A Course in Mundari

A Course in Mundari Toshiki Osada Madhu Purti Nishaant Choksi Nathan Badenoch Preface After having finished writing a dissertation on Santali, a Munda language spoken in eastern India and a close cousin of Mundari, at the Univesity of Michigan (USA), I had the privilege of coming to Japan for a postdoctoral fellowship, and working with Toshiki Osada and Masato Kobayashi. Osada, a senior scholar and professor emeritus at the Research Institute of Humanity and Nature (Kyoto), is perhaps one of the world’s most prominent linguists working on Mundari and the Northern Munda (Austro-Asiatic) today. He has published prolifically on Munda, both in English and Japanese, and has written the most comprehensive grammar of Mundari to date. He was a student of the eminent linguist Ram Dayal Munda and received his PhD from Ranchi University. Kobayashi, a professor at the University of Tokyo, learned Mundari from Osada and went on to do significant work on Kera dialect of Mundari. He later went on to publish comprehensive grammars on the Dravidian tribal languages of Jharkhand, Malto and Kurux. In addition to working with these eminent linguists, I also had the pleasure of meeting Madhu Purti, or Maki as she is affectionately known, who served as my Munda teacher and the primary informant for this textbook. Purti has an interesting story in her own right, having grown up in a remote Munda village in Jharkhand (eastern India), and then going to Rajasthan to study high school. After returning to Jharkhand for college, Purti lived for a short while with Ram Dayal Munda ji, and subsequently married one of his PhD students, Professor Osada. She came to Japan with no knowledge of the language, culture, or food habits, but now is firmly settled and has become well known in the community for helping Indians adjust to life here. Her warmth of spirit and wonderful company helped me adjust to life in Japan. She also returns to her native land every year, and continues supporting her family and community. During summer 2015, I and Professor Fumio Fuji (Iberaki University), who is currently working on Nagri dialect of Mundari, spent 10 days with Madhu Purti to learn Mundari. We used this textbook, which was originally published by the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies in Japanese for a course held there in 2001, and later translated by Professor Nathan Badenoch of Kyoto University (who also completed an intensive course with Madhu Purti in 2013-2014). The English version we were working with was still in a “raw” form, so I suggested to Professor Osada that we clean it up and prepare it for publication, so that English-speaking audiences may be introduced to this rich language. I added exercises to the publication and revised Badenoch’s translation, and the draft subsequently underwent final revision by Professor Kobayashi. As far as I am aware, this book is the first modern textbook for learning the Mundari language in English. It is also a testament to the tireless work of Professor Osada and Madhu Purti who have given their lives to studying and promoting this language. The book is not only a textbook, but a synthesis of all of Osada’s recent linguistic work as well, evident in the chapters on experientials and expressives, which are new and exciting subjects that have received very little attention in the literature. Consequently, the i book serves a pedagogical purpose, helping those who want to learn how to converse in this language, and a scholarly purpose, serving as a revision to Osada’s 1992 scholarly grammar. We hope the book will inspire young scholars in Japan and elsewhere to take up the study of Mundari and related Munda languages and go to Jharkhand to conduct fieldwork. As those of us who have spent time in the region can relate, Munda-language speakers, the indigenous adivasis of India, are incredibly kind and hospitable, and offer so much for the world to learn in terms of their rich culture, history, and life-ways. Yet, like many poor and marginalized groups, they have also been victims of policies since the colonial-era that have sought to take away their land and livelihood, or take advantage of their lack of education and lower-caste status to mire them in unnecessary debt. Hence naturally these communities retain some suspicion of outsiders, and one must approach one’s work with a collaborative spirit and build a trustworthy rapport with the community. One way to do that of course is by learning the language, which Mundari-speakers value, and use to distinguish themselves from outsiders. I believe the time you take to learn the language will be rewarded once you enter the field, and your studies will progress. Learning the language will enable you not only to have valuable informants, but also valuable friendships and partnerships with community members. After this publication, we plan to publish this book in a similar format in India, where it can reach many people, both adivasi and non-adivasi, who are interested in learning this language. Professor Osada has also proposed a Hindi translation, which will be made easier by the publication of the English version. We hope this book will spark an interest in the younger generation to learn Mundari, both as a language of everyday communication and as a subject of scholarly research. This book is published with the financial assistance of a Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) grant-in-aid (PE 14738). Host researcher is Masato Kobayashi, Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics, University of Tokyo, and principal investigator is Nishaant Choksi, JSPS shortterm international research fellow, Department of Linguistics, University of Tokyo. Nishaant Choksi 30 October, 2015 Tokyo, Japan ii Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 Phonology and Transcription in Mundari 4 3 Basic Conversation 3.1 Joar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 9 4 3.2 3.3 3.4 What is this? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Who is this person? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . What is your name? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 12 14 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 Where is your house? Is your father at home? Do you have a book? . I am Japanese . . . . This house is big . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 19 22 24 26 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 What time is it now? . . . . . . Where are you going? . . . . . What are you doing? . . . . . . When are you going to Ranchi? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 30 32 34 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Grammar Section 4.1 Gender and Number of Nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2 Nouns and Postpositionals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 37 39 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 Demonstratives . . . . . Interrogatives . . . . . . Indefinites . . . . . . . Basic sentence structure Basic structure of verbs . . . . . 40 43 44 46 47 4.8 4.9 Transitive and intransitive verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Subjects and Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 51 4.10 Derivational verb bases (1) passive -oij . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.11 Derivational verb bases (2) -en/-n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.12 Derivational verbal base (3) Reciprocal -pV-/-Vp- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 54 55 4.13 Derivational verb bases (4)reduplication CVC → CVCVC . . . . . . . . . 4.14 Derivational verb bases (5) -a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 58 4.15 Derivational verb bases (6) causatives a- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.16 Aspect markers (1) a and ja . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 61 4.17 Aspect marker ke and le . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.18 Aspect marker (3) ta and aka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 65 4.19 Tense and Aspect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.20 Imperative Mood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 68 4.21 Optative Mood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.22 Experiential constructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 4.23 Compound verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 4.24 Verbal intensifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.25 Verb reduplication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.26 Relative clause . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 80 81 4.27 Complex sentences, conjuction constructions and subjunctive constructions . 4.28 Conjunctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 83 4.29 Adjctives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.30 Numerals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.31 Interjections and vocatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 87 89 4.32 Particle do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.33 Particle ge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 93 4.34 Other particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.35 Expressives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.35.1 Morphology of expressives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 96 96 4.35.2 Syntax of expressives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 4.35.3 Semantics of expressives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 5 Glossary 105 1 INTRODUCTION 1 Introduction Mundari is mainly spoken in the state of Jharkhand, which was set up by the Government of India on the 15th of November, 2000, and the adjoining state of Orissa and West Bengal in India. munda means ‘village-headman’ in Mundari. But the language name Mundārı̄ is ˙˙ ˙˙ given by the neighbouring peoples, the indigenous name is horo jagar ‘human language’ or ˙ munda jagar ‘Munda language’. ˙˙ According to a classification proposed by Norman Zide (1966), Mundari belongs to the Kherwarian group of the North Munda branch. According to the Census of India 2001, the number of speakers of Mundari is 1,061,352. The same Census reports the number of speakers of Munda as 469,357. The names Munda and Mundari seem to be confused. It is likely that the census officer did not have perfect criteria for naming the languages in India. There is actually no difference between the Munda language and the Mundari language linguistically. Thus the total number of the speakers of Mundari is likely to be more than one and half million. From a linguistic point of view, the designation Munda is used for the language family. Mundari, on the other hand, refers to an individual language, namely the language of Munda people. As Hoffmann reported in the Encyclopaedia Mundarica, Vol.1, p.(6), Mundari has four dialects; 1. Hasada from Hasa-daij ‘(literally) water land (place name)’ in Mundari 2. Naguri from Naguri (place name) 3. Tamaria from Tamar-ia ‘language of Tamar (place name)’1 ˙ 4. Kera from Keraij (perfect ending, instead of keda in another dialects). The Hasada dialect is considered as the standard variety among Munda peoples. Hasada speakers are located on the eastern side of Ranchi-Chaibasa Road while Naguri speakers are situated on the western side. The Tamaria dialect is distributed in the Panchpargana area ˙ (Bundu, Tamar, Silli, Baranda and Rahe). Further, Kera is mainly spoken by the inhabitants of Ranchi city and the adjacent area, who ethnically belong to the Oraon tribe. According to Pinnow (1959:2), Ho should be considered as a dialect of Mundari from a linguistic point of view2 . We, however, regard the Ho language as a separate language on the basis of the ethnic identity of its speakers. The study of Mundari started in the nineteenth century; e.g., Haldar (1871), Whitley (1873), Nottrot (1882). These works are neither comprehensive, nor reliable from a linguistic point of view. For example, the glottal stops were not described in these works. Linguistically-oriented grammars have been written by Hoffmann (1903), Cook (1965) (his data are collected not by him but by Hoffmann), Sinha (1975) (his descriptions contain a lot 1Munda (1980: K! ) has proposed the name Latar dialect (latar means ‘low’) instead of Tamaria. We don’t use this term here because we have never heard latar jagar in Mundari. 2According to Gregory Anderson, his Ho teachers in Mayurbhanj claim only about 75% intelligibility with Mundari which is only a little higher than that for Santali. In Osada's own experience, however, when he spoke to Ho speakers in Mundari in the Chaibasa area they considered him to speak in Ho . 1 1 INTRODUCTION of self-contradiction and some data are not reliable), Munda (1980) (this is written in Hindi and contains reliable data but not comprehensive) and Osada (1992) (the section on syntax is very poor) and Osada (2008); phonology by Gumperz with Biligi (1957) and Sinha(1974) (the data is not reliable the same as Sinha 1975); verbal morphology by Langendoen (1966, 1967) (his data are based on the Naguri dialect. He applied Mundari data to the standard theory by Chomsky but failed it), Munda (1971) (this paper is focussed on aspact but incomplete); morpho-syntax by Osada (1999, 2007). A dictionary of Mundari has been compiled by Hoffmann (1930-78), Bhaduri (1931), Prasad (1973, 1976) (in these distionary she missed a description of glottal stops) and Mundu (1995). The most influential work is Hoffmann’s Mundari Grammar (=MG) and Encyclopeadia Mundarica (=EM). The descriptions in MG and EM differ in dialect. MG is mainly based on Naguri while EM mainly on Hasada. The data in EM are more comprehensive and reliable than those in MG. In addition to EM, Munda as a native speaker has given us reliable data. This book is not a linguistic oriented but a practical and pedagodical oriented. This is a book for people who wants to learn this fastinating language and Mundari teachers who want to teach this fantastic language. We illustrate here the population of Munda speaker basically indicated in the Census of India 2001. Munda Languages name of language population Santali 6,469,600 Mundari (Munda) Ho 1,061,352 469,357 1,042,724 Korku Sora (Savara) Kharia Bhumij Korwa 574,481 252,519 239,608 47,443 34,586 Gutob (Gadaba) Juang 26,262 23,708 Asuri Birhor 7,703 (1981) 5950 (1981) Remo 4,764(1971) Gta? Gorum 1,978(1961) 767(1961) There is in a multi-ethnic area in Jharkhand, where Munda people mainly lives in. Apart from Munda people, the ethnic groups such as Santal, Ho, Oraon (=Uraon), Kharia live together. I listed here the ethnic population according to the Census of India 2001. 2 1 INTRODUCTION Ethnic groups in Jharkhand name of ethnic groups population Santal Munda 2,879,576 899,146 Ho Kharia 782,078 123,483 Oraon We show the linguistic map of Jharkhand indicating a ratio among the Munda language groups and that of Mundari based on the Census of India 2001. 3 2 2 PHONOLOGY AND TRANSCRIPTION IN MUNDARI Phonology and Transcription in Mundari Mundari has no traditional script. People in Jharkhand adopted the Devanagari script which used for Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi and Nepali. But a writing system in Mundari is not yet standardized. So we used here a Roman transcription for Indian languages. In addition to this we add the glotal stop ij. In the section of Mundari vocabulary we have put not only a Roman transcription but also a Devanagari transcription. We have a plan to write a Hindi version of this book near future. We present the phonology first. Vowels： Vowel inventory front central back high i u mid low e o a We are writing here word examples: 1. i High front unrounded vowel e.g. ili ‘rice beer’, birid ‘to stand up’ 2. e Mid front unrounded vowele.g. ere ‘omen’ berel ‘raw’ 3. a Low central unrounded vowele.g. ara ‘daughter-in-law’ maraṅ ‘big, great’ 4. o Mid back rounded vowele.g. oko ‘which’ moloṅ ‘forefront’ 5. u High back rounded vowele.g. uku ‘to hide’ buluṅ ‘salt’ Long vowel： Long vowel predictably appears in mono-syllabic words. It means that the distinction between long and short vowels are not phonemic. But we use the serial vowel for these words. The intervocalic h in Hasada dialect dropped historically while one in Kera dialect retain. We will show the examples: e.g. joo ‘fruit, seed’ baa ＜ baha ‘flower’ iil ＜ ihil ‘feather’ Nasalized vowel： Nasalized vowels also predictably appear. Nasalizated vowels are found in the following circumstances: 1. /(C)VnV(C)/ In the circumstance of n which appears in intervocalic and bisyllabic ˙ ˙ words, both vowels should be nasalized: e.g. /cene/ ‘bird’ [Ùẽïẽ], /aneij/ ‘to pour out a ˙ ˙ liquid’ [ãïẽP], etc. 4 2 PHONOLOGY AND TRANSCRIPTION IN MUNDARI 2. /CNV/ (CN means a nasal consonant) When the initial consonnant is a nasal in monosyllabic words vowel should be realized as a nasalization: e.g., /mu/ ‘nose’ [mũũ], /nu/ ‘to drink’ [nũũ] etc. 3. /jV/ (optionally) When the Initial consonnant is a j in monosyllabic words vowel may be realized as a nasalization optionally: e.g., /ji/ ‘smell’ [Ãĩĩ], /ja/ ‘any’ [Ããã] or [Ãaa], but /jo/ ‘fruit’ [ÃOO]. 4. /oe/, /oa/, /ua/ (optionally) When vowel serializations of /oe/, /oa/, /ua/ contain these vowels should be realized as nasalization. These words are maily borrowed from the adjoining Indo-Aryan languages: e.g. /koe/ ‘beggar’ [kõẽ], /koasi/ ‘fog’ [kõãsi], /cua/ ‘to extract a liquid by fire’ [Ùũã] or [Ùua] Consonant： Consonant inventry labial dental retroflex palatal velar glottal stop voiceless p t c k P stop voiced fricative b d s t ˙ d ˙ j g nasal flap lateral m n r l n ˙ r ˙ ñ N semivowel w h y We present the following examples: Stops 1. p voiceless bilabial stops e.g. puruij ‘leaf cup’ ipil ‘star’ ˙ 2. b voiced bilabial stops e.g. bul ‘to be drunken’ ibil ‘thick’ ub ‘hair’ udub ‘to tell, teach’ 3. t voiceless dental stops e.g. tul ‘to hold by hand’ hataṅ ‘brain’ 4. d voiced dental stops e.g. dul ‘to pour’ dondo ‘to lift’ ud ‘mushroom’ hambud ‘to embrace’ 5. t voiceless retroflex stops e.g. tote ‘to shoot an arrow’ hataij ‘winnow’ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ 6. d voiced retroflex stops e.g. data ‘teeth’ dondo ‘foolish’ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙˙ 7. c voiceless palatal stops e.g. coij ‘to kiss’ raca ‘country yard’ 5 2 PHONOLOGY AND TRANSCRIPTION IN MUNDARI 8. j voiced palatal stops e.g. joij ‘to sweep’ raja ‘a king’ 9. k voiceless velar stops e.g. koij ‘Cattle Egret’ haka ‘to hang’ 10. g voiced velar stops e.g. goij ‘to carry on shoulder’ haga ‘brother’ 11. ij glottal stops e.g. daij ‘water’ racaij ‘to pull’ Fricatives 1. s voiceless dental fricatives e.g. sibil ‘tasty’ hasa ‘ground’ 2. h voiceless glotal fricatives e.g. had ’to cut by knife’ huriṅ ‘small’ ˙ Nasal 1. m bilabial nasals e.g. muu ‘nose’ gama ‘to rain’ durum ‘to sleep’ ˙ 2. n dental nasals e.g. nuu ‘to drink’ mone ‘to want’ an ‘that’ 3. n retroflex nasals e.g. mone ‘five’ cene ‘bird’ ˙ ˙ ˙ 4. ñ palatal nasals e.g. añ ‘I’ 5. ṅ veral nasals e.g. aṅ ‘dawn’ buluṅ ‘salt’ Liquids 1. r trill e.g. reij ‘to snatch’ buru ‘mountain’ bir ‘forest’ 2. l lateral e.g. leij ‘tongue’ bulu ‘thigh’ bil ‘to spread a mat’ 3. r retroflex e.g. horo ‘humanbeing’ ˙ ˙ Semivowel 1. w bilabial semivowel e.g. kiwa ‘chin’ 2. y palatal semivowel e.g. hoyo ‘wind’ The so-called checked consonants The most peculiar feature of consonants is the so-called checked consonant series. The stop phonemes /b/ and /d/ are realized as checked consonants in word final position. The phonetic description of these checked consonants is as follows: First, the glottis is closed and the tongue or the lips simultaneously form an oral closure. The tongue or lip position is the same as that of the corresponding normal stops. Then the glottal closure is released, which is optionally followed by nasal release and voicing. Thus, [ijbm ], [ijdn ]. <˚ <˚ 6 2 PHONOLOGY AND TRANSCRIPTION IN MUNDARI It is mentioned that nasal release after the glottal release is optional. In our observation, whether nasal release occurs or not is determined by the syllable tructure of the word. There is no nasal release in polysyllabics but only in monosyllabics. For example, 1. word final stop b /ub/ ‘hair’ [uijbm ] but /udub/ ‘to tell’ [uduijb]; <˚ <˚ 2. word final stop d /rid/ ‘to grind’ [riijdn ] but /birid/ ‘to stand up’ [biriijd].3 <˚ <˚ We take a practice in the differences between non-glottal-stopped vowel sequence and vowel with glottal stops in the following way: 1. mono-syllabic joo ‘fruit’, joij ‘to sweep’ maa ‘last year’, maij ‘to cut’ daa ‘root’, daij ‘water’ 2. bi-syllabic seta ‘dog’, setaij ’morning’ uri ‘to peal’, uriij ‘cattle’ uyu ‘to put’, uyuij ‘to fall’ 3Gumperz (1957) considers checked stops in word-final position as allophones of the voiceless stops /p/ and /t/. But we treat these checked consonants as allophones of voiced stop /b/ and /d/ as Hoffmann did. The following morphophonological change is very clear: /dub-a/ ( a : IND) ‘will sit’ [duba] not [dupa] and /birid-a/ ‘will stand up’ [birida] not [birita]. 7 Basic Conversation 3 BASIC CONVERSATION 3 Basic Conversation 3.1 Joar Sentence joar. ‘Hello [traditional greeting].’ joar, bes ge? ‘Hello, how are you?’ hee, bes ge. ape do? ‘[Yes,] I am fine. How about you?’ ale-o bes ge. ‘I am fine, too.’ Mundari Greetings Greetings are very important to the Munda people. When you meet an acquaintance, you greet with joar. Both hand are placed at the chest and the head and upper body are bowed slightly when spoken. This is often followed by bes ge or bugi ge, which means ‘how are you?’. After replying that you are fine, you may ask ape do ‘and how about you all?’ or am do ‘how about you’ to someone you have a close relationship with or something that is younger than you. If asking about the people in the village, you can use ne-saij-ko do ‘what about this side?’ and in response ale-o bes ge ‘we (excl.) are all fine as well’, añ-o bes ge ‘I am fine’ or ne-saij-ko-o bes ge ‘this side is fine as well’. That takes care of the basic greetings. Sometimes the answers to greetings inquiring about peoplesh́ealth become set phrases, answering ‘fine’ regardless of the actual condition, but it is more common that people will tell you if they are unwell or sick. Also, when a person has died, joar is not used as a greeting. Finally, Christians have their own greetings. Chritian Mundas usually shake hands for greetings. Different sects use the different words; isu sahay ‘Jesus as a helper’ for German Evangelian Lutherian, isu maraṅ ‘Jesus, the Great’ for Roman Cathoric. When Munda people visit his/her relatives’ house, members of relatives, usually women of that house wash his/her foot in token of welcome. They provide a water bowl then visitors put his/her foot into that bowl. The women of that house wash his/her foot by hand then put the mustard oil to his/her foot. After finishing celemonial wash they give a Joar each other. Visitors usually give small amount of money to the women. The word joar is used not oly for Greetings but also for token of gratitute ‘thank you’. When people gets saris (clothes for women) or dhoti (clothes for men) on the occasion of annual celemony the givers said Joar to all attendances in traditional celemony. 