Grammar of Thadou-Kuki: a descriptive study

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GRAMMAR OF THADOU-KUKI: A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY Thesis submitted to Jawaharlal Nehru University for the award of Doctor of Philosophy

D. MARYKIM HAOKIP

CENTRE FOR LINGUISTICS SCHOOL OF LANGUAGE, LITERATURE, AND CULTURE STUDIES JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY NEW DELHI-110067 JANUARY 2014

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GRAMMAR OF THADOU-KUKI: A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY Thesis submitted to Jawaharlal Nehru University for the award of Doctor of Philosophy

D. MARYKIM HAOKIP

CENTRE FOR LINGUISTICS SCHOOL OF LANGUAGE, LITERATURE, AND CULTURE STUDIES JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY NEW DELHI-110067 JANUARY 2014

Centre for Linguistics School of Language, Literature & Culture Studies Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi-110067, India

CERTIFICATE This thesis titled “Grammar of Thadou-Kuki: a Descriptive Study” submitted by Ms. D. Marykim Haokip, Centre for Linguistics, School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, is an original work and has not been submitted so far in part or in full, for any other degree or diploma of any University or Institution.

This may be placed before the examiners for evaluation for the award of the Doctor Philosophy.

(PROF. ANVITA ABBI)

(PROF. VAISHNA NARANG)

SUPERVISOR

CHAIRPERSON

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DECLARATION BY THE CANDIDATE This

thesis

entitled

“GRAMMAR

OF

THADOU-KUKI:

A

DESCRIPTIVE STUDY” submitted by me for the award of the degree of Philosophy, is an original work and has not been submitted so far in part or in full, for any other degree or diploma of any University or Institute.

(D. Marykim Haokip) Ph.D Student, Centre for Linguistics School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies,

Jawaharlal Nehru

University, New Delhi

DeDication This work is a humble dedicaTion to my dear dad

(L) D. Joseph NgamkhothaNg haokip

(my source of inspiration) Who

inbued

in

me

the

importance

of

this

language but did not live long enough to see this work completed

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ACKNOWLEGEMENTS This work would still be a dream if not for the help of many people who have contributed in different ways. Words are insufficient to express my gratitude to all the people instrumental in making this dream come true. First, my sincere gratitude goes to my supervisor, Prof. Anvita Abbi, who not only taught me Linguistics but also the importance of hardwork and many things in other aspects of my life. My special thanks to Prof. Dafydd Gibbon for introducing me to the analysis of tone and for his help in my phonological section. I would also like to specially thank Prof. Pramod Pandey, Prof. Pradeep Kumar Das, Prof. Yashwanta Singh and Dr. Pramod Kumar for their very useful and timely comments and suggestions. Special thanks to all the teachers and Staff of the Centre for their constant support and cooperation in everyway possible. To all my language consultants during my field work, who have rendered their time, voice and expertise, its KAKIPAH E. I would like to specially mention Letkhomang Haokip, Dominic Haokip, Anthony Haokip, James Haokip, Alphonsa Haokip and Lucy Haokip for allowing me to record their voice for my phonological analsyis. My thanks also goes

to all my friends especially Narayan, Mukesh,

Wicham, Moi, Mairaba, Araiswrang and many more for their ever ready help. My special gratitude to my friend Nengneithiem Kipgen for hosting me in all my untimely visits. In a very special way, I would like to thank my mom, brothers and sisters for their patience and prayful support. Last but not the least, I thank God for guiding me and helping me in this work and all the other blessings in my life.

ABSTRACT This dissertation provides a comprehensive description of Thadou-Kuki, a TibetoBurman language spoken in the northeastern part of India, mainly in the states of Assam, Manipur, Nagaland in India and in some parts of Myanmar and Bangladesh. Genetically, the language is described as a northern Kuki-Chin language, closely related to Ralte, Simte, Vaiphei, Gangte, Zou. For the present study, the variety of the language in Chandel district is chosen. The theoretical approaches taken is purely descriptive and electic in nature. The aim of this dissertation is to give a detailed description of the linguistic features of the language at the different levels of phonology, morphology and syntax. Thadou is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken by approximately 200,000 people in Northeastern part of India, some parts of Myanmar and Bangladesh. This dissertation is purely descriptive grammar of the language, based on extensive fieldwork and community-driven language documentation in Chandel district of Manipur. When possible, analyses are presented in typological perspective and illustrated with ample data, drawn mainly from elicitation and also narratives. The thesis is organized into seven broad chapters covering the various linguistic aspects of the language. Topics covered in the grammar include a brief introduction of the people and the language; the sound pattern and system of the language; the description of the noun and verb morphology; a detailed discussion on the word formation processes and the syntactic features of the language. The first chapter is an introductory chapter dealing with a brief profile of the language and the people. The genetic classification and the place of the language in the TibetoBurman language family is also presented. The typological features of the language in the Tibeto-Burman language are also highlighted in this chapter. A detailed survey of the earlier works in the language has also been presented. The methodogy adopted for the collection data is also presented. The second chapter covers the sound and sound pattern of the language. Various phonological topics include the phonemic inventory; syllable structure, a detailed discussion on tone and tonal analysis. The most remarkable aspect of Thadou phonology is the tonal system, which is a typological characteristic feature of Kuki-

-8Chin languages. Thadou has three lexical tone and every syllable carries one of these tones. Various tone sandhi rules applies in compound words.

The third chapter presents the noun and the noun morphology of the language. Different classification of nouns and their types are provided in this chapter. Nouns in Thadou are mostly monosyllabic in structure. However, there are nouns which are composed of two or three syllables, depending mainly on suffixing morphology. Complex nouns are formed by the processes of compounding and derivation. The fourth chapter covers the verb and verb morphology. The verb morphology is the most complex and interesting. Every verb in the language has two forms known as stem I and stem II in the literature of Kuki-Chin languages. The two forms of the verb differ in their phonological forms and occur in different syntactic and pragmatic environments. Chapter 5 deals with the various word formation process found in the language. The language is very rich in compounding. Most words are formed through the process of compounding. Reduplication is another interesting feature of the language. Various types of reduplication and their role in the word formation process is discussed in this chapter. Chapter 6 deals with the word order and the syntactic patterns of the language. Thadou shares most of the features of the Kuki-Chin group of the Tibeto-burman language family. Like most languages of South Asia, Thadou exhibits verb-final syntax and the typological correlations that follow, including postposition (or relator noun constructions), auxiliaries after the verb, and sentence-final particles. The case marking system is ‘pragmatic’ ergative, where an ergative marker is required in transitive contexts. Nominalization and clause-chaining are two essential components of Thadou syntax. Another interesting feature of that Thadou exhibits is pronominalisation/cross referencing. Thadou belongs to the pronominalised Kuki-Chin language with an intricate pattern of cross referecing of the verb with both the subject and the object of the clause. In the appendices, the questionnaire used for elicitation of data including word list (appendix i) and sentence list (appendix ii) is provided. In addition, two narratives, with interglossing and translation is also provided in appendices (iii) and (iv). Maps showing the area where the language is spoken and the area where field work was

undertaken is presented. Finally, the list of references are listed in the bibliography section.

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Table of Contents Cover page…………………………………………………………………………………………………… (i) Certificate …………………………………………………………………………………………………. (ii) Declaration………………………………………………………………………………………………… (iii) Dedication…………………………………………………………………………………………………. (iv) Acknowledgement………………………………………………………………………………………(v) Abstract

TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................................- 10 LIST OF TABLES........................................................................................................- 16 LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................- 21 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS ..........................................................- 22 1

INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................- 27 -

1.1

The Language ...................................................................................................................... - 27 -

1.2

Geographical distribution.................................................................................................... - 28 -

1.3

Name of the language ......................................................................................................... - 29 -

1.4 The people and their history ............................................................................................... - 30 1.4.1 History ....................................................................................................................... - 30 1.4.2 The people ................................................................................................................. - 32 1.5

Language vitality and status ................................................................................................ - 33 -

1.6

Genetic classification of Thadou ......................................................................................... - 35 -

1.7

Previous Research ............................................................................................................... - 36 -

1.8

Typological overview .......................................................................................................... - 38 -

1.9

Data and Methodology ....................................................................................................... - 40 -

1.10

Structure and organisation of the work .......................................................................... - 42 -

2

PHONOLOGY .....................................................................................................- 44 -

2.1

Introduction ........................................................................................................................ - 44 -

2.2 Consonants ......................................................................................................................... - 44 2.2.1 Phonemic Contrast ..................................................................................................... - 45 -

2.2.1.2 SYLLABLE-FINAL CONTRASTS ................................................................- 47 2.2.2 2.2.3

Description and Distribution of Consonants ................................................................ - 47 Summary .................................................................................................................... - 53 -

2.3 Vowels ................................................................................................................................ - 53 2.3.1 Contrast for Vowels .................................................................................................... - 54 2.3.2 Description and Distribution of Vowels ....................................................................... - 55 2.3.3 Summary .................................................................................................................... - 56 2.4 Diphthongs ......................................................................................................................... - 57 2.4.1 Contrast for Diphthongs ............................................................................................. - 57 2.4.2 Description and Distribution of Diphthongs................................................................. - 58 2.4.3 Summary .................................................................................................................... - 60 2.5 Syllable Structure ................................................................................................................ - 60 2.5.1 Syllable and Word Structure ....................................................................................... - 62 2.5.2 Summary .................................................................................................................... - 64 2.5.3 Possible Consonant Clusters ....................................................................................... - 64 2.6 Tone .................................................................................................................................... - 70 2.6.1 Tone in Thadou........................................................................................................... - 71 2.6.2 Thadou Tone Inventory............................................................................................... - 72 2.6.3 Description of Thadou Tone ........................................................................................ - 72 2.6.4 Contrastive Triplets .................................................................................................... - 77 2.6.5 Tone Sandhi /Tonal Alternations ................................................................................. - 78 2.6.6 Grammatically Conditioned Tone ................................................................................ - 79 2.6.7 Stem II Tone ............................................................................................................... - 86 2.6.8 Summary of tone ........................................................................................................ - 89 2.7

Final summary .................................................................................................................... - 90 -

3

NOUN MORPHOLOGY .....................................................................................- 92 -

3.1 Definition and classification ................................................................................................ - 92 3.1.1 Primary Simple Nouns ................................................................................................ - 92 3.1.2 Compound Nouns ....................................................................................................... - 93 0.11 .............................................................................................................................................. - 97 -

- 12 3.1.3 3.1.4

Derived Nouns ............................................................................................................ - 98 Summary .................................................................................................................... - 99 -

3.2 Pronouns........................................................................................................................... - 100 3.2.1 Personal Pronouns.................................................................................................... - 101 3.2.2 Possessive Pronouns ................................................................................................. - 102 3.2.3 Demonstrative Pronouns .......................................................................................... - 103 3.2.4 Interrogative Pronouns ............................................................................................. - 104 3.2.5 Reflexive Pronouns ................................................................................................... - 104 3.2.6 Indefinite Pronouns .................................................................................................. - 105 3.2.7 Emphatic Pronouns .................................................................................................. - 106 3.3 Gender .............................................................................................................................. - 107 3.3.1 Human Nouns........................................................................................................... - 107 3.3.2 Non Human Animate Nouns ..................................................................................... - 108 3.3.3 Insects and Plants and inanimate Nouns ................................................................... - 109 3.4

Number............................................................................................................................. - 109 -

3.5 Noun Modifiers ................................................................................................................. - 110 3.5.1 Numerals.................................................................................................................. - 110 3.5.2 Adjectives ................................................................................................................. - 116 3.5.3 Determiners ............................................................................................................. - 118 3.5.4 Noun Classifiers ........................................................................................................ - 123 3.6 Case Markers in Noun Phrase ........................................................................................... - 125 3.6.1 Ergative Case ............................................................................................................ - 125 3.6.2 Instrumental Case..................................................................................................... - 126 3.6.3 Locative Case............................................................................................................ - 126 3.6.4 Comitative Case Marker............................................................................................ - 128 3.7

Structure of the Noun Phrase ............................................................................................ - 128 -

3.8

Noun Phrase Coordination ................................................................................................ - 130 -

3.9

Summary........................................................................................................................... - 131 -

4

VERB MORPHOLOGY ................................................................................... - 132 -

4.1 Verb and Classification of Verbs ........................................................................................ - 132 4.1.1 Simple Verbs ............................................................................................................ - 132 4.1.2 Reflexive Verbs ......................................................................................................... - 133 4.1.3 Reciprocal Verbs ....................................................................................................... - 134 4.1.4 Compound Verbs ...................................................................................................... - 136 4.1.5 Verbs with do  ......................................................................................................... - 138 4.2 Types of Verbal Stems ....................................................................................................... - 138 4.2.1 Transitive Verbs ........................................................................................................ - 138 4.2.2 Intransitive Stems ..................................................................................................... - 139 4.3 Tense, Aspect and Mood ................................................................................................... - 143 4.3.1 Tense ....................................................................................................................... - 143 4.3.2 Aspect ...................................................................................................................... - 146 4.3.3 Mood and Modality .................................................................................................. - 149 4.3.4 The Indirect Evidential -na ....................................................................................... - 151 -

4.4 The Verb Structure ............................................................................................................ - 153 4.4.1 The Derivational Morphology of the Verb ................................................................. - 154 4.5

The Order of the Verb ....................................................................................................... - 168 -

4.6

Summary........................................................................................................................... - 169 -

5

WORD FORMATION ..................................................................................... - 170 -

5.1 Compound and Compounding........................................................................................... - 171 5.1.1 Compounds in Thadou .............................................................................................. - 172 5.1.2 Compounding in proper names ................................................................................. - 175 5.1.3 Compound verbs ...................................................................................................... - 176 5.1.4 Co-ordinate compounds ........................................................................................... - 177 5.1.5 Associative Compounds ............................................................................................ - 179 5.1.6 Compounding of three roots ..................................................................................... - 179 5.1.7 Affixo compounding ................................................................................................. - 180 5.1.8 Summary .................................................................................................................. - 181 5.2 Reduplication .................................................................................................................... - 181 5.2.1 Lexical Reduplication ................................................................................................ - 182 5.2.2 Syllable Reduplication in Verbs ................................................................................. - 186 5.2.3 Discontinuous Reduplication..................................................................................... - 187 5.2.4 Adverbial particles .................................................................................................... - 187 5.2.5 Summary .................................................................................................................. - 189 5.3 Affixation .......................................................................................................................... - 189 5.3.1 Prefixation of a- ........................................................................................................ - 189 5.3.2 Prefixation of he- to kinship terms ............................................................................ - 190 5.3.3 Suffixation of -na  ..................................................................................................... - 190 5.3.4 Manner nominalization............................................................................................. - 193 5.3.5 Nominalization by Stem verb alternation .................................................................. - 194 5.3.6 Clitics ....................................................................................................................... - 194 5.3.7 Suffixation ................................................................................................................ - 195 5.3.8 Particles ................................................................................................................... - 196 5.4

Summary........................................................................................................................... - 197 -

6

SYNTAX ........................................................................................................... - 198 -

6.1 Word order in Thadou ....................................................................................................... - 198 6.1.1 Simple clauses .......................................................................................................... - 198 6.1.2 Pro drop ................................................................................................................... - 199 6.1.3 Adposition ................................................................................................................ - 199 6.1.4 Genitive constructions .............................................................................................. - 199 6.1.5 Relative clauses ........................................................................................................ - 200 6.1.6 Comparitives ............................................................................................................ - 200 6.1.7 Adverbs .................................................................................................................... - 201 6.1.8 Interrogatives ........................................................................................................... - 202 6.1.9 Adjectives ................................................................................................................. - 203 6.1.10 Complementation ................................................................................................ - 204 6.1.11 Negation .............................................................................................................. - 205 6.1.12 Imperatives .......................................................................................................... - 205 6.1.13 Reflexives and reciprocals .................................................................................... - 205 -

- 14 6.1.14 6.1.15

Stem Verb Alternation ......................................................................................... - 206 Summary ............................................................................................................. - 206 -

6.2 Basic clause structure........................................................................................................ - 206 6.2.1 Non-verbal predicates .............................................................................................. - 207 6.2.2 Verbal predicates ..................................................................................................... - 210 6.2.3 Summary .................................................................................................................. - 212 6.2.4 Summary .................................................................................................................. - 212 6.2.5 Summary .................................................................................................................. - 214 6.3 Subordination ................................................................................................................... - 215 6.3.1 Conditional clauses ................................................................................................... - 215 6.3.2 Negative conditionals ............................................................................................... - 217 6.3.3 Purpose clause ......................................................................................................... - 217 6.3.4 Temporal clauses ...................................................................................................... - 218 6.3.5 Concessive clauses.................................................................................................... - 219 6.3.6 Cause and reason coordination ................................................................................. - 219 6.3.7 Adversative clauses .................................................................................................. - 220 6.4 Coordination ..................................................................................................................... - 220 6.4.1 Sequential clauses .................................................................................................... - 221 6.4.2 Comitative Conjunction ............................................................................................ - 222 6.4.3 Disjunctive Coordination........................................................................................... - 222 6.4.4 Juxtaposition ............................................................................................................ - 222 6.4.5 Summary .................................................................................................................. - 223 6.5 Negation ........................................................................................................................... - 223 6.5.1 The structure of negative clauses .............................................................................. - 223 6.5.2 The negative particles in Thadou............................................................................... - 224 6.5.3 Negative interrogative clauses .................................................................................. - 230 6.5.4 Negative strengthening and negative polarity ........................................................... - 231 6.5.5 Double negation ....................................................................................................... - 231 6.5.6 Negative co ordinator ............................................................................................... - 234 6.5.7 Non-overt negative environment .............................................................................. - 234 6.5.8 Summary .................................................................................................................. - 234 6.6 Interrogatives ................................................................................................................... - 236 6.6.1 Polar interrogatives or yes/no interrogations ............................................................ - 236 6.6.2 Rhetorical interrogatives .......................................................................................... - 237 6.6.3 Constituent interrogatives/WH-questions .................................................................. - 237 6.6.4 WH-question word as indefinite pronouns ................................................................ - 241 6.6.5 Summary and conclusion .......................................................................................... - 242 6.7 Pronominalization or cross referencing ............................................................................. - 242 6.7.1 Pronominalization in Thadou .................................................................................... - 243 6.7.2 Summary .................................................................................................................. - 248 6.8

Summary........................................................................................................................... - 248 -

7

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION ................................................................... - 249 -

7.1

The language..................................................................................................................... - 249 -

7.2

The phonological features ................................................................................................. - 249 -

7.3

Noun and noun morphology ............................................................................................. - 250 -

7.3.1 7.3.2

Pronoun and pronominals ........................................................................................ - 250 Order of the Noun Phrase ......................................................................................... - 251 -

7.4 Verb and Verb Morphology ............................................................................................... - 252 7.4.1 Pronoun clitic in the VP............................................................................................. - 253 7.4.2 Deitic motion verbs .................................................................................................. - 253 7.4.3 Stem I and Stem II verbs ........................................................................................... - 253 7.4.4 Serial verbs and derived verbs .................................................................................. - 253 7.4.5 Adverbs .................................................................................................................... - 254 7.5 Derivational Morphology .................................................................................................. - 254 7.5.1 Compounding ........................................................................................................... - 254 7.5.2 Affixation.................................................................................................................. - 254 7.5.3 Clitics ....................................................................................................................... - 255 7.5.4 Particles ................................................................................................................... - 256 7.5.5 Reduplication ........................................................................................................... - 257 7.6 The syntactic features ....................................................................................................... - 258 7.6.1 Word order .............................................................................................................. - 258 7.6.2 Grammatical relations .............................................................................................. - 258 7.6.3 Major sentence types ............................................................................................... - 259 7.6.4 Pronominalization or Cross Referencing .................................................................... - 260 7.7

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ - 260 -

APPENDIX (1) ........................................................................................................ - 262 Abstract Nouns and Adjectives .................................................................................................. - 262 -

APPENDIX (II) ........................................................................................................ - 268 Basic Sentences for Data Collection ........................................................................................... - 268 -

APPENDIX (III): NARRATIVE (I)........................................................................ - 300 A story about why man is not able to see ghosts..................................................................... - 300 -

APPENDIX (IV): NARRATIVES (1)..................................................................... - 303 How the dog lost its horns ...................................................................................................... - 303 -

APPENDIX (V) ........................................................................................................ - 307 CHART 1: MAP OF MANIPUR SHOWING THE WORK WAS UNDERTAKEN - 307 APPENDIX (VI)....................................................................................................... - 308 CHART 2: MAP OF MYANMAR SHOWING WHERE THADOU IS SPOKEN . - 308 -

- 16 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................... - 309 -

LIST OF TABLES 1.1 Number of Thadou speakers in Manipur

- 29 -

2.1: Consonantal Phonemes of Thadou

- 44 -

2.2 Vowel System

- 53 -

2.3 Syllable Structure

- 60 -

2.4 Monosyllabic words

- 63 -

2.5 Bisyllabic Words

- 63 -

2.6 Trisyllabic words

- 64 -

2.7 Quatrisyllabic words

- 64 -

2.8 Permisible consonant combination

- 65 -

2.9 Average of Pitch variation

- 72 -

2.10 Contrastive triplets in open syllable

- 77 -

2.11 Contrastive pairs in closed syllables

- 78 -

2.12 Noun+ Noun→ Compound Nouns

- 78 -

2.13 Noun +Verb→Compound Nouns

- 79 -

2.14 Summary of Tone Sandhi

- 79 -

2.15 Pronominal proclitic

- 79 -

2.16 Tonal Change in Stem II Verb

- 88 -

2.17 Other changes in Stem I and Stem II

- 89 -

2.18 No Tonal change in Stem II

- 89 -

3.1 Open Syllable Nouns

- 92 -

3.2 Closed Syllable Nouns

- 93 -

3.3 VC Structure Nouns

- 93 -

3.4 V Structure Nouns

- 93 -

3.5 NOUN1+NOUN2→NOUN COMPOUND

- 94 -

3.6 Noun1 + Verb1→Compound Noun

- 95 -

3.7 NOUN+DIMUNITIVE→COMPOUND NOUN

- 95 -

3.8 Noun+Augmentative→Compound Noun

- 96 -

3.9 Noun1+ Adjectival Verb→Compound Noun

- 96 -

3.10 Noun+Noun/Verb+Verb/Adjective→Compound Noun

- 97 -

3.11 Noun+Verb+Nominalizer→Compound Noun

- 97 -

3.12 Nouns derived from Adjectives

- 98 -

3.13 Nouns derived from Stem II Verbs

- 99 -

3.14 Nouns derived from Verbs

- 99 -

3.15 Full Pronouns Forms

- 100 -

3.16 Clitic Forms

- 100 -

3.17 Personal Pronouns

- 101 -

3.18 posessive pronouns with possessed nouns

- 102 -

3.19 Possessive Pronouns without Possessed Nouns

- 102 -

3.20 Demonstrative Pronouns

- 103 -

3.21 Interrogative Pronouns

- 104 -

3.22 Reflexive Pronouns

- 104 -

3.23 Indefinite Pronouns

- 105 -

3.24 Lexical Opposites

- 107 -

3.25 Human Nouns

- 108 -

3.26 Human Noun Gender in Borrowed Words

- 108 -

3.27 Non-Human Animate Nouns

- 108 -

3.28 Number Marking

- 109 -

3.29 Collective Nouns for Animals

- 110 -

3.30 Collective Nouns for Human Nouns

- 110 -

3.31 Basic Numerals

- 111 -

- 18 3.32 Additive Compound Numerals

- 112 -

3.33 Lower Multiplicative Compound Numerals

- 113 -

3.34 Higher Multiplicative Compound Numerals

- 113 -

3.35 Higher Multiplicative Compound Numerals

- 114 -

3.36 Multiplicative-cum-Additive Compound Numerals

- 115 -

3.37 Ordinal numerals

- 115 -

3.38 Fractional Numerals

- 115 -

3.39 Multiplicative Numerals

- 116 -

3.40 Approximate Numerals

- 116 -

3.41 Adjectives

- 117 -

3.42 Color Terms

- 117 -

3.43 Attributive Adjectives

- 118 -

3.44 Noun +Adjectives

- 118 -

3.45 Determiners

- 119 -

3.46 Determiners+Noun

- 119 -

3.47 Determiners

- 120 -

3.48 Demomstrative+Locative

- 122 -

3.49 (a) Noun Classifier

- 123 -

3.50 (b) Noun Classifier

- 123 -

3.51(c) Noun Classifier

- 124 -

3.52 (d) Noun Classifiers

- 124 -

3.53 (e) Noun Classifier

- 124 -

3.54 (f) Noun Classifiers

- 125 -

3.55 Case Markers

- 125 -

3.56 Noun Phrase Structure

- 130 -

4.1 Simple Verbs

- 133 -

4.2 Reflexive Verbs

- 134 -

4.3 Reciprocal Verbs

- 135 -

4.4 Verb+maŋ→Compound Verb

- 136 -

4.5 Verb+lut→Compound Verb

- 137 -

4.6 Noun+Verb→ Compound Verbs

- 138 -

4.7 Phrasal Verbs

- 138 -

4.8 Transitive Verbs

- 139 -

4.9 Intransitve Verbs/Adjectival Verbs

- 141 -

4.10 Intransitve Verbs

- 142 -

4.11 Intransitve Verbs

- 142 -

4.12 Temporal Adverbs

- 144 -

4.13 Verbal Proclitic

- 156 -

4.14 Directionals

- 157 -

4.15 Number Markers

- 159 -

4.16 Tense, Mood and Aspect Markers

- 160 -

4.17 Negative Markers

- 165 -

4.18 Other markers

- 167 -

5.1 Noun1+Noun2→ Compound Noun

- 173 -

5.2 Noun1 + Verb1→ Compound Noun

- 173 -

5.3 Noun1+Adjective

- 174 -

5.4 Noun+Verb Compounds

- 174 -

5.5 NOUN+DIMUNITIVE →NOUN

- 175 -

5.6 Noun+Augmentative

- 175 -

5.7Verb1 +Verb2→Compound Verb

- 177 -

5.8 luŋ+verb→Compound verb

- 177 -

5.9 Co-ordinate compounds

- 179 -

5.10 Associative compounds

- 179 -

5.11 Compounding of three roots

- 180 -

5.12 NOUN +VERB+AGENTIVE →COMPOUND NOUN

- 180 -

5.13 Reduplicated Nouns

- 182 -

5.14 Reduplicated Interrogative pronouns

- 183 -

- 20 5.15 Reduplicated Adjectives

- 184 -

5.16 Reduplicated Adverbs

- 185 -

5.17 Reduplicated Verbs

- 185 -

5.18 Partially Reduplicated Verbs

- 186 -

5.19 Discontinuous Reduplicated Pronouns

- 187 -

5.20 Discontinuous Reduplicated Interrogatives

- 187 -

5.21 Advebial particles

- 189 -

5.22 Prefixation of a-

- 189 -

5.23 prefixes

- 190 -

5.24 Abstract Nouns

- 190 -

5.25 Abstract Nouns

- 191 -

5.26 Agentive Nominalisation

- 192 -

5.27 Instrumental Nominalization

- 192 -

5.28 Locative nominalization (a)

- 193 -

5.29 Locative nominalization (b)

- 193 -

5.30 Manner nominalization

- 193 -

5.31 Stem II Verbs

- 194 -

6.1 Overview of arguments, relationships and constituents

- 214 -

6.2 Subordinating particles in Thadou

- 215 -

6.3 Verb+mo→noun

- 229 -

6.4 Adjectives+mo→opposite adjec ves

- 230 -

6.5: Negative marker and their functions

- 235 -

6.6: Combination of different negative partricles and their meaning

- 235 -

6.7: WH-Words in Thadou

- 238 -

6.8: Pronominals in Thadou

- 248 -

6.9: Agreement pattern for transitive verbs in Thadou

- 248 -

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Thadou in Chin Sub group: Bradley 1997

- 35 -

Figure 2 Male: High

- 73 -

Figure 3 Male: Low High or Rising tone

- 74 -

Figure 4: Male: Low tone

- 74 -

Figure 5: Female High tone

- 75 -

Figure 6: Female: Low High tone

- 76 -

Figure 7 Female: Low tone

- 76 -

Figure 8 Structure of the Verb

- 153 -

Figure 9 Structure of the Verb in Future tense

- 154 -

Figure 10 Components of the Verb Template

- 155 -

Figure 11 Clause Structure

- 207 -

- 22 -

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS

1

first person

2

second person

3

third person

A

agent-like argument of canonical transitive verb

ABL

ablative

ABS

absolutive

ACC

accusative

ADJ

adjective

ADV

adverb(ial)

AGR

agreement

AGT

agentiviser

ALL

allative

ANTIP

antipassive

APPL

applicative

ART

article

ASP

aspect

AUX

auxiliary

BEN

benefactive

CAUS

causative

CLF

classifier

CLT

clitic

CM

case marker

COM

comitative

COMP

complementizer

COMPL

completive

COND

conditional

COP

copula

CONV

converb

DAT

dative

DECL

declarative

DEL

definite

DEM

demonstrative

DET

determiner

DIST

distal

DISTR

distributive

DMP

deitic motion particles

DPRO

demonstrative pronoun

MOD

mood

DU

dual

DUR

durative

EMP

emphatic

- 24 ERG

ergative

EXCL

exclusive

F

feminine

FOC

focus

FUT

future

GEN

genitive

HORT

hortative

IMP

imperative

INCL

inclusive

IND

indicative

INDF

indefinite

INF

infinitive

INS

instrumental

INTS

intensifier

INTR

intransitive

IPFV

imperfective

IRR

irrealis

KC

Kuki-Chin

LOC LTBA

locative Linguistics of The Tibeto-Burman Area

M

masculine

N

neuter

N-

non- (e.g. NSG non singular, NPST non past)

NEG

negation, negative

NMLZ

nominalizer/nominalization

NOM

nominative

NP

noun phrase

OBJ

object

OBL

oblique

P

patient-like argument of canonical transitive verb

PASS

passive

PERF

perfective

PL

plural

POSS

possessive

PRED

predicative

PERF

perfect

PRS

present

PROG

progressive

PROH

prohibitive

PROX

proximal/proximate

PST

past

PRO

pronoun

PROG

progressive

PTCP

participle

PURP

purposive

Q

question particle/marker

QUOT

quotative

RECP

reciprocal

REFL

reflexive

REL

relative

- 26 RES

resultative

S

single argument of canonical intransitive verb

SBJ

subject

SBJV

subjunctive

SG

singular

TB

Tibeto-Burman

TK

Thadou-Kuki

TOP

topic

TR

transitive

VOC

vocative

VP

verb phrase

WH

wh-word

Q

question word

*

ungrammatical

ŋ

velar nasal 

high tone



low high tone



low tone



Stem II verb

I

Stem I verb

1 INTRODUCTION This chapter presents a general introduction to the language and the people who speak the language. It provides an introduction and the general background of the people. Section 1.1 provides a detailed linguistic profile of the language. 1.2 gives a detailed description of the geographical distribution of the language. 1.3 highlights the issues with the nomenclature of the language. A brief profile of the social-cultural life of the speakers is presented in 1.4. Section 1.5 presents the present status of the language. In 1.6, the classification of the language as belonging to the Tibeto-Burman stock of the Kuki-Chin sub group is highlighted. Section 1.7 reviews some of the previous existing works in the language. 1.8 provides a brief overview of the features of the language. The methodology adopted for data collection and analysis is provided in the next section in 1.9. Finally, the organization of the thesis is also presented in the last section of the chapter. 1.1

THE LANGUAGE

Thadou (Grierson, 1904)1 belongs to the Kuki-Chin sub-group of the Tibeto-Burman group of Sino-Tibetan language family. Thadou as a language is one of the recognized tribal languages in Manipur. This is recognized by the President Notification under Article No. 342 of the Indian Constitution vide the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes, List Order Notification No. SRO. 2477-A. Ministry of Law & Home Affairs, Govt. of India dated 29th October, 1956 at New Delhi in respect of the State of Manipur. It is the language of the Kuki tribes in general and is intelligible to the entire Kuki group. As a linguistic community too, they are one of the major tribes among the tribal groups and they are also known as ‘New Kukis’. The language is called Thadou pao which literally means ‘Thadou language’. Thadou does not have a script 1

Grierson, George A. 1904. Linguistic survey of India. Vol. III. Parts III.

- 28 of its own. It has been written in the Roman script for more than 80 years. Thadous still use the Roman script for writing their language. Ngulhao Thomsong2 published ‘Lekabul’, the first primer written in the Roman script, in 1927. Since then, many books have been written and published in the language. 1.2

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION

Thadou is the largest among the Kuki tribes and Kukis are also the largest tribal group of Manipur in the 2011 census. According to William Shaw (1929), “the Thadou Kuki live in a large area of the hilly country bounded by the Angami Nagas of the Naga Hills District in the North, the province of Burma in the East, the Chin Hills and Lushai Hills in the South and the District of Cachar in the West. Mainly, it may be said, they occupy the Hills of the State of Manipur on all sides of Imphal valley”. Thadous are a scattered tribe inhabiting a vast region in India and the neighbouring countries as well. They are found living in the Sylhet regions of Bangladesh, the Burmese Ngitkyna region as well as along the west of Chindion valley and in the Chin Hills of Burma. In India, a large number of them are found inhabiting the southwest region of Nagaland, North Cachar Hills of Manipur state and on all sides of the Imphal valley. In Manipur, they are mostly found in South-Western Hills and Sadar Hills, Churachandpur district, Jiribam and Chandel district. They are said to be scattered through the length and breadth of the state. However, they have their concentration in the Churachanpur district, Sadar Hills and Chandel district. (Maps showing the area where the language is spoken is given in appendix (v) and (vi). The present study is based on the field work conducted in different parts of Chandel district and is therefore based on the variety of the language spoken in this district. As I hail from the Thadou community, my introspection as a native speaker of the language has guided me in my linguistic judgement throughout the thesis. It is difficult to make an exact statement with regard to the number of speakers of this language. This is because they are known by different names in different places3. Another reason is that they have been included in the general term, Kuki.

2

3

Thomsong, N. 1927. Lekhabul, Thadou Kuki first primer. Kangpokpi: Manipur.

/Thadou references/On Thadou/The Thadous.htm

The census of India (1991), reports that the number of Thadou speakers goes up to 107,992 inclusive of 5,991(others).

In the neighbouring country Myanmar, the

number of speakers of Thadou goes up to 26,200, known by different names like Thado, Chin, etc. According to Ethnologue (Lewis 2009)4 the total Thadou speaking population is 231,200. The number of Thadou speakers according to the census of India 5 report from the year 1961 to 2011 is given in the table below. This indicates that the speakers are gradually increasing over the years. YEAR NUMBER OF SPEAKERS 1961

47,998

1971

59,955

1981

56,466

1991

103,667

2001

115,045

2011

1,90,595.

1.1 Number of Thadou speakers in Manipur

1.3

NAME OF THE LANGUAGE

The name of the language has been a matter of controversy in the recent past. There is a major controversy regarding the name and so far, there has not been any consensus in this regard. There are two extreme groups with two opposing stands regarding the name: the one in favor of Thadou and the other in favour of Kuki. Both the groups have their very firm stand on the matter. This is still an on going political debate among native speakers and will continue until a better alternative name is proposed and accepted by the people. There is an interesting article by Thirumalai 20086, ‘ What’s in a name?Everything is in a name! Thadou versus Kuki’, which talks about the on going debate about the name of the language. There was a serious dispute over the name of the language in the school text books. The State Government of Manipur frequently changed the name of the language to be 4 5

www.ethnologue.com.

Census of India reports Thirumalai, M.S. 2005. What is in a Name? Everything is in a Name! Thadou versus Kuki, Language in India, Vol. 5, September 9. 6

- 30 written in the School subjects either as Thadou or Thadou7/ Kuki or Thadou-Kuki in 1970s. At present, it is recognised by Thadou-Kuki Text Book Commitee and this committee is responsible for all issues related to the pedagogical developmental purposes. However, there is another society known as the Kuki Literature Committee, which is also working for the development of the same language with a different name. The Thadous are known by different names to different people. Some of the alternate names that they are known by the outsiders are Thadou by the Chins of Myanmar (Burma). Lusuong by the Lushais/Mizos, Khongjai/Khongsai by the Meiteis, Khongchai/Khachami by the Tangkhuls, Kusamei by the Maos, Makheng by the Anals, Thangkumsa by the Kacharis, Kuki/Cuci by the Bengali, New Kuki by the Britishers. Alternate names that exist in the literature are Thadou, Thado-Ubiphei, Thado-Pao, Kuki, Kuki-Thado, Thaadou Kuki. Another important reason which is the case with many tribal languages in the Northeast is the confusion between tribe and language. Thadou speakers had been divided into two groups. One group the members of which have not been Thadou by genealogy did not like to be identified as Thadou and they accepted Kuki for their identity. To avoid any controversies and for the sake of convenience, throughout this work, the term Thadou-Kuki will be used for the language of study.

