The Koch of Bangladesh: a Sociolinguistic Survey

DigitalResources Electronic Survey Report 2011-023

THE KOCH OF BANGLADESH: A SOCIOLINGUISTIC SURVEY

Seung Kim Sayed Ahmad Amy Kim Mridul Sangma

THE KOCH OF BANGLADESH: A SOCIOLINGUISTIC SURVEY

Seung Kim Sayed Ahmad Amy Kim Mridul Sangma

SIL International® 2011

CONTENTS

List of abbreviations Preface 1. Introduction 1.1. Purposes and goals 1.1.1. Study of the language varieties 1.1.2. Language attitudes and vitality study 1.1.3. Bilingualism study 1.2. Location 1.3. History and people 1.4. Language 2. Summary of findings 2.1. Study of the language varieties 2.2. Language attitudes and vitality study 2.3. Bilingualism study 3. Study of the language varieties 3.1. Procedures 3.2. Discussion of sample 3.3. Results 4. Language attitudes and vitality study 4.1. Procedures 4.2. Discussion of sample 4.3. Results 4.3.1. Language use – in spoken domains 4.3.2. Language use – in written domains 4.3.3. Language attitudes – regarding language use 4.3.4. Language attitudes – towards language classes 4.3.5. Language vitality 5. Bilingualism study 5.1. Perceived bilingualism 5.1.1. Procedures 5.1.2. Discussion of sample 5.1.3. Results 5.2. Measured Bangla bilingualism 5.2.1. Procedures 5.2.2. Discussion of sample 5.2.3. Results 6. Recommendations Bangla translations of section 1.1, section 2, and section 6 Appendix A: Wordlists Appendix B: Questionnaires Appendix C: Sociolinguistic questionnaire responses Appendix D: Bangla sentence repetition test Appendix E. Subject biodata Appendix F: Koch community information Bibliography 3

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CIQ = community information questionnaire MLE = multi-lingual education MT = mother tongue RPE = reported proficiency evaluation SRT = sentence repetition test

PREFACE

As part of SIL Bangladesh’s projects to develop the minority languages of Bangladesh, we researched the Koch language community. This report is the fruit of the field research conducted in April and August 2005.

The research would not have been possible without the help of many, especially Sayed Ahmad and Mridul Sangma, who worked so well and uncomplainingly alongside us to gather and input data. But we want to reserve our deepest appreciation for the people and leaders of Kholchanda, Nokshi, Uttor Nokshi, Khatachura, and Chandabhoi who extended warm welcomes and gave their cooperation. We want to thank them for making themselves available for this work, and more than that, for accepting us so readily. We remain humbled by their genuine warmth.

Seung and Amy Kim Language Survey Specialists SIL Bangladesh November 2005 Dhaka, Bangladesh 5

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. Purposes and goals

The purpose of this sociolinguistic survey was to gather information that would be useful in planning a language development program for the Koch of Bangladesh. While SIL Bangladesh believes that the ultimate decision for undertaking such a program belongs to the Koch community, we also recognize that sometimes the initiative has to come from outside the community and that implementation is also best done through partnerships with interested experts. Thus, our purpose is to serve the Koch community and any interested partners by providing current and useful information. To meet this purpose, we approached a sociolinguistic survey of the Koch in Bangladesh with the following goals:

• To investigate linguistic variation within each of the varieties and across the main varieties of Koch in Bangladesh (Tintekiya and Chapra) • To determine Koch speakers’ attitudes towards their own language variety and towards other varieties • To assess the long-term viability of Koch • To assess Koch speakers’ abilities in Bangla

To accomplish these goals, this sociolinguistic survey of the Koch of Bangladesh was carried out in three interrelated parts: 1) a study of the language varieties spoken by the Koch, 2) a language attitudes and vitality study, and 3) a bilingualism study. Figure 1 gives a summary of the sociolinguistic methods used in this survey.

Figure 1: Overview of methods

Study Method Brief description Focus Sample size • Lexical variation • 3 Tintekiya within each Koch Study of the Lexical language variety • 1 Chapra language similarity 307-item wordlist • varieties comparison Lexical similarity Koch across language • 2 A’tong varieties • Language • 36 subjects preferences from 3 • Attitudes towards villages various language Language Sociolinguistic A 24-item varieties attitudes and questionnaire questionnaire • vitality study Language use patterns • Long-term viability of Koch varieties in Bangladesh • Perceived ability in • 36 subjects Sociolinguistic A 5-item any second from 3 questionnaire questionnaire language villages Bilingualism A 15-sentence • • study SRT (Sentence Measured ability to 48 subjects test calibrated to Repetition speak Bangla from 2 RPE levels 1 to Test) villages 4+

1.1.1. Study of the language varieties

The first method, or tool, used was a 307-item wordlist taken at three Tintekiya Koch villages (Kholchanda and Nokshi in Bangladesh, plus Chandabhoi in India) and one Chapra Koch village (Uttor Nokshi in Bangladesh). Each of these lists was compared with every other in order to determine the lexical similarity between them. Each wordlist was also compared to a standard Bangla wordlist to gain an understanding of the extent of borrowing that is taking place from Bangla into the Koch varieties. See Appendix A.1 for standard procedures for counting lexical similarity.

1.1.2. Language attitudes and vitality study

A sociolinguistic questionnaire was used to assess patterns of language use among the Koch, their attitudes towards their own and other languages, and the long-term vitality of each language variety. This information gives an indication as to whether the Koch community would accept and use materials translated into their own language variety or into another language variety which is highly intelligible with their own. The sociolinguistic questionnaire is given in Appendix B.

1.1.3. Bilingualism study

A Bangla SRT was specifically developed to assess the level of bilingualism among minority language speakers in Bangladesh. This test focuses on people’s ability to speak in Bangla, although it also gives an indication of people’s Bangla comprehension ability. In addition to using the Bangla SRT to measure Koch speakers’ Bangla ability, five questions from the sociolinguistic questionnaire mentioned were used to assess how they perceive their abilities in Bangla as well as other language varieties.

In addition, the Community Information Questionnaire (CIQ) was used to gather information about language vitality and the depth and breadth of bilingualism. See Appendix D.1 for standard SRT procedures; see Appendix B.3 for the CIQ and Appendix F for the community information itself.

1.2. Location

The Koch of Bangladesh live in the plains of Sherpur district in Dhaka division, mostly near the Indian border (see Figures 2 and 3). According to one leader, the Tintekiya Koch in Bangladesh live in three subdistricts of Sherpur district (see Figure 4). Also, the Chapra Koch apparently live in only Jhinaigati subdistrict, and their largest population on this side of the border is just a kilometer north of Nokshi and is appropriately named Uttor Nokshi. We also visited a Koch village called Khatachura in Gazipur thana, but there they seemed to have largely lost the language and live in isolation from the main Koch community in Sherpur district.

Figure 2: General location of the Koch in Bangladesh

Figure 3: Approximate location of Koch villages researched

Figure 4: Names of Koch villages within three subdistricts of Sherpur district

Subdistrict (Thana) Village Language spoken Sribordi Hatibor Tintekiya Koch Balajori Tintekiya Koch Kharajora Tintekiya Koch Jhinaigati Jokakora Tintekiya Koch Parbor Tintekiya Koch Bakakora Tintekiya Koch Purbo Bakakora Tintekiya Koch Baluka Tintekiya Koch Dokkhin Gandigao Tintekiya Koch Uttor Gandigao Tintekiya Koch Halchati Tintekiya Koch Gajni Tintekiya Koch Nokshi Tintekiya Koch Uttor Nokshi Chapra Koch Dhaudhara Chapra Koch Khornajhara Chapra Koch Dephlai Tintekiya Koch Shalchura Tintekiya Koch Rangtia Tintekiya Koch Boro Rangtia Tintekiya Koch Nalitabari Somochura Tintekiya Koch Kholchanda Tintekiya Koch

1.3. History and people

It is a great shame that we cannot write much on the specific history of the Koch people, for there are very few primary or even secondary sources written about their origins, developments, movements, accomplishments, travails—in short, all those elements that make up the unique and interesting story of any ethnolinguistic group. As a poor substitute for that story, we offer a few sketchy facts.

First, a point of possible confusion should be cleared up. The Koch we surveyed are not the same as the Rajbangsi who are also sometimes called the Koch. The Rajbangsi have the Cooch (Koch) Bihar area of West Bengal, India, as their historical and contemporary center, and speak an Indo-Aryan language that is related to Bangla (Gordon 2005:384). The Rajbangsi also live in Bangladesh, mainly in Dinajpur division (Gordon 2005:322), but they are completely unrelated to the Koch of our survey.

While there’s no specific resource on the origins of the Koch, it is probably that their ancestors—that is, as a part of the more general group of the Boros—moved down to present- day India/Bangladesh from northwest China long before the Indo-Aryan speaking groups (http://www.geocities.com/ndfb2001/history.htm). Their physical features seem to support this, as the Koch resemble the Chinese and other Mongoloid people groups. Thus, they were not Hindus originally, but over the years most Koch have become Hindus, thereby making them a religious as well as an ethnolinguistic minority in Bangladesh. (In fact, we have even heard people make the unsubstantiated claim that the Koch are Garos who became Hindus.)

Like most people in Bangladesh, the Koch make their living as farmers, either working their own land or working as day laborers. Consequently, the vast majority of the Koch still live in villages, and still lead a largely traditional mode of life, including such practices as weaving clothing and making houses of hardened mud.

1.4. Language

Koch can be linguistically classified in the following way: Sino-Tibetan, Tibeto-Burman, Jingpho-Konyak-Bodo, Konyak-Bodo-Garo, Bodo-Garo, Koch. (See Figure 5 for a partial diagram of the language classification.) Viewed from the top of the language tree, it shares broad family traits with other Tibeto-Burman languages like Garo, Kok Borok, Bawm, Meitei, Murung, and several varieties of Chin that are also found in Bangladesh; viewed from the bottom, there are several varieties of Koch (e.g. Harigaya Koch, Satpariya Koch) that share a more particular and stronger family resemblance. Also, a variety of Garo called A’tong is actually more closely related to the Koch varieties than to the other Garo varieties.

The political boundary that divides Bangladesh from India means little to linguistic identity. The Tintekiya Koch language in India—in particular, in Meghalaya—is the same as that of Bangladesh. This kind of linguistic similarity, achieved without even much sustained contact across the border, speaks of the stability of languages in the face of political and social upheaval. This might be called remarkable, for there are many languages that undergo shift and death in spite of political and social stability.

Figure 5: Language classification of Koch

TIBETO- BURMAN

Bodo-Garo

Koch

A’tong Tintekiya Koch Chapra Koch

2. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

2.1. Study of the language varieties

A comparison of wordlists showed 89–95% lexical similarity among the Tintekiya Koch villages and suggests that the language is quite uniform, even across the border in India. However, between the Tintekiya Koch villages and the lone Chapra village that was surveyed, there was only a 47–51% lexical similarity. Results also showed that A’tong, a variety of Garo thought to be similar to Koch, has an average of only 41% similarity with the Tintekiya Koch and only a 32% similarity with Chapra Koch. See Section 3 for details of the results and Appendix A for the wordlists.

2.2. Language attitudes and vitality study

Koch is widely used among the Koch people living in northwestern Dhaka division. In Koch villages outside of this area, however, the Koch language appears to be out of use in Bangladesh. Where Koch is still in use in Bangladesh, both Tintekiya Koch and Chapra Koch speakers have a somewhat positive attitude toward their mother tongues. At the same time they acknowledge a desire for Bangla to play an important part in their children’s lives, both in primary school and also in the children’s everyday lives.

In Bangladesh both Tintekiya Koch and Chapra Koch are undergoing change, but the change is more rapid for Chapra Koch. Many Chapra Koch speakers are exposed to both Bangla and Garo for most of their lives, and the lexical similarity comparison shows that many Bangla words are already in common use among those speaking Chapra Koch. With a very small number of mother tongue speakers living in Bangladesh, it is likely that Chapra Koch will be increasingly influenced by Bangla—and to a lesser extent by Garo. This will result in significant language change which could eventually lead to language loss.

While also at risk of undergoing significant language shift, Tintekiya Koch appears to be more vital than Chapra Koch. The Tintekiya Koch population in Bangladesh, though small, is larger than the Chapra Koch population, and there is also a large population of Tintekiya Koch speakers in India, which gives strength to the language overall. Also, in Bangladesh the Tintekiya Koch tend to live in villages where the majority of people are Tintekiya Koch, so at least within their villages their language is dominant. Thus, although it is likely that Tintekiya Koch in Bangladesh will also be increasingly influenced by Bangla, the rate at which Tintekiya Koch may change will be slower.

2.3. Bilingualism study

The Koch in northwestern Dhaka division live in a multilingual situation in which nearly all Koch speakers speak some Bangla and many also speak other neighboring languages such as Hajong and Garo. Most, however, continue to speak their mother tongue as their best language and do not speak standard Bangla well enough to be able to use either written or oral Bangla literature adequately.

The level of a Koch person’s education appears to be the single most important factor in determining his proficiency in standard Bangla. As they as a group become more educated in Bangla-medium schools and as the younger generation grows up and replaces the older generation, more Koch people should be able to use Bangla literature well. This change, 13 however, will take place slowly unless a much greater number of children in this generation go to school through at least class eight. Unless a significant change like this takes place in the Koch community, the Koch in northwestern Dhaka division will likely continue to be unable to use Bangla literature well.

3. STUDY OF THE LANGUAGE VARIETIES

3.1. Procedures

Comparing the vocabulary of language varieties is one way to measure the lexical similarity among them. During this survey, lexical similarities were calculated as a percentage of words from a 307-item list which resemble each other in sound (Blair 1990:28–29). In each village, a wordlist was gathered from one person, but always there were others around the primary wordlist giver who could confirm or correct the word given. Thus, a separate wordlist from a second person was not needed. The researchers transcribed the wordlists using the International Phonetic Alphabet. They then compared the wordlists by following the established procedures outlined in Appendix A.1. The WordSurv© computer program designed by SIL (Wimbish 1989) was used to do the final lexical similarity calculations.

3.2. Discussion of sample

Wordlists were taken at the following villages from speakers who had lived there for a number of years: Kholchanda, Nokshi, and Chandabhoi for the Tintekiya Koch; Uttor Nokshi for Chapra Koch; and Bhoratpur and Namchapra for the A’tong. (A’tong is a variety of Garo which is said to be closest linguistically to Koch varieties.) These villages were chosen to capture a representative geographical sample of the language varieties being studied.

Nokshi was chosen as a wordlist site because it represents one of the largest Tintekiya Koch villages within the thana (subdistrict) with the highest number of Tintekiya Koch villages. It is also clearly in the western half of the area where they reside. Kholchanda was chosen because it is located in the easternmost part of the greater Tintekiya Koch community. (See Section 1.2 for maps.) We felt that if the lexical similarity in these villages was high, then it was likely that it would be similarly high across the whole community within Bangladesh. In addition, we went to Chandabhoi in India to be able to compare the Tintekiya spoken there.

Since the A’tong do not live as scattered as the Tintekiya Koch, Bhoratpur and Namchapra were chosen simply because they are two main villages whose predominant population is A’tong.

Uttor Nokshi was chosen as the Chapra Koch wordlist site because, even with only ten Chapra families, this is reportedly the largest Chapra settlement in Bangladesh.

Generally, only one full wordlist was taken from each site. However, as hinted, there was always more than one source of information. In cases where two different but valid words were given by two people, both were accepted.

3.3. Results

Figure 6 shows the results from analyzing the wordlists from the Koch and A’tong villages mentioned. The letter in parentheses is that village’s code letter for the wordlists given in Appendix A.3. A comparison of these six wordlists to a standard Bangla wordlist is also given.

Figure 6: Lexical similarity chart

b Nokshi 95 c Kholchanda Tintekiya Koch 89 90 r Chandabhoi

47 47 51 q Uttor Nokshi Chapra Koch

41 41 41 33 l Bhoratpur A’tong 40 40 42 31 82 m Nolchapra

17 17 20 29 10 11 0 Bangla

Most of the data is straightforward and not unexpected. There is high similarity among the Tintekiya Koch villages, even including the Indian village of Chandabhoi. Even though there is reportedly not a high degree of contact across the border, it seems that the language has largely remained the same, probably because they don’t live very far away from each other (less than 50 kilometers) and because there are also enough speakers of the language to maintain it.

The 17% similarity with Bangla shown at Nokshi and Kholchanda is high; considering that Koch and Bangla belong to completely different language families, all the similar words must be borrowings. This shows that Bangla has had a significant influence on the Koch language. We would of course expect Bangla to influence any language in Bangladesh, but the 17% seems high. Also, it is interesting that the wordlist taken in Chandabhoi contained a higher percentage of Bangla words (20%) than those taken at Nokshi and Kholchanda; as we found out, Bangla is a widely-used language in Meghalaya’s southern border area and seemingly has a similar influence on the Koch language there.

But the most surprising piece of data is that there is only a 47–51% similarity between Tintekiya Koch and Chapra Koch. Even between Nokshi and Uttor Nokshi—two villages less than two kilometers apart—there was only 47% similarity. What made it even more surprising was that the speakers in Uttor Nokshi had told us that the two languages were quite similar—that they could understand each other easily. From their perspective, this could be true. It is very possible and even likely that they have learned to speak Tintekiya Koch through close contact (and intermarriage) and can hold common everyday conversations (especially if there’s a fair amount of Bangla thrown in). But the lexical similarity seems to suggest that they may not be inherently intelligible. It could be that the similarity is artificially low because the Chapra Koch wordlist has a 29% similarity with Bangla. This suggests that the speakers at Uttor Nokshi substituted Bangla words for their own. Thus, in words like “name” (#141), “village” (#142), “paper” (#154) and others (e.g. #122, #130, #140), the Tintekiya Koch gave a non-Bangla word whereas the Chapra Koch gave the Bangla word. Of course, this should be balanced by the fact that there were instances where both gave Bangla words, which would have raised the similarity percentage artificially.

Questions 7a-c on the sociolinguistic questionnaire attempted to discover subjects’ perception of language variation among the Koch. Of the 36 subjects, 12 said there were Koch speakers who spoke differently than they. Of the 12, seven said that they could understand most or all of the speech of those Koch speakers, while five said that they could understand only half or little. Thus, according to reported perception, most Koch do not experience much difficulty in communicating among themselves; overall, they feel that the Koch spoken throughout 16

Bangladesh is largely the same. Thus, while two people (subjects N14 and N15) reported that they could understand only half or little of the speech of the Chapra Koch living in Uttor Nokshi (whom they called Banai Koch), another person (subject K4) said he could understand all of the Chapra Koch living in Dhaudhara. This can most likely be explained by the fact that there is acquired intelligibility of Tintekiya Koch by Chapra Koch speakers, so when the Chapra Koch speak with the Tintekiya Koch, they likely switch to using Tintekiya Koch. Also, the fact that they mix Bangla with their Koch would aid in understanding.

Finally, the relationship between Koch and A’tong does not seem to be very close (31–42% similarity). Or more accurately, there is some sort of a relationship, but it is not one of inherent intelligibility. 17

4. LANGUAGE ATTITUDES AND VITALITY STUDY

4.1. Procedures

A study of language attitudes is generally carried out in an effort to ascertain people’s perceptions of the different speech varieties with which they have contact. By studying how various languages are perceived, it is possible to get an idea of how positive or negative people are towards their own language and towards other language varieties.

A study of language vitality is designed to assess the probability of whether a language will be used by mother tongue speakers in the future. This is done by asking subjects which language(s) they use in various domains, everyday situations in which one language variety is considered more appropriate than another (Fasold 1984:183). Studying language vitality is also done by comparing language use across generations and studying children’s language abilities. Such an assessment is an important part of the recommendations of a sociolinguistic report because any recommendations regarding language and literature development are dependent upon the projected long-term vitality of the language.

A sociolinguistic questionnaire was administered as a way of gathering language attitudes and vitality information. There were also questions concerning bilingualism and language variation, the results of which are discussed in their corresponding sections. The questions were generally asked in Bangla. If a given subject was not fluent in Bangla, the questions were asked in his mother tongue. The questionnaire is found in Appendix B.1. while subject responses are given in Appendix C.

In addition to the sociolinguistic questionnaire, observation and informal interviews were used to gain further understanding into the language attitudes and vitality situation of the Koch in Bangladesh.

4.2. Discussion of sample

The sociolinguistic questionnaire was administered to a total of 36 Koch people in three villages in Bangladesh. Two of these were Tintekiya Koch villages, and a third was a Chapra Koch village. The subjects were chosen based on age, sex, and education levels so as to get a wide variety of subjects. Among the 36 subjects 20 were male and 16 were female. Eleven subjects were educated (defined as having completed 8 th standard) and 25 subjects had not completed 8 th standard and therefore were categorized at “uneducated.” Furthermore, 18 subjects were younger (defined as less than 35 years old), and 18 were “older.” Twenty-nine of the subjects said they follow their traditional Sonaton religion while three said they are Hindu. There was no data regarding four of the subjects’ religion.

The mother tongue of 27 of the subjects was Tintekiya Koch, and the mother tongue of nine of the subjects was Chapra Koch. Finally, the mother tongue of each of the Tintekiya Koch subjects’ fathers and mothers was also Tintekiya Koch. Similarly, the mother tongue of each of the Chapra Koch subjects’ fathers and mothers was Chapra Koch with the exception of one young man whose father was Tintekiya. Biographical data for each sociolinguistic questionnaire subject is given in Appendix E.2.

The three locations where the questionnaire was administered were chosen as representative of the areas within Bangladesh where Koch is spoken. Two Tintekiya Koch villages were 18 chosen: Nokshi village in Jhinaigati sub-district and Kholchanda village in Nalitabari subdistrict. Within Bangladesh Nokshi is in the central-western part of where Tintekiya Koch is spoken, and Kholchanda is on the eastern edge of where Tintekiya Koch is spoken. Also, Nokshi is less remote than is Kholchanda.

The one Chapra Koch village that was selected for questionnaire administration was Uttor Nokshi, which is near Nokshi village in Jhinaigati sub-district. This village was chosen because—although it has only about 10 Chapra Koch families—it is reportedly the largest Chapra Koch village in Bangladesh.

Informal interviews took place in the above-mentioned villages as well as in other places such as Kathachura in Gazipur district and Chandabhoi in the West Garo Hills, India.

4.3. Results

For all items in the questionnaire, data is presented for all 36 subjects combined. In addition, when responses are notably different according to mother tongue or a particular demographic factor, that is mentioned.

