DOCSLIB.ORG

THE NOMINALIZING PREFIX *Gv- in TIBETO-BURMAN LINDA ANNA

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
THE NOMINALIZING PREFIX *Gv- in TIBETO-BURMAN LINDA ANNA THE NOMINALIZING PREFIX *gV- IN TIBETO-BURMAN by LINDA ANNA KONNERTH A THESIS Presented to the Department ofLinguistics and the Graduate School ofthe University ofOregon in partial fulfillment ofthe requirements for the degree of Master ofArts September 2009 11 "The Nominalizing Prefix *gV- in Tibeto-Burman," a thesis prepared by Linda Anna Konnerth in partial fulfillment ofthe requirements for the Master ofArts degree in the Department ofLinguistics. This thesis has been approved and accepted by: DI:. S~ott DeLancey, Chair ~f the Examining Committee/-.------ Committee in Charge: Dr. Scott DeLancey, Chair Dr. Spike Gildea Accepted by: Dean ofthe Graduate School 111 © 2009 Linda Konnerth IV An Abstract ofthe Thesis of Linda Anna Konnerth for the degree of Master ofArts in the Department ofLinguistics to be taken September 2009 Title: THE NOMINALIZING PREFIX *gV- IN TIBETO-BURMAN Approved: _L _-- Nominalization and its various functions is a topic ofconsiderable current interest in Tibeto-Burman (TB) studies and has both typological and historical implications. This thesis documents and discusses data ofnominalizing velar prefixes in the different branches ofthe TB language family. Based on the reconstruction ofa Proto-Tibeto­ Burman (PTB) 'adjectival prefix' *gV- suggested by TB wide-scale comparativists such as Wolfenden, Shafer, Benedict, and Matisoff, this study incorporates extensive data on velar prefixes covering other functions that are, just like deriving adjectival modifiers, typically associated with nominalization in TB. The various pieces of evidence thus suggest that the existence of a PTB *gV- nominalizer is the best explanation for the distribution offorms and functions ofthe respective prefixes in TB languages. v CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Linda Konnerth PLACE OF BIRTH: Munich, Germany DATE OF BIRTH: 14 November 1985 GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University ofOregon Eugene, OR Ludwig-Maximi1ians-Universitat Munchen Munich, Germany DEGREES AWARDED: Master ofArts, Linguistics, 2009, University ofOregon Zwischenprlifung, Linguistics, 2006, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat MUnchen AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Field linguistics; language documentation; Tibeto-Burman languages; morphosyntax; historical and comparative linguistics; language change PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Graduate Teaching Fellow, UO Department ofLinguistics, September 2007 ­ present GRANTS, AWARDS AND HONORS: Small Professional Grant, Center for Asian and Pacific Studies (CAPS), University of Oregon, 2008 Jahresstipendium rur Studierende aller Facher [Year-long scholarship for students ofall subjects], Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD)/German Academic Exchange Service, 2006 - 2007 VI PUBLICATIONS: Konnerth, L. (in press-a). Functions ofNominalization in Karbi. In G. Hyslop, S. Morey, M. Post, (Eds.), North East Indian Linguistics Volume 3. New Delhi, Foundation/Cambridge University Press India. Konnerth, L. (in press-b). The nominalizing velar prefix *gV- in Tibeto-Burman languages ofNortheast India. In G. Hyslop, S. Morey, M. Post (Eds.), Linguistics ofthe North East Indian Frontier. New Delhi, Foundation/Cambridge University Press India. Konnerth, L., & Wood, D. (2008). Report on NEILS 3. Linguistics ofthe Tibeto-Burman Area 30.2, 173-6. VB ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express sincere appreciation to Professor Scott DeLancey for enthusiastically sharing his expert knowledge and understanding ofTibeto-Burman languages, and for explaining to me what I did not understand in a way so I would understand. I am also indebted to Professor Spike Gildea, who has given me a new perspective on nominalization and the