A Peer-reviewed Journal of Linguistic Society of Nepal Nepalese Linguistics
Volume 34 November 2019
Editor-in-Chief Kamal Poudel Editors Ram Raj Lohani Dr. Tikaram Poudel
Office bearers for 2018-2020
President Bhim Narayan Regmi Vice President Krishna Prasad Chalise General Secretary Dr. Karnakhar Khatiwada Secretary (Office) Dr. Ambika Regmi Secretary (General) Dr. Tara Mani Rai Treasurer Ekku Maya Pun Member Dr. Narayan Prasad Sharma Member Dr. Ramesh Kumar Limbu Member Dr. Laxmi Raj Pandit Member Pratigya Regmi Member Shankar Subedi
Editorial Board
Editor-in-Chief Kamal Poudel Editors Ram Raj Lohani Dr. Tikaram Poudel
Nepalese Linguistics is a peer-reviewed journal published by Linguistic Society of Nepal (LSN). LSN publishes articles related to the scientific study of languages, especially from Nepal. The authors are solely responsible for the views expressed in their articles. Published by: Linguistic Society of Nepal Kirtipur, Kathmandu Nepal
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The publication of this volume was supported by Nepal Academy.
CONTENTS
CREATIVE ADJUSTMENT OF LINGUISTIC AND Bal Ram Adhikari 1 TEXTUAL RESOURCES IN LITERARY TRANSLATION A PRELIMINARY SOCIOLINGUISTIC SURVEY OF Cathryn Donohue 10 NUBRI VALLEY THE COMPLEXITY OF TONE IN NUBRI Cathryn Donohue & 18 Mark Donohue PATTERNS OF SOUND CHANGE IN DEORI AND Monali Longmailai & 26 DIMASA Jonali Saikia INTER-CLAUSAL DEPENDENCY IN WESTERN Ambika Regmi 36 TAMANG CODING GRAMMATICAL SIGNALS IN WESTERN Dan Raj Regmi 43 TAMANG: A TYPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE TENSE AND ASPECT Rymphang K. Rynjah 52 IN STANDARD KHASI AND ITS VARIETIES CULTURAL AND LINGUISTIC AFFINITIES AMONGST Bobita Sarangthem and 58 MEITEI-SIZANG-THADOU Lhingneilam Lhouvum INTEGRATING MOBILE PHONES IN ENGLISH Irom Gambhir Singh 68 LANGUAGE TEACHING: A STUDY IN MANIPUR UNIVERSITY INDEX AND LOCALISATION IN SIGN LANGUAGE: Samar Sinha 73 INTERFACE REQUIREMENT IN SEARCH OF FEATURES LANGUAGE SHIFT AND MAINTENANCE: A CASE Sreelakshmi K M 81 STUDY OF KANI TRIBES
Memoir REFLECTIONS ON THE BEGINNINGS OF LINGUISTICS Austin Hale 87 AT TRIBHUVAN UNIVERSITY
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS Bhim Narayan Regmi 90 92 LIST OF LIFE MEMBERS
Bal Ram Adhikari is affiliated to Mahendra Ratna Campus, Tahachal, Tribhuvan University, Nepal. The author’s email address is
CREATIVE ADJUSTMENT OF LINGUISTIC AND TEXTUAL RESOURCES IN LITERARY TRANSLATION Bal Ram Adhikari
manipulate "diverse linguistic and cultural The present article conceptualizes the process of materials that neither the [...] writer nor the rewriting the given text in the target language translator originates " (Venuti, 1995: 17-18). That (TL) as regeneration of the text across languages. is, both are only text shapers not originators of Shedding light on similarities and differences these materials. Thus, the outcome of generative between producing a text across languages i.e. process is derivative and unique at the same time. transwriting and within a language i.e. writing, it is argued that translation is a creative process Writing and transwriting both are processes of almost exclusive to linguistic and textual levels. regenerating the text from already existent linguistic and cultural resources. No text is Keywords: Manipulation, regeneration, absolutely innovative nor is it the absolute replica transwriting, translational creativity of the text already in existence. That is, each text 1. Introduction is repetitive and innovative at the same time. In this regard, Selden, Widdowson and Brooker, Translation is a Janus-faced process of text (2005) refer to Barthes' (1968) claim that writers production across languages which entails only have power to mix already existing writing. interpretation of the source text (ST) and its They can only reassemble or reuse what others regeneration in the target language (TL). It have already written. Barthes further claims that requires the translator to read and re-read the ST writers only draw on the immense dictionary of so as to extract meanings and rewrite the extracted language and culture always already written. meanings in the TL. The translator is thus Likewise, Paz finds the distinction between involved in twin processes of meaning extraction original writing and transwriting blurred: through reading, and regeneration of the text through writing. He/she takes on a dual role, as Every text is unique and, at the same time, it is the reader of the ST and the writer of the TT. In the translation of another text. No text is other words, "besides being the reader of a text, original because language itself, in its essence, the translator is also the writer of a text to be read is already a translation: firstly, of the non- by others" (Joseph, 1987: 109-110). Of these two verbal world and secondly, since every sign processes involved in translation, the present and every phrase is the translation of another article concerns the second one i.e. regeneration phrase. However, the inverse of this reasoning of the text. is also entirely valid. All texts are originals because each translation has its own From the perspective of writing, translation is a distinctive character. Up to a point, each process of generating a text again in another translation is a creation and thus constitutes a language. The process can be called regenerating unique text. (1971/1992:154) the text across languages, which in a number of ways, resembles as well as differs from generating Despite such resemblance, we can also discern the text within a language. Generating a text some marked differences between writing and within a language, conventionally called writing, transwriting. The writer relies on varied textual and regenerating the text across languages, which and non-textual resources. He/she can use already can be called transwriting, both are manipulative, published texts to draw content and even language regenerative, repetitive and creative. Writer and for his/her work or can simply refer to them. transwriter both are text producers in their Experiences, emotions, imagination and facts are respective languages. Both relay on and nontextual resources of the text. The writer is free
Nepalese Linguistics, vol. 34, 2019, pp. 1-9. 2 / Creative adjustment of... to manipulate such resources. There is a single material or textual and spiritual transformation. A agent who determines content, context and form literary text is more than the objective information of the text. Finally, writing within a language is it carries because it "'posits man's physical and monolingual in nature. On the contrary, while spiritual existence" (Benjamin, 1923/2000:15). regenerating the text across languages, the The spiritual or subjective dimension of the text transwriter works on the single textual source of amounts to the authorial ego and creative soul and meanings and forms. Content, context and form the reader's emotional responses to the overall are already fixed by the writer. In principle, the text. The text after it undergoes cross-linguistic transwriter has no right to manipulate them transformation embodies authorial egos and willfully. Moreover, there are two agents involved creative souls of writer and transwriter. As a in the regeneration of the text: writer and result, the translated text acquires material and transwriter. Put differently, a translated text spiritual dimensions different from those of the houses two creative souls. At this juncture, I ST. Lastly, it is the transwriter who gives rebirth quote from the translatorial 'Of being caught in a to the ST as a TT that speaks a different tongue. double-bind': The transwriter's role thus turns out to be that of the procreator. [...] while writing, I am monolingual, mono- cultural, unidirectional, and most of all I am Drawing on these theoretical arguments, the confined to a single pragmatic compass, present article aims to explore different whereas while translating, I am acting to be dimensions of regeneration of text. The term overtly bilingual, bicultural (though it may be 'regeneration' is used as an alternative to such only for a limited degree and a certain period heterogeneous terms as "reproduction" (Nida, of time), two directional and more importantly 1964), "rewriting" (Lefever, 1992), and I try to transcend the single pragmatic world to "transcreation" (Mukherjee, 1994; Singh, 2010). enter another one, which is alien to my 2. Method language and culture. (Adhikari, 2010: vii) The present article draws on tenets of product- It implies that bilingual regeneration of a text is oriented research that studies the textual product more demanding than monolingual textual that is the outcome of the translation or generation, for the former involves more interpretation process (Saldanha & Breen, constraints than the latter. Unlike the writer, the 2013:50). Of the different approaches available in transwriter has to fulfill a two-way obligation to this research methodology, I have employed a the ST, the source, and the target readers, the descriptive and explanatory approach to the destination. Obligation to the source writer analysis of the translation as a product. The cases requires him/her to gravitate towards content and were sampled purposively from the novels form of source message, whereas obligation to sukarāt-kā pāilā (Bhattarai, 2063 B.S.) and its target readers requires him/her to be faithful to TL English translation Socrates' Footsteps (2010), grammar and convention. It also requires the anido pahāḍ-sangai (Parijat, 2073 B. S.) and its transwriter to be creative in terms of word choice, English translation Under the Sleepless Mountain syntactic manipulation and textual organization. (2007), and a Nepali essay rendered by a novice Despite the fact the existent text serves as the translator. The cases in Nepali are transliterated source for the transwriter, it does not mean that in English Roman followed by their English he/she begins from where the ST writer ends. translations. Rather, the transwriter (re)constructs the text 3. Analysis and discussion anew and the process parallels the one followed by the ST writer. By regenerating the ST in the This section presents the purposively selected TL, the transwriter gives a new life or energy to cases and their analysis under the thematic the ST, or revitalizes it which otherwise would headings of mechanical reproduction vs creative remain within the confinement of the SL. It is reproduction, regeneration as creative linguistic through regeneration that a text undergoes activity in terms of word choice, syntactic Adhikari / 3 manipulation and text organization. These themes in English (Cowan, 2008: 238). Also, the are principally informed by theoretical insights translator's priority to linearity has marred generated from Wilss (1994), Singh (2010) and readability and fluidity of the text. That is, the Frankenberg-Garcia (2017). translator has attempted to follow the ST structure closely. Consequently, there is heavy presence of 3.1. Mechanical reproduction vs creative Nepali structure in the English text. The adjustment expressions such as As we arrived near her Regeneration is a process of rewriting of the ST in beautiful home at a lofty hill and A tall statured the TL. However, this process is more than and dazzling faced, with white hair but kajal mechanical reproduction of the text across decorated eyed Bente are the clear indicative of languages. Rather, it is creative adjustment of ST the translator's failure to use his creative license to elements in the TL that shows the transwriter's produce a readable text in English. To follow ability to compose a literary text in the TL, using Nida's (1964:185-187) framework of literary materials extracted from the ST. The following translation, this translator is confined to the stage cases serve to illustrate key differences between of minimal transfer which involves mechanical mechanical reproduction and creative adjustment: reproduction of the ST, yielding the unrefined version. Let us compare the above translation with Case 1 the following version: ST (Nepali): hāmi jaba aglo pahāḍ-muni-ko un- TT (English: Creative adjustment): As we ko ramāilo ghar najikai pugyaũ, rāto, nilo ra arrived near her beautiful house at the foot of a seto raŋ-ko jhanḍā hāwā-mā pharpharāirahe-ko lofty hill, a large red, blue and white flag thiyo. sāth-mā yātrā garirahe-ki runā-le ma-tira fluttering delightfully came to our sight. Runa herera bhanin, "yo timro swāgat-ko lāgi looked at me and said, ‘It is hoisted here to rākhieko ho". agli kadh ra anuhār-mā camak welcome you". There turned up a tall lady with bokeki, seto kapāl tara akhā-ma gājal lagāeki white hair, kajal in her eyes. She was Bente, benṭe hāmi-lāi lina ghar bāhir niskin. who welcomed us with her beaming smile. (My TT (English): As we arrived near her beautiful translation) home at a lofty hill, there was a large red, blue This extract reveals the translator's attempt to and white colored flag fluttering delightfully. move beyond the stages of literal translation and Runa, the co-traveler, turned to me and said, ‘it minimum transfer, and make the text literary to is set to welcome you. A tall statured and the extent possible. We can see several instances dazzling faced, with white hair but kajal of creative adjustment of the ST in the TT. Let us decorated eyed Bente came out from her home take some of them. The word raŋ-ko (colored/ to welcome us. having color) has been removed from the TT It is an extract from a travelogue rendered by a because its use with color adjectives red, blue and novice literary translator. The extract typifies the white is redundant. Its removal also helps to mechanical reproduction of the Nepali text in reduce the number of adjectives before the noun English. The translator has literally reproduced jhanḍā (flag). Likewise, house is used in place of the ST, which has resulted in a syntactically home, because, as suggested by the context, the unwieldy text in English. The English text is speaker is referring to the building, and pahāḍ- dictated by the ST in terms of word order and muni (literally: under the hill) has been rewritten textual organization. In the translation of the as at the foot of the hill. The complex subject NP expression rāto, nilo ra seto raŋ-ko jhanḍā agli kadh ra anuhār-mā camak bokeki, seto kapāl (literally: a large, red, blue and white colored tara akhā-ma gājal lagāeki benṭe (literally: a tall flag), for example, the translator has stacked five statured and dazzling faced, with white hair but adjectives before the noun almost in the same kajal decorated eyed Bente) has been thoroughly order as they occur in the ST. Unlike in Nepali, restructured in English as a tall lady with white "stacks of more than three adjectives rarely occur"
4 / Creative adjustment of... hair, kajal in her eyes. She was Bente, who starting point of translator's creative writing is the welcomed us with her beaming smile. fixed text, "not the language in movement that provides the poets raw material" (Paz, Compared to the novice translator's text, this 1971/1992:159). Furthermore, Wilss' (1994) translation reads natural in English. The translator observation limits translational creativity to the has regenerated the ST in the TL, obeying its linguistic dimension which gets reiterated in grammar rules and discourse principles. He has Singh's (2010) conceptualization of creativity as maintained linearity to ensure the TT's fidelity to "a rearrangement of existing signs. Creativity is a the ST in terms of content and style without point of view to look at the world which is already compromising on his fidelity to the TL system. in existence, and yet defining it in new There is presence of foreignness in content (e.g. permutations and combinations p.46)". Thus, we kajal), but not in sentence construction. Addition, can argue that translation involves creativity deletion and permutation of words reveal the within textual captivity. Here I once again quote translator's awareness of judicious use of creative from the translatorial: license in literary translation. Finally, the translator presents himself as a re-creator rather One of the questions often raised in literary than the mere rewriter of the ST in the TL. translation is concerned with the translator's creative license. To what extent are translators 3.2 Regeneration as a creative linguistic activity free to play with the source text? [....] Can Creativity in translation is a debatable and long they rewrite freely what they have interpreted? debated issue. Bayer-Hohenwarter conceptualizes It seems to me that literary translators enjoy translational creativity as the translator's "ability freedom within their self-chosen captivity. to depart from the source text (ST) structure by Creatively. Consciously and painfully. Hence, applying creative shifts" (2011: 663) such as literary translation turns out to be creativity addition, modification, permutation and deletion. within captivity which I found rather This notion of creativity implies that creative challenging and at times rather frustrating. translators are aware of the fact that there is no (Adhikari, 2010: ix) one-to-one correspondence between SL and TL The transwriter's creativity is predominantly and hence any attempt to reproduce the text in the confined to the linguistic aspect, for content and TL would yield an unacceptable translation. The structure of the text are already specified by the TT certainly departs from the ST in many respects writer. Moreover, even linguistic creativity has to at different levels of texts ranging from be within the compass of vocabulary, grammar vocabulary to discourse organization. However, and style of the given text. It means while we should not forget that departure is not the sole regenerating the ST in a new form in the TL, the criterion for assessing creativity in translation, for transwriter is bound to be within the captivity of the TT should not divert too far from the form and content, language and form of the existent text. It content of the ST. Put simply, there should be is the process of generating a new text from the some correspondence between TT and ST at a given one. During this regenerative process, the deeper level. It implies that translation involves transwriter can demonstrate his/her creativity in enactment of creativity within the constraints different areas of the text and at different levels of imposed by the ST as well as TL system. It is on language. this ground that Wilss (1994) argues that translation is not a genuinely creative process. 3.2.1 Word choice Wilss further maintains that "strictly speaking, Creativity begins with reading of the ST. Creative translation is not a creative, but rather a creative reading is a prerequisite for regeneration of the linguistic activity. Translation is never a creatio given text in a novel form in the TL. Creative ex nihilo, but the reproduction of a given SL text, reading requires the transreader to comprehend combining a comprehensive and an inventive multiple layers of meanings of words, create phase of textually-bound behavior" (1994: 4750). different images for them and decide on the most Translation is thus creatio ex materia , that is, the fitting TL words for the images. In other words, Adhikari / 5 the transreader is often required to transcend the past that an individual cannot change, forget denotative meanings and dig into the text in order making or crafting it, whereas destiny is the to explore connotative meanings implied by the future, which, if a person strongly wills, can be context or the meanings intended by the speaker. changed. It means we can craft destiny, not fate. The following extracts serve to illustrate this Here is another example of creative word choice: theoretical stance: Case 3 Case 2 ST (Nepali): tyo sãjh-mā ananta-le eklai ST (Nepali): āphno koṭhā-mā puge-pachi socirahyo–jivan nikai bhitra pugecha. tyo anyol ananta dherai-bera-samma cintā-mā ḍubi- mārga-mā. pharkane dobāṭā-haru sochyo, tara rahyo. ke ma euṭā byakti mātra hun? ma āphno man-mā ti āenan. aghi baḍhne goreṭo-tira driṭi bhāgya-nirmān gari-rahana swtantra chu? ma- lagāyo, ti prasṭa dekhienan. (Bhattarai, 2063, lai mero pariwes-le sahyog garnu pardaina? B.S.:31 ) (Bhattarai, 2063, B.S.:31 ) TT (English): That evening Ananta, all on his TT (English): Back to his room, Ananta sank own, was sinking in thought. "My life has into gloom for long. "Am I merely an reached deep in this labyrinthunawares". He individual? Am I really free to craft my thought about the paths to retreat, but his mind destiny? Shouldn't my surroundings help me? got no trace of any of them. He cast his eyes (Bhattarai, 2010: 33) over the paths ahead only to find them lost in haze. (Bhattarai, 2010: 41) The TT in Case 2 exhibits some instances of creativity in word choice. Let us take two chunks The underlined Nepali chunks have been cintā-mā ḍubi-rahyo (literally: kept sinking in recreated in English. The verb pugecha (literally: anxiety) and āphno bhāgya-nirmān gari-rahana it has reached without my knowledge) calls for (literally: to make one's fate). The translator has creative adjustment in English because it is in the shunned the denotative meaning of the word cintā unknown past, which is absent from English as anxiety and preferred the contextually grammar. It means the action happened in the past suggested meaning gloom. In fact, the lines above and the agent is aware of it now. To convey this suggest the sense of helplessness and meaning ingrained in the verb, the translator has hopelessness that the protagonist experiences in added the word unawares in the English text. the unfeeling and inhospitable city of Kathmandu. Another chuck anyol mārga-mā (literally: on the Anxiety is thus too shallow to capture the unknown path) has been recreated as in this psychological state of an innocent country boy labyrinth. The contextually recreated word who finds himself awfully lonely in the city. labyrinth is preferable to the mechanically Likewise, the second chunk, if translated literally, reproduced chunk the unknown path because the would read like this– Am I free to make my fate? former is more visual than the latter and which might convey the surface meaning but not concretizes the protagonist's predicament. the meaning intended by the author, nor would it Moreover, labyrinth reads more literary, lexically sound so literary. The word bhāgya mainly means more expressive and hence contextually more fate and it also means destiny, which can be fitting than the mechanically reproduced chunk. translated back into Nepali as niyati. The author's Finally, the contextually recreated chunk for ti intended meaning is destiny not fate because it is prasṭa dekhienan (literally: they were not seen an existential novel which mainly draws on clearly) reads them (i.e. the paths) lost in haze. Sartre's existentialism. Sartre used destiny not fate The ST implies the lack of clarity in the life of the while taking about man's existence as "the destiny protagonist who finds himself in a quandary and of man is placed within himself" (1946) with the fails to decide what to do and where to go. Lost in philosophical message that man makes himself. haze is figurative and more expressive than the There is another reason for choosing destiny over literally reproduced expression they were not seen fate. Fate implies something already decided, it is clearly. It suggests that the transwriter is inclined
6 / Creative adjustment of... to the use of elevated diction. However, it is sentences when complex and compound sentences imperative that the transwriter use his/her creative need to be split into simple sentences for clarity, license with caution. In this regard, he/she should or combine simple sentences to tighten them up in heed Belloc's rule of thumb, "The translator the TT. should never embellish" (as cited in Bassnett, Sentence-joining and sentence-splitting reflect 2002:121). That is, while playing with words, the creativity in textual regeneration at the syntactic transwriter's aim should not be to decorate the TT level. Rather than slavishly following sentence by imposing literary diction from his/her side. The boundaries of the ST, the transwriter can join aim instead should be to make contextually simple sentences to form complex or compound implied meaning more expressive in the TT. Put sentences or split complex or compound sentences differently, the transwriter should use figurative into simple ones or even extract a chunk from the and expressive words only to release the meanings sentence and rewrite it as a clause or simple suppressed in the ST and make the author more sentence. The use of such syntactic operations articulate in the TT. across sentences, however, should be contextually While playing with words creatively, translators justified. The transwriter should take care of the should read not only the lines, but also between writer's style before employing these operations. the lines and beyond the lines. Reading the lines is Consider the following extract from Parijat's a prerequisite for understanding denotative or anido pahād-sangai and its English translation literal meanings of the text. Reading between the Under the Sleepless Mountain: lines helps the translator to grasp connotative, Case 5 intended or contextual meanings, whereas reading beyond the lines helps him/her to work out ST (Nepali): purwi nepāl-mā janmeki cultural meanings of words. candrakāntā-le āphno agyān awasthā-mā nai 3.2.2 Syntactic manipulation pariwār-sanga muglān pasnu paryo. muglān-mā durgati bhayo, ṭuhuri bhai, ekli bhai, dukha pāi, Singh defines creativity as "new permutations and pacāsaun hanḍar khāera taruni bhai, thuprai- combinations" ((2010: 46). Translational thuprai logne-māch-haru-le us-lāi sosan gare, creativity can thus be defined as the different hepe. (2073 B. S. : 22) ways of arranging words and combining sentences TT1 (English): Chandrakanta [...] was born in in the text so as to arouse dramatic effect in readers. The transwriter can manipulate words eastern Nepal and had had to migrate to India within a sentence, and sentences across their to seek employment at a very early age. There in India, as an orphan girl, she had been boundaries. Syntactic manipulation involves, exploited and dominated. She had experienced among others, permutation of word order, many misfortunes in life, and yet she had sentence-joining and sentence-splitting. These syntactic operations bring about shifts in word grown up into a lovely young woman. (Parijat, order and structures of sentences. Sentence- 2007:27) splitting involves the change of sentence This translation evinces two types of syntactic boundaries by rendering one sentence with two or manipulation. The first involves rewriting of a more, whereas sentence-joining renders one phrase as an independent clause and the second is sentence into two or more sentences merging of independent clauses into a complex (Frankenberg-Garcia, 2017). Permutation refers to sentence. As to the first type, the transwriter has the process whereby the transwriter changes separated the infinitival phrase purwi nepāl-mā source word order in the TT. janmeki (literally: born in the eastern Nepal) from Transwriters normally tend to take a sentence as a the sentence and rewritten it as an independent unit of translation (Newmark, 1998). Accordingly, clause as Chandrakanta was born in the eastern they often translate sentence by sentence, Nepal. Moreover, the first simple sentence is split maintaining syntactic parallelism between ST and into a compound sentence coordinated by and. TT. However, they should feel free to split or join Here, the transwriter is inclined to the Adhikari / 7 simplification process. The rest of the sentences the text that achieves the rhetorical goals intended have undergone the reverse syntactic operation by the ST. Textual resources subsume mainly i.e. joining or merging of clauses. Consequently, thematic structure, rhetorical structure and English sentences read more complex than their informational structure. It also requires the source counterparts. There are seven short transwriter to use the linguistic devices such as sentences (or independent clauses) separated by reference, substitution and ellipsis, conjunction commas, which have been written as two (Baker, 2011). Composing a cohesive text in the compound sentences. Moreover, the independent TL is a daunting task even for experienced clause ṭuhuri bhai (literally: she became an translators, let alone novices. It becomes more orphan) has been reduced to a verbless clause as daunting mainly when we are translating from the an orphan girl. This extract reveals the use of mother tongue to the other tongue. Consider the creative license in the regeneration the ST in the following English translation and its Nepali TL. Despite this, the free manipulation of source source to see the translator's manipulation of sentences in the TL is questionable. First, this linguistic and textual resources: translation stresses the content at the expense of Case 6 the structure of the ST. The use of short and simple sentences (independent clauses) in the ST ST (Nepali): tuwālo lāgnu-parne chyānga seems to be stylistically motivated, and the tārāmanḍal dekhincha. chyānga hunu-parne rāt- structural shift has caused shift in the author's mā huri calcha. khai ke bhayo ke bhayo samaya style. In principle, the transwriter is not supposed sāl . man-man-mā dohoryāudai ghyabariŋ buḍā-le to distort the style that the writer has used in the ekpalṭa ākās-tira heryo ra sulphā tānyo. ākās-mā text. Source sentences are fast-flowing, energetic kālā bādal-kā lolā-haru maḍaridai thie, hāwā and draw readers' attention to different untoward narāmro-sãnga ghisriera calirahe-ko thiyo. ghar events happened to the protagonist one after cheuchāukā amliso ghāri, kewãrā-kā jhāŋ-haru another. Consider the following translation of the syārsyārti bajthe. yo ekāki buḍā-ko man jastai second sentence: birāno thiyo. (Parijat, 2073 B. S.:5) TT2 (English): She lived a wretched life in the TT (English): Deeply absorbed in thought, foreign land; she became an orphan; she came of Ghyabring, an old man, looked up at the sky age, suffering all sorts of adversity; many a man while smoking his pipe, "What an unpredictable exploited her, oppressed her, bullied her. (My time of year!" he thought. "The sky is filled with translation ) twinkling stars instead of being misty, and then the wind blows and clouds gather suddenly, when This translation stresses both content and structure the sky should be clear." of the ST. Seven simple sentences or independent clauses have been rewritten as six sentences, Clouds covered the sky, the wind was really separated by semi-colons. There is one instance of howling. Around the houses, brown pine shrubs, sentence-joining wherein the fourth sentence has twisted into screw shapes by years of wind, were been reduced to a free adjunct (suffering all sorts stirring. But the night seemed like a friendly of adversity). The purpose of comparing TT1 and stranger in his loneliness. (Parijat, 2007: 9) TT2 is to shed light on the fact that the transwriter This is an extract from the opening paragraph of should manipulate structures of sentences only the novel, which, when compared with the ST, when it is necessary to break or join the sentences. reveals the transwriter's free manipulation of 3.2.3 Text organization source linguistic and textual resources in the TL. Here are some of the pieces of evidence to attest Text stands for a group of sentences which are this observation. First, the single paragraph has linguistically cohesive and semantically coherent. been presented into two paragraphs in English. It requires translators to possess linguistic Second, the sentences in the ST are rearranged in creativity i.e. awareness of how linguistic and the TT. The first sentence, for example, tuwālo textual resources can be best handled to produce
8 / Creative adjustment of... lāgnu-parne chyānga tārāmanḍal dekhincha levels. Freeing oneself from mechanical (literally: The sky is open and starry when it is reproduction, the transwriter has to adjust the ST supposed to be hazy) appears at the end of the first creatively in the TL, which calls for, among paragraph (The sky is filled with twinkling stars others, addition, deletion and permutation. instead of being misty), whereas the English Moreover, the transwriter often comes up with a translation opens with the third sentence of the number of alternative words in the TL for the Nepali text i.e. man-man-mā dohoryāudai single source word. In such a situation, he/she has ghyabariŋ buḍā-le ekpalṭa ākās-tira heryo ra to take into account of denotative and connotative sulphā tānyo (Deeply absorbed in thought, meanings of words and choose the target word Ghyabring, an old man, looked up at the sky while that closely matches the meanings objectively smoking his pipe).Third, the transwriter has conveyed by the words and subjectively implied introduced inverted commas in the English by their context. The textual regenerative process version to present the character's monologue. is also characterized by shifts at syntactic and Fourth, there are cases of merging of two Nepali textual levels. Syntactic shifts can be brought sentences into single English sentences. about by means of syntactic operations such as Consequently, the English text reads more sentence-joining and sentence-splitting, whereas complex than its Nepali counterpart in terms of ST clauses or sentences can be arranged in textual organization. Fourth, there are more cases different order to bring out textual shifts. It means of coordinating and subordinating in the TT than the transwriter can use his/her creative license to in the ST. manipulate source linguistic and textual resources. However, while manipulating, he/she should not At the textual level, the transwriter has taken the deviate from the content, style and rhetorical goal content from the ST and rewritten it almost freely of the ST. in English. Otherwise stated, the ST is broken and reorganized in the TL. At this juncture, one may References raise a question as to this type of manipulation of Adhikari, Bal Ram. 2010. Of being caught in ST in the TL– To what extent is the transwriter double-bind. In Govinda Raj Bhattarai, free to bring about shifts at the textual level? Socrates' footsteps (Trans. Bal Ram Adhikari) There is no definite answer to this question. (pp.vii–xii). Kathmandu: Oriental Publication. However, the transwriter should awaken to the Baker, Mona. 2011. In other words: A coursebook fact that he/she is free, but not too free to deviate on translation. London and New York: from the ST organization. Such deviation might Routledge. distort the writer's style and rhetorical goals. Any Bassnett, Susan. 2002. Translation studies (2nd textual level shift should be justified by the ed.). London and New York: Routledge. context. Wherever we come across the shifts, we Bayer-Hohenwarter, Gerrit. 2011.Creative shifts can ask the questions– Is it because the ST is not as measuring and promoting translational coherently organized? Is it because the translator creativity. Meta: Translators' Journal, 3, thinks that the ST needs to be reorganized in the 663–691. TL to ensure better communication with the Benjamin, Walter. 1923. The task of the readers? Viewed from this perspective, the shifts translator. In Lawrence Venuti (Ed.) (2000), in the above translation do not seem so justifiable. Thetranslation studies reader (pp. 15–25). London and New York: Routledge. 4. Conclusion Bhattarai, Govinda Raj. 2063 B. S. sukarāt-kā More than the reproduction of surface form and pāilā [Socrates' footsteps]. Kathmandu: meaning of the ST, literary translation is a Modern Books. complex process of regenerating the given text in Bhattarai, Govinda Raj. 2010. Socrates' footsteps a novel form that involves the analysis of layers of [Trans. Bal Ram Adhikari]. Kathmandu: meaning and rewriting them in the TL. During Oriental Publication. the regenerative process, the given text undergoes mutation, particularly at linguistic and textual Adhikari / 9 Cowan, Ron. 2008. The teacher's grammar of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Frankenberg-Garcia, Ana. 2017. A corpus study of splitting and joining sentences in translation Corpora. Guildfor: Surrey Research Insight. Joseph, G. 1987. Translation, reading and literary theory (Doctoral dissertation). Indiana University. Lefever, Andre. 1992. Translation/history/culture. London & New York: Routledge. Mukherjee, Sujit. 1994. Translation as discovery.Hyderabad: Orient Longman. Newmark, Peter. 1998. A textbook of translation. Hertfordshire: Prentice Hall Europe. Nida, Eugine. 1964. Toward a science of translating. Leiden: E. J. Brill. Parijat. 2007. Under the sleep less mountain [Trans. Nara Pallav]. Vanarai: Pilgrims Publishing. Parijat. 2073 B. S. anido pahāḍ-sangai [Under the sleepless mountain] (2nd ed.). Kathmandu: Phinix Books. Paz, Octavio. 1971/1992. Translation: Literature and letters (trans. I. d. Coral). In R. S. (Eds.),Theories of translation: An anthology of essays from Dryden to Derrida (pp. 152–62). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Saldanha, Gabriela. & O'Brien, Sharon. (2013). Research methodologies in translation studies London and New York: Routledge. Selden, Raman. Widdowson, Peter. & Brooker, Peter (2005). A reader's guide to contemporary theory (5th ed.).Harlow: Pearson Longman. Singh, Udaya Narayan. (2010). Translation as growth. Delhi: Pearson. Wilss, Wolfram. (1994). Translation: Process and procedures . In Ron Asher, The encyclopedia of language and linguistics (pp. 4747-4756). Oxford: Pergamon.
