry.’ with nominal and adjectival functions. Moreover, b. ŋa-kay maya lag-al both languages are characterized by 1SG-DAT love feel-PST complementation: subject complementation and ‘I felt love.’ object complementation.
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(5) Adversative coordination (2) Correlative constructions h gəu kuy-koy me a. mucoco n i-al tr which dog-GEN tail daughter laugh-PST but na-lə u kuy co kryap-al be-NEG that dog son cry-PST ŋa-koy na 1SG-GEN COP ‘The daughter laughed but the ‘The dog which does not have son cried.’ tail is mine.’ b. nepal grib mu-na (3) Complement clause Nepal poor be-NPST a. pas ge-je-o tr dyumto mu-na pass become-PRF-PTCP but beautiful be-NPST ‘Nepal is poor but it is beautiful.’ bat-i a (6) Exclusion matter-ERG 1SG a. je-o bahek the eum-ala- eat-NMLZ except other be happy-PST-1/2 naŋ-koy kam na-l ‘That I passed made me happy.’ 2SG-GEN work be-NEG b. nyamti wa-ti ‘You do not have any work except eating.’ water rain-DUR h mu-o a-kay b. si-my bahek t e stay-PTCP 1SG-DAT die-NMLZ except other ci-ti-mu-na- do-ma upay na-l know-DUR-AUX-NPST-1/2 what-NEG way be-NEG ‘I know that it is raining.’ ‘There is no way except dying.’
(4) Disjunctions 4. Summary a. mumcoco co-al ki This paper has attempted to look at the contact daughter bear-PST or induced changes/ outcomes in Bhujel, a Tibeto- co co-al Burman language of Nepal. Bhujel, because of the long and intense contact, especially, with Nepali son bear-PST (an Indo-Aryan language), has exhibited some ‘Daughter was born or son lexical, phonological, morphological and syntactic was born.’ features which cut across the language family. b. ram si-je-al ki Bhujel has borrowed many words massively from Ram die-PRF-PST or Nepali (Caughley, 1999). It has adapted its bides cho-je-al phonology and morphosyntax from Nepali. It has foreign move-PRF-PST adopted six vowels as in Nepali against five ‘Ram had died or moved to vowels as proposed in Benedict (1972). It has already lost both tone and phonemic glottal stop. other country.’ The ‘dative subject’ construction, correlative constructions by using interrogative pronouns and the use of classifier system to distinguish non-human from human nouns are some examples 176 of contact induced changes in Bhujel (Regmi, Masica, Colin P.1976. Defining a Linguistic Area: 2012). South Asia. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. The main reason is that, now-a-days, including a Noonan, Michael. 2008. ‘Contact-induced change child is bilingual in Nepali and Bhujel on the one in the Himalayas: the case of the Tamangic hand, Nepali has higher power and more domains languages.’ In Peter Siemund and Noemi than Bhujel on the other. Kintana, eds. Language Contact Contact
Languages. 81-106. Amsterdam / References Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Abbi, Anbita.2001. A Manual of Linguistic Field Company Work and Structures of Indian Languages. Noonan, Michael. 2003. ‘Recent language contact München: LINCOLM EUROPA. in the Nepal Himalaya,’ in David Bradley, Benedict, Paul. 1972. Sino-Tibetan: A Randy LaPolla, Boyd Michailovsky & Conspectus. Cambridge: Cambridge Graham Thurgood, eds. Language Varia-tion: University Press. Papers on Variation and Change in the Bhujel, Babu Ram, and Amrit Yonjan Tamang. Sinosphere and in the Indosphere in Honour 2001[2058 V.S]. Bhujel Jati ra of James A. Matisoff. Canberra: Pacific Bhasa:Praramvik Adhyayan (A Preliminary Linguistics. Study of Bhujel and Bhujel Language). Radloff, Carla F. 1991. Sentence repetition testing Katmandu: Bhujel Sewa Samiti. for studies of community bilingualism. Dallas: Central Bureau of Statistics. 2012. National Summer Institute of Linguistics and Population and Housing Census 2011:Report. Universtiy of Texas at Arlington. Kathmandu: Central Bureau of Statistics. Regmi, Dan Raj. 2012a. Some Sociolinguistic Caughley, Ross C. 1982. The Syntax and Aspects in Bhujel. Kathmandu: Bhujel Samaj Morphology of the Verb in Chepang. Sewa Samiti, Central Committee, Kathmandu. Canberra: The Australian National University. Regmi, Dan Raj. 2012b. A Grammar of Bhujel. Caughley, Ross C. 1999. "Bujheli and Chepang: München: LINCOLM EUROPA. Relationship and Differences." In Yogendra Siemund, Peter. 2008. ‘Language Contact: P. Yadava, and Warren W. Glover, eds. Topics Constraints and Common Paths of Contact in Nepalese linguistics. 1-25. Kathmandu: Induced Language Change.’ In Peter Royal Nepal Academy. Siemund and Noemi Kintana, eds. Language Chamoreau, Claudine and Isabelle Léglise. 2013. Contact and Contact Languages. 3-11. “A multi-model approach to contact-induced Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins languagechange.”http://halshs.archivesouve Publishing Company es.fr/docs /00/67/22/63/PDF/A multi- Subbarao, K.V. 2000. ‘Syntactic Typology and model_approach-2012.pdf. Accessed on 24 South Asian Languages.’ In Rajendra Singh. August, 2013. ed.The Year Book of South Asian Languages van Driem, George. 2001. Languages of the and Linguistics. 93-107. Delhi: The SAGE Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of publications. Greater Himalayan Region. Leiden: Brill. Subbārāo, Kārumūri V. 2012. South Asian Eppele, John W., M. Paul Lewis, Dan Raj Regmi Languages: A Syntactic Typology. and Yogendra P. Yadava. eds. 2012. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ethnologue: Languages of Nepal. Kathmandu: Sankoff, Gillian. 2001. “Linguistic Outcomes of Linguistic Survey of Nepal (LinSuN). Language Contact.” In Peter Trudgill, J. Gurung, Hark; Yogendra Gurung; and Chhabi Lal Chambers & N. Schilling-Estes, eds., Chidi. 2006. Nepal Atlas of Language Groups. Handbook of Sociolinguistics. 638-668. Lalitpur: National Foundation for Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Development of Indigenous Nationalities. Thomason, Sarah. 2001. Language Contact: An Introduction. Washington: Georgetown University Press. 177
Thomason, Sarah Grey. 2013. “Contact-induced typological change.” http://www- personal.umich.edu/~thomason/papers/typech. pdf. Accessed on 24 August, 2013. Regmi, Dan Raj. 2011. A sociolinguistic Survey of Bhujel: A Tibeto-Burman Language. A report submitted to Linguistic Survey of Nepal (LinSuN) Central Department of Linguistics Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal Varenkamp, Bryan. 1993. "The Nepali sentence repetition test.” A paper presented at the XIV annual conference of the Linguistic Society of Nepal. Winford, Donald. 2013. “Contact-induced changes-classification and processes.” http://linguistics.osu.edu/files/linguistics/Don- WPL.pdf . Accessed on 1 September 2013.
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Multilingualism, domains of language use and language vitality in Magar Kaike Dr. Ambika Regmi Central Department of Linguistics [email protected]
Magar Kaike, a Tibeto-Burman language, in Sahartara VDC in Dolpa. Magar Kaike, a presents an interesting sociolinguistic situation compound word, consists of two words: kai characterized by intense contact with Nepali, meaning ‘fairy’ and ke meaning ‘language’. Thus, sustainable orality and significant use in all literally, Magar Kaike is the ‘language of fairy’. domains of language use except in singing, Moreover, Magar Kaike is the autoglotonym, i.e., bargaining and village meetings. By launching the language referred to by its speakers effective activities properly we can raise this themselves. This is the popular name of this language from EGIDS 6A to EGIDS 5. language. Magar Kaike is also referred to as Tarali Kham as an alternative name. It is to be 1. Background noted here that many Tibeto-Burman languages This paper briefly analyzes multilingualism, spoken in Mid-Western region of Nepal are domains of language use and language vitality in commonly referred to with names followed by the Magar Kaike. This language is spoken mainly in word Kham ‘talk/language’. Such languages the three villages, viz. Sahartara, Tupatara and include Chautal Kham, Bhote Kham, Tarali Tarakot under Sahartara Village Development Kham, Magar Kham and Raute Kham. Moreover, Committee of Dolpa district of Nepal. Magar it has been a common practice to identify the Kaike, a seriously endangered in terms of number form of the speech with the names of the of speakers and under-described Tibeto-Burman indigenous nationalities themselves. language of the Bodish group, is exclusively used Fisher (1986:35-7) presents an interesting legend in almost all the domains of language use in their as to the origin of the Magar Kaike language. The own community. There is an intense contact of legend briefly reads as follows: During the time Magar Kaike speakers with Nepali and Poinke of Kayal kings, a pregnant woman took asylum to (Tichurong) speakers. Consequently, almost all a king of this area. She gave birth to a son. The the young and adult speakers in Magar Kaike son grew young and he used to go the jungle with speech community, unlike in other speech his cows. One day a milk lake appeared in a communities in Nepal, become almost equal jungle. One day he saw seven young women take competent in three languages, namely, Magar bath in the lake of milk and flying up from there. Kaike, Nepali and Poinke. He told that incident to the mother. The mother This paper is organized into seven sections. In asked him to catch one of them and bring home. section 2, we deal with naming and origin of the As per the direction of the mother he caught the language. Section 3 deals with the situation of youngest sister and brought home. However, she multilingualism. In section 4, we provide a brief remained silent because she did not understand review of dialectal variation in Magar Kaike their language. The mother and the son were speech community. Section 5 discusses the surprised at her silence. They prepared different domains of language use in the language. In kinds of bread and worshipped her. She was section 6, we evaluate language vitality in Magar surprised by all this activity and all of sudden two Kaike. Section 7 summarizees the findings of the words in her own language burst out of her paper. mouth. They were: təi khenan which mean ‘what to do?’ From that time on, the language spoken 2. Naming and origin of language by the angel is spoken as the mother tongue in Magar Kaike now refers to the glossonym Sahartara, Tupatara and Tarakot and this language ‘language-name’, which is spoken by the people is referred to as Magar Kaike and its speakers as who are ethnically identified as the Magars living Magar Kaike Magars. This legend is very popular Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 162-168 in the Magar Kaike speech community. Everyone Figure 1 shows that all the Magar Kaike can takes this legend for granted and is proud of speak Nepali and Poinke. Only a few can speak speaking Magar Kaike, the language of the fairy. languages like Tibetan, English and Hindi. Linguistically, this language is close to Tibetan Kaike speech community provides different levels and spoken only in Nepal (Bradley, 2002:78). of bilingual ability. In order to evaluate the level 3. Multilingualism and extent of community bi/multilingualism of Magar Kaike speakers in standard Nepali the Magar Kaike is a multilingual community. In this sentence repetition test (SRT) was conducted in community, an individual or by a group of 27 informants in Sahartara VDC, Dolpa. speakers may have a choice of mainly of three Sentence repetition test (SRT) is a tool developed languages, viz. Magar Kaike, Nepali and Poinke. by Carla Radloff (1991) based on the idea that a Table 1 presents a general picture of person’s ability to repeat sentences in a second multilingualism in Magar Kaike speech language can be an approximate measure of his or community. her bilingual ability. We have used Nepali SRT Table 1: Multilingualism in Magar Kaike developed by Varenkamp (1993) for bilingual community (N= 59) survey in Magar Kaike. This SRT consists of a set of carefully selected and recorded sentences in Languages No. of % Nepali. In SRT the sentences start rather simply speakers and gradually become more difficult. The length 1. Magar Kaike 59 100% of the sentences as well as the complexity of the 2. Nepali 59 100% grammar slowly increases. There are three 3. Poinke(Bhote 100 % 59 practice sentences followed by fifteen scored Kham) sentences. The sentences are played for one 4. Tibetan 2 3.38% person at a time in the community. After hearing 5. English 3 5.08% a sentence the person being tested tries to repeat 6. Hindi 2 3.38% the sentence as accurately as possible. The marking is done on the basis of the errors the Source: Field study, 2011 person makes in repeating the sentences. A score Table 1 shows that all the speakers can speak of 0-3 points is given for each sentence. The Magar Kaike, Nepali and Poinke. Some speakers fifteen sentence scores are added to give a total who have formal education can speak English too. score between 0 and 45 points for each person. Some speakers can speak other languages like SRT provides an overall picture of the Tibetan and Hindi. This situation can be presented bilingualism levels of the community. The test more clearly in Figure 1. was administered in different kinds of people in
terms of demographic categories of age (young: 15-40, old: 41+), sex, level of education (educated: class 4+, uneducated: up to class 4). Table 2 provides the sampling chart used in bilingualism survey in Magar Kaike. Table 2: Sampling chart used in bilingualism survey in Magar Kaike
YOUNG OLD EDC UNDC EDC UNDC MALE
FEMALE Figure 1: Multilingualism in Magar Kaike EDC: educated; UNDC: educated
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The score received by each person was averaged Table 4a shows that in Magar Kaike speech for each demographic category. The average SRT community educated people have more scores were converted into RPE (reported proficiency in Nepali than the uneducated ones. proficiency evaluation) levels. Table 3 provides Moreover, educated male are more proficient than the SRT score and RPE level including the educated female. The table also shows that description of RPE level in SRT in Magar Kaike. uneducated young male and uneducated old female have the same level of proficiency in Table 3: SRT score and RPE level Magar Kaike Nepali. Educated male have the highest level of SRT RPE DESCRIPTION OF RPE proficiency in Nepali. To sum up, no person who SCORE LEVEL LEVEL was tested for the ability of bilingualism has 34-45 3+ Very good, general received less than 2+ RPE level (good, basic and proficiency to excellent proficiency). above proficiency 4. Dialectal variation 28-33 3 Good, general proficiency As we mentioned earlier that Magar Kaike is 21-27 2+ Good, basic proficiency spoken in a small area by a small population. In 15-20 2 Adequate, basic this section, however, we attempt to look at if proficiency there are any dialectal variations in Magar Kaike. 9-14 1+ Limited, basic For this purpose, first, the standardized wordlist proficiency of 210 words were elicited in the key points, 5-8 1 Minimal, limited namely, Sahartara, Tupatara, Tarakot, Belawa and proficiency Dunai from the mother tongue speakers (grown 0-4 0+ Very minimal up in the target locality, representing different proficiency sex, age and literacy), compiled them with phonetic transcriptions and cross-checked from Table 4 presents the SRT results according to the other speakers from the same site (See Annex B demographic categories of education, age and for 210 wordlist). Secondly, the words from the gender in Sahartara VDC in Magar Kaike. wordlists were entered into the WordSurv Table 4a: SRT results in terms of education, age (Wimbish, 1989), a tool primarily used to determine the genetic relationship of the and sex in Magar Kaike languages or dialects. Thirdly, the words from the Demographic EDUCATED selected wordlist were aligned on the basis of categories phonetic similarities and dissimilarities. Then the N= Avg RPE lexical similarity percentages were calculated in Male Young 2 39 3+ the WordSurv. Table 5 presents the lexical Old 2 34.5 3+ similarity percentages among the key points in Female Young 4 28.5 3 Magar Kaike. Old 2 32 3 Table 5: Lexical similarity percentages among the Table 4b: SRT results in terms of education, age key points in Magar Kaike and sex in Magar Kaike SHT TPT TRK BLW DUN SHT 100% 98% 98% 99% 95% Demographic UNEDUCATED TPT 98% 100% 97% 98% 95% categories TRK 98% 98% 100% 98% 96% N= Avg RPE BLW 99% 98% 98% 100% 96% Male Young 2 27 2+ DUN 95% 95% 96% 96% 100% Old 5 27.8 3 SHT:SAHARTARA; TPT:TUPATARA; Female Young 3 33.3 3 TRK:TARAKOT; BLW:BELAWA; DUN:DUNAI Old 6 24.6 2+ Source: Field study, 2011
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Table 5 clearly shows that Magar Kaike has a education. This shows that the Magar Kaike greater degree (ranging from 95% to 99%) of children are still deprived of the right of primary lexical similarity in the different key points. education in their mother tongue. Generally, the 60% is used as a cutoff point for Table 6 presents the languages most frequently the evaluation of the lexical similarity. When used by the Magar Kaike speakers in different lexical similarity percentages are less than 60% domains by sex. the form of the speech spoken in different key points are considered to be different languages. If Table 6: Languages most frequently used in such percentages are 60% or more the different domains (N=59) intelligibility testing is required by using RTT Languages (Recorded Text Test). Normally, percentages Domains Magar Nepali Poink Kaike higher than 85% are taken as the indicators to Kaike e and conclude that the speech varieties being compared Nepali are likely to be related dialects. Looking at the Counting 69.5 1.7% 1.7% 27.1% lexical similarity percentages, which are higher % than 95%, we can say that Magar Kaike does not Singing - 100% - - have any dialectal variation. Besides, the attitudes Joking 89.8% 5.1% - 5.1% and the perceptions of the speakers are also Bargaining 1.7 % 44.1% - 43.4% important factors in the evaluation of the dialectal Story telling 74.6% 8.5% 3.4% 13.6% variation. All the informants unanimously Discussing 88.1% 3.4% - 8.5% reported that Magar Kaike does not have any Praying 88.1% 3.4% 5.1% 3.4% dialectal variation. Quarrelling 74.6% 1.7% - 23.7% Abusing 77.9% - - 23.% 5. Domains of language use Telling 77.9% 13.6% 3.4% 5.1% stories to Domains of language use are generally referred to children as the patterns of language use among the Singing at - 100% - - speakers of a language. More specifically, they home are the contexts or situations in which a speaker Family 100% - - - makes a choice, in most of the cases, a conscious gatherings choice among his/her mother tongue, a language Village - 73.9% - 27.1% of wider communication and both or other meetings languages. The domains in which the languages Primary - 100% - - are most frequently used by the Magar Kaike education speakers include counting, singing, joking, Source: Field study, 2011 bargaining/shopping/marketing, storytelling, discussing/debate, praying, quarrelling, abusing Out of 59 informants, more than 69% have (scolding/using taboo words), and telling stories responded that Magar Kaike is used in the domain to children, singing at home, family gatherings, of counting in the Magar Kaike speech village meeting and primary education. community. Magar Kaike has still retained its In the Magar Kaike speech community, apart native cardinal number up to hundred. Around from Magar Kaike, Nepali and Poinke, both 2% of the total informants have responded that Magar Kaike and Nepali and Magar Kaike, Nepali or Poinke is used in counting. Thus, all Nepali and Poinke are used in different domains the informants have responded that they use of language use. The Magar Kaike speech Nepali either in singing at home or outside home. community lacks songs in their mother tongue. More than half of the informants have replied Magar Kaike is used in the domains like joking, that. In joking, discussing and praying, Nepali is discussing and praying. In story telling in general least used. More than 74% of the informants have and telling stories to children, Poinke may be told that Magar Kaike is used in the domains like used. However, its use is least in the Magar Kaike storytelling, quarrelling, abusing and telling speech community. Nepali is used in primary stories to children. Cent percent of the informants 165 have responded that only Magar Kaike is used in Table 7: Evaluation of vitality level in Magar family gatherings. However, in the village Kaike in terms of FAMED conditions meetings, where speakers other than Magar Kaike are also involved, Nepali is mostly used. But, Evaluation sometimes both Nepali and Magar Kaike are also There exists adequate oral use of Magar used. As mentioned earlier that Magar Kaike are Kaike in every domain, except in the trans-Himalayn traders. In the domain of singing songs, for which oral use is bargaining, they mostly equally use Nepali, desired but there is no written use of Nepali and Magar Kaike. FUNCTIO N this language. There is full oral transmission of the 6. Language vitality Magar Kaike language to all children in Yadava (2004) has systematically assessed the the home (literacy acquisition, if any, is level of endangerment of all the languages of in the second language). Nepal and categorized them into safe, almost safe, ACQUISIT ION potentially endangered, endangered, seriously Members of the Magar Kaike speech endangered, moribund and extinct. Each category community perceive the economic, has been explicitly well-defined and well- social, religious, and identificational explained. Magar Kaike falls in the seriously benefits of using their language orally, endangered category because it has an extremely but they perceive no benefits in reading small number of speakers. In Magar Kaike, MOTIVATIO N and writing it. absolute number of speakers is less than a Official government policy affirms the thousand. oral use of the language, but calls for this language to be left in its current Despite the fact that level of intergenerational state and not developed. language transmission in the Magar Kaike ENVIRON -MENT community is strong, there is no access to the media of the Magar Kaike speakers at all. Members of the language community Moreover, they are using more and more Nepali have a set of shared norms as to when words in their expression in the Magar Kaike to use the local language orally versus language. There are no materials for language when to use a more dominant language, education and literacy in the native language. but they never use the local language in Moreover, Magar Kaike are migrating to the DIFFERENT- IATION written form. urban areas day by day and using the contact language of the migrated area. Taking all these Table 7 shows that Magar Kaike has a sustainable facts into consideration, it is right to categorize orality. In other words, there exists an adequate Magar Kaike as a seriously endangered language. oral use in every domains for which oral use is desired but there is no written use. On this very Very recently, EGIDS (Expanded Graded basis, Magar Kaike may be categorized as 6a Intergenerational Disruption Scale), a tool for (vigorous). The sustainable orality may be evaluating language vitality has been developed assessed in terms of each FAMED conditions and five conditions or components of further categorized into absent (0), uncommon sustainability have been identified to characterize (1), common (2) and sustainable (3). Table 8 the language vitality level. Five conditions or presents the assessment of the orality in Magar components of sustainability, acronymmed as Kaike. FAMED, consist of functions, acquisition, motivation, environment and differentiation (Lewis and Simons, 2010). Table 7 presents the evaluation of vitality level in Magar Kaike in terms of FAMED conditions.
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Table 8: Assessment of the orality in Magar C. MOTIVATION Kaike Programs such as language empowerment and FAMED SCORES CATEGORY book signing/public reading should be started by managing financial and human resources. FUNCTIONS 2 Common ACQUISITION 3 Sustainable D. ENVIRONMENT MOTIVATION 3 Sustainable Programs such survival school, community ENVIRONMENT 2 Common consultation, theater anthropology and cross- DIFFERENTIATION 3 Sustainable language revitalization conference should be TOTAL 13 started though they are not easy. Table 9 sums up the activities required for raising Magar Kaike In order to raise EGIDS 6A to EGIDS 5, a from EGIDS 6A to EGIDS 5. number of activities have to be launched in Table 9: Activities required for raising Magar different FAMED conditions. Kaike from EGIDS 6A to EGIDS 5 A. FUNCTIONS Activities Remarks i. Fundamental literacy development Fundamental literacy Community Magar Kaike is a preliterate language. Thus, development consent writing system has to be resolved immediately required and primers have to be produced in an appropriate Language socialization Urgently
writing system. Financial and technical resources FUNCTION through literature needed have to be managed for developing writing Technical support and Electricity is systems as well as writing primers. Moreover, computer training for on- required Community consent required for orthography. site desktop publishing ii. Language socialization through literature Training bilingual teachers Electricity is using technology centers required There are a number of proverbs and stories in Magar Kaike. Such matters are urgently needed Computer assisted language Electricity is
Magar Kaike speech community because small ACQUISITION learning required children do not know Nepali at all. For the Language empowerment Attitude collection of such matters financial and human change is resources have to be properly managed. required B. ACQUISITION Book signing/public Literacy reading level has to i. Technical support and computer training for on- be increased site desktop publishing should be provided to the MOTIVATION speech communities. However, there is no Survival school electricity in such hinterlands. Community consultation Not easy to ii. Computer assisted language learning (CALL) gather people programs should be launched by managing Theater anthropology Not easy financial and technical resources. Cross-language Very useful revitalization conference iii. Training bilingual teachers by using technology centers should be managed. ENVIRONMENT
Table 9 shows that there may be a number of activities required for raising Magar Kaike from EGIDS 6A (vigorous) to EGIDS 5 (written).
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However, the most important activities include References developing orthography with the full consent of Bradley, David. 2002. “The Sub-grouping of the community, developing primers and teaching Tibeto-Burman.” In Christopher I.Beckwith, materials for the mother-tongue based ed. Medieval Tibeto-Burman Languages. 73- multilingual education and ethnographic 112. Leiden: Brill. documentation in the language. Central Bureau of Statistics. 2001. Population 7. Summary Census, Kathmandu: National Planning Commission. In this paper, we dealt with multilingualism, Central Bureau of Statistics. 2012. domains of language use and language vitality in NationalPopulation and Housing Census Magar Kaike. All the speakers can speak Magar 2011: National Report. Kathmandu: National Kaike, Nepali and Poinke. Some educated Planning Commission. speakers can speak English too. In Magar Kaike Eppele, M. John, Paul Lewis, Dan Raj Regmi and speech community, educated people have more Yogendra P. Yadava (eds.) 2012. Ethnologue: proficiency in Nepali than the uneducated ones. Languages of Nepal, Kathmandu: Moreover, educated male are more proficient than Central Department of Linguistics and SIL educated female. In this speech community, Intenational. uneducated young male and uneducated old Casad, Eugene. 1974. Dialect intelligibility female have the same level of proficiency in testing. Dallas: Summer Institute of Nepali. Educated male have the highest level of Linguistics. proficiency in Nepali. No person in this speech Lewis, M. P. and Simons, G. F. 2010. “Assessing community has less than 2+ RPE level (good, Endangerment: Expanding Fishman’s GIDS.” basic proficiency). Revue Romaine de Linguistique 55.103-120. Kaike is used, except in the domains like singing Varenkamp, Bryan. 1993. “The Nepali Sentence (in general), bargaining, singing at home and Repetition Test: Evaluating Community-wide village meetings, in all the domains, Kaike is Bilingualism.” Paper presented at the XIV overwhelmingly used. Everybody in this speech Annual Conference of the Linguistic Societyof community can speak as least three languages, Nepal, 26–27 November 1993. viz. Kaike, Nepali and Poinke. Kaike community Yadava, Yogendra P. 2003. “Language.” in common with other indigenous communities is Population Monograph in Nepal. 1:137-171. gradually shifting to Nepali, the language of the Kathmandu: Central Bureau Statistics. wider communication in the hilly areas in Nepal. Yadava, Yogendra. P. 2004. “Pattern of language Language maintenance in Kaike is not appalling. endangerment in Nepal: Anapproximation.” Paper presented at the silver jubilee While evaluating language vitality, Magar Kaike conference of Linguistic Society of Nepal held may be categorized as 6a (vigorous) since it has a in Kathmandu, 26-27 November, 2004. sustainable orality. In other words, there exists an adequate oral use in every domains for which oral use is desired but there is no written use. A number of activities required for raising Magar Kaike from EGIDS 6A to EGIDS 5. However, the most important activities include developing orthography with the full consent of the community, developing primers and teaching materials for the mother-tongue based multilingual education and ethnographic documentation in the language.
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Some perspectives on Maithili Krishna Kumar Sah [email protected] This paper is a product of a research mainly address these issues of linguistic minorities in the focused on Maithili-speaking people living in context of inclusiveness democracy in Nepal. Madhesh. The Maithili language is spoken by There is a fundamental linkage between language more than 30 million people mainly in the and traditional knowledge related to biodiversity. northeastern part of Indian state of Bihar and the As languages go extinct, there is an irrecoverable eastern part of Nepalese Tarai region. In Nepal, it loss of unique cultural, historical and ecological is the language of 11.7 percent (3,092,530). Most knowledge. Local and indigenous communities of them feel their language is highly prestigious. have elaborated complex classification systems But our earlier experiences and practices show for the natural world, reflecting a deep that we have failed to rightfully address the understanding of local flora, fauna, ecological country's linguistic diversity. relations and ecosystem dynamics. This 1 Background traditional ecological knowledge is both expressed and transmitted through the local or Nepal is a country of linguistic diversity. “Despite indigenous language. When young people no its small size, Nepal accommodates an amazing longer learn the language of their ancestors, cultural diversity including linguistic diversity. special knowledge is often lost, as it is not More than 123 languages are identified in a small transferred into the dominant language that country Nepal” (NPHC 2011 Vol. I, CBS Report: replaces it. This is often because the dominant 2012)1. According to Ethnologue (2012), language does not have the vocabulary for this however, there are 124 languages (spoken and special knowledge, or even because the very sign) including 120 living languages and four situations in which this kind of knowledge and its reported as having no known mother tongue relevance for survival are learned do not occur in speakers living languages spoken in Nepal. Nepal the dominant culture. is a multilingual nation. However, a single language has been given power, recognition and 2 The Maithili language prestige while the remaining minority languages Maithili is believed to have evolved from Vedic are impoverished and marginalized. Previously and Classical Sanskrit through several people were discouraged to use their languages: intermediate stages of Magadhi Prakrit, Proto- they were harassed, humiliated and even punished Maithili and Apabhramshas. It emerged as a if they were found using their language. This distinct modern Indo-Aryan language between policy was maintained and severely implemented A.D.1000 and 1200. Maithili has a long rich during the Rana regime and carried on until tradition of written literature in both Nepal and recently. Among the various reasons, ‘one nation India. The earliest written record can be traced one language’ policy of the HMG was the most back as early as Vernaratnakara, the oldest text in prominent one. This kind of biased attitude of Maithili written by Jyotirisvara suppressing other languages in favour of Nepali Kavisekharacharya in the 14th century. The most was maintained until recently. This, along with famous Maithili writer is Vidyapati Thakur, some other factors, has led to violent conflicts and popularly known as Mahakavi Vidyapati. Apart separatist movements. It is therefore necessary to from being a great Sanskrit writer, he composed melodious poems and songs in Maithili, entitled
Vidyapati Padavali, which mainly deals with the 1 There are 123 languages spoken as mother tongue as love between Radha and Krishna. It is this reported in census 2011. Nepali is spoken as mother anthology of poems that has made him popular tongue by 44.6 percent (11,826,953) of the total and immortal to the present day. population followed by Maithili (11.7% 3,092,530). Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 179-188 During 13th to 15th centuries Maithili enjoyed the there has been made a constitutional provision for highest social status throughout its area and even introducing all the mother tongues spoken in outside it. It was the vehicle of all sorts of social Nepal, including Maithili, as mediums of activities. It was the mother tongue of the then instruction at the primary level of education. This royal families in the Karnata and Oinibar is, no doubt, a welcome step for their promotion, dynasties in Mithila, Malla dynasty in Nepal and but in spite of speakers' zeal there has not been Sen dynasty in Morang. The most of the kings of much headway in this regard in the dearth of these dynasties composed poems and dramas in it official initiatives and basic requirements like and liberally patronized its writers. In its peak teaching/reading materials and trained manpower. period it also served as a lingua franca Maithili is the second most widely spoken throughout the north-eastern region comprising language in Nepal. Both PEN (Poets, Essayists Nepal, Assam, Bengal, Orissa and south-eastern and Novelists) and Sahitya Akademi have Bihar. It was the most effective vehicle in spread recognized Maithili as the 16th largest language of of Neo-Vaisnavism in the above said regions. India. (Jha, D.1993: xi) In some older literature an alternate name for During Malla regime, Maithili also flourished as a Maithili, “Tirhutia” is referred to. This name, court language in the Kathmandu valley. however, is seldom encountered today. In this Consequently, several literary works (especially report it will always be referred to simply as dramas and songs) and inscriptions in Maithili are Maithili. still preserved at the National Archives in Grierson classifies Maithili as Bihari, Eastern Kathmandu. In the present context there have zone, Indo-Aryan, Indo-Iranian, Indo-European been literary writings in all literary genres, (LSI V, II: 1). Grierson grouped Maithili with especially poetry, plays, and fiction, from both Bhojpuri and Magahi under the same general Nepalese and Indian writers. Apart from classification, “Bihari”. This is somewhat literature, Maithili writers have also been misleading since Maithili and Magahi are much contributing to other fields like culture, history, closer to each other than either is to Bhojpuri journalism, linguistics, etc. (Yadav, 1984: 3). Grierson’s term “Bihari” is also In addition to written texts, Maithili has an misleading because he often refers to it as a enormous stock of oral literature in the forms of language rather than a genetic classification. We folktales in prose and verse, ballads, songs, etc. have interpreted the references in Grierson to the Among them the ballads of Ras Lila (expressing "Bihari" language as general references to all the love between Radha and Krishna) and Salhes three languages in the Bihari grouping; Maithili, (a prehistoric king) are well known specimens. Bhojpuri, and Magahi. Grierson explains that the peoples who speak the Bihari languages are As its name implies, Maithili is, properly historically connected to the peoples to their west. speaking, the language of Mithila, the prehistoric ancient kingdom, which was ruled by King Janak But at present our affair is not with ethnic and was the birthplace of Janaki or Sita (Lord relations, but with the facts of grammar, and, Ram's wife). This region was also called taking grammar as the test, there can be no doubt Tairabhukti, the ancient name of Tirhut either as to the origin or affiliation of Bihari. Like comprising both Darbhanga and Muzaffarpur Bengali, Oriya, and Assamese, it is a direct districts of Bihar, India. descendant, perhaps the most direct of the descendants, of the old form of speech known as In both Nepal and India, Maithili has been taught Magadhi Prakrit, and has so much in common as a subject of study from school to university with them in its inflectional system that it would levels of education. Especially in India, however, almost be possible to make one grammar for all it has been hampered by the lack of official four languages (LSI V,II: 1). recognition as a medium of instruction. In Nepal, 180
Another, more recent classification, is similar to Most native Maithili scholars seem to go along Grierson’s only more specific. In this with Chatterji’s (1926) classification, with some classification Maithili is grouped only with minor modifications. Such a classification enables Magahi at the lowest level of classification. They them to emphasize two main points, i.e. that are grouped under the term Magadha. The rest of Maithili is not a dialect of Bihari and hence ought the classification is as follows: Indo- European, not to be grouped with Bhojpuri. Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Eastern Prakrit, East Estimates of the population of Mithila vary, but (Jha, 1958). they center around the figure of 30 million. It is Maithili is bordered on the south by Magahi, the the second most widely spoken language in Nepal language to which it is most closely related. To (Yadav, 1984: 1). the west its neighbor is Bhojpuri; to the east, Maithili is spoken by a wide variety of castes Bengali; and to the north, Nepali. Hindi is spoken ‘high’ 'middle' and ‘low’. It is also spoken by the as a language of wider communication by many people of all ages. In Mithila, especially, the people throughout the Maithili area. Brahmin caste has always been associated with No two linguists agree on how exactly to classify superior linguistic ability. The Maithili language the Indo-Aryan languages showing the place of is spoken by more than 30 million people mainly Maithili among them. Prominent among those in the northeastern part of Indian state of Bihar who have treated the problem are: Grierson (1883 and the eastern part of Nepalese Tarai region. It is a; 1918; 1919) Chatterji (1926), Mishra (1949), S. also used marginally in adjoining Indian states Jha (1959) G, Jha (1974) and Jeffers (1976). like West Bengal, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. In Nepal, it is the language of11.7 per Later Grierson (1918, 1919; 1927) stipulated what cent (3,092,530). Of the total population it figures is now known as the “inner group-outer group” second in terms of the number of speakers next theory of Aryan migration into India, and only to Nepali, the language of the nation, spoken provided a slightly different grouping of the Indo- by 44.6 percent (11,826,953) of the population Aryan languages. He divided them into three (CBS 2011). main divisions, the grouping of which was “based on Linguistic consideration and also coincides with the geographical distribution of various languages” (Grierson 1918:49). Chatterji (1926) like Grierson (1883a) believes that Maithili belongs to the group of Magadhi Apabharamsa (called Magadhi Prakrit by Grierson). He was also the first linguist to distinguish Maithili and Bhojpuriya (Bhojpuri) as belonging to two branches of the Magadhan subfamily Chatterji (1926) observes: 2 Bhojpuriya somewhat stands apart from its sister Map 1: Maithili in Nepal speeches, having come under the influence of its According to CBS 2001, the total population of neighbour Awadhi (Ardha-Maghadhi) from very Maithili speakers on the basis of districts: early time. --- But the sharp distinction between Bhōjpuriya and Maithali-Magadhi in their coagulation would justify their relegation to two separate groups, at least for the modern age 2 The language map is drawn by Irene Tcker, SIL (Introduction; p 92). International (2011).
