Kokborok Grammar (Agartala dialect)

François Jacquesson A Kokborok Grammar (Agartala dialect) Draft edition With the active collaboration of Bikash Roy Debbarma Binoy Debbarma and many other Borok people in Agartala 2 Prologue The tentative description which follows is based on informations I gathered during a short ten-day trip to Agartala (Tripura, India), from March 27 th to April 5th, 2002. I was helped by many people from the recently created Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), an organisation led by Borok people, and the centre of which is Khumulwng, 40km NE of Agartala. All my information was collected in Agartala, from very numerous people who visited me in order to help me understanding the basics of the language, and having some rough idea of the people and the country. Conversations with them were in English, not in Bengali which I do not speak. In the last days of my stay there I could form short sentences that could be usefully criticized, corrected or improved. The main difficulty of describing the phonetics and phonology of Kokborok is in its deep dialectalization. Tripura is a small state, but apart from the western fringe contiguous to Bangladesh, is crossed by ranges of moderate hills, oriented north-south, where a relatively sparse population is still to some extent, mainly in the east, practicing shifting cultivation, known in Tribal India as "jhum", locally as huk. The shift (nok se- "shifting the habitation") is of the circular model, and a given group does not leave a traditional area. As a result, local endogamous groups were formed that developped divergent patterns of decoration and divergent habits of pronounciation. During this short trip, I concentrated on part of phonology (I actually came in order to study the diphthongs, which I think are a good feature for throwing some light in the maze of the Bodo-Garo dialect chain) and grammar. My secondary aim, since I had also studied Deuri and Dimasa, was to provide the lineaments of a comparative assesment. Among the very numerous people who helped me, it is a pleasure to remember the names of Khandai (Utpol) Debbarma who introduced me to his friends ; of Twimuk (Prasenjit) Debbarma who took much pains in guiding me through various little problems and indefatigably answered my odd questions ; of Hebal A. Koloi who is in charge of an important school in Khumulwng ; of his elder brother D. Koloi ; of Bijesh Debbarma, 'assistant linguistic' in Agartala and always ready for a joke ; of Nanda Kumar Dev Varma, a scholar and an influential writer who is also a much respected person among them all. I also met K.V.Satyanarayana, the Indian chief executive officer in the TTAADC in Khumulwng, as well as the kind and efficient minister for education there, Sridam Debbarma. I was lucky enough to meet two other important personalities, N.C.Debbarma who has a high post in the Agartala station of All India Radio, thanks to whom I was introduced to Borok musical lore ; and the Maharaja Kumar Sahadev Bikram Kishor, the last descendant of the Rajas' family in Agartala, who kindly received me in his house on the Palace compound and imparted to me historical information and memories. Two people deserve special mention. Binoy Debbarma is the author of the two dictionaries in Latin script, and of numerous publications, among which a first interesting essay about dialects. I expected to meet an old and severe gentleman, and was surprised to find a young (younger than me !) and amiable scholar, eager to be criticized, and much open to dicussions. I found that in many details concerning Kokborok, although he is a very modest person, he was right and I was wrong. I do hope he will go on in his remarkable way. The person who helped me most in struggling with the language is Bikash Roy Debbarma. Bikash Roy is from a Dimasa mother and a Borok father, but his curiosity and knowledge is much wider than even his two peoples. He is a poet, and delights in giving intricate and beautiful examples of sentences, also a musician and has a keen ear for tones, all features which make him a first-class informant. He is also a fine and wise gentleman, whose conversation is always a pleasure, in any language. To them all and many others whom I met, I am greatly indebted, and this tentative description is in many ways their own. Though, as the very true phrase goes, all errors remain mine. 3 1.Introductory remarks ............................................................................................................................................ 6 1.1. general indications ....................................................................................................................................... 6 1.2. dialects ......................................................................................................................................................... 6 1.3. historical notice ............................................................................................................................................ 7 2. Phonology & phonetics ....................................................................................................................................... 7 2.1. Overview of phonems, and "Roman" current writing .................................................................................. 7 2.1.1. Overview of phonems ........................................................................................................................... 7 2.1.2.The "Roman" writing ............................................................................................................................. 8 2.2.Vowels .......................................................................................................................................................... 8 2.2.1. Minimal pairs ........................................................................................................................................ 8 2.2.2.The weak /ŵ/ .......................................................................................................................................... 9 2.2.3. Diphthong /ŵi/ .................................................................................................................................... 11 2.2.4. Diphong /ai/ ......................................................................................................................................... 11 2.2.5. /a/......................................................................................................................................................... 12 2.2.6. /e/......................................................................................................................................................... 12 2.2.7. /o/ ........................................................................................................................................................ 13 2.2.8. /i/ ......................................................................................................................................................... 14 2.2.9. /u/ ........................................................................................................................................................ 14 2.2.10. The /uwa/ group ................................................................................................................................ 15 2.3. Consonants : plosives ................................................................................................................................. 15 2.3.1. Overview & syllabation ...................................................................................................................... 15 2.3.2. Remarks on historical phonology ........................................................................................................ 16 2.3.1. bilabial plosives ................................................................................................................................... 17 2.3.2. alveolar plosives .................................................................................................................................. 18 2.3.4. velar plosives ....................................................................................................................................... 20 2.4. Consonants : nasals .................................................................................................................................... 21 2.5. /r/ and /l/ ..................................................................................................................................................... 23 2.5.1. /r/ ......................................................................................................................................................... 23 2.5.2. /l/ ......................................................................................................................................................... 23 2.6. /c/ and /z/ .................................................................................................................................................... 24 2.7. /s/ and /h/ .................................................................................................................................................... 24 2.7.1. /s/ ......................................................................................................................................................... 24 2.7.2. /h/ ........................................................................................................................................................ 25 2.8. /j/ and /w/ ................................................................................................................................................... 25 2.8.1. /j/ ......................................................................................................................................................... 26 2.8.2. /w/ ....................................................................................................................................................... 26 2.9. consonants : clusters ................................................................................................................................... 26 2.9.1. "true clusters" : Cr- and Cl- ................................................................................................................. 26 2.9.2. sesquisallbic mobile clusters ............................................................................................................... 28 2.9.3. syllabic contact, pseudo-clusters, and resolutions ............................................................................... 28 2.10. Tones ........................................................................................................................................................ 29 2.10.1. General situation ............................................................................................................................... 29 2.10.2. Pairs................................................................................................................................................... 29 2.10.3. tones in bisyllables ............................................................................................................................ 29 3. Sentence Types ................................................................................................................................................. 30 3.1. Overview .................................................................................................................................................... 30 3.2. Interrogative patterns ................................................................................................................................. 30 3.2.1. with interrogative pronouns ................................................................................................................ 30 3.2.2. Simple -de <Int> ................................................................................................................................. 31 3.2.3. Dissective -de <Dsc-Int>..................................................................................................................... 31 3.3. Imperatives and related modals .................................................................................................................. 32 4 3.3.1. positive in -di <Ip> .............................................................................................................................. 32 3.3.2. negative in ta… -di <Def-Ip> .............................................................................................................. 32 3.4. Remarks on the negative -ja <Neg> ........................................................................................................... 32 3.4.1. Verbs and nouns may have -ja ............................................................................................................ 32 3.4.2. verbal suffixes and -ja ......................................................................................................................... 33 3.4.3. adjectives and -ja ................................................................................................................................. 33 3.5. Word order ................................................................................................................................................. 34 3.5.1. at clause level ...................................................................................................................................... 34 3.5.2. in the noun phrase ............................................................................................................................... 35 4. Verbs ................................................................................................................................................................. 36 4.1. Formation of verbs ..................................................................................................................................... 36 4.1.1. Monosyllabic verbs ............................................................................................................................. 36 4.1.2. prefixing derivation ............................................................................................................................. 38 4.1.2.1. ruins of older prefixes .................................................................................................................. 38 4.1.2.2. the prefixes ta- and ma- ................................................................................................................ 38 4.1.3. compounded verbs .............................................................................................................................. 39 4.1.4. duplicated roots ................................................................................................................................... 40 4.2. verb suffixes ............................................................................................................................................... 40 4.2.1. the inner circle ..................................................................................................................................... 41 4.2.1.1. overview ....................................................................................................................................... 41 4.2.1.1. -sa- and -khlai- <Up> and <Dw> ................................................................................................. 41 4.2.1.2. -har- <Dis> ................................................................................................................................... 42 4.2.1.3. -bu- and -laŋ- <Prx> and <Lat> ................................................................................................... 42 4.2.1.4. -gra- <Pri>, -sai- <Prg>, -phi- <Ite> ............................................................................................ 42 4.2.1.5. -son- "far down", -cŵm- "hiddenly", -siŋ- "with care" ................................................................ 43 4.2.1.6. -rŵk- "more and "more" ............................................................................................................... 43 4.2.1.7. -tŵi- <Smt> .................................................................................................................................. 43 4.2.2. the middle circle : actancy ................................................................................................................... 44 4.2.2.2. passive in -zak- ............................................................................................................................. 44 4.2.2.3. an approximation of the 'reflexive' ............................................................................................... 45 4.2.2.4. sociative-reciprocal -lai- <Soc> ................................................................................................... 46 4.2.3. the outer circle ..................................................................................................................................... 46 4.2.3.1. overview ....................................................................................................................................... 46 4.2.3.2. aorist in -o <Aor> ........................................................................................................................ 46 4.2.3.3. near future in -ano <Ftn> ............................................................................................................. 48 4.2.3.4. future in -nai <Fut> ...................................................................................................................... 48 4.2.3.5. negated futures : -glak <Dsv> ...................................................................................................... 49 4.2.3.6. perfect in -kha .............................................................................................................................. 49 4.2.3.7. the negative perfects ..................................................................................................................... 50 4.2.3.8. optative in -thŵŋ <Opt> ............................................................................................................... 51 4.2.3.9. continuative in toŋ ........................................................................................................................ 51 4.2.3.10. "to have" : toŋ- and kŵrŵi.......................................................................................................... 52 4.3. predicates in dependant clauses .................................................................................................................. 53 4.3.1. the clause depends from a verb ........................................................................................................... 53 4.3.1.1. circumstancial clause .................................................................................................................... 53 4.3.1.2. completive clause ......................................................................................................................... 54 4.3.2. relative clauses .................................................................................................................................... 55 4.3.3. the converb -ŵi <Cv>.......................................................................................................................... 55 4.3.4. "they say" : reported speech ................................................................................................................ 57 5. Adjectives ......................................................................................................................................................... 57 5.1. formation of adjectives ............................................................................................................................... 57 5.1.1. the adjectives in kV-............................................................................................................................ 57 5.3.2. the root of the kV- adjectives is a intransitive verb ............................................................................. 58 5 5.2.3. other adjectives.................................................................................................................................... 58 5.2. syntax of the adjective ................................................................................................................................ 58 6. duplicates .......................................................................................................................................................... 58 6.1. a small study in black ................................................................................................................................. 59 6.2. other examples and remarks ....................................................................................................................... 