A PRELIMINARY SOCIOLINGUISTIC SURVEY OF NUBRI VALLEY* Cathryn Donohue
This paper reports results of a preliminary reportedly 500 monolingual speakers of Nubri in sociolinguistic survey that was carried out in Nubri the valley, though it is unclear how many of the Valley. Interviews were taken with people from 2000 speak primarily Nubri, nor is it clear how throughout the valley. Some of the main findings are different the varieties of Nubri are. Ethnologue described here. The Nubri-perceived differences in reports four main dialects (Sama, Lho, Namrung dialect intelligibility and social status are discussed as well as the overall language vitality in the context of and Prok), though it is universally accepted in evolving social practices and observed language shift Nubri valley that the dialect spoken in Samagaun in the younger generations. is the most distinct from other varieties, which my Keywords: language practices, language fieldwork has confirmed. With the exception of a attitudes, sociolinguistic survey, language couple of short word lists, and a recently vitality, Nubri published lexicon (Dhakal 2018), Nubri remains largely undescribed and undocumented. However, 1. Nubri valley growing interest in the variety has resulted in Nubri Valley is situated in northern-central Nepal more recent studies, including a detailed account in upper Gorkha district of Gandaki zone in of case marking (Donohue 2018, Donohue 2019) Nepal. Said to have been settled by Tibetans some and tone (C.Donohue & M.Donohue 2019; four hundred years ago (Childs 2004), this beyul, M.Donohue & C.Donohue 2019), and the or ‘hidden valley’ is home to the Nubripa, or grammatical use of tone (Donohue 2020). Nubri people. Most Nubris speak the Nubri The data presented here are the result of a language (iso 639-3 kte), though in the Kutang preliminary survey carried out in Nubri valley in area, Kuke is spoken, and in the more recently May 2018, sampling 33 speakers. settled Samdo village in the north-west, the villagers speak a language almost certain to be a 2. Survey methodology dialect of Kyirong Tibetan. While Tibetan The survey consisted of a printed two-page (four- remains the liturgical language and the language column) sheet of questions for the speakers. The of traditional festivals, younger generations are surveys were undertaken in Nubri Valley, in increasingly using Nepali, even between Nubri language. The participants were asked a themselves, as more are going to Kathmandu for range of questions about the language that fell schooling where Nepali is the medium of under a few main categories which I outline instruction and of the playground. As the national below. Some of the questions were inspired by a language Nepali carries prestige, but it is also the previous survey of Manang (Hildebrandt et al. language of the screen and contemporary songs, 2015; Hildebrant & Hu 2017). and a language symbolic of economic opportunity and modernity. Further, government teachers and The first section asked about their personal details health assistants assigned to the area typically do to see how they identified in terms of linguistic not speak Nubri, resulting in widening domains of proficiency and the extent of travel out of the potential language attrition. There are approximately 2000 people across the surveys. I would also like to express my gratitude to Nubri Valley (Simons & Fenig 2018), with Research Services, the Faculty of Arts, and the roughly 800 located in Samagaun (or Sama Knowledge Exchange Office at the University of Hong village), the largest of the Nubri.1 There are Kong for grants that have supported this work including numerous field trips to Nepal. Thanks also to Mark Donohue for comments on an earlier draft. * This work would not have been possible without the 1Thanks to Ula Jigme Tsewang of Samagaun (personal help of Nyima Samdup who helped administer some of communication) for this estimate. Nepalese Linguistics, vol. 34, 2019, pp. 10-17. Donohue / 11 valley as a possible influencing factor on their locals speak differently to them. Additionally, language choices. They were asked for theirclan they were asked to identify the degree to which identification, name/age/gender and their relative they typically understood a speaker from each of linguistic proficiencies with languages typically the identified villages from a list of choices (a found in the area including Nubri, Nepali, five-point scale, as with their own linguistic Tibetan, English, Kuke and “other” (to be proficiencies). specified). They had to indicate their self- The final section focused on issues of language assessment on a five-point scale from ‘fluent’ to vitality to get a sense of the attitudes towards the ‘not at all’. It also sought information about where language. It consisted of a set of open-ended they live or have lived and for how long, and questions. The participants were asked if they felt whether they travel out of the valley and if so, Nubri was important to their culture, or to them where they travelled to, for how long they went personally, whether they thought children will each time, and how often they travelled out of the keep learning Nubri, and whether that was valley. important to them. Further they were asked to The second part of the survey went into the family share what they thought could be done to background to determine the exposure the encourage Nubri to be spoken by future participant had to different languages in the home generations, and finally what it means (to them) to and potentially to the influence of languages used be a Nubripa. The questionnaire is included as an in the parent’s background or education that might appendix to this paper. have influenced the participant’s language 3. Main results practices, especially during their formative years. They were asked what languages the parents and The survey responses were interesting, with a few siblings spoke, the educational background of the key points standing out that I will identify below. parents and their occupations, what languages the In this paper I focus on the issues of mutual participant spoke at home with intelligibility and how the Nubripa negotiate their parents/siblings/relatives. linguistic interactions. The third part of the survey asked about their As noted, Nubri Valley encompasses more than current home life to establish current linguistic just the Nubri-speaking area: it includes Samdo in influences: whether they were married, whether the northwest and Kuke-speaking villages in they had children, and the languages spoken at Kutang in the southeast. home now and as part of their daily life. The fourth part of the survey enquired about their educational background, continuing to address the potential role of language contact: how many years of formal education, the medium of instruction, and where it took place, additionally addressing what their current occupation is and what languages are used at work and so forth. The fifth part of the survey focused on linguistic variation and intelligibility to try to establish, from a Nubri perspective, how different the various dialects are from one another. The Figure 1. Location of identifiable dialect and participants were given a list of key villages in language areas in Nubri Valley. Nubri Valley, and were asked to identify where Figure 1 situates the varieties on a map, they thought Nubri was spoken regularly, where identifying Samdo in the northwest, three main people spoke exactly like them, where Nubri was dialect areas inside Nubri valley (Sama, Lho, spoken the ‘most purely’, where was the best Prok). The rest of Kutang in the south-east (of place to learn Nubri, and in which villages did the 12 / A preliminary sociolinguistic... which Nubri-speaking Prok is technically a part) Figure 2a. Perception of prestige of different speaks Kuke. varieties spoken in Nubri Valley. One result that is immediately apparent is the This sense of prestige bears directly on the perception of relative prestige of the different language choices made in linguistic interactions. Nubri varieties/languages depending on the home Everyone speaks Sama Nubri with people from village/native variety of the participant. Sama, and people from Sama speak Sama variety As shown in Figure 2, Kuke is uniformly with Nubris across the valley. This unwillingness perceived as a low prestige language, both from to accommodate fits with the sense of high within as well as without. prestige the Sama villagers have of their variety, and the knowledge from the outside that the Sama Tibetan, as the liturgical language, retains a high people are (consequently) not very proficient in prestige status, while Nepali has a middling other varieties. prestige. This may well change as the shift towards Nepali in the younger generation Nepali continues, and not just as a growing tendency to be schooled in Kathmandu. For many people, Tibetan Kathmandu has become a year-round residence others KUKE for the promise of greater socio-economic self KUKE opportunities. others PROK self PROK Within the Nubri varieties, Sama dialect perceives other LHO itself as having high prestige, though this is not self LHO shared outside the village. The effect this has on others SAMA negotiating linguistic interactions is discussed self SAMA later. others SAMDO self SAMDO Conversely, no other villages perceive their own varieties as having ‘high prestige’, but from 0 1 2 3 outside villagers, Lho variety was perceived as the most prestigious. From within, both Prok and Lho Low Mid High villagers perceived their own varieties as having Figure 2b. Bar chart of local dialect perceived ‘middle prestige’, but from outside, Prok variety prestige in Nubri Valley. is thought of as low prestige. This sits with The villagers from Samdo, aside from another asymmetry we will see later in Figure 4 accommodating to Sama Nubri with nearby Sama and related discussions that Prok identifies with villagers, will speak Tibetan outside their home the Lho variety, but speakers from Lho claim that village (or Nepali, if they can, further afield in they do not speak exactly the same in Prok lower Nubri/Kutang). Similarly, those from village. These results are summarized in Figure 2a outside Samdo will use either Tibetan or Sama and represented graphically in Figure 2b. Nubri to talk to the Samdo villagers. Language Self- Others’ The Lho villagers will use Tibetan or Sama Nubri perception perception to talk to the Sama/Samdo villagers north of them, Samdo Middle Low but Lho variety throughout the rest of the valley. Sama High Middle This situation is reciprocated from others around Lho Middle High the valley in interactions. Prok Middle Low Prok villagers similarly speak Tibetan or Sama Kuke Low Low Nubri with Samdo/Sama villagers, Lho variety Tibetan High with those from Lho and Prok variety with their Nepali Middle own villagers and in Kutang. This is also true of Donohue / 13 how others perceive their interactions with the The Lho villagers basically understand Prok Prok villagers. Nubri, but only about two-thirds of what Sama Nubri speakers are saying. While all Nubris The Kuke villages in Kutang will speak Tibetan basically understand the Lho variety very well. with those from Samdo, and Prok Nubri throughout the rest of the Nubri speaking part of As noted the Sama variety is only understood the valley, Kuke in the Kuke villages in Kutang. about two-thirds of the time by Lho villagers, and Other villages from outside the Kuke speaking even less by those from Prok. Indeed, at only a area will speak their own variety of Nubri or reported 58% intelligibility rate for Prok villagers Nepali with Kuke speakers. listening to Sama Nubri, it raises the question of whether they are indeed different dialects of Samdo Sama Lho Prok Kuke different languages. The Sama people claim to Tibetan/ Tibetan/ Samdo Samdo Sama Tibetan understand Prok variety at a much higher rate. Nepali Nepali Sama/ Sama/ However, it is important to recall that the Sama Sama Sama Sama Sama Tibetan Nepali villagers typically chose to interact with other Tibetan/ Lho/ Nubris from around the valley in Sama dialect, so Lho Sama Lho Lho Sama Nepali it is perhaps not surprising that they have a greater Tibetan/ Prok/ sense of intelligibility, or that the results appear Prok Sama Lho Prok Sama Nepali one-sided, because the communicative situations Kuke Tibetan Prok Prok Prok Kuke are one-sided. Figure 3. Language of preferred communication These results are somewhat consistent with the reported lexical similarities for the different The data reported above from the survey is also reflected in the sense of perceived intelligibility of varieties, as shown in Figure 5 (Webster 1992). It neighboring varieties of Nubri as shown in Figure is clear that Prok variety is more different from Sama Nubri than Lho variety, but 25 years later, it 4. seems that Prok and Lho varieties are more Speaker similar to each other now, than either is to Sama Sama Lho Prok variety. With Sama’s strong sense of identity it is Sama 100% 93% 89% perhaps not surprising that they may be evolving Lho 67% 100% 95% differently to the rest of Nubri varieties. It is also Liste ner Prok 58% 100% 100% perhaps not surprising that Prok variety is Figure 4a. Reported intelligibility between becoming more similar to that spoken in Lho, Nubri varieties. with which they claim identity (though those in Lho still find a difference). 100% Sama Lho Prok Sama 100% 80% Lho 93% 100% 60% Prok 78% 79% 100% 40% Figure 5. Lexical similarities between Nubri 20% varieties (Webster 1992). 0% 4. Discussion In summary, we see that Samdo is not merely a dialect of Nubri, but rather a separate language. Figure 4b. Bar chart of reported intelligibility of This is not surprising, as it is a relatively recent main Nubri varieties (clustered along the x-axis) arrival to the valley (~1961) and is more closely by speakers of these different villages indicated related to nearby Kyirong Tibetan. by the name of their home village at the top of each cluster). 14 / A preliminary sociolinguistic... Within Nubri there appear to be three main language of tradition, a tradition represented by dialects: the poor subsistence farming lifestyle with little or no connection to modernity or potential for Samagaun, as the largest village, has the greatest prosperity. Perhaps through the influx of self-perceived sense of prestige. Although this technology through smart phones, the somewhat perception of prestigeis not shared throughout the disgruntled youth are looking for greater valley, it does impact how they choose to opportunities outside the valley that further negotiate communications through a relative lack threatens the vitality of the language. Already of accommodation. ‘definitely endangered’ according to UNESCO Lho variety appears to approximate a ‘standard’ definitions (UNESCO 2003), the current practices dialect for Nubri being the most readily suggest the need for language maintenance work, understood variety by Nubris from throughout the with a focus on boosting its usage in the younger valley. Lho dialect is uniformly seen as a good population. Indeed, the future of the language lies place for learning ‘pure’ Nubri. This may be due with this demographic. To this end, I recently to an attitude towards the variety, but it may also carried out discussion about orthographic be due to the fact that there is the big Ripum possibilities with a range of speakers of all ages monastery in Lho, so the notion of purity may be from around the valley and hope to be able to due to the relatively large number of monks living introduce a community-endorsed writing system there. soon. Prok speakers think of their own variety as being Sample survey to follow as appendix roughly the same as the variety spoken in Lho. References However, it is quitedifferent as seen through the relative intelligibility (especially as perceived Childs, Geoff. 2004. Tibetan diary: From birth to from without) and lexical similarities. Its death and beyond in a Himalayan Valley of differences are most likely due to its location in Nepal. Berkeley: University of California Press. Kutang surrounded by Kuke speaking villages and Dhakal, Dubi Nanda. 2018. A Nubri Lexicon. the inevitable language contact. Munich: Lincom Europa Donohue, Cathryn. 2018. Case marking in Nubri. 5. Concluding remarks Nepalese Linguistics 33: 28-33. This paper is the first report of a valley-wide Donohue Cathryn. 2019. Differential object survey. Although only a preliminary study it marking in Nubri. Under review. establishes the broad strokes of the linguistic Donohue, Cathryn. 2020. Tonal morphology in landscape in Nubri Valley, previously only hinted Sama Nubri: Case marking and valency at in the context of dialectal comparisons of alternations. To appear in Studies in Language. specific topics (e.g. case marking, see Donohue Donohue, Cathryn, and Mark Donohue. 2019. The 2018, 2019). complexity of tone in Nubri. To appear in Nepalese Linguistics 34 (this volume). It establishes that there are three main dialects, Donohue, Mark, and Cathryn Donohue. 2019. The and discusses how these varieties are different vowels of Nubri from the perspective of other and, crucially, how they are evolving. Tibetan languages. Under review. The Nubri identity is complex: ethnically Tibetan, Hildebrandt, Kristine, Dubi Nanda Dhakal, Oliver politically Nepalese, they look to Kathmandu as a Bond, Matthew Vallejo, and Andrea Fyffe. centre for socio-economic opportunities. More 2015. A Sociolinguistic Survey of the and more children go to Kathmandu for Languages of Manang, Nepal: Co-Existence and schooling, forgoing Tibetan schools of Endangerment. National Foundation for Dharamsala in India and other purely Tibetan Development of Indigenous Nationalities options. Journal14.6: 104-122. Hildebrandt, Kristine, and Shunfu Hu. 2017. With these evolving socio-cultural practices come Areal analysis of language attitudes and changing linguistic practices. Nubri is seen as the Donohue / 15 practices: A case study from Nepal. Language documentation and conservation. Special Publication 13: 152-179. Simons, Gary F. and Charles D. Fennig (eds). 2018. Languages of the world, 21st edition. Dallas, TX: SIL International. Online version http://www.ethnologue.com UNESCO Ad Hoc Expert Group on Endangered Languages. 2003. Language vitality and endangerment. Prepared for: International expert meeting on the UNESCO Programme Safeguarding of Endangered Languages, Paris. Accessed online at https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf000018 3699 on 25 July 2019. Webster, Jeff. 1992. A sociolinguistic survey of the Tibeto-Burman dialects of North Gorkha District, Nepal. Kathmandu, SIL; MS.
16 / A preliminary sociolinguistic...
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THE COMPLEXITY OF TONE IN NUBRI Cathryn Donohue & Mark Donohue
This paper introduces the tonal system of the Table 1. Tone feature representations amagaun dialect of Nubri. We first present an High (H) 5 [+upper] [+high] introduction to linguistic tone, with a focus on tone as it is found in Tibetan languages, before 4 [–high] moving on to describe the tones in Samagaun Mid (M) 3 2 [–upper] [+high] Nubri monosyllables and disyllabic expressions. Low (L) 1 [–high] We conclude that the tonal system in Nubri cannot be accounted for by exclusive reference to Tibetan The number and complexity of tonal contrasts languages. The implication is that contact with a varies between languages. There are languages non-Tibetan language has played a significant with very small systems of tone contrast, and of role in the history of the language. these the majority include a contrast of H(igh) vs. Keywords: tone, prosody, Sama, Nubri, Tibetan L(ow); this is found in 87% of tonal languages with only a two-way contrast in tone. Some other 1. Introduction to linguistic tone examples of contrasts in very small tone systems include contour tones, where pitch is not constant Tone is typically conceived of as specifications of pitch in the lexicon; all languages make use of at a particular (specified) height, but moves from pitch in the construction of intonation contours, one level to another. Attested contrasts in languages with only two contrasts are listed in (1). but most languages do not specify pitch at a (1) Tone contrasts in languages with only two lexical level. In many languages linguistic tone tones other than H vs. L. can be thought of as more than simply pitch contrasts, with other phonetic parameters (e.g. High pitch vs. Falling pitch H vs. HL non-modal phonation types, coincidental vowel High pitch vs. Rising pitch H vs. LH changes (see ex. Donohue 2012; Donohue 2014) Falling pitch vs. Rising pitch HL vs. LH contributing to the prosodic contrasts. However, Falling vs. Dipping HL vs. HLH auditory pitch contrasts, not predictable from High falling vs. Low falling HM vs. ML linguistic information outside the lexicon, are a necessary defining feature of tone. That is, some While the systems above are the smallest possible of these ‘secondary cues’ become regularized (attested) tone systems, there are also languages such that differences in the segmental phonology with much larger systems of tonal contrasts, such may predict the realization of a certain pitch as Wobé (Kru; Côte d'Ivoire, Africa), which has contour, such as a low pitch with voiced plosives, reportedly14 different contrastive pitch contours falling pitch with creaky phonation, or low (rising) (Bearth &Link 1980). pitch with breathy phonation (see, for example, As noted another way in which tone languages Garellek et al. 2013, and others). Cross- vary is the domain over which the pitch contours linguistically there is a large variation in how tone contrast, or are realized. This can be the mora, the is realized (see, for example, Fromkin 1978; syllable, the foot, the word, the phrase and so on. Maddieson 1978; Yip 1989, 2002; Donohue 1997). Nepal represents a part of the world where a It may vary in terms of the height and shape of the modally non-tonal linguistic ecology, the South contrasts, or the domain in which tone is realized Asian plains and their linguistic extension into the or contrasted. Nepalese hills, meets a modally tonal linguistic Different features are used to describe tone, ecology, attested in most of the Tibeto-Burman typically referring to relative pitch height. Table 1 languages of more northern parts of Nepal, summarizes the different systems that have been including the Tibetan languages. used to describe differences in pitch height. Nepalese Linguistics, vol. 34, 2019, pp. 18-25. Donohue & Donohue / 19 2. Tone in Tibetan i. Lhasa Tibetan: H vs. LH Tibetan languages in the Central group have developed tone. There are three main dialect ii. Shigatse, Dingri: groups in Tibetan, and tone is only present in the upper H vs. HM, lower M vs. ML Central Tibetan languages, and some south- iii. Denjongka, Drokpa, Sherpa: eastern (Khams) languages. The Tibetan H vs. L languages of Baltistan, Ladakh and Leh, and of the Amdo group, are not tonal. iv. Kyirong: H, M, L v. Sherpa (Hile) H, HM, L, LM vi. Dzongkha H, L, MH, ML
Figure 2. Schematic representation of tonal Figure 1. Regions where main Tibetan dialect contrasts in six Tibetan varieties groups are spoken in the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China. In polysyllabic words, there is no variation in the Central Tibetan varieties. In Lhasa Tibetan we The degree of tonality found in the Central and observe one of the two patterns shown in Figure 2, south-eastern languages varies. The different regardless of the monosyllabic contrasts, and this tonality is typically ascribed to there being is true of other Central Tibetan varieties for which tonogenesis in Central Tibetan dialects, none in data has been reported as well. In other words, the Western and North-eastern varieties, and the variation in tonal behaviour in Central Tibetan South-eastern dialects having multiple languages hinges on the variation in number and tonogenesis events (see, amongst others, Zhang type of contrasts in monosyllabic words, while 1987; Caplow 2009). polysyllabic words present the same system This fact of having multiple tonogenetic events across languages. has led to great variety in Central Tibetan. A sample of languages, representing the different tone systems found in different Central Tibetan languages, is shown in (2) (Lhasa Tibetan: Duanmu 1992; Shigatse: Haller 2000; Dingri: Herrmann 1989; Denjongkha: Yliniemi 2005; Drokpa: Kretschmar 1986; Sherpa: Kelly 2004; Figure 3. Tonal contrasts in polysyllables in Lhasa Kyirong: Huber 2005; Sherpa (Hile): Graves 2007; Tibetan Dzongkha: van Driem & Tshering 1998). These same contrasts are represented graphically in 3. Nubri language Figure 2. Nubri is a valley in northern Gorkha district, and (2) Tone systems in Central Tibetan languages is home to a culture that identifies as ethnically
20 / The complexity of... Tibetan. Nubri is spoken roughly between Prok and Samagaun villages as shown in Figure 4. It has been described as a Tibetan variety (e.g. Dhakal 2018) and has a number of Tibetan ‘shibboleths’ (LaPolla 2012; Tournadre 2014) which characterize the Central Tibetan languages are true of a description of Nubri as well. Some of these are listed in (3); the list in Tournadre 2014 is largely attested in Nubri, as are the characteristics listed by LaPolla as typical of Tibetan varieties). (3) Tibetanisms in (Samagaun) Nubri
a. khyo‘2SG’,< *khyot
b. kho ‘3SG.M’,< *kho Figure 5. The major dialectal divides in Nubri c. dyn 'seven', < *bdun Valley. 4. Tone in Nubri The data that we draw on here is taken from the dialect spoken in Sama village (known locally as Hrö). Given its position in the upper Nubri valley, there is lessinfluence from Kukein the lexicon than is found in more eastern varieties. Given the position away from the large monasteries in Lho, we do not see as much (Plateau) Tibetan lexical or morphological influences either. There are five tonal contrasts on monosyllables in Figure 4. Linguistic map identifying the region Samagaun Nubri. The first two we could where Nubri is spoken in northern Nepal. characterize as high falling vs a high level tone: There is documented diversity within Nubri with (4) Tonal contrasts: at least three clear dialect groups emerging as high falling: [t̪ɐ53] ‘horse’ partitioned in Figure 5, which crucially separates 45 44 Samdo in the north, which is much closer to ~high level: [t̪ɐ ] ~ [t̪ɐ ] ‘tiger’ Kyirong Tibetan and Kwak, Bihi and others in the A H vs. HM contrasting tonal system is widely Kutang region in the east where Kuke is spoken. attested in Ü-Tsang Central Tibetan varieties (see Donohue 2019 (this volume) for results from outside Lhasa. For example, this pair of tones is a recent sociolinguistic survey). This dialectal reported to contrast in descriptions of Shigatse diversity has been discussed elsewhere in a (Haller 2000), Dingri (Herrmann 1989), and different linguistic context (e.g. Donohue 2018). Dzongkha (van Driem & Tshering 1998; Watters 1996, Downs 2011), so this is in some sense an expected contrast. Indeed, for nearly half of the documented Central Tibetan varieties a two-tone contrast is all of the prosodic material present, though it is more frequently two level tones. Nubri presents a more complicated case, however. In addition to the two high (upper register) tones there is a lower register equivalent pair of tones, a mid-level and a mid-fall as shown in (5). Donohue & Donohue / 21 (5) Register tonal contrasts: time (for further elaborations on the methodology, H vs. HM (44,53) please see e.g. C. Donohue 2012, 2013).1 matched by
M vs. ML (33, 21) Hz This is also not a surprising additional pair of 140 H contrasts. It is very natural to find similar contours in upper and lower pitch registers. Furthermore, 130 HM such systems with paired high and low tones, the 120 M latter frequently accompanied by breathy 110 phonation, are attested in (eastern) Tibetan ML Plateau varieties (Shigatse, Dingri). The closer 100 LML varieties spoken in the Kyirong area appear to 1 3 5 7 9 11 have more elaborate tone systems (Huber 2005), 0% 40% 60% 100% but the data from Nubri present a system quite Duration different from at least the Lende dialect of Kyirong. Figure 6a. Five basic tones in Nubri. There is, however, one more contrastive tone in the Nubri tonal inventory – a rise-fall tone, LML (231). The full set of tonal contrasts are illustrated with near minimal pairs in (6). (6) Nubri Tonal contrasts:
44~45 High: H 44 [t̪a ] ‘tiger’ 53~52 High fall: HM 53 [t̪ɐ ] Figure 6b. Schematized Representation of tonal ‘horse’ Contrasts in Nubri 33~332 Mid: M(ML) 33(2) [t̪a ] The individual elements of the Nubri tone system ‘tether’ are not unusual for a Central Tibetan language, if 21 the 231 tone is treated as a LH(L) tone, Low fall: ML 21 [t̪a̤ ] underlyingly a rise. However, the combination is ‘arrow’ 231~232 unprecedented. Low convex: LML 231 [t̪o̤ ] ‘potato’ The mean fundamental frequency (f0) contours of a sample of representative tokens of each of these tones are plotted below in Figure 6a. The y-axis shows the frequency (Hz) and the x-axis shows the percentage point of the normalized duration as Figure 7. Schema of Central Tibetan tonal the contours were measured at 0%, 10%, 20%, contrasts. 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%, and 100% Figure 7 shows the different monosyllabic intervals of token duration to enable sampling at contours attested in different Central Tibetan comparable points of the tonal f0 trajectory over
1 Note there are significant differences in duration associated with these tones but for now we are assuming that the f0 is the primary contrastive cue.
22 / The complexity of... languages (not all languages examined are listed, just example languages illustrating the different attested contours). A great variety of tone systems are found in the Khams Tibetan dialects. Consider the examples in (7) (Dongwang: Bartee 2007; Rangakha: Suzuki 2007; Astong: Suzuki 2010; Cone: Jacques 2014; Brag-g.yab: Schwieger 1989; Rgyalthang: Hongladarom 1996, Wang 1996, Bodrong: Suzuki 2014; Tsharethong: Suzuki 2012; Batang: sKal- Figure 8. Schematic representation of tonal bzang 1984; sKobsteng: Suzuki 2013b; Dege: contrasts in a range of Khams Tibetan languages, Häsler 1999; Sogpho: Suzuki 2011). plus Nubri. (7) Khams Tibetan Let us turn to the tonal patterns in polysyllables. a. Dongwang: Consider the words given in (8). HM, M, LM (8) Nubri polysyllables: b. Rangakha, Astong, Cone: [ɲʊ̆ŋ355 ma55] ‘bamboo’ H vs. L [l̥a55 ma22] ‘remainder’ c. Brag-g.yab: [jʊ̆ŋ33 t̪ʊ̆ŋ̂ 33] ‘swastika’ Ø [ne24 ma42] ‘yarn’ d. Rgyalthang: 22 44 H, HL, LM, LML [mo mo ] ‘dumpling’ e. Bodrong (~Tsharetong, Yangthang, We can see that while the shapes are a little Batang): different to the contours on monosyllables, five H, HM, LH, LML contrasts are nonetheless maintained as schematized in Figure 9. f. sKobsteng H, MH, ML, LML g. Dege H, HM, ML, LM
h. Sogpho Figure 9. A schematic representation of the five H, L, HM, LM, LML contrastive tonal contours observed in Nubri polysyllables. These differences are once again represented schematically, shown in Figure 8. Importantly, no combinations other than those listed in (9) (or minor and alternating variants of What is striking is the near identity of the Nubri these contours) are found; it is not possible, for tone system with that of Sogpho, a Kham (South- instance, for a disyllabic word to consist of two eastern) Tibetan variety, and the fact that Nubri is syllables each with a high-falling tone (that is, quite distinct from a typical Central Tibetan *[CV53 CV53], for instance). In other words, the system. We leave this conundrum to future work. tonal possibilities for disyllabic words are not Indeed five tone contrasts on monosyllables has simply formed by combining separate not been reported for any plateau Tibetan monosyllables. We can map the polysyllabic language. We do note that the heavily contact- contrasts to those found on monosyllables without affected Chöcangacakha variety of eastern Bhutan too much difficulty. has this number of monosyllabic contrasts, though with different contours (H M L HL LH). Donohue & Donohue / 23 5. Discussion and concluding remarks detailed etymological study of the development of Old Tibetan or Classical Tibetan words will be It is clear that the tonal system of Nubri is very needed to fully understand. different from other Tibetan tone systems, particularly Central Tibetan tone systems. References (9) Monosyllabic contrasts: Bartee, Ellen L. 2007. A grammar of Dongwang • Nubri: 5 contrasts Tibetan. PhD thesis, University of California, • Tibetan norms: 0, 2, 3, 4 contrasts Santa Barbara. • Sogpho: 5 contrasts Bearth, Thomas, and Christa Link. 1980. The tone puzzle of Wobe. Studies in African Linguistics As we have seen, crucially the Nubri tonal system 11 (2): 147-207. is not just unusual in its number of contrasts on Caplow, Nancy Jill. 2009. The role of stress in monosyllables, it is also distinct in preserving the Tibetan tonogenesis: a study in historical same number of contrasts in polysyllables, comparative acoustics. PhD thesis, University of something not elsewhere attested in Tibetan California, Santa Barbara. languages. DeLancey, Scott. 2003. Classical Tibetan. In (10) Polysyllabic tonal contrasts Graham Thurgood and Randy LaPolla, eds, The • Nubri: five contrasts preserved on Sino-Tibetan Languages, 255-269. London: disyllables Routledge. • Tibetan norms: contrasts reduced to Dhakal, Dubi Nanda. 2018. A Nubri Lexicon. two: H vs LH2 Munich: Lincom Europa • Tamangic norms: three or four Donohue, Cathryn. 2012. The role of contour and contrasts phonation in Fuzhou tonal identification. In • Ghale: five contrasts Cathryn Donohue, Shunichi Ishihara and William Steed, eds, Quantitative approaches to The Nubri tonal system is clearly different from problems in linguistics, 63–75. Munich: Lincom most other Tibetan varieties; indeed, the system is Europa. more similar in many ways to non-Tibetan Donohue, Cathryn. 2013.Fuzhou tonetics and languages to the south, such as Ghale or Gurung. tonology. Munich: Lincom Europa. The only area in the Tibetosphere in which the Donohue, Cathryn. 2018. Case marking in Nubri. monosyllabic contrasts carry over to polysyllabic Nepalese Linguistics 33. 28-33. words is at the eastern edge of the Khams region Donohue, Cathryn. 2019, this volume. A (e.g., Suzuki 2012). preliminary sociolinguistic survey of Nubri Given that tonogenesis in Central Tibetan is not Valley. Nepalese Linguistics, 34. uniform, it is perhaps more likely to show Donohue, Mark. 1997. Tone systems in New convergence from multiple non-tonal sources than Guinea. Linguistic Typology 1 (3): 347-386. to represent divergence from a common Donohue, Mark. 2012. The shape and spread of tonogenetic innovation. tone. In Cathryn Donohue, Shunichi Ishihara and William Steed, eds, Quantitative We conclude that the history of tone in Nubri approaches to problems in linguistics, 9-20. cannot be accounted for by exclusive reference to Munich: Lincom Europa. Tibetan languages. The implication is that contact Donohue, Mark. 2014. Non-tonal prosody and with a non-Tibetan language has played a non-standard tonetics in the Himalayas. significant role in the history of the language. A Nepalese Linguistics 29: 97-100. Downs, Cheryl Lynn. 2011. Issues in Dzongkha phonology: An Optimality-Theoretic approach. 2 We thank an anonymous reviewer for pointing out MA thesis, San Diego State University. that Lhasa Tibetan marks tone on the first syllable of a polysyllabic word, so is quite a different system.
