Contact and Genetic Linguistics

Cambridge University Press 978-9-382-26472-9 - North East Indian Linguistics: Volume 5 Edited by Gwendolyn Hyslop, Stephen Morey and Mark W. Post Excerpt More information

Contact and genetic linguistics

© in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-9-382-26472-9 - North East Indian Linguistics: Volume 5 Edited by Gwendolyn Hyslop, Stephen Morey and Mark W. Post Excerpt More information

1 Koch dialects of Meghalaya and Assam: A sociolinguistic survey1 Alexander Kondakov SIL International

1. Introduction 1.1. Purpose and Goals Language surveys are conducted around the world for a variety of reasons: initial description of so far undocumented languages, assessing the vitality of endangered languages, evaluating differences and similarities of related speech forms, studying people’s attitudes about different languages, measuring multilingualism, initiating a language development program etc. The purpose of this sociolinguistic survey was to determine the need for language development in the Koch community of North East India. In order to meet this purpose, several specific goals were set: 1. To clarify the relationship between Koch and Rabha, and to find out the degree of comprehension between them (see section 3, ‘Dialects of the language’). 2. To investigate the patterns of language use in the Koch community as well as attitudes towards their own language and towards other languages spoken in the region; to assess the vitality of the Koch language (see section 4, ‘Language use, attitudes and vitality’).

1 I would like to express deep appreciation for my wife Anuradha who played an important role in the fieldwork part of the survey. I am also grateful to so many Koch, Rabha and Garo people who helped us collect necessary information and offered warm hospitality. Special gratitude should be expressed to Loren Maggard, Anne Beshears and Robbins Burling who gave many valuable suggestions regarding the content of my paper.

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3. To find out if there are any language development efforts going on in Koch and to determine what variety (if any) is considered to be the best/most suitable for development (see section 4, ‘Language use, attitudes and vitality’). The Koch dialects remain largely undocumented and very much lack written materials; whereas some of the dialects are already endangered. 4. To assess Koch speakers’ abilities in a second language (see section 5, ‘Bilingualism’).

1.2. Fieldwork and methodology The fieldwork for this survey was carried out in two phases: from 18 August to 12 September 2006, and from 18 February to 18 March 2007. The team consisted of two persons: the author himself and his wife; sometimes Garo persons and, occasionally, Koch villagers accompanied the surveyors. Altogether 22 villages and two towns were visited during the survey; many visits were repeated during the second phase of the fieldwork in order to collect further data. Those were short-term visits of one to three days. The languages used to communicate with Koch speakers were Hindi, Assamese, Garo and English. Methods used in language surveys depend on the questions the survey is trying to answer. The present survey’s methods include the following: collecting and analysing word lists (Bender 1971; Blair 1990); playing recorded texts (Casad 1974); administering questionnaires (Hochstetler and Tillinghast 1996) as well as informal group and individual interviews; sentence repetition test (Radloff 1991) and direct observation (Cooper and Carpenter 1976).

2. Background 2.1. History and people Koch has for long been a term of some ambiguity. It is well known that a community named Koch built an empire in western Assam in the sixteenth century, and Naranarayan and Chilarai, two famous kings in the history of Assam, belonged to that community. The Koch of western Meghalaya also claim relationship with those empire-building Koch. On the other hand, Koch is known as a Hindu caste found all over the Brahmaputra Valley (Majumdar 1984: 147), and receives converts to Hinduism from different tribes (Gait 1933: 43). In North Bengal and in Goalpara district of Assam, the term Koch has, to a great extent, been abandoned in favor

Koch dialects of Meghalaya and Assam 5

of the appellation Rajbangsi.2 The Rajbangsi have the Cooch (Koch) Bihar area of West Bengal as their historical and contemporary centre, and speak an Indo-Aryan language that is related to Bangla (Toulmin 2009). The Koch included in this report are those who preserved their tribal dialects, animistic religion and non-Hindu cultures and traditions. They call themselves Kocho or Kocha (in Assam).3 Grierson (1903: 95–96) mentions these Koch as Pani Koch. He also says that, ‘it is now believed to be much more likely that they are not Koches at all, but are Garos who have never got beyond an imperfect stage of conversion to Hinduism’ (Grierson 1903: 95). The Koch divide themselves into nine ethnolinguistic groups, namely: Tintekiya (TK), Wanang (WK), Koch-Rabha/Kocha (KR), Harigaya (HK), Margan (MK), Chapra (CK), Satpari (SPK), Sankar (SK) and Banai (BK). The groups are endogamous, and there used to be very few intermarriages in the past. Under each of the aforesaid groups there small clans called nikini. The clans are matrilineal and strictly exogamous (Koch 1984: 180), i.e., marriages are not permitted within the same clan. The Koch-speaking people are mainly found in Garo Hills of Meghalaya and in Lower Assam (see Figure 1). There are pockets of the Koch population in other parts of Assam, in West Bengal, Tripura and Northern Bangladesh. It is necessary to clear up some points of possible confusion when referring to the Koch groups: 1. Dasgaya appears to be an alternate name of both Margan and Chapra groups of Koch. S. N. Koch refers to Chapra, Dasgaya and Margan as one group (ibid: 178). However, others differentiate Chapra from Margan. Perhaps, both groups used to be one (as one can find common features in their vocabularies as distinct from other Koch dialects); but as time passed, these groups began to live separately and distinguish themselves as separate. Margan Koch as referred to in the present paper are inhabitants of the village Marganpara; they distinguish themselves from Chapra Koch who live in the Zikzak and Ampati areas.