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Table 1: District wise Maithili speakers’ thought that Maithili would continue to be spoken population indefinitely by future generations. All of those who thought this said that they felt that it would be a good thing for Maithili to be retained. Many of the lower-castes consider their dialect of Maithili to be inferior to that of the Brahmins. Many respondents said that the story-teller spoke District Total Population Area (km2) VDC Municipality Native Speakers' number pure Maithili, which was different than their own Jhapa 810636 1606 47 3 21,877 “Thethi” Maithili (in Sarlahi). When questionnaire subjects were asked to identify their Morang 964709 1855 65 1 1,86,557 mother tongue, a few of the low caste subjects said, “Thethi” Maithili. A few of these subjects Sunsari 751125 1257 49 3 2,00,444 also reported that the young people in their village were not proud of their language any more. The Saptari 646250 1363 114 1 4,28,320 questionnaire subjects were also asked a few questions regarding Maithili media. All of them Udaypur 321962 2063 44 1 8,714 reported that they listen to Maithili radio Siraha 643136 1188 106 2 4,84,520 programs and all said they enjoy these programs. The lower-caste subjects were a little more Dhanusha 643136 1180 101 1 6,02,121 equivocal in regard to Maithili literature, though. All of the respondents (Brahmin) said they prefer Mahottari 646405 1002 76 1 4,56,656 to read Maithili. A few negative responses seem to indicate that there are perhaps some ambivalent Sarlahi 768649 1259 99 1 3,46,015 attitudes among lower-caste Maithili speakers regarding the standard Maithili spoken by the Source: District development profile.2012. Mega Brahmins. Some of the young people see the use Publication and Research Centre Kathmandu, of Nepali as a way to advance themselves and Nepal career development. A study of language attitudes generally attempts to describe people’s feelings 3 Language attitudes and preferences towards their own language and Language attitudes can have a decisive impact on other speech varieties around them, and what the acceptance and use of mother tongue value they place on those languages. literature. I tried to determine Maithili speakers' attitudes both towards the standard Brahmin speech and their own speech and to obtain their attitudes toward extant Maithili print and non- print media. This information was elicited with informal (talking) questionnaires and few general observations regarding language use and attitudes. It seems that the Maithili language is being well- maintained by both Brahmins and non- Brahmins Pie Chart 1: Feeling towards their language in domains of intimacy. Almost all of the subjects said that they speak Maithili with their parents, The above figure shows that out of 300 siblings and children. Most also said that they respondents 95 percent feels that their language is pray in their own language also. All of the prestigious for them. Whereas1.5 percent feels subjects said that the young people in their village embarrassed while speaking Maithili in front of are speaking Maithili in just the same way as the Nepali speakers at offices. But 3.5 percent older people do. All but one of the subjects 182
remains neutral. While they are asked “Have you of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal ever felt any problem because of your mother 2047. It is observed that the petitioners have tongue?”, then 85 % had reported that as “no”, presented the writ petition by also on the basis of 10% had responded as “yes” and 5% had Writ No, 83, Decision no. 1964, requesting expressed their mix responses. This also reflects annulment of the decisions stating that the that most of them don’t have any problem to decisions are in contravention with the Article 6 speak their own language. This is the positive (1) of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal feeling towards their language. 2047 which is the fundamental law and every citizen is obliged to abide by the constitutional 4 The Supreme Court's verdict provisions. Pursuant to Article 88 (2) of the Taking into consideration the arguments put Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal BS 2047, forward during the sessions and the pleading in order to resolve any constitutional or legal notes presented, and after studying the dossier, dispute concerning public interest or concern, one the main demand of the writ petition is seen as can approach the court have necessary and requesting annulment of the decision on 2054/04/ appropriate order issued and have the rights 10 by the defendant Kathmandu municipality to enforces or to resolve the dispute. In the present use Newari language in addition to Nepali as the dispute, too, since the issue of giving recognition language of official business, the decision on and using Nepal Bhasa and Maithili as the 2054/08/24 by the Rajbiraj Municipality to use language of official business by the defendants also Maithili as its language of official business against the Article 6 (1) of the Constitution of the recognizing it as the language of the Municipality, Kingdom of Nepal, is an issue of public interest and the decision on 2054/08/03 by the District and concern, according to the aforementioned Development Committee Dhanusha to use also doctrine and Article 88 (2) it cannot be said that Maithili as its language of official business since one can approach the court with the writ petition. the decisions contravene Article 6(1) as well as Considering the issue of decisions taken by the Articles 1, 2, 6 (2), 12(2E), and Article 16 of the defendants being in contravention with Article 6, Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal, 2047, Sub-article 1 of the Constitution of the Kingdom Article 58 (1) A, B, C of the District of Nepal 2047, it is necessary to discuss the Development Committee Act 2048, and Article provisions in the Articles 6 (1), and 6 (2), and the 69 (1) A, B, C of the Municipality Act 2047, relation between them. Since there are separate Karyabyavastha Niyamavali of the His Majesty's provisions made in the Sub-articles (1) and (2), Government, 2048. The main issue is whether the under the marginal note of Article 6 of the decisions taken by the respondents regarding the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 2047, use of Nepal Bhasa and Maithili Languages are in under the Language of the Nation, it cannot be contravention of the Constitution of the Kingdom said that both the sub-articles have the same of Nepal 2047, Article 6 (1) and whether those purpose. The Article 6 (1) with the provision that decisions should be annulled or not? Before Nepali language is the language of the nation is taking on the topic of decision, it is necessary that the same as provided in the Article 7 of the the controversial question raised by the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 2015, and defendants‐ that the petitioner do not have the in the Article 4 of the Constitution of the locus‐standi to approach the court since the Kingdom of Nepal 2019, thus having decision is not impact public interest or concern constitutional background; whereas, the additions must be resolved. The defendants have raised the in the Article 6 (1) Nepali shall be the language of issue that since there are no public interests of official business , and in the Sub-article (2) that concerns inherent with the decisions under languages spoken as mother tongues in different dispute and the petitioner, are not personally parts of the country shall be the national language affected in adverse way, the writ petitioners do are additional features of the Constitution of the not have the right to petition under Article 88 (2) Kingdom of Nepal 2047. In the Article 6(1) there 183
is provision of use of Nepali language as the the functions undertaken by the constitutional language of official business and in the Article 6 organs and other bodies to work in the interest of (2) the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal the common people are functions of state to be 2047 is seen to be committed towards recognizing exercise executive, legislative and judicial rights all the languages spoken as mother tongues in of the Kingdom of Nepal, they are official different parts of the country as national language. business. In addition, the functions of fulfilling Considering Article 6 (2) it is seen that the nation the obligations of the state regarding the health, is a collective constitute of all the Nepalese security and public interests are undertaken to be people having common aspirations and united by executed as per the wishes of the state, and a bond of allegiance to national independence and executed in the capacity of the government, integrity of Nepal, irrespective of religion, race, therefore it is taken as official business. caste or tribe. It is undisputed that Nepali Before the custom of formation of organized language in Devnagari script is the language of institutions like the Municipalities and the District the nation. The Constitution has not discriminated Development Committees, the functions against the languages stating that they are big or undertaken by these institutions were conducted small. The issue is of use and identity. It is now by the body of the state, and it is the obligation of relevant and necessary to consider what is meant the state alone. It is learnt from the study of the by official business. The rights of the state are investigative articles written by Dhanbajra mainly divided so they can be exercised by the Bajracharya that in the ancient Nepal, during the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary and Lichhavi period there were administrative bodies in the Article 35 Sub-article (4) of the like Kuther, Shuli, Lingual, Maapchoke for Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 2047 the running the state; the Lingual used to oversee the provision is that so far as any action is to be taken work of drainage, water taps, and wells and the in the name of His Majesty pursuant to this office known as the Panchali used to oversee Constitution and other laws, all other executive disputes related to drainage, and cases of local actions shall be expressed to be taken in the name nature, construction and maintenance of taps, of His Majesty's Government. However, if the His road, drainage, temples, Paati, Pauwa Majesty's Government alone exercises all the etc.(Purnima, Volume 12, 21, 23 Itihaas executive power the rule will be too centralized Samsodhan Mandal) With the passage of time, the and the government may not be able to oversee all concepts of local self-governance rule and local the areas. Therefore; the major obligation of the governance evolved, and the government state is to arrange for a system so that the benefits empowered the locally elected bodies to take up of democracy can be enjoyed by the people some of the obligations of the government in the through providing them maximum opportunity to interest of the common people. Presently, in this participate in the rule through decentralization. In regard, Local Self-governance Rule Act 2055 is in accordance, with a view to involve the people in practice. According to Black's Law Dictionary, the village, municipality, and districts in self- local government means the government or governance rule and development work, the administration of a particular locality; especially, Village Development Committee, Municipality the governmental authority of a municipal and the District Development Committee have corporation, as a city or country, over its local and been formed and empowered through the Acts. In individual affairs, exercised in virtue of power accordance to this, they are authorized also to delegated to it for that purpose by the general look into cases and give decisions. The state has government of the state or nation. (Black's Law conferred some of its rights and obligations in the Dictionary, P.824, ed.1968) Some of the rights of interest of the common people to the municipality the state have been delegated to the legally and the District Development Committee that are formed bodie the municipality and the District organized institution with sole right of succession s remaining in the form of legal individuals. Since Development Committee to be used by them. The 184
purpose behind doing so is that the states' power of the state. The resolution of an issue of obligation is fulfilled through providing an whether a piece of work has been done within the opportunity to the people for participating in the jurisdiction or not is not to be given by the governance so that they reap maximum benefit of municipality or the District Development the democracy, and in addition the state can get Committee themselves, the resolution of the issue cooperation in running the state through the lies under the jurisdiction of the law, constitution fulfillment of roles delegated by the state to the and the court. Some of the obligations of the state Municipality and the District Development regarding the welfare of the people have been Committee. Although the Municipality and the given to the municipality and the District District Development Committee are elected Development Committee for them to be fulfilled autonomous bodies and not bodies of the His by; and the businesses of these bodies are Majesty's Government the functions undertaken supervised, regulated and controlled by the His in the course of fulfilling the legally conferred Majesty's Government exercising the executive obligations of the state are in the capacity of power of the state; and regarding the exercise of official business. Having the sole executive rights judicial power too, since there are provisions in of the state the His Majesty's Government can the Municipality Act, 2048, Article 62 (3) that supervise and direct the District Development appeals can be made before the District Court or Committee even though they are legally formed the Appellate Court depending on the situation, it autonomous bodies, as well as it has the right to becomes clear that in the course of fulfilling those suspend or dismiss these in special situations such obligations by the Municipality and the District as working in contravention with the Constitution Development Committee, Nepali is the medium of the Kingdom of Nepal 2047, as is evident from of the official business. In the context that the Clauses 6 (1), 69 of the Municipality Act 2048 Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 2047, and Clause 49 of the District Development Article 6 (2), 18 and Self Governance Act 2055, Committee Act 2048; there are also provisions and District Development Committee Act 2048, that the executive officer working as Secretary in have given the responsibility of protection, the municipality and the Local Development promotion and development of the different Officer are also appointed by the His Majesty's languages, scripts and cultures of different Government. These officers have been given the communities in their areas to the Metropolis, the power to keep administrative control in the Municipalities, and the District Development respective bodies. (Municipality Act 2048, Clause Committees, an equal opportunities has to be 72, District Development Committee Act 2048, provided by these bodies to every community as Clause 50) The legal redress has to be provided in they love their own language, script and culture. a condition when the bodies delegated with legal And the expectation is that they get equal respect obligations do not fulfill them for whatever from all. In this same context, Article 18 (1) has reason and a civilian approaches the court in order conferred every community the right to protect to have his right protected and exercised. A and promote their own language, script and legally formed body may not exercise more rights culture. However, under the provision of the than it is legally conferred with. The constitution, a legally formed body exercising self Municipalities and the District Development governance rule cannot be taken as belonging to a Committee are dependent on the legislature particular community. Under a Municipality or a regarding their powers. Formation of the state law District Development Committee there may be is the obligation of the legislature. Even for the various communities having different sets of purpose of framing rules for the fulfillment of the language, scripts, and culture. Various languages, purpose of the Municipality Act 2048 and the scripts and cultures are to be protected and District Development Committee act 2048, the promoted; the law has delineated the power and rule framed thus has to be approved by the His duties for the same, however it is not in Majesty's Government exercising the executive conformity of the constitution that those bodies 185
exercising self-governance can themselves use the of literature, dictionary preparation and language of a particular community as the codification in Nepali were achieved. language of official business in contravention These past decades have been frustrating to many with the constitutional provision. It is mentioned of us because of the issue of language being clearly in the Constitution Article 1 (2) that it is turned into political gamesmanship, particularly at the duty of everyone to uphold the Constitution. a time when a more urgent need is action against The argument that the decision in question is a the identity crisis rather than anything else. After continuation of the decision of 2015/1/06 1950, some linguistic organizations were regarding use of Nepal Bhasa, cannot be said to established, and due to which a clarion call was be valid in the context of the provisions of the made for language rights. Here, the credit goes to current Constitution. Since there is a Gajendra Narayan Singh, founder of the Nepal constitutional provision pursuant to the Article 6 Sadbhavana Parishad, who followed the Hindi (1) of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal, Movement. Though the language movements 2047 that the Nepali language in the Devnagari conducted during the years 1951-1961, was script shall be the language of official business, guided by political motives. With the dissolution no other national language can be the language of of the first democratically elected government in official business in its place or parallel to it. 1960 and the rise of the Panchayat system in Therefore, the decision of Kathmandu Metropolis 1962, emerged in which the Nepali language to authorize use of Nepal Bhasa as an additional became an eminent part of the political scenario. language of official business in the Municipality, In the course of inculcating the non-party culture, and the decisions by the Rajbiraj Municipality linguistic sentiments did not flourish as much as and the District Development Committee they could have. Understandably, the Panchayati Dhanusha to authorize the use of Maithili rulers were greatly averse to accepting Nepal as a language are hereby annulled by order of multilingual society. Hence, language was never certiorari since they are in contravention with the considered as the national attire. What is more, in Article 6 (1) of the Constitution. After removing the name of national integration, the "one nation, the case file from the active case record, submit it one language" policy was introduced in 1960, due to the archive in accordance with the rules. to which other linguistic sentiments were strongly Submit the case file to the archive as per rules curbed. after removing it from the active record. Furthermore, the 1962 Panchayat Constitution 5 Language politics in Nepal was a model instance of politicization of language The rulers of the Baise and Chaubise Rajyas (the as its Article 4 affirmed the Nepali language as groups of 22 and 24 states) voluntarily and the national language stipulating nothing about psychologically embraced the dominance of Khas the indigenous languages. During the period culture and Nepali under Gorkha rule of King 1962-1989, Nepali became the medium in Prithvi Narayan shah. It can thus be argued that schools, the media, parliamentary debates, and the 1720s were a remarkable decade for that was deliberations in court. Even the New Education when language became a contentious issue in Plan of 1971 eschewed other languages as a Nepali politics. Not only the Shah dynasty but the medium of instruction in schools. A feeling of Ranas, who took over power in 1846 and made isolation within the people was cultivated because the Shah Kings mere figure heads, had also given of the monolingual policy of the state. especial nourishment to the Nepali language by Consequently, the leaders of language movements undermining other languages. Due to such including Gajendra Narayan Singh and Padma especial protection given by various rulers in the Ratna Tuladhar vehemently demanded the 18th and 19th centuries, a number of major implementation of a liberal language policy. But development milestones such as standardization their call for language rights could not remain as 186
it was because the people's movement during the The findings also reveal that the attitude towards Post-Jan Aandolan Days turned into political their mother tongue is highly positive but if the agitations that ultimately combined language and trend towards imposing only Nepali language will politics in unfathomable ties. Although the not be changed, then language will come under People's Movements opened the door for various the risk in further days. The next issues emerged changes in the country we failed to adhere to the that though they have strong motivation towards language policy properly. We failed to develop all the mother tongue education, they are unable to the indigenous languages even though the get the good mother tongue environment. 1991Constitution of Nepal named Nepali as the References language of the nation (Rastra Bhasha) and other languages of Nepal as national languages Chaudhary, Deepak. 2011. Terai/ Madhesh of (Rastriya Bhasha). However, it cannot be denied Nepal: An anthropological study. Kathmandu: that proclamation of the indigenous languages as Ratna Pustak Bhandar. national languages has somewhat ensured their Gaige, Frederick H. 2009. Regionalism and presence in the mainstream of the state. national unity in Nepal. Lalitpur: Himal Books. A closer look at history about how the state Grierson, George Abraham. 1881. An treated the languages reveals that the treatment introduction to the Maithili dialect of the was driven by political will. The culture of a Bihari language as spoken in Bihar Part I: country is indeed judged by the way it treats and Grammar. Calcutta: The Asiatic society of respects linguistic minorities. But our earlier Bengal. experiences and practices show that we have Grierson, George Abraham. 1885. Bihar peasant failed to rightfully address the country's linguistic life. [second and revised edition 1926] Patna, diversity. Superintendent, Government Printing, Bihar 6 Summary and Orissa. Grierson, George Abraham. 1903. A linguistic For many decades the region saw a slow growth survey of India 5/2 [reprinted 1968], Delhi: in the sectors of language development, literacy, Motilal Banarsidass. poverty, women empowerment, infrastructure Guneratne, Arjun. 2011. The Terai: History, development and more or less all the sectors. society, environment. Kathmandu: Himal Although the scenario is changing quite slowly, Books. most of the people of this region thought that they Gurung, Harka. 2005. From exclusion to were treated differently or ignored by the inclusion: Socio-political agenda for Nepal. government and bureaucrats. Lalitpur: SIRF, SNV-Nepal. Nepal is a multilingual nation. However, a single Hugoniot, Ken. 1997. A sociolinguistic profile of language has been given power, recognition and the dialects of Maithili. Kathmandu: SIL. prestige while the remaining minority languages Jha, Bal Krishna. 1984. A descriptive study of are impoverished and marginalized. Previously Maithili language of Nepal. Unpublished PhD people were discouraged to use their languages if thesis. Poona University. they used them: they were harassed, humiliated Jha, Govinda. 1968. Maithili Udgam O Vikas and even punished if they were found using their (The origin and development of Maithili'). language. This policy was maintained and Calcutta: Maithili Prakashan Samiti. severely implemented during the Rana regime and Jha, G. 1979. Uccatara Maithili Vyakaran carried on until recently. Among the various (Higher Maithili Grammar). Patna: Maithili reasons, ‘one nation one language’ policy of the Academy. HMG was the most prominent one. This kind of Jha, G. 1974. Maithili Bhasha ka Bikas. biased attitude of suppressing other languages in Jha, S. 1958. The formation of the Maithili favour of Nepali was maintained until recently. language. London: Luzac & Co. 187
Lee B, Maureen. Bayung Rai: A sociolinguistic survey. Kathmandu: CNAS, 2005. Levitas, Ruth.1996. The concept of social exclusion and the new Durkheimian hegemony: Critical Social Policy (http://csp.sagepub.com/). Maddox, Bryan. 2003. Language policy, modernist ambivalence and social exclusion: a case study of Rupandehi district in Nepal's Terai. In Pratyoush Onta, Mary Des Chene, Seira Tamang and Mark Liechty (eds.), Studies in Nepali history and society 8(2): 205-224. Yadav, Ram Prakash. 2005. Madheshi: A disadvantaged social group. Sambad. Kathmandu: Institute for Integrated Development Studies. 27 June, pp1-9. Yadav, Ramawatar. 2011. On being Madheshi. In Arjun Guneratne (ed.), The Terai: History, society, environment, 150-160. Kathmandu: Himal Books for the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies and Social Science Baha. Yadava, Yogendra Prasad. 2002a. Language and population monograph. CBS-2003. Kathmandu: Central Bureau of Statistics. Yadava, Yogendra Prasad. 2007a. Linguistic diversity in Nepal: Perspectives on language policy. Paper presented at an international seminar on “Constitutionalism and diversity in Nepal”, Kathmandu. Yadava, Yogendra Prasad. 2007b. The Terai languages. In Basant Thapa and Mohan Mainali (eds.), Madhesh: Context and issues, 84-98. Kathmandu: Social Science Baha. Yadava, Yogendra Prasad. 2009. Linguistic diversity in Nepal: Situation and policy planning. A report submitted to Social Inclusion Research Fund, SNV- Nepal.
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State restructuring and language policy in Nepal Suren Sapkota
This article discusses the various aspects of language language planning. Such an analysis is also planning and policy in the present process of state important to examine the social structure of the restructuring in general. It attempts to find out the relation country’s population since language constitutes between political system and their consequences in various one of the main indicators (Yadava, 2003). As the censuses, and reviews the legal provisions regarding the awareness among people of a common linguistic languages spoken in Nepal with a glance of language movements. The need of inclusive language policy while community identify springing from their shared restructuring the federal state by using bi/tri languages in experience serves the building block of national both vertical and horizontal administrative business, and integration, it is important for the government to the use of the national languages in the education system in accord due place to each language and cultures so general and basic education in particular are the major that linguistic diversity in the nation attempts to findings of the discussion. foster purpose politics of nation building. It is 1 Introduction equally important to overcome a sense of alienation, seclusion and discrimination from Language is enormously human triumph, and broader identity. Language is multidimensional philosophers have long documented that language, and touches almost every facets of human lives, an above all else, is the one thing that distinguishes us entirely inclusive national inclusive policy would from every other organic species. No human necessitate language planning at two levels; (a) community exists without it. All the languages are education, mass-media, administration, etc, and (b) entirely human, cognitively composite, and federal level, provincial level, and local level. stunning in their design. Thus, every language stands for, in some sense, a different view of the 2 Political systems and language number world, a different conceptual universe. All then are There exist varying estimates about the praiseworthy of recognition and policy enumeration of the languages spoken as mother accommodations that promote their well-being and tongues in Nepal from the past. The census report preservations in one hand, and, their number has 2011 has identified 123 languages spoken in Nepal been affected by the political system that the while Ethnolouge (2012) presents a list of 124 country practiced. languages spoken in Nepal as mother tongues. Despite being Nepal a multilingual, multi-ethnic Several of them are dying out for a number of and multi-cultural federal country, no initiation has reasons such as the marginal number of speakers, been taken by the government to protect, develop, rapid migration towards urban areas, and no and manage the languages spoken within. This functional use in education, media, and local multilingual setting confers Nepal on distinct administration. position on the linguistic map of the world and The 1952/54 census recorded 44 languages. This renders it as one of the most fascinating areas of was the period after the termination of the Rana linguistic research. The 2011 census has reported regime from the country. Just before the year, the 123 languages spoken in the country as the mother Rana responded to King Tribhuvan move by tongues. Nepali is spoken as mother tongue by making Gyanendra Shaha the king. This led to 44.6 percent (11,826,953) of the total population huge mass demonstrations in the country that followed by Maithili (11.7% 3,092,530), Bhojpuri compelled the last Rana Prime Minister Mohan (6.0%; 1,584,958), Tharu (5.8%; 1,529,875), Sumsher to come into negotiations with Tribhuvan Tamang (5.1%; 1,353,311), Newar (3.2%; and the Nepali Congress. The result of the political 846,557), Bajjika (3.0%;793,418), Magar (3.0%; change in the country directly affected in the 788,530), Doteli (3.0%; 787,827), Urdu (2.6%; number of languages to be listed in census 691,546) (CBS National Report 2011). It is 1952/54. important that the language situation in Nepal be analyzed to facilitate linguistic studies and In 1961 census, the number of languages fell down to 33. This was period of direct rule of King Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 189-198 Mahedra having only the Nepali language as 3 Review of legal provisions national language. As a result, the minority Before the unification, there were a number of languages ignored and not listed in the census. The small states from the east to the west in this number of languages was, however drastically territory. Some of them were formed on ethno- reduced to 17 in the 1971 and 1981 censuses, and linguistic basis; others were running in the form of 20 in 1991. After Bishweshar Prasad Koirala, the Kingship. The first type states were found to use first elected PM in 1959 was deposed and their own language along with other languages if imprisoned in 1960; Nepal did not have a necessary in the administration. The second type democratic government until 1990, when the used the languages of the wider communication; country became a constitutional monarchy. Khaskura/Khasbhasa along with the local The census conducted after the restoration of languages. Since the creation of greater Nepal, the democracy in 2001 shows the number of languages Nepali language has been popular as an easy radically increased to 92. After the second people’s means of communication between all language movement in 2006, the number of languages raised speakers of the nation. There was no evidence for drastically. As a result, the census report of 2011 legal provision regarding the language before Rana has listed 123 languages spoken as mother tongues regime perpetuation on this ‘one nation-one in Nepal. language’ policy. It further stated that: (i) The medium of instruction should be the national The uncertainty about number of languages and language in primary, middle, and higher their reduced enumeration in the last five censuses educational institutions,…can be an anchor-sheet (i.e.1952/54-1991) may be attributed to a lack of for Nepalese nationality, and can be the main awareness of Nepal’s indigenous mother tongues instrument for promoting literature. (ii) No other and also to the ‘one nation one language’ policy language should be thought, even optionally in adopted during the Panchayat regime (Yadava, primary school because few children will need 2003). During the ‘black years’ of the Rana regime them, they would hinder the use of Nepali,… there and continuing on through the ears of Panchayat are not enough well-qualified teachers, and those rule in the Kingdom of Nepal, the state who wish and need additional languages, can begin promulgated the doctrine of ‘one nation, one them in the 6th grade (NEPC 1956:95). culture, one language,’… (Watters et al. 2005). The use of Nepali in education was further The other reason for the significant rise in the prescribed by K.I. Singh government in1957 and number of languages recognized as being spoken in Panchayat regime as Nepali as medium of in Nepal is the public awareness in the social instruction. In 1961 the National System of sector. One important factor instrumental in the Education was introduced to further promote the change is that a large number of languages used as use of only Nepali in administration, education and mother tongues were returned for the first time in media in compliance. In addition, Nepali Company 2001, and in 2011 because of the growing Act was passed in 1964 directing all companies to awareness of linguistic and cultural identity, and keep their records in English or Nepali. This the willingness of the state to acknowledge this further supported the use of the Nepali language linguistic and cultural diversity. Since the along with the English in administration. restoration of democracy in 1990 there has been a genuine increase in awareness among linguistic Following the democratic people’s movement in minorities and indigenous peoples about their 1990, however, the Kingdom of Nepal made a mother tongues and the status that these might be wise and significant step forward in recognizing accorded in the nation. Following the enumeration, the inheritant rights of linguistic minorities. The some linguists were also consulted to aid in the Constitution of Nepal 1991 acknowledges that: precise identification of the languages spoken in (i)Nepal is a “multi-ethnic, multi-lingual” nation Nepal as mother tongue. (Part I, Art. 4), (ii) The Nepali language in the Devanagari script is the language of the nation of
Nepal. The Nepali language shall be the official 190 language (Part 1, Art. 6.1), (iii) all the languages education policy has been endorsed. According to spoken as the mother tongue in the various parts of this policy, a child will acquire basic educational Nepal are the national languages of Nepal. (Part 1, skills through the medium of his/her mother Art. 6.2), in addition, the constitution also made a tongue and gradually switch to a lingua franca/an provision for the use of mother tongues in primary official language so that s/he can “feel at home in education (Part 1, Art.18.2). It also guaranteed the language in which the affairs of government Nepalese as a fundamental right to preserve their are carried on” and finally learn a foreign language culture, scripts and their languages (Part 1, Art. (e.g. English) for broader communications and 26.2). The greatest weakness of these provisions access to science and technology (Fishman 1968). was the lack of any explicit plan and policy to The Interim Constitution of Nepal (2007), an implement them. outcome of the People’s movement II, makes the provisions that (i) all the languages spoken as the To implement these constitutional provisions about mother tongue in Nepal are the national languages language, a recommendation commission for of Nepal, (ii) The Nepali Language in Devanagari formulating policy for national languages was script shall be the official language, (iii) formed by the government in 1993. The main Notwithstanding anything contained in clause (2), objectives of the commission were twofold: it shall not be deemed to have hindered to use the promotion of national languages and their use in mother language in local bodies and offices, state local administration, primary education and media. shall translate the languages so used to an official The CDC has so far developed textbooks in 14 (Part 1, Art. 5). national languages to be taught as subject. This initiative is no doubt a welcome step; for the first The recommendations made by the Committee of time some non-Nepali languages have been Social and Cultural Solidarity in constituent introduced in education. Another implementation assembly (unfortunately that was dismissed with of the commission report has been the introduction the CA five month before) to decide the basis of of 18 different languages in Radio Nepal by the cultural and social solidarity has a number of Government of then Nepali congress Party. The valuable tips regarding the languages spoken in recommendation for the use of minority languages Nepal. In addition, the major political parties in local administration was later enacted into a namely; UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and law, the Local Self-Governance Act of 1999 which CPN(UML) including other, have mentioned about deputed to local bodies the right to preserve and the use and status of the national languages in their promote local languages. Nevertheless, on June 1, election manifestos. 1999, the Supreme Court announced its final 4 A glance of language movements verdict and issued a certiorari declaring that the decisions of these local bodies to use regional In Nepal, there have been some language languages were unconstitutional and illegal. The movements among which two of them namely court’s verdict raised serious questions about the 'Save Hindi' and 'Nepalbhasa movement' were sincerity of the government’s commitment to the thought to be the most considerable movements in use of minority languages in administration and the language history. The first was led by Nepal led to further frustration among minority language Terai Congress with its leader Veda Nand Jha in communities. Government of Nepal is committed 1951 the main objective of which was recognition to making quality primary education accessible to of Hindi as an autonomous Terai state language. all children including children from indigenous Likewise, the Nepalbhasa movement in 1920s was and minority language groups including six grounded in its very forming the concept of strong universal goals of education for all for ensuring the ethnic identities with its glorious past, a distinct right of indigenous people and linguistic minorities language, a unique culture, an old literature, a to basic and primary education through mother particular script and territory, etc. It aims at the tongue. recognition and usage of NepalBhasa along with other the languages spoken in Nepal for official It is believed that to achieve the EFA/Nepal (2004- purposes. Similarly the latter half of the 1970s may 9) goals a policy of transitional multilingual 191 be said to be a period of beginning for the minority language in restructuring the state within the language issues. envisaged federal system. Language and culture function as an adhesive link and strengthen greater After the restoration of democracy in 1990, and cohesion among members of a community. Hence, mainly after the people's movement second in language and culture are prominent criteria for 2006, new waves of enthusiasm awakened restructuring a state. widespread interest in the minority languages and cultures among many indigenous groups as well as When we see the world's federal states, they are among the advocates of their causes. This in turn found to be seen as; (a) one cast one language one spurred as increase in minority language state, (b) one cast one language multi state and (c) development efforts. Moreover, many indigenous one state multilingual/multiethnic. If the state is organizations mushroomed almost overnight with reconstructed only on the basis of caste and the purpose of preserving, developing and language, there may be the possibility to fall the promoting their cultural and linguistic heritage. nation into an endless debate and conflict. India After the people's movement in April 2006, the and Nigeria are the examples of having this type of people demanded from various sectors of society conflict. In fact federalism is the philosophy of marginalized in the past, including Janajati and democratic political nation system to strengthen Madhesi in their linguistic issues. In the post unity among different variation and inequality. people’s movement, all most all the political Most of the models regarding the state parties, larger or smaller, have been advocating reconstructing have found to be utilized some linguistic issues, at least in theory if not in common basis like ethnic/linguistic/cultural practice. identity, economic and administrative possibilities, 5 Need for inclusive language policy the excess and complementary of natural resources. Some have emphasized on historical In the context of the envisaged federal structure of place of ethnic/linguistic/cultural groups, and gave the country there is a need for designing Nepal’s less priority and significance to geographical language policy to preserve and promote local, complementary (Sharma and Khanal, 2009:34). regional, and national languages in one hand, and This is because the different political parties and the determination of the particular languages to ethnic and linguistic groups have their own communicate among different levels understanding of the ethnic/linguistic/cultural administration (i.e. vertical), and, among different points and areas. As a result, some have claimed the federal states (i.e. horizontal) on the other. For some areas as their own, while other have these purposes, both the status planning and corpus reclaimed on contrary to the previous claims. For planning are indispensible in inclusive language example, the proposed Kochila State that policy. Thus, this policy may be categorized as comprised of three districts viz. Jhapa, Morang and determining the languages in federal state while Sunsari claimed by UCPN (Maoist) has been restructuring of the nation in various levels, and reclaimed as Limbuwan by Limbuwan Party, and the policy for use of language in education and moreover, the Terai based parties have been media. demanding those districts to be included within a 5.1 Language policy in a federal state single state of the whole Terai region as a single autonomous Madhesh Pradesh. The same area has The federal state is the result of different ethnic been proposed by the name of Birat Pradesh by and linguistic groups and communities with their the CPN (UML), Bijayapur by Govinda Neupane, political contract through the written constitution. Purbi Terai (East Terai) by Pitamber Sharma, Nepal is now on the same process of being Mithilanchal by Surendra K.C. and Amresh federalization. The political leaders and Narayan Jha, Far-East State by Chandra Kanta constitution makers should think those in their Gyawali, Rajbanshi autonomous area by K.B. mind while making constitution through the CA. Gurung, Morang Mandal by Babu Ram Acharya, Before articulating some perspectives on language and so on. policy, it would be in order to discuss the role of 192
Similarly, some Magars have claimed that the two problem. So the process of restructuring the nation areas of their residency belonged to their ancestral must not be limited to the structure and process of areas from Surkhet to Tanahun and Ramechap to political party's dictatorship but on the basis of Dhankuta as Magarant State. Likewise, Tharu also maximum ownership of the people. have been demanding to put the areas of Tharu In the process of federalization of the state, firstly, majority areas into Tharuwan State (Ibid. the present unitary nation should be divided into 2009:35). There find mainly two significant issues different self-governing units. Among the many existed in course of restructuring the state; (i) views, opinions and proposals that were presented development of all the languages of Nepal and in the process of federalization of the country, provide mother tongue education in schools up to altogether there are four alternatives. The first proper level for the medium of instruction, and, (ii) proposal proposed by the Madhesi Parties is the determination of the languages in day to day tri-state federal structure of Himal, Pahad and administrative function of the nation and their Madhes/Tarai. The next alternative is the federal criteria for using them in both vertical and structure on the basis of caste and language. The horizontal. The main reasons for Nepal to be a third is the states from Himal to Tarai with federal from the unitary form of government is geographical, ethnic and linguistic variation and present structure of the state in its ethnic, linguistic adjustment with its own eco-political states. The and areal inequality, enexcess and uninclusive. As last or fourth alternative is of mixed type. In this Nepal has been practicing unitary and centralized type, if we can, the determination of states on the form of government from the long run, the process basis of multiethnic and multilingual states bearing of restructuring the nation into federal one is in mind the historical and cultural territory and complex and sensitive one. In this context the density of the population which can be suitable in different ethnic groups have presented their own our context. For this, some states will be of ethnic ethnic autonomous states on the basis of their own identity, some are of linguistic identity and rest of historical and traditional geo-cultural territory. others carries geographical identity. Except Nepali They presented their states with their names and and Maithili linguistic communities, no other boundaries too. Some of these states are yet seen to communities will have their states with majority. It be started naming as de-facto. This issue captures will be long term utility of federal Nepal if we easily in this context, because it is the nation’s reconstruct the nation on the basis of presence of political objective to form the federal states. density of ethnic and linguistic communities with Unfortunately, the nation itself could not start its their geographical, economic and political process of being federal state. Though federalism possibilities. The federal Nepal should develop and is a political issue, the technical and expertise provide legal provision to all the languages spoken aspects are also equally important. But the related in Nepal. But it is equally important in working teams or/and commissions have not been acculturation of using them clearly as the formed yet by the state till now. To make federal constitutional provision for the language used for state there find no any signals of doing its formal usage of the nation. Otherwise, by using it homework from the state level yet. The job of as a catalyst, seasonal issues of ethno-language for politics is to determine only the direction and the short term political opportunity may mushroom destination of the country. But the whole almost overnight. Language is the fundamental remaining jobs of its implementation are to be right for every individual. There will be revolution done by the regular homework of the commission. if the nation bands in using them. If the nation No system will make by the contemporary quick leaves it open, then any individual searches political decision. If we believe in the system of nationally and internationally highly accepted multiparty democratic and competitive political language(s) in accordance with his/her priorities system, then there is no meaning of dictatorship of and adaptability for facilities and opportunities. only one political party. In despotism, federal The use of English language in almost all the nation no longer runs, and there will always be the countries can be the example. possibility of danger of separation. The past USSR and Yugoslavia are the examples with the same 193
The Interim Constitution of Nepal 2007 recognized After entering into the federalism, Nepal, no doubt that all the languages spoken in Nepal as their will transform into the multilingual nation system. mother tongue are national languages. There is no The states can use the local languages in their doubt that federal Nepal by its present constitution administration and offices for governmental too, will be multilingual. Though the constitution purposes. For the central government and in- of the Kingdom of Nepal 1991 also mentioned between central and state government and among Nepal as multiethnic and multilingual, it bends the different state governments there will be necessity use of them in nation system. Language of one or more link language(s) (Khanal, 2008:96). movements rose. Even after the peoples' In other countries, we cannot find any particular movement second in 2006, the interim constitution criteria for practicing use of language. has provisioned only Nepali is recognized as a The constitutions of quite old federal states remain medium of official usage for government's quiet in the use of language in their constitutions. administrative purpose.1 In the constitution of the USA, Australia, Brazil If it opens the use of mother tongue in local level and Mexico there is no mention of administrative and local offices, this can be an upward step of or link language. In the USA and Australia, opening constitutional door for the transformation English language is found to be in practiced, and of Nepal towards multilingual nation. An Brazil uses Portuguese while Mexico uses Spanish. agreement between the government and Madhesi Some countries like Argentina, Spain, Malaysia, Janadhikar Forum in 2008 says that (a) mother Venezuela etc. though they practice federalism, tongue, (b) Nepali language and (c) English use only a single language for their governmental language i.e. a tri-lingual policy in the government, purposes. The English and Amharic languages got administration, education and international constitutional recognition in Nigeria and Ethiopia communication that should be recognized in the respectively. In Russia and Austria, there is only constitution. In this way, after the peoples' one language in central and provincial languages movement II in 2006 Nepal has been up-warding in different provinces are in practice. India, towards multilingual nation system. English Switzerland, Belgium, Canada, South Africa etc. language has been used as a means of international have been practicing the multilingual federalism. communication and quality higher education. But They are often cited for their liberal language the main issue here is not of English but of policies. Post-apartheid South Africa, for example, Nepalese languages especially the mother tongues. has accepted 11 languages to address some ethnic communities. But with the passage of time, English, although fifth on the list, has emerged as the most preferred language there. Efforts to 1 But sometimes in the higher political level and position, promote Afrikaans as the first language have not the usage of language has seen as debatable and produced encouraging results (Adhikary, 2010). controversial issue. Generally the constitutions of other Meanwhile, leaders of various ethnic communities countries do not mention about which language is appear to have realized that the Nepali language is national and/or not. The languages that are used in the one vital foundation to establish the collective administrative purpose are only found to be listed in the identity of the diverse ethnic groups that make up constitution. But in the case of Nepal, constitution has Nepal. already recognized all the languages spoken in Nepal as their mother tongue as national languages, the possibility The other question can be whether all the of using them in national level is not uneasy. So, if the languages mentioned in the last population census provision of national language will be remained the same 2011 can be the national languages of Nepal? For in the constitution, the clear definition, criteria and this, all the national languages will be indexed in preliminaries of those languages may be mentioned in the the constitution by writing a clear definition of constitution. All the languages may not get chance to be national language. There will be no the situation of listed in the constitution to use in administration, education, media, etc. India is an example of it where using only a Nepali language as a language of although hundreds of mother tongues are there; only a administration after entering into the federal few have been codified in the constitution. structure. The subject of language is certainly 194 related to the structuring of the provinces. There 5.2 Language policy in education system can be the situation of using two or three major The National Education Planning Commission in local languages including Nepali within a single 1956 has recommended the Nepali language as a province. Likewise, it will be necessary to get medium of instruction. This recommendation was information in their mother tongue while getting made on the basis of the population census clearance and doing self-defense in the 2052/54 which has listed that 48.7%, and 86.6% government offices for which the state have to people of Nepal speak Nepali as their mother provide the translator (Khanal, 2008:48). tongue and the second language respectively. The language policy that we proposed here for the Although the decision might have advocated on administrative purpose for the federal Nepal is of the basis of the census data, and in lack of bi or trilingual policy (according to the position homework, materials, manpower, etc. to conduct and the number of languages in local level) in teaching-learning in other languages, the major vertical and horizontal. Nepali will be the language thing the government had lacked was the of federal government and federal and provincial willpower to make the policy to provide education government. In the same way, Nepali and/or other in other languages too, at least in lower classes. major languages in the local level can be used to The use of single language policy in national communicate between the province governments education system slowly hindered the learning and local governments. The federal governments process; especially in the children from other use the Nepali language to perform its business. language communities. Horizontally, there is more chance of using the It is generally not recognized, at least not in Nepal Nepali language to communicate among the that children from minority language communities different federal states. Because, Nepali is broadly are as a distinct disadvantage over children whose used as the lingua-franca in Nepal among the mother-tongue is the official language. Among different linguistic communities. To communicate these disadvantaged children, discouragement is among the local governments in the local level, the high, resulting in high drop-out rates (Toba, Toba local language(s) of the district or VDC, along and Rai, 2005). It has been found that most of the with the Nepali language could be possible. school dropouts belong to these non-Nepali The other most noteworthy fact while talking speaking communities. Apart from them, a large about the language use is the use of English number of children from these vulnerable groups language in Nepal although the constitution has have no access to school and are debarred from the not mentioned the role or/and of its status. The use right of achieving basic education. of English plays a vital role in some of the It has been widely accepted that all children should domains like mass media, academic seminar and have opportunity to receive basic and primary symposiums, the library, public administration, education through mother tongues as their right. If diplomatic business, high level academic and we provide primary education through mother research institutions and register level languages. tongues children can have better learning as they Nepal’s heavily dependence on foreign aid, its can engage more actively in understanding and diplomatic relations with more than 100 nation- learning activities though their greater proficiency states; the growing of NGOs and INGOs and job in them (Yadava, 2007). Besides, it also can help opportunities to Nepalese in these institutions and to attract the out-of-school children from abroad, and a number of factors have contributed indigenous and minority language groups to join the gravity of English in the lives of Nepalese school as they will feel homely with the use of people (Sapkota, 2010). Thus, the use of the their mother tongues in education (UNESCO, English language in Nepal is indispensible in the 1951). It is therefore desirable to envisage a policy era of science and technology. English may also such as ‘transitional