historical pathways associated with it, and, this way, opened my eyes for directions offuture research. I also thank the Karbi community ofKarbi Anglong, Assam, Northeast India. Karbi has a kV- nominalizer, and were it not for this language, the velar nominalizing prefix in Tibeto-Burman would still be waiting for its thesis to be written. The prospect ofstarting fieldwork on Karbi has strongly contributed to my enthusiasm for this research project. My studies ofTibeto-Burman languages have greatly benefited from discussions and shared enthusiasm with friends and fellow UO graduate students Gwen Hyslop and Dan Wood. I also received invaluable input from participants ofthe North East Indian Linguistics Society (NEILS) conference 2009. Finally, my gratitude goes to my friends and my family in Germany, as well as to my friends and my family here. Thank you for always being there for me, thank you for helping me and supporting me, and thank you for making me laugh and giving me the energy to do what I want to do. V11l For Roswitha, Arthur, Arne, and Sascha IX TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1. Literature on Velar Prefixes in Tibeto-Bunnan 3 1.2. Aim and Scope 4 II. APPROACH 6 2.1. On Tibeto-Burman Classification 6 2.2. Data Sources 8 2.3. *gV- Fonn Variation 9 2.4. Functions of *gV- 10 2.5. Constructions involving *gV- 12 III. CENTRAL TIBETO-BURMAN 14 3.1. Karbi 16 3.2. Tenyidie (Angami Naga) 21 3.3. Tangkhul 25 3.4. Mizo-Kuki-Chin 31 3.5. Sal 40 3.6. Serna J\faga 50 3.7. Miju 51 3.8. Rawang/Nungish 54 3.9. Summary 55 IV. WESTERN TIBETO-BURMAN 60 4.1. Eastern Kiranti 61 4.1.1. Limbu 61 4.1.2. Athpare 65 4.1.3. Camling 68 4.1.4. Belhare 69 4.2. Western Kiranti 70 4.3. Summary 72 x Chapter Page V. NORTHEASTERN OR QIANG TIBETO-BURMAN 75 5.1. rGyalrong Languages 76 5.1.1. Cogtse rGyalrong 76 5.1.2. Caodeng rGyalrong 82 5.2. Summary 86 VI. SOUTHEASTERN TIBETO-BURMAN 89 6.1. Lolo-Burmese 90 6.1.1. Lisu (Central Loloish) and Akha (Southern Loloish) 90 6.1.2. NosuiLolo (Northern Loloish) 93 6.2. Summary 99 VII. CHARACTERISTICS AND DISTRIBUTION OF *gV- REFLEXES: FORMS, FUNCTIONS, CONSTRUCTIONS 101 7.1. Summary and Discussion ofthe Evidence 101 7.1.1. Characteristics and Distribution ofForm Variation....................... 101 7.1.2. Characteristics and Distributions ofFunctions 103 7.1.2.1. Derivational Functions 104 7.1.2.1.1. Participant Nominalization 104 7.1.2.1.2. Derivation ofAdjectival Modifiers 105 7.1.2.1.3. Action/Event Nominalization 106 7.1.2.1.4. Derivation ofAdverbs 107 7.1.2.2. Clausal Nominalization 107 7.1.2.2.1. Relative Clause Nominalization 107 7.1.2.1.2. Complement and Adverbial Clause Nominalization 108 7.1.2.1.3. Main Verb Constructions 108 7.1.2.3. Verb Citation Form 109 7.1.3. Distribution and Characteristics ofthe a-gV- and gV- -pa Constructions 109 7.2. The Case ofthe Postverbal Velar Nominalizers 110 7.3. The Case ofNominaIizing Prefixes with Palatal Onsets 112 Xl Chapter Page VIII. CONCLUSION 115 APPENDICES 117 A. DATA OF VELAR PREFIXES WITH PUTATIVELY U1\TRELATED FUNCTIONS 117 B. ABBREVIATIONS 132 REFERENCES . 136 xii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Geographic distribution ofwestern, central, and eastern TB languages... 2 2. Cogtse rGyalrong Sentence Structure 77 Xlll LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Definite and Indefinite ACs in Karbi 17 2. Derivation ofAdjectival Modifiers in Angami-Pochuri Languages 21 3. Derivation ofAdjectival Modifiers in Zeme Languages 50 4. Summary: *gV- in 7 ofthe 15 Central TB Subgroups 56 5. Language-by-Language Summary for Mizo-Kuki-Chin and Sal................. 57 6. Summary: *gV- in the Kiranti Branch of Westem TB 74 7. Summary: *gV- in rGyalrong (Core Qiangic ofNortheasternlQiang TB)... 