24 / The complexity of... van Driem, George, and Karma Tshering of (Beiträge zur tibetischen Erzählforschung, Band Gâselo. 1998. Dzongkha. Languages of the 8). Bonn: VGH Wissenschaftsverlag. Greater Himalayan Region, Vol. 1. Leiden: LaPolla, Randy J. 2012. Comments on Centrum voor Niet-Westerse Studiën. methodology and evidence in Sino-Tibetan Duanmu, San. 1992. An autosegmental analysis of comparative linguistics. Language and tone in four Tibetan languages. Linguistics of Linguistics 13 (1): 117-132. the Tibeto-Burman Area 15 (1): 65-91. Maddieson, Ian. 1978. Universals of tone. In Fromkin, Victoria, ed. 1978. Tone: A Linguistic Joseph Greenberg, ed., Universals of Human Survey. New York: Academic Press Language: Phonology 2. Stanford: Stanford Garellek, Marc, Patricia Keating, Christina University Press. Esposito, and Jody Kreiman. 2013. Voice Michailovsky, Boyd. 1988. Notes on Dzongkha quality and tone identification in White Hmong. orthography. In David Bradley, Eugenie Journal of the Acoustical Society of America Henderson, and Martine Mazaudon, eds, 133(2): 1078-1089. Prosodic analysis and Asian linguistics: to Gordon, Matthew, and Peter Ladefoged. 2001. honour R. K. Sprigg, 297–301. Canberra: Pacific Phonation types: A cross-linguistic overview. Linguistics. Journal of Phonetics 29: 383–406. Olson, Robert F. 1974. Central Khams Tibetan: A Graves, Thomas E. 2007. A grammar of Hile phonemic survey. Kailash 2 (3): 217-227. Sherpa. PhD thesis, University of New York, Ray, Punya Sloka. 1965. Kham Phonology. Buffalo. Journal of the American Oriental Society 85: Haller, Felix. 2000. Dialekt und Erzälungen von 336-342. Shigatse. Bonn: VGH Wissenchaftsverlag. Schwieger, P. 1989. Tibetisches Erzähgut aus Häsler, Katrin Louise. 1999. A grammar of the Brag-g.yab: Texte mit übersetzungen, Tibetan Sde.dge dialect. PhD Thesis, University grammatischem Abriß und Glossar. Bonn: VGH of Berne. Wissenchaftsverlag. Herrmann, Silke. 1989. Erzählungen und Dialekt Sprigg, Richard K. 1990. Tone in Tamang and von Dinri. (Beiträge zur tibetischen Tibetan, and the advantage of keeping register- Erzählforschung, Band 9). Bonn: VGH based tone systems separate from contour-based Wissenschaftsverlag. systems. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area Hongladarom, Krisadawan. 1996. Rgyalthang 13 (1): 33-56. Tibetan of Yunnan: A preliminary report. Suzuki, Hiroyuki. 2007. Khams Tibetan Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 19: 69-92. Rangakha dialect: Phonetic analysis. Asian and Huber, Brigitte. 2005. The Tibetan dialect of African Languages and Linguistics 2: 131-162. Lende (Kyirong): A grammatical description Suzuki, Hiroyuki. 2010. Shar Tibetan Astong with historical annotations (Beiträge zur dialect: Phonetic analysis. Asian and African tibetischen Erzählforschung 15). Bonn: VGH Languages and Linguistics 5: 117-155. Wissenschaftsverag. Suzuki, Hiroyuki. 2011. Dialectal particularities Jacque, Guillaume. 2014. Cone. In Jackson T.-S. of Sogpho Tibetan: An introduction to the Sun, ed., Phonological Profiles of Little-Studied “Twenty-four villages’ Patois”. In Mark Turin Tibetic Varieties, 265-371. Taipei, Taiwan: and Bettina Zeisler, eds, Himalayan languages Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica. and linguistics. Studies in phonology, semantics, sKal-bzang ’Gyur-med ( 格 桑 居 冕 ). 1985. morphology and syntax, 55-73. Leiden: Brill. Phonetic analysis of Tibetan mBathang dialect. Suzuki, Hiroyuki. 2012. Khams Tibetan Minzu Yuwen 2: 16–27. Tsharethong [Chalitong] dialect: Phonetic Kelly, Barbara. 2004. Sherpa. In Carol Genetti, analysis. Asian and African Languages and ed., Tibeto-Burman languages of Nepal: Linguistics 7: 155–194. Manange and Sherpa, 193-324. Canberra: Suzuki, Hiroyuki. 2013a. Characteristics on the Pacific Linguistics. dGonpa dialect spoken in Zhouqu County from Kretschmar, Monica. 1986. 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Esquisse phonétique de dGonpa: Un dialecte parlé à mBrugchu. Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines 33: 231-249. Suzuki, Hiroyuki and Sonam Wangmo. 2015. Discovering endangered Tibetic varieties in the easternmost Tibetosphere: A case study on Dartsendo Tibetan. Linguistics of the Tibeto- Burman Area 38 (2): 256–270. Tournadre, Nicolas. 2013. The Tibetic languages and their classification. In Thomas Owen-Smith and Nathan Hill, eds, Trans-Himalayan Linguistics: Historical and descriptive linguistics of the Himalayan area, 105-130. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter. Tournadre, Nicolas and Sonam Dorje. 2003. Manual of standard Tibetan. New York: Snow Lion Publications. Wang, Xiaosong. 1996. Prolegomenon to Rgyalthang Tibetan phonology. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 19: 55-67. Watters, Stephen. 1996 A preliminary study of prosody in Dzongkha. MA thesis, University of Texas, Arlington. Watters, Stephen. 2002. The sounds and tones of five Tibetan languages of the Himalayan region. 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PATTERNS OF SOUND CHANGE IN DEORI AND DIMASA* Monali Longmailai & Jonali Saikia
This paper compares the two cognate Tibeto- of Deori and DimasabyJacquesson (2005, 2008), Burman languages, Deori and Dimasa, in terms Nath’s sound change on Deori(2012), Singh’s ofsound change patterns in certain class of lexical (2001) Dimasa phonology and morphology, items. In this regard, it discusses the noun andLongmailai’s (2014) Morphosyntax of categorization devices besides the counting Dimasa,although comparative study of Deori and system, some morphological features and the use Dimasa is not known. of borrowingpresent in these languages. The The main aim of this paper is to provide a paper, thereby, studies briefly their sociolinguistic comparative study between the two cognate context of language loss and retention. languages, Deori and Dimasa in terms of sound Keywords: Deori, Dimasa, Bodo-Garo, language change patterns in certain class of lexical items. In use and context this concern, it discusses the noun categorization devices highly present in these languages. For 1. Introduction instance, mV- is the category prefix for names of Deori and Dimasa belong to the Bodo sub-group animals in Bodo-Garo languages, and hence, me- of the Bodo-Garo languages from the Tibeto- si ‘deer’ in Deori morphologically resembles the Burman language family. Deori is spoken in the Dimasa counterpart mi-ʃi. However, northern and eastern parts of Assam, mainly, the Deoriutʰu‘hand’ is lexically divergent from the districts of Sonitpur, Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, and Dimasajau. It also investigates the counting few others (nearly 28,0000 people according to system, similarities in the morphological features 2001 census), whereas Dimasa is spoken in the and lexical set, the use of borrowing in both the central and southern parts, i.e. Hojai, languages and thereby, studies briefly their KarbiAnglong, DimaHasao and Cachar districts in sociolinguistic context of language loss and Assam and Dimapur district in Nagaland (100,000 retention. approximately according to 2001 census).1 The 1.1 Overview of Deori and Dimasa number of speakers is less than the number of people in case of Deori, while it is equal in The Deori (exonym) people are one of the Dimasa.2 While Deori is definitely endangered, indigenous ethno-linguistic groups of North-East Dimasa is vulnerably endangered as can be India. They identify themselves as Jimosaya estimated from the UNESCO Report. There have (endonym) meaning ‘sons of nature (sun and been few works on both the languages among moon)’.The Deori languages can be subdivided which, these are significant: descriptive grammar into four dialects- Dibongiya, Tengaponiya, Borgiya and Patorgiya. Dibongiya is the standard variety, which is spoken mostly in Bor-Deori * The authors would like to acknowledge the Deori village of Narayanpur, Lakhimpur district of informants of Bor-Deorigaon village, Lakhimpur Assam. district, Assam, and the Dimasa community for their help and assistance in collecting wordlist across several Dimasas are one of the most colourful and multi- years of personal researches of both the authors, and cultured people in North-East India. They have a finally the reviewers and editors of the paper, without rich history with interesting folklores, well- whose comments and feedback, the present work would preserved rituals and practices. The term ‘Dimasa’ have been incomplete. 1Deori and Dimasa populations are unavailable (endonym) means ‘sons of the great river’ where currently in the 2011 Census of India report. ‘di’ means ‘water, ‘ma’ means ‘big and ‘sa’ 2Ethnologue 2019 mentions 50,000 as ethnic population means ‘sons’ (Singha 2007:1). Literally, they are of Deori. called ‘sons of the mighty Brahmaputra river’ but Nepalese Linguistics, vol. 34, 2019, pp. 26-35. Longmailai & Saikia / 27 the more probable meaning could be ‘sons of the 1.2 Typological Features of Deori and Dimasa river Dhansiri or Dima (big river)’, the place Deori and Dimasa have both SOV word orders. where their first capital ‘Dimapur’ was They have agglutinating features, and are mostly established in the later part of the eleventh century suffixing. Both the languages are lexically tonal (Barman 2007). It has four major dialects: Hasao, having three distinctions- high, mid and low. The Hawar, Dembra and Dijuwa of which, Hasao is tones are also register tones.It also has open adopted as the standard dialect.Figure 1 shows the syllabic structure. The sentence constructions end Deori speaking region in upper circle and Dimasa in falling intonation in the languages with mostly in lower circle. trochaic word accents. This is a typical supra- segmental feature of the Bodo-Garo languages which share similar features with some of the Austro-Asiatic languages. 1.3 Methodology Data for the present study are from domain-based word lists such as flora and fauna, numerals, kinship, body parts. For Deori, it was collected from Bor-Deorigaon village of Lakhimpur district. For Dimasa, the co-author of the paper, MonaliLongmailai, being a native speaker of Dimasa and a linguist, provided data from her knowledge as well as consulted from few informants at Haflong, DimaHasao district, Figure1: Deori and Dimasa speaking region Assam. Approximately, 1000 words were collected out of which some hundred words have Figure 2 shows the genealogical classification of been chosen for illustration here for our analysis Deoriand Dimasaas a branch of the Tibeto- and observations. Burman family. 2. Lexical cognates in Deori and Dimasa Sino-Tibetan The Bodo sub-group from the Bodo-Garo Tibeto-Burman branching of the Tibeto-Burman language family (see Figure 1) includes Bodo/Boro, Tiwa, Dimasa,
Kokborok and Deori (Post & Burling 2017) Jingpho-Konyak-Bodo among which, Dimasa,Bodo, Tiwa and Kokborokare more genetically related, while
Deori is more distant from these related Konyak-Bodo-Garo languages.Eberhard, Simons and Fennig in the Ethnologue (2019) list the lexical similarity of Deori with Boro as a meagre 11-16% unlike 77- Bodo-Garo 93% lexical similarities of Deoriwith its varieties. For instance, the word for water in these languages are dɪ (Dimasa), dɯɪ(Bodo), tɪ (Tiwa) 3 GaroBodo Koch and tɪ (Kokborok) while in Deori, it is ʤɪ. Burling (2012), in Post & Burling (2017), mentions the
Deori Dimasa 3 The date for lexemes for ‘water’ from Bodo group of Figure 2: Genetic classification of Deoriand languages, are illustrated, based on the authors’ Dimasabased on SIL Ethnologue(2019) previous knowledge while working with various informants from these languages. 28 / Patterns of sound... large number of lexical cognates among these Table 2: Similar words in Deori and Dimasa related languages, while Deori is the most Deori Dimasa Gloss divergent of all. He further adds that Deori has saba lɪmbaʃaba ‘disease’ lost syllable final stops and most nasals unlike the dʊsɪɾɪ daʊpʰɾɪ ‘pigeon’ retained forms in the remaining languages, which (also dauʃaɾɪ in will be seen in the analysis presented in the paper. Dimasa) Further, the linguistic mapping of the Bodo group ɪba baɾ ‘bloom’ of languages is spread from the west of Assam dekaɡʊ naɡa, ‘young man’ across the Brahmaputra river (Bodo) to below the (Assametized naɡaʃa river basin towards southeast (Tiwa) and south- with deka) east (Dimasa)) with Kokborokfurther in the south samatʃɪ dama ‘butterfly’ (state of Tripura) in northeast India, Deori, on the ʤɪ dɪ ‘water’ other hand, is isolated above the river basin in the pʰʊʤɪ ɡʤaʊ ‘gold’ central and north-eastern part of Assam with the jẽ waɪ ‘fire’ neighbouring Tani languages (Tibeto-Burman) Table 3, on the other hand, shows the complete set and Tai-Kadai languages.Bodo and Tiwa are of dissimilar words present in these two closer to each other, and Dimasa is closer to languages. Kokborok henceforth. Both the languages, Deori and Dimasa, are,thus, lexically more divergent Table 3: Highly dissimilar words than convergentprobably, both because of Deori Dimasa Gloss linguistic mapping and differences in areal ȷã daɪn ‘moon’ contact, as will be observedwith the help of the ȷã daɪn ‘month’ subsequent morph-phonemic (section 2.1) especially, vowel and consonant alternations, ȷã ha ‘land’ syllable alternation, deletion, and aspiration and nanʊma ɡɾaɪn ‘dry’ voicing contrasts, and morphological analysis zɪtɪ nɔnɪma ‘lizard’ (sections 2.2, 2.3 & 2.4) which focuses mainly on tʃɪ̃ ja naʔ ‘fish’ noun categorization, morphological prefixes and mɪdɪɡe alʊ ‘cat’ suffixes and lexical resemblances, (few accidental similarities of Deoriwith the Dijuwa dialect of lepedʊɾ bɾʊn ‘goat’ Dimasaspoken in the eastern part needs a serious sʊ hɔnɔ ‘pig’ study in future research). semesɪ kʰaɪʃɪŋ ‘ant’ ɡɪja bɾe ‘bee’ Table 1 shows the lexemes which are highly similar, while Table 2 shows the moderately 2.1 Sound changes in Deori and Dimasa lexical similar words with morpho-phonological cognates differences, which is also the core study of the paper. This section discusses common sound changes found in Deori and Dimasa such as, alternations Table 1:Highly similar words of vowel and consonant, and syllable alternation, Deori Dimasa Gloss monophthongization, aspiration, voicing, and jʊŋ jʊŋ ‘insect’ deletion. It also highlights the feature of ɡandʊ ɡandʊ ‘pillow’ consonant cluster and syllable structure between dɪnɪ dɪnɪ ‘today’ these two languages. mja mja ‘yesterday’ 2.1.1 Vowel Alternation la la ‘take’ Vowel Alternation occurs irregularly across these two languages. However, few common changes have been listed in Table 4based on the findings.
Longmailai & Saikia / 29 Table 4: Vowel alternation in Deori and Dimasa undergoes assimilation, since the alveolar /t/ and Vowel Deori Dimasa English /d/ are the nearest sounds than the bilabial /b/ to alternation the velar /ɡ/ when /ɡ/ occurs word initially in the ɔ ~ aʊ mɔmɔ amaʊʃa, ‘nephew’ same word, i.e. ɡʊtʊŋin place of *ɡʊbʊŋ. mamaʊ 2.1.4 Aspiration ɔʊ ~ a mɔʊsa mjaʔ, mjaʃa ‘boy’ ɔ ~ a bɔtɔɾ batʰɔɾ ‘weather’ Deori has the absence of aspiration in sounds ɪ ~ a sɪɾɪ hɔɾ, ʃaɾɪ ‘night’ shared with those having aspiration in Dimasa.In ɪ ~ aɪ mɪdɪɡɪ- mdaɪ/mədaɪ, ‘God, Table 7, theunaspirated /k/ and /p/ in case of ɾa, mdaɪ/mədaɪ, ghost’ Deori alternate as the aspirated /kʰ/ and /pʰ/ in mɪdɪ bʰʊt Dimasa. e ~ ɪ, metʃa mɪʃɪ ‘tiger’ Table 7: Aspiration in Deori and Dimasa a ~ ɪ Deori Dimasa Gloss kʊbʊlʊŋ lɔŋkʰɔɾ ‘hole’ ʊ ~ ɔ kokom kʰʊʤema ‘cockroach’ ʊa ~ aʊ dʊa daʊ ‘bird’ dʊka daʊkʰa ‘crow’ From the above Table,it can be seen thatthe vowel penʊ/penʊma pʰaɪn ‘sell’ alternation in Deori and Dimasa is irregular.That kʊma kʰam/ʃaʊ ‘burn’ is, /ɔ/in Deori corresponds to/aʊ/ in Dimasa, and /ɔ/ with /a/ (ɔ>aʊ, a/_#,),/ɔʊ/ with /a/ and/ɪ/ with 2.1.5 Voicing /a/ (ɔʊ,ɪ>a/_#),/ɪ/ with /aɪ/ (ɪ>aɪ/_#), /e/ with/ɪ/ and/a/with /ɪ/ (e, a >ɪ/_#),/ʊ/ with /ɔ/ (ʊ>ɔ/_#),/ʊa/ Most of the voiced sounds in Dimasa alternate to with/aʊ/ (ʊa>aʊ/_#), and so on. the voiceless counterparts in Deori. Except for the /ɡ/ in Deori examples such as ɡʊsaɾɪŋalternating 2.1.2 Monopthongization with Dimasakʰaı͂ ʃʊɾɪma ‘earthworm’¸Deorimostly loses voicing while Dimasa retains the voicing for Deori has the monophthongization of the sounds velar stops in the initial positions, i.e k>ɡ/_V. /ɔ/ and /ʊ/ that are present in Dimasa as diphthong as in /aʊ/, which is exemplified inTable 5; Table 8: Voicing in Deori and Dimasa Table 5: Monopthongization in Deori and Dimasa Deori Dimasa Gloss Deori Dimasa Gloss ɡʊsaɾɪŋ kʰaı͂ ʃʊɾɪma ‘earthworm’ tʊ tʰaʊ ‘oil’ kɪɾa ɡɾaɪn ‘dry’ mɔmɔ amaʊʃa, mamaʊ ‘nephew’ kʊn ɡnaŋ/ɡənaŋ ‘rich’ mɔmɔsɪ amaʊʃɪ, mamaʊ ‘niece’ 2.1.6 Deletion dʊ daʊnɔ ‘hen’ dʊka daʊkʰa ‘crow’ Deletion in the initial and the final word sɔ ʃaʊ ‘body’ positions/syllables are common for shared words in Deori while only initial deletion has been found 2.1.3 Metathesis among the cognates in Dimasa. Syllable alternation is seen only in few instances, Table 9: Deletion in Deori and Dimasa in case of shared innovation in both the languages Deori Dimasa Gloss and they are shown in bold in Table 6. dʒʊ͂ wa waʔ ‘bamboo’ Table 6: Metathesis in Deori and Dimasa ʧudʒʊba ʤba/ʤəba ‘battle’ Deori Dimasa Gloss dʒeba haʤaɪba ‘birth’ danɔɪ nadɪnɪ ‘why’ As shown in Table 9 with the features of initial ɡʊtʊŋ bɡʊŋ/bʊɡʊŋ ‘nose’ deletion across these languages, dʒʊ͂ is missing in dʊa daʊ ‘bird’ Dimasawaʔ‘bamboo’, although it is unclear, In the given Table, the Deori example ɡʊtʊŋ for which the proto form is.dʒʊ͂ might be a later the Dimasa equivalent bʊɡʊŋ‘nose’ also insertion in Deori, since most of the TB languages 30 / Patterns of sound... have the word for bamboo as wa. Also, a similar ʤʊ lɔŋ/ʤɪɾɪk ‘call’ sound ʧudoes not occur word-initially in (ʤʊɾʊinDijuwa/Haw Dimasaʤba ‘battle’. In the third example, Deori ar) does not use the first syllable ha like Dimasa. In Dimasa, ha means ‘soil, However, the presence of /ɾ/ in Dimasa as in ɾɪʔ land’,ʤaɪ‘shift/transcend’ and -bais a ‘cloth’ also corresponds to the loss of this sound nominalizing suffix which literally translates as in the lexical counterparts in Deori besides the “state of coming to earth/life”. Thus, Deori might syllable deletion as in ĩ as observed from Table have lost the use of the ʤalater. 11. Besides the initial deletion, there is deletion of the 2.1.9 Phonotactics sounds in the word final position mostly stops and Consonant cluster formation is very productive in nasals as also observed in Burling (2012), as well Dimasa which is present in several Bodo-Garo as syllable finally in Deori whereas Dimasa languages, since it has both onset and pseudo retains these sounds in some of the words, which cluster. In case of pseudo cluster, they are is shown in Table 10: sesquisyllabic since the vowel is weakened Table 10: Final Sound Deletion in Deori between the syllables due to shortening. On the contrary, Deori has the absence of consonant Deori Dimasa English cluster. sã ʃaɪn ‘sun’ ɡɪɾasɪ ɡɾaʤɪk ‘old woman’ Table 12: Phonotactics in Deori and Dimasa ʧɪ ʃɪʃa ‘dog’ Deori Dimasa Gloss mɪjɔ/ mɪjʊ mɪjʊŋ ‘elephant’ sɪmɪ ʃmɪ ‘needle’ 2.1.7Consonant alternation ɡɪbaba ɡbaba ‘vomiting’ kɪna kʰna ‘hear’ Consonant alternation has been noticed in both the languages in few words as in, bote‘murder’ which ɡʊtʊŋ bɡʊŋ ‘nose’ has bilabial /b/ in the first syllable and alveolar /t/ ɡʊhʊnɪ ɡnɪ ‘two’ in the second syllable, while Dimasa has kʊn ɡnaŋ ‘rich’ alternation of /b/ to the nearest assimilated voiced sound, i.e. the alveolar /d/ as in dɔtʰaɪfor the same In Dimasa, the pseudo clusters in the onset meaning. position are shown in bold, /ʃm/, /ɡb/, /kʰn/, /bɡ/, /ɡn/ which are broken obligatorily into a single 2.1.8 Liquid alternates /ɾ/ ~/l/ syllable rather than a cluster, i.e. in Deori, they are Deori and Dimasa have alternation of the liquids sɪmɪ, not ʃmɪ‘needle’, and ɡɪbaba unlike /ɾ/ and /l/, i.e. in some lexical cognates, what ɡbaba‘vomiting’. occurs in Dimasa as /l/ in tʰaɪlɪk ‘banana’, for Thus, Deori has more simplified syllable structure instance, occurs in Deori as /ɾ/ as in tɪɾɪ. than Dimasa, which is shown in Table 13, i.e. the Table 11: Liquid alternates in Deori and Dimasa former language tends to be monosyllabic Deori Dimasa Gloss (clipped forms) and has absence of consonant cluster for the same counterparts unlike the latter. ɡɪrɪmɔʊs nana ɡɪlɪ ‘baby’(in a Dimasa, Table 13: Simplified syllables in Deori ‘infant’) Deori Dimasa Gloss merʊ mɪʔ ‘animal’ da tʰampʰɪ ‘mosquito’ ĩɡʊ ɾɪɡʊ ‘mekhla/skir sɪmɪ ʃmɪ ‘needle’ t’ ka ɡkʰa/kʰa ‘bitter’ tɪɾɪ tʰaɪlɪk ‘banana’ meɪ mɪʃep ‘buffalo’ Ĩ ɾɪʔ ‘cloth’ kɪra ɡɾaɪn ‘dry’ Longmailai & Saikia / 31 pɔpɔ bɔŋpʰaŋ/bʊpʰaŋ ‘tree’ setɔtsɪtɪ pɔpɔ tʰaɪʃa-pʰaŋ ‘lemon tree’ seke ʃɪɡama ‘rat’ Besides the lexemes functioning as category nɔ nɪŋ ‘you’ prefixes, bound forms also are productive during the lexical categorization. Both Deori and 2.2 Noun categorization Dimasahave this kind of categorization for Nouns in Deori and Dimasa, like several Tibeto- instance, for animals with the mV- prefixation. Burman languages, are mostly categorized by the While in Deori, it occurs as me- regularly, the lexemes and bound stems either prefixed or mV- forms undergo mostly vowel harmony in suffixed to these roots to belong to a lexical set. case of Dimasa as exemplified in Table 16. Names of flora and fauna, and few others, have Table 16: mV- prefixation for animalsin Deori lexical compounding in Deori and Dimasa with and Dimasa the free morphemes such as pɔpɔ/pʰaŋ‘tree/plant’, Deori Dimasa Gloss tɪ/tʰaɪ‘fruit’, me/mɪʔ‘animal’, which function as me-ɾʊ mɪʔ ‘animal’ both derivational prefixes and suffixes. me-ɪ mɪ-ʃep ‘buffalo’ Names of fruits have the affixation of tɪ- in Deori me-sɪ mɪ-ʃeɪ ‘deer’ and tʰaɪ- in Dimasa derived from the lexeme me-sʊɾʊ mɔ-ʃɾɔŋ ‘fox’ themselves which mean ‘fruit’. me-sa mɪ-ʃɪ ‘tiger’ Table 14: tɪ/tʰaɪ in Deori and Dimasa Deori Dimasa Gloss It can be noted thatmV- is a homophonous prefix tɪ-mʊ tʰaɪ-ʤʊ ‘mango’ (Lit: since it is also used for counting numerals in ‘fruit mango’) general, besides names of animals. While Deori tɪ-ɾɪ tʰaɪ-lɪk ‘banana’ uses the mu- form, Dimasa uses the ma- form for tasɪ-tɪ tʰa-tʰaɪ ‘potato’ the counting as given Table 17: setɔtsɪ-tɪ tʰaɪ-ʃa ‘lemon’ Table 17:Classifier mV- for counting numerals However, not all tɪandtʰaɪare noun categorizations (generic) in Deori and Dimasa related to fruits. In case of hatɪ in Deori and hatʰaɪ Deori Dimasa Gloss in Dimasa,they mean ‘tooth’; they are bases, and mʊ-ʤa ma-ʃɪ ‘one’ cannot be further segmented into morphemes.tʰaɪ mʊ-hʊnɪ ma-ɡɪn/ma-ɡnɪ ‘two’ in Dimasa is also a nominalizing suffix to derive mʊŋ-da ma-ktʰam (/ɡ/ ‘three’ nouns from verbs as in ha-tʰaɪ‘rainfall pattern undergoes change in (rain-NMZ)’ although tɪis unattested in Deori for ɡtʰam due to the same. prefixation) In case of the lexical categorization of trees and mʊ-tʃɪ ma-bɾɪ ‘four’ plants in Deori, pɔis reduplicated as a lexeme and mʊ-mʊwa ma-bwa ‘five’ during the compounding, while pʰaŋin Dimasa mʊ-ʧʊ ma-dɔʔ ‘six’ categorization is a reduced form of the lexeme mʊ-ʧɪŋ ma-ʃnɪ ‘seven’ bɔŋ-pʰaŋ(wood-tree). Instances of pɔ in Deori and mʊ-ʧe ma-ʤaɪ ‘eight’ pʰaŋ in Dimasa are shown in Table 15: mʊ-dʊɡʊ ma-ʃkʰʊ (/ʃɡ/ ‘nine’ Table 15:pɔ/pʰaŋin Deori and Dimasa undergoes change in Deori Dimasa Gloss ʃɡʊ as -ʃkʰʊ due to prefixation of ma-) pɔpɔ bɔŋ-pʰaŋ/bʊ- ‘tree pʰaŋ (wooden)/plant’ mʊ-dʊɡa ma-ʤɪ ‘ten’ tɪmʊ pɔpɔ tʰaɪʤʊ-pʰaŋ ‘mango tree’ Numerals in bare forms can be used for counting (Lit: ‘fruit humans while the gV- forms in Deori are used for mango tree’) counting the same. tɪɾɪ pɔpɔ tʰaɪlɪk-pʰaŋ ‘banana tree’ 32 / Patterns of sound... Table 18:Classifier ɡV- for counting numerals and pain) (generic) in Deori and Dimasa ʤe-ba haʤaɪ-ba ‘birth’ Deori Dimasa Gloss ɡʊʤa ʃɪ/ʃe ‘one’ 2.3.3 bV-and pV- in kinship ɡʊhʊnɪ ɡnɪ ‘two’ Most of the kinship nouns common in both the ɡʊŋda ɡtʰam ‘three’ languages have pV- forms for terms of reference, ɡʊʧɪ bɾɪ ‘four’ and sometimes loses its feature, while Dimasa ʊtʰʊŋpeʧa bwa ‘five’ retains the voiced bV- counterparts as shown in ʊtʰʊŋpeʧa ɡʊʤa dɔʔ ‘six’ Table 21. ʊtʰʊŋpeʧa ɡʊhʊnɪ ʃnɪ ‘seven’ ʤʊɪkɪn ʤaɪ ‘eight’ Table 21:bV- andpV- in kinship ʤʊɪkɪn ɡʊʤa ʃɡʊ ‘nine’ In Deori and Dimasa ʊtʰʊŋpekɪnɪ ʤɪ ‘ten’ Deori Dimasa Gloss be-be bʊ-bɪ ‘elder sister’ Numeral classifiers are also based from nouns and pɪ-sa bʃa/bəʃa ‘son’ bound roots in Dimasa whereas in Deori, they are bound morphemes (tɪ-/ɡʊ for round objects, ha- pɪ-sasɪ bʃɪk/bɪʃɪk ‘daughter’ /ɡʊ-/kʊ-/tɪ- for flat objects, le-/ke-/ɡʊ-/dʊk- for ʧɪjã baʊʤɪ ‘sister-in-law’ chopped objects, ɡʊ- for human and non-humans, dʊ- for humans and mV- for generic nouns). 2.3.4 ɡV- prefix in adjective 2.3. Other morphological features Noun-like adjectives have the ɡV- forms in Dimasa while Deori has the loss of the use of ɡV- This section briefly compares similar morphemes forms for the same as exemplified in Table 22: that carry nominal and verbal features in both Deori and Dimasa. It also discusses borrowing as Table 22:ɡV- prefix in adjective inDeori and a result of areal contact among these two Dimasa languages. Deori Dimasa Gloss 2.3.1 Relativizer -ja ʧʊ ɡʤʊ/ɡʊʤʊ, ʤʊ ‘high’ -ja is the relativizing suffix in both the languages ka ɡkʰa/ɡəkʰa, kʰa ‘bitter’ deriving verbs to nouns. However, it occurs alone pʰʊ ɡʊpʰʊ, pʰʊ ‘white, silver’ with the stem in Deori whereas it occurs with the pʰʊʤɪ ɡʤaʊ/ɡəʤaʊ, ʤaʊ ‘red, gold’ nominalizing -ba in Dimasa (in singular nouns). tʰʊɪ ɡtʰʊ/ɡʊtʰʊ, tʰʊ ‘deep’ Table 19:-jainDeori and Dimasa Deori Dimasa Gloss 2.3.5 Pronouns pɔɾɪ-ja pʰʊɾɪ-ja-ba ‘student’ Word final deletion of mostly nasals as well as akɪ-ja akʰɪ-ja-ba ‘painter’ syllable deletion in case of pronouns in Deori is a common feature unlike the retention feature in 2.3.2 Nominalizer-ba Dimasa. -ba is the nominalizing suffix attached to verbs Table 23:Personal Pronoun in Deori and Dimasa and adjectives for noun derivation in both Deori Deori Dimasa Gloss and Dimasa as illustrated in Table 20: Ã aŋ ‘I’ Table 20: -bainDeori and Dimasa nɔ nɪŋ ‘you’ Deori Dimasa Gloss ba bɔ ‘he/she/it’ ɡɪba-ba ɡba-ba ‘vomiting’ dʒɔʊ ʤɪŋ ‘we’ ka-ba kʰa-ba ‘bitterness’ nɔʊ nɪʃɪ ‘you(pl)’ sa-ba lɪm-baʃa-ba (sickness ‘disease’ Longmailai & Saikia / 33 baʊ bʊnʃɪ ‘they’ been shared words from Dimasa during the development of the Deori language. Indefinite pronouns such as,bosɪna~hɪna‘which’ as shown in Table 24, traces the distant innovation The oppositeness in shared semanticity in the between Deori(bosɪna)and the Dijuwa dialect of word for ‘snake’ is interesting since the Dimasa (hɪna), which needs deeper research in morpheme dɪin Deoridʊbʊ¸ which tends to terms of the dialectal diachrony of Deori and undergo vowel harmony,also means the Dimasa Dimasa. ‘water’ while the morpheme ʤɪin Dimasaʤɪbʊagain in isolation means the Deori Table 24:Indefinite Pronoun inDeori and Dimasa ‘water’ as shown in Table 25. Deori Dimasa Gloss sa ʃɾe ‘who’ Table 25: Other nouns inDeori and Dimasa samaɡʊʤa ʃɾeba ‘someone’ Deori Dimasa Gloss Semantic ʤɪkunʊdʊksa aʃaba ‘anyone’ feature (Assametized) dɪsɔ̃ dɪdɪk ‘pitcher’ dɪ ‘water’ sɔbɾe kʰɾıp ‘everyone’ in Dimasa (Assametized) adɪɾɪ dɪdap ‘mud’ dɪ ‘water’ dʊksakeʤa ʃaʊʃɪ ‘no one’ in Dimasa zɪbaɾe ʃɾebaleɪ ‘whoever’ dʊbʊ ʤɪbʊ ‘snake’ Umlaut/Vowel damdɪ nadɪ ‘what’ (ʤʊbʊ, harmony and damaɡʊʤa ʃmaba/ ‘something’ Hawar, shared ʃmabaɡəʤa Dijuwa semantics zɪbɔhɔ bəkʰalɪba ‘sometimes’ dialects) dʊmɔ bəkʰalɪ ‘when’ 2.3.7 Negation -ja bɔhoɔ bɾa ‘where’ danɔɪ nadɪnɪ ‘why’ -ja is homophonous in both the languages since it functions for both relativization and negation of bɔfale bʤaŋɡde ‘which way’ the verb roots (although Deori has the lexical (Assame- tsa/za to negate adjectives, while Dimasa has -ja tized) for both verbs and adjectives). bɔsɪna ʃʊmbɔ (hɪna, ‘which one’ Dijuwa Table 26:Negation -ja inDeori and Dimasa dialect) Deori Dimasa Gloss dakɪŋ bde ‘how’ sadʊ-ja-ba ɡɾaʊ-ʃɪ ‘disagreement’ bɔmaɡʊʤahɔ bɾabeɪ ‘somewhere’ agree-NEG- word-same The phonological alternations in these pronouns NMZ ʤa-ja-ja-ba are seen to be highly occurring in Deori and become- Dimasa as discussed in the previous sections. NEG-RLVZ- Besides, it is interesting to observe that the NMZ quantifier ɡʊʤa tends to be productive in Deori 2.4 Borrowings when attached with the indefinite pronominals for the words meaning ‘someone’, something’, Borrowing occurs mostly from the Eastern Indo- ‘somewhere’ which has the negative counterpart Aryan languages, such as Assamese in case of keʤa for ‘no one’. On the contrary, Dimasa uses Deori and both Assamese and Bengali for only the affirmative quantifier as ɡəʤa for the Dimasa. However, they are nativized in both the same meanings, while the negated form is absent. languages (voicing, aspiration in Dimasa and no aspiration, voicing in Deori). 2.3.6 Nouns dubu and ʤɪbʊ
While Deori uses ʤɪfor ‘water’, Dimasa uses dɪto mean the same. Hence, dɪsɔ̃and adɪɾɪmay have 34 / Patterns of sound... Table 27:Borrowings inDeori and Dimasa ‘koliya’). On the other hand, both the generations Deori Dimasa Gloss still retain and use the everyday words in case of bɪh bɪʃ ‘poison’ (>Eastern Dimasa speakers. New words have also emerged (Assamese) (Bangla) Indo-Aryan) in Dimasa, as a result, and underwent semantic hʊntɪɾa hɔndɾa ‘orange’ (>Hindi: drift, as in, haɡɾaʃa‘caveman/jungle Indo-Aryan, man’>‘insurgent groups’, maɪkʰʊdɪ‘rice water santra) bubbles’ > ‘Hmar community (although Dimasa mɔdʊɾɪ/ ʃʊkʰɾem ‘guava’ (>Khasi: native name is Thangumsa), hɪlaɪ‘canon’ > ‘rifle’, somata Austro-Asiatic, and so on. sohprem) However, both the language speakers have a 3. Sociolinguistic Observations positive attitude towards their language. Several attempts have been made across the years to Throughout the analysis, it was observed that revitalize both the languages from the speech language loss is more prominent in Deori while communitiesbut results on textbooks and material retention is seemingly found in Dimasa due to productions have been a gradual process, several factors: Deori has clipped forms and andpartially successful in recent times. simplified syllable structure than Dimasa, besides higher monophthongisation and word-final 4. Conclusion deletion. Again, loan words are highly common in The study revealed that vowel alternation occurs the former than the latter due to contact with the irregularly across these two languages. Deori has neighbouring language Assamese, which is a the monophthongization of the sounds /ɔ/ and /ʊ/ dominant language in the Deori area surrounding that are present in Dimasa as diphthong as in /aʊ/. the Brahmaputra river valley even though there Syllable alternation is seen in few cases of shared are other Tibeto-Burman languages in contact innovation in both the languages. Deori has the such as Mising and Boro, and Tai-Kadai absence of aspiration in sounds shared with those languages like Khamti. There is no language having aspiration in Dimasa. Deletion in the dominance in case of Dimasa(even if the lingua initial and the final word positions/syllables are franca are Indo-Aryan (Assamese in Nagaon and common for shared words in Deori while only KarbiAnglong, Bengali in the Barak valley), initial deletion has been found among the pidgin Haflong Hindi in DimaHasao hill district cognates in Dimasa. Deori has more simplified and a creole Nagamese in the state of Nagaland), syllable structure than Dimasa. It also discusses since the majority of Dimasa speakers live in the the counting system and the use of borrowing in hill district, DimaHasao, which is less accessible both the languages and thereby, studies their from the plains of Assam, with nearly 12 ethnic sociolinguistic context of language loss and tribes from the Kuki-Naga group of the Tibeto- retention.Thus, it can be concluded that language Burman family. loss is more prominent in Deori while retention is Further, the data collected for the present study is seemingly found in Dimasa. However, with the from Dibongiya dialect which is perhaps the only degree of shift in Deori and vulnerability of living speech community of Deori, while the other Dimasa, documentation is thus utmost necessary dialects are either extinct or nearly extinct. On the in the present context. contrary, all the dialects of Dimasa are still Abbreviations spoken at home, although Hasao dialect was NEG Negation chosen for the Dimasa comparison here. NMZ Nominalizer Parental and the younger generations among RLVZ Relativizer Deori are losing the use of everyday words like, References kinship terms (e.g.,: addressing ‘grandfather’), Barman, N.K. 2007. The Queens of Cachar or numerals (counting known till ‘4’), colour terms Herambo and The History of the Kachchhari. (basic colour ‘black’ replaced with Assamese loan Barkhola: N.K. Barman. Longmailai & Saikia / 35 Burling, R.2012. ‘The Stammbaum of Boro-Garo’ In Gwendolyn Hyslop, Stephen Moreyand Mark W. Post, (Eds.)North East Indian Linguistics, Volume 4. New Delhi: CambridgeUniversity Press: 21-35. Census of India. 2001. www.censusindia.gov.in. (Accessed on June 30, 2019). Eberhard, David. M; Simons, Gary F. &Fennig, Charles D. (Eds.). 2019. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Twenty-second edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Downloaded from http://www.ethnologue.com on July 1, 2019. Jacquesson, F. 2005. Le Deuri: langue tib to- birmaned’Assam. Collection linguistique. Paris: Peeters. Jacquesson, F. 2008. A Dimasa Grammar. http://brahmaputra.vjf.cnrs.fr/bdd/IMG/pdf/Di masa_Grammar-2.pdf. (Accessed on July 1, 2019). Longmailai, M. 2014. The Morphosyntax of Dimasa. Unpublished PhD Thesis. Department of Linguistics, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong. Map of Assam. 2019. Downloaded from www.mapsofindia.com/maps/assam/assam- district.html on June 30, 2019. Nath, A. K. 2012. Sound Change in Deori: A Descriptive Account. Journal of Universal Language. 13 (2): 65-89. Post, Mark W. and Robbins Burling. 2017. “The Tibeto-Burman languages of Northeast India.” In Randy J. LaPolla and Graham Thurgood, Eds. The Sino-Tibetan languages (2nd edition). United Kingdom, Routledge: 213- 242. Singha, D. Th. 2001. The Phonology & Morphology of Dimasa. M.Phil Dissertation. Silchar: Assam University. Singha, D. Th. 2007. Introduction to Dimasa Phonology. Guwahati: DVS Publishers.
