Capital letters A, B, K, D, E, G, Ng, H, I, , J, L, M, N, , O, P, R, S, T, U, W, Y.

Small letters a, b, k, d, e, g, ng, h, i, , j, l, m, n, , o, p, r, s, t, u, w, y, Nouns and noun phrases Word order

The order of elements in a Khasi noun phrase is (Case marker)-(Demonstrative)-(Numeral)-(Classifier)(Article)-Noun-(Adjective)-(Prepositional phrase)-(Relative clause), as can be seen from the following examples:ar tylli ki sim two classifier plural bird

'two birds' kata ka samla ka-ba fem girl wan mynhynnin come yesterday

that:fem

fem-relative

'that girl who came yesterday' ka fem kmi jo phii you

mother of

'your mother'

Gender

Khasi has a pervasive gender system. There are four genders in this language: uu masculine ka feminine ii diminutive kii plural

Humans and domestic animals have their natural gender: ka kmi `mother' uu kpa `father' ka siar `hen' uu s?iar `rooster'

Classifiers

Khasi has a classifier system, apparently used only with numerals. Between the numeral and noun, the classifier tylli is used for non-humans, and the classifier ngut is used for humans, e,g.Don ar tylli ki sim ha r. there:are two classifier plural bird in cage

'There are two birds in the cage.'

Don

lai

ngut three

ki

sm

hapoh shnong. plural chief in village

there:are

classifier

'There are three chiefs in the village.'

Adjectives

There is some controversy about whether Khasi has a class of adjectives. Roberts cites examples like the following:u briw ba-bh masc man rel-good

'a good man'

In nearly all instances of attributive adjectives, the apparent adjective has the prefix /ba-/, which seems to be a relativizer. There are, however, a few adjectives without the /ba-/ prefix:u 'riw snw masc man bad

'a bad man'

When the adjective is the main predicate, it may appear without any verb 'be':U ksew masc dog masc mad

lamwir.

'The dog is mad.'

In this environment, the adjective is preceded by an agreement marker, like a verb. Thus it may be that Khasi does not have a separate part of speech for adjectives, but that they are a subtype of verb. Prepositions and prepositional phrases

Khasi appears to have a well-developed group of prepositions, among them bad 'with, and' da 'with (instrumental)' na 'from' ha 'in, at' jo 'of'

The following are examples of prepositional phrases:ka kmi

jo

phii

fem

mother of

you

'your mother' ?uu masc slap rain ?uu masc the? pour na from ?uu masc bne sky

`Rain poured from the sky.'

Verbs and verb phrases Agreement

Verbs agree with 3rd person subjects in gender, but there is no agreement for non-3rd persons (Roberts 1891): SingularPlural 1st person 2nd person 3rd person nga thoh I write ngi thoh we write

m thoh you (fam.) write phi thoh you (form.) write phi thoh you (pl). write u thoh he writes ka thoh she writes ki thoh they write

The masculine and feminine markers /u/ and /ka/ are used even when there is a noun phrase subject (Roberts 1891:132):Ka mw ka pah. fem cat fem meow

The cat meows.

Tense marking

Tense is shown through a set of particles that appear after the agreement markers but before the verb. Past is a particle /la/ and future is /yn/ (contracted to 'n after a vowel):Khasi English

U thoh. He writes. U la thoh. U'n thoh He wrote. He will write.

Negation

Negation is also shown through a particle, /ym/ (contracted to 'm after a vowel), which appears between the agreement and the tense particle. There is a special past negation particle /shym/ in the past which replaces the ordinary past /la/(Roberts 19891):Khasi English U'm thoh. He doesn't write.

U'm shym thoh. He didn't write. U'm yn thoh He won't write.

Copulas

The copula is an ordinary verb in Khasi, as in the following sentence:U masc God masc be love

Blei

long

jingeit.

God is love

Causative verbs

Khasi has a morphological causative /pn-/ (Rabel 1961). (This is spelled pyn in Roberts (1891):Base verb Gloss Causative verb Gloss hiar tip come down know pntip pnhiar let down, export make known

phu? iaid jot poi

blossom walk

pnphu? beautify drive, put agoing

pyn-iaid

perish pyn-jot destroy arrive pyn-poi send

Sentences Word order

Word order in simple sentences is subjectverbobject (SVO):U ksew masc dog masc eat flesh

bm

doh.