88 8. Constituent Order within Adjectival Attribution vs. RCs 105 9. Distribution ofFunctions Associated with the a-gV- and gV- -pa Constructions 11 0 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The Tibeto-Burman (TB) language family is a branch of Sino-Tibetan spoken in South and Southeast Asia in an area illustrated in Figure 1, stretching in the northwest from the Himalayan regions ofnorthern India, Tibet, Nepal, and Bhutan to Burma, Thailand, and Vietnam in the South, and to the southern China provinces ofYunnan and Sichuan in the east. The number ofTB languages is estimated at 389 by the Ethnologue (Gordon, 2005). The typological profile ofthe TB family is quite diverse, including languages with highly complex morphological structure especially in the verb in the western Himalayan languages, as well as prototypical isolating languages in the southeastern Lolo-Burmese branch. Tibeto-Burman is typically verb-final, although there are languages spoken in the south (i.e., Karen languages) that feature SVO order. This thesis represents a comparative study ofa nominalizing velar prefix in the Tibeto-Burman language family. Starting from a reconstructed Proto-Tibeto-Burman (PTB) 'adjectival prefix' *gV- suggested by TB wide-scale comparativists such as Wolfenden (1925), Shafer (1966), Benedict (1972) and Matisoff (2003 inter alia), further data suggest that the derivation ofadjectival modifiers is only one function that can be more generally ascribed to a *gV- nominalizer in PTB. This chapter introduces the literature on velar prefixes reconstructed for PTB in §1.1, as well as defines aim and scope ofthis thesis outlining the approach in §1.2. Figure 1 - Geographic distribution ofwestern, central, and eastern TB languages1 'La~guagesofCh .-;::,~,~:' ina -- _Au:.llOnelien _AuS!roAao>Ibc ,.,m j]'lndoEuroPlll'O _J8p&nese-KOl'eOO I~,~:,<\: Miao-Yoo ~.'.'.''-.~'.''-j T8~K&d8i _Urc~6i11lldOClilOlatt 1 Maps are reproduced with permission from "Languages ofChina" and "The Eurasiatic Language Phylum" maps by Dr. Steve Huffman, retrieved from http://www.gmi.orglwlms/users/huffman/ on June 19th 2009, selection frames added. tv 3 1.1. Literature on Velar Prefixes in Tibeto-Burman Reconstructions ofvelar
Load more

Recommended publications
  • A Comparative Study of Angami and Chakhesang Women
    A SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY OF UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM : A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ANGAMI AND CHAKHESANG WOMEN THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN SOCIOLOGY SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES NAGALAND UNIVERSITY BY MEDONUO PIENYÜ Ph. D. REGISTRATION NO. 357/ 2008 UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF PROF. KSHETRI RAJENDRA SINGH DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY NAGALAND UNIVERSITY H.Qs. LUMAMI, NAGALAND, INDIA NOVEMBER 2013 I would like to dedicate this thesis to my Mother Mrs. Mhasivonuo Pienyü who never gave up on me and supported me through the most difficult times of my life. NAGALAND UNIVERSITY (A Central University Estd. By the Act of Parliament No 35 of 1989) Headquaters- Lumami P.O. Mokokchung- 798601 Department of Sociology Ref. No……………. Date………………. CERTIFICATE This is certified that I have supervised and gone through the entire pages of the Ph.D. thesis entitled “A Sociological Study of Unemployment Problem: A Comparative Study of Angami and Chakhesang Women” submitted by Medonuo Pienyü. This is further certified that this research work of Medonuo Pienyü, carried out under my supervision is her original work and has not been submitted for any degree to any other university or institute. Supervisor Place: (Prof. Kshetri Rajendra Singh) Date: Department of Sociology, Nagaland University Hqs: Lumami DECLARATION The Nagaland University November, 2013. I, Miss. Medonuo Pienyü, hereby declare that the contents of this thesis is the record of my work done and the subject matter of this thesis did not form the basis of the award of any previous degree to me or to the best of my knowledge to anybody else, and that thesis has not been submitted by me for any research degree in any other university/ institute.