INTER-CLAUSAL DEPENDENCY IN WESTERN TAMANG Ambika Regmi
Western Tamang, a highly embedding dialect of (Regmi and Regmi, 2018: 128).1 Like Eastern Tamang, presents an array of inter-clausal Tamang (Lee, 2011; Mazaudon, 2003), Western dependency (both semantically and syntactically) Tamang makes use of verbal complements, ranging from most to least exemplified by verbal subordinate adverbial clauses and complements and chained clauses, respectively. In coordinate/chained clauses for coding different terms of such dependency, subordinate adverbial levels of semantic/pragmatic dependencies in the clauses stand in between verbal complements multi-propositional discourse context. In this and chained clauses in Western Tamang. This is, dialect, as expected typologically, verbal indeed, a typologically interesting phenomenon, complements are most dependent to the matrix especially, in inter-clausal dependency in Bodic clauses for semantic/pragmatic effects whereas languages like Tamang. coordinate/chained clauses are least dependent to each other for such effects. In terms of inter- Key words: dependency, verbal complements, clausal dependency, subordinate adverbial clauses subordinate, pragmatic, discourse context stand in between verbal complements and chained 1. Background clauses. This paper analyzes the inter-clausal dependency This paper is organized into four sections. In in Western Tamang. By inter-clausal dependency, section 1, we look at the inter-clausal we simply mean the connections (both semantic dependencies in verbal complements in Western and syntactic) between the clauses combined by Tamang. Section 2 examines inter-clausal different devices, basically, in the domains of dependency in subordinate adverbial clauses. In subordinate adverbial clauses and coordinate section 3, we look at such dependency in co- chained clauses. Western Tamang is a dialect of ordinate/chained clauses in Western Tamang. Tamang, others being Eastern Tamang [taj], Section 4 summarizes the findings of the chapter. Eastern Gorkha Tamang [tge], Northwestern 2. Dependency in verbal complements Tamang [tmk], Southwestern Tamang [tsf] (Eppele et al., 2012; Yonjan-Tamang, 2016). In Western Tamang, verbal complements show Western Tamang is exclusively spoken in the highest level of dependency semantically and Bagmati and Narayani Zones of Nepal. In syntactically. Semantically, the verbal Bagmati Zone, it is spoken in west Nuwakot, complements function as subject or object Rasuwa, Dhading districts, northeastern arguments of other clauses. Such arguments Sindhupalchok District, Bhote Namlan, Bhote functioning as the nominal arguments are tightly Chaur, west bank of Trishuli River towards Budhi integrated with the main clause semantically and Gandaki River. In Narayani Zone, it is mainly syntactically in Western Tamang as in (1). spoken in northwestern Makwanpur District, (1) theje bhya soba semji Phakel, Chakhel, Kulekhani, Markhu, Tistung, the-je [bhya so-ba] sem-ji Palung; northern Kathmandu, Jhor, Thoka, Gagal 3SG-ERG marriage do-NMLZ want-PFV Phedi (Eppele et al., 2012). Typologically, 'She wanted to get married.' Western Tamang is a complex tonal, consistently ergative, aspect prominent, highly embedding and extremely nominalizing dialect of Tamang 1 The word order is in Western Tamang is generally rigid. However, clausal constituents may be permuted from their stipulated positions for contrastive topicalization, contrastive focusing, wh-questions and passive construction ( Regmi and Regmi, 2018). Nepalese Linguistics, vol. 34, 2019, pp. 36-42. Regmi / 37 In example (1) two simple events coded by lexical 3.1 Temporal adverbial clauses verbs so 'do' and sem 'want' in two simple clauses Western Tamang employs temporal adverbial have been merged semantically as a unitary clauses to specify both precedence and complex event and syntactically integrated as a subsequence relations in the discourse context. In complex single clause. Basically, such integration order to specify the precedence relation, the results from some specific morpho-syntactic grammaticalized connective ŋonje 'before' is processes in Western Tamang. They are as employed in the subordinate clause as in (2). follows: a) The verbal complement is embedded in the (2) yamburi khaba ŋonje ŋa nuwakoi iba main clause with the finite verb morphology. yamburi kha-ba ŋonje ŋa b) It receives a single intonation contour with Katmandu come-NMLZ before 1SG main clause. c) Non-finite verbal morphology, i.e., nominal nuwako-i i-ji form of the verb marked by the nominalizer Nuwakot-LOC live-PFV suffix -ba, is used in the complement clause. 'I lived in Nuwakot before I came to d) The verbal complement as object of the Kathmandu.' finite verb is governed by the subject of the In example (2), the verb of the subordinate clause matrix clause. is in a nominal form of the verb. The subordinate e) The subject of the matrix clause marked by clause has been placed before the main clause. ergative case suffix -je and the subject of the Inter-clausal gap between the subordinate and the complement clause are co-referential. The main clause is filled up by the subordinator equi-NP in complement clause has been ŋonje 'before'. Even the verb of the main clause deleted. may also be in non-finite form. 3. Dependency in subordinate adverbial clauses Western Tamang makes use of grammaticalized The dependent adverbial clauses are connected connective lipce 'after' to specify the subsequence semantically and pragmatically with their main relation of the adverbial clause to its main clause clauses in Western Tamang. In terms of as in (3). distribution, there are two types of adverbial (3) calu dejim lipce ŋaje e:da ŋotla subordinate clauses: Pre-posed and post-posed. calu de-jim lipce ŋa-je They display distinct dependency features.2 meal cook-PAD after 1SG-ERG Western Tamang makes use of a number of e:-da ŋot-la grammaticalized connectives ('subordinators') to 2SG-DAT call-NPST specify the situational context for the events or 'I will call you after I prepare the meal.' states described in the main clause. Besides, In example (3) the subordinate clause with non- Western Tamang mostly employs pre-posed finite form of the verb (marked by the adverbial adverbial clauses. Inter-clausal dependency in suffix -jim to indicate the following event) is clauses such as temporal, conditional, concessive, linked with the main clause with finite verb reason, purposive, etc., is briefly discussed as morphology by the subordinator lipce. Moreover, follows: the event coherence in (2) and (3) is coded by lexical verbs marked for different temporality, aspectuality and modality. It is to be noted here 2 Givón (2001 Vol.II:343) notes that a post-posed that the adverbial clauses in examples (2) and (3) adverbial clause displays a more semantic connection to present a more pragmatic coherence than semantic its main clause. However, a pre-posed adverbial clause as they are both pre-posed clauses. The earlier shows a more pragmatic coherence. event has been focused and following is topicalized in examples (2) whereas in example
38 / Coding coherence in... (3) following event is focused and earlier event is 3.4 Concessive adverbial clauses topicalized as per the discourse context. In Western Tamang, the root of the verb is 3.2 Conditional adverbial clauses suffixed by the concessive adverbial marker -leino in order to reflect a contrast of some sort between There are two types of conditional adverbial the main and the subordinate clause as in (6). clauses in a natural language: irrealis conditionals and counter-fact conditionals. However, Western (6) a. ŋa praŋna taleino sita muba Tamang has only irrealis conditionals. It makes ŋa praŋna ta-leino sita use of the clause with the non-finite form of the 1SG poor become-CONC honest verb marked by the suffix -sǝm in (4). mu-ba h (4) a. nam taisəm ŋa k aakəm COP-NMLZ nam tai-səm ŋa kha a-kəm 'I am honest although I am poor.' rain fall-COND 1SG come NEG-can b. ajyaleino the ŋa sem taŋba 'I will not come if it rains.' a-jya-leino the ŋa sem h b. nam atəisəm ŋa k amba NEG-good-CONC 3SG 1SG like nam a-təi-səm ŋa kham-ba taŋ-ba rain NEG-fall-COND 1SG come-NMLZ do-NMLZ 'I will come if it does not rain.' 'I like her although she is not beautiful.' In examples 4(a-b), both subordinate clauses are In example 6(a-b), both adverbial clauses are pre- pre-posed for pragmatic effects as in examples (2) posed to the main clauses.3 and (3). It is to be noted here that in Tamang, the nominalizer marker -ba is also used to mark non- 3.5 Purpose adverbial clauses past tense. Thus, the verb marked with -ba Western Tamang employs the non-finite form of assumes the role of finite verb in the main clause. the verb marked by the suffix -tibri in the purpose 3.3 Reason adverbial clauses adverbial clauses as in (7). Western Tamang employs the grammaticalized (7) aŋa kǝmaitibri ŋa hyakko ge soba connective talesǝm 'because' to combine the aŋa kəmai-tibri ŋa hyakko reason clause with the main clause as in (5). money earn-PURP 1SG lot of (5) a. ŋaje syorino ken caji talesǝm ŋa khrenji ŋa-je syorino ken ca-ji ge so-ba 1SG-ERG early rice eat-PFV work do-NMLZ 'I work hard to earn money.' talesǝm ŋa khren-ji because 1SG be.hungry-PFV 3.6 Location adverbial clauses 'I ate rice early because I was hungry.' Western Tamang employs the interrogative h b. muna tapa talesǝm dimri ada pronoun k ana 'where' to indicate location in the muna ta-pa talesǝm dim-ri subordinate clauses. Such clause is pre-posed as night have-NMLZ because house-LOC in (8). (8) e: khana ŋiji ŋa ino hujuri ŋila a-da e: khana ŋi-ji ŋa ino hujuri ŋi-la NEG-reach 2SG where go-PFV 1SG also there go-NPST 'As the night fell, we did not reach home.' 'I will go where you go.' In example (5a), the adverbial clause is post- posed whereas in example (5b), it is pre-posed. 3 As in (4b) the verbs marked by the nominalizer -ba in (6a-b) may be assumed as being in non-past tense. Thus, such verbs may function as finite verbs in such clauses in Tamang. Regmi / 39 3.7 Manner adverbial clauses paŋ-paŋ ge so-ji speak-speak work do-PFV The manner adverbial clauses are the non-finite 'While walking and talking, I clauses embedded in the matrix clause (Regmi worked.' and Regmi, 2018). In addition, such clauses employ raŋle 'as same as' in the complex of clause The simultaneous adverbial clauses as in (10a-b) as in (9). are used to express the activity which is simultaneous with, or temporally overlapping (9) theje serŋo syappa raŋle tam paŋba with another activity expressed by the matrix the-je serŋo syap-pa raŋ-le predicate. 3SG-ERG cold suffer-NMLZ same-MAN The sequential participial adverbial clause in tam paŋ-ba Western Tamang is formed by simply suffixing matter speak-NPST the participial adverbial suffix -jim/-cim to the 'He speaks as if he is suffering from verb root as in (11). common cold.' (11) a. jaje ken cajim bǝjar ŋiji 3.8 Participial adverbial clauses ja-je ken ca-jim bəjar ŋi-ji In Western Tamang, the participial adverbial son-ERG rice eat-PAD market go-PFV clause like verbal complements is tightly 'After having eaten rice, the son went to integrated into the main clause (Regmi and market.' Regmi, 2018). The subject of such adverbial b. tini ɲeseri khu dejim ken caji clause is co-referent with the subject of the main tini ɲese-ri khu de-jim clause (Referential coherence). Such adverbial today evening-LOC curry prepare-PAD clause tends to receive the rigid tense-aspect- modality vis-à-vis its main clause (Temporal ken ca-ji coherence): simultaneity (imperfective aspect) rice eat-PFV and anteriority (perfect aspect). In terms of 'In the evening, after having prepared temporal coherence, there are two types of curry the rice was eaten.' participial adverbial clauses: Simultaneous and c. ja iskul i ŋijim dimri khaji sequential. The simultaneous participial adverbial clause in Western Tamang is formed by ja iskul-i ŋi-jim dim-ri reduplicating the root of the verb being followed son school-LOC go-PAD house-LOC by the adverbial participial suffix- jim/-cim as in kha-ji (10). come-PFV (10) a. ŋaje brabra cacajim dimri ŋiji 'After having gone to school, the son ŋaje bra-bra ca-ca-jim returned home.' 1SG-ERG walk-PAD eat-eat-PAD The sequential adverbial clauses as in (11a-c) are dim-ri ŋi-ji used to code the event which is understood to house-ERG go-PFV have occurred prior to the event coded in the 'While eating and walking, I went matrix predicate. Syntactically, the participial home.' adverbial clauses exhibit less-finite verb morphology than the main clause but more finite b. ŋaje brabrajim tam paŋpaŋ ge soji than infinitival verbal complements. ŋa-je bra-bra-jim tam 1SG-ERG walk-walk-PAD talk Western Tamang may make use of non- specialized sequential adverbial which presents a variety of other contextual meanings as well. One of them is to show the cause as in (12).
40 / Coding coherence in... (12) ge asyaŋjim the dimri dojim khaji It is to be noted that in Western Tamang, most of ge a-syaŋ-jim the dim-ri the adverbial clauses are pre-posed to the main work NEG-find-PAD 3SG house-LOC clause. Thus, they are pragmatically more coherent but semantically less integrated into the do-jim kha-ji semantic structure of the main clause. In terms of back-PAD come-PFV inter-clausal dependency, adverbial clauses enjoy 'After not having found work, he the intermediary position in Western Tamang. returned home.' Givón (2001 Vol.II:347) notes that a pre-posed The simultaneous constructions are used to adverbial clause serves as a coherence bridge. It express the activity which is simultaneous with, or maintains a cataphoric semantic links to temporally overlapping with another activity subsequent main clause and anaphoric pragmatic expressed by the matrix predicate as in (13). links to the preceding discourse. (13) ŋa ɲheɲhejim iskuli ŋijim 4. Conjoined ('chained') clauses h h ŋa ɲ e-ɲ e-jim iskul-i Conjoined ('coordinate/chained') clauses are 1SG laugh-laugh-PAD school-LOC semantically least dependent in terms of inter- ŋi-ji-m clause dependency. Western Tamang exhibits go-PFV-FOC different types of conjoined clauses in terms of 'I went to school, laughing.' degree and type of their connectivity. To code inter-clausal connectivity, Western Tamang The participial adverbial clauses, sequential and employs basically four types of conjunctions: simultaneous, in Western Tamang are normally continuative, contrastive, disjunctive and pre-posed. They may be post-posed as a discourse excluding. Thus, there are four types of conjoined strategy such as afterthought or focus as in (14). clauses. They are briefly discussed as follows: h h (14) ŋa iskuli ŋijim ɲ eɲ ejim 4.1 Continuative conjoined clauses ŋa iskul-i ŋi-ji-m 1SG school-LOC go-PFV-FOC The independent clauses in Western Tamang may be conjoined by using the continuative h h ɲ e-ɲ e-jim conjunction tiŋ 'and' as in (16). laugh-laugh-PAD 'I went to school, laughing.' (16) ŋala ja tiŋ jame jyaba mula ŋa-la ja tiŋ jame jya-ba As mentioned earlier, both simultaneous and 1SG-GEN son and daughter good-NMLZ sequential adverbial clauses receive tense-aspect from the verbs in the matrix clauses as in (15). mu-la COP-NPST h (15) a. calu cajim ŋa r iri ŋiji 'My son and daughter are good.' calu ca-jim ŋa rhi-ri ŋi-ji meal eat-PAD 1SG jungle-LOC go-PFV In example (16) the two clauses are conjoined by 'After having eaten meal, I went to the the conjunction tiŋ 'and' in Western Tamang. This jungle.' conjunction codes the greater cataphoric continuity than the contrastive conjunction. b. ki thuŋthuŋjim ŋa rhiri ŋiji ki thuŋ-thuŋ-jim ŋa rhi-ri In Western Tamang, two clauses may be water drink-drink-PAD 1SG jungle-LOC conjoined without using any conjunction. Such clauses may be simply juxtaposed as in (17).
(17) ja jame iskul ŋiji ŋi-ji ja jame iskul ŋi-ji go-PFV son daughter school go-PFV 'While drinking water I went to the 'The son and daughter went to school.' jungle.' Regmi / 41 4.2 Contrastive conjoined clauses 4.4 Excluding conjoined clauses In Western Tamang, contrastive clauses are Western Tamang does not have native conjoined by using the contrastive conjunction coordinators for exclusion. It has borrowed from debe 'but' as in (18). Nepali which is indicated by bahek 'except' as in (20). (18) a. ja khaji debe jame akha ja kha-ji debe jame (20) a. the ken bahek tǝinǝ aca h son come-PFV but daughter t e ken bahek tǝinǝ a-ca a-kha 3SG milk except other NEG-eat.NPST NEG-come.PFV 'He eats nothing except rice.' 'The son returned but the daughter did b. jaje ɲe bahek tǝinǝ aca not.' ja-je ɲe bahek tǝinǝ b. ja sijoŋ debe jame choba son-ERG milk except other ja sijoŋ debe jame a-ca son overweight but daughter NEG-eat.NPST h c o-ba 'The son does not take anything slim-NMLZ except milk.' 'The son is overweight but the daughter is 5. Summary slim.' In this paper, we examined inter-clausal c. jame ge soji debe ja ase dependency in Western Tamang. It is a highly jame ge so-ji debe ja embedding language. The verbal complements daughter work do-PFV but son represent the highest level of inter-clausal a-se dependency semantically and syntactically in NEG-do.PFV Western Tamang. The verbal complements have 'The daughter worked but the son did not non-finite verb morphology as the coding devices. work.' Dependent adverbial clauses are connected Such clauses (18a-c) are used to code referential semantically and pragmatically with their main as well as thematic discontinuity in Western clauses in Western Tamang. Typologically, this Tamang. dialect contains temporal adverbial, conditional adverbial, reason adverbial, concessive adverbial, 4.3 Disjunctive conjoined clauses purpose adverbial, location adverbial, manner Western Tamang does not have any native adverbial and participial adverbial clauses. Such coordinator for disjunction. Because of long and clauses exhibit semantic as well as syntactic constant contact with Nepali, Western Tamang connections when they are combined with the also has borrowed the Nepali coordinator ki 'or' main clauses by employing different devices. In for disjunction as in (19). Western Tamang, the participial adverbial clause like verbal complements is tightly integrated into (19) a. ja ki jame khaji the main clause. Conjoined clauses are ja ki jame kha-ji semantically least dependent in terms of inter- son or daughter come-PFV clause dependency. To code inter-clausal 'Son or daughter came.' connectivity, Western Tamang employs basically b. e: iba ki ŋa ise four types of conjunctions: continuative, e: i-ba ki ŋa i-se contrastive, disjunctive and excluding. 2SG sit-NMLZ or 1SG sit-NMLZ Abbreviations 'Do you sit or I sit?' 1SG first person singular
42 / Coding coherence in...
3SG third person singular Ethnologue: Languages of Nepal. Kathmandu: CAUS causative Linguistic Survey of Nepal (LinSuN). CONC concessive Givón, T. 2001. Syntax: An Introduction, Vol. I. COND conditional Amsterdam: John Benjamins. COP copula Lee, Sung-Woo. 2011. Eastern Tamang DAT dative Grammar Sketch. MA dissertation presented ERG ergative to the Faculty of the Graduate Institute of LOC locative Applied Linguistics, USA. MAN manner Mazaudon, Martine. 2003. "Tamang." In Graham NEG negative Thurgood and Randy J. LaPolla (eds.), The NMLZ nominalizer Sino-Tibetan Languages. 291-314.London & NPST non-past New York: Routledge. PAD participial adverbial Regmi, Dan Raj and Ambika Regmi. 2018. A PFV perfective Grammar of Western Tamang. München: PURP purposive LINCOM EUROPA Yonjan-Tamang, Amrit. 2016. Adharbhut Tamang References Vyakarana (Basic Tamang grammar). Eppele, John W., M. Paul Lewis, Dan Raj Regmi Lalitpur: NFDIN. and Yogendra P. Yadava. eds. 2012.
CODING GRAMMATICAL SIGNALS IN WESTERN TAMANG: A TYPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE Dan Raj Regmi
Western Tamang differs from Eastern Tamang while coding grammatical signals by different morphosyntactic devices especially at propositional information level. Both dialects Western Tamang almost equally share most of the common structural features of Bodish group. However, dialect specific differences have to be compared from a typological perspective for practical implications in Tamang. Keywords: coding devices, grammatical signals, ergative case marking, reflexive marking, Map 1.1 shows that WT is exclusively spoken in language development Bagmati and Narayani Zones. In Bagmati Zone, it is spoken in west Nuwakot, Rasuwa, Dhading 1. Background districts, northeastern Sindhupalchok District, This paper briefly looks at some major coding Bhote Namlan, Bhote Chaur, west bank of devices of grammatical signals in Western Trishuli River towards Budhi Gandaki River. In Tamang [WT, ISO code tdg] and compares them Narayani Zone, it is mainly spoken in with those employed in Eastern Tamang (ET) northwestern Makwanpur District, Phakel, from a typological perspective for practical Chakhel, Kulekhani, Markhu, Tistung, Palung; implications such as status and corpus planning in northern Kathmandu, Jhor, Thoka, Gagal Phedi the Tamang language.1 Western Tamang is a (Eppele et al., 2012). Tamang is classified as one dialect of Tamang, others being Eastern Tamang of the members of the Gurung-Tamang cluster of [taj], Eastern Gorkha Tamang [tge], Northwestern West Bodish sub-section of the Bodish section of Tamang [tmk], Southwestern Tamang [tsf] Bodic branch of TB (Eppele et al., 2012). Figure (Eppele et al., 2012). The CBS/N report (2012) 1.1 presents the position of Tamang and their has not counted the number of speakers of WT major dialects including Western Tamang among separately. WT is a complex tonal, consistently the TB languages of Nepal (based on Bradley ergative, aspect prominent, highly embedding and 1997/2002). extremely nominalizing dialect of Tamang (Regmi and Regmi, 2018). Tamang, in general, is a safe/vigorous Tibeto-Burman languages spoken by about 1,353,311(87.9%) of a total of 1,539,830 ethnic Tamang, most of them living in central Nepal particularly the hilly areas around the Kathmandu valley (CBS, 2012). Map 1.1 presents the geo-linguistic situation of the dialects of Tamang including Western Tamang.
