LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 16:8 August 2016
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.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Renuga Devi, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIALS

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.

  • 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 © 2016
M. S. Thirumalai

Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
11249 Oregon Circle
Bloomington, MN 55438
USA
Custom Search

Syllable in Somdal, a Dialect of Tangkhul - A Preliminary Investigation

Abstract

Somdal, also known as Shongran (endonym) is one of the dialects of Tangkhul, a Tibeto-Burman language. This dialect of Tangkhul is found spoken in a village called Somdal, which is located in west of Ukhrul district of Manipur, India. As per 2011 census, the village has a total of 468 families of 2375 persons, of which1209 are males while 1166 are females. Of the total population, 13.14 % are in the age group of 0-6 years. The average sex ratio of the village is 964 female per 1000 male. The literacy rate of the village is 92.39%. The present paper attempts to describe the syllable structure in Somdal, which is one of the dialects of Tangkhul language.

Keywords: Tibeto-Burman, Tangkhul, Naga, Somdal, syllable structure

1. Introduction

Somdal is one of the dialecst of Tangkhul language, a TB language. Like many other dialects of Northeast India, Somdal is a hitherto undescribed, undocumented and unexplored dialect of Tangkhul, which is found spoken in west of Ukhrul district, Manipur, India. Linguistically, according to the Grierson’s Linguistic Survey of India Volume III part II. (1904), Tangkhul belongs to the Kuki-Chin Naga subgroup of the Tibeto-Burman family. But Benedict and Shafer (1940-1) clubbed it under the Kukish section which includes Central-Kuki, Northern-Kuki, Old-Kuki, Southern-Kuki, Northern-Naga, and Lushai. Tangkhul is also known as Luhuppa in old literatures (see Grierson’s L.S.I Vol. III, part-II). It is a language which is mainly specific to the Somdal village. It is one of the numerous sub-tribes of Tangkhul. They don’t have their own indigenous script and proper literature; however Roman script has been adopted to write their language with some modifications. Similarly, the dialect is not being taught in schools and colleges as a medium of instruction or as a subject.

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

Bijayanti Devi Haobam, Ph.D. Scholar
Department of Linguistics
Assam University
Silchar-788011
Assam
India
bijuhaobam@gmail.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 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/South Asian scholarship.