59 7. Nouns ................................................................................................................................................................ 59 7.1. noun formation ........................................................................................................................................... 59 7.1.1. monosyllables ...................................................................................................................................... 60 7.1.2. prefixation ........................................................................................................................................... 60 7.1.2.1. the bV- prefix ............................................................................................................................... 60 7.1.2.2. the semi-prefix mV- ..................................................................................................................... 61 7.1.3. true compounding ................................................................................................................................ 62 7.1.3.1. noun + noun.................................................................................................................................. 62 7.1.3.2. noun + verb .................................................................................................................................. 64 7.1.4. suffixation ........................................................................................................................................... 64 7.1.4.1. -la, -zŵk, -ma and gender ............................................................................................................. 64 7.1.4.2. -ma, -sa, -juŋ and size ................................................................................................................... 65 7.1.4.3. -rok and "plural" ........................................................................................................................... 65 7.2. syntactic noun suffixes ............................................................................................................................... 65 7.2.1. -le <Adv> ............................................................................................................................................ 65 7.2.2. -ni <Abl> ............................................................................................................................................. 65 7.2.2.1. the ablative side ............................................................................................................................ 65 7.2.2.2. the genitive side ............................................................................................................................ 66 7.2.2.3. -ni with postpositions ................................................................................................................... 66 7.2.3. -no <Acc> and <Str> ........................................................................................................................... 67 7.2.3.1. accusative area.............................................................................................................................. 67 7.2.3.2. dative area .................................................................................................................................... 67 7.2.3.3. "stressing area" ............................................................................................................................. 68 7.2.4. locative -o <Loc> ............................................................................................................................ 68 8. Pronouns ........................................................................................................................................................... 69 8.1. personal pronouns ...................................................................................................................................... 69 8.1.1. introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 69 8.1.2. the personal pronouns : forms ............................................................................................................. 70 8.1.3. possessive phrase ................................................................................................................................ 70 8.1.4. a note on morphology .......................................................................................................................... 71 8.2. demonstrative adjectives & pronouns ........................................................................................................ 71 8.3. interrogative, indefinite, negative adjectives & pronouns .......................................................................... 72 8.3.1. interrogatives ....................................................................................................................................... 72 8.3.2. indefinites & negatives ........................................................................................................................ 73 9. Numerals and classifiers ................................................................................................................................... 74 9.1. morpho-syntax............................................................................................................................................ 74 9.2. numerals ..................................................................................................................................................... 74 9.3. classifiers .................................................................................................................................................... 74 10. Two little songs ............................................................................................................................................... 75 6 1.Introductory remarks 1.1. general indications Kokborok is spoken in the Indian state of Tripura (Twipra), in North-Eastern India, and in the adjacent regions of Bangladesh. It belongs to the Tibeto-Burmese wide group of languages, and more precisely to the Bodo-Garo subgroup. The language has several dialects, the most divergent of which being Riang, also called Bru, which seems transitional with Boro. These dialects differ in many respects, specially phonetics. The dialect of this description is the one spoken in and around the capital (and main) city of Tripura, Agartala. Kokborok means "the language (kok) of the human beings (borok)". The people are called Borok. Kokborok is closely related to Dimasa and Boro, and to the other languages of this Tibeto-Burmese subgroup which is commonly labelled "Bodo-Garo" or (by Burling) "Garo-Koch". Cross-understanding of these related languages is difficult, but so many words are similar that the general meaning can be guessed by fluent speakers of one of them, specially between Kokborok, Dimasa and Boro. Efforts are currently made to deepen this relationship by promoting closer contacts. Since the 16th c., Rajas of independant Tripura have had close contacts with Bengal, and Bengali was introduced in court and higher social circle, while the peasantry remained monolingual. The famous Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore was "discovered" by the Tripura Raja, and Rabindranath maintained along his long life a dear relationship with three successive Rajas. After Indian independance (1947), the formerly independant state of Tripura was merged with India, and Bengali people began pouring into the easternmost part of the country, which is not hilly. Nowadays, Bengalis are far more numerous than Borok in Tripura, and the Bengali language is overpowering Kokborok. Bengali is dominant in the cities, in trade, in the media ; virtually all Borok (the noun is a plural) speak Bengali as well. Borok people try to resist this menacing influence and often resent it. The language of rural areas, where shifting cultivation is still alive, and of the traditional songs linked with it, is markedly different from the speech of Agartala, mainly because of the many highly picturesque phrases that make these songs sound like experimental dadaist poetry (two tiny examples are given in the last section of this essay). Tripura is a name coined by Indo-Aryan speakers to "aryanize" the local designation. The older name of the country is Twipra (in Roman writing), i.e. /tŵi_pra/. This name is now revived in Kokborok publications. It means "the confluent of the rivers", but this name cannot be fully appreciated without comparison with the name of the Dimasa ("people of the river(s)") or with the true name of the Deuris, which is Zimôsâjâ ("those of the people of the river(s)"). Borok means "person" (man or woman), but is actually a plural -rok (Dimasa -rao) of the word bo meaning "he / she". 1.2. dialects The phonetically divergent dialects of Kokborok are not studied here. I had some first-hand information only with the Jamatia dialect (Mevar Kumar Jamatia), the East-Khuwai dialect (Twimuk Debbarma), the Kamalpur area dialect (Bishak Roy Deb Barma). These three dialects are western dialects and in closer contact with Bengali, which explains also why some of their speakers can be found in the capital. I could gather only scanty information, second-hand, about the Riang or Bru dialect, spoken in the northern part, and the Koloi dialect spoken by numerous people whose "title" is Koloi. A Linguistic Atlas of Kokborok speaking regions is much in need. The eastern dialects, spoken in the hilly regions of Tripura, are virtually unknown. According to local scholars, four main dialects are in existence : Jamatia, Riang, Tripura, and the most influential : Debbarma. Jamatia is spoken mainly in three regions. The region of Teliamura has three or four villages : Mohorchera (locally pronounced Morchera), Trisabari and Twitamphui. Close to Udaipur, the older capital, are Killa, Pitra and Maharani (not no be confused with other Maharanis, a common name since it means "queen"). Jamatia people are also found in Shilgati and Hodra, and the Kamalpur region. 7 Riang, whose speakers more and more insist on being called Bru, is spoken in two different areas. In the south, they are found in the Bogapha Block area. In the north, in the Kanchanpur and Dolta subdivisions. And also in the Lantrai valley. Tripura is also spoken in present-day eastern Bangladesh (hence its name, maybe), in places which belonged to the larger historical kingdom of Tripura. This dialect is also called Noatia, which is less confusing. In Tripura State, the dialect is spoken in the Sabrun and Bilonia districts, in the Langtrai valley, and around Gandachara. The Debbarma dialect is spoken in Agartala subdivision, in Khuwai, Kamalpur and Kailashahar districts. The dialect is often called Sadar ; yet there are small but significant differences between Sadar-South (Agartala for instance), such as written by influential writers like Nanda Kumar Dev Varma, and Sadar-North which can be divided itself in several zones : one is western (western part of Khuwai, as in the speech of Twimuk Debbarma), another is central (eastern Khuwai and western bank of the Dalai river, the dialect of Bikash Debbarma native place), another is eastern (eastern bank of the Dalai river). 1.3. historical notice Clans seem to have disappeared among most Western Borok. They are designated by "titles" (such as Debbarma in various orthographies, Koloi, Jamatia etc.) which are broadly intra-marrying (endogamic) groups. Such designations appear as last names ("titles" in the system used by so-called Tribal groups), as it is shown above. The Debbarma group is considered as a "higher" group ; the princely family is Debbarma. The name Debbarma is from Bengali origin (Dev Varman). The Tripura independant state, because of the long-standing influence of close-by Bengal, gave itself Rajas. A Bengali (and much hinduized) chronicle, called Rajmala, gives indications on their history since the 16th C. These rajas have coined their own money since the 16 th c., and the British colonizers, although they reduced their power to a great extent, left them in peace because it was considered unappropriate to bother with the hilly tribes which the Raja controlled. The last Raja in power died just before the 2 nd World War, and the new India annexed Tripura. Descendants of the Raja family still exist ; they do not speak Kokborok. Only one of them, Maharaja Kumar Sahadev Bikram Kishor, lives in Agartala, in a beautiful house which is still in the posession of his family after the grand Palace (built by a British company in 1899-1901) was sold to the Tripura Indian State. This palace, which extended on a wide compound covering the main part of older Agartala, is now used as Assembly for the State. It is to be transformed into a Museum when the new Assembly buildings will be completed. 2. Phonology & phonetics 2.1. Overview of phonems, and "Roman" current writing 2.1.1. Overview of phonems Kokborok has 6 vowels and 2 closing diphthongs, 20 consonants, 2 tones. Vowels & diphthongs are : u o ŵ ŵi a ai e i A third (phonetic, not phonemic) dipthong is heard [ui] after /m/ and /b/ ; it is a rounded /ŵi/. Ruisum "garlic" is a borrowing from Bengali. Vowels are not common in the beginning of syllables, except /a/, and in pronouns. Open syllables (ending in vowels) are not so common as they are in Dimasa or Boro. This curious fact will be discussed later on. Diphthongs close the syllable : no consonant is possible after them within one syllable. I should accordingly write -ay and -ŵy, not -ai and -ŵi as I have done. But phonetically they are diphthongs, and no -y can otherwise end a syllable. 8 NB. A diphthong oi is sometimes heard. For instance in the folksong words doŋoi "husband" and doŋoiti "wife", dowoi "quickly", Noatia kosoi "a kind of short beans". Consonants are : m b p ph n d t th s r l ŋ g k kh j ch h w y The phonetics & phonology of plosives is puzzling in Kokborok. See 2.3.1. All consonants can begin a syllable, except /ŋ/. The most frequent are : s, t, b, k. Consonants that can end a syllable are : m, n, ŋ, p, k, r, l. Not /t/. The most frequent are /k/ and /ŋ/. NB : /r/ and /l/ are distinct in all positions. The /r/ is more frequent. Two tones are contrastive, and are normally heard in words which are otherwise homophonous. Tones tend to disappear among younger urban speakers, due to Bengali influence. These two tones are punctual, on each syllable of a polysyllabic word. But in many cases affixes are toneless by themselves and copy the tone of the root. High tone is here written ². Low tone is left unwritten. NB : Tones have not been systematically written in this tentative grammar. A study of lexical tones is an urgent need. 2.1.2.The "Roman" writing Under Christian (mainly Baptist) English-speaking missionary influence, some learned Borok have recently developped a Latin-based writing, according to the oldish and not very convenient tradition common in this region of the world. Two dictionaries (English-Kokborok-Bengali and Kokborok-English-Bengali) are available in this writing, compiled by Binoy Debbarma. These two dictionaries, which are useful, use the following conventions : a/ the central vowel is written "w" here ŵ b/ the palatal nasal is written "ng" here ŋ c/ the unvoiced palatal fricative is "ch" here c d/ the voiced one is "j" here j NB : the approximant is written y, not j as in IPA. e/ high tone is written "h" here ² High tone is written by a "h" after the syllable, but not systematically. Binoy Debbarma told me he wrote it consistantly only in pairs constrasting by tone. Otherwise, "there would be too many h" ; they are now thinking of some other system, perhaps using accent instead of "h". 2.2.Vowels 2.2.1. Minimal pairs ai ai-_ dawn ŵi u u² that, far o o² this ŵ a a² that in sight e i 9 khŵi_ sour -kho_ yet so-_ pull, draw bor-² plant ai_cuk² dawn mai_ rice mŵ_sŵi_ deer mun-_ ripe thu-_ sleep bor-² plant yor²poke nŵŋ_ youS ŵŋ-² become -sŵk² up to lai²CL leaf kha²bind sa-_ speak bar²cross a²cug_sit down ma-_ CL animal mŵ_sa² tiger man²get tha² edible root bar-_ blossom yak² hand naŋ-_ need aŋ_ I sak² body -khe² MAN se²shift ber²insert si-_ know bir-_ fly lu-_ pour tŵi_ water -de_ INT nuk²see puk²scratch nok² house pok-_ forget rai_ cane ri² clothes 2.2.2.The weak /ŵ/ This is somewhat instable, phonetically. Its realization varies from decidedly central and middle [ŵ] to central closed [i], and [] when a labial position preceeds or follows. The phonem /ŵ/ can be found in roots, and is a true phonem in Agartala Kokborok. Examples are : cŵŋ_ nŵŋ_ nŵŋ-_ rŵŋ-_ -sŵk² sŵŋ²thŵk² tŵk² we you drink learn to a certain extent to ask louse pot, pitcher 10 ŵŋ²ŵsŵndŵi to become a kind of vegetable All examples I know in open syllables are not proper Agartala 's, but from other areas. Here I indicate words by Bikash Roy DB. (Kamalpur area) and their wrting in Binoy DB.'s Dictionaries : BRD sŵ²sŵ- Dic. susu- to strike, wash to weigh Dialects vary widely for this sound. For instance "clothes" is /ri/ in the Agartala dialect, but sounds as [ro] to Agartalians among the Jamatia group, and [rŵ] (id.) in the South ; it is [ri] in the Noatia dialects. It is /hŵ/ in Boro, /ri/ in Central Dimasa. Agartala [butar-] "kill" is /bŵtar-/ in the Kuwai region. Some rounded occurrences are correlated with the influence of a contiguous labial sound, [b] or [m]. In Anok Noatia, several words have /ŵ/ where Agartala has /o/ or /u/ : Anok prŵŋ-(w)ŵ Agartala puŋ-_ -o_ cry out, shout (animals) Predicative Many nouns have a bV- prefix and most adjectives have a kV- prefix, whose vowel depends on the next syllable, which is the root syllable. This vowel in bV- or kV- is an assimilated copy of the next vowel, except when this next vowel is /a/ or or diphthong, in which case it is realized as /ŵ/ . Examples with nouns : bŵ²ka² bŵ²khnai² be²dek² bi²hik² bo²hok² bu²khuk² heart hair branch wife belly mouth When a bV- first syllable followed by a /Ca/ syllable is not in /ŵ/, it implies that this first syllable is not a prefix but a root, and the word is "truly compounded", as in /bubar/ "flower" or /buphaŋ/ "tree". Examples with adjectives : kŵ_rŵi² not being, inexistant kŵ_thŵi_ dead kŵ_rak² hard kŵ_sab² soft kŵ_lŵi_ soft ko_som_ black* ku_phur² white * This is kŵsŵm in Anok Noatia dialect, where "white" is kuphu. In Noatia dialects, the assimilation works also with /a/ : /karak/ "hard", /kacak~kaca²/ "red" etc. This question will be discussed in sections concerned with compounded nouns and adjectives. In normal speech, the phŵ- and sŵ- factitive prefixes just drop the vowel. The word srap- "to stick", an older factitive, is usually pronounced [srap-], not [sŵrap-]. The word phran- "to make dry", from ran- "dry", is rarely heard as [phŵran-]. 11 Yet, in the dissection of verbs in interrogation (see 3.2.3), the /ŵ/ is clearly heard. This interesting technique uses the usual interrogative -de, but after the first CV- segment of the verb, and the full verb comes after. For instance, with the verb thaŋ²- "to go" : tha-de thaŋ² ? With phai- "to come" : pha-de phai ? With ai"to dawn" : a-de ai-kha ? "did it dawn ?". Now, with verbs beginning with a cluster, such as khrap- "be in excess" : khŵ-de khrap ? "is there too much ?". And in factitives as well : sŵ-de srap ? "does it stick ?". Since the /ŵ/ is heard even in verbs which are currently monosyllabic, like khrap-, it cannot be infered that srapshould be sŵrap-, and I leave it as srap-. 2.2.3. Diphthong /ŵi/ In this diphthong, we find again the variatons indicated about /ŵ/. In Agartalian, one hears /ui/~/uy/ after /p/, /b/ and /m/. This is written "ui" in traditional orthography. Other dialects often have the regular /ŵi/ instead. I write "ŵi" in all cases. Phonemization cumŵi² su²mŵi thampŵi khumpŵi Orthography cumui sumui thampui khumpui cloud flute, made of bamboo mosquito n. of a flower Jamatia or Noatia have [ŵi]. Moreover, in Bikash Roy's speech for instance (Northern Debbarma), "mosquito" is heard as /tampŵi/. The [ui] is a rather restricted innovation. The diphthong /ŵi/ is in all cases clearly distinct from /ai/ and from /ŵ/. Examples are numerous, and always in open syllables : tŵi tŵitŵi²sŵisŵi² sŵi²thŵithŵi² khŵikhŵi² bŵ²cŵlŵi mŵsŵi mŵnŵiha²dŵlŵi* * The -dŵlŵi part from Bengali. water lay eggs sweet write dog sharpen die blood sour trap, snare seed deer laugh dust One may indicate dialectal variation with : no²bŵrai-sa² nobŵrai house lizard, gecko The regular corresponding sound in Boro is /ŵi/, but /i/ in Dimasa. 