    [Show full text]
  • Dept of English Tripura University Faculty Profile Name
    Dept of English Tripura University Faculty Profile Name: Kshetrimayum Premchandra (PhD) Designation: Assistant Professor Academic Qualification: BA (Hindu College, Delhi University), MA, PhD (Manipur University) Subjects Taught: Northeast (Indian) Literatures, Drama (Performance Theory), Folklore Mail: [email protected], [email protected] Landline/Intercom: +91 381237-9445 Fax: 03812374802 Mobile: +91 9436780234 1. List of publications as chapters, proceedings and articles in books and journals S. ISBN/ISSN No Title with page nos. Book/Journal No . Law of the Mother: The Mothers of Maya Spectrum, June, 2014, Vol. 2, ISSN 2319-6076 1 Diip, , pp. 12-18 Issue 1 Blood, Bullet, Bomb, and Voices in the Spectrum, June, 2015, Vol. 3, ISSN 2319-6076 2 The Sound of Khongji, pp. 11-18 Issue 1, The Hanndmaid’s Tale: The Curse of Spectrum, July- Vol. 3, Issue 2, ISSN 2319-6076 3 Being ‘Fertile’, pp. 19-27 Dec., 2015, Transcript, Bodoland 4 Place of Ougri in Meitei Lai Haraoba ISSN 2347-1743 University. Vol III, pp. 81-89 Of Pilgrims and Savages in the Heart of ISSN 2319-6076 5 Spectrum Darkness Journal of Literature and Incest and Gender Bias in the Tripuri Cultural Studies, Mizoram 6 ISSN 2348-1188 Folktale “Chethuang” University. Vol V, Issue II, Dec. 2018. Pp. 87-98. Nationalist Thought and the ISBN 978-93- “Death Journey: The Nigger of the Colonial World, 7 81142-92-9 ‘Narcissus’”, pp. 126-136. Ram Sharma et. al., New Delhi: Mangalam Publications Manipuri Dance and Culture: An Anthology. The Notions of Manipuri Identity, ISBN 978-81- 8 Ed. Adhikarimayum pp. 160-181.
