Gender Distinction of the Rabha and the Assamese Language: a Comparative Study

Gender Distinction of The Rabha And The Assamese language: A Comparative Study

Anupama Rabha Research Scholar, Dept. of Assamese, Guwahati University, Assam, India.

Abstract: The Rabha and the Assamese language originate from different language family. But the geographical area of both the language is same. Therefore, both the language share with each other certain common characters and words in respect of Gender as well as in some other discipline of linguistic domain. So, an attempt has been made in this paper to highlight the gender distinction of the Rabha and the Assamese language with respect to characters, attributes, suffix and form of words.

Keywords: Gender, Masculine, Feminine.

Introduction: The Rabhas and Assamese are the most ancient inhabitants of Assam. The Rabha and the Assamese language originate from two different language families. The Rabha language belongs to the Tibeto-Burman group of greater Sino-Tibetan language family. On the other hand, the Assamese language belongs to the Magadhan group of Indo- Aryan language family.

Objective: The main objective of this study is to draw out the specific features of both the languages. This paper discuss about the gender distinction of the Rabha and the Assamese language in a comparative manner though both the language originates from different languages family.

Data and analysis: The required data has been collected from both the primary and secondary sources. The primary sources are mainly informants. And for secondary sources, written documents were taken into account

Gender variation: The Rabha and the Assamese are a natural gender language. Gender distinctions are made mainly in case of living animate for both the languages. There is the use of gender in grammar for both the languages. Former scholars have done a lot of works on the grammatical structure basically in Rabha in accordance with traditional nations and classified gender into four categories that includes masculine gender, feminine gender, neuter gender and common gender. In Assamese also, gender had been classified into three categories which includes masculine gender, feminine gender and neuter gender. To clarify it a note from the writings of Rajen Rabha’s book entitled ‘The Rabha’ can be quoted here ‘In the Rabha language gender is generally indicated by different words for rational beings. Gender of the words of relationship is also expressed by different words. There are four types of gender in Rabha language. Such as –(a) musa Risi (masculine) (b) Micha Risi (feminine) (c) Chanda Risi (neuter) (d) Jon Risi (common) (p-227-228). Assamese grammarian also talked about three kinds of gender in Assamese languages. A note from the writings of Ajanta Chowdhari’s book entitled “Gender in Assamese” can be quoted her that-‘the first grammar of Assamese languages written in Assamese is ‘’Asamiya Bhakhar Byakaran’’’. There is a section of gender and attempted to classify Assamese words into three genders such as masculine, feminine and neuter.(p-18) Gender of both the languages in this paper has been classified into two distinct genders i.e. masculine and feminine. The word which signifies male is the masculine gender and the word which signifies female is the feminine gender. In both the languages, gender distinction is found only in case of animate and non human nouns. In general, animate IJRAR2001677 International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews (IJRAR) www.ijrar.org 762

© 2020 IJRAR March 2020, Volume 7, Issue 1 www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138) nouns have no place in the gender formation processes of both the languages. Ther are five types of principles to change the form of gender. These are given below:-

1.1 By employing opposite set of words or using three words:

Rabha and Assamese have a good number of opposite set of words which are used to distinguish male and female independently. Without taking any suffixes they can simply signify masculine and feminine gender. Some example of both the languages may be tabulated as follows:-

Examples in Rabha:-

Sl No. Masculine Feminine 1. Baba (father) aya (mother) 2. Dada (elder brother) buji (sister-in-law) 3. Gimi (brother-in-law) bibi (elder sister) 4. Juju (grand-father) bidi (grand-mother) 5. Bang-bang (father’s younger brother) mani (paternal or maternal aunt) 6. Awmba (husband) michik (wife) 7. Fajong (fathers elder brother) etc. aaychung (fathers elder brother’s wife)

Example in Assamese:-

Sl No. Masculine Feminine 1. deuta (father) ma (mother) 2. koka (grand-father) aita (grand-mother) 3. dada (elder brother) bou (sister-in-law) 4. bhini (brother-in-law) baideu (elder sister) 5. giriyek (husband) potni/ghuiniyek (wife) 6. dora (bride-groom) koina (groom) 7. Bollod (bull) gai (cow)

1.2 Gender distinction by using attributive words:

There is a system of using attributive words in both the Rabha and Assamese language. In Rabha, the word that is used to denote male human being is -musa (man). And for female is mecha (women). Buda/maba/gogo and maju/kuri is used to denote non human nouns. In Assamese language, ‘mota (male)’ and ‘maiki (female)’ are used respectively to denote male and female human beings. This words that indicates the male and female have their own meaning in both the languages. A few speciments are given below:-

Examples in Rabha:-

Sl No. Masculine Feminine 1. Sabra musa (son) sabra mecha (doughter) 2. Nebra musa (father-in-law) nebra mecha (mother-in-law) 3. To buda (cock) to jibra (hen) 4. Ki maba (dog) ki maju (bitch) 5. bak maju (female pig) Bak maba (male pig) 6. Prwn maba (he goat) prwn maju (she goat)

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Examples in Assamese:-

Sl No. Masculine Feminine 1. Mota manuh (man) maiki manuh (women) 2. maiki kukur (bitch) Mota kukur (dog) 3. Mota sagoli (he goat) maiki sagoli (she goat) 4. Mota kukura (cock) maiki kukura (hen) 5. Mota ghora (horse) maiki ghora (mare)

Thus, it can be noted that animate nouns of the Rabhas that are mentioned above are sometime preceded or followed by attributives. Whereas in Assamese, nouns are always preceded by attributives to specify distinct gender.

