Faculty of Arts University of Helsinki A Grammar of Amri Karbi PhD Thesis Department of Languages Nailya Philippova Doctoral dissertation, to be presented for public discussion with the permission of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Helsinki, in Metsätalo hall 1 (Unioninkatu 40), on the 9th of April 2021 at 10 o’clock. Helsinki 2021 A Grammar of Amri Karbi Doctoral dissertation Nailya Philippova University of Helsinki Faculty of Arts Department of Languages General Linguistics Cover image: A weaving woman in Pisamsuru village, Meghalaya, India (Tiina and Jorma Jumppanen) ISBN 978-951-51-7151-1 (paperback) ISBN 978-951-51-7152-8 (PDF) Printed by Unigrafia Helsinki 2021 Abstract This dissertation describes Amri Karbi, a language that has not received much attention in the past among linguists. This grammar is the first comprehensive and holistic description of the Amri Karbi language, which is a crucial step for the language community and their self- identity. Amri Karbi, also known as a variety of Karbi or Mikir is a Trans-Himalayan/Tibeto- Burman language spoken in scattered villages in the states of Assam and Meghalaya of North Eastern India. The Amri Karbis are agriculturalists, but at the same time some community members also practice hunter-gathering. Some Amri Karbi villages, especially those that are near or inside Guwahati, the capital of Assam, have shifted to Assamese, the state language of Assam. The vitality of Amri Karbi becomes gradually stronger as one moves away from Guwahati and further into the hills. The majority of the population in those areas are bilingual or multilingual; but other languages, like Assamese, English and Hindi are usually acquired through education. This grammar description is based mainly on data collected by the author during the fieldwork. There were three field trips in total, one was a two-year long stay in the area from 2013-2015, followed by two short trips in 2016 and 2017. Besides that, the main language consultant for the grammar visited Helsinki twice to work on the grammar. The theoretical approach for writing this grammar has been framework free but it has been guided and inspired by typological literature. The Amri Karbi phoneme inventory includes 23 consonants and 5 full vowels and two marginal vowels. Amri Karbi is a tonal language, with three tones, low, medium and high, which exhibit low functional load. Amri Karbi is a verb final and agglutinative language with more suffixes than prefixes. Verbs especially may be stacked with numerous suffixes, but a verb stem with a negative suffix may alone function as a predicate. The most frequently occurring morphemes are the general possessive prefix a- and the nominalizer ki-. These prefixes have a wide range of functions that include nominal modification and clause subordination. What is peculiar to Amri Karbi is that the personal names carry gender suffixes -po/-pe. Amri Karbi also has definiteness markers that intersect with gender, evaluative and plural meanings. Most of the adjectival functions are covered by adjectival verbs that convey property or state. As modifiers these verbs are nominalized and then often marked with the possessive prefix a-. Amri Karbi uses numeral classifiers in order to count nouns. The counting system is based on both ten and twenty. Like many related languages, Amri Karbi makes a clusivity distinction in first person plural pronouns. i Tiivistelmä Tämä väitöskirja kuvaa amri karbia, kieltä, jota kielitieteilijät eivät ole aiemmin juurikaan huomioineet. Tämä kielioppi on ensimmäinen kattava ja kokonaisvaltainen kuvaus amri karbi -kielestä, mikä on tärkeä askel kieliyhteisölle ja heidän identiteetilleen. Amri Karbi, joka tunnetaan myös nimellä karbi tai mikir, on transhimalajalainen/tiibetiläis-burmalainen kieli, jota puhutaan hajallaan kylissä Assamin ja Meghalayan osavaltioissa Koillis-Intiassa. Amri karbit ovat maanviljelijöitä, mutta samalla jotkut yhteisön jäsenet harjoittavat myös metsästystä ja keräilyä. Jotkut amri karbin kylät, varsinkin Assamin osavaltion pääkaupungin Guwahatin lähellä tai sisällä, ovat siirtyneet käyttämään assamia, Assamin osavaltion kieltä. Amri karbin elinvoima vahvistuu vähitellen, kun siirrytään kauemmaksi Guwahatista ja edelleen kukkuloille. Suurin osa näiden alueiden väestöstä on kaksikielisiä tai monikielisiä, mutta muut kielet, kuten assami, englanti ja hindi, opitaan yleensä koulutuksen kautta. Tämä kieliopin kuvaus perustuu lähinnä tekijän keräämiin tietoihin kenttätöiden aikana. Kenttämatkoja oli yhteensä kolme: kahden vuoden pituinen oleskelu alueella vuosina 2013- 2015, jota seurasi kaksi lyhyttä matkaa vuosina 2016 ja 2017. Tämän lisäksi kieliopin pääkonsultti vieraili kahdesti Helsingissä työstämässä kielioppia. Teoreettinen