City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects CUNY Graduate Center 6-2021 A Description of the Phonology and Morphology of Kɔɖa, An Endangered Language of Bangladesh Ahmed Shamim The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/4413 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] A DESCRIPTION OF THE PHONOLOGY AND MORPHOLOGY OF KƆƉA, AN ENDANGERED LANGUAGE OF BANGLADESH by AHMED SHAMIM A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Linguistics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2021 © 2021 AHMED SHAMIM All rights reserved ii A Description of the Phonology and Morphology of Kɔɖa, an Endangered Munda Language of Bangladesh by Ahmed Shamim This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Linguistics in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. __________________________ _______________________________ Date Juliette Blevins Co-chair of Examining Committee __________________________ _______________________________ Date Daniel Kaufman Co-chair of Examining Committee ___________________________ ________________________________ Date Gita Martohardjono Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: Juliette Blevins Professor, Linguistics program, Graduate Center, CUNY Gita Martohardjono Professor, Linguistics program, Graduate Center, CUNY Daniel Kaufman Assistant Professor, Queens College, CUNY THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii ABSTRACT A Description of the Phonology and Morphology of Kɔɖa, an Endangered Munda Language of Bangladesh by Ahmed Shamim Supervisor: Juliette Blevins Co-Supervisor: Daniel Kaufman This dissertation provides a preliminary description of the phonology and morphology of Kɔɖa [cdz], an endangered language of Bangladesh and one of the least described Munda languages of South Asia. It has four chapters: 1) Introduction, 2) Phonology, 3) Morphology, and 4) Kɔɖa in the Context of Language Contact. Chapter 1 provides a demographic overview of Kɔɖa speakers of Bangladesh, a discussion of Kɔɖa as a Munda language, a typological sketch of the language, a summary of previous work on Kɔɖa, and a summary of the fieldwork and methodology used in collecting data. Chapter 1 also previews the descriptive frameworks adopted to describe and explain the synchronic sound patterns and word classes of Kɔɖa. Chapter 2 provides a detailed description of the phonology of the language, including segmental and prosodic aspects of sound patterns. Chapter 3 presents a description of Kɔɖa word classes and word structure, including productive derivational and inflectional processes in the language. Finally, Chapter 4 presents a study of Kɔɖa in the context of language contact. Evidence for early Indic contact is observed, while more recent contact with Bangla has given rise to phonological and morphological features which might lead to classification of Kɔɖa as a mixed language. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation for my supervisor, Professor Juliette Blevins, who has been the guiding star throughout my graduate school life, for her guidance, feedback, and patience that steered me through this work. I am very thankful to her and the Endangered Language Initiative (ELI) for the grants that supported my field visits. I am also grateful to my co-supervisor Daniel Kaufman, who has been the source of encouragement for me, for his guidance, feedback, and care that helped me complete this dissertation. I am indebted to him for his camaraderie and collaboration with me at the Endangered Language Alliance (ELA) and the Kratylos project (NSF DEL #1500753), which allowed me to learn hands-on the best practices of processing and preserving linguistic data. I am thankful to Professor Gita Martohardjono, who not only helped me with feedback for my dissertation, but also contributed to my subsistence in New York city with a work-study opportunity in her office and a job in her lab. I am grateful to my professors at City University of New York José del Valle, Robert Fiengo, Dianne Bradley, William McClure, Marcel den Dikken, William Sakas, Christina Tortora, and Douglas Whalen for their time and teachings in preparing me as a graduate student. I am forever indebted to the consultants I worked with, Shohag Koda and Arun Koda, who welcomed me to their community and helped me document the Kɔɖa language. I am thankful to Purnima Thakur, Nishi Bissoondial, Farzana Hafsa, Dinesh Mudi, Shyamal Mudi, Niloy Dash, Michela Cresci, Tanvir Rabbani, Nazmul