imported>Lancepark at 09:06, 21 August 2021

2021-08-21T09:06:30Z

New page

{{Infobox language
|name=Kachari
|region=[[Assam]], [[India]]
|speakers=59,000
|date=1997
|ref=e18
|familycolor=Sino-Tibetan
|fam2=[[Brahmaputran languages|Brahmaputran]]
|fam3=[[Bodo–Garo languages|Bodo–Garo]]
|fam4=[[Bodo languages|Bodo]]
|iso3=xac
|glotto=kach1279
|glottorefname=Kachari
}}[[File:Map_of_the_Languages_and_Dialects_of_the_Bârâ_or_Bodo_Group_of_the_Tibeto-Burman_Family.jpg|thumb|Map from the Linguistic Survey of India (1903), Vol. III Tibeto-Burman Family; Part II Specimens of the Bodo, Naga, and Kachin Groups.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://dsal.uchicago.edu/books/lsi/lsi.php?volume=3-2&pages=540#page/10/mode/1up|title=Linguistic Survey of India, Volume III, Tibeto-Burman Family, Part II, "Specimens of the Bodo, Nāgā, and Kachin groups"|last=Grierson|first=G.A.|date=1903|website=The Record News}}</ref>]]
'''Kachari''' is a [[Sino-Tibetan languages|Sino-Tibetan language]]<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://endangeredlanguages.com/lang/3261|title=Did you know Kachari is endangered?|website=Endangered Languages|language=en|access-date=2017-03-09}}</ref> of the [[Boro–Garo languages|Boro-Garo]] supgroup,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://multitree.org/codes/xac|title=Boro|date=2017-03-09|website=MultiTree}}</ref> spoken in [[Assam|Assam, India]]. With fewer than 60,000 speakers recorded in 1997, and the Asam 2001 Census reporting a literacy rate of 81% the Kachari language is currently ranked as threatened.<ref name=":4">{{Cite news|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/xac|title=Kachari|last1=Simons|first1=Gary F.|work=Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Twentieth edition|access-date=2017-03-09|last2=Fennig|first2=Charles D.}}</ref> Kachari is closely related to surrounding languages, including [[Tiwa language (India)|Tiwa]], [[Rabha language|Rābhā]], [[Hajong language|Hajong]], [[Koch language|Kochi]] and [[Mech language|Mechi]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0O5FAQAAMAAJ&q=Notes+on+the+Languages+spoken+by+the+various+tribes+inhabiting+the+valley+of+Asam+and+its+mountain+confines.+By+William+Robinson&pg=PA310|title=Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal "Notes on the Languages Spoken by the various tribes inhabiting the valley of Asam and its mountain confines."|last=Robinson|first=William|date=1849-01-01|publisher=G.H. Rouse, Baptist Mission Press|pages=215–224|language=en}}</ref>

While there are still living adult speakers, many children are not learning Kachari as their primary language, instead being assimilated into the wider [[Assamese language|Assamese]] speaking communities.<ref name=":0" />
* Some alternative names are Boro,<ref name=":5" /> Bara, Cachari,<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/kach1279|title=Kachari|website=glottolog.org|language=en|access-date=2017-03-09}}</ref> Plains Kachari<ref name=":0" /> and Hill Kachari.<ref name=":1" />
* Geographic distribution: Kachari is spoken in 16 villages total in [[North Cachar Hills district]], [[Assam]], and Dimapur and Dhansiri administrative circles of [[Kohima district]], [[Nagaland]].<ref name=":4" />

== Division ==
According to LSI, Kachari language was divided into Plain Kachari or Bårå and Hill Kachari or Dimasa.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Linguistic Survey of India|url=https://dsal.uchicago.edu/books/lsi/lsi.php?volume=3-2&pages=540#page/156/mode/1up|access-date=2020-08-25|website=dsal.uchicago.edu}}</ref>