1.3 Gender unique form:

There are some kinds of masculine and feminine gender which are unique in nature. Such words are independent and unique and do not have their opposite sex. They are neither changeable nor derivable by adding suffixes or any other sex marker. They are distinctly used without any sex variation. Examples are as follows-

Examples in Rabha:-

a) Unique masculine gender form words:-

Sl No. Rabha English 1. Malora/maylar Monarchism(having only one testicles) 2. Mathay Eminent member 3. Mabalok Fool

b) Unique feminine gender form words:-

Sl No. Rabha English 1. Baygor Prostitute, whore 2. Mecha maba a girl who comments without any careful consideration 3. Twkkargrak witch 4. Laosiya talkative girl 5. Bukili a girl who is generally kept to care a baby

Examples in Assamese:-

a) Unique masculine gender form words:- Sl No. Assamese English 1. Bamun priest 2. Gorokhiya cowherd 3. Khahi neutered 4. Gaoburha village headman 5. Kamala labourer

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© 2020 IJRAR March 2020, Volume 7, Issue 1 www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138) b) Unique Feminine gender form words:- Sl No. Assamese English 1. Nasoni female dancer 2. Buoni weaver 3. Ruoni paddy planter

1.4 Common form of gender:

Common genders are nothing but collective nouns which is used to indicate both masculine and feminine gender. Common gender always indicates animate nouns only. It has restriction to inanimate nouns. Some common genders found in Rabha and Assamese Language are listed below-

Example in Rabha:-

Sl No. Rabha English 1. Krwma Guest 2. Kay Man 3. Masu Cow 4. Sabra Children 5. Trwngir Student 6. Kwtrwngir Teacher

Examples in Assamese:-

Sl No. Assamese English 1. Khetiok Farmer 2. Dokani Shopkeeper 3. Bepari Businessman 4. Manuh Man 5. Goru Cow 6. Poruwui Reader

1.5 Feminine gender formation by Suffixation:

The Rabhas and the Assamese have a close contact with each other for a long time and this experience might have influenced them to some extent in adopting some linguistic elements from each other. Both the languages are well acquainted with the system of the gender situation. Feminine sex marker used in both the languages may be discussed one by one as below.

1.5.1 Gender distinction by suffixation in Rabha:

‘’-i’’ is the feminine markers of Rabha language. This marker is inflectional suffixes that is added to masculine noun to indicate feminine gender. A good number of masculine words which generally ends in ‘-a’ replace their final vowel with the above mentioned marker to show their corresponding opposite sex. Examples are given below:-

Sl No. Masculine Feminine 1. Jara (mad man) Jari (mad women) 2. Lara (widower) Lari/bandri (widow) 3. Labra (man who lies) Labri (women who lies) 4. Kamla (servant) Kamli (maid)

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1.5.2 Gender distinction by suffixation in Assamese:

Assamese has large number feminine markers and this are nothing but the allomorphs derived from principal bound morpheme ‘-oni’. The feminine suffixes (allomorphs) are respectively ‘-oni’, ‘-ni’, ‘-ini’, ‘-ri’, ‘-uni’ etc. Examples are as follows:-

Sl No. Markers Masculine Feminine Sakor (servant) Sakoroni (maid) 1. -oni— Master (Teacher) Mastoroni (ladies teacher) Kana (blind man) Kani (blind women) 2. -i— Mama (mothers brother) mami (wife of mothers brother) Barua (Mr. Barua) Baruani (Mrs. Barua) 3. -ni— Kalita (Mr. Kalita) Kalitani (Mrs. Kalita) Bagh (tiger) Baghini (Tigress) 4. -ini— Nati (grand-son) Natini (grand-daughter) Sur (thief) Suruni (women thief) 5. -uni— Dhoba (washer man) Dhobuni (washer women) Kola (deaf man) Kalori (deaf women) 6. -ri— Benga (dumb man) Bengeri (dumb women)

Conclusion:

From the above discussion it is seen that Rabha and Assamese language speaking people lives socially and culturally very close. As a result we can see mutual impact in case of gender distinction. In both the language gender distinction is made on the basis of animate nouns only. Therefore it is convenient to say that both the language belongs to the natural gender and gender can be formed by using suffixes. In both languages, all these aspects can be seen almost in a similar manner may be due to the close contact with each other as they have long history of dwelling in the same geographical area.

Reference:

Arora, S.N. : Some Aspects of Linguistics. Second Edition, 2006, Phonetics and Modern English Grammar, Published by Student Store, Barielly. Gait, Edward : History of Assam, 1963, Thacker Spink and Co., Calcutta. Goswami, G.C. : Structure of Assamese Languages, 1982, Guwahati. Gleason, Jr. H.A : An Introduction to Descriptive Linguistics, 1968. Published by Oxford & IBH Publishiing Co. Pvt. Ltd. Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta. Goswami, S.N. : Studies in Sino - Tibetan Languages, 1988, Published by Kamrupa Anusandhan Samity, Gauhati. Palmer, Frank : Grammar. First Published 1971, Penguin Books Ltd. Palmer, Frank R. : Grammatical Roles and Relations, Published by the Cambridge University Press, 1994. P.N.(ed.) : Languages of the North East, 1997, Edited by P.N., Dutta Baruah. Central Institute of Indian Languages, Publication, Manasagangotri, Mysore.

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