1.4

THE PEOPLE AND THEIR HISTORY

1.4.1 History The origin8 of Kuki is shrouded with myths and mythologies. One such myth includes the traditional account handed down from centuries. According to it, the Kukis came out of the bowels of the earth or a cave called Chinlung or Shionlung or Khul, the location of which was believed to be somewhere in China, whereas others claimed it to be in Tibet. (Ginzatuang, 1973:5) Mc. Culloch (1857:55). The Kukis are also known as Khongsai in Manipur, and that they bring their progenitors from the bowels of the earth, and they relate the manner of their reaching its surface. The story goes

7

Thadou references/History - The Thadous.htm Thadou references/PATRIOT ENIGMA HISTORY AND LINGUSTIC CLASSIFICATION OF THADOU TRIBE.htm 8

like this: “A king’s brother was hunting hedgehogs. In the meantime, the dog in pursuit entered the cavern. The master who was waiting for its return remained at the mouth of the cave. After a lapse of time, the dog not having returned, its master determined to go in and see what had become of it. He did not find the dog, but as he followed its tracts, he suddenly found the surface of the earth. The scene presented to his view both pleased and astonished him. Returning to his brother, he related his adventures and asked him to annex the new country to his territory, which the king did. Shaw’s (1929: 24)9 description about the origin of Kuki’s is recorded from his collected verbal information. The story concerned with the origin of the Kuki’s states that they used to live under the earth, or rather inside it. The story goes like this: Noimangpa was the chief of subterranean region. Chongthu, a relative of Noimangpa, while hunting porcupine in the jungle with his dog, discovered a large hole. He perceived through this that the upper crust of the earth was un-inhabited and there was a great darkness. This darkness, which lasted for seven days and nights, is called “Thimzin” by the Thadou’s. Chongthu, rejoiced at this discovery, gave up his hunt and went back to his house. He conjured up ideas of forming his own village on the earth. Meanwhile, Noimangpa, the chief of the underworld was performing the ‘chon’ festival, in which everyone including chongja, elder brother of Chongthu, Noimangpa’s son Chonkim participated. During this feast, Chongthu started waving his sharp sword so vigorously that he injured some of the folks present, at which all were annoyed. This action of Chongthu was premeditated as he thought that by doing so he would be expelled from the underworld and thus can find an excuse for going out to the upper world and forming a village of his own. When Noimangpa came to know this he said: Chongthu can better live in heaven, meaning that he better be killed. Chongthu hearing of Noimangpa’s wrath, prepared to migrate to the uninhabited earth he saw and which is spoken of as ‘khul’ by the Thadous. So, Chongja and Chongthu killed many pigs, fowls, etc. and feasted in preparation for their departure. There are many more stories about this incident. The story further relates that Chongja’s party delayed in moving, but Chongthu’s party moved on followed by 9

Shaw, W. 1929. Notes on the Thadou Kukis (Ed.) Hudson. Government of Assam, Shillong.(Govt. report).

- 32 Chongthu himself. On reaching ‘Khul’, the leaders found that a great snake called Gulheipi was in possession of it and when they attempted to pass over it, the snake killed them with its tail. Chongthu, on reaching the spot, was not thwarted in his ambition. He tightened his cloth around him and placed a phoipi a thick cotton cloth, over his head and attacked the great snake and sliced it into seven pieces. At the same time, Lhaw, a lion also attempted to block the way of Chongthu’s egress. The lion withdrew and Chongthu’s party moved up to the Khul. They founded that it was covered with stone and one man from Chongthu’s party, named Vangalpa, lifted it up. Hence, only seven persons were able to get out and then the stone dropped and all further attempts to raise it ended in a fiasco. The seven persons who thus emerged were Chongthu, Vangalpa, the stone lifter, Khupngam, said to be the progenitors of Manipuris, the Nagas, the foreigner and the Burmese. However, they are not definite about the last three, although they are quite emphatic about the numbers being seven. The genealogical tree from Chongthu to Thadou consists of mythical persons and therefore the festivities entailing repetition of the genealogical tree of the Thadou became necessary claiming that the Thempu starts from Thadou and not from Chongthu. Further, from Chongthu to Thadou there were no differences in languages. Animals, spirits as well as mythical ancestors lived in peaceful co-existence. Khul, the hole in the earth is said to be at the source of the Gun river which seems to be identical with the Imphal river in the Manipur state. Etymologically, the word gun in Thadou means ‘the Imphal River’ and hence in all the stories and legends of the Thadou, the name gun is of great fame. (Shaw, 1929: 24-26). 1.4.2 The people Thadou has been recognized as Scheduled Tribe in India since 1956. The following tribes were covered under the ‘Amended Vide Govt. of India Ministry of Law Notification Order No. SRO-24777-A, Dated 29 October 1956, New Delhi, India’: Guite, Doungel, Sitlhou, Singsit, Kipgen, Haokip, Chongloi, Hangshing, Touthang, Lotjem, Haolai, Tuboi, Sa’um, Kguolhou, Lupho, Lupheng, Misao, Mate, Baite, Lhungdim, Ngailut, Kiloung, Insun, Jongbe, Lunkim, Lienthang, Thangngew, Changsan, Lhang’um Khoungthang. Physically, the Thadou people have Mogolian features and cultural traits. Though they are of Mongolians stock, their skin is not yellow. There is a slight variation in

skin colour among the Thadou. Some have a yellow olive complexion and some are certainly of darker shades and some of a dark yellowish brown (Shaw, 1929:12)10. The nucleus of the Thadou society is family which is traditionally verilocal and patriarchal. It consists of a man and his wife, their unmarried children and in many cases their married son and his wife and children. Large extended families are, however, rarer today than they were even a generation ago. Basically, the Thadou social structure is built around segmentary lineages which are constantly on the rise. There may be different levels of segmentation. At the basic level, there are only household lineages of closest relatives who are related in a patrilineal line. Descent through the first born gives some advantages to the eldest son. There are special lineal rights enjoyed by him. He customarily succeeds his father’s position, head of the household when the father dies. Thus, the eldest son is elevated to the position of the father. In accordance with practice of a prescribed rule of primogeniture succession and inheritance, a particular residential rule is produced (Das 1985: 8). Weaving and spinning was a part of Thadou culture, therefore, the Thadou women were known for their skills in weaving and spinning. It is difficult to find any Thadou girl who does not know weaving or spinning. Probably, Thadou Shawl is the most beautiful shawls, seen in the northeastern part of India. Similarly, the men have good skill in handicraft. They produce a number of beautiful and useful items out of cane, bamboo, wood or timber, iron, brass and so on (Gosh 1992: 204). At present, the Thadous practice Christianity as their religion. Christianity among the Thadous can be traced back to an Anglican missionary named William Pettigrew who worked in Manipur as a missionary from 1894. The 100th anniversary of the Thadou people embracing Christianity was held at Motbung, Sadar Hills, Manipur India on 13 December 2008. 1.5

LANGUAGE VITALITY AND STATUS

According to the 2011 census, the total Thadou population in Manipur is 1,90,595. The Thadous are the second largest tribe in Manipur preceded only by the Meiteis or Manipuris. In the All India Radio programme Imphal, the Thadous have a 30 minute programme daily from 5 p.m.-5.30 p.m. As part of the three languge formula, the language is taught as a subject from Class (IX) to (XII) in lieu of Major Indian 10

Shaw, W. 1929. Notes on the Thadou Kukis (Ed.) Hudson. Government of Assam, Shillong.(Govt. report).

- 34 Language (MIL) and it is also introduced as a subject at the degree level. However, it is not used as a subject of instruction. Thadous are mostly multilinguals. In normal circumstances, a Thadou will know her/his mother tongue to communicate at home or within the community, the language of the neighbouring villages for intra linguistic communication, and the dominant language: Manipuri in Manipur; Nagamese in Nagaland; Burmese in Myanmar and Hindi and English for wider communication. This in turn has both its advantage and disadvantages. This poses a threat to their language as it becomes very easy to shift to the dominant languages. In terms of literacy rate, the Thadous are at higher level than most of the other tribes. The literacy rate among the Thadous is 75%. The contribution of the Christian missionaries and the spread of English education needs special mention. Because of this, they are mostly employed both in government and private sectors and as a result, their chance of switching to English or Hindi is even higher. Thadou is not, strictly speaking an acutely endangered language, but intergenerational transmission is declining under pressure from neighbouring major languages (Manipuri, Hindi, Burmese), and there are other sociolinguistic influences such as language contact between multiple similar languages. In an effort to develop the language, the native speakers also have started writing in and about the language. There are many folk tales, stories, and literary materials written in the Thadou written in the Roman script. There are also many bilingual (English and Thadou) newspapers, weekly journals and souvenirs written by native speakers. However, the problem with regard to the status of language is the lack of uniform spelling system or convention. The writing system based on the Roman script developed by Ngulhao Thomsong is still used with different conventions. Thadou is a tonal language but the present writing system does not represent tone. There is lack of uniformity, especially with the vowels, diphthongs and tone. For this purpose, a better and uniformly accepted orthography is one of the basic requirements for language documentation and maintenance activities.

1.6

GENETIC CLASSIFICATION OF THADOU

This section provides a broad over view of the genetic classification of the language. Many linguists working in the Kuki-Chin languages have provided different classification based on different factors. Grierson (1904)11 classified Thadou language in the northern sub-group of the KukiChin group of the Tibeto-Burman language family. It is spoken by all their descendents of Thadou and the non-Thadous as well. The language has undoubtedly close affinities with Lushai and other languages- Paite, Hmar, Vaiphei, Gangte, Zou, Simte, etc. Thadou was the lingua franca of all the Kuki tribes during their sojourn and transmigration across the border of China and Burma. Shafer (1950) classified Thadou as a language, which belongs to the Mizo-Kuki-Chin group of Tibeto-Burman language family. Marrison (1967) classified Thadou under the western branch of the Kukish section of the Tibeto-Burman language family. Burling (1999) classified Thadou as belonging to the Mizo-Kuki-Chin group, spoken in Northeastern India. Bradley (1997:29-30)12 mentions the position of Thadou in the Chin sub group of languages as belonging to the Northern-Kuki language. The figure 1. below provides the position of Thadou in the Chin sub group of the TibetoBurman languages. Chin

Northern-Chin

Central-Chin Southern-Chin

Other-Chin groups

Thadou

Bawn

North

Khami/Khumi

Siyin

Pangkhua

Zolamnai

Mara(Lakher)

Paite

Zahao/Laizo

Weluang

Vuite

Tashon

Matu

Sukte(Kamhau)

Ngawn Figure 1: Thadou in Chin Sub group: Bradley 1997

11

Grierson, George A. 1904. Linguistic survey of India. Vol. III. Parts III. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. 12

Bradley, David. 1997a. Tibeto-Burman languages and classification. In: Bradley, David (ed.), Tibeto-Burman languages of the Himalayas, 1-72. Canberra: Australian National University. Pacific Linguistics Series A, 86; Papers in Southeast Asian Linguistics 14.

- 36 -

1.7

PREVIOUS RESEARCH

The first native speaker who started writing Thadou using the Roman script was Ngulhao Thomsong. Dr G.C. Crozier along with his wife, Mrs M.B. Crozier and Pu Ngulhao Thomsong worked in full cooperation to translate the Bible especially in Thadou-Kuki after obtaining permission from the British and Foreign Bible Society. Pu Ngulhao’s earlier works included, (1) Pathen La (1922)

(2) Thukidong leh

Kidonbut (1924) (3) Pathen Thu (1925 ) (4) John Sut Kipana Thupha (1925) (5) Lung Phatvet (1930) (6) Rome Mite Henga Paul Lekha Thot (1933). The first edition of Lekha bul: Thadou Kuki first primer was written by Pu Ngulhao Thomsong in 1927. His contribution to the development of the Thadou literature is highly recommendable that till today the orthography adopted by him is still used inspite of its inadequacy to represent the sounds of the language. The earliest articles on Thadou were mostly written by british officers working in the area where the language was spoken. Some of the important works include T. C. Hodson (1906)13 Thado Grammar, Notes on Thado Kukis by William Shaw (1929)14 J. Shakespeare’s Lushai Kuki Clans (1912). Grierson (1904) provides a sketchy grammatical structure of Thadou. Thadou Phonetic Reader by Thirumalai (1971)15 describes the phonology of Thadou. Shree Kishan’s (1980)16 Thadou, a Grammatical Sketch also provides a preliminary grammaritcal description of Thadou. However, a close observation reveals that some of the description are not accurate from a native speaker’s point of view. Some significant research contributions in recent years have been made by the native speakers themselves. Gangte17 (1993) in his book The Kukis of Manipur, a historical scene also provides a detailed description of the Kukis, history of the people, and their social life. Another book by Gangte18 (2003) The Structure of the Thadou

13

Hodson, Thomas Callan.1905. Thado Grammar. Shillong: Eastern Bengal and Assam Secretariat Printing Office. 14 Shaw, W. 1929. Notes on the Thadou Kukis (Ed.) Hudson. Government of Assam, Shillong.(Govt. report). 15 Thirumalai, M.S. 1972. Thadou-a phonetic reader. Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages. 16 Krishan, Shree. 1980. Thadou: A Grammatical Sketch. Kolkata: Anthropological Survey of India. 17 Gangte, T.S. 1993. The Kukis of Manipur, a historical scene. New Delhi: Gyan Publishing House. 18 Gangte, T.S. (2003) Structure of Thadou society (Thadoute hungkonna thusim le aphunggui ju thusim. Translated and introduced by Dr. Singson.D.

Society is a good compendium of much needed information to understand the social structure of the peoples speaking the Thadou language. In the last few years, there have been many attemptes by native speakers to document and develop the language. There are also many philanthropic organisations working for the development of the language. In an effort to introduce the language in the higher secondary and graduate level, the Thadou-Kuki Text Book Committee has tried to describe the language. However, these descriptions are inaccurate as they are direct translations of the English grammar, which do not fit the languageas the structure of Thadou is different from that of English. In an effort to develop the language, the native speakers also have started in and about the language. There are many folk tales, stories, and literary materials written in the Thadou written in the Roman script. There are also many bilingual (English and Thadou) newspapers, weekly journals and souvenirs written by native speakers. The recent interest in Kuki-Chin languages made huge contribution to the description of the many undescribed and undocumented language. The University of California, Berkley has done recommendable job in describing different aspects of the language. Cover, Rebecca T. 201019. The syntax and semantics of stem 1 and stem 2 in ThadouKuki manuscript: www.ling.ohiostate.edu/~rebecca/RTC_KT_Stem1Stem2.pdf describes the distribution of Stem 1 vs. Stem 2 in Thadou-Kuki and argues for semantic and syntactic generalizations about the two stem types. Syntactically, Stem 1 occurs both in truly verbal clauses and in nominalizations containing a subject gap, while Stem 2 occurs in nominalized constituents without a subject gap. Semantically, Stem 1 nominalizations are individual-oriented, while Stem 2 nominalizations can denote propositions, sets of individuals, or sets of eventualities. For details, see section 7.4.3. Yuni Kim 2005 Some observations on the intonational phonology of Kuki Thaadow, a Tibeto-Burman tone language gives an overview of some intonational phenomena in Kuki Thadou, including the interaction of intonation with lexical tone, and some theoretical consequences resulting from the empirical investigation. Hyman, Larry M. (2007) Kuki-Thaadow: An African Tone System in Southeast Asia argues that KT appears to have most of the properties that we associate with African tones systems. 19

Cover, Rebecca T. 2010. “The syntax and semantics of stem 1 and stem 2 in ThadouKuki”.Unpublishedmanuscript:www.ling.ohiostate.edu/~rebecca/RTC_KT_Stem1Stem2.pdf

- 38 Payap university, Chang Mai, Thailand has also undertaken many dissertations and works dealing with mainly the phonological and grammatical description of KukiChin languages spoken in Myanmar. Some of the important works worth mentioning are Khoi Lam Thang20 (2001). A phonological reconstruction of proto-Chin, Kee Shein Mang21 (2006) A Syntactic and Pragmatic Description of Verb Stem Alternation in K’Cho a Chin Language. Linguistics of The Tibeto-Burman Area Journal periodically publishes many articles on Tibeto-Burman languages. Some of the important works are provided in the bibliography. Manipur University, Imphal also has carried out many works and produced many dissertations

mainly on the phonology and grammatical description of Tibeto-

Burman languages spoken in Manipur. The detailed list is provided in the bibliography section. 1.8

TYPOLOGICAL OVERVIEW

This section deals with the typological features of Thadou as a Tibeto-Burman language. Thadou shares most of the features of the language family. (Detailed discussion is in section 6.1). Like other Kuki-Chin group of the Tibeto-Burman language family, Thadou is also a verb-final language, with SOV as its basic word order. It can also have OSV order in order to reflect the discourse prominence of or focusing on the object. Thadou is an ergative language with an obligatory ergative marking on the subject of the transitive verb. Thadou is a pro drop language. It is the presence of this feature that allows the pronoun in the subject position to be dropped. The dropped subject can be recovered from the proclitics that comes with the verb. Thadou exhibits a large number of characteristics expected of it as an OV language. Thadou employs postpositions (Pp), which follow the noun phrase they combine with. Genitive noun phrases (G), noun phrases modifying a noun and expressing possession or a relationship like kinship, precede the noun. Pronominal genitives (possessives) 20

Khoi Lam Thang. 2001. A phonological reconstruction of proto-Chin: unpublished MA thesis, Payap University, Chiang Mai, Thailand. 21

Kee Shein Mang. 2006. A Syntactic and Pragmatic Description of Verb Stem Alternation in K’Cho a Chin Language. Unpublished dissertation, Payap University, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

also precede the possessed noun, and are attached as proclitics. Thadou has two genitive constructions: one is marked by word order and the other is marked morphologically. When possession is marked by word order, the possessor precedes the head. Relative clauses also precede the main clause. Another characteristic of Thadou that is typical of verb-final languages is that in comparative constructions, the order is standard of comparison (St) followed by the marker of comparison (M) followed by the adjective. Thadou has a number of other word order characteristics which are typical of verbfinal languages. Among these is the fact that manner adverbs (Adv), like objects, precede the verb. Thadou employs a question particle which occurs at the end of the sentence. For detail discussion on interrogation, refer to section (6.6). Another characteristic of OV languages exhibited by Thadou is that interrogative phrases in content questions occur in situ rather than at the beginning of sentences. In terms of word order characteristics which do not correlate with the order of verb and object, adjectives follow the noun. Adjectival modifiers of nouns like numerals, classifiers demonstratives, intensifiers, quantifiers etc. also precede the noun. There are also a variety of constructions involving two verbs that conform to patterns typical of OV languages. For example, aspect and modality markers for ability or obligation must follow the main verb. Tense, aspect, mood and evidential markers do not seem to affect the syntax of the language. Like many other Kuki-Chin languages, Thadou distinguishes two tenses: namely, non-future (which includes past and present time) and future. In Thadou, ti the verb ‘to say’ functions as the complementizer, which occurs when the verb ‘say’ is not the verb of the matrix clause. Negation is expressed in Thadou by negative particles that occur post verbally after the main verb. For detailed discussion on negation refer to section 6.5. Imperatives do not have person agreement clitics. They consist of a bare Stem I verb followed by the imperative marker -ìn/ò. The prohibitive is marked by the negative imperative marker-hí-ìn. The subject is optional. Reflexives and reciprocals are marked by -ki on the main verb. Reflexives take singular subject clitics on the verb and reciprocals take plural pronoun clitics.

- 40 Another interesting feature of Kuki-Chin languages that is observed in Thadou is the distinction between stem 1 and stem II forms of the verb. This verb stem alternation is considered to be a Proto-Kuki-Chin feature. Verbal alternation is an important grammatical notion in the language. Verbs in Thadou have two forms known as Stem I and Stem II in the literature of Kuki-Chin group of languages. The two forms usually differ in their tone and final consonants. Stem I is the default form, while stem II is the marked form which is used in grammatically or pragmatically marked constructions in Thadou. Stem I verbs occur in simple declarative clauses and imperative clauses. Stem II verbs occur in object WH-Questions and in subordinate clauses like object relativised clauses, conditional clauses, reason clauses and nominalised clauses. Since Stem II verbs do not occur in simple declarative clauses, they can be considered as ‘reduced verbs’ that is, they are more nominal than verblike. For instance, Stem II can occur in genitive constructions, a property of nouns and not verbs. 1.9

DATA AND METHODOLOGY

The data for the present study is the product of a number of field works22 and data elicitation mainly from native speakers23. The varierty chosen for the present study is from Chandel district as the main concentration of

speakers is in this district.

However, several sessions of cross checking enriched the data used for analysis. Being a native speaker of Thadou and doing research on this language has been a plus point for me to conduct an extensive survey of the Thadou speaking area, as people were very cooperative and supportive. My field work began in 2003 during my association with the Central Institute of Indian language. As part of my project24 for writing the pedagogical Grammar of Thadou under in the Northeast language development project (NELD), I conducted my field work in different parts of Manipur and other states where the language is spoken. The preliminary survey, review of literature and data collection was carried 22

During my initial stage of this work, two special people really inspired me and helped me in many ways. My special thanks to (L) Pu Paokhohang Haokip and to (L) Dr. T.S Gange , for sharing with me their vast knowledge about the language and also sharing with me rare collection of their books about the language.

24

I would like to thank Prof. Rajesh Sachdeva, the then Co ordinator of the project and my Supervisor (L) Dr. Elangayan for their help and guidance.

out during this period. (2003-2005). The methodology adopted is the elicitation method. For elicitation of data during this period, the word list and the sentence list, the questionnaire25 provided by Central Institute of Indian language was used. The second phase of data collection was carried out in 2004-2005, particularly in different parts of Chandel district. The lingua questionnaire26 and the basic sentence list and word list provided in Abbi (2001)27 were used for data elicitation. Narratives in the form of folk tales have also been collected and analysed for sentence construction. These are given in the appendices (i) to (iv). Observations of discourse among the members of the society have also guided me to arrive at contextual judgement and identification of grammaticality aspect. All data are transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and glossed in English. For transcribing the sentences, I have followed the Leizig Glossing Rules28. The first line in italics gives the elicited data, the second line gives the morpheme by morpheme inter glossing and the third line gives the English translation. Grammatical morphemes are abbreviated using

SMALL CAPS.

The representations of these

abbreviated forms are presented in the list of abbreviations and conventions. For the analysis of phonology and the section on tone29, I relied partially on my own data recorded and analysed during the International workshop on Tone and Intonation in Indian languages conducted by the Centre for Linguistics on 27, March 200730. In addition to this, I have collected and recorded data from other native speakers for the accuracy of my analysis and for comparision of the tonal differences in male and female speech. I have collected data and recorded in the language Laboratory, JNU from the following persons: L. Letkhomang Haokip, Anthony Mangkhothong Haokip, James Holkhogin Haokip, Lucy Nemneichong Haokip, Alphonsa Haokip. Words in 25

Questionnaire for Field workers, Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore. Comrie, Bernard, & Norval Smith. 1977. Lingua descriptive studies: Questionnaire. Lingua 42(1). 1– 72. Amsterdam: North Holland. 26

27

Abbi, A. 2001. A Manual of Linguistic Fieldwork and Structures of Indian languages. Germany: Limcom Europa. 28

http://www.eva.mpg.de/lingua/pdf/LGR08.02.05.pdf

29

Prof. Davydd Gibbon introduced me to the analysis of tone in the workshop on Workshop on Tone and Intonation in Indian Languages, held at JNU, March 2009. Special Thanks to Prof. Larry Hyman for allowing us to use his draft for analysis. 30

International Workshop on Tone and Intonation in Indian Languages, Conducted by Centre for Linguistics, JNU. 11 March-09 April 2009.

- 42 isolation as well as in citation were recorded to see the tonal alternation across syllables and words. For the phonetic analysis, widely used software Praat was used. This is a free downloadable software. Praat 5361 win64.zip version31 was used and it was used on a laptop operating under Windows XP32. Apart from the primary sources of data, the available materials written by native speakers and earlier grammatical description in Thadou as well as description of other closely related languages have been used for analysis. They are duely acknowledged and mentioned in the bibliography section. However, as said earlier, as a native speaker of the language, my own intuition has governed the grammatical judgment. 1.10

STRUCTURE AND ORGANISATION OF THE WORK

This work is divided into seven major chapters, with four appendices. The introductory chapter, §1 provides a brief introduction to the language and the people. A general overview of the thesis is provided in this chapter. It also provides an overview of the survey of literature of the language and Tibeto-Burman language family. The genetic classification and the typological features of the language are also highlighted in this chapter. In short, this chapter provides an introduction to the work. Chapter 2 provides a detailed discussion of the phonology of the language covering various topics like the segmental and supra segmental features of the language. A detailed discussion of the syllable structure and tonal analysis is also provided in this chapter. Chapter 3 presents the various aspects of the noun and noun morphology of Thadou. Detailed discussion on the nature and classification of nouns is provided in this chapter. Chapter 4 provides a detailed discussion on the nature of verb, verb morphology and the structure of the verb phrase. Chapter 5 presents the various word formation processes, dealing with various derivational processes, compounding and reduplication. Chapter 6 forms the major part of the thesis dealing with the word order typlology and other syntactic features of the language. 31

32

http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/praat5361_win64.zip Thank you Moi and Meiraba for helping me in my Praat analysis.

The last chapter gives a summary of the characteristic features of the language and gives a final summary of the linguistic features of the language with a brief conclusion. The questionnaires along with data collected during field work for analysis is provided in the appendies. In addition, narratives in the form of folktales with transcription and free translation are also provided. Maps showing areas where the language is mainly spoken is provided in the map section. The list of references of works cited are provided in the bibliography.

- 44 2 2.1

PHONOLOGY

INTRODUCTION

This chapter describes the main features of the phonology of Thadou. Section 2.1 presents the consonants along with the phonemic inventory and the discussion on their allophonic distribution. Section 2.2 presents the vowels with a detailed description and their distribution. In section 2.3, the diphthongs are presented. The nature of syllable structure in the language is discussed in 2.4. Different types of syllable structures in the language are also presented in this section. Section 2.5 deals with the suprasegmental feature in the language, in which a detailed discussion on tone is provided. The distribution of tone in isolation and in different contexts is also presented in this section. Thadou sound system consists of twenty consonants, two semi vowels, six vowels, eight diphthongs and three lexical tones at the phonemic level. 2.2

CONSONANTS

Like other Kuki-Chin languages, Thadou has both plain and aspirated stops. These are presented with the plain stops in the top row and the aspirated stops on the bottom row in the Table 2.1. However, the voiced aspirated stops are absent in the language. The series of stops have six places of articulation, which include bilabial, alveolar, palatal, velar and glottal. At the phonemic level, there are twenty consonants. Table 2.1 presents the phonemic inventory of Thadou consonants.

Bilabial Plosives

p

Labio-dental Alveolar Palatal Velar

b

t

pʰ

d

Ɂ

k g

tʰ ʦ

Affricate Nasals

m

Fricative

v

s

z ɬ

Lateral Approximant

l w

ŋ

n

Lateral Fricative

Approximant

Glottal

x

y

2.1: Consonantal Phonemes of Thadou

h

Among the plosives, there is a three way distinction at each position, between unaspirated, aspirated and voiced. There are nine phonemic stops/plosives in Thadou. The stops have four places of articulation, bilabial /p, pʰ, b/, alveolar /t, tʰ d /, velar /k, g/ and glottal //. The velar fricative [x] in the Thadou variety described here is cognate with the aspirated velar plosive [kh] in related varieties such as the Thadou variety spoken in the neighbouring country Myanmar. There are no voiced aspirated stops in the language. Unaspirated oral stops are unreleased [p˺ t˺, k˺] when they occur word finally. These unreleased stops are treated as allophones of the phonemes /p, t, k/ respectively. A glottal stop // is analysed as a phoneme even though it is restricted to occurring as the final element of a word. There are three nasal phonemes /m, n, ŋ/. All the nasal consonants are voiced. There are voiceless fricatives in three places of articulation: alveolar /s/, velar /x/ and glottal /h/. Although the voiceless labio-dental fricative is not present in the language, the voiced counter part /v/ is available. Another voiced fricative is the alveolar fricative /z/. Another conspicuous asymmetry is the alveolar affricate /ʦ/, which lacks its voiced counterpart /ʤ/. The voiceless lateral fricative /ɬ/ is accompanied throughout by aspiration or breathy voice. In compounds in which the first word ends in a vowel and the second begins with [ɬ], (a re-syllabification takes, with the lateral component [l] being produced, and the fricative component being produced as [h]. 2.2.1 Phonemic Contrast The phonemic inventory presented in §2.1 above, is supported by minimal pairs in this section. 2.2.1.1 Syllable-Initial Contrasts

/p/

/ph/

/b/

pu ‘grand father’ pʰu ‘revenge' b  ‘rice’ pe ‘to bite’

pʰe ‘flesh’

be ‘to add’

The oral bilabial stops are found to be in contrastive distribution with the nasal bilabial stop, which is supported by the following examples.

- 46 -

/p/ pi

/b/ bi

‘grand/big

/m/ ‘thatch’ mi

pu ‘grand father’ bu ‘rice’ pe ‘to bite’

‘person’

mu ‘see’

be ‘to add’ me ‘smile’

There is a three way contrast in the alveolar stops as shown below.

/t/

/th/

tin

‘to block’ tʰin

/d/ ‘liver'

tim ‘control’

tʰim ‘dark’

tu

tʰu

‘now’

/k/

din

dim ‘full’

‘word’ du

/x/

‘stand’

‘like’

/g/

koŋ ‘waist’ xoŋ ‘to weave’ goŋ ‘thin’ ka

‘cry’

xa

‘to close’

ga

‘fruit’

ki

‘horn’

xi

‘to tie’

gi

‘warn’

The three nasal consonants can be contrasted as seen in the examples below /m/ ma

‘disagree’

/n/

/ŋ/

na

‘pain’ ŋa

mai ‘pumpkin’ nai ‘near’ ŋai mi

ni

‘person’

‘fish’ ‘to listen’

‘aunt’ ŋim ‘clean’

There is a three way contrast in the fricatives as shown in the following example.

/s/ sa 

/z/ ‘meat’

so l ‘send’ sil

za

/h/ ‘to hear’

ha

‘tooth’

zol ‘propose’ hol ‘search’

‘bathe’ zil

‘learn’

hil

‘teach’

The following is a contrast of /l/ // and /v/. //

/l/ la

‘song’

/v/

a

va

‘month’

‘roam’

kile ‘return’ kie ‘exchange’ kive ‘wear on the waist’

The labiodentals fricative /v/ can be contrasted with the bilabial plosive /b/. /b/

/v/

bil ‘to ferment’ vil ‘to visit’ The voicless velar fricative is contrasted with the voicelss glottal fricative. /x/

/h/

xa

‘to close’ ha

xui ‘stitch’

‘to be awake’

hui ‘wind’

2.2.1.2 Syllable-final Contrasts In syllable-final position, only seven consonants can appear in the coda position and therefore there are fewer minimal pairs available for contrasting phonemes. The consonants that can occur as the syllable final position are the voicless stops /p/ /t/ //, the nasals /m/, /n/, /ŋ/ and the lateral fricative /l/. Following are the minimal pairs and near minimal pairs found in the language. /p/

/t/

//

dop ‘lift’

dot ‘poke’

do ‘ask’

pap ‘curse’ pat ‘thread’ pa ‘flower’

/m/

/n/

/ŋ/

kam ‘mouth’ kan ‘fry’

kaŋ ‘white’

sm

‘hair’

sn ‘red’

sŋ

tʰim

‘dim’

tʰin ‘liver’ tʰiŋ

‘tall’ ‘wood’

2.2.2 Description and Distribution of Consonants This section discusses the description and allophonic distribution of the conosants.

- 48 2.2.2.1 Plosives/Stops /p/ is a voiceless unaspirated bilabial stop. It has the following allophones: [p˺]and [p]. The unreleased [p˺] occurs in word final position and [p] occurs elsewhere.

/pʰ/

INITIAL POSITION

MEDIAL POSITION

FINAL

EXAMPLE

GLOSS

EXAMPLE GLOSS

EXAMPLE GLOSS

pa

‘father’

kipi

‘parrot’ gup˺

‘six’

pu

‘grandfather’ zupi

‘rabbit’ kap˺

‘shoot’

paɁʦa

‘flower’

thip˺

‘quiet’

[pʰ]

xop i

‘city’

is a voiceless aspirated bilabial stop. Its occurs initially in a syllable

and in word medial position. It does not occur in the final position.

/b/

INITIAL

MEDIAL

Example GLOSS

EXAMPLE GLOSS

pʰat

‘time’

p ʰa

‘good’

pʰe

‘mat’

kolphe

‘thunder’

pʰun

‘grumble/murmur’ kip hun

‘quarrel’

[b] is a voiced unaspirated bilabial stop. It occurs in the initial position. It

occurs as the second consonant in bisyallable words and becomes the onset of the second syllable.

INITIAL

MEDIAL

EXAMPLE GLOSS EXAMPLE GLOSS bil

‘ear’

kolbu

‘maize’

boŋ

‘cow’

pʰalbi

‘winter’

bon

‘mud’

kelbi

‘ladder’

/t/ has two allophones: [t˺] and [t]. [t˺] is a voiceless unrealesed stop stop occurs in the final position and [t] occurs elsewhere.

INITIAL

FINAL

EXAMPLE GLOSS

EXAMPLE GLOSS

tin

‘nail’

xt˺

‘one’

til

‘testicles’

mit˺

‘eye’

teŋgol

‘walking stick’ mt˺

/tʰ/

‘bed bug’

[tʰ] is a voiceless aspirated alveolar stop. This consonant occurs in

the syllable initial position and word medial position.

INITIAL

MEDIAL

THADOU

GLOSS

tʰin ‘liver’

tʰu ‘sour’

tʰu

‘word’ betʰu ‘fermented soya bean’

tʰei ‘fruit’

/d/

ŋatʰu ‘fermented fish’

[d] is a voiced unaspirated alveolar stop and occurs in the initial and

medial position of a word.

INITIAL

MEDIAL

THADOU GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

diŋ

‘to stand’ vaduŋ

doi

‘magic’

don

‘to drink’

/k/

tʰadou

‘river’ ‘a proper noun’

[k] is a voiceless unaspirated velar stop. It occurs only initially or as

a second consonant of a bisyllabic word.

INITIAL

MEDIAL

THADOU GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

kam

‘mouth’ tap koŋ

‘hearth’

- 50 koŋ

‘waist’

thiŋko ŋ

‘box’

kot

‘door’

kolkai

‘tapioca

kl

'climb’

/g/

[g] is a voiced unaspirated alveolar stop. It occurs word initially and

medially. INITIAL

MEDIAL

THADOU GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

go

‘bamboo’ pagoŋ

goŋ

‘thin’

//

kipgen

‘widower’ ‘name of a clan’

[Ɂ] is a voiceless unaspirated glottal stop. It occurs medially and in

final position of a word.

INITIAL

MEDIAL

THADOU GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

baɁ

‘bat’

si

doɁ

‘to ask’ sa 

‘star’ ‘chicken’

2.2.2.2 Fricatives /v/

[v] is a voiced labio-dental fricative. It occurs only initially.

INITIAL THADOU GLOSS

/s/

vʦa

‘bird’

vduŋ

‘river’

[s] is a voiceless unaspirated alveolar fricative. It occurs in initial position.

INITIAL THADOU

MEDIAL GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

/z/

sa 

‘meat’

asam

su m

‘money’ thase

so ŋ

‘stone’

‘weak’ ‘lazy’

kause

‘witch’

[z] is a voiceless unaspirated alveolar fricative. It is in free variation with /y/

and can be used interchangeably. However, the environment is not predictable.

/x/

INITIAL

MEDIAL

THADOU GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

zo ŋ

‘monkey’ kiza m

zu ʦa 

‘rat’

[x]

‘elope’

kisil

‘bathe’

is a voiceless unaspirated velar fricative and can occur initially or

medially in a word. INITIAL

MEDIAL

THADOU GLOSS THADOU GLOSS

/h/

xat

‘one’

saxau

‘bag’

xut

‘hand’

saxi

‘deer’

xup

‘knee’

saŋxol

‘shirt’

[h] is a voiceless unaspirated glottal fricative. It does not occur in word final

position. INITIAL

MEDIAL

EXAMPLE GLOSS EXAMPLE GLOSS huŋ

‘come’ meihol

‘charcoal’

hui

‘wind’

melhoi

‘beautiful’

2.2.2.3 Affricates /ʦ/ is the voicless aleovar affricate in the language. It has two allophones; the aleovar affricate [ʦ] and and the apical affricate[ʦ̺ ]. [ʦ] occurs with back and [ʦ̺ ]occurs with front and central vowels.