    [Show full text]
  • LCSH Section K
    K., Rupert (Fictitious character) Motion of K stars in line of sight Ka-đai language USE Rupert (Fictitious character : Laporte) Radial velocity of K stars USE Kadai languages K-4 PRR 1361 (Steam locomotive) — Orbits Ka’do Herdé language USE 1361 K4 (Steam locomotive) UF Galactic orbits of K stars USE Herdé language K-9 (Fictitious character) (Not Subd Geog) K stars—Galactic orbits Ka’do Pévé language UF K-Nine (Fictitious character) BT Orbits USE Pévé language K9 (Fictitious character) — Radial velocity Ka Dwo (Asian people) K 37 (Military aircraft) USE K stars—Motion in line of sight USE Kadu (Asian people) USE Junkers K 37 (Military aircraft) — Spectra Ka-Ga-Nga script (May Subd Geog) K 98 k (Rifle) K Street (Sacramento, Calif.) UF Script, Ka-Ga-Nga USE Mauser K98k rifle This heading is not valid for use as a geographic BT Inscriptions, Malayan K.A.L. Flight 007 Incident, 1983 subdivision. Ka-houk (Wash.) USE Korean Air Lines Incident, 1983 BT Streets—California USE Ozette Lake (Wash.) K.A. Lind Honorary Award K-T boundary Ka Iwi National Scenic Shoreline (Hawaii) USE Moderna museets vänners skulpturpris USE Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary UF Ka Iwi Scenic Shoreline Park (Hawaii) K.A. Linds hederspris K-T Extinction Ka Iwi Shoreline (Hawaii) USE Moderna museets vänners skulpturpris USE Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction BT National parks and reserves—Hawaii K-ABC (Intelligence test) K-T Mass Extinction Ka Iwi Scenic Shoreline Park (Hawaii) USE Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children USE Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction USE Ka Iwi National Scenic Shoreline (Hawaii) K-B Bridge (Palau) K-TEA (Achievement test) Ka Iwi Shoreline (Hawaii) USE Koro-Babeldaod Bridge (Palau) USE Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement USE Ka Iwi National Scenic Shoreline (Hawaii) K-BIT (Intelligence test) K-theory Ka-ju-ken-bo USE Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test [QA612.33] USE Kajukenbo K.
    [Show full text]
  • Some Principles of the Use of Macro-Areas Language Dynamics &A
    Online Appendix for Harald Hammarstr¨om& Mark Donohue (2014) Some Principles of the Use of Macro-Areas Language Dynamics & Change Harald Hammarstr¨om& Mark Donohue The following document lists the languages of the world and their as- signment to the macro-areas described in the main body of the paper as well as the WALS macro-area for languages featured in the WALS 2005 edi- tion. 7160 languages are included, which represent all languages for which we had coordinates available1. Every language is given with its ISO-639-3 code (if it has one) for proper identification. The mapping between WALS languages and ISO-codes was done by using the mapping downloadable from the 2011 online WALS edition2 (because a number of errors in the mapping were corrected for the 2011 edition). 38 WALS languages are not given an ISO-code in the 2011 mapping, 36 of these have been assigned their appropri- ate iso-code based on the sources the WALS lists for the respective language. This was not possible for Tasmanian (WALS-code: tsm) because the WALS mixes data from very different Tasmanian languages and for Kualan (WALS- code: kua) because no source is given. 17 WALS-languages were assigned ISO-codes which have subsequently been retired { these have been assigned their appropriate updated ISO-code. In many cases, a WALS-language is mapped to several ISO-codes. As this has no bearing for the assignment to macro-areas, multiple mappings have been retained. 1There are another couple of hundred languages which are attested but for which our database currently lacks coordinates.
    [Show full text]
  • Deictic Elements in Hyow and Kuki-Chin
    Deictic Elements in Hyow and Kuki-Chin Kenneth P. Baclawski Jr Dartmouth College Program in Linguistics and Cognitive Science May 2012 1 1 Acknowledgements This thesis is indebted to the fieldwork and guidance of my advisor David A. Peterson, the dedicated work of Zakaria Rehman, and the cooperation of the Hyow people of Bangladesh. My second reader Timothy Pulju has also given invaluable feedback on earlier drafts of the manuscript. I would also like to thank Daniel Bruhn and James Matisoff at the Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus project at the University of California – Berkeley for their resources and kind support. The study is based in part on Hyow texts collected by Zakaria Rehman under NSF grant #BCS-0349021 to Dartmouth College (David