2.2.4. Diphthong /ai/ Very common as well, the diphthong /ai/ also exists in Boro and Dimasa. As /ŵi/, it occurs only in open syllables. The [a] is stable, does not tend to /e/ (exceptions exist) : 12 -bai_ (Instrumental suffix) -hai_ like -khai² if kai²sow (putting into earth) lai²CL (leaf) -khlai²from up slai tongue slai²exchange mai rice naisee, intend rai cane ya²khrai bridge nograi* guest w *This word, sometimes heard [nog rai], is also naruway. Both forms are common, and designate the person who invites, not those who are invited. The suffix -khai "when, if" is also -khe. 2.2.5. /a/ The vowel /a/ is the most common of all vowels, and the only one to be found in the beginning of nonpronominal words. It is a stable vowels, with few dialectal variation, if any. The sound is a typical [a]. Examples are : a² abuk² acukamiŋ athuk² a² ha² rakhakha²kha², bŵkha² kaka²tha² -ya_ baŋta ber²ma² rŵ_sam² ba²han² bŵ²phaŋ barbar²sal kŵsap²yak² 2.2.6. /e/ that (out of sight) breast sit down cat shrimp, prawn fish earth saw, cut with saw bind bitter heart climb, raise (sun) wear (shoes) any edible root (Negation) shoulder rotten fish, a delicacy mortar meat tree bloom cross sun soft arm, hand 13 The vowel /e/, as the vowel /o/, is more open in closed syllables : it oscillates between [e] in /Ce/ and [] in /CeC/. It is rare in the beginning of words (some examples below, from Binoy Debbarma's dictionaries), less rare at the end, and can be found in closed syllables. Examples are : on²ci (Dic. enci) khrek²erer²-khe se²ler²sek²seŋ² seŋ²ka²ri_ seŋ²ka²ri-cak²bre²bre² sep²ser- an instrument to catch fish clean the inside (teeth, ear) spread (like sore on skin) scratch earth (like hen) (Manner) move, shift to another place be late snatch sword moustache a reddish moustache press, squeeze fry 2.2.7. /o/ The vowel /o/ is, as in the case of /e/, more open in closed syllables ; otherwise a typical [o]. It is far more common than /e/, in all positions. Because of the two suffixes -o and the suffix -no (see the following list), and of its status of expressive vowel (it often appears in reduplicate descriptives), it is fairly frequent in speech. Examples are : o², o²mo², o²bo²* ok² ok²-lo²lo² -o² -o_** -no² -kho_ sa²bo ta²mo ul_o² (ul_-o²) ya²sku_ ko_som_** rom²-** som_-klo_-klo_ som_-prom²-prom² ci_kon_ ho_loŋ² borhor hor² nor-²mo²kol² phob²tok² thok- this inside of stomach having eaten one's full (Locative) (Predicate) (Accusative/Dative) still not, yet who what after nail black catch, guess dark grey a darker place in the night small stone plant (young paddy)*** night fire remove, clean out eye cover with earth bird, hen tasty 14 thok oil * The most common in Agartala is obo. ** Anok Noatia -ŵ, kŵsŵm, rŵm-. Naitong -o, kusum, rum-. ***. In Anok Noatia, the verb for planting seeds, (not sowing by spreading) is kai-; planting is bor-. 2.2.8. /i/ The close front vowel /i/ is common in every position, except in the beginning of words where it is rare (examples in this position are from the dictionaries ; iri seems to be a derivative from i, and irimbak a derivative from iri). Examples : i² i_ri_-jŵk² i²rim_bak²* -di_ -ni_ ri² ri-, rŵsi_si_buci- < Bg bi²khi² ka_mi_ ya²si_ him²pin_gay²riŋ_ philphil²sir, sil < Bg. mi_sip² bi²hik² that (equivalent of u) stepwife curry made of mashed chilli (Imperative) (Ablative) clothes give know become wet understand dung village finger walk sow (by spreading) traditional house cut with axe turn in opposite side nerve, vein** buffalo wife * Borrowing from Meitei. ** The proper Kok. noun is tŵiduk from tŵi "blood" and -duk "rope, creeper". 2.2.9. /u/ The close back vowel is also very common. The word u "that" (in sight) is curiously the synonym of i, but is more common in Agartala speech. Phonetically, [u] is an allphone of /ŵ/ in labial contexts. It is common in all positions, except in the beginning of syllables (exemples from Dictionaries except for pronouns) where it is relatively rare. Examples : bu²khum_ khuk²lu_mun_-* -phru² thu_u² beat flower peel (potatoes) pour (water) ripe when sleep that (in sight) 15 u²-sŵ_kaŋ_ ul_ bu²dul² cibuk daŋ²du khun²ju² loŋ²phu² ma²yuŋ² bu²kur² sa²kur² u_ri_ < Beng. ui day before yesterday next (see ulo) "after" round, sphere snake Jew's harp ear nose-ring elephant skin skin colour white-ant, termite * Anok Noatia mŵn-. 2.2.10. The /uwa/ group A small but ineresting number of words end in -ua or -uwa : ru_wa_ ruwa² bu²wa_ (bŵ+wa) pun² juwa_ ken²juwa_ cu_wak² su_waŋ_ su_war_* * Probably a loanword from Sanskrit. axe grass leech tooth male goat earthworm rice-beer a funny or interresting man wisdom, intelligence 2.3. Consonants : plosives 2.3.1. Overview & syllabation There are definitely 3 series of plosives in Kokborok. The only minimal triad I know is : dok² tok² thok_- six, 6 bird tasty The reasons for that will be described soon. The traditional orthography is confusing, but true to phonetics on the whole, and it is difficult to find a way out of it. The possible positions in a syllable are : beginning end ph + th + kh + p + + t + k + + b + In a word, final consonants may become intervocalic ; then, unvoiced become voiced : end b g For instance: nok "house", nogo "in the house" ; nuk- "to see", nugo "(I) see". The voicing may be triggered also by a following /n/ : nugnai "(I) shall see" d + g + 16 /r/ : nograi "guest". It is far less common at the beginning of a syllable : ta "elder brother", ata or ada "my elder brother". Consonant clusters (see 2.9. for details). Clusters can be in Cl- and Cr- only. They are rather rare, in first syllables, in the Agartala dialect, and 2.3.2. Remarks on historical phonology A comparison with Dimasa, the closest language, shows the following correspondances : Dim bbCph- Kok bpph- Dimasa /b/ normally corresponds to Kokborok /b/, excepts in Dimasia clusters where the clustering /r/ or /l/ falls in Agartalian, and the remaining consonant is voiceless. In the Anok Noatia dialect, the cluster is maintained, and the first consonant is half devoiced. In this respect, Anok Noatia is closer to Dimasa than it is to Agartalian Kokborok. Examples : 1 b elder sister Dimasa bubi Noatia boboi 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 b b b bl bl br br br break INT carry on shoulder fly arrow forget buy bee goat bai² baiŋ birbla² blaobrai bre² b(u)run bai² bŵrplokpraiprun Kokborok bŵi_, bai_, bi²bi_ bai² bal_bir_wa²pla² pok_pai_ pi_ya² pun_ Except for borrowings, all Kokborok initial /p/ seem to be explained in this way. This list also shows that the situation is different in second syllables : wa²pla even in Agartalian. The correspondance is otherwise straightforward for /ph/. 10 11 12 ph ph ph come break INTR sell Dimasa phai² phai² phan Noatia phai ? phai² phal Kokborok phai phai², bai² phal_ On the contrary, for the alveolar and palatal groups, the ordinary correspondance of the Dimasa voiced stops is with the unvoiced Kokborok ones - except in some cases. 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Dim d d d d d d d Kok d d d t t t t Dimasa six, 6 fence tobacco bird pot be, remain cut do² dimdama dao -dig doŋdan²- Kokborok dok² dum²du²ma_ < Bg tok² tŵk² toŋ_tan²- 17 20 d t moon 21 d t big 22 d t water 23 d t sweet 24 g nape 25 g field hut 26 g k climb 27 g k wear (orna./low) * This is gidana in Anok Noatia, godana in Naitong Noatia. dan de²di di²- tal_ tor²tŵi tŵi²gŵ_tŵ_na_* gai²riŋ_ ka_kan_- ga²gan- Dimasa aspirates correspond to Kokborok aspirates, and are not taken into consideration here. Dimasa has only 2 series : aspirated and unaspirated, but it has more clusters than Agartalian has ; other Kokborok dialects (Anok Noatia) are richer in this respect. Dimasa unaspirated simple initials correspond mainly to unvoiced Kokborok ones, except for /b/. Dim b br d g Noatia b pr t k Kok b p t k Dim ph phr th kh Kok ph ph th kh Either the voicing contrast was subsequently neutralized (or transphonologized in some way, to follow Haudricourt's coinage) in Dimasa, or we find reasons to explain the development of the new voicing contrast in Kokborok. My main contentions are (1) the Kokborok initial /p/ is either the result of an older cluster, or dialectal (2) the Kokborok /g/ and /d/ are dialectal, or the result of assimilation to a following nasal sonant, or the result of an earlier cluster. 2.3.1. bilabial plosives The unaspirated bilabial /b/ ([b]) and the aspirated bilabial /ph/ ([ph]) are very frequent. Examples of contrast are (my own data are completed with the Dictionary) : buy give birth carry on shoulder insert fly bai_ba²bal_ber²bir_- pha_ipha_ phal_pher_phi²-rok_- come father sell become flat return < Bg The unaspirated bilabial plosive /b/ ([b]) is found in all positions and with all vowels. Examples : bar_ber²bir_bor²bu²-phaŋ_ < bŵ-phaŋ bŵ²-ka² bloom lay fly plant (young paddy) tree liver The unvoiced form is found in clusters, that may be simplified : Agartala praŋ_ Anok Diomasa brother-in-law 18 puŋ_~pŵŋ_ puŋ_~pŵŋ_ pun_ wa²pla_ pok_pai²pi_ya² prŵŋ prŵŋ prun become full cry (of animals) goat arrow (bamboo pointed) forget break bee wa²pla blaobrai²bre² plokprai² Exceptions may be found only in duplicates, which have a rural flavour : plom_-plom_ blab²-blab² sound of walking in water cut into big pieces (flat) and in brŵi "four, 4", which will be commented elsewhere. The aspirated bilalabial plosive /ph/ ([ph] is found in initial position with all vowels. Clusters are possible. Examples : phar²pher_phi²kuŋ_ phob_phuŋ_ phŵ_-rŵŋ_ phlat²-phlat²* -phru² * mostly phla-phla, among youngsters anyway. sweep become flat back cover with earth morning teach very fast just when In syllabic ending, there is no contrast and only phonetic [p] is heard. This becomes [b] when a vowel follows. No [ph] is ever heard in syllabic ending. On phonemic grounds, it seems advisable to write here only one of the three ; I choose /b/. kab²- (Dim gra²-) seb²mi-sib² phob²khuk²- cry, weep press, squeeze buffalo cover with earth peel 2.3.2. alveolar plosives Alveolar may be aspirated or not, and in the latter case may be voiced or not. Frequent in initial position, all are virtually lacking in syllable endings. The normal realization of the unaspirated in initial position is [t], and examples of contrast between /t/ and /th/ are (my own data are completed with the Dictionary) : elder brother do bird be, remain water sweet -ta_ taŋ_tok² toŋ_tŵi_ tŵi²- tha² thaŋ_thok_ thoŋ_ thŵi_thŵi² The contrast between /d/ and /t/ in initial position may be examplified by : edible root live oil pillar die blood 19 admit into da_- gdfather backside of house cleanly seen dabura < Bg dai²kuŋ_ dak²dak² -ta_ da²da_ < Bg ta_buk² tai²lam_ tak²duk² dal_ da_la_, ta_tal_ dam_ daŋ_ < Bg loc daŋ²du_ dar_ da²ri²ya_, deriya da²yoŋ_ (rare)* deŋ² di²la_ dok² dol²doŋ_ du²na_ duk² du²ma_ du_na_dŵk²- tal_ ta_la_ ta²mo_ taŋ_taŋ_dal² tar_ < Bg ta²ri_ ta²yuŋ_ te²ŋi_ ti²lok_ tok² tol_toŋ_tun_tuk²tu_mung² tu²rum_ tŵk² Saturn (created word) lie hour stick Jew's harp current of stream odd, strange call for husband sauce slow man six fold in round younger brother/sister n. of a clan a trap tobacco multiply to be late * Rather doŋoi. elder brother now window durrie used to bind thanti with takthong moon basket to protect the head what do, touch a profession wire pipe used for oil a large bird piece of bamboo pot from gourd bird help be, remain send give in mouth if, provided that k. of pot pot The aspirated alveolar /t/ ([th]) is found at the beginning of syllables only, with all vowels, and in clusters : tha² thai²lik² the²thi_la_ thok_thu_thŵkthŵi_thlŵŋ_-thlŵŋ_ edible root banana dam big pot tasty sleep be shared equally by all die rather long or high The unaspirated unvoiced alveolar /t/ is found at the beginning of syllables only, with all vowels ; clusters seem to be inexistant : ta²khum_ tal_ tam²teŋ_ ta_ra_na_ ti²lok_ tok² tuŋ²tŵk² tŵi_ duck moon play an instrument a musical instrument a pot made with a gourd bird hot pot water 20 The unaspirated voiced alveolar /d/ is found in the beginning of syllables, and between vowels as a variant of [t]. Clusters seem to be inexistant : da_pha² deŋ_dol_ di²khol² dol²dol_ dum²dŵk²- k. of paddy trembling side fold in round basket for preserving paddy to fence to be late (?) In syllabic ending, the alveolar is lacking. However, Binoy Debbarma dictionary gives one duplicate : phlat²-phlat² very fast 2.3.4. velar plosives The situation with the velar plosives is somewhat identical to the alveolars'. Except for their high frequency in syllabic endings. We find /kh/ ([kh], /k/ ([k] with semi-voiced variation in dialects), and /g/ which is less common. Contrastive pairs between /kh/ and /k/ are easy to find : climb, rise (sun) sow CL paper, sheet language do wrong father-in-law ka_kaikaŋ_ kok² ko_ro²kra² kha_khai_-, khlai_khaŋ²khok_kho_ro_khra² bind, tie do collect steal, rob sprinkle (water, powder) yo. brother of father ka_ka²lam_ kan_kar_ke_le(r)² ge²rok_ki_ching² klai <kŵ_lai_ koŋ_grai_ ko²ra_ < Bg loc ko_ro²kra² ku_ruk_ kw_rwŋ_ climb step wear (lower part) give up slow to roll friend easy cold unripe; red heron to wrong father-in-law sugarcane join, meet together Examples of contrasts between /g/ and /k/ are : push inside (knife) priest who sacrifices near k. o paddy movement in swarm enemy (created) sound of tomtom side bear rice wine container close the petals new rumble of clouds personality, ego ga_bur²ga²lim_ < Bg. ? ga²na_ ga²ru² ge_lek²-ge_lek² ke_rok_ gi_chong² gla_ goŋ_ go_ra_ go_rop², gwrwpgra_-gra_ gu_rum_ gw²rwŋ_ Yet, most of the examples with /g/ look "provincial". All three velars, /g/, /k/, and /kh/, may be found with all vowels, and examples can be found above. A more interesting feature of Kokborok is the great number (compared with Dimasa or Boro or any other Bodo-Garo language except maybe Garo) of final /k/. Finals in /ŋ/ are also very common. Here are examples with final /k/, the most frequent being in /ok/ and /uk/ : 21 nai_rŵk²bŵ²-sŵk² si²kla_jŵk² tŵ_rŵk² bŵ²sak² kŵ_cak² yak² wak² be²dek² kŵicik, koi²cek², ko²cik² kha²cik²khi_cik²mi_lik² hok²bo²hok² bo²khrok² bo²ko_tok² bo_rok² cok_yok²khok_khok²kok² kok_ko_lok² nok² ok² pok_a_buk² a_cuk²ai_cuk² a_thuk² bu²khuk² ci_buk_ huk² nuk²phuk_ruk_suk²suk²suk_suk² see smby off quantity, size, price girl, unmarried slow body (human) red arm, hand pig branch cry of cock Bik run pinch smooth (walls, trees) cut vegetation for jhuming belly head neck person, persons row (boat) poke rob, steal LOW tone bring water language shoot tall, big house inside of the stomach forget breast sit down dawn prawn Tri mouth snake jhum, shifting cultivation see make hole clean (huk, after burning), boil give a blow poke, stab, pound (rice), bite (snake) LOW tone grand-son 2.4. Consonants : nasals The nasals are typical [m], [n], [ŋ]. The last one is never [ng]. They do not nasalize the preceeding vowel in Agartala speech, but they do in other dialects. The Riang (Bru) dialect is famous for that : an intervocalic *n may become [j] after nasalizing the vowel : Agartalian mano "(it) is possible" is mãjo in Bru ; but I do not know if it is systematic. Position in syllable : 22 beginning intervocalic end m + + + n + + + ŋ ø + + The velar nasal /ŋ/ is absent from syllable beginning, but remains when final /ŋ/ becomes intervocalic (thaŋ- > thaŋo). The name for "five", which is in Dimasa /bõa/ (with an atypical nasalized vowel reminiscent of *bo-ŋa), is ba in Kokborok ; "fish" is a². But it has a great revenge in endings, where it is nearly as common as /k/. The nasals /m/ and /n/ may be followed by virtually any vowel or diphthong ; only /ne/ seems lacking. Only /m/ may form clusters, and they look somewhat special : maŋ_ mai_ mi²ya² mo²kol² mun_mŵ_sa² mŵi²ri_mi_ body (animal) rice yesterday eye ripe tiger lady's finger na_har²nai_ni²hik² nok² nuk²nŵŋ_- look far look for, desire your wife house see drink Clusters in the Dictionaries are : mlaŋ_ mŵ_lu², mlu² (Bru dialect) m_lŵk² mraŋ_ mru_-mru_ mrŵi²-mrŵi² fool, mad loss of apetite hiccup bitter & sour itching in the neck far away but still in sight In final position, examples are easy : kham_ him²rom²khum_ drum walk catch flower ran²pin_ci_kon_ pun_, prun (dial.) dry sow (by spreading) small goat aŋ_ be²kreŋ² a_miŋ_ I bone cat 23 bo²kroŋ_ ma_yuŋ_ nŵŋ_ horn elephant you 2.5. /r/ and /l/ Those two are the most ubiquitous phonemes in Kokborok, or at least in Kokborok lato sensu because the Agartala speech is rather restricted in clusters. Both of them may appear as syllabic initials, as second step in clusters, as endings. 2.5.1. /r/ The alveolar tril is a [r] ; the tril is modest, but firm. Examples are : raŋ_ rai_ ri² rom²ruŋ_ ru_wa_ rŵŋ_- money cane cloth catch boat axe learn khrap²-phru² prun_ (dial.) s_rap²- be in excess (spice) when goat stick war-_ be²ser_ hor_ mur²- wide narrow place night cook inside fire 2.5.2. /l/ The lateral is less common than the trill, but shares the characteristic syllabic distribution : la_ma² lai², bŵ²lai² len²ju_, ren²ju_ -li²-ya_ roŋ_phu² lu_lŵ_lŵ_kŵ_ lŵi_ road leaf dragonfly not more nose-ring pour moving to & fro penis gla_ khlai_klaŋ² side do k. of basket 24 mlaŋ_ sloŋ_ thlŵŋ²-thlŵŋ² tlaŋ²-, tŵ²laŋ²- fool, mad big lemon, lime rather long or high carry sal_ tal_ mom²phol_ bu²dul² sun, day moon water-melon round, sphere 2.6. /c/ and /j/ The two affricates are unvoiced /c/ and voiced /j/, a conventional wrting for [tš] and [dž] respectively. The plosive attack is sometimes quite weak, and the couple comes close to [š] and [ž]. Confusions between /ž/ and other phonemes are unlikely, but confusions between /c/ ([š] variant) and /s/ were a matter of technical anxiety for me, and I had to check nearly each case. The voiced one "j" [(d)ž] is not so common as its unvoiced counterpart. With many good speakers we hear [dz]~[z]. These two appear only in syllabic beginning, and groups are inexistant. Their rarely appear in grammatical morphemes, if ever. Examples are : ca_rin_da_ < Bg. ci_buk_ ci_kon_ cok_coŋ²preŋ_ cu_wak², cok² cu_mui² bŵ_cŵ_lŵi_ cŵ_rai_ a musical instrument snake small sail (boat) another musical instr. rice-beer cloud seed child ja²bra_ ja_du_ jiŋ_ jo_ra_ juk_bar_ -jŵk² grass lover mouth piece time "a red sp. of the chinarose" female 2.7. /s/ and /h/ These two also appear only in beginning of syllable, and are absent from grammatical morphemes. Yet, they are fairly common, /s/ far more than /h/. 2.7.1. /s/ The first one oscillates between [s] and [], and is often mid-way just back of the alveoles, at least in Agartalian where Bengali speech is certainly influential ; pronounciation of /s/ differs in various dialects, and [s] or interdental may be heard. Examples : 25 sa_sak² sal_ se²ser_si_so_som² suk²sŵŋ²sŵ²tŵi_ sŵi² sŵi-_ slai, sŵlai slai²s_rap²- speak body sun, day shift fry (food) know pull salt stab, poke bark (dogs), ask urine dog write tongue exchange stick 2.7.2. /h/ The glottal fricative sounds very stable, and is a "clean" back audible [h], with no palatal inclination. ha² earth ha²ciŋ_, hai²ciŋ_* ginger ham_good hai²cuk_yawn him²-** walk ho_loŋ² stone hoŋ²shout (of deers) hor_ night hor² fire huk² jhum field hul²-*** sharpen hŵn_say, report hŵi_hide * Anok Noatia xaicyeŋ. ** This is hŵm- in several dialects. ** Anok Noatia ul-. The phoneme /h/ is interesting in comparative Bodo-Garo, and also Tibeto-Burmese. I give only the following examples : fire night Kokborok hor² hor Boro or² hor Dimasa wai² hor Deuri je siri It seems that the initial /h/ in the Kokborok "fire" is an innovation. It should be remembered that Kokborok is not fond of words beginning in a vowel, except in the pronoun category. 2.8. /y/ and /w/ Neither /j/ nor /w/ are much common. 26 2.8.1. /y/ No trace of hissing in this /y/. Examples are : yak² ya²si_ ya²kuŋ² yoŋ² -yuŋ_* * nu²-yuŋ_-ma² "very big house" arm, hand finger foot insect of big size Since the two Kokborok diphthongs close the syllable, it may be considered that their final /i/ is actually a /y/. 2.8.2. /w/ /w/ is a convention for the rounded semi-vowel, or approximant. In Kokborok, its occurrence is limited since it appears only before the vowel /a/. It could be argued that there is no /w/, but only a diphthong /ua/, which also appears after consonants (see 2.2.10.), since the diphthong /ai/ may also appear in syllable beginning, even if only in the root ai- "dawn". The situation is much the same in Dimasa, with the same lexicon (except that wai² "fire" joins up) ; but the would-be diphthong there is /owa/ rather than /uwa/ : rowa "axe". Evetually, I thought more prudent to consider /w/ as a consonant, whatever its remarkable limitation. wa² bu²wa_ wak² war²war_- bamboo tooth pig bite broad 2.9. consonants : clusters Three sutuations will be described. First, the permitted clusters within the syllable. Second, the mobile clusters resulting from the weak /ŵ/ in the first syllable of a compound (sesquisyllable). Thirdly, the consonants in contact in dysyllabic words and the simplification of such pseudo-clusters. Phonetically, all clusters are halfway between CCV and CŵCV. For instance, realizations of bekreŋ "bone" is between [bekreŋ] and [bekereŋ] : [bekereŋ]; [bekereŋ] with a full second [e] is unlikely. The same is true in the Anok dialect where "goat" is [purun]. 