- 52 EXAMPLE GLOSS EXAMPLE GLOSS ʦo

‘buy’

ʦ̺i

‘salt’

ʦul

‘fade’

ʦ̺l

‘saliva’

2.2.2.4 Nasals /m/

[m] is a voiced bilabial nasal stop. It occurs syllable initially and syllable

finally.

/n/

/ŋ/

INITIAL

FINAL

EXAMPLE GLOSS

EXAMPLE GLOSS

mi

‘person’ kam

‘mouth’

min

‘name’

sum

‘money’

mit

‘eye’

thum

‘three’

[n] is a voiced velar nasal stop and occurs in all positions INITIAL

FINAL

EXAMPLE GLOSS

EXAMPLE GLOSS

ni

‘two’

in

nu

‘mother’ len

nm

‘race’

n

‘house’ ‘big’ ‘choose’

/ŋ/ is a voiced alveolar nasal stop. It can occur in all positions.

INITIAL

MEDIAL

FINAL

EXAMPLE GLOSS

EXAMPLE GLOSS

EXAMPLE GLOSS

ŋa

‘fish’

sa ŋan

ŋol

‘foolish’

leŋ

‘king’

ŋoŋ

‘neck’

beŋ

‘slap’

2.2.2.5 Laterals // has two allophones: [ɬ] and [l̥ ].

‘donkey’ keŋ

‘leg’

[] is a voicless alveolar fricative lateral which can occur only in word initial position. [l̥ ] is a voiceless alveolar non fricative lateral and occurs in word medial position.

EXAMPLE GLOSS

/l/

ɬi

‘tears’

ɬa

‘moon’

goll̥ aŋ

‘bachelor’

[l] is a voiced alveolar lateral. It occurs freely in all positions.

INITIAL POSITION

MEDIAL POSITION

FINAL POSITION

THADOU GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

la

‘song’

malʦa

pal

‘fence’

lam

‘dance’ p halna

‘permission’ mal

‘thigh’

‘chillie’

2.2.3 Summary All voiceless stops are unreleased word finally. All consosants except the glottal stop // can freely occur in the initial position of a word or a syllable. In word final position, only the voiceless stops: /p,t, /, the nasals /m,n, ŋ/ and the lateral fricative /l/ can occur. 2.3

VOWELS

Thadou is a six vowel system as there are six constrastive vowels as shown in the Table 2.2. Front Central Back

High

i

u

Mid-High e

o

Mid-Low

ə

Low

a 2.2 Vowel System

- 54 There are two front vowels: the close front unrounded vowel /i/ and an open mid front unrounded vowel /e/. The two back vowels are the close back rounded vowel /u/ and an open mid-high back unrounded vowel /o/. Thadou has no contrasting nasal vowels; front vowels are unrounded, back vowels are rounded. The central vowels themselves, [a] and [ə], appear to be in contrast only in closed CV and CVC syllables; in open CV syllables, the shwa [ə] does not occur.

2.3.1 Contrast for Vowels All the six vowels can be contrastrasted in all positions: initial, medial and final as shown in the data below. Contrast for front vowels in initial, medial and final positions.

/i/

/e/

im

‘to hide’ em

dim ‘full’

‘glitter’

dem ‘criticise’

Contrast for central vowels //

/a/

n

‘food’

an

ʦŋ

‘alone’ ʦaŋ

‘widen’ ‘ambush’

ma ‘dream maŋ ‘slow’

Back vowel contrast /o/ om

/u/ ‘to boil’

pom ‘swellen’ po

um

‘gourd’

pum ‘round’

‘to carry on the back’ pu

‘grandfather’

2.3.2 Description and Distribution of Vowels The vowels are described as under: /i/

is a high front unrounded vowel. It has two allophones: [i] and [i:].

[i] occurs in

closed closed syllables and [i:] occurs in open syllables. This is

illustrated with the data below.

INITIAL POSITION

MEDIAL POSITION

FINAL POSITION

EXAMPLE GLOSS

EXAMPLE GLOSS

EXAMPLE GLOSS

i

pʰin

pi

‘grandmother’

‘hiccup’

‘to tease’

im

‘conceal

tin

‘nail’

bi

‘thatched’

something’ in

‘house’

tʰin

‘liver’

ni

‘two’

ipi

‘what’

dim

‘full’

mi

‘human beings’

/e/ [e] is a mid front unrounded vowel which occurs in all positions.

INITIAL

MEDIAL

FINAL

Example GLOSS

EXAMPLE GLOSS

EXAMPLE GLOSS

em

‘glitter’

lel

‘tired’

pe

‘to give’

im

‘to hide /conceal’ tin

‘nail’

bi

‘thatched’

eŋ

‘green/fresh’

/a/

let

‘overflow’ me

‘curry’

[a] is an unrounded low central vowel and occurs freely in all the positions.

INITIAL POSITION

MEDIAL POSITION

EXAMPLE GLOSS EXAMPLE GLOSS

FINAL POSITION EXAMPLE GLOSS

an

‘wide’

ʦaŋ

‘paddy’ pa

at

‘cut’

kap

‘shoot’

ha

‘father’ ‘teeth’

- 56 //

[ə ] is an unrounded lower-mid central vowel. It occurs in the initial and

medial positions but not in the final position.

/o/

INITIAL POSITION

MEDIAL POSITION

EXAMPLE GLOSS

EXAMPLE GLOSS

əma

‘he/she’ xət

ən

‘meal

tʰəm

‘to touch’

əɁsi

‘star’

tə

‘plenty’

‘one’

[o] rounded close-mid back vowel and it occurs in all the positions.

INITIAL POSITION

MEDIAL POSITION

FINAL

EXAMPLE GLOSS

EXAMPLE GLOSS

EXAMPLE GLOSS

op

‘chest’

koŋ

‘boat’

po

‘carry’

om

‘to boil’

toŋ

‘work’

pʰo

‘to scold’

oɁ

‘to be trapped’ zoŋ

/u/

‘monkey’ tʰo

‘to act/imitate’

[u] is a high back rounded vowel occurring in all positions.

INITIAL POSITION

MEDIAL POSITION

FINAL

EXAMPLE GLOSS

EXAMPLE GLOSS

EXAMPLE GLOSS

um

‘exist’

əbul

‘root’

pu

ukeŋ

frog’

gul

‘snake’ bu

‘rice’

unu

‘elder sister’ luŋ

‘heart’

mu

‘see’

ulsa

‘sweat’

huŋ

‘come’

gu

‘bone’

‘grandfather’

2.3.3 Summary Thadou has no contrastively nasal vowels; front vowels are unrounded, back vowels are rounded. The vowel system is characterised by a centralising tendency: the close

and mid vowels are all somewhat centralised and rather remote from the cardinal vowels. The central vowels themselves, [a] and [ə], appear to be in contrast only in closed CVC syllables; in open CV syllables, the shwa [ə] does not occur. With very few exceptions, the vowels [a] and [ə] are in complementary distribution, depending on the length of the syllable. Except [ə], all the vowels can freely occur in all positions. The vowels tend to be longer in word final open CV syllables. 2.4

DIPHTHONGS

Thadou also has a set of falling diphthongs, as shown in the following table.

First vowel:

i

[i] second vowel: [u] second vowel:

iu

[e] second vowel:

ie

e

a

o

u

ei

ai

oi

ui

eu

au

ou

[o] second vowel:

uo Table 2.3 Diphthong Phonemes

It is possible that the combinations [au] and [ou] are in complementary distribution. Otherwise, the set of vowels which occur as the first element of the combination (except for the two cases *[ii] and *[uu] where the vowel would be identical with the second element) is identical with the basic set of vowels. This solution to the diphthong-like vowel combinations paves the way for a unified treatment of vowel length. Vowel length is apparently not contrastive in the variety of Thadou which is described here, but varies depending on the coda of the syllable and the tone that the syllable carries: if the coda is either a voiceless plosive or the tone is rising, the vowel is long; otherwise the vowel is short.

2.4.1 Contrast for Diphthongs The contrastive pairs for the eight diphthongs are illustrated with examples. /ei/

/ai/

mei ‘cloud’

mai ‘pumpkin’

ei

first person inclusive’ ai

‘crab’

- 58 -

/iu/

/eu/

kiu ‘knock’ keu ‘empty’ /u/

/ou/

nu

‘small’

nou

‘baby’

mu

‘bride’

mou

‘bamboo’

2.4.2 Description and Distribution of Diphthongs Among the eight diphthongs, four of them are diphthongs gliding towards [i] and the other glide towards [u]. The description of these diphthongs and their distribution are given below: /ei/ is a front diphthongs which starts from the low vowel /e/ and move towards the high front vowel /i/. It occurs in all the positions: initial, medial and final.

INITIAL POSITION

MEDIAL POSITION

FINAL

Example GLOSS

EXAMPLE GLOSS EXAMPLE GLOSS

eiho

‘we (inclusive)’ keipi

‘tiger’

tʰei

‘fruit’

ein i

‘we (dual)’

tʰeile

‘flute’

mei

‘fire’

[ai]

This diphthong starts from the back low vowel /a/ and move towards the front

high vowel /i/.

INITIAL POSITION

MEDIAL POSITION

FINAL

EXAMPLE GLOSS

EXAMPLE GLOSS

EXAMPLE GLOSS

aiʦa

‘crab’

ma nu

hai

aieŋ

‘turmeric’ sai

‘cream’

‘elephant’ mai

‘mango’ ‘pumpkin’

[oi] it starts from the back mid low vowel /o/ and glides toward the front high vowel /i/. /o/ occurs in the initial position, in intervocalic position and in the final position.

INITIAL POSITION

MEDIAL POSITION

FINAL

EXAMPLE GLOSS

EXAMPLE GLOSS

EXAMPLE GLOSS

oi

‘stomach’ xoi

‘honey’ loi

‘buffalo’

kelŋoi

‘sheep’

[ui] This diphthong glides from the back highest point /u/ towards the front high vowel /i/. This diphthong occurs in the initial position and final position. It also occurs in medial positions.

INITIAL POSITION

[au]

MEDIAL POSITION

FINAL

EXAMPLE GLOSS EXAMPLE GLOSS

EXAMPLE GLOSS

uiʦa

‘dog’

tuiluŋ

‘snail’

hui

uical

‘bitch’

puimaŋ

‘kidnap’ nui

uilut

‘boil’

xui

‘air' ‘laugh’ ‘to stitch’

This diphthong starts gliding from the back vowel /a / and move towards /u/.

It does not occur in the initial position but occurs freely word medially and finally.

EXAMPLE GLOSS

EXAMPLE GLOSS

naunu

‘younger sister’ agau

nausen

‘baby’

tʰau

‘fat’

maunu

‘bride’

sxau

‘bag’

xauaŋ

‘cockroach’

‘spirit/soul’

[əu]: This diphthong starts gliding from the vowel /ə / and move towards /u/. It occurs as the nucleus only in open syllables. MEDIAL POSITION

FINAL

Example GLOSS

EXAMPLE GLOSS

kəu

‘invitation’ ləu

tuna

‘prayer’

əu

‘field’ ‘plough’

- 60 2.4.3 Summary All diphthongs occur mostly in words that end in open syllables. Their occurance in word finally in open syllable is higher than the word initial position.

2.5

SYLLABLE STRUCTURE

This section deals with the syllables structure in Thadou. The various types of syllable structures are also discussed. Syllable may be defined as a unit of sound or sequence of sounds produced with a single pulse or air pressure from the lungs. Each syllable may form a word or a part of a word. In Thadou, a simple vowel or a diphthong can form a syllable. Thadou syllable structure is most simply expressed as (C1)V(C2), with the following distributional restrictions on consonants:

Consonant Type

C1

C2

Bilabial Plosive

p, pʰ, b

p

Alveolar

t, tʰ, d

t

Apico-alveolar

ʦ

Velar Plosive

k, x, g



Nasal

m, n, ŋ

m, n, ŋ

Non-lateral Fricative

v, s, z, h

Lateral

l, ɬ

l

2.3 Syllable Structure

In other words, mono syllabicity is the characteristic feature of the language. The presence of a vowel is necessary in every syllabic structure. Permitted occurance of initial and final consonants and their clusters determine the syllabic boundary of the language. In close syllables, the final consonants form the syllable whereas in open syllables, the final vowel or diphthong forms the syllabic boundary. The vowel constitutes the peak of the syllable. Like the general syllable structure, in Thadou also, the onset and coda are optionally filled by a consonant and the peak is filled by a vowel. The different types of syllable

structure are V, VV, CV, CVV, CVC, and VC. This can be illustrated with the help of the examples below. V: In Thadou, a single vowel with one of the tones can form a syllable. This type of syllable does not have the onset consonant and the tone serves as the coda. Thus, only the vowel forms the syllable.

THADOU GLOSS o

‘voice’

o

‘to wear on something on the neck’

u

‘elder’

VV Two vowels or a diphthong with a tone can form a syllable in this language. THADOU GLOSS ui

‘dog’

oi

‘stomach’

ai

‘crab’

CV the CV syllable structure has an onset consonant and a vowel nucleus or a vowel peak. THADOU GLOSS pi

‘grandmother’

ŋa

‘fish’

bu

‘rice’

p ʰe

‘flesh’

CVV The other syllable structure is the CVV structure, where a consonant is followed by a diphthong. The diphthong carries the tone and forms the nucleus of the syllable. In Thadou, diphthongs generally occur in open syllable.

- 62 -

THADOU GLOSS mai

‘face’

lei

‘mud’

loi

‘friend’

mei

‘fire’

VC In the VC syllable, a vowel along with the tone forms the nucleus and the following consonant takes the place of the coda. The data given below are illustrative of this type of syllable structure. THADOU GLOSS in

‘house’

eŋ

‘green’

em

‘glitter’

op

‘chest’

CVC The CVC has the consonant as onset; a vowel with its relevant tone forms the peak of the syllable, and another consonant as the coda. THADOU GLOSS tin

‘nail’

səm

‘hair’

ɬum

‘sweet’

2.5.1 Syllable and Word Structure As stated earlier, Thadou is primarily monosyllabic like other Kuki-Chin languages so there is an almost perfect one-to-one correspondence between the syllable and the morpheme. However, not all words are totally monosyllabic. In terms of word structure, it is observed that Thadou permits more than one syllable, including disyllables, trisyllables, and quatrisyllables. Following are the different word structures possible in the language.

2.5.1.1 Monosyllabic Words As mentioned in section 2.4, monosyllabic words are very common in the language and can be of different syllable types.

THADOU GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

mi

‘person’ in

ŋa

‘fish’

o

‘trapped boŋ

la

‘song’

op

‘chest’

‘house’

thiŋ’

lam

‘wood’ ‘cow’ ‘dance’

2.4 Monosyllabic words 2.5.1.2 Bisyllabic Words Bisyllabic words are found in the language. However, there are some constraints in the syllabic structure. Following are some of the possible combinations in disyllabic words. The dot in the following examples represents hiatus or break. SYLLABLE TYPE

EXAMPLE

GLOSS

V.CV

ma

‘he/she’

V.CVC

man

‘the cost’

VV.VC

ieŋ

‘tumeric’

VV.CVC

oipo

‘stomach’

VC.CV

sa

‘chicken’

VC.CVC

n ʦŋ

‘grain’

CV.CV

kip i

‘parrot’

CVC.CV

mitʦo

‘blind’

CVC.CVC

min thaŋ

‘famous’

VC.CVV

nphui

‘name of a vegetable’

2.5 Bisyllabic Words

- 64 2.5.1.3 Trisyllablic Words Trisyllabic words are also found in the language. The most common trisyllabic words are the names of people. Thadou naming system is very interesting. Almost all native names composed of three syllables (detailed discussion in Chapter 3). Besides names, there are also other words which are composed of three syllables as shown in the table below.

SYLLABLE TYPES

EXAMPLE

GLOSS

CVC.CVC.CVC

ŋammin t aŋ ‘name of a male person’

CV.CVV.CV

mihoimo

‘ugly person’

CV.CV.CV

lexabu

‘book’

CVC.CVC.CVC

so ŋman tam

‘diamond’

h

2.6 Trisyllabic words

2.5.1.4 Quatrisyllabic Words More than three syllable words are rare in the language. Here are a few examples. SYLLABLE TYPES

EXAMPLE

GLOSS

VC.CV.CVC.CVC siso mleŋ ‘shooting star’ VC.CV.CVC.CVC sizo lneŋ

‘name of a legendary girl’

2.7 Quatrisyllabic words

2.5.2 Summary Thadou syllables have the form (C)V(C). Thadou is mostly monosyllabic in that there is an almost perfect one-to-one correspondence between the syllable and the morpheme, especially for grammatical morphemes. 2.5.3 Possible Consonant Clusters Thadou does not permit consonant cluster. However, in bisyllabic words, there are some permissible consonant combination discussed in this section. Table 2.5 presents those permissible combinations along with illustration with suitable examples.

p pʰ b

t

tʰ d k g v c

x h s

z

m n ŋ l

ɬ

p

+ +

-- + + + + + + + + + + -- +

+ + + +

t

+ +

+ + + + + + + + + + + +

+

+ + + +

Ɂ

+ +

+ + + + + + + + + + + +

+

+ + + +

m + +

+ + + + + + + + + + + +

+

+ + + +

n

+ +

+ + + + + + + + + + + +

+

+ + + +

ŋ

+ +

+ + + + + + + + + + + +

+

+ + + +

l

+ +

+ + + + + + + + + + + +

+

+ + + +

l 2.8 Permisible consonant sequence

The following examples from the language are shown to explain the above chart. pp

kivoppi

‘accompany’

ppʰ

oppʰaŋ

‘chest’

pt

kinop to

‘agreement’

pt

ep tup

‘to fold’

ptʰ

so ptʰeŋ

‘wash’

pd

dopdoɁ

‘lift’

pk

təpkoŋ

‘hearth’

pg

kipgen

‘name of a clan’

pv

gupvei

‘six times’

pc

lep ʦe

‘dishonest’

px

hopxət

‘one portion’

ps

pəpset

‘greed’

səp set

‘curse’

pm

zo pmt

‘to join’

pn

kitepna

‘promise’

pŋ

kapŋa

‘five injections’

- 66 pl

kapliɁ

‘killed/shot to dead’

pɬ

gapɬaŋ

‘a hanging basket above the fire for drying meat etc’.

tpʰ

xutpʰaŋ

‘palm’

tb

k utbeŋ

‘clap’

tt

xuttum

‘fist’

ttʰ

pʰttʰei

‘blessing’

mittʰaɁ

‘butterfly’

td

vetda

‘hate’

tk

vetkol

‘to take care of’

tg

xutgoɁ

‘empty handed’

tʦ

mitʦo

‘blind’

kotʦa

‘window’

ts

pʰətsəɁ

‘agree/ approve

tz

xutzuŋ

‘finger’

tv

pʰətvet

‘mirror’

tm

mitmul

‘eye lashes’

tn

xatna

‘first’

tl

gitlou

‘cruel’

tɬ

mitɬi

‘tears’

Ɂp

əɁpi

‘hen’

Ɂpʰ

tʰeipeɁpʰuŋ

‘tamarind tree’

Ɂb

su ɁboɁ

‘to break’

Ɂt

əɁtui

‘egg’

Ɂtʰ

seɁtʰuɁ

‘orange’

Ɂd

su Ɂdet

‘confirm’

Ɂk

giɁkai

‘pen’

Ɂg

su Ɂgot

‘to dry’

Ɂx

əɁxumit

‘ankle’

h

Ɂv

pəɁvui

‘garland’

Ɂs

təɁsan

‘faith’

Ɂh

nəɁhai

‘snore’

Ɂʦ

əɁʦa 

‘hen’

pəɁʦa

‘flower’

Ɂm

su Ɂmit

‘extinguish’

Ɂn

əɁnou

‘chicken’

Ɂl

laɁlut

‘admit’

peɁlum

‘ball’

Ɂɬ

naɬoŋ

‘nose’

mp

sa mpi

‘python’

səmpoɁ

‘ballon’

mpʰ kampʰa

‘smooth talk’

mt

pumton

‘gauva’

mtʰ

səmtʰi

‘comb’

md

kəmdo

‘resting place on the way’

mk

su mkoŋ

‘tortoise’

mg

tumgiŋ

‘musical instruments’

mx

səmxəu 

‘hair band’

lamxoŋ

‘jackfruit’

mv

lamvəi

‘astray’

mʦ

umʦan

‘behaviour’

ʦəmʦa

‘knife’

damsəɁ

‘to heal’

namse

‘stinking/foul smell’

dumzel

‘cigarette’

ʦəmza m

‘sword’

lamhil

‘name of a journal’

ms

mz

mh

- 68 mm gəmmaŋ

‘forest’

mn

lemna

‘welcome’

mŋ

gmŋa

‘heir’

ml

gəmleŋ

‘hunting’

umlam

‘west’

mɬ

umɬeŋ

‘an insect’

np

inpi

‘parliament’

npʰ

ʦonpʰat

‘good manner’

nb

donbut

‘answer’

nt

lən tol

‘ground’

ntʰ

muntʰeɁ

‘broom’

nd

hondoɁ

‘inaugurate’

nk

ən kəm

‘mustard’

ng

vangam

‘heaven’

nx

an xuɁ

‘grave’

sinxup

‘container’

nc

ən ʦe

‘vegetables’

ns

ʦon set

‘sin’

an soŋ

‘memorial stone’

nz

ən zaŋ

‘bitter brinjal’

nm

an mol

‘cemetery’

nn

hinna

‘life’

nl

vanleŋ

‘aeroplane’

nɬ

lon ɬi

‘tears’ (poetic form)

nv

minvo

‘naming’

ŋp

kəŋpʰaŋ

‘foot’

ŋph

h

t iŋpʰuŋ

‘tree’

bəŋpʰe

‘cheek’

ŋb

xaŋbəl

‘frying pan’

ŋt

pəŋtʰaɁ

‘born again’

tuŋtun

‘back of the body’

kəŋto

'sole’

ŋtʰ

ləŋtʰei

‘pineapple’

ŋd

tʰiŋdoŋ

‘tender wood/tree’

ŋk

pəŋkul

‘trumpet’

luŋkin

‘haste’

luŋgim

‘worried’

təŋgol

‘walking stick’

thiŋxo 

‘a burning wood’

təŋxop

‘pillow’

luŋʦəŋ

‘heart’

meŋʦa

‘cat’

za ŋsel

‘yak’

keŋsiɁ

‘heel’

nuŋzam

‘running back’

tʰiŋzuŋ

‘root (of trees)’

ŋh

luŋhan

‘anger’

ŋm

ʦəŋmai

‘cucumber’

ŋn

boŋnou

‘calf’

ŋŋ

thiŋŋo t

‘a tree eaten by worms’

ŋv

maŋvuŋ

‘name of a clan’

ŋl

nuŋlam

‘behind’

ŋl

kaŋloŋ

‘lock’

ŋɬ

t iŋɬaŋ

‘hills’

lp

tʰəlpi

‘spear’

ʦəlpaŋ

‘forehead’

ŋg

ŋx

ŋʦ

ŋs

ŋz

h

- 70 -

2.6

lpʰ

golpʰa

‘a true friend’

lb

pʰalbi

‘winter’

kolbu

‘maize’

lt

laltouna

‘throne’

ltʰ

doltʰiŋ

‘teak’

ld

geldoɁ

‘remember’

lk

delkop

‘traditional turban’

bilkol

‘ear’

lg

nelgam

‘desert’

lx

za lxun

‘bed’

lʦ

tʰalʦaŋ

‘arrow’

məlʦa

‘chillie’

ls

gulsoɁ

‘cobra’

lz

kolzu

‘sugarcane’

lm

holmo

‘misplaced’

melma

‘enemy’

ln

əɁəsizo lneŋ ‘name of a legendary girl’

lŋ

ʦolŋəɁ

‘rest’

kelŋoi

‘sleep’

lv

golvaɁ

‘feast’

ll

lalluxuɁ

‘crown’

lɬ

golɬaŋ

‘bachelor’

TONE

This section describes the suprasegmental phonology describing different aspects of tone in the language. Pike (1948)33 defines tonal language as : “a language having lexically significant, contrastive, but relative pitch on each syllable”. Burquest 33

Pike, KL. 1948. Tone languages. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

(1993:186) also asserts that “languages which make use of differences in pitch to differentiate lexical items are commonly referred to as tone languages.” Since the publication of Pike (1948), it has often been assumed that tone systems fall into two types: (i) Chinese, Vietnamese, and nearby languages of East and Southeast Asia are said to have “contour tone systems” in which the various combinations of rises and falls function as complex units. (ii) African and most other tone systems are said to have register tone systems, whose primary oppositions consist of level tones such as High (H) and Low (L). Hs and Ls may combine to form complex rising (LH) and falling (HL) sequences on single tone-bearing units, but these are not complex units like affricates or prenasalized consonants in segmental phonology, but are instead tonal sequences comparable to consonant clusters (Yip 2002)34. 2.6.1 Tone in Thadou Work on Thadou tone has been done previously by many linguists. However, there is some controversy about the Thadou tone inventory and the effects of tonal context in tone sequences. Thirumalai (1972)35 gives three tones: rising, falling and level tones. Shree Krishan (1980)36 posits 5 tones, viz., level tone/mid, sharp rising, sharp falling, slow rising, and slow falling. Hyman (2007)37 gives a detailed analysis which covers the facts about Thadou tone and tone sequencing, but which is far abstracted from the phonetic reality of pitch patterning, and from a phonetic perspective too complex, with constraints on downstep, high tone spreading and low tone spreading.Haokip (2008)38 posits three tone system.

However, he argues that at the lexical level,

Thadou has a two level contrast: low and High and the third tone is the product of down step processes. 34

35 36

Gibbon, Pandey, Haokip, & Bachan, (2009)39 discuss the

Yip, Mora, 2002. Tone. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Thirumalai, M.S. 1972. Thadou-a phonetic reader. Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages. Krishan, Shree. 1980. Thadou: A Grammatical Sketch. Kolkata: Anthropological Survey of India.

37

Hyman, Larry M. (2007) Kuki-Thaadow: An African Tone System in Southeast Asia. Berkeley, USA: UC Berkeley Phonology Lab Annual Report. 38

Haokip Pauthang. 2008. Phonological structure of Thadou. South Asian Language Review Vol. XVIII. No.1. 42-70. 39

Gibbon, Dafydd, Pramod Pandey, MaryKim Haokip & Jolanta Bachan. 2009. Prosodic issues in synthesising Thadou, a Tibeto-Burman tone language. InterSpeech 2009, Brighton, UK.

- 72 prosodic issues in synthesing the language and give a simpler analysis of tone in the language and posit three tones: L, LH and L. 2.6.2 Thadou Tone Inventory For the present study, the data was recorded from native speakers including both male and female speakers. The data was recorded both in isolation and citation forms. The recorded data was analysed using Praat 5311_win32.40 Based on the analysis of data, this current research proposes that Thadou has three tones. In isolation, the three tones are realized as high (H), low to high rising (LH), and a low (L) tone which is fairly level but downglides before pause. The three tones will be marked as / / for the High tone, / / for the Low High tone and / / A typical Thadou tonal minimal triplet is:

TONE

DATA GLOSS

High Tone (H)

sa

‘animal’

Low High Tone (LH) sǎ

‘hot’

sa

Low Tone (L)

‘build’.

2.6.3 Description of Thadou Tone The analysis shows that the female speech had higher pitch than that of the male speech. Below is the summary of the pitch variation for both for the male and the female speech for all the three tones: HIGH

LOW HIGH

Male F01

Female F02

F01

Male F02

F01

LOW Female

F02

F01

147.13 136.92 229.63 223.87 143.19 159.44 204.69

2.9 Average of Pitch variation 40

This is a free software and can be downloaded: http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/download_win.html

Male F02

F01

Female F02

F01

229.74 133.28 112.98 193.01

F02 176.2

The spectrogram and pictorial description for each of the contrastive syllable are given for male as well as female speech.

nga

Pitch (Hz)

500

a

fish

144.7/151.5 75 1.767

2.185 Time (s)

Figure 2 Male: High

- 74 nga

Pitch (Hz)

300

a five 121.3/150.1 Hz 75 4.596

4.925 Time (s)

Figure 3 Male: Low High or Rising tone nga

Pitch (Hz)

500

a wait 110.9/93.23 Hz. 75 2.343

3.037 Time (s)

Figure 4: Male: Low tone

lei

Pitch (Hz)

300

lei

mud

226.9/228.6 Hz. 75 2.575

2.875 Time (s)

Figure 5: Female High tone

- 76 lei

Pitch (Hz)

500

lei

tongue

212.1/253.7 Hz 75 2.791

3.28 Time (s)

Figure 6: Female: Low High tone lei

Pitch (Hz)

300

lei tongue 196.3/172.6 Hz. 75 4.226

4.499 Time (s)

Figure 7: Female: Low tone

2.6.4 Contrastive Triplets A set of minimal pairs that demonstrates all three contrastive tones in words with open syllables are given in table. 2.7 below.

High

Low High (Rising)

Low

THADOU GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

ŋa

‘fish

ŋa

‘to wait’

ŋa

‘five’

lei

‘mud’

lei

‘tongue’

lei

‘bridge’

va

‘bird’

va

‘leaking’

va

‘to roam’

za

‘hear

za

‘tobacco/cigarette’ za

‘respect’

mei

‘fire’

mei

‘cloud’

mei

‘to try to molest’

me

‘curry’

me

‘tiny’

me

‘to smile’

ni

‘sun’

ni

‘paternal aunt’

ni

‘two’

mu

‘seed’

mu

‘hawk’

mu

‘to see’

sa

‘meat’

sa

‘hot’

sa

‘thick’

tho

h ‘act/imitate t o

‘fence’

tho

‘to wake up’

lau

‘field’

‘medicine’

lau

‘negative marker’

lau

2.10 Contrastive triplets in open syllable

Tonal differences with closed syllables are given in the following table 2.11 High

Low High (Rising)

Low

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

ʦiŋ

‘to spy’

ʦiŋ

‘sterile’

ʦiŋ

‘intelligent’

lim

‘image’

lim

clever

lim

‘shade’

saŋ

thousand

saŋ

‘tall’

saŋ

‘to receive’

nm

‘race’

nm

‘smell’

nm

‘to push’

min

‘name’

min

‘ripe’

min

‘fame’

boŋ

‘to break

boŋ

‘cow’

boŋ

‘to bend’

- 78 ʦŋ

‘ambush’

ʦeŋ

‘grain’

ʦeŋ

‘verse’

va

‘roam’

va

‘bright’

v

‘to bring up’

2.11 Contrastive pairs in closed syllables

2.6.5 Tone Sandhi /Tonal Alternations So far, we have discussed the tones in isolation. However, tones undergo certain changes in different context depending on the tone of the following syllables. Compound words with different tones were taken into account to see if they undergo tonal alternations in different environments. The properties of the tones in compound words turned out to be different from those of their respective tones in isolation. The summary of tonal changes is given in table 2.11 below.

Noun+ Noun→ Compound Nouns Noun1 Gloss

Noun2 Gloss Compound Gloss

hui

wind

kot

door

hou

worship

in

house houin

mit

eye

mul

hair

boŋ

cow

noi

breast boŋnoi

xoi

bee

zu 

wine

xoizu

‘honey’

kol

burmese bu

rice

kolbu

‘maize’

leŋ

king

thei

fruit

leŋthei

‘pineapple’

sap

officer

thei

fruit

sa pthei

‘passion fruit’

tui

water

luŋ

worm tuiluŋ

huikot

mitmul

‘window’ ‘church’ ‘eye lashes’ ‘milk’

‘snail’

2.12 Noun+ Noun→ Compound Nouns Noun +Verb→Compound Nouns Noun1 Gloss

Noun2 Gloss

Compound Gloss

sa m

hair

kil

clip

samkil

‘hair pin’

mun

place

the

clean

munthe

‘broom’

xut

‘hand’ zem

decorate xutzem

‘ring’

2.13 Noun +Verb→Compound Nouns

L

+

L

→

L

L

no change

L

+

H

→

L

H

no change

L

+

LH

→

L

LH

no change

LH

+

LH

→

H

H

high tone spreading

LH

+

→

L

L

H

contour simplification

H

+

→

H

H

H

no change

2.14 Summary of Tone Sandhi 2.6.6 Grammatically Conditioned Tone The tone rules discussed so far are completely general and operate on underlying representations. In addition to the sandhi rules operating in the language, the tonal alternations are also determined by grammatical factors. Two such cases are discussed in this section: Pronominal Proclitic tone and tone of the stem II form of the verb. 2.6.6.1 Pronominal Proclitic Tone There are four pronominal proclitics in Thadou whose underlying tone varies between /L/ and /H/ according to the tone of the following word. Before H, LH

Before L

Gloss

ka

ka

first person (exclusive)

i

i

first person (inclusive)

na

na

second person

a

a

third person

2.15 Pronominal proclitic These proclitics occur with nouns and verbs and retain the underlying /L/ tone when followed by the next word with a /H/ or /LH/ tone, but changes to /H/ tone when followed by a word with /L/ tone as can be seen in the example below.

- 80 Low Tone (L) before High tone (H). (1) ka=in 1CLT=house

a=len=e ADJ=big=DECL

‘My house is big.’ (2) i=in

a=len =e

1CLT.INCL=house

ADJ=big= DECL

‘Our house is big.’ (inclusive) (3) na=in 2CLT=house

a=len=e ADJ=big=DECL

‘Your house is big.’ (4) a=in 3CLT=house

a=len=e ADJ=big=DECL

‘His/her house is big.’

Low tone (L) before Low High tone LH (5) ka=zoŋ 1CLT=monkey

a=len=e ADJ=big=DECL

‘My monkey is big.’ (6) i=zoŋ

a=len=e

1CLT.INCL=monkey

ADJ=big=DECL

‘Our monkey is big.’ (inclusive) (7) na=zoŋ 2CLT=monkey

a=len=e ADJ=big=DECL

‘Your monkey is big.’

(8) a=zoŋ

a=len=e

3CLT=monkey

ADJ=big=DECL

‘His/her monkey is big.’

High tone (H) before a Low tone (L) (9) ka=ui 1CLT=dog

a=len =e ADJ=big=DECL

‘My dog is big.’ (10) i=ui 1CLT=dog

a=len=e ADJ=big=DECL

‘Our dog is big.’ (11) na=ui 2CLT=dog

a=len=e ADJ=big=DECL

‘Your dog is big.’ (12) a=ui 3CLT=dog

a=len=e ADJ=big=DECL

‘His/her garden is big.’ In the above phrases, the /L/ of / ka, na, a, i/ found before /H/ and /LH/ tones is realized as L. In the phrase involving /zoŋ/ ‘monkey’, this L triggers low tone spreading creating the rising tone on zo ŋ. This implies that tones in a two word phrase with pronominal proclitic alternates with H and L. A similar tonal allomorphy is observed when the dual /on/ or plural /u/ follows the noun: With the dual marker /on/ (13) ka=in-on 1CLT=house-DL

a=len=e ADJ=big=DECL

‘Our (dual) house is big.’ (exclusive)

- 82 (14) i=in-on

a=len=e

1CLT= INCL=house-DL

ADJ=big=DECL

‘Our (dual) house is big.’ (inclusive)

(15) na=in-on

a=len=e

2CLT=house-DL

ADJ=big=DECL

‘Your (dual) house is big.’ (16) a=in-on

a=len=e

3CLT=house-DL

ADJ=big=DECL

‘Their (dual) house is big.’

Low tone (L) before Low High tone LH (17) ka=zoŋ-on

a=len=e

1CLT=house-DL

ADJ=big=DECL

‘Our (dual) monkey is big.’ (exclusive) (18) i=zoŋ-on

a=len =e

1CLT.INCL=monkey -DL

ADJ=big= DECL

‘Our (dual) monkey is big.’ (inclusive) (19) na=zoŋ-on

a=len =e

2CLT=monkey-DL

ADJ=big= DECL

‘Your monkey is big.’( Dual) (20) a=zoŋ-on 3CLT=monkey

a=len=e ADJ=big= DECL

‘Their monkey is big.’ (Dual)

High tone (H) before low (L) tone

(21) ka=ui-on 1CLT=dog-DL

a=len=e ADJ=big= DECL

‘Our (dual) dog is big.’ (Exclusive) (22) i=ui-on 1CLT=dog-DL

a=len =e ADJ=big=DECL

‘Our (dual) house is big.’ (inclusive) (23) na=ui-on 2CLT=dog-DL

a=len=e ADJ=big= DECL

‘Your dog is big.’ (dual) (24) a=ui-on 3CLT=dog-DL

a=len=e ADJ=big= DECL

‘His/her garden is big.’ (dual)

With plural -u (25) ka=in-u 1CLT=house-PL

a=len =e ADJ=big= DECL

‘Our house is big.’ (exclusive) (26) i=in-u

a=len=e

1CLT-INCL=house-PL

ADJ=big=DECL

‘Our house is big.’ (inclusive) (27) na=in-u 2CLT=house-PL

a=len =e ADJ=big= DECL

‘Your (dual) house is big.’ (28) a=in-u 3CLT=house-PL

a=len =e ADJ=big= DECL

- 84 Their (dual) house is big.’

