A Grammar of Baram Tej R. Kanasakar Yogendra P. Yadava Krishna Prasad Chalise Balaram Prasain Dubi Nanda Dhakal Krishna Paudel A Grammar of Baram Tej R. Kanasakar Yogendra P. Yadava Krishna Prasad Chalise Balaram Prasain Dubi Nanda Dhakal Krishna Paudel Published by: Linguistic and Ethnographic Documentatation of the Baram Language (LEDBL) Central Department of Linguistics, Tribhuvan University Copyright Linguistic and Ethnographic Documentatation of the Baram Language (LEDBL) team First edition 2011 ISBN 978-9937-524-22-3 Research Team Prof. Dr. Tej R. Kansakar Prof. Dr. Yogendra P. Yadava Mr. Krishna Prasad Chalise Mr. Balaram Prasain Mr. Dubi Nanda Dhakal Mr. Krishna Paudel Language consultants Mr. Tokman Baram Mr. Dambar Bahadur Baram Ms. Mina Baram Mr. Tek Bahadur Baram Ms. Panmati Baram Ms. Dilmaya Baram Mr. Santa Bahadur Baram Mr. Sobal Singh Baram Ms. Dauri Baram Ms. Kamala Baram Mr. Dil Bahadur Baram Mr. Sankha Man Baram Foreward Linguistic and Ethnographic Documentation of the Baram Language (LEDBL) team is pleased to bring out A Grammar of Baram in consonance with one of the objectives of the LEDBL project. We are grateful to the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme (ELDP) for providing us with the major grants for the documentation of the Baram language. We hope we have brought it to a successful completion. We hope this will be a useful work for the study of Tibeto-Burman languages of Nepal in general and Baram in particular. We also hope this will serve as a reference grammar for those who wish to study the Baram language. The data that can be obtained from the most fluent speakers are included for presentation and analysis in this grammar. The circumstances of the data collection are mentioned in the first part of the grammar. When we began the documentation work, we suspected whether we would be able to present the linguistic systems in the Baram language. However, when we had data of considerable amount, we have tried to undertake full analyses of the Baram language. Linguistic and Ethnographic Documentation of the Baram Language (LEDBL) has been supported by Endangered Languages Documentation Programme, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. We are grateful to ELDP for approving the grant to carry out the major documentation programme. We have envisaged that LEDBL project will be a part of ongoing the ongoing Linguistic Survey of Nepal. LEDBL Team February, 2011 Acknowledgements We received support from a number of people in completing the works of the Linguistic and Ethnographic Documentation of the Baram Language (LEDBL, MDP 0158) for its successful completion. First of all we would like to thank Endangered Languages Documentation Programme, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London for supporting the documentation of the Baram language. The documentation would not have been possible without the financial support of ELDP. We are also grateful to ELDP, SOAS for constant support during the documentation period (March 2007-October31,2010). Secondly, we would like to thank the Nepal Baram Association for assisting us in the documentation process. They acquainted us with the Baram community, and assisted in the field work and in overall documentation process. The language consultants Mr. Tok Man Baram and Mr. Dammar Bahadur Baram deserve special thanks for constant interactions with us during the project period. They were always with us in answering a number of questions related to their language. At this point we would like to remember late David E. Watters and late Michael Noonan. They encouraged us to do some documentation work in Tibeto-Burman languages of Nepal. Their help in the initial phase of the project planning is really memorable. They only live with us in our memories. We now would like to express our heartfelt condolences to their families. We were happy to work with the members of the Baram community when we were at our field site in Dandagaun and when we were in the rigorous processes of data collection in Gorkha bazaar. Finally, we thank the Central Department of Linguistics for their assistance and logistic support during our documentation work. Finally, the Baram Research Team would like to express our sincere appreciation to the academic and financial staff of the Central Department of Linguistics, Tribhuvan University for their constant support and co-operation during the entire research project. List of abbreviations 1 first person 2 second person 3 third person A agent-like argument of canonical transitive verb ABL ablative ABS absolutive ACC accusative ADJ adjective ADV adverb(ial) ADVZ adjectivizer ANDA andative APPOX approximate AUX auxiliary C consonant CAUS causative CLF classifier CNFT counterfactual participle COM comitative COMP complementizer COMPR comparative CONC concessive COND conditional COP copula DAT dative DEM demonstrative DESID desiderative DET