4.3.1. Language use – in spoken domains

To do a study of language attitudes and language vitality, it is useful to first be aware of people’s language use patterns, Thus, the sociolinguistic questionnaire contained five questions that asked subjects which language they speak most of the time in a given situation. There was also a question that asked subjects which language they speak most in a typical week. The aggregate of subjects’ answers is given in Figure 7. The results are given as a percentage of subjects who responded with the answer for each category. Because some subjects said they use more than one language “most of the time” in some situations, the sum of percentages for some questions is greater than 100 percent.

Figure 7: Language use among the Koch Response Key: MT = mother tongue NA = not applicable

Question Response What language do you use most of the time… MT Bangla Garo Other NA …at home? 100% - - - - …with MT friends in your village? 97% 6% - - - …for puja/worship? 36% 69% - 6% - …in your village with non-MT friends? - 100% 11% 3% - …with shopkeepers in the market? - 97% - - 3% …in a typical week? 92% 14% - - -

Results from the language-use questions indicate that the Koch language—both Tintekiya and Chapra—is widely used in Koch villages in northern Bangladesh, especially for everyday conversations that take place in the home and with Koch neighbors. All subjects said they use Koch—and only Koch—most of the time at home, and all but one subject (97%) said they use Koch most of the time with Koch friends in their village. One subject said he uses his mother tongue and Bangla equally with Koch friends in the village, and another subject said 19

he uses Bangla most of the time with Koch friends in the village. Both of these subjects were uneducated Tintekiya men.

Apparently Koch is also sometimes used for doing Sonaton or Hindu worship as 36% of the subjects said they use their mother tongue in such a setting. A majority of the subjects (69%), however, did say they use Bangla for worship, and two subjects (6%) said they use Sanskrit most of the time for worship. Both of these subjects were younger, educated Tintekiya men. Some of these answers are likely a reflection of the language that Hindu priests use when they perform the worship ceremonies as opposed to the language the Koch subjects actually speak when attending such ceremonies.

While the Koch appear to use their mother tongue most of the time at home and with their Koch friends, they do use Bangla most of the time in other domains. Not surprisingly, all of the subjects said they speak Bangla with non-Koch friends in their village and also with shopkeepers in the market. (The latter question was not applicable for one older woman who said she never goes to the market.) In these situations the Koch use Bangla out of necessity since people in these settings generally do not speak Koch or understand it well.

It is worth noting that four of the nine Chapra subjects said they speak both Bangla and Garo with their non-Koch friends in their village. None of the Tintekiya subjects give this answer. This is a reflection of the fact that there were many Garo families living near the Chapra in Uttor Nokshi and also that the Chapra population there is relatively small compared to both the Garo in Uttor Nokshi and to the Tintekiya in Nokshi.

The final question about language use in a typical week indicates that many Koch speakers do still use their mother tongue most of the time. Of the 36 subjects, 33 (92%) gave this response while only five subjects (14%) said they use Bangla most of the time. These numbers include the responses of two subjects who said they use Koch and Bangla equally and could not say which one they use more.

Interestingly, all of the five subjects who said they use Bangla most in a typical week were Tintekiya men. That is, none of the Chapra and none of the women who were asked said they use Bangla more than their mother tongue. Among the five men who said they use Bangla more, there is not a correlation with age, education level, or location. Rather, it is likely that another factor such as occupation or the extent and areas to which they travel is affecting their language use.

All of these language use numbers indicate that Koch is still very widely used in the Koch villages in northwestern Dhaka division. It appears that Koch mother tongue speakers use Bangla primarily to communicate with non-Koch people, who do not speak Koch and thereby oblige the Koch to use Bangla. In Koch villages outside of this area of northwestern Dhaka division, however, the Koch language appears to be out of use in Bangladesh. Kathachura village of Gazipur district, for example, is a village composed of people who are ethnically Koch, but they speak Bangla as their first, their best, and often their only language. Even the older people in Kathachura no longer use Koch and had a very difficult time recalling some common, everyday words in Koch.

In Chandabhoi, India, on the other hand, Tintekiya Koch appears to be used widely by a much larger population of mother tongue speakers. There are reportedly many Tintekiya speakers in Assam and West Bengal, too. 20

4.3.2. Language use – in written domains

Sociolinguistic questionnaire subjects were also asked two simple questions about their use of their mother tongue in written form. First they were asked about their literacy ability. Of the 36 questionnaire subjects, 16 (44%) said they are able to read and write letters and notices written in their mother tongue. The other 20 people (56%) said they are not literate in their mother tongue.

For this question about literacy ability, there was a discrepancy between the responses of the Tintekiya and the Chapra. Only one Chapra subject (11%) said she is able to read and write in Chapra, but 15 Tintekiya subjects (56%) said they are able to read and write in Tintekiya. This is likely a reflection of their overall education levels rather than of different levels of language development between the two groups.

Educated people were sought out for the sampling of this questionnaire so as to get a broad range of opinions. With 11 of the 36 subjects’ being educated through at least class 8, it is clear that the sample is not representative of the Koch population as a whole but is instead much more educated than the population. Even so, fewer than half of the subjects said they are literate in their mother tongue. The mother tongue literacy rate for the population as a whole would be considerably lower.

The 16 people who said they can read and write letters and notices in Koch were then asked which script they use to do so. All 16 (100%) said they use Bangla script, but one subject did say he uses both Bangla and Roman script to read and write Koch. This was a young, educated Tintekiya man. For most Koch speakers in Bangladesh, however, Bangla script is the only script—if any—that they know, so this is presently the only script option for them.

4.3.3. Language attitudes – regarding language use

Looking at people’s opinions about language use is useful in understanding their attitudes towards their own and other languages. Thus, in addition to being asked what languages they do use in various situations, sociolinguistic questionnaire subjects were asked what language they think should be used in three specific situations. A summary of responses to these questions is given in Figure 8.

Figure 8: Summary of responses to questions about what languages should be used Response Key: MT = mother tongue

Question Response What language should be used… MT Bangla Sanskrit …by a mother with her children? 97% 3% - …for worship? 53% 50% 6% …as the medium in primary school? 17% 83% -

The responses in Figure 8 show that most people think a Koch mother should speak her mother tongue with her children. Among the 36 subjects, only one person – a younger, educated Tintekiya woman – said a mother should speak Bangla with her children. This indicates that the Koch have pride in their language and want it to be used in the home.

Respondents were much more mixed, however, in their opinions about what language should be used for worship. Nineteen subjects (53%) said their mother tongue should be used while 21 nearly the same number (18 subjects: 50%) said Bangla should be used. An additional two subjects (6%) said Sanskrit should be used for worship. These responses may be a reflection not only of people’s opinions but also of the languages that those who perform worship or puja ceremonies actually use.

In looking at the responses people gave about the language they actually use for worship (see Figure 7), it is worth noting that more Koch people think their mother tongue should be used for worship than those who actually do use it. Thirty-six percent said they do use their mother tongue for worship, but 53% said their mother tongue should be used for worship. This is another indication that the Koch people have a positive attitude towards their own language as it seems they would like to use it more than they actually do.

On the other hand, the Koch seem to be fairly like-minded about wanting Bangla to be the medium of education in school. Eighty-three percent of the respondents (30 people) gave this response, and only 17% (6 people) said Koch should be used as the primary school medium of instruction. Interestingly, all six of these people were Tintekiya Koch. Perhaps the small population of Chapra Koch in Bangladesh cannot imagine using their mother tongue as a medium of education in primary school. Perhaps they also do not see any practical reasons for using Chapra in school but would prefer that their children become more fluent and literate in Bangla.

For the Tintekiya Koch there is some difference in opinion on this question about education medium. Looking at their responses according to the demographic categories of age and sex revealed some interesting trends which are shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9: Language that should be used as the primary school medium for Tintekiya Koch, according to sex and age

Response Question Tintekiya Koch Bangla School medium preference: Overall 22% 78% Male 33% 67% Female 8% 92% Younger 36% 64% Older 8% 92%

An outsider might expect that men and younger people – two segments of the population that tend to be more proficient in Bangla – would think teachers should speak Bangla in primary school. As the numbers in Figure 9 show, however, among the sociolinguistic questionnaire subjects, it was the females and the older people who were much more likely to want Tintekiya Koch children to attend Bangla-medium primary schools. It may be that these people do not speak Bangla as well as they would like to and that they want the children in their communities to have an opportunity to learn Bangla better. Some men and younger people, on the other hand, may feel that they speak Bangla well enough for their purposes and would prefer to have Tintekiya Koch children learn at a mother tongue-medium school. In spite of these differences in opinion according to age and sex, it still seems clear that most Koch people think Bangla should be the medium of education in primary schools.

One other item on the sociolinguistic questionnaire tried to get at people’s opinions about language use. This question asked subjects if they would like it if Koch children spoke other 22 languages better than their mother tongue. Twenty-four subjects (67%) said they would like this, and the other 12 subjects (33%) said they would not. Again there was a difference in opinion between the Tintekiya Koch males and females: 73% of the males but only 42% of the females said they would like this. In other words, women are much more likely than men to want Tintekiya Koch children to speak Tintekiya Koch as their best language. Looking again at the question about primary school medium (see Figure 9), it is interesting that nearly all women want Koch children to attend Bangla-medium schools, but at the same time they want these children to speak Tintekiya Koch as their best language. It could well be that they have pride in their language and want their children to speak it well but that they also acknowledge their children’s need for Bangla so that they may have opportunities to go on to further education or to later find a good job.

4.3.4. Language attitudes – towards language classes

Another set of language attitudes questions focused on mother tongue literacy classes for Koch children. Subjects were asked if they would send their children (or children from their village) to a class designed to teach children how to read and write their mother tongue. Their responses show fairly positive attitudes towards Koch children’s learning to read and write in their mother tongue: 33 (92%) of the subjects said they would send their children to such a class while the three remaining subjects said they did not know if they would send Koch children to such a class or not.

The 33 subjects who said they would send children to a mother tongue literacy class were then asked why they would do so. Their reasons varied but can be grouped according to the responses shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10: Reasons subjects gave for sending children to mother tongue literacy class

Reason Response Rate To learn their MT (better) 45% To learn to read and write their MT 21% To learn (in general) 24% To preserve Koch 15% To develop the Koch identity 6%

Figure 10 shows that the most common reasons people gave for wanting to send Koch children to a mother tongue literacy class were, not surprisingly, for some aspect of education. Nearly half of the subjects said the children would learn their mother tongue (better) at such classes, and another seven subjects (21%) specifically mentioned the childrens’ attaining Koch literacy skills. Apart from giving reasons related to education, several subjects said they would send children to these classes as a way of preserving the Koch language or of developing the identity of the Koch in Bangladesh.

Finally, these 33 subjects who said they would send their children to Koch literacy classes were asked if they thought such classes were worth paying a little tuition fee. Twenty-eight of them (85%) said they thought classes would be worth paying tuition for, and the other five (15%) said they did not think the classes would be worth this.

All of these language attitudes questions combined indicate that the Koch have a fairly positive attitude towards their language. They use it widely in Koch villages in the north, nearly all think mothers should use it with their children, and many said they would send 23

their children to a class where literacy in their mother tongue is taught. At the same time they acknowledge a desire for Bangla in their lives as most think Bangla should be the medium of education in primary schools that Koch children attend and as more than half would like Koch children to speak another language—presumably Bangla—better than their mother tongue. Since these attitudes as a whole are fairly positive but not overwhelmingly so, it is important to look at the vitality of the Koch language varieties in Bangladesh before any recommendations can be made.

4.3.5. Language vitality

In an effort to assess whether Tintekiya Koch and/or Chapra Koch will be used as mother tongues in future generations, questionnaire subjects were asked several questions about children’s speech patterns. They were also asked one question about the existence of adult Koch people who do not speak Koch well. Responses to four of these questions are shown in Figure 11.

Figure 11: Summary of responses to four language vitality questions Question Key: Not speak well = “Besides young children, is there any MT person in this village who does not speak MT well?” Children speak well = “Do young people (age 10) in your village speak your language well, the way it ought to be spoken?” Other better = “Do young people (age 10) in your village speak another language better than your language?” Other before school = “Before starting school, do many children in your village speak any language besides MT?”

Response Question Yes No Not speak well 19% 81% Children speak well 97% 3% Other better 6% 94% Other before school 67% 33%

The first question presented in Figure 11 is an attempt to assess the current strength of the Koch language varieties in Bangladesh. Seven of the 36 subjects (19%) said there are Koch people in their village who do not speak their mother tongue well. All of these seven subjects were Tintekiya Koch, which means that more than one-quarter of the Tintekiya questionnaire subjects said there are Tintekiya people in their village who do not speak their mother tongue well. This indicates that Tintekiya may not be a very vital language in Bangladesh.

Responses to the next two questions in Figure 11, however, indicate that even Koch children speak their mother tongue well as 97% of the questionnaire subjects (35 subjects) said children in their village speak their language the way it ought to be spoken and as 94% of the subjects (34 subjects) said children do not speak another language better than their mother tongue. The two subjects who did say Koch children speak another language better than their mother tongue both said this language is Bangla. These responses point toward more thriving Koch language varieties.

Even though Koch children reportedly speak their mother tongue well, they apparently grow up in a somewhat bilingual environment. Among the 36 respondents, 24 (67%) said many 24 children in their village speak another language besides Koch even before they start school. These 24 subjects were then asked which language that is. Their responses along with subjects’ responses to three other questions about children’s speech are in Figure 12.

Figure 12: Summary of responses to four questions about children’s speech patterns Question Key: Which one before school = “[If children speak another language before school] which one?” Children speak first = “What language do children in this village speak first?” Children with each other = “What language do young people (age 10) in your village speak with each other?” Future language = “In about 30 years, when the children in this village grow up and have children of their own, what language do you think those children will speak?” Response Key: MT = mother tongue NA = not applicable

Response Question MT Bangla Other NA Which one before school NA 67% 19% 33% Children speak first 100% 3% - - Children with each other 92% 22% 3% - Future language 86% 17% 3% -

Not surprisingly, most people who said Koch children do speak another language better than their mother tongue (see Figure 11), said this language is Bangla. Six of the Chapra Koch respondents said young children in their village also speak Garo before starting school, and one said they speak Hajong before starting school. This is a reflection of different language environments: within Uttor Nokshi there are not only Chapra Koch but also many Garo families, but the Tintekiya villages in which the sociolinguistic questionnaire was administered were made up primarily of Tintekiya Koch mother tongue speakers. Thus, the Chapra Koch children in Uttor Nokshi are exposed to several languages from when they are very young. This is undoubtedly the case in other villages in Bangladesh where Chapra Koch live also, because the number of Chapra Koch speakers in any given village is small. It is therefore likely that as Chapra Koch speakers are exposed to these other languages for most of their lives, their mother tongue is changing relatively quickly. This is supported by the lexical similarity data given in Section 3.3, which shows that the Chapra Koch in Bangladesh have adopted a significant number of Bangla words into their language. Tintekiya Koch is also influenced by Bangla but to a lesser extent.

While many Koch children are exposed to more than one language even when they are young, they do seem to consistently speak a Koch variety as their first language: all 36 subjects said children in their village speak Koch first. As the children grow up, they reportedly tend to continue to speak their mother tongue with other children in the village; however, eight of the questionnaire subjects (22%) did say children speak Bangla with each, often in conjunction with their mother tongue. Also, one Chapra Koch subject said the children speak Koch, Bangla, and Garo when they are together. These responses are another 25 sign that the Koch varieties in Bangladesh are under some pressure from the larger language groups in the area.

The final language vitality question asked subjects what language they think the next generation of children in their village will speak. Thirty-one subjects (86%) said they think children will speak a Koch variety in the future, six subjects (17%) said they will speak Bangla, and one subject said she did not know. According to the community information presented in Appendix F, many Koch children are presently completing at least class five in school. These schools are in Bangla medium, and Bangla is also the language the Koch in Bangladesh have to use for frequent tasks such as marketing. Thus, it is likely that Bangla will have an increasingly greater influence on Koch in the future.

As was mentioned in Section 4.3.1, within Bangladesh the Koch language varieties appear to be out of use in Koch villages outside of the area of northwestern Dhaka division. In other words, in these areas the Koch language is essentially dead. In northwestern Dhaka division, however, it is still reportedly used widely, and the Koch people there have a fairly positive attitude toward their mother tongue. The Chapra Koch population in Bangladesh is very small, and their language has already borrowed many words from Bangla. Thus, when they say they speak Chapra Koch in certain settings, they are not speaking a pure form of the language but rather this modern form which has been heavily influenced by Bangla. In Bangladesh it is likely that Chapra Koch will be increasingly influenced by Bangla—and to a lesser extent by Garo. This will result in significant language change.

Tintekiya Koch appears to be more vital than Chapra Koch for at least a couple reasons. For one, the Tintekiya Koch population in Bangladesh, while still small, is larger than the Chapra Koch population. Also, there is a large population of Tintekiya Koch speakers in India, which gives strength to the language overall. Another reason that Tintekiya Koch is more vital in Bangladesh is that the Tintekiya Koch tend to live in villages where the majority of people are Tintekiya Koch, so at least within their villages their language is dominant. It is likely that Tintekiya Koch in Bangladesh will also be increasingly influenced by Bangla, but this influence will be slighter, and the rate at which Tintekiya Koch changes will likely be slower.

5. BILINGUALISM STUDY

Bilingualism refers to the ability of an individual or an entire speech community to handle communication in a language other than the mother tongue. During the Koch survey two types of bilingualism data were collected: perceived bilingualism and measured Bangla bilingualism.

5.1. Perceived bilingualism

5.1.1. Procedures

First, data about subjects’ perceived ability in various languages was collected. This was done through a series of five questions which were administered orally as part of the sociolinguistic questionnaire. As was mentioned in Section 4.1, the questions were generally asked in Bangla. If a given subject was not fluent in Bangla, the questions were asked in his mother tongue. The questionnaire is found in Appendix B.1. and subject responses are given in Appendix C.4.

5.1.2. Discussion of sample

The five questions that asked subjects about their perceived ability in various languages were part of the sociolinguistic questionnaire discussed in Section 4. Thus, the demographic profile for these 36 subjects is the same as is given in Section 4.2. regarding the questionnaire sample. Their biographical data is given in Appendix E.2.

5.1.3. Results

For all five questions regarding perceived bilingualism, data will be presented for all subjects combined. In addition, when responses are notably different according to mother tongue or a particular demographic factor, that will be mentioned.

The most basic question about bilingual ability simply asked subjects what languages they speak. After naming one or more second languages, subjects were also asked the age at which they started to learn each language. Subjects were then asked which language they speak best and which language they speak second-best. A summary of the responses to these questions is given in Figure 13. 27

Figure 13: Summary of responses to questions about what languages people speak Question Key: Languages speak = “Other than your MT, what languages do you speak?” Average age learned = “At what age did you begin to learn each?” Best language = “What language do you speak best?” 2nd-best language = “What language do you speak second best?” Response Key: MT = mother tongue TK = Tintekiya Koch; this response is applicable for only the nine Chapra Koch subjects NA = not applicable

Response Question MT Bangla Hajong Garo TK Banai Hindi Other NA Languages speak NA 100% 50% 47% 56% 8% 8% 8% - Average age learned NA 8 years 11 years 15 yrs. 5 yrs. 15 yrs. 16 yrs. 18 yrs. - Best language 94% 8% ------2nd-best language 6% 89% 3% - - - - - 3%

Subjects’ responses in Figure 13 indicate that nearly all Koch speakers in Bangladesh speak some Bangla as 100% of the sociolinguistic questionnaire subjects responded in this way. The next most common language that Koch speakers reportedly are able to speak is Hajong. Eighteen subjects (50%) said they are able to speak this language, and nearly the same number (17 subjects; 47%) said they can speak Garo. A few subjects also said they speak Banai (which is sometimes referred to as Koch but may actually be similar to Hajong: 3 subjects), Hindi (3 subjects), English (2 subjects), or Assamese (1 subject). Thus, the Koch living in northwestern Dhaka division are not only bilingual but also often multilingual.

Though both the Tintekiya Koch and the Chapra Koch know many languages, the Chapra Koch appear to be more multilingual. They reportedly know Hajong and Garo at a greater rate than do the Tintekiya Koch, and they also know Tintekiya. Furthermore, 56% of the Chapra subjects said they are able to speak Tintekiya, but none of the Tintekiya subjects said they can speak Chapra. This is not surprising since the population of Tintekiya speakers in Bangladesh is larger than the Chapra population.

After subjects named the languages they can speak, they were asked the age at which they started to learn each. After their mother tongue, Bangla is the first language most Koch people start to learn. The average reported age at which the subjects started to learn Bangla was eight years old, which is not long after children start primary school. As an increasing number of Koch children are starting primary school, it is likely that the age at which they start to learn Bangla is decreasing and that their ability in Bangla is increasing. Also, because Bangla is the medium of education in the schools that Koch children attend, they learn Bangla in both this formal setting and also in informal settings around their villages.

The other languages that Koch people speak are learned when they are slightly older, and these other languages are learned in informal settings only. Hajong and Garo, for example, could be learned through interaction with Hajong and Garo neighbors, and Hindi might be learned by listening to radio and television programs broadcast in Hindi. Thus, the Koch in Bangladesh are exposed to a number of languages in a variety of everyday situations. 28

Although the Koch live in a multilingual situation, as a community they apparently continue to speak their mother tongue as their best language. As Figure 13 shows, 34 of the subjects (94%) said their mother tongue is their best language. This could mean that they are most fluent in speaking their mother tongue or that they are simply most comfortable using it.

While most subjects said their mother tongue is their best language, three (8%) did say Bangla is their best language. All three of these subjects were Tintekiya Koch speakers from Nokshi. Because Kholchanda is more isolated than Nokshi, the Koch there probably do not have as much opportunity to learn Bangla well. It should be noted that among these three subjects there was one educated woman who said she speaks her mother tongue and Bangla equally well and that she could not name her best language.

After subjects named their best language, they were asked what their second-best language is. Figure 13 shows that the second-best language of most Koch speakers is Bangla. Thirty-two of the subjects (89%) gave this answer, and one person said her second-best language is Hajong. The two people who said Bangla is their best language did say Tintekiya Koch is their second-best language. This question was not applicable for the woman who said she speaks both Tintekiya Koch and Bangla as her “best” language.

After subjects named a second-best language, they were asked if they can always say what they want to say in that language. A summary of their answers is in Figure 14.

Figure 14: Summary of responses to the question “Can you always say what you want to say in your second-best language?” Response Key: NA = not applicable

Response Yes No NA 83% 14% 3%

The numbers in Figure 14 show that 30 subjects (83%) said they can always say what they want in their second-best language. This does not necessarily mean they are fluent in that second language but rather that they feel they are sufficiently proficient in the domains they use that language for. Five subjects (14%) said they cannot always say what they want in their second-best language. All five of these subjects were uneducated woman from Kholchanda, and all five of these subjects said their second-best language was Bangla. In other words, even those subjects who said Koch is not their best language (see Figure 13) did say they can always say what they want to say in Koch. Again, this question was not applicable for the woman who said she speaks both Tintekiya Koch and Bangla as her “best” language.