== Phonology ==

=== Consonants ===
Kachari consists of the 13 consonants shown below and three Non-syllabics,(Frictional: h, frictionless palatal: y, frictionless rounded velar: w<ref name=":5">{{Cite book|title=A Descriptive Analysis of the Boro Language|last=Bhattacharya|first=Pramod Chandra|publisher=The Pooran Press|year=1977|location=21 Balaram Ghose Street, Calcutta 700004}}</ref>) :
{| class="wikitable"
!
!Bi-Labial
!Denti-Alveolar
!Alveolo-Palatal
!Velar
|-
|Plosives
* aspirated
* unaspirated
|p^h
b
|t^h
d
|
|k^h
g
|-
|Nasals
|m
|n
|
|n
|-
|Fricatives
* Voiceless
* Voiced
|
|
|s

z
|
|-
|Tremulant
|
|r
|
|
|-
|Lateral
|
|l
|
|
|}

=== Vowels ===
{| class="wikitable"
!
!Front
!Central
!Back
|-
|High
|i
|
|u
|-
|Mid
|e
|o
|o
|-
|Low
|
|a
|
|}

=== Prosody ===
* Tone
** Kachari is a tonal language, consisting of 4 tones high, mid, low and neutral (1, 2, 3, 0)<ref name=":5" />

==Grammar==
=== ''Syntax'' ===

==== The word order of Kachari is [[Subject–object–verb|Subject-Object-Verb]] (SOV).<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|url=https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=I6YTAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&hl=en&pg=GBS.PR28|title=Outline Grammar of the Kachari (Bara) Language as Spoken in District Darrang, Assam: With Illustrative Sentences, Notes, Reading Lessons, and a Short Vocabulary|last=Endle|first=Sidney|date=1884-01-01|publisher=Assam Secretariat Press|language=en}}</ref> ====
* Kachari uses many instances of "compound words" to denote meaning. For example, the word for "boy", is really the combination of the Kachari words for "male" and "child". This also correlates with Kachari verbs, which can be [[Agglutination|agglutinated]] to form "compound verbs".<ref>{{Cite book|title=A collection of Kachári folk-tales and rhymes|url=https://archive.org/details/dli.csl.5540|last=Anderson|first=J. D.|date=1895-01-01|publisher=Shillong|hdl = 2027/uc1.b4216782}}</ref> While Kachari is not polysynthetic, its verbs act as a stem for descriptive adjective, adverbs or affixes to change its meaning. For example, the "conjugation of the regular verb active, 'nu-nǔ.' to see" results in the following:
{| class="wikitable"
! colspan="4" |Verb "to See" <ref name=":3" />
|-
|Case
|Case Form
|Final Form
|Meaning
|-
|Infinitive
|<nowiki>-nǔ</nowiki>
|nu-nǔ
|to see
|-
|Progressive
| -dang
|nu-dang
|I am seeing
|-
|Simple Past
| -bai
|nu-bai
|I saw
|-
|Past Progressive
| -dangman
|nu-dangman
|I did see
|-
| rowspan="2" |Past Remote
| -nai
|nu-nai
| rowspan="2" |I had seen
|-
| -dangman
|nu-dangman
|-
|Simple Future
| -gan
|nu-gan
|I will see
|-
| rowspan="2" |Paulo-post Future
| -si-gan
|nu-si-gan
| rowspan="2" |I will see (almost immediately)
|-
| -nǔ-sǔi
|nu-nǔ-sǔi
|-
| rowspan="2" |Imperative
| -
|nu
|See (you)
|-
| -thang
|nu-thang
|Let him (them) see
|}

=== ''Tense'' ===

==== Future Tense ====
As can be seen from the chart above, the future tense is indicated with -gan, while -si- indicates that the future event will occur soon or in the near future. One example is "Bí faigan", he will come, as opposed to "Bí faisigan", he will come (almost at once) or he is about to come.<ref name=":3" />

'''Present Tense'''

Present tense is shown through three affixes, "ǔ", "dong" and "gô". The first two forms represent indefinite and definite forms and are far more common that "gô", which is frequently only used to answer questions in the affirmative.

