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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Nominal Morphology in Korbong Language

Biman Debbarma, Ph.D. Scholar


Abstract

Korbongs are one of the sub-tribes of Halam community which has been recognized as a scheduled tribe in the state of Tripura. Interestingly, the term ‘Korbong’ is also used to denote the ‘language’ spoken by the same tribe. Therefore the Korbong is the name of the language and the people. Korbongs are found only in two villages having only about 117 speakers in the state of Tripura, particularly in the districts of Khowai and West Tripura. Genetically, Korbong is closely related to Bongcher, Bong, Darlong, Hrangkhal, Kaipeng, Mizo, Moulsom, Pangkhua, Ranglong, etc., except Kalai and Rupini. Therefore Korbong seems to be a Kuki-Chin language of the Tibeto-Burman family. The main objective of the proposed study is to show the nominal morphology in the areas of person, number, gender and case in Korbong.

Key words: Korbong language and people, Kuki-Chin group, nominal morphology, person, number, gender and case

1. Introduction

Korbongs are one of the sub-tribes of Halam community which has been recognized as a scheduled tribe in the state of Tripura. Interestingly, the term ‘Korbong’ is also used to denote the ‘language’ spoken by the same tribe. Therefore the Korbong is the name of the language and the people. Korbongs are found only in two villages having a population of about 117 speakers in the state of Tripura, particularly in the districts of Khowai and West Tripura. Genetically, it is closely related to Bongcher, Bong, Darlong, Hrangkhal, Kaipeng, Mizo, Moulsom, Pangkhua, Ranglong, etc., except Kalai and Rupini. Therefore, Korbong seems to be a Kuki-Chin language of the Tibeto-Burman family. Nevertheless not a single scholar has mentioned about the position of Korbong in any sub-grouping of Tibeto-Burman languages. It is also interesting to note that Korbong is one of the highly endangered languages of Northeast India having a small number of people speaking it. The total number of Korbong speakers in Tripura is estimated about 117 but the population figure of Korbong is not given in the Census of India. Similarly, Korbong is also not included in the UNESCO’s list for endangered languages in Northeast India. Like many other endangered tribes, Korbongs also do not have their own script and literature.


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



Baman Debbarma, Ph.D. Scholar
Department of Linguistics
Assam University
Silchar-788001
Assam
India
bm_cbz@yahoo.com

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