All of these responses about people’s perceived bilingual ability demonstrate widespread mother-tongue fluency among the Koch in northwestern Dhaka division, but the responses also indicate that the Koch live in a multilingual situation, with all respondents’ saying they speak at least some Bangla and many also saying they speak Hajong, Garo, and/or another language or two. While today most Koch people still consider their mother tongue to be their best language, it is possible that this will change. As they as a group become more educated in Bangla-medium schools and as the younger generation grows up and replaces the older 29 generation, more people will consider Bangla to be their best language and Koch to be their second-best language unless something is done to influence this trend.

5.2. Measured Bangla bilingualism

5.2.1. Procedures

The second type of bilingualism data that was collected was subjects’ measured ability in Bangla. This was done through the use of a Bangla SRT. The idea behind the SRT is basic: participants listen to each of 15 carefully selected sentences one at a time and are asked to repeat exactly what they have heard. Each repeated sentence is then scored according to a four-point scale (0–3), based on the participant’s ability to mimic a given sentence. The results are then expressed as a point total out of 45 possible points. They are also expressed as an equivalent bilingualism proficiency level or reported proficiency evaluation (RPE) level. Figure 15 displays SRT score ranges with the equivalent RPE level for the Bangla SRT (Kim 2003:12). Appendix D.1 gives a detailed description of SRT testing, and Appendix D.2 contains the final form of the Bangla SRT.

Figure 15: Score ranges on the Bangla SRT corresponding to RPE levels

SRT Raw Equivalent Summary description of Score Range RPE level proficiency level 0 – 2 1 Minimal, limited proficiency 3 – 8 1+ Limited, basic proficiency 9 – 14 2 Adequate, basic proficiency 15 – 21 2+ Good, basic proficiency 22 – 27 3 Good, general proficiency 28 – 33 3+ Very good, general proficiency 34 – 39 4 Excellent proficiency 40 – 45 4+ Nearly native speaker proficiency

5.2.2. Discussion of sample

SRT methodology was developed as a means of testing a target community’s level of bilingualism in a national language or in another language of wider communication. During this survey the target community was Tintekiya Koch speakers living in northwestern Dhaka division, and the national language tested was “the variety of Bangla spoken and published in Dhaka” (Kim 2003:4).

A total of 48 mother tongue Tintekiya Koch speakers took the Bangla SRT. The subjects were chosen based on age, sex, and education levels so as to get a wide variety of subjects. Among the 48 subjects 26 were male and 22 were female. Twenty-seven subjects were under 35 years old and therefore were categorized as “younger” and 21 were “older.” Furthermore, 13 subjects were educated (defined as having passed class 8) and 35 subjects were categorized at “uneducated.” Most of the subjects (45 subjects) said they follow the Sonaton religion, two said they are Hindu, and there was no data for one other subject. Finally, the mother tongue of each of the 48 subjects was Tintekiya Koch, and the mother tongue of each of the subjects’ fathers and mothers was also Tintekiya Koch with the exception of one woman whose father’s mother tongue was Barman. SRT subject biodata is in Appendix E.3.

The SRT was administered in the same two locations that were used for sociolinguistic questionnaire administration: Kholchanda and Nokshi. Mother tongue Chapra Koch speakers were not tested with the SRT.

5.2.3. Results

Among the 48 Koch speakers who took the 45-point Bangla SRT, their average score was 18, which corresponds to an RPE level 2+ and has been described as “good, basic proficiency” (Radloff 1991:153). A person who is proficient at this level sometimes has difficulty making himself understood because of mispronunciation, limited vocabulary in many domains, and lack of control of some grammar rules. Also, a person at an RPE level 2+ can generally understand a mother tongue Bangla speaker if the speaker speaks somewhat slowly and repetitively. This is the average ability of the Koch subjects.

As is the case with perceived bilingual ability, measured bilingual ability frequently correlates with various demographic factors. Thus, it is important to try to identify segments of the population that are considerably more or less bilingual than this average. Looking at the four categories of age, education, sex, and location and dividing each into two subsets gives the information displayed in Figure 16.

Figure 16: Bangla SRT scores according to demographic categories n = sample size SRT = average SRT score RPE = corresponding RPE level s = standard deviation r = range of scores

Age Education Sex Location Overall Younger Older Educated Uneducated Male Female Nokshi Kholchanda n = 48 n = 27 n = 21 n = 13 n = 35 n = 26 n = 22 n = 28 n = 20 SRT = 18 SRT = 20 SRT = 16 SRT = 25 SRT = 16 SRT = 20 SRT = 16 SRT = 19 SRT = 18 RPE = 2+ RPE = 2+ RPE = 2+ RPE = 3 RPE = 2+ RPE = 2+ RPE = 2+ RPE = 2+ RPE = 2+ s = 7.7 s = 7.9 s = 7.1 s = 6.7 s = 6.6 s = 6.6 s = 8.2 s = 7.5 s = 8.1 r = 2–36 r = 2–36 r = 3–27 r = 13–36 r = 2–28 r = 8–32 r = 2–36 r = 3–36 r = 2–32

Looking at subjects’ scores according to the demographic factors in Figure 16 shows that the younger Koch are generally more fluent in Bangla than are the older Koch. Similarly, educated ones tend to be more fluent in Bangla than uneducated ones, and males scored higher on the Bangla SRT than did females. Subjects from Nokshi scored only slightly higher than did subjects from Kholchanda.

Among the four demographic factors studied here, there is a difference in the SRT scores and their corresponding RPE level in only one category: education. The 13 educated subjects scored an average of 25 points on the Bangla SRT. This is equivalent to an RPE level 3. The 35 uneducated subjects, however, scored an average of only 16 points, which is an RPE level 2+. Also, there is a difference of nine points between these two averages, and it can be noted from the range of scores that no educated person scored fewer than 13 points. Thus, education seems to be the most important single factor in determining how proficient a 31

Tintekiya Koch speaker is in standard Bangla. In fact among the 48 SRT subjects, the lowest 11 scores were of uneducated subjects. This is not surprising since the medium of education for the Koch in Bangladesh has been Bangla. As more Koch speakers become educated in Bangla-medium schools they will become more bilingual in Bangla, moving from having only basic proficiency to having a general proficiency in Bangla.

Both the age and the sex of Koch speakers also appear to play a role in how proficient they tend to be in Bangla. Figure 16 shows that the 27 younger subjects scored an average of 20 points on the SRT, and the 21 older subjects scored an average of 16 points. Similarly, the 26 male subjects averaged 20 points, and the 22 females averaged 16 points. While all of these average scores are equivalent to an RPE level 2+, the older subjects and the women scored a low 2+, and the younger subjects and the men scored a higher 2+, so it does appear that a Koch speaker’s age and sex at least indirectly affect his Bangla proficiency.

The location of the subjects in and of itself does not seem to affect their Bangla ability much. The subjects from Nokshi scored only one point more on average than did the subjects from Kholchanda. Location, then, appears to be the least telling of the four factors studied here. Looking at all the possible combinations of the other three factors of age, education, and sex reveals some interesting indications, which are displayed in Figure 17.

Figure 17: Bangla SRT results according to combinations of demographic categories n = sample size SRT = average SRT score RPE = corresponding RPE level s = standard deviation r = range of scores

Educated Uneducated Younger Older Younger Older n = 5 n = 2 n = 9 n = 10 SRT = 26 SRT = 24 SRT = 19 SRT = 19 Male RPE = 3 RPE = 3 RPE = 2+ RPE = 2+ s = 8.0 s = 2.1 s = 5.9 s = 6.1 r = 15–32 r = 22–25 r = 10–28 r = 8–27 n = 4 n = 2 n = 9 n = 7 SRT = 28 SRT = 19 SRT = 14 SRT = 10 Female RPE = 3+ RPE = 2+ RPE = 2 RPE = 2 s = 5.9 s = 7.8 s = 6.0 s = 5.4 r = 23–36 r = 13–24 r = 2–22 r = 3–19

The numbers given in Figure 17 show that younger, educated Koch speakers tend to be the most proficient in Bangla. On the other hand older, uneducated Koch women tend to be the least proficient. This indicates that as the Koch become more educated and as the current younger generation replaces the older generation, the group as a whole will become more and more fluent in Bangla. This rate of increased fluency, however, will probably be slow 32

because even today the number of Koch-speaking children in Bangladesh who study through at least class eight is relatively small.

For statistically reliable analysis, a sample of at least five people should be tested for any factor or combination of factors being researched. Because older, educated people (those at least 35 years old who had studied through at least class 8) were difficult to find, only four were tested. Thus, sound comparisons cannot be made here between older educated subjects and older uneducated subjects.

Even among younger Koch speakers educated people were difficut to find, and in total only four younger, educated women were tested. Among the younger men, however, five were tested, so we can make some initial comparisons with them. For example, the younger, educated men scored an average of 26 points, but the younger uneducated men scored an average of only 19 points. Again this shows the importance of education in determining a Koch speaker’s proficiency in standard Bangla.

Figure 17 shows that among the uneducated subjects the men did considerably better than the women. This is especially true for the older, uneducated subjects, among whom the men scored an average of 19 points while the women scored an average of only 10 points. A similar—though less marked—pattern arises with the younger uneducated subjects, among whom the men averaged 5 SRT points more than the women (19 points vs. 14 points).

In his thesis on indicators of bilingual proficiency in Nepali, Webster comments that “it is hard to imagine any logical reason why gender, in and of itself, could be significantly related to [Nepali] proficiency. In that women are less likely than men to go to school or to travel, they are less likely to be as proficient in Nepali as men. But if education and travel are controlled for, one would not expect gender to significantly affect Nepali proficiency” (1992:63). Webster did, however, do research in a language group in which gender was a significant factor even when the factors of education and travel were controlled for. He concluded that a factor which had not been accounted for must have affected the scores between males and females.

That sex is a factor in the SRT results among Koch subjects indicates there is likely an unaccounted-for factor in the data. This could be a factor such as travel or contact with outsiders who visit Koch villages. Such a factor could give men additional contact with Bangla speakers, thus contributing to their higher Bangla proficiency.

As mentioned above, age is also a factor to consider. Among the uneducated women the younger ones scored higher than the older ones. Among the uneducated men, however, the younger and the older subjects had the same average score. From this small amount of data, it seems that age makes a difference in Bangla proficiency among women but not among men. It is possible that men of all ages have a fairly equal amount of interaction with Bengalis for work and for daily activities such as marketing. Among the women, however, it could be that the younger generation has more interaction with Bangla through work and education and also through media such as television and music. Whatever the reasons, it seems apparent that age is a more important factor among the woman and that as this younger generation of Koch women grows up and replaces the older generation, the community as a whole will become more bilingual in Bangla. This change, however, will come slowly.

Thus, while all Koch say they speak Bangla (see Figure 13), it is clear that not all speak it equally well. Their Bangla ability is likely to improve in time, but this improvement will happen slowly unless a much greater number of children go to school through at least class 8. From this bilingualism research it seems clear that currently there are large numbers of Tintekiya Koch people in northwestern Dhaka division who do not speak standard Bangla well enough to be able to use either written or oral Bangla literature adequately. This will probably be the case for years to come.

6. RECOMMENDATIONS

It is difficult to give recommendations for any language group, but even more so when there is limited awareness within the language group about the needs and possibilities for language development. Specifically, we are referring to the Koch community in Bangladesh, which is smaller, less socially and politically organized (e.g. there is no Bangladeshi counterpart to the Meghalaya Koch Association), and probably more impoverished than the Koch community of India. Hence, the leadership, resources, and motivation that are required to have language development as a priority for the community have been lacking among the Koch in Bangladesh.

This does not mean, of course, that nothing can or should be done for the Koch language and its speakers in Bangladesh. A multi-lingual education (MLE) program, which starts with the mother language and provides transition to the national language, could be ideal, for it addresses both the desire to learn to read and write the mother tongue as well as the pressing need to have more success in the Bangladeshi education system. This kind of program does not require many material resources such as a school building or even much money.

The Tintekiya Koch community does have some of the important resources such a program would need: a vital mother tongue with expert speakers, a pride in the mother tongue, and a willingness to gain literacy skills in the mother tongue. Thus, it is clear that an MLE program would be both good and a possibility. For that reason, we recommend starting an MLE program for the Koch—specifically, the Tintekiya Koch—beginning with pilot classes in one village. If there is interest in the community for such, SIL Bangladesh is willing to offer their training and consulting expertise in helping to develop such a program.

Before any steps can be taken, however, we first recommend the establishment of a committee of interested people, including leaders. This committee should seek to facilitate open dialogue between the Tintekiya Koch of Bangladesh and those of India, focusing especially on any language development that may be underway in India. The committee will also need to think through the costs and benefits of an MLE program and then communicate what they find to the rest of the community. They also need to find out whether or not there is sufficient support to start such a program and commitment to sustain the program.

What then of the Chapra Koch? Regarding mother tongue development, they have at least two options: 1) To develop a literacy program in Chapra Koch, or 2) To join a Tintekiya Koch literacy program if such is started. Regardless of which of these options they choose, if the Chapra Koch are interested in language development, they, too, should form a language development committee. This committee should seek to keep abreast of any Tintekiya Koch program in Bangladesh as well as any Koch language development in India. They should also seek to better understand the level of interest for language development among the Chapra Koch.

After our interaction with the Koch in both Bangladesh and India, it is our opinion that the Chapra Koch should participate in a Tintekiya Koch MLE program. Even though the lexical similarity percentages indicate that Chapra Koch is sufficiently different from Tintekiya Koch to warrant separate materials and a separate MLE program, we recommend they join a Tintekiya Koch program for several reasons. First, Chapra Koch is not nearly as vital as Tintekiya Koch: it is being more rapidly lost due to the influence of Bangla. Second, the small number of Chapra Koch speakers in Bangladesh means they would find it much more 35 difficult to come up with the human resources needed for an MLE program. Third, and most importantly, the Chapra Koch have a positive attitude toward their geographical and linguistic neighbors, the Tintekiya Koch, and reportedly start to learn to speak Tintekiya Koch at about the age of five years. Thus, for the Chapra Koch to participate in a Tintekiya Koch MLE program seems to be the most realistic and useful step at the moment. 36

BANGLA TRANSLATIONS OF SECTION 1.1, SECTION 2, AND SECTION 6

1. m~Pbv

1.1. j¶¨ I D‡Ïk¨ evsjv‡`‡k †KvP‡ì fvlv Dbœqb Kg©m~Px MÖn‡Yi R‡b¨ cÖ‡qvRbxq Z_¨ msMÖn KivB GB fvlvZvwË¡K Rwi‡ci g~j D‡Ïk¨ wQj| D‡j−L¨ †h, SIL evsjv‡`k g‡b K‡i G ai‡bi Kg©m~Px MÖnY Kiv ev bv Kivi e¨vcv‡i Pzovš— wm×vš— †bqvi ¶gZv GKgvÎ †KvP m¤cÖ`v‡qiB i‡q‡Q, Avi Avgiv GI g‡b Kwi †h, KL‡bv KL‡bv G e¨vcv‡i cÖ_g c`‡¶c m¤cÖ`v‡qi evB‡i †_‡KI †bqv m¤¢e Ges Gi myô eë¯’vcbv Ab¨vb¨ AvMÖnx we‡kl‡Ái mn‡hvMxZvq mdjfv‡e KivI m¤¢e| Avi ZvB Avgv‡ì D‡Ïk¨ n‡”Q †KvP m¤cÖ`vq Ges Ab¨ †Kvb AvMÖnx cÖwZôvb hviv Askx`vi wn‡m‡e KvR Ki‡Z Pvq Zv‡ì‡K me©‡kl I ¸i“Z¡c~Y© Z_¨ `v‡b †mev Kiv| GB D‡Ï‡k¨ †cuŠQz‡Z Avgiv wb‡gœ ewY©Z j¶¨ ¯’vc‡bi gva¨‡g fvlvZvwË¡K Rwic cwiPvjbv K‡iwQ:

• †KvP fvlvi cÖ‡Z¨K AvÂwjK iƒc Ges evsjv‡`‡ki cÖavb cÖavb cÖKv‡ii g‡a¨ fvlvZvwË¡K cv_©‡Kï AbymÜvb Kiv (wZb‡ZwKqv Ges Pvcov) • ‡KvP ‡jvK‡ì wb‡R‡ì fvlvi-AvÂwjK cÖKvi Ges Ab¨vb¨ cÖKv‡ii cÖwZ g‡bvfve we‡k−lY Kiv • my`~i fwel¨‡ZI †KvP fvlv eëüZ nevi m¤¢vebv wbiƒcY Kiv • Avi †KvP fvlvfvlx‡ì evsjv eënvi Kivi ¶gZv hvPvB Kiv

GB me j‡¶¨ †cuŠQvi R‡b¨ ci¯úi m¤úwK©Z wZbwU fv‡M wef³ K‡i evsjv‡`‡ki †KvP‡ì g‡a¨ fvlvZvwË¡K Rwic Pvjv‡bv n‡q‡Q: 1) †KvP‡ì fvlvi wewfbœ AvÂwjK iƒç‡jvi ch©‡e¶Y, 2) fvlvi cÖwZ g‡bvfve Ges my`~i fwel¨‡ZI eëüZ nevi m¤¢vebv hvPvB Ges 3) wØfvwl‡Z¡i ch©v‡jvPbv|

2. cÖvß Z‡_¨i mvivsk

2.1. fvlvi AvÂwjK iƒç‡jvi ch©‡e¶Y wZb‡ZwKqv †KvP MÖvg¸‡jv †_‡K cÖvß kã-ZvwjKv¸‡jvi g‡a¨ Zzjbv Ki‡j 89 †_‡K 95 kZvsk kvwãK wgj †`Lv hvq, hvi d‡j Avgiv ej‡Z cvwi †h, G fvlvwU wewfbœ RvqMvq †gvUvgywU GKB iKg Avi †Zgwbfv‡e fvi‡ZI G Ae¯’vi e¨wZµg cvIqv hvq wb| e¯‘Z, wZb‡ZwKqv MÖvg¸‡jv Ges RwicK…Z ïaygvÎ GKwU Pvcov MÖvg †_‡K cÖvß Z_¨ Abyhvqx †`Lv hvq †h, G‡ì g‡a¨ ïaygvÎ 47 †_‡K 51 kZvsk wgj i‡q‡Q| cÖvß wewfbœ djvdj †_‡K Av‡iv †`Lv hvq †h, Mv‡iv fvlvi GKwU AvÂwjK iƒc AvZs‡K hwÌ c~‡e© †KvP fvlvi g‡Zv GKwU fvlv wn‡m‡e we‡ePbv Kiv n‡qwQj wKš‘ wZb‡ZwKqv †KvP-Gi mv‡_ Gi ïay 41 kZvsk Ges Pvcov †Kv‡Pi mv‡_ ïaygvÎ 32 kZvskB wgj i‡q‡Q e‡j ‡`Lv hvq|

2.2. fvlvi cÖwZ g‡bvfve Ges ¯’vwq‡Z¡i ch©‡e¶Y

XvKv wefv‡Mi DËi-cwð‡g emevmiZ †KvP m¤cÖ`v‡qi g‡a¨ G fvlv AwaK eëüZ n‡q _v‡K| A_P Gme GjvKvi evB‡i evsjv‡`‡ki Ab¨vb¨ †KvP MÖvg¸‡jv‡Z G fvlvi eënvi nqbv ej‡jB P‡j| Z‡e 37 evsjv‡`‡ki †h me RvqMvq †KvP GL‡bv eëüZ n‡”Q †mme RvqMvi wZb‡ZwKqv †KvP Ges Pvcov †KvP †jvK‡ì Zv‡ì fvlvi cÖwZ wKQyUv fvjB g‡bvfve i‡q‡Q e‡j †`Lv hvq| Avi GKBfv‡e Zviv G AvKv•¶vI e¨³ K‡i †hb Zv‡ì mš—vb‡ì Rxe‡b evsjv GKwU ¸i“Z¡c~Y© Ask wn‡m‡e f~wgKv cvjb K‡i Ges GKB mv‡_ cÖv_wgK we`¨vjq I Zv‡ì ‰`bw›`b Rxe‡bi wewfbœ ‡¶‡Î¸‡jv‡ZI †hb Zv eRvq _v‡K| evsjv‡`‡ki wZb‡ZwKqv †KvP Ges Pvcov †KvP fvlvi DfqB ‡ek GKwU cwieZ©‡bi ga¨ w`‡q hv‡”Q, Z‡e Pvcov †Kv‡Pi g‡a¨ G cwieZ©b †ek ‡eMevb| Pvcov †KvP ‡jvK‡ì Rxe‡bi A‡bKvs‡kB Zviv evsjv Ges Mv‡iv Dfq fvlvi mv‡_ cwiwPZ Ges kvwãK Zzjbvq †`Lv hvq †h evsjvi A‡bK kãB Zviv Zv‡ì Pvcov †KvP fvlvq ‰`bw›`b KvR K‡g© eënvi K‡i Avm‡Q| Avi †h‡nZy evsjv‡`‡k emevmiZ Pvcov fvlvq gvZ…fvlxi msL¨v LyeB Kg ZvB, GUv Lye mn‡RB ejv hvq †h, Pvcov †KvP fvlv µgvMZB evsjvi Øviv cÖfvweZ n‡Z _vK‡e, Ges Mv‡iv fvlvI G fvlv‡K wKQyUv cÖfvweZ Ki‡Z cvi‡e| Gi djvdj n‡e GKwU D‡j−L‡hvM¨ fvlvMZ cwieZ©b hv µgk fvlv‡K wejywßi c‡_ PvwjZ Ki‡e|

Z‡e hwÌ wZb‡ZwKqv †KvP fvlvi †¶‡Î GKwU D‡j−L‡hvM¨ fvlvMZ w`K cwieZ©‡bi AvksKv i‡q‡Q ZeyI GwU‡K Pvcov †Kv‡Pi †_‡K †ekx ¯’vqx fvlv e‡j g‡b nq| wZb‡ZwKqv fvlvfvlx †jv‡Ki msL¨v hwÌ evsj‡`‡k Kg i‡q‡Q ZeyI Zv Pvcov fvlvfvlx‡ì †P‡q †ekx Avi fvi‡ZI Gfvlvi †jv‡Ki msL¨v AwaK hv m‡e©vcwi fvlvi `„pZvi wel‡q BwZevPK ‰ewK| Avevi, evsjv‡`‡ki wZb‡ZwKqv †Kv‡Piv mvaviYZ †h me MÖv‡g evm K‡i Zvi AwaKvskB ¯^RvZxq †jvKRb wb‡q MwVZ ZvB Aš—Z Zv‡ì MÖvg¸‡jv‡Z wb‡R‡ì fvlvB AwaK eëüZ n‡q _v‡K| AZGe hwÌ AvksKv i‡q‡Q †h evsjv‡`‡ki wZb‡ZwKqv †Kv‡Piv AwaKZi evsjvi Øviv cÖfvweZ n‡Z _vK‡e ZeyI G cwieZ©b Av‡¯— Av‡¯—B NU‡e e‡j g‡b nq|