A. Peterson, P.I.). My own research stems from earlier projects made possible by the James O. Freedman Presidential Scholars Program and the Leslie Embs Bradford 1977 and Charles C. Bradford Fund for Undergraduate Research. i Contents Abbreviations Used vi Introduction viii Chapter 1: Basic Phonology and Morphology of Hyow 1 1.1 Phonology 1 1.1.1 Consonant Phonemes 1 1.1.2 Vowel Phonemes 3 1.1.3 Diphthongs 4 1.2 The Hyow Syllable 5 1.2.1 The Syllable Canon 5 1.2.2 Tone 6 1.2.3 Sesquisyllabic Roots 7 1.3 The Phonological Word 8 1.4 Lexical Morphology 9 1.4.1 Noun Compounding 9 1.4.2 Verb Stem Formatives 10 1.4.3 Verb Stem Ablaut 12 1.5 Inflectional Morphology 14 1.5.1 Nominal Morphology 14 1.5.2 Verbal Morphology 15 1.6 Numerals 17 1.7 Verbal Participant Coding 18 1.7.1 Basic Paradigm
    [Show full text]
  • National E-Conference on Naga Languages and Culture
    National e-Conference on Naga Languages and Culture Organized by: Centre for Naga Tribal Language Studies (CNTLS) Nagaland University, Kohima Campus, Meriema-797004, India DATES: 8th-10th October, 2020 The Centre for Naga Tribal Language Studies (CNTLS), Nagaland University, Kohima Campus, Meriema is organizing a 3-Day National E-Conference on various aspects of Naga Languages and Culture from 8th–10th October, 2020. Concept Note “Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.” Rita Mae Brown. Inarguably the most diversified group of languages in India, Naga languages, spoken by Naga tribes native to Nagaland and parts of Manipur, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh – all North East Indian States – and Myanmar country, constitute a unique and distinct class in itself. No other language has been found to subsume within itself a number and variety of fundamentally distinct languages/dialects as ours. For example, Nagaland, a small state with a geographical area of 16, 579 sq km and a population of nearly 2 million as per 2011 census alone has 14 ‘officially’ recognized indigenous Naga languages but a much larger, albeit officially unrecognized, number of constituent languages/dialects intertwined within those languages, making it a linguistically rich and diverse state. There are so many languages, dialects and sub-dialects among the speakers of a particular language community that it is almost as if every village has a dialect of its own. To illustrate further, the Konyak language itself has more than 20 dialects, the Pochury at least 8, the Phom at least 5, the Chakhesang 3, the Angami 4, the Ao 3 and so on.
    [Show full text]
  • Conflict and Peace in India's Northeast: the Role of Civil Society
    42 About this Issue Previous Publications: Policy Studies 42 Policy Studies Policy This monograph examines the role of civil Policy Studies 41 society groups in peace building in three con- Muslim Perspectives on the Sri Lankan flict regions in India’s Northeast—Assam, Conflict Naga Hills/Nagaland, and Mizo Hills/Mizoram. Dennis B. McGilvray, University of Colorado These political conflicts are complex with each at Boulder conflict representing a cacophony of compet- Mirak Raheem, Centre for Policy Alternatives, ing, often zero-sum demands. Colombo In investigating the role of civil society Policy Studies 40 groups, the study distinguishes between “offi- Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Northeast in India’s Conflict and Peace cial” (between the Government of India and Ideology: Implications for Politics and certain insurgent organizations) and “unoffi- Conflict Resolution in Sri Lanka cial” peace processes at the local level that Neil DeVotta, Hartwick College makes coexistence of diverse communities Policy Studies 39 Conflict and Peace possible despite the continuing violence. Assessing Burma’s Ceasefire Accords These two processes reflect very different Zaw Oo, American University ways of addressing conflict and defining the Win Min, Independent Researcher, Thailand in India’s Northeast: role of civil society groups in peace building. In the official peace process, the role of Policy Studies 38 civil society groups is to bring warring parties The United Wa State Party: to the negotiating table, set forth potentially Narco-Army or Ethnic Nationalist Party? The Role of Civil Society agreeable ceasefire terms, and suggest possible Tom Kramer, Transnational Institute, Amsterdam settlements. The emphasis is on finding solu- tions at the macro level in the belief that set- Policy Studies 37 Samir Kumar Das tlement will also lead to resolution of micro The Islamist Threat in Southeast Asia: level problems.
