A Course in Mundari

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. muṅ˙da means 'village-headman' in Mundari. But the language name Muṅ˙dārī is given by the neighbouring peoples, the indigenous name is ho˙ro jagar 'human language' or muṅ˙da 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 Tama˙r-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 Tamaṙia 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 view 2 . 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 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 (1966Langendoen ( , 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 (1999Osada ( , 2007. A dictionary of Mundari has been compiled by Hoffmann , Bhaduri (1931), Prasad (1973Prasad ( , 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

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

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)VṅV(C)/ In the circumstance ofṅ which appears in intervocalic and bisyllabic words, both vowels should be nasalized: e.g. /ceṅe/ 'bird' [Ùẽïẽ], /aṅeij/ 'to pour out a liquid' [ãïẽP], etc.

2. /C N V/ (C N 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' [mũ ũ], /nu/ 'to drink' [nũ ũ] 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] 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,

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. ]. 3 We take a practice in the differences between non-glottal-stopped vowel sequence and vowel with glottal stops in the following way: 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 English

Mundari English 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. 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)'.

What is your name?

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.

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. 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 ho˙ro 'person', seta 'dog', horo 'turtle', siṅgi 'the sun', ipil 'star', boṅga '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. 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

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. 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. 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

singular tan-iij

dual tan-kin

plural tan-ko

The distinction between two copula verbs, i.e., existence and identity in the western Indo-Aryan 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

This house is big

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. 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.

Sentence kumbu˙ru do añ imunuṅ salaṅgi ho˙ro-eij taiken-a. 'The thief is a person of about the same height as me.'

kumbu˙ru do añ imunuṅ-eij salaṅgi-ge-taiken-a. 'The thief was about the same height as I.'

kumbu˙ru do añ-ate salaṅgi ho˙ro-eij taiken-a. 'The thief was a person taller than I.'

kumbu˙ru do añ-ate-ij salaṅgi-ge-taiken-a. 'The thief was taller than I.'

kumbu˙ru do soben-ko-ate salaṅgi ho˙ro-eij taiken-a. 'The thief was taller person than everyone.'

kumbu˙ru 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.

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 ko˙ra-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 o˙raij-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

Interrogatives and affixes

The main interrogative used in this lesson was 'where'. In English, particles are attached to 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. 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.'

Response

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. 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.'

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.'

o˙raij-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.' daṅga˙ra-ko ar daṅga˙ri-ko aka˙ra-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:

There is the following distinction of number in Mundari nouns.

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. 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'.

Nouns and Postpositionals

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'.

Demonstratives

Sentence nimin ho˙ro-ko ka-ko soab-a. 'This many people can not enter [into such a limited place]. ' amin ho˙ro-ko ka-ñ lel-aka-d-ko-a. 'I have never seen that many people.' 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 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. 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.

Indefinite pronouns okoe/okon-iij jaae/jaan-iij jetae/jetan-iij oko(n)-kin jaa(n)-kin jeta(n)-kin

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.

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.

Basic structure of verbs

The basic structure of a verb in a declarative sentence is as follows: 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' maṅ˙di-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 ga˙ra '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 ga˙ra-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 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.

Transitive and intransitive verbs

Sentence dub-aka-n-a-eij 'He/She is sitting.'

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, du˙rum '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'.

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.

Subjects and Objects

Sentence hon-ko-ko senoij-ja-n-a. 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.

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.

Derivational verb bases (1) passive -oij

Sentence buru lel-oij-ta-n-a. 'The mountain is visible.'

kumbu˙ru-ko sab-og-a-ko. 'The thieves are caught.'

du˙rum-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 du˙rum-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.

Derivational verb bases (2) -en/-n

Sentence tusiṅ-en-ta-n-a-eij. 'He is dressing himself.' ha˙ragu-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.

Derivational verbal base (3) Reciprocal -pV-/-Vp-

Sentence 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˙daṅ˙daij-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.'

ho˙ro-ko pi˙ri-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:

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 kumbu˙ru-a. sasab-a-ko. 'Don t steal, you will surely get caught.' saan maja jogao-me. ba˙ti-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. kaji-a-m-ta-n-a-ñ. 'I am saying (this) to (for) you.'

Derivational verb bases (5) -a

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 maṅ˙di hon-ko-ñ om-a-ko-ta-n-a, 'to the children' is shown on the verb. However, in setako 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.

Derivational verb bases (6) causatives a-

Sentence hon-ñ-ku˙ri maṅ˙di-ij jom-ke-d-a. 'My daughter ate rice.'

hon-ñ-ku˙ri maṅ˙di-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. The meaning then becomes 'to make someone do something', as we show the list above.

Causative verbal bases

Additionally, as we have already seen, when an object marker is attached to an intransitive 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.

Aspect markers (1) a and ja

In Mundari, there are six aspect markers:

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 maṅ˙di-ñ om-a-d-ko-a. 'I gave food to the dogs.'

hon-ko du˙rum-ja-n-a-ko. 'The children went to sleep.'

hon-ko goeij-ja-n-a-ko. 'The children died.'

seta-ko maṅ˙di-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 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'.