9 3 BASIC CONVERSATION 3.2 What is this? Sentence nea do canaij? ‘What is this?’ nea do ub ‘This is hair.’ nea do canaij? ‘What is this? nea do booij ‘This is the head.’ nea do canaij? ‘What is this?’ nea do med ‘This is the eye.’ First of all, you have to learn names of parts of the body. It is easy to learn new vocabulary when you point out your parts of the body. This is a starting point to learn new language. Parts of the body Mundari ub booij English hair head Mundari taran tii English shoulder hand eye nose supu talka upper arm palm of the hand moca lutur moloṅ mouth ear forehead katuij ˙ laiij buti finger belly navel jowa kiwa cheak chin waist foot gucu hotoij ˙ beard throat mayaṅ kata ˙ mukuni ˙ bulu med muu knee thigh You first get new vocabulary for parts of the body. You can extend this method to other objects by pointing. 10 3 BASIC CONVERSATION Exercise 1). Translate the following from English into Mundari. 1. What is this? This is the foot. 2. What is this? This is the beard. 3. What is this? This is the palm of the hand. 4. What is this? This is the waist. 5. What is this? This is the throat. 2). Translate the following from Mundari into English. 1. nea do canaij? nea do lutur. 2. nea do canaij? nea do taran. 3. nea do canaij? nea do supu. 4. nea do canaij? nea do bulu. 11 3 BASIC CONVERSATION 3.3 Who is this person? Sentence niiij do okoe? ‘Who is this person?’ niiij do munda horo ˙ ˙˙ ‘This person is a Munda.’ iniij do okoe? ‘Who is that person?’ iniij do uraon horo ˙ ‘That person is an Uraon.’ haniij do okoe? ‘Who is that person over there?’ haniij do japani ‘That person is a Japanese.’ When you collect new vocabulary by pointing what will you learn in Mundari. You have to know the identity. So you know next question, okoe ‘who’. The Mundari word we learned for ‘this (nea) cannot be used to refer to people. Animate things and people are referred to with the word niiij ‘this person or ‘this living being’. Similarly, ena ‘that and hana ‘that over there are used for inanimate objects, while the corresponding iniij and haniij are used for people and other living beings. Animate Demonstrative 1. niiij ‘this person’ 2. iniij ‘that person’ 3. haniij ‘that person over there’ Inanimate Demonstrative 1. nea ‘this’ 2. ena ‘that’ 3. hana ‘that over there’ 12 3 BASIC CONVERSATION It should be noted that in Mundari, the vowels i and e, and e and o, cannot occur together in the same word (or more precisely, in the same morpheme). This means that *eniij is not possible. Restictions like this on the co-occurrence of vowels is called vowel harmony. Exercise 1). Translate the following from English into Mundari. 1. Who is this person? This is person is an American. 2. Who is that person? That person is a sahib. 3. Who is that person over there? That person over there is a Munda. 4. Who is this person? This person is a Japanese. 2). Please write about the following situation in Mundari. Imagine you are standing in your home. Three men are coming to your door to meet you. The closest one is a Munda, the one a little farther back is a Japanese and the one behind him is an American. You have to identify each using animate demonstratives. 13 3 BASIC CONVERSATION 3.4 What is your name? Sentance amaij nutum do canaij? ‘What is your name? ’ añaij nutum do soma. ‘My name is Soma.’ am do cana-m nutum-aka-n-a? ‘What is your name?’ añ do etwari nutum-aka-n-añ ‘My name is Etwari.’ etwari do saki nutum ci jonom nutum? ‘Is Etwari your saki name, or your birth name?’ jonom nutum ge ‘It is my birth name.’ You can collect the vocabulary and understand who’s who. Then you have to know your friends’ names. Mundari personal pronouns are more complex than in English. Personal pronouns distinguish between singular, dual and plural. For example, the second person in Mundari is am in the singular (‘you’), aben in the dual (‘you two’) and ape (‘you all’ ? three or more people) in the plural. In addition to number, there is also a two-way distinction between ‘inclusive’ and ‘exclusive’ in the first person dual and first person plural. The first person dual inclusive alanṅ refers to ‘we (both you and I)’, including both the speaker and the hearer. The first person dual exclusive alinṅ refers to ‘we (I and he or she)’, not including the hearer. Similarly, the first person plural inclusive abu means ‘we (you all and I)’, while the first person plural exclusive ale means ‘we (they and I)’. The possessive form of personal pronouns is the personal pronoun form plus -aij. However, kinship terminology has a slightly different way of marking the genitive in personal pronouns, and this will be discussed later. The full set of personal pronouns is given below. 14 3 BASIC CONVERSATION Personal Pronouns Singlar Dual First person (inclusive) añ alaṅ First person (exclusive) Second person Third person Plural abu aliṅ aben akin am aeij ale ape ako Personal pronoun possessive forms First person (inclusive) First person (exclusive) Second person Third person Singlar añ-aij Dual alaṅ-aij Plural abu-aij am-aij ay-aij aliṅ-aij aben-aij akin-aij ale-aij ape-aij ako-aij Munda names Munda people have two types of names. The first is the saki name (saki nutum), and the second is the birth name (janam nutum). The saki name is given to a child approximately one week after birth in the cat?i ceremony. The saki name is created from the names of the babyś relatives and friends of the parents. People who share saki names call each other sakiñ, and special celebrations are held at life milestones. The birth name is given according to the day of the week on which the baby was born. Among family members, those who are in an ‘avoidance relationship’ (the opposite is a ‘joking relationship’) and share the same saki name are forbidden from using that name. In case of this name taboo, the janam name is used. The following table lists the Munda janam names. janam names Mundari Male Female Sunday Monday Tuesday etwar sombar maṅgar etwa soma maṅgra etwari sombari maṅgri Wednesday Thursday budu birsipait budua birsa buduni birsi Friday Saturday sukurar sanicar sukuram sanika sukuru sani Day of the week Exercise 1). Please translate the following dialogue into Mundari. You: Hello. Mangri: Hello how are you? 15 3 BASIC CONVERSATION You: I am good. What is your name? Mangri: My name is Mangri. You: Is that your given name or your birth name? Mangri: It is my birth name. You: Who are those two people over there? Mangri: Those two’s names are Etwa and Sukuram. 2). Please translate the following dialogue into English. You: joar Sombari: joar, bes ge? You: hee bes ge. ape do? Sombari: ale do bes ge. You: amaij nutum do cana? Sombari: añ do sombari nutum aka-n-a. You: en horo-aij nutum do cana? ˙ Sombari: iniij do mangra nutum aka-n-a-eij. 16 3 BASIC CONVERSATION 3.5 Where is your house? Sentence amaij oraij do kotaij-re menaij? ˙ ‘Where is your house?’ añaij oraij do ranci-re menaij ˙ ‘My house is in Ranchi.’ amaij hatu do kotaij-re-a ‘Where is your village?’ añaij hatu do keora ‘My village is Kewra.’ keora do kotaij-re menaij ‘Where is Kewra village?’ keora do sarwada ayar, birbanki hora-re menaij ‘Kewra village is beyond Sarwada, on Birbanki road.’ It is important for you to know where you stay. We have already learned that there are inanimate and animate demonstratives, and there is gender distinction in nouns as well. We will look at some examples and explanation below. Genders of nouns Inanimate Noun This group consists of things that cannot move by themselves, such as objects and plants. We have seen the differentiation in the demonstratives, and this appears on verb endings as well, determined by the two noun genders. The distinction is very important and it holds though out Mundari grammar. Examples baa ‘flower’, ub ‘hair’, buru ‘mountain’ Animate Noun This group is principally made up of human beings and animals. However, some others are included as well, such as stars, the sun and other celestial bodies, and the spirits residing in trees and other parts of nature. The sun and spirits are probably considered to be animate nouns because they can move themselves. Examples horo ‘person’, seta ‘dog’, horo ‘turtle’, siṅgi ‘the sun’, ipil ‘star’, boṅga ˙ 17 3 BASIC CONVERSATION ‘god, spirit’ The distinction between inanimate and animate nouns is reflected in the copula as well. (The copula is the ‘to be’ very that links things in statements such a ‘A is B’.) Therefore, the copula ‘to be’ in the context of an inanimate noun is different from that in the context of an animate noun. The negative form of the copula is also completely different. In this lesson we will cover the inanimate forms, and deal with the animate forms later. Existential copula with inanimate 1. To be at/in -re menaij 2. To not be at/in -re banoij Exercise 1). Please answer the following questions in Mundari. amaij oraij do kota-re mena? amaij hatu do kota-re mena? amaij hatu-re buru menaij ci banoij? 2). Please translate the following dialogue in Mundari Etwari: Where is your house? Mangra: My house is in Jojohatu village. Etwari: Where is Jojohatu village? Mangra: It is beyond Maranghada On Randub road. Etwari: Are there flowers in the village. Mangra: No there are no flowers in the village. There is a mountain in the village. 18 3 BASIC CONVERSATION 3.6 Is your father at home? Sentence apu-m oraij-re menaij-i-a ci? ˙ ‘Is your father at home?’ hee, menaij-i-a. eṅga-ñ-loij mosaij-te menaij-kin-a. ‘Yes, he is (at home). He is together with my mother.’ tobe, kaka-m do? ‘Then, how about your uncle?’ kaka-ñ do baṅgaiij-a. ‘My uncle is not there.’ kaki-m do? ‘How about your aunt?’ kaka-ñ-aij oraij-re do jita-o baṅ-ko-a. ˙ ‘There is no one at my uncle s house.’ In the last lesson we learned the inanimate form of the copula ‘to be’. Here we will learn the animate forms. Unlike the inanimate forms, which are not affected by the number (singular, dual, plural), the animate of the copula has three forms, changing according to number. The singular negative form is irregular. Existential copula with animate nouns 1. To be at/in (a) singular menaij-i-a (b) dual menaij-kin-a (c) plural menaij-ko-a 2. to not be at/in (a) singular baṅgaiij-a (b) dual baṅ-kin-a (c) plural baṅ-ko-a 19 3 BASIC CONVERSATION Next we will consider kinship terminology. In many languages there is a reference form and an address form for members of the family. Mundari makes this distinction as well. The kinship terms are followed by a hyphen, and the personal pronoun forms must be attached here. So, for example the form would be aji-ñ ‘my elder sister’ or apu-m ‘your father’. The simple forms aji ‘elder sister’ and apu ‘father’ do not exist in isolation. Kinship terms are different from the personal pronoun possessive forms we have seen, in that a form of the personal pronoun itself is attached to the kinship term. Note that elder brother and sister are discreet terms, but younger brother and younger sister are the same boko-. When distinction must be made, the forms boko-nñ kor?a ‘younger brother’ and boko-nñ kur?i ‘younger sister’ are used, (in this case -ñ ‘my’, to keep the words grammatical). Ways of expressing relationships through kinship terminology different by language; for example, English does not differentiate between ‘elder’ and ‘younger’ siblings. In Mundari, there is no differentiation of male or female with regards to relatives that are younger than the speaker. Here we gave the example of brother/sister, but there are other examples as well; for example, hon- ‘son/daughter’, iril- ‘brother/sister of husband’, gere- ‘child of younger sister, child of younger brother of wife’, and others. We give the reference form and address form for kinship terms in Mundari. Kinship terminology relation father reference apu- address aba uncle (younger sibling of father) aunt (younger sibling of father) eṅgabada˙ badi˙ kakakaki- eaṅ bada ˙ badi ˙ kaka kaki elder brother elder sister younger brother/sister bauajiboko- dada dai names mother uncle (elder sibling of father) aunt (elder sibling of father) kinship terminology and possive forms 1. my mother eṅga-ñ 2. your father apu-m 3. his/her elder sister aji-te 4. my son hon-iñ kora ˙ 5. my younger sister boko-ñ kuri ˙ 20 3 BASIC CONVERSATION Exercise 1). Please translate the following dialogue into Mundari. Soma: What is your father’s name? Birsi: My father’s name is Sukuram. Soma: Is your father at home. Birsi: No he is not at home. He is at my older paternal uncle’s home. Soma: Is your mother at home.? Birsi: No my mother is not at home. They both are at my older paternal uncle’s home. Soma: Who is at your home. Birsi: There is no one at my home. 2). Please translate using "address" kinship terminology Birsi: Hey mother, are you at home? Mother: No I am not at home. I am at your elder brother’s home. Birsi: Hey elder sister, where is your village. Elder sister: My village is Jhilimili. Birsi: Hey father, where are you? Father: I am together with your mother at home. 21 3 BASIC CONVERSATION 3.7 Do you have a book? Sentance am-taij-re kitab menaij? ‘Do you have a book?’ kaa, añ-taij-re do banoij. soma-taij-re menaij. ‘No, I dont́ have a book. Soma has one.’ ena do-ñ itu-an-a ‘I know that.’ añ-aij oraij-re kitab do moyod-o banoij. ˙ ‘In my house there are no books.’ ke, mendo siuij-caluij horo-ko-taij-re do uriij-merom-ko menaij-ko-a, hecika? ˙ ‘Well, but, at farmerś houses there are cows and goats, right?’ hee, ale-aij oraij-re-o uriij-merom-ko menaij-ko-a. ˙ ‘Yes, at our house there are cows and goats too.’ oraij-re kami horo-ko menaij-ko-a ci? ˙ ˙ ‘Is there anyone working at your house?’ hee, hon-ko menaij-ko-a. kuri hon-kin bar horo-kin menaij-kin-a, ad moyod kora hon me˙ ˙ ˙ naij-i-a. ‘Yes, I have children. I have two daughters, and one son.’ When learning a new language, we often learn the verb ‘to have’ and its usage as one of the first and most important things. However, Mundari does not have a simple verb ‘to have’. Instead, the construction ‘there is … at someone’, to convey the idea of having or possessing. Here as well, it is necessary to be careful about inanimate and animate nouns. Do you have? 1. inanimate nouns taij-re menaij 2. animate nouns (a) singular taij-re menaij-i-a (b) dual taij-re menaij-kin-a 22 3 BASIC CONVERSATION (c) plural taij-re menaij-ko-a For example, am-taij-re paisa menaij ci? ‘Do you have money?’ añ-taij-re seta-ko menaij-ko-a. ‘I have dogs’ The lack of the verb ‘to have’ is common in South Asian languages. For example, in Hindi to ask ‘How much money do you have?’ the verb <ht honaa ‘to be’ is used: <ht aap ke paas kitne paise hAI with a construction equivalent to ‘at your side’ <ht aap ke paas, similar to the Mundari am-taij-re, introduced in this lesson. Exercise 1). Please answer the following questions in the positive and negative. am taij-re kitab menaij ci? am taij-re kuri hon menaij-i-a ci? ˙ am taij-re kora hon kin baria menaij-kin-a ci? ˙ am taij-re merom ko menaij-ko-a ci? oraij-re kami horo-ko menaij-ko-a ci? ˙ ˙ 2). Please translate the following dialogue into Mundari. Budui: Do you have a daughter? Etwari: I have two daughters. Budui: Do you have a son. Etwari: I have sons (plural). Budui: Do you have cows? Etwari: Yes, at our (ale) house we have cows and goats. We (ale) are farmers. Budui: At a farmer’s house there is no money. Etwari: We have no money. 23 3 BASIC CONVERSATION 3.8 I am Japanese Sentence am do okoe tan-iij ? ‘Who are you?’ añ do japani taniij. am do okoe? ‘I am Japanese. How about you?’ añ do soma tan-iij. nea hatu-re-niij. inku do? ‘I am Soma. I am from this village [a person of this village]. How about those people?’ inku do japani horo-ko-loij kami tan-ko. ˙ ‘Those people are ones working with the Japanese.’ am-aij nutum do ‘What is your name?’ añ do osada-tan-iij. ‘My name is Osada.’ am do maki-aij kisan tan-iij, he ci ka? ‘You are Maki s husband, right?’ he, añ do maki-aij kisan. ‘Yes, I am Maki s husband.’ In English, the copula ‘to be’ expresses both existence and identity. Hindi uses the verb honA honā for both purposes as well. However, Mundari has separate words to express these different variations of the copula. The copula of existence has already been covered, so here we introduce the copula of identity. Identity copula 1. singular tan-iij 2. dual tan-kin 3. plural tan-ko The distinction between two copula verbs, i.e., existence and identity in the western IndoAryan languages, but it does exist in the eastern languages such as Bengali. More information can be found at Osada (1991) Linguistic convergence in the Chotanagpur area of eastern 24 3 BASIC CONVERSATION India in Sanjay Basu-Mullick (ed.) Cultural Chotanagpur: Unity in Diversity. Delhi: Uppal Publisher. pp. Exercise 1). Please answer the following questions in Mundari. ‘Who are you?’ ‘Are you working with the Japanese?’ ‘What is your name?’ ‘Are you Maki’s husband?’ 2). Please translate the following into Mundari. My name is Osada. I am a Japanese. I am from Kobe. I am Maki’s husband. We two are working with Munda people. They are people from that village. The village is in Ranchi. 25 3 BASIC CONVERSATION 3.9 This house is big Sentence nea oraij maraṅ-ge-a. ˙ ‘This house is big.’ ka, nea ate ena oraij ge maraṅ-a. ˙ ‘No, that is bigger than this one.’ soben ate maraṅ-utar oraij do oko-aij? ˙ ‘Which is the biggest house?’ hana han-re menaij. samu-aij oraij ge. ˙ ‘That one over there. It s Samu s house.’ añ-aij oraij do bese huriṅ-ge-a. am-aij oraij do cilika menaij ? ˙ ˙ ˙ ‘My house is very small. Which is your house?’ añ-aij oraij-o huriṅ-ge-a. mendo, ote do bese menaij. ˙ ˙ ‘My house is also small. But I have [there is] lots of land.’ Adjectives One characteristic of Mundari is that it is rather difficult to discern word classes. In particular, it is often said that there are no separate classes of verbs and nouns. This view is commonly held by linguists. In reality, it is more accurate to say that this is just a tendency, and one can find many words that are used only as nouns, and many words that are use only as verbs. However, the distinction between verbs and adjectives is indeed quite difficult. On one hand, adjectives take the same descriptive endings as verbs, and generally act like verbs. On the other hand, in relative clauses, verbs are placed directly in front of the noun they are modifying, acting like adjectives. However, words that can fit into the constructions below can be considered to be adjectives. The largest difference between adjectives and verbs is that differing meanings created by the -pV- infix. This is explained in more detail in the Grammar Section. 1. attributive . . . ge a 2. comparative A ate B . . . 26 3 BASIC CONVERSATION 3. superlative soben ate . . . -utar Exercise 1). Translate the following from Mundari into English. hana oraij maraṅ-ge-a. ˙ ena oraij maraṅ-ge-a. ˙ nea hatu-re hana oraij ate ena oraij maraṅ-ge-a. ˙ ˙ ena hatu-re soma oraij soben ate maraṅ utar-ge-a. ˙ 2). Translate the following dialogue into Mundari. Soma: Which house is your’s? Birsa: My house is that one over there. It is in Jojohatu village. Soma: Is your house big. Birsa: My house is very small. Mangra’s house is bigger than my house. Soma: Is Mangra’s house the biggest in Jojohatu village? Birsa: Yes. But I have a lot of land. 27 3 BASIC CONVERSATION 3.10 What time is it now? Sentence ciminaṅ samae hoba-akan-a? ‘What time is it now?’ ek bajao-tan-a, jaaij. añ taij-re gari banoij. iniij taij-re do menaij jaaij. ˙ ‘Probably around 1 o clock. I don’t have a watch. That person probably has a watch.’ eei, am taij-re gari menaij ci? ‘Hey, do you have a watch?’ hee, añ taij-re gari menaij. ‘Yes, I do.’ tobe, ciminaṅ samae hoba-oij-tan-a? ek bajao-tan-a ci? ‘Well, what time is it? Is it 1 o’clock yet?’ auri. naaij do bara bajao-tan-a. ‘Not yet. Its 12 o’clock now.’ In Munda society, people who have been educated or live in the city have watches. But most of the people who live in villages do not, and even if they do have a watch, it is rare that people move according to the time shown on it. Is it right to say that that Munda people are really not interested in watches or time telling? For people living modern lives driven by strict time-schedules, one may get the impression that Munda people are just living with the endless flow of time. However, the Munda have their own way of keeping the time. As shown below, the pre-dawn and dawn times are particularly complex, suggesting that Munda time-telling is intricately linked with their way of life. In this case it reflects that they are early risers. Traditional Munda times of the day 1. early morning : idaṅ siṅgi 2. before midday : landia tikin ˙˙ 3. midday : tikin (siṅgi) 4. afternoon : haneij siṅgi ˙ 5. before evening : daij basaṅ siṅgi 6. time to bring in livestock : uriij apader siṅgi 28 3 BASIC CONVERSATION 7. evening : ayub 8. sunset : siṅgi hasur-ta-n-re 9. dusk : nudum-nudum/mı̄r-mı̄r nubaij-ta-n-re 10. night : nida 11. midnight : tala nida 12. call of dimcua bird : dimcuaij ranaij ˙ 13. call of kerketta bird : kerketta ranaij 14. crow of first chicken : sida sim-ko ranaij 15. crow of second chicken : tayom sim-ko ranaij 16. crow of morning chicken : setaij sim-ko raij 17. daybreak : aṅ-ta-n-re 18. dawn : siṅgi tur-ta-n-re Exercise 1). Please tell the time you usually do the following in Mundari. What time do you… wake up go to sleep eat lunch bring back livestock from grazing eat breakfast have an evening snack go to work 2). Translate the following dialogue into Mundari. Birsi: Hey elder brother, what time are you in the house? Brother: I am in the house in the evening time. Birsi: What time are you in the village? Brother: I am in the village mid-day. Birsi: What time is it now? Brother: Now it is 12:00. 29 3 BASIC CONVERSATION 3.11 Where are you going? Sentence ko-te-m senoij-ta-n-a. ‘Where are you going?’ ranci-te-ñ senoij-ta-n-a. am do ko-te-m-ta-n-a. ‘I am going to Ranchi. Where are you going?’ añ do jeta-te ka. honor-ta-n-a-ñ. ranci-re do ko-taij-re-m tain-a ? ‘I am not going anywhere. I am taking a walk. Where will you stay in Ranchi?’ hon-iñ kora-taij-re-ñ tain-a. añ-aij hon do naaij do ranci-re menaij-i-a. ˙ ‘I will stay at my son’s place. My children (child) are/is in Ranchi now.’ ke. añ-aij hon do oraij-re ge-ij kami-ta-n-a. naaij ge-ij hijuij-ta-n-a. ˙ ‘Oh, is that so? My child is working at home. He is coming here now.’ kuriij ? hee. haniij han-re menaij-i-a. hijuij-ta-n-a-eij. ‘Where? Oh, he is over there. He is coming here.’ Verbs and pronominal affixes When the subject or object of a verb is animate, person must be indicated using pronominal affixes. Pronominal affixes are used on the word immediately preceding the verb or on other affixed elements. Pronominal affixes are also attached directly to the end of verbs. It is increasingly common for pronominal suffixes to be used directly with verbs, but among older people who speak only Mundari one notices a preference for use of pronominal affixes on words immediately preceding the verb. Even as one gains fluency in Mundari, it is easy to forget these pronominal suffixes so attention should be given to using them. More detailed explanation is given in the grammar section. Pronominal affixes singular dual first person inclusive first person exclusive second person third person plural -(i)ñ -laṅ -liṅ -bu -le -m(e) -(e)ij/-i -ben -kin -pe -ko Interrogatives and affixes The main interrogative used in this lesson was ‘where’. In English, particles are attached to 30 3 BASIC CONVERSATION ‘where’, to make questions such as ‘to where’ and ‘from where’. In Mundari, interrogatives take suffixes to form question clauses. The suffixes -re, -te and -ate are combined with -taij and -saij to form interrogative phrases: 1. ko-re (oko-re) ‘where’ 2. ko-taij-re (oko-taij-re) ‘at which place’ 3. ko-saij-re (oko-saij-re) ‘in which direction’ 4. ko-te (oko-te) ‘to where’ 5. ko-taij-te (oko-taij-te) ‘to which place’ 6. ko-saij-te (oko-saij-te) ‘towards which direction’ 7. oko-ate (ko-ate) ‘from where’ 8. ko-tag-ate (oko-tag-ate) ‘from where (vague)’ 9. ko-sag-ate (oko-sag-ate) ‘from where’ Exercise 1). Translate the following dialogue from Mundari to English. Osada: etwari kote-ij senoij-tana? Mangra: iniij do ranchi-te-ij senoij-tana. Osada: kuri hon-kin kote-kin senoij-tana? ˙ Mangra: kuri hon-kin jeta do ka. naaij ge oraij-te-kin hijuij-tan-a. ˙ ˙ Osada: ar kora hon do kota re menaij-i-a? ˙ Mangra: añ-aij hon do oraij-re-ge-ij kami ta-n-a. ˙ 2). Translate the following dialogue from English to Mundari. Soma: Etwari, where are you and your husband going? Etwari: We two are going to Japan. Soma: Japan is toward which direction? Etwari: Japan is beyond Ranchi. Soma: From which direction (vague) are you and your two daughters coming? Etwari: We (inclusive) are coming from that direction, beyond Sarwada village. 31 3 BASIC CONVERSATION 3.12 What are you doing? Sentance cana-m cika-ta-n-a ? ‘What are you doing?’ mandi-ñ jom-ta-n-a. ˙˙ ‘I am eating.’ cana utu ? ‘What is the main dish?’ sim jilu. am do ? ‘Chicken. How about you?’ auri-ñ jom-e-a. eṅga-ñ oraij-re baṅgaiij-a. ˙ ‘I have not eaten yet. My mother is not at home.’ tobe, ne-taij-re ge jom-e-me. ‘Okay then, eat here.’ ka-ñ-a. aji-ñ ge mandi do-eij bai-ta-n-a. oraij-re ge-ñ jom-a. ˙ ˙˙ ‘No, my older sister is cooking right now. I will eat at home.’ Mundari has complex verbal structures. Here we ask the question ‘what are you doing?’ and the answers involve several complex verb forms. We will not go into these here, but they are elaborated in the grammar section. Here we will simply introduce some of the words needed to follow and respond to questions. Response 1. yes hee 2. no ka 3. not yet auri 4. okay, then tobe 5. hmmm ke Exercise 1). Translate the following dialogue from English into Mundari. 32 3 BASIC CONVERSATION Sombari: What are you doing? Sukur: I am doing nothing. I am just walking. Sombari: How about your work? Sukur: Not yet, my son is working. Sombari: Is your son at home? He is going to Ranchi. Sukur: No, he has a work in this village. 2). Translate the following dialogue from Mundari to English. Birsa: ee, soma. cana-m cika tana? Soma: kaka-ñ oraij-te-ñ senoij-tana ˙ Birsa: kaka-m, cana-eij cika tana? Soma: jitao ka, añ ge-ñ kami tana Birsa: kaka-m-aij hon-ko menaij-ko-a ci? Soma: naaij do baṅkoa. soben-ko ranci-re-ko tain tana. 33 3 BASIC CONVERSATION 3.13 When are you going to Ranchi? Sentence cimtaṅ ranci-te-m senog-a? ‘When are you going to Ranchi?’ gapa-ñ senog-a. ‘I will go tomorrow.’ tobe, mosa-te ge-laṅ senog-a. ‘Okay then, let’s go together.’ mosa-te do ka-ñ dari-a. ˙ ‘I can’t go together.’ cilikate? ‘Why not?’ ciaij ci mundu-ren kaka-ñ oraij-re kami menaij. gapa ranci-te-ñ tebaij-a ci ka? ka-ñ kaji˙ ˙˙ dari-a. ˙ ‘Because my uncle has some work at home in Murhu. When will I arrive at Ranchi tomorrow? I can’t say (depending upon my uncle).’ tobe, am-loij do ka-ñ-a. soma-loij ranci-te-liṅ senog-a. ‘Okay then, I will not go together (with you). I will go with Soma.’ Interrogatives As we reach the end of the conversation section, let’s review the interrogatives. Interrogatives are essential for asking about thinks we do not know. Previously, when Kyosuke Kindaichi, who was the famous professor of Tokyo University studying on the endangered language, Ainu at Hokkaido, went to Sakhalin to gather information on the Sakhalin Ainu language in 1920s, it is said that he collected vocabulary using pictures. He made scribbled some things on a piece of paper and showed them to children. The children responded by calling out ‘hemata?’ in Sakhalin Ainu, which means ‘what?’ Having succeeded in eliciting the word for ‘what’, his data collection improved greatly by repeatedly using his new word. This story shows how useful question words are in learning languages. Try to remember that when we are children we constantly ask ‘what is this, what is that’, acquiring new words all the time. 1. when : cimtaṅ 34 3 BASIC CONVERSATION 2. where : kore, kuriij, kote 3. who : okoe 4. what : cana, cina 5. why : cilikate 6. how many : ciminaṅ Exercise 1). Translate the following from dialogue from English to Mundari Mangra: Hey elder sister, when are you coming to my house. Etwari: I will come to your house tomorrow. Mangra: Will you come with your husband? Etwari: No I will not come with my husband. My husband has work. I will come with my son. 2). Ask the questions in Mundari that correspond with the following answers. ‘I am going to Ranchi.’ ‘I will go to Ranchi tomorrow.’ ‘I will go to Ranchi tomorrow with my elder brother, Soma.’ ‘I have work in Ranchi.’ ‘My work is farmer’s work.’ ‘I have 2 cows.’ 35 Grammar Section 4 4 GRAMMAR SECTION Grammar Section 4.1 Gender and Number of Nouns Sentence sirma-re ipil-ko menaij-ko-a ‘There are stars in the sky.’ sirma-re siṅgi baṅgaiij-a. rimbil-ke-d-a-eij. ‘The sun can’t be seen in the sky. It has become cloudy.’ oraij-re kitab-ko menaij-a ˙ ‘There are books in the house.’ kaka-ñ ar kaki-ñ ranci-te-kin senoij-ta-n-a. ‘My uncle and aunt are going to Ranchi.’ daṅgara-ko ar daṅgari-ko akara-re-ko susun-ta-n-a. ˙ ˙ ˙ ‘The boys and girls are dancing at Akhara.’ In Mundari, there is a distinction between animate and inanimate nouns. The test for this distinction is to check whether person is indictated on the verb form. That is, in the case of a copula, if the verb is menaij the noun must be inanimate, but if the verb is menaiji-a, menaijkin-a or menaij-ko-a, this indicates an animate noun. This distinction is very important. There is also a masculine/feminine distinction in some nouns. This comes from the influence of neighboring Indo-Aryan languages. For example: Masculine Feminine kaka kaki bada daṅgara ˙ kora ˙ badi daṅgari ˙ kuri ˙ There is the following distinction of number in Mundari nouns. meaning ‘dog’ Number singular dual seta seta-kin plural seta-ko ‘human’ ‘book’ horo ˙ kitab horo-kin ˙ kitab-kin horo-ko ˙ kitab-ko ‘cloth’ lijaij lijaij-kin lijaij-ko 37 4 GRAMMAR SECTION The criteria for this distinction is whether the noun can be counted, regardless of the animate/inanimate question. However, one must remember that, as in the example above, with kitab-ko, the verb is not *kitab-ko menaij-ko-a. Person is not indicated on the verb. 38 4 4.2 GRAMMAR SECTION Nouns and Postpositionals Sentence hatu-re-ko tain-a. ‘They (plural) live in the [a] village.’ hatu-te-kin senog-a. ‘They (dual) go to the village.’ hatu-ate-liṅ hijug-a. ‘We (dual) come from the village.’ hatu-taij-re oraij-ko menaij. ˙ ‘There is houses in the village.’ hatu-taij-te bas hijug-a. ‘The bus comes to the village.’ hatu-tag-ate-ko hijug-a ‘They (plural) come from (a direction of) the village.’ hatu-saij-re-kin tain-a. ‘They (dual) live [over in] the village.’ hatu-saij-te-ñ senog-a. ‘I go [over to] the village.’ hatu-sag-ate-ko hijug-a. ‘They (plural) come from [over in] the village.’ There is no noun declension in Mundari. Instead, suffixes are used. The three most important of these are -re, -te, and -ate. These correspond to the three English prepositions ‘in’, ‘to’ and ‘from’ respectively. However, -te is also used as an instrumental, meaning ‘by’ or ‘with’. Furthermore, taij- ‘vicinity’ and saij- ‘direction’ can be attached to -re, -te and -ate, creating rather complex postpositional structures. To show more specific location, cetan ‘above’, latar ‘below , ayar ‘in front’, and tayom ‘behind’ can be used in combination with these postpositionals. In this case they are inserted before the three basic postpositional, such as in or?aij-cetan-re ‘above the house’ and or?aayar-saij-te ‘in the direction of the front of the house’. 39 4 4.3 GRAMMAR SECTION Demonstratives Sentence nimin horo-ko ka-ko soab-a. ˙ ‘This many people can not enter [into such a limited place]. ’ amin horo-ko ka-ñ lel-aka-d-ko-a. ˙ ‘I have never seen that many people.’ niminaṅ do ka soab-a. ‘This much can not fill into such a small bag].’ aminaṅ ka-ñ lel-aka-d-ko-a. ‘I have never seen that much.’ bajar-te-laṅ senog-a. ‘Let’s go to the market.’ nimtaṅ do ka. ‘I am not going now. (but will later)’ namtaṅ do ka. ‘I am not going now. (this is not the time to go, because it is crowded)’ neka hoba-ja-n-a. ‘It became like this.’ naka misa-o ka hoba-aka-n-a. ‘Something like this has never happened.’ Demonstratives are made up of three degrees of proximity; close, non-distant and distant. For ni/ne there is an alternate na form, while in/en has an alternative form an and hin/hen has the alternate han. The -i/-e alternation can be explanated by Mundari vowel harmony rules, but why is there separate forms with -aij. This is difficult to explain simply in terms of demonstratives, but looking at the examples above using definite demonstrative adjectives and definite demonstrative nouns can help clarify. We have nimin ‘this much’ and niminaṅ ‘this much of’, and namin ‘this much’ and naminaṅ ‘this much of’. For the first pair there is no sense of any particular expectation suggested, while for the second pair the nuance is ‘this much, which is more than was expected’. A similar difference is reflected in the adverbial demonstrative nimtaṅ ‘at this time’ and namtaṅ ‘a time like this’, and neka ‘like this’ and 40 4 GRAMMAR SECTION naka ‘as much as this’. Here again, the former pair includes no expectation, while the second pair is commenting that the degree is more than expected. This different was first discussed in Osada (1992), and we believe that it is the correct interpretation. However Munda (1980) has set up a 3 x 3 system for demonstratives. Demonstratives and their derivative forms are presented in the following reference tables. close ni/ne na Demonstratives non-distance distance in/en an hin/hen han Demonstrative pronouns (animate) close non-distance distance ni-iij na-iij in-iij an-iij hin-iij han-iij ni-kin na-kin ni-ku in-kin an-kin in-ku hin-kin han-kin hin-ku na-ku an-ku han-ku Demonstrative pronouns (inanimate) close non-distance distance ni-a/ne-a in-a/en-a hin-a/hen-a na-ya an-a han-a Demonstrative adverbs (close) saij taij ne-re ne-saij-re ne-taij-re ne-te ne-ate ne-saij-te ne-sag-ate ne-taij-te ne-tag-ate na-re na-te na-ate na-saij-re na-saij-te na-sag-ate na-taij-re na-taij-te na-tag-ate 41 4 GRAMMAR SECTION Demonstrative adverbs (non-distance) saij taij en-re en-saij-re en-taij-re en-te en-ate an-re en-saij-te en-sag-ate an-saij-re en-taij-te en-tag-ate an-taij-re an-te an-ate an-saij-te an-sag-ate an-taij-te an-tag-ate Demonstrative adverbs (distance) hen-re saij hen-saij-re taij hen-taij-re hen-te hen-ate han-re hen-saij-te hen-sag-ate han-saij-re hen-taij-te hen-tag-ate han-taij-re han-te han-ate han-saij-te han-sag-ate han-taij-te han-tag-ate Demonstrative definites this much nimin namin that much imin amin Demonstrative definite nouns that is this much that is that much niminaṅ iminaṅ naminaṅ aminaṅ Demonstrative adverbs (time) this time that time nimtaṅ/nimtuṅ namtaṅ/namtuṅ imtaṅ/imtuṅ amtaṅ/amtuṅ Demonstrative adverbs (situation) like this neka naka like that enka anka like that (distance one) henka hanka 42 4 4.4 GRAMMAR SECTION Interrogatives Sentence oko hon taiken-a? ‘Which child was it?’ cana-m cika-ta-n-a? ‘What are you doing?’ cilika menaij-me-a? ‘How is it?’ okoe taiken-a? ‘Who was it?’ oko-niij taiken-a? ‘Whcih person was it?’ Interrogatives were discussed in the Basic Conversation Section. They have derivative forms that are similar to the demonstratives. Interogative pronouns (animate) what kind of person etc. can-iij can-kin which okon-iij okon-kin what type cilikan-iij cilikan-kin can-ku okon-ku cilikan-ku Interogative pronouns (inanimate) can-a/cin-a oko-a cilikan-a Interogative advers (place) ko-re/ oko-re ko-te/ oko-te saij ko-saij-re/ oko-saij-re ko-saij-te/ oko-saij-te taij ko-taij-re/ oko-taij-re ko-taij-te/ oko-taij-te oko-ate oko-sag-ate oko-tag-ate 43 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4.5 Indefinites Sentence okoe hijuij-aka-n-a. ‘Has someone come? ’ okoe do hijuij-aka-n-a. ‘Someone has come.’ jaa merom nam-a-i-me. ‘Any goat if fine, please get it’ jeta merom ka-ko nam-oij-a. ‘They cannot find any kind of goat.’ am jaa-imunuṅ kaji-re-o-ñ senog-a. ‘No matter what you say, I will go.’ jaa-impuruṅ maparaṅ-re-o ka-ñ suku-a. ‘No matter how big it is, I will not like it.’ jaa-taij-re tain-re-o-ko hewa-oij-a. ‘No matter what type of place they live, they will get used to it.’ am lekan horo jeta-taij-re baṅ-ko-a. ˙ ‘There is no one like you anywhere.’ jaa-leka bai-a. ‘Any way is fine, please make it.’ jeta-leka ka-ñ dari-a. ˙ ‘No matter how it is done, I cannot do it.’ In Mundari, the indefinite is similar to the interrogative. This indefinite is used in concessive clause, such as the ‘no matter how. . . ’ in the example sentences above. There is variation pattern (i/e and a) similar to that introduced in the discussion of demonstratives, but the forms used here are jaa and jeta. The former is used for concessive positive sentences while the latter is used in concessive negative statements. 44 4 GRAMMAR SECTION Indefinite pronouns okoe/okon-iij jaae/jaan-iij jetae/jetan-iij oko(n)-kin jaa(n)-kin jeta(n)-kin okon-ku oko-a jaan-ku jaa jetan-ku jeta Indefinite adverbs (place) saij taij ko-re/oko-re ko-te/oko-te oko-ate ko-saij-re/oko-saij-re ko-saij-te/oko-saij-te oko-sag-ate ko-taij-re/oko-taij-re ko-taij-te/oko-taij-te oko-tag-ate jaa-re jaa-te jaa-saij-re jaa-saij-te jaa-taij-re jaa-taij-te jaa-ate jeta-re jeta-e jaa-sag-ate jeta-saij-re jaa-saij-te jaa-tag-ate jeta-taij-re jeta-taij-te jeta-ate jeta-sag-ate jeta-tag-ate 45 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4.6 Basic sentence structure The basic sentence structure of Mundari can be described as: Subject (Noun Phrase) + Indirect Object (Noun Phrase) + Direct Object (Noun Phrase) + (Postpositional Phrase) + (Adverbial Phrase) + Verb Mundari has no noun declension to indicate the functional distinction between subject, indirect object and direct object. That means that the subject and object are determined by word order. The subject usually precedes the object in the sentence, although this is at best a tendency and not an absolute rule. Marking of subject and object within the verb make the noun function clear, but not always so because at times the subject and object may take the same pronominal suffix. This will be discussed more later. Verbs taking an indirect object are few, but in that case the indirect object may take the meaning of ‘for’, and is indicated by use of the postpositional nan?gen making it a postpositional phrase. Postpositional phrases usually specify time and place. Adverbial phrases do the same. It is possible for two or more postpositional phrases and adverbial phrases to occur. The location of postpositional phrases and adverbial phrases in the sentence is not fixed, but they are often found at the head of the sentence. Let us look at a longer example sentence. kupul-ko guest-PL. oraij-re seta-ko(-naṅgen) hola mandi-ko om-a-d-ko-a ˙ ˙˙ house-LOC dog-PL.(-for) yesterday food-SUB gave ‘The guests gave food to the dogs at the house yesterday.’ The phrase ‘at the house’ and ‘yesterday’ can be inserted most anywhere, as long as they come before the verb. However, the position of the phrases ‘the guests’ and ‘the dogs’ cannot be reversed, because there is no other way to determine which is the subject and which is the object. Unless we are talking about a special group of care-giving dogs that can serve a meal, reversal of the order will probably not result in confusion on the part of the listener. Research on sentence structure involves assessing the acceptability of different sentence structures that are independent of context. But when a Munda person is asked if a sentence with these two phrases reversed is possible in Mundari, they will often reply by saying that such a situation is not possible so they would not produce such a sentence. This is one of the difficulties of fieldwork. The point is that it should not be forgotten that sentences do depend upon context, and the basic sentence structure introduced above should be kept in mind as a model that may require some flexibility when creating and interpreting real sentences in Mundari. For those with exposure to Japanese, Korean and Tibeto-Burman languages, this basic structure will be familiar. 46 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4.7 Basic structure of verbs The basic structure of a verb in a declarative sentence is as follows: VB Stem + ASP + TRA/INTRA + OBJ + -a + SUB VB:Verb, ASP:Aspect, TRA:Transitive, INTRA:Intransitive, OBJ:Object, SUB:Subject Verb Stem = Verb Root + affix Intransitive Marker = -nTransitive Marker = -dObject Marker, Subject Marker = personal affixes. In a declarative sentence, there is no marking of aspect, transitivity/intransitivity or object on the future or universal present (e.g. ‘the earth is round’) forms of verbs. In that case, if the subject is inanimate -a is affixed to the verb root to form a sentence. For example: tiṅgu-a ‘(something inanimate) stands’ hon-ko dub-a-ko. ‘the children sit’ mandi-ko jom-e-a. ‘They eat rice’ ˙˙ One characteristic of Mundari is that words that are usually considered as nouns can be used as verb roots. For example, buru ‘mountain, hill’ and gara ‘river’ can be used in the ˙ following way, as verbs: hon-ko saan-ko buru-ke-d-a ‘the children piled up the firewood’ hon-ko hora-re-ko gara-aka-d-a. ˙ ‘the children dug a channel in the road and made it like a river’ Because of this it is often said by observers, including linguistis, that the Mundari language does not have separate ‘verb’ and ‘noun’ categories. In his book Mundari Grammar, published in 1903, Father Hoffmann stated that Mundari has no word classes as followed: Thus the same unchanged form is at the same time a Conjunction, an Adjective, a Pronoun, an Adverb, a Verb and a Noun, or, to speak more precisely, it may become a Conjunction, an Adjective, etc., etc.; but by itself alone is it none of them. It is simply a vague elastic word, capable of signifying, in a vague manner, several distinct concepts, i.e. of assuming a variety of functions. (Hoffmann 1903) Many linguists follow his analysis. Hoffmans´ is considered in Holland to be one of the worlds´ 100 great grammar books. However, we believe that Mundari does indeed distinguish between nouns and verbs. According to Nick Evans, one of the editors of the journal Lin-guistic Typology, Osada is the only Munda linguist that insists that Mundari has separate verb and noun classes. It is true that the use of a noun as a verb stem is quite productive in Mundari, and this point cannot be stressed enough. However, it is not very common for a word that is arguably 47 4 GRAMMAR SECTION a verb be used as a noun. Furthermore, there is an infix -nV- that is used to make a noun out of a verb, but not all verbs can be nominalized with this infix. And only words that are arguably verbs can take this infix. We believe that these constraints show that Mundari does have word classes, that is, that a distinction is made between verbs and nouns. In fact, Nick Evans and Osada have authored a paper considering the situation of nouns and verbs in Mundari from a typological point of view, looking at different languages around the world. Please see the following article in details: Evans, N and Osada T. 2005. Mundari: The myth of a language without word classes, Linguistic Typology 9:351-390. The use of pronominal suffixes is one characteristic that sets Mundari apart from other typologically similar languages such as Japanese. However, pronominal suffixes are not rare in the world s languages. However, in Mundari the location of these pronominal suffixes is not set. For example, they can occur at the end of a verb or on the object or postpositional phrase that comes before a verb. It is particularly rare for pronimonal affixes to appear on the word before a verb. However, currently it is increasingly common for these affixes to appear at the end of a verb. In any case, it is important not to forget the placement of the pronominal suffix, as it is key to understanding the meaning of the sentence. With regards to aspect marking and transivity/intransivity marking, Hoffman believed that the two should be considered together as tense marking. Indeed, transivity/intransivity marking does not occur alone; rather this marking is always done as part of the aspect marking. However, aspect marking on future sentence constructions does occur alone; that is, it is not accompanied with transivity/intransivity marking. For this reason we believe that it is more appropriate to consider them as distinct. More will be said about aspect marking and transiv-ity/intransivity marking. Finally, we will explain the -a introduced in the basic verbal structure mentioned above. Hoffman referred to this is ‘-a verbalizing . However, aside from declarative sentences, say commands and desiderative sentences, -a is not found at the end of verbs. Under the term verbalization, a verb within an imperative or optative sentence does not become deverbalized. In the 1960s, the Munda research project at Chicago University used the term predicator, and we have adopted this term in Osada's 1992 A reference grammar of Mundari. However, this term is being used differently in linguistics these days. It appears that one has simply been used to replace the other, and for this reason Osada stopped using the term in 1996. Instead, focusing on its occurrence in declarative sentences, we refer to the -a indicating an indicative sentence as an indicative marker.' We will discuss the rules for commands and desideratives later. 