bilingual education’, mention as one of possible languages in Nepalese according to which children will start their basic language policy. education in their mother tongues for better learning and quality education, gradually switch to 195 a lingua franca for broader communications and groups in Nepal is not a cry for autonomy, but a eventual switch to an international language such cry to be able to participate in the wider life of the as English for global communications and access nation on a par with those whose mother-tongue is to science and technology. Nepali (Rai, 2005). The present constitutional and legal provisions and measures undertaken by the We have so far discussed the policy or status Government of Nepal to promote and preserve the planning of Nepalese languages for promoting interests of the linguistic minorities (including the their functions in areas such as government offices, endangered linguistic groups) are not adequate. A education, and mass media. As a prerequisite, the scientific and most up-to-date linguistic survey to change in status requires the development of determine the status and position of various language resources such as orthography, new languages of Nepal should be conducted and vocabulary, spelling changes, dictionaries, accordingly, a scientific, need-based language grammars, and reading materials in these promotion and planning policy should be languages so that a language becomes an formulated and promoted. Because the languages appropriate medium of communication for use in of Nepal are in different status and position, some administration, education, media, etc. This branch are unconscious i.e. sleeping and some half of planning is known as ‘corpus planning’. Most of conscious, some conscious and some walking. In Nepalese languages, which are still preliterate and this context, it must be determined categorically undescribed, need to undergo corpus planning which language needs which status and treatment before introducing them in the prescribed areas. with phase wise development. Different policies Nearly the one-fourth of Nepalese languages are and strategies should be formed to promote them. viable to be threatened due to reasons such as lack Except those languages which have rich written of inter-generational language transmission, tradition (Nepali, Maithili, Newar, Limbu), the marginalized number of speakers, dearth of smaller and 'lesser known languages', materials for language education and literacy, comparatively need more government protection negative government and institutional language and encouragement to preserve their own identity. attitudes and policies including official status and But for the smaller languages which have their use, and so on. To preserve these ‘seriously own scripts but have not developed, need different endangered’ or ‘moribund’ languages before they treatment. are lost to the posterity to come, it is time to The good news, however, is this there is an undertake their linguistic and ethnographic authentic linguistic survey to facilitate the documentation. There have been various estimates implementation of a language policy. But, because about Nepalese languages in the past. Even after of the lack of budget and understandings in the the people's movement the Government of Nepal, government level, it will be difficult to run in the as some linguists and speech communities point future. There is a need for a regulatory body to out, has not shown positive attitude for the formulate, evaluate and implement the language development of small languages, their writing policy. system, and scripts. Some of the languages, which have recently developed writing systems, had The other most important thing is translation. As received no government encouragement. There are more we translate the text from other languages a larger number of lesser known languages, which into the mother tongues, the prosperous the mother are endangered and likely to die out in the lack of tongues as more. This process enlarges the their use and documentation (Yadava, 1996). domains of language use, makes large wisdom, and children can get benefited especially from the What we advocate here is not the promotion of the children literature. Translation helps in gradual mother-tongue to the determent or displacement of switching to a lingua franca and to an international Nepali as the national lingua franc, the language of language such as English for global status and language of higher education in the communications and science and technology too. nation-state if firmly established. The claims to But the most significant consideration if that the linguist rights from minority and indigenous language is inherently linked to the culture of its 196 linguistic community. So, while translating the education, according to which children will start texts into the mother tongues the cultural traditions their basic education in their mother tongues for of the target language should be given the most better learning and quality education, gradually importance. switch to a lingua franca for broader communications and eventual switch to an 6 Summary international language such as English for global Languages in Nepal have been conspiratorially communications and access to science and manipulated, and the minority and ethnic technology. It is with these perspectives that we languages have been ignored for years mainly after have proposed for a territorized bilingual policy in the Rana regime. This has resulted them have a regional units of administration and the transitional linguistic disadvantage and uncompetitive edge bilingual education in policy. In a recent study it over others, and inaccess to education and has been shown how minority languages can be employment. better preserved and promoted by regional/local administration than the central one. But language debate is so acute that it might never have been seen before. It may be effect of the Moreover, in order to frame an appropriate policy, worldwide process of democratization and its timely and need based language and cultural impact over their identification and preservation in policy, to develop harmony and cooperation the process of transforming the country into among various linguistic groups, to settle cultural federal one from its unitary form. In this regard, it and linguistic problems, to define the role of is thought to be not so in general issue to be raised. languages and to conduct high level academic But sometimes in our contexts the political parties, research regularly, special and most representative foreign agencies, NGOs and INGOs and some high level linguistic and cultural commission activists in the name of the languages make their should be formed. As the courts are the guardians business in their daily lives. The of the constitutional rights of the citizens, the overgeneralization and playing over by language activists should try to pressurize the unnecessary plunging into nation language politics parliamentarians to amend the constitutional may harm socially, nationally and even provisions concerning language and create strong internationally. It sometimes may bring communal lobby and public opinion in their favor. All mother tension and civil war too which may weaken the tongues deserve preservation. All the languages of state and hence its nationality. So it is better not to Nepal should be encouraged and protected by the be played over the languages but within the government. The government should be given languages so that politics of language and special treatment to those languages, which are on language politics can go side by side. the verge of decay. Federalism that is highly advocated without a clear The language policy for the administrative purpose and complete roadmap for the local self for the federal Nepal is of bi or trilingual policy in government based on democratic foundation and vertical and horizontal. Nepali will be the language advocacy of the unitary system backed by self of federal government and federal and provincial centered statuesque ideology cannot contribute to government. In the same way, Nepali and/or other benefit the languages undergone by the centralized major language(s) in the local level can be used to state system since hundreds of years. Therefore, communicate between the province government while making roadmap of New Nepal, it is better and local government. The federal government to come up above the petty personal interests and uses the Nepali language to perform its business. thoughts that plead to add some more rights up to Horizontally, there is more chance of using the the provinces level languages only but we have to Nepali language to communicate among the open up the new avenues for the local languages in different federal states as Nepali is broadly used as local governments to make them powerful and the lingua-franca in Nepal among the different responsible enough to the local communities. For linguistic communities from the east to west. The this the local level linguistic minorities should be local language(s) of the district or VDC, along with uplifted by following transitional bilingual 197 the Nepali language may be used to communicate Sapkota, Suren. 2010. Language Politics in Nepal. among the local governments in the local level. Kathmandu: A dissertation submitted to the Central Department of Political Science: The use of English in mass media, academic Tribhuvan University. seminar and symposiums, the library, public administration, diplomatic business, high level Toba, Sueyoshi and Ingrid, and Novel Kishor Rai. academic and research institutions and register 2005. Diversity and Endangerment of level languages, science and technology, job Languages in Nepal. Kathmandu: UNESCO. opportunities and a broad number of factors have Toba, Sueyoshi and Ingrid, and Novel Kishor Rai. contributed the gravity of English in the lives of 2005. Diversity and endangerment of languages Nepalese people. So English may be the next of Nepal. Kathmandu:UNESCO. possible language to be mentioned while we come UNDP Nepal. 2009. The Interim constitution of into action in language planning and policy. Nepal, 2007, as amended by the first to sixth
amendments. Pulchok, Lalitpur: UN House. References UNESCO. 1951. The use of vernacular languages Adhikary, Dhurba. 2010. Nepal plungs into politics in education: The report of the UNESCO of language; nepalnews.com. meeting of specialists, 1951. Paris. Bandhu, Chudamani. 1989. ‘The role of the Nepali Watters, David E. and Rai, Novel K. 2005. The language in establishing the national unity and Indigenous Languages of Nepal (ILN): Policy, identity of Nepal;, Kailash 15 (3-4): 121-133. Planning and Recommendations. Kathmandu: Central Bureau of Statistics. 1952/54-2011. Center for Nepal and Asian Studies (CNAS): Population Census. Kathmandu: Central Bureau Tribhuvan University. of Statistics. Watters, David. E. and Novel K. Rai. 2005. Constituent Assembly. 2010. Report of preliminary Indigenous languages of Nepal (ILN): Policy, draft along with the concept paper of the planning and recommendations (Yadava, Constituent Assembly Committee on determining Yogendra P. and Pradeep L. Bajracharya ed). cultural and social solidarity, 2009-10 Lalitpur: NFDIN. (VE2066), Kathmandu. Yadava, Yogendra P. 2003. ‘Language’ Population Epelle, John, M. Paul Lewis, Dan Raj Regmi and Monograph, Vol 1. Yogendra P. Yadava (eds) 2012. Ethnologue: Yadava, Yogendra P. 2007. Linguistic Diversity in Languasges of the World. Kathmandu: Central Nepal Perspectives on Language Policy. A Department of Linguistics, Tribhuvan paper presented at an international seminar on University and SIL International. "Constitutionalism and Diversity in Nepal". Fishman J.A. (ed.) 1968. Readings in the sociology Kathmandu: NFDIN. of language. The Hague: Mouton. HMG of Nepal. 1990. The Constitution of Kingdom of Nepal. Kathmandu: HMG of Nepal. Khanal, Krishna. 2008. "Language policy of federal state of Nepal: Comment", on context of state reconstruction: the present status of Nepalese languages and inclusive language policy, Kirtipur, Kathmandu: CNAS (T.U.) & SIRF/SNV. Organized by Centre for Nepal and Asian Studies, TU in collaboration with MIDEA Project and ESP-Nepal. 22-24 August 2007: Kathmandu, Nepal. 198
Dynamic of Nepali public’s opinion on the linguistic issue
Pawan Kumar Sen
This paper argues based on longitudinal opinion Many social scientists who prefer to base their surveys that though the majority of Nepali people studies on the quantitative approach say that have preferred the single-linguistic policy (Nepali longitudinal polls are most commonly used to language as the only official language), capture changes in public opinion on an aggregate significant minority of the public demand for the level (Hellevik 2008). Changing dynamics of multi-linguistic policy. If Nepal’s democracy has public opinion can be captured only by to be made an inclusive democracy, a new longitudinal public opinion polls which measure constitution needs to address the voice of the them over time through the same questions. minority too. The paper begins with the context of state 1 Introduction restructuring issues the country is facing today. Then, it is followed by historical background of This paper illustrates the dynamic of general Nepali identity based on the language, culture and Nepali public’s view toward the linguistic issue of religion of Hindu high caste group. The paper Nepal using findings from longitudinal public also highlights on the methodology of the public opinion polls conducted between Sep 2006 and opinion polls on the basis of which the paper Jul 2009. It divulges what the general Nepali presents its argument. After this, the paper people think on the linguistic issue in this time of discusses about the general public opinions on political transition, and how their opinion toward single-lingualism against multilingualism. Then, this issue undergoes changing over time (if there the paper shows the relationship between public is any change). Variations in the opinion by opinions toward various state restructuring issues. ethnicity, geographical region, educational status, Finally, it ends up with conclusions. age group and political party preference have been examined too. A reason for paying a high 2 State restructuring issues in the present-day attention to these five variables is that these Nepal variables are the explanatory variables which Nepal today is going through probably the most significantly influence the public’s view on the difficult political transitional phase in her history. state restructuring issues, and they are identified Basic characteristics of the Nepali state since her to be the significant explanatory variables through foundation in 1768 - the monarchy, the unitary multiple regression analyses (which were state, the Hindu state and the promotion of Nepali conducted for the PhD research of this author). language as the only official language have been Since the role of political parties in democratic eliminated. These four components had been systems of governance is to represent the people, promoted as the four pillars of the structure of the it is important for them to be consistently aware Nepali state until 2006. In this context, views of of how the public perceives a certain issue. Here, Prayag Raj Sharma, a leading scholar of Nepal’s it is worthwhile to recall that political scientists history, are very important who writes that have repeatedly argued for the ordinary people’s “Prithvi Narayan Shah and those after him, based voice (measured through scientific opinion polls) the country’s unification on four key ideas: the to be used as a primary basis for formulating or unquestioning power and authority of the Hindu amending laws and policies (Eisinger 2008). A King of Gorkha, the supremacy of the Hindu series of public opinion polls if conducted ethos in national life, social integration through scientifically is a reliable means to gauge the Hindu social system based on caste division, and general people’s view on contemporary political recognition of Nepali as the language of issues at different intervals of time and help government, administration and, in more recent conducting time-series analysis of their views. So, times, education” (Sharma 1992: 7). After the this type of longitudinal public opinion polls April 2006 mass movement (commonly known as helps identifying ruptures and continuities in Jan Andolan II, which literally means a second public opinion toward particular issues over time. wave of a mass movement) called by the Seven- Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 199-210 Party Alliance1 and the UCPN (Maoist)2, the old high caste hill group, and their cultural values and structure of the Nepali state was demolished and language became the dominant and privileged Nepal’s political parties conceptualized a new while other groups such as Janajatis, Dalits and form of the structure of the state: republic, Madhesis were excluded from the mainstream of federal, secular and multi-linguistic state. By the the Nepali state, and ended up as the under- first meeting of an elected Constituent Assembly privileged and marginalized groups. (CA) held on 28 May 2008, Nepal was formally When the then Prime Minister Chandra Shamsher transformed to a republic from the monarchy, to a Rana formally declared Nepali language as the federal state from the unitary state, to a secular only state language in 1905, and ordered his state from the Hindu state and to a multi-linguistic government not to use and recognize other state from the single-linguistic state. So, the languages, non-Nepali speakers such as Janajati republicanism, federalism, secularism and groups and Madhesi people felt discriminated in multilingualism are the four most important new subsequent years and officially became the state restructuring issues in the present-day Nepal. second-class people. Nepali language was further But this paper concentrates only on the linguistic propagated by the Nepali state to the detriment of issue. Examination of other state restructuring other languages with the establishment of Gorkha issues is beyond the scope of this paper. Bhasa Prakashan Samiti in 1913, which was 3 Historical background obliged to publish literatures exclusively in Nepali language. Exclusive strategy of the state During and after the expansion of the Gorkha was further apparent when the National Education Empire, Nepali (or Gorkhali) identity had been Planning Commission published its report, constructed on the basis of the dominant Education in Nepal, in 1956, which explicitly language, culture and religion, which were recommended the government to promote Nepali obviously the language, culture and religion of the language as the only medium language in schools Gorkhali rulers and elites who belonged to Hindu with a view to ceasing other ethnic and regional high caste group. An artificial homogenous languages gradually. With the promulgation of national identity had been attempted to create by the Constitution of Nepal 1960 under the promoting Nepali language (previously known as Panchayat regime, the state adopted one-language Gorkhali language or Khas kura or Parbate kura) policy declaring Nepali language only the as the only state language along with Hindu national language of the country because of which religion and Hindu monarchy. This naturally led other languages felt suppressed. to marginalize and even exclude languages, cultures and religions of others. This policy Social justice movements began to take place in rejected the national identity of Nepali people the country demanding equal rights including the based on multicultural values3. Ultimately, Hindu linguistic right after 1951 when Nepali polity became open with the abolition of the oligarchic Rana regime and the instatement of multiparty 1 It was an alliance formed by the seven agitating democracy4. However, the movements were not parliamentarian political parties on May 2005 to protest against the king’s take-over of 1 February 2005 (when strong enough to change the old structure of the the incumbent king Gyanendra dismissed the appointed Deuba government, declared a state of emergency and took all executive powers). and Nepalization to eliminate diverse language, 2 The UCPN (Maoist) was previously called CPN religion, society and culture. (Maoist) until it formally unified with the People’s 4 In fact, language movement had started in Nepal Front Nepal (Janmorcha Nepal in Nepali language) in much earlier than 1951. For instance, Nepalbhasa January 2009. Not to be confused with other leftist movement began in 1920s which was strongly parties with similar names like the CPN-Maoist (note associated with Newar ethnic identity movement the dash in between), and the CPN Maoist (without (Sapkota 2010: 210). But this movement was organized dash in between). in underground manner due to the intolerant Rana 3 Bhattachan (2001:47) writes that the rulers of Nepal regime because of which reach of the movement was used coercive measure of Hinduization, Sanskritization limited. 200
Nepali state. It was only after the restoration of movement further amplified the identity issue and the multiparty democracy in 1990 as an outcome defied the cultural monopoly of the Hindu high of the April 1990 mass movement (i.e. Jan caste hill group since the mid 1990s when UCPN Andolan I), political leaders and activists from (Maoist) started an insurgency against the Nepali historically excluded groups such as Janajati and state. Along with other rights, it raised voice in Madhesi communities had begun to demand for a favour of equal linguistic right of ethnic and more inclusive democracy including the multi- regional languages. These movements had linguistic policy5. They began to assert their rights brought the issue of various rights including the and identities in a more organized manner. They linguistic right to the forefront. They demanded a demanded to the state for recognizing their unique multi-linguistic policy with a right of using local culture, religion and language. Even though the languages at the local government level instead of 1990 Constitution recognized Nepal as a only Nepali language8. So, exclusionary strategies multiethnic and multilingual nation6, it did not of the Nepali state even after Jan Andolan I was overtly articulate provisions that would recognize the root cause of emergence of social justice the diversity and plurality of Nepali society. So, it movements (Lawoti 2010: 73). Most of their could not promote the spirit of the inclusive demands, including the demand for the linguistic democracy. The hegemony of the language of right, were tied up with the demand for Hindu high caste hill group (i.e. Nepali language) federalism. They had envisaged that they would continued even under the 1990 Constitution. achieve the linguistic right if the demand for Languages other than Nepali were not given federalism could be fulfilled. official recognition7. This constitutional After Jan Andolan II, the demand for the arrangement led to linguistic discrimination linguistic right along with the demand for toward non-Nepali speaking Janajati groups and federalism gained the ground. The endorsement Madhesi groups. So, the social justice movement of the Interim Constitution of Nepal 2007 in after 1990, too, did not bring significant reforms January 2007 did not satisfy the Janajati and in the structure of the Nepali state. However, an Madhesi leaders as it did not explicitly mention open atmosphere guaranteed by the 1990 about republicanism and federalism9. They Constitution provided ample opportunities for organized protest movements to show their ethnicity- and identity-based movements within anxiety demanding that it be amended in order to the established political structure which take into account the concerns of the Janajati and challenged the state to recognize cultures, Madhesi people. In December 2007, the Interim religions and languages of all the marginalized Legislature-Parliament approved a bill to amend groups. It allowed a space for the assertion of the Interim Constitution with a view to voices from the excluded, under-privileged and incorporating the demands raised by Janajati and marginalized people. On the other, the Maoist Madhesi leaders. Even though the amendment did not explicitly state anything about the linguistic 5 Leaders of hill Dalits also started the movement policy of the country, it guaranteed federalism by around the same time demanding for their empowerment and inclusion. However, they do not involve in the linguistic movement since their mother 8 Recognition of other languages at local government tongue is Nepali. level was rejected by the Nepali state. The Supreme 6 The Article 4(1) of the ‘Constitution of the Kingdom Court of Nepal declared Kathmandu Metropolitan of Nepal 1990’ states that “Nepal is a multiethnic, City’s decision of recognizing Newari language at local multilingual, democratic, independent, indivisible, level unconstitutional in June 1999. This verdict sovereign, Hindu and Constitutional Monarchical prevented Kathmandu Metropolitan City from using Kingdom” (Law Books Management Board 1990). Newari language in her local administration. 7 The Article 6(1) of the 1990 Constitution says that 9 The Article 4(1) of the “Interim Constitution on Nepal “The Nepali language in the Devnagari script is the 2007” states that “Nepal is an independent, indivisible, language of the nation of Nepal. The Nepali language sovereign, secular, inclusive and fully democratic state” shall be the official language” (Law Books (Law Books Management Board 2007). There was no Management Board 1990). mention of republicanism and federalism. 201 stating Nepal a federal democratic republic state every stage so that findings of these polls could in its Article 4(1). The first sitting of the elected be generalized in the context of the entire CA held in May 2008 formally declared Nepal a population under study12. The random federal democratic republic state. Leaders of (probability) sampling is the only scientific basis Janajati and Madhesi protest movements had that allows drawing an inference from a sample to taken the declaration of the country a federal a population though there is always a small democratic republic as the first and primary step degree of deviation between a sample and toward paving a way for achieving the linguistic population (O’Muircheartaigh 2008). right. Every wave of polls in these series more or less 4 Methodology of the public opinion polls had followed the same methodology because of which their findings are comparable with each Opinion polls used in this article are from two other, and trend analysis can be conducted out of series of longitudinal opinion polls based on the their findings13. The samples of these surveys had, random (probability) sampling: one is called indeed, truly represented the national population. ‘Nepal Contemporary Political Situation’ or The sample composition in terms of ethnicity, NCPS and another ‘People’s Perception of Safety sex, age group, region, religion etc. was very and Security’ or PPSS. This author is one of the much consistent with the population composition principal researchers in both of the series. as per Nepal’s 2001 national census. Therefore, These polls geographically represented every part this researcher claims that findings of these of the country in their samples, and had employed surveys closely mirror opinions of the entire adult random (probability) sampling techniques in all Nepali citizens with a certain margin of error, not stages (from district level to respondent level). only the sample respondents14. In other words, Districts were selected employing stratified findings of these surveys are generalizable to the random sampling where stratification was based entire population. on 5 development regions and 3 ecological 5 Single-linguistic policy vs. multi-linguistic regions. Villages (i.e. VDCs) and municipalities policy: Opinion from people within the sample districts were selected by employing simple random sampling. Then, wards The linguistic issue has important bearing in the within the sample VDCs and municipalities were present context of Nepal, where the task of selected through simple random sampling. constitution drafting has not yet been completed. Households within the sample wares were There is a danger that if the opinions of the selected through the random-walk method10 and common people differ widely from that of the finally respondents of age 18 and above within political elites, the constitution may not be drafted the sample households were selected for interview or if drafted, it would be extremely difficult to using the Kish-grid (i.e. a table of random implement or if implemented, it would not be numbers)11. In this way, the polls had followed long lasting15. Therefore, it is important that those the random (probability) sampling techniques in
10 The starting points for the random-walk are 12 A scientific quantitative survey conducted with recognizable locations such as schools, crossroads, random (probability) sampling techniques produces a chautaras, bazaars, temples, mosques etc. At first, generalizable set of findings (Patton 1990, Sayer 1992, interviewers start to walk towards any direction Weisberg 2008). randomly (using Spin-the-bottle technique) from a 13 Methodology of the surveys must be similar if starting point counting number of households at the findings of these surveys have to be compared with same time. Based on number of households, required each other (Hellevik 2008). numbers of households are selected using a systematic 14 Representative opinion polls measure the public sampling. opinions of a population of interest (Kepplinger 2008, 11 Use of the Kish grid ensures that each eligible Weisberg 2008). member in a selected household has an equal chance of 15 Shin (2007) argues, referring to the Freedom House being selected for the interview. research, that the success or failure of the process of 202 responsible for drafting the constitution should listen to the voices of the ordinary people. 100
In September 2006 (the first time the survey 80 asked the question: There is a debate going on 55 55 55 whether Nepali language should be the only 60 48 50 43 official language or if other national languages 38 41 38 37 should be also adopted as official languages. Percent 40 What should be the language policy of Nepal?), a 20 clear majority (55 percent) said that Nepali 6 6 1 4 5 3334 5 language should be the only official language. But 0 proportion of the people who believed on this single-linguistic policy had dwindled down to 48 Sep May Jan 2008 Aug Jul 2009 2006 2007 2008 percent in May 2007 and reached at the lowest, 41 percent, in January 2008 – a few months prior to the May 2008 declaration of the CA. This is the Nepali language should be the only official only time (i.e. January 2008) when proportion of language people preferring other national languages as the Other national languages should be adopted as the official language was higher than those who official language preferred Nepali language as the only official Other foreign languages should be adopted as the language. Decline in public’s support toward official language Nepali language as the only official language in Don't know May 2007 and January 2008 may be due to the outbreak of Madhesi and Janajati movements in
January/ February 2007. One of the demands of Base for Sep 2006 was 3000, May 2007 3010, Jan these movements was the recognition of other 2008 3010, Aug 2008 3025 and Jul 2009 3004 regional and ethnic languages as the official languages. Nevertheless, the public’s support If the linguistic issue was examined by ethnicity, toward a single-linguistic policy had again grown an interesting picture emerged. Among the hill to a simple majority (55 percent) in August 2008 communities, irrespective of groups, majority – a few months subsequent to the declaration of people were in the favour of retaining the Nepali the CA. The support remained the same as of July language as the only official language. In spite of 2009. The surveys had disclosed that a simple that, level of favouritism toward the Nepali majority of the ordinary Nepali people wanted to language was different among these hill retain the single-linguistic policy i.e. Nepali communities. Hill caste group, hill Dalits and language should be the only official language in Newars had showed more favouritism toward the the country. However, proportion of those who Nepali language compared to hill indigenous wanted the state to adopt other national languages group. Mother tongue of hill caste group and hill as the official language at the local level was also Dalits is Nepali while this is not the case with significant. majority of Newars. Nepali is not a first language for most of the people from hill indigenous group either.
Figure 1: Public’s Opinion on the Linguistic Issue
Table 1: Public's support toward Nepali language as the only official language By Ethnicity democratization largely depends on the role of the general mass played during the transition. 203
Sep May Jan Aug Jul Sep May Jan Aug Jul 200 2007 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 6 8 8 9 6 7 8 8 9 All groups 55 48 41 55 55 All groups 38 43 50 38 37 Hill caste Hill caste group 73 58 63 75 77 group 22 33 29 21 16 Hill Hill indigenous indigenous group 51 53 46 60 56 group 39 39 42 34 37 Hill Dalit 59 62 58 75 71 Hill Dalit 34 28 21 16 20 Newar 64 53 57 70 66 Newar 31 40 38 27 30 Madhesi Madhesi caste group 40 33 7 24 20 caste group 50 56 88 69 68 Madhesi Madhesi indigenous indigenous group 40 39 25 40 43 group 56 52 68 54 46 Madhesi Madhesi Dalit 45 31 6 24 20 Dalit 49 61 85 63 68 Muslim 31 18 12 16 31 Muslim 56 66 85 61 62
If the data was disaggregated by development Unlike hill communities, majority of all the region, it was found that level of the public’s Madhesi communities, irrespective of groups, support toward Nepali language as the only wanted to introduce the multi-linguistic policy in official language was highest in Far-Western the country. They had reported that other region than any other regions. It may be because languages spoken in the country (also known as of the reason that majority of the people living in national languages) should be also recognized as this region are hill caste group and hill Dalits the official language at the local level. However, whose mother tongue is Nepali. Majority of Madhesi people were also not in the favour of people in Western and Mid-Western regions also Hindi language in spite of Tarai based regional wanted Nepali language as the only official parties’ demand16. On the other hand, a significant language. proportion of Madhesi indigenous group had favoured the Nepali language as the only official language. It is worth-mentioning that none of the
Madhesi groups, including Muslims, speak the
Nepali language as their mother tongue.
Table 2: Public's support toward other national languages as the official language By Ethnicity
16 Tarai based region parties have been demanding
Hindi language as the official language in Tarai region. Table 3: Support toward Nepali as the only The demand was first voiced in 1951 by Nepal Tarai Congress Party under the “save Hindi movement” official language By Development region (Sapkota 2011: 229). 204
Sep May Jan Aug Jul 200 2007 200 2008 200 2006 2007 2008 2008 2009 6 8 9 All All groups 55 48 41 55 55 groups 55 48 41 55 55 Illiterate 50 44 35 48 46 Eastern 60 55 33 62 46 Informal Central 55 41 36 49 45 Education 59 48 44 53 57 Wester Primary/ n 48 57 47 61 62 lower Mid- secondary 55 54 47 58 51 Wester Secondary 58 48 43 62 63 n 46 49 47 41 63 Higher Far- secondary 69 47 44 61 66 Wester Bachelor's n 71 33 59 69 77 and above 63 42 48 56 71 However, significant proportion of people living Looking at another side, the higher the education in Eastern and Central regions had supported attainment, the lower the support toward other toward other national languages as the official national languages. However, proportion of language. But the proportion of such people had illiterate and less educated people who had dropped off after January 2008. supported the multi-linguistic policy was still Table 4: Public's support toward other national lower than those who had supported the Nepali languages as the official language By Dev. region language. Sep May Jan Aug Jul Table 6: Support toward other national languages 2006 2007 2008 2008 2009 as the official language By Educational status All groups 38 43 50 38 37 Sep Jan Jul Eastern 36 37 60 31 49 200 May 200 Aug 200 6 2007 8 2008 9 Central 37 51 59 49 47 All groups 38 43 50 38 37 Western 42 30 44 30 29 Illiterate 39 43 50 42 40 Mid-Western 48 37 28 45 25 Informal Far-Western 25 60 32 21 18 Education 31 43 51 40 35 Primary/ Education attainment had a significant influence lower on the public’s view toward the language issue. secondary 40 40 50 38 42 The higher the education attainment, the higher Secondary 39 46 50 33 31 the support toward Nepali language. In general, Higher people with higher educational status has better secondary 30 45 54 34 31 hold over Nepali language whichever ethnicity Bachelor's they belong to. Because of this, they may have and above 38 48 48 43 25 favoured the Nepali language as the only official language in the country. Age of the people also showed a significant influence on their view in this matter. People from older age groups were more likely to support toward Nepali language as the only official Table 5: Public's support toward Nepali as the language compared to their younger counterparts. only official language By Educational status Sep May Jan Aug Jul 205
Table 7: Public's support toward Nepali language Supporters of all the Communist parties, as the only official language By Age group including UCPN (Maoist), had more favouritism toward the single-linguistic policy than any other Sep May Jan Aug Jul party supporters. Even though UCPN (Maoist) 2006 2007 2008 2008 2009 had been advocating to eliminate the monopoly of All groups 55 48 41 55 55 Nepali language, majority of the supporters from 25 and this party too stood in the favour of Nepali Below 58 42 42 53 55 language as the only official language as of 26-35 55 49 40 55 51 August 2008. Nepalis Congress and small rightist parties supporters had the moderate level of 36-45 52 48 36 54 55 support. But supporters of Tarai based regional 46-55 53 50 41 52 55 parties had very low level of support toward the 56-65 58 52 43 61 56 domination of Nepali language which indicated that they preferred other national languages too as Above 65 63 51 55 64 60 the official languages of Nepal.
On the other, people from younger age groups Table 9: Public's support toward Nepali language were more likely to support toward other national as the only official language By Political party languages as the official language compared to preference their older counterparts. It may have happened because youngsters accept the changes more Sep May Jan Aug readily than the old people. 2006 2007 2008 2008 Table 8: Public's support toward other national All groups 55 48 41 55 languages as the official language By Age group UCPN (Maoist) 51 49 50 62 Sep May Jan Aug Jul Nepali Congress 59 53 41 52 200 200 200 200 200 CPN (UML) 53 51 36 64 6 7 8 8 9 Small rightist parties 51 41 46 44 All groups 38 43 50 38 37 Small leftist parties 43 35 48 62 25 and Tarai based regional Below 37 49 51 41 38 parties 29 13 3 17 26-35 39 43 51 38 42 Note: Question on political party preference was 36-45 41 41 53 39 35 not asked in the July 2009 survey. 46-55 39 41 51 41 37 Supporters of Tarai based regional parties had 56-65 33 38 42 33 32 more favouritism toward the multi-linguistic policy than other party supporters. These regional Above 65 23 38 38 27 26 parties had been campaigning in the favour of
The public’s support toward Nepali language as other national languages, particularly for those the only official language is significantly languages spoken in Tarai. However, recognition influenced by their political party preference17. of Hindi language (i.e. a language widely spoken in the northern part of India) was not in the public’s priority even though these Tarai based 17 Political party preference of the survey respondents parties had been demanding Hindi an official were identified either based on which political party language in Tarai. they voted for in the last election or based on which party they would vote for in the upcoming election. Political party they would for in the upcoming election was taken as the basis for the identification of political party preference in the surveys conducted in Sep 2006, the last election was the basis in the surveys conducted May 2007 and Jan 2008 while party they voted for in in Aug 2008. 206
Table 10: Public's support toward other national four state restructuring issues had been asked to languages as the official language By Political respondents in the same survey. party preference Opinions that showed the agreement to old Sep May Jan Aug structure of the Nepali state were coded 1 while 2006 2007 2008 2008 those to new structure were coded 2. For instance, All groups 38 43 50 38 ‘Nepali language as the only official language’ was coded 1 and ‘Other national languages as the UCPN (Maoist) 44 45 45 33 official language’ was coded 2, ‘Hindu state’ was Nepali Congress 37 40 55 42 coded 1 and ‘Secular state’ 2, ‘Unitary state’ was CPN (UML) 44 44 58 31 coded 1 and ‘Federal state’ 2, and ‘Monarchy’ was coded 1 and ‘Republic’ 2 in the respective Small rightist questions. ‘Other’ responses, ‘Not understood’, parties 41 48 52 53 ‘Not heard’ and ‘Do not know/ cannot say’ were Small leftist treated as missing and excluded from the parties 57 61 40 33 correlation analysis. Tarai based regional parties 67 84 88 66 Now let’s look into the partial correlation analysis Note: Question on political party preference was between the opinions from the September 2006 not asked in the July 2009 survey. survey. Partial correlation coefficient between ‘Nepali language vs. Other national languages’ 6 Relationship between public opinions toward opinion and ‘Hindu state vs. Secular state’ state restructuring issues opinion was positive and statistically significant 18 In this section, relationship between public (r13.24 = .188, p (two-tailed) < .05) . It can be opinions toward the linguistic issue and other concluded that there was a positive and state restructuring issues is examined first through significant relationship between these two bivariate correlation analysis and then through opinions: as public’s support toward Nepali partial correlation analysis. First, Spearman’s language as the only official language increased, bivariate correlation coefficient (rho) is calculated public’s support toward Hindu state increased and to see the association between public opinions vice-versa. It means that people who supported since the data used are ranked values, not ratio Nepali language as the only official language also scale (Field 2009: 180, Snedecor and Cochran wanted Nepal to be a Hindu state. In other words, 1980: 192). Then, partial correlation coefficient as public’s support toward secularism increased, between two public opinions is calculated by public’s support toward other national languages controlling the effects of other two opinions. as the official language at the local level Partial correlation coefficient is calculated increased, and vice-versa. It means that people because it produces truer measure of relationship who supported other national languages as the between two variables than bivariate correlation official language at local level also wanted Nepal coefficient (Field 2009: 189). Therefore, to be a secular state. ‘Nepali language vs. other relationship between the public opinions is national languages’ opinion had no statistically examined based on partial correlation. In this significant relationship with other two opinions: article, only relationship between the linguistic issue and other issues is explained, not the inter- 18 relationship between all of them. For simplicity, ‘Nepali language as the only official language vs. Other national languages as the official Only two surveys have been used for this language’ is labeled as Variable-1, ‘Monarchy vs. purpose; the surveys conducted in September Republic’ opinion is labeled as Variable-2, ‘Hindu state 2006 and January 2008. Reason of using only vs. Secular state’ as Variable-3 and ‘Unitary state vs. these two surveys is that these are the only Federal state’ as Variable-4. Therefore, r13.24 denotes surveys in which questions related to all of the the partial correlation coefficient between Variable-1 and Variable-3 eliminating the effect of Variable-2 and Varaible-4. 207
‘Monarchy vs. Republic’ and ‘Unitary state vs. that people who supported other national Secular state’ as of September 2006. languages as the official language at local level also wanted Nepal to be a federal state. Unlike in Table 11: Correlation coefficients (Spearman’s September 2006, ‘Nepali language vs. Other rho) and partial correlation coefficients between national languages’ opinion had no significant various public opinions in the September 2006 relationship with the opinion ‘Hindu state vs. survey Secular’ in January 2008. Also, ‘Nepali language Hind Unita vs. Other national languages’ opinion had no Nepali Mona u ry statistically significant relationship with another vs. rchy state state opinion: ‘Monarchy vs. Republic’ as of January Other vs. vs. vs. 2008. nationa Repu Secul Feder l lang. blic ar al Table 12: Correlation coefficients (Spearman’s state state rho) and partial correlation coefficients between Spearman’s correlation coefficients various public opinions in the January 2008 survey Nepali .120* language 1 .021 * .173* Nepal Monarc Hind Unitary vs. Other i hy vs. u state vs. national [2608 [2589 lang. Republ state Federal languages [2788] ] ] [180] vs. ic vs. state Partial correlation coefficients Other Secul Nepali 1 .086 .188* .136 natio ar language nal state vs. Other lang. national Spearman’s correlation coefficients languages Nepali .053* ** Correlation is significant at 1% level of language 1 -.056** * .162** significance (two-tailed), * Correlation is vs. Other significant at 5% level of significance (two- national tailed), Number inside brackets is number of language [3060 [2868 cases s ] [2720] ] [681] Partial correlation coefficients The partial correlation analysis between the opinions from the January 2008 survey revealed Nepali 1 -.129 .071 .172** that relationship between ‘Nepali language vs. language Other national languages’ opinion and ‘Unitary vs. Other state vs. Federal state’ opinion was positive and national statistically significant (r14.23 = .172, p (two- language tailed) < .01). So, there was a positive and s significant relationship between these two ** Correlation is significant at 1% level of opinions: as public’s support toward Nepali significance (two-tailed), * Correlation is language as the only official language increased, significant at 5% level of significance (two- public’s support toward unitary state increased tailed), Number inside brackets is number of and vice-versa. It indicates that people who cases supported Nepali language as the only official These findings confirmed that public’s opinion on language also wanted Nepal to be a unitary state. one new characteristic of the state structure In other words, as public’s support toward other considerably corroborated to another new national languages as the official language at characteristic of the state restructure as well. If local level increased, public’s support toward public agreed with one new feature of the state, federalism increased, and vice-versa. It indicates 208 they would also agree with another new feature of supporters too preferred to recognize Nepali the state and vice-versa. As of September 2006, language as the only official language. there was statistically significant and positive relationship between ‘Nepali language vs. Other Public’s opinion on one issue of the state national languages’ opinion and ‘Hindu state vs. structuring significantly influenced to another Secular state’ opinion. But the relationship issue of the state restructuring as well. There was between these two opinions was not statistically statistically significant relationship between significant in January 2008. ‘Nepali language vs. ‘Nepali language vs. Other national languages’ Other national languages’ opinion had been found opinion and ‘Hindu state vs. Secular state’ to be significantly and positively correlated with opinion as of September 2006. But the ‘Unitary state vs. Federal state’ opinion as of relationship between these two opinions was not January 2008. This indicated that public’s opinion statistically significant in January 2008. The on the issue of language had become more relationship was statistically significant between important with respect to the issue of federalism ‘Nepali language vs. Other national languages’ than any other issues in the later year. opinion and ‘Unitary state vs. Federal state’ opinion in this year. This shed light on the 7 Summary significant contribution of the issue of federalism on the public’s opinion toward the linguistic issue Though the majority of the Nepali people still in the recent past. preferred the single-linguistic policy as before, significant minority of the people demanded for a Though the majority Nepali public have not multi-linguistic policy. People of hill origin and approved multi-linguistic policy as yet, the Madhesi origin were divided on the issue of the minority people who supported the multi- language. Majority of hill caste group, hill linguistic policy are also sizeable. They include indigenous group, hill Dalits and Newars were in all types of groups, both privileged groups such as the favour of single-linguistic policy and Newars, and under-privileged groups such as hill supported the Nepali language as the only official indigenous group, Madhesi communities and language. But majority of all Madhesi groups religious minority group like Muslims. So, a wanted to end the domination of the Nepali substantial segment of the Nepali populace is language and demanded for the multi-linguistic disposed to the multi-linguistic policy even policy. However, Madhesi people were also not in though they are in minority in terms of numbers. the favour of Hindi language in spite of Tarai Since Nepal is under the process of formalizing based regional parties’ demand. Similarly, federalism, there is no situation of adopting the majority of the people from Western, Mid- single linguistic policy in Nepal of the future. Western and Far-Western regions favoured the Recognition of only Nepali language as the single-linguistic policy and wanted Nepali official language in all levels of administration is language only the official language. High simply out of question. If Nepal’s democracy has educated people were more likely to recognize to be made an inclusive democracy, a new Nepali language as the only official language than constitution needs to address the voice of the their less educated counterparts. A majority of minority in its frame. This will not only guarantee supporters of UCPN (Maoist), NC, CPN (UML) the inclusive democracy, but also give an and small leftist parties had favoured a single- ownership of a constitution to the minority. If it linguistic policy while a majority of Tarai based happens so, a new constitution will be recognized regional parties’ supporters had preferred for a by both the majority and minority, and be long multi-linguistic policy, but not for Hindi. So, lasting. This spirit was ignored by all the previous position of Tarai based regional parties that Hindi constitutions of Nepal, which did not last long. should also be the official language in Nepal, had no support from their own supporters. Despite of UCPN (Maoist)’s standpoint in the favour of References ethnic and regional languages, majority of its
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Puma phonology: A descriptive analysis Narayan Sharma1
This paper discusses the phonology of Puma, a (Rai 1985, Rai 2003). Conversely, some of the southern Kiranti language spoken in the eastern important features such as the glottal /ʔ/ seems to part of Nepal. Cross-linguistically, it preserves be disappearing and replaced by the velar /k/ sounds like retroflex and central mid vowel which (e.g., k phe wa > k phekwa ‘money’), and are lost in neighbouring languages Bantawa and ʌ ʔ ʌ Camling. It also shares some phonological unrounded high back vowel /ɔ/ is replaced by features with other Kiranti languages. rounded high back vowel /o/ (e.g., ʈɔŋ > ʈoŋ 1 Introduction ‘head’). It is assumed that the fact behind this kind of disappearance is not generational The purpose of this paper is to give a sketch of difference but it might be influence from Nepali. Puma phonology. In Puma we can find three types of vocabulary: Puma ordinary words, Puma 2 Consonant inventory ritual words, and loan words from Nepali, Puma has 32 consonant phonemes. They can be Maithili, Bantawa and English. The phonology of grouped by four-way contrasts: manner of Puma ordinary words, and ritual words and loan articulation, place of articulation, voicing and words is not the same. The loan words are not aspiration. On the basis of place of articulation, taken into account when establishing a phoneme the consonants can be grouped in six different inventory here. The most distinctive feature of the types: bilabial, dental, retroflex, palatal, velar and ritual language in Puma is the binomials. These glottal. With regards to the manner of articulation, binomials are used only in the ritual speech, e.g., the consonant phonemes can also be classified bettumbuŋ moribuŋ ‘flower’ which is in ordinary into seven different types. They are stops, nasals, speech buŋ ‘flower’ and chorom borom ‘dried affricates, fricative, liquid, trill and glides. The meat’ which is in ordinary speech chopaku sa consonant phonemes are presented in Table 1, ‘dried meat’. A few verbs are also binomials, for which is slightly modified and updated version of example, kapma cenma ‘ask for protection’ which Rai et al. (2009). The stops and affricates show a in ordinary speech is red ‘protect’. This is rather contrast in terms of voicing and aspiration. For unusual and has not been reported from other oral stops, there is a contrast of voiceless stops vs. Kiranti languages (Gaenszle et al. 2012). voiceless aspirated stops vs. voiced stops vs. voiced aspirated stops, for example, /p/ ~ /ph/ ~ We can see Nepali influence in the phonological /b/ ~ /bh/, /t/ ~ /th/ ~ /d/ ~ /dh/, / / ~ / h/ ~ / / ~ description of Puma. There is no doubt that Puma ʈ ʈ ɖ phonology can be described excluding loans from /ɖh/, and /k/ ~ /kh/ ~ /g/ ~ /gh/. Similarly, the Nepali. It is assumed that Puma ordinary affricates also show the opposition of voiceless vocabularies preserve their certain characteristics vs. voiceless aspirated vs. voiced vs. voiced from Nepali compared to other neighbouring aspirated. For example: /c/ ~ /ch/ ~ /j/ ~ /jh/. languages. We can find loan words in Puma. The retroflex /ʈ/ ~ /ʈh/ show a contrast between aspirated and unaspirated in the word-initial, word-medial and word-final position while /ɖ/ ~ /ɖh/ are contrastive only in a word-initial and word-final position. These are very marginal in overall lexicon type frequency and are found mostly in Nepali loan words. Unlike other Kiranti languages, Puma has preserved distinct phonemes like dental, retroflex
Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 211-217 Table 1: Consonant inventory occurs in word initial and word medial positions only. /b/ is a voiced unaspirated bilabial stop and Place of articulation it occurs in all three positions. /bh/ is a voiced bil. den. retro. pal. vel. gl. aspirated bilabial stop, which occurs in initial and sto. p b t d ʈ ɖ k g medial positions only. In this way, /p/ and /ph/ ph bh th dh kh gh h h contrast only in initial and final positions whereas ʈ ɖ nas. m n ŋ /b/ and /bh/ contrast in initial and medial mh nh positions. /p/ and /b/ contrast in all three aff. c j positions, as presented in the Table 2. ch jh h tri. r p ~ ph ~ b ~ bh rh Table 2: Bilabial stops fri. s liq. l word-initial word-medial word-final gli. w y puks go taps pour bokhop phuks escape cʌphuk tadpole Nasal stops show a contrast between voiced vs bhuks break grass - voiced aspirated except for /ŋ/, for example /m/ ~ patd flow cabha tiger - /mh/, /n/ ~ /nh/, and /ŋ/ (See Table 1). For batd go.around bob round fricatives, liquid and glides, the contrast of voiced c buŋ hill vs. voiced aspirated only applies to /r/ ~ /rh/ bukd heat ʌ though the frequency of /rh/ is marginal in Puma bhukd bury vocabulary. 2.1.2 Dental stops Puma is not a tonal language and intonation does The dental stops are /t/, /th/, /d/ /dh/. They show not play a role for identifying phonemes. The contrast in different positions. /t/ is a voiceless consonant phonemes are determined on the basis unaspirated dental stop and it occurs in all three of minimal pairs and where there are no minimal positions. /th/ is a voiceless aspirated dental stop, pairs, near minimal pairs are considered. which occurs in word initial and word medial 2.1 Stop consonants positions only. /d/ is a voiced unaspirated dental stop and it occurs in all three positions while its Puma has altogether sixteen stops. Stop voiced aspirated counterpart /dh/ occurs also in all consonants in Puma occur in word-initial, word- three positions. Thus, /t/ and /th/ contrast only in medial and word-final positions with almost any initial and final positions whereas /d/ and /dh/ vowel combination. There are four types of stops, contrast in all three positions. /t/ and /d/ contrast namely bilabial, dental, retroflex and velar. in all three positions, as shown in Table 3. Contrasts between voiceless, voiceless aspirated, voiced, and voiced aspirated can be found in all t ~ th ~ d ~ dh types of stops. Both voiced aspirated except /dh/ Table 3: Dental stops and /jh/, and voiceless aspirated do not occur word-initial word-medial word-final word finally. The detail of different stops is given below. tapd freeze bitd walk bomt round thapd jethu wife’s e. - 2.1.1 Bilabial stops winnow bro repd dapd kick khodi hook protect The bilabial stops are /p/, /ph/, /b/, /bh/. They dhapd wash tudhi up there tupdh fill’ show contrast in different word positions (initial, medial and final). /p/ is a voiceless unaspirated bilabial stop and it occurs in all three positions. /ph/ is a voiceless aspirated bilabial stop, which
