LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 14:6 June 2014
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)
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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A Comparative Analysis of the Phonological Features of Bodo, Garo and Rabha

Musuka Bala Brahma, Ph.D. Scholar

1. Introduction

The Bodo are the largest community group spoken in the north-eastern Indian states of Assam, Meghalaya and in Bangladesh. North East India comprising of the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim, was earlier referred to as Seven Sister States. It shares borders with Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Nepal and, Myanmar. It has always been regarded as a treasure hold for researchers from different fields.

Although NE India consists only 7.9 per cent of the country’s total geographical area, it is home to more than 75% of languages belonging to the four language families, viz. Indo-Aryan, Tibeto-Burman, Austro-Asiatic and Dravidian (small number of Tamil speakers in Moreh district of Manipur).

The Bodo consists of a large number of tribes including (western and eastern hill) Bodo, Rabha, Garo, Mech, Koch, Dhimal, Dimasa (or Hill Kachari), Galong (or Gallong), Hojai, Lalung,chutiya, Tippera, and Moran.These are the major languages of the Bodo group and comes under the Tibeto-Burman group of languages. The total number of speakers of Bodo group of languages in India was estimated at about 2.2 million in the late 20th century. Now the majority of them (Bodo, Garo and Rabha) live in Assam, Tripura, Garo Hills of Meghalaya and the rest straggled in West Bengal, Nepal, Bangladesh and other areas of the present Northeast India. They form the single largest population among the indigenous peoples of the North-East India.

1.1 Scope of Study

This topic attempts to compare and highlight the comparative analysis on some of the phonological features (consonant, vowel, tone, syllable etc.) of Bodo, Garo and Rabha languages spoken in North-East India. Each language has its own phonological system and its own unique phonological features.

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

Musuka Bala Brahma, Ph.D. Scholar
Department of Linguistics
Assam University
Silchar
Assam
India
bmusuka1985@gmail.com
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