Ethnic Dialects of the Assamese Language

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 8, ISSUE 12, DECEMBER 2019 ISSN 2277-8616

Ethnic Dialects Of The Assamese Language

Amal Nath,

Abstract: Assam is a land of different ethnic communities. Assamese is the main language of Assam. The tribes of Assam are- Missing, Deori, Rabha, Karbi, Bodo, Tiwa, Moran, Sonowal Kachari etc. All these tribes have their own languages. Many clans are found within the tribe, which have dissimilarities or varieties in their language. These varieties are known as ethnic dialects. Assamese has also many ethnic dialects. The above tribes are bilingual. They use their mother tongue in their household affairs or their language is limited only in the gateway of their house. To communicate with others they have to choose a common language, that is the Assamese language. Though they use Assamese, we don’t find the prop er Assamese form in their Assamese speaking. Many influences of their mother tongue have seen in their Assamese speaking. These are also a different form of Assamese. A dialect is a variation of a language. Therefore we can term it as dialect of the Assamese language. In this paper an attempt has been chosen to enlighten the features of the Assamese ethnic dialects. For this discussion field study and socio-linguistic method will be used.

Keywords: Dialects, Variation, Ethnic dialects, Bilingual, Missing-Mese, Language, Tribes . ————————————————————

1. INTRODUCTION: language to speak. They speak Assamese in their every- A dialect is a variation of a language. When many day life. The other clans keep the language. The Missing dissimilarities are created in terms of ethnic groups, person, has no script. They use Roman script. The variations that place, gender etc. within the language then we can term it are found in the Assamese speaking of the Missing people as a dialect or variation of a language. These variations are can be explained phonetically, morphologically and found in phonology, morphology, syntax and in vocabulary. lexically. Linguist Dr. Upen Rabha Hakasam uses the term Assamese is the major language of Assam. It is also a ‘Missing-Mese’ to indicate the colloquial Assamese of the communicating language. Many ethnic tribes are dwelled in Missing tribe (Hakacham 2009:204). The word is derived Assam. Each tribe has its own language. But to from two words. One is Missing and another is- Assamese. communicate with others they have to use the Assamese For better discussions I will also be used the term. These language. The tribes of Assam are- Missing, Bodo, Rabha, are as follows- Karbi, Tiwa, Sonowal Kachari, Moran, Tai Phake, Tai a) Phonetic Features: Ahom, Tai Aiton etc. These people are bilingual. They use 1. The Missing people use five vowels in Assamese as second language. An impact of their mother Assamese speaking. These are- /a, A, tongue has been found in their Assamese speaking. Due to i, u, e/ this impact much dissimilarity are found from the standard 2. Aspirated sounds become un- Assamese in their speaking. These kinds of variations can aspirated in Missing-Mese. Example- be termed as dialects of the Assamese language. The Assamese Missing- ethnic dialects of the Assamese language can be classified Mese typologically as follows- Kha (to eat) ka a) Colloquial Assamese of the Missing tribe. aghon (a month of Assamese calander) agon b) Colloquial Assamese of the Rabha tribe. pitha (rice cake) pita c) Colloquial Assamese of the Tiwa tribe. jethai (mother’s elder sister) jetai d) Colloquial Assamese of the Sonowal- Kachari. 3. Alveolar unvoiced un-aspirated sound e) Spoken form of Assamese of the Moran (ts) and alveolar voiced aspirated tribe. sounds (dzh) are not found in the f) Colloquial Assamese of the Deori tribe. Mising-Mese. On the contrary the 1.0 Colloquial Assamese of Missing tribe: Missing is a sound (dz) is used in final position in fascinating tribe of Assam with its own identity and cultural the Assamese. It becomes ‘S’ in heritage. The missing people are inhabited in the-Sivsagar, Missing-Mese. Example- Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Dibrugarh districts of Assam. Assamese According to the 2011 census the population of the Missing Missing-Mese tej (Blood) tribe was-5, 87,310. Linguistically it belongs to the Sino- tes Tibetan family and anthropologically it is a mongoloid stock. kaj (work) kas Many clans are found in the Missing community. These are- bej (a physician) bes Samuguria, Tamar, Bangkual, Bihia, Bebejia, pagro, saying, Ayan, Dambug, Delu, Samuang, Moing. 4. The nasalization of the Assamese language is also found in the Missing- Mese. But the nasal sound becomes ______alveolar palatal nasal sound (ɲ) or velar nasal sound [-] in Missing- . Research Scholar, Mese. Examples- . Assamese Department . Dibrugarh University Email: [email protected] Assamese Missing-Mese Each clan has variations in language. Among these tribes Kaun (say) ka h h Samuguria, Tamar, Bangkual, bihia and Bebejia leave their T akun (live) t aku