    [Show full text]
  • Morphological Analyzer for Kokborok
    Morphological Analyzer for Kokborok Khumbar Debbarma1 Braja Gopal Patra2 Dipankar Das3 Sivaji Bandyopadhyay2 (1) TRIPURA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, Agartala, India (2) JADAVPUR UNIVERSITY, Kolkata, India (3) NATIONAL INSTITUTE_OF TECHNOLOGY, Meghalaya, India [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],[email protected] ABSTRACT Morphological analysis is concerned with retrieving the syntactic and morphological properties or the meaning of a morphologically complex word. Morphological analysis retrieves the grammatical features and properties of an inflected word. However, this paper introduces the design and implementation of a Morphological Analyzer for Kokborok, a resource constrained and less computerized Indian language. A database driven affix stripping algorithm has been used to design the Morphological Analyzer. It analyzes the Kokborok word forms and produces several grammatical information associated with the words. The Morphological Analyzer for Kokborok has been tested on 56732 Kokborok words; thereby an accuracy of 80% has been obtained on a manual check. KEYWORDS : Morphology Analyzer, Kokborok, Dictionary, Stemmer, Prefix, Suffix. Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on South and Southeast Asian Natural Language Processing (SANLP), pages 41–52, COLING 2012, Mumbai, December 2012. 41 1 Introduction Kokborok is the native language of Tripura and is also spoken in the neighboring states like Assam, Manipur, Mizoram as well as the countries like Bangladesh, Myanmar etc., comprising of more than 2.5 millions1 of people. Kokborok belongs to the Tibeto-Burman (TB) language falling under the Sino language family of East Asia and South East Asia2. Kokborok shares the genetic features of TB languages that include phonemic tone, widespread stem homophony, subject- object-verb (SOV) word order, agglutinative verb morphology, verb derivational suffixes originating from the semantic bleaching of verbs, duplication or elaboration.
    [Show full text]
  • Word-Order in Boro Language
    Journal of Xi'an University of Architecture & Technology ISSN No : 1006-7930 Word-Order in Boro Language Dr. Kanun Basumatary Guest Lecturer, North Eastern Regional Language Centre Guwahati-29, Assam, India Abstract: The present study attempts to analysis and to discuss about the word-order of the Boro language. The Boro language is originated from the Tibeto-Burman group of Sino-Tibetan language family. The language is mainly spoken in Assam and its adjacent areas or countries of India. Like Nepal, Meghalaya, Bangladesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, West Bengal etc. The Boro language has some special features in terms of using word-order pattern and it found in different types. The Boro language is found in SOV word-order pattern mainly and along with this pattern there are different types of word- orders in that language. The Tibeto-Burman languages are found in verb-final position. The Boro language is same in such feature. Keywords : Word-order, Boro, Language, SOV, OSV 1. Introduction Boro is the name of the community as well as the language. The Boro language belongs to Sino- Tibetan language family. This stock originated in the plain areas of Yang-Tsze-Kiang and Huang-ho rivers in China. Now, this language family is well spread throughout the eastern and south-eastern parts of Asia including Burma and North eastern parts of India including Assam (MR Baro, 2007:1). The Boro language originated from the Tibeto-Burman sub family of Sino-Tibetan language family. Its well spread throughout the Assam specially in the northern parts of Assam and its adjacent areas.