2.9.1. "true clusters" : Cr- and ClWithin one syllable, the only possible clusters are with /r/ and /l/. These are less numerous in Agartala Kokborok than in the related Dimasa language, but they are confortably represented at least in the Anok Noatia dialect. The main reason for that is that Agartala dialect has few clusters in the first syllable. Although numerous examples have been given above, it seems useful to group some of them here. With bilabial plosives, comparing with Dimasa and dialects of Kokborok, we remarked that clusters tend to disappear by giving an unvoiced prononciation to the plosive : Agartala praŋ_ puŋ_~pŵŋ Anok prŵŋ Diomasa brother-in-law become full 27 puŋ_~pŵŋ pun_ wa²pla_ pok_bai²pi_ya² prŵŋ prun plokprai² wa²pla blaobrai²bre² cry (of animals) goat arrow (bamboo pointed) forget break bee This is a clear case of semi-transphonologization ; "semi" only, since the contrast between /l/ and /r/ is lost. Remark the cases of bŵrŵi~brŵi "female, wife" and of bŵlai~blai "leaf" : both have the bV- prefix. In the second syllable, -pr- clusters do appear in Agartala : bupra² "branching", empru "tadpole"; also with /phr/ buphru "when ?". Comparison with Boro and Dimasa shows that the /pr-/ may have been originally *br- clusters (for instance "tadpole" is Boro emblur²). Agartala clusters in -br- seem limited to debra "on the left" which doubles yaksi, and jabra "herb, grass" which also has a difficult voiced initial consonant. With velars & alveolars, several examples are found : kl kok²lop² kl kha²klap_ kl si²kla_ kl ti²khlai_khl -khlai_khl khlai_kr -kra² (ani/aŋ-, nŵ-, bŵ-)* kr be²kreŋ², bekŵreŋ_ kr bo²kroŋ_ kr kŵ_khraŋ_ kr so_krom_ khr bo²khrok² khr yak²hrai_ khr khrab²khr mŵ²khra_ khr -khra² gr -gra²gr ya²gra_ gr no_grai_ tl wa²tlok_ tr khu²truk² tr si_tra_ tr to_tra_ dr gan²drŵi_ * Mother in law krajŵk. poem chest unmarried youngsters bring down from up to down <Dw> do (dial. ; Agar. khai-) father in law bone horn green cry (of tiger) head bridge be in excess (only for spice) monkey younger brother of father in first position <Pri> right hand guest a kind of bamboo basket for clothes dirt throat wild arum We note that clusters are, in Agartalian, rare in the firts syllable. For instance we have bŵpra² "junction", tŵipra² "river confluence", wa²pra² "a kind of broom made of cleft bamboo" etc. but *pra- in first syllable does not exist. This list is a melting-pot of different classes of clusters. Some of them actually belong to the following sections. However, since it is not always easy to determine the etymology of such words, it was thought preferable to give thi crude list first. Other examples are found in "duplicates", a list of which will be given in section 6. In duplicates, we can also find clusters in nr- and mr-. 28 2.9.2. sesquisallbic mobile clusters Some phonetic clusters result from sesquisyllables in rapid speech. The dysyllabic word the first vowel of which is *ŵ may drop this vowel altogether. It is often difficult, within Kokborok, to decide if a cluster is a "true one" or a result of Cŵ-. Two cases in the above list illustrate this problem, and I add "tongue" : kr khr sl bekreŋ, bekŵreŋ bokhrok, bokhorok bŵslai bone head tongue The same problem occurs with the ancient s(ŵ)- and ph(ŵ)- factitive prefixes. In the three caes above, the form without bV- can be found : kereŋ, khorok, sŵlai ; for the last one, Binoy writes slai. A number of clusters beginning in s- occur in Binoy's Dictionary, which I reproduce faithfully : sl sl sl sm sm sn sn sn sn sn sr sr sr sr sr sr sr sr sr sr sr sr slai sloŋ sluŋ_ smai_ smal_, samal, lepai snai², be_lai² snam_snal_, beisnal, bisnal snar², snai sni_ srai²-srai² sraŋ_, saksraŋ sraŋsal srap²srap²-sa² sra_pu²puŋ² sre²mul_, sremuŋ sri_ jo_du_ sri_ jom_du_ srok², sroŋ srŵ_mŵi_, sŵmrŵi srŵŋ_-srŵŋ_ tongue lemon, lime strait, drain a solemn resolve; declaration a tree look like a betelnut tree beyond to make, build, manufacture a web, a cobweb to draw close with back seven, 7 clean active, in operation Wednesday to contact, be pasted some time slightly glutinous a nice design of Borok n. of a deity n. of a deity very quickly a pumpkin open and clean 2.9.3. syllabic contact, pseudo-clusters, and resolutions Some of the clusters in the first list in 2.9.1. are pseudo-clusters. Koklop "poem" is actually kok "speech, word" + lop- "describe the beauty", while khaklap "chest" may be from kha² "heart"+ klap "?". Moreover, a number of final -k are dropped : "pig meat" should be *wak-han, but is wa-han. The "crow" tokha, is not *tok-kha ; tokolok "stork" is certainly tok+kolok "long, big" ; tokhi "bird-shit" is from tok+khi. But a good number of compounded nouns with tok- have the /k/, tokmokol "bird's eye (name of a disease)", even before /k/ : tokkathi "a bird like a spoon" (most probably the beak). Similar situation with nok "house" : nokphaŋ "housemaster", but nosiŋ "the inside of a house", etc. We find a similar problem with other consonants : war²- "bite", but wathar- "kill", etc. A normal procedure would be to produce a chart of all possible phonetic clusters, and decide which are not tolerable and have been simplified. But such an inquiry is out of reach of my small lexicon, and impossible 29 with Binoy's dictionaries, which mix dialects of all origins. A true study of Kokborok morphophonemics is still to be done. 2.10. Tones 2.10.1. General situation There is no controversy, I think, about the existence of two punctual tones in Bodo-Garo languages. Robbins Burling and me indicated, at about the same time, that the Garo checked syllables correspond to high tone syllables in the other languages. It is easy to find minimal pairs in Kokborok. A good number of them have been given among the numerous examples of words in the previous lists, but some will be repeated in 2.10.2. Binoy Debbarma also gives a list at the end of his Dictionary. Moreover, in CV syllables, high tone seems correlated with a glottal stop, which is reminiscent of the Garo situation. For instance the high tone word jasku² "knee" is pronounced [jasku²], while in low tone jasku "nail" the last vowel is "longer", and actually not "checked". Yet, no doubt because of the influence of Assamese or Bengali, they are fast disappearing among the younger speakers, and older speakers themselves are often in doubt when there is no pair to settle the matter. Such is the case in Kokborok, at least in Agartala, and this one more reason why descriptions of more rural dialects should be undertaken. Another difficulty is the fact that, in many Bodo-Garo languages, monosyllables are not so common, outside of dictionaries. Verbs mostly come with suffixes, and nouns are usually compounded, either truly compounded (with two roots) or with a prefix. In Kokborok, those two types of composition make a difference for the tones because it seems that when "true compounding" is at stake, each root maintains its tone, while when a prefix is used, the prefix copies the tone of the root. I give in this section only a few indications. I did not make a thorough study of tones, because it would have implied a long study of lexicon and my time certainly did not allow such a luxury ; I do regret it. 2.10.2. Pairs water write die sour tongue elder sister that bind climb bloom bite night live basket for paddy rob, steal bite tŵi sŵithŵikhŵislai, sŵlai bai a khakabarwarhor thaŋdol khoksuk- tŵi²sŵi² thŵi² khŵi² slai²-, sŵlai²bai²a² kha²ka²bar²war²hor² thaŋ²dol²khok²suk² sweet dog blood trap exchange break fish bitter wear (shoes) cross broad fire go fold in round draw fish from water grandson 2.10.3. tones in bisyllables Let us consider the follwing examples (which were provided for me by Bikash Roy Debbarma) : 30 sŵ²tŵi²sŵtŵisŵ²tŵi sŵtŵi² about to strike about to weigh urine turmeric The two verbs are built with a root and the same suffix -tŵi- "about to". But the first root "to strike" is high tone and the second root "to weigh" is low tone : the suffix just copies the tone of the root. In Binoy Debbarma's Dictionary, these two verbs are listed with the orthography su but Binoy indicates the difference in tone all right. The first noun "urine" is compounded with sŵ²- which may be our verb "to strike" or another one, and with "water" tŵi, low tone. Each root has its own tone. The last noun "turmeric" is a borrowing : the Noatia (Tripura) dialect has silik and Dimasa has slodi, Boro has haldai : Bengali has holud. The word was borrowed from Eastern Indo-Aryan early enough to preserve the initial /s/ in some cases. Dimasa has slodi but clusters are often reduced in Kokborok where we get a *sodi or *sodŵi (Dimasa would have on its turn reduced the diphthong to /i/ if it were *ŵi), which is the source of Agartalian sŵtŵi². The history of the word shows that the -tŵi in it is neither "water" nor the suffix meaning "about to". 3. Sentence Types 3.1. Overview Except in the category of vocatives (terms of adress and imperatives) where the subject is understood, sentences normally provide a subject and a predicate. In many cases however, the topic is left to the subtlety of the hearer, specially in cases where English or French would have a pronominal subject. It is only for the sake of symmetry that such a pronoun is systematically added here : the predicate is : a noun an adjective a verb positive aŋ borok I (am) a person aŋ kolok I (am) tall aŋ phŵrŵŋ-o I teach negative aŋ borok-ya I (am) not a person aŋ kolok-ya I (am) not tall aŋ phŵrŵŋ-ya I do not teach The problem of the adjective will be considered in a specific section. As a predicate, it behaves like a noun, as it appears from the fact that no auxiliary verb, nor any ending, is needed in the present "tense". With verbs, on the contrary, a suffix is needed (even in the imperative) except in the interrogative form. Negation does not discriminate categories. Word order is strictly SP (subject > predicate), in interrogative also. Arguments U and A (Unique actant of intransitives and Agent of transitives) are both subject unless the verb has the passive suffix -zak-. Subject is not marked, but topic may be marked and seems to be fairly often marked in old songs. Non-subject nouns are marked by suffixes ("cases"). All these features will be examined in subsequent sections. 3.2. Interrogative patterns 3.2.1. with interrogative pronouns No interrogative marker is needed with interrogative pronouns : bahai toŋ ? how stay how are you ? 31 See the section devoted to these pronouns. Questions bar the occurrence of predicative -o, but answers of course need it : bahai toŋ-o smell stay-Aor there is a smell Of course this bahai is not the interrogative, but a quite different lexeme. 3.2.2. Simple -de <Int> The interrogative sentence is usually marked by -de. This -de is suffixed either to the verb theme deprived of predicative marker, or to another word in the sentence, depending on which is concerned by the question : nŵŋ thaŋ²-nai-de s2 go-Fut-Int Do you go ? (Will you go ?) This -de is also used with nominal predicates, and for instance in the idiom : kaham kŵrŵŋ-de good learned-Int How do you do ? The <Int> -de can be suffixed to another word on which the interrogation falls : berma nŵŋ sŵk-de ri-kha ? berma s2 extent-Int give-Int Did you put enough berma (in the dish) ? berma is the preparation made of rotten fish, which is widespread in all South-East Asia. 3.2.3. Dissective -de <Dsc-Int> An interesting feature of Kokborok is the possibility of suffixing -de to the first CV- group of the verb root, then going on with the full verb but again without predicative marker . I call it the "dissective interrogation". This is used only if the interrogation concerns the verb itself. a-no nu-de nuk ? s1-Acc Dsc-Int see Do (you) see me ? mija-wo phai-nai borok-no si-de sini ? yesterday-Loc come-VNg person-Acc Dsc-Int know ? Do you know the man who came yesterday ? Examples of "dissection" are : cathunuktoŋthaŋ² phaiwaralaiaiph(ŵ)rŵŋs(ŵ)rapkhrap- eat sleep see be, stay go come bite weep dawn teach stick be in excess ca-de ca thu-de thu nu-de nuk to-de toŋ tha-de thaŋ² pha-de phai wa-de war a-de alai a-de ai phŵ-de ph(ŵ)rŵŋ sŵ-de s(ŵ)rap khŵ-de khrap 32 3.3. Imperatives and related modals 3.3.1. positive in -di <Ip> Imperative is always segmentally marked in Kokborok, with -di : thaŋ²-di phai-di go ! come ! The root alone (*thaŋ !) is not grammatical. This is the common expresson, and it is polite as well : it can be used in all circumstances. If you want to be very gentle, you can use -za- <Opt> and say for instance : acuk-za-di ! pray, be sitted. If you intend to make a show of politeness, you may add da or do, according to fancy, at the end : phai-za-di do ! would you most kindly come in. In the Noatia dialect (called "Tripuri"), the form is not -di, but -dŵi. Modals can be used also, with any person. A first possible one is naŋ- "need" : nŵŋ taŋ-na naŋ-nai s2 do-VNf need-Fut you are to do (that) This can be emphasized with se : nŵŋ taŋ-na se naŋ-nai s2 do-VNf Emp need-Fut you have to do (that) A stronger obligation is conveyed by the use of ma- which seems to be another prepositional morpheme : aŋ ma-phai-nai s1 Obl-come-Fut I must come And that type of phrase may also be emphasized in the following way : aŋ ma-se ma-phai-nai s1 Obl-Emp Obl-come-Fut I must come by all means This may be a dissective construction. 3.3.2. negative in ta… -di <Def-Ip> Defence, or negative order, is marked by ta before the verb. This morpheme is used in all Bodo-Garo languages, and is one of the very rare morphemes in the verb phrase to be placed before the verb. It requires the suffix -di also : lama ta-bar²-di ! road Def cross-Ip do not cross the road ! In the negative injunction, it is possible to use modal <Obl> with the dissuasive gŵlak, often pronounced glak <Dsv> : nŵŋ ma-thaŋ-glak s2 Obl-go-Dsv you should not go. 3.4. Remarks on the negative -ja <Neg> 3.4.1. Verbs and nouns may have -ja 33 As shown in 3.1., -ja is the common negative marker. We just noticed it is not used, however, with negative injunctions where ta- or -glak come instead. Otherwise, -ja is used in all other cases, with nominal (& adjectival) and verbal predicates. For instance, one may use a verb like phŵrŵŋ "to teach" : nŵŋ phŵrŵŋ-o you teach nŵŋ phŵrŵŋ-ja you do not teach or, with a different meaning of course, the noun derived from the verb with the agentive verbal noun -nai <VNg> : nŵŋ phŵrŵŋ-nai you are a teacher s2 teach-VNg nŵŋ phŵrŵŋ-nai-ja you are not a teacher s2 teach-Vng-Neg The negative of a nominal predicate like : bo aŋ-hai he is like me s3 s1-as is quite simply : bo aŋ-hai-ja he is not like me The same indifference occurs when a nominal predicate in the present (or aorist) tense (or aspect) becomes a verbal predicate with an auxiliary when tense is specified : aŋ hozai I am a priest aŋ hozai-ja I am not a priest aŋ hozai ŵŋ-nai I will become a priest s1 priest become-Fut aŋ hozai eŋ-ja I will not become a priest s1 hozai become-Neg Which example also shows that the negative of the future in -nai is not *-nai-ja, but just -ja. Remember also : aŋ hozai ŵŋ-glak s1 priest become-Dsv I may not become a priest (it is unlikely), or : I should not become a priest. 3.4.2. verbal suffixes and -ja The negative is used in the same way when the verb is specified with TAM (tense, aspect, mode) suffixed markers : aŋ khasik-toŋ-o I am running s1 run-Cnt-Aor aŋ khasik-toŋ-ja I am not running s1 run-Cnt-Neg As was noted before, the negative implies dropping the predicative ending -o ; and we made the same remark with <Fut> -nai. In this line, -li-ja is to be mentioned. The suffix -li seems not to be used but with -ja, and then means "any more" : aŋ no-no nuk-hor-li-ja s1 s2-Acc see-Dis-Pfn-Neg I do not see you any more This compounded suffix will be commented later. 3.4.3. adjectives and -ja With adjective forms in kV- the negative is again -ja : 34 kaham kaham-ja good not good, bad Some adjectives have a lexical antonym or what we rather inconsiderately interpret as such (kotor "big" vs cikon "small"), but other ones do not, and the most common equivalent for "bad" is ham-ja. In such cases, the negated adjective is itself an adjective as a whole : borok kaham a good man borok kaham-ja a bad man But since such adjectives can be nominal-like predicates, one may also hear : o borok kaham this man is good o borok kaham-ja this man is bad Which opens the possible occurrence of two negations in the same sentence : oro, borok kaham-ja toŋ-ja here, person good-Neg be-Neg Here, there is no bad man 3.5. Word order 3.5.1. at clause level Predicate comes last : o khum cak-ja this flower red-Neg this flower does not become red Which is slightly different from "topic comes first" : omo tamo ? this what what is this ? nŵŋ buro ? s2 where where are you ? because subjects of predicates, if they mostly come first, may be disposessed of this privilege when another argument is focussed : musuk-no aŋ bo-no ri-kha cow-Acc s1 s3-Acc give-Aorf This cow, I gave it to him but in that case, the focussed argument is marked. Compare with : aŋ bo-no o musuk ri-kha s1 s3-Acc this cow give-Aorf I gave him this cow When the verb allows more than one argument, and no one among them is focussed, these extraarguments come before the verb, and object comes last in this list, as in the lattest example. Other examples are : bo tok bo-thar-kha s3 bird stike-kill-Aorf he killed a bird aŋ nog-o thaŋ²-o s1 house-Loc go-Aor I go to the house (aŋ) nŵŋ-bai phai-nai (s1) s2-Ins come-Fut I will come with you musuk mŵsa-bai wa-thar-zak-kha cow tiger-Ins bite-kill-Aorsf-Aorf the cow was killed (by biting) by the tiger 35 aŋ no-no ca-ri-nai s1 s2-Acc eat-Fac-Fut I will feed you (I will give food to you) Kokborok uses -no when stressing (not defining) the object is needed, as we will see later on. But -no is also used as a dative or beneficient marker ; in this occurrence, the object cannot be marked but order is free : aŋ o laisi bo-no ri-kha I gave this book to him s1 this book s3-Acc give-Aorf aŋ bo-no o laisi ri-kha s1 s3-Acc this book give-Aorf I gave this book to him The alternative construction is related to light foccussing. The former example focusses "this book", and the latter "to him". Both sentences may actually drop the aŋ. 3.5.2. in the noun phrase Determinatives of head-nouns may come before or after the head. Here is a general chart : demonstratives N-ni head noun adjective in kVclassifier+number Demonstratives come before the noun : o musuk this cow Determinative nouns marked with -ni (genitive or ablative marker) come before the head noun : omo ni-ni nok this s2-Abl hause this is your house ni-ni laisi to-de toŋ ? s2-Abl book Dsc-Int be is it your book ? o musuk-ni bukur bŵlai milik this cow-Abl skin very smooth The hide of this cow is very smooth musuk-ni bokroŋ horn of cow cow-Abl horn There is a difference (to be examined in the section on noun compounding) between this and musuk bokroŋ cow horn cow horn The noun phrase musuk bokroŋ is not a compounded noun of course, but makes a paradigm with any other type of "horn". In musuk-ni bokroŋ one undrstands "the horn of a cow, of the (previously mentioned) cow". There are two expressions one might translate by "folksong". The more idiomatic is zadu koliza ("love"+"song"). Another one, which implies some highbrow distance from such tribal activities, is zadu-ni rŵcapmung ; rŵcapmung means "singing", with the borrowed word and the -muŋ suffix much used to coin abstract nouns ; iin such a phrase, the direct construction (without -ni) sounds impossible. na, aŋ ni-ni kok khŵna-siŋ-ŵi-no toŋ-o ble eh, s1 s2-Abl speech listen-Att-Cv-Str be-Aor certainly oh yes, I do listen to you most attentively, come on A number of locative phrases are built with the locative noun as a head and the located noun as a qualifier with -ni : aŋ borok-ni bagŵi soŋ-ŵi toŋ-o s1 s3-Abl for cook-Cv be-Aor I am cooking for them aŋ a-ni phaisiŋ na-har-ŵi toŋ-o 36 s1 s1-Abl towards look-Dis-Cv be-Aor I am looking at myself aŋ nok-ni phataro thaŋ²-o s1 house-Abl out go-Aor I go outside of the house In this instance the locative word phataro "outside" is actually in the locative case : phatar-o. Please note that in the following example : aŋ tŵi bisiŋ-o s1 water inside-Loc the word bisiŋ- is a noun, and bisiŋo is a nominal predicate. But also without -ni : tok nok sakatŵi bir-ŵi toŋ-o bird house above fly-Cv be-Aor the/a bird is flying over the house nok tolatŵi under the house Other determinatives mostly come after the head noun . So with the numeral qualifiers, which may imply a classifier : musuk ma-sa one cow cow CL-one borok khorok-nŵi two persons person head-two And also with the adjectives : tŵima kotor a big river river big The result of this last construction is that only prosody makes a difference between : o tŵima kuthuk this river is deep this river deep o tŵima kuthuk this big river 4. Verbs 4.1. Formation of verbs 4.1.1. Monosyllabic verbs Most verbs have a monosyllabic root, and the main method for "processing" verb phrases is to add suffixes to this root. A choice of roots is given here : ŵŋaiba²bai²barbar²birbor²buca²cokhim- become dawn give birth break bloom cross fly plant (young paddy) beat eat row (a boat) walk 37 hukhorjokkakai²kapkhŵikhokkhupkoklokkurleŋmanmunmurnŵŋnainai²naŋnornukpaipai²pharphoppinpokpukpuŋranriruksŵisase²sep²slaisosoksoŋ²suktŵitŵi²tan²taŋthaŋthaŋ²thŵithutok- cut vegetation carry on the neck poke climb sow (put seed in earth) weep be sour steal peel shoot be long dig be tired may be ripe cook in fire drink, smoke look bring need remove see buy win sweep cover with earth sow (by spreading) forget scratch be full be dry give clean the jhum write speak shift squeeze, press exchange pull rot cook bite, strike lay eggs be sweet cut do be alive go die sleep hammer 38 warwar²- bite be broad 4.1.2. prefixing derivation 4.1.2.1. ruins of older prefixes As in other Bodo-Garo languages, the factitives in s- and ph- are found in Kokborok, along with the productive construction using the verbe "give" -ri- as a morpheme. But the s- and ph- prefixes are not really productive now, and it is difficult to appreciate the difference in meaning between them. The prefix ph- is used with transitive and intransitive verb roots, whhile the prefix s- seems to be used with intransitive roots only, but this may be a matter of chance due to the few exemples that can be collected. be dry see study broad long