LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 14:11 November 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 Study of the Mechanism to Assign
Gender in Sizang, Koireng and Tarao

Bobita Sarangthem, Ph.D.
P. Madhubala, Ph.D.

Abstract

Many languages of the Tibeto-Burman family do not have grammatical gender. Typologically languages may be classified into those which have grammatical gender, for example, Hindi, Assamese, etc. of the Indo-Aryan languages and those which do not have grammatical gender, for example, Sizang, Koireng and Tarao of the Tibeto-Burman family of languages. What these languages (Sizang, Koireng and Tarao ) have is merely a system of biological sex reference, and this is necessary only for specific semantic realization of animate nouns. These languages do not assign gender to each and every noun. Although this feature seems to be peripheral to language structure, an investigation into them gives us many insights to understand the complexities of everyday speech, and also enhances the scope of language typology.

The present paper attempts to show how these languages use mechanism to signal the sex reference which is necessary for specific semantic realization of animate nouns. These languages do not have grammatical gender.

Key words: Tibeto-Burman, Kuki-Chin, grammatical gender, natural gender distinction, Sizang, Koireng and Tarao.

1.0 Introduction

Sizang belongs to northern Chin subgroup under the Kuki-Chin group of Tibeto-Burman sub-family (Grierson, 1904). Koireng was placed under the Kuki-Chin group of Tibeto-Burman sub-family (Grierson, 1904). Kolhreng (Kolren) is placed under Old Kuki by Grierson-Konow and Shafer. The Tarao also belongs to the Old Kuki (Yashawanta, 2010). These three languages are Tibeto-Burman languages which share several linguistic and ethnographic similarities with the languages or dialect of Kuki-Chin.

Since, Kuki-Chin is under the subfamily of the Tibeto-Burman linguistic group, the Chin or Kuki languages are closely related to one another. Though these languages are related, Sizang has no ‘r’sound whereas Tarao and Koireng have ‘r’ sound.

The present paper attempts to show how these languages use mechanism to signal the sex reference which is necessary for specific semantic realization of animate nouns. These languages do not have grammatical gender.

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

Bobita Sarangthem, Ph.D.
Department of Linguistics
Manipur University
Imphal
Canchipur - 795003
Manipur
India
bobitasarangthem@rediffmail.com

P. Madhubala Devi, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Linguistics
Manipur University
Imphal
Canchipur - 795003
Manipur
India
pmadhubala@gmail.com

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