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2.1.3 Retroflex stops 2.1.4 Velar stops
Retroflex /ʈ/, /ʈh/ and /ɖ/, /ɖh/ which are The velar stops are /k/, /kh/, /g/, /gh/. They are contrastive in different positions in basic distinct in different positions. /k/ is a voiceless vocabulary are very marginal in overall lexicon unaspirated velar stop and it occurs in all three type frequency and are found mostly in Nepali positions. /kh/ is a voiceless aspirated velar stop, loan words. Unlike the close neighbouring which occurs in initial and medial positions only. languages Bantawa (Doornenbal 2009, Rai 1985) /g/ is a voiced unaspirated velar stop and it occurs and Camling (Rai 2003), Puma preserves in initial and medial positions only and its voiced retroflex sounds and dental sounds. The retroflex aspirated counterpart /gh/ occurs in initial and is one of the more reliable features define ‘South medial positions only. In this way, /k/ and /kh/ Asia as a linguistic area’ (Masica 2001, Noonan show contrast only in initial and medial positions 2003). The disappearance of retroflex sound from whereas /g/ and /gh/ contrast in initial and medial other Kiranti languages in contrast with Puma positions only. /k/ and /g/ contrast in initial and may be cross linguistically relevant for the medial positions, as presented in the Table 5. The evidence of one of the South Asian features. occurrence of /g/ and /gh/ in a word-initial and Similarly, these stops are distinct in voicing. As word-medial positions are very marginal. discussed before, the retroflex stops /ʈ/, /ʈh/, /ɖ/, k ~ kh ~ g ~ gh /ɖh/ show contrast in different positions. /ʈ/ is voiceless unaspirated retroflex stop and it occurs Table 5: Velar stops in all three positions. /ʈh/ is a voiceless aspirated word-initial word-medial word- retroflex stop, which occurs in initial and medial final koŋma puks go bhok pig positions only. /ɖ/ is a voiced unaspirated accept bekha bag - retroflex stop and it occurs in all three positions. khoŋma pig ogi - /ɖh/ is a voiced aspirated retroflex stop, which goŋma st.potato - occurs in initial and medial positions only. As a height sighotma a bird consequence, /ʈ/ and /ʈh/ contrast only in initial ghotpa belch and medial positions whereas /ɖ/ and /ɖh/ also contrast in initial and medial positions. /ʈ/ and /ɖ/ 2.2 Affricates contrast in all three positions, as presented in There are four affricates - /c/, /j/ and their aspirate Table 4. counterparts /ch/ and /jh/. They show contrast in ~ h ~ ~ h different positions. /c/ is a voiceless unaspirated ʈ ʈ ɖ ɖ affricate and it occurs in initial and medial Table 4: Retroflex stops positions only. Similarly, /ch/ is a voiceless aspirated affricate, which occurs also in initial and word-initial word-medial word-final medial positions only. /j/ is a voiced unaspirated ʈoŋ head kʌnʈi pot raŋʈ make affricate and it occurs in initial and medial ʈhoŋma rokʈhok net fire positions while its voiced aspirated counterpart - /jh/ occurs in initial and final positions. Thus, /c/ upwards bʌɖɖhe rak get and /ch/ contrast only in initial and medial ɖoŋ waist many ɖ stuck positions whereas /j/ and /jh/ contrast in initial haŋ heap rak ha yam ɖ ɖ - position only. /c/ and /j/ contrast in initial and medial positions that is presented in the Table 6. The overall occurrence of /j/ and /jh/ in a word- initial and word-medial, and word-final positions
213 are very marginal. The contrast of /j/ and /jh/ in 2.4 Fricatives word-medial position is not attested. There are only two fricatives: /s/ and /h/ in Puma. c ~ ch ~ j ~ jh They show phonological oppositions in different positions. /s/ occurs in all positions while /h/ Table 6: Affricates occurs in initial and medial positions only. They word-initial word-medial word-final contrast in initial and medial positions only as cokd join phuci vagina - shown in Table 8. chokd lit fire bechuk ginger - Table 8: Fricatives jokd keep sojje false - com edge - - word-initial word-medial word-final jhom bunch - sajh a tool si grain busit in front of pis speak hi blood tuhi below’ - 2.3 Nasals Nasals involve three distinct tongue positions: 2.5 Trill bilabial /m/, alveolar or dental /n/ and velar /ŋ/. There are two trills – voiced unaspirated /r/ and There are altogether five nasals consonants in its aspirate counterpart /rh/. They contrast in Puma - /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, and an aspirate counterpart word-initial position only. /r/ occurs in all three for /m/ and /n/, namely /mh/ and /nh/, which are positions while its aspirate counterpart /rh/ occurs not found in Bantawa (Doornenbal 2009) but are only in initial position as shown in Table 9. found in Camling (Rai 2003). All three nasals /m/, Unlike Bantawa there is an aspirated counterpart /n/, /ŋ/ occur in syllable-initial, syllable-medial in Camling. and syllable-final positions. Table 9: Trills Like other neighbouring Kiranti languages, there is a velar nasal in word-initial position (e.g., ŋa word-initial word-medial word-final ‘I’, ŋenma ‘keep’) while the Nepali language does ri thread doro what ɖher beat not have a velar nasal in word-initial position. rhʌndh rub - - Nasal consonants contrast in different positions. 2.6 Liquid Three nasal consonants /m/, /n/ and /ŋ/ occur in all three positions while /mh/ occurs in initial The only liquid /l/ contrast in different positions position only and /nh/ occurs in initial and final and occurs in all three word-initial, word-medial positions. Thus, /m/, /n/ and /ŋ/ contrast in all and word-final positions, which is presented in positions whereas /m/ and /mh/ contrast in initial Table 10. position only. /n/ and /nh/ contrast in initial and Table 10: Liquids final positions, as shown in Table 7. word-initial word-medial word-final Table 7: Nasals li penis khula jungle pil squeeze word-initial word-medial word-final 2.7 Glide mi fire phamt grab khim house ni get kent tame bhan root There are two glides: /w/ and /y/ show well koŋpi bhuŋ a lot phonological oppositions in different positions. ŋi cook match. of They both occur in word-initial and word-medial mu do maker positions. They show contrast in initial and mhu fight - - medial positions only, as shown in Table 11. nhaps smell - onh run
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Table 11: Glides /nh/ - word-initial word-medial word-final /ŋ/ ŋi cook was throw tawa peacock - /s/ si grain sokd weed yas tickle chiya living - /h/ hi blood hokd be warm /l/ li penis loks spread 3 Minimal pairs /r/ ri rope roks tease In principle, when two sounds bring change of /rh/ - meaning in the pair words, they are considered to /w/ wat put on wʌk farm land be separate phonemes. They show contrast /y yat be soft yʌk flesh.of.ribs phonetically and their distinction is based on the parameter of their voice difference. The minimal 4 Vowels pairs for consonant phonemes that have been identified are presented in Table 12 and where There are six vowels in Puma. The vowels are there are no minimal pairs, near minimal pairs are two front, /i/ and /e/, two central, /ʌ/ and /a/, and presented. The minimal pairs for retroflex /ʈ/, /ʈh/, two back, /u/ and /o/. No central mid vowel /ʌ/ is /ɖ/, /ɖh/ and voiced unaspirated affricate /j/ and its found in Bantawa (Doornenbal 2009) and other aspirated counterpart /jh/, and even minimal pairs Kiranti language Athpare (Ebert 1997). are not attested. Table 13: Puma vowel phonemes Table 12: Consonants in minimal pairs front central back /p/ pis speak pitd squeeze high i u /ph/ phis be ill phitd hit /b/ ba weave bukd have heat mid e o /bh/ bha cut bhukd uproot ʌ /t/ tas fell tep wash face low a /th/ thas bind thep fat /d/ di up dup earn The vowels show contrast in different /dh/ dhi vagina dhup strike phonological positions. In this section I present /ʈ/ ʈokpa chief the phonological oppositions in all positions: word-initial, word-medial and word-final. The /ʈh/ ʈhakpa basket vowels are demonstrated like this: front vowels, close /ɖ/ ɖakɖ central vowels, back vowels, high vowels, mid /ɖh/ ɖhakk make vowels and low vowel. /k/ kus hide kepd sting 4.1 Front vowels /kh/ khus steal khepd be stick /g/ gondra dirt In Puma there are two front vowels, namely /i/ /gh/ ghotpa belch and /e/. They show contrast in all positions, word- initial, word-medial and word-final as shown in /ca/ ca eat send cakɖ Table 14. /ch/ cha child chak be hard ɖ Table 14: Front vowels /j/ jokd keep /jh/ jhokka basket word-initial word-medial word-final /m/ mi fire meri tail ʌpʌ PROX cʌkɖ save ʌsʌ two /mh/ - mheri a tree apa father cakɖ send sa meat /n/ ni get well
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4.2 Central vowels 5 Vowel minimal pairs
/ʌ/ and /a/ are two central vowels in Puma which All vowels except mid central vowel /ʌ/ can be show the phonological contrasts in all positions, lengthened in both past tense and non-past tense word-initially, word-medially and word-finally as but no minimal pairs based on vowel length are presented in Table 15. attested in Puma. The minimal pairs for vowel are presented in Table 19. Table 15: Central vowels Table 19: Puma vowels in minimal pairs word-initial word-medial word-final i ~ e it give sit louse ʌpʌ PROX cʌkɖ save ʌsʌ two et make.listen set kill apa father cak send sa meat ɖ ʌ ~ a ʌpʌ PROX cʌkɖ save 4.3 Back vowels apa father chakɖ send u ~ o und push khukd strike Puma has two back vowels. They are /u/ and /o/ ond grind khokd cut which show contrast in all positions, as shown in i ~ u ips sleep pis speak Table 16. ups hold pus begin Table 16: Back vowels e ~ ʌ khek bite ʌk scoop ~ o khʌk bitter ok crow word-initial word-medial word-final und push khukd strike mu do 6 Diphthongs ond grind khokd cut’ khodo so and so Diphthongs are marginal in Puma. The diphthong 4.4 High vowels /ai/ is more productive compared with others which occurs in about a dozen stems. The There are two high vowels in Puma. They are /i/ diphthongs /ui/, /au/, and /ʌi/ occur only in couple and /u/. They show contrast in all different of stems, while /ia/ and /ae/ occur only in each positions as presented in Table 17. stem, as in Table 20. Table 17: High Vowels Table 20: Diphthongs word-initial word-medial word-final /ai/ chai childhood ips sleep pis speak khi shit /ia/ siaku dead ups hold pus begin khu chew /au/ khau which 4.5 Mid vowels /ua/ muama creation /ae/ khaetma proclamation There are three mid vowels in Puma. They are /e/, /ui/ kuiyama dark /ʌ/ and /o/. They contrast in all different /iu/ tuniu moulmain codar positions- word-initial, word-medial and word- /uo/ puoŋkha place of soul final as presented in Table 18. /ʌi/ kʌisʌmak bad Table 18: Mid vowels /oi/ biyoi greeting word-initial word-medial word-final 7 Summary et make listen khek bite ke we all Puma has 32 consonant phonemes and six vowel ot break khok crush oil gogo cow phonemes. All consonant phonemes occur in ʌk scoop out khʌk be bitter ʌsʌ two word-initial position, while vowel phonemes ok crow occur in all word-initial, word-medial and word- final position. All stops, all nasals but their aspirated counterparts, all affricates but the phoneme /jh/, the liquid, and the trill but not its 216 aspirated counterpart, and both glides occur in Pumā Shabdakosh tathā vyākaran (Puma word-medial positions. Dictionary and Grammar). Kathmandu:Kirat Puma has some loan words from other languages. Puma Rai Tupkhabangkhala. The phonology of ordinary language and ritual Rai, Vishnu Singh. 2003. Descriptive Grammar of language is quite distinct but the description of Chamling. An unpublished PhD thesis. Leiden the ritual language is not the purview of this University. paper. 1 The data discussed here was collected in 2004-2008 Unlike neighbouring languages like Bantawa and with the support of the Volkswagen Foundation, Camling, Puma preserves retroflex and dental DoBeS Grant No. II/79 092 which is greatly sound. A central mid vowel is found while acknowledged. I’m grateful to all members of diphthongs are marginal. CPDP/DoBeS for their help. The depth analysis of the research was only possible with the grant from ELDP, References SOAS, UK, ELDP Grant Ref. IGS 0094 and SOAS Doornenbal, Marius. 2009. A Grammar of Grant Ref. 9480 EP36 which is highly acknowledged. Bantawa. Grammar, paradigm tables, glossary and texts of a Rai language of Eastern Nepal. The Netherlands: Graduate School of Linguistics. Ebert, Karen. 1997. A Grammar of Athpare. München: Lincom Europa. Gaenszle, Martin, Balthasar Bickel, Narayan Sharma, Judith Pettigrew, Arjun Rai, Shree Kumar Rai. 2012. Binomials and the Noun-to- Verb Ratio in Puma Rai Ritual Speech. Journal of Anthropological Linguistics. Masica, Colin P. 2001. The definition and significance of linguistic areas: Methods, pitfalls and possibilities (with special referenceto the validity of South Asia as a linguistic area). In Rajendra Singh (ed.), Yearbook of South Asian languages and Linguistics, 205-267. Noonan, Michael. 2003. Recent language contact in the Nepal Himalaya. In David Bradley, Randy LaPolla, Boyd Michailovsky and Graham Thurgood (eds.), Language Variation: Papers on Variation and Change in the Sinosphere and in the Indosphere in Honour of James A. Matisoff, 65-88. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. Rai, Novel K. 1985. A Descriptive Study of Bantawa. An unpublished PhD thesis. Decan College Post-Graduate & Research Institute: India. Rai, Vishnu Singh, Shree Kumar Rai, Narayan Sharma, Diana Schackow, Sabine Guenther, Arjun Rai, Ganesh Puma, Martin Gaenszle, Judith Pettigrew, and Balthasar Bickel. 2009. 217
Interactive evaluation of quasi-synonyms extracted from the bilingual dictionaries Potemkin Serge Identification of synonyms for the languages with argue that it is not possible to build a lexical limited resources remains challenging. This knowledge-base (LKB) from a machine-readable article deals with a novel method for extracting dictionary (MRD) without human supervision, synonyms from the entries of the bilingual because the information it contains may be machine-readable dictionaries. It was supposed incomplete. Information extracted from corpora that different translations of the same word are augments LKB with frequency information and usually synonyms. An interactive PHP program with knowledge about collocations. The corpus- for verification of the obtained quasi-synonyms based researches concerns induction morphology was developed. for new languages from parallel corpora (Yarowsky and Wicentowski, 2000). IS-A 1. Introduction hierarchies have been learned automatically from Synonyms are two or more words or phrases of MRDs (Hearst, 1992) and from corpora the same language, which are coincident or nearly (Caraballo, 1999). matching meaning in a certain subject domain. Apresjan built a bilingual dictionary of English Despite the importance for a variety of synonyms explained in Russian (Apresjan et al., applications, including learning the native and 1980). It contains 400 entries selected from the foreign languages, translation, natural language approximately 2500 entries from Webster's New processing (NLP), information retrieval, machine Dictionary of Synonyms, reorganized by splitting translation, knowledge mining, etc., the task of or merging clusters of synonyms, guided by identifying synonyms remains the complex lexicographic principles described by Apresjan problem and has no generally accepted solution in (2000). A dictionary entry consists of: headwords, lexicography. explication, translation, meaning (semantic There are very few if any absolute synonyms. The similarities and differences), notes, syntax, co- "dictionaries of synonyms" actually contain quasi- occurrence constraints, and illustrations. The synonyms which are listed in clusters of similar meaning includes the following types of words and explicate the differences between the differences: semantic, evaluative, associative and words in each cluster. These dictionaries are in connotational, and differences in emphasis or effect dictionaries of quasi-synonym logical stress. discrimination. Writers can use such resources Potemkin and Kedrova (2008) investigated the when choosing between quasi-synonyms, because question of which words should be considered choosing the wrong word can be imprecise or quasi-synonyms, without interest in their nuances awkward, or convey unwanted implications. of meaning. They merged clusters of quasi- These dictionaries are made for human use, and synonyms from several dictionaries, in English they are available mainly on paper, not in and Russian, and represented them in a geometric electronic format. Quasi-synonyms can vary in space. many ways. DiMarco, Hirst, and Stede (1993) analyzed the types of differences adduced in Thesauri are probably the most common source of dictionaries of quasi-synonym discrimination. synonyms. While such resources created by the They found that there was no principle limitation qualified linguists such as the most developed on the types, but a small number of types English thesaurus, WordNet (http://wordnet. occurred frequently. princeton.edu), may be used as a high quality source of synonyms, but the amount of manual 2. Building lexical resources work needed to build thesauri for other languages, Lexical resources for natural language processing incomplete coverage of vocabulary and can be derived from machine-readable versions of restrictions on availability, impose difficulties on conventional dictionaries. Ide and Veronis (1994) Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 218-224
their usage and indicates the need for automatic bilingual dictionaries. Each entry in the dictionary synonyms extraction. contains the head source word and a set of equivalents in the target language and also 2.1 Nepali lexical resources definition of meaning, examples of usage, Nepal is a multi-ethnic and multilingual country pronunciation, describes the differences among where more than 70 languages are spoken by the them. Our goal is not only to automatically population of over 20 million. Selection and extract knowledge from one such dictionary, but downloading the dictionaries for including into also to develop a general method that could be the LKB is a difficult task. Many of the native applied to any such dictionary and any language Nepalese and foreign scholars participate in with minimal adaptation. We rely on the preparing Nepali-English and English-Nepali hypothesis that the dictionary entries contains dictionaries (Schmidt, 1994), (Raj Adhikary, enough regularity to allow automatic extraction of 2009). Besides, there are some Nepali-Hindu, knowledge from them. Nepali-Japanese, Nepali-Russian (Rabinovich et. 3. Computing procedures al., 1968) and others bilingual dictionaries. The monolingual Nepali dictionary by Brihad The task can be divided into three phases, treated Shabdakosh, a comprehensive dictionary of the by consecutive modulus. The first module Nepali language, prepared in 1983 is considered extracts the pairs of quasi-synonyms from the to be the standard dictionary of Nepali. One can bilingual dictionary and ascribes the confidence find only several downloadable and on-line score to each pair. The second module involves English – Nepali, Nepali – English or Nepali – interactive voting procedure for assessing the other language dictionaries in the Internet. We synonymy of each pair of extracted words; and managed to found such dictionaries as (Turner, the third module performs ranking these pairs 1931), (Schmidt, 1994), (Krämer, 2007). according to the voting count and other considerations. In the 1990-th the need for a concise comprehensive dictionary of Nepali synonyms Automatic selection of quasi-synonyms using was recognized. This need resulted in planning bilingual or monolingual explanatory dictionary is the creation of the Nepali Dictionary of not a trivial task. It requires: populating the Synonyms (Bandhu, 1994). According to his plan, database with the Nepali words and their English each entry should consist of a) the head entry, b) or other language equivalents or definitions; data synonyms, c) collocations, d) concise definitions, formatting; search and matching the populated if any, e) derivatives and f) antonyms. He planned databases. We propose a new method for the to collect the data from various sources, i.e., synonyms identification based on the bilingual published dictionaries, literary works, newspapers (English –Nepali) machine-readable dictionaries. and magazines. A list of basic words was used to 3.1 The first module procedure collect words from different geographical areas. It was planned that the dictionary should be useful - Purify the .html files from the extra markup to for the writers, students, linguists and all people produce the plain text. who are interested in Nepali. - Receive dictionary entries, including the head 2.2 Building a lexical base of quasi-synonym word, translation, part of speech (POS) tags, grammar, pronunciation, spellings, examples, Our goal in this section is to automatically acquire phrases, etc. a lexical knowledge-base of quasi-synonyms from 219
- Use "bag of words" method. All words from simple śrāˊmyati in Pk. sammaï; Sh. ṣómĕi is definition are placed into the bag of words tired.] associated with the head Nepali word. One problem comes from polysemy. Transitivity - Search the list of English word forms (~300000) of synonymy is not well preserved when for each word in the bag. synonyms of different senses of a polysemous - For each member of the bag its lemma and word are mixed together. A further problem is morphological features are obtained caused by the abundance of synonyms in Nepali, which other language, e.g. English cannot reflect. - Search for coinciding English lemmas in the While translating from Nepali to English definitions of each pair of Nepali words therefore the textural richness of the original After downloading the dictionary entries from language should be expressed by the multi-word Internet as .html files, we deleted extra markup to complexes. produce the plain text. Usually the entry contains: Selection of the word translation and POS tags the Devanagari script of the head word, the from the definitions requires the development of transliteration or phonetic transcription of the specific algorithms for parsing, which itself is a word, part of speech (POS) tag, English difficult task and its solution is out of scope of equivalents, sometimes morphological paradigm, this research. Therefore, we used the method of collocations with other words forming other parts "bag of words" (Wikipedia), which is well proven of speech and/or different meanings, sometimes in the corpora studies. So, for each Nepali word examples of usage, phrases and sentences with the definition we select utterances of literals, namely defined word. See two entries for noun and verb all uppercase and lowercase Latin letters, respectively (Example 1): separated by other characters, including blanks, punctuation, transcription marks, numbers, etc. Noun: ब ास ् Each token is considered as a "word" and is biśwās, pop. biswās, l. viśwās, s. Confidence, placed into the bag of words associated with the trust, faith. -- b˚ garnu to trust, believe. -- b˚- head Nepali word. ghāt v.s.v. -- b˚-ghāti v.s.v. -- b˚-patra written Next step is to search each word from the bag in credentials. -- b˚-pātra believable, reliable. -- b˚- the list of English word forms (volume approx. yogya trustworthy. -- b˚ rākhnu to be reliable, 300000 word forms). This step is necessary keep faith. [lw. Sk. viśvāsa-.] because the dictionary definition often contains transliterations of Nepali words, which should not Verb: बसाउनु participate in the further analysis. Search for each bisāunu, vb. intr. To rest, be at leisure. -- bisāune member of the bag of words in the list of English belā leisure. [Sk. viśrāmayati causes to rest: cf. word forms frequently (though not always) allows to filter out the Nepali transliterations. Also, for Pa. vissameti, Pk. vissamaï; Ku. bisūṇo, to put each member of the bag we can found its lemma one's load down; S. visāiṇu to quell, extinguish; and morphological features. G. visāmom. rest; M. vis&abrevemacr;v ẽ to halt; ṇ Next task is to find the coinciding English -- Sk. viśr&abrevemacr;myate in P. vissamṇā to lemmas in the definitions of each pair of Nepali rest; L. missamaṇ to be extinguished; words. These coinciding words are counted. Those pairs of Nepali words, which definitions S. visāmaṇu to be worn out; -- the 220
contain at least one coinciding word are Example 2: Two words linked by 7 coinciding considered as synonymous candidates. Currently words in definitions: {come, deity, occur, planet, our machine-readable Nepali-English dictionary plural, star, verb} – actually are antonyms: contains about 30,000 entries. Following the अःताउन ु - to set and उदाउन ु – to rise. above procedure we have allocated about 290,000 quasi-synonyms, of which only about 9,000 pairs On the other hand, sometimes a single coinciding are associated with more than one English word. word in two definitions proclaims two words are Refer to Table 1 synonyms. Most often this happens when the coinciding word is not found in any other Table 1: Relation between the number of definition (the number of such words = 1064). coinciding words in definitions and the number of quasi-synonyms Example 3: The only coinciding word is
raise sole abortion miscarriage खु टे गभ ा व, तुहुनु around contact forth 7 above upper आइजाइ आइजाइ तुहुनु, म लो frequent hang above brim गनु गनु remain travel झुिसन,ु िन याउन ु infinitive 6 above shoulder आउन ु इनु पातो, भार ् intransitive stem above weight verb फाउ, भार ् above math प पत ् clan honor 6 मा ःतर, मािथ occupation position abridgment epitome profession rank स मह, स ेप ् abruptly suddenly आवाज आवाज behalf raise shout 6 भन क, अचानक someone speak उठाउन ु उठाउन ु voice चाँडो चाँडै early quick quickly 5 3.3 Dominant selection soon worker The next step in our research should be extraction क पिन क पनी company east India 5 Indian rupee of the dominant word from the list of quasi- synonyms. This step requires more Nepali चतुवग ऽवग *artha dharma 5 object observance linguistic resources, such as words frequency wealth dictionary, POS-annotated corpus of Nepali texts, auspicious male 5 etc. Also application of the cluster analysis is द त ारे द त ार ् middle open tooth needed. प यारो ब ास ् believe confidence 5 4. Evaluation by experts faith trust trustworthy Generally speaking, it might be difficult to devise experiments that directly measure the quality of अटाउन ु कु िभ डो cannot cast pearl 5 pumpkin swine synonyms. The first step towards solving this charge officer police 5 problem was the expert evaluation of quasi- थाना ठानेदार ् station *subidar synonymous pairs. We have developed an interactive resource “Dictionary of Nepali अःताउन ु च िमा come morning note 5 plural verb Synonyms" which enables the on-line voting on the admissibility of synonymous pairs. Table 3 Candidate Nepali synonymous pairs with the number of the coinciding words = 2, 3. The native Nepalese, including the professional lexicographers and the wide community of the Group of synonyms Coinciding English Internet users may participate in the voting words in Definitions process. abandon desert य न,ु याग,् या न ु A pioneer project, www.philol.msu.ru मता, द ता, लाय क ability fitness /~serge/NepSyn/fv.html, for choosing the “true” Nepali synonyms by the Internet users is ability skill fitness गुण,् द ता, लाय क described below. ability best *bhar भर-् मौदरु ,् सके , सक् First the new participant is asked to fill the registration form. S/he may login as a guest, then 222
s/he can see all the content of the site, but cannot 4.2 Voting process enter corrections and cannot vote. The First column contains the words which match the qualification in Nepali is checked by asking an input pattern. Second column contains those easy question – to choose only one correct English words which belong to the definition / translation for a sample Nepali word. After translation of both left and right Nepal words. passing the registration process the participant is Columns +,?,- contain checkboxes which the user asked to enter the first letters of the Nepal word should check: (+) s/he is aware of the synonymy he wants to explore. between left and right Nepali words; (?) s/he is 4.1 Virtual keyboard not aware; (-) s/he is aware that words are not synonyms. We have included virtual keyboard for those participants who do not have the Nepali Unicode After filling checkboxes in each row the user by keyboard. pressing OK button sends the form to the server where her/his choices are added to the counter of good/bad synonyms. 5. Analysis of the voting results The third module aimed at analyzing the results of voting was not developed yet. It should perform certain calculations over the results of voting. The main formula for estimating confidence will include: - the number of all votes, - the number of positive and negative votes, Figure 1: Virtual keyboard for Devanagari - the overall frequency of each member of the When the whole word or the first letters of a Nepali synonymous pair Nepali word is submitted the participant sees the - the frequency of the English words coinciding in synonyms offered for voting: the definitions of two Nepali words - the occurrence of these English words in English dictionaries of synonyms, etc. 6. Conclusion and future work We have presented a novel method for extracting synonyms from the bilingual dictionaries. The method is based on “bag of words”. Compared to corpus-based methods, the proposed approach has the advantage of lexicon-based methods such as light weight in computational resource and complexity, and easy adaptation across different domains or languages. Figure 2: Quasi-synonyms offered for voting
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Meanwhile, coverage of lexicon-based methods is An evaluation. Machine Translation and the obviously limited to the coverage of the Lexicon, pp. 19.34. dictionary of choice. Another problem comes Krämer, Karl-Heinz. 2007. Nepali-English from polysemy. Transitivity of synonymy is not Dictionary. well preserved when synonyms of different senses http://www.nepalresearch.org/dictionaries/nep of a polysemous word are mixed together. Sense- _eng/nep_eng.pdf . disambiguated definition texts are required to Potemkin, Sergei and Kedrova, Galina. 2008. avoid this problem. Semantic distance over linguistical database and WordNet. Cognitive modeling in The interactive technique was proposed to assess linguistics. the admissibility of pairs of synonyms. This new http://cml2008.narod.ru/Potemkin_Presentatio promising approach can extend the scope of n.ppt lexicography researches and even rise up the Rabinovich, I.S., Korolev N.I., Aganina L.A. literacy of the participants. 1968. Nepal'sko-Russkiy Slovar' (A Nepali- References Russian Dictionary) М., Советская энциклопедия. Apresjan, J.D., V.V. Botiakova, T.E. Latiskeva, Raj Adhikary, Kamal. 2009. A Concise Nepali- M.A. Mosiagina, I.V. Polik, V.I. Rakitina, English Dictionary: With Transliteration and A.A. Rozenman, and E.E. Sretenskaia. 1980. Devanagari. Gyan Jyoti Kendra; 3rd edition. Anglo-Russkii Sinonimicheskii Slovar. Schmidt, Ruth Laila. 1994. A Practical dictionary Izdatelstvo Russkii Jazik of modern Nepali. Apresjan, Juri. 2000. Systematic Lexicography. http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/schmidt/. Translation, Oxford University Press. Turner, Ralph Lilley. 1931. A comparative and Bandhu, C.M. 1994. A Nepali Dictionary of etymological dictionary of the Nepali Synonyms. First Asia International language. London Lexicography Conference, Manila, http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/turner/ Philippines, pp. 115-120. Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bag-of- Caraballo, Sharon. 1999. Automatic acquisition of words_model a hypernym-labeled noun hierarchy from text. Yarowsky, David and Wicentowski, Richard. 37th Annual Meeting of the Association for 2000. Minimally supervised morphological Computational Linguistics, pp. 120-126. analysis by multimodal alignment. 38th DiMarco, Chrysanne; Hirst, Graeme; and Stede, Annual Meeting of the Association for Mandred. 1993. The semantic and stylistic Computational Linguistics, pp. 207-216. differentiation of synonyms and quasi- synonyms. AAAI Spring Symposium on Building Lexicons for Machine Translation. pp. 114 – 121. Hearst, M. 1992. Automatic acquisition of hyponyms from large text corpora. 14th International Conference on Computational Linguistics. vol. 2, pp. 539–545. Ide, Nancy and Jean Veronis. 1994. Knowledge extraction from machine-readable dictionaries:
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Font identifier and Unicode converter for Hindi UmrinderPal Singh, Vishal Goyal [email protected], [email protected],
many different fonts on the website then all these fonts Fonts are used to represent text in document. Fonts are should available on client's machine. There are so many mainly two kind non-Unicode and Unicode fonts. websites those based on different font-type, so to Complex scripts like Hindi and other Asian languages overcome this problem website designer provide image well represented in Unicode fonts. There are some other file of written text rather than text file. In this condition ways to write these languages for e.g we can use users, do not need any font installed on the local system ASCII/ISCII codes to represent different characters of to read website text. This method is time-consuming Hindi, but there are large numbers of characters in task to develop image of every text. Website becomes Hindi script as compared to English. Therefore, we heavy due to many images and it consumes much always need multiple ASCII/ISCII encoded characters bandwidth. As we know that, there are so many fonts combination to represent a single character of Hindi available for English text. All font characters based on Script. One major problem in these ASCII encoding common ASCII code, but in Hindi fonts, same char is based fonts is that we cannot easily transfer text from represented by different codes in different fonts. As we one system to another. The system must have these text can see in example Table 1: fonts. There are hundreds of ASCII/ISCII encoding Table 1: Character code mapping for English and Hindi based fonts which are used to write Hindi text. New fonts software systems are based on Unicode fonts. Font Arial Times Agra Hindi 1. Introduction Name New Earlier the users had to inform about the type of font Roman encoding, in which the text written. Therefore, to make Word T h a n T h a n k ध न ् य व ध न ् य व this process automatic, an effort has been made to k s s resolve this issue. Font identifier is a system that ◌ा द ◌ा द automatically detects the font of given text whereas Byte 84 104 84 104 97 NULL 85 NULL 78 Unicode converter is a system that involves changing a Code 97 110 110 107 59 111 121 118 font into Unicode. 107 115 115 107 110 97 100 2. Problems related to Hindi language As you can see that, same char codes are used for Arial There are 23 official languages spoken in India. Indian and Time New Roman fonts in English Text, but in languages have distinct scripts, but the grammar is Hindi text has different char codes for Agra and mostly same. Large amount of text data is in Devanagri fonts. Another problem that comes while ASCII/ISCII based encoding, so it is always difficult to working on different Hindi Fonts is that there are many store, process and transfer text data from one system to characters and matraa's written in various ways. another. Unicode encoding system is a better way to 3. Related work store and process the text data. Unicode data can be transferred from one system to another easily, without Er. Jagdeep Dangi developed Dangi Soft Font knowing the underneath font of text. We know that Converter. This converter has two parts first one is large amount of Hindi text written in different font so Prakhar Devanagari and Font Prarivatak, which is able we need a promising system to identify and convert all to convert ASCII/ISCII encoding based fonts to these text to Unicode text so that text will be beneficial Unicode. Second part of this software called UniDev, for text processing and for other tasks. which used to convert Unicode to ASCII, based fonts. This software is commercial product and available only Today is an era of Internet; these different ASCII/ISCII in offline version. Prakhar Devanagari font Parivartak encoding based Hindi fonts create challenges, like if any (ASCII/ISCII to Unicode Converter) can convert website text content is written in particular font, then the various ASCII/ISCII Devanagari texts into Unicode text viewer must have that font installed on the local system. with 100% accuracy. This software can convert various For this, that particular website always provides that Devanagari (Hindi/Marathi/Sanskrit) texts into font-type to viewers to download and install it on their ASCII/ISCII (8 bit) fonts. It can convert more than 258 systems otherwise; the viewer will not be able to read both true type and type-1 fonts like Kruti-dev, website text. Therefore, it becomes challenging task for Chanakya, Shusha, Shiva, DV-TTYogesh, 4CGandhi, website developers too, if developers are using one or Sanskrit 99, Marathi-Kanak etc) into Unicode (16 bit)
Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 225-229 text immediately and easily. UniDev part of the comparing the unigrams with the unigrams present in software can convert Unicode based text to various the database, then the system works at character level ASCII/ISCI encoded fonts like Kruti dev, Chanakya etc and compares characters with the character map table. If for (Hindi / Sanskrit / Marathi) Devanagari Script. This no result is found, then the system stops and if the is the first error free tool in the market for converting results are found, then the Unicode conversion takes Unicode based text to various ASCII/ISCII (8 bit), At place. The flowchart described the system in the figure- present about 9 both true type and type-1 fonts like 1. Kruti dev, Chanakya, Shiva etc. fonts are with 100% accuracy. Start
Anand Arokia Raj, Kishore Prahallad (Anand Arokia raj, Kishore Prahallad. 2007): has developed a system Input Hindi for font identification and font data conversion for ASCII Test Indian languages. They uses TF-IDF(Term frequency and Inverse document frequency) weights approach for identification of font encoding by giving weightage to Tokenization and Normalization unigrams(current glyph), bigrams (current and next Match Unigram glyph) and trigrams (previous, current and next glyph). maximum Database of Find Frequency of Input all fonts These terms that most frequently occurred in the data Text group at word level file and weightage given to them accordingly. This is the scheme which is used to identify font for input text. The Char map table is prepared for conversion of N Database of all font Font groups at identified text. Rules are used to convert the text Group Find at Char level found? correctly. System used for many languages like Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, Guajarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Bengali etc. Y
E-Pandit Converter: Shri Shirish Benjawal has Y Font Convert Input ASCII developed this software. This converter converts the Group Text to Unicode Text Unicode text into Legacy font and Legacy font text into fd? Unicode. Presently it supports only Chanakya font. N According to the developer of this software, in future, other fonts will be added into it. Its interface is very Unicode Normalized easy to understand. Its output is 94 % correct. In this Rules converter, quotes, percentage sign, full stop into puran viram, two-byte nukta into one-byte nukta characters Show Unicode and other rules used. All the existing approaches or working systems are good but none of the system is able to detect the font of input text automatically, user must Sto have to choose font of input text. If the user does not know the font of text in advance then he will not be able to converter non-Unicode text into Unicode unless he Figure 1: Flowchart showing system working tried all the available converters. Therefore, in our proposed system we developed an algorithm, which is 5. Fonts collection able to detect font of the text and efficiently convert that A font traditionally defined as a quantity of sorts text into Unicode text. composing a complete character set of a single size and 4. Flowchart of the system style of a particular typeface. Around 170 Hindi fonts are collected manually by downloading from different The flow chart shows that we start with input the Hindi websites. Many fonts have their series for example ASCII encoded text. The whole text is tokenised into KrutiDev font. It has a series of its font type and has unigrams(word) and then normalised. Frequencies of same character map and ASCII value. Character map is each unigram in the given text are calculated and match mapping of character or any symbol or matraa of any against the maximum frequent words present in the font, phonetically. database.The database contains most frequently used unigrams. If the font group is found after matching process then the text converted into Unicode by using
Unicode char mapping. If font group not found by
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6. Analysis about fonts text. However, sometimes the System is not able to decide which font group should select for conversion While analysing the various fonts, a technique is used to because of ambiguity in font groups. The System has map the font characters, symbols and matraa equal number of input text words that lie under two or phonetically corresponding to the Unicode character. A more groups. That time system may select wrong font character map table is made, in which the character is group, which may lead to wrong conversion of input written in different fonts, so that we come to know that text. Therefore, to overcome this problem we need to which fonts have same character map corresponding to check out input text at character level. Where we have the Unicode characters. search trigram, bigram in char map table where we have The next step is to make groups of those fonts that have stored all the Unicode characters corresponding to same character mapping, name that group, and save the different font groups. We have search trigram, bigram information in tabular form so that this information can because some of Unicode chars in Hindi have multiple be used easily later on in identification and conversion ASCII code characters in different fonts like character process. About 170 fonts collected and grouped them आ in Unicode is mapped to Eç in font CCDV-ITR- into 26 groups. Some font groups are shown in LAYOUT. Appendix A. After analysing the character map of each Font identification algorithm can describe as: font, 26 groups are made and a name given to each font group. For example, in ITR font group, CCDV-ITR- R= MAX ∑ F i1, F i2,...... ∑ F i26 LAYOUT and KDV-ITR-LAYOUT fonts are put together because their character map is same. Name of Where, F=Number of font groups and i=number of input the font groups are based on fonts under that group. char/words Group name can be any name but we tried to choose an appropriate name to describe the fonts under that group. The Input text is tokenised into unigrams and each A table shown below show some of the font groups and unigram is matched under all the different font groups their character mapping. F1 …to .. F26. Max of all matched unigrams is a Table 3: Character mapping of some of the font groups winning group or font of the input text. 8. Conversion of Font data into Unicode UNICO IT CCS IN CCD PR Naidu DE R RI D V K nia After identifying the font group, character map table is used to map input chars with the corresponding Unicode अ (A) E A ¥ À ¢ Y of the selected font group. After that Unicode Eç Am ¥æ Àb ¢k Yt normalization, rules are used. This technique which is आ (Ā) used for conversion called IT3-Transliteration scheme. IT3 is a transliteration scheme developed by IISc i F B § Ê £ R इ Bangalore, India and Carnegie Mellon University with the primary focus on user readability of the ई ie F| B© §ü ʶ £r transliteration scheme. उ o G C © ¦ ¤ W Hindi language specific modifications like halant and nukta modifications carried out first. The next step is to ऊ ou H D ª Ð ¥ Q reconstruct the pivotal consonant in an Akshara if there is. The different Unicode normalized rules under each 7. Identification of font group category explained with some examples below. These rules modified or redefined whenever it is required. To identify the font of given input text, most frequently occurred words are extracted from input and compared i. According to Hindi language, the characters modified, with our Database where we have stored 500 most if modifiers like virama and nukta used with full frequently used unigrams extracted from Hindi corpora characters. For example: having 1.1 million words. Corpus having data related to political, sports and business domain that was collected अ ◌ा ज (a a j) आज (aaj) from different Hindi websites. Frequently occurred words in input text are stored in a Binary Search Tree ii. The words we speak and while writing them, they are along with their frequency. We have used Binary search written according to some language specific processing. tree to make this process fast. After that, we compare For example: these words with our database and maximum matched words under a single group elected as font of input text. क र ् म (k r m) कम (krm) This font will be used to convert input text to Unicode
227 iii. The rule of merging two or more maatra characters installing the specific font on the system. Identification and forms a valid single maatra. For example: process is a key difference of our system as compared to another, and there is no need to use different converter इ स क ◌ा ◌ े (I s k o) इसको (isko) for different font. User would be able to convert all available fonts into Unicode without knowing the name iv. If half character comes with ◌ (ae)matraa, then of font. In future, we will add more unigrams in the ◌(ae) matraa comes before half character. For example: system to make the system more accurate for font identification process. This system and the algorithm स ् ◌ थ ◌ त (s ae th ae) ःथित (sthti) can be used for other Indian languages with minimum changes so we will try to use this system for other 9. Results Indian languages also. However, for that, it requires proper character mapping and unigrams for that specific We have collected the testing data from various language. We will try to make this system online as resources like Hindi websites and from some Hindi soon as possible and that will be free to use. corpus of ASCII/ISCII based fonts. Testing data includes around 15000 Hindi ACSII/ISCII encoding References based fonts' tokens. Collected data is related to all font Anand Arokia Raj, Kishore Prahallad. 2007. groups those we have created. Testing data related to Identification and Conversion of Font-Data in Indian different fields like science, business, politics, news etc. languages in International Conference on Universal Standard evaluation metrics Recall, Precision, F1- Digital Library (ICUDL2007) November 2007, Mesure used to evaluate the system.System is able to Pittsberg, USA. identify font of text with 95% accuracy, if the font is Online:http://ravi.iiit.ac.in/~speech/publications/C24 identified correctly then the system convert non- .pdf. Unicode font text to Unicode text with 100% accuracy. Ganapathiraju M., Balakrishnan M., Balakrishnan N. During testing phase sometimes system fails to identify and Reddy R. 2005. Om: One tool for many (Indian) font of the input text or sometimes it detect wrong font languages, Journal of Zhejiang University Science, and apply Unicode mapping rules according to that font vol. 6A, no. 11. 1348–1353. group. This happens due to less input data submitted to the system to identify font of text. Like when user Web References submit one or two words or text which is not most a. http://www.4shared.com/file/zXERndaY/DangiSof frequent words in Hindi, that time the system is not able t_Prakhar_Devanagari_F.html Accessed to identify font of input text. When it goes at char level 3/10/2012 to find its font group and there are chances of ambiguity b. http://www.4shared.com/file/qs8bXyl/DangiSoft_ between two font groups like input text have equal UniDev.html Accessed 3/11/2012 count of chars those belong to two different groups. c. http://www.devanagarifonts.net/fonts/page8.html Therefore, system accidently apply wrong font mapping Accessed 22/11/2012 on text. For this problem we have provided a solution, d. http://search.4shared.com/q/CCAD/1/hindi%20fon system gave both font choices to user which were ts Accessed 20/11/2012 detected by the system at char level or word level , then e. http://sites.google.com/site/technicalhindi/home/co user may apply any font on text from both choices. nverters Accessed 20/10/2012 10. Summary f. http://www.tamasoft.co.jp/en/general- info/unicode.html Accessed 11/11/2012 We have developed font identification system that helps g. http://ltrc.iiit.ac.in/showfile.php?filename=downlo the user to know about font of the text automatically and ads/FC-1.0/fc.html Accessed 1/12/2012 a font conversion system which converts the non- h. http://epandit.shrish.in/labs/ePandit-Converter/ Unicode text to Unicode text to read that text without Accessed 11/10/2012
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Appendix: A
GROUPS FONTS Xdvng Xdvng, Dtyash
CCDV-ITR-LAYOUT, KDV-ITR- Mantra MANTRA ITR LAYOUT, MTDV-ITR-LAYOUT Shusha Shusha, Shusha02, Shusha05 CCDV-SRI2-LAYOUT, CCDV- CCSRI SRI3-LAYOUT, MTDV-MDN- Shree SHREE726 LAYOUT Sang SANGATI,SANGEET, SANGRAH AYOUT, CCDV-ISM-LAYOUT, DV- TTSurekh, DV-TTSurekhEN, DV- KF-Aarti, KF-Amruta, KF-Kiran, ISM TTYogesh, DV-TTYogeshEN, KDV- Suvida01, Suvidha2, Shivaji01, KF ISM-LAYOUT, MTDV-ISM- Shivaji02, Shivaji03, Shivaji05, LAYOUT Aarti, Suvida01, Suvidha, Suvidha2
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Relativization in Maithili Indresh Thakur [email protected]
This article is an attempt to analyze relativization 2. Relativizers in Maithili in Maithili from functional-typological The relative clause in Maithili is marked by the perspective. In this article, we introduce the relative marker or relative pronouns je ‘who’ relative clauses and relativizers; and analyze the (used for humans) and je ‘what’ (used for non- different types of relative clauses in terms of their humans with no honorific-nonhonorific typological parameters. distinctions) and their inflected forms for different 1. Introduction case, number and honorificity (Yadav 1996: 116- 17, 351). The same form –je which assumes Maithili, an Indic language belonging to the group varying shapes depending upon the case marking of the modern Prakrit Vernaculars is a Modern it takes; honorificity, animateness, and Indo-Aryan language. Maithili is a cross-border possessiveness Singh (1979: 176). language in that it is spoken across the border on both sides in India and Nepal. To be precise, it is Table 1: Relativizers in Maithili spoken in the districts of Jhapa, Morang, Sunsari, Animate Inanimate Saptari, Siraha, Dhanusha, Mahottari, Sarlahi, and Honorific Non- Rautahat of Nepal and in the districts of honorific Madhubani, Darbhanga, Sitamarhi, Saharsa, Direct je je je Madhepura, Purnea, East-Muzaffarpur, Oblique jə(kəra) jəni(ka) jahi Samastipur, and Begusarai of the Bihar and also Poss jə(kər) jəni(ka)/ jahi(- in some parts of Jharkhand and West Bengal jəni(kər) NP+ak), states of India. Maithili is spoken by about 35 jahi(-ker) million people in total, comprising 3.09 million people in Nepal as per census, 2011 and 31.90 Source: Singh (1979: 176) million people in India (Lewis et.al. 2013). 3. Types of relative clauses The process of forming a relative clause Following general types of relative clauses construction is known as relativization. ‘A discussed in the literature (e.g. Keenan 1985, relative clause is a clause that modifies a phrasal Comrie 1989, and Giv n 2001: 10-11), relative constituent, generally a noun phrase. We call the clauses in Maithili can be restrictive or non- noun phrase that is so modified the head of the restrictive. relative clause’ (Riemsdijk 2006: 338 as cited in Subbarao 2012: 263). It is a subordinate clause in 3.1 Restrictive relative clauses which the embedded predicate may be [+finite] or Restrictive relative clauses are used to [-finite]. Such a non-finite predicate may be delimit/restrict the meaning of the referent of a participial or infinitival. A relative clause is a NP. In Maithili, the relativized NP consists of the kind of subordinate clause, one of whose relativizer je (in its various forms) with or without arguments shares a referent with a main clause an accompanying common noun: when the latter element on which the subordinate clause is is present, the relativizer serves as a determiner. grammatically dependent. In this article, we The NP of the relative clause is co-referential discuss relativizers in Maithili, types of relative with the head NP of the main clause. The head clauses that are found in the language in terms of NP of the main clause consists of the correlative functional typological parameter as the theoretical pronoun or the demonstrative pronoun either with framework. or without an accompanying common noun. Consider the following examples:
Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 230-237 (1) u kitab je u kitab [je (4) əhã eme pəirḥ rəhəl that book REL əhã eme pəiṛh rəhəl kailh kinli se 2H MA read PROG kailh kin-l-i] se chi je nik bat yesterday come-PST-1 COREL ch-i [je nik bat həm həra gel AUX-PRES.2H REL good matter həm həra ge-l əich 1SG lose go-PST əi-ch] ‘The book that I bought yesterday was be-PRES.3NH lost.’ ‘You are studying MA, which is a good thing. ’ (2) thakurji je neta thakur-ji [je neta In the example (3) the relative clause supplies Thakur-H REL leader extra information about the head NP, whose chəith ai bhasən reference is already specified because it is a ch-əith] ai bhasən proper noun. But in the examples (4), the relative AUX-PRES.3H today speech clause gives a comment on the whole matrix detah clause. de-t-ah 4 Typological parameters of relative clauses give-FUT-3H ‘Thakurji who is a leader will deliver a According to Payne (1997: 326), there are several speech today.’ typological parameters by which relative clauses can be grouped. The parameters to be discussed in 3.2 Non-restrictive relative clauses this section are (i) the position of the clause with Non-restrictive relative clauses are generally respect to the head noun, (ii) the mode of defined in other languages as relative clauses that expression of the relativized NP, and (iii) which do not constrain the head of the relative clause, grammatical relations can be relativized. and whose heads are ‘fully specified, definite NPs 4.1 The position of the RCs with respect to the such as proper nouns’ (Keenan 1985: 169); as head relative clauses that add information ‘about an already identified entity, but not to identify that The first typological parameter by which relative entity’ (Comrie 1989: 138). Nonrestrictive clauses can vary is the position of the clause with relative clauses are also marked with the respect to the head. Regarding the position of the relativizer/relative pronoun je. But unlike the relative clauses with respect to the head NP, restrictive relative clauses, nonrestrictive relative relative clauses can be of four types in Maithili. occur with proper nouns and personal pronouns They are (i) postnominal, (ii) prenominal, (iii) whose potential referents are by definition internally headed, and (iv) headless. definite. The can be further sub-divided into two types: 4.1.1 Postnominal RC (3) əvinas je Postnominal relative clause may occur either ḍakṭər immediately to the right of the head noun which əvinas [je doctor we shall label as NP-adjoined relative clause; or Avinash REL doctor to the right of the VP of the matrix clause, which chəit əmerika jəetah we shall label as the extraposed relative clause ch-əit] əmerika jəe-t-ah (Subbarao 2012:266). In it, the head NP occurs AUX-PRES-3H America go-PST-3H outside the relative clause. In Maithili, the usual ‘Avinash, who is a doctor, will go to word order thus is: deternier + head + relative America.’ clause. Sentences (5-6) exemplify postnominal RC.