2.3. wØfvwl‡Z¡i ch©‡e¶Y

XvKv wefv‡Mi DËi-cwð‡g emevmiZ †KvP‡ì mgv‡R eûfvlv eëüZ nq Avi ZvB cÖvq me †KvP fvlvfvlx wKQz bv wKQz evsjv Ges Zv‡ì g‡a¨ A‡b‡KB cÖwZ‡ekx‡ì fvlvq K_v ej‡Z cv‡i †hgb: nvRs Ges Mv‡iv| Z_vwc, AwaKvskB Zv‡ì gvZ„fvlv‡ZB me‡P‡q fvjfv‡e ej‡Z cv‡i Ges me©¯^xK…Z evsjvq Zviv ZZUv cvi`k©x bq †h G fvlv‡Z wjwLZ I K_¨ mvwnZ¨ h‡_ó cwigv‡Y eënv‡i m¶g n‡e|

ZvB G‡¶‡Î †h ‡Kvb †KvP †jv‡Ki wk¶vMZ †hvM¨ZvB Zvi me©¯^xK…Z evsjvq cvi`wk©Zvi GKgvÎ D‡j−L‡hvM¨ gvcKvwV e‡j g‡b n‡”Q| Avi Gfv‡e hZB Zviv evsjv gva¨‡gi we`¨vjq¸‡jv‡Z wkw¶Z n‡Z _vK‡e I bexbiv Av‡¯— Av‡¯— eo n‡q cÖexb‡ì ¯’v‡b †h‡Z _vK‡e ZZw`‡b g‡b nq †KvP †jv‡Kiv evsjv mvwn‡ZÏ cvi`k©x n‡q DV‡Z _vK‡e| ZvB, hw` bv, AwaK †_‡K AwaKZi G cÖR‡b¥i wkïiv ¯‹z‡j †h‡Z ïi“ K‡i Ges Kgc‡¶ Aóg †kªYx ch©š— Zv‡ì †jLv cov Pvwj‡q hvq, Z‡e G cwieZ©b ax‡i ax‡iB NU‡e e‡j g‡b nq| AZGe hw` Gai‡bi †ek D‡j−L‡hvM¨ cwieZ©b bv N‡U _v‡K Z‡e XvKv wefv‡Mi DËi-cwð‡g emevmiZ †KvP‡ì g‡a¨ evsjv mvwnZ¨ fvjfv‡e eënvi Ki‡Z bv cvivi G Ae¯’v Pj‡ZB _vK‡e| 38

6. mycvwik

‡Kvb fvlv‡Mvôx‡K Zv‡ì fvlv m¤ú‡K© civgk© †`qvUv mnR KvR bq, Avi we‡klfv‡e hLb †Kvb fvlvi `‡ji †jvK‡ì Zv‡ì wb‡R‡ì fvlvi Dbœq‡bi cÖ‡qvRbxqZv Ges m¤¢ve¨Zv m¤ú©‡K mxwgZB avibv _v‡K ZLb Zv Av‡iv KwVb e¨vcvi n‡q ùvovq| G †¶‡Î Avgiv evsjv‡`‡ki †KvP Rb‡Mvwôi K_vB we‡klfv‡e D‡j−L KiwQ, KviY Zviv msL¨vq Aí Ges mvgvwRK I ivR‰bwZKfv‡e ZZUv msMwVZI bq (D`vniY wn‡m‡e ejv hvq, evsjv‡`‡k †gNvjqv †KvP A¨v‡mvwm‡qkb-Gi gZ †Kvb cÖwZwbwa `j †bB), Avi m¤¢eZ Zviv fvi‡Zi †KvP m¤cÖ`v‡qi †_‡KI `wi`ª Rxebhvcb Ki‡Q| Avi ZvB Zv‡ì fvlv-Dbœqb‡K cÖvavb¨ †`qvi R‡b¨ cÖ‡qvRbxq †bZ…Z¡, m¤ú` Ges Drmv‡ni Afve i‡q‡Q|

Avi Aek¨B Zvi gv‡b GB bq †h †KvP fvlv Ges evsjv‡`‡ki †KvP fvlvfvlx‡ì R‡b¨ †Kvb wKQz Kiv hv‡ebv ev Kivi ìKvi †bB| GKUv eûfvlx-wk¶vi Kg©m~Px ( MLE ) hv gvZ„fvlvq wk¶v`vb w`‡q ïi“ K‡i Ges ciewZ©‡Z RvZxq fvlvq cvi`k©x n‡Z mnvqZv K‡i Zv LyeB Dc‡hvMx n‡Z cv‡i| KviY Gi gva¨‡g Avgiv Zv‡ì wb‡R‡ì fvlvq co‡Z I wjL‡Z cvivi AvKv•¶v Ges evsjv‡`‡ki wk¶v eë¯’vq mvdj¨ AR©‡bi gZ ¸i“Z¡c~Y© B”Qvi gZ `ywU AvKv•¶v‡KB c~Y© Ki‡Z cvwi| Avi G RvZxq Kg©m~Pxi Rb¨ A‡bK e¯‘-m¤ú` †hgb ¯‹zj-Ni A_ev A‡bK A‡_©iI cÖ‡qvRb †bB| wZb‡ZwKqv †KvP †jv‡K‡ì Kv‡Q G RvZxq Kg©m~Px Pvjv‡bvi R‡b¨ Aek¨ wKQz bv wKQz cÖ‡qvRbxq m¤ú` ‡Zv i‡q‡QB †hgb Zv‡ì Kv‡Q Av‡Q fwel¨‡ZI eëüZ n‡e Ggb GKwU gvZ…fvlv Avi Zv eënv‡i cvi`kx© †jvKRb, gvZ…fvlvi cÖwZ Zv‡ì Me©I i‡q‡Q Ges Zv‡ì Av‡iv Av‡Q gvZ…fvlvq wjL‡Z co‡Z wkLvi AvMÖn| Avi ZvB GUv cwi¯‹vi g‡b nq †h, MLE Kg©m~PxB n‡e GKwU fvj Ges m¤¢eci c`‡¶c| Avi †mRb¨B Avgiv ‡KvP‡ì R‡b¨ GKUv MLE Kg©m~Px MÖnY Kivi civgk© †`B-- we‡klK‡i wZb‡ZwKqv †KvP‡ì R‡b¨-- Z‡e Zv cix¶vg~jKfv‡e †Kvb GKwU MÖv‡g K¬vm †bqvi gva¨‡g ïi“ Ki‡Z n‡e| hw` Zv‡ì g‡a¨ G e¨vcv‡i AvMÖn †`Lv hvq Z‡e SIL Bangladesh cÖwk¶Y I we‡kl‡Ái gZvgZ cÖ`v‡b G ai‡bi Kg©m~Px ev¯—evq‡b mnvqK n‡Z m‡Pó n‡e|

Gai‡bi c`‡¶c †bqvi c~‡e© Avgv‡ì civgk© _vK‡e †h, Avcbviv Av‡M G e¨vcv‡i DrmvwnZ †jvK‡ì wb‡q GKwU KwgwU ‰Zwi Ki“b hv‡Z †bZv‡ìI Ask MÖnY _vK‡e| Avi G KwgwUi D‡Ïk¨ n‡e evsjv‡`k I fvi‡Zi wZb‡ZwKqv †KvP‡ì g‡a¨ †Lvjv‡gjv Avjvc-Av‡jvPbvi eë¯’v Kiv Avi hw` Ggb nq †h eZ©gv‡b fvi‡Z †Kvb fvlvi Dbœqb Kg©m~Px Pj‡Q Z‡e Zvi DciI we‡kl ¸i“Z¡ †`qvi ìKvi n‡e| KwgwU‡K hZœmn MLE -Gi R‡b¨ cÖ‡qvRbxq e¨q Ges DcKvwiZv m¤ú©‡K we‡ePbv Ki‡Z n‡e Ges c‡i Zv m¤cÖ`v‡qi evKx †jvK‡ì Kv‡Q Zz‡j ai‡Z n‡e| G KwgwUi Av‡iv wKQz KvR _vK‡e †h¸‡jv n‡”Q G Kg©m~Px‡K ev¯—evq‡b Zv‡ì Kv‡Q h‡_ó cwigvY m¤ú‡ì gRy` Av‡Q wKbv Zvi wba©viY Kiv Ges Kg©m~Px‡K Pvwj‡q wb‡q hvIqvi R‡b¨ ØvwqZ¡fvi MÖn‡Y mwØ”Qvi Dcw¯’wZ wbiƒcY Kiv|

Pvcov †KvP‡ì m¤ú‡K© Avgiv wK ej‡Z cvwi? gvZ„fvlvi Dbœq‡bi R‡b¨ Zv‡ì Kv‡Q Kgc‡¶ `ywU cš’v i‡q‡Q: 1) Pvcov †KvP fvlvq ¯^v¶iZv Kg©m~Px ev¯—evqb Kiv, A_ev 2) hw` eZ©gv‡b Pj‡Q Ggb †Kvb wZb‡ZwKqv ¯^v¶iZv Kg©m~Px †_‡K _v‡K, Z‡e Zv‡Z †hvM †`qv| Pvcov †Kv‡Piv †h wm×vš—B MÖnY Ki“K bv †Kb, hw` Zviv fvlv Dbœqb Kg©m~Px‡Z AvMÖn cÖKvk K‡i _v‡K Z‡e Zv‡ìI GKwU fvlv Dbœqb KwgwU MVb Ki‡Z n‡e| Avi GB KwgwU‡K evsjv‡`‡ki wZb‡ZwKqv †KvP Kg©m~Px ev fvi‡Zi †KvP Dbœqb Kg©m~Pxi e¨vcv‡i mg¨K AeMZ n‡Z n‡e| Zv‡ì‡K GUvI fvjfv‡e eySvi †Pôv Ki‡Z n‡e †h Pvcov †KvP‡ì g‡a¨ fvlv Dbœq‡bi KZUzKy AvMÖn i‡q‡Q| 39 evsjv‡`k Ges fvi‡Zi †KvP m¤cÖ`v‡qi mv‡_ Avjvc Av‡jvPbv Kivi ci Avgiv G wm×v‡š— †cuŠQjvg †h Pvcov †Kv‡Piv wZb‡ZwKqv †KvP‡ì R‡b¨ PvwjZ MLE Kg©m~Px‡Z Ask †bqv DwPr| hwÌ kZKiv kvwãK wgj-Gi w`‡K j¶¨ Ki‡j ‡`Lv hvq ‡h, Zv‡ì fvlv wZb‡ZwKqv †KvP‡ì †P‡q h‡_ó wfbœ iK‡gi Avi GR‡b¨ Zv‡ì †¶‡Î Avjv`v mvwnZ¨ iPbv Kiv ev wfbœ MLE Kg©m~Px Pvjy Kivi cÖ‡qvRb i‡q‡Q; ZeyI wKQz we‡kl Kvi‡Y Avgiv Zv‡ì‡K wZb‡ZwKqv †KvP Kg©m~Px‡Z Ask MÖnY Kivi civgk© ‡`B| cÖ_gZ, Pvcov †KvP‡ì fvlv Avi Av‡Mi gZ ZZUv ¯’vqx fvlv bq †h Zv my`~i fwel¨‡ZI eëüZ n‡Z _vK‡e KviY evsjvi cÖfv‡ei d‡j Zv `yªZ nvwi‡q hv‡”Q| wØZxqZ, †h‡nZz evsjv‡`‡k Pvcov †KvP‡ì msL¨v Kg ZvB MLE Kg©m~Pxi Rb¨ cÖ‡qvRbxq Rbkw³i ‡hvMvb †`qv KóKi n‡q co‡e| Avi Z…Zxq Ges ¸i“Z¡c~Y© e¨vcviwU n‡”Q †h, ‡h‡nZz Pvcov †KvP‡ì Zv‡ì ‡fŠMwjK I fvlvMZ cÖwZ‡ekx wZb‡ZwKqv †KvP‡ì fvlvi cÖwZ GKwU fvj g‡bvfve i‡q‡Q Ges Zviv cÖvq cuvP eQi eqm †_‡KB wZb‡ZwKqv †KvP fvlv ej‡Z ïi“ K‡i| ZvB Pvcov †KvP‡ì‡K wZb‡ZwKqv †KvP fvlvq PvwjZ MLE Kg©m~Px‡Z Ask MÖnY KivUvB eZ©gvb cwiw¯’wZ‡Z me‡P‡q ev¯—em¤§Z Ges Dc‡hvMx c`‡¶c e‡j g‡b n‡”Q| 40

Appendix A: WORDLISTS

A.1. Standard procedures for counting lexical similarity

A standard list of 307 vocabulary items was collected from speakers at geographically representative Koch villages in Bangladesh and India, plus two A’tong villages in Bangladesh. This list is presented in Appendix A.3.

In standard procedure for lexical similarity comparison (Blair 1990:26–33), the 307 words are elicited from a person who has grown up in the target locality. The list is then checked with a second speaker (unless the wordlist is elicited from a group of people). Any differences in responses are examined in order to identify: (1) incorrect responses due to misunderstanding of the elicitation cue, (2) loan words offered in response to the language of elicitation when indigenous terms are actually still in use, and (3) terms which are simply at different places along the generic-specific lexical scale. Normally, a single term is recorded for each item of the wordlist. However, more than one term is recorded for a single item when synonymous terms are apparently in general use or when more than one specific term occupies the semantic area of a more generic item on the wordlist.

The wordlists are compared to determine the extent to which the vocabulary of each pair of speech forms is similar. No attempt is made to identify genuine cognates based on a network of sound correspondences. Rather, two items are judged to be phonetically similar if at least half of the segments compared are the same (category 1) and of the remaining segments at least half are rather similar (category 2). For example, if two items of eight segments in length are compared, these words are judged to be similar if at least four segments are virtually the same and at least two more are rather similar. The criteria applied are as follows:

Category 1 a. Contoid (consonant-like) segments which match exactly b. Vocoid (vowel-like) segments which match exactly or differ by only one articulatory feature c. Phonetically similar segments (often found as allophones) which are seen to correspond in at least three pairs of words Category 2 All other phonetically similar pairs of segments which are not, however, supported by at least three pairs of words Category 3 a. Pairs of segments which are not phonetically similar b. A segment which is matched by no segment in the corresponding item

After pairs of items on two wordlists had been determined to be phonetically similar or not, according to the criteria stated above, the percentage of items judged similar was calculated. The procedure was repeated for each pair of language varieties. The pair-by-pair counting procedure was greatly facilitated by the use of WordSurv ©, a computer program written by SIL for this purpose.

Occasionally, one or more of the standard 307 lexical items were found to be so problematic that consistent elicitation was impossible or evaluation of similarity became anomalous. In those cases the problematic lexical items were excluded from the lexical similarity counts.

The wordlist data are field transcriptions and have not undergone thorough phonological and grammatical analysis.

A.2. Wordlist notes

A few other comments about wordlist procedures are in order for this survey. Where there are no elicitations for a given entry (marked as “not used”), that means that the word was not used because it was judged to be confusing or imprecise to several of the respondents and generally difficult to elicit. A “no entry” means that we weren't able to elicit a response from only that particular village(s). Words in parentheses are affixes and were ignored for purposes of comparison. Also, the following conventions were used in comparison of phones:

• Unreleased and palatal suprasegmentals were ignored when compared with nothing. • Non-syllabic vowels were ignored. • Unreleased stops compared to glottal stops were deemed as Category 1.

Each elicitation is preceded by a number. For each gloss all elicitations which have the same preceding number are considered to be phonetically similar and are grouped together. Following each elicitation is a list of one or more letters/number in brackets. These letters/number represent the wordlist site of that particular elicitation. The codes for these wordlist sites are as follows:

Code: Wordlist site (language variety): b Nokshi (Tintekiya Koch) c Kholchanda (Tintekiya Koch) l Bharatpur (A’tong) m Nalchapra (A’tong) r Chandabhoi (Tinkekiya Koch) q Uttor Nokshi (Chapra Koch) 0 (Bangla)

A.3. Wordlists

1 sky 8 wind 1 [ lm ] 1 au [ c ] balua 2 [ bcr ] 1 sau [ b ] lampar 2 [ q ] 2 raa [ lm ] nampar 3 [ 0 ] 3 aka [ 0 ] bata 4 dn [ qr ] 9 lightning 2 sun 1 rai louni [ c ] 1 [ b ] 1 raan [ m ] raim launi 2 [ lm ] 1 rana [ l ] ra dilppa 3 [ 0 ] 1 raan [ q ] bddut mkano 4 [ q ] 1 rasan [ bcr ] ilkaito 5 [ r ] 2 udo [ 0 ] rakarni

3 moon 10 thunder 0 [ b ] 1 nak [ q ] no entry 1 [ c ] 1 rak [ c ] rapatni 1 [ r ] 1 ra [ br ] rakuni 2 [ lm ] 2 a i [ m ] ra kwa 3 h [ 0 ] 2 a ai [ l ] m don 4 [ q ] 3 ad [ 0 ] karto

4 star 11 sea 1 [ 0bclmqr ] 1 askui [ lm ] aor 2 taa [ 0bcqr ] 12 mountain 5 cloud 0 no entry [ l ] 1 [ bc ] 1 ala [ m ] bono 2 [ m ] 1 adla [ l ] hapri 3 [ 0q ] 1 adla [ bcr ] paha h 4 [ r ] 2 m [ 0 ] haku 3 ap [ q ] 13 water 6 rain 1 ti [ lm ] 1 [ bcr ] 1 ra [ bclmqr ] ti 2 [ 0 ] 2 bri [ 0 ] pani 3 tika [ q ] 7 rainbow 0 no entry [ l ] 1 ro [ m ] 2 ramdhonuk [ bc ] 2 rdhnu [ 0qr ]

14 river 21 silver 1 ցa֊ [ q ] 1 rupa [ 0bclmqr ] [ a [ bשЋoم 2 h 3 t olo֊ [ c ] 22 today h 4 tei k ar [ l ] 1 taini [ bcr ] 5 tei mu֊ [ m ] 1 tani [ m ] 6 nodi [ 0 ] 1 tini [ q ] 7 timat [ r ] 2 taan [ l ] 3 adЋ [ 0 ] 15 soil/ground 1 haБ [ bclmqr ] 23 yesterday [ ma֒i [ 0 ] 0 no entry [ l 2 1 m᭣ja [ m ] 16 mud 1 muija [ bcr ] 1 doba [ lm ] 2 ցѐtokal / kalke [ 0 ] 2 haБdilϯka / kado֊ [ bcr ] 3 ցanϯkai [ q ] 2 hadlika [ q ] 3 kada [ 0 ] 24 tomorrow 3 haБdilϯka / kado֊ [ bcr ] 0 no entry [ l ] 1 ցϯnϯ [ bcr ] 17 dust 2 hanϯp [ m ] 1 hapu [ b ] 3 aցamikal [ 0 ] 1 haput⍾ [ cr ] 4 oidina [ q ] 2 hadula [ m ] h 3 habuk u [ l ] 25 week h 4 d ula [ 0 ] 1 hatai [ bc ] 5 haЀϯ֊ [ q ] 2 Ѐѐpta [ 0lmqr ]

18 stone 26 month h [ Ћa [ lmم lo֊t ai [ bcr ] 1 1 h 1 lo֊t ϯ֊ [ q ] 2 maЀ [ 0bcqr ] 1 ro֊t hai [ lm ] h 2 pat or [ 0 ] 27 year 1 b᭣lЀi [ lm ] [ sand 2 bѐ֒Ѐ hor [ 0bcqr 19 [ hanБ֒Ѐϯ֊ [ m 1 ha֒Ѐϯ֊ [ cl] ] 28 day 1 [ ha֒Ѐϯ֊ [ cl] ] 1 Ѐan [ lm 2 2 haЀϯ֊ [ q ] 2 sanok [ bc ] [ n [ 0qrگhasϯ֊ [ br ] 3 d 2 3 bali [ 0 ]

20 gold 1 Ѐona [ 0bclmqr ]

29 morning 38 potato 1 walni [ lm ] 1 k han [ bclmr ] 2 manat⍾ [ bc ] 2 alub huta [ m ] 2 manap [ r ] 3 alu [ 0q ] 3 Ѐѐkal [ 0 ] 4 bihan [ q ] 39 cauliflower 1 p hulkopi [ 0bclmqr ] 30 noon Ћi [ m ] 40 cabbageمЀanma 1 2 dupur [ 0bclqr ] 1 bad hakopi [ 0bclmqr ]

31 evening 41 eggplant 1 dasum [ r ] 1 baiցon [ q ] 1 ցasam [ lm ] 1 bϯցun [ 0 ] 1 ցasum [ bc ] 2 bantao [ bcr ] h 2 Ѐond a [ 0 ] 2 mantao [ lm ] 3 bϯlabati [ q ] 42 peanut 32 night 1 badam [ 0bclmqr ] 1 wal [ lm ] h 2 p arok⍾ [ bcr ] 43 tree 3 rat [ 0 ] 1 pan [ bcqr ] h 4 p ar [ q ] 2 panp ha֊ [ lm ] [ ցa֒Ѐ h [ 0 3 33 paddy rice 1 mai [ bclmqr ] 44 branch h [ al [ 0م d an [ 0 ] 1 2 1 dala [ bclmqr ] 34 uncooked rice u֊ [ bclqr ] 45 leafשmai 1 [ mairo֊ [ m ] 1 lai֒Ѐak [ bqr 1 [ Ѐal [ 0 ] 1 lϯsak [ c֒ 2 [ lai֒Ѐak [ bqr 2 [ cooked rice 2 pan֒Ѐak [ lm 35 1 mai [ bcmqr ] 3 pata [ 0 ] 2 maim᭣n [ lm ] h 3 b at [ 0 ] 46 thorn 1 kanta [ bcqr ] [ wheat 1 ka֒a [ 0 36 1 ցѐm [ 0bclmqr ] 2 asu [ lm ]