rannukrŵŋwarlok- ph(ŵ)-ranphu-nukph(ŵ)-rŵŋph(ŵ)-warpho-lok- make dry make see, show teach make broad make long The s- prefix is uncontroversial when the root verb is known ; some other examples are given which seem open to discussion. In modern Agartalian (and, as far I know, in dialects as well) srap- "stick" is intransitive, and has a transitive with srap-ri- "make stick, paste". The case of sahar- is somewhat aberrant : har- is now either a verbal suffix which means that the action is done upon a distant object, or a verb harmeaning "to bring", and sa-har- might be an old prefixed form of a now lost verb *har- but the vowel /a/ in sais unexpected : we should have /ŵ/ with a following /a/. A good number of verbs begin with a cluster in s- that cannot presently be analyzed as factitives. break INTR study bairŵŋ- s-bais-rŵŋsŵ-Aorlasŵ-baks-rapsa-har- break TR learn make a hole make thick stick scatter Note also : klai- "fall" and khi-klai "make fall". This verb is given by Bikash Roy Debbarma, and is not indicated in Binoy's Debbarma dictionary, which gives khi-bi- "let fall, throw" but without a verb *bi- (maybe bir- "to fly" ?). khna means "to make drink, to give water", and may be related to nŵŋ- "drink". The productive factitive is with -ri- and will be studied later on ; I give only one example : aŋ (bo-no) soŋ-ri toŋ-o I make him cook 4.1.2.2. the prefixes ta- and maA case may be made for two morphemes that are used only before verb roots. The first one, the prohibitive ta-, has been dealt with in 3.3.2. The second one is ma- and is difficult. It has two related meanings, which both may be related to the verb man- "may, be able". The first meaning is "have to, must", and in this case it is used with the future marker -nai : nŵŋ ma-thaŋ²-nai s2 Obl-go-Fut 39 you must go aŋ ma-Aorhai-nai s1 Obl-come-Fut I have to come A stronger effect is obtained by what may be a dissected form : aŋ ma-se ma-Aorhai-nai s1 Obl-Str Obl-come-Fut I must come by all means The prefixal character of ma- is clear in the following sentence, where tŵi jok²- "swim" is from tŵi "water" and jok²- which probably means "poke" (cf. yokhak- and yor²-) : aŋ tŵi ma-jok-nai s1 water Obl-Aoroke-Fut I have to swim Negation of this construction is with the dissuasive -glak : nŵŋ ma-thaŋ²-glak s2 Obl-go-Dsv you should not go If the future (or imperfective) in -nai is often connected with ma-, the perfective in -kha also occurs : tamo-gŵi nŵŋ asŵk kham bu-ŵi ma-sa-kha ba ? what-for s2 somuch drum beat-Cv Obl-speak-Aorf then why did you feel obliged to spread the news so much ? This example, which comes from Bishak Roy Debbarma, uses the stock phrase kham bu- "beat the drum", the meaning of which is "spread the news". There is a specific verb tam- which is "play an instrument", and it is normally used with the kham as well. The second meaning of ma- (and certainly the same meaning in a deeper or older layer of Kokborok semantics) is not with -nai, nor with -kha, but with the continuative -toŋ-o , here as a verb "be, stay", and associated with -hai "as, like" : aŋ lum-mani-hai ma-toŋ-o s1 feverish-VN-like Obl-Cnt-Aor it seems I am in fever aŋ bo-no nuk-kha-hai ma-toŋ-o s1 s3-Acc see-Aorf-like Obl-Cnt-Aor it seems I have seen him before 4.1.3. compounded verbs The frequent use of the converb -ŵi makes compounded verbs less common in Kokborok, at least in "correct" Kokborok, than in related languages. However, a kind of serial system appears when the converb is dispensed with (See 4.3.3.). For instance : tŵlaŋ-ŵi thaŋ²-di take it and go ! take-Cv go-Ip sounds less conventional and more effective in : tŵlaŋ-thaŋ²-di It is not always easy to settle the border between compounded verbs and suffixation, because suffixes often come from verbs. Moreover, some suffixes that were productive in the past may remain in some compounded verbs. Consider the following group : tantan-suktam-phuktam-phik- cut cleave cut a hole (in bamboo) cut in small pieces 40 The verb suk- "stab" exists : tan-suk- is compounded with two verbs. But -phik- and -phuk- are not. The morpheme -phik- can also be found in sa-Aorhik- "mash with fingers" (for instance mai "rice" or harpek "clay"). I do not know any other occurrence of -phuk-. A classic example of compounding is with -thar- "kill". The verb *thar- does not exist by itself, but definitely means "kill" : bu-thartan-tharwa-thartok-thar- kill by poking, stabing cut to death (in a fit of rage) bite to death (from verb war-) kill by hammering The most neutral of these verbs is buthar-, since it can be used in various cases ; but if a tiger kills a cow, buthar- would sound very strange. As to tan-thar-, it conveys the idea of some irrational madness because the considerate phrase to "kill by cutting" (as in some sacrifices) is analytical : tan-ŵi bothar-. A number of bisyllabic verbs remain, for instance : buci- (< Bengali ?) cubakŵlai²kŵbakkhacikairiŋkhanikhasikkhulokkicikmŵnŵimotokmusuŋnonkhor- understand help fall embrace hang TR find out give water run open (door) pinch laugh feel itching wish go down (a slope) 4.1.4. duplicated roots This is not very common. It implies not a continuous, but a repeated action, and seems mostly used with toŋ-o. I can give only one instance : bo kap-kap-ŵi toŋ-o s3 weep-weep-Cv stay-Aor he weeps from time to time Something close to reduplication is heard in : o khum cak-no cak-ŵi toŋ-o this flower red-Str red-Cv stay-Aor this flower becomes more & more red 4.2. verb suffixes Maybe the strings of verbal suffixes are not so common in Kokborok as in, say, Dimasa or Deuri. The inventory of suffixes is probably slighlty less rich, and long verbal phrases sound less frequent. One reason for this certainly is the frequent use of the converb in -ŵi, a specific feature of Kokborok : verbs may be coupled in this way, and this provides a more manageable syntaxic device than the etiquette of morphology. Yet, the learned reader will meet here again most of the familiar suffixes, some apparent newcomers that may be old beards in disguise, and conversely. 41 As with most Bodo-Garo languages I know, it is useful to classify these suffixes in 3 layers at least : (a) the immediate layer, just after the root, concerns for instance locative markers : the action may reach far away, or go from up to down etc. (b) the medium layer, after the locative or locational information is given, concerns actancy : this is the kingdom of factitives, passives, reciprocals etc. (c) the outer layer is the so-called TAM area, where indications of Tense, Aspect and Mode are given. 4.2.1. the inner circle 4.2.1.1. overview Many suffixes belong here (and I an sure some more could be added) and illustrate a specific feature of Bodo-Garo languages. -sa-khlai-har-, -hor-bu-laŋ-gra-sai-phi-son-cŵm-siŋ-rŵk-, -rŵrŵk-tŵi-, -tŵtŵi- <Up> <Dw> <Dis> <Prx> <Lat> <Pri> <Prg> <Ite> <Aug> <Smt> upwards downwards far toward speaker away from speaker first in order progressive iterative into the deep hiddenly with care more and more during another action As an example of the rich possibilities, I think useful to provide some of most comon possibilities with nainai nahar naiklai naisa naicom naison naikani naisop nairŵk nasiklalai see look look down look up look hiddenly look far down (like in a pit) follow by look wait for sombody coming see smby off look face to face, each other The last example introduces us to the next section (See 4.2.2.) 4.2.1.1. -sa- and -khlai- <Up> and <Dw> The first couple indicates directions either up or down. so-sapull up tok-sasail upstream ko-sapick up with fingers so-khlaipull down tok-khlaisail downstream ka-khlaipush down with foot 42 Note that bŵca- "stand up"and acuk- "sit down" are unconcerned. 4.2.1.2. -har- <Dis> The suffix -har- or -hor- (actually there is a verb hor- "to bring") is widespread and productive. It means that the action is done at a significant distance : khŵ-de khna-hor ? do you hear me ? Dsc-Int hear-Dis is the anxious question when the telephone communication is bad. The form is dissective. The answer may be : aŋ khna-hor-li-ja s1 hear-Dis-Pfn-Neg I do not hear any more The verb "to phone" is riŋ-hor- in Kokborok. Riŋ- is not a borrowing from English but a general term "to call", and -hor- has become a perfect equivalent of Greek τηλε- in "telephone". If a child plays hide and seek with you and disappears behind a curtain, you are supposed to say : aŋ no-no nu-hor-li-ja s1 s2-Acc see-Dis-Pfn-Neg I don't see you any more ! The verb "to give" is ri- (with variations on the vowel) but when the action is not a simple transmission from hand to hand, ri-hor- is frequent. Of course, it is also possible to understand a compounded ri+hor- "give+bring" verb here : bo-no ri-hor-di give him s3-Acc give-Dis-Ip a-no ro-hor-Aorhi-di s1-Acc give-Dis-Ver-Ip give (it) back to me Among the numerous possible increments on nuk- or nai- "to see" & "to look", na-har- "to see at some distance" is very common. It seems inescapable when looking at oneself : aŋ a-ni phaisiŋ na-har-ŵi toŋ-o s1 s1-Abl towards look-Dis-Cv stay-Aor I am looking at myself 4.2.1.3. -bu- and -laŋ- <Prx> and <Lat> The couple -bu- / -laŋ- does not seem thriving, but the verbs tu-bu- and tŵ-laŋ- (on a root twi- "bring") mean "bring here" and "bring away", and are in everyday use when servants are responsible for tea-things : oro tu-bu-di here bring-Aorrx-Ip bring (it) here ! oro-ni tŵ-laŋ-di here-Abl bring-Lat-Ip take (it) away ! aŋ sak baithaŋ-no tŵ-laŋ-an-o s1 body self-Str bring-Lat-Ftp-Aor I will take (it) myself 4.2.1.4. -gra- <Pri>, -sai- <Prg>, -phi- <Ite> The suffix -gra- indicates that the subject is first to do the action, others will follow. For instance in : thaŋ²-gra-di go-Pri-Ip go first ! 43 The -sai- suffix seems to be rare, it stresses the slow progress of an event, in the two following examples : sal ka-sai toŋ-o sun is rising phuŋ-o sal ka-o in the morning, sun rises sal pa-sai toŋ-o sun is setting The -phi- suffix (whil is the short form for -phil-, sometimes -phir-) is iterative : aŋ thaŋ²-phi-nai s1 go-Ite-Ite-Fut I will go again aŋ phai-phi-nai s1 come-Ite-Fut I will come again It is not distinct from "back" in kiphil² phai- "to come back" ; compare with uphil² nahar- 'look back". It is used in "give back" : bo-no ri-hor-di give him s3-Acc give-Dis-Ip a-no ri-hor-phi²-di give back to me s1-Acc give-Dis-Ite-Ip Alone, phil²- means "to turn on the other side" (a sheat of paper, a book etc.). Sa-phil²- "say again, repeat". Malai-phi²-kha "again we meet (you)". The shorter form -phi- appears in the grammaticalized form, where it is compulsory before consonants. 4.2.1.5. -son- "far down", -cŵm- "hiddenly", -siŋ- "with care" A good number of 1st-layer suffixes, I guess, could be listed, and in the verbal phrase elaboration this slot certainly is the most alive, and open to creative coinage. I will mention only briefly : nai-son- look far down (into a pit, for instance) nai-cŵmlook hiddenly, peep which is a great favourite in love-songs ; see the second song in the end of this description, where nai-cŵm- is in older (or provincial) parlance heard /naisŵm/. Because of the following nasal, this -cŵm- is often pronounced /com/. khŵna-cŵm-ŵi toŋ-o be hearing hiddenly The suffix -siŋ- often shows that the action is handled with a special care, but some occurrences of this suffix (maybe it is another suffix, or something distinct related to siŋ- "be inside") are difficult to explain. aŋ khna-siŋ-ŵi toŋ-o s1 hear-siŋ-Cv stay-Aor I am carefully listening (to you) 4.2.1.6. -rŵk- "more and "more" The suffix -rŵk- seems confined to intransitive verbs, and means "more and more". It is often found in the duplicate form -rŵrŵk : bar"bloom" bar-rŵrŵk "bloom more and more" bo lok-rŵrŵk he is taller and taller s3 tall-Aug-Aug 4.2.1.7. -tŵi- <Smt> A last important suffix is -tŵi-, which belongs mainly to the dependant clause markers but should be tackled with here. It means that this action in going on while you are doing something else : 44 aŋ thaŋ²-tŵi no-no riŋ-hor-nai s1 go-Smt s2-Acc call-Dis-Fut I will call you on the way (while going) It can be reiterated for stress : aŋ thaŋ²-tŵ-tŵi bo-no nuk-kha s1 go-Smt-Smt s3-Acc see-Aorf I saw him on the way (while going) bo kap-tŵ-tŵi mŵnŵi-kha s3 weep-Smt-Smt laugh-Aorf she laughed in the middle of her tears Maybe it is related also with tŵi- "bring, carry". In main clauses, it means "about to". But we should note that tŵi is also the conjunction "and" : bo-tŵi aŋ he and I s3-and s1 If there is a true etymological relationship between <Smt> and "and", it is another example of the fact that this conjunction is often more complicated, semantically at least, than what we used to understand from English and or French et. 4.2.2. the middle circle : actancy A group of reciprocally exclusive suffixes - a paradigm - comes next in order, and is concerned with the reduction or development of the number of arguments. In Kokborok as in the other Bodo-Garo languages (and many other ones), this is triggered from the verb, which has specific suffixes for that purpose. -ri-zak-la-lai- <Fac> <Psv> <Ref> <Rec> factitive passive reflexive reciprocal These suffixes can be be found also in Dimasa for instance (<Psv> is -zao- in Dimasa, a regular equivalence). 4.2.2.1. the productive factitive -ri- <Fac> Older factitive formations (see 4.1.2.1.) are not productive any more. It is not certain if the -ri- suffix waited for their disppearance, or pushed them out. This -ri- suffix is almost certainly the verb ri- "give, put". Its use is very frequent. It applies indifferently to intransitive and transitive verbs. srap- "stick" INTR > srap-ri- "stick, paste" TR bo-no tan-ri-di make him cut (it) ! s3-Acc cut-Fac-Ip bo-no khlai-ri-di make him do (it) ! s3-Acc do-Fac-Ip aŋ no-no ca-ri-nai I will make you eat it (I will feed you) s1 s2-Acc eat-Fac-Fut the phrase abuk ca-ri- (with abuk "breast") means "to feed a child " when the mother is concerned. 4.2.2.2. passive in -zakFrom a sentence : mŵsa musuk-no wa-thar-kha the tiger killed the cow tiger cow-Acc bite-kill-Aorf one may, for the usual topicality reasons, get : musuk mŵsa-bai wa-thar-zak-kha the cow was killed by the tiger 45 cow tiger-Ins bite-kill-Aorsv-Aorf The passive remains the same when the clause is dependant : musuk mŵsa-bai watharzak-mani nuk-ŵi toŋ-o cow tiger-Ins bite-kill-Aorsv-VN see-Cv stay-Aor I see the cow that has been killed by the tiger We find it also in one line of the love-song which is given in the end : girls : hŵi-zag-hŵi-zag-ŵi naison toŋ-nai-sa, hide-Aorsv-hide-Aorsv-Cv peep be-VNa-one sŵba bidi-sa ŵŋ-kha ? who unknown-one be-Aors The one who is hiden and peeping, who was this unknown one ? The word for "marriage" is kai²zak. The verb kai²- means "make the ceremony for mariage" but actually "plant", which is a straightforward root for the word "marriage". The interesting thing is that "married people" (so different from unmarried youngsters, whose designation is sikla for males and sikla-zŵk for females) are called kai²zak-zak, with a double -zak-. This example shows that -zak is also used with nouns. 4.2.2.3. an approximation of the 'reflexive' There is no simple equivalent of the reflexive in Kokborok. aŋ a-ni phaisiŋ na-har-ŵi toŋ-o s1 s1-Abl towards look-Dis-Cv stay-Aor I am looking at me (myself) does not use any specific marker ; the pronom is repeated, with usual functional markers. In the other stock-example, the 'suicide case', Kokborok use sak "body", or a noun baithaŋ which means "oneself", in these possible ways : sak saicuk thŵi-kha body ¶ die-Aorf he killed himself the most obvious expression is by iterating sak : sak sak thŵi-kha The word sak if widely used in Binoy Debbarma's dictionary to translate such phrases as self-control sakso, saksaso self-defence sakmŵthaŋ self-respect sakborom with an insistance on the self whose reponsibility is on the British (and Baptist) side : those words are new coinages. More prosaically, suppose you say : "I'll carry it by myself". You may say : aŋ sak baithaŋ-no tŵ-laŋ-an-o s1 body self-Str bring-Lat-Ftp-Aor aŋ sak-sak-no tŵ-laŋ-an-o s1 body body-Str bring-Ftp-Aor aŋ baithaŋ-no tŵ-laŋ-an-o s1 self-Str bring-Lat-Ftp-Aor but not : *aŋ sak-sak baithaŋ-no tŵlaŋano The reason is that in the first possibility, sak-baithaŋ is a kind of compounded phrase "personal self", for which the simple baithaŋ (3rd possibility) is more straightforward. The interesting point here is the use of the "stressing" -no. The only occurrence of the reflexive -la- I heard : nasik-la-lai to look at each other face to face is with the sociative -lai-, which comes now. 46 4.2.2.4. sociative-reciprocal -lai- <Soc> The widely used suffix -lai- basically means that the action is made by a group, and the verb may very well be intransitive : him-lai- walk together If the verb happens to be transitive, according to situation a reciprocal meaning can be understood : sŵlai²- exchange but not always : ca-lai- means "eat together", not "eat each other". An interesting example is : borok wa-lai bu-lai ŵŋ-ŵi bu-thar-lai-kha p3 bite-Soc beat-Soc become-Cv beat-kill-Soc-Aorf they quarelled, fought, and killed each other but this sentence means that two groups were fighting each other, and does not imply that all were exterminated in the end : it means that some people of each party were left dead. Actually, walai- is the common word for "to fight", and certainly it is not analyzed into its constituants by the heated story-teller. 4.2.3. the outer circle 4.2.3.1. overview Suffixes belonging to this tail of the verb phrase are by far the most frequent in everyday use, in prose or lyrics of any kind. Verbs in Kokborok, except in interrogative structure, have to have a suffix of this kind. The list of possibilities is remarkably restricted. The absence of the otherwise common -ba suffix (frequent in Dimasa) is to be underlined. But the continuative structure with toŋ- will be dealt with here. We are concerned here with main clause verbs. Dependant clause morphemes will be described hereafter. I think it is better to give a list first : -o -ano -nai -kha -li-ja -kho -thŵŋ Aor Ftp Fut Pf Pf>-Neg <Pf Opt aorist near future future perfect no more still optative And to add a table of the negative versions, because only one of them can be negated by -ja : Aor Ftp Fut Pf positive -o -ano -nai -kha negative -ja -glak -glak -kha-ja -li-ja -ja-kho 4.2.3.2. aorist in -o <Aor> The suffix -o has neither a definite tense nor an aspective value. It is by far he most common ending of verbs. aŋ bŵthai khup-o I peel the fruit s1 fruit peel-Aor 47 bŵthai buphaŋ-ni kŵlai-o fruits fall from the tree fruit tree-Abl fall-Aor This -o is homonymous with the locative -o, which is sometimes puzzling. For instance in : aŋ tŵi bisiŋ-o I am in the water s1 water inside-Loc the predicate bisiŋ is a noun, in the locative case. Bisiŋ is a noun because of the prefix bV-. But in : aŋ nok siŋ-o I am in the house s1 house be inside-Aor siŋ- is a verb "be inside" and -o is <Aor>. A sentence like *aŋ tŵi siŋ-o I am in the water is unlikely or sounds odd, because it is not customary to be "in water". Of course, the two of them can be found in the same sentence : aŋ nok-o thaŋ²-o I go to the house s1 house-Loc go-Aor This -o suffix is pronounced -wo after vowels, but not after diphthongs (which shows that the /i/ of diphthongs is a /j/ in many respects) : V+o (Aor) ca-wo se-wo ri-wo lu-wo eat shift give pour The same occurs with the locative suffix. Some more examples are : aŋ koktaŋ (or : koklop) sŵi-o s1 poem write-Aor I write poems aŋ thaŋ²-na musuŋ-o s1 go-VNf wish-Aor I wish to go phai-nai borok-no aŋ sini-wo come-VNg person-Acc s1 know-Aor I know the person who is coming In the first example, we have a kind of standing present : the sentence does not mean you are presently writing a poem, but that you are fond of writing poems, or that maybe it is your occupation. The second example is a bit more tense-concerned, but it does not mean the wish is very recent : you may very well have been wishing to go (there) since you were a person addicted to wishes. The last example is definitely more precise, as far as tense is concerned. This lattest hue is also clear in : aŋ thaŋ²-nani nai-o I look forward to go s1 go-VN look-Aor aŋ thaŋ²-nani naŋ-o I need to go s1 go-VN need-Aor In a sentence like : o borok do-wŵi him-o this man walks rapidly this person quick-Cv walk-Aor you cannot know if it is his habit or a present (and maybe unusual) fact. If it is a fact that you are witnessing, you would certainly say : o borok do-wŵi him-ŵi toŋ-o (see subsection about toŋ). The aoristic value is obvious in general statements like : musuk puŋ-o musŵi hoŋ-o tokla kŵicik-o mŵsŵi sokrom-o cows cry-Aor deers cry-Aor cocks sing-Aor tigers shout-Aor la vache meugle le cerf brame le coq chante le tigre feule where you are informed of the proper terms for each animal. The last line is in French. 