5. The sibilant aspirated sounds are not found in the Missing-Mese. Examples- Ornaments/ dress Assamese Missing-Mese Age traditional attire of women. bihu (cultural festival) biu sgbu a long cloth xrai (one kind of rai ri:bi-gase traditional attire of women. tray) Assamese Missing-Mese h ak a aka Zabli ‘to go’ zable b. Morphological Features: Nohodhake‘without permission’ nudake 1. In the Misssing-Mese the non-honorific, Khaõt ‘ate’ kaut honorific and high-honorific pronouns are not used. Mibu galug shirt for men. It happens due the influence of their mother tongue or the origin Missing language. In singular ‘tui/ti’ Festivals/Instruments: and in plural‘tti/thti’ the same forms are used to Ali-Ai-lriga a cultivative festival. indicate aged or non-aged people. But in second P:rag a religious festival person Assamese has three pronoun markers in Kuruli flute a bamboo instrument playing both singular and plural. gugu with lips. Assamese Person Singular Plural 1.1 Colloquial Assamese of the Rabha tribe or Rabha- 2nd non-hon ti thẵt Mese: The Rabha people are inhabited at the Goalpara and Kamrup districts of Assam. hon. tumi tomalok Linguistically this language belongs to the Sino- high-hon apuni aponalok Tibetan language family. According to 2011 census the population of the Rabha tribe was-2,77,517 Missing Mese (Boruah 1990:21). The Rabha tribe has seven clans- Rongdani, Maitori, Dohari, Pati, Sunga, Person Sing. Plural. Bitolia and Totla (Boruah 1990:21). Among these clans only the Rongdani and Maitori keep their

nd language. The other clans leave their language, to 2 ti/tui tti/thẵti express their thoughts they take the Assamese language. The Rabha language has no script, till now it is used as an underdeveloped language. Though most of them use the Assamese language, 2. The conjugational suffixes of the Missing-Mese some influences of their mother tongue have been are differentiated from Assamese in pronunciation. In seen in their Assamese speaking. These Missing-Mese [o] and [u] are used instead of first personal influences can be illustrated in different categories- suffix [õ] Example- a) Phonological features: Assamese Missing-Mese 1) The lower, unrounded [] is a special phoneme of Khaõ ‘eat’ kha the Assamese language. But this sound is not found in Rabha-Mese. For this the influence of the krilõ ‘done’ karilu Rabha language is notable. Example-

3. Different definitive articles are used in Missing- Mese. Example- Assamese Rabha-Mese Pl ‘time’ p lo Assamese Missing-Mese k sto Banh ‘bamboo’ batu Kst ‘pain’ ad r maaghtukura ‘a piece of motukur adr ‘honour’ meat’ bini ‘sister’ b ini 1. Inflectional suffixes [-ke, -le, -ote, -ute] are used kina ‘bride’ k ina