48 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4.8 Transitive and intransitive verbs Sentence dub-aka-n-a-eij ‘He/She is sitting.’ hon-ko-eij dub-aka-d-ko-a. ‘He/She is seating the children.’ pulis-ko kumburu-kin-ko sab-aka-d-kin-a. ˙ ‘The police caught two thieves.’ kumburu-kin sab-aka-n-a-kin. ˙ ‘Two thieves were caught.’ hon-ko-eij goeij-ke-d-ko-a. ‘He killed the children.’ hon-ko goeij-ja-n-a-ko. ‘The children died.’ Verbs Intransitive durum ˙ inuṅ meanig ‘to sleep’ ‘to play’ Transitive jom lel meaning ‘to eat’ ‘to see’ aṅ dub ‘to dawn’ ‘to sit’ nam udub ‘find’ ‘to tell’ The distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs is not completely clear. It is common for a verb root to be used in both transitive and intransitive contexts. However, of the verbs given above, durum ‘to sleep’, inuṅ ‘to play’ and aṅ ‘to break (dawn)’, cannot take an ˙ object. These verbs have only intransitive usage. Of all the Mundari verb roots, there are only a few that are purely intransitive. It is difficult to make a judgment as to whether a verb root is intransitive or transitive, but we can surmise whether a verb root was initially transitive or intransitive. For example, the verb dub ‘to sit’ conveys a fundamentally intransitive action, but when it appears as a transitive verb we know that the meaning is causative ‘to (cause to) sit down’. The verb sab ‘to catch’, however, is fundamentally transitive, but when used as an intransitive verb, it takes passive meaning of ‘to be caught’. The most extreme example of this semantic interpretation is the verb goeij ‘to kill’ is a transitive verb, but can be used intransitively in the absence of a specified killer. The meaning becomes ‘to die’ rather than ‘to be killed’. 49 4 GRAMMAR SECTION The intransitive marker -n- and transitive marker -d- are most commonly used with verbs of that transitivity. However, on verbs not marked for aspect (such as the future form), transitivity markers do not appear alone. In other words, transitivity markers co-occur with aspect markers. It should be noted that the intransitive marker -n- included in the progressive form ta-n- is used on transitive verbs as well. The use of transitivity markers is quite complex, and a clear-cut prescription for their use is difficult. One useful strategy is to remember them in conjunction with aspect markers, which are explained in detail in following sections. 50 4 4.9 GRAMMAR SECTION Subjects and Objects Sentence hon-ko-ko senoij-ja-n-a. ‘The children went/have gone.’ samae senoij-ja-n-a. ‘Time passed.’ pusi seta-ko-eij hua-ke-d-ko-a. ‘The cat bit the dogs.’ seta-ko pusi-ko hua-ki-ij-i-a. ‘The dogs bit the cat.’ pusi seta-eij hua-ki-ij-i-a. ‘The cat bit the dog.’ seta pusi-eij hua-ki-ij-i-a. ‘The dog bit the cat.’ The usual order of subject and object is subject + object, although this is not rigidly set. There are cases when the object comes before the subject. And in most cases it is possible to tell which is the subject and which is the object from the context. However the context is sometimes not clear, and in these cases the subject/object marking on the verb will show which element is the subject and which is the object. In other words, when the subject or object noun is an animate noun, the subject/object marking cannot be omitted from the verb. The pronominal clitic agreeing with the subject will be shown on the front or end of the verb, and the pronominal clitic agreeing with the object will follow the transitive marker -d-. For example, in the examples above, there is one cat and more than three dogs. Because the object marker on the verb has taken the plural form, we know that one cat bit many dogs. If the object marker on the verb takes the singular form, the meaning must be that many dogs have bitten one cat. There are still more ambiguous cases. If the subject and object take the same pronominal clitics, one could interpret in both ways. Let us consider the last two examples. It is not clear if the dog bit the cat or the cat bit the dog. Theoretically, this type of ambiguous statement is feasible, but a Mundari speaker will not see it this way. Simply asking okoniij hua-ki-ij-i-a? seta ci pusi? ‘Which bit which? Dog or cat?’, the problem is solved. This type of ambiguity can be seen in the following relative clauses, but comparison of the two will uncover which bit which. 51 4 GRAMMAR SECTION pusi hua-ke-n-seta-eij goy-ja-n-a. ‘The dog that bit the cat died.’ pusi hua-ke-d-seta-eij goy-ja-n-a. ‘The dog that the cat bit died.’ Here we see the important role played by -n- and -d-. The relative clause is clearly a transitive construction, so transitive/intransitive markers cannot explain the meaning. If we consider that -n- gives subject focus, while -d- indicates object focus, we may be able to arrive at the right interpretation. That is to say, if we look at the relationship between pusihua-ke ‘cat bit’ and seta ‘dog’, which is the head of the relative clause, we see that -n- places focus on the subject, giving a meaning of ‘the dog bit the cat’. However, since -d- places focus on the object, in that case we know that ‘the cat bit the dog’. There is another important point to be made here. In transitive constructions, the noun that comprises the head of the subject must be an animate noun. This is an important principle. For example, a construction such as ‘The ball broke the glass’ is not acceptable. In English, there is no problem with an inanimate noun being the subject of a transitive verb. So ‘The food poisoned me’ is acceptable in English, but not in Mundari. 52 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4.10 Derivational verb bases (1) passive -oij Sentence buru lel-oij-ta-n-a. ‘The mountain is visible.’ kumburu-ko sab-og-a-ko. ˙ ‘The thieves are caught.’ durum-oij-ta-n-a-eij. ˙ ‘He is about to fall asleep.’ kug-oij-ta-n-a-eij. ‘He is about to cough.’ When -oij is attached to a verb stem it becomes a passive verb root. But this is not just a simple passive construction, but encompasses ‘possibility’, as seen in the first example buru lel-oij-ta-n-a ‘the mountain is visible (can be seen)’. In the examples durum-oij-ta-n-a-eij ‘He ˙ is about to fall asleep’ and kug-oij-ta-n-a-eij ‘He is about to cough’ the action of sleeping and coughing occurs against the will of the subject. Actions that are carried out with individual volitionality will cannot take -oij. Let us consider the following examples. *cog-oij-ta-n-a-eij ‘He is about to kiss (her).’ *beg-oij-ta-n-a-eij ‘He is about to spit’ Actions such as kissing and spitting cannot be carried out against oneś will, so the forms given above are not acceptable. These forms are also different from the type of subject-object interchange that characterizes English passive constructions. For example, ‘X is kissed by Y’ does not usually see omission of ‘by Y’. However, in Mundari, it is common that the actor of the action is not present in passive constructions. If one needs to mention the actor, the construction looks like this. añ-sag-ate buru lel-oij-ta-n-a. ‘From my side, the mountain is visible’ Furthermore, the distribution of -oij has constraints. When -oij is attached to a verb, it must only take the future/present form which has no aspect markers, or the ta-n-a construction. As we saw in the transitivity section, the intransitive form of the transitive verb sab ‘to catch’ creates a passive meaning. However this does not take -oij. The conditions governing the appearance or not of affixes on verbs is tricky as requires a certain degree of rote memorization. 53 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4.11 Derivational verb bases (2) -en/-n Sentence tusiṅ-en-ta-n-a-eij. ‘He is dressing himself.’ haragu-n-ja-n-a-ko. ˙ ‘He is going down by himself.’ soma aina-re-ij lel-en-ta-n-a. ‘Soma is looking at himself in the mirror.’ ne seta hola sendera-re baria kulae-kin sabe-n-ja-n-a. ‘Yesterday this dog caught two rabits by himself at the hunting’ baba hoba-oij redo puraij ge-ko bul-en-a. ‘After the rice harvest is finished, everyone gets drunk.’ Reflexive verb bases are formed by attaching -en in the case of a consonant final verb stem and -n in the case of vowel final verb stem, to give the meaning of ‘to do something by oneself’. The aspect markers that can follow this affix are limited. The only aspect markers that can follow this affix are ta- in ta-n-a and ja- in ja-n-a. There is no separate word for ‘by oneself’ needed in this construction. Not all verb stems can take this -en/-n affix. Causative verb roots such as a-jom ‘to feed someone’ and a-nū ‘to make someone drink’ cannot take this affix, nor can intransitive verbs such as dub and bolo when they are used in transitive form with causative meaning. It is also semantically impossible for verbs that require an object that is different from the subject actor ? such as arkid ‘to kidnap’, idi ‘to take’ and ur ‘to dig’ ? to take this affix. 54 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4.12 Derivational verbal base (3) Reciprocal -pV-/-VpSentence hora-re hon-ko-ñ ad-ke-d-ko-a. ‘I lost sight of the children on the road.’ hora-re-le apad-ke-n-a. ‘We lost sight of each other on the road.’ ako-ako ge dandaij-te-ko dapal-ke-n-a. ˙ ˙˙ ‘They beat each other with sticks.’ ako-loij-le dapal-ke-n-a. ‘They and I beat each other with sticks.’ apad-oij-ta-n-a-le. ‘We can hardly see each other.’ apad-en-ta-n-a-le. ‘We lost sight of each other.’ horo-ko piri-re-ko mapaij-gopoeij-ta-n-a. ˙ ˙ ‘The people are fighting (cutting) and killing each other on the field.’ Reciprocal verbs with the meaning of ‘to do something to each other’ are formed by infixing -pV- to a verb stem. Intransitive verbs cannot take this infix, unless they are being used transitively, for example in the case of verbs such as dub. The reciprocal verb dupub ‘to make each other sit down’ can then take the passive affix -oij or reflexive affix -en/-n. Taking the example above, apad-oij-ta-n-a-le means ‘we can hardly able to see each other (because there is fog or gas that prevents us from recognizing each other)’, while apad-enta-n-a-le means ‘we cannot see ourselves (because there is fog or gas that prevents us from recognizing ourselves)’. There were constraints on the verbs that can take -oij and -en/-n, but the productivity of the infix -pV- is quite high. For example, the verb suri (borrowed from the English sorry then became suri due to vowel harmony) can take the infix to produce supuri ‘to apologize to each other’. Languages that create reciprocal verb forms through infixing are believed to be extremely rare in the world, and perhaps Mundari and the closely related Santali and North Munda languages are the only ones that use this construction. More detail is presented in the following: Toshiki Osada 2007. Reciprocals in Mundari, Vladimir Nedjalkov and Z. Guentcheva (ed) 55 4 Typology of the reciprocal constructions, Lincom Europa, Munich. 56 GRAMMAR SECTION 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4.13 Derivational verb bases (4)reduplication CVC → CVCVC Sentence uli jilu ka-le jojom-a. ‘We do not eat beef.’ oco, alo-m-a. nea jom-redo-m gogoy-a. ‘This is dangerous. Do not (eat)! If you eat this you will definitely die.’ alo-m kumburu-a. sasab-a-ko. ˙ ‘Don t steal, you will surely get caught.’ saan maja jogao-me. bati-jan-re dadal-a. ˙ ‘Stack the firewood properly. If it falls it will hit you.’ iniaij hon naaij do-eij sesen-ta-n-a. ‘That person’s child is now walking.’ Reduplication can be partial or complete reduplication. Partial reduplication takes the future form, and conveys truth or habit. This means that a reduplicated verb root does not take any aspect markers. Only verbs of the shape CVC (C=consonant, V=vowel) take reduplicated forms, but reduplication does not occur on every CVC verb. In dictionaries published to date, because their number is so small, it is most common for these verbs to be treated as discrete lexemes, rather than derivatives. Complete reduplication is quite productive in Mundari, and details are discussed in the section on compound verbs. 57 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4.14 Derivational verb bases (5) -a Sentence daru-m maij-ke-d-a. ‘You cut a tree.’ daru-m mag-a-ñ-ta-n-a. ‘You are cutting a tree for me.’ mandi hon-ko-ñ om-a-ko-ta-n-a. ˙˙ ‘I am giving rice to (for) the children.’ seta-ko hon-ko-ñ om-ke-d-ko-a. ‘I gave the dog to (for) the children. (or I gave the children to the dog.)’ kaji-a-m-ta-n-a-ñ. ‘I am saying (this) to (for) you.’ This verb root denotes the benefactive ‘for (someoneś benefit)’. This root differs from others in that the pronominal clitic that follows -a indicates the beneficiary, and must be followed by ta-n-a. This form often indicates the indirect object of a ditransitive verb, and has commonly been described as a marker of the indirect object. Let us look at the example again. In mandi hon-ko-ñ om-a-ko-ta-n-a, ‘to the children’ is shown on the verb. However, in seta˙˙ ko hon-ko-n om-ke-d-ko-a, either ‘the dogs’ or ‘the children’ is shown on the verb. Because both take by the same pronominal clitic, there are two possible interpretations. But the point here is that both the direct object and indirect object cannot be marked simultaneously on the verb. This does not mean that -a is found only on ditransitive verbs. As can be seen from comparison of the first two examples, -a can occur on verbs that are not ditransitive. In these cases, it is reasonable to consider this usage to be benefactive. The first person to point out this benefactive usage was Dr Ram Dayal Munda in his paper, and we follow him in our analysis here. 58 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4.15 Derivational verb bases (6) causatives aSentence hon-ñ-kuri mandi-ij jom-ke-d-a. ˙ ˙˙ ‘My daughter ate rice.’ hon-ñ-kuri mandi-m a-jom-ki-ij-i-a. ˙ ˙˙ ‘You let/made my daughter eat rice.’ toa-eij nu-ke-d-a. ‘He/She drank milk.’ toa-ñ anu-ki-ij-i-a. ‘I let/made (him/her) drink milk.’ ili-ñ kiriṅ-ke-d-a. ‘I bought rice beer.’ ili-ñ akiriṅ-ke-d-a. ‘I made/let (him/them) buy rice beer. (I sold rice beer).’ These causative constructions are not all verb stem derivatives. They only occur on certain verbs. This is probably the remnant of an old affix. The a- causative verbs are listed below. Verbal root jom Causative verbal bases meaning a- causative ‘to eat’ a-jom meaning ‘to feed’ joro nuu ‘to leak’ ‘to drink’ a-joro a-nuu ‘to make X leak’ ‘to make X drink’ jal kiriṅ ‘to lick’ ‘to buy’ a-jal a-kiriṅ ‘to make X lick’ ‘to sell’ Verbs other than these can be made into causative constructions through creation of a compound verb, attaching rika to the end of the main verb. Thus, Causative verbal bases Verbal root inuṅ meaning ‘to play’ -rika causative inuṅ-rika meaning ‘to make X play’ durum ˙ kaji ‘to sleep’ ‘to speak’ durum-rika ˙ kaji-rika ‘to make X sleep’ ‘to make X speak’ The meaning then becomes ‘to make someone do something’, as we show the list above. Additionally, as we have already seen, when an object marker is attached to an intransitive 59 4 GRAMMAR SECTION verb stem, the verb takes on transitive meaning without making any adjustment directly to the verb form. Causative a- is similar to passive -oij in that its usage is constrained. Mundari verbs constructions combine intransitive/transitive verbal roots, derivational affixes (passive, reflexive, reciprocal benefactive and causative) and repetition to create verbal bases. Then verbal bases follow the comibation of aspect marker, transitive/intransitive marker and indicative marker. Aspect markers further complicate the situation, and these will be discussed in the coming sections. 60 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4.16 Aspect markers (1) a and ja In Mundari, there are six aspect markers: 1. a 2. ke 3. le 4. ja 5. ta 6. aka Aspect markers ke and le, ta and aka, will be introduced together in order to clarify the distinctions made in their usage. In this section we will deal with a and ja. Sentence soma do-ñ itu-a-n-a. ‘I know Soma.’ seta-ko mandi-ñ om-a-d-ko-a. ˙˙ ‘I gave food to the dogs.’ hon-ko durum-ja-n-a-ko. ˙ ‘The children went to sleep.’ hon-ko goeij-ja-n-a-ko. ‘The children died.’ seta-ko mandi-ñ om-ja-d-a. ˙˙ ‘I am giving food to the dogs.’ In Mundari, aspect markers usually follow the transitive marker -d- or the intransitive marker -n- in the indicative sentence. Thus the previous analysis by several scholars was dealt with the combination of aspect markers and transitive/intransitive markers as one unit like an, ad, jan, jad, tan so on. However, the aspect markers without the transitive/intransitive markers occur in the future tense (see next section) and in the imperative (see ) and optative sentences (see ), which discuss later. That is why we divided the so-called tense markers as an, ad, jan, jad, tan etc. into aspect markers and transitive/intransitive markers. In these examples, the difference in aspect between -a- and -ja- may not be immediately clear. The intransitive marker -n- is attached to the aspect marker -a- to produce -an-, which 61 4 GRAMMAR SECTION indicates that the action has been completed, and the implications of that completion hold true to the present time. However, usage of ja-n indicates that the action has been initiated. However, if the transitive marker -d- is used, the meaning changes significantly. In the above ditransitive constructions (sentences such as A gives X to Y) -ad- can occur on the verb marking the indirect object as the object, giving the meaning of ‘simple’ past, similar to -ked-. With regards to ja-d, the tense of the verb is not past, but rather present, indicating that the action started in the past and is still continuing in the present. So, in terms of meaning, it is the same as the progressive aspect of -ta-n-. kula hon-ko-eij lel-ja-d-ko-a. kula hon-ko-eij lel-ta-n-a. ‘The tiger is looking at the children.’ The meaning of the two sentences above is exactly the same. Aspect and transitive marking in Mundari are extremely complicated, and a clear-cut explanation is often very difficult. Of the type of combined aspect and transitivity marking seen above, the appearances of an and ad are relatively rare, and it may be better to memorize them as they are encountered rather than searching for a clear analytical explanation. With regards to -ja-, -ja-n- indicates past while -ja-d- indicates present, which seems to be inconsistent in terms of tense. Keeping our focus on the fact that the action has started in the past, we shall call this type of construction ‘ingressive’. 62 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4.17 Aspect marker ke and le Sentence durum-ke-n-a-eij. ˙ ‘He slept/went to sleep.’ ranci-te-ñ sen-ke-n-a. ‘I went to Ranchi.’ mandi-ñ jom-ke-d-a. ˙˙ ‘I ate rice.’ mandi-ñ jom-ke-n-a. ˙˙ ‘I ate rice.’ durum-le-n-a-eij. ˙ ‘He/She slept/went to sleep (but is awake now).’ ranci-te-ñ sen-le-n-a. ‘I went to Ranchi (but I am back now).’ mandi-ñ jom-le-d-a. ˙˙ ‘I ate rice (but now I am doing something else).’ Of these aspect markers, ke indicates simple completion, while le indicates completion with awareness of the actionś relation to the present, or ‘anterior’ aspect. Both can be translated in English with a past tense verb, but le differs from ke in that the current action or state is different from that referred to as completed. However, there are exceptions in the usage of ke. In transitive constructions, both ke-d and ke-n are accepted although <-n- indicates intransitive marker as is shwon above. mandi-ñ jom-ke-d-a. ˙˙ mandi-ñ jom-ke-n-a. ˙˙ These two are slightly different. According to Dr Ram Dayal Munda, ke-d places focus on the object while ke-n places focus on the subject. One case where this explanation clearly holds is the use of -n- and -d- in the previous example (see the section of subject and object) ‘the dog that bit the cat and the dog that the cat bit . These -n- and -d- elements, which we consider to be markers of transitivity, are treated by Dr Munda as focus markers, with the former marking subject focus and the latter marking object focus. But there are problems 63 4 GRAMMAR SECTION with this interpretation. For example, only le-d is accepted on transitive constructions using le. Thus, *mandi-ñ jom-le-n-a is not grammatical. If each morpheme expressed one grammatical ˙˙ element, explanation would be much simpler, but unfortunately reality is not so. This is both a difficult and interesting characteristic of Mundari verb constructions. Loose translations of constructions with ke and le often give past tense verbs. But it should be remembered that it is more accurate to consider these as indication of completion. The following examples underscore this point, as ke and le are used in with future forms, but indicate the completion of the activity. The future forms do not take transitivity markers. mandi-ñ jom-ke-a. ˙˙ ‘I will eat this rice (without any specific thought about it)’ mandi-ñ jom-le-a. ˙˙ ‘First I will eat this rice (and then do something else).’ 64 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4.18 Aspect marker (3) ta and aka Sentence birsa munda murutu tiṅgu-aka-n-a. ˙˙ ‘The Birsa Munda statue is standing.’ setag-ate-ñ dub-aka-n-a. ‘I have been sitting since morning.’ setag-ate-ñ sen-ta-n-a. ‘I have been walking since morning.’ setag-ate-ñ dub-ta-n-a. mendo iij ka uruṅ-oij-ta-n-a. ˙ ‘I have been sitting (going) to the toilet since morning, but I have not (cannot) defacated.’ ranci do-ñ sen-aka-n-a. mendo tata do ka-ñ sen-aka-n-a. ˙ ˙ ‘I have been to Ranchi. But I have not been to Tata.’ ranci do-ñ lel-aka-d-a. ‘I have seen Ranchi.’ mandi-ñ jom-aka-d-a. ˙˙ ‘I ate rice.’ mandi-ñ jom-ta-d-a. ˙˙ ‘I just now ate rice.’ The aspect morpheme ta denotes progressive, while aka denotes continuous action or state, but the difference between the two is only slight. One of the differences is between their use on stative verbs and active verbs. When a state is continuous, aka is used. For example, the first example ‘The Birsa Munda statue is standing’ is such a case. But when an action is continuous, ta is used. When a verb root originally showing a state takes ta-n this expresses an action. For example, dub-ta-n-a means not ‘the state of sitting’ but rather ‘the action of sitting’. When aka is used on a verb root that originally shows an action, this expresses the condition in which the action has already been experienced, or the action has been experienced and the result is still continuing. In the first case, sen-aka-n-a means ‘to have the experience of having gone’. In the secondd case, jom-aka-d-a means ‘to have eaten and still be full’. According to linguistic terms, a distinction is made in these situations between telic (there must be a definite end to the action) and atelic (there is no definite end to the action). However, this clear distinction does not exist with ta-d. This is evident in the fact that 65 4 GRAMMAR SECTION usage is different according to dialect. In the Tamar dialect, ta-d shows an action that has been experienced, like aka-d, while in the Hasada dialect this means that the action has just now been experienced. We have already discussed the difference in tense between ja-d and ja-n, but the meaning of the same aspect marker can differ when transitive and intransitive markers are attached. When the rull range of dialect differences is considered, this becomes a large issue, so we limit ourselves to the Hasada dialect as a matter of convenience in learning the language. 66 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4.19 Tense and Aspect Sentence dub-aka-n-taiken-a-eij. ‘He was sitting.’ goeij-ja-d-ko-taiken-a-eij. ‘He was trying to kill the people.’ buru lel-oij-ta-n-taiken-a. ‘The mountain was visible.’ birsa munda murutu tiṅgu-aka-n-ge-tain-a. ˙˙ ‘The statue of Birsa Munda will always be standing.’ dub-aka-n-ge-tain-a-eij. ‘He will be sitting (continuously).’ There are no words in Mundari that solely indicate tense. Past and present are shown by the use of aspect and transitivity marking. If one insists on making distinction between tenses in Mundari, the following guide is useful. Present: aka-n, ta-n, ja-d, a-n Past: ke-n, ke-d, le-n, le-d, ja-n, a-d, ta-d, aka-d Of these aspect/transitivity marking combinations, past progressive and present continuous verb forms can be created by attaching taiken-a to the progressive or continuous forms. By attaching tain-a one can create a future continuous form. 67 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4.20 Imperative Mood Sentence mandi jom-e-me. ˙˙ ‘Eat!’ mandi jom-ke-m. ˙˙ ‘Eat! (If you don t eat now you won t have a chance to later)’ mandi jom-le-m. ˙˙ ‘Eat now, and then… ’ mandi jom-ta-m. ˙˙ ‘Eat! (Life is short, you should eat now)’ mandi jom-aka-m. ˙˙ ‘Keep eating!’ mandi jom-ja-m. ˙˙ ‘Eat! (While you are doing something else)’ mandi alo-m jom-a. ˙˙ ‘Don t eat!’ Structure of imperative sentence Verb root + Aspect Marker + Object Marker + -me/ -ben/ -pe Structure of negative imperative marker alo + -m/ -ben/ -pe verb root + Aspect Marker + Object Marker -a The -a that must appear at the end of an indicative sentence, or directly before the personal pronoun clitic that mark the subject, is not found in imperative sentences. As you can see from the examples above, the aspect marker is directly attached to the verb root. Verb stems that can take the imperative form are repetition verb stems, reciprocal verb stems, benefactive verb stems, and causative verb stems. Repetition verb stems show customary activity, so do not normally take the imperative form. The aspect marker directly follows the verb stem. It should be noted that the transitive/intransitive marker does not occur after the aspect marker on imperative form verbs. This does not mean that transitive verbs cannot take the imperative form. In the case of transitive verbs, the verb is used without the transitive marker, but takes a direct object marker. The imperative form verb ends with the personal pronominal 68 4 GRAMMAR SECTION clitics, singular -me, dual -ben and plural -pe. However, to create a negative imperative, the prohibitive alo is placed at the front of the sentence, and -m/-ben/-pe are attached, with the indicative marker -a in final position. The following are examples of imperative form verbs with different verb stems. Sentence haragu-n-me (reflexive verbal base) ‘Get off by yourself’ ˙ napam-ko-pe (reciprocal verbal base) ‘Meet them each other’ om-a-ñ-me (benefactive verbal base) ‘Give (it) for my sake’ a-jom-ta-i-me (causative verbal base) ‘Feed him/her’ 69 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4.21 Optative Mood Sentence mandi jom-e-ka-eij. ˙˙ ‘He should eat.’ mandi jom-le-ka-ko. ˙˙ ‘He should eat right away.’ mandi alo-ka-ñ jom-e-ka mente-ko giri-ke-d-a. ˙ ˙˙ ‘He threw the rice away, as I should not eat it.’ mandi om-a-ñ-ka-ko mente-ñ asi-bara-ke-d-a. ˙ ˙˙ ‘I requested repeatedly, that (he) give me the rice.’ Structure of optative sentence Verbal bases + Aspect Marker + Object Marker + ka + pronominal clitics (other than second person) Structure of negative optative sentence alo + ka + pronominal clitics (other than second person) Verbal bases + Aspect Marker + Object marker + ka While a normal imperative sentence conveys the speakerś will to the listener directly, the optative form is used to conveys the speakerś will to the listener the desire for a third party to do something, or that the speaker wishes that him/her self was in a certain condition or situation. When the request is directed towards a third party, the third person pronominal clitic is used, while the first person is used for a reflexive request of the speaker. The use of aspect markers, and the object marker in the case of a transitive verb, are the same as with an imperative sentence. The negative imperative form alo and the negative particle ka are both used. However, in a negative optative sentence, the ka is placed after alo. 70 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4.22 Experiential constructions Sentence balbal-te-ñ sowan-ta-n-a. ‘I smell of sweat.’ balbal sowan-ja-ij-ñ-a. ‘I smell sweat.’ ne bā maja sowan-ja-ij-ñ-a. ‘This flower smells good.’ ne kuri-aij sowan maja sowan-ja-ij-ñ-a. ˙ ‘This woman s smell is good.’ sida samae susun-te-ko rasika-le-n-a. ‘They enjoyed dancing in old days.’ susun bese rasika-ke-d-ko-a. ‘They enjoyed dancing very much.’ susun kuri lel-ki-ij-ci bese rasika-ke-d-ko-a. ˙ ‘When they saw a dacing girl they became enjoying it very much.’ sida samae-ko reṅgeij-le-n-a. ‘They were poor long time ago’ en samae mandi reṅgeij-le-d-ko-a. ˙˙ ‘At that time they were hungry.’ Mundari verbs indicating physical, psychological, emotional or physiological experience are treated in two ways. The experiencer can be shown at the end of the verb with a subject marker, or with an object marker. The difference is slight. If the subject marker is used, this means that not only the experiencer, but those around him/her are included in the statement. This is the form normally used. If an object marker is used, this means that the experiencer has an exclusive experience. Some experiential verbs are given here, and can be analyzed as expressing ‘to feel X’. In English these are usually expressed with an adjective. For example, (a) buluṅ ‘salt’ would be translated as ‘feel salty’, whereas in Mundari the verb includes the experience of saltiness. 71 4 1. Sense perception experience 1. 2. buluṅ harad salty spicy 3. 4. 5. herem ˙ jojo ram sweet sour salty 6. 7. sabaij sibil bland, tasteless delicious 8. sowan smelly (to perceive the smell of something) 2. Emotional experience 1. 2. akabakao asadi confused bored 3. 4. 5. centa ˙˙ duku giuij jealous sad embarrassed 6. 7. kairao kiis angry, upset frustrated, displeased 8. 9. 10. mukun mone rasika lonely desiring enjoying 11. 12. sanaṅ suku desiring happy 72 GRAMMAR SECTION 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 3. Physical experience 1. 2. babata balbal itchy sweaty 3. 4. 5. drunk sleepy sleepy 6. 7. bul doboij ˙ durum ˙ gamaṅ hambal 8. 9. 10. hasu jeteij ˙ katuao painful hot (weather) cold 11. 12. laga lolo tired hot (water, things, etc.) 13. 14. 15. rabal rabaṅ reṅgeij light (weight) cold hungry 16. 17. sick, ill painful 18. 19. 20. rua rukuru ˙ sukul tatai tetaṅ 21. 22. tutukun urgum cool warm ticklish heavy smoky stiff (muscles) thirsty In Indo-Aryan languages, these experiential constructions take the dative and are often discussed as being dative subject constructions. Mundari experiential constructions, with consideration of the Indo-Aryan comparison, are discussed in more detail as below: Toshiki Osada 1999. Experiential constructions in Mundari, Gengo Kenkyu: Journal of the Linguistic Society of Japan 115:51-76. 73 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4.23 Compound verbs Sentence ne samaṅ goij-ader-e-me. ‘Put this baggage on your back and take it into the house.’ hatu-re-le jom-nu-ke-d-a. ‘We ate and drank in the village.’ hon-ñ-kora-eij dumbuiij-goeij-ja-n-a. ˙ ‘My son drowned and died.’ ne gara gari-te-ko har-parom-ke-d-a. ˙ ˙ ‘They drove a car and crossed this river.’ laga-ja-n-re gitiij-jom-me. ‘If you are tired, lay down (for your own benefit).’ In Mundari there are two types of the compound verb construction: (A) Main verb + Main verb. (B) Main verb + Explicator We illustrate the following examples in (A) here: (1) hatu-re=liṅ jom-nu-ke-d-a. village-in=1DL.EXC eat-drink-COMPL-TR-IND ‘We two (excl) ate and drank in the village; we two took dinner in the village’. These are a pair action like senoij-hijuij ‘to keep company with’, isin-basaṅ ‘to cook and boil, i.e., to make food’, etc. (a) Sequential action (2) ne saan sarima-cetaṅ-te=bu dondo-rakab-e-a. ˙ this firewood roof-over-to-1PL.INC lift-go up-it-IND ‘We will lift this firewood and take it up to the roof’. This class of compound verbs are goij-ader ‘to carry (something) on the shoulder and take it into the house’, dul-pereij ‘to pour and fill up’, etc. (b) Result (3) ne this hon=le child=1PL.EXC:SUB asul-maraṅ-ki-ij-i-a. feed-grow-COMPL-TR-3SG:OBJ-IND ‘We(excl) fed and raised this child up’ 74 4 GRAMMAR SECTION For the examples of this type of compound verb are: sen-nam ‘to go and meet (somebody)’, nir-laga ‘to run and get tired’, etc. (c) Cause (4) añ-aij hon-kin banda-re=kin dumbuiij-goeij-ja-n-a. ˙ my child-DL pond-LOC=3DL:SUB be drown-die-INGR-INTR-IND ‘My two children have died by drowning in a pond’ Other examples are: maij-goeij ‘to kill/die with an axe’, haka-goeij ‘to die by hanging’, etc. (d) Simultaneous action or events (5) ne gara potopotia-te=ko har-parom-ke-d-a. ˙ ˙ ˙ this river motorbike-by=3PL:SUB drive-cross-COMPL-TR-IND ‘They drove the motorbike and crossed the river’. This class of compound verbs are: dub-hape ‘while sitting to keep a silence’, duraN-au ‘to come along singing’, etc. It should be noted that the meaning of the second verb in these constructions is different from its original meaning. This type of second verbs is called as Explicator. It is a common feature among Indian languages, not only Munda lbut also Indo-Aryan and Dravidian. The verbs meaning ‘come’ and ‘go’ are common explicators in Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages (Kachru & Pandharipande 1980: 115). In Mundari the equivalents of these verbs are, however, never used as explicator, and never appear as the second member of compound verbs either. The following verbs can be considered the second member of the compound verbs in Mundari. 75 4 GRAMMAR SECTION English gloss Mundari Verbs Meaning as a second verb of the series Serial Verbs TAKE idi motion onward or away continuation nir-idi kuli-idi ‘to run away’ ‘to go on asking a question’ DIE goeij to the last degree rasika-goeij ‘to rejoice excessively’ landa-goeij ‘to be convulsed ‘with laughter’ ‘to pull up’ RISE rakab motion up racaij-rakab THROW giri ˙ to exceed nir-rakab laga-giri ˙ SEND COME OUT BRING kul uruṅ ˙ au pereij-giri ˙ raij-kul to send motion out of the place motion from a given point towards the speaker (to kiriṅ-kul apir-uruṅ ˙ dul-uruṅ ˙ nir-au jom-au and fro) ‘to run up’ ‘to get tired excessively’ ‘to full to excess’ ‘to send to call’ ‘to send to buy’ ‘to fly out’ ‘to pour out’ ‘to come running’ this way’ ‘to go for taking’ food, and then come back’ We will illustrate below the second verbs of the compound whose meaning is slightly different from their basic meaning as main verbs. Basic Meaning Mundari Verbs Semantic Function EAT jom benefactive Serial Verbs nam-jom ‘to lie down for one’s benefit’ ‘to get for oneself’ gitiij-jom FULL pereij completion om-pereij leka-pereij ‘to give completely’ ‘to count completely’ MAKE bai PLUCK god carefully attentively for a moment lel-bai ayum-bai ayum-god ‘to look carefully’ ‘to listen carefully’ ‘to hear for a moment’ (a fruit) PLUCK sid to stop lel-god jagar-sid ‘to see for a moment’ ‘to stop talking’ sayad-sid ‘to stop breathing’ (a potherb) 76 4 GRAMMAR SECTION The following verbs, when used as second verbs of the compound verbs, can act not only as modal and aspectual auxiliaries but also as adverbials: Basic Mundari Semantic Meaning FINISH Verbs caba Function perfective BEGlN eteij ˙ inchoative WIN dari ˙ can DO rika causative ol-rika RETURN Serial Verbs om-caba lel-caba ‘to finish giving’ ‘to finish seeing’ jom-eteij ˙ ol-eteij ˙ ol-dari ˙ lel-dari ˙ ‘to cause to write’ ‘to start eating’ ‘to start writing’ ‘to be able to write’ ‘to be able to see’ ‘to cause to make’ ‘to see again’ bai-rika lel-rura ˙ jom-rura ˙ durum-laaij ˙ jom-laaij ‘to eat again’ ‘to sleep excessively’ ‘to eat excessively’ rura ˙ again, back EXCEED laaij excessively FRONT ayar ahead senoij-ayar nir-ayar ‘to go ahead’ ‘to run ahead’ BACK tayom later jom-tayom sen-tayom ‘to eat later’ ‘to go later’ 77 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4.24 Verbal intensifier Sentence mandi jom-baij-e-me. ˙˙ ‘Eat quickly!’ arandi naṅgen-ko sen-bara-ta-n-a. ˙ ˙˙ ˙ ‘They are going here and there for weddings.’ jom-hantara-e-me. ˙ ‘Concentrate on eating!’ jom-kate-ke-d-a-ko. ‘They ate (scattering everything around).’ mandi jom-noij-ke-d-ci-ko senoij-ja-n-a. ˙˙ ‘They ate a little and then went.’ oraij jaked-ko idi-tuka-ki-ij-ñ-a. ˙ ‘They brought me back home.’ japan-te-ko senoij-utar-ja-n-a. ‘They went to Japan (and did not come back).’ We saw compound verbs in the previous section, that the second verb simply follows the first verb. But the original meaning of second verb has been changed The verb intensifier constructions introduced above seem to have the same structure. However, the second element of these constructions does not occur alone. Normally, the second element intensifies the meaning of the main verbś action or conditions. In some cases, the second element carries aspect meaning as well, noting for example a completed action. Several common verb intensifiers with sentences are given below. V-baij/tab (1) ‘V quickly’ mandi jom-baij-e-me. ˙˙ food eat-quickly-it-2SG ‘Eat the food quickly’ V-bapad/goroeij (2) en kuri ˙ that girl ‘V by all means’ au-bapad-i-me. (EM) bring-by all means-3SG-2SG ‘Marry the woman by all means’ 78 4 GRAMMAR SECTION ‘V here and there’ sen-bara-ta-n-a. ˙ go-here and there-PROG-INTR-IND V-bara/balae ˙ (3) arandi-naṅgen=ko ˙ marriage-for=3PL:SUB ‘They are going here and there for a marriage’. V-coteij ‘almost V’ ˙ (4) kaji-coteij-ke-d-ci=ko senoij-ja-n-a ˙ say-almost-COMPL-TR-then=3PL:SUB go-INGR-INTR-IND ‘They began saying and stopped in the middle, then have gone’ ‘intensified V’ V-garaṅ (5) kakala-garaṅ-iij-me. shout-loudly-3SG-2SG ‘Shout at him/her loudly’. V-hantara ‘engage in V’ ˙ (6) jom-hantara-e-me. ˙ eat-engage in-it-2SG ‘Be engaged in eating it’. ‘V repeatedly’ V-kate/kuca (7) mandi=ko jom-kuca-ke-d-a. ˙˙ food=3SG:SUB eat-repeatedly-COMPL-TR-IND-3PL ‘They ate it repeatedly’. V-noij (8) saman ‘V a little (while)’ goij-noij-le-m. luggage carry on the shoulder-a little-ANT-2SG ‘Carry it on the shoulder for a while’. V-torsa (9) ‘V along’ hijuij-torsa-me. come-along-2SG ‘Come back at once’. V-tuka (10) idi-tuka-ñ-ka-eij. take-return-1SG-OPT-3SG ‘V and return’4 ‘He/she may take me and return’. V-utar (11) Ranci-te-=ko ‘V entirely’ senoij-utar-ja-n-a. Ranchi-to=3PL:SUB go-entirely-INGR-INTR-IND-3SG ‘They went away to Ranchi for ever’. 79 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4.25 Verb reduplication Sentence rakab-rakab-ta-n-a-le ‘We are making progress gradually.’ taṅgi-taṅgi-te-ko asadi-ja-n-a. ‘They waited for a long time (until they were tired of waiting).’ taṅgi-taṅgi-ke-n-a-ko. mendo-ko senoij-ja-n-a. ‘They waited for a bit, but then went.’ jom-jom-te laiij pereij-ja-n-a. ‘They ate and ate and were full.’ jom-jom-la-ij-ko. mendo ka-ko jom-caba-ke-d-a. ‘They put food in their mouths many times, but could not eat it all.’ kumburu-ko sab-sab-oij-ta-n-a-ko. ˙ ‘The thieves are about to be caught (without good evidence).’ hon-ko lum-lum-en-ta-n-a-ko. ‘The children are getting a little wet.’ The meaning of these repeated verbs can be divided into two main types. The first is repetition of the same action. The second is repetition of the initiation of the action, but failure to result in completion. The intensification does not directly imply the main action of the verb, but rather affects the following aspect markers, or the instruments or methods indicated with the suffix -te. Partial repetition of the verb stem often indicates a habitual action, the meaning of which is different from the verb repetition introduced here. 80 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4.26 Relative clause Sentence mandi jom-horo auri-ij hijug-a. ˙ ˙˙ ‘The person who will eat has not yet come.’ mandi jom-ke-n-horo ranci-te-ij senoij-ja-n-a. ˙ ˙˙ ‘The person who ate has gone to Ranchi.’ pusi hua-ke-n-seta-eij goeij-ja-n-a. ‘The dog that bit the cat died.’ pusi hua-ke-d-seta-eij goeij-ja-n-a. ‘The cat that bit the dog died.’ oko-niij pusi hua-ke-niij iniij geij goeij-ja-n-a. ‘Someone bit the cat, and died.’ en taka-te je mone se rika-e-me ˙ ˙ ‘Someone bit the cat, and died.’ In Mundari, the noun being modified comes after the relative clause. The -a that ends in indicative sentence is removed and the noun that is being modified follows directly on from the relative clause. The modified noun can be either the subject or object of the relative clause. This role is determined by the use of transitivity markers. For example, the difference between ‘the dog that the cat bit’ and ‘the dog that bit the cat’ (see the section of Subject and Object) is made through intransitive and transitive markers. There is another type of relative clause used in Mundari. There are subordinate clauses beginning with the indefinite oko that precedes a modified noun taking iniij, and those used with the relative conjunction je – se. These constructions are borrowed from Hindi or Sadani, and are used mostly by educated bilingual people but not frequently encountered in folk narrative. In addition to these, one may hear Mundari speakers frequently using other Hindi relative conjunctions such as j!b! t!k! jab tak ‘until (doing something)’. 81 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4.27 Complex sentences, conjuction constructions and subjunctive constructions Sentence ranci-te-m senoij-redo sari kiriṅ-a-ñ-me. ˙ ‘If you go are going to Ranchi, please buy me a sari.’ apu-ñ hijuij-ja-n-re mandi-bu jom-a. ˙˙ ‘If my father comes, let s eat. ’ agar apu-ñ hijuij-ja-n-re mandi-bu om-a-i-a. ˙˙ ‘If my father comes, let s eat. ’ judi apu-ñ hijuij-aka-n-re jagar-i-me. ‘If my father has come, talk to him.’ There is not a clear distinction between subjunctive constructions and conjunctive constructions in Mundari. As a general rule of practice, subjunctive constructions take the Indo-Aryan borrowings agar or judi ‘if’ at the head of the sentence. In sentences using the conditional re or -redo, the preceding verb root cannot take the simple future aspect marker. In this case, one can use the verb root alone, or verb root + aspect marker + transitive/intransitive marker. 82 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4.28 Conjunctions Sentence jom-ke-d-a-eij ad/oroij-eij senoij-ja-n-a. ˙ ‘He ate, and then he left (went).’ apu-m do-eij jom-ta-n-a ci senoij-ja-n-a. ‘Is your father eating, or has he left (gone)?’ apu-m hijuij ca-eij senoij ka-ñ itu-a-n-a. ‘I don t know if your father is coming or going.’ apu-ñ mandi-ij jom-ke-d-a mendo auri-ij senog-a. ˙˙ ‘My father ate, but he has not left (gone).’ apu-ñ auri-ij senog-a ciaijci bas ka hijuij-ta-n-a. ‘My father has not gone because the bus has not come.’ apu-ñ mandi-ij jom-ke-d-redo ranci-te-ij senog-a. ˙˙ ‘My father will go to Ranchi after he has eaten.’ mandi jom-le-m, karedo ranci-te-laṅ senog-a. ˙˙ ‘Eat now, or we will go to Ranchi (if you don't eat).’ Conjunctions are following: 1. oroij/ad ‘and’ ˙ This conjunction can conjoin not only noun phrases but also clauses. (A) Noun Phrases (1) araij sim oroij hende merom ˙ red fowl and black goat ‘red fowl and black goat’ (B) Clauses (2) jom-ke-d-a-eij eat-COMPL-TR-IND-3SG ad=eij and=3SG:SUB ‘He/She ate and went away.’ 2. ci ‘or’ 83 senoij-ja-n-a. go-INGR-INTR-IND 4 GRAMMAR SECTION This conjunction can connect not only noun phrases but also clauses. (A) Noun Phrases (3) araij sim ci hende merom red fowl or black goat ‘red fowl or black goat’. (B) Clauses (4) haga-m Ranci-te-ij senoij-ja-n-a brother-your Ranchi-to-3SG go-INGR-INTR-IND ‘Your brother has gone to Ranchi or he is at home.’ ci hatu-re menaij-i-a. or village-LOC COP-3SG-IND 3. ca ‘or’ This conjunction is not used to connect two noun phrases but to connect two clauses. (5) Soma hijuij ca=eij senoij ka-ñ Soma come or=3SG:SUB go NEG-lSG:SUB ‘I don’t know whether Soma come or go.’ itu-a-n-a. know-SUS-INTR-IND 4. ci-aijci ‘because’ According to Hoffmann in EM, ‘this conjunction was introduced into the translation of the Bible made by the first Lutheran Missionaries’ (p.843). It has been made by the calque of Hindi kyõki or cũki. (6) Ranci-te nida=le tebaij-ke-d-a. ci-aijci Ranchi-to night=1PL.EXC:SUB reach-COMPL-TR-IND because ‘We (excl.) arrived at Ranchi at night, because the bus was out of order.’ bas bus bagrao-le-n-a. ˙ be broken-ANT-TR-IND 5. mendo ‘but’ This disjunction mendo can be analyzed into men ‘to say’ and the particle do. This can connect two sentenses. (7) mandi jom-mone-ja-ij-ñ-tai-ke-n-a. ˙˙ food eat-want-INGR-TR-1SG-COP-COMPL-INTR-IND ‘I wanted to eat the food, but I have not got it.’ mendo ka-ñ nam-ke-d-a. but NEG-1SG get-COMPL-TR-IND 6. karedo ‘otherwise’ This consists of the negator ka the postposition -re and the particle do. This connect two sentences, especially and indicative sentence. (8) mandi ˙˙ food jom-le-m. eat-first-2SG karedo otherwise loyoṅ-te-bu rice field-to=1PL.INC ‘Eat the food first, or we will go to the rice-field.’ 