Kachari language

Last updated
Kachari
কছাৰী
Region Assam, India
Native speakers
16,000 (2011) [1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 xac
Glottolog kach1279
ELP Kachari
G.A. Grierson's linguistic map of Tibeto-Burman family, 1903. Map of the Languages and Dialects of the Bara or Bodo Group of the Tibeto-Burman Family.jpg
G.A. Grierson's linguistic map of Tibeto-Burman family, 1903.

Kachari is a Sino-Tibetan language of the Boro-Garo branch that is spoken in Assam, India. With fewer than 60,000 speakers recorded in 1997, and the Asam 2001 Census reporting a literacy rate of 81% the Kachari language is currently ranked as threatened. [3] Kachari is closely related to surrounding languages, including Tiwa, Rābhā, Kochi and Mechi. [4]

Contents

While there are still living adult speakers, many children are not learning Kachari as their primary language, instead being assimilated into the wider Assamese speaking communities. [5]

Division

According to LSI, Kachari language was divided into Plain Kachari or Bårå(Boro) and Hill Kachari or Dimasa. [6]

Phonology

Consonants

Kachari consists of the 13 consonants shown below and three Non-syllabics,(Frictional: h, frictionless palatal: y, frictionless rounded velar: w [7] ) :

Bi-LabialDenti-AlveolarAlveolo-PalatalVelar
Plosives
  • aspirated
  • unaspirated
p^h

b

t^h

d

k^h

g

Nasalsmnn
Fricatives
  • Voiceless
  • Voiced
s

z

Tremulantr
Laterall

Vowels

FrontCentralBack
Highiu
Mideoo
Lowa

Prosody

Grammar

Syntax

The word order of Kachari is Subject-Object-Verb (SOV)

Kachari uses many instances of "compound words" to denote meaning. For example, the word for "boy", is really the combination of the Kachari words for "male" and "child". This also correlates with Kachari verbs, which can be agglutinated to form "compound verbs". [8] While Kachari is not polysynthetic, its verbs act as a stem for descriptive adjective, adverbs or affixes to change its meaning. For example, the "conjugation of the regular verb active, 'nu-nǔ.' to see" results in the following: [9]

Verb "to See" [9]
CaseCase FormFinal FormMeaning
Infinitive-nǔnu-nǔto see
Progressive-dangnu-dangI am seeing
Simple Past-bainu-baiI saw
Past Progressive-dangmannu-dangmanI did see
Past Remote-nainu-naiI had seen
-dangmannu-dangman
Simple Future-gannu-ganI will see
Paulo-post Future-si-gannu-si-ganI will see (almost immediately)
-nǔ-sǔinu-nǔ-sǔi
Imperative-nuSee (you)
-thangnu-thangLet him (them) see

Tense

Future Tense

As can be seen from the chart above, the future tense is indicated with -gan, while -si- indicates that the future event will occur soon or in the near future. One example is "Bí faigan", he will come, as opposed to "Bí faisigan", he will come (almost at once) or he is about to come. [9]

Present Tense

Present tense is shown through three affixes, "ǔ", "dong" and "gô". The first two forms represent indefinite and definite forms and are far more common that "gô", which is frequently only used to answer questions in the affirmative.

Adjectives

Most adjectives can be added both before or after the noun it is describing, though it gains the case ending if it follows the noun, rather than precedes it. [9] This follows the identification of as a strongly suffixing language. [10] However, this classification goes against Konwar's description of Kachari and a related language, Karbi, as primarily prefixing to create adjectives. [11]

Numerical adjectives are always inserted after the noun it is describing. For example, "ten goats" is "Burmá má-zǔ" with "Burmá" meaning goat, "má" being the classifier for "animal" and the number ten being "zǔ". [4] [9]

Morphology

Gender - Common nouns such as father, mother, brother or sister have distinct masculine and feminine words while other nouns including animals, will typically have the words for male and female, -jelá and -jeu respectively, added on as a suffix to denote gender. Other common masculine and feminine suffix forms that may be used include -zǎlá/-zǔ, -bundā/-bundi, -bóndá/-bóndi, -phántá/-phánti and -pherá/-pheri. [4] [9]

Number System

Kachari has a decimal system and counts to 10 with unique words, after which the number words combine to add to the larger number as shown in the chart below. [12]

1. sé21. nɯizise
2. nɯí22. nɯizinɯi
3. tʰám22. nɯizitʰam
4. brɯí24. nɯizibrɯi
5. bá25. nɯiziba
6. dɔ́26. nɯizidɔ
7. sní27. nɯizisni
8. daín28. nɯizidain
9. ɡú29. nɯiziɡu
10. zí30. tʰamzí
11. zíse40. brɯizí
12. zínɯi50.bazí
13. zítʰám60. dɔzí
14. zíbrɯi70. snizí
15. zíba80. dainzí
16. zídɔ90. ɡuzí
17. zísni100. zɯusé / sezɯú
18. zídaín200. nɯizɯú
19. zíɡu1000. sé rɯ̀za
20. nɯizí2000. nɯí rɯ̀za

References

  1. Kachari at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed Access logo transparent.svg
  2. Grierson, G.A. (1903). "Linguistic Survey of India, Volume III, Tibeto-Burman Family, Part II, "Specimens of the Bodo, Nāgā, and Kachin groups"". The Record News.
  3. Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D. "Kachari". Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Twentieth edition. Retrieved 2017-03-09.
  4. 1 2 3 Robinson, William (1849-01-01). Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal "Notes on the Languages Spoken by the various tribes inhabiting the valley of Asam and its mountain confines.". G.H. Rouse, Baptist Mission Press. pp. 215–224.
  5. "Did you know Kachari is endangered?". Endangered Languages. Retrieved 2017-03-09.
  6. "Linguistic Survey of India". dsal.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2020-08-25.
  7. 1 2 Bhattacharya, Pramod Chandra (1977). A Descriptive Analysis of the Boro Language. 21 Balaram Ghose Street, Calcutta 700004: The Pooran Press.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  8. Anderson, J. D. (1895-01-01). A collection of Kachári folk-tales and rhymes. Shillong. hdl:2027/uc1.b4216782.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Endle, Sidney (1884-01-01). Outline Grammar of the Kachari (Bara) Language as Spoken in District Darrang, Assam: With Illustrative Sentences, Notes, Reading Lessons, and a Short Vocabulary. Assam Secretariat Press.
  10. "Language Kachari". wals.info. Retrieved 2017-03-09.
  11. Konwar, Aparna (2002). "Some Aspects of the Boro and the Karbi morphology". Indian Linguistics. 63: 39–48.
  12. Brahma, Aleendra (2009). "Sino-Tibetan Languages: Bodo". Numeral Systems of the World's Languages. Archived from the original on 2021-06-29. Retrieved 2017-05-01.

Bibliography