instead of [-ki, -li, õte]. Example- 2) In Rabha-Mese Velar unvoiced aspirated sound [] c. Lexical features: In the vocabulary of Missing-Mese many is used instead of voiced aspirated sound [h]. So either words are come from the origin Missing language. the final [h] with [] is sometime omitted or it Sometimes these words are used with simplification by pronounced as [h]. Example- different phonetic and morphological processes. The Assamese Rabha-Mese vocabularies can be classified like- genitive words, manuh ‘man’ manu bÃh ‘bamboo’ ba Ornaments and dress related words, Festivals etc. bix ‘twenty’ bia/ bii/ Example- lo ‘Iron’ loa Genitive words: 3) Spontaneous nasalization, aspiration and Missing Meaning augmentation of [h] sound are notable phonetic Ta:t Grandfather features of the Rabha-Mese. It is not found in the ja:j Grandmother Assamese language. In this feature there is an Abu/ba:bri Father influence of their mother tongue. Ka:kri Father’s sister Example: 3082 IJSTR©2019 www.ijstr.org INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 8, ISSUE 12, DECEMBER 2019 ISSN 2277-8616

Assamese Rabha-Mese ‘father water God’. Twelve offshoots are found within the h Japi ‘bamboo hat’ j api Tiwa tribe (Baruah 1990:22). According to the census of Jak ‘a crowd’ jhak h 2001the population of Tiwa tribe was- 1,70,622. Dr. Pla ‘through’ p ela Hakacham divided the Tiwa tribe into two groups-Hill Tiwa 4) Like Rabha language [dz] sound is not used in and Plain Tiwa. The people who live in the hill areas they Rabha-Mese. Generally in this environment [tsh] is keep their language, but the plain area’s people leave their used. Un-aspirated sounds [g, d, b] are used instead of h h h language to speak. On the contrary they express their [g , d , b ]. Example- thoughts by using an ethnic dialect of the Assamese Assamese Rabha-Mese language; that is the Tiwa-Mese. Many differences are tedz ‘blood’ tetsh. Bhaj ‘fold’ bhas found with Assamese language in Tiwa-Mese. These are Budhbar ‘wednesday’ budbar illustrated as follows- b) Morphological features: a) Phonological features: 1) The Reduplication derivative process of Missing- 1. The [] and Mese is same with the Rabha language. [ Assamese language become [u] in the Tiwa-Mese. As Assamese Rabha-Mese the tendency of high vowel is an important siksikia ‘glossy’ siksika characteristic of Tiwa-Mese. Example- h h h h Assamese Tiwa-Mese d d kia bga ‘extreme bga p lp la mr ‘my’ mur white’ h h P t ‘marking on forehead’ p ut letera-petera ‘untidy’ leteter-peteter mni ‘necklace’ muni 2. Alternative use of vowels is a feature of 2) The genitive definite affix of Missing-Mese is- [- the Tiwa-Mese. Example: bara/-bra]. It is also an influence of the Rabha Assamese Tiwa-Mese language. gri‘fish’ grai Girijek ‘husband’ piyak Assamese Rabha-Mese tikni‘long tuft of hair’ tikini 3. The tendency of the diphthong is seen h b niek ‘sister’ buinibara mainly with the words which are ended

h h with final vowel [i/ii/e] and [,o]. These b ajek ‘brother’ b aibara vowels become accordingly [i] and [u]. Example- kkajek‘elder brother’ dadabara. Assamese Tiwa-Mese Nase ‘dance’ nasi 3) Many words are formed by the Pleonastic suffix [- zab ‘will go’ zabu asil ‘had’ asila ka] and [-la] in the Rabha-Mese. Example- 4. Monosyllabic words are transferred to poly-

syllabic word by adding [-a] sound. Example- Assamese Rabha-Mese

Enekua ‘like this’ eka Etia ‘now’ ela Tenekua ‘such’ ta Assamese Tiwa-Mese 4) Like Rabha language the vocative suffixes [-re, - bap ‘father’ bapa mur ‘head’ mura he, -her, -har] are used in Rabha-Mese. Example- ber ‘wall’ bera Assamese Rabha-Mese . baideu ‘elder sister’ baire 5. The omission of [-h] in final position and dada ‘brother’ dadare aai ‘mother’ aaihar augmentation of [-h] in middle position is c) Lexical features: a characteristic of Tiwa-Mese. Example: The following words are used in Rabha-Mese, Assamese Tiwa-Mese which are directly come from the Rabha language. manuh ‘men’ manu btah ‘wind’ bota Saja ‘shadow’ seha Assamese Rabha-Mese b) Morphological features:

Jaki ‘bamboo scoop for fishing’ jakha 1) The nasalized conjugational suffixes- Xak ‘vegetables’ tsaka [õ] (suffix of present Indefinite tense Pitika ‘mashed vegetables’ bhrta in first person), [isõ] (suffix of krkra bhat jhkra bhat present continuous tense in first mekuri `cat’ meakr person) [ilõ], (suffix of present perfect tense in first person) [isilõ], Colloquial Assamese of the Tiwa tribe or Tiwa-Mese: The (suffix of past indefinite tense in first Tiwa people are inhabited at Karbi-Anglong, south-east of person), [õte] (present participle)Â, Kamrup, Marigaon, Nagaon, Dhemaji, Darang, Shivasagar, [õta]/[ õti] (derivative affix of Verb- Tinsukia districts of Assam. The Tiwa people are known as base Noun) of the Assamese ‘Lalung’ also. The ‘Tiwa’ word comes from the ‘Tifra’ word. language become accordingly [], ‘Ti’ means-water and ‘Fra’ means- ‘Father’. ‘Tifra’ means- [],ÃÃ [is], [il], [ilu], [isil] [isilu] 3083 IJSTR©2019 www.ijstr.org INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 8, ISSUE 12, DECEMBER 2019 ISSN 2277-8616

[te]Â, [te]Â, [ta], [ti] in the language. But it is closely related with the Tiwa-Mese . Example- Aryan Assamese language (Hakacham 2009: Assamese Tiwa-Mese 157). These are as follows- zaõ ‘go’ za Assamese Tiwa-Mese zaõte ‘going’ (present zate brt ‘a religious feast’ brt participle) h h h h kamak ya ‘a temple’ kamaik a band ilõ ‘have tied’ band ilu Khaõta ‘eater’ khata devata ‘God’ salsa rza 2) In Tiwa-Mese the inflectional suffix-[- 6) Some compound and derived words of Tiwa- ni], [-ni] and [-ani] are more used to Mese are as follows- determine gender. The use of Assamese Tiwa-Mese Assamese suffixes- [-i], [-ini], [-uni], [- tinihtia ‘three handed’ tihutia ri], [-ti] are less in numbers in Tiwa- brtokola ‘a preying bird’ mm tkla Mese. raalao ‘pumpkin’ mu kumura From these discussions we can say that the Tiwa people Assamese Tiwa-Mese are bi-lingual. They are inhabited in the surroundings of mita ‘male friend’ mitani ‘female Assamese people. So many influences of Assamese friend’ language have been fallen in their language. On the oja ‘expert in art’ ojani 3) In Tiwa-Mese there is no any contrary we can say that many influences of their mother particular form of verb to indicate tongue have been found in their Assamese speaking. So imperative, interrogative, we can call Tiwa-Mese is also a dialect of the Assamese exclamatory, mood. The Assamese language. verb forms are used in Tiwa-Mese 1.4 Colloquial Assamese of the Deori tribe or Deori-Mese: with phonetic change. Example- The Deori people are inhabited at Dibrugarh, Shivsagar, Assamese Tiwa-Mese Lakhimpur, Darang districts