Sultan, Humayun Kabir, Shampa Afroz, Shusmin Afsana, Shamim Reza, Ovee Chowdhury, Shamsul Islam, Sohel Parvez, Imtiaz Hossain, Tirtho Dutta, Ahmad Jamil, and Mahbub Tipu for their support with love and logistics in this journey. I v am also thankful to my colleagues at the University of Texas at Austin, Martha Selby, Rupert Snell, Indrani Chatterjee, Donald Davis, Dalpat Rajpurohit, Darsana Sasi, Gautami Shahnaz Hassan, Mansi Bajaj, Claire Maes, Anandakrishnan Balakrishnan, Akbar Hyder, Faith Hanley, and Lucy Enniss for their support. Finally, I express my gratitude to my family for believing in me. I am thankful to my parents, Md. Abdul Kader and Meherunnessa, parents-in-law Nasim Ali Chowdhury and Sayeeda Khanam Chowdhury, and my siblings Poly, Rupa, Nipa for their support and empowering words. I am grateful to my wife, Razima Selim Chowdhury, for her patience and support, and to my son, Rudro Rishi, for the time I stole from his share to complete this “extra-long homework.” April 2021 Ahmed Shamim Ithaca, New York. vi CONTENTS Acknowledgements v List of Tables xii Abbreviations xiii Maps 5, 6, 8 Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 The language and its speakers 1 1.2 Kɔɖa as Munda language 7 1.3 Typological sketch of Kɔɖa 22 1.4 Kɔɖa as a mixed language 30 1.5 Previous work on Kɔɖa 33 1.6 Fieldwork and methodology 39 1.7 Descriptive framework 43 Chapter 2 Phonology 45 2.1 Vowels 45 2.1.1 Kɔɖa vowels and their allophones 47 2.1.2 Distribution of Kɔɖa vowels 50 2.2 Consonants 51 2.2.1 Contact-induced sounds in Kɔɖa 53 2.2.2 Kɔɖa consonants and their allophones 56 2.2.2 Distribution of consonants 59 2.3 Phonotactics 61 vii 2.3.1 Syllable structure 61 2.3.2 Analysis of consonant sequences 63 2.3.3 Syllabification and glide formation 66 2.4 Stress 67 2.5 Phonological Constraints and Processes 69 2.5.1 Minimal word in Kɔɖa 69 2.5.2 Syllable-final neutralization 70 2.5.3 Status of the glottal consonants h, ʔ 75 2.5.4 Nasal assimilation 79 2.5.5 Root-internal vowel harmony 82 2.5.6 Tenseness assimilation 84 2.5.7 Suffixal regressive assimilation 87 2.5.8 Suffixal progressive assimilation 91 2.5.9 Vowel coloring process 92 2.5.10 Coda-cluster reduction rule 93 2.5.11 Vowel Syncope 94 Chapter 3 Morphology 96 3.1 Word categories 98 3.2 Nominal morphology 98 3.2.1 Nominal derivational suffixes 98 3.2.1.1 Nominalizer -iʔ 98 3.2.1.2 Similative suffix -laka 99 3.2.1.3 Adverbializer suffix -kɛhɛ 100 viii 3.2.2 Number marking 101 3.2.3 Case suffixes 103 3.2.3.1 Object marking 103 3.2.3.2 Genitive case 107 3.2.3.3 Locative case 109 3.2.3.4 Instrumental-Locative case 113 3.2.4 Compounding 114 3.2.5 Reduplication 115 3.2.6 Demonstratives 117 3.3 Pronouns 119 3.3.1 Free Pronouns 120 3.3.2 Bound pronominals 121 3.3.2.1 Object agreement suffixes 121 3.3.2.2 Subject clitics 124 3.4 Verbal Morphology 125 3.4.1 Verbal Derivational Morphology 131 3.4.1.1 Applicative suffix -aʔ 132 3.4.1.2 Directional Suffix -t̪ uka 133 3.4.1.3 Suffix -ɛʔ: Transitive marker for atelic aspects 135 3.4.1.4 Suffix -ɔʔ: Intransitive marker for atelic aspects 135 3.4.1.5 Suffix -d̪ : Transitive marker for telic aspects 136 3.4.1.6 Suffix -n: Intransitive marker for telic aspect 137 3.4.1.7 Causatives 138 ix 3.4.2 Verbal Inflectional Suffixes 142 3.4.2.1 Tense and Aspect 142 3.4.2.2 Object agreement markers 150 3.4.2.3 Finiteness and Mood 153 3.5 Distribution of Subject Clitics 156 3.6 Copula 158 3.7 Compound verbs 164 3.8 Adjectives 165 Chapter 4 Kɔɖa in the Context of Language Contact 178 4.1 Early contact of Munda and Indo-Aryan languages: Evidence in Kɔɖa 183 4.2 Borrowing of free lexemes 189 4.3 Contact-induced Morphology 194 4.3.1 Object Case marker -kɛ 194 4.3.2 Nominative suffix -tɛ 195 4.3.3 Imperfective participle suffix -tɛ 196 4.3.4 Definite marker -ʈa 198 4.4 Category Change 199 4.4.1 Ambiguous aspects of perfect suffix -aka 199 4.4.2 Cross-categorical use of loanwords 200 4.5 Contact-induced composite words 202 4.5.1 Derived postpositions 202 4.5.2 Verb complex with Bangla noun and Kɔɖa light verb 203 4.6 Context-induced morphosyntax 204 x 4.6.1 Non-nominative subject in Kɔɖa 204 4.6.3 Correlative clauses 206 4.6.4 Conditional clauses 208 4.7 Contact Induced Phonology 209 4.7.1 Contact-induced change: s>ʃ 209 4.7.2 Outstanding sound patterns 210 4.7.2.1 Loanwords escape vowel harmony constraint 210 4.7.2.2 Geminates in loanwords 210 4.7.2.3 Loanwords escape syllable final neutralization 211 4.8 Is Kɔɖa a mixed language? 212 Bibliography 221 xi TABLES Table No.