2 Rajbangsi means ‘pertaining to a royal family’. 3 Outsiders, however, know them only as Koch. The same term occurs in the majority of written documents; therefore it will be used as such throughout the paper.

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Figure 1: Koch groups and their locations

2. Banai is a small distinct group found in South Garo Hills district in one separate village and with other groups such as Koch and Hajong in the rest of the district. They are also reportedly found in Assam. The Banai language and way of living is quite similar to Hajong; however, they usually affiliate themselves with the Koch as Banai Koch (Majumdar 1984: 148). 3. There is a group of people known as Koch-Rabha or Kocha in Dhubri and Kokrajhar districts of Assam. It is here that the Koch and the Rabha often claim a common identity. This does not seem to be without a good reason as the Koch in Assam are not recognized as a Scheduled Tribe,4 while the Rabha are. By identifying themselves as Rabha for the past 60 years or so, the Koch got entitled to at least some state facilities (Koch 1984: 175–76).

4 The term ‘Scheduled Tribe’ (ST) refers to specific indigenous people groups that are explicitly recognized by the Indian Constitution as needing special protection due to disadvantageous conditions.

Koch dialects of Meghalaya and Assam 7

The Koch population is another point of ambiguity. Since there has been much confusion regarding their identity, it is hard to determine the precise number of their population. Different sources provide different figures ranging from 20,000 to 30,000 people. Informal sources often give a double number. Like most people in rural Meghalaya and Assam, the Koch are agriculturists. They produce paddy, jute, pulses and mustard. The vast majority of the Koch still live in villages and lead a largely traditional mode of life. The Koch are matrilineal, although there is no hard rule like among the Garos and the Khasis that in all cases the man must go to his in-law’s house (Koch 1984: 182). The Koch religion is the religion of spirit worship, i.e. animism, and in essence and practice similar to other tribal religions. Koch people also believe in certain Hindu gods. For the past half a century some people of the Koch-Rabha group have converted to Christianity.

2.2. Language The language the Koch speak goes by the same name.5 It is generally accepted that Koch falls under the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino- Tibetan language family. However, further classification has been a matter of debate for many years (Konow 1903; Shafer 1955, 1966–73; Benedict 1972; Voegelin and Voegelin 1977; Burling 1983; Bradley 1997; Thurgood 2003; Gordon 2005; Joseph and Burling 2006; Joseph 2007). Bradley subdivides Tibeto-Burman into four major groups, including north-eastern which, in turn, includes Shafer’s Baric group, also known as Benedict’s Bodo-Garo-Konyak group, now usually known as the Sal group from a name coined by Burling. Boro-Garo is a close-knit branch which is used to refer to four sub-branches: Garo (its various dialects), Koch (Koch, Rabha, Atong and Ruga6), Boro (Boro, Kokborok, Tiwa) and Deuri (Joseph and Burling 2006). This division is also maintained by Joseph (2007). Boro- Garo is named as Bodo-Koch in Thurgood (2003). As mentioned earlier, the Koch are divided into nine endogamous groups. Even at the time of Grierson’s work early in the twentieth century it was noted that each group of the Koch spoke a different dialect (Grierson 1903: 96). The fact was later documented by D. N. Majumdar

5 The ethnonym for the Koch language is Kocho Koro. 6 Wanang, which was included in this subbranch as a separate language, is in fact a dialect of Koch.

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and S. N. Koch, and is now supported by the findings of this survey.7 Nowadays, however, the speakers of only six groups, namely Tintekiya, Wanang, Harigaya, Margan, Koch-Rabha and some Chapra continue to speak their original Tibeto-Burman language. The other three groups, Satpari, Sankar and Banai speak either Hajong or a mixed language which contains features of Bangla and Assamese and is sometimes referred to as Jharua, a derogatory term meaning ‘of the jungle’.8 Hajong itself is sometimes referred to as Jharua (Majumdar 1984: 151; Hajong 2002: 17). Nevertheless, many Koch know the Harigaya dialect since it is commonly used at Koch social gatherings and is reportedly easy to learn.