    [Show full text]
  • The Status of Tribal Women in Northeast India: Responding to India's Social Challenges
    ISSN: 2455-3220 International Journal for Social Studies Volume 03 Issue 11 Available at https://edupediapublications.org/journals October 2017 The Status of Tribal Women in Northeast India: Responding to India's Social Challenges. -Dr. ASHA SOUGAIJAM Department of Sociology Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, Regional Campus, Chingmeirong, Adhimjati Complex, Imphal-795001, Manipur. INTRODUCTION Northeast India, considered as one of most interest in developing the living standards and culturally diverse regions of the world, is a tourism among these tribal occupied states. land inhabited by more than 200 fascinating tribes. It is no wonder the region has ever- Different ethnic groups and tribal groups since captured the imaginations of inhabit the region of northeast India. They all anthropologists from all over the world. have their own culture and tribal tradition and all speak their own tribal languages. This has The north eastern part of India shares its made Northeast India one of the most boundary with China, Nepal, Bhutan, culturally diverse regions of the world. The Myanmar and Bangladesh. Northeast India cuisines and attires also vary among the tribes. comprises of eight states. They are Mizoram, Each tribal community has their unique way of Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Assam, Manipur, living. Tribal people mostly live and earn Nagaland, Meghalaya and Tripura. Nagaland through the hills and forest areas. and Manipur share their boundary with Myanmar. Meghalaya and Tripura share it ORIGIN OF THE TRIBES with Bangladesh whereas Assam shares it‟s North East Indian tribes have originated with Bhutan. Sikkim shares its boundary with from the ethnic groups of Tibeto-Burmese, China, Nepal, and Bhutan.
    [Show full text]
  • The Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus: STEDT Project Data Resources and Protocols
    The Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus: STEDT Project Data Resources and Protocols Richard S. COOK [email protected] John B. LOWE [email protected] Linguistics Department University of California Berkeley, USA Introductory Remarks The Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus (STEDT, [st‰t]) Project began in August 1987 at the University of California, Berkeley, under the direction of Professor James A. Matisoff. More than thirteen years later the concrete goal of the project remains the same: the publication of an etymological dictionary of the Proto-Sino-Tibetan (PST) ancestor language. Scientific advances do not always happen over night, and so it may be no surprise that success in this colossal endeavor should require the protracted concentration of hundreds of linguists over such a long period of time. In fact, when the many sources whence STEDT derives its data are considered, the amount of time required for the reconstruction of PST far exceeds these thirteen years and the lives of STEDT's contributing researchers. The lexicographic task to which STEDT is committed is only the newest contribution in this field of linguistics which begins with the earliest inscriptions in the ST daughter languages. The earliest inscriptions in any ST daughter language are the Oracle Bone Inscriptions (OBI) of Shang China, commonly dated to approximately 3500 years ago, to the middle of the second millennium BCE.1 In this very early period the peoples speaking the early ancestors of the Sinitic and Tibeto-Burman languages were already separated from each other by perhaps 2500 years of pre-history.2 Writing would not appear in Tibet for some 2100 years, in the seventh century.3 Writing did not appear in Burma until the twelfth century, almost 900 years ago.4 A systematic writing system did not appear for the Lolo-Burmese language Black Lahu until 1988, nearly twelve years ago.5 1Keightley(1978:91).
    [Show full text]
  • The Extent and Nature of the Cprs in the Northeast I. the Concept Of
    The Extent and Nature of the CPRs in the Northeast The Common Property Resources (CPRs) are important sources of livelihood to rural households in general and to the rural poor in particular. They are the livelihood both tangible and intangible of thousands of people. Far from being an exception to this, since most North Eastern States are on a hilly terrain inhabited by tribals, the CPRs play a more important role in people’s livelihood in this region than in the rest of India. The North Eastern economy is agrarian . Agriculture is the principal means of livelihood of most of its people 47.4 percent of whom are cultivators and 11.41 percent earn their livelihood as agricultural labourers. Table 2 shows the significance of land as a source of livelihood of the people of the Northeast. Thus, agriculture occupies an important place in the economy of the region but other sectors are neglected. 70 to 75 percent of the workforce of the region depends on the primary sector against 66 percent in India as a whole. More than 20 percent depend on the tertiary sector. These figures show the importance of CPRs as a source of livelihood of people of the region. I. The Concept of CPRs in General and in North East India The CPRs are community assets that provide both tangible and intangible livelihood (Shyhendra 2002: 3291) to their dependants. They include land used for cultivation and grazing, forests from which non-timber forest produce (NTFP) are collected, waste and panchayat land, watersheds, rivulets, rivers, ponds and other community assets.
    [Show full text]