231
(5) u chor je (7) je hera gel u chor [je [je hera ge-l] that thief REL REL lose go-PST həmər əũṭhi cori se/u kələm həmər həm-ər əũṭhi cori se/u kələm həm-ər 1SG-GEN ring steal COREL/DEMONS pen 1SG-GEN kəene chəl (se) chəl kə-ene ch-əl] (se) ch-əl do-PSTPCPL AUX-PST.3NH COREL AUX-PST.3NH pəkra gel ‘The pen that was lost was mine.’ pəkra ge-l catch go-PST.3NH (8) je əhã nəi ‘The thief who had stolen my ring was [je əhã nəi arrested.’ REL 2H not kinləũh se/u ghərị (6) o admi kəm kin-l-əũh] se/u ghərị o admi kəm buy-PST-2H COREL/that watch that people less həm kin leləũh sutəit əich je həm kin le-l-əũh sut-əit əi-ch [je 1SG buy take-PST-1SG sleep-IMPERF be-PRES.3NH REL ‘I bought the watch that you did not bəhut kəphi buy.’ bəhut kəphi Sentences (7) and (8) are the examples of a lot of coffee prenominal relative clauses. The head NPs: kələm pibəit əich pib-əit əi-ch] in (7) and ghəɽi in (8) occur outside the relative drink-IMPERF be-PRES.3NH clauses and the relative clauses precede head NPs. ‘People who drink a lot of coffee sleep Unlike postnominal relative clauses, prenominal less.’ relative clauses require that their NP contains correlative/demonstrative determiner. Examples (5) and (6) are of postnominal relative clauses as the head NPs u cor (5) and u admi (6) 4.1.3 Internally headed RC occur outside the relative clauses and the relative Internally headed relative clauses are those for clauses occur immediately to the right of the head which the head occurs within the relative clause noun and right of the VP of the matrix clause (Payne 1997: 328). The matrix clause too may respectively. The relative clauses are marked by have the head NP repeated in it, in which case the the relativizer je. The common noun which might head NP is preceded by the correlative- otherwise accompany the relativizer within the demonstrative-determiner; usually, however, the relativized NP has been deleted in these head NP is deleted and only a correlative- examples. demonstrative-third person pronoun is used 4.1.2 Prenominal RC (Yadav 1996: 357). The sentences (9-10) are illustrative: Prenominal relative clause is the clause that occurs before the head. In it, the head NP occurs (9) je khelaṛi mæc outside the relative clause. In Maithili, the usual [je khelaṛi mæc word order thus is: relative clause + correlative/ REL player match demonstrative determiner + head. Sentences (7-8) me gol kəelək exemplify prenominal RC. me gol kə-el-ək] LOC goal do-PST-3NH se/u biməl chəl 232 se/u biməl ch-əl head noun itself functions in another clause (the COREL/that Bimal be-PST.3NH main clause); however, it always has a coreferent within the relative clause. The role of that NP can ‘The player who scored a goal in the be different from the role of the head noun within match was Bimal.’ the main clause. Examples (12-13) illustrate this
problem. (10) je gæ əhã nəi [je gæ əhã nəi (12) u sãp je REL cow 2H not u sãp [je kinləũh se/u gæ that snake REL kin-l-əũh] se/u gæ həmra dekhlək se buy-PST-2H COREL/that cow həm-ra dekh-l-ək] se həm kin 1SG-ACC/DAT see-PST-3NH COREL həm kin ramkẽ kait lelkəi 1SG buy ram-kẽ kait le-l-kəi leləũh Ram-ACC/DAT bite take-PST-3NH le-l-əũh ‘The snake that saw me bit Santosh.’ take-PST-1SG ‘I bought the cow that you did not buy.’ (13) u sãp jəkra u sãp [jək-ra 4.1.4 Headless RC that snake rel-ACC/DAT Headless relative clauses are those clauses which həm dekhliəik themselves refer to the noun that they modify. In həm dekh-l-iəik] general, languages in which nominal modifiers 1SG see-PST-1+3NH are themselves nouns are more likely to employ se ramkẽ headless relative clauses as a major relative clause se ram-kẽ strategy than languages for which there is a COREL Ram-ACC/DAT distinct and large class of adjectives (Payne 1997: kait lelkəi 328). Maithili like other languages can use kait le-l-kəi headless relative clauses when the head noun is bite take-PST-3NH non-specific. Example (11) illustrates headless ‘The snake that I saw bit Santosh.’ relative clauses. In example (12) the head noun sãp is the subject (11) həmər kitab corənihar of the main clause verb kait lelkəi. It is also the həm-ər kitab cor-ənihar subject of the relative clause verb dekh. However, 1SG-GEN book steal-NOM in example (13) sãp is still the subject of the main bhaig geləi clause verb kait lelkəi but it is not the subject of bhaig ge-l-əi the relative clause verb dekh. run away go-PST-3NH 4.3 Which grammatical relations can be ‘One who stole my book came.’ relativized? The head NP in the example (11) is missing. It is, This is the third or the final parameter by which therefore, a headless relative clause. relative clauses can be grouped. In outlining the 4.2 The mode of expression of relativized NP typology of relative clauses in a language, it is important to specify for each type of relative The second parameter by which relative clauses clause encountered which elements can be can vary is how the NP is expressed. This relativized (Payne 1997: 335). Keenan and parameter is sometimes stated as a ‘case Comrie (1977) observe that any given relative recoverability’ problem (Keenan 1985 as cited in clause strategy will allow relativization on a Payne 1997: 330). In relative clauses there must continuous segment of the following hierarchy: be some way of identifying the role of the referent of the head noun within the relative clause. The 233 subject> direct object> indirect object> oblique> (18) jəkər kitab hera possessor [jək-ər kitab hera REL-GEN book lose They also posit the ‘NP accessibility hierarchy’, geləik se chə̃ a which lists the most accessible type of NP at the ge-l-əik] se chə̃ a top and the least accessible type at the bottom. go-PST-3NH COREL boy Regarding the accessibility to the different case khub ciciait chəl roles, Maithili expression shows tendency to khub ciciait ch-əl relativize subject, direct object, indirect object, much cry-imperf be-PST-3NH possessor in the possessive construction and ‘The person whose book got lost was object of postposition. The examples (14-19) crying a lot.’ illustrate the accessibility hierarchy in Maithili: In example (18), the genitive or possessive NP: (14) mohən mədənkẽ kitab mohən mədən-kẽ hisab chəḍ̃ a-k is relativized. Mohan Madan-ACC book (19) həm jahi ghər delkhinh [həm jahi ghər de-l-khinh 1SG REL house give-PST-3H me rəhəit chi ‘Mohan gave a book to Madan.’ me rəhəit chi] loc live-IMPERF AUX-PRES-1 (15) mohən je mədənkẽ se saph əich mohən [je mədən-kẽ se saph əi-ch Mohan REL Madan-ACC COREL clean be-PRES.3NH kitab delkhinh ‘The house in which I live is clean.’ kitab de-l-khinh] book give-PST-3H In example (19), the object of postposition ghər ‘Mohan who gave a book to Madan.’ is relativized. The subject in example (15), direct object in (16), (16) kitab je mohən indirect object in (17), possessor in the possessive kitab [je mohən construction in (18), and object of postposition in book REL Mohan (19) are accessible to relativization in Maithili. mədənkẽ delkhinh mədən-kẽ de-l-khinh] 5 Position of RCs in a sentence Madan-ACC give-PST-3H Regarding the position of relative clauses in a ‘The book that Mohan gave to Madan.’ sentence, Comrie (1989) shows three positions of relative clauses: (i) clause-initial position, (ii) (17) mədən jekra mohən clause-medial position, and (iii) clause-final mədən [jek-ra mohən position. Madan REL-ACC/DAT Mohan kitab delkhinh 5.1 Clause-initial position hisab de-l-khinh] When the relative clause occurs in initial position book give-PST-3H of a sentence, it is called clause initial ‘Madan to whom Mohan gave a construction. Example (20) illustrates clause- book.’ initial in Maithili: The example (14) is an independent clause and (20) je kəimra həm (15), (16) and (17) illustrate three relative clauses. [je kəimra həm In (15) the subject NP: mohən is relativized, in REL camera 1SG (16) the direct object NP: kitab is relativized, and əhãkẽ deləũh se in (17) the indirect object NP: mədən is əhã-kẽ de-l-əũh] se relativized. 2H-ACC/DAT give-PST-1+2H COREL 234 japani chəik do-PST-3NH that student-ACC japani ch-əik həm inam deliyəi Japanese be-PRES.3NH həm inam de-l-iyəi ‘The camera that I gave you is Japanese.’ 1SG prize give-PST-3NH ‘I gave prize to the student who stood 5.2 Clause-medial position first.’ When relative clause occurs in medial position in In example (23), the head NP: chatrə is repeated. a sentence, it is considered as clause-medial position. Example (21) illustrates clause-medial in 6.2 Chopping construction Maithili: When the head of the relative clause is not (21) u kəimra je mentioned in the main clause, this process of u kəimra [je relativization is referred to as a chopping that camera REL construction. The example (24) illustrates this həm kailh kinləũh process of relativization in Maithili: həm kailh kin-l-əũh] (24) je sari əhã 1SG yesterday buy-PST-1SG [je sari əhã se japani əich REL saree 2H se japani əi-ch kailh kinləũh se COREL Japanese be-PRES.3H kailh kin-l-əũh] se ‘The camera that I bought yesterday is yesterdsy buy-PST-2H COREL Japanese.’ bə sundər əich 5.3 Clause-final position bə sundər əich much beautiful be.PRES.3NH When RC occurs in final position in a sentence, it ‘The sari which you bought yesterday is is called clause final position. The following very beautiful.’ example (22) illustrates clause-final relative clause in Maithili: In the example (24), the head NP: sari is not mentioned in the main clause. (22) okra pəkəir la ok-ra pəkəir la 7. Correlative construction 3NH-ACC catch bring.IMP When the NP of a relative clause correlates the je am torlək subject of the main clause, it is said to have [je am tor-l-ək] correlative construction. The example (25) REL mango pluck-PST-3NH illustrates the correlative construction in Maithili: ‘Fetch him who plucked mangoes.’ (25) je lə ki tv me 6. Copying vs chopping constructions [je lə ki tv me Comrie (1989: 140 as cited in Thakur (2005: 50)) REL girl TV LOC has also defined relative clauses in terms of git gaib rəhəl əich copying and chopping constructions of the head. git gaib rəhəl əich] song sing PROG be.PRES.3NH 6.1 Copying construction se ənu əich When the head of the relative clause is repeated in se ənu əich a sentence, this process is referred to as copying COREL Anu be.PRES.3NH construction. The sentence (23) exemplifies this: ‘The girl who is singing on TV is Anu.’ (23) je chatrə phəst In this example, NP of the relative clause je lə ki [je chatrə phəst correlates the subject of the main cluase lə ki REL student first which is preceded by the correlaive pronoun se. kəelək ohi chatrəkẽ 8. Attributive adjective vs relative pronoun kə-el-ək] ohi chatrə-kẽ 235 Comrie (1989) defines relative clause with respect nokri kər-əit ho-e] ot the presence or absence of relative pronoun. The attributive adjective is very common in the job do-IMPERF be-OPT.3NH Maithili syntax. The sentence (26) illustrates ‘Find such a groom who is employed in attributive adjectival relative clause which can government service.’ also be termed as headless relative clause: Note that the common noun within the relativized (26) sukna urəit cirəikẽ NP is obligatorily deleted in the extranominal sukna ur-əit cirəi-kẽ type of relative clauses. Sukna fly-PRESPCPL bird-ACC pəkəir lelkəik 10. Summary pəkəir le-l-kəik In this paper we discussed relativization i.e. catch take-PST-3NH process of forming a relative clause construction ‘Sukna caught the flying bird.’ in Maithili. The relative clause in Maithili is marked by the relativizers je ‘who’ and je ‘what’ (27) je cirəi urəit and their inflected forms for different case, [je cirəi ur-əit number and honorificity. Relative clauses in REL bird fly-PRESPCPL Maithili can be restrictive or non-restrictive. chəl təkra sukna Regarding the position of the clause with respect ch-əl] tək-ra sukna to the head, relative clauses in Maithili can be of be-PST COREL-ACC Sukna four types: prenominal, postnominal, internally pəkəir lelkəik headed, and headless. Maithili expression shows pəkəir le-l-kəik tendency to relativize subject, direct object, catch take-PST-3NH indirect object, possessor in the possessive ‘Sukna caught the bird that was flying.’ construction, and object of postposition. The In sentence (26), urəit is participial verb form language has three types of relative clauses used attributively to modify cirəi. But sentence regarding the position of the relative clauses in a (27) is the relative pronoun type as the relativizer sentence: clause-initial position, clause-medial je is used in it. position, and clause-final position. The language has also copying and chopping constructions of 9. Extranominal relative clause the head NP. Another type of relative clause in Another type of relative clause, termed the Maithili is correlative construction which is extranominal relative clause, also exists in marked by the correlative pronoun se. The Maithili (Yadav 1996: 357). In such a extranominal relative clause also exists in construction, the head NP contains an indefinite Maithili. determiner which is usually the numeral ek `one’ Abbreviations followed by the classifier a, or an indefinite pronoun: both of which may optionally be 1 First person followed by such pronominal adjectives as ehən/ 2 Second person ohən ‘of such type’. The following are the 3 Third person examples: ACC Accusative AUX Auxiliary (28) ekṭa ehən ləḍka CLAS Classifier ek-ṭa ehən ləḍka COREL Correlative DAT Dative one-CLAS such groom FUT Future khoju je sərkari GEN Genitive khoj-u [je sərkari H Honorific IMP Imperative IMP REL find- government IMPERF Imperfective nokri kərəit hoe LOC Locative 236 NH Non-honorific PROG Progressive NOM Nominative PST past NP Noun phrase PSTPCPL Past participle RC Relative clause REL Relativizer OPT Optative SG Singular PRES Present VP Verb phrase PRESPCPL Present participle
References Payne, Thomas E.1997. Describing Morphosyntax: A Guide for Field linguistics. Central Bureau of Statistics. 2012. National Cambridge: CUP. Population and Housing Census Riemsdijk, V.H. 2006. Free relatives. In M. 2011(National Report) Volume 1 HPHC Everaert and V.H. Riemsdijk (eds.), The 2011. Kathmandu: Central Bureau of Blackwell Companion to Syntax, vol. II. Statistics. Oxford: Blackwell, 338-382. Comrie, Bernard. 1989. Language Universal and Singh, Uday Narayan. 1979. Some Aspects of the Linguistic Typology. England: Basil Blackwell Maithili syntax: A transformational generative Ltd. approach. An unpublished Ph.D. Givón, Talmy. 2001. Syntax: An Introduction. Dissertation. Delhi: University of Delhi. Vol.2. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Subbārāo, Kārumūri V. 2012. South Asian Benjamins Publishing Company. Languages: A Syntactic Typology. Cambridge: Keenan, Edward L. 1985. Relative clauses. In Cambridge University Press. Shopen, Timothy (ed.), Language typology Thakur, Indresh. 2005. Relativization in English and syntactic description Vol. 2: 141- 170. and Maithili: A comparative study. An Keenan, Edward L. and Bernard Comrie. 1977. unpublished thesis. Department of English NP accessibility and universal grammar. Education, Faculty of Education, Tribhuvan Linguistic Inquiry 8: 63-100. University. Lewis, M. Paul, Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Yadav, Ramawatar. 1996. A Reference Grammar Fennig (eds.), 2013. Ethnologue: Languages of Maithili (Trends in Linguistics: of the World, Seventeenth edition. Dallas, Documentation II), Berlin and New York: Texas: SIL International. Online version: Moton de Gruyter. http://www.ethnologue.com (/country/np.)
237 Tense system in the Bahing language Rajendra Thokar [email protected]
The concept of present and future is not distinct present moment in time point. Thus, the meaning in the Bahing language. So, tense system in the of past tense is to locate a situation prior to the Bahing language can be categorized into two- present moment (Comrie 1985:41). way system as past and non-past. Person, According to Bybee at al. (1994:82), past express number and verb structure such as intransitivity the meaning of occurring before the moment of and transitivity play crucial role in determining speech. It is to be noted that past tense simply the tense system. locates a situation prior to the present moment, 1 Introduction but it does not locate a situation in a specific time in the past. To locate a situation in a specific time This paper investigates the tense system in the in the past, usually a past time adverbial is Bahing languages from formal and functional required. perspectives. Of 123 languages spoken in Nepal as mother tongue reported in census 2011, the Payne (1997:236) describes that tense is the Bahing language is one of the Kirati languages grammatical expression of the relation of the time spoken in the Eastern Development Region of the of an event to some reference point in time, country. The populous areas of the Bahing people usually the moment clause is uttered. If we think are Okhaldhunga and Solukhumbu districts. of time as a line, with "now" represented by a point moving from left to right, we can According to the census report 2011, the total conceptualize tense in terms of the following population of Bahing is 3,096. Of them, 1,444 are diagram: males and 1,652 females. However, the census report shows more Bahing mother tongue now speakers than the total Bahing population. According to the census report 2011, the total Payne (1997:236) also presents probably more population of Bahing by mother tongue is 11,658. common two-way distinction as past and non- Of them, 5,417 are males and 6,241 are females. past: This paper is organized into four sections. Section past non-past 2 discusses the theoretical framework for this paper. In section 3, we look into the tense system in the Bahing language. Section 4 summarizes the findings of the paper. Comrie, in his classic book on tense, summarizes the difference by saying that "tense is 2 Theoretical framework grammaticalized expression of location in time" (Comrie 1985:9), whereas aspect "refers to the Tense is the systematic and grammatical way of grammaticalization of expression of internal coding of the relationship between two points temporal constituency" (1985:6). along the time axis. Following Reichenbach’s theory (1949) of tense, the two points are the As pointed out by Givón (1984a:272), tense reference time (R-time) and the event time (E- involves primarily, though not exclusively, time time). The default R-time that an event is as seen in terms of points in sequence, whereas anchored to is the time of speech (S-time). For aspect is concerned with the boundedness of this reason, tense has been considered a deictic spans of time. category (Comrie 1976:2, 1985:14). Dik acknowledges that his very brief account of Referring to the tense and temporal anchoring, tense (Dik 1997a:237-23) is based on Comrie past tense locates a situation to the left of the (1985). Like Comrie, Dik relates tense to a time Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 238-246 line, on which are located a reference time and a 3 Tense system in the Bahing language time corresponding to the moment of speaking. A In this paper, we look into only two distinctions distinction is made between absolute tense, in of the tense as past and non-past in the Bahing which the reference time coincides with the language. It is because that the non-past marker moment of speaking, a relative tense, in which the denotes both present and future-like concept in two are distinct. the Bahing language. For example, the marker - Dik (1997a:238, example (4)) presents the tense wa denotes both present and future-like concept. distinction in the tree diagram. This is not the detailed paper on tense system in Tense1 the Bahing language. We deem that this paper is a simply an introductory part on tense system,
wherein we simply look into two-way distinctions Past [1,2] Non-past [3,4,5] of past and non-past tense. It can be illustrated diagrammatically:
Tense system in the Bahing language Past [1,2] Present [3] Future [4,5]
Past Non-past Remote [1] Recent [2] Imminent [4] Remote [5] It is also deemed that this paper will be a helpful Givón (2001:285) says tense is ‘the systematic stair for the further research who wants to carry coding of the relation between two points along out detailed study on tense system in the Bahing the ordered linear dimension of time’. language. Givón (2001:286) illustrates reference time and The divisions of the tense system in the Bahing event time diagrammatically: language as past and non-past are dealt with Tense and temporal anchoring examples in the following sub-sections. Event-time 3.1 Past tense system
The past tense in the Bahing language is Past Present Future determined by the different markers with Speech-time pronominal markers. Thokar (2005:66) indicates Reference-time that the past tense in the Bahing language is Butler (2003:449) uses two terms 'temporality' marked differently according to person, number and 'aspectuality', borrowed from Dik and verb structure as intransitivity and (1997a:237), to refer to areas of meaning, whether transitivity. Therefore, in the Bahing language, realized grammatically or lexically. Tense and person, number and verb category play crucial aspect are thus grammatical manifestations of role in determining the past tense. temporality and aspectuality respectively. The past tense structure with person, number and So, in this paper, the tense system in the Bahing verb category is presented in the following sub- language is divided into two-way distinctions. sections. And, the functional approach is applied for the 3.1.1 Past tense structure with first person, purpose of analysis. number and verb category In the intransitive verb structure, if the subject of
the sentence is the first person singular, then the 1 The numbers in the brackets denote the sentence examples in the original text. 239
past tense marker -ti is attached to the verb root. It only in intransitive verb structure with first person can be presented in this way. singular subject. i. Intransitive verb structure If the subject of the sentence is first person singular with transitive verb, then the past tense verb root + past tense marker -ti + number marker -təŋ is attached to the verb root. It can be Let's consider intransitive sentences in (1a-f). presented in this way. (1) Intransitive verb structure i. Transitive verb structure a. gu bək-ti verb root + past tense marker -təŋ + number gu bək-ti Let's consider the transitive sentences in (2a-c). 1SG sit-PST.1SG ‘I sat down.’ (2) Transitive verb structure a. gu-mi dzatˢo dza-təŋ b. gu ŋi-ti gu-mi dzatˢo dza-təŋ gu ŋi-ti 1SG-ERG rice eat-PST.1SG 1SG frighten-PST.1SG 'I ate rice.' ‘I frightened.’ b. gu-mi mjam-dwa-lai dza-təŋ-mi c. gu rap-ti gu-mi mjam-dwa-lai 1SG-ERG that-PL-DAT gu rap-ti dza-təŋ-mi 1SG stand-PST.1SG eat-PST.1SG-3PL.OBJ 'I stood up.' 'I ate them.'
d. gu dok-ti c. gu-mi wabara dza-təŋ gu dok-ti gu-mi wabara dza-təŋ 1SG fall.PST.1SG 1SG-ERG mango eat.PST.1SG 'I ate mango.' 'I fell down.' Sentences in (2a-c) clearly show that the past e. gu bre:-ti tense marker -təŋ is attached to the verb root only in transitive verb structure with first person gu bre:-ti singular subject. Moreover, number marker 1SG cry.PST.1SG always follows the tense marker. 'I cried.' 3.1.2 Past tense structure with the second person, number and verb category f. gu ris-ti With second person singular subject in the gu ris-ti sentence, the past tense marker -te is attached to 1SG cry.PST.1SG the verb root if the verb structure is intransitive. It 'I laughed.' can be presented in this way. i. Intransitive verb structure From the sentences in (1a-f), it is clear that the past tense marker -ti is attached to the verb root Verb root + tense marker -te + number Let's consider intransitive sentences in (3a-b). 240
(3) Intransitive verb structure Sentences in (4a-c) clearly show that the past a. gə le:-te tense marker -ti is attached to the verb root only in transitive verb structure with second person gə le:-te singular subject. Moreover, number marker 2SG return-PST.2SG always follows the tense marker. ‘You returned.’ 3.1.3 Past tense structure with person and number b. gə ip-te gə ip-te In 3.1.1, we discussed about first person and second person singular subject in the sentence 2SG sleep-PST.2SG with intransitive and transitive verb form with 'You slept.' different tense markers in the verb root. In the sentences in (3a-b), it is clear that the past However, the verb root is inflected with -ta to tense marker -te is attached to the verb root only denote past tense if the subject of the sentence is in intransitive verb structure with second person in the first person duality and plurality, second singular subject. person duality and plurality, and in both singular The past tense marker -ti is attached to the verb and plural third person subject. root if there is the second person singular subject The past tense marker -ta is applicable in all in the transitive sentence structure. It can be except in the case of first person and second presented in this way. person singular subject structure in the sentence. i. Transitive verb structure It can be presented in this way. Verb root + tense marker -ti + number i. verb root + tense marker -ta + number Let's consider transitive sentences in (4a-c). Let's consider the sentences with person and number in (5a-b), (6a-b) and (7a-b). (4) Transitive verb structure (5) First person dual and plural structure a. gə-mi dzatˢo dzap-ti a. gu-su-mi dzatˢo dza-ta-su gə-mi dzatˢo dzap-ti gu-su-mi dzat o 2SG-ERG rice at-PST.2SG ˢ 'You ate rice.' 1SG-DL.ERG rice dza-ta-su b. gə-mi mjam-dwa-lai dzap-ti-mi eat-PST-1DL.EXCL 'We two ate rice.' gə-mi mjam-dwa-lai
2SG-ERG that-PL-DAT b. gu-ku-mi dzat o dzak-ta-ku dzap-ti-mi ˢ eat-PST.2SG-PL.OBJ gu-ku-mi dzatˢo 'You ate them all.' 1SG-PL.EXCL-ERG rice dzak-ta-ku c. gə-mi am-lai typ-ti eat-PST-1PL.EXCL gə-mi am-lai typ-ti 'We all ate rice.' 2SG-ERG 3SG-DAT beat-PST.2SG Sentences in (5a-b) clearly show the past tense 'You beat him/her.' marker -ta attached to the verb root in the first person dual and plural structure.
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(6) Second person dual and plural structure 3.2.1 Structure of the first person subject a. gə-ni-mi dzatˢo dzan-ta-ni In both intransitive and transitive verb structure, the verb root is inflected with the marker -ŋa if gə-ni-mi dzatˢo the subject of the sentence is in the first person 2SG-PL-ERG rice singular. Let's consider the sentences in (8a-d). dzan-ta-ni eat-PST-2PL (8) First person singular subject 'You all ate rice.' a. gu dzatˢo dza-ŋa b. gə-si-mi dzat o dza-ta-si ˢ gu dzatˢo dza-ŋa gə-si-mi dzatˢo 1SG rice eat-NPST.1SG 2SG-DL-ERG rice 'I eat rice.' dza-ta-si b. gu la-ŋa eat-PST-2DL 'You two ate rice.' gu la-ŋa 1SG go-NPST.1SG Sentences in (6a-b) clearly show the past tense 'I go.' marker -ta attached in the verb root in the second person dual and plural structure. c. gu mjam te pa-ŋa gu mjam te pa-ŋa (7) Third person singular and plural structure 1SG that work do-NPST.1SG a. am-mi dzatˢo dzap-ta 'I do that work.' am-mi dzatˢo dzap-ta d. gu bre:-ŋa 3SG-ERG rice eat-PST gu bre:-ŋa 'H/she ate rice.' 1SG cry-NPST 'I cry.' b. am-dwa-mi dzatˢo dzam-ta-me am-dwa-mi dzatˢo Sentences in (8a-d) clearly show that the marker - ŋa is attached in the verb root in the transitive and 3SG-PL-ERG rice intransitive verb sentence structure with the first dzam-ta-me person singular subject. The marker -ŋa can be eat-PST-3PL said that it plays role of denoting non-past tense. 'They all ate rice.' However, if the subject of the sentence is in the Sentences in (7a-b) clearly shows the past tense duality or plurality structure, the verb root does marker -ta attached in the verb root in the third not inflect for non-past tense. In this case, the person singular and plural structure. non-past tense marker is absorbed and the semantics remains intact. Instead, dual and plural 3.2 Non-past tense system pronominal marker is attached to the verb root. The non-past tense in the Bahing language denote Let's consider the sentences in (9a-c). both present and future-like situations. In the verb (9) First person dual and plural subject root, non-past tense is differently marked a. according to the subject in the sentence. There is gu-su dzatˢo dza-su restriction in the person and number (Thokar, gu-su dzatˢo 2005:72). The structure of non-past tense is 1SG-DL.EXCL rice presented in the following sub-section. d za-su eat-1DL.EXCL 'We two eat rice.' 242
(11) Second person dual and plural subject b. gu-ki dzatˢo dza-ka a. gə-si dzatˢo dza-si gu-ki dza-ka dzatˢo gə-si dzatˢo dza-si 1SG-PL.EXCL rice eat-1PL.EXCL 2SG-DL rice eat-2DL 'We all eat rice.' 'You two eat rice.' c. gə-ji dzatˢo dza-ji b. gə-ni dzatˢo dza-ni gə-ji dza-ji dzatˢo gə-ni dzatˢo dza-ni 1SG-PL.INCL rice eat-1PL.INCL 2SG rice eat-PL ‘We all eat rice.’ 'You all eat rice.' Sentences in (9a-c) clearly show that the non-past Sentences in (11a-b) clearly show that the non- tense marker is not overt in the verb root rather past tense marker is seen in the verb root rather the subject pronominal markers are attached to the dual or plural subject pronominal markers of the verb root. the second person are attached to the verb root. 3.2.2 Structure of second person subject 3.2.3 Structure of third person subject The markers -ji and -i are attached to the verb root In intransitive verb structure, the non-past tense is to denote the non-past tense if the second person zero-marked in the verb root if there is third subject in the sentence is singular. Let's consider person singular subject. It is denoted with the the sentences in (10a-b). symbol -ϕ as in (12a-b). (10) Second person singular subject (12) Third person singular subject with a. gə dzatˢo dza-ji intransitive verb gə dza-ji dzatˢo a. am la- ϕ 2SG rice eat-NPST.2SG am 'You eat rice.' la-ϕ 3SG come-NPST b. gə tyb-i 'H/she goes.' gə tyb-i b. am ra-ϕ 2SG beat-NPST.2SG am ra-ϕ 'You beat (someone).' 3SG come-NPST Sentences in (10a-b) clearly show that the 'S/he comes.' markers -ji and -i in the verb root play the role of denoting non-past tense in the sentence structure Sentences in (12a-b) clearly show that the with the second person singular subject. intransitive verb with the third person singular subject does not inflect to show the non-past However, if the subject of the sentence is in tense. duality or plurality, the non-past tense is not marked in the verb root with the distinct marker. The marker -wa denotes non-past tense in the In this case, the non-past tense marker is absorbed Bahing language if the subject of the sentence is and the semantics remains intact. Instead, dual or third person singular with the transitive verb plural pronominal markers are attached to the structure in the sentence. Let's consider the verb root as in (11a-b). sentences in (13a-b).