48 4.2.3.3. near future in -ano <Ftn> Interestingly, because it differs in that respect from related languages, Kokborok has two futures : the near future in -ano, and the broader future in -nai which is actually an intentional. The near future suffix in -ano may be from one *-an- and -o, or also some *-a- with the "stressing" -no, but I could not ascertain either hypothesis. It indicates an impending future, somewhat equivalent to what the proximate demonstrative is in terms of space. If some kind-hearted fellow wants to help you with a precious piece of luggage, you may say : aŋ sak baithaŋ-no tŵlaŋ-ano s1 body self-Str carry-Ftn I will carry (it) by myself The difference between : aŋ thaŋ²-nai, and aŋ thaŋ²-ano is that the first sentence conveys your intention of going, maybe next year ; while the second sentence shows you are on the verge of departure, quite an equivalent of the French j'y vais. For the same reason aŋ phai-ano is like the French j'arrive ! Another contrastive example is : khŵna-wo N-ni samuŋ-o thaŋ²-nai-de ? to-morrow-Loc N-Abl funerals-Loc go-Fut-Int will you go to N's funerals to-morrow ? which means "do you intend to go etc.", while the simple question would be : khŵna-wo N-ni samuŋ-o tha-de thaŋ²-no ? to-morrow-Loc N-Abl funerals-Loc Dsc-Int go-Str Do you go to N's funerals to-morrow ? where a future coloration is given not by any tense suffix, but by the final -no. 4.2.3.4. future in -nai <Fut> We saw that there is a verb nai- which means "look, look forward to", and is sometimes quite close to "desire". It is impossible not to mention it when describing the suffix -nai, which marks intentional future. But -nai may be an agentive verbal noun also <Vng>. For instance with the factitive verb phŵ-rŵŋ "learn", you may form phŵrŵŋ-nai which is the closest equivalent to "student", and not a future for "learn". The difference is striking when it is a predicate, because you can have the negative phŵrŵŋ-nai-ja "(I am) not a student", while the future suffix disappears in the negative ; see next section. We saw in the previous section how close -nai is to an intentional modal. Example : aŋ-bo kuthuk-o thaŋ²-nai s1-Top deep-Loc go-Fut I will o to the deep (forest) But it is used also when it is impossible to suspect any intention from the subject. You may say to the anxious peasant : mai mun-nai paddy ripe-Fut the paddy will be ripe (don't worry) Since mun- also means "be well cooked", as in many Tibeto-Burmese languages, this same sentence may mean : "the paddy will be ready (well cooked)" But you may express the same idea with the more elaborate, and more idiomatic : mai mun-na ŵŋ-kha paddy well-cooked-VNft become-Pf by using the future verbal noun in -na and the perfective aspect (-kha) of ŵŋ- "become". And this future can be given a more definite turn by adding the "stressing" -no : bo thaŋ²-nai-no s3 go-Fut-Str certainly he will go 49 although there is no implication as to the precise time when the action will take place. A simple questio would be : bo thaŋ²-nai-de ? s3 go-Fut-Int Will he go ? But another possibility is with the future verbal noun, with a slightly different meaning : bo thaŋ²-na-de s3 go-VNft-Int will he go ? (I am in doubt about that) Another elaborate instance of the future in -nai is : nŵŋ him-man-ŵi do-khe ža-nai s2 walk-may-Cv quick-Adv preferable-Fut it will be better if you (may) walk quickly 4.2.3.5. negated futures : -glak <Dsv> Futures cannot be negated as such. The usual way is to use kŵlak, which is probably a noun by origin, but is mostly pronounced -glak and used as a kind of "dissuasive". Forms like *thaŋ-an(o)-ja or *thaŋ-nai-ja are systematically refused, or sound quite impossible. The solution is thaŋ²-glak "I will not go" or "I would not go". A more subtle possibility is the use of ŵŋ- "to become", specially with nominal predicates : aŋ hozai ŵŋ-ja s1 priest become-Neg I will no be(come) a priest which is slightly different from the solution with -glak, possible also : aŋ hozai ŵŋ-glak s1 priest be(come)-Dsv I would not become a priest (it is not my intention) The positive would be : aŋ hozai ŵŋ-nai s1 priest be(come)-Fut I will be a priest (I intend to become a priest). Anyway, except for the possible use of ŵŋ-, -glak is the true negative future : khŵna-zora bo-no nasik-glak tomorrow-until s3-Acc meet-Dsv I will not see him until to-morrow (it is unlikely) With obligative forms in ma- which normally imply the use of <Fut> -nai, the same is true : nŵŋ ma-thaŋ²-nai s2 Obl-go-Fut you must go, you should go nŵŋ ma-thaŋ²-glak s2 Obl-go-Dsv you should not go and : bo phai-glak s3 come-Dsv he may not come 4.2.3.6. perfect in -kha Kokborok is a rather aspect-oriented language, because it lacks any past tense, a fact which makes a striking difference from Boro or Dimasa. nŵŋ bahai-khe phai-kha ? 50 s2 how-Adv come-Pf how did you come ? rikso-bai phai-kha riscshaw-Ins come-Pf I came with a rickshaw But if the rickshaw was not as speedy as expected, you will apologize : aŋ ler-kha s1 late-Pf I am late (meaning : "I have now arrived, but I am late") The same perfective aspect is obvious in : mai mun-kha paddy ripe-Pf the paddy is ripe (now) and still more obvious in the next example, which is a future tense with ŵŋ- : mai mun-tŵtŵi ŵŋ-kha paddy ripe-about to become-Pf the paddy is about to be ripe The same shade of instant future though the perfect, a rather Slavic-like system, is in : aŋ kutul-kha s1 depart-Pf I'm moving, French je m'en vais Of course the perfect is used when one considers the present result of some past process : pok-kha forget-Pf I forgot, French j'ai oublié aŋ leŋ-kha s1 tired-Pf I am tired bo thaŋ²-kha hŵn-o s3 go-Pf tell-Aor he has gone, they say (I know by hearsay) Often, the perfect in -kha will be interpreted by English or French translators as a "normal past", as a tense : sikhok manŵi khok-kha thief thing steal-Pf a thief has stolen / stole (my) thing(s) bo tok buthar-kha s3 bird kill-Pf he (has) killed a bird 4.2.3.7. the negative perfects The negative -ja can be used with the perfective -kha. Starting from : bohok puŋ-kha stomach full-Pf I've eaten well ((my) stomach is full) you may form the sentence : bohok puŋ-kha-ja stomach full-Pf-Neg which means : "my stomach is not quite full". On the same line of investigation, the negative perfects are much concerned with limits to be reached, just reached, etc. The two standard cases are "no more" & "still not". 51 The first one, "no more", is the Kokborok -li-ja. It is obviously a compounded expression, and no doubt -ja <Neg> is there, but -li- cannot be found elsewhere. aŋ thai kisi-sa phano ca-ŵi man-li-ja s1 place small-one anyhow eat-Cv may-Pf>-Neg I cannot eat any more aŋ khna-hor-li-ja s1 hear-Dis-Pf>-Neg I do not hear any more The other one, "still not" is Kokborok -ja-kho : ta-nŵŋ-kho-di Def-drink-<Pf-Ip Don't drink yet (wait) ! aŋ tabuk-no bo-no nug-ja-kho s1 now-Str s3-Acc see-Neg-<Pf I have still not seen him mija-ni simi aŋ no-no nuk-ja-kho yesterday-Abl only s1 s2-Acc see-Neg-<Pf I have not seen him since yesterday The difference is that -kho can be used alone, without -jaaŋ thŵi-na toŋ-mani, phijaba aŋ tabuk phano thaŋ-ŵi toŋ-kho s1 die-VNft stay-VN, but s1 now anyway live-Cv stay-<Pf I should have died, but I am still alive 4.2.3.8. optative in -thŵŋ <Opt> Although my information is hardly mentionable, I think it better to indicate here the existence of this verbal suffix, if only to promote future investigation. ze-sa phano ŵŋ-thŵŋ, aŋ nai-ja Rel-1 maybe become-Opt, s1 look-Neg whoever comes, I shall not see him the "relative" ze is Indo-Aryan ; phano is common in indefinite phrases. 4.2.3.9. continuative in toŋ Kokborok has a continautive suffix in -sai- (see inner circle) and although these is a touch of aspect in the -tŵi- suffix also. But the most common way, and widely used one, of expressing any action that is going on (in past, present, or future) is the verb toŋ- ; this is a feature that closely agrees with Boro and its doŋ-. The verb toŋ- means "be, stay, remain", and is fully conjugated as a verb. The face value appears in : bahai toŋ-o smell stay-Aor there is a smell (bad or good) or in the homophonous phrase : bahai toŋ ? health stay how are you ? This verb toŋ- is also used with nominal prdicates, when non-aoristic : bo hozai he is a priest s3 priest bo hozai toŋ-mani he was a priest (what he is now is not taken into consideration) s3 priest stay-VN bo hozai toŋ-kha he was a priest (but is no more a priest) s3 priest stay-Pf 52 The semantically central verb is found just before toŋ- according to two slightly diferent patterns. The more grammatical one (or which is considered as "better language") is to use the converb in -ŵi. tok nok sakatŵi bir-ŵi toŋ-o bird house above fly-Cv stay-Aor a bird is flying over the house aŋ borok-ni bagŵi soŋ-ŵi toŋ-o s1 p3-Abl for cook-Cv stay-Aor I am cooking for them mŵsa musuk-no wathar-mani nug-ŵi toŋ-o tiger cow-Acc kill-VN see-Cv stay-Aor I see (now) that the tiger is killing the cow But the <Cv> -ŵi is dropped in familiar speech. In such cases, -toŋ- is a suffix and I glossed it as "continuous" <Cnt> : watŵi kŵlai-toŋ-o rain fall-Cnt-Aor it's raining aŋ khasik-toŋ-o s1 run-Cnt I am running aŋ khasik toŋ-ja s1 run-Cnt-Neg I am not running while the following sentence means "I usually do not run" aŋ khasik-ja I do not run khum bar-toŋ-o flower bloom-Cnt-Aor flower is blooming aŋ (bo-no) soŋ-ri-toŋ-o s1 (s3-Acc) cook-Fac-Cnt-Aor I make him cook musuk mŵsai-bai bu-thar-zak-toŋ-o cow tiger-Ins strike-kill-Psv-Cnt-Aor the cow is being killed by the tiger In some cases, the occurrence / absence of toŋ- implies a striking difference in meaning : aŋ bo-no nai-ŵi toŋ-o s1 s3-Acc look-Cv stay-Aor I am looking at her aŋ bo-no nai-o s1 s3-Acc look-Aor I desire her Some other verbs can work, like toŋ-, as modal auxiliaries : pok-ŵi thaŋ²-o forget-Cv go-Aor I came to forget it 4.2.3.10. "to have" : toŋ- and kŵrŵi Another common use of toŋ-, which sounds different only to foreigners, is the use with GenitiveAblative ; because it provides us an equivalent for "to have" : ci-ni wa toŋ-o p1-Abl bamboo stay-Aor we have bamboo 53 The negative is a quite different word, a noun actually : kŵrŵi, which means something like "missing, lacking" : ci-ni wa mija kŵrŵi, tabuk-gle toŋ-o p1-Abl bamboo yesterday missing, now-happily stay-Aor yesterday we had no bamboo, now happily we have. 4.3. predicates in dependant clauses A separate section is devoted to secondary predicates. Verbal themes as secondary predicates may have suffixes of the inner and middle circle, but the outer circle is then specific. There are two methods to describe the facts. The first one would be to describe the use of each suffix, one after another. The other one, which I choose with its risks, is to describe syntactic situations. 4.3.1. the clause depends from a verb This is what we usually call a 'completive clause' (if it is the 'object') or a 'circumstancial clause' (if it is a complement of time, place, manner, etc.), its function is directly linked to the main predicate and in many ways it can be considered as a special case of noun phrase. 4.3.1.1. circumstancial clause Formally, we find thre types of circumstancial clauses : those which use -ŵi <Cv>, and those which do not. Among the second category, we find some suffixes added directly to the verb root ; and some added to the verbal noun in -ma-. The first type can be described by examples like : aŋ bo-no ma-lai-ŵi kiphil² phai-kha s1 s3-Acc meet-Soc-Cv back come-Pf I came back after meeting him the negative version of which could be translated : aŋ bo-no ma-lai-ja-wŵi kiphil² phai-kha s1 s3-Acc meet-Soc-Neg-Cv nack come-Pf I came back without meeting him The second type mainly uses -khe and -phru. This -khe also marks "adverbs of manner", e.g. do-khe "quick-ly", but do- actually is a verb, and we can also find do-wŵi with the same meaning. The suffix -phru is also in bu-phru "when ?" bo phai-khe, aŋ thaŋ²-ano s3 come-Man s1 go-Ftn when he comes, I will go bo phai-kha hŵn-khe, aŋ thaŋ²-ano s3 come-Pf ?-Man, s1 go-Ftn if he comes, I will go This last example requires a comment. The use of hŵn-khe for "if" is recent and (Bikash Roy Debbarma tells me) developed from the (somewhat excessive) use B.K.Smith made of it when translating the New Testament into Kokborok. It would be interesting to know how Smith came to coin this phrase. But the fact is it is a recent coinage. The more native use would be like in the previous sentence phai-khe, and an indistinct usage of -khe for "when" and "if" (something close to the doublet wann and wenn in German). Apparently B.K.Smith considered his translation required a distinction. cŵŋ ca-wŵi toŋ-phru bo phai-kha p1 eat-Cv stay-when s3 come-Pf he came just when we were eating Another possible case is with -nonok-o "just before" : aŋ thaŋ²-nonoko no-no sa-wŵi thaŋ²-kha s1 go-before s2-Acc say-Cv go-Pf 54 I told you just before departing aŋ khlai-nonoko bo cuba phai-kha s1 do-before s3 help come-Pf just when I was about to do (it), he came and helped After the VN in -ma, ulo and zora can be used : bo ca-ma ulo phai-kha s3 eat-VN after come-Pf He came after eating But this sentence is interpreted "he came after we finished eating". It it possible to mark co-reference lexically in this way : bo ca-wŵi pai-ma ulo phai-kha s3 eat-Cv break-VN after come-Pf he came after finishing eating cŵŋ ca-wŵi toŋ-ma zora bo phai-kha p1 eat-Cv stay-VN while s3 come-Pf he came while we were eating 4.3.1.2. completive clause In Kokborok, two verbal nouns are used for this purpose, one in -ma(ni) and one in -na(ni). The first one, which I gloss <VN>, without qualification, is used when no specific indication of relative tense is to be given : it corresponds mainly to secondary clauses that are contemporaneous or anterior to the event in the main clause. aŋ borok bu-lai-mani nuk-o s1 p3 strike-Soc-VN see-Aor I see that they fight The same is true when the verb in the secondary clause is intransitive : aŋ borok phai-mani nuk-o s1 p3 come-VN see-Aor I see they are coming You may very well use -toŋ- if needed : mŵsa musuk-no bu-thar-toŋ-ma aŋ nuk-o tiger cow-Acc strike-kill-Cnt-VN s1 see-Aor I see that the tiger is killing the cow This lattest example shows that each argument in the secondary clause has the same marks it would get in a main clause. When the event in the secondary clause is posterior in time to the event of the main clause, -nani should be used. I gloss it as a verbal noun of futurity <VNf>. aŋ thaŋ²-nani nai-o s1 go-VNf intend-Aor I intend to go, I want to go aŋ thaŋ²-nani naŋ-o s1 go-VNf need-Aor I need to go Notice that the use of the converb -ŵi in such cases is impossible : *aŋ thaŋ²-ŵi naŋ-o Another more intricate example is : musuk-no wa-thar-nani nai-nai mŵsa-no aŋ nuk-o cow-Acc bite-kill-Vnf intend-Vng tiger-Acc s1 see-Aor I see the tiger that intends to kill the cow. The <VNg> will be described in the next section with relative clauses, since it qualifies a noun. But the <VNf> in -nani (watharnani "to kill") is to the point. The <VNf> in -nani, because it is a noun, can be used as a predicate : 55 aŋ thaŋ²-nani I intend to go A last case to be described is when a relative structure drops the head noun, for instance when "I see the man who comes" ("who comes" is a relative clause) becomes "I see the one who comes" or "I see who is coming" ("who is coming" is a direct complement of the main verb), and this brings us to the relative clause. 4.3.2. relative clauses The suffix -nai <VNg> builds verbal nouns which can modify an agentive noun, the understood subject of the relative clause, with either a transitive or an intransitive verb. phai-nai borok-no aŋ sini-wo come-VNg person-Acc s1 know-Aor I know the man who comes (the coming man) It is, in this case, also possible to phrase it the other way : o borok phai-nai-no aŋ nug-o this person come-VNg -Acc s1 see-Aor I see this man who comes (this man coming) The position of -no <Acc> shows that the so-called relative clause (in English) is here in Kokborok integrated in the noun clause. Moreover, you can say : o phai-nai-no aŋ sini-wo this come-VNg-Acc s1 know-Aor I know this one who comes which brings us back to the previous section. Note that you may hear cases of parataxis : sabo phai aŋ sini-wo who come s1 know-Aor I know who is coming The same is true when the dependant verb is transitive : musuk-no wa-thar-nai mŵsa-no aŋ nuk-kha cow-Acc bite-kill-Vng tiger-Acc s1 see-Pf I have seen the tiger that killed the cow The relative tense of the dependant clause does not change the use of -nai. If you want to espress anteriority, the simplest solution is like in : mija-wo phai-nai borok-no nŵŋ si-de sini ? yesterday-Loc come-VNg person-Acc s2 Dsc-Int know do you know the man who came yesterday ? If you stress, a less common occurrence, the posteriority of the dependant action, you may get rather sophisticated sentences, like the one I have quoted above : musuk-no wa-thar-nani nai-nai mŵsa-no aŋ nuk-o cow-Acc bite-kill-VNf intend-Vng tiger-Acc s1 see-Aor I see the tiger that will (intends to) kill the cow. In this sentence the direct qualifier of mŵsa-no ("the tiger") is the verbal noun nai-nai ("who intends"), and this verbal noun has for complement another verbal noun wa-thar-nani ("to kill"). The curious detail is nai-nai, where the suffix and the root are probably the same thing or, to put it in a different way, where the origin of the suffix happens to be the verb root itself. 4.3.3. the converb -ŵi <Cv> The converb -ŵi is normally pronounced -wŵi after a vowel (but see below). In common speech, this [ŵi] or [wŵi] may be reduced to [i]. Two successive verbs are normally, "in good language", linked with the suffix -ŵi attached to the first one. This is specially frequent when the auxiliary verb toŋ- is used in the end of the verbal phrase ; but may very well occur with another auxiliary-like verb, for instance in the following example, with toŋ- in the role of the semantically central verb : 56 holoŋ toŋ-ŵi man-o stone stay-Cv may-Aor there could be stones (stones may remain) aŋ tŵi jok-ŵi man-ja s1 water swim-Cv may-Neg I cannot swim Or with "go" in a modal sense : pok-ŵi thaŋ-o forget-Cv go-Aor I came to forget (it) which is a more natural expression than : pok-kha forget-Pf I forgot Examples with toŋ- : tok nok sakatŵi bir-ŵi toŋ-o bird house above fly-Cv stay-Aor bird(s) are flying over the house aŋ borok-ni bagŵi soŋ-ŵi toŋ-o s1 p3-Abl for cook-Cv stay-Aor I am cooking for them aŋ bo-no nai-ŵi toŋ-o s1 s3-Acc look-Cv stay-Aor I am looking at him But in cases of complementation (completive clause), the use the -ŵi is excluded : aŋ thaŋ²-mani naŋ-o I need to go s1 go-VN need-Aor Never : *aŋ thaŋ²-ŵi naŋ-o The use of the converb does not imply an immediate linking. In the following example the adverb "quickly", dokhe, comes in between : nŵŋ him-man-ŵi do-khe ža-nai s2 walk-may-Cv quick-Man better-Fut it will be better if you walk quickly The same remark applies when the converb is followed by the "stressing" no, as is the case when tŵlaŋ- "take" is used in the sense of "with", or tŵlaŋ-ja- "without" : aŋ no-no tŵlaŋ-ja-wŵi-no thaŋ²-nai s1 s2-Acc take-Neg-Cv-Str go-Fut I will go without you (not taking you) In some cases, <Cv> is used where we would expect a simple morphology. Consider the case of : ber"to be stuck", "être coincé" ber-ŵi ri"to stuck", "coincer" where ri- "to give, to put", is the very suffix which is used for <Fac>. When several successive actions are described by several successive verbs, it is common to find the converb for the last link only : borok wa-lai bu-lai ŵŋ-ŵi bu-thar-lai-kha p3 bite-Soc beat-Soc become-Cv beat-kill-Soc-Pf they quarreled, fought and killed each other Indeed, in common speech, the converb is often dropped, and if it is "correct" to say : kelaŋ-ŵi thaŋ²-di take (it) and go take-Cv go-Ip the more usual formula is : kelaŋ-thaŋ²-di which comes close to serialization. 57 A phonetic problem remains with the converb -ŵi, which should be investigated. After a consonant, it sounds as [ŵi], but after a vowel, it does not seem to sound -wŵi always as could be expected (and as is the case with the example "I will go without you", above. One rather hears something between [ŋ] and a spirant [γ] : klaitŵtŵiŋŵi toŋkha (Bikash Debbarma) khlai-tŵtŵi-[ŋŵi] toŋ-kha fall-Smt-Cv stay-Pf (it) was just about to fall I wonder if the original meaning of this -ŵi could not be explained, partly at least, by the comparison with bagŵi "for". This postposition was just met with in the example : aŋ borok-ni bagŵi soŋ-ŵi toŋ-o I am cooking for them It might be that bagŵi is from *ba-gŵi, with *ba analogous to s3 bo, and *-gŵi. This would explain the formation of Agartalian tamoŋŵi (for another explanation, see the section 8.3.). And this *gŵi "for" might then be the source for the converb. 4.3.4. "they say" : reported speech It may be the place to add a note about the verb hŵn- or hin- which seems used only to indicate reported speech : bo thaŋ²-kha hŵn-o (hino) s3 go-Pf tell-Aor They have gone, I have heard (they say) But the construction is paratactic, not syntactic : the main verb is a full predicate. 5. Adjectives 5.1. formation of adjectives 5.1.1. the adjectives in kVIn Kokborok, adjectives are a morphological and a syntactic category. Nearly all are prefixed with kV-, and all are postposed to the head noun (see 3.5.2.). A list of examples : ak ak am aŋ ap o ok ok om om or or uk uk ur ŵi ŵi kŵlak, gŵlak kŵrak kaham kŵkraŋ kŵsap kodo kolok kothok kosom kossom kosor kotor kubuk kuthuk kuphur kŵkhŵi kŵrŵi should not, may not Bik hard good green (as leaves ; also sky colour) soft quick long, tall tasty black very black squeezing big, thick sharp deep white sour (kŵkhrŵi in Anok) not existing ; is not (as predicate) 58 ŵi ŵn ŵŋ kŵthŵi kŵmŵn kŵthŵŋ dead ripe, cooked, civilized wild (opp. to kŵmŵn) The vowel of the kV- prefix is "copied" from the following (root) vowel as indicated in 2.2.2. The vowel is the same as the root vowel except if this root vowel is /a/, /ŵ/, /ai/ or /ŵi/ in which cases the prefix is kŵ- in Agaratala. The only exception in our list is kaham "good" and is unexplained ; maybe the copy of /a/ in the older language was /a/, and this older rule was maintained in this case only because the word is so common ; most dialects apart from Agartala have indeed ka- when the root vowel is /a/ or /ai/. On the whole, bisyllabic words in kV- whose first vowel does not follow this rule are no adjectives ; examples are : kasiŋ "tortoise (water)" and keraŋ "tortoise (on land)". 