Low tone (L) before Low High tone LH

(29) ka=zoŋ-u

a=len =e

1CLT=house-PL

ADJ=big=DECL

‘Our monkey is big.’ (exclusive) (30) i=zoŋ-u

a=len=e

1CLT.INCL=monkey -PL

ADJ=big=DECL

‘Our monkey is big.’ (inclusive) (31) na=zoŋ-u

a=len=e

2CLT=monkey-PL

ADJ=big=DECL

‘Your monkey is big.’ (32) a=zoŋ-u

a=len=e

3CLT=monkey-PL

ADJ=big=DECL

‘Their monkey is big.’

High tone (H) before low (L) tone (33) ka=ui-u 1CLT=dog-PL

a=len=e ADJ=big=DECL

‘Our (dual) dog is big.’ (Exclusive) (34) i=ui-u 1CLT=dog-PL

a=len =e ADJ=big= DECL

‘Our (dual) house is big.’ (inclusive) (35) na=ui-u 2CLT=dog-PL

a=len=e ADJ-big-DECL

‘Your dog is big.’ (dual) (36) a=ui-u 3CLT=dog-PL

a=len=e ADJ=big=DECL

‘His/her garden is big.’ (dual)

These proclitics appear with identical tonal variation in verb constructions. The verbs are /diŋ/ ‘stand’, /ve/ ‘look’ and /me/ ‘smile’. In the sentences below, /e/ is the declarative marker of the sentence. (37) ka=diŋ=e 1CLT=stand= DECL ‘I am standing.’ (38) na=diŋ=e 2CLT=stand= DECL ‘You are standing.’ (39) a=diŋ=e 3CLT=stand= DECL ‘He is standing.’ (40) i=diŋ=uv=e 1CLT. INC=stand=PL= DECL ‘ We are standing.’ (41) ka=ve=e 1CLT=look= DECL ‘ I am standing.’ (42) na=ve=e 2CLT=look= DECL ‘You are standing.’

- 86 -

(43) a=ve=e 3CLT=look= DECL ‘He is standing.’ (44) =ve=uv=e 1CLT=look= PL=DECL ‘We are looking.’ (45) =me=e 1CLT=smile= DECL ‘I am smiling.’ (46) =me=e 2CLT=smile= DECL ‘You are smiling.’ (47) =me=e 3 CLT=smile=DECL ‘He is smiling.’ (48) =me=uv=e 1CLT.INCL=smile=PL=DECL ‘We are smiling.’ 2.6.7 Stem II Tone In Thadou, each verb generally has two forms commonly referred to as Stem 1 and Stem II. Diachronically, Stem 1 was the morphologically simplex form, while Stem II was derived from Stem 1 by a process of suffixation and tone change (cf. Hyman and VanBik 2002, Hyman 2003b, King 200941); synchronically, this derivational process has been obscured by a series of sound changes, such that it is no longer transparent 41

King, Deborah. 2009. Structural and pragmatic functions of Kuki-Chin verbal stem alternations. Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society 1.141–57.

which stem is morphologically derived from which in any given instance. Cover Rebecca42 argues in her paper ‘The Syntax and Semantics of Stem 1 and Stem 2 in Thadou-Kuki’ that syntactically, Stem 1 occurs both in truly verbal clauses and in nominalizations containing a subject gap, while Stem 2 occurs in nominalized constituents without a subject gap. Semantically, Stem 1 nominalizations are individual-oriented, while Stem 2 nominalizations can denote propositions, sets of individuals, or sets of eventualities. She further agrues that Stem 1 sometimes functions as a verb within the matrix clause, and sometimes is embedded in a nominalized constituent with a subject gap. Stem 2, meanwhile, is always embedded in a nominalized constituent without a subject gap (either with no gaps, or with a gap in the position of a non-subject argument or adjunct. This section provides a complete phonology of Stem 1 and Stem II. The focus here is to see the tone of the stem II verb. The phonological distinctions between Stem 1 and Stem II will be discussed. The table 2.12 shows the segmental changes and the tonal changes observed in Stem 1 and Stem 2 for different verbs. In addition to the segmental changes, it is observed that stem 1 can take any of the three tones in the language whereas most Stem II verbs take the low tone. Some verbs do not underego any segmental changes. In such verbs, the only change is in the tonal alternation and the Stem II always carries the low tone. The following tables show the segmental changes in the formation of the Stem II verb.

SEGMENTAL CHANGES

TONAL CHANGES STEM1 STEM2 GLOSS

ŋ→n

H→L

ŋ→n

42

LH→L

diŋ

din

‘stand’

uŋ

un

‘arrive’

saŋ

sa n

‘tall’

suŋ

su n

‘pour’

theŋ

then

‘clean’

Cover, Rebecca T. 2010. “The syntax and semantics of stem 1 and stem 2 in Thadou-

Kuki”.Unpublishedmanuscript:www.ling.ohiostate.edu/~rebecca/RTC_KT_Stem1Ste m2.pdf

- 88 -

eŋ

en

‘choose’

xaŋ

xan

‘grow’

beŋ

be

‘clap’

doŋ

do

‘ask’

boŋ

bo

‘break’

ʦom

ʦop

‘jump’

em

ep

‘betray’

va

va

‘roam

ŋa

ŋa

‘wait’

ma

ma

‘disagree’

la

la

‘take’

son

so t

‘push’

len

let

‘big’

man

mat

‘catch’

L remains L

nen

net

‘dirty’

Vt→V

H→L

vet

ve

‘look’

Vp→V

H→L

sep

se

‘throw’

VV→V

H→L

zou

zo 

‘win’

thou

tho

‘wake up’

ŋ→

H→L

m→p

LH→L

V→V

H→L

n→t

LH→L

2.16 Tonal Change in Stem II Verb

The above examples show that verbs whose stem 1 is either /LH/ or /H/ change their tone to L in stem II. Verbs that are already /L/ remains L in stem II. There are also verbs that undergo only tonal changes in the stem II as shown in the table 2.17. Stem 1

Stem 2

Gloss

Tonal alternation and vowel reduction

hon

hon

‘cook’

H→L

sei

sei

‘say’

um

um

‘exist’

thi

thi

‘die’

kal

kal

‘climb’

vui

vui

‘bury’

tau

tau

‘pray’

lam

lam

‘dance’

kan

kan

‘tie’

sim

sim

‘read’

nui

nui

‘laugh’

HL→L

HL→L

2.17 Other changes in Stem I and Stem II

If there is no segmental change, /L/ verbs will have identical stem1 and stem II as given in the examples. Verbs that are already /L/ in Stem 1 remain /L/ in their Stem II with or without other segmental changes.

Stem 1

Stem 2

Gloss

su

su

‘pound’

kap

ka

‘cry’

zp

z

‘swim’

nen

net

‘dirty’

thot

thot

‘send’

2.18 No Tonal change in Stem II

2.6.8 Summary of tone Thadou is a tonal language with three constrastive tone in isolation. Every syllable carries any one of the three underlying tones. These tones are subject to tonal alternation in different environments. In addition to the lexical tone language, Thadou also has certain morphosyntactic tone (more typical of Niger-Congo languages).

- 90 2.7

FINAL SUMMARY This chapter discussed in detail the phonology of Thadou, which can be summarized in the following points. The segmental phonology of Thadou has a number of interesting features.

The

consonant system has an aspirated-non aspirated contrast in voiceless stops; labial, alveolar and velar nasals in all positions; glottal stops in final positions; /h/ in initial position; a contrast between unvoiced laterals /l/ and // (with allophones // /lh/). The voiceless lateral fricative /ɬ/ is accompanied throughout by aspiration or breathy voice. In compounds in which the first word ends in a vowel and the second begins with [ɬ], (a re-syllabification takes place, with the lateral component [l] being produced, and the fricative component being produced as [h]. Stops are unrealeased in the final position. The vowel system of Thadou (given in Table 2.2) is phonemically simple, but phonetically intricate. Thadou has no contrastively nasal vowels; front vowels are unrounded, back vowels are rounded. The vowel system is characterised by a centralising tendency: the close and mid vowels are all somewhat centralised and rather remote from the cardinal vowels. The central vowels themselves, [a] and [ə], appear to be in contrast only in closed CVC syllables; in open CV syllables, the shwa [ə] does not occur. With very few exceptions, the vowels [a] and [ə] are in complementary distribution, depending on the length of the syllable. The structure of the syllable is straightforwardly (C1)V(C2) with the following restrictions. All consonants except the glottal stop // occur as C1. Only unreleased stops, /p/, /t/ //, nasals /m/, /n/, /ŋ/ lateral /l/ occur as C2. Vowels are longer in open syllables and diphthongs occur mostly in open syllables with some exceptions. Thadou words are mostly monosyllabic in nature. At the suprasegmental phonology, tone is the most interesting feature of the language. Thadou has a combination of both reigister and contour type of tone. At the lexical level, Thadou has three contrastive tone subject and every syllable in the syllable carries one of these underlying tones. These tones are subject to tonal alternation in compound

words.

The

two

tonal alternations

are

contour

simplification

(LH+L→L+H) and high tone spreading (LH+LH→H+H). In addition to the lexical

tone language, Thadou also has certain morphosyntactic tone (more typical of NigerCongo languages).

- 92 -

3 NOUN MORPHOLOGY This chapter deals with the noun and the noun morphology in Thadou. The definition and classification is presented in section 3.1. In section 3.2, the nature and classification of pronouns are discussed. Section 3.3 discusses the nature of gender marking for different types of nouns. In section 3.4, the number system is provided. Section 3.5 provides a detailed discussion on some of the noun modifiers in the language which includes numerals, adjectives and determiners. Section 3.6 provides the list of case markers and looks at their position in the noun phrase. In section 3.7, the structure of the noun phrase is highlighted. Section 3.8 provides a discussion on noun phrase coordination. The last section gives a summary of the chapter. 3.1

DEFINITION AND CLASSIFICATION Nouns belong to the class of word that comprises the semantic core and syntactic head of the noun phrase. In Thadou, simple nouns are mostly monosyllabic. Complex nouns are formed by the process of compounding and derivation from verbs. Structurally, nouns in Thadou can be broadly divided into 3 types: primary, derived and compound. 3.1.1 Primary Simple Nouns A primary simple noun stem consists of one root, which is a free form and occurs in isolation without affixes. Simple nouns are those nouns containing only the base form of the word. Such stems are invariably monosyllabic and can be of different syllable types. The syllables of monosyllabic nouns can be either open or closed. Table 3.1 below shows monosyllabic words with both open and closed syllables. THADOU GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

ŋa

‘fish’

la

‘song’

mi

‘person’

sa

‘animal’

go

‘bamboo’ thi

tui

‘water’

gu

0.1Open Syllable Nouns

‘blood’ ‘bone’

THADOU GLOSS THADOU GLOSS səm

‘hair’

kəm

min

‘name’ so ŋ

‘stone’

xon

‘cup’

thiŋ

‘wood’

boŋ

‘cow’

xut

‘hand’

‘mouth’

0.2 Closed Syllable Nouns

THADOU GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

in

‘house’ an

‘food’

um

‘gourd’ ul

‘sweat’

a

‘hen’

e

‘dung’

op

‘chest’ 0.3 VC Structure Nouns

THADOU GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

ui

‘dog’

ai

‘crab’

o

‘voice’

u

‘elder sibling’

oi

‘stomach’ 0.4 V Structure Nouns

3.1.2 Compound Nouns Thadou is very rich in noun compounds. Compounding in Thadou brings together two distinct words to form a new noun. Compounds are comprised of two noun stems; a noun and a verb stem; a derived noun plus a noun stem; or a derived adjective plus a noun stem or a noun stem and verb stem. What indicates a compound is the interpretation of the two forms together. Together, the two words form a new word. Compound nouns take the following forms: (a) Noun1+Verb1→Compound Noun (b) Noun1+Noun2→Compound Noun (c) Noun1+Noun2+Noun3→Compound Noun (d) Noun1+Verb1+agentive →Compound Noun

- 94 (e) Noun + Dimunitive →Compound Noun (f) Noun+ Augmentative → Compound Noun (g) Noun Phrasal Nouns 3.1.2.1 Noun1+Noun2→ Compound Noun Thadou is very rich in compound nouns as most nouns are composed of two or more independent nouns. Compounds can be composed of two independent nouns. This type of compounds are endocentric in nature. (detailed discussion in section 5.1). Table 3.5 gives some examples of this type of compound nouns.

NOUN1

NOUN2

COMPOUND NOUN

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

mit

eye

mul

lash

mitmul

‘eye lash’

leŋ

king

thei

fruit

leŋthei

‘pineapple’

tui

water

luŋ

worm

tuiluŋ

‘snail’

boŋ

cow

noi

breast

boŋnoi

‘milk’

hou

worship

in

house

houin

‘church’

hui

wind

kot

door

huikot

‘window’

kol

burmese zu

wine

kolzu 

‘sugar cane’

kol

burmese bu

rice

kolbu

‘maize’

la

song

book

labu

‘song book’

bu

0.5 NOUN1+NOUN2→NOUN COMPOUND The above mentioned examples invoved two independent nouns to form a compound noun. As seen from the examples, sandhi rules apply within noun compounds. 3.1.2.2 Noun1+Verb1→Compound Noun In this type of compound nouns, a noun acts as the first member of the compound and the second member is an action/active verb. There is a relationship between the two roots and the resulting noun as can be seen from the examples in table 3.6.

NOUN1

VERB1

COMPOUND NOUN

THADOU GLOSS THADOU GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

mun

place

the

sweep

mun the

‘broom’

pon

cloth

sil

wear

ponsil

‘shawl’

van

sky

leŋ

fly

van leŋ

‘aeroplane’

bil

ear

ba

to wear

bilba

‘earring’

mit

eye

be

to paste mitbe

sm

hair

kil

to clip

smkil

‘spectacles’ ‘hair clip’

0.6 Noun1 + Verb1→Compound Noun 3.1.2.3 Noun+Dimunitive Suffix→Compound Nouns The dimunitive marker -ʦa is suffixed to animals which are small in size to indicate their smallness. The dimunitive marker is also used with other nouns to indicate their dimunitive size. NOUN1

NOUN2

THADOU

GLOSS

meŋ

cat

va

DIMUNITIVE

COMPOUND NOUN

THADOU

GLOSS

ʦa

meŋʦa

‘cat’

bird

ʦa

vaʦa

‘bird’

zu

rat

ʦa

zuʦa

‘rat’

pa

flower

ʦa

paʦa

‘flower’

kot

door

ʦa

kotʦa

‘window’(small door)

0.7 NOUN+DIMUNITIVE→COMPOUND NOUN

3.1.2.4 Noun+Augmentative Suffix→Compound Noun The animals that are larger in size take the augmentative suffix to indicate their largeness in size. It can also be used with other nouns and it indicates the size of the object. This should not be confused with the femine marker used for human beings.

- 96 -

NOUN

AUGMENTATIVE

→

NOUN

SUFFIX THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

sa i

elephant

pi

AUG

saip i

‘elephant’

vom

black

pi

AUG

vompi

‘bear’

kei

tiger

pi

AUG

keip i

‘tiger’

lam

way/path pi

AUG

lampi

‘road’

in

house

pi

AUG

inpi

‘parliament’

ŋa

fish

pi

AUG

ŋapi

‘whale’

xo

village

pi

AUG

xopi

‘city’

mi

person

pi

AUG

mipi

‘crowd’

0.8 Noun+Augmentative→Compound Noun

3.1.2.5 Noun1+Adjective →Compound Noun In this type of compound, a noun is combind with a modifier to form a noun, which sometimes is related to the noun or sometimes there is no direct correlation between the two roots and the resulting noun. Examples of this type of compounds is given in table 3.9.

NOUN1

ADJECTIVE →

COMPOUND NOUN

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

su msen

‘coin’

THADOU

GLOSS

sum

money sen

red

sum

money eŋ

yellow su meŋ

sa

animal ŋan

slow

sa ŋan

‘donkey’

sa

animal xi

-

sa xi

‘deer’

‘zinc’

0.9 Noun1+ Adjectival Verb→Compound Noun

3.1.2.6 Compounding of Three Roots/Phrasal Nouns Besides the two-constituent noun compounds discussed so far, there are also nouns formed by compounding of three roots in the language, often referred to as phrasal nouns. The following are examples of three-constituent compounds. 3.1.2.6.1 Noun1+Noun2+Verb1→Compound Noun Compound nouns can also be formed by joining three roots. The first element is often a noun, the second member is usually a noun or a verb and the third is often a verb. NOUN1

NOUN2/ VERB

VERB/ADJECTIVE

COMPOUND NOUN

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

lal

power

lu

head

xuɁ

wear

lalluxuɁ

‘crown’

soŋ

stone

mən

cost

təm

plenty

so ŋməntəm ‘diamond’

si

star

so m

bachelor’s

leŋ

fly

sisomleŋ ‘shooting

dormetory

star’

ui

dog

li

pond

lo

shake

uililo

‘tadpole’

doi

magic

thu

word

them

expert

doithuthem

‘magician’

tui

water

so 

born/appear

get

eight

tuisoget

‘ocean’

0.10 Noun+Noun/Verb+Verb/Adjective→Compound Noun

3.1.2.6.2 Noun1+ Verb1+nominalizer→Compound Noun NOUN1

VERB

NOMINALIZER

COMPOUND NOUN

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

in

house

sa 

build

pa

NMLZ

insapa

‘builder’

n

food

hon

cook

pa

NMLZ

nhonpa

‘cook’

bel

pot

xeŋ

mould

pa

NMLZ

belxeŋpa

‘potter’

pon

cloth

so p

wash

pa

NMLZ

pon sop mi ‘washser man’

lo u

field

ou plough mi NMLZ lououmi ‘farmer’ 0.11 Noun+Verb+Nominalizer→Compound Noun

- 98 3.1.3 Derived Nouns In addition to free-standing noun stems and noun compounds, there are also nouns that are formed through derivational process. These include nouns derived from different verb stems and adjectives. Each of this will be discussed in the following sub sections. A large number of nouns in Thadou are derived from verbs. In this process, certain morphophonemic changes take place. Thadou makes use of one or more devices for creating nouns from action verbs and nouns from stative verbs or adjectives, meaning the fact, the act, the quality, or occurrence of that verb or adjective. This is achieved mainly by the process of suffixation as illustrated in the examples below. 3.1.3.1 Nouns derived from Adjectives In this type of derivation, abstract nouns are derived by suffixing -na to the stem II verb or adjectives as shown in the examples in table 3.12.

ADJECTIVE

NONIMALIZER

NOUN

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

THADOU

GLOSS

hat

strong

na

hatna

‘strength

het

know

na

hetna

‘knowledge

ʦi

wise

na

ʦ

‘wisdom

thep

expert

na

thepna

‘skill

0.12 Nouns derived from Adjectives 3.1.3.2 Nouns derived from Verbs Nouns can also be derived from action verbs by suffixing -na to the verbs. However, the meaning that the noun carries is different from the examples discussed earlier in 3.1.3.1. Here, the resulting noun means ‘a place to Verb+ing’.

VERB

NONIMALIZER NOUN

Thadou GLOSS THADOU

THADOU GLOSS

lup

sleep

na

lupna

‘bed’

tou

sit

na

touna

‘seat’

kisil

bathe

na

kisilna

‘bath room’

0.13 Nouns derived from Stem II Verbs

3.1.3.3 Nouns derived from Verbs In addition to the above discussed derived nouns, there are also nouns that are derived from verbs without any phonological changes. The same verbs functions as the noun and there is a close semantic relationship between the verb and the noun. It can be observed from the examples that it is usually Stem II verbs that function as nouns and therefore the derived nouns carry the low tone.

VERB STEM I

STEM II

THADOU

NOUN GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

von

von

‘ wear’

von

‘clothes’

lam

lam

‘dance’

lam

‘dance’

kil

kil

‘clip’

kil

‘button’

ba

bat

‘borrow’

bat

‘debt’

hou

hou

‘worship’

hou

‘religion’

thi

thi

‘die’

thi

‘death’

0.14 Nouns derived from Verbs

3.1.4 Summary In Thadou, simple nouns are mostly monosyllabic in nature. Most nouns are formed by compounding of constituents belonging to different word level categories. Nouns are also derived from various verb stems by the process of affixation, mainly suffixation. Nouns are derived from both stem I and stem II verbs. Derivation from stem II verbs is more productive than derivation from stem 1 verbs.

- 100 3.2

PRONOUNS Pronouns are words which can be used in place of nouns. They form a distinct class of substantives and can stand alone to fill the position of a noun phrase. The pronominal system in Thadou involve a contrast between first, second and third persons, with no gender distinction. First person pronouns distinguish between inclusive and exclusive (of the addressee). There is also a distinction between the singular, dual and plural, which is marked by the process of the process of suffixation. Pronominals have two two forms: the free independent forms and the cliticised forms. The independent (i.e. free) pronouns function as noun phrases and the clitic pronouns are bound morphemes and are attached to the nouns to show possession and function as the possessive pronouns and also with verbs as preverbal morphemes to indicate person and number of the subject. 3.15 and 3.16 shows the distinction between the full independent pronoun forms and the clitic forms of the pronouns.

1 PERSON EXCLUSIVE

2

3

PERSON

PERSON

naŋ

ama

naŋ-ni

ama-ni

kei (speaker+ non-speech ei (speaker+speech act naŋ-ho

ama-ho

kei (speaker)

Singular Dual

1 PERSON INCLUSIVE

kei (speaker+ 1 but not ei (speaker+hearer) the hearer)

Plural

act participant)

participant) 0.15 Full Pronouns Forms

1 PERSON

2 PERSON 3 PERSON NUMBER

INCLUSIVE/EXCLUSIVE

Singular ka/i

na

a

-

Dual

ka/i

na

a

on

Plural

ka/i

a

a

u

0.16 Clitic Forms

The classification of pronouns in Thadou are discussed in section 3.2.1. 3.2.1 Personal Pronouns Personal pronouns refer to the speech participants. The first person refers to the speaker or speakers kei ‘I’ keini ‘we’ dual exclusive, eini ‘we’ dual inclusive and keiho plural exclusive and eiho plural inclusive. The second person refers to the person or persons spoken to. The pronouns nəŋ ‘you’ nəŋni ‘you’ dual and nəŋho ‘you’ plural are used for the second person. The third person refers to the person or persons spoken about. əma ‘she/he/it’ əma ni ‘they’ dual and əmaho ‘they’ plural. The dual is marked by suffixing the numeral ni ‘two’ to the singular pronoun. Distinction is made between inclusive/exclusive in the first person. First person inclusive includes the speaker and the hearer and the exclusive excludes the hearer and includes a nonspeech act participant. Thadou also has inclusive dual which includes the speaker and the hearer, eini ( you and I) which is distinguished from the exclusive dual keini referring to the speaker and another non-speech participant but excludes the hearer/addressee. ( she/he and I). Similarly, the plural inclusive eiho includes the speaker and hearer and other non-speech participants and exclusive keiho excludes the hearer but includes other non-speech participants. This is shown in the table 3.17. 1 PERSON

1 PERSON

2

EXCLUSIVE

INCLUSIVE

PERSON PERSON

kei(speaker)

naŋ

ama

-

naŋ

ama

ni

(speaker+speech ama

ama

ho

Singular Dual

kei (speaker+ 1 ei(speaker+hearer) but

not

3

NUMBER

the

hearer) Plural

kei

(speaker+ ei

non-speech

act act participant)

participant) 0.17 Personal Pronouns

- 102 3.2.2 Possessive Pronouns The pronominal clitics or the bound forms of the pronouns

ka=, i=, na=, a=

discussed in section 3.5 are the possesive pronouns. In Thadou, there are two ways to show possession. The possessive pronouns before the possessed nouns show possession as shown in the examples in table 3.18.

THADOU

GLOSS

ka=nu

‘my mother’

ka=nu=u

‘our mother’ (exclusive)

i=nu=u

‘our mother’ (inclusive)

na=nu

‘your mother’

na=nu=on ‘your (two) mother’ a=nu

‘his/her/its mother’

a=nu=on

‘their (two mother)’

a=nu=u

‘their mother’ (plural)

0.18 posessive pronouns with possessed nouns By themselves, the pronominal proclitics, ka=, na=, and a= indicate a singular possessor, while i= indicates a dual inclusive posseesor ‘your and my’. When the possessor is dual or plural, -on and -u are added to the possessed noun. There are also other ways to show possession. When there is no expressed possessed noun, the genitive case marker =a  is used with independent pronouns to show possession as show in table 3.19. THADOU GLOSS kei=a ‘mine’ kei=ni=a ‘ours (dual) exclusive ei=ni=a ‘ours (dual) inclusive’ naŋ=a ‘yours’ naŋ=ni=a ‘yours (dual)’ ama=a ‘his/her/its’ ama=ni=a ‘theirs (dual)’ ama=ho=a ‘theirs’ 0.19 Possessive Pronouns without Possessed Nouns

3.2.3 Demonstrative Pronouns Demonstrative pronouns are deitic elements that are used to focus the hearer’s attention on objects and locations in the speech situation. There are three demonstrative pronouns based on the three determiners. The three demonstrative pronouns are: hi ‘this’, ʦu ‘that’ and xu ‘that’. /hi/ is used for things which are within the proximity of both the speaker and the hearer. The demonstrative /ʦu / is used to refer to things which are near the hearer but away from the hearer and /xu/ is used to refer to things which are away from the proximity of both the speaker and the hearer as be seen from table 3.20.

THADOU hiʦe

hi

GLOSS

USUAGE

‘this/these’

near the speaker and the hearer

ʦuʦe

ʦu

‘that/those’

near the hearer but far from the speaker

xuʦe

xu

‘that/those’

far from both the hearer speaker.

0.20 Demonstrative Pronouns This can be explained with the following sentences. Near the speaker/relevant to the speaker. (49) hiʦe lexa-bu DEM

book-CLF

hi

ka=dei=e

DEM

1CLT=like=DECL

‘I like this book.’

Near the hearer (50) ʦuʦe lexa-bu DEM

book-CLF

ʦu

ka=dei=e

DEM

1CLT=like= DECL

and

the

- 104 ‘I like that book.’ Far from both the speaker and the hearer (51) xuʦe lexa-bu DEM

book-CLF

xu

ka=dei=e

DEM

1CLT=like=DECL

‘I like that book.’ 3.2.4 Interrogative Pronouns The interrogative pronouns in Thadou are given below. INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS GLOSS koi

‘who’

ipi

‘what’

hoiʦe

‘which’

hoilai

‘where’

0.21 Interrogative Pronouns

3.2.5 Reflexive Pronouns A reflexive pronoun is a pronoun that indicates that the object of the verb is coreferential with the subject (of the verb). In other words, the subject and the object of the verb relate to the same entity. The reflexive pronoun is -ki, which is attached to the personal pronouns to give the reflexive meaning.

PERSONAL PRONOUNS

GLOSS

REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS GLOSS

ka

1 (exclusive) ka=ki

‘myself’

i

1 inclusive

i=ki

‘ourselves’

na

2

na=ki

‘yourself’

a

3

a=ki

‘himself’

0.22 Reflexive Pronouns

(52) (kei-le-kei) ka= ki=ve=e 1-CONJ-1

1CLT=REFL= look=DECL

‘I looked at myself.’ (53) (ei=ho-le-eiho)

i=ki=ve-u=ve

1 INC=PL-CONJ-1 INC=PL 1CLT=REFL=look-PL= DECL ‘We looked at ourselves.’

(54) naŋ-le-naŋ na=ki-ve=e 2-CONJ-2

2CLT=REFL look= DECL

‘You looked at yourself.’ (55) ama-le-ama a= ki=ve=e 3-CONJ-3

3CLT= REFL= look= DECL

‘She looked at herself.’ 3.2.6 Indefinite Pronouns The indefinite pronouns are given below. INDEFINITE PRONOUN GLOSS koihamxt

‘some one’

ip ihamxt

‘something’

koimaʦa

‘none’

imaʦa

‘nothing’

0.23 Indefinite Pronouns The indefinite pronoun koihamxt ‘someone’ is used for human beings, ip ihamxt ‘something’ is used to refer to inanimate objects. Similarly, the negative indefinite pronouns, koimaʦa ‘none’ and imaʦa ‘nothing’ are used for human and non-human respectively and occur only in negative environment. This can be explained in the sentences below.

- 106 (56) in-a

koihamxt a=um=e

house-LOC someone

3CLT=exist=DECL

‘There is someone in the house.’ (57) in-a

ipihamxt

a=um=e

house-LOC some thing 3CLT=exist=DECL ‘There is something in the house.’ (58) in-a

xoimaʦa a=um-po=e

house-LOC none

3CLT=exist-NEG= DECL

‘There is no one in the house.’ (59) in-a

imaʦa

a=um-po=e

house-LOC nothing 3CLT=exist-NEG=DECL ‘There is nothing in the house.’

3.2.7 Emphatic Pronouns In Thadou, the emphatic marker is -ma which is often reduplicated for more emphasis. It is used to emphasise that the antecedent is doing the action himself or herself. (60) kei-ma~ma

kɑ=ʦe=e

1- EMP~ EMP 1CLT=go=DECL ‘I myself went.’ (61) amɑ~ma~ma  a=ʦe=e 3~ EMP~EMP

3CLT=go=DECL

‘He himself went’

3.3

GENDER In Thadou, gender is only a lexical feature. It has no role in showing grammatical relationship between the nouns and other categories in the sentence. In other words, Thadou does not have grammatical gender. However, animate nouns are marked for their gender morphologically by the process of suffixation.

3.3.1 Human Nouns 3.3.1.1 Lexical Opposites There are some nouns that can denote either male or female but do not possess any generic name. In the case of these nouns, the words themselves indicate their sex either male or female. THADOU GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

meithai

‘widow’

pagoŋ

‘widower’

nuŋa

‘spinster’ golaŋ

‘bachelor’

ni

‘aunt’

gaŋ

‘uncle’

0.24 Lexical Opposites

3.3.1.2 Generic Human Nouns In the case of nouns having generic names, male and female are indicated by the suffix -pa ‘male’ and -nu ‘female’ respectively. In other words, the suffix -nu indicates while -pa indicates male. This is illustrated in table 3.25 below.

GENERIC

MALE

FEMALE

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

soʔ

‘servant’

so ʔpa

‘servant’

soʔnu

‘servant’

mi

‘person’

mipa

‘man’

minu

‘woman’

ʦapaŋ

‘child’

ʦapaŋpa ‘boy’

ʦapaŋnu ‘girl’

ʦa

‘offspring’

ʦapa

tsanu

‘son’

‘daughter’

- 108 u

upa

‘elder sibling’

zi

unu

‘elder

‘elder

brother’ zipa

‘spouse’

sister’ zinu

‘husband’

‘wife’

0.25 Human Nouns In addition to this, the suffixes -pu and -pi are also used for male and female gender respectively. However, this has more of honorific connotation and is used like titles especially in borrowed words. It has very close meaning with Mr. and Ms. in English.

GENERIC

MALE

FEMALE

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

doktor

‘doctor’

doktorpu doctor

doktorpi

‘doctor’

pastor

‘pastor’

pastorpu pastor

pastorpi

‘pastor’

oza

‘teacher’ oza pu

‘teacher’ oza pi

‘teacher’

0.26 Human Noun Gender in Borrowed Words For human beings, the masculine gender marker is pa/pu and the feminine marker is nu/pi, which must have been derived from the words pa ‘father’ pu ‘grandfather’ and nu ‘mother’ and pi ‘grand mother’ respectively. 3.3.2 Non Human Animate Nouns For animate nouns, the masculine marker is -ʦal /-pa and feminine gender marker is pi/-nu . The common gender is usually unmarked.

NOUN

GLOSS

MASCULINE

GLOSS

FEMININE

GLOSS

uiʦɑ

‘dog’

uiʦɑl

‘dog’

uip i

‘bitch’

meŋʦɑl

‘cat’

meŋpi

‘cat’

meŋʦɑ ‘cat’ səipi

‘elephant’ səiʦɑ l

‘elephant’ səip i

boŋ

‘cow’

boŋʦɑl

‘cow’

boŋpi

‘bull’

əɁʦə

‘hen’

əɁʦɑl

'cock’

əɁpi

‘hen’

0.27 Non-Human Animate Nouns

‘elephant’

It should be noted that here the suffix for feminine gender -pi denotes more of motherhood than the feminine gender. For example, a young feminine horse cannot be called sɑkolpi but simply sɑkol. In other words, the suffix -pi refers to a female animal which has already attained motherhood. This is also true for birds.

3.3.3 Insects and Plants and inanimate Nouns In case of insects and plants, gender is not marked. Inanimate nouns are not marked for their gender in the language. 3.4

NUMBER Singular is unmarked and the plural is marked by the plural morpheme -ho, which is suffixed to the noun. Both animate as well as inanimate nouns take the same plural markings. Duality is also marked in this language by suffixing the numeral -ni ‘two’ to the noun, which literally means two X.

SINGULAR

DUAL

PLURAL

THADOU GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

ʦapaŋ

‘child’

ʦapaŋni

mi

‘person’ min i

ama

‘he/she’

aman i

‘two children’ tsapaŋho ‘children’ ‘two persons’

miho

‘persons’

‘they (two)’

amaho

‘plural’

0.28 Number Marking Collective nouns are marked by suffixing -hon for animals and -te for human beings, which literary means a collection of the same kind or belonging to the same category or community. boŋhon ‘herd of cows’.

THADOU GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

boŋ

‘cow’

boŋhon

‘herd of cows’

loi

‘buffalo’

loihon

‘herd of buffaloes’

- 110 kel

‘goat’

kelhon

zoŋ

‘monkey’ zoŋhon

‘herd of goats’ ‘group of monkeys’

0.29 Collective Nouns for Animals

THADOU GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

india

‘cow’

indiate

‘the Indians’

kol

burmese

kolte

‘the Burmese’

meiei

‘meithei’ meieite

‘the meitheis’

minu

‘women’ minute

‘the women group/organisation’

0.30 Collective Nouns for Human Nouns

3.5

NOUN MODIFIERS This section deals with noun modifiers. Here, modifiers will be used to refer to the various elements that co-occur with the head noun. This include numerals, adjectives and demonstratives. 3.5.1 Numerals Numerals in Thadou are adjectives and they follow the noun. The numerals can be classified into: a.

Cardinals

b.

Ordinals

c.

Fractionals

d.

Multiplicatives

e.

Approximants

3.5.1.1 Cardinals numerals Numeral system in Thadou is based on the decimal counting system. There is no lexical word for zero. The numbers from 1 to 10 have separate lexical item and

follow a monomorphemic pattern. The higher numbers are formed by various processes. The nature and type of numerals will be discussed in this section. 3.5.1.1.1 Basic numerals The number one through ten fall under basic numerals. In addition, there are other number : za ‘hundred’, saŋ ‘thousand’ which belong to the basic numeral type. THADOU GLOSS xət

‘one’

ni

‘two’

thum

‘three’

li

‘four’

ŋɑ

‘five’

gup

‘six’

sɑ gi

‘seven’

get

‘eight’

ko

‘nine’

so m

‘ten’

za 

‘hundred’

sa ŋ

‘thousand’

0.31 Basic Numerals

3.5.1.1.2 Compound Numerals In addition to the basic numerals, numerals are also formed by the process of numeral compounding. Based on their

formation process, numerals are classified into

different types. The three different types of compound numerals are additive compound numerals, multiplicative compound numerals and multiplicative-cumadditive compound numerals. Each of this will be discussed in this section. 3.5.1.1.2.1 Additive Compound Numerals

- 112 The numerals from eleven (11) to nineteen (19) are formed through the process of compounding. This is done by compounding the lexical item for ‘ten’ som and the connective particle le  followed by the basic and the respective numeral from 1 to 9 as shown in the table below.

