Nepalese Linguistics Volume 27 November 2012 Chief Editor Dr. Dan Raj Regmi Editors Dr. Balaram Prasain Mr. Ramesh Khatri Office Bearers for 2012-2014 President Krishna Prasad Parajuli Vice-President Bhim Lal Gautam General Secretary Kamal Poudel Secretary (Office) Bhim Narayan Regmi Secretary (General) Kedar Bilash Nagila Treasurer Krishna Prasad Chalise Member Dev Narayan Yadav Member Netra Mani Dumi Rai Member Karnakhar Khatiwada Member Ambika Regmi Member Suren Sapkota Editorial Board Chief Editor Dr. Dan Raj Regmi Editors Dr. Balaram Prasain Ramesh Khatri Nepalese Linguistics is a journal published by Linguistic Society of Nepal. It publishes articles related to the scientific study of languages, especially from Nepal. The views expressed therein are not necessary shared by the committee on publications. Published by: Linguistic Society of Nepal Kirtipur, Kathmandu Nepal Copies: 500 © Linguistic Society of Nepal ISSN -0259-1006 Price: NC 400/- (Nepali) IC 350/-(India) USD 10 Life membership fees include subscription for the journal. SPECIAL THANKS to Nepal Academy Kamaladi, Kathmandu, Nepal Nepal Academy (Nepal Pragya Pratisthan) was founded in June 22, 1957 by the then His Late Majesty King Mahendra as Nepal Sahitya Kala Academy. It was later renamed Nepal Rajkiya Pragya Pratisthan and now it is named as Nepal Pragya Prastisthan. This prestigious national academic institution is committed to enhancing the language, cult ure, philosophy and social sciences in Nepal. The major objectives of Nepal Academy include (a) to focus on the creation of original works in the fields of languages, literature, culture, philosophy and social sciences in Nepa l (b) to translate outstanding works from foreign languages into Nepali and other native languages and vice versa (c) to organize talks, lectures, seminars workshops, conferences, exhibitions, etc., on topics related to language, literature, philosophy, culture and social sciences, and to participate in international programmes of such nature (d) to maintain relations between Nepal Academy and various related international organizations (e) to honour and present awards to distinguished native and other scholars in recognition of their significant contributions to language, literature, art, crafts, music, drama, culture and social sciences (f) to promote a congenial atmosphere for facilitating the works of individuals and organizations devoted to such areas (g) to offer life and honorary memberships to distinguished scholars, artists and organizations. In this context, Nepal Academy has s hown its generosity to collaborate in supporting and publishing this volume of NEPALESE LINGUISTICS, the annual journal of Linguistic Society of Nepal (LSN), a premier organization devoted to the study of languages in general and the Nepalese languages in particular. The LSN extends its sincer e gratitude and thankfulness to Nepal Academy for sponsoring the publication of the present issue of NEPALESE LINGUISTICS, Vol 27. Contents Working prototype of a multimodal dictionary Jens Allwood and Sagun Dhakhwa 1 Baram in comparison with proto-Tibeto-Burman Krishna Prasad Chalise 8 Subordination in Baram Laxman Chalise 15 Coordination in Tharu Mahesh Chaudhary 20 Voice enabled electronic medical record management system Abey S A, Devanand, Elizabeth Thomas, Pradeep Balachandran, Shaji A, Sudhamony S, Thara S Pillai 26 Preliminary notes on Majhi case Dubi Nanda Dhakal 30 Contact Nepali in Kathmandu valley: Convergence between TB and IA languages Bhim Lal Gautam 38 Phonation types of Balami consonants: An acoustic analysis Bhoj Raj Gautam 43 Mother tongue instruction in multilingual schools of Nepal Laxman Ghimire 53 Role of language in nation building in Nepalese context Jivendra Dev Giri 60 Grammatical number in Newar: A second look Tej R Kansakar 65 I am a linguist Sajan Kumar Karn 72 Moods and modality in Dhimal Karnakhar Khatiwada 77 Negativization in Raji Ramesh Khatri 82 Tense and aspect in Chhulung Man Kumari Limbu 85 Role of language in constructing identity Ramesh Kumar Limbu and 89 Rishi Ram Adhikari ‘The tail’ in classical Newari lexicon and the Proto-Tibeto- Burman root Kamal P. Malla 93 Effective language learning in Indian language classrooms: A study Devi Archana Mohanty 98 A Sociolinguistic profile of the Kinnaura tribe Harvinder Kumar Negi 101 Tense in Dangaura Tharu Krishna Prasad Paudyal 106 Typology of verb agreement in the languages of Nepal Madhav P. Pokharel 109 A sociolinguistic study of the Balami dialect of Newar (as spoken in Chitlang) Jyoti Pradhan 118 A study of Manipuri V-li: beyond progressive N. Pramodini 121 Finite state approach to Nepali pronouns Balaram Prasain 127 A phonological study of Tilung: An endangered language of Nepal Vishnu S Rai 143 Nominal