1 This is a revised version of the paper presented at the 39th Annual Conference of Linguistic Society of Nepal held in CEDA Hall,Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Nepal [November 26-27, 2018] Nepalese Linguistics, vol. 34, 2019, pp. 43-51. 44 / Coding grammatical signals... Tamang spoken to the east of the Trishuli River, functions. More specifically, this approach in general, has been referred to as Eastern Tamang adheres that forms are adapted for different (Yonjan-Tamang (2016:2). There are a few communicative functions. According to this previous studies in Western Tamang. They approach, there are two types of communicative include Hari et al. (1970), Taylor (1973), Tamang codes: Sensory motor codes and the grammatical (1994), Chalise (2003), Lipp (2014), Adhikari codes. Grammar is much more abstract and (2015), Thokar (2015), SIL (2017), Regmi complex code. There are two types of (2017), Regmi and Regmi (2018) and Regmi and grammatical signals: Primary and secondary. Regmi (2019). There are a few previous studies Primary signals are coded by four major devices: in Eastern Tamang. They include Varenkamp morphology, intonation, rhythmics and sequential (1996), Lee (2011), Mazaudon (2003), Poudel order of words or morphemes. Such devices are (2006), Owen-Smith, (2015),Yonjan-Tamang used to code hierarchy constituency, grammatical (2016) and Yadav (2018). These dialects almost relations, syntactic categories, scope and equally share most of the common structural relevance relations and government and control features of Bodish group. However, they exhibit relations (Givón, 2001a & b). Grammar is a dialect specific differences. Such differences are symbolic code and adaptive function (Givón, manifested primarily at the propositional 2010:34-35) codes propositional semantics and information level. This level is coded by different discourse coherence concurrently. morphosyntactic devices. More specifically, Secondary signals are coded by discourse oriented dialectal differences are apparent in the domain of grammatical sub-systems: grammatical role, verb morphology. Such differences require being definiteness and reference, anaphora, pronouns compared from a typological perspective for and agreement, tense, aspect, modality and practical implications in Tamang. negation, de-transitive voice, relativization, In this paper, both primary and secondary data topicalization, speech acts, focus and contrast , have been employed. Data for Eastern Tamang clause conjunction and contrast. has been gleaned primarily from Lee (2011), 3. Coding primary grammatical signals Mazaudon (2003), Poudel (2006), Owen-Smith, (2015) and Yonjan-Tamang (2016) whereas data Western Tamang employs primary grammar- for Western Tamang are based on the field study coding devices, viz., morphology, intonation, and partially used in Regmi and Regmi (2018). rhythmic and sequential order of words and morphemes at the propositional information levels This paper is organized into seven sections. In in order to code different grammatical signals. Section 2, we briefly discuss the theoretical Some of the major features of the grammatical underpinning of the paper. Section 3 deals with code in Western Tamang are briefly presented the coding primary grammatical signals in from a typological perspective as follows: Western Tamang. In Section 4, we look at the coding secondary grammatical signals in the 3.1 Ergative case-marking language. Section 5 compares the coding features of WT, ET and DT (Dhunkute Tamang) with the Like Eastern Tamang (Lee, 2011:87), Western common features of Bodish group of language. In Tamang displays the systemic ergative basically controlled by transitivity. In both dialects, section 6, we look at the implications of irrespective of tense-aspect, a transitive subject is typological perspective in Western Tamang. marked with the ergative suffix consistently as in Section 7 summarizes the findings of the paper with a conclusion. (1). h 2. Theoretical underpinning (1) ŋa-dze puk ri sets-dzi 1SG-ERG snake-ABS kill-PFV This paper has employed adaptive approach 'I killed a snake.’ proposed in Givón (2001a, 2001b). The main argument of this approach is that language is a tool for communication composing of forms and Regmi / 45 However, Dhankute Tamang exhibits a split- 3.3 Numeral classifiers ergative with respect to tense-aspect (Poudel, Eastern Tamang (Lee, 2011:33) employs numeral 2006) as in (2a-b).2 classifier suffix -gor for counting any countable (2) a. aŋrita kan tsa-la objects. Yonjan-Tamang (2016:78) reports that h Ang Rita rice eat-IMPFV Eastern Tamang employs classifier -m endo for ‘Ang Rita will eat/eats rice.’ human nouns and -gor for non-human nouns. Unlike ET, Western Tamang marks numeral b. aŋ rita-se kan tsa-dzi classifiers exclusively for human nouns or Ang Rita-ERG rice eat-PFV pronouns by the suffix -ma as in (4). ‘Ang Rita ate rice.’ (4) ro som-ma kha-dzi In example (2a), the nominal subject aŋ rita is not friend three-CLF come-PFV marked with ergative marker -se unlike in 'Three friends arrived.’ example (2b) since in example (2a) the verb tsa 'eat' is marked by -la, an imperfective aspect In Dhankute Tamang (Poudel, 2006), there are marker in Dhankute Tamang. In example (2b), two types of classifiers: human (marked by- the verb tsa 'eat' is marked by -dzi, a perfective mhendo) and non-human (marked by -hika). marker. Thus, the nominal subject aŋ rita has been coded with ergative marker -se. 3.4 Immediacy marking (remote vs. vivid) 3.2 Differential object marking Eastern Tamang (Yonjan-Tamang, 2016:85) makes a distinction between a remote vs. vivid Like in Eastern Tamang (Lee, 2011:95-96), perspective on the events or sequence of events. human nominal arguments in the role of indirect In Eastern Tamang, the remote past is marked by objects are marked with the dative suffix in suffix: -tsi/-dzi. However, vivid events are marked Western Tamang. by -mu on the root of the verbs. Such distinction is based on indirect vs. direct evidentiality as in (5). (3) ram-dze sita-da kələm pin- dzi Ram-ERG Sita-DAT pen give-PFV (5) pasaŋ dim-ri kha-mu 'Ram gave Sita a pen.' Pasang house-LOC come-PFV ‘Pasang came home.’ In example (3) the nominal argument sita assumes the role of indirect object. Theoretically, in an However, WT does not exhibit such distinction. ergative-absolutive language like Tamang, the Neither such distinction is made in Eastern indirect objects are not expected to be overtly Tamang (Mazaudon, 2003:302). However, in marked. However, in Western Tamang, the human Dhankute Tamang (Poudel, 2006), a distinction is indirect objects in a transitive clause are marked made between simple past (marked by -tsi/-dzi) by the case inflection -da. It is not an accusative and unknown past (marked by -tsim/-dzim) as in marking as in nominative-accusative languages (6a-b). like Japanese and English. This inflection, viz., - da is basically used for marking a dative case in (6) a. Simple past Western Tamang. Thus, for convenience, it is, ŋa-i kan tsa-dzi however, glossed as the dative case. Such marking 1SG-ERG rice eat-PFV is referred to as anti-dative marking (Dryer,1986). ‘I ate rice.' In example (3) the nominal argument kələm ‘pen’ b. Unknown past is in the role of direct object. It is coded in the mui-se sun tsa-dzim absolutive case, i.e., zero-marked. Such cases are buffalo-ERG paddy eat-PFV reported in Bhujel (Regmi, 2012) and Magar ‘(I had not known) buffalo ate paddy.' Kaike (Regmi, 2013). 3.5 Causative marking
The suffix -na is attached to the root of verb to derive morphological causative verb in Eastern 2 Data 2(a) and 2(b) are from Paudel (2006). 46 / Coding grammatical signals... Tamang (Lee, 2011:105; Yonjan-Tamang, possessor is followed by noun whereas 2016:66) as in (7). demonstratives are preceded by nouns. WT displays a rigid word-order of the peripheral (7) pasaŋ-se palmo-da ŋet-na constituents, i.e., modifiers in the noun phrases. It Pasang-ERG Palmo-DAT laugh-CAUS has noun-numeral, noun-adjective, genitive-head la-dzi and relative clause-head order. In WT, except do-PFV negation morpheme, all the case-role markers on ‘Pasang made Palmo laugh.’ the nouns and tense-aspect and modality markers on the verbs are cliticized as suffixes. However, Owen-Smith (2015:225) argues that Tamang lacks morphological causative. Thus, the 3.7 Intonation and stress suffix-na, which has been analyzed as causative Eastern Tamang employs rising intonation for suffix in Eastern Tamang (Lee, 2011:105; yes-no as well as content questions (Lee, Yonjan-Tamang, 2016:66), should be insightfully 2011:147). The falling intonation is used for analyzed as resultative converbial suffix (Owen- declarative sentence, content questions and Smith, 2015:225). A periphrastic causative request in Tamang (Yonjan-Tamang, 2016:32). construction in Tamang is formed by attaching the As in Eastern Tamang, the falling intonation is resultative converbial suffix to the root of the used for declarative and rising intonation is used verb. Such verb, which is non-finite, is followed for yes-no question in WT as in (10). by the verb -la ‘do'. This verb is inflected as the finite verb as in (8). (10) a. dza-dze ken tsa-ba↓ son-ERG rice eat-NMLZ (8) ut-se ŋa-ta airak thuŋ-na 'The son eats rice.' that-ERG 1SG-DAT liquor drink-RES b. dza-dze ken tsa-ba ↑ la-tsi son-ERG rice eat-NMLZ do-PFV 'Does the son eat rice?’ “He forced me to drink liquor.” The stress is not distinctive in Tamang. Unlike Eastern Tamang, the causative is marked by the suffix -myaŋ on the root of verb in Western 4. Coding secondary grammatical signals Tamang as in (9). Apart from primary grammar-coding devices, (9) pasaŋ-se palmo-da ŋet-myaŋ Western Tamang, employs some grammatical Pasang-ERG Palmo-DAT laugh-CAUS sub-systems to code primarily discourse pragmatics. Such sub-system may include la-dzi grammatical relations, tense-aspect, modality and do-PFV negation, de-transitive voices, relative clauses, ‘Pasang made Palmo laugh.’ contrastive focus and marked topic, coordination 3.6 Word order and subordination. Western Tamang does not differ from Eastern Tamang in coding The basic constituent order in Tamang transitive grammatical relations, tense-aspect, modality, clauses is SOV (Lee, 2011:134; Mazaudon, 2003: negation, contrastive focus and marked topic and 293). It is a neutral word-order in Tibeto-Burman coordination. Some differences lie in coding de- languages. Unlike English, the grammatical roles transitive voices, relative clauses, subordination of clause constituents are basically coded by the and honorificity. They are briefly discussed as nominal morphology in Tamang (ET & WT). WT follows: exhibits marked word-order variants of rigid order of clausal constituents for contrastive 4.1 Reflexive marking topicalization, contrastive focusing, wh-questions Mazaudon (2003: 298) notes that ET does not and passive construction.3 In Western Tamang, have any special reflexive pronouns. The pronoun raŋ 'self' is suffixed by the dative maker -ta 3See 4.2 for detail about passive construction. followed by the intensifier -n. Lee (2011:37) Regmi / 47 observes that the personal pronoun rhaŋ is also in Eastern Tamang, the nominalizer -ba is used for the reflexive pronoun in ET. Yonjan- obligatorily followed by the genitive marker to Tamang (2016:55) notes that raŋ is the reflexive code perfective aspect in Western Tamang as in pronoun in Tamang. Unlike Eastern Tamang, the (14). personal pronouns are suffixed by the reflexive (14) a. Nominalizer being followed by genitive marker -tano in Western Tamang as in (11). <-ba-la> (11) ŋa-tse ŋa-tano tshek-tsi dim so-ba-la mhi kha-dzi 1SG-ERG 1SG-REFLbeat-PFV house make-NMLZ-GEN man come-PFV 'I beat myself.' 'The man who made house has arrived.' 4.2 Passive construction b. Nominalizer only <-ba> ŋa-dze dzi thuŋ-ba Like Sherpa (Givón, 2001 Vol.II:134) Western 1SG-ERG alcohol drink-NMLZ Tamang exhibits a subtype of non-promotional passive. In such passive construction, the non- mhi-ta tshek-tsi agent topic of the passive is not fully promoted to man-DAT beat-PFV the subject as in promotional passive (Regmi and 'I beat the man who drinks alcohol.’ Regmi, 2018). In such type of passive, the The former (14a) codes perfective aspect whereas agent/subject of the active is typically missing as the latter (14b) codes imperfective aspect in in (12). Western Tamang.Moreover, due to the prolonged (12) kola-da mǝhr wa-dzi contact with Nepali, the language of wider child-DAT ghee feed-PFV communication, WT has innovated relative- 'Ghee is fed to the child.' correlative type of relative clauses like Eastern Tamang. It makes use of interrogative pronouns in The agent/subject of the passive construction in order to make such relative clauses. example (12) is missing. In example (12), kola 'child' suffixed by -dais the topic of the passive. It 4.4 Participial adverbial clause is not fully promoted to the subjecthood as in In Eastern Tamang (Lee, 2011:134; Mazaudon, promotional passive. It is to be noted that the 2003: 307), the participial adverbial clauses syntax of passive constructions is similar to the coding temporal simultaneity are formed by direct-active in Western Tamang. Moreover, the reduplicating the root of the verb being followed order of clausal constituents in example (12) is IO- by the adverbial participial suffix-dzim/-tsim as in DO-V. The agent/subject which is expected to (15). appear before the verb is omitted. Following Givón (2001 Vol. I: 237), we may argue that (15) ŋa-dze bra-ba tsa-tsa-dzim Western Tamang employs variant word order in 1SG-ERG walk-PAD eat-eat-PAD passive constructions.The omission of Aargument dim-ri ŋi-dzi is discussed in Eastern Tamang (Owen- house-LOC go-PFV Smith,2015:277) in such constructions. 'While eating and walking, I went home.' 4.3 Nominalized relative clauses In Western Tamang, the participial adverbial The verb of the relative clause is nominalized by - clauses coding the temporal anteriority are formed pa in ET (Mazaudon, 2003: 299). Such verb is by simply suffixing the participial adverbial suffixed by the nominalizer -ba in ET (Lee, suffix-dzim/-tsimto the root of the verb as in (16). 2011:117) as in (13). (16) dza-dze ken tsa-dzim bədzar ŋi-dzi (13) bidyarthi-da to-ba sitshək son-ERG rice eat-PAD market go-PFV student-DAT beat-NMLZ teacher 'After having eaten rice, the son went to ‘The teacher who beat students’ market.' Like in ET, the verb of the relative clause is 4.5 Honorificity nominalized in Western Tamang. However, unlike 48 / Coding grammatical signals... Tamang (Yonjan-Tamang, 2016:95) registers four 4. Person/number x x x x levels honorificity: very low, mid, high and very marking high. ET (Lee, 2011:37) has two levels of 5. Numeral x honorificity: ordinary and honorific. WT registers classifiers two levels of honorificity: ordinary and honorific 6. Immediacy x x in pronouns as well as verbs as in (17a-b). marking (17) a. Second person singular (middle honorific) 7. Benefactive e:dze ken tsa-dzi marking 2SG.MH-ERG rice eat-PFV 8. Reflexive x x 'You ate rice.’ marking in all personal b. Second person singular (high honorific) pronouns ɲyaŋ-dze ken sol-dzi 9. Causative x 2SG.HH-ERG rice eat-PFV marking 'You ate rice.' 10. Lexical 5. Tamang dialects and Bodish features nominalization 11. Nominalized Some important Bodish features include ergative relative case-marking, differential object marking, clauses immediacy marking,benefactive marking, 12. Participial reflexive marking in all personal pronouns, adverbial causative marking,lexical nominalization, clauses nominalized relative clauses, participial adverbial clauses and marked word order (Noonan, 2003). 13. Marked LaPolla (2012:126) has specified the basic word-order features of Tamangic languages, viz., Tamang, 14. Suffixation Gurung, Manange, Nar-Phu, Thakali, Seke, (except NEG) Chantyal. Such features include *-pa 15. Intonation nominalizer, *ta- prohibitive, la 16. Stress allative/dative/locative,*yin copula, *mu copula, *Dhankute Tamang** Bodish group *ta become, *-la conditional/irrealis, *ha negative, *-tsi perfective, *-si sequential converb, Table 1 presents a summary of the comparison of *-kay simultaneous converb, * (k)u imperative Western Tamang with Eastern Tamang and and *e interrogative. It is to be noted here that all Bodish in terms of the major features of the the major dialects of Tamang almost equally share grammatical code. most of the common structural features of Bodish 6. Implications of typological perspective group. However, in terms of some features such as split ergativity, immediacy marking and It is apparent that there are some dialectal reflexive marking, there are dialectal variations. differences in the major dialects of Tamang. Comparison made from a typological perspective Table 1: Comparison of Western Tamang with in Table 1 has basically two practical implications Eastern Tamang and Bodish in terms of the major in Tamang. They are briefly discussed as follows: features of the grammatical code 6.1 Status planning SN Coding WT ET DT* BD** features Article 7(2) of the federal constitution 1. Ergative case- (Government of Nepal, 2015) has granted the marking right, by framing a state law, to determine one or 2. Split ergativity x x more than one languages of the nation spoken by 3. Differential a majority of people within the state as its official object marking language(s), in addition to the Nepali.In Province Regmi / 49 No. 3 Tamang as a whole stands a plurality (not status as well as corpus planning in Tamang. majority) language with 10,12,826 speakers.It Indeed, dialects are the sustenance of a language. amounts to 18.% of the total speakers of all the Standardization is required for using language in languages.It is the first and right candidate for office, education and communication. However, being the official language.There is mother-tongue education should be conducted in unintelligibility between dialects: ET and WT. the local dialects. In reality, the gap between the Until grammatical differences are identified, the dialects is getting narrowed down in Tamang decision as to which dialects should be assigned now-a-days. as the official language may not take place. Thus, Abbreviations a comparison made from a typological perspective 1 first person is highly relevant for status planning of the 2 second person Tamang language. SG singular 6.2 Corpus planning ABS absolutive CAUS causative Unless Tamang is standardized taking dialectal CLF classifier differences into consideration, it will not be DAT dative effectively used in administration, justice, ERG ergative education and mass media.Textbooks and GEN genitive referential materials for basic levels, grammars HH high honorific and dictionaries for all Tamang speech IMPFV imperfective communities may not be prepared unless LOC locative grammatical differences are considered.Writing in MH middle honorific Sambota/ Tamanghik or in Devanagari scripts is NMLZ nominalizer still a debate among the Tamang speech PAD participial adverbial communities. Except Dhankute Tamang, other PFV perfective Tamang dialects are tonal. In terms of REFL reflexive grammatical features, WT is more complex than RES resultative other dialects. To manage all the differences in the standardization process, typological perspective References plays a highly prominent role Adhikari, Manju. 2015. Clause Combining in 7. Summary and conclusion Western Tamang (As Spoken in Nuwakot). MA dissertation submitted to the Central In this paper, we briefly looked at coding Department of LinguisticsTribhuwan processes of both primary and secondary University, Nepal. grammatical signals in Western Tamang and Benedict, Paul. 1972. Sino-Tibetan: A compares, as far as possible, such process in Conspectus. Cambridge: Cambridge Eastern and Dhankute dialects of Tamang. We University Press. also compared them with the common features of Bradley, David. 1997. Tibeto-Burman languages Bodish group of language. There are only a few and Classification. In: Bradley, David (ed.), differences between these dialects. Identification Papers in Southeast Asian Linguistics, No. 14: of dialectal differences is required for both status Tibeto-Burman Languages of the Himalayas, and corpus planning of the language. Today, Pacific Linguistics Series A-86, 1-72. rivers are not dividingbarriers for a speech Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. community like Tamang. Kathmandu has Bradley, David. 2002. The Sub-grouping of beenserving a meeting and melting point for all Tibeto-Burman. In: Beckwith, Christopher I dialects speakers of Tamang. The dialectal (ed.), Medieval Tibeto-Burman Languages, differences so far realized may be narrowed down 73-112. Leiden: Brill. through MLE books, grammars, dictionaries, Central Bureau of Statistics /CBS. 2012. National songs and films. A more detail study has to be Population and Housing Census 2011: made to identify such dialectal differences prior to 50 / Coding grammatical signals... National Report. Kathmandu: Central Bureau Mazaudon, Martine. 2003. Tamang. In:Thurgood, of Statistics. Graham and Randy J. LaPolla (eds.), The Chalise, Krishna Prasad. 2003. The Tamang Sino-Tibetan Languages. 291-314. London & Modality System. In: Kansakar, Tej Ratna New York: Routledge. and Mark Turin (eds.), Themes in Himalayan Noonan, Michael. 2003. Recent Language Languages and Linguistics. 1-19. Heidelberg: Contact in the Nepal Himalaya. In: Bradley, South Asia Institute and Kathmandu: David ,, Randy LaPolla, Boyd Michailovsky Tribhuvan University. & Graham Thurgood (eds.), 2003. Language Dryer, Matthew. 1986. Primary objects, secondary Variation:Papers on Variation and Change in objects, and antidative. Language 62.4:808- the Sinosphere and in the Indosphere in 45. Honour of James A. Matisoff. Canberra: Eppele, John W., M. Paul Lewis, Dan Raj Regmi Pacific Linguistics. and Yogendra P. Yadava. eds. 2012. Owen-Smith, Thomas. 2015. Grammatical Ethnologue: Languages of Nepal. Kathmandu: relations in Tamang, a Tibeto- Central Department of Linguistic sand SIL Burmanlanguage of Nepal. PhD Thesis. International. SOAS, Universityof London. Givón, T. 2001a. Syntax: An Introduction, Vol. I. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/23664. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Poudel, Kedar Prasad. 2006. Dhankute Tamang Givón, T. 2001b. Syntax: An Introduction, Vol.II. Grammar. München: LINCOM EUROPA. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Regmi, Dan Raj. 2012. A Grammar of Bhujel. Givón, T. 2010. The Adaptive Approach to München: LINCOM EUROPA. Grammar. In: Heine, Bernd and Heiko Narrog Regmi, Ambika. 2013. A Grammar of Magar (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Kaike. München: LINCOM EUROPA. Analysis. 27-49. Oxford: Oxford University Regmi, Ambika. 2017. Structural Properties of Press. Nouns in Western Tamang. Gipan, Vol. Government of Nepal. 2015. The Constitution of 3.2:144-156. Nepal. Kathmandu: Ministry of Law, Justice Regmi, Dan Raj and Ambika Regmi. 2018. A and Parliamentary Affairs. Grammar of Western Tamang. München: Hari, Maria, Doreen Taylor and Kenneth L. Pike. LINCOM EUROPA. 1970.Tamang Tone and Higher Levels. In Regmi, Dan Raj and Ambika Regmi. 2019. Lehman, F.K (ed.), Occasional Papers of the Communicative coding devices in Western Wolfenden Society on Tibeto-Burman Tamang: A typological perspective. In: Linguistics, Volume III: Tone Systems of Yonjan-Tamang, Amrit (ed.), KĀITEN (The Tibeto-Burman Languages of Nepal, Part I: Journal of Tamang Studies), Vol. 1.2:58-67, Studies on Tone and Phonological May-June, 2019. Segments.82-124. Urbana: The Department of SIL, 2017. Western Tamang Dictionary. Linguistics, The University of Illinois. https://wtamang.webonary.org/browse/?lang=e LaPolla, Randy. 2012. Comments on n Methodology and Evidence in Sino-Tibetan Tamang, Ajitman. 1994. Basic Word Book for Comparative Linguistics. Language and Tamang Language. Dading:Nepal Tamang Linguistics 13 (1): 117-132. Ghedungda. Lee, Sung-Woo. 2011. Eastern Tamang Taylor, Doreen. 1973. Clause Patterns in Tamang. Grammar Sketch. MA dissertation presentedto In Hale, Austin and David Watters ( eds.), the Faculty of the Graduate Institute of Clause, Sentence, and Discourse in Selected Applied Linguistics, USA. Languages of Nepal, Part II: Clause. 81- Lipp, Timothy. 2014. A Sociolinguistic Study of 174.Norman: Summer Institute ofLinguistics, Western Tamang in Nepal. Kathmandu: University of Oklahoma. Linguistic Survey of Nepal (LinSuN), Central Thokar, Rajendra. 2015. Personal Pronouns and Department of Linguistics, Tribhuvan Morphological Constructions in Tamang. University, Nepal and SIL International. Nepalese Linguistics 30:154-160. Regmi / 51 Varenkamp, Bryan. 1996. Tamang Tam: A Sociolinguistic Study of Eastern Tamang Dialects (in Nepal). Kirtipur: Centre for Nepal and Asian Studies. Yadav, Surya Prasad. 2018. A Sociolinguistic Survey of Eastern Tamang. A Report Submitted to Linguistic Survey of Nepal (LinSuN), Central Department of Linguistics, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu. Yonjan-Tamang. 2016. Adharbhut Tamang Vyakarana (Basic Tamang grammar). Lalitpur: NFDIN.
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE TENSE AND ASPECT IN STANDARD KHASI AND ITS VARIETIES Rymphang K. Rynjah
In this study, we will undertake a comparative the War dialects. Khashi proper is the standard study of the syntax of the Tense and Aspect of dialect used as the formal language and for all Standard Khasi, an Austro-Asiatic language literary purposes. War dialects of Khasi are spoken in the state of Meghalaya and its two subdivided into two groups i.e. War-Khasi and varieties Trangblang and Mawlong. Trangblang War-Jaiñtia. They are spoken in the South-east belongs to the War-Jaiñtia dialect of Khasi and is corner of East Khasi Hills District and Jaiñtia spoken in Trangblang village situated in Amlarem Hills District respectively. Block in Jaiñtia Hills District. Mawlong, on the In Sidwell (2009), Daladier (2007, 341) remarks other hand, is a War-Khasi dialect of Khasi and is that the Mon Khmer group of languages has three spoken in Mawlong village located in the East main branches: The Khasi now standardized and Khasi Hills District. The main aim of this study is fixed by written use, yet there are still unwritten to compare and contrast the similarity and dialects, particularly in the War region, the Pnar variation between these varieties when compared and War. with the Standard Khasi using a comparative methodology. This study also aims to present the 2. Varieties under Study morphology of Tense and Aspect and to account In this study, War-Jaiñtia is represented by for the syntactic analyses of Tense and Aspect in Trangblang variety spoken in Trangblang village these varieties. situated in Amlarem Block in Jaiñtia Hills district. Keywords: Austro-Asiatic, Standard Khasi, Tense It is located 25 km towards south from district and Aspect, comparative study. headquarters Jowai and 46km from the state capital Shillong. And on the other hand, War- 1. Introduction Khasi is represented by Mawlong variety spoken Khasi belongs to the Austro-Asiatic family of in Mawlong village which is located in the East language and is spoken in the Central and Khasi Hills district adjacent to Bangladesh and is Eastern part of the state of Meghalaya. Before about 65 km from the capital city Shillong. 1813, Khasi had no script of its own. In the year 3. Aim of the study 1813-14, translation of the Bible into the Khasi language was done using Bengali script because The present paper aims to compare and contrast literacy was possible only in Bengali. Around the similarity and differences between the tense 1816, a few more translated versions of the and aspect of the two varieties of War dialects i.e. Gospel of Matthew were printed and distributed Trangblang variety and Mawlong variety when among some Khasis who could read the Bengali compared with the standard Khasi. script. It was only with the coming of the Welsh 4. Tense and Aspect missionary (1842) that the Roman script was introduced and translations were done in the Tense as a grammatical concept has been defined standard dialect. as a grammatical expression of location in time (Comrie, 1985: 9). Therefore, tense specifies Khasi has significant dialectal variations; Grierson (1904) mentions of four dialects. These are Khasi whether an action described and denoted by the proper, Pnar or the Synteng, the Lyngngam, and verb is present, past or future. Lyons (1968: 305)
Nepalese Linguistics, vol. 34, 2019, pp. 52-57. Rynjah / 53 unmarked (). It is interesting to note that unlike in the standard Khasi in (1a) where the agreement marker u ‘third Singular Masculine’ occurs before the verb, it is found that the agreement marker in the two varieties in (1b) and (1c) occurs after the verb go as shown in the following sentences below. (1) a. u ban u leyt skul (SK) 3SM Ban 3SM go school ‘Ban goes to school’ b. u ban da skul u (MV) 3SM Ban go school 3SM ‘Ban goes to school’ Figure 1: Map showing War Khasi and War- Jaiñtia1 c. u ban le pure kot u (TV) 3SM Ban go read book 3SM explaining this category says that “[t]he essential ‘Ban goes to school’ characteristic of the category of the tense is that it relates the time of an action, event, or state of 4.1.2 Past tense affairs referred to in the sentence to the time of In standard Khasi (SK), the past tense is utterance: the time of utterance begins now”. indicated by the marker la and it occurs pre- According to Binnick (2012), the most influential verbally as shown in (2a) below. Mawlong syntactic definition of tense restricts the category variety also has the same marker la (2b), to the morphemes that refer to present and past. whereas, Trangblang variety has da as the past The notion of aspect according to Comrie tense marker (2c). The placement of the past (1976:3) refers to “the different ways of viewing tense markers is consistent across all the the internal temporal constituency of a situation”. varieties i.e. pre-verbal. A further crucial aspectual difference is that The only difference is in the placement of the between perfective and imperfective aspects. agreement marker u ‘third singular masculine’. Comrie characterizes these notions as follows. In SK, it is placed before the tense marker and in “…perfectivity indicates the view of the MV and TV u is placed at the final position. We situation as a single whole, without distinction can also observe that the lexical item for 'buy' in of the various separate phases that make up the MV and SK is different from TV. situation, while the imperfective pays essential (2) a. u hep u la tied kt (SK) attention to the internal structure of the 3SM Hep 3SM PST buy book situation.” Comrie (1976:16). ‘Hep bought a book’ 4.1 The morphology of tense in standard Khasi b. u hep la tied kot u (MV) and its varieties 3SM Hep PST buy book 3SM There are three tense distinctions in Standard ‘Hep bought a book’ Khasi (SK), Mawlong variety (MV) and c. u hep da kti kot u (TV) Trangblang variety (TV) as discussed below. 3SM Hep PST buy book 3SM 4.1.1 Present tense ‘Hep bought a book’ In standard Khasi as well as in both the varieties 4.1.3 Future tense Mawlong and Trangblang, the present tense is Following Nagaraja (1985), in standard Khasi the future marker is n and it has two forms (i) -n 1Map from Reddy et al. (2007) after a vowel, which appears to be contracted from 54 / A comparative study... n and it is attached with the personal pronoun to FUT ACC do what indicate future tense as seen in (3a-b); and (ii) n, ‘What will we do?’ after a consonant as shown in sentence (4a). The b. ya leh kumn? (MV) remote future sa in standard Khasi can occur ACC do what along with the future marker -n which generally ‘What will we do?’ means to indicate work in the near future but without any specific or definite time as shown in c. ki niah ju leh? (TV) (3c). The future marker of Trangblang variety is NEU what FUT do daw and there is no remote future marker in this ‘What will we do?’ variety as seen in sentence (3d-e). Mawlong variety (MV) does not show any definite overt 4.2 The morphology of aspects in standard Khasi and other varieties future tense marker (3f). The remote future s (in correspondence with the standard Khasi remote In Standard Khasi, as well as in both Mawlong future sa in (3c)) is used to refer to the future as and Trangblang varieties, aspect is divided into seen in (3g). perfective and imperfective as discussed below. (3) a. ka iba ka-n leyt minta (SK) 4.2.1 Perfective aspect 3SF Iba 3SF-FUT go school We understand that the action of the verb is ‘Iba will go now.’ completive as seen in the following sentences b. u ban u-n leyt yew (SK) below where the marker of a completed action in 3SM Ban 3SM-FUT go market standard Khasi and Mawlong variety is the item ‘Ban will go to the market.’ la which precedes the main verb as seen in c. u ban u-n sa sentences (5-6) below, whereas, da in (7) is the perfective aspect marker in Trangblang variety. 3SM Ban 3SM-FUT REM.FUT Perfective aspect in the past tense leyt yew (SK) go market (5) a. u ban u la dep bam ja (SK) ‘Ban will go to the market.’ 3SM Ban 3SM PRF finish eat rice d. ko iba daw le ko hynle (TV) ‘Ban had already eaten rice.’ 3SF Iba FUT go 3SF now b. ka iba ka lah dep wan na ‘Iba will go now.’ 3SF Iba 3SF PRF finish come ABL e. u ban daw le jai u (TV) shnong (SK) 3SM Ban FUT go market 3SM village ‘Ban will go to the market.’ ‘Iba had come from the village.’ f. ka iba da ka mintan (MV) (6) a. u ban la dep sa jia u (MV) 3SF Iba go 3SF now 3SM Ban PRF finish eat rice 3SM ‘Iba will go now.’ ‘Ban had already eaten.’ g. u ban s da yu u (MV) b. ka iba lah wian ka nah 3SM Ban REM.FUT go market 3SM 3SF Iba PRF come 3SF ABL ‘Ban will go to the market’ shnong (MV) The equivalent of the future tense maker n as seen village in standard Khasi (4a) is absent in Mawlong ‘Iba had come from the village.’ variety (4b), whereas Trangblang variety uses ju (4c). (7) a. u ban da dep ba ji u (TV) 3SM Ban PRF finish eat rice 3SM ‘Ban had already eaten rice.’ (4) a. n ya leh kumno? (SK) b. ko iba da dep wan Rynjah / 55 3SF Iba PRF finish come village IMPRF sick 3SM ‘He’s still sick’ shnong ko (TV) 3SF c. da chkow u (TV) ‘Iba had come from the village.’ IMPRF sick 3SM ‘He’s still sick’ Perfective aspect in the present tense (ii) Progressive (8) a. u ban u la sho ji-ieit (SK) 3SM Ban 3SM PRF fall NOMZ-love It points to the progression of work. The ‘Ban has fallen in love.’ Progressive na in SK and MV in (12a) and (12b) and da in TV in (12c) occurs before the verb as b. ka iba ka lah bam (SK) seen in the following sentences below. We can 3SF Iba 3SF PRF eat also observe for the word ahead, MV uses ‘Iba has eaten.’ ‘hetkhmat’, whereas, TV uses ‘somat’ which is (9) a. u ban la shuo jo-ied different when compared to the SK which uses 3SM Ban PRF fall NOMZ-love ‘shakhmat’. u(MV) (12) a. ki na iaid shakhmat (SK) 3SM 3PL IMPRF walk ahead ‘Ban has fallen in love. ’ ‘They are walking ahead.’ b. ka iba lah bam ka (MV) b. ki na iaid ki hetkhmat (MV) 3SF Iba PRF eat 3SF 3PL IMPRF walk 3PL ahead ‘Iba has eaten’ ‘They are walking ahead.’ (10) a. u ban da sho maya u (TV) c. da kap ki somat (TV) 3SM Ban PRF fall love 3SM IMPRF walk 3PL ahead ‘Ban has fallen in love.’ ‘They are walking ahead.’ b. ko iba da bam ko (TV) (iii) Habitual 3SF Iba PRF eat 3SF It points to the habituality, to the events that are ‘Iba has eaten.’ true in the past and time of the utterance. 4.2.2 Imperfective aspect Following sentences below illustrate the habitual markers which are seen to occur pre-verbally in (i) Durative standard Khasi (SK) as well as MV and TV. It talks about the span of the event and the Ju and ait in standard Khasi (SK) utterance of the sentence. The durative marker da in SK and TV in (11a) and (11b), and d in (13) a. u ban u-m ju bam soh MV in (11c) follows the main verb, though a 3SM Ban 3SM-NEG IMPRF eat fruit distinction can be made from the standard Khasi ‘Ban never eats fruits.’ with the varieties where the agreement marker u occur postverbally in Mawlong and Trangblang b. ka lin ka ait bam ja varieties but preverbally in SK as seen in the 3SF Lin 3SF IMPRF eat rice following sentences below. shi’baje 1’clock (11) a. u da pa (SK) ‘Lin usually eats food at 1o’clock.’ 3SM IMPRF sick ‘He’s still sick.’ ju and ij in Mawlong variety (MV)
(14) a. u ban m-u 3SM Ban NEG-3SM b. d knied u (MV) 56 / A comparative study... ju bam soh u c. u ban manla i por leh IMPRF eat fruit 3SM 3SM Ban every time do ‘Ban never eats fruits.’ kam kom u (TV) b. ka lin ij sa jia work bad 3SM 3SF Lin IMPRF eat rice ‘Ban continues to do bad work.’ ka shi’baje The Iterative marker can also occur along with the 3SM 1’clock future tense in SK and remote future in MV as ‘Lin usually eats food at 1o’clock.’ shown in sentences (17a) and (17b) below, whereas, in TV for the same sentence only the be in Trangblang variety (TV) future marker daw is used. be is used to indicate ‘most cases’ as seen in the (17) a. ka iba ka-n yai following sentences below. 3SF Iba 3SF-FUT (15) a. u ban aw be ba soh u rwai beit (SK) 3SM Ban NEG IMPRF eat fruit 3SM IMPRF sing EMPHASIS ‘Ban never eats fruits.’ ‘Iba will continue to sing (regardless of anything).’ b. ko lin be ba ji 3SF Lin IMPRF eat rice b. ka iba s ko shi’beje 3SF Iba REM.FUT 3SF 1’clock yai rwia beit (MV) ‘Lin usually eats food at 1o’clock.’ IMPRF sing EMPHASIS (iv) Iterative marker ‘Iba will continue to sing (regardless of anything)’ This point to the events happening many times as shown in the following sentences below. c. ka iba daw rway Comparing the iterative markers, it is observed 3SF Iba FUT sing MV in (16b) uses the same form yai as SK in bit ka (TV) (16a), whereas, this marker is absent in TV. The EMPHASIS 3SF only difference is in the placement of the ‘Iba will continue to sing (regardless of agreement marker u, in SK u is placed before the anything)’ iterative marker in (16a), whereas in MV, u is 5. Conclusion placed at the final position as seen in sentence (16b) below. This marker is absent in Trangblang This study basically shows that the morphemes variety but instead manla i por ‘every time’ is used to indicate tense and aspect in Mawlong used. Variety (MV) and Trangblang Variety (TV) differ from those of standard Khasi (SK). This study has (16) a. u ban u yai leh been able to highlight the morphology of tense, 3SM Ban 3SM IMPRF do where the present tense is unmarked ()in both kam sniew (SK) MV and TV similar to SK, the past tense is work bad marked by la in the SK and MV but by da in TV. ‘Ban continues to do bad work.’ Future tense in SK is marked by -n/n and also has a remote future tense marker sa. MV does not b. u ban yai leh kam exhibit any overt future tense marker but the 3SM Ban IMPRF do work remote future tense marker s is used among the snew u (MV) native speakers when talking about or referring to bad 3SM the future. On the other hand, TV has daw and ju ‘Ban continues to do bad work.’ as future tense markers as shown in the following table 1 below. Rynjah / 57 Table 1: A Comparative list of the Tense Daladier, Anne. 2002. Definiteness in Amwi: distinction of SK, MV and TV Grammaticalization and Syntax. In Recherches Linguistiques de Vincennes 31, Tense SK MV TV edited by A. Z. Hert and A. Daladier: 61-78. Present Daladier, Anne. 2007. Elements cosmogoniques et Past la la da vocabulaire austroasiatique du groupe Future /-n/ and ɨnsɑ daw mônkhmer du Meghalaya. Interactions avec le But the remote monde indien, - Bulletin d'Études Indiennes: (in remote and Paris: Collège de France. future /sɔʔ/ is ju future) Grierson, George A. 1904. Lingustic survey of used India (Vol2,) Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. Two aspectual categories are examined in this Hock, Hans H. 1991. Principles of Historical paper: perfective and imperfective aspect. Linguistics. Second Edition. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. The perfective aspect is marked by la in SK and Jyrwa, M. B. 1984. A contrastive study of tense MV, whereas da in TV. and aspect in Khasi and English with The imperfective aspect markers only differ reference to the teaching of English to Khasi phonologically from that of standard Khasi, the speakers. An M. ED. Dissertation University durative is marked by da in SK and TV and d of Manchester. in MV, the progressive is marked by na in SK Liu, Yimin. 2014. A comparative study of and MV, whereas in TV the progressive is marked English tense and French tense. English by da. Habitual aspect is marked by two markers Department, Foreign Language College, in both SK and MV viz. ju and ait in SK and ju Inner Mongolia University: China. Lyons, John.1968. Introduction to theoretical and ij, whereas TV only has one habitual marker linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University be. Iterative aspect is marked by yai in both SK Press. and MV and is absent in TV. The summary of Nagaraja, K.S. 1985. Khasi: A descriptive aspect markers is shown in table 2. analysis. Pune: Deccan College Postgraduate Table2: AComparative list of aspect markers & Research Institute. in SK, MV and TV Reddy, B. M., Langstieh, B. T., Kumar, V., Aspect SK MV TV Nagaraja, T., Reddy, A. N., Meka, A., Singh, Perfective L. (2007). Austro-Asiatic tribes of Northeast India provide hitherto missing genetic link Imperfective laʔ laʔ da between South and Southeast Asia. PloS one, Durative daɲ dɔɲ daɲ 2(11), e1141. Progressive naɲ naɲ da doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001141 Habitual Sidwell, Paul. 2009. Classifying the Austroasiatic ju and ʃait juʔ and ʃij beʔ Languages: History and the state of the art. Iterativity yai yai Muenchen: LINCOM Europa Sten, H. W. 1987. Tense in Khasi Language. 6. References Khasi Studies 1(1). Bareh, Mondon.1929. Khasi English Course and Grammar. Shillong: Ri Khasi Press. Binnick, Robert I. 2012. The Oxford Handbook of Tense and Aspect. Oxford University Press. Comrie, Bernard S. 1976. Aspect. Cambridge University Press. Comrie, Bernard S. 1985. Tense. Cambridge University Press.
