CROSS LINGUISTIC PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES OF THE LANGUAGES
IN THE BRAHMAPUTRA VALLY: AN AREAL STUDY

 Dipankar Moral
Gauhati University
Assam , India

1.Introduction :

      The present study is an attempt to analyse the phonological properties of some primary languages spoken in the Brahmaputra valley of Assam and then to detect any micro areal features which may or may not have a common genetic origin but are shared by some of these languages.

      The area of the phonological study here in this paper includes the consonants and vowels, nasalisation, vowel length and tones

      The Brahmputra valley comprises languages belonging mainly to the Boro-Garo, Kuki-Chin, and the North Assam-branches of languages belonging to the Tibeto-Burman stock, Indo-Aryan represented mainly by Asamiya and Bangla, Siamese-Chinese represented by the Thai groups like Turung, Phakial, Khamyang and Aiton and some Dravidian and Munda languages spoken by the tea tribes of Assam. It is worthwhile to mention here that Indo-Aryan Asamiya and the Tibeto-Burman stock of languages mentioned above have been coexisting here since time immemorial. Bangla and some other Dravidian and Munda languages came here to this valley only after the Britishers took over Assam in 1826 from the Burmese. The Thai group of languages entered the valley in the thirteenth century when the Ahoms conquered it in 1228.

      Hiuen Tsang, the Chinese traveller who came to Assam in 643 A.D. opined that the languages of Kamrupa are different from the langauges of mid India , thereby hinting perhaps of the existence of a distinct sprach bund in this part of India .

      The earliest written records of Asamiya go back to the 5th century A.D. as is evident from the Umachal rockedicts. The rest of the Tibeto-Burman languages by and large did not have any earlier written records. Most of the languages developed their written forms only in recent times.

       The BG group of languages is spoken across the length and breadth of the Brahmaputra valley. At one time there must have been a fairly continuous BG distribution throughout the entire valley, but over the centuries Asamiya the dominant language of the valley has disrupted this continuity. The other intrusive languages in this BG area are Karbi (previously called Mikir) of the Kuki-Chin group and Mising of the N. Assam branch.

1.1. Languages under consideration :

In this study the following languages have been taken into consideration :

A. 1. Boro, 2. Garo, 3. Rabha, 4. Tiwa (previously called Lalung), 5. Tintekiya Koch, 6. Koch, 7. Deuri, all BG languages.

B. 1. Mising, of the Tanee( North Assam )branch.

C. 1. Asamiya, the easternmost New Indo Aryan language.

A.1. Boro : The maximum concentration of Boro speakers is in the northern part of the Brahmaputra valley. The Boro dialects spoken in this area could be sub divided into two main groups viz. the western Boro dialects and the eastern Boro dialects (Basumatary 1998). The western Boro dialects are spoken mainly in the districts of Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon and the eastern group of dialects are found in the districts of Barpeta,Nalbari,Kamrup and Darrang. The WBD has gained the status of standard dialects and has developed a written form as well based on the Devanaguri script. The Boro materials given here is from WBD, the total population of Boro speakers in the valley being 1184569 (1991 census).

A.2. Garo : Garo speakers are primarily found in Meghalaya particularly in the west and east Garo hills districts. In the Brahmaputra valley the Garos are found mainly in the adjoining area in the south Kamrup district and sporadically found in the Dhubri, Goalpara and the Darrang districts also. The Garos are divided into five main groups : Achik, Abeng, Awe, Ruga and Atong. Achik is the standard dialect and has a well developed written form. All materials given there are from Achik: the population of the Garo speakers in the valley is 114779 (1991 census)

A.3. Rabha : The Rabhas are found primarily in the northern part of the valley in the districts of Goalpara, Dhubri and Kamrup. They comprise the following groups : i. Rangdani also called Rangla, ii. Maitori also called Maita, iii. Sunga Kusa, iv. Pati Rabha, v. Dahori vi. Bitla, and vii. Totla, out of which iv.to vii have merged with Asamiya, Rangla having emerged as the standard dialect in recent times and is the source of all material given here. The population in the valley is 112424 (1991 census).

A.4 Tiwa is spoken primarily in the district of Morigaon and in some parts of Nagaon, Karbi Anglong and Kamrup districts. The Tiwa community has two types of speech varieties, in the hills and in the plains, which are known as "Hajowali' and 'Datiyali' respectively with marginal variations. It is yet to develop a written form and it is mainly spoken . Materials given here are based on both the varieties. It is significant to note that the Tiwa speakers are essentially bilinguals with excellent competence in Asamiya as well. Quite a few groups of Tiwas in the plains of the valley have adopted Asamiya as their first language.