lähestymistapa tämän kieliopin kirjoittamiseen on ollut vapaa viitekehys, mutta sitä on ohjannut ja inspiroinut typologinen kirjallisuus. Amri karbin foneemiluettelossa on 23 konsonanttia ja 5 täysvokaalia ja kaksi marginaalivokaalia. Amri karbi on tonaalinen kieli, jossa on kolme toonia, matala, keskitaso ja korkea, joilla on alhainen toiminnallinen kuormitus. Amri karbi on verbipäätteinen ja agglutinatiivinen kieli, jossa on enemmän suffikseja kuin prefiksejä. Erityisesti verbiin voidaan liittää lukuisia suffikseja, mutta verbivarsi negatiivisen loppuliitteen kanssa voi yksinkin toimia predikaattina. Yleisimmin esiintyvät morfeemit ovat yleinen omistava prefiksi a- ja nominalisoija ki-. Näillä prefikseillä on laaja valikoima toimintoja, joihin kuuluvat substantiivien muokkaus ja lauseiden alistaminen. Amri Karbille on ominaista, että henkilön nimissä on sukupuolta ilmaisevat suffiksit -po/-pe. Amri karbin kielessä on myös tarkkuusmerkkejä, jotka yhdistävät sukupuolen, arvioinnin ja monikon merkityksiä. Adjektiivifunktiosta suurimman osan hoitavat adjektiiviverbit, jotka välittävät ominaisuutta tai tilaa. Attribuutteina nämä verbit nominalisoidaan ja merkitään usein omistavalla prefiksillä a- . Amri karbi käyttää numeerisia luokittelijoita substantiivien laskemiseen. Laskentajärjestelmä perustuu sekä kymmeneen että kahteenkymmeneen. Kuten monet sukukielet, amri karbi erottaa ii monikon ensimmäisen persoonan pronominit puhujan mukaankuulumisen tai - kuulumattomuuden perusteella. iii Acknowledgements The work on this Amri Karbi grammar has been a journey filled with ups and downs, remarkable adventures and fascinating learning milestones. This effort would not be what it has become without all the people whom I am going to acknowledge here and who shared this journey with me, whether for a short or long period. My first and foremost thanks goes to the people who speak Amri Karbi, the topic of this research. I thank all of them for giving me the opportunity to learn their language and for allowing me to be part of their community – it became my second home. I want to thank my main language consultant, Ms. Babani Marme, who worked with me from the very beginning and throughout the entire project. I thank her for her patience and endurance through the long hours of grammar discussions both during my fieldtrips to India and her visits to Helsinki. I treasure our many joyous ‘eureka’ moments when we would resolve another puzzle of the Amri Karbi language. Also, Mr. Mohan Ingthi and his family contributed greatly to the Amri Karbi work and I am grateful to them for being always open-minded and supportive. Mr. Lawrence Teron joined me on my last three-month fieldtrip in 2017; I thank him for assisting me with finding new consultants and for his tremendous perseverance in the daunting task of data transcribing. I thank Mr. Amin Marme for his invaluable support as the leader of the Amri Karbi Baptist Church Association (Amri Karbi Baptist Kachikruk Ason – AKBKA), which has become my largest partner organization. I thank Mr. Puron Marme for the gift of his handwritten grammar of Amri Karbi and for assisting me on my fieldtrip in 2016 by transcribing the data and taking me to different sites where Amri Karbi is spoken. I also thank Mr. Puron Marme, his wife, daughter and his late son for their generous hospitality. I thank Mr. Kahang Tumung, a member of the Literature Committee, for the unforgettable recording sessions of Amri Karbi legends and songs. I am grateful for the late Padum Ingti for providing his support for the project and for organizing interesting recording sessions in his home. I also want to express gratitude to other wonderful Amri Karbi people with whom I interacted along the way as language consultants and friends: Mr. Buksing Kiling, Mr. Bimal Rongpi, Ms. Rijula Ingjal, Mr. Jendro Klein and his family, Mrs. Tuli Inghi, Mr. Dhomeso Tumung, Mr. Thombor Inghi, Mr. Panbor Ingthi, Mrs. Podumi Kathar, Mr. Khargeswar Phangcho, Mr. Haneshwar Ingthi, Mrs. Nomita Rongpi, Mr. Jewel Bey, Mr. Kati Ingjang, Mr. Pratap Ronghang, Mr. Sormon Ronghang and his family, Mrs. Bharatti Theron, Ms. Tes Bey, Mr. iv Riewsing Bey, Mr. Anonglo Ingjal, Mr. Bundu Inghi, Mr. Konok Theron – and there were many others. My thanks to Jessie Glover, who introduced me to the Amri Karbi people in the first place. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Matti Miestamo, for his guidance and patience in every step of my PhD studies. His comments on my writings were very detailed and beneficial; they would lead me to dig deeper into the literature and try to enhance my analysis and presentation of the grammar. I am also extremely grateful to my other supervisor, Dr. Ekaterina Gruzdeva, for always being ready to answer my