37 corn 1 mak hu [ bcqr ] 2 abo֊ [ lm ] [ b hu֒֒a [ 0 3

47 root 54 flower [ Ѐad᭣l [ lm ] 0 no entry [ l֒ 1 [ Ѐatal [ b ] 1 par [ bcr֒ 1 [ Ѐat hal [ c ] 2 ful [ 0mq֒ 1 2 mul [ 0 ] a [ q ] 55 seedשhik 3 [ Ѐatar [ r ] 0 no entry [ b֒ 4 [ Ѐatal [ b ] 1 biЀun [ q֒ 4 [ a [ mשЀat hal [ c ] 2 ֒Ѐa֒ 4 [ i [ lשЀa֒ 2 48 bamboo 3 bidЋ [ 0c ] 1 wa [ bclqr ] 4 kϯr [ r ] 2 wakai [ m ] 3 baЀ [ 0 ] 56 sugarcane 0 no entry [ l ] 49 fruit 1 ցolot⍾ [ m ] 1 t hai [ bclmqr ] 2 koihar [ q ] 2 p hѐl [ 0 ] 2 kosϯr [ bcr ] 3 ak h [ 0 ] 50 jackfruit pai֒Ѐu֊ [ q ] 57 betelnut 1 [ pa֊֒Ѐu֊ [ bcr ] 1 ցawai [ lm 1 [ pan֒Ѐum [ lm ] 1 ցoja [ bcr 1 [ ka֒ hal [ 0 ] 2 ցoja [ bcr 2 2 ցoi [ q ] [ i [ 0שcoconut (ripe) 3 Ѐupa 51 [ ikϯl [ 0lmשna 1 1 narkul [ q ] 58 lime for betelnut [ daba [ bcr ] 1 ֒Ѐun [ 0lmq 2 [ Ѐunu [ bcr֒ 1 52 banana 1 lϯt hai [ bcr ] 59 liquor [ rϯk⍾t hai [ lm ] 1 ֒Ѐ᭣u [ lm 1 [ a [ bcrשkѐla [ 0q ] 2 mϯ 2 3 mѐd [ 0 ] [ mango 4 ֒Ѐokot [ q 53 [ bo֒Ѐor [ bcr 1 bo֒Ѐot [ lm ] 60 milk 1 h 2 am [ 0 ] 1 dud [ 0bclmqr ] 3 ambok [ q ] 61 oil 1 tϯl [ 0bclmqr ]

62 meat 70 deer [ pϯk⍾ϯn [ bcr ] 1 ma֒Ѐao [ bcr 1 [ randai [ lm ] 2 mat⍾֒Ѐok [ lm 2 [ n [ 0گשma֊Ѐo [ 0 ] 3 ho 3 4 kan [ q ] 4 hoցra [ q ]

63 salt 71 monkey 1 s᭣m [ lm ] 1 hamak⍾ [ lm ] 1 sum [ bcqr ] 2 kao i [ bc ] 2 lѐbon / nun [ 0 ] 2 kawai [ r ] 3 bandor [ q ] 64 onion 3 banor [ 0 ] 1 piao [ bcr ] 2 [ l ] raisun 72 rabbit 2 raЀun [ m ] 0 no entry [ l ] 3 pϯadЋ [ 0 ] 1 k hѐrցoЀ [ 0m ] [ i [ bcqrשЋabaمЋϯk [ q ] 2 heمpϯ 4

65 garlic 73 snake 1 [ 0bclqr ] rѐЀun 1 d᭣p᭣u [ lm ] 1 [ m ] ruЀun 1 dup⍨u [ cq ] 1 dup hu [ br ] 66 pepper 2 Ѐap [ 0 ] [ ᭣k [ lmשЋ᭣م 1 [ Ћailuk [ qم 1 74 crocodile 2 [ 0 ] [ ցa [ m֊گשЀ 1 a֒گשmo 3 [ bcr ] [ ցa [ l֊گשmur֒Ѐuk⍾ 1 ha 2 kumir [ 0bcqr ] 67 elephant 1 mo֊ma [ lm ] 75 house lizard 2 hati [ 0bcqr ] 0 no entry [ l ] [ ϯk [ bcrשnok dab 1 [ ot [ mשtiger 2 toktokko 68 1 mat⍾sa [ bcr ] [ kki [ 0گk֒گ֒ 3 [ mat⍾֒Ѐ ha [ lm 1 4 nok diba [ q ] 1 [ q ] maЀa 2 baց h [ 0 ] 76 turtle 1 kaЀi֊ [ bcr ] 69 bear 2 kat hua [ m ] 1 [ lm ] h mak⍾bul 3 k uЀum [ l ] 2 [ bcr ] h [ baluk 4 kѐt֒Ѐ op [ 0 2 h [ 0q ] [ a [ qשb aluk 5 du

77 frog 86 rat 1 luklak [ lm ] 1 moЀai [ bcr ] [ luwak⍾ [ bcr ] 2 miБ֒Ѐut⍾ [ m 1 [ Ћut⍾ [ lمbæ֊ [ 0q ] 2 mi 2 3 idur [ 0 ] [ dog 4 mo֒Ѐot [ q 78 [ k᭣i [ lm ] 4 miБ֒Ѐut⍾ [ m 1 1 kui [ bcqr ] 2 [ 0 ] kukur 87 chicken (adult female)

1 tau [ bclmqr ]

79 cat 2 murցi [ 0 ] [ a [ lmשb᭣i 1

1 bilai [ bcr ] 88 egg [ al [ 0ײbi 1 [ k [ bcrگpit 1 2 mϯao [ q ] [ k [ qگtaut 1 2 t᭣i [ lm ] [ im [ 0م cow 3 80 1 maБЀu [ q ] 1 maБsu [ bclmr ] 89 fish [ u [ 0שցo 2 1 na [ bclmqr ] [ ma֒Ѐ h [ 0 2 81 buffalo 1 muЀi [ bcr ] 90 duck [ Ѐ᭣nd᭣k [ lm֒ 2 1 ha֊su [ bcr ] 3 mohiЀ [ 0 ] 2 daoցϯp⍾ [ m ] 4 bus [ q ] 2 daoցϯt⍾ [ l ] 3 haЀ [ 0 ] [ horn (of buffalo) 4 han֒Ѐuk [ q 82 [ o֊ [ bclmqrשko 1 2 Ѐi֊ [ 0 ] 91 bird 1 tau [ bclmqr ] 83 tail 2 pak hi [ 0 ] 1 diБmi [ lm ] 1 dimai [ bcr ] 92 insect 2 lϯdЋ [ 0 ] [ Ѐo֊ [ bclmqr֒ 1 [ ur [ q֊گn 3 2 poka [ 0 ]

84 goat 93 cockroach [ un [ bclmqrשpu 1 1 salu֊ [ lm ] [ Ѐ haցol [ 0֒ 2 [ a֒Ѐϯp [ bcr 2

[ a [ qשtϯl֒Ѐo 3

85 pig 4 tϯlapoka [ 0m ] 1 wak⍾ [ bclmqr ]

2 Ѐukor [ 0 ]

94 bee 101 neck [ nija (֒Ѐo֊) [ cr ] 1 kalk hu [ bcr 1 [ ϯ֊ [ lmשnija֒Ѐo֊ [ br ] 2 tok 1 2 nϯ [ lq ] 3 ցala [ q ] 3 mϯ [ m ] 3 ցѐla [ 0 ] [ mouma֒Ѐ hi [ 0 4 102 hair h 95 fly 1 k au [ bclmr ] [ mai para֒Ѐo֊ [ bcr ] 2 ֒Ѐul [ 0 1 2 sot [ lm ] 3 hѩu [ q ] [ ma֒Ѐ hi [ 0 3 Ѐo֊ [ q ] 103 eye֒ 4 [ ϯ֊ [ lmשm᭣k 1 96 spider 1 mok⍾kon [ bcr ] [ ցawa֊ [ lm ] 2 ֒Ѐok [ 0 1 2 abrϯk⍾ [ bcr ] 3 nukun [ q ] 3 makorЀa [ 0 ] 3 mok⍾kon [ bcr ] [ ϯk [ qשmak 4 104 nose 97 ant 1 nak⍾ku֊ [ bcr ] 1 Ѐϯmar [ c ] 1 nak hu֊ [ lm ] 1 Ѐimђr [ q ] 1 naku֊ [ q ] 1 samal [ lm ] 2 nak [ 0 ] 1 sϯmal [ b ] 1 sϯmar [ r ] 105 ear [ a [ 0 ] 1 nak har [ bclmrײpip 2 1 nakor [ q ] 98 mosquito 2 kan [ 0 ] 1 ցa֊ցawa [ lm ] Ѐo֊da֊la֊ [ b ] 106 cheek֒ 2 [ Ѐo֊ [ cr ] 1 p hait hupa [ lm֒ 3 4 mѐЀa [ 0 ] 2 pait hok⍾ [ bcr ] [ ցa֊ցu֒Ѐu֊ [ q ] 3 ցal [ 0 5 [ Ѐapa [ q֒ 4 99 head 1 d᭣k᭣m [ lmq ] 107 chin 1 dukum [ bcr ] 1 kad᭣mbai [ lm ] h 2 mat ha [ 0 ] 2 kat olok [ bcr ] [ Ѐibuk [ 0֒ 3 100 face 4 dadi [ q ] 1 m᭣k h᭣֊ [ lm ] 1 muk ha֊ [ bcr ] 2 muk h [ 0 ] 3 mђhђ֊ [ q ]

108 mouth 115 fingernail [ k hu֒Ѐar [ bcr ] 1 ֒Ѐak⍾Ѐik hor [ m 1 [ k hu֒Ѐuk⍾ [ lm ] 1 ֒Ѐak⍾Ѐikor [ bclr 1 [ muk [ 0 ] 1 ֒Ѐa֒Ѐikul [ q 2 3 hoto֊ [ q ] 2 nѐk [ 0 ]

109 tongue 116 knee [ ϯ֊ցila [ bcשt halai [ bcr ] 1 ֒Ѐak 1 [ t hϯlampa [ lm ] 2 ֒Ѐak᭣u [ lm 2 h [ Ћibѩ [ q ] 3 ant u [ qم 3 [ b [ 0 ] 3 a֒ hu [ rگdЋ 3 [ a֒ hu [ r 4 [ tooth 4 ha֒u [ 0 110 1 wa [ lm ] 2 t ha [ bc ] 117 foot [ dat [ 0 ] 1 ֒ЀaБp ha [ l 3 [ ak⍾ [ bשϯ֊ apשp ha [ qr ] 2 ֒Ѐak 4 [ ϯ֊ [ crשЀak֒ 3 [ elbow 4 ֒ЀaБ [ m 111 [ Ѐa ցilai [ c ] 5 pѐd [ 0֒ 1 h [ Ѐa ցilѩ [ q ] 6 tat ϯ֊ [ q֒ 1 [ Ѐak⍾ցilai [ br֒ 1 Ѐak⍾֒Ѐuk⍾ [ l ] 118 bone֒ 2 [ ϯ֊ [ bclmqrשЀak⍾wϯ֊ [ m ] 1 kϯ֒ 3 [ 0 ] ײkonui [ 0 ] 2 ha 4

112 hand 119 fat [ Ѐak⍾ [ lmqr ] 0 no entry [ bl֒ 1 2 hat [ 0 ] 1 hok⍾pϯkϯn [ c ] [ ak⍾ [ bc ] 2 tϯl [ qrשЀak⍾ap֒ 3 3 ludi [ m ] [ palm 4 ֒Ѐorbi [ 0 113 [ Ѐak⍾p ha [ lm֒ 1 Ѐak⍾tala [ bcr ] 120 skin֒ 2 h 3 hatϯr tѐla [ 0 ] 1 k opak⍾ [ bcr ] h [ Ѐak pata [ q ] 2 k ol [ lm֒ 4 [ a [ 0qשЀam֒ 3 114 finger Ѐak⍾Ѐi [ lm ] 121 blood֒ 1 h [ ЀaЀi [ bcr ] 1 t ᭣i [ lm֒ 1 h 2 a֊ցur [ 0 ] 1 t i [ bcqr ] 2 a֊ul [ q ] 2 rѐkto [ 0 ]

122 sweat 129 woman [ i [ bcrשno entry [ b ] 1 ti 0 1 ramti [ cr ] 2 ց᭣wui [ lm ] [ la [ 0گtu֊ցoa [ m ] 3 moh 2 [ Ћu [ qمtu֊ok⍾ [ l ] 4 ma 2 3 ց ham [ 0q ] 130 father 123 belly 1 abba [ 0 ] 1 hok⍾ [ bcr ] 2 awa [ bcmr ] [ pϯ֒ [ 0 ] 3 baba [ 0lq 2 3 pip huБ [ l ] 3 pipuk⍾ [ m ] 131 mother 4 ok [ q ] 1 ama [ lm ] 1 amai [ bcr ] 124 heart (organ) 1 ma / amma [ 0 ] 0 no entry [ bqr ] 2 aijѩ [ q ] 1 pik ha [ l ] h p ok⍾֒Ѐa [ c ] 132 husband 2 [ Ћa֊ցi [ lm ] 1 mit hala [ bcrم 3 [ Ћ᭣k⍾bip ha [ lmم idѐi [ 0 ] 2ש 4 3 Ѐami [ 0 ] 125 back 4 mijѩ [ q ] 1 kundu [ bcr ] 2 k᭣n [ lm ] 133 wife h [ pi֒ [ 0 ] 1 miЀik [ q 3 [ Ћu֊ [ q ] 1 mi֒Ѐik⍾ [ bcrم֊hu 4 [ Ћ᭣k⍾ց᭣wui [ lmم 2 [ i [ 0שbody 3 st 126 1 kan [ bcqr ] 2 randai [ lm ] 134 son 3 ցa [ 0 ] 1 piЀa [ bcr ] 2 Ѐa bip ha [ lm ] [ person 3 ֒Ѐ hϯlϯ [ 0 127 [ mandi [ m ] 4 ֒Ѐ haЀa [ q 1 [ ot⍾ [ bclqrשmo 2 3 lok [ 0 ] 135 daughter [ i) piЀa [ cשti) 1 [ i) [ brשman 1 piЀa (ti 128 1 purЀi [ cr ] 2 Ѐa ցiwui [ lm ] 1 puЀi [ b ] 3 mϯjϯ [ 0 ] h [ Ћu ֒Ѐ haЀa [ qمbip a [ lm ] 4 ma 2 [ uЀ [ 0שpu 3 4 maБwa [ q ]

136 elder brother 143 house 1 dada [ cl ] 1 nok⍾ [ bclmqr ] [ i / ց hѐr [ 0ײkaka [ bcr ] 2 ba 2 [ p hao ֒Ѐu֊ցuwa [ m 3 h o b ai [ 0 ] 144 doorײbѐ 4 5 matadada [ q ] 1 dokor [ lm ] 1 dukat [ bcr ] 137 elder sister 2 dѐrdЋa [ 0 ] [ Ћa [ bclr ] 3 duar [ qمa 1 2 bai [ c ] 3 dokor [ lm ] [ Ћa ֒Ѐu֊ցuwa [ mم 3 o bon / didi [ 0 ] 145 windowײbѐ 4 5 matabai [ q ] 0 no entry [ r ] 1 k hokai duar [ c ] h 138 younger brother 1 k okai dukat⍾ [ b ] [ Ћo֊ [ bcr ] 2 kϯlki [ lmم 1 [ i d honda [ qשЋo֊ ցoa [ l ] 3 kokم 2 [ Ћanala [ 0م Ћo֊ m᭣lցuwa [ m ] 4م 3 [ Ѐ ho֒o b hai [ 0֒ 4 h 5 tamur b ai [ q ] 146 roof [ a֊ [ bשnuk ha 1 h [ a֊ [ rש younger sister 1 nuk 139 [ a֊ [ cשnono [ l ] 1 nuk hu 1 [ nau [ bcr ] 2 ֒Ѐal [ q 2 [ nao m᭣lցuwa [ m ] 2 ֒Ѐ had / ֒Ѐal [ 0 3 [ Ѐ ho֒o bon [ 0 ] 3 nuk hu֊ [ lm֒ 4 [ a֊ [ cשЋanao [ q ] 3 nuk huم tamui 5 [ a֊ [ rשnuk h 3 140 friend (Ћu [ lm ] 147 wall (of houseمba 1 [ a [ bclשa [ br ] 1 bϯשЀa֊ց 2 [ a [ c ] 2 dolan [ qשsa֊ց 2 3 bond hu [ 0q ] 3 dϯal [ 0m ] [ Ћa [ rمk ha 4 141 name 1 bimѨ֊ [ l ] 148 pillow [ Ѐ [ 0lmqrگmu֊ [ bcmr ] 1 bal 2 3 nam [ 0q ] 1 balus [ b ] 1 baluЀ [ c ] 142 village 1 Ѐo֊ [ lm ] 149 blanket 2 ցo֊ [ bcr ] 1 kѐmbol [ 0bclmqr ] [ am [ 0qשց 3

150 ring (on finger) 158 spoon (for eating) [ a֊ti [ 0lmr ] 1 kor֒Ѐali [ bq 1 [ ant hi [ bcq ] 1 kor֒Ѐila [ c 1 [ Ѐamo֒Ѐ [ 0lmr֒ 2 151 clothing (a [ m ] 159 knife (to cut meatשba 1 2 Ѐoka [ qr ] [not used ] 2 soka [ bc ] Ѐola [ l ] 160 hammer֒ 3 4 poЀak [ 0 ] 1 hatur [ bclmqr ] [ i [ 0שhatu 1 152 cloth [not used ] 161 axe 1 ruwa [ q ] 153 medicine 2 wakϯ֊ [ bcr ] [ sam [ lm ] 3 ku֒ har [ 0lm 1 pan֒Ѐak⍾ [ bcr ] 162 bow 2 3 oЀud [ 0 ] 1 d hѐnuk [ 0bclmqr ] 4 pa֊kur [ q ] 163 arrow 154 paper 1 tir [ 0bclmqr ] 1 lϯk⍾k ha [ bclmr ] 2 kaցodЋ [ 0q ] 164 spear [ Ѐϯwal [ bcqr֒ 1 155 needle 2 ցut h᭣ni [ m ] 1 suЀi [ bc ] 2 ցut hini [ l ] 2 s᭣lЀimi [ lm ] 3 bѐrЀa [ 0 ] [ Ѐu֒Ѐ [ 0 3 3 ЀuЀi [ r ] 165 fire [ ndi [ q ] 1 wal [ lmگb 4 1 war [ bcqr ] 156 thread 2 aցun [ 0 ] [ bcr ] ֊گk hunt 1 q ] 166 ashes ] ֊گntگk 1 [ q ] 1 t hap⍾pala [ bcqr ] ֊گntگk 2 [ a [ mשpit᭣֊ [ lm ] 2 t hap h 2 [ a [ lשЀuta [ 0 ] 2 t hap 3 [ Ѐ hai [ 0֒ 3 157 broom 1 nohϯk⍾ [ bcr ] 167 smoke 1 noցϯk⍾ [ lm ] 1 walk hu [ lm ] h [ u [ 0 ] 1 wark hu [ bcrײdЋ a 2 [ i [ q ] 2 d hoa [ 0שЀataba֒ 3 3 d humѩ [ q ]

168 candle 177 to walk 1 mombati [ 0bclmqr ] 1 ramari [ m ] [ ai [ bcrשbϯ 2 169 boat 3 rai [ l ] [ ru֊ [ lm ] 4 ha֒a [ 0 1 [ Ћѩmlai [ qمnauka [ bcq ] 5 lѩ 2 2 nouka [ 0r ] 178 to fly 170 road 0 no entry [ r ] 1 lam [ bcqr ] 1 pur [ b ] 1 ram [ lm ] 2 p᭣u [ l ] [ ok [ 0 ] 2 pu [ cשasta / Ѐoש 2 3 bul [ m ] [ a [ 0qײpath 4 o 171 [not used ] 179 to enter 172 to go 1 da֊ [ bclmqr ] [ hoka [ 0 م lai [ bcqr ] 2 1 2 rϯБϯ֊ [ lm ] 3 [ 0 ] dЋawa 180 to kick 0 no entry [ l ] [ to come 1 ֒Ѐasum [ bc 173 h 1 p aina [ bcqr ] 1 taЀum [ r ] h 1 p ina [ l ] 2 ցat h᭣lni [ m ] [ a [ 0שhi [ m ] 3 la֒ hi ma 2 [ ei aЀik [ qשaЀa [ 0 ] 4 ցu 3

174 to stand 181 to swim [ Ѐap⍾ [ bclmqr ] 1 hu֊ [ bclmr֒ 1 [ ano [ 0 ] 2 Ѐatar ka֒a [ 0שda 2 [ ei [ qשhat 3 175 to sit 1 [ q ] moЀo֊ 182 to see [ nu [ bclr ] 1 ֒Ѐai [ bclmqr 2 3 mu [ m ] 2 dϯk ha [ 0 ] 4 bѐЀa [ 0 ] 183 to hear 176 to lie down 1 nat hum [ bcr ] [not used ] 2 Ѐona [ 0 ]

3 nana [ l ] 3 naniБ [ m ] 4 nat him [ q ]

184 to wait 192 to laugh 1 Ѐam [ bclmr ] 1 m᭣nei [ lm ] 1 sam [ q ] 1 mimin [ q ] [ a [ 0 ] 1 mini [ bcrשѐpϯkk ha kѐ 2 2 haЀa [ 0 ] 185 to cry h 1 k ϯt⍾ [ bcr ] 193 to speak 2 k hϯp⍾ [ lm ] 1 bal [ lm ] 3 kada [ 0 ] 1 bar [ bcqr ] 4 hϯp [ q ] 1 bѐla [ 0 ]

186 to cook 194 to tell 1 lum [ bcqr ] [not used ] 1 r᭣m [ lm ] a [ 0 ] 195 to knowשranna kѐ 2 h 1 t arman [ bcr ] 2 t᭣֊ [ lm ] 187 to boil (water) 3 dЋana [ 0q ] 1 rot⍾ [ bclmr ] [ a [ 0שЀidd ho kѐ 2 3 rok [ q ] 196 to forget 1 wandalai [ c ] 1 wandat⍾lai [ br ] 188 to eat 2 awan [ lm ] 1 ЀaБ [ bcr ] 3 b hulϯ dЋawa [ 0 ] 1 Ѐat⍾ [ m ] 4 mon hara [ q ] 1 saБ [ lq ] 2 k hawa [ 0 ] 197 to sleep [ Ћ᭣u [ lmم 1 189 to drink [ Ћu [ bcqrم 1 1 r᭣֊ [ lm ] 2 ց humano [ 0 ] 2 ni֊ [ bcr ] 3 pani k hawa [ 0 ] 4 sa [ q ] 198 to dream [ Ћamuk⍾ nuk⍾ [ bcrم 1 [ Ћuma֊ nuk⍾ [ lmم 1 190 to sing 2 Ѐѐpno dϯk ha [ 0 ] 1 r᭣֊Б [ lm ] 3 hopon nukra [ q ] 2 ցai [ bcr ] 3 ցan ցawa [ 0 ] 4 ցanlu֊ [ q ] 199 to make 1 [ bclr ] banai [ i [ mשt ha 2 191 to bite [ a [ 0שkѐ 3 1 kat⍾ [ bc ] 4 tuϯr nak [ q ] 2 kak⍾ [ lmqr ] [ ano [ 0ײkam 3