3. Dialects of the language One method used for measuring the relationships among language varieties was to compare the phonetic similarities of their vocabularies, referred to as lexical similarity. Other methods included looking into people’s perceptions of various dialects as well as intelligibility testing through the use of recorded stories.

3.1. Lexical similarity 3.1.1. Procedures A 210-item word list was used to collect samples from 11 locations where Koch, Rabha and Garo speakers reside. The word list has been standardized and contextualized for use in sociolinguistic surveys in South Asia (Blair 1990: 27). The total number of vocabulary items compared is sometimes less than 210 for some word list sites, either because a certain item is not familiar to the informants, or a particular item is deemed inappropriate to elicit at a certain site. The word lists were elicited in Hindi and Assamese, and the words were transcribed phonetically in a data notebook. The words were normally collected from a group of people to make certain that the list represented more than just one person’s opinion about which words were appropriate.

7 See section 3. 8 Bangla and Assamese are closely related languages, and in the area under survey they merge into each other in a continuum resulting in transitional forms such as Jharua. For this reason, a combined term Bangla/Assamese will sometimes be used when referring to the Indo-Aryan form of speech used by the Koch.

Koch dialects of Meghalaya and Assam 9

Sometimes a word list was collected from a single person and cross- checked later with a second speaker from the same location. Words were then compared using a consistent counting procedure documented in Blair (1990: 28–29). The percentage of similarity was calculated using WordSurv – a linguistic computer program designed to aid in the collection and analysis of word lists (Wimbish 1989). 3.1.2. Discussion of sample Seven word lists representing four major Koch dialects – Tintekiya, Harigaya, Wanang and Margan – were collected from the representative sites of their traditional habitat in the West Garo Hills district of Meghalaya. A word list from the Chapra dialect was not collected as Chapra speakers were reportedly very few in number and it was indeed very hard to find them. Another Koch word list was taken from the Goalpara district of Assam where a Tintekiya Koch community made its home after being displaced from East Pakistan in 1964. A word list in Koch-Rabha was elicited in Guwahati from a member of that community. Later it was cross-checked with native speakers in Debitola village, Dubri district, Assam. A word list in Rongdani Rabha was collected in Tura from a Rongdani Rabha speaker and was later cross-checked with another person of the same community. A Garo word list was taken from a native speaker residing in Tura and later cross-checked with another speaker of the language. It was included in the comparison in order to evaluate (and disprove) a statement made by Grierson (1903: 96) who wrote, ‘Their [Koch] language is a mongrel of Garo and Bangla or Assamese’ and it is ‘eventually based on Garo’. The complete word lists, details of the counting procedures and subject biodata can be found in Appendix 1. 3.1.3. Results Table 1 displays the lexical similarity data in a matrix form. According to the SIL International Language Assessment Conference recommendations (Kindell 2009), if two word lists indicate a lexical similarity of less than about 70 per cent (at the upper confidence limit of the calculation), the speech varieties are generally referred to as different languages. As a general principle, no dialect intelligibility testing needs to be done between different languages, since one would not expect the speakers of those varieties to be able to understand each other. If

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Table 1: Lexical similarity of Koch, Rabha and Garo varieties Tintekiya Koch-1 97 Tintekiya Koch-2 94 95 Tintekiya Koch-3 50 52 49 Koch Rabha 54 53 53 72 Wanang Koch-1 54 54 53 69 93 Wanang Koch-2 57 57 57 56 70 69 Harigaya Koch-1 52 53 51 53 68 69 90 Harigaya Koch-2 53 55 53 49 58 62 69 72 Margan Koch 34 35 34 37 38 39 35 35 32 Rongdani Rabha 14 14 13 16 18 18 14 15 15 18 Garo

the similarity is greater than 70 per cent, the word list analysis alone is not adequate for making judgments about intelligibility; thus, dialect intelligibility testing must be done. First of all, the word lists clearly show the relationship between Koch and Rabha proper.9 The percentage of similar words reached a maximum of 39 per cent, which is far below the 70 per cent threshold indicating that Koch and Rabha are separate languages. According to responses from the questionnaire and interviews given by the Koch, they do not understand Rabha speakers unless there is exposure to their language. The same is the case with the Rabha who do not understand Koch and call it a different language. Further, the Koch word list comparisons show that Tintekiya Koch from all three sites is very similar. The percentage of similar words ranges

9 Rabha proper is understood here as including the Rabha linguistic varieties, such as Rongdani and Maituri; it does not include Koch-Rabha.