THADOU GLOSS THADOU GLOSS THADOU GLOSS THADOU

GLOSS

som

ten

le

and

xt

one

som-le-xt

‘eleven’

som

ten

le

and

ni

two

som-le-ni

‘twelve’

som

ten

le

and

thum

three

som-le-

‘thirteen’

thu m som

ten

le

and

li

four

som-le-li

‘fourteen’

som

ten

le

and

ŋa

five

som-le-ŋa

‘fifteen’

som

ten

le

and

gup

six

som-le-

‘sixteen’

gup som

ten

le

and

sagi

seven

som-le-

‘seventeen’

sagi som

ten

le

and

get

eight

som-le-get

‘eighteen’

som

ten

le

and

ko

nine

som-le-ko

‘nineteen’

0.32 Additive Compound Numerals

3.5.1.1.2.2 Multiplicative Compound Numerals Multiplicative compound numerals can be further classified into lower and higher multiplicative compound numerals. 3.5.1.1.2.2.1 Lower Multiplicative Compound Numerals The numerals in the multiple of 10 to 90 are formed by multiplicative process. This is done by multiplying the decimals som with the basic numerals one to nine. THADOU GLOSS THADOU GLOSS THADOU

GLOSS

som

ten

xt

one

som-xt

‘ten’

som

ten

ni

two

som-ni

‘twenty’

som

ten

thum

three

som-thum ‘thirty’

som

ten

li

four

som-li

‘forty’

som

ten

ŋa

five

som-ŋa

‘fifty’

som

ten

gup

six

som-gup

‘sixty’

som

ten

sa gi

seven

som-sag i

‘seventy’

som

ten

get

eighty

som-get

‘eighty’

som

ten

ko

nine

som-ko

‘ninety’

0.33 Lower Multiplicative Compound Numerals 3.5.1.1.2.2.2 (a) Higher Multiplicative Compound Numerals

THADOU GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS THADOU GLOSS

za

hundred xt

one

za-xt

‘one hundred’

za

hundred ni

two

za-ni

‘two hundred’

za

hundred thum

three

za-thum

‘three hundred’

za

hundred li

four

za-li

‘four hundred’

za

hundred ŋa

five

za-ŋa

‘five hundred’

za

hundred gup

six

za-gup

‘six hundred’

za

hundred sagi

seven

za-sagi

‘seven hundred’

za

hundred get

eight

za- get

‘eight hundred’

za

hundred ko

nine

za-ko

‘nine hundred’

0.34 Higher Multiplicative Compound Numerals 3.5.1.1.2.2.3 (b) Higher Multiplicative Compound Numerals THADOU GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS THADOU GLOSS

saŋ

thousand xt

one

sa ŋ-xt

‘one thousand’

saŋ

thousand ni

two

sa ŋ-ni

‘two thousand’

saŋ

thousand thum

three

sa ŋ-thum ‘three thousand’

saŋ

thousand li

four

sa ŋ-li

‘four thousand’

- 114 saŋ

thousand ŋa

five

sa ŋ-ŋa

‘five thousand’

saŋ

thousand gup

six

sa ŋ-gup

‘six thousand’

saŋ

thousand sagi

seven

sa ŋ-sag i

‘seven thousand’

saŋ

thousand get

eight

sa ŋ-get

‘eight housand’

saŋ

thousand ko

nine

sa ŋ-ko

‘nine thousand’

0.35 Higher Multiplicative Compound Numerals 3.5.1.1.2.3 Multiplicative-cum-Additive Compound Numerals The numerals from 21-29, 31-39, 41-49, 51-59,61-69, 71-79,81-89,91-99 are multiplicative-cum-additive compound numerals. This is illustrated in the table below. THADOU GLOSS THADOU GLOSS THADOU GLOSS THADOU GLOSS som

ten

le

and

xt

one

som-ni-

‘twentyone’

le-xt som

ten

le

and

ni

two

som-ni-

‘twenty two’

le-ni som

ten

le

and

thum

three

som-ni-

‘twentythree’

le-thum som

ten

le

and

li

four

som-ni-

‘twenty four’

le-li som

ten

le

and

ŋa

five

som-ni-

‘twenty five’

le-ŋa som

ten

le

and

gup

six

som-ni-

‘twenty six’

le-gup som

som

som

ten

ten

ten

le

le

le

and

and

and

sagi

get

ko

seven

eight

nine

som-ni-

‘twenty

le-sag i

seven’

som-ni-

‘twenty

le-get

eight ’

som-ni-

‘twenty nine’

le-ko 0.36 Multiplicative-cum-Additive Compound Numerals

3.5.1.2 Ordinals numerals Ordinals are formed by prefixing ə- and suffixing -na to the cardinal numerals. THADOU

GLOSS

ə=xet-nɑ

‘first’

ə=ni-nɑ

‘second’

ə=thum-na

‘third’

ə=li-nɑ

‘fourth’

ə=ŋɑ-nɑ

‘fifth’

ə=gup -na

‘sixth’

ə=sagi-nɑ

‘seventh’

ə=get-nɑ

‘eighth’

ə=ko-nɑ

‘nineth’

ə=som-nɑ

‘tenth’

0.37 ordinal numerals 3.5.1.3 Fractional Numerals The following table 3.38 is a table showing the formation of fractional numerals in the language.

THADOU

GLOSS

=ke

‘half’

hop-thum-a-hop-xt

‘one third’

hop-li-a-hop-xt

‘one fourth’

hop-som-a-hop-xt

‘one tenth’

0.38 Fractional Numerals

- 116 3.5.1.4 Multiplicative Numerals For the formation of multiplicative numerals, the morpheme -vei- can be either prefixed or suffixed to the cardinal numeral.

THADOU

GLOSS

xt-vei/vei-xt

‘once’

ni-vei/vei-ni

‘twice’

som-vei/vei-som

‘ten times’

za-xt-vei/vei-za-x

‘hundred times’

saŋ-xt-vei/vei-sa ŋ-xt ‘thousand times’ 0.39 Multiplicative Numerals

3.5.1.5 Approximative Numerals ‘About X numeral’ is formed by suffixing -vel/tabaŋ ‘like’ to the cardinal numeral. This is illustrated with examples below:

THADOU

GLOSS

som-vel

‘about ten’

saŋ-som-vel

‘about ten thousand’

xa-ŋa-tabaŋ

‘about five hundred’

som-get-le-ŋa-tabaŋ ‘about eighty five’ 0.40 Approximate Numerals

3.5.2 Adjectives Dixon (1999) discusses the five types of adjectives found in different languages of the word. Thadou adjectives behave like the type:2: Adjective class grammatically similar to verb class. Most of the concepts usually affiliated with adjectives in other languages are expressed via stative verbs such as the following:

VERB

GLOSS

ADJECTIVE GLOSS

ʦom

be short

a=ʦom=e

neo

be small a=neo=e

hoi

be nice

a=hoi=e

‘he/she/it is nice’

saŋ

be tall

a =saŋ=e

‘he/she is tall’

lui

be old

a=lui=e

‘it is old’

len

be big

a=len=e

‘he/she/it is big’

‘he/she/it is short’ ‘he/she/it is small’

0.41 Adjectives Color terms are also expressed by verbs. VERB GLOSS

COLOR

GLOSS

kaŋ

be white a=kaŋ=e

‘it is white’

vom

be black a=vom=e

‘it is black’

eŋ

be green a=eŋ=e

‘it is green’

sen

be red

a=sen =e

dum

be blue

a=dum=e ‘it is blue’

‘it is red’

0.42 Color Terms When used predicatively, such adjectival verbs can appear in stem I (as above) or in stem II. (62) ká=gòn 1CLT=thin

ahì=e COP=DECL

‘I am thin.’ (63) mi=pha person=good

ná=hì=e 2CLT=COP=DECL

‘You are a good person.’ When used attributively, adjectival verbs follow the noun that they modify. THADOU

GLOSS

mi -nem

‘short person’

in -hoi

‘beautiful house’

ʦapaŋ-pha

‘good child’

- 118 keŋko- tha ‘new shoe’ sa-len

‘big animal’

0.43 Attributive Adjectives In general, noun+adjective sequences are equivalent to sequences of noun+ intransitive stem 1 verb.

THAOU

GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

ʦapaŋ-kap ‘crying child’

si-va

kap

‘shinning star’ va

‘cry’ ‘illuminate’

0.44 Noun +Adjectives More than one adjective can follow the noun, in different orders. (63) in

len

hoi

house big beautiful ‘ a big beautiful house’ Adjectives also can be intensified by adding the adverb ta ‘very’ as can be seen from the examples (64) and (65). (64) nuŋa hoi-ta girl

beautiful-INTS

‘A very beautiful girl.’ (65) in

len -ta

house beautiful-INTS ‘A very big house.’

3.5.3 Determiners Thadou distinguishes three degrees of determination. hítsé

hí

‘this’/‘these’

(near speaker)

tsútsé tsú ‘that’/‘those’ (near hearer)

xútsé

xú

‘that’/‘those’ (far from both)

0.45 Determiners The forms in the first column consists of one of the morphemes hí, tsú, and xú combined with tsé. This form of the demonstrative occurs before the noun. The forms in the second column follow the noun. That is why it is often said that Thadou has spilt determiners. In general, the three meanings are as indicated, with the referent located with respect to the speech participants.

DETERMINER NOUN

GLOSS

CONTEXT

hítsé

lexabu ‘this book’ (near speaker/relevant to the speaker)

tsútsé

lexabu ‘that book’ (near hearer)

xútsé

lexabu ‘that book’ (far from both) 0.46 Determiners+Noun

Among the preposed demonstratives, hítsé has a special use in discourse, which is to identify or introduce a referent of relevance to the speaker: hítsé tsápaŋ ká ná múu e ‘I saw this child’ (physically near the speaker or having proximity/relevance to speaker, e.g. the child that I care about). Among the postposed demonstratives, tsú has an additional function of identifying a person or object we were talking about, i.e. the person/object in question: tsápáng tsú ‘the child in question, the child you already know about’. tsú is the closest thing that Thadou has to a definite article.

(66) a=kap 3CLT=cry

ʦu

ʦapaŋ a=hi=e

DET

child

‘It is the child that cried.’

3CLT= COP=DECL

- 120 -

By themselves we get the following:

DETERMINER

GLOSS

CONTEXT

hiʦe

hi

‘this one’

(near the speaker)

ʦuʦe

ʦu

‘that one’

(near the hearer)

xuʦe

xu

‘that one’

(far from both the listener and the speaker)

0.47 Determiners

The form tsútsé has the special meaning ‘the one you already know about’, while hí, tsú, xú, when used by themselves, have the feel of abbreviated forms. Because of the special meanings of hítsé and tsú, some of the combinations of unlike demonstratives are grammatical.

(67) ítsé-tsápáŋ-hí DEM-child-DEM

a=pha=e ADJ=good=DECL

‘This child is good.’ Here, in sentence (67) it is the reading ‘the child near the speaker’ (68) ítsé-tsápáŋ-hí DEM-child-DEM

a=pha=e ADJ=good=DECL

‘That child is good.’

In sentence (68), it refers to the child near to the hearer and far from the speaker. (69) xutsé-tsápáŋ- xu a=pha=e DEM-child-DEM

ADJ=good=DECL

‘That child is good.’ In (69), it refers to the child away from both the speaker and the hearer.

(70) ítsé-tsápáŋ-ʦu DEM-child-DEM

a=pha=e ADJ=good=DECL

‘This child is good.’

Here , it means the child near the speaker, whom the speaker knows and is concerned about. (71) hítsé-tsápáŋ-xu a=pha=e DEM-child-DEM

ADJ=good=DECL

‘This child is good.’

Here, it refers to the child away from the speaker that I am concerned about. ‘That child that I am concerned about. (72) xutsé-tsápáŋ-ʦu a=pha=e DEM-child-DEM

ADJ=good= DECL

‘That child is good.’

Here, it will mean the child away from the speaker and the hearer that is the topic of discussion. That child we are referring to. However, it is not possible to have sentences like (73), to ( 75) below. (*73) ʦutsé-tsápáŋ-hi a=pha=e DEM-child-DEM

ADJ=good= DECL

‘That child is good.’ (*74) ʦutsé-tsápáŋ-xu  DEM-child-DEM

a=pha=e ADJ=good=DECL

‘That child is good.’ (*75) xutsé-tsápáŋ-hi a=pha=e

- 122 DEM-child-DEM

ADJ=good= DECL

‘That child is good.’

The first three sentences have pre- and postposed demonstratives of the same category. The next three combine different categories, but are grammatical. This is because both hítsé and tsú have non-deictic meanings: ‘I’m concerned about’ and ‘in question, that already know about’, respectively. The last three combinations are ungrammatical because ʦútsé, xútsé, hí and xú only have deictic functions and therefore conflict with each other. The three demonstratitves are also used with the locative marker va /va to express ‘here’ and ‘there’. The locative marker a or a is chosen according to the nature of the clause in which it appears.

DEMOMSTRATIVE+LOCATIVE

CONTEXT

hi -va

‘here’ (near the speaker)

tsu -va

‘there’ (near the hearer)

xu -va

‘there’ (far from both) 0.48 Demomstrative+Locative

3.5.3.1 Definiteness and Indefiniteness As mentioned earlier, tsu is often used to mark definiteness. (76) mounu ʦu bride

DEF

a=hoi=e ADJ=beautiful=DECL

‘The bride is beautiful.’ In Thadou, the numeral xt ‘one’ is used to indicate indefiniteness. (77) nuŋa xt girl

ka=mu=e

one 1CLT=see=DECL

‘I saw a girl.’

3.5.4 Noun Classifiers Classifiers identify a property of a noun such as shape, number, consistency, quantity, measure, or whether the noun is sentient, and may compound with nouns. Thadou has a few set of classifiers, which are compounded with numeral roots to form nominal attributes. Some classifiers referring to special semantic fields include pe ‘flat objects’ pum used for ‘round or oblong items, ʦeŋ ‘units of money’, zaŋ used for strands, ke used for plants that grow from the ground, zou used for cattles, to used for pairs, vt used for drop of water. However, it has to be mentioned here that the use of classifiers is slowing decreasing in the speech of younger generation. Some examples of noun classifiers often used are given in the following section. The noun classifier pe is used for flat objects.

THADOU GLOSS THADOU GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

lexa

book

pe

classifier lexa pe xt

‘one page’

thiŋ

wood

pe

classifier thiŋ pe xt

‘one plank’

ʦaŋa

bread

pe

classifier ʦaŋa pe xt ‘one slice of bread’ 0.49 (a) Noun Classifier

pum is used for round objects to indicate the shape or roundness of vegetables, fruits etc. as seen in the table below.

THADOU GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

mai

pumpkin

pum

classifier mai pum xet

‘one pumpkin

hai

mango

pum

classifier hai pum xt

‘one mango’

go

bamboo

pum

classifier go pum xt

‘one bamboo

ʦaŋmai

cucumber pum

classifier ʦaŋmai pumxt ‘one cucumber’ 0.50 (b) Noun Classifier

The classifier zaŋ is used for strands of thin long objects.

- 124 THADOU GLOSS THADOU GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

sm

hair

za ŋ

classifier sm zaŋ xt ‘one strand of hair’

pat

thread

za ŋ

classifier pat zaŋ xt

‘one strand of thread

xau

rope

za ŋ

classifier za ŋ xt

‘one strand of rope’

thi

iron

za ŋ

classifier thizaŋ xt

‘one strand of wire’

naŋ

thatch

za ŋ

classifier naŋ zaŋ xt ‘one strand of thatch’ 0.51(c) Noun Classifier

zou is used for a full growned domesticated cattles. It is used for specific animals and not used for animals that are small in size.

THADOU GLOSS THADOU GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

boŋ

cow

zou

classifier boŋ zou xt ‘one cow’

sel

bison

zou

classifier sel zou xet

‘one bison’

loi

buffalo zou

classifier loi zou xt

‘one buffalo’

0.52 (d) Noun Classifiers The classifier to is used with objects to mean ‘a pair or a set of’ and is often with clothings.

THADOU GLOSS THADOU GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

keŋko

shoe

to

classifier keŋko to ‘a pair of shoes’

saŋxol

shirt

to

classifier sa ŋxol to

‘a pair of shirts

toka

pant

to

classifier toka to xt

‘ a pair of pants’

0.53 (e) Noun Classifier lom is used as a classifier to mean a bundle of.

THADOU GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

nkm

lom

mustard

THADOU

classifier nkm lom

thiŋ

wood

lom

classifier thiŋ lom

GLOSS ‘a bunch of mustard leaves’ ‘a bunch of wood’

bi

thatch

lom

classifier bilom

‘ a bunch of thatch’

mol

stick

lom

classifier lom

a bunch of stick’

nʦe

vegetables lom

classifier nʦelom

‘a bunch of vegetables’

0.54 (f) Noun Classifiers

3.6

CASE MARKERS IN NOUN PHRASE Thadou distinguishes five case markers. Case markers generally follow postnominal modifiers.

CASE

MARKERS

ergative

in

instrumental in locative

a

oblique

a

comitative

to

0.55 Case Markers

3.6.1 Ergative Case The ergative case marker is marked by =ìn and

always occurs last in the noun

phrase. The order of the noun phrase can be seen in the following sentences.

3.6.1.1 Possessive clitic+Noun+Ergative (78) ka= pa=in

kei ei=luŋset=e

1=father=ERG 1

1CLT=love=DECL

‘My father loves me.’

3.6.1.2 Noun + numeral +plural+Ergative

- 126 (79) ʦapaŋ thum-ho=in child

hai

a=ne=uv=e

three-PL=ERG mango 3CLT=eat PL=DECL

‘The three children ate a mango.’

3.6.1.3 Demonstrative+Noun+Demonstrative + Ergative (80) hiʦe-nu-hi=n DEM-F-DEM=ERG

ka=hai

a=ne=e

1CLT=mango 3CLT=eat=DECL

‘This girl ate my mango.’

3.6.2 Instrumental Case The Instrumental case marker -in occurs after adjectives, numerals and the plural marker. Noun+Adjective+Instrumental (81) ʦem

hem-in

ka=at=e

knife sharp-INS 1CLT=cut=DECL ‘I cut with a sharp knife.’ Noun+Numeral+ Instrumental (82) ʦem

thum-in

a=sun=e

knife three-INS 3CLT=pierce=DECL ‘He pierced with three knives’ Numeral + Plural + Instrumental (83) ʦem- ho-i

i=kiʦem=uv=e

knife- PL-INS 1CLT=play=PL= DECL ‘We played with three knives.’ 3.6.3 Locative Case As in the case of instrumental case, the locative case marker à follows adjectives, numerals, and the plural marker:

Noun+Adjective + Locative (84) in

len-a

ka=ʦeŋ=e

house big- LOC 1CLT=live=DECL ‘I live in a big house.’

Noun+Numeral + Locative (85) in-ni-a

ka=ʦeŋ=uv=e

house-two-LOC 1CLT=live= PL=DECL ‘We live in two houses.’ Noun+ Plural+ Locative (86) in-ho-a

a=ʦeŋ=e

mi

house- PL-LOC people 3CLT=live=DECL ‘People live in houses.’

When a demonstrative is present, the results are as follows: the noun is followed by the locative case marker and the demonstrative marker occurs at the end of the noun phrase. Demonstrative+Noun+Locative+Demonstrative Near speaker (87) hiʦe-in-a- hin

(kei) ka=ʦeŋ=e

DEM-house-LOC-DEM

1

1CLT=live=DECL

‘I live in this house.’

Near the hearer (88) ʦuʦe-in- a- ʦun mi house-LOC-DEM

a=ʦeŋ-po=e

person 3CLT=live-NEG= DECL

‘Nobody lives in that house.’

Far from both (89) xuʦe-in- a DEM-house- LOC

xun

mi

DEM

person 3CLT=live-NEG=DECL

a=ʦeŋ-po=e

- 128 ‘Nobody lives in those houses.’

3.6.4 Comitative Case Marker The comitative case marker is -to. All modifiers precede the comitative case marker as can be seen from the examples below.

Noun+Adjective+Comitative (90) nuŋa hoi-xa t-to girl

ka=ʦe=e

beautiful-one-COM 1CLT=go=DECL

‘ I went with a beautiful girl.’

Noun+Numeral+Comitative (91) nuŋa ni-to girl

ka=ʦe=uv=e

two- COM 1CLT=go= PL=DECL

‘ I went with two girls.’

Noun+Plural+ Comitative (92) nuŋa ho-to girl

ka=ʦe=uv=e

big-COM 1CLT=go=PL=DECL

‘ I went with the girls.’ Demonstrative Noun+Demonstrative+to  (93) hiʦe-nuŋa- hi-to DEM-girl-DEM- COM

ka=ʦe-on=e 1CLT=go=DU=DECL

‘ I went with this girl.’

3.7

STRUCTURE OF THE NOUN PHRASE The foregoing discussion shows that the head noun of a noun phrase can be:

(i)

preceded by one or more genitive markers.

(94) ka=in

a=len =e ADJ=big= DECL

1 CLT=house

‘My house is big.’ (95) ka=nu- in

a=len =e

1 CLT=mother-house

ADJ=big=DECL

‘My mother’s house is big.’ (96) ka=nu--in

a=len=e

1 CLT=mother-dog-house

ADJ=big= DECL

‘My mother’s dog’s house is big.’

(ii)

followed by one or more adjective or numeral. (97) ui-vom-l

xt

ka=nei=e

dog-black-big one 1CLT=have= DECL ‘I have a big black dog.’ (98) in

ŋa

ka=nei=e

house five 1CLT=have=DECL ‘I have five houses.’

(iii)

preceded and /or followed by a demonstrative. (99) hiʦe-ʦapaŋ-hi DEM-child-DEM

a-pha=e ADJ-good=DECL

‘This child is good.’

The noun phrase strucuture can be summarized below: POSSIBLE ORDER

THADOU

GLOSS

Demonstrative+Proclitic+Noun

hiʦe ka in

‘this house of mine’

Demonstrative+Noun+Adjective

hiʦe

‘this big house’

Demonstrative+ Noun+Numeral

hiʦe ‘these three houses’

- 130 hiʦe

Demonstrative+ Noun +Plural

Demonstrative+ Noun +Determiner+ hiʦe

‘these houses’ ‘this house’

Proclitic +Noun+Adjective



‘my big house’

Proclitic +Noun+Numeral

ŋa

‘my five houses’

Proclitic +Noun+ Plural



‘my houses’

Noun+Adjective+Numeral



‘three big houses’

Noun+Adjective +Plural



‘big houses’

Noun+Adjective+Demonstrative



‘this big dog’

Noun+Numeral +Plural

 ‘three big houses’

Noun+Numeral+Demonstrative



‘these three houses’

Noun+ Plural+Demonstrative



‘these houses’

0.56 Noun Phrase Structure

3.8

NOUN PHRASE COORDINATION Noun phrases may be conjoined by means of the conjunction le ~lè, which appears in between the two conjoined elements. (100) (kei=in) 1= ERG

bu 

le

sa 

ka=ne=e

rice and meat 1CLT=eat=DECL

‘I ate rice and meat.’ (101) (kei=in) ka=nu (1= ERG) 1CLT=mother

le

ka=pa

CONJ

1CLT=father 1CLT=love= DECL

‘I love my mother and father.’

The second conjunct or both conjuncts may also be pronouns: (102) iŋboi

le

kei ka=ʦe-on=e

‘lhingboi and 1

1CLT=go- DL= DECL

‘Lhingboi and I went.’

ka=luŋset=e

(103) ama le 2

kei ka=ʦe-on=e

and 1

1CLT=go-DL=DECL

‘He/she and I went.’ le (~lè) is used only for coordination. Concomitant actions are expressed by the nominal postposition to. Thus, compare the following pairs of sentences. (104) ka=nu

le

kei=in bu

1CLT= mother and 1=ERG

ka=ne-on=e

rice 1CLT=eat-DL= DECL

‘My mother and I ate rice.’ (105) ka=nu-to

ka=ne-xom=e

1CLT=mother-COM 1CLT=eat-DL=DECL ‘I ate along with my mother.’ (106) sa meat

le

ŋa

ka=hon=e

fish

and

1CLT=cook=DECL

‘I cook meat and fish.’ (107) sa meat

to

ŋa

ka=hon=e

fish

and

1CLT=cook=DECL

‘I cook meat with fish.’ (108) lun lè

maŋ=in

ei=ŋa -o n=e

lun and mang=ERG 1CLT=wait-DL=DECL ‘Lun and Mang are waiting for me.’

3.9

SUMMARY This chapter looks into noun and the morphology of noun in the language. As seen from the discussion, basic nouns in Thadou are mostly monosyllabic. Nouns are also derived from verbs. Thadou is very rich in compound nouns. It is evident that Thadou shows a strong preference for monomorphemic words and compounds.

- 132 Derivational morphology is attested,

but inflectional morphology is not.

Compounding, along with suffixation, are the most common morphological processes in the language. Thadou has natural gender as it is not grammatically marked.

4 VERB MORPHOLOGY This chapter deals with verb and the verb morphology in Thadou. Section 4.1 discusses the nature and different types of verbs in the language. Thadou has simple as well as complex verbs. The structure and types of verbs are provided in this section. §4.2 deals with different types of verbal stem. Verbal stem may be either transitive and intransitive and this section provides a detailed discussion of the verbal stem. Discussion on the tense, aspect, mood and modality is provided in §4.3. The nature and different aspects of tense and aspect and properties of the verb are elaborated in this section. Thadou is rich in derivational morphology. In §4.4, a detailed discussion on the strucuture of the verb and the derivational morphology of the verb is discussed. The verb in Thadou is rich in derivational including clitics, prefixes and suffixes. However, infixes are not found in the language. Thadou is a verb final language and most of the markers in the language occur post verbally and are mostly suffixes. § 4.4 deals with the structure of the verb and the derivational morphology of the verb. Section 4.5 deals with the order of the verb. 4.1

VERB AND CLASSIFICATION OF VERBS A verb is an obligatory constituent of a sentence; a simple sentence may consist of just a finite verb with a mood marker and agreement marker, or a verb with aspecttense mood and agreement markers. As in other languages, verbs play the most important role in a sentence. A verb in Thadou must minimally consist of a verbal proclitic and the root verb. Verbs can be broadly classified into simple and complex. This sections provides a detailed discussion on the different types of verbs in the language.

4.1.1 Simple Verbs Like nouns, simple verbs are mainly monosyllabic in nature. The following table presents the simple verbs in the language.

SIMPLE VERBS GLOSS ʦe

‘go’

huŋ

‘come’

ei

‘run’

gel

‘think’

nui

‘laugh’

tou

‘sit

diŋ

‘stand’

lam

‘dance’

sim

‘read/study’ 4.1 Simple Verbs

4.1.2

Reflexive Verbs

Reflexive verbs are the verbs with ki ‘the reflexive marker’ and can be clasified into two: inherently reflexive verbs that do not have reciprocal meaning and derived verbs that are derived from simple verbs with the affixation of ki and has the reciprocal meaning. The following tables 4.1 and 4.2 show both types of reflexive verbs in the language. Some verbs in Thadou are inherently reflexive i.e. action is directed to ‘self’ The reflexive marker ki is part of the verb. Here, the action can be performed by oneself. In Table 4.2 a list of reflexive verbs are given.

REFLEXIVE VERBS GLOSS kisil

‘bathe’

kiʦem

‘play’

kino

‘haste’

kitim

‘control’

- 134 kitem

‘promise’

kive

‘wear (a wrap around skirt)’

kithiŋ

‘tremble’

kithoŋ

‘echo’

kiʦon

‘shift’

kizap

‘swim’

kila

‘take’

kiŋai

‘lean’

kiveŋ

‘to take precaution’

kit o

‘to wake up’

h

4.2 Reflexive Verbs

This can be exemplified in the sentences (109) to (111). (109) (kei) ka=ki-sil=e 1SG

1CLT=REFL-bathe=DECL

‘I bathe (myself).’ (110) (ama) a=ki-ʦem=e 3SG

3CLT=REFL-play= DECL

‘He is playing.’ (111) (naŋ) na=ki-thiŋ=e 2SG

2CLT=REFL-shiver=DECL

You are trembling/shivering’.

4.1.3

Reciprocal Verbs

This type of reflexive verbs are different from those discussed earlier as they are derived from simple verbs by the process of prefixing ki- to the verb to give a new meaning and has the reciprocal meaning. This type of verbs requires two arguments

to perform the action and can be called reciprocal verbs. Table 4.3 provides a list of reciprocal verbs. Illustrations are provided with the help of sentences (112) to (114).

RECIPROCAL VERBS GLOSS ki-na

‘fight’

ki-ʦeŋ

‘marry’

ki-zam

‘elope’

ki-houlim

‘discuss’

ki-nai

‘be close’

ki-muto

‘meet’

ki-ʦop

‘kiss’

ki-lu

‘intercourse’

ki-del

‘fight’

ki-to

‘to get along’

ki-to-mo 

‘dislike’

ki-on

‘go together’

ki-mop-to

‘agree with one another’

ki-bom

‘cluster/come together’

ki-xom

‘to gather together’

kitho

‘help’ 4.3 Reciprocal Verbs

(112) ama-ni a=ki-na-on =e 3-DL

3CLT=REFL-fight-DL= DECL

‘They are fighting with each other.’ (113) (naŋ-ni) na=ki-ʦeŋ-on =e 2SG

2CLT= REFL-live=DECL

‘You (two) are married.’

- 136 -

(114) ama-ho a=ki-tho-uv=e 3-PL

3CLT=REFL-help-DL=DECL

‘They help one another.’

4.1.4

Compound Verbs

In Thadou, there are different types of compound verbs depending on the structure and meaning of the compound verbs. The compound verbs can be composed of two simple verbs to form a new verb or a verb may take a noun and form a different verb. This section provides different types of compound or complex verbs in the language.

4.1.4.1

Verb1 +Verb2→Compound Verb

(a)

Verb + mŋ→Compound Verb

In this type of compound verbs, action verbs act as the first verb and combines with the second verb mŋ derived from the verb ‘lost’. The meaning of the compound verb has some relation with the first verb.

VERB1

VERB2

COMPOUND VERB

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

za m

run

mŋ

lost

zammŋ

‘run away’

ei

run

mŋ

lost

eimŋ

‘elope’

sep

throw

mŋ

lost

sep mŋ

‘throw away’

su 

hit

mŋ

lost

sumŋ

‘spent’

sel

hide

mŋ

lost

selmŋ

‘hide away’

4.4Verb+maŋ→Compound Verb (b) Verb+lut→Compound Verb In this type of verbs, motion verbs are combined with the verb lut ‘go inside’ to give a different meaning to the root verb.

VERB1

VERB2

COMPOUND VERB

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

huŋ

come

lut

go inside huŋlut

‘come in/enter’

ʦe

go

lut

go inside ʦelut

‘go in/enter’

va

roam

lut

go inside valut

‘barge’

ʦop

jump

lut

go inside ʦop lut

‘barge’

pe

give

lut

go inside pelut

‘submit’

leŋ

fly

lut

go inside leŋlut

‘fly inside’

4.5Verb+lut→Compound Verb 4.1.4.2 Noun+ Verb→Compound Verbs There are also some verbs which take the noun luŋ ‘mind/heart’ as the first member to form a compound verb. The basic or simple verbs have their own meaning but combine with the noun luŋ ‘heart/mind’ derives a new meaning. All these verbs are stative in nature and can be called psychological verbs as they are associated with mind or the mental process of thinking. This can be seen from the examples given in the table 4.4 given below. NOUN

GLOSS

VERB

luŋ

‘mind’ doŋ

‘preflex’ luŋ-doŋ

luŋ

‘mind’ haŋ

‘brave’

luŋ-haŋ

‘angry’

luŋ

‘mind’ gim

‘tired’

luŋ-gim

‘worried’

luŋ

‘mind’ na

‘pain’

luŋ-na

‘hurt’

luŋ

‘mind’ ŋan

‘slow’

luŋ-ŋan

‘slow’

luŋ

‘mind’ set

-

luŋ-set

‘love’

luŋ

‘mind’ ol

‘slow’

luŋ-ol

‘easy going’

luŋ

‘mind’ neo

‘small’

luŋ-neo

‘narrow minded’

luŋ

‘mind’ len

‘big’

luŋ-len

‘broad minded’

luŋ

‘mind’ mit

‘eye’

luŋ-mit

‘imagination’

luŋ

‘mind’ gel

‘think’

luŋ-gel

‘thinking’

GLOSS

COMPLEX VERBS GLOSS ‘confuse’

- 138 luŋ

‘mind’ nom

‘fine’

‘luŋ-nom’

‘happy’

luŋ

‘mind’ boi

‘busy’

luŋ-boi

‘to be in dilemma’

luŋ

‘mind’ ei

‘run’

luŋ-ei

‘contended’

luŋ

‘mind’ t eŋ

‘clean’

‘luŋ-t eŋ

‘innocent’

h

h

4.6Noun+Verb→ Compound Verbs 4.1.5 Verbs with do There are also certain verbs which are composed of a verbal stem and the post position -do and behave very similar to the English phrasal verbs. -do closely gloss as ‘away’ carries its meaning depending on the verbs to which it is attached. The following table gives a list of these verbs.

VERB

do

THADOU GLOSS

THADOU THADOU GLOSS

hu

‘to take side do

koi

‘to keep’

sel

PHRASAL VERB

hu-do

‘save someone’

do

koido

‘to keep it properly’

‘hide’

do

seldo

‘to hide it away’

zam

‘run’

do

za mdo

‘escape’

hon

‘open’

do

hondo

‘open/innaugurate’

4.7 Phrasal Verbs 4.2

TYPES OF VERBAL STEMS

On the basis of the number of arguments that they take, verbs stems can be classified into transitive and intransitive verbs.

4.2.1

Transitive Verbs

The class of transitive verbs includes verbs with two or more arguments. Transitive verbs can be found with overt agents that are marked with an ergative particle and overt objects the marking of which depends on the grammatical role of the object. Transitive verb stems are found in many different syllable shapes including CV, CVV and CVC. Table 4.6 provides a sample of transitive verb stems.

VERB GLOSS ve

‘look’

sa

‘sing’

hol

‘search’

ne

‘eat’

sim

‘read’

hon

‘cook’

don

‘drink’

sop

‘wash’

4.8Transitive Verbs (115) maŋ=in

hai

a=ne=e

mang= ERG mango 3CLT=eat=DECL ‘Mang is eating a mango.’ (116) naŋ=in

lexa

na=sim=e

2SG= ERG book 2CLT=read=DECL ‘You are reading a book.’ (117) kei=in tui ka=don =e 1= ERG tea 1CLT=drink=DECL ‘I am drinking water.’

4.2.2

Intransitive Stems

The class of intransitive verbs includes verbs with a single argument, which functions as the grammatical subject. The subject does not need to be overt in an intransitive construction. In those cases without an overt subject, the argument of the verb can be derived from the proclitics that comes with the verb. Like the transitive verbs, the intransitive verbs are found in a variety of syllable shapes including CV, CVV, and CVC. Intransitive verbs are univalent (i.e. they have a semantic valence of one). They

- 140 typically express a property, state, or situation involving only one participant. (Payne 1997:17143). In Thadou, verb roots grouped as intransitive typically include the following: age, dimension, color, value, physical appearance, shape, human propensity/mental states. They behave like adjectives and are often referred to as as adjectives or adjectival verbs. A list of these verbs are given in the following table 4.9.

43

VERB GLOSS

3 PERSON FORM

te

‘old’

a=te

doŋ

‘young/tender’ a=doŋ

min

‘ripe’

a=min

sel

‘unripe’

a=sel

len

‘big’

a=len

neo

‘small’

a=neo

ʦom

‘short’

a=ʦom

sau

‘long’

a=sau

thau

‘fat’

a=thau

kipa

‘happy’

a=kipa

goŋ

thin

a=goŋ

pha

‘good’

a=pha

se

‘bad’

a=se

hat

‘strong’

a=hat

ha

‘difficult

a=ha

bei

‘easy’

a=bei

thase

‘lazy’

a=thase

ʦiŋ

‘clever’

a =ʦiŋ

ŋol

‘foolish’

a=ŋol

Payne, Thomas. 1997. Describing morphosyntax: A Guide for Field Linguists. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

gaŋ

‘fast’

a=gaŋ

maŋ

slow

a=maŋ

4.9 Intransitve Verbs/Adjectival Verbs All these verbs are predictive adjectives as can be seen from the examples below. (118) ka=pi

a=te=e

1CLT=grandmother

ADJ=old=DECL

‘My grandmother is old.’ (119) na=in 2CLT=house

a=len=e ADJ=big=DECL

‘Your house is big.’ (120) naŋ na=pha=e 2

2CLT=good=DECL

‘You are good.’