of Assam. Linguistically this Khaok ‘to eat’ khak tribe also belongs to the Sino-Tibetan family and in Hok ‘will be’ hk anthropologically it is a Mongoloid stock. According to the Ah ‘come’ ah/h census of 2001 the population of the Deori tribe was- 41,161. Deori has four clans- Tengaponia, Borgonya, 4) In Tiwa-Mese the suffixes of Case and Dibongia and Patorgongya. Among these three clans case-endings are similar with already leave their language to speak. Only the people from Assamese. But it is different in Dibongia clan keep their language. They use Assamese in pronunciation and in dative case. their day-to-day life. But still they carry some words of their Example- own language. So, in their Assamese speaking an influence Assamese Tiwa-Mese of Deori language is found in Deori-Mese. Deori Tribe is li ‘dative case’ lagi rich in Oral literature. The features of the Deori-Mese are brt ‘fasting’ brtk as follows- moli ‘to me’ mok lagini a) Phonetic Features: c) Lexical features: 1) The low vowel of the standard Assamese language 1. In Tiwa-Mese the Sanskrit words are used becomes high vowel in Deori-Mese. Example- with simplification by different phonetic processes. Example- Assamese Deori-Mese Assamese Tiwa-Mese heulia ‘colour’ hiulia brt ‘fasting’ brt pehi ‘aunt’ pihi triphla ‘three folds’ tiphla tamol ‘betel nut’ tamul gram ‘village’ ga 2) The consonant of Assamese [r,w,j] become [l,b,h,u,i] in nzna enzna Deori-Mese. Example- 2. Some words of lower Assam and some own Assamese Deori-Mese words are found in Tiwa-Mese. Example- rel ‘train’ lel Assamese Lower Assam Tiwa-Mese dewta ‘god’ debta h h bhekuli ‘frog’ bhekula gga ‘frog’ nek ai ‘does’t eat’ nek aj Laluki ‘young frog’ lerk lerk 3) The nasalized sound of the Assamese language [ɲ] suali ‘girl’ api api becomes [] in Deori-Mese. Examples- 4) Some words from the Tiwa language are Assamese Deori-Mese found in Tiwa-Mese. These words are gaõ ‘village’ ga modified in Tiwa-Mese. The Tiwa people khalõ ‘eaten’ khalu pronounce some words and use it with their jõuai ‘son-in-law’ jai own phonological set up- 4) Some aspirated sounds of Assamese become un- Assamse Tiwa-Mese aspirated in the Deori-Mese. Kesua ‘child’ puchna Assamese Deori-Mese Gotra ‘Clan’ zeal rkhia ‘keeper’ rkia dekatsa ‘traditional house’ tsamadi ktha ‘speech’ kta ggna ‘bamboo instrument’ gmna bhagwan ‘god’ bwan 5) Many cultural words are found in Tiwa-Mese 5. The word order of the Deori phoneme changed for which are directly come from the origin Tiwa Metathesis. Example- 3084 IJSTR©2019 www.ijstr.org INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 8, ISSUE 12, DECEMBER 2019 ISSN 2277-8616