CULTURAL AND LINGUISTIC AFFINITIES AMONGST MEITEI-SIZANG-THADOU Bobita Sarangthem and Lhingneilam Lhouvum
This paper attempts to highlight the cultural and vowels and three tones; Thadou has 20 linguistic affinities amongst Meitei, Sizang and consonants, 8 vowels and three tones. However, Thadou people. The data are collected from the lexical cognates such as səm ‘hair’, mei ‘fire’, naŋ field works in Imphal (Manipur, India), Tamu ‘you’ etc., are similar in these languages. (Sagaing division of Myanmar) and Diphu According to Burling (2003:187), Meitei has often (KarbiAnglong of Assam, India) for Meitei, been taken to be a member of the larger Naga- Sizang, and Thadou respectively. Linguistically, Kuki groupings, but it would be safest to leave Meitei, Sizang and Thadou share common Tibeto- Meitei by itself. On the other hand, Sizang and Burman feature of SOV word order, agglutinative Thadou belong to the Kuki-Chin group and the forms, sharing lexical cognates due to language Northern-Chin sub-group of languages contact. Culturally, these languages show some (Grierson:1904). similarities; however, Thadou and Sizang are The paper further intends to observe the important more similar. Nonetheless, languages have been a organizing principles of social relationship and reflection of those cultural distinctions as well as see in what respect they could be considered their identities. important in structuring the society. At least three Keywords: Ritual affinities, cognates, birth, factors could be identified at the basic level. marriage. These are marriage, kinship, and ritual. Kinship is the pivot on which rests the whole of society, but 1. Introduction its ultimate source is marriage. The importance of Linguistically, Meitei, Sizang, and Thadou share marriage and kinship are examined with reference similarities in word orders as verb final, clause to the Meitei, Sizang, and Thadou. Again, it is chaining, and post verbal negation. They are ritual which could inculcate a sense of continuity agglutinative languages in which almost all the of traditional social relationships. To have a better syllable boundaries correspond to morpheme understanding the following section highlights an boundaries. For Example: ethnographic overview of the three languages. Meitei: əycakca-i 2. Ethnographic overview of Meitei, Sizang and 1SG rice.eat-ASP Thadou ‘I eat rice.’ Meitei is the name of the ethnic group and Thadou: kei-n buka-ne-zi-e Meiteilon is the language spoken by Meiteis a 1SG-ERG rice1-eat-ASP-DECL Tibeto-Burman language spoken chiefly in ‘I (usually) eat rice.' Manipur state in India, with Myanmar on its eastern border. Located strategically in the North- Sizang: key ənkə-ne hi eastern part of India on the Indo-Myanmar border, 1SGrice 1- eat DECL the land has been historically the frontier of ‘I eat rice.’ Southeast Asian and mainland Indian cultures and One of the distinctive features of Sizang and peoples. Generally identified as Tibeto-Burman Thadou is verb agreement system consisting of on linguistic basis, contemporary Meiteis are a preverbal pronominal elements indexing subject unique people who have absorbed both cultural (cf.2&3). This feature is totally absent in Meitei and racial crosscurrents unto themselves and yet language. The sound inventories for these 3 managed to preserve a unique identity of its own. languages: Meitei has 24 consonants and 6 vowels The Meiteis are one of few monarchies in and two tones; Sizang has 16 consonants and 15 Northeast India from ancient times, the other two
Nepalese Linguistics, vol. 34, 2019, pp. 58-67. Sarangthem and Lhouvum / 59 being Assam and Tripura. The Meiteis have their British imperial army who tried to colonize the own script, which was used in writing numerous chin hills at the end of 19th century. They hold ancient texts known as Puyas. Meiteilon or that ‘a man should spend his life in fighting, Manipuri is the official language of the state, hunting, and drinking, whilst labor is intended for Manipur. It is spoken by approximately 1.2 women and slaves only'(Grieson, 1904). Actually, million people primarily in the Imphal (capital) Sizang has a close relationship and similarity with valley. According to the census 2011 data, the the Kuki-Chin group. The cultural attachment is total population of the state is 2570390. The established through contacts and intermarriages. advent of Hinduism in the early part of the Their culture and tradition are much alike with eighteenth century has left its mark in ritual, other sub-ethnic groups of Zo (Chin) people only ceremonial elaboration, and purification. Thus, on with a slight variation. The Sizang society is a the religion based context, Meiteis may be patriarchal society. Inheritance is legitimate to grouped as the Vaisnab Hindus, the Meitei Marup sons only, and daughters are illegitimate to inherit (Sanamahi) cult. Yet, some Meiteis have adopted any inheritance. Like other Chins, Sizang is Christianity and Buddhism in small numbers. This animistic in their religious beliefs, believing in a paper doesn't include Christianity and Buddhism variety of good, neutral and evil spirits. The but the focus has been given to the Vaisnab Sizang people believed that “pathian" is the Hindus, the Meitei Marup (Sanamahi). Because Almighty God who can do only good to them. the ancient rites and rituals are within the roots of They believed that there were the evil spirits, belief systems and practices ensuring to follow the "doai” which are against Pathian’swill. Human path laid down by our ancestors. One of the ailments and death are believed to have been interesting examples is the obligation to worship caused by evil spirits who live in mountains Lord Sanamahi, in every Meiteis homestead. caves, rivers, and trees. Sizang is a language with no script.In 1912, Christianity reached the Siyin Sizang is a Kuki-Chin language of the Tibeto- valley (Khupza Go, 1996). Christianity changed Burman family. Thuavum or Kenedy peak in the some customs, such as spirit worship, Chin state of Burma (Myanmar) is the land of headhunting, and discrimination against women. their heritage. According to Grierson (1904: Vol. Today the majority of Sizang people are III. Part III) Siyin belongs to northern Chin Christians; the Roman script forms the basis for subgroups under Kuki-Chin group. Sizang sizang literature, stories, folktales and religious language shares a mutually intelligible language songs are written in the Roman script to date. with Vaiphei, Paite or Tedim Chin. Sizang live in Sizang valley or Thuavum which is situated in the Thadou is a tribal community native to North East present day the Chin State of Burma (Myanmar). India, Chin state and Sagaing Division Up-to-date official demographic information for in Myanmar also known as Burma and in Chin State is not available. Referring to the 1931 Eastern Bangladesh. The Thadou people are found census of India, Luce (1959) gives the total in the state of Manipur, Assam, Nagaland, and population of Chin speaker in Burma (Myanmar) Mizoram in India. The state of Manipur has the is nearly 344,000 with 44 different tribes. In the majority number of Thadou speakers in India Chin population, the Sizang are a minority, about where most of the speakers are either ten thousand in number. The present analysis is bilingual/multilingual. They have a culture of the Sizang (Siyin) language spoken in Tamu their own and a distinct language which makes under the Sagaing division of Myanmar (Burma) them different from the other mutually intelligible located at Indo-Myanmar border about 115 Km Mizo-Kuki-Chin groups. Thadou belongs to the south-east from Imphal, Manipur (India). Kuki-Chin group and the Northern-Chin sub- According to Grierson (1904), the Siyins are group of languages (Grierson: 1904). The called Tautes or Tauktes in the Manipur records. distribution of the Thadou population in states The meaning of “Taute” is fat folks. Among Paite, (2001 census) shows that the majority speakers Taute" refers only to the Sizang (Vumson,1986). are from Manipur, Assam, and Meghalaya. In the history of the sizang people, they fought the 60 / Cultural and linguistic... Thadou is a language with no script. Today, the OR Roman script forms the basis for Kuki literature. lamcy-pa ‘father of Lamcy The reason may be due to the impact of the lamcy father Christian missionaries who established a school In Manipur, women take an active role for the where the Kuki people lived. Till date, all the welfare of the society’s right from forming Meira- literature, books, fictions, stories, folktales and paibilup‘ the torch bearer’, especially the women religious songs are written in Roman script. organization to protect the youth from Thadou has been recognized as Scheduled Tribe consumption of liquor and drugs. Any form of under Article No. 342 of the Indian Constitution. protest or demand is being made against the The present analysis is from the fieldwork authority through this organization relating to the conducted in a small locality called issues of a particular place or localities. Yet, out “ThadouVeng” in Diphu, KarbiAnglong, Assam. of politeness wife do not address husband by 3. Social and cultural aspects name but a husband can address his wife by name. Of course, to address by their name between The Meitei, Sizang, and Thadou have a culture of spouses is found amongst the educated and their own, the same way they have distinct younger generations. But, the older generation languages which make them different and unique couple addresses with the third person marker. It from each other. They have their own system of is noted that all these three groups are of marriage, forms of dancing, a celebration of patriarchal society too. festivals, conducting of rituals and many other cultural aspects performed in their social life. 3.1 Birth rituals of Meiteis Still, they have a close relationship and A mixed type emerges out of Indigenous Meitei similarities amongst themselves. religion and Hinduism practices in Meitei society Mention may be made of the similarities in the for their traditional social customs and usages, custom of addressing husband or wife’s name by rites and ceremonies.Nevertheless, the spread of the name of their children or younger ones of the Hindu religion does not destroy the old Meitei family in all the three ethnic groups. It is religion and culture. It has three birth rituals in the illustrated as follows: culture for a newborn child such as: Meitei: 3.1.1 Ipan-thaba (ipan ‘foods and drinks’, thaba ma-khoi mamma ‘his/her/their mother’ ‘offering’) 3SG-PL mother This ritual is performed on the sixth day of a OR childbirth. In the morning a maibi‘priestess’ moi-ba ‘his/her/their father’ perform the ritual at the mangol‘veranda’ for a 3SG-PLfather long and healthy life of the baby. This shows that most of the pre-Hindu rituals are retained. In OR continuation of the ritual in the evening, another caobi-pa ‘father of chaobi’ ritual has been performed known as swasthi puja chaobi father which is conducted by a priest in the parent's Sizang: room where an earthen or brass pot with water is ə-nu ‘his/her mother’ place representing the deity. Mantras are 3SG-mother chantedby a priest while offering flowers, sesame seeds, fruits etc. to the deity. During this ritual, OR the child is placed near it on a small monpak pum-pa ‘father of Pum’ ‘mattress’. A feast or kher a kind of sweets are pum-father also offered to the guest and dakshina in the form In Thadou: of money is also given to show gratitude for their ə-nu ‘his/her mother’ gracious presence. 3SGmother Sarangthem and Lhouvum / 61 3.1.2 cak-umba (cak ‘food’, umba ‘to introduce’) 3.3 Birth rituals of Thadou cak-umba is usually conducted when the child a) naodop-an ( nao ‘child’, dop ‘carry’, an attains around 5 or 6 months old. If the baby is a ‘food’): After a few days of a childbirth, a feast boy then cak-umba is taken place when the baby called naodop-an is performed inviting all those attains six months old. Literally, it is the who helped in the delivery including the midwife. introduction of solid or normal food to the baby. This ceremony is performed to give gratitude and If the baby is a girl then it is performed at five to thank god for save delivery of a healthy child. months old. b)naominsah (nao‘child’, minsah ‘naming’): The 3.1.3 na-hutpa (na ‘ear’, hutpa ‘to pierce’) naming ceremony is called naominsah. It is a customary law in thadou society to coin the name Ear piercing or na-hutpa takes place when the from the last syllable of the grandparent from child attains three or five years old. In this either of the parents. When a child is named, the ceremony, first the head of the child is shaven and last syllable of the person whom it is going to be then after giving a bath by some virgin girls, the named after is taken as the first syllable of the child is dressed up. Later, the child along with child, viz. if the person whom the child is going to parents sits near the sacred fire where the priest be named after is Khupkhomang, then child name conducts the ritual for the well-being of the child. has to start with Mang. Then a goldsmith pierces the lower lobes of the child's ears and put the golden earrings. In this c) naopui (nao-child,pui-to bring): literally means ceremony, a professional singer sang in the name blessing ceremony. One is performed in Church of god but it is optional. Later on, a sumptuous and another at the maternal uncle’s house. As lunch is entertained to the invitees. It is believed soon as the child gets his/her name, s/he is then that after na-hutpa ritual the child will be taken to the Church for the blessing ceremony healthier and prevents from any illness. In olden performed by the pastor of the Church and days, ear piercing is performed in a very simpler through this ceremony the child earns the way such as putting black thread through the membership of the Church and the village. pierced earlobes. Another ritual involves the blessing ceremony done by the maternal uncle. On this day, the 3.2 Birth rituals of Sizang maternal uncle kills pigs, cows etc. and invite Sizang shows a very similar way of conducting close relatives and friends to participate in the birth rituals with Thadous, namely nao-an-thah ceremony. (nao ‘child’, an ‘food’, thah ‘distribute’), nao-bil- d) naobilvu ( nao‘child’, bil‘ear’,vu ‘pierce’): vut or ear piercing, and nao-min-pek or naming of Ear-piercing of both boys and girls was a common the baby. The naming of the baby is performed practice. The most common type of earring is the after five days for male baby and three days for a traditional rare beads of red color where the white female baby. Their names are chosen by the thread is pushed through the hole. Girls normally parents. The first male baby is always named after pierce their ears. They can wear any types of his father's father whereas the female baby is earrings whether made of gold, silver, metal and named after her father's mother. any type of their choice as long as they can afford Interestingly, in Sizang as soon as the baby is it. born a surname is given as a temporary name. It is 3.4 Meitei marriage or luhongba (lu ‘head’, believed that if the human name is not given then hongbǝ ‘to change’) the devil may approach the baby leading to death. In Meitei society, there are two kinds of Marriage. It is noted that all the three communities share They are a) Marriage through engagement, b) common forms of rituals but, it reflects some kanya-katpǝ. Of all these types, marriage through changes due to the influence of Hinduism and engagement is believed as one of the prestigious Christianity. and common forms of a wedding. In earlier days, the kanya-katpǝ (here the word 'kanya' is a 62 / Cultural and linguistic... loanword which means bride/virgin; katpǝ' to over Pana-kwa inviting him to come as a offer’) ritual is considered as a marriage meant for bridegroom to the bride's residence on the a widow or divorcee. Elopement or chenba is also wedding ceremony. strictly prohibited in those days. If at all, it c) Luhongba or wedding ceremony: The ritualistic happens then kanya-katpǝ is the only option as preparations are made both at the residence of the there will be no marriage ceremony. Thus, in this groom and the bride on the day of marriage. case, a very simple ritual is held with few people Generally, in the residence of the bride, the on both sides of the family. In modern days, decorated marriage hall or mandopis erected. On elopement is quite popular. It is next to the this day, lei chandan‘sandalwood paste smeared arranged marriage despite strictly prohibited in with a flower’ is offered to welcome the invitees the earlier period. at the entry point of the mandop. Once the guests There are three main rituals related to the are seated,betel-nuts and betel leaves in a marriage ceremony. They are as follows: decorated piece of round shape banana leaves were presented. a) haija-pot (haija ‘to request’, pot ‘things’) – haija-potisalso called as heijing-potmarks the first There are some rules for the seat arrangement too stage of marriage ceremony which is one of the like right in the middle of the marriage very important rituals. It is performed one or two mandop‘marriage hall’, luhong phan‘the bride days ahead before the Wedding day. Heijapot or and groom’s seat’ is placed and opposite to this engagement is the day when the parents along seat,the bridegroom’s mother will be seated. The with friends, invitees, and relatives of the devotional song, especially for the marriage, is bridegroom visited the bride's place and bring sung by isei-sakpa or isei-sakpi (‘singer’ it can be with them different types of fruits, vegetables, male or female singers)with the mridanga (kind of betel leaf and betel nut and also sweets. All these drum) drummer. Aband party also follows at things are carried on a well-decorated bamboo appropriate intervals during the ceremony. The basket with cover known as heijingkharai and main event during the ceremony is the garlanding phingairuk. On this day, the offerings are made to of the bride and bridegroom with kundopareng the ancestor and local deities known as lamlai. ‘garland of kundo or a kind of jasmine'. The bride Meitei’s traditional silk attire called phigephanek revolves around the bridegroom seven times. The ‘silk sarong’, phi‘clothes’ and gold ornaments for completion of each revolution is marked by the bride are also brought in this ceremony. The showering with flower petals by the bride over the bride's father and the bridegroom's father bridegroom. Finally, garlanding takes place after exchanged their greetings than they jointly prayed the completion of seven revolutions. to the ancestor deity for their children's happy life. Metaphorically, the bride denotes the earth and After this ritual, all the fruits, sweets especially the groom the sun. kabok (parched rice with jaggery) are distributed 3.5 Thadou marriage to one and all present in the ceremony. Thadou has four kinds of marriages: tsoŋmu, b) Bor-barton (bor ‘bridegroom’, barton Sahapsat, zol-ɬah and kizam-maŋ. In the first two, ‘invitation’): Later in the evening of heijingpot, a a proper ceremony is gone through while the latter boy preferably younger brother of the bride will two amounts to elopement. In the present day, due visit the bridegroom's place for an invitation. For to the influence of Christianity, Marriages are this ritual, a garland of flower especially kundo lei now solemnized in the church by ordained pastors (a kind of jasmine flower) is prepared along with in accordance with the church. Monogamy, cross Lei-Chandanand Pana-Kwa (Betel-nuts and betel- cousin marriage, marriage by elopement, marriage leaves in a decorated banana leaf) bound nicely by by negotiation, the bride price is some important a white cloth. The groom is readyto do the ritual aspects of the marriage system. There is no wearing Pheijom and Pumyat (‘dhoti’ and ‘kurta’) restriction to inter and intra marriages with other sitting on a phǝk ‘mat’ facing towards the east. tribes or outside the village. And also the Then the younger brother of the bride will hand Sarangthem and Lhouvum / 63 remarriage of the widow and widower is depending on the social position he held during permitted. his lifetime. On the day of burial, a funeral rite called kosa is performed by killing a pig or 3.6 Sizang marriage mithun to entertain the people who have Sizang has a custom that forbids marriage participated in the funeral. The head of animals between a man and a woman from the same killed is then used to adorn deceased grave along village, and, it is known as phungkhawm with other numbers of wild animals he had killed marriage. Normally, eligible candidates are from in his time. In all case of natural death, corpses different villages. The eldest man of the were buried in burial ground within the village. bridegroom clan known as mopozang or advance thi-se (thi ‘death’,se ‘bad’): In earlier days man went to the bride’s place for the proposal. unnatural death like drowning, murdered, modokzu or a ‘pot of liquor' is presented to the suicide,etc. is not given a proper funeral rite. They bride's family indicating that he came along with a believe that such a person never reaches mi-thi- marriage proposal. If they didn't agree with the xo(mi ‘man’,thi ‘death’, xo ‘village’) and they are marriage affair, then they would return back the buried without any ceremony because their soul is modukzu. If they are willing for the marriage already condemned. Such dead bodies are buried ceremony to be held, then it’s a green signal or outside the village to avoid further misfortune. positive reply. Accordingly, mopozang will visit After corpse of an unnatural death is buried, ‘in- the bride's place to fix the date of the wedding. the’(in ‘house’, the ‘to sweep’), a rite for On the day of mopui-ni or the day of bride’s purification of the house is performed by xo- leaving her parental place, her parents entertain thempu(xo ‘village’, thempu ‘priest’). their friends and relatives with tamsi or the However, with Christianity, such belief and biggest animal brought from bridegroom’s side. practice are changed to a certain extent. Thadou At evening the bride leaves for bridegroom’s follows and adheres to the common burial ground place along with friends and the elders. On arrival and equal ceremony for all types of death. Today, at the main gate of the bridegroom’s house, the if a person dies in the morning, s/he gets buried on eldest person(male) would call loudly like –“we the same day itself, whereas, if anybody dies in are coming back with son, daughter, maize,and the evening, the person is buried next day as per millets”. The call was replied by an older man as’’ Christian service. Kosa (funeral feast) is still in we welcome you all. Come back with son, practice and is performed after two or three days daughter, maize, millets, and mithun.'' After this, of the death of a person. the older man would spill the liquor from his mouth to the outward side of the main gate. After 3.8 Sizang’s death rituals the completion of this ritual, the bride can enter Sizang has three different death rituals. Sizang’s the new house. death ritual is conducted under the Thaamvel 3.7 Thadou’s death rituals (thaam ‘tent’,vel ‘covered with mat’). The dead person was placed in the thaam, the villagers Death ritual among Thadou can broadly be drink and dance; this ritual is known as Mithi mai. divided into two: thi-pha (natural death) and thi-se After mithimai, the dead body was placed in a (unnatural death). coffin and kept inside the house again; this ritual thi-pha (thi ‘death’, pha ‘good’): Natural death is known as the mithipanglai dead body at the includes death caused by sickness and old age. center of the house). A small portion of food is During the pre-Christian day, there have been placed on the coffin as mithipanglai was certain perceptions regarding the cause of diseases considered as still alive ones. The dead body and death. The most popular belief was that death could be kept as long as the family desired, and is associated to be work of evil spirit which is when they were readied, they began to perform believed to have dwelled everywhere. Burial for the final funeral, then only the dead body be taken this type of death varies from person to person to the cemetery. Mi-thi-vui (mi ‘men’ thi 64 / Cultural and linguistic... ‘dead’,vui- ‘go’) is the ritual on the final funeral i-ma/mama ‘mother’ where the dead body was taken to the cemetery i-yamba/tadə/ibung ‘elder brother’ for burial, followed by young unmarried males i-ce/cece ‘elder sister’ and females dance holding hand in hand and i-nao(younger)nupi ‘younger sister’ singing a farewell song. i-nao(younger)nupa ‘younger brother’ i-ton/khura/mamma ‘uncle’ 3.9 Meitei’s death rituals i-təi ‘brother-in-law’ (female ego) In Meitei culture the dead body is cremated. The i-bai ‘brother-in-law’(male ego) dying person is taken out of the house to the i-nəmmə ‘sister-in-law’(female ego) verandah. The body is bathed and dressed in white It is noted that Meitei terms of reference have to clothes before it is cremated. The cremation is prefix either i-, nǝor mə- are the first person, done on the bank of a river or lake. Nowadays, second person, and third person possessive cremation is conducted at crematoria. The body is prefixes. They are prefixed to kinship terms. placed on the pyre, the next of the kin walks around the pyre with a fire burning from the sticks For instance: he is holding. The priest does incantations and i-pa ‘my father’ then the pyre is lit. The males stay back until the i-ma ‘my mother’ body is consumed by fire. The people who attend nǝ-pa ‘your father’ the funeral do not go home directly. They are nǝ-ce ‘your sister’ allowed to go after taking bath. They can enter the mə-bok ‘his/her grandmother’ house only after they are received by a person mə-pa ‘his/her grandmother’ with any sort of fire. They believe the evil spirits mə-ma ‘his/her mother’ are then removed. The deceased person’s bedding The kinship terminology in Meitei shows is burnt. For Meitei hindus, the temple bones or differentiation between commoners and the royal the asthi of the deceased are collected from the descendants known as RK's or Rajkumar's and ashes and within a year taken to holy places. On Rajkumari's where the suffix-si is added to the the fifth day after the cremation astisancoi (for kinship terms as polite marker. Meitei hindus) or maŋanileihun is performed. Later, on the twelfth/thirteenth day lannathouram For example: or sorat (The word derives from shraddha) is Terms used Gloss Terms used conducted and finally, on the completion of one by RKs by the year, the completion of death ritual known as Commoners phiroi is conducted with a grand feast to the ima-si ‘mother’ ima invitees to show gratitude. inem-si/ine-si ‘paternal aunt’ ine/inem indon-si ‘maternal aunt’ indon 4. Kinship terminology icem-si ‘elder sister’ ice The study of the kinship term is highly dependent mam-si ‘maternal uncle’ mamǝ on knowing the social structure of the community. ibuŋ-si ‘elder brother’ ibuŋ It also shows the importance of kinship terms to (Adapted data: Pramodini, N., 1989) make a clear distinction between terms of address Further, Pramodini (1989) mentions “The royal and terms of reference which act like a mirror group is no longer in control of the use of reflecting the socio-ethnic network. language, instead, the socio-economic conditions 4.1 Meitei and social status of the people play a greater role in determining the use of the different variables of In Meitei society, kinship may be classified based kinship terms. Some of the terms once used only on the affinal or relationship made and amongst royal descendants are being taken over in consanguineal or blood relationships. The terms modern society by some of the commoners”. of address differ from the terms of reference. Terms of address: The usage of the second personal pronoun should pabung (polite form) ‘father’ be taken care of while using as a term of reference Sarangthem and Lhouvum / 65 especially to older people as it considers being Maternal relations: derogatory. For instance; pu ‘mother’s father’ pi ‘mother’s mother’ nǝŋ-gi/ (som-gi) pabuŋ-gi miŋkarino pu-pi ‘mother’s elder brother’ 2SG-GEN / 2SG (POL) father-GEN name QN pu-lay ‘mother’s middle brother’ ‘What is your father's name?’ is the correct form pu-nəw ‘mother’s younger brother’ to ask a question to older/stranger/person of ni-lay ‘father’s middle sister’ higher status people. But it is an unacceptable nu-neàw ‘mother’s sister’ form to utter such as; nu-neàw-puy ‘mother’s elder sister’ nu-neàw-nəw ‘mother’s younger sister’ nǝŋ-ginǝ-pa-gimiŋkarino 2SG-GEN 2POSS-father-GEN nameQN In-law relations: ‘What is your father's name?’ teak-nu ‘mother-in-law (female ego)' teak-pa ‘father-in-law (female ego)' This form of conversation is considered to be suŋ-nu ‘mother-in-law'(male ego) impolite or derogatory. However, it is acceptable suŋ-pa ‘father-in-law (male ego)' if you ask a child otherwise it is impolite. suapuy-u ‘husband’s elder brother’ 4.2 Sizang suapuy-nəw‘husband’s younger brother’ Treatment of kinship terms in Sizang is an 4.2.2 Address by name: Age of the addressee is interesting area of study. The term of address the deciding factor in thechoice of appropriate varied in accordance with the numbers of kinship term. For senior ones, the prefixation of u- generation. Grandfather’s generation is ‘pu’, to proper name or the kinship terms indicates father’s generation is ‘pá’ etc. Any male who is in seniority, except in suapuy-u ‘husband's elder the same generation with his father, he is called brother'. Forjunior ones like son, daughter, ‘pá’ and if in female case she is called ‘ni’ (i.e. younger brother, younger sister etc. Generally, aunty). If a male person belongs to grandfather’s names are used as address terms. For those people generation, he is called ‘pu' and for the female of similarage group is addressed by their names. person, she is called ‘pi'. Thus, the forms of Addressed by their name between spouse is found address are conditioned by kinship relation or age amongst the educated and younger generations. or the ego-male or female. But, the older generation couple addresses with the third person marker ə-. Thus, əpa ‘his father’ 4.2.1 Kinship terms of address:Various kinship is used by the wife for addressing her husband, terms of address are illustrated as follows: while ənu ‘his mother’ for addressing his wife. Direct generation relation: Younger relations like‘nephew’, ‘niece’, ‘son’, pá ‘father’ ‘daughter’, etc. are generally addressed by ná ‘mother’ theirrespective names. u-pasəl ‘elder brother’ Terms of reference: One of the important u-numey ‘elder sister’ characteristics of Sizang language is the use of nəw-nu ‘younger sister’ personal pronoun prefixes with kinship terms nəw-pa ‘younger brother’ usedasterms of references. In other words, Sizang Paternal relations: uses a system of affixationfor expressing various pu ‘father’s father’ kinship relationships. The kinship terms require pi ‘father’s mother’ thepronominal prefixes, namely kə- for the first pa-pi ‘father’s elder brother’ person, nə- for the second person andə- for the pa-lay ‘father’s middle brother’ third person. In short, these pronominal prefixes pa-nəw ‘father’s younger brother’ function as a possessive marker and it makes ni-pi ‘father’s elder sister’ complete sense with the kinship terms of ni-lay ‘father’s middle sister’ reference. ni-nəw ‘father’s younger sister’ This is illustrated in the following examples: 66 / Cultural and linguistic... Terms of address Reference terms zinu ‘wife’ pá ‘father’ kə-pa ‘my father’ nao/boi ‘younger brother or younger nə-pa ‘your father’ sister’ ə-pa ‘his/her father’ Terms of Reference: nú ‘mother’ kə-nu ‘my mother' Thadou language has a similar pattern with Sizang nə-nu ‘your mother’ language, especially, the use of possessive ə-nu‘his/her mother’ pronominal prefixed with kinship terms tapa ‘son’ kə-tapa ‘my son’ functioningas terms of references. For example, nə-tapa ‘your son’ kǝ-pa ‘my father’ ə-tapa ‘his/her son’ nǝ-pa ‘your father’ ǝma-pa ‘his/her father tanu ‘daughter’ kə-tanu ‘my daughter’ kə-tsapa ‘my son nə-tanu‘your daughter’ nə-tsapa ‘your son’ 4.3 Thadou əma-tapa ‘his/her son’ Kinship relationship among the thadou can be It is noted that in Thadou, a person regards all the broadly divided based on the consanguine and clansmen who are his grandfather’s age as hepi, affinal relationship i.e. relationship between the his father’s age as hepa, his mother’s age as henu, parent and children, the relationship between his elder person as he-u, his younger brothers and husband and wife. The degree of kinship bond sisters as nao or boi. The morpheme heindicates plays a vital function in the Thadou society. The the polite terms in this very language. These terms kinship terms have a specific role to play in a are used in addressing others irrespective of which person’s life as well as on auspicious gatherings clan one belongs to their age. where the entire kin and clan members are 5. Conclusion present. Some of the kinship terminologies are as follows: From the above discussion, it has been noted that there are some similarities amongst the languages Terms of address: sharing common Tibeto-Burman features such as he-pu ‘father’s father/mother's OV word order, the kinship terms are prefixed father/mother's brother/mother's with secondary singular form ofpersonal brother's son’ pronounindicating the inalienable to the possessor he-pi ‘father’s mother/mother’s mother/ and also as terms of reference. However, certain mother’sbrother’wife’ dissimilarities is observed in Meitei from that of he-pa ‘father/husband’s father/wife’s Sizang and Thadou, especially with the verb father agreement system, which is absent in Meitei he-nu ‘mother/husband’s mother/wife’ language. Sizang, and Thadou shows light mother differences when compared with Meitei marriage he-pa-len ‘father’s elder brother’ and death rituals.In the present situation, nobody he-nu-len ‘father’s elder brother’s wife’ can expect the ethnic groups to continue their own he-gaŋ ‘father’s sister’s husband’ independent ways based solely on traditional he-ni ‘father’s sister’ values and customary. Due to globalization, he-u ‘elder brother; elder sister’ people tend to change their lifestyles that may be tu-te ‘grandchildren’ accelerated or slow type to respond to the totality tu-pa ‘grandson’ of structure and function of the particular society tunu ‘granddaughter’ and its culture. However, it cannot go beyond tsate ‘children’ comparative tone as they tried hard to preserve tsapa ‘son’ their culture at the most. Thus, the Meitei, Sizang, tsanu ‘daughter’ and Thadou have a culture of their own, the same zitsa ‘husband-wife’ way they have distinct languages which make zipa ‘husband’ Sarangthem and Lhouvum / 67 them different and unique from each other.The various differences amongst these ethnic groups meted out of religion are also highlighted in this paper. The present paper will be helpful in further research from the perspective of Ethnolinguistics in the near future. Abbreviations 1SG First person pronominal 2SG Second person pronominal 2POSS Second person possesssive 3SG Third person pronominal ASP Aspect DECL Declarative GEN Genetive PL plural POL Polite QN Wh-question References Burling, Robbins. 2003. The Tibeto-Burman languages of Northeast India. In Graham Thurgood & Randy J. Lapolla (eds.), Sino- Tibetan languages, 169-191. London / New York: Routledge. Grierson, G.A. 1904. Linguistic survey of India. Vol.III, Tibeto-Burman family, part III, Reprinted 1967. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. Holmes, Janet. 2008. An Introduction to sociolinguistics. U.K : Pearson Education Limited Pramodini, N. 1989. Kinship Terminology in Meiteilon: a Sociolinguistic study. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 12:2, 123-136. Sarangthem, Bobita. 2010. Sizang (Siyin) Grammar, Unpublished thesis. Manipur University. Sarangthem, Bobita. 2017. Towards the understanding of surnames and naming patterns in Meitei society. Journal of humanities and social science 22:11, 35-43. Shaw, W., 1929. The Thadou Kukis. New Delhi: Cultural Publishing House. Trudgill, Peter, 1995. Sociolinguistics: an introduction to Language and Society. UK: Penguin.