Other types of intransitive verbs are what Payne calls ‘locomotion verbs’ (Payne 1997:56), i.e. verbs describing “no simple motion but movement out of one scene and into another”. There is no internal process depicted. Some of them express only one trajectory of movement. Some other verbs are very close to this sense in that they describe no movement but rather a still or static. The list of locomotion verbs is given in table 4.8 below. VERB GLOSS

3 PERSON FORM

huŋ

‘come’

a=huŋ

ei

‘run’

a=ei

ʦe

‘go’

a=ʦe

uŋ

‘arrive’

a=uŋ

leŋ

fly

a=leŋ

kum

descend

a=kum’

nui

‘laugh’

a=nui

kal

‘ascend’

a=kal

- 142 -

u

‘fall’

a=u

ʦt

‘move’

a=ʦt

tau

‘sit’

a=tau

kap

‘cry’

a=kap

thi

‘die’

a=thi

diŋ

‘stand’

a=diŋ

lum

‘lay down’ a=lum

me

‘smile’

a=me

4.10 Intransitve Verbs

This is illustrated in the examples (121) and (122) . (121) ma a=kap=e 3SG

3CLT=cry=DECL

‘He/she is crying.’ (122) neŋ

a=diŋ=e

neng 3CLT=stand= DECL ‘Neng is standing.’

There are also other various types of intransitive which cannot be grouped with either of the two types mentioned earlier. The list of these verbs are given in the following table. VERB GLOSS

3 PERSON FORM

xaŋ

‘grow’

a=xaŋ

hiŋ

‘live’

a=hiŋ

thi

‘die’

a=thi

um

‘exist’

a=um

kixen

‘divorce

a=ki-xen

kisel

‘hide oneself’ a=kisel 4.11Intransitve Verbs

(123) ka=uiʦa

a=thi-ta=e

1CLT=dog 3CLT=die-PERF=DECL ‘My dog has died.’ (124) na=ʦa-pa 

a=xaŋ=e

2CLT=child-M 3 CLT=grow=DECL ‘Your child is growing.’ (125) ka=nu

a=um=e

1CLT=mother 3CLT=exist=DECL ‘My Mother is here.’

4.3

TENSE, ASPECT AND MOOD Tense, aspect and mood are the inherent properties of the verb. Like most other Kuki-Chin languages, Thadou is a aspect and mood prominent language. The verb is not inflected for tense, aspect or mood. However, there are other devices the show the different tense, aspect and mood in the language. This section deals with how tense, aspect and mood are assigned in the language. 4.3.1 Tense Tense indicates the temporal location of an event or a state. In other words, the category tense indicates the time of the predication in relation to some particular moment. This moment is typically the moment of speaking or writing the utterance. Tense thus indicates whether the event happened prior to the moment of speaking (past tense), is contemporaneous with it (present tense) or subsequent to it. In Thadou, there is no grammatical tense as the verbs are not inflected for tense. The forms of verbs do not change with the change in the tense of the verb. Present tense and past tense are not marked on verbs but temporal adverbs give the appropriate meaning. However, future is marked. The following table lists the temporal in the language.

- 144 THADOU GLOSS tuni

‘today’

zanhi

‘yesterday’

tu

‘now’

inzoleʔ

‘afterwards’

inzoa

‘before’

tukum

'this year'

xovei

'next year'

xatveini

‘day before yesterday

niŋkum

‘last year’

4.12Temporal Adverbs

This can be seen from the sentences (126-128) (126) zɑnhi-in

kei in -ɑ

yesterday-ADV 1

ka=ʦe=e

house-LOC 1CLT=go=DECL

‘I went home yesterday.’ (127) tuni-in

kei in-a

today-LOC 1

ka=ʦe=e

house-LOC 1 CLT=go=DECL

‘I am going home today.’ (128) ziŋ-leʔ

kei in -a

tomorrow-LOC 1

k=ʦe

house-LOC 1CLT=go

diŋ

ɑ=hi

FUT

3CLT=COP

‘I went home yesterday.’ It is seen from the above sentences (126) and ( 127) that in Thadou the same form of the verb is used in both the present and the past tense. However, with the future tense the structure of the verb changes. In other words, we can say that Thadou makes a distinction between the future and the non-future. The change in the time adverbial zɑn-hin ‘yesterday’ and tuni-in ‘today’ did not lead to any change in the structure of the verb.

There is no change in the verb kə=ʦe in sentences (126) and (127).

However, when we have the next sentence (128) with the adverbial ziŋleʔ ‘tomorrow’ there is a change in the structure of the verb ka=ʦe diŋ ɑ hi ‘I will go’. The verb takes the morpheme -diŋ along with the copular ɑh i to denote the future tense. Moreover, there are also some differences in the formation of the time adverbials. The adverb tunin ‘today’ is formed by combining three morphemes tu ‘now’+ ni ‘day’ + in ‘locative suffix’. Similarly, the other time adverbial yesterday is formed by combining zɑn ‘night’ + ni ‘day’ + in ‘adverbial suffix’. However, the morphological structure of the future adverbial ziŋleʔ ‘tomorrow’ is different: ziŋ tomorrow + leʔ locative suffix with occur with the future tense. With the future time adverbial, the suffix is le and the present and the past time adverbials take -in. In short, we can say that Thadou makes a differentiation only in the future and non-future tenses. This is sometimes referred to as ‘realis’ and ‘irrealis’ where realis refers to situations that have actually taken place and irrealis is used for hypothetical situations, including inductive generalizations and predictions, including predictions about the future. This is discussed in detail in the following section.

4.3.1.1 Future Tense As mention above, the future tense in Thadou is indicated by the future morpheme diŋ which occurs post verbally followed by the copula ahi. Thus, for the future tense, the structure of the verb is: the appropriate proclitic depending on the subject (ka=,i=,na=,a=) followed by the verbal root which is followed by diŋ ‘the future marker’ and ahi which functions as the copula. This is illustrated in the following sentences (129) and (130). (129) ziŋ-leʔ

kei in -a

tomorrow-ADV 1

k=ʦe

house-LOC 1 CLT=go

‘I will go home tomorrow.’

diŋ

ɑ=hi

FUT

COP

- 146 (130) lulun =in

la

=sa

lulun=ERG song 3 CLT=sing

diŋ

ɑ=hi

FUT

3CLT=COP

‘Lulun will sing a song.’

4.3.1.2 Non-Future Tense In Thadou, the non future tense refers to the past and the present tenses. The nonfuture is not morphological marked. In the non future tense, the verb takes one of the verbal clitic depending on the subject (ka.i,na,a) as a proclitic and the aspectual marker =e as the sentence final particle. This is illustrated in the examples in sentences (131) and (132). (131) tuni-n

kei p hɑi-a

today-ADV 1

k=ʦe=e

Imphal-LOC 1 CLT=go=DECL

‘I am going to Imphal today.’ (132) zanhi-in

kei p hai-a

yesterday-ADV 1

k=ʦe=e

mphal-LOC 1 CLT=go=DECL

‘I went to Imphal yesterday.’

As we can see from the above sentences, the differentiation in the past and the present is marked by the time adverbials. Without the adverbial markers, the sentence will be regarded as a simple present tense. The future tense is the marked tense and the past and present is the unmarked tense in the language. However, for the past tense, the perfective marker -ta is often suffixed to the verb to show that the action has already been done or completed. This will be discussed in the following section.

4.3.2 Aspect Aspects are different way of viewing the internal temporal consistuency of a situation or an event. In other words, aspect indicates the internal structure of an event or situation. Aspect is not concerned with the internal temporal constituency of one situation, but rather with the internal temporal constituency of one situation.

Thadou makes a distinction in the perfective and non-perfective aspect. The completion of the action is morphologically marked by the perfective suffix -ta and the non-perfective aspect is unmarked. The following section discusses the nature of aspectual marking in the language.

4.3.2.1 Perfective Aspect Thadou makes a distinction between action which has already been completed actions versus incomplete action. Perfective aspect indicates an action or state of affairs that has been already completed. The perfective aspect is marked by suffixing -ta to the verb. This can be used both for the future and the non-future tense. However, it is more often used for the past tense and therefore is often confused to be the past tense marker. However, it can be seen from the sentences, it can be used with the future tense and therefore it is not tense marker but an aspectual marker emphaising on the completion of an action. (133) kei-in

ka =nato

ka=ʦai

1= ERG 1CLT= work 1CLT=finish

ta=e PERF=DECL

‘I have finished my work.’

(134) zan-hi-in

kei=in ka

nato ka=ʦai

yesterday-day-LOC 1=ERG 1CLT work

ta=e

1CLT=finish

PERF=DECL

‘I have finished my work yesterday.’ (135) ziŋ-ziŋka-

kei=in ka

nato ka=ʦai

diŋ

a=hi

ta=e

FUT

3 CLT=COP

PERF=

le tomorrow-

1=ERG 1CLT work

1CLT=finish

moriningLOC

‘I would have finished my work by tomorrow morning.’

DECL

- 148 4.3.2.2 Non-Perfective Aspect The non-perfective aspect can be either a simple, habitual or a progressive action and is morphologically unmarked in the sentence. In a declarative sentence, the declartive marker is used. However, this is often dropped especially in informal speech. Alternatively, the copula construction with the copula -ahi is also used in a different construction. This can be illustrated in the sentences below. (136) amɑ 3SG

sku l-a

ɑ= ʦe=e

school-LOC

3 CLT=go=DECL

‘He goes to school/He is going to school.’ (137) ama sku l-a 3

ʦe ɑ=hi

school-LOC go 3CLT=COP

‘He goes to school.’ (138) naŋ na=ph=e 2SG 2CLT=good=DECL ‘You are good.’ (139) naŋ mi-phɑ

nɑ=hi

2SG person-good 2CLT=COP ‘You are a good person.’ For a habitual action or an action which is frequently done, the adverbials like zi/ziŋ are used and therefore is often confused to be the marker for habitual aspect. This is illustrated in the following sentences. (140) amɑ kɑ=in-ɑ 3SG

ɑ=huŋ

ziŋ=e

1CLT=house-LOC 3CLT=come always=DECL

‘He often comes to my house.’ Similarly, to emphasise that the action is not completed , the word nalai derived from ‘middle’ is used with the verb to indicate that the person is in the middle of

doing something and the action is not yet completed. na-lai derived from the word ‘middle’ is grammaticalized for actions which are still not completed or in a state of progression. (141) amɑ=in an 3= ERG

ɑ=ne

nalai=e

food 3 CLT=eat middle=DECL

‘He is still having his meal.’

4.3.3 Mood and Modality The function of mood is to describe an event in terms of whether it is necessary, possible, permissible, desirable etc. Thadou is a mood prominent language like many other Tibeto-Burman languages. The language has the following moods: declarative, interrogative, imperative and hortative mood. 4.3.3.1 Declarative Mood The declarative mood is marked by the declarative marker /=e/. It can be used both for negative and affirmative sentences. (142) lalboi=in

hai

a=ne=e

lalboi=ERG mango 3CLT=eat=DECL ‘Laboi is eating a mango.’ (143) lalboi skul-a

a=ʦ=e

lalboi school-LOC 3CLT=cut=DECL ‘Laboi goes to school.’ (144) lalboi mi-pha

a=hi

lalboi person-good 3CLT=COP ‘Laboi is a good person.’ 4.3.3.2 Interrogative Mood

- 150 Interrogatives can be formed by raising intonation and adding the question particle. The interrogative markers in Thadou are -a~ha~ham ~oŋ, which end the sentence. (145) na=min

ip i-ha m

2CLT=name what-Q ‘What is your name?’ (146) iti-le

p hai-a

na=ʦe

when- LOC imphal-LOC 2CLT=go

diŋ

ham

FUT

Q

‘When will you go to Imphal?’

(147) ziŋ-le

ka=huŋ

tomorrow -LOC 1CLT=come

diŋ

ham

FUT

Q

‘Shall I come tomorrow?’

(148) hoiʦe which

xu

na= nao-pa-ham

DEM

2 CLT=younge-M-Q

‘Which one is your brother?’

4.3.3.3 Imperative Mood The imperative expresses an action as a command, a request, a warning, a prohibition, etc. The imperative is restricted to the irrealis and cannot refer to the present or past tenses. Since the imperative denotes a command, request, etc., its proper domain is the second person. Indirect commands or requests made to a third person are expressed by the subjunctive form. In imperative constructions, the subject is omitted and can be guessed from both the context and the form of the verb. (149) huŋ-lut-in come- enter-IMP ‘Come in.’

(150) pot-do-in Get-out-IMP ‘Get out.’ The negative imperative is formed by affixing the prohibitive marker -hi before the imperative marker. (151) lut-hi-in/o enter-NEG-IMP ‘Do not come in.’

(152) bol-hi-in/o do-NEG-IMP ‘Do not do.’ 4.3.3.4 Hortative Mood The hortative suffix -te is often used with first person inclusive. It is not used with singular or dual subjects. (153) lut-u-hi-te enter-PL-COP-HORT ‘Let us enter.’

(154) tau-u-hi-te pray-PL-COP-HORT ‘Let us pray.’

4.3.4 The Indirect Evidential -na Thadou has marking of indirect evidential which is represented by the prefix {na}.The nature of -na in this language is very similar to the indirect-evidential suffix -

- 152 lm of Meithei. (Chelliah44 1997). The indirect evidence -na indicates that the speaker has indirect evidence, knowledge gained through inference based on external data to support the truth of the proposition. The speaker is not an eye witness to the actual action but only to the result, conclusion or final stages of the action. With future tense, the speaker infers that the action/situation in the verb must be or will come into being. This inference is based on past experience that allows the speaker to predict a trend in behaviour. (155) ka=un -in

kim-in

an

a=na-ne-ta=e

1=reach-CONJ kim-ERG food 3CLT=EVD-eat-PERF=DECL ‘When I arrived, Kim had finish eating her food.’

In imperative sentences, the person giving the order or request expects the action to be performed when he/she is not present. In other words, the action will be performed while the speaker is away. This is seen from the example below. (156) lexa

a=na-sim-in

book 3 CLT=EVD-read-IMP ‘Study ( while I’am away).’ (157) an

a=na-ne-ta-in

food 3CLT=EVD-eat-PERF-IMP ‘Have your food.’

Sentence (157) implies that the speaker will be late and does not want the hearer to wait for him. He/she is telling to go ahead and have the food in his absence because he will be late. Since -na indicates that the initiation of an action is complete at the time when the speaker is cognizant of the action, it is commonly used for the narration of past events. For this reason, it is often analysed as a past tense marker (Rebecca

44

Chelliah, Shobhana L. 1997. A Grammar of Meithei. New Yok: Mouton de Gruyter.

2007) (Hyman 2004). As has been discussed above -na can also be used with the future tense as seen in (156). Therefore, it is not a tense marker but an indirectevidential marker. It occurs before the verbal root.

(158) masaŋ-lai-in

leŋpa xat

early-time-LOC book

a=na-um=e

one 3CLT=EVD-exist=DECL

‘Long ago, there was a king.’ (159) ziŋ-le

lexa

ka=na-sim

tomorrow-LOC book 3CLT=EVD-read

diŋ

ahi

FUT

COP

‘I will study tomorrow (in your absence).’

4.4

THE VERB STRUCTURE

This section deals with the structure of the verb in Thadou. The derivational morphology of the verb is also provided in this section. Verb morphology is quite simple and the The basic structure of the verb is: verbal proclitic followed by the verb root .The structure of verb can be presented on the following tree diagram.

Verb

Verbal proclitic

stem Figure 8 Structure of the Verb

This can be seen in the following sentences. (160) kei=in

an

ka=ne=e

kei= ERG food 1CLT=eat=DECL ‘I eat food.’

declarative marker

- 154 The basic structure of the verb in the present tense as can be seen from the above example is: one of the verbal proclitics depending on the subject of the sentence, the root verb and the declarative marker. The verbal proclitic must agree with the subject as seen in the example. For the future tense construction, the structure is different

Verb Proclitic stem tense

copula

Figure 9 Structure of the Verb in Future tense This is exemplified in the sentence below. (161) kei phai-a 1

ka=ʦe

imphal-LOC 1CLT=go

diŋ

a=hi

FUT

3CLT= COP

‘I will go to Imphal.’ The stem verb is preceded by the verbal proclitic. The future tense marker is -diŋ suffix that immediately follow the verb followed by the copula verb ɑ=hi.

4.4.1 The Derivational Morphology of the Verb So far, we have discussed the basic structure of the verb. In addition to these, there are various derivational affixes that occur with the root verb. This section provides a detailed discussion on the derivational morphology of the verb in the language. The following section deals with the verb derivational suffixes and particles which belong the the verb. Thadou is a verb final language and tense markers, aspect markers and mood markers appear following the verb. There are also some markers that comes before the verb. Based on their position in the verbal template, they can be broadly classified into preverbal and postverbal markers. The structure of the verb can be presented in the following tree diagram:

Verb

preverbal

post verbal

proclitic

prefix

verbal proclitic

indirectevidential

enclitic

number

suffix

particles

TAM

future copula

question, negative,imper ative,causitive

declarative

Verb

preverbal

post verbal

proclitic

prefix

verbal proclitic

indirectevidential

enclitic

suffix

particles

number

TAM question, negative,imper ative,causitive

future copula declarative

Figure 10 Components of the Verb Template

4.4.1.1 Preverbal Markers The elements that occur before the root verb include the verbal proclitics, the directional markers and the indirect evidential marker. Each of this is discussed in this section.

- 156 4.4.1.1.1 The verbal proclitics THADOU GLOSS ka=

‘first person exclusive proclitic’

i=

‘first person inclusive proclitic’

na=

‘second person proclitic’

a=

‘third person proclitic’ 4.13Verbal Proclitic

In Thadou, a verb always takes one of the above mentioned verbal clitics depending on the subject. The subject of the clause is mostly dropped in informal speech as the dropped subject can be recovered from the clitics that comes with the verb. Therefore, to avoid redundancy, the subject is mostly dropped. This is illustrated in the examples below. (162) (kei=in) hai 1= ERG

ka=ne=e

mango 1 CLT=cut=DECL

‘I am eating a mango.’ (163) (naŋ=in) hai 2= ERG

na=ne=e

mango 2 CLT=cut=DECL

‘You are eating a mango.’ (164) (ama=in) hai 3= ERG

a=ne=e

mango 3CLT=cut=DECL

‘He/she is eating a mango.’

As can be seen from the above sentences, the proclitics that comes with the verb agrees in person with the subject. In other words, Thadou can be called a pro drop languages because of the presence of the agreement markers symbolized in verbal proclitics.

4.4.1.1.2 Directionals The other class of derivation that occurs before the root verb are the directionals. There are three directionals derived from verbs as shown in the table 4.18.

THADOU GLOSS

USUAGE

huŋ

‘proximal’

action at the place of the speaker

hin

‘distal’

action directed towards the speaker

ga

‘derived

from ‘action directed from the speaker towards a direction

go’

away from the speaker’ 4.14 Directionals

Like Meithei and other Tibeto-Burman languages, Thadou also has directional verbs: huŋ, hin, ga. These markers indicate the position of the speaker. The proximal marker huŋ derived from the verb huŋ ‘come’ indicates that the entity performs an action at the place of the speech event. This is illustrated in the following sentences. The distal marker ga indicates that an action be performed from the location of the speaker towards a place away from the speaker. While the marker hin implies that an entity performs the action towards the speaker from some other place away from the speaker. This type of verbs can be used with all tenses, aspects and moods. However, their usuage is more often in imperative mood. This is illustrated in the following sentences. (165) huŋ-tou-in come-sit-IMP ‘Sit/ come and sit.’ Here, the reading will be ‘come and sit here’ (166) ŋa hin-ʦo-in fish buy-IMP ‘Buy fish.’

Here, it will mean ‘buy fish and come’

- 158 (167) ŋa fish

ga-ʦo-in go-buy-IMP

‘Go and buy fish.’

The context of the three sentences can be explained. In the first sentences (165), huŋtau-in indicates that the hearer is in the proximity of the speaker and he/she is expected to sit near the speaker or within the proximity of the speaker. In the second sentence, the action of buying is supposed to be performed in the absence of the speaker. At the time of speaking, the speaker A is at home and the hearer B is in the market and is on his way home and B calls up A to find out what he should bring. Now, since A is coming from the market towards B’s home B asks A to bring fish from the market. It is in this kind of context that this construction is used. In this sentence (166), it will mean ‘buy and come’ The context in the third sentence (167) the situation is different. In this, both A and B are at home. A wants B to go and buy fish from the market, which is away from home. Here, it will mean go and buy. All the three directionals occur before the verb.

4.4.1.2 The indirect Evidential Marker -na As discussed in 4.3.4, the indirect evidential marker is na- and it occurs before the verb after the verbal proclitics in the verb phrase as can be seen from the sentences below. (168) an

a=na-ne-ta-in

food 3CLT-EVD-eat-PERF -IMP ‘Have your food.’

4.4.1.2.1 The verbal Reflexive Marker ki Another preverbal marker is ki (c.f 4.1.2) which comes before the verb and after the indirect evidential marker. This can be seen from the examples in (169) and (170).

(169) ama-le-ama a=ki-tha=e 3-CONJ-3

3CLT=kill=DECL

‘He killed himself.’ (170) iŋboi lhingboi

le

lulun a=ki=luŋset-to-on=e

CONJ

lulun 3CLT=REFL=love-REC-DL=DECL

‘Lhingboi and Lulun love each other.’

It can be concluded from the fore going discussion that except for the verbal clitics and the non-evidential markers and the reflexive marker all others occur after the root verb. The next section deals with the post verbal morphology of the verb.

4.4.1.3

Post Verbal Markers

Post verbal markers refer to the affixes and clitics that occur after the verbal stem. They are either enclitics or suffixes. All the post verbal markers are discussed in the following section. 4.4.1.3.1 Number Markers THADOU GLOSS =on

‘dual’

=u

‘plural’

4.15 Number Markers As seen in section 4.5.3.1, the verbal proclitics show verbal agreement with the subject only in person. The number agreement cannot be distinguished from the preverbal citics. The number agreement is marked post verbally by the enclitics =on ‘dual’ and =u ‘plural’. Singular is unmarked. The sentences (164) through (166) shows the position of the number markers in the verb phrase. (171) (kei=ni=in ) 1= DL= ERG

an

ka=ne=on=e

food

1 CLT=eat-DL=DECL

‘We (two) are having our food (exclusive).’

- 160 -

(172) (ei=ni=in ) 1= DL= ERG

an

i=ne=on=e

food

1 CLT=eat-DL=DECL

‘We (two) are having our food (inclusive).’ (173) (kei=ho=in ) an 1= PL=ERG

ka=ne=u=ve

food 1CLT=eat=PL=DECL

‘We are having our food (exclusive).’ (174) (ei=ho=in) an 1= PL=ERG

i=ne=u=ve

food 1 CLT=eat=PL=DECL

‘We are having our food (inclusive).’

4.4.1.3.2 Tense, Mood and Aspect Markers All the tense, aspect and mood markers in Thadou occur post verbally and are all suffixes to the verb. The tense, aspect and mood markers are given in the table below.

THADOU

GLOSS

diŋ

‘future tense’

ta

‘imperfective aspect’

na

‘evidential marker’

nom

‘wish/desire to V’

ŋai

‘obligation’

go

‘intention’



‘declarative’

in/o

‘imperative’

ham/a/ha ‘question’ 4.16Tense, Mood and Aspect Markers

4.4.1.3.2.1

The future tense marker -diŋ

As discussed in section 4.2.1, Thadou makes distinction in the future and non-future tenses. The construction in the future is different. The future tense marker occurs after the root verb and is followed by the copula ahi. This is seen in the example below. (175) (kei) phai-a 1

ka=ʦe

Imphal-LOC 1CLT=go

diŋ

a=hi

FUT

3 CLT=COP

‘I will go to Imphal.’ (176) ama phai-a 3

ʦe diŋ

Imphal-LOC go

FUT

a=hi COP

‘He will go to Imphal.’

4.4.1.3.2.2 The Perfective Aspect -ta As discussed in the earlier section 4.3.2, Thadou makes a distinction perfective and imperfective aspect. The imperfective aspect is unmarked and the perfective aspect is marked by the suffix -ta which occurs immediately after the root verb in the nonfuture tense. (177) ama sku l-a 3

a=ʦe-ta=e

school-LOC 3CLT=go-PERF=DECL

‘He has gone school.’ (178) kim=in

an

a=hon-ʦai-ta=e

kim=ERG food 3CLT=cook-finish-PERF=DECL ‘Kim has finished cooking.’ (179) ama a=ʦe-ta=e 3

3CLT=go-PERF=DECL

‘He/she has left.’

- 162 (180) kei sku l-a 1

ka=ʦe-aŋai=e

school-LOC 1 CLT=go-OBLG=DECL

‘I must go to school.’ (181) naŋ

sku l-a

2

na=ʦe-ta=e

school-LOC 2 CLT=go-INTD=DECL

‘‘You have gone to school.’

4.4.1.3.2.3

The declarative marker =e

Declarative mood is marked by the the declarative marker =e and always comes at the end of the verb phrase after all the other affixes. (182) tuni today

a=sa

e=e

ADJ=hot

very=DECL

‘It is very hot today.’

4.4.1.3.2.4

The interrogative marker: ham/ha/a/oŋ

Interrogative can be formed by raising intonation and adding the question particle. The interrogative markers in Thadou are -a, -ha, -ham -oŋ. These particles occur in the final position in interrogative sentences. (183) na=min

ip i-ha m

2CLT=name what-Q ‘What is your name?’ (184) ibola na=huŋ-ham what

2CLT=come-Q

‘Why did you come?’ (185) iti-le

na=bol

what-ADV 2 CLT=do ‘When will you do?’

diŋ-ham FUT-Q

4.4.1.3.2.5

The Imperative Marker -in/o

The imperative mood is marked by -in /o. It can mean either a command or a request depending on the tone and intonation of the speaker. -taŋ is sometimes used for commands. (186) kot

xa-in/o

door close-IMP ‘Close the door.’ With a low tone and intonation, this can be a request. With the rising intonation and a commanding voice, it can be used as a command.

(187) kot

xa-taŋ

door close-IMP ‘Close the door.’ This can be used for a command with a rising intonation and a louder voice. 4.4.1.3.2.6

Desire to V : -nom

Derived from the verb nom ‘agree’, ‘indicates a desire on the part of the speaker to perform. (188) kei deli-a 1

ka=ʦe-nom=e

deli-LOC 1CLT=go wish=DECL

‘I want to go to delhi.’ (189) kei mi-hausa 1

ka=hi-nom=e

person-rich 1 CLT=COP-wish=DECL

‘I wish to be a rich person.’ (190) kei doktor ka=hi-nom=e 1

doctor 1 CLT=COP-wish=DECL

‘I wish to be a doctor.’

- 164 4.4.1.3.2.7

The Obligatory Marker: -ŋai

The obligatory modality is marked by ŋai ‘must’ which immediately follows the verb in the sentence as shown in the examples below. (191) naŋ 2

in -a

na=ʦe-ŋai=e

house-LOC

1CLT=go OBL=DECL

‘You must go home./You need to go home.’ (192) ama=in lexa 3= ERG

a=sim-aŋai=e

book 3CLT=study-OBL=DECL

‘He must study.’

4.4.1.3.2.8

The Intention Marker: -go/got

The suffix -go, derived from the verb ‘plan’ is used to marked the intention of the speaker. With the -ahi construction the stem2

form got is used and with the

declarative sentence, the stem1 go is used. This is shown in the sentences below. (193) ʦa

don-in

a=ʦe-go=e

tea drink-LOC 3CLT=go-INTD=DECL ‘He intends to go for tea.’ (194) in-a

lexa

a=sim-got-a=hi

house-LOC book 3CLT=read-INTD-3CLT=COP ‘He intends to study at home.’

4.4.1.3.3 Negative Markers In Thadou, there are different negative markers. (for a detail discussion, refer to section 6.5). All the negative markers occur post verbally. The negative markers are given in the table 4.2 below.

THADOU GLOSS -hi

‘prohibitive’

-lou

‘negation’

-po

‘Let negation’

4.17 Negative Markers

4.4.1.3.3.1

-hiʔ as a prohibitive marker

The prohibitive is formed with the negative particle -hi follows the verb stem but preceds the imperative. The prohibitive suffix -hiʔ is added to verbs to indicate prohibition. It can be used with all the varities second person pronouns: singular, dual and plural. This can be seen from the sentences below. (195) (naŋ) sku l-a (2)

ʦe-hi-in

school-LOC go-PROH-IMP

‘Don’t go to school.’

In the dual subject construction, the prohibitive suffix comes after the dual marker and the root verb but before the imperative marker: root verb -DL -hiʔ -IMP. This structure is fixed and any change in the pattern is grammatically incorrect. However, with the second person plural subject, the pattern is different as the prohibitive marker -hiʔ comes immediately after the root verb and the plural marker comes after the negative marker followed by the imperative marker: main verb- hiʔ -PL - IMP. This is explained with the sentences below. (196) ŋaŋ-ni

skul-

ʦe=on-hiʔ-in

you-DL school-LOC go=DL-NEG-IMP ‘You don’t go to school.’ The above sentences can be taken as a polite request, a suggestion or a command depending on the context and tone of the speaker.

- 166 (197) naŋ=ho sku l-a you= PL

ʦe-hi-uv-in

school-LOC go-PROH-PL-IMP

‘You (plural) don’t go to school.’

The above sentences can be taken as a polite request, a suggestion or a command depending on the context to whom it is said and by whom. However, for a polite request the imperative -o is preferred over -in. 4.4.1.3.3.2

-po as a Negative Marker

-po is used a negative marker to negate a proposal or an affirmative propositions and is a suffix to the root verb. (198) ei-ho

sku l-a

ʦe-po=u-hi-te

1INC-PL school-LOC go-NEG=PL-COP ‘Let us not go to school.’ (199) kei sku l-a 1

ka=ʦe-po=e

school-LOC 1 CLT=go-NEG=DECL

‘I did not go to school.’ (200) ama=in an 3= ERG

a=ne-po=e

food 3 CLT=eat-like-NEG=DECL

‘He did not have food.’ (201) naŋ=in an 2= ERG

na=ne-po=e

food 2 CLT=eat-like-NEG=DECL

‘You did not have food.’ 4.4.1.3.4 Other Markers There are also other markers that occurs post verbally.

THADOU GLOSS pi

‘comitative’

pe

‘benefactive’

sa

‘causative’

4.18 Other markers 4.4.1.3.4.1

The comitative suffix -pi

The comitative -pi indicates that the actor or agent performs something together with the other person for the benefit of that other person. It occurs immediately after the root verb. (202) ɬiŋboi=in

lulun an

a=ne-pi=e

lhingboi=ERG lulun food 3CLT=eat-COM=DECL ‘Lhingboi had food along with Lulun.’ It gives the reading that Lhingboi gave company to Lulun as he did not like to have food alone. Lhingboi is doing the action of eating not because she is angry but just for the benefit of Lulun she is eating.

4.4.1.3.4.2

The Causative Marker -saʔ

The causative marker -saʔ indicates that the action is initiated by one person and carried out by another. The causative marker is also a suffix as it comes after the root verb. This is exemplified in the sentences below. (203) ama=in ka=nu 3= ERG

bu

a=hon-sa=e

2CLT=mother rice 3CLT=cook-CAU=DECL

‘He/she made my mother cook rice.’ (204) iŋboi=in

a=ʦa-nu

a=imut-sa=e

lhingboi=ERG 3POSS=child-F 3CLT=sleep-CAU=DECL ‘Lhingboi put her daughter to sleep.’

- 168 4.4.1.3.4.3

Benefactive suffix: pi

(205) ama=in a=nu =ERG

bu

a=hon-pi=e

3POSS=mother rice 3 CLT=cook-BEN=DECL

‘He/she cook rice for his/her mother.’ The Copula: ahi

4.4.1.4

The copula ahi occurs on its own to complete a sentence or with the future tense. It also occurs with the predicative sentences and also occurs clause finally. (206) kei in-a 1

ka=ʦe

house-LOC 1 CLT=go

diŋ

a=hi

FUT

COP

‘I will go home.’ (207) lulun mi

p ha

lulun person good

a=hi COP

‘Lulun is a good person.’

4.5

THE ORDER OF THE VERB

From the above discussion, it is clear that the structure of the verb has a fixed order and the elements in the verb phrase cannot be randomly placed in the verb phrase. The order and position of the element within the root verb can be summarized as under: a)

Declarative marker e always occurs in the final position in the verb form.

b)

In imperative sentences, the imperative -in/-o/-veoccupies the final position in

the verb. c)

The perfective aspect marker -ta occurs immediately after the root root.

d)

The indirect evidential marker is the only marker which is a prefix as itoccurs

before the verb stem. e)

The verbal proclitics occupy the first position or the left most position in the

verb structure. f)

The reflexive marker =ki is also a proclitic which occurs immediately before

the root verb, after the verbal proclitic In the future tense, the future marker -diŋ occurs immediately after the verb, followed by the copular verb

g)

The negative markers occur post verbally after the root verb but before the

declarative marker and the imperative markers. h)

All mood markers occur after the verb root.

i)

In interrogative sentences, the interrogative particles occupy the final position

in the verbal template. j)

The causative, comitative and benifactive markers occupy the post verbal

positions. 4.6

SUMMARY The chapter dealt with the nature of verb and the verb morphology. Like nouns, simple verbs are mainly monosyllabic in nature. As in other languages, verbs play the most important role in a sentence. There is a basic tense distinction between future and non-future events. The future is marked by the irrealis marker -diŋ and the non-future is unmarked. The past event is sometimes marked with the evidential prefix na-. Thadou is a mood prominent language like other Kuki-Chin languages. The verbal complex consists of a verb stem preceded by one of the proclitic element and followed by several postverbal particles. The verb phrase is the most complex part and interesting part of Thadou grammar as many particles form part in the verb phrase.

- 170 -

5 WORD FORMATION Word formation deals with the “creation of new word”. It is the process of morphological variation in the constitution of words. It has two main divisions, viz., inflection and derivation. Derivation is divided into two branches, that is, affixation and compounding. Again, compounding is divided into three types, that is, endocentric compound, exocentric compound and co-ordinate compound. Endocentric compound has two sub-types, that is, right headed compound and left headed compound. Inflection is the grammatical relationship such as plural, past tense and possession, and does not change the grammatical class of the stems to which that are attached, that is, the words constitute a single paradigm eg, walk, walks, walked. A word is said to “inflect for past tense, plural etc. A particular bound morph expressing an inflectional distinction. For example, one can speak of the English plural suffix -s or the past tense suffix -ed as an inflection. Inflectional suffixes do not allow further suffixation. Inflectional suffixes are “terminal” and their terminal never changes the class (word class) of the root, for example, in sweeter and sweetest, the termination of -er by -est does not change the word class; both the forms remain Adjectives. Derivation is the morphological process that results in the formation of new lexemes (Lyons, 1977). It involves, or may involve, many variables in an open class (Strang, 1968). It is characterized by low commutability within the word-form, but a few kinds of derivation are characterized by high commutability within the sentence (feminine forms in -ess in English, diminutives and augmentatives in Italian, for example). It is divided into two: affixation and compounding.

This chapter deals with the various word formation processes in Thadou. The important word formation processes in Thadou are compounding, affixation and reduplication. The chapter is divided into various sub classification. 5.1 deals with compounding and in section 5.2 reduplication, the nature and types of reduplication in the language are discussed. Section 5.3 deals with affixation and the different types of affixation in the language.

5.1

COMPOUND AND COMPOUNDING In Linguistics, a compound45 is a lexeme that consists of more than one stem. Compounding is the word formation that creates compound lexemes (the other wordformation process being derivation). Compounding or Word-compounding refers to the faculty and device of language to form new words by combining or putting together old words. In other words, compound, compounding or word-compounding occurs when a person attaches two or more words together to make them one word. The meanings of the words interrelate in such a way that a new meaning comes out which is very different from the meanings of the words in isolation. Exocentric compounds (called a bahuvrihi compound in the Sanskrit tradition) do not have a head, and their meaning often cannot be transparently guessed from its constituent parts. For example, the English compound white-collar is neither a kind of collar nor a white thing. In an exocentric compound, the word class is determined lexically, disregarding the class of the constituents. For example, a must-have is not a verb but a noun. The meaning of this type of compound can be glossed as "(one) whose B is A", where B is the second element of the compound and A the first. A bahuvrihi compound is one whose nature is expressed by neither of the words: thus a white-collar person is neither white nor a collar (the collar's colour is a metaphor for socioeconomic status). Other English examples include barefoot and Blackbeard.



Copulative compounds are compounds which have two semantic heads.