Assamese Deori-Mese detained only in the religious books, hymn books. The baky ‘sentence’ baik. peasant classes of Ahom tribe-Deodhai, Bailung, Mohan maura ‘orphan’ marua keep the language. The Ahom language has contributed a rumal ‘handkerchief’ urumal large numbers of words in the richness of the Assamese b) Morphological features: language. So we see many Ahom words in the 1) In Deori-Mese the second personal pronouns- non- conversation of Ahom-Mese. honorific, honorific, high-honorific markers are not found. a) Phonetic features: Same form is used to indicate different aged people. 1) The [s], [sh] [x] sounds become [h] in the Ahom-Mese. 2) For the impact of Deori language the oblique form of the Example- root ‘za’ becomes [-g] in the Deori-Mese. Example: Assamese Ahom-Mese Assamese Deori-Mese zuihal ‘fire place’ zuhal h h gi t akib ‘will go’ zai t akib xial ‘Fox’ hial gl ‘has gone’ zale xkti ‘strength’ hkti gise ‘going’ zaise 2) The [r] sound is not used in Ahom-Mese. Example- 3) The joint consonants are simplified by Anaptyxis in Assamese Ahom-Mese Deori-Mese. Example- durni ‘further’ duni Assamese Deori-Mese rumal ‘handkerchief’ umal brikhj ‘big tree’ birikh ra ‘red’ a purbt ‘before’ prebt 3) The nasalized sound [ɲ] often becomes [] in Ahom- Srjile ‘create’ xrjile Mese. Examples- 4) The inflectional suffixes [-r] and after this the [-lgt] Assamese Ahom-Mese suffix is used in Deori-Mese. Example- nowarõ ‘can’t’ nuau Assamese Deori-Mese xõ ‘sleep’ hu tar lgt ‘with him’ tar lgt glõgi ‘went’ glugi ktarire kat ‘cut with knife’ ktarir lgt kat b) Morphological features: 5) The ablative case of the Assamese language [-pra] is 1) Like Ahom language the honorific forms [-deu], [-dev], used as [-pera] and [-pea] in Deori-Mese. [deuta] are used in Ahom-Mese. Examples- Assamese Deori-Mese Assamese Ahom-Mese kr pra ‘where from’ kr pera khura ‘uncle’ ddaideu ghrr pra ‘from home’ ghrr pea momai ‘maternal uncle’ momaideu c) Lexical features: Many words are come from Deori kka ‘gran-father’ puthadeu language. These words can be categorized as- genitive, 2) Like Ahom language second and third person pronouns traditional food, dresses, festivals etc. are not found in Ahom-Mese. Only one form is used for Genitive words- non-honorific, honorific and high-honorific pronoun. But in Assamese Deori-Mese second person Assamese has three pronoun markers in kka ‘gran-father’ azai/ezai both singular and plural. aita ‘grand-mother’ abi ma ‘mother’ ij Assamese Food Items: sutcha (dry fish), suze (wine), kazi (one kind of veg. which takes before bihu festival). Person Singular Plural Other words: thipaixal (fire place), hupa (broom), bisu nd sajeba (bihu dance), igu (a women dress). 2 non- ti tht 1.5 Coloquial Assamese of the Ahom tribe or Ahom-Mese: hon The Tai Ahom people are inhabited at Dibrugarh, hon. tumi tomalok Shivsagar, Jorhat, Golaghat districts of upper Assam. It has a large number of populations. But the Ahom language is high- apuni aponalok not survived in colloquial form now. This language is hon