200 to work 207 to tie 1 kam lau [ bcqr ] 0 no entry [ l ] 1 kam p᭣i [ lm ] 1 k ha [ cmr ] [ a [ 0 ] 2 ha [ bqשkadЋ kѐ 2 3 bad ha [ 0 ] 201 to play h 1 k ϯl [ bcr ] 208 to wipe [ k hϯla [ 0q ] 1 ֒Ѐ hit⍾ [ bcr 1 1 k hϯlai [ lm ] 2 ЀϯЀϯt⍾ [ lm ] [ mo֒Ѐ ha [ 0 3 202 to dance 4 musruk [ q ] 1 baЀa [ bcr ] 1 biЀ᭣i [ m ] 209 to weave (on loom) 1 biЀi [ l ] 1 tak⍾ [ bcr ] [ na֒Ѐa [ 0 ] 1 tok⍾ [ m 2 3 buЀuk [ q ] 2 bakai [ q ] 2 banai [ l ] 203 to throw 3 tatϯ bona [ 0 ] 1 t huk⍾ [ bcr ] 2 t h᭣p⍾ [ lm ] 210 to sew [ a [ 0 ] 1 Ѐuk⍾ [ lmשЀ ho֒ 3 h 4 dѩmp hai [ q ] 2 p u֊ [ bcr ] [ a [ 0שЀϯlai kѐ 3 204 to lift 4 Ѐilai nϯk [ q ] 1 pai/ [ bcqr ] 2 paitao [ lm ] 211 to wash (face/hand) 3 tola [ 0 ] 1 ցin [ bcqr ] 2 ЀuЀuk⍾ [ l ] 205 to push 2 ЀuЀut⍾ [ m ] h [ Ѐur [ bc ] 3 d oa [ 0֒ 1 2 Ѐ᭣p hak⍾ [ l ] 3 Ѐ᭣kdou [ m ] 212 to take bath 4 d hakka dϯwa [ 0 ] 1 tilu [ bcr ] [ u [ lmשd hϯkar hao [ q ] 1 tei 5 [ a [ 0שbu֒Ѐur [ r ] 2 ցosol kѐ 6 3 tuluk [ q ] 206 to pull 3 tilu [ bcr ] 1 b᭣t⍾ [ lm ] 1 but⍾ [ bcr ] 213 to cut something h [ ana [ 0 ] 1 k an [ bclmr֒ 2 [ buk [ q ] 2 ka֒a [ 0 3 3 handok [ q ]

214 to burn 222 to die 1 Ѐau [ bcmr ] 1 t h᭣i [ lm ] [ ano [ 0 ] 1 t hi [ bcqrײpo 2 [ a dЋawa [ 0שsau [ lq ] 2 ma 3

215 to buy 223 to love [ a [ bcr ] 1 namnuk⍾ [ lשpϯ 1 2 ra [ lm ] 1 nϯmnuk⍾ [ m ] 3 kena [ 0 ] 2 milai [ br ] 3 kinѩi [ q ] 3 b halobaЀa [ 0 ] 4 pϯn [ cq ] 216 to sell h 1 p al [ bclmqr ] 224 to hate [ a [ 0 ] 0 no entry [ lשi kѐשbik 2 1 Ѐini [ bcr ] [ k [ qگto steal 2 kan֒Ѐ 217 [ a [ bcr ] 3 kubiЀi [ mשЀo֒ 1 [ a [ 0שЀur [ q ] 4 ց hrina kѐ֒ 1 2 Ѐak hau [ lm ] a [ 0 ] 225 oneשi kѐשЀu֒ 3 1 (ցon)Ѐa [ c ] 218 to lie, fib 1 (ցo)Ѐa [ m ] 1 boja bar [ bc ] 1 (ցot⍾)Ѐa [ b ] 2 t holai (bal) [ lm ] 1 (m᭣֊)Ѐa [ l ] [ tt ha bѐla [ 0 ] 2 ek [ 0qrگm 3 4 p hat [ q ] 5 malam bar [ r ] 226 two 1 (ցo)ni [ m ] 219 to take 2 (m᭣֊)n᭣i Ѐa [ l ] 1 nak⍾ [ bc ] 3 dui [ 0bcqr ] 2 ra [ lm ] 3 nϯa [ 0 ] 227 three 4 la֊ [ qr ] 1 (ցo)t ham [ m ] 1 (m᭣֊)t ham [ l ] [ n [ 0bcqrگto give 2 t 220 1 h᭣n [ l ] 2 laha [ q ] 228 four [ i [ mשlak ha [ bcr ] 1 (ցo)b 2 [ i [ lשdϯa [ 0 ] 1 (m᭣֊)b 3 [ hut⍾ [ m ] 2 ֒Ѐar [ 0bcqr 4

221 to kill 229 five [not used ] 1 (ցo)ba֊a [ m ] 1 (m᭣֊)ba֊a [ l ] [ pa֒Ѐ [ 0bcqr 2

230 six 239 thousand [ ok⍾ [ m ] 1 hadЋar [ 0bclmqrשցo)ko) 1 [ ok⍾ [ lשm᭣֊)ko) 1 h Ѐ ѐi [ 0bcqr ] 240 few֒ 2 [not used ] 231 seven 1 (ցo)Ѐ᭣ni [ m ] 241 some 1 (m᭣֊)Ѐϯnϯ [ l ] 1 akuiЀa [ qr ] 2 Ѐat [ 0bcqr ] 2 tϯp⍾ [ bcr ] [ ЀoiЀan [ lm֒ 3 [ Ѐ hu [ 0֒گk 4 232 eight [ m᭣֊)֒Ѐak᭣k⍾ [ l) 1 2 ցandan᭣i [ m ] 242 many [ a֒ [ 0bcqr ] 1 pa֊a [ cr 3 2 tamti [ b ] 3 pa֊Ѐembia [ lm ] 233 nine 1 (m᭣֊)sk hu [ l ] 4 ѐnϯk [ 0qr ] 2 nѐi [ 0bcqr ] 3 ցandan᭣i ցoiЀa [ m ] 243 all 0 no entry [ b ] 234 ten 1 bϯbak⍾ [ cq ] [ Ћamain [ lmم m᭣n)֒Ѐϯց᭣k⍾ [ l ] 2) 1 [ Ѐeiց᭣k⍾ [ m ] 3 Ѐѐb [ 0r֒ 1 2 dѐЀ [ 0bcqr ] 244 big 235 eleven 1 mat⍾ta [ c ] [ m᭣֊)֒ЀiЀa [ l ] 1 mata [ bqr) 1 [ o [ 0bcqr ] 2 ֒Ѐu֊(bijok⍾) [ lשæցa 2 [ Ѐeiց᭣k⍾Ѐa [ m ] 2 ֒Ѐu֊a [ m֒ 3 [ o [ 0ײbѐ 3 236 twelve m᭣֊)֒Ѐini [ l ] 245 small) 1 [ o [ 0bcqr ] 1 tukti [ rײba 2 [ Ѐeiց᭣k⍾n᭣i [ m ] 1 tuti [ bc֒ 3 2 m᭣lla [ lm ] h [ twenty 3 ֒Ѐ oto [ 0 237 1 (m᭣֊)k holց᭣k⍾ [ l ] 4 tamui [ q ] 2 biЀ [ 0bcqr ] k hol֒Ѐa֊Ѐa [ m ] 246 long 3 1 raot⍾wa [ lm ] 2 pilao [ bcr ] 238 hundred [ Ћa [ lm ] 3 lѐmba [ 0qمra 1 2 Ѐѐ [ 0bcqr ]

247 short (length) 255 shallow 1 banda [ bcr ] [not used ] 2 su֊a [ lm ] (k ha֒o [ 0 ] 256 full (cup 3 4 k hatak [ q ] 1 tiptip [ c ] h 2 p i֊a [ lm ] 248 heavy 3 purno [ 0b ] 1 liu [ bc ] 4 p hu֊ni [ q ] [ ima [ lm ] 5 Ѐϯrni [ rשЀi֒ 2 [ i [ 0שb ha 3 3 b hѩr [ q ] 257 empty (cup) 4 lini [ r ] 0 no entry [ l ] 1 baba [ bc ] [ a [ mשlight (not heavy) 2 kant 249 [ Ѐϯ֊a [ lm ] 3 k hali [ 0r֒ 1 [ Ѐϯ֊ni [ r ] 4 ϯra [ q֒ 1 [ li֒Ѐa [ bc 2 3 halka [ 0 ] 258 hungry 4 [ q ] h patla 1 ok i [ m ]

1 uk hai [ bcr ] 250 fat h 1 uk i [ l ] [ a [ bשЀada֒ 1 2 k hidϯ laցa [ 0 ] [ a [ cqrשЀad֒ 1 3 mai hoito [ q ] [ Ѐu֊a [ l֒ 2

3 lϯma [ m ] 259 thirsty [ mo֒a [ 0 4 [not used ]

251 thin 260 sweet 0 no entry [ m ] 1 Ѐuma [ q ] [ an [ bcrשЀi 1 1 Ѐumni [ bcr ] 2 m᭣l [ l ] 2 s᭣ma [ lm ] [ Ѐikon [ 0q֒ 3 2 Ѐuma [ q ]

[ miЀ֒i [ 0 3 252 wide, broad [not used ] 261 sour 253 narrow 1 huini [ b ] [not used ] 1 k huini [ cr ] 1 hini [ q ] 254 deep 2 k h᭣ja [ lm ] [ do֊ցor [ br ] 3 ֒ѐk [ 0 1 1 du֊ցur [ c ] 2 t hoБwa [ m ] 2 t hot⍾wa [ l ] 3 ցob hir [ 0 ] 4 o֊or [ q ]

262 bitter 269 different 1 k ha.a [ lm ] 1 d᭣֊t ha֊ [ lm ] 1 k hani [ bcr ] 2 bϯցat⍾ [ bcr ] 2 tita [ 0 ] 3 b hinno [ 0 ] [ Ћudѩ [ qم ha.a [ q ] 4 3

263 spicy, hot 270 dry 1 burni [ bcr ] 1 raБna [ m ] 2 wϯla [ lm ] 1 ranni [ bcqr ] 3 dЋ hal [ 0 ] 2 raБna [ m ] 4 bora [ q ] 2 raБnok⍾ [ l ] 3 Ѐukna [ 0 ] 264 ripe 1 m᭣nna [ lm ] 271 wet 1 munni [ bcqr ] 1 Ѐum [ bc ] 2 paka [ 0 ] 2 peiЀia [ m ] 2 peiЀok⍾ [ l ] h 265 rotten (fruit) 3 b idЋa [ 0 ] 1 sawa [ m ] 4 tiЀam [ q ] 1 sawok⍾ [ l ] 5 Ѐumni [ r ] 2 piЀa utrѩ [ q ] 3 Ѐauni [ bc ] 272 hot (weather) 3 sauni [ r ] 1 du֊Бa [ l ] [ pѐ֒Ѐa [ 0 ] 2 burni [ br 4 3 ցumbarto [ c ] h 266 fast 4 k ama [ m ] [ om [ 0qשdϯ֒Ѐi֊ni [ bcr ] 5 ցѐ 1 2 mana [ lm ] (i [ 0q ] 273 cold (weatherײataײta 3 [ Ѐ᭣k⍾ka [ lm֒ 1 [ slow 1 ֒Ѐikni [ bcr 267 [ a [ 0qمk haЀin [ l ] 2 ֒ han 1 1 k haЀini [ m ] 2 tϯp⍾ [ bc ] 274 good [ ϯ [ 0qr ] 1 nϯma [ lmשϯ d hiשd hi 3 2 pϯ.ϯn [ bcqr ] h 268 same 3 b alo [ 0 ] 1 ցonЀϯn [ c ] 1 ցotsϯn [ r ] 275 bad [ ցunsϯn [ b ] 1 nϯm֒Ѐa [ lm 1 2 damЀan [ m ] 2 nat hi [ bc ] 3 ϯki [ 0 ] 2 natt hi [ r ] [ ap [ 0שϯk [ q ] 3 k ha 4 5 apsan [ l ] 4 hϯnda [ q ]

276 new 283 right [ a [ bclmrשЋaցaم pidan [ bclmr ] 1 1 [ an [ 0م notun [ 0 ] 2 2 3 noja [ q ] 3 mai [ q ]

277 old 284 left [ Ћaց᭣Ѐi [ lmم no entry [ l ] 1 0 [ a [ bcqrשa [ bc ] 2 dϯbaשbu 1 [ ano [ 0 ] 3 bam [ 0שpu 2 2 purѩn [ q ] pi֒Ѐam [ mr ] 285 black 3 1 pinak⍾ [ bcr ] 278 broken 2 naka [ lm ] 1 baini [ q ] 2 nϯka [ q ] 2 nat hini [ bcr ] 3 kalo [ 0 ] 3 bai.oБ [ lm ] h 4 b a֊֊a [ 0 ] 286 white 1 boka/ցip⍾pok⍾ [ lmq ] 279 above 2 pϯbok⍾ [ bcr ] [ a [ bcr ] 3 Ѐada [ 0שka 1 2 k hambai [ lm ] e [ 0 ] 287 redשupo 3 [ a֊ [ bcrשupurѩ֊ [ q ] 1 Ѐak 3 2 saka [ lm ] 280 below 3 lal [ 0 ] 1 kama [ r ] 4 ra֊a [ q ] 1 kukma [ bc ] 2 n᭣֊ [ lm ] 288 green [ ni֒Ѐϯ [ 0 ] [not used 3 4 tola֊ [ q ] 289 yellow [not used ] 281 far [ Ћana [ lmم 1 290 when (near future) [ Ћanni [ bcم 1 1 biba [ lm ] [ Ћanu [ rم 1 1 bibala [ bcr ] [ ϯ [ 0שdu 2 2 kѐk hon [ 0 ] 2 durѩ֊ [ q ] 3 biЀumѩi [ q ]

282 near 291 where 1 dakan [ bcr ] 1 bϯЀo֊ [ bc ] 2 nϯka [ lm ] 1 biЀa֊ [ lm ] [ ka֒Ѐ hϯ [ 0 3 1 biЀo֊ [ r ] 4 osorai [ q ] 1 biѩ֊ [ q ] h 2 kot ai [ 0 ]

292 who 301 2s (honorific) 1 a [ bclmqr ] [not used ] 2 k [ 0 ] 302 3s (generic/male) 1 [ r ] 293 what oa 1 [ bc ] 1 bita [ bcr ] ua 2 [ lm ] 2 ki [ 0 ] uw 3 [ 0 ] 3 ata [ q ]  4 [ q ] 3 ato [ lm ] wa.a 294 how many [not used ] 303 3s (female) [not used ] 295 this thing 1 ij [ lm ] 304 1p 2 ia [ bcr ] 1 ninda [ bcr ] 3 ea [ 0 ] 2 nana [ lm ] 4 ja.a [ q ] 3 ama [ 0 ] 4 nu [ q ] 296 that thing 1 hoa [ q ] 305 2p (familiar) 2 ua [ bcr ] 1 nanda [ bcr ] 3 oa [ 0 ] 2 natm [ lm ] 4 uw [ lm ] 3 toma [ 0 ] 4 napru [ q ] 297 these things 1 ioo [ bcr ] 306 2p (honorific) 2 ulo [ 0 ] [not used ] 3 ira [ lm ] 3 ta [ q ] 307 3p 1 oda [ cr ] 298 those things 1 udaa [ b ] 1 uoo [ bcr ] 2 tm [ lm ] 2 ota [ q ] 3 taa [ 0 ] 2 ua [ lm ] 4 utupru [ q ] 3 oulo [ 0 ]

299 1s 1 a [ bclmqr ] 2 ami [ 0 ]

300 2s (familiar) 1 na [ bclmqr ] 2 tumi [ 0 ]

APPENDIX B: QUESTIONNAIRES

B.1. Sociolinguistic questionnaire

1. In each of the following places and activities, what language do you use most of the time? 1. wb‡gœ ewY©Z ¯’vb Ges KvRK‡g©; †ekxifvM mg‡q Avcwb †Kvb fvlvwU me‡P‡q †ekx eënvi K‡ib? 1a. At home 1K. evox‡Z 1b. With MT friends in your village 1L. Avcbvi MÖv‡gi MT eÜy‡ì mv‡_ 1c. In your village with your non-MT friends 1M. Avcbvi MÖv‡gi Ab¨vb¨ eÜz‡ì mv‡_ 1d. For puja or worship 1N. cuyRv ev Dcvmbvi mgq 1e. With shopkeepers in the market 1O. evRvi/nv‡U wM‡q †`vKvb`vi‡ì mv‡_

2. In a typical week, which language do you use most? 2. mvaviYZt GKwU mßv‡n Avcwb †Kvb fvlvwU me‡P‡q †ekx e¨envi K‡ib?

3a. Other than your MT, what languages do you speak? 3K. gvZ„fvlv Qvov Avcwb Avi †Kvb fvlvq K_v ej‡Z cv‡ib?

3b. At what age did you begin to learn each? 3L. KZ eQi eq‡m Avcwb GB fvlv¸‡jv wkL‡Z ïi“ K‡iwQ‡jb?

4. What language do you speak best? 4. †Kvb fvlvwU Avcwb me‡P‡q f‡jvfv‡e ej‡Z cv‡ib?

5. What language do you speak second best? 5. †Kvb fvlvwU Avcwb wØZwq fv‡jvfv‡e ej‡Z cv‡ib?

6. Can you always say what you want to say in your second-best language? 6. Avcwb wK wØZxq fvlvq memgq hv ej‡Z Pvb Zv ej‡Z cv‡ib?

7a. Are there any MT people who speak differently than you? 7K. Avcbvi gvZ…fvlvi †jvK‡`i g‡a¨, †Kvb †jv‡Kiv wK Avcbvi †_‡K wfbœfv‡e K_v e‡j?

7b. If yes, where? 7L. hw` nu¨v, †Kv_vq?

7c. When you speak with someone from there, how much do you understand? (little, half, most, all) 7M. hLb Avcwb †m RvqMvi †jvK‡`i mv‡_ Avjvc K‡ib, KZUzKz eyS‡Z cv‡ib? (Aí, A‡a©K, †ekxifvM, me)

8. Besides young children, is there any MT person in this village who does not speak MT well? 8. †QvU †Q‡j‡g‡q‡`i Qvov G Mªv‡g Ggb †Kvb Avcbvi gvZ…fvlvi †jvK Av‡Qb whwb gvZ…fvlv fvjfv‡e ej‡Z cv‡ib bv?

9. What language do children in this village speak first? 9. GB MÖv‡gi wkïiv me©cÖ_g †Kvb fvlvq e‡j?

10. What language do you think a mother in your language group should speak to her children? 10. Avcbvi fvlvfvlx gv‡qiv Zv‡`i wkï‡`i mv‡_ ‡Kvb fvlvq K_v ejv DwPZ e‡j Avcwb g‡b K‡ib?

11. Do young people (age 10) in your village speak your language well, the way it ought to be spoken? 11. Avcbvi MÖv‡gi `k eQi eqmx †Q‡j‡g‡qiv wK Avcbvi gvZ…fvlv fvjfv‡e ej‡Z cv‡i; wVK †hgb K‡i Zv‡`i ejv DwPZ?

12a. Do young people (age 10) in your village speak another language better than your language? 12K. Avcbvi MÖv‡gi `k eQi eqmx †Q‡j‡g‡qiv Avcbvi fvlvi †P‡qI Ab¨ †Kvb fvlv †ekx fvj K‡i ej‡Z cv‡i wK?

12b. If yes, which ones(s)? 12L. hw` nu¨v, Zvn‡j †Kvb fvlvwU?

13. What language do young people (age 10) in your village speak with each other? 13. Avcbvi MÖv‡gi `k eQi eqmx †Q‡j‡g‡qiv GKRb Ab¨ R‡bi m‡½ K_v ejvi mg‡q †Kvb fvlv e¨envi K‡i?

14. Would you like it if your children speak other languages better than your MT? 14. Avcbvi Kv‡Q GUv fvj jvM‡e wK, hw` Avcbvi †Q‡j‡g‡qiv gvZ…fvlv Qvov Ab¨ fvlv AviI fvjK‡i ej‡Z cv‡i?

15. In about 30 years, when the children in this village grow up and have children of their own, what language do you think those children will speak? 15. AvR †_‡K cÖvq wÎk eQi c‡i, GB MÖv‡gi wkïiv hLb eo n‡q wcZv-gvZv n‡e; ZLb Zv‡`i †Q‡j‡g‡qiv †Kvb fvlvq K_v ej‡e e‡j Avcwb g‡b K‡ib?

16a. Before starting school, do many children in your village speak any language besides MT? 16K. ¯‹z‡j hvevi Av‡MB Avcbvi MÖv‡g A‡bK wkïiv wK gvZ…fvlv Qvov Ab¨ fvlv e‡j?

16b. If yes, which one(s)? 16L. hw` nu¨v, Zvn‡j †Kvb fvlvwU?

17. What language should be used as the medium of education in primary school? 17. wk¶vi gva¨g wn‡m‡e cÖv_wgK ¯‹z‡j †Kvb fvlvwU e¨envi Kiv DwPZ e‡j Avcwb g‡b K‡ib?

18. What language should be used at the temple? 18. Dcvmbvj‡q †Kvb fvlv e¨envi Kiv DwPZ e‡j Avcwb g‡b K‡ib?

19a. Can you read and write letters and notices in your MT? 19K. Avcwb wK Avcbvi gvZ…fvlvq wPwV Ges †bŠwUm co‡Z I wjL‡Z cv‡ib?

19b. If yes, in which script? 19L. hw` nu¨v, Zvn‡j †Kvb eY©gvjv w`‡q?

20a. If your community leaders set up a class to teach young children how to read and write in MT, would you send your children? 20K. hw` MÖv‡gi †bZ…¯’vbxq e¨w³iv Avcbvi gvZ„fvlv wk¶vi Rb¨ GKUv K¬vm Pvjy K‡ib. Avcwb wK Avcbvi wkï‡`i †mLv‡b cvVv‡eb?

20b. Why or why not? 20L. †Kb cvVv‡eb ev †Kb cvVv‡eb bv?

20c. Do you think it is worth paying a little tuition fee for such classes? 20M. Avcwb wK g‡b K‡ib GB iKg K¬v‡mi Rb¨ wKQz wk¶vi wd †`Iqv A_©en?

