LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Ergativity in Pahari Language

Abdul Qadir Khan & Sumaira Sarfraz

Abstract

This paper aims at analyzing Pahari language as an ergative language by using the standard mechanism of case marking, verb agreement and word order. The results show evidence of both nominative-accusative and ergative-absolutive structures in Pahari. This implies that, like other regional languages, Pahari also exhibits split ergativity. Ergativity frequently appears with perfective aspect or the past tense, accusative morphology being found elsewhere.

Introduction

Pahari language belongs to the family of Indo-Aryan languages which is a sub-branch of Indo-European languages. It is one of the most ancient languages of South Asia. It is one of the two-dozen languages spoken in state of Jammu and Kashmir. It derives its name from Pahar meaning "hills and mountains," for it is spoken over a large area starting from Nepal and running through the foothills of the Himalayas, in Himachal Pradesh, Kashmir region in India and Kashmir region in Pakistan. Pahari was initially written in Landa script and Landa is the form of Sharda, which was invented by Buddhists. Sharda was a Buddhist University which was situated in Neelam valley near Muzaffarabad in the Kashmir region in Pakistan.

Heim Chander (1088-1172), an ancient Chinese Schloar, collected eight ancient manuscripts from the Sharda monastery in order to compile his new book of grammar entitled "Sada Heim Chander". It can be said arguably that Sharda Pahari was one of the oldest written languages in South Asia and it also contributed to the development of other languages, old and modern, including Urdu. Pahari is not taught in the classroom but is very much alive in its active use by the people of the region.

The status and use of Pahari has suffered over the centuries. Pahari erosion started with the demise of Buddhist Empire. In lower regions, the style of writing started changing with Greek invasion, but in Kashmir until 10th century AD the Nagri alphabet survived. This changed with Muslim rule and it became Farsi from 1819 to 1846. During Sikh rule it was Punjabi and then it was replaced by Urdu.

Pahari is also spoken in UK by the people who originate from Kashmir region in Pakistan. About six hundred thousand people speak Pahari language in UK. Once a thriving written language, Pahari became extinct not only from the classroom but also from its representation in the written form.

Ergativity

The focus of this paper is ergativity, specifically with regard to Pahari language.

Languages vary and show different behaviours. They can differ in word order, case system, arguments, etc. In many languages, subject exhibits nominative case and also shows person/number agreement on the finite verb. In some languages, gender also shows agreement with subject/object. Finite verb agreement is only found with nominative DPs.

Dixon (1979) and Van Valin (1990) define ergative languages in the way that they group the subjects of intransitive verbs together with the objects of transitive verbs. Mahajan (1989) claims that noun phrases in Hindi be allowed to have two cases: structural case and inherent case.

Dixon (1979) and Bittner and Hale (1993) claim these languages (such as Hindi) as split ergative as the split is simply conditioned by transitivity and perfective aspect. Mohanan (1990), Butt and King (1991), Butt (1995), argued that the ergative must be analyzed as a marker of agentivity and volitionality in Urdu-Hindi. Bukhari N.H. (2007) has the same claim for Gojri.

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