5.3.2. the root of the kV- adjectives is a intransitive verb The root itself is an intransitive verb in all cases, and can be found working as such. From thŵi- "to die" comes kŵthŵi "dead" : mosor kŵthŵi "red chili" ("dead chili") contrasts with mosor kŵthaŋ "green chili" ("living chili"), because kŵthaŋ "green"is from thaŋ- "be alive" (different from thaŋ²- "to go"). On the same line, from ran- "to dry" (intransitive ; the transitive is ph(ŵ)-ran-) comes kŵ-ran "dry" ; a² kŵran "dried fish". The adjective is a resultative verbal noun. Consequently, the adjective form is resultative, while the predicate form is infective. Obo khraŋ-o "it is becoming green" is not "it is green", which is obo kŵkhraŋ. But not all intransitive verbs can produce a kV- form. For instance on phai- "come", *kŵphai is impossible. The verb should not only be intransitive, it should also be stative. 5.2.3. other adjectives Examples of adjectives not formed with the kV- prefix are cikon "small", bara "short", tŵrŵk "slow". Some adjectives seem to be formed with mV- : mŵlaŋ "inconsistent, absent-minded", milik "smooth" (of trees or walls). 5.2. syntax of the adjective Adjectives come after the noun : musuk cow i musuk this cow i musuk kosom this black cow i musuk kosom ma kŵtham these three black cows Longer noun phrases are avoided. It is acceptable, but quite uncommon, to say : i kotor musuk kosom ma-kŵtham the three big black cows The verb root also comes last in compounded nouns like raŋ-cak "gold" (red coloured"). Comparative and Superlative. "Rather" or "More" is belai : belai kaham "rather good, better". "Very" depends on syntax. With the attributive adjective, it is kuk : kaham kuk "very good", kothok kuk "very tasty". With the predicate, it is rather suk : thok-suk-kha "it is very good". Of course one can say mo apŵl kothok-kuk or mo apŵl thok-suk-kha "this aple is very good". Note also kossom "very black" : kosom "black". 6. duplicates It seems better to make a separate category for the numerous duplicates. These are morphologically iterated syllables, often with consonant clusters. Syntactically, they are determinatives, either of verbs (then they 59 can be dubbed "adverbs") or of adjectives ; since adjectives are mostly formed from verbs, I could have have extended the "adverb" designation. But I prefer the morphologically-based designation. They are not common in urban speech but are still widely known, at least passively, by all speakers. They seem typical of rural speech, and are apt to describe nuances of colour, shape, and noise. Folksongs delight in them. The dictionary of Binoy Debbarma lists a good number of duplicates in the annexes, but does not translate nor explain them ; I asked Binoy Debbarma and others to explain some for me. It is obvious that even the lists of the Dictionary are far from registering all of them ; I do not know if new ones are formed. Duplicates in Kokborok (and elsewhere, because such formations are frequent in many languages of South Eastern Asia) are a fascinating subject in all respects, from phonetics to sociolinguistics. I will not even give a sketch of it. I will first give a list of examples which were described to me, and then add some other cases. 6.1. a small study in black The root som- means "to be black", or "dark". The regular adjective is kosom "black, dark". An expressive formation (phonetically aberrant according to Kokborok standards) is kossom "very black". The compunded adjective som-cak ("black"+"red") means "a dark red". But the fun is elsewhere. Som kloklo is a dark grey, much blacker than ash-grey. Som cumucumu (or cmucmu) is a darkened colour, usually brownish, like a darkened piece of old wood ; it can also be said for brown skin. Som plikplik is the good word for naturally brown skin ; not for Black people (who are kosom by all means), nor for the Kerala people, but for the the true seasoned Native. It is considered pretty. Som sasa is a wide dark zone, like the sky during a starless night, or the ghastly vacant zone over a lake at night. This is frightening. Som promprom (my favourite) is a darker spot upon the darkness of the night, like a bush or a grove among the open ricefields. 6.2. other examples and remarks A good number of expressions depict the aspects of the weather and the variations of the sky. Clouds, cumui, may take a infinite number of forms. One can say, of course, cumui hapuŋ-hai ("clouds mountain-like") for enormous towering clouds ; on the contrary, cumui pisarzak are "scattered small clouds covering the whole sky". Groups of pleasantly round or ball-like clouds are cumui budulbudul ; here, budul is a noun meaning "sphere", regularly formed with a bV- prefix. I give here again examples already produced in the phonological chapters : blomblom blapblap phlatphlat thlŵŋthlŵŋ mrumru mrŵimrŵi sound of walking in water cut into big pieces very fast rather long or high itching in the neck far away but still in sight Other cases will be found in the little texts at the end of this description, where it will be seen that they come after the verb (as the come after the noun or after the adjective), as a subtitute for any outer-circle verbal suffix. Consonant clusters (standard : in Cl- and Cr-) are exceptionally frequent in duplicates. 7. Nouns 7.1. noun formation 60 Monosyllabic nouns are relatively rare in Kokborok, where bisyllabic formations are dominant. This is due to the widespread process of compounding, either "true compounding" when two lexical roots form a new word, or "prefixation". 7.1.1. monosyllables Here is the list of monosyllabic nouns registered during my inquiries. Some other ones may be found by perusing Binoy Debbarma's Dictionary. For reasons discussed in the Phonetics, the status of slai as a bisyllabic word (sŵlai) may be discussed ; also for rua (ruwa) and its likes (see 2.2.10.). a² ha hor² hor huk jak joŋ joŋ kham khum kok mai maŋ nok ok phuŋ pun rai ri rua ruŋ sŵi² sak sal slai som suk² tŵi tal tha tok wa wak fish earth fire night jhum field, shifting cultivation arm, hand insect brother of father drum flower language rice, any stage (plant, cookes, uncooked) body (animal) house inside of the stomach morning goat cane clothes axe boat dog body (used in REF) sun tongue salt grand-son water LOW moon any wild edible root, potato bird, hen bamboo pig Pronouns, on the other hand, exhibit a strong trend to monosyllabicity, as will be seen in their section. 7.1.2. prefixation 7.1.2.1. the bV- prefix This prefix is perhaps not so common in Kokborok as it is in other languages, because it is not systematically used with kinship names. Yet, it is widespread in the other traditional sector of its diffusion, parts 61 of the body (or of body of animals & plants). These two semantic fields are often united in a wider concept, which can be described as "parts of the physical or social body" ; it is interesting to note the difference of treatment here. With parts of body : a a ai ai ai ai ai ak an ek eŋ er i i iŋ ok ok ok ok om oŋ oŋ oŋ uk ul un uŋ ur baŋra bŵkha bahai bŵkhnai bŵlai bŵslai, slai bŵthai bŵsak bahan bedek bekreŋ beser biki bisi bisiŋ bohok bokhrok bokotok borok bomtom bokoŋ bokroŋ boloŋ bukhuk budul bukhunzu bukuŋ bukur buwa shoulder heart smell hair leaf tongue fruit body (human) meat branch bone narrow place dung Bik year inside belly head neck person brain stick, handle horn forest, jungle mouth shpere, round ear nose bark of tree tooth The realization of the vowel usually follows the typical rule (copy of the root vowel ; but /ŵ/ if this root vowel is /a/, /ŵ/, /ai/, /ŵi/), but cases of "/a/ before /a/ and /ai/" are more common here. Note buwa "tooth" < *bŵ-wa. Some of these words can be found without the prefix, at least in dictionaries. In context, the use of the prefix is recommanded, unless the word be itself rather long. With possessives, the prefix mostly remains (ani bohok "my stomach", but ani hok is acceptable) ; in "true composition" the prefix is often dropped ("bark of tree" : bukur or phaŋkur), but not always : from wa- "tooth" we have wathai² and thŵithiwa "fang", but majuŋ-buwa and wak-buwa "elephant-" & "boar-tusk". It should be noted that "eye" is mokol and does not belong here. For details on kinship names, where bV- is used as a possessive s3 pronoun, see the section on pronouns. 7.1.2.2. the semi-prefix mVOne well-know case, as in all other Bodo-Garo languages, is the mV- prefix in names of beasts. It is not clear, at least from Kokborok, if this is a demotivated noun (the name for "animal, beast" is mal ; "body of animal" is maŋ) whose vowel has been neutralized or a noun which was in *mŵ-. Examples from my notes are : 62 mŵkhra mŵsŵi mŵsa² mŵsa² sempari mathai majuŋ misip muphuk musuk monkey deer tiger leopard bear N elephant buffalo monitor lizard (skin used for table of carinda) cow Some others could be added from Binoy Debbarma's Dictionaries, but Binoy often gives several orthographies which reflect various dialects (which shows an interesting, and expected, variability) without indicating which is which ; moreover, his definitions are often of the vaguest kind. Yet, I extract some of them, either because they are made from maŋ- or because of some other feature : maŋgrum* lion maŋthup musk ma(n)tham otter maslai fox moskoroŋ a big size deer mosok a male deer mŵsandŵi porcupine * Here, -grum is supposed to be imitative of "roaring". The rule of the neutralized vowel applies in most cases ; we find examples of "/a/ before /a/ or /ai/". The real exception is majuŋ "elephant" but is explained from the fact that here -yuŋ is a suffix, not a root, and means "enormous" (cf. tayuŋ "a very large bird", tŵiyuŋ "ocean" etc.). 7.1.3. true compounding 7.1.3.1. noun + noun Examples of true compounding are very numerous, from well-described groups (like with "bamboo" and "water", "rice", "foot" or "hand") to very localized opportunities. The process is much alive, the list is not closed. Morphosyntactic remarks will come after the examples. The bamboo group is proliferating in a country devoted to this family of plants. Binoy gives (EnglishKokborok, p.369) a crude list of 35 nouns without translation nor description entitled "names of different parts of the bamboo" ; all begin with wa²-. More modestly, I will give only a few (from descriptions by Bikash Debbarma) : wa²suŋ wa²sur wa²thŵi wa²nal wa²mlik wa²mlaŋ wa²tlok a bamboo pot (with a node as bottom) big and strong bamboo, used for house posts bamboo mainly used for building houses bamboo used for making canework, ropes & strings the good bamboo for procuring wasuŋ a bamboo slightly smaller than wasur a useful (but now rare) bamboo with long internodes, in which water is carried Other interesting nouns, from Binoy's Kokborok-English but in my orthography, are : 63 wa²boplom wa²bothor wa²lai² wa²phak wa²ruk wa²soŋ a very thin part in the inner side of a b. the joint of bamboo leaf of bamboo a bundle of bamboo cane a bush of bamboo The "water" group is also well represented. A few examples only : tŵi tŵisa² tŵima tŵimuk tŵilam teijuŋ water stream, small river river spring pitcher, jug ocean This is an opportunity to notice the couple -sa / -ma for "smaller" / "bigger". Remember that tŵima "river" is the regular equivalent of Dimasa dima, and that this root, under its various dialectal guise, is heard in most river names of Assam. Tŵipra "confluence" is the older and native name of the country, later aryanized in "Tripura". The "rice" group is as rich as elsewhere. Yet, urban Boroks insist (quite wrongly of course) that mai can be said for any stage of paddy, from the field to the banana leaf. This scaring abomination shows how low they are on the scale of civilisation. Binoy gives lists, but a true ethnographic study of the successive stages of processing paddy would be needed ; I give only a choice : mai maibuŋ maicŵlŵi maidingra maidrak maikol maiphaŋ maipolok mairum paddy, rice a big field of paddy paddy kept for next sowing big basket for carrying paddy cooked rice mixed with one kind of medicine for wine a grain of rice the paddy plant special rice for family worship rice left over after eating No forms in mi- can be found. Each word in the above list (and many more) could be annotated with profit, either from a linguistic comparative point of view, or within a wider ethnographic context. The Dimasa maibaŋ (not maibuŋ) means "abundance of rice", and is the name of their last capital, Maibong. Maidrak is made of rice flour and various herbs ; it contains the yeast which will trigger the fermentation of the "rice beer", cuwak. Maikol "grain of rice" is to be compared with mokol "eye", while Deuri mukuti "eye" compares with mokoti "the grains of rice left over after the meal" ; in Deuri mirum (see Kokborok mairum) is the name for uncooked paddy grains. In Deuri, the oldish phrase mi polo means "an evil spirit". The "foot and hand" groups is somewhat tricky in Kokborok, because the root for "foot, leg" is ja- while the root for "hand, arm" is jak- ; but the final /k/ in jak apparently was dropped in compounded whose second step begins with /s/ : "finger" and "nail" - which results in the fact that jasi and jasku can mean either hand-finger (and nail) or foot-finger (and nail), a quite unusual convergence in Bodo-Garo. jak jak-ra [jagra] jak-si (see debra) jak-sku (Dict.) jasi < *ja(k)-si arm, hand right, right hand left, on the elbow finger 64 jasitam jasku (Dict : yasiku) ja-kuŋ ja-phaŋ ja-pha ja-thop ja-sku (Dict : yasku) ja-khrai ja-rŵŋ finger-ring nail foot, leg stump of tree, pied de l'arbre foot, sole of foot ankle knee bridge root Some words in this list require a note. Jaksku seems theoretical, and not used. Actually, for "elbow" the Bengali word koni is used, and Bikash Roy Debbarma tells me that there is a tonal difference between jasku² "knee" (which sounds like with a glottal stop [jasku²] and jasku "nail" (with low tone and no glottal stop). In all cases of bi-nominal compounding, the first element is usually considered as determinative or qualifier, the second as qualified. Much depends on the way you look at it. Lists as those above give the impression that the solid ground is the first element, while the second develops variation. But with a compound like wa²lai², the paradigm can bloom on the first element as well as on the second, depending on which plant you consider the leaf of ; a quite similar situation would occur with -bar "flower", so that you can have 'x-lai²' or 'xbar²' as you can have 'wa²-y' if by "x" and "y" we understand lists of possible compounded elements. Many similar examples can be produced, for instance with bahan "flesh, meat" one may get x-han : wahan "pig meat", musukhan "beef", puhan "mutton" etc. while on the other hand you may have wak-y or musuk-y. With the result that the qualifier and qualified are not actually selected by respective slots. 7.1.3.2. noun + verb Verb roots may be used in compounded nouns, as a second element, although this formula is far less common than the binominal compound. The case of -bar shows how thin is the border between noun and verb : bubar is "flower", and is a noun with its bV- prefix, but bar- is a verb as well ; wa²bar "paddy flower" can then be analyzed as noun+noun (flower of paddy) or noun+verb (flowering paddy). We will come back to this problem after the examples. raŋ-cak khum-cak gold (colour+red) n. of one red flower 7.1.4. suffixation As with most Tibeto-Burmese languages, there is no real categories of gender and number in Kokborok. No concord of any kind on these respects. "Gender" is marked, as number, only when needed - not when items are supposed to be masculine or feminine, singular and plural. Actually, as the classifier system indicates, nouns usually do not indicate specific items, but concepts. 7.1.4.1. -la, -zŵk, -ma and gender The male role is marked by -la in tokla (but also tok-c(ŵ)la) "cock". It is unlikely that juŋla "frog" can be explained by this suffix. "Ox" is musuk-cŵla. "Husband" & "wife" are repectively sai & hik. But "son" and "daughter" are sa-zla (or bŵsa cŵla) and sa-zŵk ; "grandfather" & "grandmother" are cu and cŵi. A common suffix for names of animates (human or not) is -zŵk "a female who did not give offspring". This can be find in sikla-zŵk "a (unmarried) girl" as in pun-zŵk "a female goat that has not given offspring" ; no connotation of sterility. Actually, the use of this suffix seems often extended to females in general. The usual suffix for a mother is -ma. 65 7.1.4.2. -ma, -sa, -juŋ and size However, -ma and -sa form an antonymic couple specialized, respectively, in "big" and "small". Since sa also means "offspring, youngs" (toksa "chicken"), it may be a metaphoric extension of the "mother / progeny" antithesis. Anyway, this is a widespread couple of suffixes in Tibeto-Burmese. The "big / small" meaning is clear (but with a possible "genetic-like" adumbration) in tŵima / teisa "big / small river". The suffix -juŋ "very big" appears in a collection of words and seems productive : tŵi-juŋ ha-juŋ ma-juŋ ta-juŋ ocean world elephant eagle (?) 7.1.4.3. -rok and "plural" Plural is in -rok and mostly for animates. It is used in pronouns also. However the word borok means both "they" and "human" ; in this latter meaning it may be singular : borok khorok-sa "one (head of) man", if "singular" is the proper term for what is actually a collective. Borok is the autonym of this people, and the language is kok-borok "the speech of the humans". 7.2. syntactic noun suffixes Kokborok, at least in its Agartalian version, is remarkably poor in case forms. The following chart gives them all : -ni -no -o Abl Acc Loc genitive & ablative accusative & dative locative & allative provided we make a special case for the altogether rare -le. 7.2.1. -le <Adv> Kokborok does not have a subject or topic marker. In songs (not in Agartalian common speech), the adversative -le is often used to mark the change of side in amoebeian couplets : girls : a-ni gariŋ-le cuk-soro-soro (…) my house is nicely high s1-Abl house-Adv high-just-just boys : ni-ni gariŋ-le ceŋ-mereŋ-mereŋ your house is hardly nice s2-Abl house-Adv nice-so-so The absence of any marker connected with Garo -a or Deuri -wa should be noticed. 7.2.2. -ni <Abl> The suffix -ni marks a genitive-ablative area. It is convenient to separate the two values, but it will be as misleading as it is convenient because Kokborok does not trace any border between the two. 7.2.2.1. the ablative side It is easy to show that -ni is not restricted to internominal determination. On its "ablative side", it marks complements directed dependant from the verb : bŵthai buphaŋ-ni kŵlai-o 66 fruits tree-Abl fall-Aor fruits fall from the tree tŵi-ni a² rom-di water-Abl fish catch-Ip catch fish from the water oro-ni tŵlaŋ-di here-Abl bring-Ip take (it) from here, take it away nŵŋ buro-ni phai ? s2 where-Abl come where do you come from ? In a noun phrase like : raŋcak-ni gola gold-Abl pitcher a gold pitcher we have a -ni which is half-way between ablative and genitive. 7.2.2.2. the genitive side I have commented earlier on the basic contrast between : musuk bokroŋ and musuk-ni bokroŋ cow horn cow-Abl horn The first phrase is a compact "cow-horn", considered for instance as a material. The second is "the horn of a cow", or "horns of cows". Actually, the musuk-ni bokroŋ phrase is rare, because it imply a situation in which you are supposed to select among many horns which is which, and pronounce that "this one is the horn of a cow". But you may have to count and say : musuk maŋ-nŵi-ni bokroŋ cow CL-two-Abl horn the horns of two cows Of course if the determinative is definite, the result is : o musuk-ni bukur bŵlai milik this cow-Abl hide very smooth the hide of this cow is very smooth With personal pronouns, usually phonetically modified (see pronouns in section 8.), -ni forms possessive determinatives : a-ni "my" etc. omo ni-ni nok this s2-Abl house this is your house This genitive in combination with toŋ- gives equivalents for "to have" (see 4.2.3.10.) : ni-ni laisi to-de toŋ ? s2-Abl book Dsc-Int stay do you have books ? 7.2.2.3. -ni with postpositions The scarcity of case markers is explained by the frequency of analytical combinations, often with -ni : "out of" : aŋ nok-ni phataro thaŋ²-o I go out of the house s1 house-Abl outside go-Aor "towards" : aŋ a-ni phaisiŋ na-har-ŵi toŋ-o I am looking at myself s1 s1-Abl towards look-Dis-Cv stay-Aor "from (somebody)" : 67 aŋ bi-ni khani raŋ kisa san-kha I asked a little money from him s1 s3-Abl from money little request-Pf "for (somebody)" : aŋ borok-ni bagŵi soŋ-ŵi toŋ-o I (am) cook(ing) for them s1 p3-Abl for cook-Cv stay-Aor "since" : mija-ni simi aŋ no-no nug-ja-kho I did not see you since yesterday yesterday-Abl since s1 s2-Acc see-Neg-<Pf 7.2.3. -no <Acc> and <Str> The suffix -no is the most puzzling of all. From the case point-of-view, it is an "accusative-dative", which I chose to gloss <Acc>, faute de mieux. It is not exactly an accusative, since many "objects" or "patients" are not marked with -no, as we shall see. It is not exactly a dative, since some datives are marked with -ni bagŵi. But, more interestingly, it seems impossible to make a clear-cut division between this -no and the "stressing -no" which appears so often in Kokborok, even at the end of verbal phrases. There again, it is better pedagogy to separate several functional areas. 