B.2. Subject biodata questionnaire

Number of interview: mv¶vrKv‡ii µwgK bs:

Date of interview: mv¶vrKv‡ii ZvwiL:

Location of interview: mv¶vrKv‡ii ¯’vb:

1. What is your name? 1. Avcbvi bvg wK?

2. How old are you? 2. Avcbvi eqm KZ?

3. Sex of interviewee: 3. DËi`vZvi wj½ cwiPq:

5. What is your occupation? 5. Avcbvi †ckv wK?

6. What is the name of the village you are now living in? 6. Avcwb †h MÖv‡g evm K‡ib Zvi bvg wK?

7. What do you call your mother tongue? 7. Avcbvi gvZ…fvlvi bvg wK?

8a. What is your mother’s mother tongue? 8K. Avcbvi gv‡qi gvZ…fvlv wK?

8b. What is your father’s mother tongue? 8L. Avcbvi evevi gvZ…fvlv wK?

9. Where else have you lived and for how long? 9. Gi Av‡M Avcwb Ab¨ †Kv_vq emevm K‡i‡Qb? KZw`‡bi Rb¨?

B.3. Community Information Questionnaire

Name of village: MÖv‡gi bvg:

Transportation to village: hvZvqv‡Zi gva¨g:

1. What is the location of your village by thana and district? 1. Avcbvi MÖvgwU ‡Kvb _vbvq I †Kvb †Rjvq Aew¯’Z?

2. How many people and families live in this village? 2. GB MÖvgwUi RbmsL¨v KZ I KZwU cwievi emevm K‡i?

4. Which languages are spoken as mother tongues in your village? 4. gvZ„fvlv wn‡m‡e †Kvb †Kvb fvlvwU Avcbvi MÖv‡gi †jvKRb e¨envi K‡i?

5. What types of jobs do people in your village do? 5. Avcbvi MÖv‡gi †jvKRb †Kvb ai‡Yi KvR K‡i?

6. Where is the nearest post office? 6. me‡P‡q Kv‡Qi †cv÷ AwdmwU wKv_vq Aew¯’Z?

7a. Can you make TNT calls in your village? 7K. Avcbvi MÖvg †_‡K Avcwb wK wUGbwU †dvb Ki‡Z cv‡ib?

7b. Can you make mobile calls in your village? 7L. Avcbvi MÖvg †_‡K Avcwb wK †gvevBj †dvb Ki‡Z cv‡ib?

7c. If not, where is the nearest place you can make phone calls? 7M. hw` bv cv‡ib, me‡P‡q Kv‡Qi †Kvb RvqMv †_‡K Avcwb †dvb Ki‡Z cv‡ib?

8a. Where is the nearest hospital? 8K. me‡P‡q Kv‡Qi nvmcvZvjwU ‡Kv_vq?

8b. Where is the nearest clinic? 8L. me‡P‡q Kv‡Qi wK¬wbKwU (ev wPwKrm¨v †K›`ª) †Kv_vq?

9a. Are there government schools in your village? 9K. Avcbvi MÖv‡g Kx miKvix ¯‹zj Av‡Q?

9b. If yes, what kinds? 9L. hw` _v‡K, †mwU Kx ai‡Yi?

10. Are there any other types of schools or non-formal educational institutions in your village? 10. Avcbvi MÖv‡g Kx Ab¨ †Kvbv ai‡Yi ¯‹zj ev DcvbyôvwbK wk¶v cÖwZôvb Av‡Q?

11. How many children in your village go to school? (all, most, half, few) 11. Avcbvi MÖv‡gi KZ msL¨K wkïiv ¯‹‡j hvq? (mevB, †ekxifvM, A‡a©K, Aí)

12. How many girls in your village go to school? (all, most, half, few) 12. Avcbvi MÖv‡g KZ msL¨K †g‡qiv ¯‹y‡j hvq? (mevB, †ekxifvM, A‡a©K, Aí)

13. At which standard do most children in your village stop going to school? 13. Avcbvi MÖv‡g †Kvb †kªYx ch©š— †jLvcov †k‡l †ekxifvM wkïiv ¯‹z‡j hvIqv eÜ K‡i †`q?

14. In your village, how many students who begin school end up finishing 5 th standard? (all, most, half, few) 14. Avcbvi MÖv‡g hviv ¯‹zj ïi“ K‡i Zv‡`i g‡a¨ KZRb cÂg †kªYx †kl K‡i? (mevB, †ekxifvM, A‡a©K, Aí)

15. In your village, how many students who begin school end up finishing 10 th standard? (all, most, half, few) 15. Avcbvi MÖv‡g hviv ¯‹zj ïi“ K‡i Zv‡`i g‡a¨ KZRb `kg †kªYx †kl K‡i? (mevB, †ekxifvM, A‡a©K, Aí)

16. How many people in your village have completed BA or higher? 16. Avcbvi MÖv‡g KZRb we.G. A_ev Zvi †P‡q D”PZi wWMÖx jvf K‡i‡Q?

17. Do you have electricity in your village? 17. Avcbvi MÖv‡g Kx we`y¨r Av‡Q?

18. What is your water source? 18. Avcbvi MÖv‡g cvwbi Drm¨ wK?

19a. Do you listen to radio programs? 19K. Avcwb Kx †iwWI ï‡bb?

19b. If yes, in what language(s)? 19L. hw` nu¨v, Zvn‡j †Kvb †Kvb fvlvq?

20a. Do you watch TV programs? 20K. Avcwb Kx wUwf †`‡Lb?

20b. If yes, in what language(s)? 20L. hw` nu¨v, Zvn‡j †Kvb †Kvb fvlvq?

APPENDIX C: SOCIOLINGUISTIC QUESTIONNAIRE RESPONSES

The following tables display subjects’ responses to the sociolinguistic questionnaire. The questionnaire itself is in Appendix B.1, and the question numbers there correspond with the numbers given at the top of each table in this appendix. Subject biodata is given in Appendix E.2, and the subject numbers given in the biodata correspond to those in this appendix.

The following abbreviations are used in these tables: Other: Languages and people groups: DK = does not know B = Bangla and Bengalis lg = language CK = Chapra Koch MT = mother tongue E = English N = no G = Garo NA = not applicable H = Hajong ND = no data TK = Tintekiya Koch R = Roman script w/ = with Y = yes

C.1. Language use responses

1e. Lg 1a. 1b. Lg 1c. Lg w/ 1d. Lg 2. Lg 19a. Subj. w/ 19b. Lg at w/ MT non-MT for use Literate No. shop- Script home friends friends worship most in MT? keepers N1 TK TK B B B TK N NA N2 TK B B B B B N NA N3 TK TK B TK & B B TK N NA N4 TK TK B B B TK Y B N5 TK TK B B B TK N NA N6 TK TK B B B TK Y B H w/ H, Banai TK & N7 TK TK w/ Banai, B w/ B B Y B B others N8 TK TK B TK B TK Y B N9 TK TK B Sanskrit B B Y B N10 TK TK B B B TK N NA N11 TK TK B TK B TK Y B N12 TK TK B B B TK Y B (modified) N13 TK TK B B B TK Y B TK w/ TK, N14 TK TK B B TK Y B B w/ B N15 TK TK B B B TK N NA K1 TK TK B B B TK N NA K2 TK TK B TK B TK N NA K3 TK TK B B B TK N NA TK & K4 TK TK B TK B Y B B TK w/ TK, K5 TK TK B B TK Y B B w/ B K6 TK TK B TK NA TK N NA

Language use responses, continued 1e. Lg 1a. 1b. Lg 1c. Lg w/ 1d. Lg 2. Lg 19a. Subj. w/ 19b. Lg at w/ MT non-MT for use Literate No. shop- Script home friends friends worship most in MT? keepers K7 TK TK B TK & B B TK Y B & R K8 TK TK B TK B TK Y B K9 TK TK B B B TK N NA K10 TK TK B TK B TK N NA K11 TK TK & B B B B B Y B K12 TK TK B Sanskrit B TK Y B B1 CK CK G w/ G, B w/ B CK B CK N NA B2 CK CK G w/ G, B w/ B B B CK N NA B3 CK CK G w/ G, B w/ B B B CK N NA B4 CK CK B B B CK N NA B5 CK CK B B B CK N NA B6 CK CK G w/ G, B w/ B B B CK N NA B7 CK CK B B B CK Y B B8 CK CK B CK B CK N NA B9 CK CK B B B CK N NA

C.2. Language attitudes responses

C.2.1. Regarding language use

10. Mother 17. Primary Subj. 14. Like if children 18. Lg should should speak school No. speak other better? use at temple w/ children medium N1 TK N B TK N2 TK N TK B N3 TK Y B B N4 TK N B B N5 TK Y B B N6 TK N B TK N7 TK Y TK TK N8 TK Y B TK N9 TK N TK B N10 B N B B N11 TK N TK TK N12 TK Y B TK N13 TK N TK TK N14 TK N B TK N15 TK N B B K1 TK Y B TK & B K2 TK Y B TK K3 TK Y B B K4 TK Y B TK & B K5 TK Y B TK K6 TK Y B TK & B K7 TK Y B B K8 TK Y B TK K9 TK Y B B

Language attitudes responses regarding language use, continued 10. Mother 17. Primary Subj. 14. Like if children 18. Lg should should speak school No. speak other better? use at temple w/ children medium K10 TK N B TK K11 TK Y B Sanskrit K12 TK Y TK Sanskrit B1 CK Y B CK B2 CK N B CK B3 CK Y B B B4 CK Y B B B5 CK Y B B B6 CK Y B B B7 CK Y B CK B8 CK Y B CK B9 CK Y B B

C.2.2. Towards language classes

20a. Send Subj. 20c. children to MT 20b. Why? No. Pay? class? N1 Y To learn to read and write in MT N N2 Y To learn our MT Y N3 Y To learn MT Y N4 Y To learn MT and know more about MT Y N5 Y To preserve our MT and so they can read and write in MT Y N6 Y To learn their lg Y To learn MT and to be able to use it in their social N7 Y Y interactions N8 Y They need to learn MT Y Our MT is being lost, so sending children to class will help N9 Y N preserve it They will advance in learning Koch and will be able to read N10 Y Y and write It will be an easy learning experience, and they will be able N11 Y Y to read and write N12 Y To help keep our lg and for education Y N13 Y For education Y To help preserve the lg so it can be better used for our daily N14 Y Y works and practices N15 Y For education Y K1 DK NA NA K2 Y They will learn MT N K3 Y To learn MT Y K4 Y For education Y K5 Y To learn MT Y K6 Y For education N To learn the appropriate script for MT and thus have their K7 Y Y identity established Since we're few in number, learning MT will help preserve K8 Y Y it

Language attitudes responses towards language classes, continued Subj. 20a. Send children 20c. 20b. Why? No. to MT class? Pay? K9 Y To learn Y K10 Y To learn to read and write in MT Y K11 Y To learn their lg Y K12 Y To learn MT and be familiar with the alphabet Y B1 Y To learn CK better Y B2 Y To learn CK better Y B3 Y Because it would be in their own lg N B4 DK NA NA B5 Y To develop their lg and group Y B6 Y To learn Y B7 Y To teach MT to her sons Y B8 DK NA NA B9 Y To learn their own lg Y

C.3. Language vitality responses

8. 12a. 13. Any 11. Other 16a. 9. Children Subj. can't Children lg 12b. 15. Lg in Other lg 16b. Children’s speak No. speak speak better Which? 30 yrs. before Which? first lg. w/ each MT MT well? than school? other well? MT? N1 N TK Y N NA TK TK & B Y B N2 N TK Y N NA TK TK Y B N3 Y TK Y Y B TK TK Y B N4 N TK Y N NA TK & B B Y B N5 N TK Y N NA TK B Y B N6 N TK Y N NA TK TK Y B N7 N TK Y N NA TK TK Y B N8 N TK Y N NA TK TK Y B N9 Y TK Y N NA TK TK Y B N10 Y TK & B Y N NA TK B Y B TK w/ TK, N11 N TK Y N NA TK Y B B w/ B N12 N TK Y N NA TK TK N NA N13 N TK Y N NA TK TK N NA N14 Y TK Y N NA TK TK N NA N15 N TK Y N NA TK TK Y B K1 Y TK Y N NA TK TK N NA K2 Y TK Y N NA TK TK N NA K3 N TK Y N NA TK TK N NA TK w/ TK, K4 N TK Y N NA TK N NA B w/ B TK w/ more B K5 N TK Y N NA TK N NA words in it K6 Y TK Y N NA TK TK Y B K7 N TK Y N NA TK TK N NA

Language vitality responses, continued 8. 12a. Any 11. Other 13. 16a. 9. 15. Lg Subj. can't Children lg 12b. Children Other lg 16b. Children’s in 30 No. speak speak better Which? speak w/ before Which? first lg. yrs. MT MT well? than each other school? well? MT? K8 N TK Y N NA TK TK Y B K9 N TK Y N NA TK TK Y B K10 N TK Y N NA TK TK Y B K11 N TK Y N NA TK & B TK N NA K12 N TK Y N NA TK TK N NA B1 N CK Y Y B B CK Y B G, B, B2 N CK Y N NA CK B Y little H B3 N CK Y N NA CK CK Y B & G B4 N CK Y N NA CK, G, B DK Y B & G little G, B5 N CK Y N NA CK CK Y little B B6 N CK N N NA B CK N NA B7 N CK Y N NA CK CK Y B & G B8 N CK Y N NA CK CK & B Y B G, little B9 N CK Y N NA B CK Y B

C.4. Bilingualism responses

6. Always Subj. 3a&b. Other lg speak and age 4. Best 5. 2nd- say in No. learned lg. best lg. 2nd-best? N1 B:11 TK B Y N2 B:5, H:5 TK B Y N3 B:8, Hindi:25, Assamese:25, G:7, H:7 TK B Y N4 B:7, H:17 TK B Y N5 B:20 TK B Y N6 B:7, H:7, G:33 TK B Y N7 B:14, H:21, Banai:21, G:21 B TK Y N8 B:5 TK B Y N9 B:4, H:2 B TK Y N10 B:4 TK & B NA NA N11 B:4, G:12 TK B Y N12 B:6, G:32, H:40 TK B Y N13 B:5 TK B Y N14 B:6, G:25 TK B Y N15 B:15 TK B N K1 B:5 TK B N K2 B:11 TK B N K3 B:5 TK B Y K4 B:5 TK B Y K5 B:11 TK B Y K6 B:12 TK B N K7 B:8, Hindi:12, H:8, G:8, Banai:13, E:15 TK B Y

Bilingualism responses, continued 6. Always Subj. 4. Best 5. 2nd- 3a&b. Other lg speak & age learned say in No. lg. best lg. 2nd-best? K8 B:5, G:13, E:13 TK B Y K9 B:10, H:12 TK B N K10 B:7, H:11 TK H Y K11 B:16, G:18, H:11 TK B Y K12 B:6, Hindi:12, H:12, G:10, Banai:12 TK B Y B1 B:4, TK:2, G:15 CK B Y B2 B:7, G:7, H:7 CK B Y B3 B:4, G:16, H:4, TK:4 CK B Y B4 B:3 CK B Y B5 B:5,G:3, H:10, TK:10 CK B Y B6 B:12, G:8 CK B Y B7 B:7, G:21, H:3 CK B Y B8 B:5, H:5, TK:3 CK B Y B9 B:8, G:4, H:8, TK:5 CK B Y

C.5. Language variation responses

Subj. 7a. Speak 7c. How much 7b. Where? No. differently? understand? N1 N NA NA N2 N NA NA N3 N NA NA N4 N NA NA N5 N NA NA N6 N NA NA N7 N NA NA N8 N NA NA N9 Y Margan Koch living close to the border from Nokshi most N10 Y Bablakona, Shribordi half N11 N NA NA N12 N NA NA N13 N NA NA N14 Y Banai Koch north of here along the border half N15 Y Banai Koch north of Nokshi along the border little K1 N NA NA K2 N NA NA K3 Y Dewtola close to Andurpara half K4 Y Dhaudhara all K5 N NA NA K6 Y Chapra Koch in Dhaudhara half Rabha Koch, Wanag Koch, Hargiya Koch, Banai K7 Y most Koch in India K8 N NA NA K9 N NA NA K10 N NA NA K11 N NA NA K12 N NA NA

Language variation responses, continued Subj. 7a. Speak 7c. How much 7b. Where? No. differently? understand? N NA NA B2 N NA NA B3 N NA NA B4 N NA NA B5 Y Khornajhara all B6 DK NA NA B7 Y Khornajhara all B8 Y DK all B9 Y Khornajhara most

APPENDIX D: BANGLA SENTENCE REPETITION TEST

D.1. Standard Sentence Repetition Test procedures1

A sentence repetition test (SRT) is based on the premise that people's ability to repeat sentences in a second language is limited by the level of their mastery of the morphology and syntax of that second language. The greater proficiency they have in that language, the better able they are to repeat sentences of increasing length and complexity. An SRT is developed separately for each language to be tested. Detailed procedures for developing and calibrating a sentence repetition test are presented in Radloff (1991). The sentences selected are calibrated against an evaluative instrument called the Reported Proficiency Evaluation (RPE), where mother tongue raters are provided with a detailed framework of proficiency descriptions against which to evaluate the proficiency of their second-language speaking acquaintances.2 The half-levels of the RPE describe increasing levels of proficiency in a second language, as elaborated in Figure D.1.

Figure D.1: Descriptions of RPE proficiency levels

RPE proficiency level Brief description 0+ Very minimal proficiency 1 Minimal, limited proficiency 1+ Limited, basic proficiency 2 Adequate, basic proficiency 2+ Good, basic proficiency 3 Good, general proficiency 3+ Very good, general proficiency 4 Excellent proficiency 4+ Approaching native speaker proficiency

An SRT provides a rapid assessment of a person's second language proficiency, suited to the purposes of a bilingualism survey. It is often the goal of a bilingualism survey to obtain a profile of the second language proficiencies in the community under investigation; that is, a picture of what percentage of the population can be projected to be at each of the different levels of proficiency. In order to do this, a large and representative sample of the population must be tested. This speaks to the need for an assessment instrument that is quick and easy to administer.

The short administration time, however, is offset by careful attention to the development and calibration of a sentence repetition test. The SRT provides a general assessment; thus, the researcher must be able to place full confidence in the results through strict attention to the quality of each developmental step. A complete step-by-step methodology for developing and calibrating an SRT is given in Radloff (1991).

1 The description of procedures for sentence repetition testing is quoted from Appendix A of O'Leary (Rensch et al. 1992); it was authored by Carla F. Radloff. It is used by permission of the author. 2 RPE levels as assigned by mother tongue raters show an internal consistency, but have not yet been correlated with any other, more widely recognized, scale of second language proficiency. The rationale and methodology for the Reported Proficiency Evaluation is also included in Radloff (1991).

The development and calibration of an SRT proceeds through several steps: A preliminary form of the test is developed through the assistance of mother tongue speakers of the test language. A large group of second language speakers of the test language have their proficiency assessed through a second, more descriptive proficiency standard instrument—in this case the RPE. These people are then administered the preliminary form of the test. Based on their performances, fifteen sentences are selected, which prove to be the most discriminating of performance and also represent increasing complexity and length. These fifteen sentences are calibrated against the proficiency assessments from the RPE. This fifteen-sentence final form of the test is used in the bilingualism survey, and the resulting test scores are interpreted in terms of equivalent RPE proficiency levels.

The ranges of Bangla SRT scores corresponding to RPE levels are presented in Figure D.2 (Kim 2003).

Figure D.2: Bangla SRT scores and predicted RPE levels Bangla SRT Score Predicted RPE Level 0 – 2 1 3 – 8 1+ 9 – 14 2 15 – 21 2+ 22 – 27 3 28 – 33 3+ 34 – 39 4 40 – 45 4+

D.2. Bangla Sentence Repetition Test

In the following transcription of the Bangla SRT, these line codes are used: Code Meaning \# Sentence number \b Bangla sentence \p Phonetic transcription \g Word-by-word English gloss of transcribed text \f Free (natural) English translation of the text

\P1 \b AvR‡K Zvi Rb¥w`b | Ћѐnmodinم שЋke taمp a\ \g today 3s-poss birthday \f Today is his birthday.

\P2 \b Avgvi evev gvQ a‡i | eשoܒbaba ma֒Ѐ d שp ama\ \g 1s-poss father fish catches \f My father catches fish.

\P3 \b ‡mLv‡b Zviv mvivw`b KvR K‡i | eשЋ koمadin kaשђ Ѐaשane taܒp Ѐek\ \g there-in 3p all-day work do \f They work there all day long.

\P4 \b wKš—y AvMvgx Kvj GUv Avgvi jvM‡e | laցbe שp kintu aցami kal e֒a ama\ \g but coming day this 1s-poss will-need \f But tomorrow I will need this.

\P5 \b Kv‡Vi wg¯¿x GKUv bZyb Rvbvjv evbv‡”Q | eܒЋanala bana֒Ѐم i æk֒ђ notunשstگm שϯܒp ka֒\ \g wood-poss craftsman one new window is-building \f The wood craftsman is making a new window.

\1 \b ‡`vKv‡b wewfbœ ai‡bi wgwó cvIqv hvq | Ћajم miЀ֒i paowa שoneשѐܒin⍧o dܒp dokane bib\ \g store-at various type-poss sweet getting goes \f Various types of sweets can be found in stores.

\2 \b Zviv wekªv‡gi ‡Zgb my‡hvM cvq bv | Ћoց paj naمtæmon Ѐu שameשђ bisשp ta\ \g 3p rest-poss such opportunity get not \f They don’t get much opportunity to rest.

\3 \b AvR weKv‡j Zv‡K dj wKb‡Z n‡e | Ћ bikale take џѐl kinte hѐbeمp a\ \g today afternoon-in 3s-to fruit to-buy will-have-to \f He has to buy fruit this afternoon.

\4 \b Avwg Avgvi †ev‡bi KvQ †_‡K Dcnvi †c‡qwQ | iܒpeje֒Ѐ שeke upohaܒt ܒkats שbone שp ami ama\ \g 1s 1s-poss sister-poss nearness from gift have-received \f I received a gift from my sister.

\5 \b evox‡Z †Kvb †jvK Av‡Q e‡j g‡b nq bv | e bole mone hѐj naܒite kono lok a֒Ѐײp ba\ \g home-in any person is says mind-in becomes not \f It doesn’t seem as if there’s anyone home.

\6 \b ‡h ch©š— e„wó bv _v‡g †m ch©š— Avgiv GLv‡b _vKe | akboܒane tܒa ekשЋonto amمשame Ѐe poܒiЀ֒i na tשЋonto bمשЋe poم p\ \g when until rain not stops then until 1p here-at will-stay \f We will stay here until the rain stops.