Aspect marker ke and le

Sentence du˙rum-ke-n-a-eij. 'He slept/went to sleep.'

ranci-te-ñ sen-ke-n-a. 'I went to Ranchi.'

maṅ˙di-ñ jom-ke-d-a.

'I ate rice.'

maṅ˙di-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 with this interpretation. For example, only le-d is accepted on transitive constructions using le. Thus, *maṅ˙di-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.

maṅ˙di-ñ jom-ke-a. 'I will eat this rice (without any specific thought about it)'

maṅ˙di-ñ jom-ke-n-a.

'I ate rice.'

du˙rum-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).'

maṅ˙di-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.

maṅ˙di-ñ jom-le-a.

'First I will eat this rice (and then do something else).' 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 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.

Aspect marker (3) ta and aka

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 muṅ˙da 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. 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 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 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. susun ku˙ri 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 maṅ˙di reṅgeij-le-d-ko-a. 'At that time they were hungry.'

Imperative Mood

Experiential constructions

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.

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-ko˙ra-eij dumbuiij-goeij-ja-n-a. 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.

English

Mundari We will illustrate below the second verbs of the compound whose meaning is slightly different from their basic meaning as main verbs.

Basic

Mundari o˙raij 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 'V quickly'

(1) maṅ˙di jom-baij-e-me.

V-co˙teij

'almost V' (4) kaji-co˙teij-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'

shout-loudly-3SG-2SG

'Shout at him/her loudly'.

eat-engage in-it-2SG 'Be engaged in eating it'.

V-kate/kuca

'V repeatedly'

(7) maṅ˙di=ko jom-kuca-ke-d-a. food=3SG:SUB eat-repeatedly-COMPL-TR-IND-3PL 'They ate it repeatedly'.

V-noij

'V a little (while)' (8) saman goij-noij-le-m. luggage carry on the shoulder-a little-ANT-2SG 'Carry it on the shoulder for a while'.

V-torsa

'V along' (9) hijuij-torsa-me. come-along-2SG 'Come back at once'.

V-tuka 'V and return' 4 (10) idi-tuka-ñ-ka-eij.

take-return-1SG-OPT-3SG

'He/she may take me and return'.

V-utar 'V entirely' (11) Ranci-te-=ko senoij-utar-ja-n-a. Ranchi-to=3PL:SUB go-entirely-INGR-INTR-IND-3SG 'They went away to Ranchi for ever'.

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.' kumbu˙ru-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.

Relative clause

Sentence maṅ˙di jom-ho˙ro auri-ij hijug-a. 'The person who will eat has not yet come.'

maṅ˙di jom-ke-n-ho˙ro 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 moṅe 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)'.

Complex sentences, conjuction constructions and subjunctive constructions

Sentence ranci-te-m senoij-redo sa˙ri kiriṅ-a-ñ-me. 'If you go are going to Ranchi, please buy me a sari.'

apu-ñ hijuij-ja-n-re maṅ˙di-bu jom-a. 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 conditionalre 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.

Conjunctions

Sentence jom-ke-d-a-eij ad/o˙roij-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 maṅ˙di-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 maṅ˙di-ij jom-ke-d-redo ranci-te-ij senog-a.

'My father will go to Ranchi after he has eaten.'

maṅ˙di 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:

o˙roij/ad 'and'

This conjunction can conjoin not only noun phrases but also clauses.

ca 'or'

This conjunction is not used to connect two noun phrases but to connect two clauses.

mendo 'but'

This disjunction mendo can be analyzed into men 'to say' and the particle do. This can connect two sentenses.

(7) maṅ˙di jom-mone-ja-ij-ñ-tai-ke-n-a. mendo ka-ñ nam-ke-d-a. 'Eat the food first, or we will go to the rice-field.'

en maraṅ ho˙ro

'that big person' en jom ho˙ro 'that person who eats' en ho˙ro maraṅ-ta-n-a 'That person is big.' en ho˙ro 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: 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.

Numerals

Cardinal numberals are as follows:

gel-ea 'ten'

moṅe 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', moṅe '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

'one each' tu-turi-a 'six each' The possessive is not marked for the topic by the particle do. For example, *diri-reaij/raij do o˙raij (diri 'stone', -reaij/-raij POSS o˙raij '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, 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. 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:

Other particles

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) (2) nir-nir-te=ij aṅgor-saṅgor-gi˙ri-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.'

Some expressives require the experiencer object like in the experiential constructions. For instance,

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. that person-TOP always EXPR person-EMPH 'S/he is always a stupid person.'

An expressive can occupy in the head of noun phrase in the following instance:

(7) iniij-aij isi˙ri-siki˙ri ka=ñ suku-a. that person-GEN EXPR NEG=1SG like-IND I don't like her coquettish laughing.

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: ja˙ram ja˙ram 'a heavy rain (the water in the river is full)' ji˙rim ji˙rim 'a heavy rain (the water in the rice-field is full)'

kaca kaca 'to scold somebody with action' kici kici '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 'to drizzle (not enough to get wet, even without an umbrella)'

pusur pusur 'to drizzle (but to get wet)' Glossary 5 GLOSSARY