LANGUAGE IN INDIA

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Volume 23:10 October 2023
ISSN 1930-2940

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Marked Pronouns in Three Barish Languages

Kh. Dibyajyoti Barman, M.Phil.


Abstract

The present paper attempts to describe some aspects of the morphological features – including the morphophonemic changes – in pronouns of three Barish languages namely Dimasa, Kokborok, and Tiwa (aka Lalung). This study mainly focuses on the pronouns marked for plural, possessive, proximate and remote, and indefiniteness in pronominal system of the said languages.

Keywords: Barish, Dimasa, Kokborok, Tiwa, pronouns, markers, morphophonemic alternation

1. Introduction

Dimasa, Kokborok, and Tiwa are cognate languages. The speakers of these three languages are found in the Northeastern region of India. As per 2011 Census of India, the population of following languages was: Dimasa (1,37,184), Kokborok (10,11,294), and Tiwa (33, 921) respectively. R. Shafer (1955: 107) in his classification of Sino-Tibetan languages reported that such closely related languages are preferably termed as Barish; however, some scholars use different terms for the same group of languages as such Bodo-Naga (Grierson, 1903), Bodo-Garo (Benedict, 1972), and Bodo-Koch (Burling, 2003). It is observed that these three languages shared some of the morphological features. However, some of the distinct morphological features are also noticed.

One can divide the pronouns of Dimasa, Kokborok, and Tiwa into two categories: basic and marked forms. The basic pronouns in these languages are mostly monomorphemic forms. Marked forms are non-basic ones, often ones with inflectional and derivational endings. As a result, marked form of pronouns are mostly bimorphemic or polymorphemic. In other words, in these three Barish languages pronouns are marked for plural, possessive, proximity and remote, and indefinite.

In the languages Dimasa, Kokborok, and Tiwa, personal pronouns can be distinguished in three persons (first, second, and third persons) and two numbers (singular and plural). In all these languages, there is no gender distinction in the third person personal pronoun; it can refer to both masculine and feminine. The singular personal pronouns are all monosyllabic free forms. In personal pronouns, these languages manifest two pluralization processes: suppletion and affixation. In first person, pluralization is done by means of suppletion, which is one of the typical features of Barish (aka Boro-Garo) languages; on the other hand, in second and third person it is done by affixation.


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Kh. Dibyajyoti Barman, M.Phil.
Research Scholar
Department of Linguistics
Assam University, Silchar
khdibyajyoti@gmail.com
Mobile No: +919365013077

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