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.

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A Morphological Study of Baiga Kinship Terminology

Dr. Deepa Moni Boruah, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.

Abstract

The present paper attempts to explore the existing kinship terminology system of Baiga tribe, a particularly vulnerable tribe of central India. The study examines the morphological patterns of Kinship terms of Baigani language, the native language of Baiga, and a highly endangered language of India. The Baiga tribe is patrilineal tribe and they allow marriage between a man and his immediate relations of his mother’s side. The study reveals that classificatory system of Kinship prevails in Baiga. It has been noted that suffix plays an important role in differentiate gender in Baigani language. In the relationship terms of Baigani language, it is observed that Baiga people use adjectives like /b??ka/, /m??ula/ and /nan/ meaning elder, middle and younger with root words to differentiate the age. These adjectives are used in the case of brothers, sisters, Father’s brother, Father’s sister, Mother’s brother and Mother’s sister to distinguish age in the relation. Reduplication is found to be another important morphological feature in Baiga Kinship terms and the reduplicate is most often repeated only once.

Keywords: Kinship, Baiga, Baigani, Endangered, Classificatory

1. Introduction

Kinship relations are blood relations or those relations which are created naturally. It is a method of acknowledging relation and a social bond initiated by blood or genetic as well as marriage. Kinship is important in all culture and all human interaction. Kinship ties are of fundamental importance in every society all over the world. There are basically two types of kinship within a family and they are affinal kinship and consanguineous kinship. Affinal relation is based on marriage and most primary affinal relation is one between a husband and a wife which in its extended form includes parents and siblings of both sides and their spouse and children. Kinship based on descent is called consanguineous kinship, commonly known as blood relation. The relation between a child and his parents, between children of the same set of parents, between uncles and nephew/niece are examples of consanguineous kinship. All societies recognize kinship relationship with certain limitation. In primitive societies, kinship relation are broad based and known as broad range kinship. Kinship terminology forms an important part in the whole kinship system as it serves as index to understanding of the kinship relation and patterns of behaviour among various kin groups (Jha 2009). According to M. Lamp to understand fully the nature of kinship system it is necessary to understand what kind of linguistic element theses are, and what kind of linguistic relationship (Sydney 1965). Kinship plays an important role in social, economic, and political structures of a society.

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

Dr. Deepa Moni Boruah, M.A, M.Phil., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of English Language
Indira Gandhi National Tribal University
Lalpur, Amarkantak 484886
Madhya Pradesh
India
deepa1barua@yahoo.co.in
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