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(13) Third person singular subject with semantic/pragmatic notion rather than a formal transitive verb one. The distinction between realis and irrealis is a. am wabara dzawa defined as distinguishing between actual and non- am wabara dza-wa actual events (Chung and Timberlake 1985:241 as cited by Poudel 2007:62). Realis is basically 3SG mango eat-NPST.3SG equivalent to indicative. The notion such as 'S/he eats mango.' possibility, hypothetical and imperative is the sub-divisions of irrealis. The negated declarative b. am salama gi-wa also has the force of unreal or non-actual hence, am salama gi-wa irrealis but the negated imperative does not lead 3SG bag give-NPST.3SG to realis because an imperative either negated or 'S/he gives bag (go someone).' not never refers to the actual events. Languages vary in the category that are treated as Sentences in (13a-b) clearly show that the marker realis or irrealis. For example, realis is used to -wa is attached to the verb root to denote the non- express past and present situations as in Manipuri past tense if the subject of the sentence is in the and in Burmese (Okell 1969 as cited in Comrie third person singular with the transitive verb 1985:50). But the same category of irrealis is used structure. to express past habitual in Dyirbal (Comrie However, if the third person subject is of duality 1985:51). It is also reported that the markers of and plurality, the subject pronominal marker is irrealis are quite irregular (Givón 1982, Bybee at attached to the verb root. In this case, the non-past al. 1994:138). In spite of such differences, there tense marker is absorbed and the semantics are a lot of similarities too, amongst widely remains intact. Let's consider the sentences in different languages. (14a-b). The realis portrays situations as actualized, (14) Third person subject with duality and knowable through direct perception. On the other plurality hand, the irrealis portrays situations as purely a. am-dwa-si wabara dza-se within the realm of thought, knowable through am-dwa-si wabara dza-se imagination (Mithun 1995:368). 3SG-PL-DL mango eat-3DL A prototypical realis mode strongly asserts that a 'They two eat mango.' specific event or state of affairs has actually happened, or actually holds true. A prototypical b. am-dwa wabara dza-me irrealis mode asserts that an event did not take place or will not take place. It simply makes no am-dwa wabara dza-me claim with respect to the actuality of the event or 3SG-PL mango eat-3PL situation described. Negative clauses do assert 'They all eat mango.' that events or situations do not hold, but these are subject to the same realis-irrealis continuum as Sentences in (14a-b) show that the third person are affirmative clauses. Some languages, subject pronominal markers -se in the dual subject however, treat all negative clauses as irrealis and -me in the plural subject are attached to the (Payne 1997:244-45) verb root rather than distinct tense marker. In the Bahing language, the prefix ma- is the 3.3 Negation and past tense structure morpheme, which denotes the negation. While the In typological studies of modality the usual past tense structure of the affirmative sentences is dichotomy is between realis and irrealis. The negated with the prefix ma-, the past tense dichotomy of realis and irrealis is a markers are no longer visible rather they are omitted. Instead, pronominal markers and irrealis 244
marker -wa are attached to the verb root. In this with prefix ma-. Instead, pronominal markers and case, the marker -wa is identical with the non-past irrealis marker -wa are attached to the verb root. tense marker as in 3.2.3. In this case, the marker - However, this type of change does not occur in wa is labeled as irrealis. Let's consider the the non-past verb structure while they are negated sentences in (15a-f). with the prefix ma- as in sentences (16a-d). (15) Past tense structure and negativization (16) Non-past tense structure and negativization a. meera-mi dzatˢo dzap-ta a. am dzatˢo dza-wa meera-mi dzatˢo dzap-ta am dzatˢo dza-wa Meera-ERG rice eat-PST 3SG rice eat-NPST.3SG 'Meera ate rice.' 'S/he eats rice'
b. meena-mi dzatˢo ma-dzap-wa b. am dzatˢo ma-dza-wa meena-mi dzatˢo am dzatˢo ma-dza-wa Meena-ERG rice 3SG rice NEG-eat-NPST.3SG ma-dzap-wa 'S/he does not eat rice.' NEG-eat-IRR 'Meera did not eat rice.' c. dza-se-si c. gu-mi dzatˢo dza-təŋ dza-se-si gu-mi dzatˢo dza-təŋ eat-2DL-3DL I-ERG rice eat-PST.1SG '(You two) Eat (them two).' 'I ate rice.' d. ma-dza-se-si d. gu-mi dzatˢo ma-dza-ŋa-wa ma-dza-se-si gu-mi dzat ˢo NEG-eat-2DL-3DL I-ERG rice '(You two) Don’t eat (them two).' ma-dza-ŋa-wa Sentences in (16a-d) clearly show that the non- NEG-eat-1SG-IRR past structure of the verbs in the sentences does 'I did not eat rice.' not go changed even they are negativized with the negative prefix ma-. e. gu la-ti 4 Summary gu la-ti 1SG go-PST.1SG In the Bahing language, the tense system can be 'I went.' categorized into two: (i) past and (ii) non-past. Except in the negated structure in the past tense,
the past tense markers are distinctively attached to f. gu la-ŋa-wa the verb root with different number markers and gu la-ŋa-wa verb structure such as intransitivity and 1SG go-1SG-IRR transitivity. In some cases, the non-past tense is 'I did not go.' not marked distinctly by tense marker rather pronominal markers are attached to the verb. The Sentences in (15a-f) clearly show that the past past tense makers are omitted, while they are tense makers are omitted, while they are negated negated with prefix ma-. Instead, pronominal 245
markers and irrealis marker -wa are attached to Comrie, Bernard. 1976. Aspect: An introduction the verb root. On the other hand, the marker in the to the study of verbal aspect and related verb root to denote non-past tense is obligatory problems. Cambridge: Cambridge University only in the first, second and third person singular Press. subject, which have different markers. However, Comrie, Bernard. 1985. Tense. Cambridge: if the subject of the sentence is in duality and Cambridge University Press. plurality, the non-past tense marker is not attached to the verb root - rather remains covert, Givón, Talmy. 1982. 'Tense-Aspect-Modality: the but the semantics remains intact. These are the creole prototype and beyond.' In Paul Hopper interesting characteristics of the Bahing language. (ed.), Tense and aspect: Between semantics and pragmatics, 115-163. Amsterdam: John Abbreviations Publishing. 1 first person Givón, Talmy. 1984. Syntax: An Introduction. 2 first person Vol. I. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 3 first person DU dual Givón, Talmy. 2001. Syntax: An Introduction. DAT dative Vol. I. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. ERG ergative Payne, Thomas E. 1997. Describing Morpho- E-time event time syntax. Cambridge University Press. EXCL exclusive INCL inclusive Poudel, Tikaram. 2007 Tense, Aspect and IRR irrealis Modality in Nepali and Manipuri. LINCON NPST non-past EUROPA. OBJ object Reichenbach, Hans. 1949. Elements of symbolic PL plural logic. New York: The Free Press. PST past R-time reference time Thokar, Rajendra. 2005. Bahing verb SG singular morphology. M.A. dissertation submitted to S-time speech time the Central Department of Linguistics, φ zero marker Tribhuvan University. References Thokar, Rajendra. 2006. Pronominalization in Bahing Language. An article published in Butler, Christopher S. 2003. Structure and Nepalese Linguistics journal of the Linguistic Function: A Guide to Three Major Structrual- Society of Nepal, Tribhuvan University, Functional Theories, Part I, John Benjamins Kathmandu, Nepal. Publishing Company, Amsterdam/Philadelphia. Thokar, Rajendra. 2006: Case Marking in Bahing Language. An article published in Nepalese Bybee, Joan, Revere Perkins & William Pegliuca. Linguistics journal of the Linguistic Society of 1994. The evolution of grammar-tense, aspect, Nepal, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, and modality in the language of the world. Nepal. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. CBS. 2011. National Population and Housing Census 2011 (National Report). Government of Nepal, National Planning Commission Secretariat, Central Bureau of Statistics, Volume 01, NPHC 2011. 246
The interaction of weight effects and extrametricality in Nepali phonetic stress assignment Daniel M. Tucker This article presents a constraint-based It will be shown that this constraint, properly (optimality-theoretic) approach to analyzing the formulated, has a blocking effect on the left- interaction between syllable weight and oriented system default of phonetic stress extrametricality in phonetic stress assignment in assignment. As such, the remainder of this paper Nepali. Incorporating several examples from is organized as follows: Section 2 provides a brief Acharya (1993), I construct a constraint-based overview of Optimality Theory and the particulars account of generalized phonetic stress of weight and prominence-driven stress systems. assignment. I conclude, in the spirit of Prince and Section 3 presents a constraint-based analysis of Smolensky (1993/2004), that extrametricality can the interaction between syllable weight and be overruled when it comes into conflict with a phonetic stress assignment in Nepali. Finally, higher-ranked well-formedness constraint. Section 4 offers a concluding discussion. 1. Introduction 2. Background Much recent exploration of prosodic stress In this section, I introduce briefly the theoretical assignment within an optimality-theoretic framework to be used. This serves also to framework has led to the conclusion that edge- establish the view that stress assignment is largely oriented constraints on well-formedness are epiphenomenal and results from an interaction gradient, rather than absolute, in nature. This between two hierarchically arranged constraints. conclusion suggests a general hypothesis that Before going into a detailed description of weight extrametricality subsumes a family of effects in and prominence-driven stress systems, I will start which edgemostness interacts with other (often with an introduction to the basic assumptions of higher-ranked) prosodic constraints (McCarthy Optimality Theory. Since this is not intended to and Prince 1986:9, Prince and Smolensky be a general introduction to this framework, I will 1993/2004: 39). restrict the discussion to only those aspects of the theory which will be essential in the treatment of Standard Nepali demonstrates an interaction stress assignment. between left-oriented phonetic stress patterning and syllable weight. Crucially, this interaction 2.1 Violability and conflict may be construed as an instantiation of Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky hierarchical constraint domination. The default 1993/2004) is based on the assumption that for the prosodic system is to assign leftmost languages are shaped by the interaction of prosodic prominence except when this default is universal violable constraints on output forms. overruled by a higher-ranked prosodic constraint These universal constraints stand in conflict and on syllable weight. This interaction is not unlike are ranked with regard to each other. This notion the generalization constructed by Hayes (1995: of constraint ranking means that satisfying some 276-8). constraints is more important than satisfying The present analysis attempts to demonstrate that others. extrametricality in Standard Nepali phonetic In standard Optimality Theory (henceforth, OT) stress assignment can be overruled by a well- one input is matched with a potentially indefinite formedness constraint sensitive to syllable weight. set of possible outputs by a function labeled Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 247-252 EVAL. These potential outputs, which are syllable of greatest weight (Prince and Smolensky generated by a largely unspecified function GEN, 1993/2004: 39). In such prosodic systems where are compared with each other with regard to how weight and edgemostness interact, two constraints well or how poorly they fulfill the requirements of appear to be involved: following the taxonomic a set of constraints. The optimal output candidate distinctions given by Prince and Smolensky, I is selected which demonstrates the least violations shall refer to these as PK-PROM (Peak- of the constraints deemed most important. Prominence) and EDGEMOST. The selection procedure is illustrated using The first constraint provides a formal definition of constraint tableaux. The example tableau a kind of elevated prominence known as stress. provided below (adapted from Krämer 2003: 51) Here, I follow McCarthy and Prince’s (1986: 9) is read as follows: the first (leftmost) column lists representation, which I find particularly the possible output candidates above which an perspicuous: assumed underlying representation is displayed (1) Peak-prominence (PK-PROM) and against which these outputs must match. To | | | | the right of the input, the relevant constraints are listed such that constraints appearing to the left PK-PROM stipulates that element x is a better peak are more important (i.e. higher ranked) than those than y if its intrinsic prominence is greater than appearing to the right. The asterisks represent that of y. violations of the constraint in the column by the The second constraint stipulates the favored candidate in the respective row. Asterisks marked position of the primary stress (i.e. prominence with an exclamation mark denote fatal constraint peak) in a word. Here, it is necessary to point out violations, meaning that particular candidate is that the term ‘word’ may refer to any stress excluded from being selected as the optimal form. domain (whether prosodic, morphological or Table 1: Adjudication via a constraint tableau other).
Candidates CONSTRAINT A B C D (2) EDGEMOST (peak; L|R; Word) ‘A peak of prominence lies at the L|R edge of candidate 1 *! * the Word’ candidate 2 *! * The constraint EDGEMOST requires that the candidate 3 * *! prominence peak be situated at some edge (choose ‘left’ or ‘right’) and be bound within a ☞candidate * 4 particular domain (here, ‘word’). In the next subsection, I will briefly discuss how Before demonstrating the interaction between weight and prominence-driven stress systems are these two constraints, I will further refine modeled within the framework of OT. EDGEMOST to reflect a left-oriented prominence system. 2.2 Weight and prominence-driven stress systems (3) EDGEMOST (peak; L; Word) ‘A peak of prominence lies at the Leftmost Stress systems typically assign primary stress edge of the Word’ from a domain edge, namely right or left. In stress systems that incorporate syllable weight, primary Given the EDGEMOST constraint specified here stress generally falls on the leftmost or rightmost and the PK-PROM constraint defined above, I 248 construct the following tableau to demonstrate the is rooted in two well-formedness constraints leftmost requirement under an equal segment operative in prosodic patterning. Following Prince weights condition. Here, PK-PROM is included in and Smolensky (1993/2004), I maintain that spite of the fact that the constraint is inactive. word-level prosodic head assignment in Nepali may be referred to as an instantiation of ‘do- Table 2: Left-Oriented Prominence System (No something-except-when’—a default that is Heavy Syllables) blocked under certain circumstances due to Candidates PK-PROM EDGEMOST (pk; L) hierarchical constraint-ordering (38). In what follows, I outline a moraic-ordering of Nepali ☞LLL # syllable weight before proceeding to a constraint- LLL σ#! based analysis of phonetic stress assignment.
LLL σσ#! 3.1 Degrees of heaviness of Nepali syllables
In the above tableau, PK-PROM has no bearing in Before exploring the interplay between syllable the decision made by EVAL since all candidates weight and extrametricality, it is necessary that lie in the same relative standing. To demonstrate we make a few distinctions concerning syllable this particular ranking of constraints, I appeal to weight. While the previous section did indeed the following tableau in which the addition of touch upon syllable weight, the dynamics of heavy syllables makes the role (and ranking) of syllable weight in Nepali are substantially more PK-PROM apparent. complex than a simple light vs. heavy distinction can capture. For this reason, I appeal to Acharya Table 3: Left-Oriented Prominence System (with (1993), whose account of syllable weight as a Heavy Syllables) resultant sum of segment component values I find Candidates PK-PROM EDGEMOST (pk; L) particularly congenial (39-41).
LHL L! Table 4: Segment value by phonological component ☞LHL H σ# Segment component Component LHL L! value a. Voiceless unaspirated 0.1 It is worthwhile to note that, when candidates are stops 0.2 equal with respect to their intrinsic prominence, b. Voiceless aspirated stops 0.3 the decision criterion is passed to the next c. Voiced unaspirated stops 0.4 d. Voiced aspirated stops 0.5 available constraint. In the event that the highest- e. Nasals 0.6 ranked constraint may adjudicate the decision, it f. Fricatives 0.7 becomes unnecessary for EVAL to look to the g. Laterals 0.8 next available constraint in the hierarchy. The h. Trills 0.9 i. Glides 1 latter case is reflected above where irrelevant j. Phonemic short vowels EDGEMOST violations are shaded. k. Phonemic nasal vowels, 2 long vowels and vowels + 3 3. Syllable weight and phonetic stress glides assignment in Nepali l. Vowels + nasal glides 4 m. Phonetically extra-long Standard Nepali demonstrates an interaction vowels between syllable weight and extrametricality that
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Acharya’s decomposition of segment values heaviness scale fits more suitably with the permits us to weigh the Nepali syllable by gradient harmonic scale shown below. summing the values of its components. For (5) Heaviness scale (Gradient harmonic) example, in the disyllabic word /ˈdar.ba:r/ µµµµµ µµµµ µµµ µµ µ ‘palace’, the weight of each respective syllable It is only within the context of a properly would be [2.1-3.1]. formulated PK-PROM constraint that such a The first complication in our treatment of syllable gradient harmonic ordering may be invoked. In weight is that Nepali recognizes multiple degrees addition to following the moraic-ordering of syllable weight (or intrinsic prominence). To measures implemented by Hayes (1991/1995), the treat this, I follow Hayes’ (1995: 276) suggestion use of such a moraic scheme allows us to avoid of a moraic ordering of weight classes. However, counting when reckoning optimality in a it is evident that Hayes’ mora-based scheme of harmonic ordering of forms (see Prince and ordering weight-classes cannot be applied directly Smolensky 1993/2004: 27 for discussion). to Nepali syllable weight due to the fact that the 3.2 Constraint interaction in phonetic stress Nepali syllable weight assignment is sensitive to assignment both the typological structure of the syllable (e.g. CV vs. CVC) and the nature of the segmental Having established a moraic-ordered heaviness components themselves (i.e. type of scale, we now proceed to a constraint-based consonant/vowel). Under this consideration, I analysis of phonetic stress assignment in Nepali. formulate the following moraic ordering of It will be argued that the rules governing phonetic syllable weight classes in Nepali. stress assignment in Nepali may be represented as two hierarchically-arranged constraints: one Table 5: Moraic-ordering of syllable weight judging intrinsic syllable prominence and the values second stipulating edgemostness. It will then be Total syllable weight Moraic weight shown that phonetic stress is left-oriented except value when a higher-ordered syllable weight constraint 1.0 – 1.9 µ is invoked. 2.0 – 2.9 µµ To begin this exploration of constraint interaction, 3.0 – 3.9 µµµ 4.0 – 4.9 µµµµ I consider two phonetic stress rules for Nepali 5.0 – 5.9 µµµµµ outlined by Acharya (1993). The first may be summarized as follows (43): The above moraic-ordering yields the following heaviness scale: (6) Nepali phonetic stress rule 1 (NPSR-1) Phonetic stress falls on the word-initial (4) Heaviness scale (Intrinsic prominence) syllable if the other syllables in the word are |µµµµµ| |µµµµ| |µµµ| | | | | of equal weight, or heavier by only one This heaviness scale ranks the intrinsic degree. prominence of syllables from heaviest to lightest. NPSR-1 may be represented as an instantiation of In the proceeding subsection, it will be shown that the constraint EDGEMOST as formulated in the this scale fits directly into the constraint PK-PROM. previous section. The following list (Acharya Although it may be contended that this moraic- 1993: 44) illustrates the regular phonetic stress ordering is significantly more coarse-grained than pattern encapsulated by EDGEMOST (peak; L). Acharya’s (1993) approach, I contend that this 250
Table 6: Adjudication via NPSR-1 (corpus data) b. /ba.ˈna:w.ʧa/ µ.µµµ.µ ‘(he) makes’ a. /ˈka:.ka:/ µµ.µµ ‘uncle’ c. /ˈbʰak.bʰa.ka:w.ʧa/ µµ.µ.µµµ.µ‘(he) stutters’ b. /ˈba.sa/ µ.µ ‘sit down’ d. /ˈpʰat.pʰa.ta:w.ʧa/ µµ.µ.µµµ.µ‘(he) c. /ˈra:m.la:l/ µµµ.µµµ (proper name) jabbers’ d. /ˈʧa:.no/ µµ.µµ ‘roof’ Exactly as in the weight and prominence-driven e. µµ.µµ ‘shadow’ /ˈʧa:.ya:/ system considered in the previous section, the Formulated as a constraint, EDGEMOST (peak; L), positional constraint EDGEMOST is completely accurately predicts stress assignment in all cases dominated by the weight-measuring PK-PROM, sampled above. Cf.: properly formulated. Following Acharya’s description of NPSR-2, I formulate a positional Table 7: Adjudication via EDGEMOST prominence-peak constraint (formalized below). Candidates EDGEMOST (pk; L) (8) Peak-prominence (peak; L & L+1; Word) ☞ /ka:.ka:/ # | | | | ‘Target Leftmost and Leftmost + 1; the /ka:.ka:/ σ#! element x is a better (more harmonic) peak than y iff the difference between the intrinsic prominence of x and the intrinsic prominence In the absence of any other constraints, one would of y is greater than or equal to (i.e. at least) expect the leftmost edge to be the prosodic head two morae.’ in all conceivable environments. This, however, is not the case. As indicated above, Nepali stress The full constraint hierarchy runs PK-PROM (peak; assignment is sensitive to syllable weight, which, L & L+1) >> EDGEMOST (peak; L). The following as Acharya (1993) notes, leads to a rightward- tableaux demonstrate how evaluation proceeds shifting of stress in a particular environment. This over two examples. Note that the decision rule rule is described as follows (44). selects a stress assignment that is consistent with the examples cited from Acharya (1993) above. (7) Nepali phonetic stress rule 2 (NPSR-2) If any of the succeeding syllables is heavier Table 9: Adjudication via PK-PROM than the word initial-syllable by two or more Candidates PK- EDGEMOST degrees, then the stress occurs on the PROM (pk; L) succeeding syllable, but only if the succeeding syllable is immediately adjacent /pa.ka:w.ʧa/ µ! to the word-initial syllable. ☞/pa.ka:w.ʧa/ µµµ σ# In cases where weight interacts with the regular stress pattern, we appeal to the rule elaborated /pa.ka:w.ʧa/ µ above. The following list demonstrates that a higher-ranked positional constraint is at play in In cases where the difference between the certain environments (Acharya 1993: 44). heaviness of the first two syllables (L & L+1) is Table 8: Adjudication via NPSR-2 (corpus data) not at least two morae, the decision is passed to the second constraint, EDGEMOST. Cf.: a. /pa.ˈka:w.ʧa/ µ.µµµ.µ ‘(he) cooks’ 251
Table 10: Adjudication via NPSR-2 (Pass to phenomenon. Hence I conclude, in the spirit of EDGEMOST) Prince and Smolensky (1993/2004), that leftmost- prominence in Nepali phonetic stress assignment Candidates PK- EDGEMOST can be overruled when it comes into conflict with PROM (pk; L) a higher-ranked well-formedness constraint. µ # ☞/bʰat.pʰa.ta:w.ʧa/ As a final note, I point out that this analysis is not meant to be exhaustive in its account of stress µ σ#! /bʰat.pʰa.ta:w.ʧa/ assignment, but rather, general and coarse- µ grained. As is the case in many languages, /bʰat.pʰa.ta:w.ʧa/ judgments of stress in Nepali are delicate and subject to complex, pragmatically-driven prosodic /bʰat.pʰa.ta:w.ʧa/ µ constraints, as well as dialectical variation. It is therefore essential to distinguish the observations By stipulating that PK-PROM only target the first of distinct circumstances and to seek non- two leftmost syllables, this model ensures that impressionistic support for the generalized claims phonetic stress assignment will fall only on either made here. Leftmost or Leftmost+1. Under this formulation References of PK-PROM, any candidate bearing stress on any syllable other than Leftmost or Leftmost+1 is Acharya, Jayaraj. 1993. A descriptive grammar of rejected outright. Nepali and an analyzed corpus. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. The phonetic stress pattern in this Nepali Hayes, Bruce. 1995. Metrical stress theory: generalization shows that extrametricality can be principles and case studies. Chicago, IL: The overruled when it comes in conflict with another University of Chicago Press. (weight-sensitive) prosodic constraint. Crucially, Krämer, Martin. 2003. Vowel harmony and prominence is left-oriented except when being so correspondence theory. Berlin: Mouton de entails the fatal violation of the higher-ranked Gruyter. prominence constraint. Following Optimality McCarthy, John and Alan Prince. 1986. Prosodic Theory, we expect such a phenomenon to be morphology. Amherst and Waltham, MA: resolved by special constraint stipulation. That is, Samizdat. if extrametricality is in fact a rule assigning a Prince, Alan and Paul Smolensky. 1993/2004. certain feature, it seems that there can be no other Optimality theory: Constraint interaction in explanation as to why it fails to apply when its generative grammar. Malden, MA: Blackwell structural description is met. Publishers (2004). Technical Report, Rutgers 4. Summary University Center for Cognitive Science and Computer Science Department, University of The present analysis has served to demonstrate Colorado at Boulder (1993). that certain aspects of Nepali phonetic stress assignment may be construed as the result of two hierarchically-ordered constraints. While faithfulness to a leftmost prosodic head stipulation orders a default mode for stress assignment, syllable weight has been shown to override this default in a sort of blocking 252
Status of Limbu mother tongue education in Nepal Dr.Govinda Bahadur Tumbahang CNAS, TU, Kirtipur
This article presents the status of Limbu language classifies it as a separate language. All languages and Limbu mother tongue education on the basis mentioned above have unique ways of expression, of information gathered from interviews and and they as such mark the identity of 126 ethnic books. It introduces the Limbu language with a and caste groups. brief background, records the contributions of Scholars have expressed opinions about the different organizations to the development of importance of language. I quote some of the mother tongue education, discusses problems and scholars. recommends suggestions. Each language constitutes a certain model of the 1 Introduction universe, a semiotic system of understanding the There are about 6900 languages spoken in the world, and if we have 4,000 different ways to world. They belong to 136 languages families, out describe the world, this makes us rich. We should of which there are six major language families be concerned about preserving languages just as namely Austro-Asiatic, Austronesian, Indo- we are about ecology (Ivanov (1992) as quoted in European, Niger-Congo, Sino-Tibetan and Trans- Crystal (2000:36). New Papua Guinea. On the basis of the number of In fact, language diversity reduction lowers the individual speaker, Chinese is spoken by the pool of knowledge, and weakens adaptation largest population, which is followed by Spanish, strength of the species. English, Arabian, Hindi, Bengali, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese and German respectively Hale (1992:8) says, Just as the extinction of any (Ethnologue 2009). animal species diminishes our world, so does the extinction of any language. In Nepal, there are 123 languages (National Population and Housing Report 2011). They Pogson (1998:4) as quoted in Crystal (2000:34) belong to Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, Austro- adopts a genetic analogy and says, language Asiatic and Dravidian families and a Kusunda diversity, like a gene pool, is essential for our which is a linguistic isolate. In terms of number of species to thrive…If we are to prosper, we need speakers, Indo- European is the largest language the cross-fertilisation of thought that family, but in terms of the number of individual multilingualism gives us. languages, Sino-Tibetan is larger than Indo- European. Limbu belongs to Sino-Tibetan family. Krauss (1992:8) says: It is spoken in 9 districts of Kosi and Mechi zones Surely, just as the extinction of any animal of eastern Nepal namely Taplejung, Panchthar, species diminishes our world so does the Ilam, Jhpa of the Mechi zone and extinction of any language. Surely we linguists Sankhuwasabha, Terhathum, Dhankuta, Sunsari know, and the general public can sense, that any and Morang of the Kosi zone. It is also spoken in language is a supreme achievement of a the Kathmandu valley. Outside Nepal, it is spoken uniquely human collective genius, as divine in India, Bhutan, Myanmar, Singapore, Hongkong and endless a mystery as a living organism. and the U.K. . It is called Yakthng Pan in their Should we mourn the loss of Eyak or Ubykh mother tongue and its script is called Sirijanga. any less than the loss of the panda or California It has four dialects namely Taplejunge, Panthare, condor?’ Phedape and Chhatthare (see Wiedert and Subba Policy statement issued by the Linguistic Society 1985, van Driem 1987 and Kainla 2059 B.S.). of America in 1994 goes a step beyond analogy However, Chhatthare is very different from other and says the loss to humankind of genetic dialects and it is not intelligible to their speakers diversity in the linguistic world is…arguably (see Tumbahang 20111). Hansson (1991) greater than even the loss of genetic diversity in Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 253-261
the biological world, given that the structure of linguistic rights to preserve and promote its human language represents a considerable language, script and culture, and operate schools testimony to human intellectual achievement.' up to primary level in its own mother tongue for imparting education to the children. The above statements of different scholars indicate the need for the preservation of diverse The UNESCO meeting of the specialists was held languages to protect the identity of people. But in Thailand in 1990 with the slogan ‘Education Shah and Rana rulers never realized this fact. for all’. It concluded with a resolution that all After the integration of Limbuwan to the Gorkha children of primary school age be provided with kingdom, the Limbus were forbidden to read and education in their mother tongue by 2000. write in Limbu, which is evident from the Complying with this resolution, National warning of conscious people to the members of Languages Policy Recommendation Commission the community that "let's not say that we read and was formed on May 27, 1993 under the leadership write Limbu otherwise the king of Gorkha will of Tilbikram Nembang. It submitted its report in kill us" (Chemjong 2003 Reprint). Until the end 1994 with the recommendations that linguistic of the Panchayat system, single language (Nepali survey be conducted, curriculum and textbooks be only) was in practice and other indigenous designed with an objective to introduce mother languages were suppressed. During this period, tongue as the medium of monolingual and the then government would take strong action transitional bilingual primary education and against those who were involved in the activities literacy programs among other things. The of reading and writing indigenous languages. National Education Commission of 1999 Lalsor Sendang, Gangaram Lingkhim, Prithivi formulated a policy of educating children in their Maden, Randhoj Sereng, Asok Nembang, Bir mother tongue. Likewise, the ninth five year plan Nembang suffered much during the Panchayat (1999-2002) formulated policies and programs period while working for Limbu language and targeting indigenous peoples. In order to literature. Having realized the significance of the implement plans and policies, the National mother tongue people like Iman Singh Chemjong, Foundation for the Development of Indigenous Kajiman Kandangwa, Puspa Thamsuhang, Asman Nationalities (NFDIN) was established. It has Subba, Rana Bahadur Menyangbo, Yehang Laoti, recognized 59 tribes as ethnic communities. Asok Kumar Sabehang, Bijuli Prasad Anchanbo, The Interim Constitution of Nepal (2007) ended Purna Bahadur Hangsrang, Ganesh Bahadur the difference between "the language of nation" Thamsuhang, Captain Yan Bahadur Payangu, Lal and "national languages" recognizing all as Bahadur Lungwa Subba, Chandra Kumar Serma "national languages" of Nepal. It also made and many others tried to spread Srijanga script provision to use the mother tongue in local bodies and Limbu literature across the Limbu and offices. It provided each community with the communities running the risk of prosecution and rights to get basic education in their mother imprisonment. Since the advent of multiparty tongue and preserve and promote their language, democracy, Bairagi Kaila and Amar Tumyang script, culture, cultural civility and heritage. among others have been making significant Limbu language activists and their ethnic contribution to the development of Limbu organization Kirat Yakthung Chumlung (KYC) language and literature. were motivated to provide children basic The Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 1990 education in the mother tongue. recognized Nepali language in the Devnagari 2 Literature script as "the language of nation" and "official language" and all the languages spoken as a Limbu has both oral and written literature. mother tongue in different parts of Nepal as "national languages" of Nepal. The constitution (Part 3, Articl 18) provided each community with 254
2.1 Oral literature tummui ibippa hɛnaro Oral literature includes narratives, folk songs, huksogɛn cibhakkaŋ sɛwaro holy place prayers etc. (In the month of Marga, the season of enough 2.1.1 Mundhum narrative grain, I am pleased to meet you in this sacred Mundhum is the source of oral literature in place. On this occasion, I would like to salute you Limbu. It tells the stories about the origins of the folding both hands.) universe and human beings, growth of human 2.2 Written literature population, development of sin and suffering of human beings, arrival of Limbu priests such as 2.2.1 Dictionary Phedangma, Yeba, Samba etc. on the earth and Senior (1908), Chemjong (2018 B.S.), Har their ways of washing sin etc. These Limbu (1960), Kumar Bajrabihari at al. (1980), Limbu priests recite the narratives in poetic language. (2051B.S.), Subba (1980), Yongyang (2052 B.S.), They perform cultural rituals such as naming, Kainla (2059 B.S.), Mikhailovsky (2002) are the feeding, marriage and death ceremonies and major works on Limbu dictionaries. In addition, religious rituals such as yakwa, casot, tangsing Karkpatrick (1811), Campbell (1840), Hodgeson etc. reciting narratives verbatim. They also cure (1857), Wiedert and Subba (1985), Van Driem diseases by reciting hymns. These hymns and (1987) list a few words in their grammar books. narratives have been transmitted orally from one generation to another since time immemorial. 2.2.2 Grammar Recently, some writers have published them in Chemjong (1970), Wiedert and Subba (1985), the form of a book. Van Driem (1987), Tumbahang (20112, 20113) While praying to Yuma Goddess, Phedangma and Mabo (2067 B.S.) are the Limbu grammars. recites the narrative in the following way: 2.2.3 Textbooks sijorag Aniʔ pa:n series for class 1, class 2, class 3, keiŋme san class 4 and class 5 have been prepared. In addition, Amar Tumyang has translated into pɛli thaŋaŋ Limbu Social Studies, Math Education, Science pa:njaŋ thaŋaŋ Education and Physical Education of class 1. (I, your messenger, came to request you.) 2.2.4 Literature Samba recites the narrative of the origin of the Sodhuŋgen Imansingh chotlung (2060 B.S.) is the universe in the following way: first epic written by Amar Tumyang. Before it taŋsaŋŋaŋ ho:ptɛ were written Kirat Mikhan Samlo by Subba iksaaŋ ho:ptɛ Khadga Bahadur Nembang in 2013 B.S., Kabita Sangraha Semmui by Chandramani Tumbapo in muhɔŋliŋ nɛssɛ 1986, Kesami Namsami by Birahi Kainla in 1987, khɛhɛŋliŋ nɛssɛ Palam and Balihang Tangnam by Nara Yanghang in 2052 B.S. and 2053 B.S. respectively, (There was no sky, no earth, there was void below, void above too.) Itnimahaʔ by Puspa Thamsuhang in 2057 B.S. They are significant works done in the field of 2.1.1.2 Folk song poetry. Poets like Tanka Wanem, Amar Subba, Dilendra Subba, Hima Devi Bokkhim, Purna sɛnchrɛŋla lagɔ cadumɛllɛ Muringla, Sesehang Phyak, Chandra Mangyung, saŋsaŋba tɛnno adumɛllɛ B. B. Muringla among others have made 255
important contributions to the development of only in schools of Sinam and Thechambu, it was poems. taught up to class 5 whereas in other schools only up to class 3 it was taught. Mr. Yaksu is a Thatthama written by Padam Sing Muringla in recently retired principal of Higher Secondary 1983, Sepmang written by Deuman Hondok School , Hangpang and wants to devote his rest of Khamdok in 1984 , Phungbonai written by Mani the life to the service of language, culture and Raj Hukpa in 1985, Hingmellek Tanba Lamdik by religion of Limbu. However, he complains that Sat Kumar Singdhabu in 1987, Mim Iplikhe the organization which he has joined to attain his written by Lalit Muringla in 1988, Chosaplungma goal isn't enthusiastic about these things, and the written by B.B. Pakkhim in 1991, Sakmat written government is not supportive. Initially, people by Dev Man Yakthung Khamdhak in 1998, were interested in mother tongue education, but Ningwasorat written by Rup Lal Khamdhak in now they are losing interest gradually, and there 2005, Loji written by Uttar Kumar Yanghang in is every likelihood that the number of mother- 2062 B.S. are some of the novels in this language. tongue should decrease. Sepmangle Kusepmang is a drama written by According to Muksam Laoti, there were 220 Uttar Kumar Yanghang in 2062 B.S. mother tongue schools in Panchthar district in the 2.2.4 Journals beginning. But during the Maoist insurgency, District Administration Office of Panchathar At least 44 journals are published in Limbu. They prohibited the use of Limbu language as a are listed in Tumbahang (20111). medium of instruction and communication. After 2.2.5 Cinema films the restoration of peace, teaching of Limbu was not revived in all schools. Therefore, the number There are at least 8 cinema films in Limbu. They of mother tongue schools decreased considerably. are listed in Tumbahang (20111). Laxmihang Angbo, the secretary of KYC, District 2.2.6 FMs Committee Panchthar, reports that Limbu as an optional subject is being taught up to class 5 in Various programs are transmitted in Limbu 150 schools of Panchthar district. In addition, it through different FMs (see Tumbahang 20111) is taught in class 11 and 12 in Satyahangma 3 Mother tongue schools Higher Secondary School, Imbung, and class 11 is running in Prithivi Higher Secondary School, There is no exact record of mother tongue Yasok in Panchthar district. In the last academic schools. From its inception as an optional subject session, 40 students appeared in the examination in the primary level in 2055 B.S., there are ups of class 11 and 20 students in the examination of and downs in their number. District Education class 12. Abhisek Yekten, General Secretary of Offices and KYC are also unable to give the KYC, District Committee, Ilam says that Limbu exact number of the schools. is taught up to class 5 in 32 primary schools in According to Mrs. Lila Singhak, general secretary Ilam district. It is being taught from this session in of KYC, Central Committee Lalitpur, Limbu is class 11 in Saraswati Higher Secondary School, being taught as an optional subject up to class five Bajo, Ilam. In Kirat Samjik Mundhum Nisam in 139 schools in Terhathum district. Him, Bajo ,9 Mangsebung, all subjects are taught Mr. Harka Yaksu, general secretary of KYC in Limbu at government expense. District Committee, Tapljeung says ( telephone Mr. Tek Bahadur Angdembe, Chairman of KYC, interview) that Limbu was taught as an optional District Committee, Jhapa reports that Limbu was subject up to class five in 60 schools of the taught as an optional subject up to class 3 in about Taplejung district until the last academic session, 17 schools of Jhapa district until the last academic but report on the accurate number of schools this session. The number of mother tongue schools in year has not been received yet. Until last year, Jhapa is still unknown. Rastriya Ramananiya 256
Adarsa Higher Secondary School Dudhe, Jhapa, mother tongue based multilingual education, it is is going to start class 11. Mr. Angdembe isn't impossible to achieve this goal. optimistic about the increase of the number of According to Mr. Amar Tumyang, Curriculum mother tongue schools. According to Mr. Ganesh Development Centre, Sanothimi, Bhaktapur has Wanem, Secretary of KYC, District Committee, designed curriculum for up to grade 8, and Sankhuwasabha, Limbu is taught as an optional textbooks for up to grade 6 have been prepared. subject up to class 5 in Saraswati Secondary Similarly, syllabuses for class 11 and 12 have School, Siddha Pokhari -4, Jwalamukhi Primary been prepared by Nepal Sanskrit University and School, Nundhaki- 8 and Prakaseshwar Primary preparation of textbooks is underway. School, Siddhakali -2 in Sankhuwasabha district. In addition, informal literacy program is also Compulsory subjects such as Math, Science, being conducted in some villages. Mr. Tek Social Studies and Physical Science are taught up Bahadur Neyanghang Limbu, a Nepali Diaspora to class five in primary schools. Aniʔ Pan is in Germany started teaching Limbu in taught as an optional subject in all classes. Jwalamukhi Primary School, Nundhaki- 8 through Bal Bahadur Chemjong paying him Altogether 9 subjects carrying 800 marks 2000/ rupees for 4 months. including mother tongue are included in the curriculum of 6-8 classes. They are Nepali, According to Muksam Laoti, a teacher of Limbu English, Mathematics, Social Studies and mother tongue, Limbu is taught up to class 5 as an Population Education, Science and Environment, optional subject in Niketan Higher Secondary Health and Physical Education, Moral Education, School, Dharan 3, Bhanu Memorial Secondary Occupation, Profession and Technical Education School, Dharan 6, Panchayat Secondary School and Mother Tongue or Local Language or Dharan 10, Siksha Sadan Higher Secondary Sanskrit or any other languages. Optional subject School, Dharan 15 and Kiranteshwar Secondary in grades from 6 to 8 contains genres such as Dharan 19. It is taught in class 11 and 12 in story, poetry, biography, essay, drama, letter and Public Higher Secondary School, Dharan 12. functional grammar. Now, there are 23 students in class 11 and 33 in class 12. Singha Devi Higher Secondary School The text books Ani? Pan series of grades from 1 Basantatar 2, Dhankuta has 8 students in class 11. to 5 were published by Nepal Government, Curriculum Development Centre, Sanothimi 4 Contributions of GO, NGOs and VDCs financed by Education Sector Advisory Team, Government (GO), non-governmental and they were delivered to District Education organizations (NGOs) and Village Development Offices which would in turn send them to Committees (VDCs) have made significant concerned schools. The schools would distribute contribution to the running of Limbu mother them among students on time free of cost. Now, tongue education. Kanchan Printing Press Biratnagar has been given the responsibility to print them. 4.1 Government 4.2 Kirat Yakthung Chumlung The Government of Nepal has endorsed a policy of transitional multilingual education and KYC Central Committee Lalitpur helped write introduced multi-lingual education program to fill Limbu textbooks and run informal education, the gap between school and house, and preserve conduct training to write Sirijanga script and the linguistic right of the communities enshrined teach textbooks in different districts. It in the constitution. It has adopted School Sector coauthored Tarang 2051 B.S. and Yakthung Reform Plan (SSRP) to attain the goal “Education Saksak 2061 B.S. for All” (EFA) by reforming more than 7500 schools nationwide by 2015. Without launching 257
4.3 Adibasi Janajati Samaj Nepal During the same period, it organized "Basic Limbu language teachers' training" in the same Adibasi Janajati Samaj Nepal conducted several campus. Mr. Muksam Laoti, Miss. Rosa training programs for mother tongue teachers. It Phombu, Miss. Drupati Limbu, Mr. Khin Raj organized "Basic Limbu language teachers' Limbu and Miss. Dil Kumari Angbung were the training", which ran for one month from trainers. 2065/10/15 to 2065/11/15 at Myanglung Campus, Terhathum. 69 Limbu language teachers of It organized a five-day program on "Multilingual Terhathum participated in the program. The education teachers' training" from 2068/12/2 to 6 program was sponsored by the V DCs. Mr. at Educational Training Centre, Inaruwa, which Muksam Laoti, Tek Bahadur Sambahangphe, Mr. was participated in by 15 Limbu language Hita Ram Tiling and Mr. Amit Thebe were the teachers of Sankhuwasabha, Terthathum, trainers. Taplejung, Panchthar, Dhankuta, Ilam, Sunsari and Morang districts. National Foundation for Durdimba Janachetana Samuha, Durdimba Development of Indigenous Nationalities, Panchthar organized one-week long "Basic Lalitpur sponsored the program. Mr. Muksam Limbu language teachers' training" from 2066/ Laoti and Mr. Dilli Lingdam were the trainers. between Dashain and Tihar at Durdimba, Panchayat, Panchthar. 15 Limbu language Since 2069. Educational Training Centre, Inaruwa teachers of Panchthar participated in the program. has been organizing "Multilingual education Mr. Muksam Laoti and Mr. Dev Raj Sauden were teachers' training" for language teachers of 16 the trainers. districts of eastern Nepal. Limbu language teachers of 9 districts participate in the training. Adibasi Janajati Samaj Nepal Terhathum again Then, they train the teachers of their own districts. organized one-month long "Basic Limbu The trained teachers of the district train the language teachers' training", from 2066/12/15 to teachers of different Resource Center Areas and 2067/11/15 at Myanglung Campus, Terhathum. each trained teacher of Resource Centers in turn 71 Limbu language teachers of Terhathum trains the teachers of his/her resource area. participated in the program. The program was sponsored by the VDCs. Mr. Muksam Laoti was 4.4 Village Development Committees the trainer. According to by-rule of 2056 of the rule of Local It again organized six-day program on "Basic Autonomous Governance Act 2055, if a Limbu language teachers' training", from community wants to run mother tongue 2067/10/20 to /26 at KYC Him, Dharan . 21 education, the VDCs should provide economic Limbu language teachers of Sankhuwasabha, grant. Therefore, VDCs according to their Terthathum, Taplejung, Panchthar, Dhankuta, economic condition are paying from 2500 to 5000 Sunsari and Morang participated in the program. rupees per month to Limbu language teachers. The program was sponsored by the VDCs. Mr. 5 Problems Amar Tumyang, Mr. Muksam Laoti and Mr. Dilli Lingdam were the trainers. There are ideological, pedagogical and economic challenges before the mother tongue education. It also organized fifteen-day program on "Multilingual language teachers' training" from 5.1 Ideological problem 2067/12/15 to 30 at Myanglung Campus, Terhathum. 70 Limbu language teachers of Parents don't know about the fact that children have basic interpersonal skill in their mother Terthathum district participated in the program. The program was sponsored by the VDCs. Mr. tongue. They can talk in their mother tongue Muksam Laoti, Mr. Kali Bahadur Kandangwa about the things which they can see and touch. If they are taught contextual things in their mother and Mr. Dilli Lingdam were the trainers. tongue at school, they will be encouraged to learn. 258
Then, they can learn subjects like geography, 5.2 Pedagogical problem history, social studies, and talk about abstract Firstly, training for Limbu language teaching things like love, hate, honesty etc. They develop hasn't been conducted by the government so far. these abstract concepts on the basis of what they Only short term trainings for writing script and have already known in their mother tongue. So, basic teaching have been run by an NGO like they develop cognitive academic proficiency in Adibasi Janajati Samaj Nepal with the financial the mother tongue if they are taught in it. They support of VDCs. Therefore, the teachers aren't as can easily transfer the abstract concepts to other proficient as they are expected. languages like Nepali and English, and learn these languages faster. Secondly, textbooks aren't available on time. In the beginning textbooks were published by Nepal Unaware of the fact that mother tongue education Government, Curriculum Development Centre, means teaching of and through mother tongue, Sanothimi financed by Education Sector Advisory and it provides children with cognitive and Team, and they were delivered to District linguistic benefits, parents think that it means Education Offices which would in turn send them simply teaching the children their mother tongue, to concerned schools. The schools would which they can learn at their own home and that it distribute them among students on time free of is waste of time to send their children to school. cost. Now, Kanchan Printing Press Biratnagar has They want their children to learn languages which been given the responsibility to print them. It has can get them job and access to higher education. printed the books, and they are lying piled up, but They believe that education in mother tongue there is scarcity of books in the schools, and the would not help them attain their goal, but it would students are suffering. The reason for such thing rather restrict their children to their limited area, to happen is that the schools don't fill in the Limbuwan. Therefore, those who can afford demand form and District Education Offices don't expenses (ironically, advocates of mother tongue allocate budget for these textbooks. Without education, too) send their children to English money, the press doesn't deliver them. boarding schools. Consequently, they won't reach schools, and Even students are not enthusiastic about mother students will suffer. According to Harka Yaksu, tongue education. They have rather positive they were not available on time in the last attitude to Nepali and English languages. They academic session, and Limbu students in the prefer to speak Nepali in the classroom. They, school opted for English instead of Limbu. too, believe that learning in mother tongue would Thirdly, the syllabuses of 9 and 10 haven't yet restrict them to their own area, and keep them been designed, and there is a gap between class 8 uneducated forever. and 11. These days, most of the government schools have Fourthly, the syllabuses of class 11 and 12 haven't started teaching in English medium, and made it a been approved by Higher Secondary Education rule that students should come to school in Board. Now, in 11 and 12 classes, contents based assigned dress with a tie on their neck and a bag on the syllabuses designed by KYC to run on their back in order to compete with English Proficiency Certificate Level in 2059 B.S. are boarding schools to attract students for enrollment being taught. Therefore, the question of official . These schools give priority to those who want to recognition still exists, and it discourages students learn English rather than the ones who want to to opt for mother tongue subject. learn mother tongue as an optional subject. It naturally makes the mother tongue learners feel Lastly, Limbu textbooks have been written in humiliated. As a result, they opt for English Panthare dialect of Limbu, and the mother tongue instead of their mother tongue. teachers teach in the same dialect. Chhatthare Limbu is very different from this dialect. Children
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of Chhatthare Limbu speakers can't understand 4. Mother tongue textbooks should be published the language, and they don't feel comfortable to by the Janak Siksa Samagri Kendra and they learn in this language because there is a gap should be provided free of cost to the students. between what they speak at home and what they 5. Syllabuses of class 9 and 10 should be designed learn at school. and textbooks should be prepared. 5.3 Economic problem 6. Approval of syllabuses of class 11 and 12 In the beginning, Limbu as an optional subject should be received from Higher Secondary was introduced in 220 schools of Panchthar Education Board. district. Then, the Limbu textbook Aniʔ Pan was 7. Textbooks should be prepared in the local distributed to the students free of cost. Later, the dialect and taught in the same dialect. schools began to charge money for the books, though it was available from the government free References of cost. Then, many students stopped opting for Bihari, Brajkumar, P.S.Subba and B.B.Subba it. It is one of the reasons that the number of 1980. Hindi-Limbu dictionary. Limbu teaching schools decreased 220 to 150. Nagaland: Kohima language. Secondly, the VDCs can't appoint a full time Campbell, A. 1840. Notes on the Limbu and mother tongue teacher due to shortage of budget. other Hill Tribes hitherto undescribed. Journal Teachers have to teach for nominal amount. In of the Asiatic Society of Bengal ix 595-615. addition, the VDCs fix the remuneration of the CBS.2012. National Population and Housing mother tongue teacher for one year only. Next Census 2011 (National Report). year, they will have to fix it again through the Kathmandu:CBS. decision of the meeting. Due to this process, the Chemjong, Iman Singh. S.2018 B.S. Limbu- teachers are uncertain about their remuneration. Nepali-Angreji Sabdakos. Kathmandu: Nepal As a result, they become less enthusiastic about Academy. Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal. their job. Chemjong, Iman Singh. 1966. (Reprint 2003 ) History and Culture of the Kirat People. 6. Suggestions Lalitpur:Kirant Chumlung Central Office. 1. Children face difficulties in learning and Chemjong, Iman Singh. 1970. Kiranti (Limbu) understanding if they are taught only through the grammar. Darjeeling:Jasahang Maden. medium of Nepali language in the schools. But, Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal V.S. 2047 when the same subject matter is taught in the (=1990 A.D.) English translation of Nepali mother tongue, they understand it easily. document available online at Therefore, parents should be convinced that http:www.nepalhmg.gov.np/constitution.html children can achieve cognitive and linguistic Crystal, David. 2000. Language Death. benefits from mother tongue education, which Cambride: CUP facilitates learning second and third languages. Hale Ken.1992. On endangered languages and the safeguarding of diversity. Language 68.35-42. 2. Teachers and local leaders should be made Hanson, Gerd. 1991. The Rai of Eastern Nepal: aware of the importance of mother tongue Ethnic and Linguistic Grouping. Kathmandu: education in order to stop any situation Tribhuvan University. uncongenial to mother tongue education. Hodgeson, B.H. 1857. Comparative vocabulary 3. Teachers should be trained in mother tongue of the languages of the broken tribes of education teaching. Nepal. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 317-371. Interim Constitution of Nepal 2063 V.S.