84 senog-a. go-IND 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4.29 Adjectives Sentence kumburu do añ imunuṅ salaṅgi horo-eij taiken-a. ˙ ˙ ‘The thief is a person of about the same height as me.’ kumburu do añ imunuṅ-eij salaṅgi-ge-taiken-a. ˙ ‘The thief was about the same height as I.’ kumburu do añ-ate salaṅgi horo-eij taiken-a. ˙ ˙ ‘The thief was a person taller than I.’ kumburu do añ-ate-ij salaṅgi-ge-taiken-a. ˙ ‘The thief was taller than I.’ kumburu do soben-ko-ate salaṅgi horo-eij taiken-a. ˙ ˙ ‘The thief was taller person than everyone.’ kumburu do soben-ko-ate-ij salaṅgi-ge-taiken-a. ˙ ‘The thief was taller than everyone.’ The difference between adjectives and verbs in Mundari is difficult to ascertain. That is to say, in statements adjectives function just like verbs, taking aspect markers and other verbal affixes. When used in relative clauses, they function like adjectives as they are placed directly in front of nouns they modify. The following examples show these usages. en maraṅ horo ‘that big person’ ˙ en jom horo ‘that person who eats’ ˙ en horo maraṅ-ta-n-a ‘That person is big.’ ˙ en horo jom-ta-n-a ‘That person is eating.’ ˙ Looking at these usages as well, it seems that from a morphological point of view there is no significant distinction between verbs and adjectives. However, there are some important differences, such as the semantic implications of the infix -pV-. Taking the verb jom ‘to eat’, the infixed form jopom is a reciprocal verb meaning ‘to eat each other (like snake)’. But using the same infix with the adjective maraṅ ‘large,’ gives the form mapara? which semantically emphasizes the adjective, meaning ‘very large’. Nevertheless, examples of this adjectival usage are rather limited. At least seven adjectives denoting size, shape and the like take the intensifying infix, because of semantic limitations on intensification. We contain seven adjectives in Mundari in terms of this derivation: 85 4 maraṅ huriṅ ˙ jiliṅ ‘big, great ‘small ‘long salaṅgi diṅgae ˙ cakar ‘tall ‘short ‘wide → → → → → → ma<pa>raṅ hu<pu>riṅ ˙ ji<pi>liṅ ‘very big, great ‘very small ‘very long sa<pa>laṅgi di<pi>ṅgae ˙ ca<pa>kar ‘very tall ‘very short ‘very wide GRAMMAR SECTION moto ‘fat → mo<po>to ‘very fat ˙ ˙ The designation of adjectives as [adj] in the glossary provided in this book is not limited to this criterion, but takes a broader definition of adjective as a word that can modify a noun. 86 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4.30 Numerals Cardinal numberals are as follows: miad/moyod bar-ia api-a ‘one’ ‘two’ ‘three’ upun-ia mone-a ˙ turui-a/turi-a ee-a iral-ia ‘four’ ‘five’ are-a gel-ea ‘nine’ ‘ten’ gel miad/moyod mod/mid hisi mod/mid hisi miad/moyod ‘10+1=11’ ‘1x20=20’ ‘1x20+1=21’ bar hisi api hisi ‘2x20=40’ ‘3x20=60’ ‘six’ ‘seven’ ‘eight’ mone hisi or mod/mid sau ‘5x20=100 or 1x100=100’ ˙ As we have seen above, Mundari has a vigesimal counting system. According to Norman Zide (1978:1), ‘presumably Proto-Austroasiatic as well as old Indo-Aryan and Dravidian (old and modern) lacked vigesimal counting systems, but both Munda and modern Indo-Aryan use them. Whether the Indo-Aryan vigesimal systems ‘come from Munda’ — has been claimed — is questionable’. The following short forms are used for the modifier of a head noun: mid/mod ‘one’, bar ‘two’, api ‘three’, upun ‘four’, mone ‘five’, turui ‘six’, ee ‘seven’, iral ˙ ‘eight’, are ‘nine’, gel ‘ten’. The counting forms consist of the addition of -ia/ea in postconsonantal position or a in post-vocalic position to the short forms, as is shown above. Distributive numerals are expressed by reduplications of cardinal numerals. Distributive forms are a partial reduplication of cardinal forms for the numeral forms of ‘one’ to ‘six’ and ‘ten’, while complete reduplication is required for the numeral forms ‘seven’, ‘eight’ and ‘nine’. These coincide with the distributive form of Santali numerals. mi-miyad ba-bar-ia ‘one each’ ‘two each’ ‘six each’ ‘seven each’ tu-turi-a ee-a ee-a ap-api-a ‘three each’ iral-ia iral-ia up-upun-ia ‘four each’ are-a are-a mo-mone-a ‘five each’ ge-gel-ea ˙ Ordinal numeral forms are as follows: 87 ‘eight each’ ‘nine each’ ‘ten each’ 4 GRAMMAR SECTION sida ‘first’ etaij ‘second’ ˙ The following variant forms are notable: (a) mi/mo ‘one’ in mi-sa/mo-sa ‘once’ (c.f. bar-sa ‘twice’, api-sa ‘three times’ etc.) (b) mu ‘one’ in mu-siṅ ‘one day’ (c.f. bar-siṅ ‘two days’, api-ma ‘three days’, upun-ma ‘four days’ etc.) Mundari uses horo ‘person’, oraij ‘house’, booij ‘head’ as classifiers. Thus, ˙ ˙ api three horo ˙ person hon-ko child-PL ‘three children’ The word jan/jon (from Indo-Aryan) is also currently used in Mundari. However, jan/jon always co-occurs with Indo-Aryan numerals. For example, tin three jan/jon Numeral Classifier hon-ko child-PL ‘three children’ 88 4 4.31 Interjections and vocatives Sentence aba-ga, dola-bu senog-a. ‘Father, let s go!’ hee, mar. ‘Yes, let s go!’ ee bai, senoij-ta-n-a-le. ‘Hey, we are going!’ juu, maja tebaij-e-pe. ‘Go ahead, reach safely!’ dela, sekara-e-pe ˙ ‘So, here we go! Hurry up!’ Vocatives 1. 2. -ga -a to someone of higher status than speaker to someone younger than speaker 3. 4. -re -na to someone younger than speaker to someone younger than speaker (used by women) 89 GRAMMAR SECTION 4 GRAMMAR SECTION Interjections 1. 2. ate au hey, sorry, excuse me oops, darn (used lightly after making a mistake) 3. 4. bai ci hey, sorry, excuse me yuck, ew! (used when seeing or hearing something dirty or undesirable) 5. 6. 7. de ei/hoo ela please (give it to me) hey OK, here we go! (intimate, said when leading someone) 8. 9. dola dela Let’s go! (all together) Ok, here we go! (command, said when leading someone) 10. 11. 12. hale idu/idoro ˙ itiij hey, sorry, excuse me (between men) Hmm, I dont́ know, I wonder No, it is no like that 13. 14. iya juu um, ah Go! 15. 16. 17. kaci ke mar Right? isnt́ that so? Oh, I see yeah, fine, ok then 18. 19. ne oco Here! Watch out! Get out! Careful! 20. 21. ter tobe Take it! then 90 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4.32 Particle do Sentence añ do-ñ senog-a. ‘I am going. I go.’ mandi do-ñ jom-ke-d-a. ˙˙ ‘I ate the food.’ ranchi-re do-ñ taiken-a. ‘I lived in Ranchi.’ am do ranci-te-m sen-ke-n-a, mendo añ do-ñ kunti-te-ñ sen-ke-n-a. ˙˙ ‘You went to Ranchi, but I went to Khunti.’ okoe hijuij-aka-n-a. ‘Who is coming?’ okoe do hijuij-aka-n-a. ‘Someone is coming.’ The particle do marks as the topic in discourse. It singles out the element about which the comment is made in the sentence. The following elements can be marked by the topic marker do: 1. Subject (1) añ do=ñ senog-a. 1SG TOP=1SG:SUB ‘I will go.’ go-IND 2. Direct Object (2) mandi ˙˙ food do=ñ TOP=1SG jom-ke-d-a. eat-COMPL-TR-IND ‘I ate the food.’ 3. Location (3) Ranci-re Ranchi-LOC do=ñ TOP-lSG:SUB tai-ke-n-a. live-COMPL-INTR-IND ‘I lived in Ranchi.’ 91 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4. Source (4) Ranci-ate do=m hijuij-aka-n-a. Ranchi-from TOP=2SG:SUB ‘You have come from Ranchi.’ come-CONT-INTR-IND 5. Instrumental (5) ne daru hake-te do=pe maij-ke-d-a. this tree axe-by TOP=2PL:SUB ‘You cut this wood with an axe.’ cut-COMPL-TR-IND 6. Benefactive (6) Soma-naṅgen do nakiij=ñ Soma-for TOP comb=1SG:SUB ‘I will buy the comb for soma.’ kiriṅ-a-iij-a. buy-BENE-3SG-IND 7. Comitative (7) añ-loij 1SG-with do TOP han-te=laṅ yonder-to=1PL.INC:SUB sen-ke-n-a. go-COMPL-INTR-IND ‘We two (inc) went there together.’ The possessive is not marked for the topic by the particle do. For example, *diri-reaij/raij do oraij (diri ‘stone’, -reaij/-raij POSS oraij ‘house’) is ungrammatical. While the indepenent ˙ ˙ possessive is marked for the topic. Thus, añ-ag-aij do menaij. (añ-ag-aij ‘mine’, menaij COP) ‘There is mine’. In addition to the topic of a sentence, do in Mundari marks the contrast as well. For instance, (8) am do Ranci-te, añ do Kunti-te=ñ ˙ 2SG TOP Ranchi-to 1SG TOP Khunti-to=1SG:SUB ‘You (went) to Ranchi, but I went to Khunti.’ sen-ke-n-a. go-COMPL-INTR-IND Further, as we have mentioned in the indefinite oko can be followed by the topic mark do as in (189) but the interrogative oko cannot. (9) oko-e who hijuij-aka-n-a come-CONT-INTR-IND ‘Who has come?’ (10) oko-e someone do TOP hijuij-aka-n-a. come-CONT-INTR-IND ‘Someone has come, (but not all).’ 92 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4.33 Particle ge Sentence añ ge-ñ senog-a. ‘I (not someone else) go.’ mandi ge-ñ jom-ke-d-a. ˙˙ ‘I ate the food (not other thing).’ ranci-re ge-ñ taiken-a. ‘I lived in Ranchi (not in other place).’ mandi-ko jom-ta-n-ge-a. ˙˙ ‘I am (in the process of) eating.’ okoe ge hijuij-aka-n-a. ‘Who is coming?’ The particle ge may function as an emphatic marker in discourse. The following elements can be marked by the emphatic marker ge: 1. Subject (1) añ ge=ñ senog-a. 1SG EMPH=1SG:SUB ‘It is I who will go.’ go-IND 2. Direct Object (2) mandi ˙˙ food ge=ñ EMPH=1SG:SUB jom-ke-n-a. eat-COMPL-INTR-IND ‘It is the food that I ate.’ 3. Benefective (3) Soma-naṅgen Soma-for ge EMPH nakiij=ñ comb=1SG:SUB ‘For Soma, I will buy the comb.’ 93 kiriṅ-a-iij-a. buy-BENE-3SG-IND 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4. Source (4) Ranci-ate ge=m hijuij-aka-n-a. Ranchi-from EMPH=2SG:SUB ‘From Ranchi, you have come’ come-CONT-INTR-IND 5. Instrumental (5) ne daru hake-te ge=pe maij-ke-n-a. this wood axe-with EMPH=2PL:SUB ‘With axe, you cut this wood’ cut-COMPL-INTR-IND 6. independent possessive (6) nea do añ-ag-aij this TOP 1SG-GEN-GEN ‘This is mine (not any other persons’).’ ge EMPH menaij. COP While the topic marker do is never allocated in the postverbal position, the emphatic marker ge can be used for the verbal phrase in postverbal position. Thus, (7) mandi=ko jom-ta-n-ge-a. ˙˙ food=3SG:SUB eat-PROG-INTR-EMPH-IND ‘They are taking food indeed.’ As is seen above the interrogative oko, cannot be followed by the topic marker do as in (188) but it can be followed by the emphatic marker ge. The indefinite oko, on the other hand, cannot be followed by the emphatic marker ge. For instance, (8) okoe ge her-le-d-a mani who EMPH sow-ANT-TR-IND mastard ‘Who has sown the masterd seed indeed?’ 94 do TOP 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4.34 Other particles Sentence añ-o-ñ senog-a. ‘I also (will) go.’ mandi-o-ñ jom-ke-d-a. ˙˙ ‘I ate rice as well.’ ranci-re-o-ñ taiken-a. ‘I lived in Ranchi as well (as somewhere else).’ añ-bari senog-a. ‘Only I go.’ mandi-bari-ñ jom-ke-d-a. ˙˙ ‘I ate only rice.’ ranci-re-bari-ñ taiken-a. ‘I lived only in Ranchi.’ ranci-te-ko senoij-ja-n-a, jaaij. ‘Perhaps they have gone to Ranchi, right?’ sen-a-e honaṅ mendo-le mana-ki-ij-a. ‘He was meant to go to Ranchi, but we prohibited it.’ apu-ñ raij-ki-ij-re rati soma ka-eij hijuij-ja-n-a. ‘Even thought my father called him, Soma didn t come.’ Particles 1. o also 2. 3. bari jaaij onle maybe, perhaps 4. 5. honaṅ rati even though (it should have been so) even though (it was so) (1) añ-honaṅ seta bai-ja-n-re-do cadlom pete-pete-bala-i-a. ˙ ˙ 1SG-if dog become-INGR-INTR-LOC-TOP tail sway-repeatedly-EPEN-IND ‘If I were a dog I may sway my tail repeatedly (I flatter my master)’. 95 4 GRAMMAR SECTION 4.35 Expressives Mundari has a rich system of expressives. The term ‘expressive’ was suggested by Diffloth (1976:263-264) and adopted by Emeneau (1980:7) in the South Asian context in the following: ‘expressive’ is the most inclusive term for a form class with semantic symbolism and distinct morposyntactic properties; ‘ideophones’ are a subclass in which the symbolism is phonological; ‘onomaptoetics’ are ideophones in which the reference of the symbolism is acoustic (i.e. imitative of sounds). Since the ideophones may have reference not only to sounds, but to any other objects of sense, including internal feelings as well as external perceptions (sight, taste, smell, etc.), and since the Indo-Aryan/ Dravidian items already examined have this very wide type of reference, the broadest term ‘expressives’ seems appropriate. Osada has already written about Mundari expressives in his grammar (Osada 1992:140-144). However, he couldn’t touch the syntactic and semantic properties of expressives. Thus we will discuss here (1) morphology (2) syntax and (3) semantics of expressives. 4.35.1 Morphology of expressives Expressives can be divided into the following types on the basis of their word formation pattern: (A) Identical Reduplication (B) Partial Reduplication (C) Vowel Mutation (A) Identical Reduplication This type of expressive should be distinguished from verbal reduplication, which is clearly derived from the verbal base. It is a salient feature that a basic unit of reduplicational element has no meaning. Thus, 96 4 Expressive form cakob cakob lugum lugum Meaning ‘to eat noisily’ ‘to mumble (something)’ hayam hayam gusu gusu suyuṅ suyuṅ ‘to talk in whispers’ ‘an inactive character’ ‘lean and small (person)’ kase kase mondor mondor ‘to look askance at (a person)’ ‘a smell of rice beer’ mogo mogo kata kata muguiij muguiij ‘a smell of flowers’ ‘to roar with laugh by many peoples’ ‘smiling cheekful’ GRAMMAR SECTION (B) Partial Reduplication Partial reduplication can be formed by two elements. The second element is a partial reduplication of the first element. We can subcategorise this type in the following way, according to exact formal pattern. So far it has been impossible to find common meanings associated with each partial formal types: (i) CVX pVX Expressive form Meaning riti piti risuri pisuri ˙ ˙ rasa pasa ‘very small leaves as those of tamarind’ ‘the act of showing the teeth again and again’ ‘a continuous rustle of dry leaves, paper, or straw as produced by the gliding of a snake or the passage of a rat or other small animal’ ‘to make a stew thick, pasty’ lata pata ˙ ˙ latar patar ˙ ˙ ledeṅ pedeṅ leco peco ‘a mixture of truth and lies wherein one does not know what to believe’ ‘so fat that in walking he has difficulty’ ‘connoting several recurvations, or twisting of the month to the right and left’ loso poso ‘a loosely limbed body with soft or flabby muscles’ (ii) CVX bVX Expressive form kau bau Meaning ‘to do uncomfortably or uneasily’ kered bered cere bere ‘a quarrelling and fighting disposition’ ‘chattering and twittering of numerous birds’ cali bali lada bada ladi badi ‘trickiness’ ‘the thuds of things soft, as mud, falling in succession’ ‘to put things in a disorderly manner, more or less one over another’ sador bador rada bada ‘the act of letting bits fall whilst eating of strewing bits all around by pecking’ ‘onomapte of hail, dry fruit or other hard and dry things falling all about in rapid succession, also of rather numerous drops of water falling all about’ 97 4 GRAMMAR SECTION (iii) CVX mVX Expressive form celoṅ meloṅ ceṅgol meṅgol Meaning ‘naughty boy’ ‘shamelessness’ jaka maka jiki miki ‘shining with a flashy dress (sari with gold)’ ‘shinning with leather’ rigi migi keoṅ meoṅ kandu mandu ˙˙ ˙˙ ‘a cloth variegated with parallel lines or squashes of various colour’ ‘a feeling of loneliness and fear in the middle of the forest’ ‘indigestion and pain in the pit of the stomach after eating or drinking something acid seled meled gero mero or sour or unripe’ ‘mixture of different kinds of grain, etc.’ ‘a shamed face or a crying face’ (iv) CVX kVX Expressive form Meaning dale kale ˙ hati kuti ˙ ˙ ‘negligent (of taking care)’ ‘various kinds’ (v) CVX gVX Expressive form Meaning rain gain mane gane ‘good or bad principles of conduct’ (EM) ‘want of punctuality in starting dilatoriness’ (vi) CVX cVX Expressive form repo cepo Meaning ‘shrivelled’ dukur cukur ‘uneasiness of mind’ (vii) CVX jVX Expressive form reṅge jeṅge hauru jauru ˙ ˙ runu junu Meaning ‘The condition of getting bothered or being subjected to trouble or annoyance’ ‘desultory talk or conversation, passing from one subject to another without order or natural connexion’ ‘to go or walk with difficulty due to a handicap’ (viii) CVX dVX Expressive form Meaning rawa dawa ‘opportunity to do someting reprehensible, because there is nobody to interfere’ 98 4 GRAMMAR SECTION (ix) CVX tVX Expressive form ribuiij tibuiij roka toka Meaning ‘the act of fat people, walking with the buttocks rubbing against each other’ ‘quickly’ (x) CVX sVX Expressive form Meaning rahan sahan boro soro ‘the use of dress, furniture, plate and utensils by more civilized people’ ‘cowardice’ (xi) CVX rVX Expressive form tiri riri Meaning ‘the sound of a flute’ (i), (ii) and (iii) are very common. (C) Vowel mutation ˙ (i) (C)aC[(C)a(C)] (C)uC[(C)u(C)] Expressive form dala dulu ˙ ˙ lada ludu Meaning ‘a fat and short person’ ‘a fat child’ ladar ludur aṅgar uṅgur ‘a wrinkled old person’ ‘to look around restlessly’ baij buij cabaij cubuij ‘holes here and there’ ‘the splashing sound made by repeated poking with a stick in water or mud’ tapaij tupuij ˙ ˙ tagam tugum ‘baby tries to walk’ ‘a fat person who cannot walk swiftly’ (ii) CaC[a(C)(a)] CoC[o(C)(o)] 99 4 GRAMMAR SECTION Expressive form sar sor karaeij koroeij Meaning ‘to eat away with a savage appetite’ ‘a gurgling breathing of one being strangled’ kal kol ragara rogoro ˙ ˙ rakara rokoro ˙ ˙ daṅ doṅ ˙ ˙ pagad pogod ‘a buzzing of the ears’ ‘soil mixed with stones so large that it cannot be ploughed’ ‘the rattling of something in a box or in a bottle or the like’ tarad torod ˙ ˙ ‘a deep and big hole’ ‘a swollen state of the whole body’ ‘a sound of frog’ (iii) CaC[aC] CiC[iC] Expressive form palad pilid Meaning ‘the act of shining in various places’ par pir ‘the act of dispersing’ (iv) CaC[(C)aC] CeC[(C)eC] Expressive form paṅgad peṅged Meaning ‘a glitter of light appearing and disappearing now here, then there’ caij ceij ‘used for the cry of babies’ (EM) (V) CiCa(C) CoCo(C) Expressive form Meaning kidar kodor kiraṅ koroṅ ˙ ˙ gida godo pica poco ‘a cock with a long upright comb and long wavy feathers on the neck and tail’ (EM) ‘a tall and lean person’ ‘semi-liquid things’ ‘to empty a soft or pasty substance by compression’ (vi) CiC CoC Expressive form Meaning bir bor lir lor ‘tall and straight’ ‘a long and weak sapling’ The formal analysis of expressive has been done. 4.35.2 Syntax of expressives The Syntax of expressives has never been described. Expressives can occupy in any place, i.e., in a predicate, complement or argument slot. As the head of predicate, expressives can 100 4 GRAMMAR SECTION take derivational suffixes; e.g., passive, reflexive, benefactve, and aspect markers. Expressives can also form serial verb constructions. Thus, (1) busuij-re utul-putul-ta-n-a. seta-hon=e straw-LOC dog-child=3SG:SUB EXPR-PROG-INTR-IND ‘The puppy is playing in the straw then the straw is shaking.’ (2) aṅgor-saṅgor-giri-aka-n-a. ˙ run-run-to=3SG:SUB EXPR-throw away-CONT-INTR-IND ‘As s/he is running and running then s/he is totally getting out of breathe.’ nir-nir-te=ij Some expressives require the experiencer object like in the experiential constructions. For instance, (3) rua-te alae-balae-ki-ij-ñ-a. fever-to EXPR-COMPL-TR-1SG:OBJ-IND ‘I got a trouble by a fever.’ An expressive alone or an expressive with the progressive aspect marker ta and the intransitive marker -n can occupy in the complement slot as an adverbial phrase in the following: (4) kata-kata=e landa-ta-n-a. EXPR=3SG:SUB smile-PROG-INTR-IND ‘S/he is laughing uproariously.’ (5) iriij-iriij-ta-n=(e)-m EXPR-PROG-INTR=EPEN-2SG:SUB landa-ta-n-a. smile-PROG-INTR-IND ‘You are smiling like a mock at anybody.’ An expressive can occupy in the argument slot to modify a noun or noun phrase. For example, (6) iniij-do janao akoij-bakoij that person-TOP always EXPR ‘S/he is always a stupid person.’ horo-ge. ˙ person-EMPH An expressive can occupy in the head of noun phrase in the following instance: (7) isiri-sikiri ka=ñ ˙ ˙ that person-GEN EXPR NEG=1SG I don’t like her coquettish laughing. iniij-aij suku-a. like-IND As is seen above, expressives have a reduplicated form. Although the single form has usually no meaning, some single forms which are followed by the completive aspect marker ke and intransitive marker n occupy the complement slot as an adverbial phrase: 101 4 GRAMMAR SECTION (8) tii=ij cadta-cadta-ke-d-a. ˙ ˙ hand=3SG:SUB clap:EXP-COMP-TR-IND ‘S/he clapped her/his hand.’ (9) cadta-ke-n=eij tabri-li-ij-i-a. ˙ ˙ clap-COMPL-INTR=3SG:SUB slap-ANT-TR-3SG:OBJ-IND ‘S/he slapped him/her like clapping.’ 4.35.3 Semantics of expressives Nobody has ever describe the semantics of expressives in Mundari. Hoffmann has just described the several expressive forms as variants in EM. For example, the following thirteen forms are the sole one entry for ‘a smile; to smile etc.’: mogoeij, mogoeij-mogoeij, mergoeij, mergoeij-mergoeij, merloN, merloN-merloN, mirluN, mirluN-mirluN, moeij-moeij, muguiij, muguiij-muguiij, musuiij, musuiijmusuiij. According to our informants, some forms mogoeij-mogoeij, mirluN-mirluN, moeij-moeij are not known by them because of dialectal difference. They, however, can differentiate a meaning in the following: mergoeij mergoeij ‘smiling in mouth’ merloṅ merloṅ muguiij muguiij musuiij musuiij ‘smiling by children or aged-persons who have no teeth’ ‘smiling cheerful’ ‘smiling in eyes shyly’ Apart from these, there are a lot of expressive to express the action of laughing etc. I demonstrate the semantic field of laughing, smiling and chuckling below5 . hada hada kata kata ‘to roar with laughter successively’ ‘to roar with laughter (less than hada-hada) by many peoples’ kaij kaij keij keij ‘to laugh like a hen’s clucking’ ‘to laugh like a jackal’s howling’ keteij keteij kõẽ kõẽ kere kete ‘to laugh innocently (by children)’ ‘to laugh without sound’ ‘to laugh while talking’ isiri isiri ˙ ˙ isiri sikiri ˙ ˙ iriij iriij ‘to ridicule one’s action or talk’ ‘to laugh coquettishly’ ‘to laugh mockingly’ We give another example of expressive for light reflection in the following: 5We don’t repeat the above-mentioned expressives here 102 4 GRAMMAR SECTION jaka jaka jaka maka jiki miki ‘shining with gold’ ‘shining with a flashy dress (sari with gold)’ ‘shining with leather’ caka maka jili mili jilib jilib ‘shining with steel or silver’ ‘shining with building’ ‘dazzle with electric light’ bijir bijir jilab jolob ‘lighting’ ‘glimmering with a firefly’ jolob jolob jaraN jaraN paNgad peNged ‘glimmering with many fireflies’ ‘glittering in the sun’ ‘a glitter of light appearing and disappearing now here, then there’ pirid pirid ˙ ˙ palad pilid ‘glimmering on the sand’ ‘the act of shining in various places’ pilid pilid ‘twinkling with stars’ As far as sound symbolism is concerned, ‘it is often said that if vowel quality is used for size symbolism, [i] will symbolize smallness,and the lower vowels, especially [a], will symbolize largeness, with degrees in between’ (Diffloth 1994:107). Diffloth, however, has suggested a counter-example (i: big, a: small) from Bahnar, which also belongs to the Austroasiatic language family. In Mundari, it seems to us that i symbolize smallness while a symbolize largeness in the following: sata sata ˙ ˙ siti siti ˙ ˙ ‘a passing rain for a long time’ ‘a passing rain’ jaram jaram ˙ ˙ jirim jirim ˙ ˙ kaca kaca kici kici ‘a heavy rain (the water in the river is full)’ ‘a heavy rain (the water in the rice-field is full)’ ‘to scold somebody with action’ ‘to scold somebody only by mouth’ The follwing cases should be taken into consideration in our future study: baya baya ‘to act lazily’ buyu buyu ‘to act,especially walk lazily (more lazy than baya-baya’ ) pisir pisir pusur pusur ‘to drizzle (not enough to get wet, even without an umbrella)’ ‘to drizzle (but to get wet)’ 103 Glossary 5 5 GLOSSARY Glossary This glossary contains around 1300 words. Some words are naturally a polysemy. But we illustrate here that one word is basically represented by one meaning for beginner. If you need further details you should consult with the Encyclopaedia Mundarica (EM). Actually we also cite from the EM. As for the loan word, we mainly demonstrate the words of Hindi as a representative of Indo-Aryan. We intensionally omitted the expressive words here. Abbreviations: Adj.