INTEGRATING MOBILE PHONES IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING: A STUDY IN MANIPUR UNIVERSITY Irom Gambhir Singh
The advancement of Information and it is hard to imagine life without cell phones. Communication Technology (ICT) has great Some cell phones are so developed and so impact on students’ accessibility to information advanced that they can even perform almost all and different source materials. With the rapid the functions of a computer. They are not used development of modern science and technology, only as communication devices but are used like mobile devices have undergone massive changes mini computers that can be carried anywhere and it has become so advanced that they can anytime. Cell phones can be used for learning perform almost all the functions of a computer. purposes. The attitude of the students of Manipur Cell phones can be used for learning purposes. University towards mobile phones is very The present paper discusses possible future positive. Though most of the time they use it for applications of cell phones for English language recreational purposes. teaching and learning in Manipur University. The Most people use cell phones as a communication data was obtained from a set of questionnaires or recreational tool as opposed to learning and sent to selected students to find out their attitudes studying. But in European countries mobile towards this mode of teaching English language. learning has developed immensely. Unfortunately The analysis revealed that students use mobile it is yet to be developed in South Asia, phones to help them in their studies and they particularly in India. This paper is an exploratory believe that integrating mobile phones in a study on learners’ perception to mobile learning language teaching gives the learners the and it discusses possible future application of cell opportunity of availing the benefits of digital age. phones in ESL (English as a Second Language) They also believed that cell phones have great learning in Manipur, a north eastern state of India. potential in language teaching and learning. As people have started using latest mobile Keywords: M-Learning, Mobile Phones, devices, they can learn whenever and wherever Information and Communication Technology for they may be. Moreover mobile devices provide learning, English Language Teaching individuals with abundant information and materials related to any topic. Whether the present 1. Introduction pedagogical condition at Manipur University The impact of globalization in recent decades led supports cell phone or smart phone as a language to the accessibility of technological devices, not learning tool or not, is really a considerable only in the metropolis of developed countries but matter. The current study is designed to explore also in the rural areas of developing ones. In the learners’ attitude to mobile phone or cell phone past few decades, mobile devices played use as an instructional tool in the context of important roles in the rapid progress and Manipur University. development of modern science and technology. 2. Mobile Assisted Language Learning There are currently several types of mobile devices that are in use. Some of them are Personal Mobile assisted Language Learning (MALL) Digital Assistants (PDAs), IPods, tablets, cell describes an approach to language learning that is phones, mp3 or mp4 players, cameras, recorders enhanced through use of a mobile device. MALL etc. Among all the mobile devices, cell phones is a subset of both Mobile Learning (m-learning) are probably the most popular and widely used all and Computer-assisted language learning over the world. Cell phones are making our lives (CALL). MALL is involved with the use of the easier and people are so accustomed to them that mobile technologies, such as mobile phones, MP3
Nepalese Linguistics, vol. 34, 2019, pp. 68-72. Singh / 69 /MP4 players, PDAs and palmtop computers, to option to communicate without using voice. support students’ language learning. With MALL Sending messages is preferable in certain context students are able to access language learning as people feel more relaxed and they have more materials, and to communicate with their teachers time to think what they want to communicate. and peers, at anytime, anywhere (Kukulska- Moreover, sending messages is cheaper than Hulme, 2006 quoted in Begum, 2014). Prensky making calls. observes that the browser in web-enabled phones Browsing: It is very convenient for students to puts a dictionary, thesaurus and encyclopedia into browse using cell phones. They can read relevant the hand of every student: access to Google and materials for their studies online. They can also other text search engines turns their cell phones check e-mails, read e-books, instructional into research tools. (cited in Meurant, 2015). materials and watch lecture videos from anywhere Relating to the clarification of ICT, Ibrahim in the world. (2010) illustrates that it is the term that is currently used worldwide to describe new Downloading: It is very convenient for students to technologies that depend mainly on computer and download easily various kinds of materials using the internet. Even the traditional technologies their cell phones. Many free online books and such as radio, television and telephone are materials that can be used for learning English are considered as ICTs. In accordance with the United available to download. Students can download the Nations Development Program (UNDP, 2003), required e-books and read them anywhere or ICTs include, ‘basically information –handling anytime they find convenient. They do not have to tools-a varied set of goods, applications and worry about carrying their heavy textbooks. services that are used to produce, store, process, Students can also download useful software and distribute and exchange information. also dictionaries. Downloaded materials could be shared by teachers to their students and students Cell phones have become increasingly can share with their friends and learn together. sophisticated and they are developed to have computer like functions. It is convenient to carry Camera: Students will benefit greatly by having a around and it can be used not only to make calls, camera on the cell phone while collecting data, but browse online, downloads, send and receive documenting information and storing visual mails, play music, record videos and audios, play information. Students can take pictures from their games etc. But before cell phones are introduced mobile camera of texts they want to read and read as a device for teaching and learning in a later at their own leisure time. classroom a thorough look and analysis of the Gaming: The game feature is available in almost basic functions of cell phones is necessary. every cell phone. There are many instructional Voice: The basic function of cell phones is to games available that will develop the thinking communicate. People all around the world are skills, decision making skills and also help in using cell phones to communicate and they spend developing problem solving skills. It is also a tool a considerable amount of time talking in cell for relaxation and people learn a lot through phones. It is very important to make calls in this playing games. busy world instead of wasting valuable time going With the prevalence of mobile phones and its easy to meet a person. In some mobile apps like WhatsApp, people can record their voice and send access to information, educators need to review as a voice note. The receiver can listen to the their approaches to pedagogy and try to incorporate phones in their teaching. Focus should notes at their own leisure time. Moreover, learners be given to use the facilities of mobile can record their voice and listen to it later and find technologies in teaching and learning process so out areas they need to improve on. that teaching becomes more effective and SMS (Short Message Service): SMS is a service enjoyable. This study examines the students’ that allows people with cell phones to send text perception of the use of mobile technologies in messages as opposed to talking. SMS is another 70 / Integrating mobile phones... teaching and learning of English in Manipur computer always within the reach. But mobile University. phones are inseparable with everyone nowadays, especially the students. Cell phones have been Majority of the students in the University campus developed to a great extent and this facility could of Manipur have mobile phones. Students are seen be used in ESL classroom to teach English. having a quick conversation about classes or Educators can take advantage of the cell phones assignments or silently texting offline or online popularity to incorporate it in their teaching. messages while some others are engaged in reading e-mails. Students are quick to adopt the Schools and institutions have restrictions mobile technology that allows them to keep in regarding cell phones in the campus. But in the touch with friends and access the net as they move University campus there is no restriction of using on with their daily routine. Given the popularity cell phones. Considering the great advantages cell of the mobile phones in the university campus this phones can bring, educators can encourage the is a study to find out how it can be utilized for learners to use it for educational purposes instead educational purposes. of using it just for making calls, sending texts or listening to music and playing games. Teachers’ 3. Defining Mobile Learning familiarity with the functions of the device and its Teaching and learning through Mobile educational value can enhance the potentiality of Technologies (MT) is called M-learning. It allows mobile phones as a learning tool. They should be learning in no fixed location or time of learning the ones to instruct the students on how to use the (Kinshuk, 2003 cited in Abimbola, 2013). technology in class. Students should have the Trifonova and Ronchetti (2003 as cited in basic skills in using technologies and they should Suleiman, 2011) state that Mobile Learning is “e- be guided to use the options available in their learning through mobile computational devices”. mobile. They should be assisted to download According to Vavoula and Sharples ( as cited in software and materials needed for their works. Maryam Tayebinik, 2012), learning can be Teachers can also share files to their students considered mobile in three different contexts: through Bluetooth or Zapya. learning is mobile in regard to space, it is mobile 4. Disadvantages of Mobile Phones in English due to the different places, and it is mobile in classrooms terms of time. Therefore, mobile learning system can deliver education anytime anywhere and, if Though mobile phones have great unique features this technology is adopted, it will benefit the and functions, they are not free of disadvantages. learners because education or interaction with the Mobile phones have limited storage space and it teacher does not occur only in the classroom. The has slow processing speed. The limited battery learners could be at home relaxing yet be actively also does not hold for a very long time. Phones involved in learning. equipped with latest technologies do not come cheap. Moreover, technology advances very Majority of students and teachers in the quickly and to keep up with it one has to upgrade University has access to mobile phones. Many his or her phone frequently. To have an internet people used mobile as communication or connection one needs to pay a monthly data recreational devices and there is little awareness charges and to download large files, the monthly in the students that it could be used for learning. charges could be quite high. The screen size is But like all communication and computing small and so the information that can be displayed devices, cell phones, can be used to learn on the screen at one time is quite small. These (Prensky, 2004 as cited in Begum, 2014). Various flaws should not be overlooked but explored when facilities offered by the mobile phones need to be accessing cell phones potential. Use of mobile pointed out and instructed to utilize so that phones in the classroom may cause distraction and benefits will be gathered by the students. students may start using it for non-academic Most of the students in the University do not own purposes. So this type of learning can be a personal computer and it is not easy to have conducted in a tutorial class in a tutored setting. Singh / 71 5. Methodology 7. Conclusion The data for this paper was obtained through Mobile learning is still not yet implemented in questionnaires administered to twenty students Manipur University because the traditional studying masters in English department in method of teaching is still in practice. But from Manipur University through WhatsApp. These the study conducted among the University students have smart phones and have access to students it can be concluded that the students are internet. The participants were asked some in favour of new methods of learning and they questions and they were instructed to reply feel that from mobile learning they can learn through online texts. Mobile phones are not yet English better. Educators are required to be incorporated in English teaching in Manipur. So positive about the use of mobile phones for the students were asked if they think mobile learning. Students also feel that teachers should phones would assist them to improve their encourage the learners to use mobile phones so language skills and if they want to introduce that they can make classroom teaching more mobile learning in their English language learning lively and interesting. The study reveals in the future or not. This study explores students’ educational institutions must go with the need of experience of using mobile phones for educational learners’ demand for 21st century technological purposes especially for learning English. The advancement. Mobile technologies are developing basic purpose of the study is to find out the rapidly in India, so we need to make good use of students perception to the adoption of mobile this by developing cell phones as educational phones for English language learning. tools. The University is a fitting place to introduce students to mobile learning, as almost all the 6. Discussions of Findings students have cell phones and they have at least Majority of the students agree that mobile the basic knowledge of the mobile devices. learning is a new thing for them and that they Considering the fact that almost all the students in believe that if implemented will benefit them in the University have mobile phones equipped with many ways. The study revealed that most of the various applications for English learning like students use internet to get materials and dictionary, thesaurus, T9 spell check etc. If the information and they find mobile internet very functions and capacities of cell phones are used useful. Sixteen of them have dictionary installed for language teaching and learning effectively it on their phones and they find it very useful to offers the learners more effective ways to practice learn new words while four students do not have English and they benefit a lot through it. dictionaries on their phone. Eighteen students References responded that they use both English and mother Abimbola, O Ogunguyile. (2013). Towards the tongue to send messages while two of them said Integration of Mobile Phones in the Teaching they use only English. Sixteen of them responded of English Language in Secondary Schools in that as most of the conversations are in English Akure, Nigeria. Theory and Practice in they find some improvements in their language Language Studies. Vol. 3, No. 7, pp. 1149- skills after sending text messages while the 1153. Retrieved April 21, 2015 from remaining four students are not sure. Using the T9 http://www.connection.ebscohost.com spell check in the phone for sending messages Ahmadi, M. R. (2018). The Use of Technology in thirteen students find improvement in their English Language Learning: A Literature spellings. Most of the students agree that they Review. International Journal of Research in want to use their mobile phones for academic English Education, 3 (2), 115-125. Retrieved purposes. However there are few students who from: www.ijreeonline.com expressed their negative attitudes to the use of Begum, Roksana. Prospect for Cell Phones as mobile phone for English language learning. Instructional Tools in the EFL Classroom: A Case Study of Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh. English Language Teaching vol
72 / Integrating mobile phones... 4, No 1, March 2011. Retrieved April 24, 2015 from http://www.ccsenet.org/elt Cui Guoqiang and Shuyan Wang. Adopting Cell Phones in EFL Teaching and Learning. Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange. Retrieved April 21, 2015 from http://www.//166.111.9.196/evaluate/downloa dArticle.do?articleld=2152 Khrisat, Abdulhafeth A and Salameh Saleem Mahmoud. Integrating Mobile Phones into the EFL Foundation Year Classroom in King Absulaziz University/ KSA: Effects on Achievement in General English and Students’ Attitudes. Retrieved April 21, 2015 from http://www.//dx.doi.org/10.5539/elt.v6n8p162 Mehta, Naveen k. (2012) Mobile Phone Technology in English Teaching: Causes and Concerns. MJAL 4:2 Summer 2012. Retrieved April 21, 2015 from http://www.aedmoodle.ufpa.br/pluginfile.php? ...forum%2Fattachment%2F240... Meurant, Robert C. Cell Phones in the L2 Classroom: Thumbs up to SMS A literature review, with implications for SLA pedagogy. . Retrieved April 21, 2015 from http:www.//homepage.mac.com/rmeurant/ Suleiman, Al Aamri Kamla. (2011). The Use of Mobile Phones in Learning English Language by Sultan Quaboos University Students: Practices, Attitudes and Challenges. Canadian Journal on Scientific and Industrial Research vol. 2, No. 3, March 2011. Retrieved April 21, 2015 from http://www.stu.westga.edu/~bthibau1/MEDT %20Baylen/.../13.pdf Tayebinik, Maryam and Puteh Marlia. (2012). Mobile Learning to Support Teaching English as a Second Language. Journal of Education and Practice. Retrieved April 21, 2015 from http://www.iiste.org/Journals/index.php/JEP/ar ticle/viewFile/1850/1805.
INDEX AND LOCALISATION IN SIGN LANGUAGE: INTERFACE REQUIREMENT IN SEARCH OF FEATURES Samar Sinha
This paper analyses INDEX and LOCALISATION as the inadequacies in the explanation of the interface requirements owing to different S-M phenomenon in section 3. It is followed by newer system that creates differences in terms of their observations from ISL. In the following section, features. It aims to provide an account of the the paper draws a feature based decomposition of structure building feature(s) associated with INDEX and LOCALISATION in ISL. Section 6 various instances of the phenomena in Indian concludes the paper. Sign Language. The corpus is collected through 2. INDEX and LOCALISATION fieldwork with the Deaf Associations, schools, and communities in India. The methodology In the sign language literature, an INDEX refers to employed is deductive following Branson & a type of pointing gesture that the signer uses to Miller (1997) and Mathur (2000) (see Sinha 2008 point to someone or something either manually for details). This paper argues that INDEX and and/or non-manually with the eye gaze or the LOCALISATION are associated with D head with d- body orientation; and the act as indexing. It is features, and provides the ground from which used to refer to an object, referents, spatial cross-linguistic and cross-modality studies as location, or events around the signer and the well as investigations on universal set of features addressee in a common observable space, which I and their values can proceed. refer to as 'real reference frame.' Keywords: index, localisation, reference frame, In ISL, a signer has an option to refer to a referent feature, value located in the real reference frame either by articulating the sign for the referent in its every 1. Introduction instance or by indexing to the particular referent. The centrality of feature in syntax upholds the In contrast, in the absence of an appropriate view that cross-linguistic as well as cross- referent in the real reference frame, the signer modality similarities and differences in linguistic articulates the sign for a referent and assigns it a structures can be analysed in terms of features. distinct, specific locus in the signer’s signing area This tenet seems to be promising in the study of through indexing. Such locus is termed as R- various aspects of structure in sign language (EFERENTIAL) LOCUS. I refer to such a reference which have no parallel in spoken language. In frame as 'abstract reference frame' opposed to 'real sign language literature, such phenomena are reference frame,' and the united one as 'linguistic generally ascribed to the 'modality differences' reference frame.' that the sign language employ. In the sign language literature, the articulation of This paper aims to address the 'modality the sign and the assignment of a particular R- differences' do not make sign language unique by LOCUS to it is called LOCALISATION (see Sinha virtue of its S-M system, rather the interface 2008: 143). A sign can be localised by virtue of requirements of the S-M system creates the articulating the sign in the desired locus, without differences in terms of the feature, and INDEX being followed by an INDEX. I shall recall these refers to such feature(s) in Indian Sign Language two types of LOCALISATION by descriptive labels - (henceforth, ISL). The paper is divided into six manual LOCALISATION and non-manual broad sections. In section 2, the facts relating to LOCALISATION, respectively. In ISL, manual INDEX and LOCALISATION in ISL are described. A LOCALISATION involves the articulation of the summary of the previous analyses of INDEX in HAND-SHAPE: G or B above with or without eye sign language literature is provided to highlight gaze. It can be effected on either the ipsilateral or Nepalese Linguistics, vol. 34, 2019, pp. 73-80. 74 / INDEX and LOCALISATION... the contralateral side of the signer following a sign to be localised.1 (1) eg:i torso:i M-A-D-A-N M-U-N-A IX-c LIKE "Madan likes Muna."
In (1), a signer localises MADAN non-manually with an eye gaze at the ipsilateral side of the Figure 1: Role play signer. This is followed by manual LOCALISATION of MUNA on the contralateral side. In the In Fig. 1(a), the signer plays the role of a driver; articulation of like, the signer orients his/her body hence sitting. In Fig. 1(b), the signer’s role is of a towards the ipsilateral side facing the R-LOCUS standing police officer, who stops the car. The associated with MUNA. The subsequent INDEX to role play shows various spatial dimensions that the R-LOCI at the ipsilateral and the contralateral the referents actually occupy in the discursive sides suffices to refer to MADAN and MUNA, context. respectively. To sum up, the ISL data shows that In ISL, however, not all nouns allow LOCALISATION and INDEX are two different LOCALISATION: only [+animate], [+concrete], phenomena with different syntactic and semantic [+locative] nouns may be localised, and restrictions although similar in the articulatory [+abstract], [+mass], and [+generic] nouns may terms. not. It shows that there is semantic restriction on 3. Previous analyses LOCALISATION. Despite such restrictions, once a referent is localised resulting an R-LOCUS, an In sign language literature, the phenomena of INDEX to the R-LOCUS suffices to refer to the same LOCALISATION and INDEX are, often, regarded as referent unambiguously in the discourse as shown one; hence, they are analysed as the same. As a in (2), even after many intervening signs like consequence, LOCALISATION is subsumed under adjective that occur in between the noun and the INDEX and has barely received any distinct LOCALISATION. linguistic analysis, whereas INDEX is most often ascribed as pronoun citing its anaphoric function (2) ANCIENT-PAST KING BRAVE IX-i. IX-i as seen in (2). Most often an INDEX to the locus of FEM-BORN THREE HAVE. OLD. the signer and the addressee are analysed as first "Once upon a time, there was a brave king. and second person, respectively, and an INDEX to He had three daughters. (He was) old." the actual referent and/or to the R-LOCI is analysed In non-manual LOCALISATION, the referent is as third person. It is in this trifurcated linguistic either localised by the eye gaze, or by employing reference frame, an INDEX is analysed as a the strategy of role play in the discourse. In the pronoun. latter, the narrator often plays the role of the There are, however, several other analyses of the characters in turn and narrates the event from the phenomenon in various sign languages. Friedman character’s perspective as direct speech. This is (1975) argues that person reference in American either carried out by the signer orienting his/her Sign Language (ASL) is accomplished through body towards the character’s R-LOCUS or by the use of indexing, but maintains that there is no taking the perspective of the agent or experiencer equivalent of pronoun in the ASL lexicon. Lillo- of the event. Martin and Klima (1990), although agrees that there is only one pronoun listed in the sign language lexicon, argues for a referential index, 1 Zeshan (2003) mentions that INDEX can either precede which is overtly realised in sign language due to a or follow a sign it localises. However, the earlier specific effect of the modality, in contrast with instance is not observed in my corpus. those of spoken language. Bahan (1996), MacLaughlin (1997) associate LOCALISATION, Sinha / 75
INDEX and possessive ASL sign with the head of 4. INDEX and LOCALISATION: a fresh observation the determiner phrase. Neidle et al. (2000: 31) from ISL claim that ’spatial locations constitute an overt Sinha (2003, 2006, 2008) acknowledges the fact instantiation of phi-features (specifically, person that there are syntactic and semantic restrictions features) in ASL.' Pfau and Steinbach (2006; on INDEX and LOCALISATION, and makes a 2011; also see Pfau 2011) propose the distinction between the two in ISL. Further, he grammaticalization of pointing gesture to locative, observes a contrast in LOCALISATION of place locative marker, demonstrative pronoun, personal names. The place name in which the signer is pronoun, relative pronoun, agreement marker and situated at the moment of signing is localised agreement auxiliary. differently from the place name in which the On the other hand, there are authors who contest signer is not. the claim that indexing has a pronominal function. (3) R-A-M IX-i BOMBAY IX-d DELHI IX-u Ahlgren (1990) argues that Swedish Sign d-GO-u Language INDEX areessentiallydemonstratives. "Ram will go to Delhi from Bombay." McBurney (2002: 365) argues that in sign language “the coding of participant roles is (4) IX-s DELHI IX-d J-O-B f-GET-s accomplished not through abstract categories of "I got a job in Delhi." person, but rather through gestural deixis.” Schlenker (2011: 9), claims that “...it would be an overstatement to claim that all the features of sign language pronouns are analogous to those of their spoken language counterparts."2
In ISL, Zeshan (2003) has regarded INDEX and LOCALISATION as the same following its functions. She views that “the index is also used to localize a referent in sign space, that is, to Figure 2: Localisation of place indicate a point with which the referent is to be associated in the following text” (Zeshan 2003: In Fig. 2(a) and 2(b), the LOCALISATION of the 165). In other functions, when INDEX is used for sign BOMBAY and DELHI, respectively is shown deictic function and, anaphorically, it is from (3). In the former, the signer is in BOMBAY, considered to be equivalent to demonstratives and so the sign is localised close to the signer; in the pronouns, respectively. Hidam (2010; 2014) also latter, LOCALISATION shows the spatio-temporal favours person feature for ISL. distance between the signer and the place 3 localised i.e. DELHI. Contrast this with Fig. 2(c) Despite several strains of analyses in the sign from (4), the signer’s spatio-temporal situation i.e. language literature, the syntactic and the semantic DELHI is localised closed to the signer unlike in restrictions on INDEX and LOCALISATION are (3). This shows that space is viewed from the overlooked or obliterated. Consequently, the perspective of the signer which creates an ego- former is analysed as person, pronoun, centric view (often referred to as origo), and the demonstrative, etc., and the latter has barely referents are in relation to the signer. received any attention in sign language literature. Such descriptive/analogical analyses often resort In addition to the heightened use of space, it is to the 'modality differences,' and fail to provide also found that the descriptive content alone is not account of the phenomena. enough to determine a unique referent and an INDEX must be articulated in ISL. INDEX is a
2 For various other approaches see Liddell (2000), Sandler and Lillo-Martin (2006), Schlenker et al. 3 (3) and (4) were elicited at Mumbai (formerly, (2013), Schlenker (2014) and Kuhn (2016). Bombay) and New Delhi, respectively. 76 / INDEX and LOCALISATION... demonstrative which can either precede or follow The above example (7) indicates that even in the the noun sign as shown in (5). abstract reference frame as in the real reference frame, R-LOCI decay as events/situations unfold, (5) a. BOOK IX GOOD and cease to be linguistically significant. This is b. IX BOOK GOOD exactly as would have been in the real reference "This/that book is good." frame for an identical sentence, except that In (5) INDEX has an overt deictic reading instead of signing MONKEY in (7a), the signer necessarily. However, it is not the case that each would have merely pointed to the real-time and every instance of an INDEX in ISL has referent MONKEY in the spatio-temporal necessarily deictic as well, apart from its coordinate. In other words, INDEX tracks the referential reading. This contrasts with (6), shown movement of the referent in the spatio-temporal below, where the deictic reading of IX i.e. dimension wherever the referent is at that point of BHUDEO) is inherent but implicit. discourse. This shows that the INDEX to the R- LOCUS or the physically present referent in the (6) IX-i FEM-BABUNI IX-c i-LIKE-c partitioned signing space is not an invariant “(Bhudeo) likes Babuni." pronominal form as in spoken language. He Further, Sinha (ibid.) discusses another further argues that had it been like a spoken phenomenon associated to INDEX and language pronoun, the signer would have INDEX to LOCALISATION which has barely received any the same R-LOCUS. In short, the dynamic referents attention in sign language literature. It is related to inherent to both reference frames may change the dynamicity inherent to both reference frames, discourse space-time in ISL. where referents may change discourse space-time. Sinha (ibid.), hence, argues that in ISL an INDEX Consider the example from ISL in (7), to the R-LOCUs in the partitioned signing space is concentrating on how the referent MONKEY is not a pronoun, but an R-expression, thereby treated. involving reference of the Chandan type rather (7) a. MONKEY IX-i BIG than the he type. He argues that every instance of "A monkey is big." INDEX in the linguistic reference frame is a noun (i.e. an R-expression), and that there does not b. TREE-c i-CLIMB-c exist a syntactic realisation of person other than "(The monkey) climbs a tree." the pragmatic/discourse roles. He, further, c. IX-c APPLE=EAT consolidates his analysis through the binding facts "The monkey eats an apple (on the tree)." that support his claim.