The dog eats flesh.

However, VSO order is also found, especially after certain initial particles, like hata 'then' (Rabel 1961).hata la ?o ?ii khnaay ya ka Naam then past say dimin mouse accusative fem Naam

'Then said the (little) mouse to Naam ...'

Case marking

Sometimes the object is preceded by a particle ya (spelled ia in Roberts 1891). Roberts says "ia, 'to', 'for', 'against' implies direct and immediate relation. Hence its being the sign of the dative and of the accusative case as well"U la i ia ka kitab ia nga. masc past give accusative fem book accusative me

'He gave the book to me.'

It appears from Roberts (1891) that Khasi has differential object marking, since only some objects are marked accusative. Roberts notes that nouns that are definite usually have the accusative and those that are indefinite often do not.

Rabel (1961) says "the use of /ya/ is optional in the case of one object. In the case of two objects one of them must have /ya/ preceding.... If one of the objects is expressed by a pronoun, it must be preceded by /ya/." Passive

Khasi has a passive, but it involves removing the agent of the sentence without putting the patient in subject position. (A type called the 'non-ascensional passive'). Compare the following active-passive pair (Roberts 1891) where the patient continues to have accusative case and remains in the object position:Ki dang thw ia ka ng da ki ding.. plur contin build accusative fem house from plur wood

'They are building the house of wood.' Dang thw ia ka ng. fem house

contin build

accusative

'The house is being built.'

This type of passive is used, even when the passive agent is present in a prepositional phrase:La lah pyniap ia ka massi da U Met. past perfective kill accusative fem cow by U Miet

'The cow was killed by U Miet.'

Questions

Yes-no questions seem to be distinguished from statements only by intonation:Phii Til? you take basket Til

kit

kho?

'Will you take a basket, Til?

Wh-questions don't involve moving the wh-element:?uu masc go where

lej

a?ey.

Where is he going?'

Embedded clauses

Subordinate clauses follow the main verb that selects them (Roberts 1891:169):Nga phi la leh ia kata. I know that you past do accusative that

tip

ba

'I know that you have done that'

Relative clauses follow the nouns that they modify and agree in gender:Ka mynhynnin ka la ip. fem girl fem-relative come yesterday fem past die

samla ka-ba

wan

'The girl who came yesterday has died.'

Sample text in KhasiKhasi

English

1. Ha kaba mynnyngkong U Blei u la thaw ia ka bneng bad ia ka khyndew. Bad ka pyrthei ka la long bakhlem dur bad kaba suda, bad ka jingdum ka la long halor ka khmat ka jingjylliew, bad U Mynsiem U Blei u da khih halor ki urn. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

Some Khasi words and phrasesKhasi language Khublei (khu-blei) Phi long kumno? Nga khlai 'THANK YOU' in khasi.

English

How are you? In short it is also used as Kumno?

I am fine.

Kumne Short form response to Kumno? meaning like this. Um Ja Water (cooked) rice fish (meat) chicken (meat) pork

Dohkha (doh-kha) Dohsyiar (doh-syiar)

Dohsniang (doh-sni-ang) Dohmasi (doh-ma-si) beef

Dohblang (doh-bl-ang) mutton Jyntah (jyn-tah) dish (meat/vegetable) Jhur (jh-ur) Dai lentils salt less chilli vegetable

Mluh (ml-uh) Duna (du-na)

Sohmynken (soh-myn-ken) Ai biang seh La biang

Please give again (serve again). enough

Ai um seh Ai ja seh Ai jyntah seh

Please give water. Please give food (rice). Please give (side dish) vegetable / meat.

Ai aiu? Give what? Ai kwai seh Aiu? What? When? (past) Please give kwai.

Mynno?

Lano? When? (future) Hangno? / Shano? Kumno? How? Where?

Khublei shibun. Thank you very much. Thiah suk. Sleep well. (The equivalent of "Good Night".) How do I go to Wards Lake?

Kumno ngan leit sha Wards Lake? Katno ka dor une / kane? gender and ine

What is the price of this? (une is masculine gender, kane is feminine

is neutral gender) Leit suk. Go in peace. Literal meaning is Stay happy.

Reply is Shong suk.