A.5. & A.6. Tintekiya Koch speakers are found mainly in the Goalpara district in the valley. Some such speakers are also found in the Nagaon district. They speak Asamiya as well as Bangla as their second language. The material presented here is from the Mendi pathar and the Dera pathar areas of Goalpara and Nagaon districts. The 1991 census recorded 7205 speakers as using the Koch language but there is no mention of TK speakers.

A.7. Deuri : The Deuri community could be divided into four main groups (socially) : i. Dibongia ii. Tengapania, iii. Bargoyan and iv. Patorgoyan. Out of these only the Dibongias have maintained their own langauge whereas the other three groups have merged totally with Asamiya. the Dibongias are scattered in the districts of Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Dibrugarh, Sibsagar, Jorhat Tinsukia and the eastern parts of Sonitpur district. The material presented here is mainly collected from these two districts. It may be mentioned here that the Deuris are essentially bilingual speakers with equal competence in Asamiya as well.

B. Mising : Mising itself may be divided into six speech varieties, viz; Pagro, Sayang, Dilu, Dambug, Moying and Oyan' (Taid 1995). Another group called Somuang is reported to be in existence near Tezpur in the Sonitpur district of Assam and the adjoining areas of Arunachal Pradesh. It is necessary to observe here that the Misings of the Brahmaputra valley are essentially bilingual speakers with equal competence in Asamiya. Materials presented here are mainly from Pagro, which is considered to be the first group of Misings to enter the plains of this valley from the hills of Arunachal Pradesh.

C. Asamiya : Banikanta Kakati has divided the Asamiya dialects into two major groups : Eastern Asamiya and Western Asamiya (Kakati 1941). However recent studies have shown that there are four dialect groups namely in eastern Assam . i.Asamiya dialects spoken in the districts of Tinsukia , Dibrugarh, Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Sibsagar, Jorhat, Golaghat and Sonitpur. ii. The central Asamiya group of dialects spoken primarily in Nagaon and Morigaon districts and in some parts of Sonitpur and Jorhat districts also, iii. The Kamrupi group of dialects spoken in the districts of Kamrup, Nalbari, Barpeta, Darrang, Kokrajhar, and Bongaigaon and iv. The Goalpara group of Asamiya dialects spoken primarily in the Dhubri and Goalpara districts and in certain areas of Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon districts (Moral 1992).

      The currently prevalent standard Asamiya dialect had its roots in Sibsagar located in eastern Assam , when it was made the official language of the state by the British in 1872. Moreover the American Baptist Missionaries used it for literary activities at the same time and gradually it was accepted by the entire Asamiya community as the standard norm. However the shift of activity from Sibsagar to Guwahati in the early part of this century has resulted in a change gradually to this dialects to arrive at its present form which will be referred to as the contemporary standard. For the sake of linguistic interest it may be noted that Guwahati, which enjoyed the centrestage in terms of socio economic and cultural status, was largely instrumental in reshaping it.

2. Phonemic Inventories of the concerned languages :

2.1. Boro :

A. Consonants :

b d g

ph th kh

m n N

s z h

r

l

w y

B. Vowels :

i w u

e o

a

2.2. Garo :

A. Consonants :

p b t d k g

ph th kh

m n N

t s d z tS h

r

l

B. Vowels :

i w u

e o

a

2.3. Rabha :

A. Consonants :

p b t d k g

ph th kh

m n N

s z h

r

l

y

B. Vowels :

i w u

e o

a

2.4. Tiwa :

A. Consonants :

p b t d k g

ph th kh

m n N

s z h

r

l

y

B. Vowels :

i u

e o

O

aa)

2.5. Tintekiya Koch :

A. Consonants :

p b t d k g

ph bh th dh kh gh

m n N

s z h

tf

r

l

w y

B. Vowels :

i u

e o

a

2.6. Koch :

A. Consonants :

p b t d k g

ph bh th dh kh gh

m n N

s z h

tf

r

l

w y

B. Vowels :

i u

e o

a

2.7. Deuri :

A. Consonants :

p b t d k g

m n 0 n# N

s z x h

tf

r

l

w y

B. Vowels :

i i) uu)

ee) oo)

oo)

aa)

