LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 14:3 March 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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Consonantal System of the North-Central Dialect of Bodo

Nilut Swargiary, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D. Scholar

Abstract Bodo is known as Bodo or Boro. Bodo is one of the major tribes of North-East India and they are of Mongoloid origin. Linguistically the Bodo language belongs to Bodo-Naga sub-group of Tibeto-Burman groups of Sino-Tibetan language family. The North-Central Dialect of Bodo is mainly spoken in Odalguri District as well as the eastern parts of Baksa District and the western part of Sonitpur District of Assam. This dialect is also known as Sanzari dialect. According to 2011 Census of India, the total speakers of this Dialect amount to 342,686 persons. Area of the district is 1852.16km. Total population of the district is 832,769, according to 2011 census.

As per data, twenty-two consonantal phonemes i.e. / p, b, t, d, k, g, ph, bh, th, dh, kh, gh, m, n, ?, s, z, h, l, r, w, y, / are found in this dialect.

The proposed study will give the Consonantal Analysis of North-Central Dialect of Bodo with respect to phonology in the light of modern linguistic structure of this dialect.

Introduction

Genetically, the Bodo of Assam belongs to the Tibeto-Burman sub-family within the Sino-Tibetan family of language. The Bodo is known as Bodo or Boro or Kachari or Kirata or other variations in different places in different times. The Bodos are one of the earliest settlers of Assam and is a branch of the great Bodo-Naga group of the Indo-Mongoloid family falling within the Assam Burmese section. The Bodo people once lived or settled on river banks of river valleys, called water thi or di or d?i. . Suniti Kumar Chatterjee claimed that the Bodos come from the great river valley Hoang-Ho and Yang-Stze-Kiang. J.D. Anderson says that “The river name of the whole Brahmaputra valley is Bodo name and it is demonstrable that the Bodos were the aboriginal of the valley.” As P.C. Bhattacharya (1977) has observed, the Bodo or Boro language belongs to the branch of Barish section under Baric division of the Sino-Tibetan family as per the classification given by Robert Shafer. The Linguistic Survey of India describes the Bodos or Boro-Kachari as a member of the Bodo (Boro) sub-section under the Assam Burmese group of the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibeto-Chinese speech family. The Bodo language speaking area of Assam at present stretches from Dhubri in the west to Sadiya in the east.

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

Nilut Swargiary M.A., M.Phil.
Ph.D. Scholar
Assam University
nilutn@gmail.com
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