determiner DIST distal DISTR distributive DUR durative EMPH emphatic EXCLAM exclamative F feminine G glide GEN genitive HAB habitual HOR hortative HS hearsay IMP imperative INF infinitive INST instrumental INTR intransitive IPA international phonetic alphabet LIT literally LOC locative N- non- (e.g. NPST non-past) NEG negative NOM nominative NOMN nominalized noun NP noun phrase NUM numeral O object ONO onomatopoic OPT optative PART particle PASS passive PVF perfect PTB proto Tibeto-Burman PL plural POSS possessive PROB probability PROG progressive PROH phrohibitive PROX proximal/proximate PST past PURP purposive QUANT quantifier QUOT quotative R recepient RECP reciprocal REFL reflexive REL relative S subject SG singular TAM tense, aspect, mood TB Tibeto-Burman V Vowel (with reference to syllable structure) V Verb Vd voiced Vl voiceless VP verb phrase VS Vikram Saambat (era) VOC vocative * unacceptable expressions 1 Introduction 1.1 The Baram people Baram people belong to the Sinitic community. The alternative terms Baram and Baramu are used as both ethnonyms and glossonyns. Other terms are also found to have been used to refer to Baram in the past. Hodgson (1847) and Grierson (1909) used Bhramu while Bista (1980) used Bhra:mu and Ba:rhmu alternatively to refer to the people. Baram people, however, prefer to call themselves as Balbang1, which means 'people' or 'human kind' in their language. In their physical appearance, they resemble the Gurungs and Magars but linguistically and culturally they are very different from any of the neighboring Tibeto-Burman communities. According to Thapa (1996:7-8), their clan and subclan names are similar to those of Sunuwars. The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) report of Nepal, 2001 shows that the Central-Southern part of Gorkha district, along Daraundi and Budhigandaki rivers and their tributaries in the Western-Nepal, is the main area where Baram people live. A very small number of these people live in Dhading, Lalitpur, Lamjung, Tanahun and Syanja districts. Map 1.1 Gorkha district in the map of Nepal According to the report, the total population of Baram is 7383 which is 0.01% of the total population of Nepal. Of the total population of Baram 6709 (90.9%) live in the Gorkha district and the rest live in the other parts of Nepal. Baram people consider themselves to be indigenous to the areas where they have been living, but Thapa (1996) argues that their differences from any of 1 It is a compound form in which bal means 'human' and bang means 'group' or class. It is used in the villages where people still speak the Baram language. The villages where people gave up speaking the language use the term Baram. 1 the neighboring TB communities show that Baram migrated to the present location after wandering through several places and is thus a dislocated group from its ancestral community. He has tried to explain how Barams came to the present places from the eastern part of Nepal where Sunuwars are settled now. Map 1.2: The distribution of the Baram people in Gorkha district There are several controversies about the precise location of the Baram people in the past. According to Hodgson (1840), the habitat of Baram was the region called 'Gharga', east of the river 'Kali'. He mentioned that they lived in the lower regions infested with malaria,and seemed immune to the disease. The word ‘Gharga’ phonetically sounds similar to ‘Gorkha’ and, in fact, Gorkha lies east of the Kali Gandaki River. It shows that probably Hodgson was correct in his statement, but because of misspelling or mispronunciation he used the word ‘Gharga’. His saying "… they lived in the lower regions2…" also can be justified with the help of a Baram myth which states that previously Baram people used to live in the river valleys, but later when Brahmins and/or Kshetris migrated there, they deserted them and moved up the mountains. There are still several Baram settlements in the river valleys3. Grierson and Konow (1909), however, argue that Baram was one of the tribes from Nepal Terai4. 2 The river valleys in the areas are the lower regions, which are hot and malarious. 3 The Baram settlements like Mailung, Jarang, some part of Chhoprak, etc. are still in the river valleys. 4 Baram settlements are not found in the Terai but in the river valleys at present and there is no evidence that shows they lived in the Terai in the past. As stated in Grierson (1909), the source of information for Grierson and Konow (1903) was Hodgson (1840) in which he states ‘...they lived in the lower regions infested with malaria…’ Grierson and Konow may have generalized that the lower region infested with malaria was Terai but they did not conjuncture that the river valleys in the mountainous regions might also be hot and malarious. 2 According to Bista (1980), Baram people inhabitated the Terai and inner-valleys, living in the hot, humid and very malarious areas5.