2.8. Mising :

A. Consonants :

p b t d k g

m n n# N

s z

r

l

y

B. Vowels :

i i : w w : u u :

e e : ^ ^ :

o o

a a :

2.9. Asamiya :

A. Consonants :

p b t d k g

ph bh th dh kh gh

m n N

s z x h

r

l

B. Vowels :

ii) uu)

e o

E O

aa)

4. Cross linguistic phonological features shared by the languages under consideration:

4.1. Alveolars, palatals and cy clusters :

      All the languages under consideration have a set of alveolars which is peculiar to the languages of the Brahmaputra valley. As Emeneau has observed 'Most of the languages in India , have a set of retroflexes, in contrast with dentals. the retroflexes include stop, nasals, fricatives, laterals, trills and flaps. This is an essentially Dravidian feature which has crept into all Indo-Aryan and Munda languages marked by Barushaski in Kashmir ' (Emeneau 1956). But the Brahmaputra valley is totally out of this bloc because not a single language, irrespective of family, has any dental or retroflex sound. In fact, an unique feature of these languages under study is a total absence of any retroflex sound. Instead these languages have a whole series of alveolar sounds which include stops, fricatives, laterals and trills.

      Apart from Garo and Asamiya all the languages in question have a palatal semi vowel. Unlike other N.I.A. languages Asamiya does not have/y/. It is interesting to observe that geminates are derived by assimilating the underlying cy clusters in Asamiya in word-medialpositions. The rule for deriving geminates in contemporary Asamiya from the cy clusters of the underlying form is vcyv>vccv (where v,y and c are vowel, palatal semi vowel and consonant respectively) If the immediately preceding vowel of the cy cluster in the underlying form is/i/, then the resultant form is iccv. But if it is other than/i/then the resultant is vcyv>viccv, where/i/is inserted as a compensatory effect of the loss of the underlying/y/, as in;

Underlying form Contemporary Asamiya

vidya (Knowledge) /bidda/ /adyo/ (initial) aiddo/

      The palatal fricatives of underlying Sanskrit the source language has attained different sound values in N.I.A. languages, e.g. in Bangla and Marathi they have become palatal affricates, but in Asamiya they have all changed to/s/and/z/, perhaps due to the process of Tibeto burmanization resulting from long periods of contact with the indegenous TB languages of the valley.

      Even though/y/occurs in majority of languages covered, they do not allow any cy clusters. Hence, it occurs either syllable initially or syllable finally.

      It is observed that both Deuri and Mising have a palatal nasal/n/ which is not shared by any other language under this study . It may be mentioned here that a alveo palatal affricate /tf/ occurs in a variety of languages in the valley, namely Garo, Rabha, Tiwa, Tintekiya-Koch, Koch and Deuri in syllable initial position.

4.2. Aspiration :

      Among all the languages covered under this study only Deuri and Mising lack aspiration totally. Aspiration is by and large distinctive in the rest of the languages, where Asamiya , Tintekiya-Koch and Koch have aspiration counterparts of all the unaspirated stops /p b t d k g/.

Boro, Garo Rabha and Tiwa form a single bloc having voiceless aspirated stops only in the form of /ph th kh/.

4.3 Nasals and Nasalization :

      Deuri and Mising form a distinct group with four nasals /m n n # N / phonemic inventory. The inclusion of the palatal nasal /n # / is a feature which separate these two languages from the rest of the languages in this valley.

      The extensive use of the velar nasal / N / is another feature which is to be noticed in the Brahmaputra valley languages. It is pronounced singly unlike other N.I.A. Dravidian or Munda langauges, where a homorganic /g/ is attached after / N / and thus it is realised as / Ng /,.

     In the languages under study the initial syllable nasals in most of these languages include/m n/. Only exceptions are Mising, Tiwa and Garo in retaining/n/in syllable initial position. Again Mising and Deuri form one single group in retaining/n/syllable initially.

     In respect of phonemic nasalization, Deuri, Asamiya and Tiwa are the three languages which share it. However it may be mentioned here that in Deuri all the vowels /i e a o o u/contrast for oral nasalized distinction. In Asamiya only the peripheral vowels/i a u/ contrast for such a distinction. In Tiwa nasalization is phonemic only in the case of /a/.