i) Due to the vowel harmony not only the mid vowel [] and [o] but also [] and [ are become [i] and [u]. It is also a tendency of high-vowel. Example- Ahom-Mese Assamese spoken form of Sonowal-Kachari gise ‘going’ gisi as ‘have’ asi

knkoi ‘how’ knkri Male Female kla ‘black’ kula p ‘father’ me ‘mother; ii) The use of alternative vowel is a characteristic of h p u ‘husband’ mi ‘wife’ sonowal-kachari’s speaking. Example- luk ‘son’ ɲi ‘daughter’. 3) In Assamese spoken form of Sonowal-Kachari Ahom-Mese gender is determined by the combination of duta ‘father’ duta/dutia different male-female words. Example- diõ ‘give’ du c) Lexical features: In Ahom-Mese many words are come mkuri ‘cat’ mikiri Person Sing. Plural. from iii) For the tendency of nasal sound [] is used instead of 2nd mau Tsu Ahom nasalization [ɲ]. Without any reason the augmentation of [] 3rd man Khau langu for spontaneous nasalization is a characteristic of sonowal age. kachari’s speaking. Example- Now- a- Assamese spoken form of Sonowal-Kachari days many Ahom words are entered in the Assamese khõ ‘eat’ kha language, so it seems very difficult to define its origin, atk ‘great fear’ at whether it is a Ahom word or a Assamese word. The Ahom lxmi ‘goddess of lkhi words that are used in the Assamese language are as wealth’ follows- Genitive words: iv)In the sonowal kachari’s Assamese speaking the [h] Kuki (a word used for younger son), sound is used both in initial and medial position. Example- aisu/aideu (sister-in-law), ghai (sister’s husband), ddu Assamese spoken form of Sonowal-Kachari (grandfather), apdeu (father’s elder brother’s wife), apadeu h mar ‘mother’ mahar (father’s sister), enaideu/enai (father’s mother), put au ar ‘charcoal’ hear (mother’s father), pulin (great grandfather). Ur ur ‘fly-fly’ hur hur Cultural words: V) In sonowal kachari’s Assamese speaking the [r] sound is tskl (one kind of marriage method), phuralu omitted in the medial position of vowel. Example- (a religious path), medammephi (a religious festival), Assamese spoken form of Sonowal- jasipha (goddess of knowledge). Kachari Other words: kai (part of a word use for calling a aged xubrn ‘the gold’ xubn person), tikni baruah (one kind of tree), tsamdi (an h h p ri ‘grasshooper’ phi insect), namla (rice-beer), nep aphu (one kind of tree), h h xukti (dried fish), sewa-sru (a cooking pot). gnd rb ‘a kind of gnd b 1.6 Colloquial Assamese of the Sonowal Kachari tribe: Like marriage’ other tribes Sonowal Kachari tribe also contributed to build vi) Stressless syllables are omitted in the colloquial the foundation of Assamese culture and language. This Assamese form of the Sonowal-Kachari tribe. Example- tribe is found mainly in the districts of Upper Assam. The Assamese spoken form of Sonowal-Kachari Ahom king offered the name ‘Sonowal’ as they were mrib ‘die’ marb appointed to collect gold (In Assamese ‘xon’ means gold) kris ‘doing’ kuiz besides the river Sowansiri. And later they are known as b) Morphological features: ‘Sonowal’. At present the Sonowal Kachari language is not i) The formation of the Causative verb of the Sonowal exists. Now it is a colloquial form of the Assamese Kachari’s speaking is significant. Many causative roots are language. Some linguists said that they have a Tibeto- found in their speaking which are not found in the Burman language earlier, but today we found a different Assamese language. Example- colloquial form. Many characteristics are found in their Assamese spoken form of Sonowal-Kachari speaking. These characteristics provide much interest to anisõ ‘bring’ anisu the socio-linguists. The colloquial form of their speaking is haje ‘make’ hrzaj more peculiar than the other ethnic dialects of the khjma ‘to forgive’ khjmiba Assamese language. ii) The uses of secondary suffixes -/-oual/, /-iali/, /-ali/, /-iari/ The sign of their language is found in the oral literature. are notable in the Sonowal Kachari’s speaking. Example - Like-hidang song, pohari song, borgeet, husonri, ainam, dhakuali, dhekiali, manikial, nezkatari, bikhali. dhainam etc. Though they speak Assamese we find a iii) The nasalized conjugational suffixes become [] in different form in their speaking. So we can term this form a Sonowal Kachari’s speaking. Example- dialect of the Assamese language. The characteristics of Assamese spoken form of Sonowal-Kachari the Sonowal Kachari’s colloquial forms are as follows- a. Phonological characteristics: bnalõ ‘made’ bnalu 3086 IJSTR©2019 www.ijstr.org INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 8, ISSUE 12, DECEMBER 2019 ISSN 2277-8616 tanilõ ‘gramble’ tanilu Assamese Moran-Mese balõ ‘plough’ Zapi ‘hat’ dzhapi c) Lexical features: The sonowal kachari people use many mazt ‘between’ majht words of their own. Though they speak Assamese, an zak ‘a crow’ dzhak influence has been found in their Assamese speaking. b) Morphological features: Many Assamese words are deformed by the Sonowal i) The conjugational suffixes or Case of the Assamese Kachari people. Words are deformed phonetically, language simplified by phonetic deformation in Moran- morphologically etc. Hence the deformed words, Own Mese. Example: words, loan words are described. Case: i) Phonetically deform words- Genitive case: Gh soukakhe jeua. (ghrr soukakhe jeura) Assamese spoken form of Sonowal-Kachari Instrumental case: klme likh (klmere likh) h h rk ja ‘safe’ rik a Ablative case: kpa ahili (krpra ahili) kaxot ‘beside’ koxte Conjugational suffix: dunri ‘small basket’ dulni mi ze neza (mi hle nazaõ) ii) Derived words- Some words are derived by coinage process or many Person Sing. Plural. 2nd ti thẵti coined words are found in the Sonowal Kachari’s 3rd Assamese speaking. These words are derived from hi hȇti unknown suffixes and non-aryan suffixes. Example- Assamese spoken Assamese of