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Kainla, Bairagi. ed. 2059 B.S. Limbu-Nepali- English dictionary. Kathmandu: Nepal Royal Academy. Kirkpatric, L.T. Colonel.1811 Reprinted 1969. An account of the kingdom of Nepal. New Delhi: Manjushree Publishing House. Krauss, Michael.1992. The world's languages in crisis. Language 68.4-10 Limbu, Hasta Lal. 2049. Nepali-Limbu-Angreji- Sabdakosh. Dharan. Mikhailovsky, B. 2002. Limbu English dictionary of the Mewakhola dialect. Kathmandu: Mandala Book point. Senior, H.W.R. 1908. A vocabulary of the Limbu language. Kathmandu: Ratnapustak Bhandar. Subba, B.B. 1980. Limbu-Nepali dictionary. Kathmandu: Kirant Yakthung Chumlung. Tumbahang, G.B. 20111. Limbu jatiko chinari ( Introduction to Limbu ethnicity). Lalitpur: Adibasi Janajati Utthan Rastriya Prathisthan and Kirat Yakthung Chumlung. Tumbahang, G.B. 20112. Linguistic Study of Chhatthare Limbu. Kirtipur: CNAS, Tribhuvan University. Tumbahang, G.B. 20113. A Grammar of Limbu. Kirtipur: CNAS, Tribhuvan University. Van Driem, George .1987. A grammar of Limbu. Berlin, etc.: Mouton de Gruyter. Weidert, Alfons and Bikram Subba.1985. Concise Limbu grammar and dictionary. Amsterdam: Lobster Publications
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Linguistic context and language endangerment in Nepal
Yogendra P Yadava
This paper is an attempt to present the linguistic from east to west and a mean breadth of 193 context and language endangerment in Nepal. kilometres from north to south. However, its Despite being small in area, it possesses a striking topography is rich and varied. Inhabiting the linguistic plurality comprising 123 languages different climatic and ecological zones with a (Census 2011). Of these languages, Nepali (44.64 high level of biodiversity per unit area (viz. over %) has been used as the official language. Nepal's 5,400 species of higher plants and 850 species of languages belong to four language families plus a birds, 2.2% and 9.4% of the world’s totals, language isolate, viz. Kusunda. Only a few of respectively (Shrestha and Vimal 1993: 3)), it is them have literate traditions. Electronic matched by a similar rate of linguistic and cultural technology has been barely used to support variation. Nepal is populated by 125 officially Nepal's languages. Most of the minority recognized castes and ethnic groups practicing ten languages are still undocumented or different religious faiths (viz. Hinduism, underdocumented. Buddhism, Islam, Kirat, Christianity, Prakriti, Bon, Jainism, Bahai and Sikhism (CBS 2012: 4)) Nepal's languages are not immune from the global and are estimated to speak approximately 123 trend of language endangerment. 96% of them are languages officially-recognized by the state (CBS spoken by just 4% of Nepal's total population 2012: 4). (Census 2011) and are thus threatened of extinction. To assess the levels of their This paper consists of two major sections. Section endangerment Extended Graded Intergenerational 1 deals with the situation of Nepal's languages Disruption Scale (EGIDS, Lewis and Simons related to their genetic affiliation, literacy, 2010) has been employed for the analysis. ethnicity, use, policy, exclusion, multilingualism, Accordingly, most of the languages belong to the and major/minor categories (in terms of their category of threatened languages, followed by the number of speakers). Section 2 is an attempt to category of vigorous languages. There are quite a assess Nepal's language endangerment using a few cross-border and migrant languages, which, recent analytical framework, namely the Extended despite being spoken by minority groups in Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale Nepal, cannot be evaluated as threatened as such (EGIDS, Lewis and Simons 2010). since they are spoken by a large number of 2 Context speakers in neighboring and remote countries. It is imperative to undertake initiatives for the 2.1 Approximations development and preservation of the existing endangered languages. The distribution of Nepal's languages is shown in the map given below. 1 Introduction:1 South Asia, home to a large number of languages and their dialects, figures as one of the most multilingual regions in the world. Nepal, a small Himalayan state in South Asia, is not immune to this situation. This country, with a population of 26,494,504 (Census 2011), possesses a striking linguistic plurality. It comprises a relatively small area of 147,181 square kilometres with a length of 885 kilometres
1 I would like to thank Dubi Nand Dhakal, Binod Adhikary and Manoj Yadav for their support in completing this article. Map 1: Languages of Nepal Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 262-274 To understand Nepal's linguistic diversity estimate of at least 140 languages spoken in precisely, we must naturally ask: How many Nepal, 109 of which are of the Sino-Tibetan languages are spoken in Nepal? There is no family. Of these, at least 115 are spoken accurate answer to this. However, there have been exclusively or primarily in Nepal, while quite a a number of attempts to enumerate the languages few (including Nepali, the existing official spoken in this country as mother tongues. One of language) are cross-border and recently migrated the major attempts is the enumeration of languages spoken in India and elsewhere. More languages in the various censuses. Since the recently, the Ethnologue: Languages of Nepal 1952/54 census, languages have consistently been (Eppele et al. 2012) lists 124 languages. reported, but their number shows variation in All these attempts (including the seven censuses) these censuses. Except ‘other’, ‘unknown’ and for enumeration of languages spoken in Nepal as ‘not stated’ languages, the last six censuses mother tongues have so far remained a sort of recorded 44 (1952/54), 36 (1961), 17 (1971), 18 approximation or rationalization. It will obviously (1981), 31 (1991), and 92 (2001) languages, but take much research to arrive at an accurate the figure has now increased to 123 (2011). number; the ongoing Linguistic Survey of Nepal, This significant increase in the number of started in 2008, can be a further step in this languages spoken in Nepal in the last two direction. censuses may be ascribed to a number of reasons. 1.2 Genetic affiliation. Since the restoration of democracy, there has been continual increase in consciousness among The languages enumerated in the 2011 census linguistic minorities (including indigenous belong to four language families, viz. Indo- peoples) about their mother tongues. Their ethnic European, Sino-Tibetan, Austro-Asiatic, organizations have been playing an active role in Dravidian; one, Kusunda, is a language isolate2 creating awareness about preserving and consisting of a single language without any promoting their cultural identity, including their genetic relationship with other languages. Most of languages. Taking cognizance of this reality, the these languages belong to two language families, CBS also sought the cooperation and support of Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan, while only a these organizations in the enumeration of few are Austro-Asiatic and Dravidian. In the languages for the 2001 and 2011 censuses. Nepalese context, the Indo-European family Subsequently, linguists were also consulted for a comprises Indo-Aryan languages, which form the precise identification of Nepal’s languages. largest group in terms of speakers, at nearly 82.06 Uncertainty about the number of Nepal’s per cent. The speakers of Sino-Tibetan, Austro- languages and their reduced enumeration in the Asiatic and Dravidian languages constitute 17.46, last five censuses may be attributed to the fact 0.19, and 0.13 per cent respectively, while that this information was not required, a lack of Kusunda has just 28 speakers. awareness about mother tongues, and also the Though Sino-Tibetan languages are spoken by “one nation–one language” policy adopted during relatively fewer people than those of the Indo- the Panchayat and earlier regimes. European family, they account for the largest Setting aside the various censuses, attempts have also been made by individual linguists to identify 2."A language isolate is a language which has no known Nepal’s languages. Malla (1989) and Toba (1992) structural or historical relationship to any other mention 70, while Noonan (2005:2) presented an language." (Crystal 1997: 328)
263 number of languages, viz. about 70 languages, acceptable to them. These include Tharu, Tamang, whereas Indo-European languages number about Magar, Gurung, Rajbanshi and the Rai group of 50. The Austro-Asiatic and Dravidian families, as languages, such as Bantawa, Thulung, Chamling, well as the isolate language, consist of a single Khaling, Kulung, etc. Tharu, Tamang and Gurung language each. use the Devanagri script, but some of the Gurung speakers advocate for the use of the Roman script 1.3 Literacy in languages for their language. Magar has developed its own Most of the languages spoken in Nepal are still script, called Akkha. Recently, these languages confined to orality. Each of them has a rich oral have started developing some written literature in heritage of folk stories and songs handed down the form of newspapers, magazines, textbooks for from parent to child over a long period of time, adult literacy and primary education, and folk e.g. Salhes3 in Maithili and Mundhum4 in Kiranti literature. languages. However, they are disappearing with As in India, Santhali in Nepal is written in the the growth of literacy and with language shift. It Roman script. Arabic script is used for writing is, therefore, time to document them before they Urdu. Thus, about nine scripts have been used to are lost for good. write Nepal’s languages (Yadava 2003: 151-2). Only a few of Nepal’s languages have literate The literate languages of Nepal are listed against traditions. They include Nepali, Maithili, their writing systems as follows: Tibetan/Sherpa, Newar, Limbu, Bhojpuri, Avadhi, i. Devanagari: Nepali, Maithili, Bhojpuri, and Lapcha in particular. All of them have a long Avadhi, Newar, Tamang; tradition of written literature, employing various ii. Sambota: Tibetan, Sherpa; writing systems or scripts. Most of the Indo- iii. Ranjana: Newar; Aryan languages, such as Nepali, Maithili iv. Sirijanga: Limbu; (originally written in Mithilakshar or Kaithi v. Rong: Lapcha; script), Bhojpuri, Avadhi, Hindi and Rajbanshi vi. Akkha: Magar; use the Devanagri script, though Bengali is vii. Mithilakshar/Tirhuta: Maithili; written in a different version of Devanagri. The viii. SherpaTamhig: Tamang; Tibetan script is used by Lamas for Tibetan. ix. Gurumukhi: Punjabi; Newar has its own traditional script called x. Perso-Arabic: Urdu; Ranjana, but it has also adopted the Devanagri xi. Ol Ciki /Ol: Santhali; script for the sake of convenience in reading and xii. Bengali: Bengali. printing. Limbu uses its own Kirati Srijanga Electronic technology (the web, text and speech script. Lapcha is written in the Rong script. recordings, spell/grammar checker, machine translation, web dictionary, etc.) has been sparsely Of late, some other languages have developed used to support Nepal's languages, with the literate traditions. Initiatives have been exception of Nepali.5 Though there is a growing undertaken by various language communities to develop writing systems appropriate to the sound 5 Setting aside the basic initiatives started before 2005, system of their languages and practically the development of corpora and lexical resources started in earnest with the EU-funded Nepali 3 . Salhes is an ancient ballad sung and performed in Language Resources and Localization for Education praise of mythological king and deity in Nepal Tarai. and Communication (NELRaLEC, called 4. Mundhum is a cover term for the religious scripture and folk literature of the different Bhashasanchar in Nepali) project (2005-7). The most tribes of Kirat people of Nepal. significant contribution of this project was the 264 trend in documenting both major and minor communities speak several mother tongues. This languages, there still exist a large number of “one tribe with several languages” situation minority preliterate languages which need to be applies to the Rai (Kirati) group in the eastern documented to produce grammars, dictionaries, hills and mountain. This trend is illustrated in the analyzed texts and reading materials. Some Tarai region also. In this region, various castes underdocumented languages also require further and tribes such as the Brahmin, Rajput, Yadav, improvement in analysis. Teli, Kurmi, Chamar, Khatawe, etc. speak Maithili in the Maithili-speaking area, Bhojpuri in 1.4 Language and ethnicity the Bhojpuri-speaking area and Avadhi in the Nepal is a multiethnic nation, comprising various Avadhi-speaking area. Thus, in the Tarai, there is ethnic and religious communities. Its ethnic and no one-to-one correspondence between ethnic religious diversity is coupled with its linguistic communities and their mother tongues. plurality. They are found to interact with one In addition, we also find the “several tribes with a another, resulting in a threefold ethnic-religious- common language” formula, according to which linguistic structure. different ethnic groups are found to speak a single There are a number of ethno-linguistic mother tongue. This formula is exemplified by communities in Nepal with a common mother Nepali, which is spoken as a mother tongue by tongue. Mother tongues associated with particular various castes and tribes such as the Bahun, ethnic groups include Magar, Tharu, Tamang, Kshetri, Kami, Damai, Thakuri, Sarki, Sanyasi, Gurung, Limbu, Sherpa, Rajbanshi, Sunuwar, and so on. Being a lingua franca, it has also been Kumal, Majhi, Danuwar, Chepang, Thami, adopted as a mother tongue by people from Thakali, Bhote, Dhimal, Darai, Lapcha, Byangsi, different ethnic groups. Hence, it is called an Raute, Raji, Uranw, etc. This situation of a one– “interethnic language.” Similarly, the Newars to-one relation between languages and ethnic consist of various ethnic groups, but all of these groups is characterized by the “one tribe one speak a single language, viz. Newar or Nepal language” formula. Urdu is the mother tongue of Bhasa. a community professing a particular religion, viz. All these aspects of language-ethnicity relation Islam. Similarly, Tibetan-speaking Bhotiyas or reflect the dynamism of language shift in the Sherpas are Buddhists (cf. Breton, 1997: 16-17). Nepalese context, suggesting a common tendency In cases of one-to-one relation between the tribes to shift gradually toward some major regional and and their languages, a comparison of the ethnic languages. As a result, there has been population of different tribes and their languages continuous decline in the numerical strength of can show the extent of language retention by each Nepali speakers (see Yadava 2003 for details). group.
It is, however, to be noted that this formula is not exempt from exceptions. Some ethnic 1.5 Language use and policy In the absence of a comprehensive study, it is construction of the 14-million-word Nepali National difficult to say anything definite about the Corpus (NNC). This corpus includes both spoken and patterns of language use in Nepal. However, some written data, the latter incorporating a Nepali match broad generalizations can be made in this regard for FLOB and a broader collection of text. Additional on the basis of some sporadic studies on the resources within the NNC include parallel data extent and domains of the use of some individual languages in the country. In all speech (English–Nepali and Nepali–English) and a speech communities, mother tongues are normally used corpus. The NNC is encoded as Unicode text and as intra- and inter-household languages. When marked up in CES-compatible XML. The whole interacting with speakers of a different mother corpus is also annotated with part-of-speech tags (see tongue, people generally tend to switch to a Yadava et al. 2008 for details). lingua franca. Moreover, mother tongues other 265 than Nepali have gradually ceased to be spoken In addition, various language communities have by the younger generations under the influence of continued their efforts to develop writing systems Nepali medium community school education and (e.g. Gurung and Magar), prepare dictionaries and the mass media. Nepali, spoken by the largest grammars, and compile reading materials. number of Nepalese people (44.64 per cent), has Tribhuvan University has been engaged in been adopted by various language communities as developing expertise to boost up linguistic studies a lingua franca for wider communication as well. in Nepal. Its recent thrust with the Linguistic It is, however, to be noted that, apart from this Survey of Nepal can be taken as a significant step national lingua franca, there is also a regional in the field of documenting Nepal's languages and lingua franca, Hindi, which has been used as studying them systematically. medium of wider communication mainly in the 1.6 Linguistic exclusion Tarai. Despite being mutlticultural and multingual, The Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal Nepal enshrined 'ethnic', instead of 'civic', (HMG/Nepal 1991) has recognized Nepali as ‘the nationalism in its task of nation-building (Oakes language of the nation’ (raashtrabhaasaa) and all 2001). This has been reflected in various regimes, mother tongues spoken in Nepal as ‘national from the Gorkha conquest till now. Recently, the languages’ (raashtriyabhaashaa) (Article 6). It 2007 Interim Constitution of Nepal, an outcome accepts Nepali as the only official language but, of the Andolan II ('Movement II'), makes the in addition, the constitution has also adopted the following provisions for languages: policy to promote and preserve Nepal’s national languages.The document also ensured freedom to a. All the languages spoken as the mother use one's mother tongue as a medium of tongue in Nepal are the national languages of instruction at the primary level of education. This Nepal. was the first time that some constitutional b. The Nepali Language in Devanagari script provisions were made for languages other than shall be the official language. Nepali, in consonance with the observed c. Notwithstanding anything contained in clause linguistic plurality of the country. (2), it shall not be deemed to have hindered Since these constitutional provisions, some efforts to use the mother language in local bodies have been made to promote and preserve Nepal’s and offices. State shall translate the languages national languages at both the governmental and so used to an official. non-governmental level. In 1993/4, the government constituted a commission to spell out (The Interim Constitution of Nepal (2007), Part 1, the details of a language policy for the Article 5) development of national languages and their use in education and mass media (Yadava and Turin The greatest weakness of these provisions has 2006; Yadava and Grove 2008). Though the been the lack of any explicit plan and policy to commission’s recommendations were not fully implement them. Consequently, Nepali alone implemented, they at least paved the way for remained as medium of administration, education using some of the national languages in education and media while the rest of the languages were and mass media, and also helped create awareness debarred from use in national domains, among various language communities for the obstructing their speakers' equitable access to preservation and promotion of their mother national benefits and compelling them to shift to tongues. So far, 19 languages have been used by the language(s) of opportunities and upward Radio Nepal for broadcasting news. Besides, mobility, such as Nepali and/or English. textbooks have been prepared for 21 mother 1.7 Multilingualism tongues so as to teach them as a subject at the primary level and also, in some cases, the The linguistic diversity of the country has given secondary level of education. rise to three situations, viz. monolingualism, bilingualism, and multilingualism. Of these 266 language situations, only monolingualism or the cent per cent use of just one's mother tongue has been regularly 1. reported since the first modern census in 1952/54. Nepali 11826953 44.64 44.64 Most speakers of Nepal’s languages have been 2. Maithili 3092530 11.67 56.31 found to be in close contact. As a result, these 3. Bhojpuri 1584958 5.98 62.29 languages tend to converge through mutual 4. Tharu (a borrowing and influences, and gradually come to single) 1529875 5.77 68.07 share a number of lexical and grammatical 5. Tamang 1353311 5.11 73.18 features. For example, we find Tibeto-Burman 6. languages “Indo-Aryanized” and Indo-Aryan Newar 846557 3.20 76.37 languages “Tibeto-Burmanized”. There is a need 7. Bajjika 793416 2.99 79.37 for an intensive study of convergence as well as 8. Magar 788530 2.98 82.34 divergence in order to ascertain the precise nature 9. of Nepal as a linguistic area. Doteli 787827 2.97 85.32 10. Urdu 691546 2.61 87.93 However, languages are not isolated units. In fact, 11. they can be inter-related to one another in a Avadhi 501752 1.89 89.82 number of different ways, including a common 12. Limbu 343603 1.30 91.12 linguistic history or culture, or perhaps through 13. Gurung 325622 1.23 92.35 economic ties or social ties such as inter-marriage 14. (Watters 2008). The Indo-Aryan languages Baitadeli 272524 1.03 93.37 spoken in the Tarai region (e.g. Nepali, Rajbanshi, 15. Rai (?) 159114 0.60 93.97 Maithili, Bhojpuri, Avadhi, and Tharu) constitute 16. Achhami 142787 0.54 94.51 a curious case of a language continuum, in that 17. they are linked uninterruptedly from the Bantawa 132583 0.50 95.01 viewpoint of intelligibility (Yadava and Grove 18. Rajbanshi 122214 0.46 95.48 2008). In other words, it is rather difficult to say 19. Sherpa 114830 0.43 95.91 where one language ends and another one begins. However, the degree of intelligibility decreases as On the other hand, there are marginalized the distance between adjacent languages languages with only a few speakers. The increases, thereby forming a continuum. In such a following table lists 31 languages with between case, people employ a language of wider 10,000 and 99,999 speakers: communication or contact language, such as Hindi in the Tarai, Sherpa (also referred to as Tibetan by some of its speakers) in the mountains, Table 2: Minor languages with 10,000 to 99,999 Bantawa in the Rai-Kirat region, Nepali in the speakers (Central Bureau of Statistics 2012) hills, and so forth. 20. Hindi 77569 0.29 96.20 1.8 Major and minor languages. 21. Chamling 76800 0.29 96.49 If 100,000 speakers is taken as the cut off for 22. Bajhangi 67581 0.26 96.75 ‘major’ languages, the number of these languages 23. Santhali 49858 0.19 96.94 in Nepal is 19, and their cumulative percentage of the population is 95.91%. Inversely, the 24. Chepang 48476 0.18 97.12 remaining 94+ languages are spoken by about 4% 25. Danuwar 45821 0.17 97.29 of Nepal’s total population. These ‘major’ 26. Sunuwar 37898 0.14 97.33 languages are given in the table below. 27. Magahi 35614 0.13 97.46 Table 1: Nepal's major languages (Central Bureau 28. Uranw 33651 0.13 97.59 of Statistics 2012) 29. Kulung 33170 0.13 97.72 Languages Speakers Per Cumulative 267
Kham 61. Mewahang 4650 0.02 99.34 30. (Magar) 27113 0.10 97.82 62. Sign language 4476 0.02 99.36 31. Rajasthani 25394 0.10 97.92 63. Tibetan 4445 0.02 99.38 32. Majhi 24422 0.09 98.01 64. Meche 4375 0.02 99.40 33. Thangmi 23151 0.09 98.10 65. Chantyal 4283 0.02 99.42 34. Bhujel 21715 0.08 98.18 66. Raji 3758 0.01 99.43 35. Bangla 21061 0.08 98.26 67. Lohorung 3716 0.01 99.44 36. Thulung 20659 0.08 98.34 68. Chhintang 3712 0.01 99.45 37. Yakhkha 19558 0.07 98.41 69. Gangai 3612 0.01 99.46 38. Dhimal 19300 0.07 98.48 70. Pahari 3458 0.01 99.47 39. Tajpurija 18811 0.07 98.55 71. Dailekhi 3102 0.01 99.48 40. Angika 18555 0.07 98.62 72. Lhopa 3029 0.01 99.49 41. Sampang 18270 0.07 98.69 73. Dura 2156 0.01 99.50 42. Khaling 14467 0.05 98.74 74. Koce 2080 0.01 99.51 43. Wambule 13470 0.05 98.79 75. Chhiling 2046 0.01 99.52 44. Kumal 12222 0.05 98.84 76. English 2032 0.01 99.53 45. Darai 11677 0.04 98.88 77. Jerung 1763 0.01 99.54 46. Bahing 11658 0.04 98.92 78. Khas 1747 0.01 99.55 47. Bajureli 10704 0.04 98.96 79. Sanskrit 1669 0.01 99.56 48. Yholmo 10176 0.04 99.00 80. Dolpali 1667 0.01 99.57 49. Nachhering 10041 0.04 99.04 81. Hayu 1520 0.01 99.58 Table 3 lists the languages with between 1,000 82. Tilung 1424 0.01 99.59 and 9,999 speakers. 83. Koi 1271 0.00 _ 84. Kisan 1178 0.00 _ 85. Waling 1169 0.00 _
86. Musalban 1075 0.00 _ Table 3: Minor languages with 1,000 to 9,999 speakers (Central Bureau of Statistics 2012) In Table 4, there are quite a few languages with less than 1,000 speakers. 50. Yamphu 9208 0.03 99.07 Table 4: Languages with less than 1,000 speakers 51. Bote 8766 0.03 99.10 (Central Bureau of Statistics 2012) 52. Ghale 8092 0.03 99.13 87. Hariyani 889 0.00 53. Dumi 7638 0.03 99.16 88. Jumli 851 0.00 54. Lapcha 7499 0.03 99.19 89. Lhomi 808 0.00 55. Puma 6686 0.03 99.22 90. Punjabi 808 0.00 56. Dungmali 6260 0.02 99.24 91. Belhare 599 0.00 57. Darchuleli 5928 0.02 99.26 92. Oriya 584 0.00 58. Athpariya 5530 0.02 99.28 93. Sonaha 579 0.00 59. Thakali 5242 0.02 99.30 60. Jirel 4829 0.02 99.32 94. Sindhi 518 0.00
268
95. Dadeldhuri 488 0.00 Nepal, a multilingual nation, is not unaffected by this global trend of language endangerment. Most 96. Byangshi 480 0.00 of its languages, being undocumented and 97. Assamese 476 0.00 marginalized, are on the verge of extinction. 98. Raute 461 0.00 2.1 Analytical framework 99. Sam 401 0.00 The basic reason why a human language 100. Manange 392 0.00 gradually ceases to exist is simple and obvious. In 101. Dhuleli 347 0.00 the course of adapting to a changed context, 102. Phangduali 290 0.00 speakers of a mother tongue no longer consider that language advantageous and replace it with a 103. Surel 287 0.00 language that can benefit them. But how does a 104. Malpande 247 0.00 language lose its efficacy and become threatened? 105. Chinese 242 0.00 The issue of language shift is complex and obscure. To understand it, one must look at an 106. Khariya 238 0.00 intricate matrix of relevant variables and their 107. Kurmali 227 0.00 interaction. Nepal offers a complex interaction of 108. Baram 155 0.00 variables involved in language vitality and endangerment. It requires a separate study with a 109. Lingkhim 129 0.00 view to understanding the trend of language loss 110. Sadhani 122 0.00 in the country. 111. Kagate 99 0.00 In order to assess the state of language vitality 112. Dzonkha 80 0.00 and endangerment in Nepal, a number of factors 113. Bankariya 69 0.00 have been suggested, such as diminished number of speakers, poor economic status, lack of 114. Kaike 50 0.00 language transmission to the younger generation, 115. Gadhawali 38 0.00 migration to urban areas and foreign countries for 116. French 34 0.00 work and/or education, as well as lack of literate 117. Mizo 32 0.00 tradition, official recognition and initiatives for language maintenance, reduced language use in 118. Kuki 29 0.00 domains such as education, local administration, 119. Kusunda 28 0.00 and mass media, lack of official status and use 120. Russian 17 0.00 and, above all, of the language community’s awareness. In these circumstances, it is important 121. Spanish 16 0.00 to initiate the documentation of endangered 122. Nagamese 10 0.00 languages in collaboration with language 123. Arabi 8 0.00 communities, linguists, governmental and non- governmental agencies, so as to preserve and Not reported 47718 0.18 99.77 promote them for future generation (Eppele et al. Others 21173 0.08 99.85 2012: 10).
Based on these and other factors, a number of 2. Assessing language endangerment in Nepal analytical frameworks have been proposed for using EGIDS analyzing the vitality and endangerment of In linguistically diverse countries like Nepal, languages. They mainly include the Graded minority languages are gradually being lost. Intergenerational Disruption Scale or GIDS According to an estimate (Krauss 1992: 7), 90% (Fishman 1991, 2001), the the Euromosaic study of human languages face extinction by the end of (Nelde, Strubell and Williams 1996), the 1998 the 21st century. In other words, only 600 of 6,000 European Charter for Regional or Minority or so languages will be safe (Crystal 2000: 18). Languages of the Council of Europe, and the list 269 of nine factors necessary to assess the vitality of a EGIDS Level 7 (Shifting): This level shows clear particular threatened language published in 2003 cases of language shift in progress because of the by the UNESCO. Recently, Lewis and Simons lack of integenerational transmission. (2010) have adapted Fishman's GIDS-scale as the EGIDS Level 8a (Moribund): The only remaining Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption active users of the language are members of the Scale (EGIDS). The EGIDS scale consists of 13 grandparent generation. hierarchical levels which are briefly explained below. EGIDS Level 8b (Nearly Extinct): At this level, language speakers are confined to a few old EGIDS Level 0 (International): The very few people. languages used internationally belong to this level. EGIDS Level 9 (Dormant): The languages which have recently been abandoned belong to this EGIDS Level 1 (National): The languages which level. are used for official purposes and have gained national status fit in this level. Such languages EGIDS Level 10 (Extinct): If a language has no have full oral and written use supported by their remaining speakers, it belongs to this level. standardization, and use as medium of administration and education. 2.2 Findings EGIDS Level 2 (Regional): This level comprises The following table, based on the information languages which are also national languages but elicited from linguists and language activists (Eppele et al. 2012), 2011 Census data and some confined to a more localized, regional domain. earlier studies, as well as the present author's EGIDS Level 3 (Trade): This level includes sporadic field observations, is an attempt to languages that may not have official recognition assess language vitality and endangerment in but are "vehicular" in the sense that they are used terms of EGIDS-scale:6 as a second language by members of multiple first-language communities and serve important functions for business and intergroup communication. They are learned outside of the home either formally or informally and often have Table5. Expanded Graded Intergenerational a standardized (though perhaps not officially Disruption Scale sanctioned) written form. EGIDS Level 4 (Educational): The languages at this level are used as a medium of instruction or subject of instruction. Level Level Label Languages Number of languages Percentage EGIDS Level 5 (Written): The languages at this 0 International Chinese, 6 6.45 level are used for face-to-face communication by English, all generations and have effective educational Spanish, support in parts of the community. Russian, Arabic, EGIDS Level 6a (Vigorous): The languages French which belong to this level have current oral use. 1 National Nepali 1 1.07 EGIDS Level 6b (Threatened): The languages are used for face-to-face communication by all generations but only some of the children learn them. 6. Of the 123 languages enumerated in Census 2011 only 93 languages have been included in this analysis since the data was not available for the rest of the languages at this moment. 270
2 Provincial Hindi, Sherpa 2 2.15 Majhi, Meche, 3 Wider Urdu, Newar 2 2.15 Mewahang, Communication Puma, Raji, 4 Educational Maithili, 6 6.45 Sampang, Avadhi, Sunwar, Bhojpuri, Thangmi, Doteli, Yamphu, Tibetan, Bote, Bengali, Manange 5 Developing Koi, Lhomi, 9 9.68 7. Shifting Bhujel, 11 11.83 Rajbanshi, Chhiling, Tamang, Danuwar, Tharu, Dumi, Kumal, Thulung, Lapcha, Wambule, Nacchering, Marwari, Phangduwali, Bajjika Sonha, 6a Vigorous Bagheli, 16 17.20 Thakali, Hayu Bahing, 8a. Moribund Tilung, 2 2.15 Byangsi, Chukwa Dhimal, 8b. Nearly extinct Baram, 4 4.30 Dolpo, Ghale, Kusunda, Yholmo, Lingkhim, Jumli, Kagate, Sam Kaike, 9. Dormant Dura, Sanskrit 2 2.15 Khaling, Kisan, Kuki, 10. Extinct Waling 1 1.07 Nepalese sign language, Total 93 100 Raute, Santhali, The EGIDS-scale employed in the table above is 6b Threatened Angika, 31 33.33 hierarchical, suggesting that language Athpariya, endangerment is a continuum wherein there exist Bantawa, vigorous languages at one extreme and dormant Belhare, or extinct languages at the other extreme, Chantyal, interrupted by a number of interrelated scales. Chepang, Chamling, The table above shows that most of the languages Chhintang, belong to the category of threatened languages Darai, (6b), followed by the category of vigorous Dungmali, languages (6a). Both of these categories suggest Gurung, that most of Nepal's languages are confined to Jerung, Jirel, their preliterate tradition and used in oral Magar, communication with more or less Kharia, intergenerational transmission. A few languages Kulung, are shifting (7). Altogether, the majority (50.53%) Uranw, of Nepal's languages fall into the higher scale of Limbu, endangerment (6b-10) and are on the verge of Lohorung, extinction. It is to be noted that the majority of Yakkha,
271 these languages are of the Tibeto-Burman phylum of the languages spoken in Nepal are still of the Sino-Tibetan language family. confined to orality. Most of these languages are confined to oral traditions. Electronic technology A few languages, such as Chinese, English, (the web, text and speech recordings, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and French, are unicodification, spell/grammar checker, machine obviously foreign and international languages, but translation, etc.) has not been used to support minority ones nonetheless and they may be at a Nepal's languages except for Nepali. A large risk in Nepal, where they are marginalized. They number of the minority languages are still have, however, 'a kin state'. These international undocumented or underdocumented. Nepal is a migrant languages are thus not threatened; the multiethnic nation, comprising various ethnic and same argument also holds for most migrant religious communities, an ethnic and religious languages such as Santhali, Uranw, Lapcha and so diversity which is coupled with its linguistic on (Gorter 2007). In addition, there are many plurality. All the mother tongues spoken in Nepal languages in the north of India that are also have constitutionally been accredited as 'national spoken in Nepal. These 'cross-border languages' languages', although, in practice, Nepali alone, are spoken by populations whose traditional spoken by 44.64% of the country's total geographic areas have been politically divided by population, has been used for official and one or several frontiers, or they may be languages educational purposes. Consequently, the whose speakers migrated at some point in their remaining languages have been debarred from use history (Yadava 2011). The demarcation of the in national and other practical domains, Indo-Nepalese border is a case in point. Cross- obstructing their speakers' equitable access to border languages shared by Nepal and India national benefits and compelling them to shift to include Angika, Avadhi, Bajjika, Bengali, the language(s) of opportunities and upward Bhojpuri, Byangsi, Hindi, Lapcha, Limbu, Magar, mobility (such as Nepali and/or English). Maithili, Nepali, Rajbanshi, Rai-Kirat languages, Tamang, Urdu, etc. Languages which migrated The number of 'major' languages is 19 (Table 1), into Nepal recently include Mizo (32 speakers), and their cumulative percentage is 95.91%. Kuki (29 speakers), Nagamese (10 speakers), Inversely, the remaining 94+ languages (Tables 2, Dzonkha (80 speakers), Assamese (476 speakers), 3, and 4) are spoken by just about 4% of Nepal’s Sindhi (518 speakers), Oriya (584 speakers), total population. Moreover, the various languages Punjabi (808 speakers), Hariyanwi (889 of Nepal are not all discrete units; instead, they speakers), and Rajasthani (25394 speakers). These often constitute a continuum of intelligibility, cross-border and (remotely or recently) migrated which makes it rather difficult to say where one languages, despite being spoken by minority language ends and another begins. groups in Nepal, cannot be evaluated as Like other multilingual nations, Nepal has also threatened as such. been vulnerable to the global trend of language 3 Conclusion endangerment. Most of its languages, being undocumented and marginalized, are threatened Nepal, like other South Asian nations, is with extinction. In order to evaluate the state of characterized by multilingualism and linguistic language vitality and endangerment in Nepal, diversity representing four language families Lewis and Simons (2010) have adapted Fishman's (Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, Austro-Asiatic, GIDS-scale as the Expanded Graded Dravidian), and including a language isolate Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS). The (Kusunda).There are various competing assessment performed in this article on the basis calculations of the number of Nepal's languages. of the EGIDS shows that most of the languages Recently, the 2011 Census has enumerated 123 belong to the category of threatened languages languages spoken as mother tongues in Nepal (6b), followed by the category of vigorous whereas the Ethnologue: Languages of Nepal languages (6a) (see Table 5). There are quite a (Eppele et al. 2012) gives a list of 124 languages, few cross-border and (remotely or recently) one of which (Waling) is said to be extinct. Most migrant languages, which, despite being spoken 272 by minority groups in Nepal, cannot be evaluated Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. as endangered since they are used by a large Eppele, M. John, Paul Lewis, Dan Raj Regmi and number of people in neighboring and remote Yogendra P. Yadava (eds.). 2012 Ethnologue: countries. As such, I propose that it is vital to Languages of Nepal, Kathmandu: Central devise ways for the development and preservation Department of Linguistics and SIL of the endangered languages of Nepal, through Intenational. the construction of corpora, enhancement of their Fishman, J. A. 1991. Reversing language shift. status, and planning their acquisition (Cooper Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. 1989). Fishman, J.A. (ed.) 2001. Can threatened languages be saved? Clevedon: Multilingual References Matters. Gorter, Durk. 2007. European Minority Breton, R. (1997). Atlas of the Languages and Languages: Endangered or Revived? Ethnic Communities of South Asia, Delhi: www.citeulike.org/user/Philonski/article/8352 Sage. 132. Central Bureau of Statistics.2012.National HMG/Nepal (1991). The Constitution of the Population and Housing Census-2-11, Kingdom of Nepal, Kathmandu. Kathmandu: Central Bureau of Statistics, Krauss, M. 1992. The world's languages in crisis, National Planning Commission (NPC). Language 68: 4-10. Central Bureau of Statistics. 2001. Population of Lewis, M. P. and Simons, G. F. 2010. “Assessing Nepal, Kathmandu: National Planning endangerment: Expanding Fishman’s GIDS.” Commission. Revue Romaine de Linguistique 55.103-120. Central Bureau of Statistics. 1911. Population Malla, K.P. 1989. Langauge and Society in Nepal. Census, Kathmandu: National Planning In Malla, (ed.), Nepalese Perspectives on Commission. Continuity and Change, Kathmandu: CNAS. Central Bureau of Statistics.1952/54. Population Nelde, P., Strubell, M & Williams, G. 1996. Census, Kathmandu: National Planning Euromosaic: The production and reproduction Commission. of the minority language groups of the EU, Central Bureau of Statistics. 1961. Population Luxembourg: Publications offices. Census, Kathmandu: National Planning Noonan, Michael. 2005. Language Commission . Documentation and Language Endangerment Central Bureau of Statistics .1971. Population in Nepal. http://www.uwm.edu/~noonan Census, Kathmandu:: National Planning Oakes, Leigh.2001. Language and national Commission. identity: comparing France and Sweden, Central Bureau of Statistics.1981. Population Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Census, Kathmandu:: National Planning Shrestha, Tirtha Bahadur and N.P.G. Vimal. 1993. Commission. ‘Biodiversity profile and conservation strategy Central Bureau of Statistics.1991. Population in Nepal’, pp. 1-11 in M.K. Dahal and D.R. Census, Kathmandu: National Planning Dahal, (eds), Environment and Sustainable Commission. Development: Issues in Nepalese Perspective. 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Yadava, Yogendra P. 2003. Chapter 4: Language. In Population Monograph of Nepal. Volume 1. Kathmandu: CBS and UNFPA. pp. 137-172. Yadava, Yogendra P., Andrew Hardie, Ram Raj Lohani, Bhim N. Regmi, Shristee Gurung, Amar Gurung, Tony McEnery, Jens Allwood and Pat Hall. 2008. Construction and annotation of a corpus of contemporary Nepali, Corpora, 3.2: 213-226 Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Yadava, Y.P. and Mark Turin.2006. “Indigenous Languages of Nepal: a Critical Analysis of Linguistic situation and Contemporary Issues. In Yadava and Bajracharya eds. Indigenous Languages of Nepal: Situation, Policy Planning and Coordination, Kathmandu: NFDIN. Yadava, Yogendra P. Yadava and Carl Grove (eds.) & translated into English by Dubi Nanda Dhakal.2008. The Report of National Languages Policy Recommendation Commission, 1994 (2050 VS), Kathmandu: Central Department of Linguistics, TU. Yadava, Yogendra P. Yadava. 2011. "Cross-Border languages Shared by Nepal and India", paper presented at Nepal-India Symposium, January 29, Kathmandu: Nepal Academy.