morphology of the Mugali language Ichchha Purna Rai 151 Grammatical case marking in Dumi Netra Mani Rai 155 Negation in Koyee: Typological perspective Tara Mani Rai 161 Women literacy in Nepal: An ethnolinguistic perspective Ambika Regmi 166 Overlap in Nepali spoken interaction Bhim Narayan Regmi, Jens Allwood and Ram Kisun Uranw 171 Duration of consonants in Bhujel Dan Raj Regmi 179 Case marking in Hayu Sulochana Sapkota 187 Language policy in federal Nepal: Sharing from some federal Suren Sapkota 190 states Linguistic fieldwork revisited on Puma Narayan Sharma 199 Attitude towards English: A study on higher secondary ESL Sabita Kumari Suaro and students Smita Sinha 206 Subordination in Santhali Indresh Thakur 210 Converbal constractions in Bhojpuri Gopal Thakur Lohar 217 Case markers in Byansi (Rang) Rajendra Thokar 223 Verbal suffixes in Athpahariya Govinda Bahadur Tumbahang 229 VP complements in Maithili Surya Prasad Yadav 233 Role and relevance of linguistics in Nepal (Keynote) Madhav P. Pokharel 237 Presidential address Dan Raj Regmi 244 List of life members of Linguistic Society of Nepal 247 Working prototype of a multimodal dictionary Jens Allwood and Sagun Dhakhwa The state of minority languages is in the verge of related audio, picture and video information can be extinction in Nepal, especially, when they don't added by authors and browsed by general users. have a proper writing system, archival, and where Each word also contains its Nepali & English Nepali is a predominantly used. Lohorung is an meaning(s) and pronunciations. The system example, of such minority language, spoken supports Unicode encodings which allows data to among Lohroung Rai communities of be written in Devanagari or Latin scripts. Hence, Sankhuwasabha, a hilly district of eastern Nepal. collation operation like sorting and searching can The aim of this project is to document, preserve easily be performed. and vitalize the Lohorung language by using a We have built this application in order to pilot it multimodal dictionary which allows community for Lohorung; however, it can be used for any members to collaboratively create an encyclopedic other languages of the world. Lohorung is one of multimodal dictionary. The project envisages an the minority Tibeto-Burman languages of Kirati active partnership between the researchers and the group spoken in Eastern Hilly region of Nepal. community members. Lohorung has its origin at the area between Arun We have developed a working prototype of the River and Sabha river of Shankhuwasabha District. multimodal dictionary which can be used to However, today, Lohorungs are found in the towns document Lohorung and practically any languages and cities around Ilam and Sankhuwasabha, of the world where language community actively southern plain of Terai, Kathmandu valley and collaborates to author the dictionary. Currently, Darjeeling in Nepal. Some preliminary study has the dictionary is ready for the usability testing. We been done on Lohorung languages which include a envisage evolving the prototype into fully working basic dictionary in Lohorung with a grammatical application with very high usability sketch (Yadava et al 2004). considerations, for usability will be the one of the Lohorung is one of the many endangered most important factors which will encourage the languages of the world. Speakers of Lohorung are community members to actively participate in decreasing everyday due to the dominance of dictionary building process. Nepali, the national language, and inter-language 1 Introduction marriage between Lohorung and other communities. The children of Lohorung and non- Traditionally, paperback dictionaries are limited to Lohorung parents have been found to adopt words, their meanings, usage and pictures. Owing Nepali, the lingua franca, as a primary language. It to the tradition, online dictionaries are limited to has been reportedly found that there is a growing word meanings, its usage and symbolic or audio trend of marriage between Lohorung, other Kirati pronunciation at most. However, learning a new Rai communities like Yakkha, Khaling, Khulung language using only such information is not and other non Kirati communities like Gurung, adequate. A multimodal dictionary is an Tamang, Bahun, Chettris etc., who reside in the encyclopedic dictionary which describes a word areas near to Lohorung Villages. Such a scenario is and its usage in more than one mode. The quite common in other endangered and small information can be in the form of meaning of a language groups in Nepal. word in various languages, description about the word in text, pictorial, audio or video, Currently, the system is made to support three pronunciation of word in symbols (IPA) or audio, languages namely: Lohorung, Nepali