In (7a), MONKEY is manually localised at the (8) MRIGE IX-i IX-i LIKE-i ipsilateral side of the signer (in the abstract "Mrige likes him." (lit. Mrigei likes Mrigei.) reference frame). tree is articulated at the In the grammatical example (6), the R-LOCI contralateral side of the signer showing an associated with the ipsilateral localised referent instance of non-manual LOCALISATION. In (7b), refers to the same referent i.e. MRIGE. If the INDEX CLIMB has a path movement that has the onset R- were indeed a pronominal, then Principle B of the LOCUS associated with the MONKEY and the onset Binding Theory is violated. The example is is at the top facet of the contralateral R-LOCUS grammatical, however, suggesting that Principle B associated with the TREE, respectively. The sign does not apply at all. Principle C, that prohibits MONKEY is not signed nor INDEXED (as it is a co-reference to hold between R-expressions, holds discourse topic); the onset of the path movement in a modified form in ISL by which c-commanded suffices to refer to the monkey. The path R-expression are treated like epithets in spoken movement shows that the MONKEY has climbed language as shown below in (9). the TREE, and is at the top fact of the TREE. In (7c), MONKEY is not indexed where it is localised (9) John hired a secretary that hates the idiot. i.e. the ipsilateral R-LOCUS, but at the top facet of "Johni hired a secretary that hates the idioti.” the TREE at the contralateral side of the signer. Sinha / 77
In ISL, there is no morphological realisation of definite. Syntactically, INDEX and LOCALISATION any Case rather INDEX is used invariably. In occupy the head of DP. genitive construction, compounding is employed A large cross-linguistic study, however, shows as a strategy, where an INDEX followed by a that the determiner may not encode definiteness possessum is grammatically valid genitive i.e. the same determiner can be used for novel construction. It is, however, observed that HAND- referent as well as familiar referent. In Squamish, SHAPE: tA is often used for genitive/possessive Malagasy, and Skwxwu7mesh among other opposed to INDEX, and to make distinction languages (see Ghomeshi et al. 2009), all between the two forms. determiners can be used in novel or familiar To summarise the discussion so far, in both the contexts, regardless of whether they are deictic or real and the abstract reference frames, discourse non-deictic. Hence, the D-link features like relevant referents are treated alike as there is no familiarity and novelty (see Aboh 2003) do not fundamental syntactic distinction between the suffice to determine the feature composition. The 4referents. In a discursive context, a signer can Skwxwu7mesh data provide us with evidence for introduce a referent through LOCALISATION, and three-way distinction: definite, indefinite and non- INDEX to the referent is equivalent to the definite. In Skwxwu7mesh, non-definites can be articulation of the sign in its every instance. The used in both novel and familiar cases, but behave communicative intent of INDEX would be of much like definites in familiar contexts. generic reference rather than a specific reference Considering this cross linguistic variation, the to an entity located in the real reference frame. definiteness can be valued as [±definite] and The fact that INDEX to the R-LOCUS [±indefinite]. unambiguously refers to the same referent Like value decomposition of definiteness, D- associated with the R-LOCUS even after many (eterminer) head is not a monolithic element but intervening signs shows that LOCALISATION does composed of features (henceforth, d-features); and not signify an act of reference, whereas INDEX these features vary cross-linguistically as well as does, and the latter encodes deixis too. on cross-modality basis. The following 5. Decomposing D to d-features phenomena in ISL5 are examined to ascertain the d-features of INDEX and LOCALISATION. Acknowledging the fact that there is a distinction between INDEX and LOCALISATION, Sinha (2008) In ISL, a solitary INDEX to a referent has uses the ideas of Heim (1982) in distinguishing semantics of singular, and two successive INDEX the two. On the basis of their semantics, Heim is to mark dual. It is known as transnumeral (ibid.) argues that indefinite descriptions are singular and transnumeral dual, respectively referential, and an indefinite is used to introduce a (descriptive labels are from Zeshan 2003). It is new entity into the discourse (Novelty Condition), also observed that to mark two of the referents, while a definite or a pronoun is used to refer to the signer makes eye gaze to the referents and a old/familiar entities (Familiarity Condition). Sinha suppletive HANDSHAPE: V is used to include the (2008) argues that LOCALISATION is governed by two. Such suppletive form is labelled as dual. the Novelty Condition, but INDEX is in service of Another articulatory strategy to include more than the Familiarity Condition. Thus, the former two referents is to articulate a semi/circular signals indefiniteness in ISL, while the latter horizontal arc sweeping the referents. This yields definite descriptions in ISL. This entails articulatory strategy with ARC is an instance of that a noun introduced into a discourse without plural INDEX. Another strategy to mark plurality is LOCALISATION is indefinite while the subsequent successive INDEX to referents to include as many articulation of the same in the discourse is those referents as INDEX refers to. It is labelled as
4 The handshape: tA is a loanword from English and 5 For details of each phenomena see Sinha (2008, ASL for fingerspelling 'S.' 2013). 78 / INDEX and LOCALISATION... transnumeral plural. The difference between It is also observed that HANDSHAPE: B in lieu of transnumeral plural and the ARC is that the former HANDSHAPE: G is also used by the signers for is specific and the latter is not. The similar applies INDEX as well as ARC. It is mostly used for a to transnumeral dual and dual. A schematic human referent since to point with HANDSHAPE: G diagram sums up the phenomenon. is considered unmannerly in the many South- Asian socio-cultural settings. HANDSHAPE: B, therefore, can be best understood as a marker of honorificity. Consequently, the manual INDEX HANDSHAPE: B and HANDSHAPE: G can be divided into honorific and non-honorific, respectively. It is also observed that honorific distinction is maintained in singular and dual masculine and
Figure 3: Number marking in ISL feminine whereas the same distinction is not distinguished morphologically in dual. Fig. 3(a) shows the INDEX to the addressee. Fig. 3(b) and 3(c) are an instance of transnumeral Adger and Harbour (2008) appropriate plural and dual, respectively. Fig. 3(d) has an ARC honorificity within the ambit of phi-features. showing the inclusion of all the referents along Based on ISL data, the honorific distinction can with the sweep of the arc. In Fig. 3(e), all the motivate to build feature distinction based on referents in the discourse including the signer is [±honorific]. included. Zeshan (ms.) observes that ISL signs localized in This establishes that number is among the d- the upper space involves entities that are invested features, and it is manifested with distinct values. with some degree of authority such as the Thus, the number feature in ISL is devised as government, the police and schools. Similar [singular] and [augmented] following Harbour observation is expressed by Schlenker et al. (2007) and Nevins (2006). Interestingly, ISL (2012) for ASL and LSF, and maintains that this number interacts with specificity as discussed distinction of high or low position of a locus in above. Hence, [±specificity] is an additional signing space has a direct semantic reflex, akin to feature along with number. the semantic contribution of gender features of pronouns. In ISL, gender differences are encoded for animate humans. The animate usually has FACE, if In spoken languages like in Burmese, Thai and the signs (abbreviated in text as MASC. and FEM.) Japanese, it is found that there are distinct forms are not articulated. MASC. and FEM are articulated in the pronominal system to indicate status, with the HANDSHAPE: G at the LOCATION: intimacy, and non-restraint, closely linked with PHILTRAL COLUMN and LOCATION: NOSE GROVE, other factors like politeness or respect, and also respectively. They are obligatorily used for non- assertiveness which are directly connected with discourse participants and may be localised. B are speech roles - the speech role of 'being an INDEX is also used for animate human masculine, honoured addressee' as distinct from that of 'being and also for neuter. an addressee of the same or lower status' (Bhatt 2004:112). In sign language, the high and the low Note that ISL display difference in terms of loci which are associated with reference to the animacy; and Harley Ritter (2002) independently signer can be understood as the spatial argued that animacy is a form of gender. representation of the speech roles as observed in Following Harley’s (2008) two-feature system for the spoken languages. Accordingly, the high and distinguishing gender, ISL gender can be stated as the low loci can be introduced in terms of feature [±feminine] and [±neuter], where [+feminine, - speech role with [±status] values. neuter] is fem; [-feminine, -neuter] is masc; and [- feminine, +neuter] is neuter. In turn, this feature Recall examples (3-6) from the earlier section. system captures the difference of animacy with The sign in Fig. 2(a) and 2(c) are used for location [±neuter]. of the utterance and 2(b) is used for location that Sinha / 79 is not the location of the utterance. This shows of features and their values can proceed. that ISL encodes a contrast in terms of visibility Acknowledgements with [-visible] and [+visible] values. In addition to visibility, INDEX in ISL has the function of a I wish to thank Prof. Ulrike Zeshan, Dr. Sibaji demonstrative which can either precede or follow Panda, Gopal, Debdatta, Dharmesh and Monica the noun sign as seen in (5) and (6). The deictic for the ISL data. I thank Prof. Philippe Schlenker, nature of demonstrative encode information about and Prof. Ayesha Kidwai for her elaborate the location of the referent with respect to the comments and suggestions on the earlier drafts of utterance location that is visible. Since there are the paper. I am also grateful to the audience in no defined loci in space to distinguish proximate, The Faculty of Language: Design and Interfaces medial and distal but a continuum; for the ease of (2013), Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. All exposition, the relevant values associated with errors are of course my own. [+visible] are [±proximate] and [±distal]. Notation Conventions On the basis of the above discussion and a wider eg Eye gaze cross-linguistic generalisations, the d-feature torso Torso tilt associated with INDEX and LOCALISATION in ISL - Fingerspelling is decomposed into following features and their IX INDEX values: c Contralateral side of the signer 1) Number: [±singular] [±augmented] i Ipsilateral side of the signer 2) Gender: [±feminine] [±neuter] u Space above the signer’s face 3) Honorificity: [±honorific] d Space below the signer’s waist 4) Visibility: [-visible] [+visible]: s Signer [±proximate] [±distal] f Addressee 5) Speech role: [±status] = Incorporation 6) Definiteness: [±indefinite] [±definite] d-VERB-u Path movement of verb 7) Specificity: [±specific] References Finally, each instance of INDEX and Aboh, Enoch O. 2004. Topic and focus within D. 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LANGUAGE SHIFT AND MAINTENANCE: A CASE STUDY OF KANI TRIBES* Sreelakshmi K M
This paper aims to look into the status of the attention has been paid to the languages spoken language maintenance and shifts in the by the tribal communities in Kerala. The State Malampasha, a language spoken by the Kanikkar Government do not have an exact number (ISO 639-3, kev) community in Kerala. The paper regarding the tribal population in Kerala and the also intends to draw out some of the struggles that estimates vary from forty-eight to fifty-four. the Kanikkar community face in the wake of the There is also widespread misconception that the dominating presence of Malayalam. mother tongues of several tribal communities such as Aranadan, Ulladan, Urali, Kaani, Kurichyan, Keywords: Kani, tribes in Kerala, language shift, Mullukuruman, Malaullda, Paniya, Adiya, Malayalam, language maintenance, Kanikkar Malpandaram and Viswan being treated as 1. Introduction dialects. State driveninitiatives that are heavily invested in Malayalam has affected the survival of Though language loss was quite common in these languages. historic as well as pre-historic times, the number of languages that are facing endangerment or are While part of the problem arises from the violence extinct, have gone up since the sixteenth century of development and exclusion, language loss is (Dixon 1991a: 232). Quite evidently, colonization also a natural by-product of migration, where and genocide by European nations have been the minority communities must adjust to the primary cause. However, language loss of the constructed space of the state. present times, is of a different character. We begin 2. The Context and Scope of Research our project on this note, where we grapple with the language loss of one such community in In the reserved forest areas of Travancore in Kerala, a state that is quite distinctive for its Kerala stays one of the aboriginal tribes of Kerala. health and educational indices but have been Kani or Kanikkar were known for their close woefully ignorant of language loss.1 association with the royal Maharajas of Kerala. Settled in the Western Ghats of Kerala and Tamil India is home to nearly 2000 languages, out of Nadu, Kanikkars were originally known as ‘Mala- which several languages are facing endangerment Arayan’. As Matter (1883) states, “the tribes or extinction. According to the UNESCO, a living toward the south of Travancore are most language faces endangerment when it is spoken usually designated by this term Kanikkar, while by less than 10,000 speakers. By this definition, in those in the North are commonly called as ‘Mala- India, there are 600 languages that face Arayan’. It is possible that the change in the name endangerment and nearly 250 that have become and identity of the same tribe has everything to do extinct in the last sixty years. with their social context. For example, it is Out of the 600 languages that face endangerment, believed that these hereditary land proprietors nearly all of them are either languages spoken by were too dominating that the co-existential of nomadic communities or languages spoken by other tribes found it impossible with in the same tribal communities. This is particularly significant land. in a state like Kerala, which has failed to officially Despite having immense power, these royal forest recognize tribal languages. With Malayalam caretakers had to start migrating with the end of dominating 96.7% of the population, very little the reign of kings. Today, the Kanis are known to be divided into two sections i.e. the Natukanis and the Malamkanis. Nattukanis are the people who * This paper is a part of the ongoing research on are settled in the plains while the Malamkanis are Documenting the language of Kanis in Kerala. 1 those who reside in the hills. Nepalese Linguistics, vol. 34, 2019, pp. 81-86. 82 / Language shift and... The Malamkanis are popularly identified as the 3. Methodology/ Selecting the Informants propagators of arogya pacha meaning ‘healthy The study was conducted in the Kani tribal green’ or the ‘plants that can provide evergreen community in order to check their language shift health’ which are botanically identified as and maintenance. Questions were asked to the Trichopus Zeylanicus. Such was their reputation informants to know in detail about their language that the tribe was awarded for their ethno attitude. The study was conducted in multiple medicinal findings at the UN sponsored World levels. The data was collected through group Summit on Sustainable Development. While discussion. As most of the informants were tribal, scholars have paid attention to the community for they were not very keen on the question answer their agricultural methods and natural reserves, process. For the informants, focused group the Kanikkars have been slowly losing their discussions with 5-6 people were more folklores and songs over the years. productive. Secondly, the question answer method Tribal bilingualism in Kerala is oral and therefore, was used to extract many details about their majority of the speech varieties of the tribes have language. The informants in the group included faced language loss due to standardization. There older generation people and younger generation, is a clear trend of moving away from mother- so that a clear variation in the language can be tongues and favouring of Malayalam evident in tracked. Kanikkar and Kurichiyar communities. This is For this whole research participants were selected stark contrast to the efforts made in preserving the in two ways. The first section the study started a language of the Kanikkar communities in Tamil general friendly talk with the community people. Nadu. In Tamil Nadu the language of the Kanis Out of them some of the tribes had an in-depth are known as “Kani-pasai” i.e, Spoken language knowledge about their community’s culture and (Miller and Narayanan Kani: 2004) while in tradition but the hardly uses their language for Kerala, their language is known as “Malam- communication. While the other set of people pasha” meaning language of the hills, ISO 639-3, included the elders in the tribe who too had an kev. Very little work has been done on the Kanis immense knowledge about their community and of Kerala as compared to the literature that one they speak their language. In the case of some of finds in the Kani-pasai. According to Miller these elderly people they were aware of the fact (2004 : 4), this is because “the people of Tamil that their language is different from Malayalam. Nadu have historically felt a devotion to their At the same time others couldn’t differentiate language to a degree unsurpassed by any other their language which is Malampasha with people in the world: some Tamilians even Malayalam. In these cases the interviews with this experience the Tamil language as a goddess” group of people held in a different way i.e., more (Miller and Narayanan Kani 2004: 4). Miller in a naturalistic way so that their natural speech states that, could be recorded. The older generation aged The Kani’s forest dialect of Tamil should be between 55-70years and the younger generation treasured, documented, and nurtured. Just as aged between 15-30 years. The total informants biodiversity is healthy for landscapes, preventing for this study were 10 older generations (Kani1, deforestation and desertification, so cultural K1) and 10 younger generations (Kani 2, K2). diversity is valuable in human societies. As the 4. Analysis Tamil language enters the Age of Cyberspace, let Her enrich Herself with knowledge and 4.1 Phonological Features experience from the forest. One never knows when Sounds are the main features that undergo sudden varied points of view and modes of perception shift while the native speakers try to imitate words might help a people to cope with new experiences and challenges. (2004:5) from other languages. In the Kani phonology, such phonological change or shift can be seen in The study looks into the critical juncture where the sound /a/. The word beginning with /a/ sound Malampasha is slowly absolving the words from is replaced with /e/ by the speaker. In the spoken the dominant language. language of the Malampasha such evident replace K M / 83 of the front unrounded open vowel /a/ with front The retroflex approximant /ɻ/ is not a feature in unrounded close-mind vowel /e/ is visible. This the Malampasha, in their tongue, older generation phonological shift is seen both in the older couldn’t produce the sound. They mostly replace generation and younger generation of Kani it with palatal appromxiamnt /j/. While the rest of speakers.Even though the sound /a/ and /e/ are the sound mention could still be produced by the seen in the Malayalam spoken in Kerala, still the Kanikkar but not the sound /ɻ/. This might also replacement of the /a/ sound with /e/ is more a give an evidence that this sound was absent in feature of Tamil. As the Kani’s are settled in the their language and the Kani’s even after shifting border areas of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the to Malayalam, they are mostly not able to produce influence of the both dominant language is seen in this sound during conversations. However, the their language. younger generation / the present generation could produce this sound in their speech. While the (1) Malampasha Malayalam Meaning older generation fail to or to say, try to retain eiyya aiyya name of a Kani some features in their language, the younger woman generation shifts their way of using language to e:ru a:ru river Malayalam. eʈʈukaɭɭu aʈʈukaɭɭa grinding stone made of rock (3) Malampasha Malayalam Meaning pieces piju puɻu caterpillar eʈʈukaɭɭai aʈʈukaɭa kitchen kuji kuɻi pit enpat̪u anpat̪a fifty vaji vaɻi path c̆ aji c̆ aɻi an insect Table 1: Percentage of phonological variation of e a in Kani 1 and Kani 2 generation The above mentioned notable phonological changes give the evidence that this language also Generation No.of Sound Percentage has similar notable features towards Tamil than to Speakers Malayalam. According to SIL International’s K1(Kani 1) 10 e a 6.75% study, the Malampasha has 60 – 70% of lexical K2 (Kani 2) 10 ea 7. 55% similarity to the dominant language presently. Similarly, the /v/, which is a labio-dental fricative Table 3: Percentage of phonological variation of j sound, is mostly replaced in their language. Every ɻ in Kani 1 and Kani 2 generation time the kanikkar pronounce any word the /v/ sound is replaced with the plosive bilabial sound Generation No.of Sound Percentage /b/. This feature is seen in the words starting with Speakers /v/ ending and in the middle positions too. K1(Kani 1) 10 j ɻ 5.88% K2 (Kani 2) 10 j ɻ 6.23% (2) Malampasha Malayalam Meaning 4.2 Case Markers beɭɭijə valijə big ebiɖe aviɖe there Case markers are an important aspect in any biraɭ viraɭ finger language that defines the purpose of the sentences beɭɭakkar velakkar servants in the language through noun phrase, with respect bent̪ə vent̪ ə burned/cooked to verbs. The case markers found in the language of Kanis will be also shown with noun phrases. Table 2: Percentage of phonological variation of Though many of the cases markers in bv in Kani 1 and Kani 2 generation Malampasha have undergone shift under the Generation No.of Sound Percentage influence of Malayalam, certain case markers are Speakers also retained by the speakers. K1 (Kani 1) 10 bv 7.33% Case Marker Example K2 (Kani 2) 10 bv 8.66% Nominative Ø sita Accusative -inne sitainne Dative -ikku/nikku sitanikku 84 / Language shift and... Sociative -ɖei sitaɖei person K2 10 = 7.55 % Locative -il sitail plural) Instrumental -aal sitaaɭ You (second K1 10 = 4.55% Genitive -nʈe sitanʈe person K2 10 = 5.66 % singular) In Malampasha the Nominative, accusative, dative, sociative case have been retained by the You (second K1 10 = 6.75% tribes. While case markers for locative, person K2 10 = 8.33 % instrumental and genitive has been borrowed from plural) Malayalam. He/she (third K1 10 = 5.55% person K2 10 = 8.33 % 4.3 Pronominal Forms singular) The pronouns are the important feature in a They (third K1 10 = 3.55% language which is marker based on three features, person K2 10 = 5.55 % gender, number and person. In the Malampasha, plural) the Kanis used pronominal forms which appear 4.4 Possessive Pronouns similar to the Trivandrum dialect spoken in Kerala. Possessive pronouns are one of the important forms in the language that undergoes shift. They Table 4: The pronominal forms in both the are formed when the personal pronouns and the languages are given below interrogative pronouns are added to the genitive English Malampasha Malayalam suffix. I (first person Ein ɲa:n Table 6: Possessive pronouns in Malampasha singular) Malampasha We (first person ɲaŋa ɲaŋaɭ/nammaɭ plural) Person Singular Plural You (second Ninge Ni First person enʈe ɲaŋŋadei person singular) Second Person Ningei Niŋŋadei You (second Niŋŋa niŋŋaɭ Third Person abanikkə (M) abanudei(M) person plural) abiɭukkə(F) abiɭudei(F) He/she (third avanu/avabuɭu avan/avaɭ Table 7: Percentage of shift in the possessive person singular) pronouns in the Kani 1 and Kani generation They (third itiŋaɭ ava/iva person plural) Person Generation No of Speakers/ Percentage The pronominal system in the language shows First person K1 10 = 7.55% that these terms have undergone a major shift K2 10 = 8.66% towards Malayalam and Tamil. As this language Second K1 10 = 7.33% has undergone a larger shift under the influence of Person K2 10 = 8.66% the dominant languages, this is the present form is Third K1 10 = 6.66% which the Kanikkar in the south uses the Person K2 10 = 8.33% pronouns. Even though, the language has undergone changes Table 5: Pattern of language shift over generation the terms in personal pronouns too are found that in pronominal forms it has borrowed the suffixations in pronouns from Pronominal Generation No.of Malayalam. Speakers/Percentage 4.5 Interrogative Pro-form I (first K1 10 = 4.55% person K2 10 = 7.33 % In Malampasha, the interrogative pro-forms are singular) mostly influenced by Malayalam language. These We (first K1 10 = 5.75% forms are the words that get mostly affected under K M / 85 the influence of the dominant language. But there tongue. Trying to run along with the present fast is a certain difference in the sound system of the growing world, with awareness to the need to same word is seen in the Malampasha. protect their mother tongue would not only lead to the language shifts but also to language loss. Table 8: The present Interrogative pro-forms in Malampasha References Abbi, Anvita. 2001. A Manual of Linguistic Field English Malampasha Work and Structures of Indian Languages. What en̪ tə Lincom Europa When Eppera Abbi, Anvita (ed.). 1997. Languages of tribal and Where Ebide indigenous peoples of India. Indian How Eŋane Anthropologist, Vol. 27, No. 2 Delhi : Motilal Who a:rə Banarsidass. pp.89-91 Table 9: Percentage of variation in the use of the Baiju, K.C. 2011. Tribal Development under interrogative pro-forms in Kani1 and Kani 2 Decentralised Governance in Kerala: Issues generation and Challenges, JOAAG, Vol. 6. No. 1. Bose, N. K. 1977. Tribal life in India. National Interrogative Generation No. of Speakers/ Book Trust. New Delhi. Pro-form Percentage Brown, R.M. 1994. Review of Endangered What K1 10 = 6.55% Languages [ed.] by R. H. Robins & E. K2 10= 8.33% M. Uhlenbeck. International Journal of When K1 10= 7.66% American Linguistics 60 (3).307-310. K2 10= 8.55% Brown, R.M. 1989. Problemsand prospects of Where K1 10= 6.66% Tribal Development in North East India: In K2 10= 7.66% Economic and Political Weekly.Vol. XXIV. How K1 10= 5.75 % No.13 Bombay. K2 10= 7.33% Census of India. 1991. Series 1, Language India Who K1 10= 6.33% and States. Registrar General and Census K2 10= 7.55% Commissioner, India. What K1 10= 6.33% Das, Pauline & Raj Mohan L. 2014. Irula Folk K2 10= 8.55% Songs. Vol.16:6 June 2014.Languages in India. 5. Conclusion Derhemi, E. 2002. Protecting Minority Bilingualism and multilingualism are one of the Languages: Sociolinguistic Perspective- main reasons for language shift. The brief study Thematic Introduction, International Journal on the language of the Kani shows a greater level on Multicultural Societies. 4. (2). 153-164 of shift from their mother tongue to the dominant DOBES Archive. 2006. DOBES Programme. language. Malayalam is dominantly used in www.mpi.nl/DOBES/dobesprogramme/ Kerala. 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REFLECTIONS ON THE BEGINNINGS OF LINGUISTICS AT TRIBHUVAN UNIVERSITY Austin Hale
The definitive account of the birth and the only language spoken in Nepal, and was keen development of linguistics, and of the study of to document the other languages before they minority languages in Nepal has yet to be written. disappeared. A three-year agreement was signed In this brief account we focus on the part of that with SIL. What T.U. wanted was published papers development that arose from interactions between to prove SIL’s competence and its serious intent SIL and Tribhuvan University in the late 1960’s to describe the languages of Nepal. The contract and early 1970’s. was for three teams for three years, together with a fourth team for administration. During those The most outstanding memory I have from those three years each team needed to become early days is of the interest shown in linguistics by functional in the national language, to do the scholars in Nepal. Dr. Trailokya Nath Uprety language survey necessary to identify a suitable (who was registrar at the time, and later, Vice language, and to produce a substantial linguistic Chancellor) was a key person in this regard. He paper on that language. Unless there was was aware of the interest that foreign scholars had significant publication before the end of 1968, the in the languages spoken in Nepal. Even though contract would not be renewed. the official government stance at that time was to focus on Nepali as the only significant local From our perspective, SIL’s early years in Nepal language spoken in Nepal, these foreign scholars were turbulent. In mid-1967 SIL lost the only knew that many other languages were spoken here member with advanced linguistic training that it which were highly significant from a linguistic had, leaving the teams without consultant help. In perspective, not only Indo-Aryan languages but May 1968, Dr. Uprety called in Warren Glover Tibeto-Burman and Dravidian as well. who was director at the time. The first half of the three-year contract had elapsed, and SIL still had Though Dr. Uprety was aware of this interest, he not published anything. was handicapped in providing assistance to these scholars by the fact that in those early days the Hales arrived on the 1st of June 1968. The teams University had no department devoted to such worked together well and manuscripts of four studies. linguistic papers were submitted to Dr. Uprety in September 1968. They were published as a 1. The Agreement with Tribhuvan University Special Linguistic Number of the Tribhuvan My experience of the beginnings of linguistics at University Journal in September 1969. Tribhuvan University was from the vantage point 2. Some Key People -- Early Signs of Interest in of the beginnings of SIL in Nepal. These two Linguistics beginnings were intertwined in a way that makes it difficult for me to write of one without the The most outstanding recollection that I have, other. The research that SIL was involved in following the renewal of the agreement with became a window through which university Tribhuvan University was of the highly gifted, scholars could explore the discipline of deeply motivated university scholars that we were linguistics, a long process that started in the late privileged to work with. 1960’s and culminated with the formation of the By the time we arrived, work on Conversational Department of Linguistics in the mid-1990’s. Nepali, the language learning course that SIL was On December 22, 1966 two representatives from writing, was well under way. We greatly SIL, Dick Pittman and Jim Dean, met with Dr. appreciated the help of Chura Mani Bandhu over Uprety. He felt that before long Nepali would be the next few months in checking the manuscript
Nepalese Linguistics, vol. 34, 2019, pp. 87-89. 88 / Reflections on the... as it was typed. In the early days, my work with who went abroad for language-related studies and university scholars was done to a large extent in returned to make many outstanding contributions individual sessions. I was privileged to have many to the study of Nepal Bhasa (Newar). I have such sessions with Bandhu over the years, learned much from him over the years. Not only focusing initially on phonology. did Malla earn his Ph.D. in linguistics, in 1979 he became the first person to be elected as President In late May, 1971, we had a series of daily of the Linguistic Society of Nepal. consultant sessions on Bantawa phonology in which Bandhu ended up serving as the consultant. At some point in the 1970’s Tribhuvan Not only did Bandhu go on to earn the Ph.D. in University’s Institute of Nepal and Asian Studies linguistics, he was elected President of the (INAS) asked SIL to conduct some courses in Linguistic Society of Nepal in 1982. It should also linguistics. It was in such a course that I met be noted that Bandhu was the Chair of the task Nirmal Man Tuladhar. Professor Tuladhar has force for the establishment of the Central gone on to make significant contributions in a Department of Linguistics in the mid- ‘90’s. number of areas. He has served as an editor of Nepalese Linguistics in 1980, and as chief editor On the 12th of February, 1969, a proposal was in 1991. In 1992 he was elected President of the made to Dr. Uprety for a staff seminar on Linguistic Society of Nepal. In the mid-‘90’s he phonology, which I was then invited to teach. was Member-Secretary of the task force for the Interestingly, the time and place of the seminar establishment of the Central Department of was changed after each lecture to make sure that Linguistics of which Professor Bandhu was Chair. only staff (and not students) would be able to He is currently the Chairman of the Social attend. Science Baha, an organization that promotes On the 6th of May, 1969, Ballabh Mani Dahal research in the social sciences in Nepal. (See asked me to be the guide for his Ph.D. program.
29 June 2019
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 39TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE LINGUISTIC SOCIETY OF NEPAL* Bhim Narayan Regmi
Honorable Chief Guest, Shree Ganga Prasad Good morning! Uprety, On behalf of Linguistic Society of Nepal, I would Chairman, Language Commission, Dr. Lava Deo like to extend my warm welcome to Shree Ganga Awasthi, Prasad Uprety, Chancellor, Nepal Academy, for Vice Chairman, National Foundation for the gracing and inaugurating the 39th Annual Development of Indigenous Nationalities, Mr. Conference of the Society as Chief Guest. Warm Chandra Bahadur Gurung, welcome to all the Guests, presenters and Dean, Tribhuvan University, Faculty of participants. In this cold morning, we are here, Humanities and Social Sciences, Professor Dr. with the same excitement, curiosity and passion to Shiva Lal Bhusal, learn and share findings carried out in the fields of linguistics in this historical hall, where most of the Keynote Speaker, Professor Dr. John Peterson, past Annual Conferences were inaugurated on the Christian-Albrechts-Universitats zu Kiel, same date, i.e., November 26. Former President and Former Head of the Central Department of Linguistics, Tribhuvan University, Few days ago, we heard the sudden demise of Professor Dr. Tej Ratna Kansakar,1 Professor Dr. Kamal Prakash Malla, my respected Guru, also the guru of most of us, and the founder Former President and Former Head of the President of Linguistic Society of Nepal, a Central Department of Linguistics, Tribhuvan renowned scholar of Nepalese Languages, culture University, Professor Dr. Dan Raj Regmi, and history. His demise is a great loss to us, the Chief, Cultural Division, Ministry of Culture, Linguists’ community. We wish the departed soul Tourism and Civil Aviation, may rest in peace and the bereaved family may Dr. Arun Thakur, Executive Director of Centre for have courage to endure this loss. Economic Development and Administration, The society has completed its journey of 40 years Tribhuvan University since its establishment in 1979. As a living Head, Central Department of institution, it has witnessed many ups and downs Nepalbhasha,Tribhuvan University, Professor Dr. which we can see documented in the volumes of Omkareshwor Shrestha, journals and newsletters of the society. My Dr. Dubi Nanda Dhakal, Head, Central predecessors carried the society ahead no matter Department of Linguistics, Tribhuvan University, how tough the time was. I express my sincere Mr. Prithvi Chaudhary, Country Directer, SIL thanks to them and I will be happy if I International Nepal, successfully continue the tradition and handover the Society to my successor. Former Presidents of Linguistic Society of Nepal, Distinguished linguists, dignitaries from other The Society has two hats on its head, one institutions and scholars, represents its role of activists looking after the policies, plans and actions for preservation and promotion of the languages of Nepal, and the other is the role of an academic society that *1This Presidential Address was delivered at the Inaugural Ceremony of 39th Annual Conference of the always seeks for the promotion of researches, Linguistic Society of Nepal at CEDA Hall, Tribhuvan discussions and publications on the various fields University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu on 26 November of linguistics. 2018. Nepalese Linguistics, vol. 34, 2019, pp. 90-91. Regmi / 91 There are many issues related to Nepalese tasks related to the issue of official languages, it languages which the Society has been raising results into about eight thousand staff under since its inception. Many of the issues have been "language group" in the government service. This addressed. However, some issues still remain to is the issue to be addressed by the Public Service be addressed, and more issues are emerging as Act. well. I am thankful again to our predecessors for We need some sort of mechanism at various their continued efforts to get them addressed levels under government agency with appropriately. I will not talk on the issues which representatives from various language related have already been solved, but raise other issues fields to facilitate staff under the language group which are either already raised but yet to be and to cope with the language issues that are addressed and new issues. I wish the Linguistic being emerged with technological development Society of Nepal, wider community of linguists, (multimodal online platforms, common language users, planners and policy makers and orthography, local content in education etc.) scholars in the field own these issues. On the academic part, the Society seeks Some of the issues I would like to mention here collaboration with the international, regional and are as follows. local agencies working in the fields of language There are some gaps in the Constitution of Nepal and linguistics. The society has already begun this (2015) regarding language related issues. The practice and has got successes in few areas, and constitution has provision of official use of will move further in this direction in the days to languages at province/state levels (article 7). This come. implies that there will be at least two languages at I am happy to share with you that we are planning a province level. That means there will be at least to expand the activities of the Society. It is my seven other languages in addition to Nepali which pleasure to announce that the Society has started provides us with a practice of multiple official to peer review its journal Nepalese Linguistics to languages. In this situation, there needs to be a follow the international standard of research provision of language of record which can be used publications. I would like to thank the Editorial as authoritative while resolving disputes in the Board members for their effort in leading the courts and elesewhere. Though already present in journal to this direction. the interim constitution of Nepal (2007), unfortunately the current consitution has omitted The Society is also planning to organize other this provision. events such as seminars, conferences in various regions of the country to expand its area so that Another issue is the unit of official use of more people can be involved in the activities languages. Province as a unit appears to be less related to language preservation and promotion. practical from the perspectives of users' need and inclusion. This results into an awkward situation It is well known that the Society has been in that where services are needed, there will be no organizing Nepali medium sessions in the services, and where services are available there conferences for the last few years. We have will be no use of it. Had the unit of official use of decided to publish a separate volume of the languages been local level, the services and their journal in Nepali as soon as possible. users would closely come to be congruent and the spirit of language rights would effectively be I would like to thank all the guests, presenters, realized. participants, volunteers, co-organizer, supporters and Members of the LSN Executive Committee, The constitutional provision of multiple official the people. Without your participation and active languages demands trained linguists at various involvement, this program would not have positions of Government agencies as staff right happened. from the front desk to the planning and language development experts. If we assign one person at a Thank you for your patience. unit from the ward level upwards to handle the Thank you all.
LIST OF LIFE MEMBERS OF LINGUISTIC SOCIETY OF NEPAL
1. No. Name 2. 001 Ramawatar Yadav,
Nepalese Linguistics, vol. 34, 2019, pp. 92-98. List of Life Members... / 93 43. 042 Chandreshwar Mishra, DEE, Kirtipur. 44. 043 Rudra Laxmi Shrestha, Lalitpur. 45. 044 Khagendra K.C., Patan Multiple Campus, Patan. 46. 045 Shambhu Acharya, Patan Multiple Campus, Patan. (late) 47. 046 Durga P. Bhandari, Baneshwar, Kathmandu. 48. 047 Rajendra P. Bhandari, CDE, Kirtipur. 49. 048 Shree Krishna Yadav, Kathmandu. 50. 049 Jai Raj Awasthi, DEE, Kirtipur,
Abbreviations used in this list: CDC Curriculum Development Centre CDE Central Department of English CDL Central Department of Linguistics CDN Central Department of Nepali CIL Campus of International Languages CNAS Centre for Nepal and Asian Studies DEE Department of English Education IOE Institute of Engineering