Sonowal-Kachari Person Singular Plural glpta ‘a kind of glpatmni nd necklace’ 2 non-hon toi tohot hon. tumi tomalok namni ‘lower’ namnikusia high- apuni aponalok brbihu ‘festival’ bhua hon xokam ‘feast’ ga xlni dia mi zage dei (mi zaõgi) azli ‘foolish girl’ azliari ii) There is no any form for non-honorific and honorific iii) Native Words: pronoun in Moran-Mese. Example- a) Genitive and addressing words- Many native words are Assamese found in the Sonowal kachari’s speaking. These words are- brpai (father’s elder brother), duta (grandfather), Abi (grandmother), zethai (father’s sister), brgraki (husband’s h elder brother), ap a-ai (mother-father) etc. b) Other words: It is very difficult to define the source of these words. These words are- kakama (Cockroach), tetema (an insect), heta (an insect), kuki (baby), tlia (acquatic animal), hiska (habit), gr (bamboo pipe), Moran-Mese meze/mesai (one kind of veg.) etc. 1.7 Colloquial Assamese of the Moran tribe: Like other tribes of Assam, the Moran tribe is also rich in cultural heritage. The Moran people use Assamese language in their day-to-day life. But in their Assamese speaking we find a separate form from the standard Assamese. Therefore we iii) Some native classifiers are found in Moran-Mese. These can call the colloquial Assamese form of the Moran tribe as are- an ethnic dialect of the Assamese language. Upen Rabha /-ia/- habuia, azukhia, kpetia Hakacham uses the term ‘Moran-Mese’ to define it /-ial/- gtial (Hakacham 2009:216). The Moran people are inhabited at /-xali/- gerexali, souxali, ekhahali the districts- Dibrugarh and Tinsukia of Assam. The iv) The uses of pleonastic suffix in Moran-Mese is notable. Characteristics can be described as follows- The uses of pleonastic suffixes are- a) Phonological features: /-ka/ : dakhn ka ki kl (where the sword has been lost) i) The tendency of high vowel is a characteristic of the /-isi /: isi ta gate lagisil. (Oh god! Safe for a few, it was hit Moran-Mese. Example- in his body) Assamese Moran-Mese c) Lexical features: Though Moran people speak the thẵti ‘You’ tuhuti Assamese language; they also keep the characteristics of hihẵt ‘They’ hite their language by using some different word. The words tamol ‘betel nut’ tamul used by Moran people can be classified as follows- ii) The [r] sound is omitted at final position. Example- i) Addressing genitive words: abudu (father-in-law), kki Assamese Moran-Mese (a term for calling a child), zizai (great grandmother), pi zeura ‘gate’ zeua (pehi). dekeri ‘young cow’ dekei ii) Cultural words: Sali khoa (a feast organized by women), iii) In Moran-Mese the [z] sound becomes [dzh]. Example- kza ka (preparation for dowry), kesa haz (a feast with

3087 IJSTR©2019 www.ijstr.org INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 8, ISSUE 12, DECEMBER 2019 ISSN 2277-8616 rice beer) etc. From these illustrations we came to know that each dialect of the Assamese language has its own characteristics. Many influences of their mother tongue have been led in to their Assamese speaking. To define the definitions of dialects many linguists discuss only about the regional dialects. A dialect may be regional, ethnic, lingua- franca etc. Dr. Upen Rabha Hakacham discusses systematically about these dialects of Assamese in his book entitled ‘Axomia Bhaxar nrigosthio upobhakha’. In this study an attempt has been chosen to bring into focus the ethnic dialects of the Assames language. Lot of study is required in these fields.

4.0 CONCLUSION: From the above discussions we came to know that Assamese has different ethnic dialects. The scope of socio- linguistic study of the Assamese language is vast. So many fields are quiet lay down without any scientific study. Therefore I hope it will help to take the interests of the scholars for more studies in this field.

REFERENCES: [1] Boruah, Bhimkanta. Axomor Bhakha. First pub., Banalata, Dibrugarh, 1990. [2] Hakacham, Upen Rabha. Asomia Bhakhar Itihas. Panbajar, Guwahati, 2013. [3] Kumer Nath, Profulla. & Hazarika Jyoti Rekha. Asomia Bhakhar Adhyan. Banalata, Dibrugarh, 1997.