7.2.3.1. accusative area Objects of transitive verbs are not systematically marked. Actually, they are mostly not marked when word order and / or meaning are not ambiguous : lama ta-bar²-di don't cross the road ! road Def-cross-Ip doga so-di ! close the door ! door close-Ip mai suk-di ! pound the rice ! rice pound-Ip nŵŋ ri-da lam-kha ? did you hang the clothes ? s2 cloth-Int hang-Pf sikhok manŵi khok-kha the thief has stolen an object thief thing steal-Pf bo tok bu-thar-kha he killed bird(s) s3 birds beat-kill-Pf But with personal pronouns, the marking is compulsory : borok aŋ-no nuk-o they see me p3 s1-Acc see-Aor aŋ borok-no nuk-o I see them s1 p3-Acc see-Aor nŵŋ a-no nu-de nuk ? do you see me ? s2 s1-Acc Dsc-Int see It is needed also when word order is not AOV : o phai-nai-no aŋ sini-wo I know (this one) who is coming this come-VNg-Acc s1 know-Aor musuk bu-thar-nai mŵsa-no aŋ nuk-o I see the tiger that killed the cow cow beat-kill-VNg tiger-Acc s1 see-Aor In dependant clauses, the O can be marked as the O of the main clause : musuk-no wa-thar-nai mŵsa-no aŋ nu-kha I have seen the tiger who killed that cow cow-Acc bite-kill-VNg tiger-Acc s1 see-Pf 7.2.3.2. dative area 68 When two arguments depend from a bitransitive verb like "give", the given object is normally left unmarked, and -no marks the beneficiary ; it follows from this rule that the order of arguments (OB or BO) is free : aŋ o laisi bo-no ri-kha I gave this book to him s1 this book s3-Acc give-Pf aŋ bo-no o laisi ri-kha I gave this book to him s1 s3-Acc this book give-Pf The construction is the same if "book" is left undefinite : aŋ bo-no laisi ri-kha I gave book(s) to him s1 s3-Acc book give-Pf The object O can be marked by -no only if the beneficiary is clearly indicated as such : aŋ bi-ni bagŵi laisi-no ri-kha I gave this particular book for him s1 s3-Abl for book-Acc give-Pf A double marking (of B and of O) by -no is rejected : *aŋ bo-no laisi-no ri-kha The suffix -no is used with arguments of factitive verbs : bo-no tan-ri-di make him do the cutting s3-Acc cut-Fac-Ip aŋ no-no ca-ri-nai I feed you (I make you eat) s1 s2-Acc eat-Fac-Fut 7.2.3.3. "stressing area" Maybe "emphatic" would be a less queer designation for what I have to describe now, but the main point is that all uses of -no are within the syntactic domain. When the order is AOV and O is marked by -no, we enter the "stressing" area and the meaning is "specially that", "only that" : aŋ mo boi-no ri-kha I gave this particular book s1 this book-Acc give-Pf aŋ bag-no tŵlaŋ-nai I will take my bag s1 bag-Str take-Fut Yet, with <Str> - and this is the reason why I feel it possible to use a distinct gloss - we leave the objective or dative areas. First because <Str> can be found on verbal forms ; secondly because it can be found in the same clause as <Acc> : aŋ no-no tŵlaŋ-ja-wŵi-no thaŋ²-nai I will go without you (by not taking you) s1 s2-Acc take-Neg-Cv-Str go-Fut cŵŋ kŵnŵi-no thaŋ²-nai we will go the two of us (only) p1 two-Str go-Fut This explains the use of <Str> with adverbs like simi "only" or kubui "really" : o tŵima kubui-no kuthuk the river is really deep this river really-Str deep Or in pseudo-reflexive constructions with sak : aŋ sak-sak-no tŵlaŋ-ano I will carry it by myself s1 body-body-Str carry-Ftn This suffix can also affect predicative verbs, often with modal value : khŵna-(wo) N-ni samuŋ-o tha-de thaŋ²-no ? tomorrow-(Loc) N-Abl funerals-Loc Dsc-Int go-Str will (you) go to N's funerals to-morrow ? 7.2.4. locative -o <Loc> The locative marker -o has a wide range of locative-allative meaning. 69 or-o here ar-o there aŋ bo kuthuk-o thaŋ²-nai s1 this deep-Loc go-Fut I will go to the forest Actually, except in the temporal meaning, it is more often used as an allative than as a locative proper, because in this latter function the root siŋ- interferes, either as prefixed noun bisiŋ, or as a compounded -siŋ-, but in both cases it is suffixed with -o : aŋ nok-o thaŋ²-o I go to the house (verbal predicate) s1 house-Loc go-Aor aŋ tŵi bisiŋ-o I am in the water (nominal predicate) s1 water inside-Loc aŋ nok-siŋ-o I am in the house (nominal predicate) s1 house-inside-Loc To get the past or future tense of such predicates, toŋ- is used : aŋ noksiŋo toŋ-mani (<VN>) I was in the house aŋ noksiŋo toŋ-nai (<Fut>) I will be in the house Ablative uses combined formulas, which themselves use -o : aŋ nok-ni phatar-o thaŋ²-o I go out of the house s1 house-Abl outside-Loc go-Aor The temporal shade is not distinct : phuŋ-o sal ka-o in the morning, the sun rises morning-Loc sun climb-Aor And, as so often in agglutinating languages, "next" & "last" in terms of units of time are thaŋ²-nai hor-o the previous night, last night go-VNg night-Loc phai-nai hor-o the coming night, next night come-VNg night-Loc 8. Pronouns 8.1. personal pronouns 8.1.1. introduction As other Bodo-Garo languages, Kokborok has 3 personal pronoun (for "I", "you", "we"). It has the typical Bodo-Garo aŋ for "I", and the cŵŋ for "we" (this last feature is found also outside of BG). "YouP" (you plural) is a suffixed form of "you". The 3 rd person "he/she" is a rather specialized demonstrative ; "they" is a suffixed form of "he/she". Since the language is indifferent to classes and gender, it is unwise to translate the pronouns in the glosses, because English or French (and many other languages) require gender in the 3 rd person. In the glosses, I consistently used <s1>, <s2>, <s3>, <p1>, <p2>, <p3>. In translating the numerous examples of sentences in this grammatical description, I usually used "he" for s3, except in the very few cases where my informants insisted that a feminine person was suggested. Kokborok does not have an equivalent to French on or German man. In such cases, no person is expressed. This is the right place to stress the fact (fairly regular in Tibeto-Burmese languages, and in South-East Asia) that pronouns are not commonly used. Many examples in this grammatical sletch have pronouns because they are isolated and sometimes rather artificial sentences. Most pragmatic situations clearly indicate who is doing what, and most sentences are self-sufficient without pronouns. It would be misleading to suggest that they "drop" the pronoun (as does this theoretical point-of-view which considers, for instance, that the "subject role" has to be filled by all means) ; it would be more to the point to take the opposite view, and suggest that pronons pop in when the pragmatic context is deficient. 70 A better theorical ground would be to consider a continuum of pragmatic situations, from the current exchange of shortened (and sometimes passionate) bits and grunts, where incipient gestures are perfunctorily qualified in language, to the elaborate narrative of tales where no dialogue occurs and characters have to be pin-pointed. In such a continuum (which certanly is not a linear scale as the term "continuum" suggests), the languages react differently as to where pronouns should begin to occur. In French or German, in their modern form at least, pronouns interfere at all levels ; this is theson why on and man developped. Burmese speakers avoid pronouns at all levels, as if there existed some impropriety or unpoliteness to underline persons. Kokborok stands in the mid, with a taste for avoidance. 8.1.2. the personal pronouns : forms singular plural 1 aŋ cŵŋ 2 nŵŋ norok 3 bo borok It seems that s3 is /ba/ in some dialects. A /noŋ/ form is suspected in p2 in some dialects. The personal pronouns are systematically marked in the gentive and accusative, and use the same markers as noun's : aŋ nŵŋ bo cŵŋ norok borok genitive a-ni ni-ni bi-ni ci-ni norok-ni borok-ni accusative a-no no-no bo-no coŋ-no norok-no borok-no The phonetic adjustments are nearly the same with -ni and with -no : only cŵŋ behaves differently, because of the analogical CV form ci- in cini. It should be remarked that the vowel in ni-, bi-, ci- and no-, bo-, co- is assimilated (with uncertainty in no- and bo-), which shows an underlying weak /ŵ/ vowel, according to Kokborok usual patterns. This is of course expected in s2 and p1 where /ŵ/ is the "root" vowel, but not in s3 where the non-suffixed form is /bo/ (dial. /ba/). This shows an alignment of the originally demonstrative bo within the frame of a pronominal paradigm. Bisyllabic norok and borok do not assimilate : they behave as nouns do. When several personal pronouns appear in one clause, each one is treated separately and forms are analytical : no case of sagittal (synthetic form for "I verb you" or "you verb me"). Examples can be found passim in this grammatical sketch. 8.1.3. possessive phrase The possessive adjective (or pronoun) is formed with -ni, as shown above, except with a number of kinship terms. The chart below shows the forms I actually registered, but other ones can be found in Binoy's Dictionary (Kokborok-English, p.160-166). (bŵ)sai husband ani / aŋ sai nŵ-sai bŵ-sai (bi)hik wife ani / aŋ hik ni-hik bi-hik cini hik-rok phajoŋ younger bro. aŋ phajoŋ nŵ-phajoŋ bŵ-phajoŋ cini phajoŋ (a)ta elder brother a-ta nŵ-ta bŵ-ta (a)pha father a-pha nŵ-pha bu-pha (a)ma mother a-ma nŵ-ma bu-ma 71 1/ s1 forms distinguish two semantic layers. An "inner circle" where the possessive is a prefixed a-. An "outer circle" where the possessive is either the pronoun aŋ (unmarked except by position) or the possessive ani. 2/ s2 forms use a prefixed nŵ-. 3/ s3 forms use a prefix bŵ- (see the remark about this vowel in 8.1.2.), with vocalic assimilation when possible (e.g. ni-hik) ; or bu- with -pha & -ma. 4/ all plural forms regularly use the genitive : cini etc. "Husband" and "wife" have normal bV- forms in non-contextualized sentences, and phajoŋ does not because it is a bisyllabic compounded noun. This is not the case with the "inner circle" where bV- forms are systematically interpreted as possessive. Of course this is an external and somehow distorted description, since the origin of the bV- forms is precisely the 3rd person (or non-person) pronoun/demonstrative. There is another way to describe this situation. There is an "inner circle" : father -pha, mother -ma, elder brother -ta, elder sister -bi, grandfather -cu, grandmother -cŵi, mainly - it seems that younger brother doŋ and younger sister hanok do not belong here. Within this "inner circle", the inalienable principle holds : all nouns have to be identified by possessive marking because there is no such person as "a father" without being "the father of somebody". In other words, such notions are strictly relative. And there is an "outer circle", which is a buffet zone between strictly relative and conceptually nominal : here, the "3 rd person" assignement is bordering on alienability, while the 1st and 2nd persons (the true persons) maintain a closer grasp on kinship. 8.1.4. a note on morphology The pronouns for s1, s2 and p1 (the true persons semantically and formally in Kokborok) have two forms : s1 aaŋ prefixed independant s2 nŵnŵŋ p1 cŵcŵŋ Without presuming of what Bodo-Garo comparative morphology may say, the Kokborok system implies that the -ŋ of independant forms is to be analyzed as a suffix. 8.2. demonstrative adjectives & pronouns The demonstrative adjective and pronouns begin with a vowel, and may actually be limited to a vowel. This is an outstanding fact in Kokborok. The system is : close by farther but in sight out of sight simple adjective o u (or : i) a simple adj. / pron. bo / mo bo / mo bo / mo compounded pronoun obo / omo ubo, ibo / umo, imo abo / amo locative pronoun oro uro aro The difference between -bo and -mo forms is presented as dialectal by the speakers. In Agartala it may reflect the native place of the speaker, or become (more often) a matter of personal choice. What is more important is the fact that bo (or mo) can be used alone as a demonstrative. This is the origin of the s3 pronoun. Pronominal forms can be pluralized with -rok. This simple scheme is somewhat complicated by the i / u synonymy. In Agartala, u is dominant, and I have heard i consistently only from Bikash Roy Debbarma. It seems that i is from Bengali ; it is often pronounced nasalized. Among the locative pronouns, oro "here" and aro "there" are most common. Some examples are given here, but more can be collected passim. o khum cak-ja this flower does not become red this flower red-Neg 72 aŋ o laisi bo-no ri-kha s1 this book s3-Acc give-Pf aŋ mo boi-no ri-kha s1 this book-Acc give-Pf aŋ bo kuthuk-o thaŋ²-nai s1 this deep-Loc go-Fut obo tŵlaŋ-ŵi thaŋ²-di this take-Cv go-Ip obo, bini bŵta this, s3-Abl s3-elderbrother omo (/omo) bŵlai hacal this very far ao, abo kaham yes, that good I gave this book to him I gave this book I will go to the forest take it with (you) this one is his (own) elder brother it is too far yes, that is good 8.3. interrogative, indefinite, negative adjectives & pronouns 8.3.1. interrogatives It is important to stress the difference between true interrogative pronoun, implying true questions (like : who are you ?), and relative interrogatives who do not imply questions (like : I know who is coming). The same word who is used in English in both cases, but the syntax may be widely different in languages like Kokborok. In this section, we are concerned with the true interrogative pronouns. Relative interrogatives have been dealt with in section 4.3. who ? what ? when ? where ? sabo, sŵba tamo, tŵma bu-phru bo-ro There are 3 distinct interrogative roots in Kokborok. The "who?" form is, according to dialects, *sŵ- or *sa-. The "what?" form is parallel : *tŵ- or *taFrequent forms for "why" are tamo-ni bagŵi "for what", "for what purpose" (a construction similar to French pourquoi or Hebrew lamah) ; and tamoŋŵi. This last form, which seems closer to "for what reason", is interesting also in morphology ; since there exist also tamoŋnai, it seems that those two forms are to be explained as contractions of tamo + ŵŋ-ŵi / ŵŋ-nai. Bikash Roy Debbarma gives me the sentence : khŵna tamo ŵŋ-nai aŋ sa-wŵi man-ja tomorrow what be-Fut s1 say-Cv may-Neg I cannot say what will happen to-morrow and adds that it is actually pronounced : khna tamoŋnai sai manja which gives us a parallel contraction tamo ŵŋ-ŵi > tamoŋŵi. The tamo-ni bagŵi construction just uses the postpositive combination -ni bagŵi, as in (again a typical Bikash Roy example) : ĩ khum-no aŋ ni-ni bagŵi khol-kha this flower-Acc s2-Abl for pluck-Pf I plucked this flower for you The third root is *bŵ-. The locative question is built with the locative -o but by means of the pronominal -r- which appears also in the locative pronouns oro "here" and aro "there". The suffix -phru also occurs on verbal nouns : cŵŋ ca-wŵi toŋ-phru bo phai-kha p1 eat-Cv stay-when s3 come-Pf he came just when we were eating 73 Direct questions are for instance : nŵŋ sabo who are you ? s2 who omo tamo what is this ? this what nŵŋ tamo khŵlai ? what do you do ? s2 what do nŵŋ buro thaŋ²-nai ? where do you go ? s2 where go-Fut nŵŋ buro-ni phai ? where do you come from ? s2 where-Abl come We note that the interrogative verbs are deprived of aoristic -o. The interrogative pronouns follow usual word order : they are rhematic in the first two examples, at in the place of homologous arguments in the following one. The interrogative pronoun may be used in paratactic construction, with a semantically dependant - but grammatically independant clause : sabo phai aŋ si-wo I know who is coming who come s1 know-Aor This is a paratactic construction : "who comes, I know". The syntactic construction would be : phai-nai-no aŋ sini-wo come-VNg-Acc s1 know-Aor There is a difference of meaning between si- "to know" and the compounded sini- "to know a person (have met one, be familiar with one, know socially)". 8.3.2. indefinites & negatives The expression of indefinites is linked on the one hand with the classifiers, on the other one with sŵk "to some extent" and phano "any". Maybe it is better to consider -sŵk and -phano as postpositions. The expression of "something" (and "nothing") is best conveyed by the use of the neutral classifier muŋ: aŋ muŋ-sa-sŵk nuk-kha s1 CL-one extent see-Pf I have seen something aŋ muŋ-sa phano nuk-ja s1 CL-one any see-Neg I have seen nothing Another expression, morphologically simpler but probably less common, is : aŋ muŋ-sa nuk-ja s1 CL-one see-Neg I have not seen anything (not one thing) If you change the classifier, for instance by substituting khorok- "head", which is the classifier for persons, you get : aŋ khorok-sa phano nuk-ja s1 CL-one any see-Neg I have seen nobody And with ma- (from maŋ "body (of animal)") : aŋ ma-sa phano nuk-ja s1 CL-one any see-Neg I have seen no animal This morphosyntax works even with locatives : aŋ kŵrŵŋ-sa phano thaŋ²-ja-kho s1 place(CL)-one any go-Neg-<Pf I have gone nowhere (until now) 74 Relative indefinites use ze- (of Indo-Aryan origin), for instance in ze-sa phano "whoever" : ze-sa phano ŵŋ-thŵŋ aŋ nai-ja Rel-one any be-Opt s1 look-Neg whoever comes, I will not see (him). 9. Numerals and classifiers 9.1. morpho-syntax Numerals normally do not come without a classifier (CL), and the group classifier + numeral comes after what is to be counted. Example : noun nok classifierkhuŋ- numeral sa sal "day" and kai "thing" does not use a classifier : kaisa "one thing", salnŵi "two days". 9.2. numerals The basic numerals are : 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -sa -nŵi / -g-nŵi -tham / -g-tham -brŵi -ba -dok -sni -car -cuku -ci Compounded numerals : 13 : ci-tham (10-3) 24 nŵicibrŵi (2-10-4) 99 cukucucuku (9-10-9) ra 501 bara sa (5-100-1) 900 chukura (9-100) sai These numbers, at least the lowest of them, are in use. Bengali rapidly creeps in, and English also, as is often the case all over India. The typical Indian lakh (100.000) and crore (10.000.000) are as common as elsewhere. When counting objects, one says : musuk ma-g-nŵi not : musuk ma-nŵi musuk ma-k-tham not : musuk ma-tham This /g/ or /k/ is a reduced form of the kV- prefix, and -gnŵi or -ktham come from *kŵnŵi and *kŵtham. This -gform is used only with "2" and "3", and not with all nouns : sal "sun, day", which does not use a classifier, does not use kV- either : sal-nŵi two days 9.3. classifiers 75 Binoy's Dictionary gives (English-Kokborok p.330-1) several examples of classifiers. For many nouns in bV- the classifier is none other than the root : bedek dek-sa 1 branch bodol dol-sa 1 group of people bokol kol-sa 1 grain (like rice) bophak phak-sa 1 bundle of firewood bŵlam lam-sa 1 hole, etc. Some monosyllabic nouns are also used in this way : hor hor-sa 1 night tal tal-sa 1 moon (1 month) Most of these nouns that are repeated as their own classifiers are measures or units of quantity. For other nouns, one has to know which classifier is in use. Most animals use the ma- classifier, which is from maŋ ("body of animal"). Humans use khorok ("head") ; the use of ma- with humans is derogatory. Stick-like objects (among which pen) use koŋ- ; flat objects like fans and books use kaŋ- ; voluminous objects like houses or cars use khuŋ- ; round or spherical objects use dul-. The classifier meaning "part, piece" is lep-. The classifier meaning "thing" is kai-. Examples : buphaŋ phaŋ-sa khum bar-sa nok khuŋ-sa borok khorok-sa musuk ma-sa mŵsa ma-sa a² ma-sa thampui ma-sa bŵlai lai-sa bedek dek-sa khorok kai-sa Some nouns do not use classifiers : bisi knŵi sŵkan two years ago year k-2 ago sal-nŵi sŵkan two days ago day 2 ago 10. Two little songs I. Girls Boys Girls ani gariŋle cuksorosoro nobar bo naŋsororo nini gariŋle ceŋmereŋmereŋ tamphuima bereŋ bereŋ ani gariŋo sephaisidi, o munai aŋle phaimaja nŵŋse phainakhai phaidi Analysis : Girls a-ni gariŋ-le cuk-soro-soro s1-D house-Top high-just as convenient nobar bo naŋ-soro-soro wind also need-just as convenient Boys ni-ni gariŋ-le ceŋ-mereŋ-mereŋ 1 tree 1 flower 1 house 1 man 1 cow 1 tiger 1 fish 1 mosquito 1 leaf 1 branch 1 head 76 Girls s2-D house-Top nice-just so so tamphuima bereŋ bereŋ big flies-in great number a-ni gariŋ-o se-phai-si-di, o munai s1-D house-Loc move-come-?-Ip, ô love aŋ-le phai-ma-ja s1-Top come-may-Neg nŵŋ-se phai-na-khai phai-di s2-on your side, come-VNFut-when come-IP Translation : G. my house is nicely high and the wind blows to my taste your house is not so good flies are so many in my house, move & come, please, my love I cannot come but if you will, come kucuk high nobar wind ceŋ mereŋ mereŋ de guingois munai girlfiend (younger sister) da cikon boyfriend (small elder brother) II. song G. hŵza-hŵzagŵi naisŵm toŋnaisa, cŵba bidisa ŵŋkha ? aŋle hŵzaigja nabo nasŵmja buphaŋsa kotonmase - naku ! Analyse : hŵi-zag-hŵi-zag-ŵi naison toŋ-nai-sa, hide-Pas-hide-Pas-Cv peep be-VNa-one sŵba bidi-sa ŵŋ-kha ? who unknown-one be-Ps B. aŋ-le hŵizag-ja na-bo nason-ja s1-Top hide-Pas-Neg CV-neither peep-Neg buphaŋ-sa koton-ma-se - naku ! tree-one in the way-VNc-P - love Trad. The one who is hiding and peeping, who is this unknown one ? I neither hide nor peep It's a tree on the way - my love 77