LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 15:2 February 2015
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.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Khoibu Tone

Laishram Bijenkumar Singh, M.A., NET, Ph.D.

Abstract

The present paper entitled “Khoibu Tone” is a description of the tone system of Khoibu, an undocumented and endangered Tibeto-Burman language spoken by the Khoibu tribe. The literal meaning of this tribe is derived from ‘khoi’ and ‘pu’, where ‘khoi’ means ‘bee’ and ‘pu’ means ‘owner’. Thus the term refers to the speakers of this language as the ones who own ‘bee’, ‘beehives’ and ‘honey’ in the indigenous land of Khoibu territory. Khoibu is also known as Uipo and it belongs to the Kuki Chin Naga group of Tibeto-Burman family (cf. Grierson LSI, Vol.-III, part-II, 1903). Khoibu is mostly spoken in Chandel district of Manipur. It is spoken by approximately 2800 speakers in the Machi sub-division of Chandel district, Manipur and there are eight Khoibu villages which are confined to Chandel district of Manipur which is the area where this language is spoken.

Khoibu is a tonal language and there are three tones in Khoibu, viz. rising ( ?), level ( ) and falling ( ?). /ná/‘leaf’ /na/‘baby’ /nà/‘nose’ ; /lá/‘song’/la/‘fragment of a yarn’ /là/‘a small piece’ ; /m?-tí/ ‘seed’/m?-ti/ ‘tender tissue’/m?-tì/ ‘salt’. In most of the cases the vowel phoneme of the first segment is level tone in disyllabic words like /k?-ná/ ‘to wear a necklace’, /k?-na/ ‘falling ill’, and /k?-nà/ ‘lacking behind’. In the case of monosyllabic words, if the syllabic structure is CV, all the vowels are long in level tones. Sandhi phenomenon in relation to tones also has been discussed illustratively with examples. Tone sandhi occurs when pronominal markers /kei-/, /nei-/ and /a-/ are added to the monosyllabic nouns. There are three types of sandhi rules in Khoibu. The three sandhi rules will be illustrated with appropriate examples.

Key words: Tone, Khoibu, Tibeto-Burman, Tone Spreading, Tone-Sandhi

1. Introduction

The present paper entitled “Khoibu Tone” is a description of the tone system of Khoibu, an undocumented and endangered Tibeto-Burman language spoken by Khoibu tribe. The literal meaning of this tribe is derived from ‘khoi’ and ‘pu’, where ‘khoi’ means ‘bee’ and ‘pu’ means ‘owner’. Thus the term refers to the speakers of this language as the ones who own ‘bee’, ‘beehives’ and ‘honey’ in the indigenous land of Khoibu territory. Khoibu is also known as Uipo and it belongs to the Kuki Chin Naga group of Tibeto-Burman family (cf. Grierson’s LSI, Vol.-III, part-II, 1903). It is spoken mainly in the Machi sub-division of Chandel district which is 64 km. away from Imphal and lies in the south-eastern part of Manipur at 24o40' N Latitude and 93o50' E Longitude and its neighbors are Myanmar (Burma) on the south, Ukhrul district on the east, Churachandpur district on the south and west, and Thoubal district on the north . According to a native speaker (our language respondent) the total population of the Khoibu is around 2800. By religion Khoibu is totally Christian. Before conversion to Christianity, Khoibu prayed to their forefathers.

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

Laishram Bijenkumar Singh, M.A., NET, Ph.D.
NTS
Central Institute of Indian Languages
Mysore 570006
Karnataka
India
bijenkumar1@gmail.com
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