=== Adjectives ===
Most [[adjective]]s can be added both before or after the noun it is describing, though it gains the case ending if it follows the noun, rather than precedes it.<ref name=":3" /> This follows the identification of as a strongly suffixing language.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://wals.info/languoid/lect/wals_code_kac|title=Language Kachari|website=wals.info|language=en|access-date=2017-03-09}}</ref> However, this classification goes against Konwar's description of Kachari and a related language, [[Karbi language|Karbi]], as primarily prefixing to create adjectives.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Konwar|first=Aparna|date=2002|title=Some Aspects of the Boro and the Karbi morphology|journal=Indian Linguistics|volume=63|pages=39–48}}</ref>

Numerical adjectives are always inserted after the noun it is describing. For example, "ten goats" is "Burmá má-zǔ" with "Burmá" meaning goat, "má" being the [[Classifier (linguistics)|classifier]] for "animal" and the number ten being "zǔ".<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" />

=== ''Morphology'' ===
'''Gender''' - Common nouns such as father, mother, brother or sister have distinct masculine and feminine words while other nouns including animals, will typically have the words for male and female, -jelá and -jeu respectively, added on as a suffix to denote gender. Other common masculine and feminine suffix forms that may be used include -zǎlá/-zǔ, -bundā/-bundi, -bóndá/-bóndi, -phántá/-phánti and -pherá/-pheri.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" />

=== Number System ===
Kachari has a decimal system and counts to 10 with unique words, after which the number words combine to add to the larger number as shown in the chart below.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mpi-lingweb.shh.mpg.de/numeral/Bodo.htm|title=Sino-Tibetan Languages: Bodo|last=Brahma|first=Aleendra|date=2009|website=Numeral Systems of the World's Languages}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|1. sé
|21. nɯizise
|-
|2. nɯí
|22. nɯizinɯi
|-
|3. tʰám
|22. nɯizitʰam
|-
|4. brɯí
|24. nɯizibrɯi
|-
|5. bá
|25. nɯiziba
|-
|6. dɔ́
|26. nɯizidɔ
|-
|7. sní
|27. nɯizisni
|-
|8. daín
|28. nɯizidain
|-
|9. ɡú
|29. nɯiziɡu
|-
|10. zí
|30. tʰamzí
|-
|11. zíse
|40. brɯizí
|-
|12. zínɯi
|50.''' '''bazí
|-
|13. zítʰám
|60. dɔzí
|-
|14. zíbrɯi
|70. snizí
|-
|15. zíba
|80. dainzí
|-
|16. zídɔ
|90. ɡuzí
|-
|17. zísni
|100. zɯusé / sezɯú
|-
|18. zídaín
|200. nɯizɯú
|-
|19. zíɡu
|1000. sé rɯ̀za
|-
|20. nɯizí
|2000. nɯí rɯ̀za
|}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
{{refbegin}}
*{{Cite journal|last=Jacquesson|first=François|date=2008|title=Discovering Boro-Garo|url=http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/ebhr/pdf/EBHR_32_02.pdf|journal=History of an Analytical and Descriptive Linguistic Category|access-date=23 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190803001248/http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/ebhr/pdf/EBHR_32_02.pdf|archive-date=3 August 2019|url-status=dead}}
*{{cite journal |last1=DeLancey |first1=Scott |editor3-first=Mark |editor3-last=w. Post |editor2-first=Stephen |editor2-last=Morey |editor1-first=Gwendolyn |editor1-last=Hyslop |year=2012 |title=On the Origin of Bodo-Garo |journal=Northeast Indian Linguistics |volume=4 |pages=3–20 |doi=10.1017/UPO9789382264521.003 |isbn=9789382264521 }}
*Joseph, U.V., and Burling, Robbins. 2006. ''Comparative phonology of the Boro Garo languages''. Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages Publication.
*Wood, Daniel Cody. 2008. [http://hdl.handle.net/1794/9485 ''An Initial Reconstruction of Proto-Boro-Garo'']. M.A. Thesis, University of Oregon.
{{refend}}

{{Sino-Tibetan languages}}
{{Sal languages}}
{{Languages of Northeast India}}

[[Category:Sal languages]]
[[Category:Languages of Assam]]
[[Category:Subject–object–verb languages]]

Kachari language - Revision history

imported>Lancepark at 09:06, 21 August 2021