\7 \b GKUy Av‡M evRvi †_‡K GKUv Bwjk gvQ wK‡b G‡bwQ | iܒkine ene֒Ѐ ܒeke æk֒a iliЀ ma֒Ѐܒt שЋaمp ek֒u aցe ba\ \g a-little ago market from one hilsa fish having-bought have-brought \f I went to the market a little while ago to buy a hilsa fish, and now I’ve brought it.

\8 \b ‡m Rvb‡Zv evb‡iiv Lye AbyKiY wcÖq nq | ijo hѐjשon pשub onukѐܒa kשeשЋanto banoم p Ѐe\ \g 3s did-know monkeys very imitation favorite becomes \f He knew monkeys really like to imitate.

\9 \b1 hw` Avcwb gvbyl‡K fvj bv ev‡mb gvbylI Avcbv‡K alo na baЀen manuЀo apnakeܒЋodi apni manuЀke bم p1\ \g1 if 2s people-to do- not- love people-also 2s-to

\b2 fvjevm‡e bv | \p2 bܒalobaЀbe nѩ \g2 will-love not \f If you don’t love people, they won’t love you either.

\10 \b Ges Rxe‡b memgq wKQy wbqg ‡g‡b Pj‡Z n‡e | u nijom mene ֒Ѐolte hѐbeܒЋibone ЀѐbЀѐmoj ki֒Ѐم ֊p ebo\ \g and life-in all-time some rules having-followed to-move will-have-to \f And in life at all times one must follow some rules.

\11 \b1 myZivs b`x Avgv‡`i A‡bK DcKvi K‡i Ges gv‡S-gv‡S eܒЋمe-maܒЋمe ebo֊ maשko שѐnek upoka שa֊ nodi amadϯשp1 Ѐuto\ \g1 therefore river 1p-to much benevolence do and sometimes

\b2 AcKviI K‡i | eשo koשp2 ѐpoka\ \g2 harm-also do \f Therefore, rivers benefit us a lot and sometimes also harm us.

\12 \b1 cUj bv‡gi †Kvb meRx evRv‡i cvIqv hvq Zv Av‡M Ћaj ta aցeم e paowaשЋaمЋi baمkono sob שp1 pѐ֒ol namϯ\ \g1 patol name-poss any vegetable market-in getting goes that before

\b2 Avwg RvbZvg bv | Ћantam naم p2 ami\ \g2 1s did-know not \f I didn’t know before that there is such a vegetable as “patol” available in the market.

\13 \b1 b`x Avgv‡`i Rb¨ LzeB cÖ‡qvRbxq KviY b`x c‡_ eܒon nodi pѐtשЋonijo kaمѐjoשubi pܒЋon⍧o kم שp1 nodi amadϯ\ \g1 river 1p-poss for very-emph important because river route-on

\b2 Avgiv e¨emv Ki‡Z cvwi | iשte paשa bæbЀa koשp2 am\ \g2 1p business to-do are-able \f Rivers are very important for us because we are able to do business along river routes.

\14 \b ZeyI gv‡S-gv‡S we‡kl mg‡q Zviv wKQy Avb›`-dzwZ© K‡i | eשti koשu anondo-џuܒђ ki֒Ѐשe biЀeЀ Ѐѐmoje taܒЋمe-maܒЋمp tobuo ma\ \g nevertheless sometimes special time-in 3p some joy-delight do \f Nevertheless, sometimes on special occasions they have some fun.

\15 \b1 b`xi cvwb Mfxi nIqvq A‡bK Lyu‡RI Ћeoم&uܒhѐwaj ѐnek k שiܒpani ցob שp1 nodi\ \g1 river-poss water deep happening-because much having-searched-although

\b2 †m Zvi KzVviUv †cj bv| a pelo nѩ֒שaܒku֒ שp2 Ѐe ta\ \g2 3s 3s-poss axe did-find not \f Although he searched a lot, he didn’t find his axe because the river was deep.

D.3. Sentence Repetition Test scores

The tables in this section display the SRT scores for all 48 SRT subjects. The subject numbers in the far left column correspond with the subject numbers given with the biodata in Appendix E.3. For each of the 20 sentences (five practice sentences and 15 test sentences), each subject’s score is given. This is based on a four-point scale (0-3) for each sentence. The total score at the far right is a summation of the subject’s scores for only the 15 test sentences.

Subj. Bangla SRT sentence number Total No. P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Score Nk1 3 3 3 3 3 3 0 3 2 3 3 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 19 Nk2 3 3 3 0 3 2 2 0 2 2 2 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 13 Nk3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 3 3 2 2 2 1 2 2 0 0 0 0 24 Nk4 2 3 3 1 3 2 2 3 2 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 12 Nk5 3 3 3 3 3 2 1 2 3 3 3 2 1 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 23 Nk6 2 3 3 2 1 2 1 3 1 2 3 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 15 Nk7 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 2 1 0 1 2 1 1 0 27 Nk8 2 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 1 2 3 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 22 Nk9 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 0 3 3 0 1 2 2 2 0 0 0 1 0 20 Nk10 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 2 3 2 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 24 Nk11 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 2 1 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 25 Nk12 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 3 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 Nk13 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 20 Nk14 1 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 3 2 1 1 2 1 0 2 0 28 Nk15 2 3 1 0 0 2 2 2 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 Nk16 2 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 Nk17 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 0 2 1 0 36 Nk18 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 1 3 3 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 20 Nk19 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 24 Nk20 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 2 3 3 2 2 2 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 22 Nk21 3 3 3 2 3 3 2 2 2 3 0 1 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 17 Nk22 1 3 3 2 3 3 2 3 2 3 0 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 17 Nk23 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 2 0 1 1 3 1 0 2 0 27 Nk24 2 1 3 0 2 2 1 2 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 Nk25 3 3 3 2 2 3 3 3 1 3 2 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 18 Nk26 3 3 3 0 2 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 Nk27 3 3 3 0 3 3 2 2 3 2 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 15 Nk28 2 3 3 2 2 3 3 2 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 Kc1 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 1 2 2 3 3 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 19 Kc2 3 3 2 0 3 3 1 3 2 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 12 Kc3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 3 3 2 3 3 2 3 2 1 1 1 0 31 Kc4 3 3 3 2 0 1 2 3 1 1 2 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 Kc5 3 3 3 2 3 3 1 2 3 3 2 2 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 19 Kc6 3 3 3 1 2 2 1 2 2 2 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 14 Kc7 2 3 3 3 2 3 2 3 3 3 3 3 0 2 2 0 1 0 0 0 25 Kc8 3 3 3 0 2 2 2 3 2 2 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 14 Kc9 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 2 2 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 22

Subj. Bangla SRT sentence number Total No. P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Score Kc10 2 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 1 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 25 Kc11 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 3 1 3 3 3 2 2 1 0 1 0 0 0 23 Kc12 3 3 3 2 2 2 0 2 2 3 2 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 15 Kc13 2 3 3 2 2 2 2 1 3 3 3 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 16 Kc14 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 2 3 0 1 0 0 32 Kc15 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 3 3 2 3 1 0 2 1 0 31 Kc16 2 3 3 2 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 17 Kc17 3 3 3 2 0 3 2 0 1 2 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 Kc18 3 3 0 2 1 2 2 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 Kc19 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 Kc20 3 3 3 0 3 3 3 0 1 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 11

APPENDIX E: SUBJECT BIODATA

The following abbreviations are used in the biodata tables below:

Column headings: Languages: Subj. No. = subject number B = Bangla Educ = education CK = Chapra Koch MT = mother tongue TK = Tintekiya Koch M’s MT = mother’s mother tongue F’s MT = father’s mother tongue Religions: Rel = religion H = Hindu S = Sonaton Education: HSC = higher secondary certificate Other: SSC = secondary school certificate ND = no data 10 = completed class 10 but did not pass SSC exam Note : Dates are given as DD/MM/YY

E.1. Wordlist and CIQ respondent biodata

A S Other residences R M’s F’s Date Location g e Educ Job MT and length e MT MT e x (in years) l Shomoshchura:5; 5/4/05 Nokshi 50 M 9 farming TK TK TK S Nalitabari:5 6/4/05 Kholchanda 23 M 5 farming TK TK TK none S Bramanbaria:5; TK/ 10/5/05 Khatachura 28 M HSC service TK TK Bandorban:6; S B Comilla:1 25/8/05 Uttor Nokshi 40 M 0 farming CK CK CK none S 27/8/05 Chandabhoi 42 M SSC teaching TK TK TK none H

E.2. Sociolinguistic questionnaire subject biodata

Other A S Subj. M’s F's residences Date Location g e Educ Job MT Rel No. MT MT and length e x (in years) day N1 5/4/05 Nokshi 46 F 0 TK TK TK none S labor N2 5/4/05 Nokshi 20 M 5 farming TK TK TK none H N3 5/4/05 Nokshi 65 M 1 farming TK TK TK none S house Panbor, N4 5/4/05 Nokshi 26 F 3 TK TK TK ND work Jhinaigati:17 N5 5/4/05 Nokshi 40 M 0 farming TK TK TK none S house Gandhigaon: N6 5/4/05 Nokshi 50 F 8 TK TK TK S work 18 Mymensingh: N7 5/4/05 Nokshi 48 M 1 farming TK TK TK S 28 N8 5/4/05 Nokshi 28 F 10 farming TK TK TK none S

Sociolinguistic questionnaire subject biodata, continued Other A S Subj. M’s F's residences Date Location g e Educ Job MT Rel No. MT MT and length e x (in years) Shomosh- N9 5/4/05 Nokshi 18 M SSC farming TK TK TK S chura:16 house- Kharamora: N10 5/4/05 Nokshi 19 F 9 TK TK TK S work 18 N11 5/4/05 Nokshi 19 F 10 teaching TK TK TK Gandhigaon:18 S N12 5/4/05 Nokshi 45 M 5 farming TK TK TK none S N13 5/4/05 Nokshi 27 M 8 farming TK TK TK none S N14 5/4/05 Nokshi 36 M 7 farming TK TK TK none S day N15 5/4/05 Nokshi 25 F 2 TK TK TK none S labor day K1 6/4/05 Kholchanda 60 F 0 TK TK TK none S labor house- K2 6/4/05 Kholchanda 20 F 3 TK TK TK none S work India:1; day K3 6/4/05 Kholchanda 25 M 1 TK TK TK Borisal:1; ND labor Bhaluka:1 K4 6/4/05 Kholchanda 75 M 5 farming TK TK TK none S K5 6/4/05 Kholchanda 18 M 6 farming TK TK TK Rangtia:1 S house- K6 6/4/05 Kholchanda 65 F 0 TK TK TK Rangtia:18 ND work K7 6/4/05 Kholchanda 27 M SSC farming TK TK TK Rangtia:6 H unem- K8 6/4/05 Kholchanda 18 M SSC TK TK TK none H ployed day K9 6/4/05 Kholchanda 36 F 0 TK TK TK Salchura:24 ND labor house- Shomosh- K10 6/4/05 Kholchanda 52 F 0 TK TK TK S work chura:20 K11 6/4/05 Kholchanda 42 M 4 farming TK TK TK Dhaka:1 S K12 6/4/05 Kholchanda 28 M 10 farming TK TK TK Dhaka:5 S Uttor Dhaudhara: B1 25/8/05 50 F 0 farming CK CK CK S Nokshi 15 Uttor B2 25/8/05 19 M 10 farming CK CK CK none S Nokshi Uttor day B3 25/8/05 28 F 1 CK CK CK Assam:16 S Nokshi labor Uttor day B4 25/8/05 30 F 0 CK CK CK none S Nokshi labor Uttor B5 25/8/05 40 M 2 farming CK CK CK none S Nokshi Uttor Dhaudhara, B6 25/8/05 50 M 0 farming CK CK CK S Nokshi Baromari:18 Uttor day Dhaudhara: B7 25/8/05 35 F 8 CK CK CK S Nokshi labor 21 Uttor stays at B8 25/8/05 16 M 0 CK CK TK Rangtia:14 S Nokshi home Uttor B9 25/8/05 55 M 1 farming CK CK CK none S Nokshi

E.3. SRT subject biodata

Other A S R Subj. M’s F's residences and Date Location g e Educ Job MT e No. MT MT length e x l (in years) house- Shomoshchura: Nk1 5/4/05 Nokshi 48 F 0 TK TK TK S work 18 house- Nk2 5/4/05 Nokshi 50 F 8 TK TK TK Gandhigaon:18 S work house- Nk3 5/4/05 Nokshi 19 F 10 TK TK TK Gandhigaon:18 S work Nk4 5/4/05 Nokshi 30 F 3 ND TK TK TK Panbor:16 S house- Nk5 5/4/05 Nokshi 25 F 8 TK TK TK Panbor:15 S work Nk6 5/4/05 Nokshi 50 M 0 farming TK TK TK none S Nk7 5/4/05 Nokshi 40 M 0 farming TK TK TK none S Nk8 5/4/05 Nokshi 35 M 10 teaching TK TK TK none S Nk9 5/4/05 Nokshi 20 M 5 farming TK TK TK none S Mymensingh: Nk10 5/4/05 Nokshi 48 M 1 farming TK TK TK S 28 Shomoshchura: Nk11 5/4/05 Nokshi 51 M 9 farming TK TK TK S 46 Nk12 5/4/05 Nokshi 35 F 0 farming TK TK TK none S Nk13 5/4/05 Nokshi 60 M 0 farming TK TK TK none S Nk14 5/4/05 Nokshi 18 M 0 driving TK TK TK Muktagacha:2 S Nk15 5/4/05 Nokshi 40 F 0 ND TK TK TK none S Nk16 5/4/05 Nokshi 35 M 0 farming TK TK TK none S Nk17 5/4/05 Nokshi 27 F 10 farming TK TK TK none S Nk18 5/4/05 Nokshi 30 F 0 farming TK TK TK none S Nk19 5/4/05 Nokshi 42 F 10 weaving TK TK TK Rangtia:22 S Nk20 5/4/05 Nokshi 32 F 6 farming TK TK TK none S Nk21 5/4/05 Nokshi 15 F 7 study TK TK TK none S Nk22 5/4/05 Nokshi 30 F 0 farming TK TK TK Sarchura:25 S Nk23 5/4/05 Nokshi 20 F SSC farming TK TK TK Baligor:2 S bamboo Shomoshchura: Nk24 5/4/05 Nokshi 60 F 0 TK TK TK S weaving 20 Nk25 5/4/05 Nokshi 34 M 7 farming TK TK TK none S bamboo Nk26 5/4/05 Nokshi 45 F 0 TK TK TK none S weaving Nk27 5/4/05 Nokshi 28 M 8 farming TK TK TK none S house- Nk28 5/4/05 Nokshi 20 M 0 TK TK TK none S work Kc1 6/4/05 Kholchanda 23 M 5 farming TK TK TK none S Kc2 6/4/05 Kholchanda 25 M 0 farming TK TK TK none S Kc3 6/4/05 Kholchanda 28 M 10 farming TK TK TK Dhaka:5 S wood Kc4 6/4/05 Kholchanda 58 M 3 TK TK TK none S cutting unem- Kc5 6/4/05 Kholchanda 28 F 8 TK TK TK Dhaka:6 S ployed Kc6 6/4/05 Kholchanda 15 M 7 study TK TK TK none S Kc7 6/4/05 Kholchanda 50 M 3 farming TK TK TK none S

SRT subject biodata, continued Other A S R Subj. M’s F's residences and Date Location g e Educ Job MT e No. MT MT length e x l (in years) day Kc8 6/4/05 Kholchanda 35 F 0 TK TK TK none S labor Kc9 6/4/05 Kholchanda 18 M 6 farming TK TK TK Rangtia:1 S stays at Kc10 6/4/05 Kholchanda 16 M 5 TK TK TK none S home Kc11 6/4/05 Kholchanda 53 M 0 ND TK TK TK none S day Chotto Kc12 6/4/05 Kholchanda 45 M 3 TK TK TK S labor Rangtia:20 Kc13 6/4/05 Kholchanda 55 M 5 farming TK TK TK none S Kc14 6/4/05 Kholchanda 27 M SSC farming TK TK TK Rangtia:8 S unem- Kc15 6/4/05 Kholchanda 18 M SSC TK TK TK none S ployed Kc16 6/4/05 Kholchanda 25 F 3 farming TK TK TK Nokshi:20 S Kc17 6/4/05 Kholchanda 25 F 6 farming TK TK TK none S day Kc18 6/4/05 Kholchanda 36 F 0 TK TK TK none S labor day Kc19 6/4/05 Kholchanda 32 F 0 TK TK TK Nokshi:12 S labor day Kc20 6/4/05 Kholchanda 25 F 0 TK TK TK none S labor

APPENDIX F: KOCH COMMUNITY INFORMATION

F.1. Nokshi

Date: 5 April 2005 Transportation to village: Take a Jhinaigati bus from Sherpur to Rangtia (Tk.16; 45 minutes). Then take rickshaw to the Nokshi BDR camp (Tk.5). From there walk about 10 minutes north. 1a. Thana: Jhinaigati 1b. District: Sherpur 2. Population: 72 families, 300–400 people 3. Religion: Sonaton 4. Mother tongue: Tintekiya Koch 5. Work: farming, bamboo weaving 6. Nearest post office: Rangtia 7a. TNT: no 7b. Mobile: yes 8a. Nearest hospital: Jhinaigati 8b. Nearest clinic: Rangtia 9a. Government school: no, but there is one which is 1½ km away 9b. What kinds: primary 10. Non-government education: yes, BRAC school and Catholic mission school at Garopara 11. Children who attend school: most (in BRAC school because gov’t school is a bit far) 12. Girls who attend school: most 13. Most students complete: 5 14. Children who finish 5 th : most 15. Children who finish 10 th : few 16. Number who have completed BA: none 17. Electricity: no 18. Water source: tube well 19a. Radio: yes (half of the families have radios) 19b. Language: Bangla 20a. Television: yes (4 or 5 in village) 20b. Language: Bangla

F.2. Kholchanda

Date: 6 April 2005 Transportation to village: Take a Baromari bus from Sherpur to Nunnibazaar (Tk.15; 40 minutes). Then take rickshaw to the Baromari Catholic mission (Tk.25). From the mission walk about 30 minutes northwest. 1a. Thana: Nalitabari 1b. District: Sherpur 2. Population: 37 families, 100–150 people 3. Religion: Sonaton 4. Mother tongue: Tintekiya Koch 5. Work: farming, day labor 6. Nearest post office: Baromari 7a. TNT: no

7b. Mobile: yes 8a. Nearest hospital: Nalitabari 8b. Nearest clinic: Baromari mission 9a. Government school: no 9b. What kinds: NA 10. Non-government education: y es: CARITAS (class 3), mission school (30 minutes’ walk away; class 8) 11. Children who attend school: most 12. Girls who attend school: most 13. Most students complete: no data 14. Children who finish 5 th : 30% 15. Children who finish 10 th : few 16. Number who have completed BA: none 17. Electricity: no 18. Water source: well 19a. Radio: yes (5 or 6 in village) 19b. Languages: Bangla, Hindi 20a. Television: yes (2 TVs) 20b. Languages: Bangla, Hindi

F.3. Kathachura

Date: 10 May 2005 Transportation to village: Take a bus from Dhaka about 90 minutes north on the Mymensingh road. Then go west by rickshaw 5–6 kms to a river. Kathachura is across the river and north about 1 km. 1a. Thana: Kaliakur 1b. District: Gazipur 2. Population: 30–40 families, 180–200 people 3. Religions: Sonaton (nearly all), Christian (1 or 2 families) 4. Mother tongue: Bangla 5. Work: farming, service, teaching 6. Nearest post office: Pirujali 7a. TNT: no 7b. Mobile: yes 8a. Nearest hospital: none 8b. Nearest clinic: Pirujali 9a. Government school: yes 9b. What kinds: primary 10. Non-government education: BRAC (1 km), Noyapara Sesorhuri school 11. Children who attend school: most 12. Girls who attend school: most 13. Most students complete: 5 14. Children who finish 5 th : most 15. Children who finish 10 th : one-third 16. Number who have completed BA: 1–2 17. Electricity: yes 18. Water source: tube well, pond 19a. Radio: yes (most have radios) 19b. Language: Bangla

20a. Television: yes (most have TVs) 20b. Language: Bangla

F.4. Uttor Nokshi

Date: 25 August 2005 Transportation to village: Take a Jhinaigati bus from Sherpur to Rangtia (Tk.16; 45 minutes). Then take rickshaw to the head of the Nokshi village path (Tk.5). From there walk about 20 minutes north, asking for “Banaipara” as you go. 1a. Thana: Jhinaigati 1b. District: Sherpur 2. Population: 10 Chapra Koch families, 70–80 people; many Garo families 3. Religion: Sonaton 4. Mother tongue: Chapra Koch 5. Work: farming, day labor 6. Nearest post office: Rangtia 7a. TNT: no 7b. Mobile: no 7c. Nearest place to make calls: Jantuli 8a. Nearest hospital: Jhinaigati 8b. Nearest clinic: Nokshi 9a. Government school: no 9b. What kinds: NA 10a. Non-government education: Catholic mission school 10b. What kind: primary 11. Children who attend school: all 12. Girls who attend school: all 13. Most students complete: 5 14. Children who finish 5 th : all 15. Children who finish 10 th : 1–2 people 16. Number who have completed BA: none 17. Electricity: no 18. Water source: tube well 19a. Radio: yes (1 or 2 in village) 19b. Language: Bangla 20a. Television: yes (1 or 2 in village) 20b. Language: Bangla

F.5. Chandabhoi

Date: 27 August 2005 Transportation to village: From Dalu take an autorickshaw about 5 kms northeast (Rs.40). 1a. Thana: Dalu 1b. District: West Garo Hills (India) 2. Population: 53 Hajong families, 500–600 Tintekiya Koch people, about 400 Margan Koch people 3. Religion: Sonaton 4. Mother tongues: Tintekiya Koch, Margan Koch, Hajong 5. Work: farming 6. Nearest post office: Chandabhoi

7a. TNT: yes, in Kondapara (1 km away) 7b. Mobile: no 8a. Nearest hospital: Barengapara (4 km away) 8b. Nearest clinic: Chandabhoi 9a. Government school: yes 9b. What kinds: until 7 th 10. Non-government education: no 11. Children who attend school: most 12. Girls who attend school: most 13. Most students complete: 7–8 14. Children who finish 5 th : most 15. Children who finish 10 th : few 16. Number who have completed BA: none 17. Electricity: yes, in some houses 18. Water source: ring well 19a. Radio: yes (in nearly all houses) 19b. Languages: Bangla, Hindi 20a. Television: yes (in nearly all houses) 20b. Languages: Hindi (more), Bangla (less)

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