LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 11 : 8 August 2011
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.

HOME PAGE

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIAL

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Contributors from South Asia may e-mail their articles to
    B. Mallikarjun,
    Central Institute of Indian Languages,
    Manasagangotri,
    Mysore 570006, India     mallikarjun@ciil.stpmy.soft.net.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2010
M. S. Thirumalai
Custom Search

Influence of Dravidian Languages on the Bengali Dialect of Barak Valley

Rama Kanta Das, M.Phil., Ph. D.

The Barak Valley

The geographical area which is known as Barak Valley is situated in the southern part of the state of Assam. Apart from two hill districts, i.e. North Cachar Hill and Karbi Anglong Hill, there are two river valleys in Assam – one is Brahmaputra valley after the name of the river Brahmaputra and another is Barak valley after the name of the river Barak. Dr. Suhash Chatterjee said: “...the term ‘Barak Valley’ is of recent origin. Indeed, Barak valley is the post-partitioned undivided Cachar district in Assam.” (Chatterjee: 2000) This comprises of three districts, namely – Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi. This valley is the dwelling of various races, tribes and castes, such as Bengalee, Manipuri, Assamese, Khasi, Garo, Naga, Mizo or Lusai, Dimasa, Sakacheep, Chorei, Kuki (old and new) and the various Janajati of tea garden. For this variety of demographic pattern this valley is known as the ‘Anthropological Garden’ among anthropologists and historians.

Research on Barak Valley

The valley is surrounded by the state of Manipur situated in the east, Sylhet district of Bangladesh in the west, North Cachar hill in the North and the state of Mizoram in the south of this region. It covers 6,922 sq. km. which occupies 8.82 percent of the total geographical area of Assam.

Several research works have been done on various aspects of the Barak Valley, such as – Srihatter Itibritta (History of Sylhet); Cacharer Itibritta (History of Cachar); Srhatta- Cacharer Prachin Itihas (Ancient History of Sylhet and Cachar); Barak Upatyakar Loksanskriti (Folk Culture of Barak valley); History and Folklore: A Study of the Hindu Folk cult of the Barak Valley of North East India; etc. But there is no research work in the discipline of Linguistics to explore the Dravidian influences on the language/s of this region though there is enough scope for this type of study.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Rama Kanta Das, M.Phil., Ph. D.
Centre for Studies in Endangered Languages, Manuscriptology & Folkloristics
Department of Bengali
Assam University
Silchar - 788011
Assam
India
ramakantadas85@yahoo.com
Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you either cited or used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian scholarship.