= Adjective; Adv.= Adverb; AF=Address Form; Ant.= Antonym; Ben.=Bengali; BF= Basic Form; Caus.= Causative; Comp.= Compound; Conj.= Conjugation; Distr. Num.=Distributive Numeral; Interj.= Interjection; Interr.= Interrogative; Kin.= Kinship term; LW= Loan Word; N.= Noun; Num.= Numeral; Par.= Particle; PP= Postposition; Pron.= Pronoun; PW= Pair Word in poetry; Rec.=Reciprocal; RF=Reference Form; RW.= Semantically Related Words; Suf.= Suffix; Syn.= Synonym; V.= Verb; V. Int.= Verbal intensifier. A aij of (Genitive suffix) small items with joined hands aij N. a bow (PW sar an arrow) aba N. Kin. AF father (RF apu) aben Pron. you two (second person dual) akiriṅ V. Caus. to sell (BF kiriṅ to buy akiṅ Pron. they two (Third person dual) ako Pron. they more than three (Third person plural) alaṅ Pron. we two (I and you) (First person abu Pron. we (first person plural inclusive) abuṅ V. to wash a hand and/or leg. acaka Adv. suddenly (LW from Hi. acānak) acu V. to make someone work aeij Pron. he, she (Third person singular) aeij tege Adv. automatically ad V. to loose, lose one’s way dual inclusive) ale Pron. we more than three ( I and they) (First person plural exclusive) ali V. to wet aliṅ Pron. we two (I and he/she) alo don’t (Prohabit) alpuṅ N. a wave ad Conj. and, then ader V. to enter, to take someone inside adiṅ N. sacred room alu N. potato am Pron. you (Second person singlar) aminaṅ/aminuṅ Pron. this much agam V. to understand, to expect agu V. to bring, to take from (Syn. au ) an Pron. Adj. this ana Pron. this ajal V. Caus. to make someone (BF jal ) aji N. Kin. RF. elder sister (AF dai ) aji-hanar N. Kin. RF. sister-in-law (AF dai ) ajom V. Caus. to feed (BF jom to eat) akabakao V. to do something hasty (Experiencer Object) akadanda V. to surprise akara N. the dancing ground ˙ akid V. 1. to make rice beer 2. to gather añ Pron. I (First person singular) añjed V. to dry up aṅ V. to dawn N. a dawn aṅgob N. a yarn V. to yarn anu V. Caus. to make (a child) drink (BF nu ) ape Pron. you (Second person plural) apapia Distr. Num. three each (BF apia ) 105 5 apia /api- Num. three api hisi Num. sixty api three hisi twenty GLOSSARY apir V. to fly apu N. Kin. RF. father (AF. aba ) apu hoñjar N. Kin. RF. father-in-law to merry ari N. the ridges of the rice-field ˙ arisa V. to be lazy (Experiencer Object) ˙ asadi V. to weary, to disgust (Experiencer Object), N. the mental condition of weariness (AF aba ) ara N. Kin. RF. son-in-law (AF. babu ) asar N. influence (LW from Hi. asar) asaraeij N. hope, expectation V. to expect araij Adj. red V. to become red area /are- Num. nine areij V. to bale out water in order to catch ase /asi V. to ask something, to request asul V. to feed, nourish, bring up ata V. to roast fishes arid V. to open one’s eye ate Interj. Hey! ate Postp. from (Ant. japid to shut one’s eye) aril N. the hailstones V. to hail arki N. a mahua brandy atiṅ V. to graze atom N. edge, border, boundary atu V. to wash away arkid V. to snatch away, to deceive away arsal V. to search something (or someone) atauri N. a week ˙ at(a)kar V. to know, to think. ˙ au V. to bring, to acquire, to take from au Interj. ale! auri Interj. wait! Adv. later, no now with aid of light araij V. to set free, to let go ˙ araij N. a vegetable ˙ araij sakam Comp. N. an eatable vegetable ˙ araij uruij V. to think this and that (Experi˙ ˙ encer Object) arakata N. rafter V. to make rafters ˙ arandi N. a marriage, marriage ceremony V. ˙ ayar N. a front V. to walk ahead ayub V. to become dark in the evening N. evening ayum V. to hear, listen B baa N. a flower V. to blossom from Hi. badlı̄ ） -baaij V. Int. V. quickly baba N. rice plant, Oryza Sativa bag(a)rao V. to damage, to be broken ˙ bage V. to leave, babaria Distr. Num. two each (BF baria bai Interj. Hello! bai V. to make, build Comp. V. V. carefully two) babata V. to itch (Experiencer Object) N. baira N. blind baje N. time (LW from Hi. baje ) itching bakri N. a hence babu N. 1. male children 2. gentleman ˙ baklaij N. the bark of tree bada N. Kin. AF. RF. paternal elder uncle ˙ badi N. a rice-field with natural water re- bakoij N. a hook source (RW loyoṅ a rice-field with irrigation) bakri N. an enclosure, hedge V. to hedge ˙ badi N. Kin. AF. RF. paternal elder uncle’s bakuo V. to surprise ˙ bala N. feast for marriage wife badli V. to exchange N. an exchange (LW balae N. difficulty, suffering V. to feel diffi- 106 5 cult, trouble balti N. bucket (LW from Hi. bāltı̄ ) ˙ ˙ balbal V. get sweat (Experiencer Object) N. sweat baleij N. infant GLOSSARY beda V. to deceive, cheat bera N. valley ˙ begar Preposition without (LW from Hi. begar ) beṅgara N. brinjal ˙ -ben Pron Suf. both two Second person dual. berel Adj. raw, unripen N. rawness balu N. fool, crazy V. to become crazy bãnãsi N. a fishing-hook V. to fish with a ˙ hook bes Adj. good, fine V. to become good bãnı̃a N. merchant (LW from Hi. baniyā ） (LW from Hi. beś ) ˙ bañcao V. save one’s life (LW from Hi. ba- bese Adj. many (LW from Sad. bese) cnā ) bicar N. thought, idea (LW from Hi. vicār ) banda N. lake bid V. to stand up, build up banduku N. gun (LW from Hi. bandūq ) banam N. traditional music instrument like biolin bida V. to bid farewell (LW from Hi. bidā ) bijili N. electoricity (LW from Hi. bijlı̄ ) bil V. to spread a mat baṅgaiij V. not exist (Negative existential bili N. pestle copula for animate singular Subject) bindu N. point (LW from Hi. bindū ) baṅkinaij V. not exist (Negative existential biṅ N. snake, serpent copula for animate dual Subject) bir N. forest, jungal baṅkoaij V. not exist (Negative existential birsipait N. Thursday copula for animate plural Subject) (LW from Hi. brhaspativār ) ˚ banoij V. not exist (Negative existential cop- birid V. to wake up, stand up ula for inanimate Subject) bisi N. poison (LW from Hi. viś ) bapai V. Rec. to reconcile each other biswas N. belief V. to believe (BF bai to make) (LW from Hi. viśvās ) -bara V. Int. V. many time bitar N. inside (LW from Hi. bhı̄tar ) ˙ barae N. iron smeltering Caste biyur V. to turn around, to spin ˙ bara-bariij V. to make equal, to balance N. bi-ni-yur N. a winding, turning (BF biyur ) equal (LW from Hi. barābar ) boka V. to notch the edge of knife bare N. the Banyan boko- N. Kin. RF younger brother/sister ˙ bare re Adv. phrase in respect of (AF babu younger brother maia younger (LW from Hi. bāre mẽ) sister) -bari Suf. only bolo V. to enter bariya /bar- Num. two basaṅ V. to boil water basi V. to become stale PP. the day after boṅga V. to prey, worship N. sprit, deity, God, ghost booij N. head bati V. to fell down ˙ batu N. Kin. AF elder brother-in-law ˙ (RF tenja- ) boor N. bridgegroom bora V. to break the edge of knife ˙ borkod N. lung boro V. to fear, to afraid of borsa V. to expect N. expectation bau N. Kin RF elder brother (AF dada ) bayar N. a rope (LW from Hi. bharosā ) beij V. to spit 107 5 GLOSSARY buluṅ N. salt V. to feel salty (Experiencer Object) botoeij N. loin cloth botoṅ N. menace V. to threaten -bu Pron. Suf. we First person plural inclus- bunum N. white-ant hill bura N. Kin. AF. grand-father (RF. tata) ˙ buria N. old womon V. to become old wo˙ man ive buij V. to pierce N. hole buij V. to bark budu N. Wednesday (LW from Hi. budhvār ) PW haram old man ˙ burdulud N. the winged females of any kind bugi V. to cure, to become well bugin Adj. good, fine of ant buru N. 1. hill, montain 2. festival, feast V. (Syn. bes Ant. edkan ) bujao V. to know, understand (LW from Hi. būjhnā ) to heap up busuij N. a straw buta N. a trunk of the tree ˙ buti N. navel ˙ bul V. to be drunken (Experiencer Object) bulu N. thigh C ca Conj. or capu V. to touch with one’s hand caa N. tea (LW from Ben. ca ) caab V. to open one’s mouth RW: (PW rikub to shut one’s mouth) caba V. stop, finish, empty Comp. V. to finish to do, to stop doing cabi N. a key V. to lock by the key (LW from Hi. cābı̄ ) cadlom N. tail caka V. to taste cakar N. breath (LW from Hi. cakrā) cal V. to spread decease cala N. strainer jutid to touch with any parts of one’s body ˙ tunum to touch in the water or dark cara N. fodder (LW from Hi. cārā ) care N. bald of one’s head V. to become bald ˙ cataij V. to split, crack N. crack ˙ cati N. the ceremony for the child birth ˙ catom N. umbrella catu N. earthen waterpot ˙ cauli N. husked rice RW: baba rice plant calao V. to drive a vehicle, to manage one’s mandi cooked rice ˙˙ life (LW from Hi. calānā ) cẽnẽ V. bird ˙ camaci N. spoon (LW from Hi. cammac ) centa V. to be jearous (Experiencer Object) ˙˙ candi N. silver (LW from Hi. c¯ãdı̄ ) ceped V. to make thin canduij N. moon (LW from Hi. c¯ãd) cepo V. to depress, to shrink ˙˙ canku Interr. what akind of people? cetan N. upper (PW latar lower) cãnı̃ V. to feel stiff Experiencer Object ci Par. ? (question marker) Conj. or ˙ capi N. to wash something by water ciaij ci Conj. because RW: cita V. to suspect wrongly, to accuse faultly ˙ abuṅ to wash one’s hand, one’s face N. wrong suspition gasar to clean utensils citi N. letter (LW from Hi. citthı̄ ) ˙ ˙˙ 108 5 cini N. sugar (LW from Hi. cı̄nı̄ ) cinaij/cikanaij/canaij Interr. what? GLOSSARY copoij V. Rec. to kiss each other (BF coij ) cokaij N. a skin of fruit, the shell of egg coke N. frog cika Interr. Par. or not cikaniij/caniij Interr. What a kind of people (singular) cokoeij Adv. little coteij V. to give very little ˙ cikankiṅ/cankiṅ Interr. What a kind of two -coteij V. Int. V. almost completely ˙ peoples (dual) cotoṅ V. to dry up by evaporation ˙ cilika Interr. how RW: anjed to dry up by human activity cilikate Interr. why cumaṅ N. a ceremonial kissing in the occacimin paisa Interr. how much money is it? sion of marriage V. to do a ceremonial kissing cimin samae menaij Interr. what a time is it? inthe occasion of marriage ciminaṅ Interr. how many cundul V. to indicate by finger ˙˙ cimtaṅ Interr. when cundul katuij Comp. Word indicating finger ˙˙ ˙ cina N. mark (LW from Hi. cinha ) cuṅgi N. tabaco cipa V. to squeeze out, to press out the li- cuti N. the top, summit (LW from Hi. cotı̄ ) ˙ ˙ quids cutu N. mouse ˙ cipi N. brass bowl RW: cipud V. to close one’s hand. N. a fistful katea rat bigger than cutu (measurement for rice, beans etc.) ˙ ˙ coo N. Chau dance. the mask dance perguru the Indian common field rat, bigger ˙ formed by Mundas in hot seasons than katea ˙ coij V. to kiss N. a kiss D da Interj. give me! -daṅ Par. Indeed daa N. 1. tuber 2. honey comb of bees. 3. daṅg(a)ra N. boy, young unmarriaged man ˙ the eggs of ants V. 1. to make the honey comb daṅg(a)ri N. girl, young unmarriaged wo˙ of bees 2. to lay eggs of ants man daij N. water, rain, urine V. to rain, urine dab V. to thatch dapal V. to cover with clothes dari V. to win Comp. V. to be able to ˙ dada N. Kin. AF. elder brother (RF. bau ) darom V. to meet, to go to meet dadal V. Rep. to strike again and again (BF daru N. tree, wood, timber dal to strike) dasain N. the Dasain, the Hindu festival usu- dai N. Kin. AF. elder sister (RF aji ) dal V. to strike, hit with the stick ally in October (LW from Hi. dasahrā Skt. dasain ) ˙ dali N. soup made by beans (LW from Hi. dasi N. male servant dāl) (PW kamini female servant) dãnã V. to search for, look for datorom N. sickle used for harvesting ˙ danaṅ V. to prevent seeing daya N. mercy, pity V. to show pity dãnẽ N. sacrified animal V. to give a sacri(LW from Hi. dayā ) ˙ fied animal to deity de Interj. give me! 109 5 GLOSSARY dub V. to sit dudumul V. pigeon deij V. to climb, ride dea N. the back of human dela Interj. come her! dukan N. shop (LW from Hi. dukān ) duku N. sorrow V. (Experiencer Object) (PW suku rejoice) deṅga V. to help, assist dere V. to sex N. sexual intercourse ˙ dẽõnã N. medicine man ˙ depere V. Rec. to sex each other (BF dere ) ˙ ˙ didi N. Kin. AF. elder sister (RF. aji) dul V. pour dulara N. love, affection V. to love ˙ dumaṅ N. a traditional music instrumental, a kind of drum duniya N. world (LW from Hi. duniyā ) diku N. outsider, Non-Adivasi V. to soeak outsider’s language; i.e., Hindi dunub N. meeting (BF dub Infix -nV-) dupil V. to carry something on the head diṅgaeij Adj. short (of tone’s height) dip(i)li N. time diri N. stone RW: goij to carry something on the shoulder diriṅ N. horn of any kind of animals disum N. country kud to carry something on the back diya N. lump, light (LW from Hi. dı̄yā ) do Par. Topic marker doo V. 1. to place, put down 2. to keep, pre- kutuṅ to carry something with the pole ˙ duraṅ V. to sing N. song serve 3. to marry dola Interj. Let’s go! durum N. sleeping V. to sleep, to become ˙ sleepy (Experiencer Object) dondo V. to lift, raise dorpon N. mirror (LW from Hi. darpan ) ˙ duar N. door (LW from Hi. dvār ) dusman N. hostile (LW from Hi. dusman ) ˙ dutam N. match maker V. to make matching (PW susun V. to dance N. dance) D . dari N. a spring ˙ ˙ data N. tooth V. to teeth ˙ ˙ dedeb N. sparrow ˙ ˙ debel V. to take bathe N. bathe ˙ dende V. to fit tightly Adj. tight (fitting) ˙ ˙˙ dilaṅ V. to fit loosely ˙ diṅcuaij N. kingcrow ˙ dinda N. to remain unmarried Adj. unmar˙ ˙˙ ried doboij V. to nod (to be sleepy, to consent) ˙ dodoij N. urine V. to urinate (Syn. duki) ˙ ˙ ˙ dondo N. ignorance, stupidity Adj. ignorant ˙ ˙˙ doṅga N. boat (LW from Hi. dõgā) ˙ ˙ dub(u)ri N. brass bowl ˙ duki N. urine V. to urinate (Syn. dodoij) ˙ ˙ ˙ dulki N. the traditiona musical instrument, a ˙ kind of drum dumbuiij V. 1. to drown 2. to set the sun ˙ doba N. pond ˙ E eea /ee- Num. seven -eij Suf. he/she Third person singular ekela V. 1. to shake 2. to shiver ene N. the lac This is one of the bigest side˙ business for Mundas. eneij V. to distinguish fire ˙ 110 5 en Pron. that en/n V. Suf. to do by oneself Reflexive de- GLOSSARY RW: pundi white ˙˙ pandu grey hair ˙˙ hende black ingeneral, black skin) eser V. to occupy the space rivational suffix ena Pron. that eneteij N. beginning (BF eteij Infix -nV-) ˙ ˙ eṅga N. Kin. RF. mother (AF eyanṅ ; PW apu father) eṅga-apu Comp. N. parents eṅga tepoij Comp. N. the thumb ˙ eperaṅ V. Rec. to quarrel N. a quarrel (BF eskar V. to become lonely N. loneliness etaij Adj. other ˙ etaṅ Adj. thin (Ant. ibil thick) eteij V. to begin ˙ etkan Adj. bad (Ant. bugi good) eraṅ Infix -p) eraṅ V. to scold N. scolding etwar N. Sunday (LW from Hi. itvār ) eyaṅ N. Kin. AF. mothre (RF eṅga) ere N. omen V. to affect with the omen esel Adj. fair (skin) eyon V. to get awake G -ga Voc. sir using for expressing a respect to mother, wife of a father’s younger brother the elder person. gaded N. alga galaṅ V. to weave (AF kaki ) gasar V. to clean the cooking and eating vessels galti N. mistake V. to make a mistake RW: (LW from Hi. galtı̄ ) gama N. rain V. to rain gamaṅ V. to tickle (Experiencer Object) Syn. gesa to scub with the ashes for the purpose of cleaning heṅga to scrub strongly with the ashes for the pur pose of cleaning gasiij N. gas, wind V. to pass wind gore gande N. slant ˙˙ gandu N. the wooden stool gati N. friend ˙˙ ganduiij N. a piece of wood V. to cut into gauiij V. to beckon N. the gesture of beckon˙˙ pieces ing ganta N. hour (LW from Hi. ghantā ) ge Par. Emphatic marker ˙˙ ˙˙ gao N. wound, cut V. to wound ged V. to cut meat by a large meat cutter (LW from Hi. ghāv ) gapa Adv. tomorrow RW: had to cut with sawing motion by a knife, a saw, an axe, etc. RW: maij to cut a tree with a striking motion by an axe tisiṅ today hola yesterday miyaṅ the day after tomorrow gara N. river, trench V. to dig trench ˙ -garaṅ V. Int. intensified V. gari N. car (LW from Hi. gārı̄ ) ˙ ˙ garin N. Kin. RF. younger sister of one’s ˙ latab to cut a paper, hair, etc. by scissors ˙ samaij to cut something (meat bone, jackfruit, etc.) in small pieces with an axe ir to cut the stalk of grain by sickle for reaping 111 5 GLOSSARY tona to cut timber into log ˙ paraij to cut the long things (firewood, etc.) ˙ into two portions goeij V. to kill (humanbeing, animal), wither (plant) gogoeij V. Rep. to die definitely (BF goeij ) ganduiij to cut the long things (rope, etc.) ˙˙ in pieces of a given length goja V. to sharpen N. sharpeness gojoij V. to die (BF goeij ) dula to cut the top portion of trees with ˙ long axe gede N. duck ˙ gejera V. to annoy by the acting or saying of ˙ children gejo V. to speak unclearly due to one’s pron- gol N. circle, round (LW from Hi. gol ) golaṅ V. to tickle gole V. to whistle N. whistling ouciation geleya /gel- Num. ten koce V. to become crooked (for verticl object like tree) gomke N. the master, the Singbong goñje to become crooked (for horizontal object) RW: ger V. to gnew gere N. Kin. RF. children of a man’s siter or gonoṅ N. the price of marriage, a price V. to ˙ a woman’s brother become expensive (AF. bagina (for man) bagini (for woman)) goom N. wheat (LW from Beng. gom ) gesa V. to scub with the ashes for the purpose gopoeij V. Rec. to fight each other of cleaning gil V. to hit with the fist (BF goeij Infix -pV-) gora N. rice field in the upland ˙ RW: RW: dal to hit with the stick loyoṅ rice field in the low land tabri to hit with the open hand) ˙ giri V. to throw away ˙ gitiij V. to lay down (RW durum to sleep) ˙ gitil N. sand giyuij V. to feel ashamed (Experiencer Object) goij V. to carry something on the shoulder god V. to pluck fruit RW: badi rice field in the middle land gore V. to tickle (Experiencer Object) gore-gote N. the armpit goso V. 1. to whither 2. to waste a body 3. to become downcast gosoij V. 1. to rub 2. to massage one’s body with oil gota N. the whole ˙ gotaij V. to scratch with finger nails for a re- heij to pick the leaf lief from itching hod to strip the leaves from a twig by gucu N. beard, moustache pulling it from top to bottom through the fin- guiram N. Kin. AF. RF. a brother or sister of gers one’s brother or sister-in-law peteij to pinch off a leaf ˙ sid to pluck leaves for vegetables toe to pluck the whole ears of plant ˙ godar V. to scratch strongly then wounded guli N. 1. marble 2. bullet (LW from Hi. golı̄ ) gun N. character, capacity (LW from Hi. gun ) ˙ gunda N. powder RW: ˙˙ gota to scratch with finger nails for a relief guṅgu N. Kin. RF. grand-grand-father (AF kuku ) from itching 112 5 GLOSSARY gupi V. to graze cattle N. cattle-herd (LW from Hi. gopı̄ ) guyu N. the simple house made by woods and straws near the rice field in the harvest guriij N. cowdung guru N. rat ˙ gutu V. to pierce, sting time H habiij Postp. till hacuij V. to hicap had V. to cut with sawing motion by a knife, a saw, an axe, etc. haga N. Kin. RF. brother haram N. old man (PW buria) ˙ ˙ harao V. <to lose (LW from Hi. harnā ) harub V. to cover hasa N. soil, earth hasaṅgar N. grave, burial hasarad V. to feel unsmoothy (Experiencer Object) hasu N. sick, pain V. to become sick, to feel (AF. dada elder brother; PW misi sister) hai N. fish haka V. to hang hake N. a large axe for cutting wood pain (Experiencer Object) hasur V. to set (the sun, moon, star) RW: (PW rakab to rise (the sun, moon, star) ) kondeij a small axe ˙˙ hasu r(u) V. to cease raining kapi hunting axe with a triangle-shaped ˙ hataij N. winnow blade ˙ hataṅ N. the brain halaṅ V. to pick up with hands hambal Adj. heavy N. weight V. to feel hatar V. to to carry the baby tied in cloths RW: heavy (Experiencer Object) hambud V. to embrace han Pron. yonder hana Pron. yonder hãnã V. to feel melancholy ˙ hãnãb V. to put a rice into the boiling water ˙ handed V. to close a door ˙˙ -hantara V. Int. to engage in V. ˙ hanar N. Kin. RF. mother-in-law (AF. eyaṅ; PW honjar) hani N. to lose money (LW from Hi. hāni) hapa/ hape V. to keep silent hapad N. leech (RW lendad worm) ˙˙ har V. to drive, to drive away hara V. 1. to grow 2. to grow a long hair 3. to bring up hebe to carry the baby astride on the hip hati N. elephant (LW from Hi. hāthı̄ ) hati-kuti Adj. various V. to speak several ˙ ˙ times contradictly hatiṅ V. to distribute N. the share ˙ hatom N. Kin. AF. RF. sister of father, wife of mother’s brother hatu N. village hau N. the red ant haya V. to feel a desire N. desire hayam V. to whisper he Yes V. to say yes, agree, consent he mar Interj. Alright! heij V. to pick the leaf hebe V. to carry the baby astride on the hip harad Adj. pungent, hot V. to feel pungent heben Adj. astringent V. to feel an astringent ˙ (Experiencer Object) taste (Experiencer Object) har(a)gu V. to get down from the vehcle ˙ helta N. banboo shoot 113 5 GLOSSARY hende N. black color Adj. black V. to be- it from top to bottom through the fingers come black hoka V. to stop, cease heṅga V. to scrub strongly with the ashes for the pur pose of cleaning her V. to sow the seed holeij V. to pu off one’s cloths hola N. yesterday holoṅ N. flour hera V. to delay hon N. child ˙ here N. chaff (RW lupuij bran) honder Adv. some time ago ˙ hered N. to weed hondoeij V. 1. to boil 2. to parboil ˙ ˙˙ herem Adj. sweet V. to taste sweet (Experi- honjar N. Kin. RF. father-in-law (AF aba ) ˙ encer Object) honor V. to walk hewa V. to accustom N. custom, habit (LW from hewā ) hora N. road horo V. to protect hiaij V. to hiccough N. hiccough hiatiṅ N. grief V. to grieve (PW cakatiṅ ) hicir N. thunderbold V. to strike thunder Object) hili N. Kin. RF. the wife of one’s elder sister (AF. dai ) horo N. turtle horo N. human, Munda ˙ horomo N. skin ˙ hosoro V. to lie N. lie ˙ hotaij V. to pick one’s teeth with the small ˙ stick, to scoop the ear with the small stick hotoij N. neck ˙ hotor V. to draw out hirci V. to sprinkle a liquid N. a liquid sprinkled hoyo N. wind, air V. to blow wind hoyo V. to peel hijuij V. to come (PW senoij to go) hilaṅ V. to feel disgusted with (Experiencer hiriij V. to spill cooked food hisab V. to calculate N. calculation (LW from Hi. hisāb ) huaij V. to bite huijtir V. to snore N. snoring ˙ hupuriṅ Adj. very small ˙ hisi Num. twenty BF huriṅ infix -pV˙ hisiṅga V. to feel jealous (Experiencer Ob- hulaṅ N. day humu N. dirt hundi V. to gather, collect ˙˙ huriṅ Adj. small ˙ hurum