Appositional compounds refer to lexemes that have two (contrary) attributes which classify the compound. Compounds are composed of elements that function independently in other circumstances. They consist of two or more free morpheme, as in such “compound nouns” as bedroom, postman, matchbox etc. According to the form class form of the resultant compound usually compounding may be sub-divided, according to the semantic criteria, into:

(i)

exocentric

(ii)

endocentric

(iii)

appositional

(iv)

dvandva compounds (Bauer, 1983:33)

45

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compound_(linguistics)

- 172 -

5.1.1 Compounds in Thadou This section deals with compounds, the nature and types of compounds and the processes of compounding found in Thadou. Compounding is a very productive word formation process in the language. The different types of compounds found in the language share the Tibeto-Burman compound features. ‘Root + Root’ compound is the most common, but we can also find ‘Word + Word’ compound in the language. Compound verbs can also be found in the language. Another important type of compounding is the compounding in proper names or names of persons. It can be stated that most of the polysyllabic words in Thadou are the result of compounding. The nature and types of compounding are discussed in the following sections. The compound words in Thadou may be broadly into one of the following types (i)

compound nouns

(ii)

compound verbs

(iii)

compounds containing particles

(iv)

Appositional Compounds 5.1.1.1 Noun1 +Noun2→Compound Noun This type of compounds are composed of two independent nouns to form a compound noun. It consists of the attribute or the subordinate and head or centre. For instance, mitmul ‘eyelash’ is an endocentric compound consisting of two elements, namely, mit ‘eye’ and mul ‘body hair’. In this compound, mul ‘lash’ functions as the head and mit ‘eye’ functions as the attribute of mul. These are left handed compound and are endocentric in nature. Examples of this kind of compounds are given in the following table.

NOUN1

NOUN2

COMPOUND NOUN

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

mit

eye

mul

lash

mitmul

‘eye lash’

ənkam

mustard mu

seed

n kammu

‘mustard seed’

vatot

duck

tui

egg

vatottui

‘duck egg’

a

hen

tui

egg

atui

‘hen egg’

vo

pig

sa 

meat

vosa

saŋxol

shirt

kam

button saŋxolkam ‘button of the shirt’

‘pork’

5.1 Noun1+Noun2→ Compound Noun

5.1.1.2 Noun1 + Verb1→ Compound Noun Compound nouns can be formed by combining of a noun with a stem I verb. The resulting compound is a noun. These are compositional in nature as the resulting compound noun carry some meaning from both the constituent. For example, the word vanleŋ ‘aeroplane’ is composed of two constituents van ‘sky and leŋ ‘fly’ to mean an object that can fly in the sky. Names of diseases and sicknesses are formed by a similar process. For example, luʦaŋnat ‘headache’ has two components lu ʦaŋ ‘head’ nat ‘pain’. More examples of this type of compounds is given in 5.2. NOUN1

VERB1

COMPOUND NOUN

THADOU GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

mun

place

the

sweep

munthe

‘broom’

pon

cloth

sil

wear

pon sil

‘shawl’

lexa

paper

thot

send

lexathot

‘letter’

van

sky

leŋ

fly

van leŋ

‘aeroplane’

bil

ear

ba

to wear

bilba

‘earring’

mit

eye

be

to paste mitbe

sm

hair

kil

to clip

smkil

‘hair clip’

oi

stomach nat

pain

oinat

‘stomach pain’

oi

stomach ei

run

oiei

‘diarrhoea /loose motion’

thin

liver

nat

pain

thinnat

‘jaundice’

ui

dog

lut

enter

uilut

‘boil’

ui

dog

tha

scratch

uitha 

‘scabies’

‘spectacles’

5.2 Noun1 + Verb1→ Compound Noun

- 174 5.1.1.3 Noun1 + Adjective→ Compound Noun Compound nouns are also formed by combining a noun with an adjective or adjectival verb. In this kind of compound, the second component are modifiers of the first component, the noun. These are left headed endocentric compounds as the left most noun is the head and the right most constituent is the modifier.

NOUN1

+

ADJECTIVE →

COMPOUND NOUN

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

sum

money sen

red

sumsen

‘coin’

sum

money eŋ

yellow

sumeŋ

‘zinc’

mu

hawk

sa

animal ŋan

sa

animal xi

thaŋ

famous muthaŋ slow

‘vulture

saŋan

‘donkey’

saxi

‘deer’

5.3 Noun1+Adjective 5.1.1.4 Noun1 + Verb1 +suffix→ Compound Noun There are also some compounds nouns composed of a noun and a verbal root and a derivational suffix as shown in the examples in the table 5.4. It is always the stem II that functions as the second member in this type of compound. Stem This is a highly productive process of forming a compound noun in the language. NOUN1

VERB2

SUFFIX

COMPOUND NOUN

THADOU GLOSS THADOU GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU GLOSS

in

pa

MAS

insapa

house

sa 

build

‘house builder’

bel

pot

xeŋ

mould

pa

MAS

belxeŋpa

‘potter’

in

house

ŋa

wait

pa

MAS

inŋa pa

‘home guard’

pon

cloth

xui

stitch

mi

person ponxuimi ‘tailor’

lou

field

ou

plough mi

person lououmi ‘farmer’

Table:5.4 Noun+Verb Compounds

5.1.1.5 Noun+Dimunitive →Noun The dimunitive marker -ʦa is suffixed to animals which are small in size to indicate their smallness. NOUN1

NOUN2

NOUN

GLOSS

meŋ

cat

va kel

DIMUNITIVE

COMPOUND NOUN NOUN

GLOSS

ʦa

meŋʦa

‘cat’

bird

ʦa

vaʦa

‘bird’

goat

ʦa

kelʦa

‘goat’

5.5 NOUN+DIMUNITIVE→NOUN

5.1.1.6 Noun+Augmentative→Compound Noun The animals that are larger in size take the augmentative suffix to indicate their largeness in size. It can also used with other nouns and it indicates the size of the object. This should not be confused with the femine marker used for human beings.

NOUN

+

AUGMENTATIVE SUFFIX

→

COMPOUND NOUN

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

sai

elephant

pi

AUG

saipi

‘elephant’

vom

black

pi

AUG

vompi

‘bear’

kei

tiger

pi

AUG

keipi

‘tiger’

lam

way/path pi

AUG

lampi

‘road’

in

house

pi

AUG

inpi

‘parliament’

ŋa

fish

pi

AUG

ŋapi

‘whale’

xo

village

pi

AUG

xopi

‘city’

mi

person

pi

AUG

mip i

‘crowd’

5.6 Noun+Augmentative 5.1.2 Compounding in proper names A typical Thadou name consists of three or four syllables, each with a significant meaning. A child is name after the grand parent. The name of the child begins with

- 176 the last yllable of the grand parent or the person after whom the child is named. Each syllable in the name has its own independent meaning and often is associated with the attributes of the grand parent after whom the child has been named. This can be illustrated with an example. For example, the grand father’s name is Ngamminthang, (ŋam ‘brave’+ min ‘name’ + thaŋ ‘famous’) ‘the child’s name has to start with thang. So, we can have names like: Thangminlen (thaŋ ‘famous’ + min ‘fame’ +len ‘big’ ). This is also true with the case of female names as well. For example, if the grand mother after whom the child is named is Hoineikim (hoi ‘beauty+ nei ‘have’ kim ‘sufficient’), the child’s name can be kimneithem (kim ‘sufficient+ nei ‘have’ them ‘expert’). 5.1.3 Compound verbs As discussed in section 4.1.4, in Thadou, there are different types of compound verbs depending on the structure and meaning of the compound verbs. The compound verbs can be composed of two simple verbs to form a new verb or a verb may take a noun and form a different verb. Let us look at the some of thedifferent types of compound verbs in Thadou. 5.1.3.1 Verb1 +Verb2→Compound Verb In this type of compounds, verbs are combined with another verb like lu t ‘enter’ maŋ ‘lost’ to derive a different verb which has relation with both the roots. VERB1

VERB2

COMPOUND VERB

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

huŋ

come

lut

go inside

huŋlut

‘come in/enter’

ʦe

go

lut

go inside

ʦelut

‘go in/enter’

va

roam

lut

go inside

valut

‘barge’

ʦop

jump

lut

go inside

ʦoplut

‘barge’

pe

give

lut

go inside

pelut

‘submit’

leŋ

fly

lut

go inside

leŋlut

‘fly inside’

zam

run

mŋ

lost

zammŋ ‘run away/escape’

su

hit

mŋ

lost

sumŋ

‘spent’

5.7Verb1 +Verb2→Compound Verb 5.1.3.2 Noun+Verb→ Compound verb There are also some verbs which take the noun luŋ ‘mind/heart’ as the first member to form a compound verb. The basic or simple verbs have their own meaning but combine with the noun lu ŋ ‘heart/mind’ derives a new meaning. These verbs are stative in nature and some of them behave like psychological verbs. In this type of compound, if the second member is the stem 1 verb, the resultant compound is a verb but if it is the stem II form of the verb, the compound is an abstract noun and not a verb. For example, luŋnom ‘happy’ is formed by luŋ ‘mind’ and the stem 1 form of the verb nom ‘fine/pleasant’. When we changed the second constituent to the stem II form of the verb, nop , we get an abstract noun: lu ŋnop ‘happiness’. This phenomena is illustrated with more examples in 5.9.

NOUN

GLOSS

VERB

luŋ

‘mind’ haŋ/han

‘brave’ luŋ-haŋ/luŋhan

luŋ

‘mind’ gim/gim

‘tired’

luŋgim/luŋ-gim

‘worried/worry’

luŋ

‘mind’ na/na

‘pain’

luŋ-na

‘hurt’

luŋ

‘mind’ neo

‘small’ luŋ-neo

luŋ

‘mind’ len/let

‘big’

luŋ-len

‘broad minded’

luŋ

‘mind’ gel/gel

‘think’

luŋ-gel

‘thinking’/thought’

luŋ

‘mind’ nom/nop

‘fine’

‘luŋ-nom’

‘happy/happiness’

luŋ

‘mind’ boi/boi

‘busy’

luŋ-boi

‘confuse/confusion’

luŋ

‘mind’ ei/ei

‘run’

luŋ-ei

‘contended/contentment’

luŋ

‘mind’ theŋ/ then ‘clean’

‘luŋ-theŋ

‘innocent/innocence’

GLOSS

COMPLEX VERBS GLOSS ‘angry/anger’

‘narrow minded’

5.8 luŋ+verb→Compound verb 5.1.4 Co-ordinate compounds There are two elements in co-ordinate compounds. They contain neither head nor attribute, but they are made up of two different nouns. In the underlying structures of co-ordinate compounds, the two elements can be related with each other by the

- 178 conjunctive particle le/leʔ ‘and’. In some compounds, the second member has the same or a similar meaning as the first member of the compound and the two together denote a meaning wider than either of the member elements as can be seen in examples like

nei ‘possession gou ‘treasure’ nei le gou ‘property’. In some

compounds, the second member has the opposite meaning to the first as in sa le aŋ ‘south and north’. For examples of co-ordinate compounds are given in the table below. THADO

GLOSS

U

THADO

GLOS

THADO

U

S

U

GLOSS

THADO

GLOSS

U

nu

mother

le

and

pa

father

nulepa

‘parents’

pi

‘grand

le

and

pu

grand

pilepu

‘ancestors’

neleʦa

‘food’

mother ne

eat

father le

and

ʦa

 sil

wear (as

le

and

ʦen

wear

silleʦen

le

and

xaŋ

grow

telexaŋ ‘young

‘clothing’

in shawl’) te

old

and old’ nei

‘possessio

le

and

gou

wealth

n in

house

neilego

‘property’

u le

and

lou

field

inlelou

‘immovabl e properties’

boŋ

cow

le

and

loi

buffalo

boŋleloi ‘cattles’

sa

meat

le

and

ŋa

fish

sa eŋa

‘non vegetables ’

u

elders

le

and

nao

younger

ulenao

relatives’

loilegol

‘friends’

s loi

friend

le

and

gol

friend

sa

le

south

and

aŋ

north

sa lea

‘north

ŋ

south’

5.9 Co-ordinate compounds

5.1.5 Associative Compounds There are also compounds formed by juxtaposing two nouns to form a compound noun. The two constituents in this type of compound are of the same semantic field.

NOUN1 THADOU

NOUN2 GLOSS

COMPOUND NOUN

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

pa

male

nupa

‘couples’

nu

female

u

elder sibling ʦa

aʦiŋ

wise

athem

expert

aʦiŋathem ‘educated/learned’

ahoi

beauty

apha

good

ahoiapha

offsrping uʦa

‘siblings

‘the good’

5.10 Associative compounds

5.1.6 Compounding of three roots There are also nouns formed by compounding of three roots in the language. The examples are given below. 5.1.6.1 noun+noun+verb→noun

NOUN1 THADO

NOUN2 GLOSS

U

lal soŋ

THADO

GLOSS

U

power

stone

lu mən

head

cost

VERB/ADJ

COMPOUND NOUN

THADO

GLOS

THADOU

GLOSS

U

S

xuɁ

wear

lalluxuɁ

‘crown’

plent

so ŋməntə

‘diamond’

y

m

təm

- 180 -

si

star

som

bachelor’s

leŋ

fly

dormitory

sisomle

‘shooting

ŋ

star’

kolbuthei

‘pomegrant

46

kol

burmes

bu

thei

rice

fruit

e

e’ 5.11 Compounding of three roots

5.1.7 Affixo compounding Affixo compounding47 is a complex process of word formation which involves compounding and affixation. There are different types of this nature of compounding. 5.1.7.1 Noun+Verb+Agentive→Compound Noun This type of compounds are formed by combination a noun, an action verb and the agntive suffixes pa ‘masculine’, nu ‘feminine’ and mi ‘generic’. NOUN1

VERB

AGENTIVE

COMPOUND NOUN

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

in

house

sa 

build

pa

AGEN

insapa

‘builder’

n

food

hon

cook

pa

AGEN

nhonpa

‘cook’

bel

pot

xeŋ

mould

pa

AGEN

belxeŋpa

‘potter’

pon

cloth

so p

wash

pa

AGEN

pon soppa ‘washer man’

lou

field

ou

plough mi

AGEN

lououmi

‘farmer’

5.12 NOUN +VERB+AGENTIVE →COMPOUND NOUN 5.1.7.2 Noun+Verb+nominaliser→Compound Noun There are also compound nouns which are composed of a noun, a verb and a nominalising suffix -na. The resultant compound is a compound which means an instrument for doing something. These compounds are endocentric in nature.

47

This feature is also observed in Manipuri. Singh, Chungkham Yashawanta. 2000. Manipuri Grammar. New Delhi: Rajesh

NOUN1

VERB

NOMINALIZER

COMPOUND NOUN

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

THADOU

GLOSS

ha

tooth

not

brush

na

NMZL

hanotna

‘tooth brush’

tin

nail

tan

cut

na

NMZL

tin tanna

‘nail cutter’

5.1.8 Summary Compounding is a highly productive process of forming new words in Thadou. The most common type of compounding is the root+root compound, where the resultant compound is a Noun. Both stem 1 and stem II can be constituents in a compound., the stem I verb are more frequently used to form a compound verb and stem II form of the verb is used in the derivation of compound nouns. 5.2

REDUPLICATION Reduplication48 is a morphological process in which the root or the stem of a word (or part) is repeatedly exactly or with slight change. Words formed either by duplicating syllables, or by duplicating a single word (phonological word), partially or completely are cases of reduplication. (Abbi 200149) Reduplication is that repetition, the result of which constituted the unit word. It can be the partial or complete repetition of a word for grammatical purposes. Reduplication can be classified into four, namely, complete, partial, echo and mimic. The two-way broad classification in the typology of reduplication in South Asian languages is (1) morphological and (2) lexical. Reduplication is a very productive process in Thadou like many other Tibeto-Burman languages. In Thadou, reduplication is used for a wide range of purposes. It is used for the purposes of intensification, distributiveness, accentuation, simultaneity, continuity, iteration, reciprocity, urgency, endearment, reinforcement etc. Both the major types of reduplication –namely lexical and morphological have been attested in Thadou. We will discuss each of the types and their span across the word class in Thadou in the following sections. 48

49

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduplication Abbi, A. 2001. A Manual of Linguistic Fieldwork and Structures of Indian languages. Germany: Limcom Europa.

- 182 -

5.2.1 Lexical Reduplication Lexical reduplication refers to a complete or partial repetition of a word/lexeme. Complete lexical reduplication is constituted of two identical (bimodal) words, e.g. The combined meaning of the reduplicant and the reduplicator at times is an extension of the meaning inherent in the single lexical entry (i.e. reduplicator) and at times is a contraction. The iconicity is manifested best in reduplicated adverbs and in any grammatical formative which is marked for emphasis. Lexical reduplication is divided into three major sub-types: partial, complete and discontinuous. All the three types have been attested in Thadou.

5.2.1.1 Complete Reduplication Complete reduplication refers to the phenomenon when a single word or clause is repeated once in the same sentence without any phonological or morphological variations. Complete reduplication can occur in all the content class words i.e. noun, question words, verbs, adverbs, pronounsand adjectives.

The reduplicated examples of each of these content class words below. 5.2.1.1.1 Nouns Nouns are reduplicated in Thadou to show distributiveness as shown in 5.14 and illustrated in (1).

THADOU NOUNS GLOSS

THADOU NOUN REDUPLICATED GLOSS

in

‘house’

in ~in

‘each house’

mun

‘place’

mun ~mun

‘each where’

min

‘name’

min~min

‘each name’

mi

‘person’ mi~mi

phɑt

‘time’

phɑt~phɑt 5.13 Reduplicated Nouns

‘each one’ ‘at times’

(208) in~in=a

ka=ʦe=e

house~house=LOC 1CLT=go= DECL ‘I went to each house.’

5.2.1.2 Interrogative Pronouns The reduplication of the WH question words gives plurality meaning to the sentences. Interrogative pronoun is reduplicated only when the speaker assumes that there are more than two persons in the house. In case of question words which have more than one syllable, normally, only the last syllable is reduplicated in fast speech. This can be seen from the examples (209) and (210).

INTERROGATIVE GLOSS

INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS

PRONOUNS

REDUPLICATED

GLOSS

ip i

‘what’

ipi~ipi

‘what all’

koi

‘who’

koi~koi

‘who all’

hoilɑi

‘where’ hoilɑi~lɑi

‘where all’

hoiʦe

‘which’ hoiʦe~ʦe

‘which all’

5.14 Reduplicated Interrogative pronouns (209) in -a

koi

um-em

house-LOC who exist-Q ‘Who is there in the house?’ (210) in-a

koi~koi

house-LOC who~who

um-em exist-Q

‘Who all are there in the house?’ (211) hoilɑi-a

nɑ=ʦe-hɑm

where-LOC 2CLT=go-Q ‘Where all did you go?’

- 184 -

(212) hoilɑi~lɑi-ɑ

nɑ=ʦe-hɑm

where~ where-LOC 2CLT=go-Q ‘Where all did you go?’

5.2.1.3

Adjectives

There are different functions and meaning for the reduplication of adjectives. Adjectives are reduplicated to intensity of meaning.

ADJECTIVES

GLOSS

ADJECTIVES

GLOSS

REDUPLICATED əhoi

‘beautiful’

əhoi~əhoi

‘very beautiful’

əlen

‘big’

əlen ~əlen

‘very big’

əneo

‘small’

əneo~ən eo

‘very small’

ənem

‘soft’

ənem~ənem

‘very soft’

əʦom

‘short’

əʦom~əʦom

‘very short’

ətɑʔ

‘hard’

ətɑʔ~ətɑ ʔ

‘very hard’

əhɑt

‘strong’

əhɑt~əhɑt

‘very strong’

5.15 Reduplicated Adjectives

5.2.1.4 Adverbs Adverbs can also be reduplicated and the meaning is for emphasis or urgency. There are many reduplicated adverbs which gives different meaning to the sentence. These are listed below in table 5.16.

ADVERBS

GLOSS

ADVERBS

GLOSS

REDUPLICATED tɑʔ

‘really/honestly’

tɑʔ~tɑʔ

‘very really/honestly’

ol

‘slowly”

ol~ol

‘very slowly’

gɑŋ

‘fast”

gɑŋ-gɑŋ

‘very fast’

nom

‘steadily’

nom-nom

‘very steadily’

seʔ

‘only’

seʔ-seʔ

‘only’

5.16 Reduplicated Adverbs

5.2.1.5 Verbs All verbs can be reduplicated and this generally indicates regular action or action repeated again and again.

ADVERBS GLOSS

ADVERBS REDUPLICATED

GLOSS

toŋ

‘work’

toŋ~toŋ

‘while/always/still working’

lɑm

‘dance’ lɑm~lɑm

nui

‘laugh’

nui~nui

‘while/always/still laugh’

vɑʔ

‘roam’

vɑʔ~vɑ ʔ

‘while/always/still roam’

tɑu

‘pray’

tɑu~tɑu

‘while/always/still pray’

ne

‘eat’

ne~ne

‘while/always/still eat’

su n

‘write’

su n~sun

‘while/always/still write’

kɑp

‘cry’

kɑp ~kɑp

‘while/always/still cry’

‘while/always/still dance’

5.17 Reduplicated Verbs

The reduplicated verbs can be seen in the sentences below. (213 ) əmɑ ɑ=vɑʔ~vɑʔ 3

zeŋ=e

3CLT= roam~roam always=DECL

‘He is always roaming.’

(214 ) əmɑ ɑ=vɑʔ~vɑʔ 3

nalai=e

3CLT=roam~roam still=DECL

‘He is still roaming.’

- 186 -

(215) əmɑ ɑ=vɑʔ~ vɑʔ-in he

3CLT=roam~roam-C

a=lal

ta=e

3CLT=tired

PERF=DECL

‘while roaming, he became tired.’

5.2.2 Syllable Reduplication in Verbs In the case of verbs which have two or more morphemes/syllables, it is the truncated and it is the last syllable that is often reduplicated.

WHOLE WORD GLOSS

PARTIAL REDUPLICATION GLOSS

kinɑ

‘fight’

kinɑ-nɑ

‘always fighting’

luŋhɑn

‘angry’

luŋhɑn -hɑn

‘always angry’

ʦedoʔ

‘go away’

ʦedoʔ-do ʔ

‘always going away’

luŋnommo

‘disheartened’ luŋnommo-mo

kihouto

‘negotiate’

kihouto-to

‘always negotiating’

kihoulim

‘discuss’

kihoulim-lim

‘always discussing’

kiʦeŋ

‘marry’

kiʦeŋ-ʦeŋ

‘still married’

‘always disheartened’

5.18 Partially Reduplicated Verbs The use and meaning of these can be seen from the sentences below. (216) əmɑ ni 2

DL

ɑ=kinɑ~kinɑ

zeŋ

ɬon=e

3CLT=fight~fight

HAB

DL=DECL

‘They (two) are always fighting.’

This means that they are always in the habit of fighting with each other. It can be seen that only the last syllable is being reduplicated. However, it is not ungrammatical to reduplicate the entire word and this is a common feature in children’s speech. They tend to use reduplication of the entire word more than adults.

5.2.3 Discontinuous Reduplication Another type of reduplication used by Thadou is when a conjunctive particle intervenes between two reduplicated words. 5.2.3.1 Personal pronouns Anaphor construction like reflexive and reciprocal pronouns are formed reduplicating the personal pronoun by discontinuous reduplication process coinjoined by the conjunctive particle le/le as shown below.

THADOU

GLOSS

keima-le-keima

‘myself’

eiho-le~eiho

‘ourselves’ (inclusive)

naŋma-le~naŋma ‘yourself ama-le~ama

‘himself’

5.19 Discontinuous Reduplicated Pronouns

THADOU

GLOSS

koi-le~koi

‘who all’

ipi-le~ipi

‘what all’

hoilai-le~hoilai ‘where all’ 5.20 Discontinuous Reduplicated Interrogatives

5.2.4 Adverbial particles Adverbial particles50 are often reduplicated. These adverbs, unlike adverbs are iconic and convey a significant amount of information. there are some reduplicated words which do not have meaning of their own. However, when they are reduplicated and they come with some adjectives or adverbs, they convey different meaning. Adverbial particles have often been called ‘double adverbs’. They function as adverbs as they modify the verbs and are often reduplicated. Unlike adverbs, adverbial 50

This feature is also observed in Mizo, a Kuki-Chin language. Chaangte 1989

- 188 particles are iconic and convey a significant amount of information. Some of these include: speaker attitude, shape and size of the subject/object, speed and aspect. They are indispensible in narrative discourse, where they are often used to dramatise and highlight the significant events. Yet, inspite of their versatility, they do not have lexical meaning in and of themselves. For this reason, it is better to call them particles rather than independent words. The vowels in adverbial particles are iconic. Front vowels are used for smaller sizes, (children, women, small animals, etc.). A back vowel is usd to represent larger sizes (men, large animals, erc.). The low vowel a is used for in between sizes (older children, small adults, etc.). This phenomenon is also found in other Kuki-Chin language like Mizo cf. Changte (1989) and also in other south East Asain languages, cf. Gregerson (1984). Most adverbial particles are reduplicated. In instances where the two forms are not the same, the first will have a front vowel and the second will have a back vowel. These adverbial particles can modify active verbs. They can also modify non-active verbs and most stative verbs or adjectives. The front vowels are used for representing pleasantness and the back vowels are used for displeasure and unpleasantness. Some commonly used reduplicated adverbial particles along with their meanings are given for better illustration. However, this is not an exhaustive list as there are many other examples used in narratives and informal conversations. As mentioned earlier, these particles who not carry any meaning and depends on the word with which they occur with.

ADVERBIAL PARTICLE

MEANING

sau~sau

the sound of something irritating

duŋ~du

the heavy sound of something loud

i~e

the sound of something hard and small (unpleasant sound)

lhin ~hen

the sound of something soothing and pleasant

-lap ~lap

the sound of something

boiling etc. the~thu

the sound of something tapping/flapping etc.

sil~sel

something pleasant adding to the beauty or pleasantness

sise

something unpleasant adding to the ugliness etc.

dedu

unpleasantness, untidiness and disorder 5.21 Advebial particles

5.2.5 Summary Thadou has all the major types of reduplication. However, there are some types that are not found in this language. For example, in the partial reduplication we cannot find examples of echo-formation but the syllable-reduplication is present there as exemplified above. Most

types of reduplication in Thadou fall under class

maintaining and the reduplication process does not bring a change in the class of the word reduplicated. 5.3

AFFIXATION Another important process of word formation is through the process of affixation. Both prefixation and suffixation are used in derivation of new words. 5.3.1 Prefixation of aAdjectives are formed by prefixing a- to the verbs ADJECTIVE/VERB

GLOSS

se

bad/spoilt → ase

thi

died

→ athi

them

expert

→ athem ‘the experts’

ʦiŋ

wise

→ aʦiŋ

NOUN

GLOSS

spoilt ‘dead’

wise

5.22 Prefixation of a-

- 190 5.3.2 Prefixation of he- to kinship terms In Thadou, kinship terms take the prefix he- to form address terms. This has both honorific and endearment meaning. This is illustration in the table 5.23.

KINSHIP TERMS

ADDRESS FORM

GLOSS

pa

he-pa

‘father’

nu

he-nu

‘mother’

ni

he-ni

‘aunt’

gaŋ

he-gaŋ

‘uncle’

pu

he-pu

‘grand father’

pi

he-pi

‘grand mother’

5.23 prefixes 5.3.3 Suffixation of -na  In Thadou, the suffix -na has several roles depending on the host to which it is attached. It is a nominative suffix as it is used to derived different nouns. The various functions of the suffix -na is discussed in this section. 5.3.3.1 Adjective +-na → Abstract noun Abstract Noun can be derived from Adjectives or stem II form of the verb to by suffixing the nominalizer -na to the adjectives.

ADJECTIVE/VERB

GLOSS

phat

good

di

true

kipa

happy

hin

live

→ hin -na

‘life’

het

know

→ het-na

‘knowledge’

ʦi

wise

→ ʦi-na

‘wisdom’

→

NOUN

GLOSS

phat-na

‘goodness’

→ di-na

‘truth’

kipa-na ‘happiness’

5.24 Abstract Nouns

5.3.3.2 Action/state nouns Thadou makes use of one or more devices for creating action nouns from action verbs and state nouns from stative verbs or adjectives, meaning the fact, the act, the quality, or occurrence of that verb or adjective. This is achieved by conversion. Action nouns and states are derived from Stem II form of the verb. This is achieved by the process of suffixation as illustrated in the examples below.

ADJECTIVE/STEMII NONIMALIZER → NOUN hat

na

→ hanta

strong

NMLZ

→ 'strength'

lal

na

→ lalna

power

NMLZ

→ 'powerful'

het

na

→ hetna

know

NMLZ

→ 'knowledge'

ʦi

na

→ ʦina

wise

NMLZ

→ 'wisdom'

5.25 Abstract Nouns

5.3.3.3 Agentive Nominalization Nouns can also be formed by the process of suffixing /pa/ and /nu/ to action verbs and the resulting noun is an agentive noun and this process is called

‘agentive

nominalization’. The meaning of the resulting noun is one who does and this is similar to the the suffix -er in English.

NOUN

VERB

AGENTIVE MARKER

→ AGENTIVE NOUN

thi

xeŋ

pa

→ thixeŋpa

iron

hammer

AGT

→ 'iron smith’

pon

xui

pa

→ ponxuipa

cloth

stitch

AGT

→ 'tailor’

lou

ou

pa/mi

→ lououpa

field

plough

AGT

→ 'farmer’

- 192 gari

tol

pa

→ garitolpa

vehicle

drive

AGT

→ ‘driver’

vanleŋ

he

pa

→ van leŋhepa

aeroplane drive

AGT

‘pilot’

in

sa

pa

→ ‘in sapa

house

build

AGT

→ ‘bulder’

bel

xeŋ

pa

→ belxeŋpa

pot

hammer

AGT

→ ‘potter’

5.26 Agentive Nominalisation

5.3.3.4 Instrumental Nominalization In this type of nominalization, the noun is formed by a complex process of suffixation and compounding. The noun that is involved and the action associated with the noun are compounded and the nominalising suffix is being added to the compounded verb to form the resulting noun. This is illustrated with the examples below. Here the suffix /-na/ means ‘the thing to do with’

NOUN

GLOSS

GLOSS

NMLZ

NOUN

GLOSS

lei

tongue het

clean

na

leih etna

'tongue cleaner'

ha

tooth

not

brush

na

hanotna

‘toothbrush’

ha

tooth

sut

prick

na

hasutna

‘toothpick’

keŋko  shoe

po

brush

na

keŋkopona 'shoe brush'

VERB

5.27 Instrumental Nominalization 5.3.3.5 Locative nominalization Thadou has this device for creating a noun from a verb that means ‘a place where “verb” happens’.

51

VERB

GLOSS

NOMINALIZER

NOUN

GLOSS

lup

sleep

na

lupna

'bed'

Borrowed word from Hindi

tou

sit

na

touna

kisil

bath

na

kisilna bathroom

'seat'

5.28 Locative nominalization (a)

There are also a set of nouns formed in a similar way but here the meaning is slighty different. The resulting noun is ‘the place for keeping the noun”.

NOUN

GLOSS

VERB

GLOSS

NOUN

GLOSS

tui

water

xol

collect na

tuixolna

‘water tank’

zin

guest

ge

stay

na

zingena

‘guest room’

lexa

book

koi

keep

na →

lexakoina  'book shelf'

gari

vehicle koi

keep

na →

garikoina 'garage'

nen

dirt

xol

NOMZ

collect na →

nenxolna

‘dustbin’

5.29 Locative nominalization (b) 5.3.4 Manner nominalization Thadou has the process of deriving nouns that mean ‘way of “verbing” from verbs. The suffix -dan performs this function.

It can be suffixed to any verb and the

resulting noun gives the meaning of manner of doing something. VERB

WAY OF

→ NOUN

gel

dan

→ gel-dan → ‘way of thinking’

think tou

dan

→ tou-dan → ‘way of sitting’

sit dan

lam

→ lam-dan

dance

→ ‘way of dancing’

umʦan dan

→ umʦan -dan

behave

→ behavior

din stand

dan

→ dindan → way of standing

5.30 Manner nominalization

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5.3.5 Nominalization by Stem verb alternation Another way of forming nouns from verbs is through the stem verb alternation. Many Stem II forms of the verb are nouns. This is illustrated in the examples below. The stem I verb has either the high or mid tone but the Stem II verb or the noun also carries the low or falling tone.

THADOU GLOSS THADOU GLOSS VERB

NOUN

don

drink

don

‘drinks’

nui

laugh

nui

‘laughter’

lam

dance

lam

‘dance’

tau

pray

tau

‘prayer’

5.31 Stem II Verbs

5.3.6 Clitics Clitics play an important role in the morphology of Thadou. The demarcation between affixes and clitics is not very clear in the language. Because their phonological shapes and properties are so similar, it is often difficult to distinguish between particles and clitics. One distinction made between clitics and particles is that clitics are obligatory in construction whereas particles are not. Thadou has a limited set of clitic, both proclitic and enclitic. 5.3.6.1 Pronominal proclitic Some of the clitics in Thadou are pronominal clitics: =ka ‘first person exclusive’, =i ‘first person inclusive, =na ‘second person’ and =a ‘third person’. Pronoun clitics are tightly bound to whatever they precede. The pronominal proclitics occur with the noun phrase to indicate possession and with the verb phrase as an agreement marker. (see section 3.2).

5.3.6.2 The ergative marker=in Like many languages of the Kuki-Chin group, Thadou is a partially ergative language. In a transitive clause, the agent is marked by a case marker =in on the subject noun phrase. At the same time, the obligatory pronominal clitics in the verb phrase are organised according to nominative-accustive principles. The ergative case marker is a clitic =in and not an affix because it follows the whole noun phrase.

(217) boinu=in

hai

min a=ne=e

boinu=ERG mango ripe 3CLT=eat=DECL ‘Boinu is eating a ripe mango.’

5.3.6.3 Enclitic Declarative mood marker=e is an enclitic that comes at the end of the finite clause in the clause final position. (218) thaŋ=in

ziŋka -in

hai

a=ne=e

thang= ERG morning-LOC mango 3 CLT=eat=DECL ‘Thang ate mango in the morning.’

5.3.7 Suffixation There are many verbal suffixes in Thadou. All tense, aspect, mood markers, causative marker, benifactive markers are suffixes to the verb. All negative markers are also suffixes to the verb. As discussed in 3.4, 3.5. and 3.7 nominal inflections are also mostly suffixes. All case markers, except the ergative case marker are verbal suffixes (refer to 3.6). Classifiers, gender markers pluarity are also marked by suffixation (for details refer to, 3.4, 3.5).

- 196 5.3.8 Particles particles are distinguished by their phonetic charactersitics, and by their grammatical functions. Particles are usually low in content but high in function, specially in conveying the attitude of the speaker. Some particles are obligatory, depending on the context, but they are usually optional. Thadou is very rich in particles as can be seen in the following section. 5.3.8.1 The emphatic marker ma The emphatic marker for pronouns is ma. ‘self. It can be roughly translated to mean something like ‘excluding all else. This feature is alsoattested in many other KukiChin languages like Mizo, Hmar etc.

(219) keima ka=ʦe=e 1 EMP

COP-Q

‘I myself went.’

5.3.8.2 Intensifier particles The intensifier particles, ta , e,moŋ, follow a general quantifier or an adjective. Intensifiers, when they modify can also follow the verb.

(220) nuŋa hoi-ta -xt girl

ka=mu=e

beautiful-INTS-one 1CLT=SEE=DECL

I saw a very beautiful girl.’ (221) a=hoi-mo ŋ~moŋ=e 3CLT=beautiful-INTS=one ‘She is really beautiful.’

5.3.8.3 The non-final particle The non-final particle, in which behave like a connecter in coordination and subordination is also a particle.

(222) boinu a=huŋ boinu 3=come

in

a=kile

kit

CONJ

3clt=rturn again

tai PERF

‘Boinu came and went back already.’ (223) boinu a-hoi boinu

ADJ-beauty

in

ah inla a=umʦen

a-pha-poi

CONJ

but

ADJ-good-NEG

3CLT=behavior

‘Boinu is beautiful but ill natured.’ 5.4

SUMMARY This chapter dealt with the various word formation processes in Thadou. As is evident from the discussion, compounding and affixation are the two major word formation processes in Thadou. Compound nouns are mostly derived stem II verbs rather than Stem I forms of the verb. Reduplication is another typological feature that Thadou shares with other Tibeto-Burman languages.

- 198 -

6 SYNTAX This chapter deals with the syntax of Thadou. The chapter has discussions on various syntactic aspects of the language. Section 6.1 deals with word order and the various word order typology of the language. Section 6.2 discusses the basic clause structure, both verbal and non verbal predicates. In section 6.3, different forms of subordination and subordinating clauses are discussed. Section 6.4 deals with the different strategies for combining clauses. In section 6.5, negation and the nature of negative particles and their structure is thoroughly discussed. Section 6.6 deals with the structure of interrogation and interrogative clauses. Section 6.7 deals with a very important feature of Thadou: pronominalization or cross referencing. Finally, the chapter is summed up in section 6.8. 6.1

WORD ORDER IN THADOU This section deals with the word order typology of the language. Word order in different constructions will be discussed under different sub sections in this section. 6.1.1 Simple clauses Thadou, like most Tibeto-Burman languages, is an SOV language as shown in (234) and (235). It can also have OSV order in order to reflect the discourse prominence of or focusing on the object. However, SOV is the dominant word order in the language. In simple clauses, the proclitic a= immediately preceding the verb in sentences (234) and (235) is a clitic pronoun inflecting for person, like an agreement affix. It always immediately precedes the verb and is obligatory in all clauses, except in certain welldefined cases, like imperative clauses in sentence (236). (234) boinu=in

hai

a=ne=e

boinu=ERG mango 3CLT=eat=DECL ‘Boinu is eating a mango.’ (235) hai

boinu=in

a=ne=e

mango boinu=ERG 3CLT=eat=DECL ‘Boinu is eating a mango.’