4.4. Phonemic vowel length :

      Among the languages covered in this survey, only Mising shows such a distinction where all the vowel phonemes/ i e a o ^ w u / have long counterparts. In this context it is interesting to note the Central group of Asamiya dialects show such phonemic vowel length in all their vowel phonemes /i e a o u/, a feature which separates it from the rest of the Asamiya dialects (Moral 1996).However in this Asamiya dialect the long vowel phonemes are derived from the process of degemination and the loss of the /r/ of the underlying form. In this context it needs to be mentioned that the Mising dialect groups are divided into two main varieties (a) the Geminate and (b) non Geminate' (Taid 1992). Delu, Pagro, Oyan and Dambug belong to (a) and Sayang, Moying and Somua belongs to the (b) category.

4.5. Glottals :

     In the present survey it has been found that the use of Glottal stops occurs only in Garo, Tintekiya-Koch, and in the Maitori dialect of Rabha - all BG languages.

     It is interesting to observe that such use of glottal stops regularly correspond to the high rising tone in Boro (Moral 1996) and Standard Rabha i.e the Rangdani variety, as in :

Boro/Rabha Garo Tintekiya-Koch Maitori (Rabha)

/na @ / /na? thok/ /na?/ /na?/ fish

/na @ / /a?/ /ha?/ /ha?/ earth

4.6. Tones :

      The Brahmaputra valley includes both tonal and non-tonal languages. Apart from Mising , Garo. Tintekiya-Koch, Koch and Indo Aryan Asamiya, the rest are all tonal languages. Out of the rest Boro and Rabha can be described as having a two tonal system- a high or rising marked as / @ / and a level unmarked with a mild level pitch. Deuri, on the other hand has a three tonal system-the high or rising marked as/ @ /, low or falling with a drop from mid pitch to low marked as/ $ / and a level unmarked.

      As a general principle these tonal distinctions are found in open syllables with or without a finalconsonant in the form of stop or a trill.

      In Boro and Rabha tones operate only in open syllables and syllables closed with/mnnr/:

Boro Rabha

/su @ / to pierce /bw @ /to cultivate

/su @ / thorn /bw @ / to draw

/ kha@m / to burn / ri@m / to catch

/ kha@m / rice / ri@m / cook

/ o@r / fire / pha@r / night

/ o@r / to bite / pha@r / to sell.

In Deuri the three tones operate in open syllables only, as in :

/ni @ / to drink /ka @ / ringworm /su @ / tall

/ni/ to hold /ka/ to pluck /su/ to wash

/ni $ / to sing /ka $ / to come /su $ / burn

      In bi syllabic words in Boro and Rabha, it is the level tone which is followed by the high tone/ @ /, as in Boro / gw@ran / 'dry' and Rabha / mu@sa / 'man'

      In Deuri it is always the unmarked level tone which is as a rule followed by either / @ / or / @ /, as in :/ ki@ga / ' to keep something suspended' / ki$ga / ' to peel the skin'.

4.7 Fricatives :

      Regarding the fricatives, one can postulate that /s z h/ occur in all languages except Garo where the alveolar affricate /dz/ is found to correspond to /z/ in other related BG languages in the valley.

     The use of the voiceless velar fricative /x/, a distinct Asamiya phonological feature is shared by only Deuri, though there is some limitation in its occurrence in this language and occurs in word initial positions only. In fact the use of /x/ separates these two languages not only from the rest of the Brahmaputra valley languages but also from other NIA, Dravidian and Munda languages spoken here.

4.8. Vowels :

      This survey has revealed that the most widespread system is the six vowel system comprising /i e a o w u/ which is common for all the BG languages except Tintekiya-Koch and Koch which do not have /w/. Tiwa is another BG language that does not have /w/ but has the low rounded back vowel /o/ which has its counterparts in Asamiya , Mising and Deuri.

      Mising has the richest vowel system with a total of ten vowel phonemes followed by Asamiya which has eight vowel phonemes. The mid back unround vowels /^/13 and /^:/ of Mising are not shared by any language of the valley. Similarly the lower high back rounded vowel/u/ and the front low unrounded vowel /E/ of Asamiya are not shared by the other languages taken into account in the present study.

      The high back unrounded vowel /w/ is a characteristic feature of many languages here (Burling 1999). In the present survey the languages not sharing /w/ are Deuri, Tiwa, Tintekiya-Koch, Koch and Asamiya. The rest form a bloc with Mising in the east and Boro in the west.

Abbreviations used:

NIA : New Indo Aryan, BG : Boro Garo,WBD : Western Boro dialects

EBD : Eastern Boro dialects. TK : Tintekia Koch TB : Tibeto-Burman

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