Yogendra P. Yadava, PhD Tribhuvan University Kirtipur, Kathmandu Nepal. Email: [email protected]
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Importance of paralanguage in learning english as second language
Ayesha Zafar Center for English Language University of Management and Technology, Lahore [email protected]
The current work discusses Pakistani English Unless and until teachers are informed about this teachers’ perceptions and their classroom ignored aspect of language, its various benefits practices regarding paralanguage teaching. cannot be cashed upon. Furthermore, it highlights the reasons which are hindrance in paralanguage teaching in classroom The roadmap for the paper is as follows: Section contexts; and suggests ways to incorporate 2 discusses literature review about the role of teaching of paralinguistic features. paralinguistic features in learning English. Methodology is described in Section 3 and the 1. Introduction current status is discussed in Section 4. Section 5 The paralinguistic properties of speech play an discuses the relevant issues and solutions, and important role in human speech communication Section 6 concludes the paper. and their knowledge has an immense significance for teaching English as a second language in L2 2. Literature Review contexts. The constituents of paralanguage are Paralanguage refers to the non-verbal supportive to extend communicative competence. elements of communication used to modify These components (tone, pitch, volume, meaning and convey emotion. Moreover, it may intonation) play a vital role in the academic be expressed consciously or unconsciously. It progress of second language learners and are includes the pitch, volume, and intonation of helpful in gradual increase in learners’ skills. In speech. Sometimes the definition is restricted to Pakistani education system, the paralinguistic vocally-produced sounds. The study of features, regardless of being the most noticeable paralanguage is known as paralinguistics. and fore facet of teaching, have been overlooked (Crystal, 1975) A sentence can convey entirely in the past and relics mostly unattended at hand. different meanings depending on the emphasis on The school administrations, language policy words and the tone of voice. For example, a makers and syllabus designers need to realize the statement can have three different meanings importance of appropriate use of paralinguistic depending on which word is emphasized: features in learning L2. "I didn't say you were stupid". A majority of the Pakistani English teachers "1 didn't say you were stupid". possess divergent views about the role and "I didn't say you were stupid". efficacy of paralanguage knowledge in the learning process. They are often inconsistent in In Saussure’s terminology paralinguistic their practices of the teaching of paralanguage as phenomena would rather be ‘parole’ than well. This research will be helpful for English ‘langue’. Traunmuller (2001) Crystal (1969) teachers to improve their teaching process by narrates in his book that paralinguistics using paralinguistic features effectively in communicate “affective” meaning anger, sarcasm, language classrooms. Moreover, it not only surprise, emphasis, excitement and so on. This is explores the various facets of paralinguistic use, certainly an important role of paralanguage. but also brings to the face the multifarious advantages hidden in integrating them in teaching Paraverbal communication is an important part of practice. It will also be helpful to examine the interpersonal communication. Secord and nature of communication in the speech situation Backman (1964) consider that it supports and and how this differs from the written medium. supplements communication by opening up other channels and frameworks of communicating Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 275-282 information. Paraverbal signals can emphasize, Galloway (1980) and Loveday (1982) were also modify or even fully negate verbal statements. in favour of paralanguage and in their work on Similarly, Forgas (1985) indicates that paraverbal classroom communication they observed, signals have an important role in the structuring "it is not so much linguistic errors as it is and control of human interactive processes. They sociolinguistic and paralinguistic errors that lead inform the participants of a conversation as to to breakdowns in communication or cause serious how their messages are received and thus allow offense or insult, for people are generally far less for correction. Para verbal communication plays a aware of these often subtle aspects of vital role in human behavior and it is important to communication, which may nevertheless be the recognize that communication frequently involves principal bearers of affective information." more than a verbal message. Effective Moreover, Galloway (1980) believed that the use communication requires that we understand the of paralanguage in the L2 classroom encourages role of nonverbal behavior as one dimension of the speakers and consequently the people in the communication competence. classroom will show increased desire to transmit a message and will thereby hold the listeners' Motley (1993) illustrates the same issue in his attention better. Barbour (1988) in his research on book and says, “Nonverbal behavior has become classroom communication reported that a major field of research in the communications approximately 75% of L2 classroom management discipline and one consistent theme is that the behavior was paraverbal. Similarly Smith noted meaning of nonverbal message depends on its that teachers' nonverbal behaviors are for students context.” the signs of the psychological state of the It helps to communicate with others in a teacher and so should not be taken lightly. significant way. 2nd language acquisition requires The affective filter hypothesis (Krashen 1987, motive interaction in the target language 1988) plays a great role in learning a second communication in which speakers are concerned language by the appropriate or inappropriate use not only with the utterances but also with how of paraverbal communication by the teaching messages are delivered. Krashen (1988) Hymes community in the class. The learners who have (1960), who introduced the concept of high motivation, great self-confidence, a good communicative competence, believes that there self-image, and a low level of anxiety are better are certain rules of use without which the equipped for success in second language linguistic or grammar rules are useless. acquisition. Similarly learners with low According to him rules of paraverbal motivation, low self-esteem, and debilitating communication of the language are needed for anxiety are usually bad learners and show poor communicative competence. Thus, he highlighted academic progress. It is because of the raising of the rules of paraverbal communication as the affective filter which form a 'mental block' important as other grammar rules for learning a that prevents comprehensible input from being second language. According to Robbins and used for acquisition in the students and so those Langton (2001) Paralanguage is communication students are bad learners. In other words the that goes beyond the specific spoken words. It language acquisition is blocked when the students includes pitch, amplitude, rate, and voice quality are not at case in the class due to negative of speech. Elements of paralinguistic features paraverbal behavior of teacher. He also made this include: intonation and tone, loudness and point clear that the paraverbal communication in volume, tempo etc. Intonation is referred to as a the class acts as a language of relationship and prosodic feature of language. It is the collective this relationship motivates students much for term used learning. The silent cues signal changes or to describe variations in pitch, loudness, tempo, continuity in the quality and direction of any and rhythm. interpersonal relationship between a student and the teacher and these cues can be the primary
276 means of expressing attitudes of intimacy, will be better equipped to interpret student aloofness, concern and indifference. messages, which is especially significant when the students come from different cultural Teachers who are aware of paralanguage, of the backgrounds; they will help their students become multi-channeled nature of communication, should more culturally aware; and they will be more able be better teachers. Nine Curt (1976) They will to facilitate the acquisition of second language in always try to increase their skills as directors of their students and will enjoy more command.” classroom behaviours and will be better equipped to interpret student messages, which is especially It can be safely said that the paraverbal significant when the students come from different communication in second language classrooms is cultural backgrounds; they will help their students basically a language of motivation for L2 learners become more culturally aware; and they will be and its appropriate use not only motivates them to more able to facilitate the acquisition of second learn English language more but also improves language in their students and will enjoy more their academic progress. On the other hand, the command. Students need to know with whom, inappropriate use of paraverbal communication when, where and in what way they can speak and causes a threatening environment in the class and act. Mehan (1979) They must have speech and most of the students get depressed and failed in behaviour that are appropriate for classroom their examination. As a result many of them situations and they must be able to interpret started abhorring English language and implicit classroom rules. Full participation in consequently never learn in their whole life. That classroom activities requires competence in both is why the wrong use of para verbal the social and situational aspects of classroom communication should be strictly prohibited in language, in other words, classroom the class and our teachers should be properly communication. trained for the appropriate use of para verbal communication in the second language Para verbal communicative competence is classroom. essential for L2 learners to participate in target language learning. According to Thompson 3. Methodology (1973) teachers are like role model for their Non-experimental research design was used for students. Students are passive receiver of this study to interpret Pakistani English language knowledge and get from their their teachers what teachers’ perception towards paralanguage. The they see and feel in their attitude. A teacher can study was cross-sectional in nature. Moreover, leave both positive and negative impacts on quantitative approach was used in order to students’ character building. Paralinguistic confirm what has been postulated. A survey features are central in L2 classroom. Learners can questionnaire was used for the collection of data analyze the voice, mood and tone of teacher and it was quantitative in nature. There were 36 through para verbal communication. Learner can questions in all and all the questions carry five absolutely judge the personality features of response categories (i.e. Strongly Agree, Agree, his/her teacher. They can develop social Neutral, Disagree, Strongly Disagree). The relationship with each other with in the language number beside each response becomes the value classroom for more effective learning. for that response and the total score is obtained by Nine Curt (1976), a famous researcher, rightly adding the values for the each response. said, “paralanguage is not a must, which will Moreover, pilot testing was done in order to make greatly enrich our L2 classrooms and increase our sure that the questionnaire successfully gets the communicative competence. Teachers who are intended responses from the target population. aware of paralanguage, of the multi-channeled The sample for the research was drawn through nature of communication, should be better simple random sampling for probing the role of teachers. They will always try to increase their paralinguistic features in learning English as skills as directors of classroom behaviours and second language at graduate level at private 277 universities of Lahore city out of which 105 are male and 95 are female. The participants were Figure 1: English Teachers’ Teaching Experience explained the purpose of study and care was taken to maintain the secrecy of the individual The findings suggest that teachers with a greater views as far as possible to save the participant experience may be well couched in effective ELT from embarrassment. All ethical and professional practice. responsibilities were taken into account. The 4.2 Professional English teachers’ focus was on four sub scales: organizations association a. Teachers perceptions and beliefs about paralanguage in L2 context The rationale to ask about teachers’ professional b. Teachers’ knowledge about the paralinguistic linkages was to have an idea about the updating features of their knowledge and skills with the latest c. Teachers’ use of paralanguage in class room research outcomes concerning the main issues context that the English teaching community faces. d. Teachers’ use of resources for paralanguage Moreover, joining such organizations provides a implementation in language learning. platform for sharing one’s experiences and discussing classroom issues collectively which The study used a descriptive statistics to analyze most teachers could benefit from. Apart from the data from the exploratory survey. SPSS was discussion the conferences and workshops used to analyze quantitative data. Average raw organized by such associations also evaluate the scores of samples category in terms of gender and level of teachers’ knowledge. Only 10% of the medium of school education were calculated to selected sample are regular member of SPELT see the results. (Society for Pakistani English Teachers), the only 4. Result English teachers’ organization in Pakistan. It implies that only 10%had the opportunity to The survey show interesting results. participate in regularly held meetings (once in 4.1 English teaching experience (in years) every month) and enhances their subject knowledge and skills on various issues. But it is The data reveals that the increased years in the not a sufficient strength of the teachers as almost teaching experience contribute towards altering 83% of the selected sample is not the member of teachers’ attitude towards teaching and use of any professional English organization which is an paralinguistic features in English classroom as alarming situation because such organizations beliefs about teaching and learning usually give awareness about new researches, techniques undergo change(s) over a period of time. It also and methodologies. proves that more experienced teachers are better teachers. It was noted that 23% of the selected sample have more than 10 years English language teaching experience or overall teaching 10% 0% 7% A experience. Almost 63% possesses experience B more than five years but less than 10 years. Only C
4% hold less than 1year experience. D 83%
Figure 2: Teachers’ Professional Teaching Association 10% 4% 23% The findings suggest that it is very important to A have the refresher courses, training workshops B and seminars. It will help English teachers to C 63% 278 make their beliefs and practices better. It is also 4.4 Teachers’ competence about paralinguistic proposed that educational organizations should features and their acuity about paraverbal give opening to their teachers by arranging such communication in L2 classrooms gatherings. The result of these set of questions are quite 4.3 Teachers awareness about the importance contradictory. 32% of the subject claimed to have of paraverbal features great knowledge of paralinguistic features, although most of them (about 66%) were not Responses to questions regarding to the taught paralinguistic features in their school days. awareness and belief towards the importance of However, it seems acceptable that majority claims paralinguistics features provided a great help in to possess the right amount of knowledge. This order to understand how vital a role intonation reflects the teachers’ belief about their efficacy plays in motivation of L2 learners. Variations and regarding para verbal teaching; their actual (rising and falling) in pitch sequences within competence though is subject to question. speech plays a crucial role to get the exact meaning It will also help us to know that whether
L2 students respond to intonation to recognize the words and map them onto the pictures or not and 10% 5% in what basic ways are intonational features 32% A exploited in the classroom for instructional B purposes. Teachers were aware about the C importance of paralinguistic features in L2 D classroom contexts. It was good to see that 53% 53% of the teachers know that is
Figure 4: Teachers’ Knowledge about 10% 5% Paralinguistic Features 32% A
B The result of a set of questions reveals that the
C respondents acknowledged the importance of D teaching and learning both in L1 and L2 which
53% appears to be a positive result. The outcome
shows that teachers understand the importance of
paraverbal communication in L2 context and they Figure 3: Teachers’ Beliefs about Paralinguistic want to implement it in their classroom Feature. environments. But as far as another question is Only 32% of the respondents replied that they concerned the results are disappointing despite have excellent knowledge about the paralinguistic the acknowledgement of the importance of the features where as majority i.e. 53% were of the paralinguistic teaching previously institutions are view that they have appropriate knowledge of all quite often neglecting it. It could somewhat be for paraverbal components. Teachers’ perception was the reason that it has not been built-in within the that these features are equally important in both college syllabuses. Another reason could be that L1 and L2 learning and speaking. This set of mostly at graduate level written courses are questions has been included to collect teachers’ included to make students’ writing skills better responses as to what they believe about without realizing that paralinguistic teaching is of paraverbal teaching and learning. The results equal importance especially in L2 context. suggest that teachers’ understand the importance of paraverbal teaching and learning in L1 (first / mother language) and L2 (second / target language) speech.
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4.5 Teaching of paralinguistic features in classroom 4.6 Content of paralinguistic features in The data reveals that the effects of paraverbal classroom features put a vital role on the individual and Appropriate content of paraverbal components classroom environment. No doubt, paralinguistic enhances the efficacy of English language features contributes towards learning in a friendly learning. For example, grammar teachings and environment. The use of paralanguage in the L2 help in making concepts more clear. The data classroom encourages the speaker and focuses on the importance of stress in the consequently the people in the classroom will classroom which is one of the contents of show increased desire to transmit a message and paraverbal features. It may help to find out the will thereby hold the listeners’ attention better. continuous learning process of students which Moreover, it helped to understand teachers results in gradual increase in their skills or output. teaching practices of implicit or explicit Teachers replied that to indicate the boundaries of paraverbal instructions. Furthermore, it also structures in language class intonations and describes that whether paraverbal instructions effective pauses are very much helpful. Similarly, should be given formally or informally. Teachers for better clarification of a concept; stress and usually teach paralinguistic features through drill, variations in tone are always helpful. Moreover, practice, reading, listening and by making make intonation plays in motivation of L2 learners. explicit rules in language classroom. Variations and (rising and falling) in pitch Figure 5: Classroom Teaching of Paralinguistic sequences within speech plays a crucial role to get the exact meaning It is also helpful to know that whether L2 students respond to intonation to 0% 13% recognize the words and map them onto the A pictures or not. Similarly voice modulation has its 20% B great impact on students learning. C D 67% 14% 3% 3% A Features. B C 67% of the respondents teach paralinguistic D through and repetition. 20% use reading material 80% to make them clear where as only 13% teaching paralinguistic features through listening skill. This was quite strange that no one gives Figure 6: Impact of Voice Modulation on importance to practice in the classrooms. As the Students study says practice may help them to make them 80% of the respondents said that voice understand better. Moreover, it also describes the modulation enhances students’ motivation. A situation of listening and speaking in L2 context lesson can be taught in a very effective manner if which are badly neglected. Usually teachers put incorporates with monotone. Similarly, use of stress on writing and reading skills. Grammar intonation develops interest among students. They translation method is still in very much practice. feel themselves encouraged to participate in Listening is the skill which is a key to speaking so classroom activities. Moreover, students may if teachers’ practices proper paraverbal language infer a teacher’s attitude through his/her way of to keep their students active then it may be very address and change in his/her pitch, tone and effective for communicative competence. volume. 280
5. Suggestions 6. Summary Teachers need to be more well-informed about This research paper evaluates the role of ELT methodologies and the current trends and paralinguistic features in learning English as practices in the ESL classrooms. It is the second language at secondary level. The knowledge and understanding these paraverbal component refers to how we say the methodologies that will help teachers understand words, the tone, pacing and volume of our voices. how paralinguistic features is treated differently The analysis of data reveals that the paralinguistic these methodologies and why; it will also help features contributes towards learning friendly them in deciding which methodology best suits in environment in L2 classroom. In conclusion it can their context.They should be encouraged and be said with some degree of certainty that English motivated to become members of ELT language teachers lack consistency in their beliefs organizations, and on attending any workshop, and classroom practices regarding the use of seminar or conference they should be asked to paralinguistic features. The conclusion of the give formal presentations of what they learnt, research predicts that the paralanguage has a great suggested, and disagreed at the meeting. impact on L2 learning.
A knowledgeable teacher has the advantage of References possessing a full command of the language over an untrained teacher. It is very essential for Aberccrombie, David. 1968. “Paralanguage.” Pakistani public and private educational British Journal of Disorders of institutions to arrange workshops and provide Communication 3(1):55-59. their teachers with opportunities to develop and Back man, L. F. 1990. Fundamental grow professionally. This will give them considerations in language testing, Reading, awareness about the use of English as a language MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company in classroom environment. Ball, Patricia. 2000. Paraverbal Communicative Competence, Howard: Howard University Task-based approach involves students to work in Press. pairs or groups and to use the acquired language Barbour, A. 1988. “Louder than words: Non- for the accomplishment of some task(s). verbal communication”. [On-line Journal] Communication activities focusing on a particular Available at: paralinguistic feature (e.g. stress, tone, intonation http://www.minoritycareernet.com etc.) should be enacted to enhance students’ Birdwhistell, Ray L. 1970. Kinesis in Context, fluency as well as provide them opportunities to University of Pennsylvania Press. use the learnt items in real life situation. Philadelphia. Paralinguistic features play a very vital role in Crystal, David. 1969. Prosodic Systems and communicative competence. Institutions should Intonation in English, Cambridge: Cambridge include these features particularly in their University Press. teaching courses and it should not be taken as a Dr. Friedman. 1976. Paraverbal side by learning. Intonation is the glue that holds Communication, Prentice- Hall International. the message together. It indicates which words Galloway, Vicki B. 1980. “Perceptions of the are important and enhances the meaning. communicative efforts of American students Therefore, a combination of both the top-down of Spanish.” The Modern Language Journal and bottom-up approaches yields much better 64 (4): 428-437. results and the teachers must be aware of this fact Hassan, Tariq, Malik. 2007. “Non-verbal and should inculcate the segmental and supra- communication: the language of motivation segmental both in teaching of paralinguistic for Pakistani students.” Indian Journal of non features. verbal communication 7(1): 67-78. Hall, Edward. T. 1959. The Silent Language, Garden City, New York: Doubleday. 281
Hymes, Dell. 1972. On Communicative Stevick, Earl W. 1982. Teaching and Learning Competence. In J. B. Pride and J. Holmes, Language, Cambridge: Cambridge University eds. Sociolinguistics. Harmondsworth, Press. England: Penguin Books. Thompson, James J. 1973. Beyond Words: J. Allen & S. Corder, 1973. Paralinguistic Nonverbal Communication in the Classroom, Communication. Readings in Applied New York: Citation Press. Linguistics, London: Oxford University Press. Knapp, M. 1972. Nonverbal Communication in Human Interaction. Reinhart and Winston Inc., New York. Krashen, Stephen D. 1987. Principles in second language Acquisition. Prentice-Hall International. Krashen, Stephen D. 1988. Principles in Second Language Acquisition. Prentice-Hall International. Loveday, Leo. 1982. The Sociolinguistics of Learning and Using a Non-native Language. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Lock, Andrew. March, 1999. Handbook of Infancy Research, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Mehrabian, A. 1971. “The Silent Messages”. Wadsworth, Belmont, California. [On-line] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Mehrabia n. Mehrabian, A. 1968. Communication Without Words, Psychology Today, 2, 53-55. Mehan, v. 1979. Behaviour in Language Classroom, New York: Citation Press. Motley, M. T. 1993. “Facial affect and verbal context in conversation: Facial Expression as interjection”. Human communication Reports, 9 (2., 127-137. Nine-Curt, Carmen J. 1976. Teacher Training Pack for a Course on Cultural Awareness, Cambridge: Kational Assessment and Dissemination Centre for Bilingual/ Bicultural Education. Nunan, D. 1995. Research Methodology in Language Learning, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pennycook, Alastair. 1985. “Actions Speak Louder Than Words: Paralanguage Communication and Education”. British journal of paralanguage communication 5 (1): 80-85.
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Presidential speech Mr Krishna Prasad Parajuli 33rd Annual Conference of the Linguistic Society of Nepal (LSN)
Honourable Chief Guest Shree Til Bikram 1. A glimpse of LSN activities Nembang (Bairagi Kainla), Chancellor, Nepal a. Meeting with the former Presidents and Chief Academy; distinguished guest Prof. Dr Ganesh Editors Man Gurung, Chairman, University Grants Commission; the key note speaker to 33rd annual Executive Committee of Linguistic Society of conference of the Linguistic Society of Nepal, Nepal organized a meeting on August 12, 2012 at Prof. Dr. K. V. Subba Rao; Dr Ram Chandra the Seminar Hall, Central Department of Dhakal, Director, CEDA; Shree Nani Ram Khatri, Linguistics (CDL), Tribhuvan University (TU) Director, CNAS; Chief Editor of the Journal of with the former Presidents and the Chief Editors Nepalese Linguistics Volume 27 and Head of of the Journal of Nepalese Linguistics. Main Central Department of Linguistics Dr Dan Raj concern of the meeting was for the enhancement Regmi; former presidents; chief editors and of the society. The meeting had been successful executive committee members; Linguistic Society as the former Presidents and Chief Editors of Nepal; Vice- President, Linguistic Society of assured the Executive Committee that they would Nepal; Life members, Linguistic Society of support the Committee from their respective Nepal; distinguished linguists; scholars; paper fields for the enhancement of the Society. presenters; participants from home and abroad; media persons; ladies and gentlemen. b. Talk programme Linguistic Society of Nepal and Central First of all I express my sincere thanks to all the life members of Linguistic Society of Nepal for Department of Linguistics at Tribhuvan electing me the President of the Society in its 3rd University jointly organized a talk programme on Computational grammar development: What is it annual general meeting held on 10th of Asar 2069. At the same time, I owe to Prof. Dr Kamal good for? on 7th September 2012 (069/05/22) Prakash Malla, Prof. Dr Chura Mani Bandhu, Friday at Central Department of Linguistics, TU. The Expert of the talk programme was Prof. Dr Late Prof. Dr Ballav Mani Dahal, Dr Ramawatar Yadav, Dr Subhadra Subba, Prof. Dr Abhi Miriam Butt, University of Konstanz, Germany. Subedi, Prof. Nirmal Man Tuladhar, Linguists, computer scientists, research scholars, faculty members and students from Tribhuvan Prof. Chandra Prakash Sharma, Prof. Dr Tej University, Kathmandu University, and Ratna Kansakar, Prof. Dr Rameshwor P participants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Adhikari, Prof. Dr Yogendra Prasad Yadava, Germany were also present during the talk. Prof. Dr Madhav Prasad Pokhrel, Prof. Dr. Novel K. Rai, Jai Raj Awasthi, Prof. Dr Govinda Raj c. Workshop/Seminar Bhattarai, my dear gurus and Dr Dan Raj Regmi The Society organized a one day for their dedication and commitment towards the workshop/seminar at Centre for Nepal and Asian Society and inspiration to the young researchers Studies (CNAS) on 28th September, 2012. The in this field. workshop was conducted by Prof. Dr Madhav The 33rd annual conference of the Society is a Prasad Pokhrel on Issues in grammar and continuation of the august gathering, which has linguistics and Prof. Dr Abhi Subedi on Speech and writing: Various perspectives. been uninterruptedly organized since its establishment in 1979. It has always been a 2. Major achievements in the field of Nepalese forum, where national and international scholars Linguistics discuss various issues with respect to different areas of linguistics and come to a conclusion. a. 'The setting up the first and only department of linguistics in the entire nation, which is a Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 28, 2013, pp. 281-285 'home' of a large number of languages and c. Uninterrupted publication of the Journal of dialects…'. is one of the major achievements. Nepalese Linguistics, which is the result of the Thanks to those who spent their time and series of discussions held in the annual energy in establishing the department. conferences of the Society. b. Initiation of Linguistic Survey of Nepal d. Harmonious relationship with Nepal Academy, (LinSuN) University Grants Commission, National Planning Commission, Central Department of Central Department of Linguistics in association Linguistics, English and other departments with the National Planning Commission and other and research wings CNAS and CEDA at institutions/organizations has conducted the Tribhuvan University, National Foundation sociolinguistic survey of Nepali, Maithili, Newar, for the Development of Indigenous Kham, Magar, Gurung, Chhantyal, Raji, Raute, Nationalities (NFDIN), Summer Institute of Khona, Sona, Bajhangi, Baitadeli, Achhami, Linguistics (SIL) International and many other Dotyali, Dagaura Tharu, Rana Tharu, Avadi, government and non-government Bhojpuri, Chepang, Yakkha, Chhilong Lapcha, organizations. This has broadened the horizon Kaike, Jirel, Kumal, Bote, Bhujel and Santhali of linguistics and linguistic activities in Nepal. languages (Regmi: 2012 personal communication). e. Documentation of the Chhintang, Puma and Baram languages. In addition to sociolinguistic study, we have to begin to research in other areas in consonance f. Initiation of the web journal Himalayan with objectives of LiNSuN. The objectives of Linguistics. Its issue 10.1 is a special issue in LiNSuN were to: memory of late Michael Noonan and late David Watters. i. develop sociolinguistic profile of all the languages of Nepal, g. Publication of the Ethnologue: Languages of Nepal with Nepali translation ii. produce a basic description of at least ten languages (at least of Nepal one description in However, as pointed out by Subba: 2009, in her each cluster) that includes an understanding of the key note speech delivered at the 30th annual sound system, observation of the grammar, and a conference of LSN, over the passage of three trilingual glossary, decades we are still standing at the same place, and whether we linguists have been able to fulfill iii. develop and maintain a complete database of the our duty to our country in sorting out correct languages of Nepal, priorities. We have still to make a strenuous effort iv. develop a description of the use of mother tongues in this respect. in education (formal and non-formal) as a means 3. Documentation and revitalization of to better understand the development needed for linguistic diversity and mother tongue mother tongue curricula in the national education education system and the proposal on methodology, management, human resource and training LSN urges the nation to protect and promote the requirements, analytical team, expected outcome linguistic rights of its people and the need for the and time frame expressed in the proposal of documentation of linguistic diversity and LinSuN (Yadava: Keynote speech delivered at implement all of them as revealed in the Interim the 29th annual conference of LSN, 2008 on Constitution of Nepal, 2007. It has stated that behalf of Linguistic Survey Management a. Each community shall have the right to get Committee (LISMAC). basic education in their mother tongue as I would like to express my sincere thanks to all provided for in the law. (Education and the initiators of LinSuN. Cultural Right: Article 17:1).
282 b. Each community residing in Nepal shall have Case marking in Balami, Tense and aspect in the the right to preserve and promote its language, Chhulung language, Differences in eastern and script, culture, cultural civility and heritage western Dhimal, Linguistic situation of Kulung, (Interim Constitution of Nepal, 2007: language contact in Sikkim, Motivations for Education and Cultural Right: Article 17:3). mixing codes and scripts in television commercials, Ethnolinguistic identity of c. The State shall, while maintaining the cultural Chepangs, Interplay of language, culture and diversity of the country, pursue a policy of identity, Magar toponyms in Tamuwan, Towards strengthening the national unity by promoting meronymic hierarchies of ‘body part terms’ in healthy and cordial social relations, based on Nepali, A lexical comparison of Maithili and equality and coexistence, amongst the various Bengla: An etymological study, Lexical religions, cultures, castes, groups, reduplication in the Chitoniya Tharu, Toponyms communities, origins and linguistic groups, in the Magar from Rukum and Rolpa, Clause and by helping in the equal promotion of their combining in Baram, Clause combining in Dumi, languages, literatures, scripts, arts and cultures Adverbial clauses in Darai, Tense, aspect and (Interim constitution of Nepal, 2007: State modality in Santhali, Temporal and locative Policies: article 35:3). clauses in Maithili and English: A comparative 4. Sessions and papers study, Irregularities in control: A cross-linguistic functional explanation, From spatial to subject There will be fifteen parallel and two plenary marker, Contact induced changes in Bhujel, sessions in which presenters from home and Multilingualism in Kaike, Dialects used by the abroad will discuss their researches on historical Miyan Moimansingia Muslims people of Assam, linguistics and typology, phonetics, phonology, Sociolinguistic situation of Kurux language, syntax, morphology, semantics and history, Language and culture, Ethnologue: A pragmatic applied linguistics, methods and language policy, birds-eye view of the languages of Nepal, discourse, non-vocal communication, language, Perception and production of English tense/lax register, lexicography and mother tongue vowel contrasts by Koreans, Teaching a foreign education, language processing and language language in a multi-lingual classroom, alignment technology, and lexical studies comprising of of objectives, instructional strategies and more than 35 languages. assessment in an EFL class, Importance of We have, for example, papers like: Can RRG paralanguage in learning English as second explain the emergence of finite/non-finite language, Clitic -e in Bhojpuri, Verbal and distinction in the 14th-century Newari?, ‘The tail’ nonverbal predicates in Puma, Noun classes in in classical Newari lexicon and the proto-Tibeto- Dangaura Tharu, Case system in Tharu, Space Burman root, null pronouns or rich inflection? beyond time: Ways of detecting knowledge, Hints from diachrony, Typology of verb Affixation and compounding in Hakka, Working agreement in the languages of Nepal, About 3 with the last speakers of Baram ways of dying of hunger in Lithuanian, Composite Intergenerational transfer among Yamphu group as the units of speech production in Nepali, speakers in Nepal, A socio-linguistic survey of The history and dimensions of Kusunda study, Lohorung, Is woman’s language different?, A Contact Nepali in Kathmandu valley: study on mother tongue maintenance by Juang Convergence between TB & IA languages, children, The methodology for collecting data Linguistic identity of the Charuwā speech used by Linguistic Survey of Nepal (LinSuN): community of Assam, Linguistic exclusion in Doddles and challenges, Sociolinguistic survey: Madhesh: A case of Maithili speaking people, challenges and opportunities, Using participatory Writing system in Tamang: An experience of methods among Tharu communities in southwest challenges and practice, Compoundization of Nepal, Can the idea of a multimodal online verbs in Bodo and Assamese language, platform be a part of the national policies for Negativization in Churete, Person number and language, culture and education in Nepal? gender of Bodo, Affixation in Kurux language, 283
Preserving indigenous knowledge and cultural e. The promotion of linguistic and cultural heritage in Lavua, Thailand, Self documentation harmony is a must because language is of languages using mobile application, Mystery of ultimately only a means that functions in Russian riddle, The use of Nepali: Its cultural and society, and the study and the researches social power in the guru of love and Buddha’s related to language are not merely theoretical orphans, Plain language for lawyers, Participant subjects of discussion and debates, rights and tracking in Nepali sign language narrative, Tiwa duties, they should be utilized as powerful language: A study, Nepali news classification instrument for nurturing and strengthening based on VSM, Comparison of unsupervised social harmony as well. algorithms applied to morpheme analysis for f. We have to make the government realize that Nepali. Comparison of NeLRaLEC and MPP tag LSN is a forum of expertise required to sets for Nepali. preserve and promote different languages as 5. Issues raised in the previous conferences of such they have to be invited to design courses LSN and materials for mother tongue education as envisaged by the government. (Bhattarai: Since the establishment of LSN, it has been Presidential address delivered at the 30th raising numerous issues in its annual conferences. annual conference of LSN, 2009) Some of the issues raised in the conference have been addressed. Like the establishment of Central g. Languages in which there are only a few Department of Linguistics, initiation of Linguistic speakers have to be immediately documented Survey of Nepal. and languages like Dura have to be revitalized (Regmi: Presidential address delivered at the I want to share with you the issues raised by 31st annual conference of LSN, 2010) former presidents of the Society and reiterate them here. 6. More issues ahead a. It is essential to establish a Central Institute or a. In order to materialize the dream of its life Foundation of languages dedicated to the members, there is an urgent need of a piece of study and research of all the languages of land for the construction of its building. Nepal (Rai: Presidential address delivered at b. Generation of resources the 26th annual conference of LSN, 2005) c. Prepare policy guidelines and hand them over b. LSN and Central Department of Linguistics to the concerned authorities of the government have jointly made a proposal to the concerned and other organizations. authority for the foundation of a Language Academy in order to plan and formulate At this very moment, I promise that we would try policies for languages (Awasthi: Presidential to strengthen the activities of the Society more address delivered at the 27th annual and keep up the tradition to fulfill its mission conference of LSN and 12th Himalayan despite the fact that Nepal is still in the critical Languages Symposium, 2006) phase both politically and economically. c. The establishment of Language Academy, for I remember the generous support extended to us which the linguistic communities have shown by many individuals, institutions and their serious concern time and again, is very organizations at this juncture to make this event urgent call of time. successful. On behalf of Linguistic Society of Nepal, I express my gratitude to Nepal Academy d. The development of Nepali as a second for the financial support to publish the 27th language curriculum with widely expanding Volume of the Journal of Nepalese Linguistics. Nepali Diasporas and the different linguistic Similarly, I express my sincere thanks to groups of the nation in mind needs University Grants Commission, Central accelerating. Department of Linguistics, Tribhuvan University Office of the VC, Central Department of English, 284
Central Department of Sociology/Anthropology, Sajha Prakashan, Madan Bhandari Memorial College, Summer Institution of Linguistics (SIL) International, Cambridge University Press India Pvt. Ltd., Bhrikuti Academic Publications, Sunkoshi Chhapakhana Pvt. Ltd. Kanjirowa National School, Arunima Educational Foundation, Leisure World Tours and Travels, Jubilant College, Creative Academy, Einstein Academy, Parikar Catering, Image Printers, Centre for Economic Development and Administration (CEDA), session moderators, former presidents LSN, life members LSN, paper presenters, contributors and many more for their moral, logistic and financial support to make this mega event a successful one. I would also like to thank Dr Dan Raj Regmi, Chief Editor of Nepalese Linguistics volume 27, Dr Balaram Prasin and Mr Ramesh Khatri the editors for their painstaking and untiring effort in bringing this volume in your hands. Please bear with us for any inconveniences caused. Once again I would like to welcome to all the guests from home and abroad and wish their pleasant stay in Kathmandu. Thank you very much for your patience.
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List of the life members of linguistic society of Nepal
1. Honorary members Bal Gopal Shrestha, CNAS, Kirtipur. Bal Mukunda Bhandari, Department of English Austin Hale Education, Kirtipur Balkrishna Pokharel
Bishnu Raj Pandey, Kathmandu. Gopal Thakur, Kachornia-1, Bara, Boyd Michailovsky, France,
Kamal Prasad Sapkota, Madan Bhandari Lekhnath Khanal, Hillbird English School, Memorial College, Email: Chitwan. [email protected] Lekhnath Sharma Pathak, CDL, Kirtipur,
Niruja Phuyal, Madan Bhandari Memorial Ram Raj Lohani, CDL, Kirtipur, College, Binayaknagar, New Banewhwor.
Subhadra Subba, Kirtipur. CNAS Centre for Nepal and Asian Studies Sueyoshi Toba, G. P.O. Box 991, Kathmandu, DEE Department of English Education
Abbreviations used in this list CDC Curriculum Development Centre CDE Central Department of English CDL Central Department of Linguistics CDN Central Department of Nepali CIL Campus of International Languages 290