suku N. the hoony bee ject) hisir N. necklace hita N. seed hoba V. to complete, finish hod to strip the leaves from a twig by pulling I iij N. dung, stool ibil Adj. thick (Ant. etaṅ thin ) check the gourd, etc. icaij N. shrimp icaij V. to pinch with the nails of thumb and finger lin to squeeze between thumb and the fore forefinger RW: itiij to press with the thumb nail in order to picaij to pinch in order to extract with pincers tokoe to pinch between thumb nails in or˙ der to kill the lice 114 5 GLOSSARY idan Adv. early morning iril N. Kin. RF. the younger brother or sister idi V. to take, to take away Comp. verb mo- of one’s husband (AF. to call his/ her name.) tion toward idu Interj. I don’t know idu oroij Interj. perhaps, maybe ˙ iil N. feather iim N. lever isin V. to cook iskul N. school (LW from Hi. skūl < Eng. school) ikir Adj. deep ili N. rice beer iminaṅ /imunuṅ Pron. that much check the gourd, etc. it(i)kid V. 1. to rub one’s eye in order to extract small object 2. to rub to powder in the iminaṅ ge that’s enough indika N. heel ˙˙ indiriij Adv. two days after tomorrow inuṅ N. playing, sports V. to play ipil N. star hollow of hand itil N. fat ir V. to reap iraliya /iral- Num. eight iyam V. to cry isu Adv. very itiij to press with the thumb nail in order to itir V. to take massage itu V. to teach ituan V. I know J ja Pron. some indefinite pronoun japi N. hunting dance with music jaij Interj. perhaps jai N. Kin. RF. grandchild japid V. to shut one’s eye japud V. to rain heavily N. heavy rain (AF babu grandson maia granddaughter) jadka Adv. more jadur N. name of song with dance performed jara N. firing in the highland field V. to set a fire in the highland field jargi N. rain season from the autamn to the spring jaga N. place jagar N. a talk V. to talk jarom V. to ripen N. egg jaru V. to sit jati N. Caste, ethnicity (LW from Hi. jāti ) jaked Postp. untill, upto jakoeij V. to draw one’s stomach jayar N. sacred place jeṅged Adj. deep red V. to paint deep red jal V. to lick jala N. blind V. to become blind jete N. summer season V. to shine (Experi˙ encer Object) jii N. life (LW from Hi. jı̄ ) (LW from Hi. jālā ) jalom N. net jama V. to collect, joint jaṅ N. 1. bone 2. seed janao Adv. every day janda N. flag (LW from Hi. jhãdā ) ˙˙ ˙ janum N. thorn januwar N. animal (LW from Hi. jānvar) japaij N. near jı̃ı̃ V. to smell jid V. to live jiki N. porcupine jiliṅ Adj. long jilu N. meat jinid N. life (BF jid infix -n) jirub V. to use a fire to warm oneself jiya N. Kin. RF. grandmother (AF nani ) 115 5 joo N. fruit joij V. to sweep GLOSSARY jonda N. corn ˙˙ jone N. wart joa N. cheek jonoij N. bloom (BF joij infix -nV-) joar/johar Good morning, Good evening, jonom V. to born (LW from Hi. janm ) Thank you Greenting word. joor N. force (LW from Hi. jor) jod V. to wipe off jogao V. to take care of, to keep carefully joro V. to leak jū Interj. Go away! jojo N. tamarind V. to fell sour (Experiencer jugu N. time ((LW from Hi. yug / jug ) Object) jul V. to burn joka V. to measure jumburi N. greediness Adj. greedy ˙ jojom V. to eat customaly jumka N. the calf of the human leg jola N. bag (LW from Hi. jholā) juri V. pair N. to match (LW from Hi. jorı̄) ˙ ˙ jolom V. to pluster jururu V. to smooth ˙ jom V. to eat Comp. V. to do something for jutid V. to touchwith any parts of one’s body ˙ one’s benefit juta N. shooes (LW from Hi. jūtā ) jom tı̄ Comp. Word right (literally eating hand) K ka Negation no, not kaani N. strory (LW from Hi. kahānı̄ ) kabu V. (Experiencer Object) kamı̃nı̃ N. female servant ˙ kami N. work V. to work (LW from Hi. kām ) kacara N. short temper Adj. naughty kaci Interj. isn’t it kadal N. banana kanti N. nail (LW from Hi. k¯ãtı̄ ) ˙˙ ˙ kantara N. jackfruit ˙˙ ˙ kapaij V. to the food into mouth kadarao V. to get angry (Experiencer Ob- kapi N. hunting axe ject) karakom N. crab ˙ kadsom N. cotton karam N. 1. the Karam festival 2. the Karam kagaj N. paper (LW from Hi. kāgaj ) song-cum-dance kaji V. to say N. saying kari N. debt V. to borrow money ˙ kaka N. Kin. RF. AF. younger brother of karkad V. to brush the teeth one’s father karpa N. sandal kakala V. to cry kata N. leg ˙ kakaru N. pumpkin kata jamb(a)ra Comp. Word the North ˙ ˙ kaki N. Kin. RF. AF. wife of younger brother katab V. to fast N. fasting ˙ of one’s father -kate V. Int. V. many time kalom Adv. next year katea N. rat ˙ katu N. knife RW: satom two year later maa last year kamãnã N. blanket (LW from Hi. kambal ) ˙ katuij N. finger ˙ katuao V. to feel cold (Experiencer Object) ˙ kauij N. crow 116 5 GLOSSARY ke Interj. really! kecaij V. to break kolom N. threshing floor kona N. a corner (LW from Hi. konā ) kecoij N. roof tile kera N. bufflo ˙ kesed V. 1. to shut 2. to prevent koneya N. bride (LW from Hi. kanyā ) kondeij N. hatchet ˙˙ koṅka N. fool keserembed Adj. narrow V. to become crowd (Experiencer Object) kora N. boy, man (PW kuri N. girl, woman) ˙ ˙ koram V. to strike with back of a hoe, axe ˙ keteij Adj. hard etc. ˙ keyad N. parrot kotaij V. to shake in order to fall off ˙ kiciri N. cloths (RW lijaij N. a cloth, clothes) kotasi N. hammer ˙ kili N. clan koteij V. to hit with the hammer ˙ kimin N. Kin. RF. daughter-in-law koto N. branch koyoij V. to peep (AF. to call her village name.) -kiṅ Personal Pron. Suf. they two (Third kuij V. to cough N. cough kũã N. well (LW from Hi. ku¯ã ) Person Dual) kuba V. to bent at waist kiriki N. window (LW from Hi. khirkı̄ ) ˙ ˙ -kuca V. Int. V. many times kiriṅ V. to buy (PW akiriṅ to sell) kucuṅ V. to bend one’s knee kisãnã Adj. rich N. rich person ˙ kisim N. kind (LW from Hi. kism from Ar- kud V. to carry on the back kuda N. blackberry bic) kudlam N. hoe kiis V. to get angry (Experiencer Object) kuku N. Kin. AF. grand-grand parent kita N. the cocopalm kitab N. book (LW from Hi. kitāb from Arabic) kitil V. to startle ˙ kiwa N. cheek -ko Personal Pron. Suf. they (Third Person Plural) koij N. egret kõãsi N. fog V. to fog tirub to bow one’s head for greeting uṅgud to bent one’s back koca N. corner kul V. to send kula N. tiger V. to become tiger Mundas believe in like vimpire. kulae N. rabit, hare kulgiya N. husband and wife kuli V. to ask kuma N. Kin. RF. mother’s brother koboij V. to bow one’s head in order to read a book, etc. RW: (RF. guṅgu ) (AF. mamu) kumb(u)ru N. tief V. to steel ˙ kumu N. dream V. to dream kundam N. backyard ˙˙ kunta N. pole (LW from Hi. khūtā ) ˙˙ ˙ kunuli N. question (BF kuli infix -nV-) koce V. to become crooked (for verticl object kupul N. 1. guest 2. relative V. 1. to become guest 2. to become relative like tree) kuram N. chest kode N. finger millet ˙ kuri N. girl, woman kõẽ N. begger V. to beg ˙ kuril V. to jump kokor N. owl ˙ kurkur V. to get angry (Experiencer Object) kokorecoij N. cock-a-doodle-doo 117 5 GLOSSARY kursi N. chair (LW from Hi. kursı̄ ) kutu Adj. stinger N. miser ˙ kutkati N. the Kutkatti land system Munda’s ˙ ˙ traditional land system. L (BF lel Infix -pV-) lepod V. to flutten a fruit laaij V. to pass laco N. lip lad N. the Indian-styled pancake like chapati, leser Adj. sharp V. to sharpen lijaij N. a cloth, clothes nan, roti, etc. limbud V. to strangle with hands ladi V. to load (LW from Hi. lādnā) lin V. to squeeze between thumb and the fore finger laga V. to feel tired (Experiencer Object) lagatiṅ V. must do laiij N. stomach, belly lambuij V. to less the heat owing to cloud landa V. to laugh N. laugh landi N. buttock ˙˙ landia V. to feel lazy (Experiencer Object) ˙˙ laṅg(a)ra N. lame ˙ larai N. battle V. tofight (LW from Hi. larāı̄ ˙ ˙ ) lata N. cave latab N. scissor V. to cut a paper, hair, etc. ˙ by scissors latar N. under latum V. to put something into mouth latum V. to fold a cloth, paper, etc. ˙ leij N. tongue leaṅ V. to melt in the water liṅgi V. to flow N. running water liru V. to bend ˙ lita N. the youngest child ˙ loo V. to burn loij Postp. with loeij N. penis loboij Adj. thick lolo V. to feel hot, to become hot (Experiencer Object) losod N. mud V. to become dirty with mud lota N. the earthen water jar ˙ lotoeij N. a sprain V. to sorain ˙ loyoṅ N. rice-field in the lower land luu V. to ladle lum V. to wet lumam N. silk-worm lunda V. to sweep with a rag ˙˙ lundiij N. a ladle ˙˙ lupuij N. bran lutur N. ear lebeij Adj. soft V. to become soft leka V. to calculate Adv. about, almost, like lel V. to see lendad N. worm ˙˙ leṅga N. left lepel V. Rec. to see each other M by an axe maa N. last year madukam N. the Mahua tree mage N. the Mage festival to be held in December mad N. bamboo mai N. girl maij V. to cut a tree with a striking motion 118 5 GLOSSARY maji N. the bedbug mamu N. Kin. AF. mother’s brother mer Adj, bitter V. to feel bitter (Experiencer Object) (RF. kuma) mana V. to prohabit (LW from Hi. manā from Arabic) merom N. goat miad /mid-/mod- Num. one mimid/momod /mimiyad Distr. Num. one manda V. to catch cold (Experience Object) manda N. footprint ˙˙ mandi N. cooked rice, food V. to cook rice ˙˙ (PW utu side dish) mãnı̃ Adj. slow V. to do something slowly ˙ maṅgar N. Tuesday (LW from Hi. mãgalvār ) each mindi N. sheep ˙˙ misa Adv. once misa misa Adv. sometimes misi N. sister (PW haga brother) miyaṅ Adv. the day after tomorrow mõõ V. to swell mãnãnã N. carrying pole ˙ ˙ mani N. custard manowa N. human (LW from Hi. mānav ) moij V. to smoke moca N. mouth mõẽ N. bud maparaṅ Adj. very big (BF maraṅ Infix -pV-) moloṅ N. forehead momõnẽa Distr. Num. five each ˙ mar Interj. all right! well! mone N. intension V. to intend (Experiencer maraij N. peacock Object) maraṅ Adj. big, great, wide V. to become mundam N. finger ring great marci N. chilli mõnẽya /mõnẽ- Num. five ˙ ˙ moroeij Adj. sour mas(a)kal N. light V. to light mata V. 1. to bring up 2. to ripen the fruit mayaṅ N. waist moto Adj. fat (LW from Hi. motā ) ˙ ˙ mũũ N. nose muiij N. ant mayom N. blood V. to bleed muka N. a cubit V. to measure in cubits -me Personal Pron. Suffix you (Second Per- mukuiṅ V. to feel disgust (Experiencer Obson Singular) med N. eye med daij Comp. Word tear ject) mukũnı̃ N. knee ˙ muluij N. new moon med pipni Comp. Word eye blow men V. to say munda N. 1. village headman 2. the Munda ˙˙ people menaij V. to exist (inanimate) mendo Conj. but mẽnẽd N. iron ˙ mente Conj. because munu N. begining musiṅ Adv. one day N naaij Adv. now najom N. witch nakiij N. comb V. to comb nala N. daylabourer nam V. 1. to get 2. to meet 3. to find namin Pron. this much 119 5 GLOSSARY namtaṅ Pron. this time nãnẽij Adj. near ˙ nana Adj. slender V. to make slender nani N. Kin. AF grand-mother (RF. jia) nãnı̃ N. creeper ˙ napam V. Rec. to meet each other (BF nam Infix -pV-) nida N. night (PW siṅgi day) nimir Adv. recently nata N. the kin relationship naten /naṅgen Par. for nawa Adj. new LW from Hi. nayā ) -noij V. Int. V a liitle while nolad N. soot nuu V. to drink nayal N. plough ne Pron. this nunu N. breast V. to give one’s milk (BF nuu ) neij Interj. here, take it. neg N. religious feast LW from Hi. neg) neskan N. the next time nubaij N. darkness V. to get dark nutum N. name Adj. famous nimtaṅ Pron. this time nindiram N. spider nir V. to run niura N. mongoose niyam N. rule (LW from Hi. niyam ) niij V. to open the door O -o Par. too oar V. to scoop out something solid from liquid obor V. to lay down on one’s stomach waylay people ondor V. to set fire ˙˙ ood V. to rub off dirty or V. to drag RW: sambir to lay down on one’s back oco Interj. get away! oraij N. house ˙ oroij Conj. and, then ˙ oroṅ V. to blow the floot ocoij V. to get removed od V. to break a rope oko Pron. which ota V. to cover and press with hand opota V. Rec. to flight like wrestling (BF ota Infix -pV-) okoe Pron. who ol V. to write otaij V. 1. to take off one’s coats 2. to un˙ cover om V. to give ombaij V. to crawl omon V. to germinate, to sprout otaṅ V. to carry off by the wind ˙ ote N. grand, land otoṅ V. to follow oṅ V. to blow with the mouth oyar V. to swim ondoka N. the act of waylaying people to oyoṅ V. to boil ˙˙ procure their blood for human sacrifice V. to P pããnã N. religious village head ˙ paciri N. wall pada V. to kick paga N. rope (LW from Hi. pagā) 120 5 GLOSSARY palti V. to roll ˙ pampalad N. butterfly poari N. person who speaks obscene V. to ˙ speak obscene pandu N. grey hair ˙˙ pao V. to spend money uselessly paraij V. to cut the long things (firewood, ˙ etc.) into two portions parao V. to study (LW from Hi. parhnā ) ˙ ˙ parci V. to clean parkom N. bed parom V. to pass over, cross over poco V. to slip from hand poeij V. to rince the mouth poga N. mushroom geminated in the tree (RW ud ground) mushroom germinated on the pokoto V. to do something well ponde N. muddy water ˙˙ porob N. festival (LW from Hi. parv ) pase N. a trap for hunting V. to make a trap pasir V. to spatter water or mud potaij V. to strip off the bark ˙ potom V. to bale N. rice bale ˙ pataij V. to split pucao V. to pay regard to (LW from Hi. pū˙ patao V. to water plant (LW from Hi. patānā chnā) ˙ ˙ ) pucuij V. to pass something through a hole patapatia N. motor bike ˙ ˙ pati N. mat (LW from Hi. patı̄ ) ˙ ˙ patia V. to believe -pe Personal Pron. Suf. you (Second Person plural) pundi Adj. white N. whiteness V. to become ˙˙ white pura V. to complete (LW from Hi. purānā ) puraij Adj. many, much purna Adj. old (LW from Hi. purān ) ˙ purnima N. full moon (LW from Hi. pūrni˙ mā ) pẽnãe N. the weaver ˙ peṅged V. to flash light pereij V. to full pereij Adj. strong N. power ˙ peteij V. to break off the twig ˙ picaij V. to pinch in order to extract with pincers pusuri N. pimple putam N. dove piiti N. weekly market ˙ piliij V. to glitter in the light pip(i)ni N. eyelid, eyelash puti V. to get indigestion ˙ putiij V. to get water from the spring N. ˙ spring piri N. upland ˙ pirisaij N. stool V. to shit ˙ poaij V. to crack put(u)rud N. bubble puruij N. cup made by leaves ˙ pusi N. cat pusiij V. to burst open R raij V. 1. to cry 2. to call 3. to weep 4. to roar, bellow, yelp, bowl, neigh raam V. to feel salty (Experiencer Object) (Experiencer Object) N. winter raca N. courtyard racaij V. to pull rabal Adj. light V. to feel light (Experiencer raja N. king (LW from Hi. rājā ) raji V. to reconcile (LW from Hi. rājı̄ ) Object) (PW hambal heavy) rabaṅ Adj. cold, cool V. to feel cold, cool rakab V. to rise 121 5 GLOSSARY ranakab N. ascending slope (BF rakab Infix -nV-) riṅgud N. maggot V. to have a maggot in the teeth raṅga V. to colour (LW from Hi. rãg ) rani N. queen (LW from Hi. rānı̄ ) ranu N. 1. medicine 2. ferment for rice beer rı̃nı̃ N. debt (LW from Hi. rinı̄) ˙ ririṅ V. to forget ˙ risa Adj. woolen (hair) rapaij V. to bake food rapid V. to wink, blink the eyes roo V. to roast feather for cooking chicken roij V. to curve rapud V. to break rara V. to untie ˙ rareij V. to cool down ˙ rasi/rase N. soup (LW from Hi. ras) rasika V. to rejoice (Experiencer Object) roa V. to plant rogo N. decease (LW from Hi. rog ) roka Adj. fresh V. to eat something fresh rataṅ N. snow, ice reij V. to rob rebed V. to stick something between one’s overroasted food rooro V. to dry ˙ rua N. fever V. to get fever (Experiencer Ob- teeth red N. root ject) ruba V. to plunge the hand renekeij N. ankle reṅgeij V. to feel hungry (Experiencer Object) N. hunger rum V. to trance runda N. wild cat ˙˙ rupa N. silver (LW from Hi. rūpā ) repo V. to shrivel rera V. to take a bath ˙ rid V. to grind grains rika V. to do something Comp. V. to make someone to do something rura V. to return ˙ ruru V. to take a rest ˙ ruruṅ V. to husk N. husking work ˙ rutu N. bamboo flute ruu V. to beat a drum roko N. the fly (insect) roṅgo V. to let food burn on, to overroast N. rikub V. to close the lip rimbil N. cloud V. to become cloudy S sakom N. wristlet saij Postp. on the side saan N. firewood sab V. to catch sabaij V. to feel tasteless (Experiencer Object) saboro N. crowbar ˙ sadao V. to make difficult sadara Adj. ugly ˙ sadom N. horse sakam N. leaf saki N. namesake V. to name after sakid V. to make solid salaṅgi Adj. tall sala V. to choose salai N. match (LW from Hi. salāı̄ ) sam Par. all sama Adj. empty samaij V. to minch food samarom N. gold ˙ saman N. baggage (LW from Hi. samān ) samae N. time (LW from Hi. samay ) sambir V. to lay on the back samporo V. to prepare ˙ 122 5 samundar N. sea (LW from Hi. samdra ) sanamaṅ N. front setaij N. morning sewa V. to serve (LW from Hi. sevā ) sia N. pubic hair sanaṅ V. to hope (Experiencer Object) sandi N. male animal ˙˙ saṅga N. tuberous root sib V. 1. to smoke tabaco 2. to draw into the mouth by sucking saṅgi Adj. numerous N. numerous condition V. to render numerous saṅgin Adj. far N. distance sanicar N. Satarday (LW from Hi. sanı̄car ) sañju V. to put into santara N. the Santal ˙ -sante Postp. untill sapa N. clean (LW from Hi. saphā ) sar N. arrow (PW aij bow) sara N. manure sareij V. to leave sari N. sound V. to play ˙ sarima N. roof ˙ sarjom N. the sal tree, Shorea robusta sarna N. sacred grove sarsar N. nail sartal V. to spread out sarte N. fact saru N. the taro sasan N. grave yard sasaṅ N. turmeric saatiṅ V. to endure satom N. two years later sauri V. to thatch ˙ sayad V. to breath N. breath GLOSSARY sibil V. to taste good (Experiencer Object) sid V. to pluck leaves for vegetables sida Adj. 1. first 2. previous sii V. to plough N. a plough sikı̃nı̃ N. mosquito ˙ siku N. lice silib N. deer sim N. fowl siman N. border (LW from Hi. sı̄mā ) siṅgi N. 1. the sun 2. day (PW nida night) siṅgi dumbuiij saij Comp. Word the west, ˙ literally on the side of the sunset siṅgi turuij saij Comp. Word the east, literally on the side of the sunrise sinduri N. vermillion (LW from Hi. sindūr ) sini Adj. bad smell V. to smell badly ˙ sipud V. to extract iron by smelting siri N. ladder (LW from Hi. sı̄rhı̄ ) ˙ ˙ sirma N. 1. sky 2. year sisir N. dew V. to produce dew situṅ N. sunshine siuij V. cultivate siuij caluij Comp. Word agriculture soij V. to clean grains soab V. to manage to put something into con- sayob N. European (LW from Hi. sāhab ) sekera Adj. quick ˙ seled V. to mix sen V. to go, walk senoij V. to go, go away tainer soan N. flavor V. to smell (Experiencer Object) sẽnã Adj. wise N. wisdom ˙ sendera N. hunting V. to go hunting sobod V. to wash a cloth soda V. to peck somar/sombar N. monday seṅgel N. fire sered N. rag sereṅ N. rock sesen V. to go well seta N. dog soben N. all soboij V. to stab (LW from Hi. somvār ) soṅ V. to measure sona N. gold (LW from Hi. sonā ) sondro N. pus 123 5 GLOSSARY soṅge N. friend soñjoko N. chance V. to find by chance sukul V. to smoke (Experiencer Object) N. smoke (LW from Hi. samyog ) ˙ sonoij N. shirts sonsorod N. grasshopper sukuri N. pig suluiij/suliij N. snod V. to blow one’s snod sunum N. oil sopaij V. to get wet due to rain soso N. the marking tree supid N. chignon supu N. the upper arm sosoeij N. 1. the milky juice of plans 2. the sticky juice of unripen fruits sotoij V. to speak or put in the proper way suru V. to protect against the rain N. refugee for raining susun N. dance V. to dance soya V. to decay Adj. decayed suij V. to insert the hand into a cavity sutam N. string suti Adj, sober V. to become sober sug(a)ra Adj. beatiful ˙ sukrar N. friday (LW from Hi. śukravār ) suku V. like (Experiencer Object) suti N. molluse ˙ sutiij V. to put one’s finger into small hole ˙ T -taij Postp. vicinity -tab V. Int. V quickly tabaij V. to fall upon the ground taben N. the flatten rice tabri V. to slap N. slap ˙ tagoeij V. to grind with the teeth taja Adj. fresh (LW from Hi. tajā) tala Adj. middle N. half V. to get half tala ganda Comp. Word middle finger talka N. palm tam V. to beat tata N. Kin. RF. grandfather (AF. bura) ˙ tauiij V. to milk tayan N. crocodile tayar N. cucumber tayom N. later, next -te Postp. by tebaij V. to reach tega V. to tread upon tela V. to receive something in one’s hands ten V. 1. to cover a pot 2. to press somebody with a heavy objects tamaku N. tabacco (LW from Hi. tambākū ) teṅ V. to weave tenebaij N. arrival (BF. tebaij Infix -nV-) tanagoeij N. the molar teeth teñja N. Kin. RF. the husband of elder sisters (BF tagoeij Infix -nV-) (AF. boonai) tãnı̃ V. to stretch a rope between two poles teped V. to stop one’s ear, one’s nose ˙ taṅgi V. to wait ter V. to throw tani N. a wolf ter Interj. take it! tapaij V. to make wall teta Adj. clear tara Adj. some tetaṅ V. to be thirsty (Experiencer Object) -tara V. Int. engage in V. ˙ teteij N. moon light taran N. shoulder teyar V. to make ready tari N. all kinds of brass plates ˙ tii N. hand tasad N. grass V. to germinate grass tiṅ V. to burn firewood tase/tasi V. to dry in the sun 124 5 GLOSSARY tiju N. insect tiki V. 1. to parboil 2. to cook vegetables tuguri V. to hit ˙ tuiṅ V. to shoot an arrow tikin N. noon tiṅgu V. to stand tiriṅ V. to pile up tuka N. nest -tuka V. Int. V. and return tukuiij V. to sow tiril N. ebony tirub V. to bent the head tul V. to lift tuluiij V. to squeeze out tisiṅ N. today toa N. milk tobe Interj. then what tumba N. a gourd-bottle tunukuiij N. sewing (BF tukuiij Infix -nV-) tupu V. to soak tol V. to tie tonoij N. curved knife tur V. to rise (the sun and moon) turu N. squirrel ˙ turuiya /turi- Num. six tusiṅ V. to wear, put on tutukun V. to feel cool (Experiencer Object) topa V. to bury toroeij N. ash -torsa V. Int. V. along tubid V. to cover tud V. root up tuyu N. fox tudka N. the back of head T. taka N. rupee (LW from Ben. tākā ) ˙ ˙ tapaij V. to hit sideways ˙ tatai V. to get fatigued (Experiencer Object) ˙ ˙ tayad N. place ˙ tembeij Adj. shallow in the water ˙ (Ant. ikir deep in the water) tendaij N. rice water ˙ ˙˙ tereṅ N. the shin ˙ ˙ teteṅga N. lizard ˙˙ teo V. to cook ˙ tipaij V. to fall in drops N. drop ˙ tipiyul V. to float ˙ toij V. to hit when shooting ˙ toaṅ N. nakedness V. to be naked ˙ tõẽij V. to break ˙ tola N. hamlet ˙ tondom N. a knot in a sting ˙ ˙˙ toor V. to know ˙ tote V. to shoot an arrow, to shoot a gun ˙ ˙ totona N. throat ˙ ˙ ˙ tundu N. last V. to finish ˙ ˙˙ U ub N. hair ucud N. the hump of bullock heap of straw, sand etc. uka N. elbow uku V. to hide ukta N. backbiting V. to backbite ulta N. reverse V. to reverse (LW from Hi. ˙ ultā ) udur V. to push ˙ ugur V. to hide something by shoving it in a ula V. to vomit ud N. mushroom on the ground ud V. to swallow udub V. to explain 125 5 GLOSSARY uli N. mango uriij N. bullock umar N. age (LW from Hi. umar from Ar- uru N. beetle abic) uruij V. to think, consider ˙ umbul N. shade uruṅ V. to take out ˙ umun N. dive V. to dive urum Comp. V. to recogonize undu N. hole V. to make a hole ˙˙ uṅgud V. to bent one’s waist ururu V. to fall whithered leaves, flower, hair ˙ usuij V. to become lean usur V. to produce the biting sensationin upae N. means, plan (LW from Hi. upāy ) upuniya /upun- Num. four upupunia Distr. Num. four each eyes -utar V. Int. V. entirely (BF. upunia Infix -nV- ) ur V. to dig uur N. skin urgum V. to feel warm (Experiencer Object) uri V. to peel utu N. side dish V. to cook side dish uyuij V. to drop uyu V. to cover one’s body 126