(236) hai-ne-in mango-eat-IMP ‘Eat mangoes.’ 6.1.2 Pro drop Thadou is a pro drop language. It is the presence of this feature that allows the pronoun in the subject position to be dropped as shown in sentence (237). The dropped subject can be recovered from the proclitic a= that comes with the verb. (237) (ama=in) hai (3= ERG)

a=ne=e

mango 3CLT=eat=DECL

‘He/she is eating a mango.’ 6.1.3 Adposition Thadou exhibits a large number of characteristics expected of it as an OV language. Thadou employs postpositions (Pp), which follow the noun phrase they combine with. This examples in (238) and (239) also illustrate how adpositional phrases precede the verb in Thadou. (238) lexa book

dox

ʦuŋ-

ka=koi=e

table

top-LOC

1CLT=keep=DECL

‘I keep the book on the table.’

(239) lun skul-a

a=ʦe=e

lun school-LOC 3CLT=go= DECL ‘Lun went to school.’ 6.1.4 Genitive constructions Genitive noun phrases (G), noun phrases modifying a noun and expressing possession or a relationship like kinship, precede the noun, as in (240). Pronominal genitives

- 200 (possessives) also precede the possessed noun, and are attached as proclitics as in (241). Thadou has two genitive constructions: one is marked by word order and the other is marked morphologically. When possession is marked by word order, the possessor precedes the head as in (242).

(240) lenpu in

a=len =e

lenpu house 3CLT=big= DECL ‘Lenpu’s house is big.’ (241) ka=nu  

in

a=len=e

1CLT=mother house 3CLT=big=DECL ‘My mother’s house is big.’ (242) ka=nu-a

a=hi

my=mother-GEN

3CLT=COP

‘It is my mother’s / it belongs to my mother.’ 6.1.5 Relative clauses Relative clauses precede the main clause, as in (243). (243) [ko t-a

kisel-pa] k=mu=e

door-LOC hide-M

1CLT=see=DECL

‘I saw the man who was hiding in the door.’

(244) [saŋxol san a-pa] door

red wear-M

ʦu

k=nau

DEM

1CLT=brother 3CLT=DECL

‘The man with the red shirt is my brother.’

6.1.6 Comparitives

52

The proclitic is also used as a possessive marker.

a=hi

Another characteristic of Thadou that is typical of verb-final languages is that in comparative constructions, the order is standard of comparison (St) followed by the marker of comparison (M) followed by the adjective, as in (245).

(245) tuikul tui well

vaduŋ tui

water river

sa ŋin a=theŋ

water more

ADJ=clean

zo =e COMP=DECL

‘River water is cleaner than well water.’ In (245), the noun phrase tuikul tui‘ wellwater’ is compared with another noun phrase vaduŋ tui‘river water. The adjective is atheŋ ‘clean’. The marker is a morpheme combining with the standard and indicating that the standard is being compared with something. The comparative marker zo occurs after the adjective.

6.1.7 Adverbs Thadou has a number of other word order characteristics which are typical of verbfinal languages. Among these is the fact that manner adverbs (Adv), like objects, precede the verb, as in (246) as illustrated in the following sentences. (246) m hoi 3

nice

tain a=lm=e ADV

3CLT=dance=DECL

‘She danced gracefully.’ (247) m ol~ol-in =ʦe=e She

slowly

3CLT=go=DECL

‘She goes slowly.’

(248) naosen nom-ta-in a=imu=e baby

fine-ADV

3CLT=play=DECL

‘The baby is sleeping peacefully.’

- 202 (249 ) ʦapaŋ-pa pha-ta-in a=kiʦem=e child-M

good-ADV 3CLT=play=DECL

‘The boy played well.’

(250) ama ol-ta in 3

a=huŋ=e

slow-ADV 3CLT=play=DECL

‘He is coming slowly.’ 6.1.8 Interrogatives Thadou employs a question particle which occurs at the end of the sentence, as in (251). For a detailed discussion on interrogation, refer to section (6.6).

(251) na=min

ip i-ham

2=name

what-Q

‘What is your name?’

Another characteristic feature of OV languages exhibited by Thadou is that interrogative phrases in content questions occur in situ rather than at the beginning of sentences, as illustrated in (252) and (253). (252) iti-le

phai-a

na=ʦe

when-LOC imphal-LOC 2CLT=go ‘When will you go to Imphal.’

(253) hoilai-

na=ʦen

ham

where-LOC 2CLT=stay Q ‘Where do you live?’

diŋ-ham FUT-Q

6.1.9 Adjectives In terms of word order characteristics which do not correlate with the order of verb and object, adjectives follow the noun as in (254).

(254) mi-pha human-good ‘a good person’ Adjectival modifiers of nouns can also precede the noun, as in (255). However, this structure is really a relative clause (as indicated by the pronominal subject clitic), in contrast to (228), where the adjective is directly modifying the noun.

(255) a=pha-pa 3CLT=good-M ‘The good man’ Numerals also follow the noun, as in (256). (256) in house

som ten

‘ten houses’

Demonstratives can precede or follow the noun, but more often precede as in (257) below. (257) hiʦe in DEM

house

‘This house’ The intensifiers follow adjectives, as in (258). (258) a-hoi-e=e good-INTS=DECL ‘It is very beautiful.’

- 204 Quantifiers like numerals follow the head noun as in (259). (259) naosen zouse baby

all

‘all the babies’

There are also a variety of constructions involving two verbs that conform to patterns typical of OV languages. For example, aspect and modilty markers for ability or obligation must follow the main verb, as in the two examples in (234) to (236). TAM markers do not seem to affect the syntax of the language. (234) ka=bol-thei=e 1CLT=do-can= DECL ‘I can do it.’ (235) ka=bol-ŋai=e 1CLT=do- must=DECL ‘I must do it.’ (236) ka=bol-nom=e 1CLT=do-want= DECL ‘I want to do it.’ 6.1.10 Complementation In Thadou, ti, the verb ‘to say’ functions as the complementizer, which occurs when the verb ‘say’ is not the verb of the matrix clause as seen in (259).

(259) meri=in

skul-

k=ʦe

Mary= ERG school-LOC 1CLT=go

di

=hi

FUT

3CLT= COP 3CLT=say

‘Mary said that she would go to school.’

=ti

6.1.11 Negation Negation is expressed in Thadou by negative particles that occur post verbally after the main verb. For a detailed discussion on negation, refer to section 6.5. (260) kei sku l-a 1

ka=ʦe-po=e

school-LOC 1CLT=go-NEG=DECL

‘I did not go to school.’ (261) kei phai-a 1

ka=ʦe-lou

imphal-LOC 1CLT=go-NEG

diŋ

a=hi

FUT

DECL=COP

‘I will not go to Imphal.’ 6.1.12 Imperatives Imperatives do not have person agreement clitics. They consist of a bare Stem I verb followed by the imperative marker -ìn /ò. The prohibitive is marked by the negative imperative marker-hí-ìn. The subject is optional as seen in (262) and (263). (262) (naŋ=in) bol-in (2= ERG)

do-IMP

‘Do it.’ (263) (naŋ=in) bol-hi-in (2= ERG)

do-NEG-IMP

‘Don’t do it.’ 6.1.13 Reflexives and reciprocals These are marked by -ki on the main verb. Reflexives take singular subject clitics on the verb and reciprocals take plural pronoun clitics. Another syntactic feature of this type of construction is the absence of the ergative suffix -in. (264) kei-ma le kei-ma ka=ki-vo=e 1-EMP and 1-EMP ‘I hit myself.’

ICLT=REFL-beat=DECL

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(265) kei-ma-ni le kei-ma-ni 1-EMP-DL and 1-EMP-DL

ka=ki-vo=on=e ICLT=REFL-beat=DL= DECL

‘We hit each other.’ (266) kei-ma-ho le kei-ma-ho 1-EMP-PL and 1-EMP-PL

ka=ki-vo=u=ve ICLT= REFL-beat=PL= DECL

‘We hit ourselves.’ 6.1.14 Stem Verb Alternation Verbs in Thadou have two forms known as Stem I and Stem II. The stems usually differ in their tone and final consonants. Stem II verbs occur in object WH-questions and in subordinate clauses like object relativised clauses, conditional clauses, reason clauses and nominalised clauses. Since Stem II verbs do not occur in simple declarative clauses, they can be considered as ‘reduced verbs’ that is, they are more nominal than verb-like. For instance, Stem II can occur in genitive constructions, a property of nouns and not verbs. 6.1.15 Summary As observed in the above discussion, Thadou exhibits most of the typological features of Tibeto-Burman languages. 6.2

BASIC CLAUSE STRUCTURE This section deals with the clause and the basic clause structure in Thadou. The different clause structures are also illustrated with examples. Like other TibetoBurman languages, the basic word order of Thadou is subject- object- verb and is consistenly verb final. A clause may be consists of the verb with the relevant pronominal markers or may contain a single NP or several NPs. A clause can have only the verb and both the subject and the object can be understood because of the presence of the pronominal markers (as discussed earlier in section 6.1.2). The following figure gives an overview of the clause in Thadou. Clauses are divided broadly into finite and non-finite constructions.

CLAUSE Finite Indicative

Nonfinite Imperative

subordinate

complement

Figure 11. Clause Structure A finite clause is a form that can occur as an independent sentence or as a main clause as part of a multi-clause sentence (Crystal 2003). Finite clauses are marked by a combination of subject agreement, tense, aspect, modality and number or by the markers for subjunctive or imperative moods. The exact combination of markers can vary depending on the type of the clause. Non-finite clauses lack many of the markers found in finite clauses. They are dependent clauses and occur in Thadou as medial clauses in clause-chains, as subordinate clauses and as complement clauses. (see section 6.3 and 6.4). In this section, different sub types of finite indicative clauses will be discussed involving different types of predicates. The internal structure of some clauses will also be examined. 6.2.1 Non-verbal predicates The different non-verbal predicates and their structures will be discussed in this section. 6.2.1.1 The copula verb á=hì Copular verbs are sometimes called “semantically empty” verbs or also “grammatical verbs” (Payne 53.1997: 112) The copular verb does not carry the lexical-semantic load

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Payne, Thomas. 1997. Describing morphosyntax: A guide for field linguists. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

- 208 of predication by itself, but it is rather carried by non-verbal predicate that occurs with the copula (Givon54 2001 vol I: 119). Thadou has one copula verb -hì, which oocurs in the clause final position. Examples below show the use of the copula in simple clauses. (267) ama mi-pha 3

a=hi

person-good 3CLT= COP

‘He/she is a good person.’

(268) ziŋle

huŋ

tomorrow come

diŋ

ka=hi

FUT

1CLT=COP

‘I will be coming tomorrow.’

(269) ama hi 3

DEM

ka=nao-nu

a=hi

1CLT=younger-sister 3CLT= COP

‘She is my younger sister.’

6.2.1.2 Predicative adjectives Predicative adjectives are also called attributive clauses (Payne55 1997: 120) and are clauses in which the main semantic content is expressed by an adjective. In Thadou, the natural word class of attributive adjectives is non-existent and that descriptive modifiers or adjectivals are derived from descriptive verbs. Therefore, predicative adjectives are formed in two different ways. The predicative function usually associated with an adjectives can be achieved either by an “adjective” as head of a

54

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Payne, Thomas. 1997. Describing morphosyntax: A guide for field linguists. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

verb phrase without a copula or a nominalized adjective, derived from a descriptive verb with a copula. If the predicative adjective is expressed by a nominalized adjectival, the clause has the same structure as nominal predicates and equational clauses. If the predicative adjective is formed by a verb, then of course, we do not have a non-verbal predicate, but simply an intransitive verbal predicate. Example (270) shows a predicate nominal and (271) shows an “adjective” (really a verb) heading an intransitive clause. (270) boinu mi=pha

a=hi

boinu person=good 3CLT=COP ‘Boinu is a good person.’

(271) boinu apha=e boinu good= DECL ‘Boinu is good.’ 6.2.1.3 Equational clauses Equational clauses “asserts that a particular entity is identical to the entity specific in a predicate nominal” (Payne 1997: 114). In Thadou, equational clauses are formed by juxtaposing two noun phrases, the second phrase usually is the predicative. The two noun phrases are followed optionally by the copula element. The sentences are examples of nomina predicates with the copula verb =hi (272) ka=min

kim

a=hi

1CLT=name kim 3CLT=COP ‘My name is kim.’ (273) maŋboi mangboi

hausa

a=hi

rich

3CLT=COP

‘Mangboi is the chief.’ (of the village)

- 210 6.2.1.4 Existential clauses In Thadou, existential constructions require a temporal and a locative expression. The occurrence of the above mentioned copular verb a=hiis obligatory for existential clauses. At discourse level, this existential verb typically functions to introduce participants. The clause in example (245) is an introductionary sentence typically used in folktales. (274) masaŋ=laiyin xo=xat-a before=ADV

nuŋa melhoi=ta

village=one- girl

xat

a=na-um=in

beautiful=INTS one 3CLT=exist=CONJ 3CLT=COP

LOC

‘Long ago, there was a very beautiful girl in a village.’ 6.2.2 Verbal predicates This section deals with the structure of simple clauses with verbal predicates. The basic distinction among verbal predicates is between intransitive verbs which take a single argument and transitive verbs which take two or more arguments. Givon (2001 vol I: 109) defines the semantic prototype of a transitive event as having a deliberate active agent, a concrete and affected patient and involving a terminated event in real time. The syntactic definition of the prototype of a transitive clause is simpler. Clauses that have a direct object are syntactically transitive; all others are syntactically intransitive. In Thadou, objects of transitive clauses can be easily distinguished from oblique arguments and adjuncts, since objects are unmarked but obliques and adjuncts are marked by some kind of postposition. Example (275) illustrates an intransitive clause with a locative adjunct, and example (276) a transitive clause with an object that is unmarked. (275) thaŋboi

sku l=a

a=ʦe=e

thangboi school=LOC 3CLT=go=DECL ‘Thangboi is going to school.’ (276) thaŋboi=in

hai

a=hi

a=ne=e

thangboi= ERG mango 3CLT=eat=DECL ‘Thangboi ate a mango.’

6.2.2.1 Intransitive clauses Intransitive clauses take one argument in the subject position for all types of verbs: active, stative, dynamic, psychological. For a detailed discussion, refer to section (4.2.1). Permanent states are expressed by descriptive verbs. Since Thadou has no natural class of adjectives, the modifying functions of adjectives is mostly expressed by descriptive verbs, as shown in the examples below. There is no case-marking on the subject. (277) nausen ʦu baby

DEM

a=hoi=e CLT=beautiful=DECL

‘The baby is beautiful.’ (278) nausen ʦu baby

DEM

a=imu=e CLT=sleeping=DECL

‘The baby is sleeping.’ (279) nausen ʦu baby

DEM

a=kap =e CLT=cry=DECL

‘The baby is crying.’ (280) nausen ʦu baby

DEM

a=kiʦom=e CLT=jump=DECL

‘The baby is jumping.’ (281) nausen ʦu baby

DEM

a=kipa=e CLT=happy=DECL

‘The baby is happy.’

- 212 (282) nausen ʦu baby

DEM

a=thi=e CLT=die=DECL

‘The baby died.’

6.2.3 Summary All intransitive verbs, irrespective of their nature, have subjects without case markers. This shows that case marking in intransitive sentences is a syntactic phenomenon. All intransitive clauses have the SV word order. 6.2.3.1 Transitive Clauses Transitive clauses take two arguments: one in the subject position and the other in the object position. The subject of a transitive clause is always marked the ergative case marker -ìn and the object is unmarked (zero-marked). The examples below show that ergative casemarking does not depend on ‘agent-likeness’ of a subject and the ‘patient-likeness’ of an object. Although in (284), the subject is not really an agent nor is the object a patient the case-marking is the same as in (283). (283) lulun =in

boinu a=vo=e

lulun=ERG boinu 3CLT=beat= DECL ‘Lulun is beating Boinu.’ (284) lulun =in

boinu a=mu=e

lulun=ERG boinu 3CLT=see=DECL ‘Lulun saw Boinu.’ 6.2.4 Summary In Thadou, case marking is very syntactic and is barely influenced by semantic factors except for number of participants. All transitive clauses have ergative case marking. This also includes ditransitve clauses.

6.2.4.1 Inherently ditransitive clauses Ininherently diatransitive clauses, the indirect object can either follow or preceded the direct object. Both the direct and indirect objct are unmarked or zero markd for case. Thadou has only few verbs that are inherently ditransitive and have to occur with the two object argument. Some of the ditransitive verbs are shown in the sentences (285) and (286) below. (285) lulun =in

iŋboi

lexabu a=pe=e

lulun=ERG ingboi book

3CLT=give=DECL

‘Lulun gave Lhingboi a book.’

(286) lulun =in

lexabu iŋboi

lulun=ERG book

a=pe=e

lhingboi 3CLT=give= DECL

‘Lulun gave a book to Lhingboi.’ 6.2.4.2 Causative construction As discussed in section (4.5), causative particular in Thadou is -sa. The causative adds a new agent argument, the causer, to the argument structure. The old subject, now is the cause or is the agent of the caused event, but occupies a different grammatical relation in the derived argument structure. Compare the examples (287) and (288). In (287), nausen ‘baby’ is the unmarked subject an intransitive clause. In (288), a causer boinuhas been added, the clause has become causative and transitive and the causer takes the position of the subject in a transitive clause and is marked by =in. The old subject has become the cause and takes the object position. In (289), nausen is the subject of the transitive verb ‘eat’ and in (290), boinuhas been added and nausen ‘baby’ becomes the indirect object of the verb ne ‘eat’. (287) nausen a=imu=e baby

3CLT=sleep =DECL

‘The baby is sleeping.’

- 214 (288) boinu=in

nausen ʦu a=imut-sa=e

boinu=ERG baby DEM

3CLT=sleep-CAUS=DECL

‘Boinu made the baby sleep.’ (289) nausen=in an baby=ERG

a=ne=e

food 3CLT=eat=DECL

‘The baby is eating the food.’

(290) boinu=in

nausen-ʦu an

boinu=ERG baby-DEM

a=ne-sa =e

food 3CLT=eat-CAUS=DECL

‘Boinu made the baby eat the food.’ 6.2.5 Summary All simple clauses follow ergative/absolutive case marking. The subject of all intransitive clauses are zero-marked. The subject of a transitive clause is marked by =in. The object of all transitive verbal predicates are also zero marked. The indirect objects of

intransitive verbs are also unmarked. The table 6.1 below gives an

overview of the entities, relationships and constituents that are discussed in this section. CASE-

GRAMMATICAL

MARKING

FUNCTION

intransitive

Ø

S

NP procliticVP

intransitive

Ø=a

S,OBL

NP NP=a procliticVP

transitive

=in,Ø

S,O

NP=in NP procliticVP

transitive

=in, Ø

S,O

NP=in NP procliticVP

transitive

=in,Ø

S,O,OB L

NP=in NP procliticVP

=in, Ø, Ø

S,IO,O

NP=in,NP,NP, proclitic

VERB

ARGUMENTS

ditransitive

WORD ORDR

VP ditransitive

=in,Ø,Ø

S,IO,O

NP=in,NP NP,VP

6.1Overview of arguments, relationships and constituents

6.3

SUBORDINATION In this section, I will look into the various constructions that involve combined clauses and phrases, organised in the following order: 6.3 subordination and 6.4 coordination. In Thadou, the subordinate clauses occur in the sentence initial position preceding the main or independent clause. Subordinate clauses are marked by grammatical particles to mark their subordinate relation to the independent clauses. Subordinate clauses in Thadou do not encode tense nor aspect nor make a distinction between irrealis and realis. The verbs in the matrix clauses make these distinctions. Some emphatic particles may optionally follow subordinating particles. The distribution and function of each emphatic particle will be also discussed. Table. 6.2 summarises the subordinating particles attested in Thadou. They are sub divided into five sections and will be presented in the following order: conditional clauses, purpose clauses, temporal clauses, causal clauses and concessive clauses.

CATEGORY

CONJUNCTION

GLOSS

conditional

-le

‘if’

purpose

-diŋ-a/in

‘for/so as to’

cause

-ze-a/in

‘because’

temporal

-phatin /pet-in

‘while/when’

concessive

vaŋ-in/zoŋ-le

‘even though’

6.2 Subordinating particles in Thadou

6.3.1 Conditional clauses Conditional clauses (also called protasis or simply if-clauses), which set the condition for the outcome of the main clause, occur in initial position and the then-clause (also called apodosis) usually occurs in sentence final position.‘Conditional’ denotes a relationship between two clauses where one clause (the protasis or ‘if’ clause) presents a situation or condition, which when satisfied, results in an event given in another clause (the apodosis or ‘then’ clause). As shown in the table 6.2 above, there are three terms: le, ah ile, ahilebou, that are attached at the end of the clause to

- 216 form the ‘if clause’. The conditional is comprised of a verb stem plus the conjunctive particle -le. This is discussed in the next section.

6.3.1.1 The conjunctive particle The conjunction -le is employed to make a conditional clause and occurs post verbally at the end of the clause as illustrated in (62).

Conditional clauses are

bracketed with { }. In Thadou, one marker may convey a number of different semantic relations between clauses depending upon discourse context, and conversely, one type of relationship between clauses may be coded in a number of different ways. (291) {lou

na=ne

medicine 2CLT=eat

le}

na=dam

diŋ

a=hi

COND

2CLT=well

FUT

DECL=COP

‘If you take medicine, you will be fine.’ (292) {guʦa a=hi-le} thief

man -in

3CLT=COP-COND catch-IMP

‘If he is a thief, catch him.’

The conditional marker may occur in desiderative clauses, as in (293). (293) {na=huŋ-nom 2CLT=come=want

le}

huŋ-in

COND

come-IMP

‘If you want to come, you come.’ (294) {a=lam-nom {3CLT=dance=want

le}

lam-thei

a=hi

COND}

dance-can 3CLT=COP

‘If he wants to dance, he can dance.’

(295) {ka=in=a

na=ge-le}

1POSS=house=LOC 2CLT=stay-

su m

na=pe

aŋai-po=e

money 2CLT=give need-

NEG=DECL

COND

‘If you stay in my house, you don’t have to pay.’ The subordinate particle -le may be additionally followed by the emphatic particle bou‘only’ for more emphatic purposes, as in (67). The term le-bou ‘only if’ also sets as the background for the outcome of the main clause. It can occur both with realised and unrealised making the clause a subordinate clause. (296) na=huŋ-nom 2CLT=come=want

le-bou

huŋ-in

COND-EMPH

come-IMP

‘Only if you really want to come, you come.’ (297) {a=lam-no m {3CLT=dance=want

le-bou}

lam-thei

a=hi

COND-EMPH}

dance-can 3CLT=COP

‘Only if he wants to dance, he can dance.’

6.3.2 Negative conditionals Negative conditionals are those which describe the ensuing results if a condition is not met, i.e., ‘If not A, then B’ or ‘unless A, then B.’ In Thadou, the negative conditionals have the same structure as the non-negative conditionals, but have negative marking in the protasis as illustrated in (298) below. (298) lexa

na=ha=sim=lou=le

na=loin=lou

book 2CLT=hard=study=NEG=CONJ 2CLT=succeed=NEG

diŋ

a=hi

FUT

3CLT= COP

‘Unless you study hard, you will not succeed.’ (299) na=huŋ=lou=le

ka=luŋhaŋ

2CLT=come=NEG=COND 1CLT=angry

diŋ

a=hi

FUT

3CLT=COP

‘If you don’t come, I will be angry.’ 6.3.3 Purpose clause It has been noted that cross-linguistically, it is quite common for languages to code reason/ ‘because’ and purpose/ ‘in order to’ clausal relationships using similar

- 218 constructions, because reason and purpose clauses overlap semantically: they both give an explanation for the action or state described in the coordinated clause, with a purpose clause used for an unrealized event and a reason clause used for a realized event. There are two terms, na=diŋ=a and na=diŋ=in that are employed as subordinators to indicate the purpose of an action. The clause with na=diŋ=a/ na=diŋ=in functions to stimulate or motivate an agent referent of the subordinate clause to perform an action. (300) {nátó mù job

nà=díŋ=à} léxá

find so as to

kà=há=sìm=á=hì

book 1CLT=very=read=3CLT=COP

‘I am studying hard so as to find a job.’ (301) {nǒm-tá-à

ʦěn=ná=díŋ=ìn} ín

fine-EMP-LOC live=so as to

ká=sà=é

house 1CLT=built=DECL

‘I build a house to stay comfortably.’ 6.3.4 Temporal clauses There are several temporal subordinators, which temporally relate the subordinate clauses to the main clauses. pét=ìn púm=ìn, laǐ=ìn are the temporal subordinators as seen in the examples (302 to 304). (302) {à=léxá-sìm

púm=ìn} lá

3CLT=book-study while

á=ŋǎi=è

song 3CLT=listen=DECL

‘While studying, he is listening to music.’ (303) {kà=án =né

pét=ìn} meí

1CLT=food=eat when

á=hùŋ-mít=è

light 3CLT=come=off= DECL

‘While I was having my food, the light went off.’ (304) {à=haósát laǐ-ìn koímá} ámà=ìn á=géldó=pó=è 3CLT=rich

when no one

3=ERG

3CLT=remember=NEG=DECL

‘When he was rich, he did not remember anyone.’

6.3.5 Concessive clauses The term vaŋ-in ‘even though’ or zóŋ-lé ‘even if’ is used to indicate a proposition which is counter to the expectation expressed in the main clause, as in (305) and (306). (305) ámà à=ʦé-váŋ-ìn 3

keí ʦé-pò=ŋè

3CLT=go=even though 1

go-NEG=DECL

‘Even if he goes, I wont.’ (306) ámà=ìn phàl-hí-zóŋ-lé 3= ERG

kǎ=ʦé-dìŋ

allow-NEG-even then 1CLT=go= FUT

á=hì DECL= COP

‘Even if she doesn’t allow, I will go.

6.3.6 Cause and reason coordination In reason coordination, a clause that describes an event is linked with another clause that gives the reason for that event. Languages differ with respect to the ordering of the two clauses and to which clause receives marking. In English, these clauses can occur in either order; for example, the event clause can precede the reason clause: ‘[He ran] [because he had to catch a train]’ or the reason clause can precede the event clause: ‘[Because he had to catch a train,] [he ran].’ The marking can occur on either the reason clause: ‘[Because he had to catch a train,] [he ran]’ or on the event clause: ‘[He had to catch a train,] [so he ran].’ The term zé=ìn ‘because of’ is attached to the end of the first clause of two or more clauses to express the cause. The clause that states the reason for the event precedes the reason clause. The aspect and mood is marked on the event clause as seen in (307) and (308). (307) {ámà=ìn zǔ 3= ERG

à=há-dòn -zé-ìn}

à-thí-taì

wine 3CLT=very-drink-CONJ 3CLT=die-PERF

- 220 ‘He died because of excessive drinking.’ (308) {ámà=ìn léxá 3= ERG

à=há=sìm-loù=zé-ìn}

à=ló́iŋ-poì

book 3CLT=very=study-NEG=CONJ 3CLT=succeed=NEG

‘He did not succeed because he did not study hard.’ 6.3.7 Adversative clauses The adversative clause consists of two contrasting clauses. The conjunction occurs in between the two clauses, just after the first clause. It is denoted by the coordinator, vaŋ-in ‘but’. (309) délì

àsát vǎŋ-ìn sílóŋ

delhi hot

but

àdáp =è

Shillong cold= DECL

‘Delhi is hot but Shillong is cold.’ (310) ìndiǎ-té India-PL

á-vaìʦǎt-vǎŋ-ìn zàpán -té à=vaǐʦá-poì ADJ-poor-CONJ

japan-PL 3CLT=poor-NEG

‘Indians are poor but Japanese are not.’

(311) léxá

à=há=sìm-vǎŋìn

nàtó á=mù-zoú-poì

book 3CLT=very-study-but work

3CLT=see=finish-NEG

‘Although he studied hard, yet he did not get a job.’

The forms used to indicate clause linkage in subordinating function occur in between the two clauses. 6.4

COORDINATION The term coordination refers to syntactic constructions in which two or more units of the same types are combined into a larger unit and still have the same semantic relations with other surrounding elements. The units may be words like verbs phrases or noun phrases or subordinate clauses or full sentences. In coordinating two or more nouns (A, B, and C), they are conjoined by the coordinators: lé, ʦúlé, íp ìh ìlé, áh ìvàŋìn, áʦútálé.

The conjunctive particle le ‘and’ functions as a coordinating conjunction and is used for coordinating two or more nouns as seen in the sentences below. (312) boìnù lé boinu

boìpù á=hùŋ-òn =è boipu 3CLT=come-DL=DECL

CONJ

‘Boinu and boipu came.’ (313) naŋ lé you

ná=kìloú-òn=è

ná=naǔ-nù

CONJ

2CLT=younger= F 2CLT=come-DL=DECL

‘You and your sister look alike.’ The coordinating particle lé is also used to coordinate two or more nouns as shown in the sentences below. (314) keí lé 1

CONJ

ká=naù-nù

lé

ká=pà

1CLT=younger=F

CONJ

1CLT=father 1CLT=come-PL=DECL

ká=hùŋ=úv=è

‘My father, my sister and I are coming.’

6.4.1 Sequential clauses In order to express the idea of one action immediately followed by another -in , the conjunctive particle is employed at the end of the first clause, as in (315) and (316). (315) ámà=ìn taǔná 3= ERG

à=máŋ-ìn

á=ímù-taì

prayer 3CLT=pray-CONJ 3CLT=sleep-PERF

‘She/he said his prayer and slept.’ (316) ámà á=húŋùŋ-ìn 3

á=kìsíl-ìn

á=kìlé-taì

3CLT=arrive-CONJ 3CLT=bath-CONJ 3CLT=return-PERF

‘She/he arrived, bathed and returned.’

- 222 The other conjunctive particle used to coordinate two or more nouns or phrases or clauses is ʦùlé. 6.4.2 Comitative Conjunction The Comitative conjunction in Thadou is -to and is used to joined two or more nouns. (317) kà=nú-tó

kà=ʦé-ón=è

keí ín=à

1CLT=mother-COM 1

house= LOC 1CLT=go-DL= DECL

‘I went home with my mother.’ (318) nàtó tó work

COM

léxá-sìm

à=há=è

kóp

book-study together 3CLT=difficult= DECL

‘It is difficult to study along with job.’ 6.4.3 Disjunctive Coordination áhì-loú-lè/áhí-hì-lè ‘is not and’ is used to marking disjunctive coordination in Thadou. Wilde (2008) states that Levinson (2003) distinguishes between exclusive and inclusive coordination. Payne (1999) defines inclusive disjunctive as follows: “if the logical disjunction of two propositions is true, then one or both of the component propositions can be true.” (p.339-400). (319) nà=nú 2CLT=mother

áh ì=loú=lè

nà=pá

hínkoú-ìn

COP= NEG=CONJ

2CLT=father call= IMP

‘Call either your mother or father.’ (320) nà=nú-hám

nà=pá-hám

xát

hínkoú-ìn

2CLT=mother-Q 2CLT=father one call= IMP ‘Call your mother or father.’

6.4.4 Juxtaposition

Another type of coordination is juxtaposition in which two or more (noun or two clauses are coordinated without any conjunctions between them. Juxtaposition poses no semantic restrictions on which entities can be juxtaposed. In Thadou, juxtaposition is often found in narratives. (321) sá

ŋá

támpí

á=ùm=è

á=tì

meat fish plenty 3CLT=exist=DECL 3CLT=say ‘He said there were lots of meat and fish.’

(322) àmá=ìn né dòn 3= ERG

eat

ímút

boù

à=ból=è

drink sleep only 3CLT=do=DECL

‘He only eats, drinks and sleeps.’

6.4.5 Summary From the above discussion, it is clear that the conjunctive particle -lé can be used both as coordinatinating as well as subordinationg conjunction depending on the structure of the language. Clauses can also be coinjoined by juxtapoxition. 6.5

NEGATION

This section deals with negation and structure of negative construction in Thadou. The first section discusses the nature and structure of negation. The next section introduces the negative markers and elaborates the different functions and usages of the different negative morphemes in the language. Finally, the summary and table of negative markers is given in the conclusion. In Thadou, negation is expressed by using the negative marker which occurs post verbally. It occurs after the root verb, followed by the TAM markers.

6.5.1 The structure of negative clauses There are five negative particles -pò, -mò, -hí -loù-dà in the language. Either one of these particles can be used to negate an affirmative statement. However, there are

- 224 some syntactic, semantic and pragmatic differences, which will be discussed in the following section. The structure of the negative particles can be stated as seen in the examples below. (323) àmá mí-phà 3

á=hì-pò=è

man-good 3CLT=COP-NEG=DECL

‘He is not a good person.’

(324) àmá mí-phà 3

á=hì-hí=è

man-good 3CLT=COP=DECL

‘He is not a good person.’ (325) àmá 3

mí-phà-mò

á=hì=è

man-good

3CLT=COP= DECL

‘He is not a good person’/( ‘He is a bad person.’) (326) àmá mí-phà-loù á=hì=è 3

man-good

3CLT= COP=DECL

‘He is not a good person.’

6.5.2 The negative particles in Thadou As stated earlier, there are different negative particles and the choice of the particles depends on what is the constituent that is to be negated. Some of the negative particles can be interchangeably used without any semantic or structural differences but depending on the choice of the speaker. This section deals with the structure of each of the different negative particles in the language. 6.5.2.1 The negative particle -pò pò/poì is used as a simple negative marker and is in all non imperative sentences to negate an affirmative sentence or as a negative answer to interrogative questions illustrated in sentences (327), and (328). However, when it occurs in the irrealis mood

or future tense, there is a slight change in the structure of the sentence as in (329). -po does not occur in subordinate clauses but occurs only in the matrix clause. (327) mǎŋboì ín -à

à=ʦé-á

maŋboi house-LOC 3CLT=go-Q ‘Did Mangboi go home?’ (328) mǎŋboì ín -á

à=ʦé=è

maŋboi house-LOC 3CLT=go=DECL ‘ Mangboi went home.’ (329) mǎŋboǐ ín -á

à=ʦé-pò=è

maŋboi house-LOC 3CLT=go-NEG=DECL ‘Mangboi did not go home.’ (330) ìŋboǐ Lhingboi

p há-á good-Q

‘Is Lhingboi good?’ (331) ìŋboì

à=phá=è

Lhingboi 3CLT=good= DECL ‘Lhingboi is good.’ (332) ìŋboǐ

à=p há-pò=è

Lhingboi 3CLT=good-NEG=DECL ‘Lhingboi is not good.’

(333) mǎŋboǐ ín -à

ʦé-díŋ-hám

maŋboi house-LOC go-FUT-Q ‘Will Mangboi go home.’ (334) mǎŋboǐ ín -à

ʦé-díŋ-á=hì

- 226 maŋboi house-LOC go-FUT-3CLT= COP ‘Mangboi will go home.’ (335) mǎŋboǐ ín -à

ʦé-pò-ìnté

maŋboi house-LOC go-NEG- FUT ‘ Mangboi will not go home.’ (336) mǎŋboǐ maŋboi

ín-à

à=ʦé-loú-lé

ʦé-pò-ká-tè

house-LOC

3CLT=go-NEG-CONJ

go-NEG-1CLT-FUT

‘If Mangboi doesn’t go home, I will not go.’

6.5.2.2 The negative particle -loù The negative particle -loù is used as a negative particle in the á=hì construction in (337). (For detailed discussion on á=hì constr̀uction, refer to section 4.5.1.3). It is a negator in the irrealis mood as seen in (338). -loù occurs in the subordinate clause as can be seen in (339). It also occurs in the nominalised clauses as in (340). -loù is also used to negate relativised clauses as in (341). (337) ìŋboǐ Lhingboi

mí-phà-lou

á=hì

person-good-NEG

3CLT=COP

‘Lhingboi is not a good person.’ (338) hoìnù skǔl-à

ʦé-loù-díŋ

á=hì

hoinu school-LOC go-FUT-NEG 3= COP ‘Hoinu is not going to school.’ (339) ìŋboǐ Lhingboi

a=ʦe-lou-le

a=pha-zo =e

3CLT=go-NEG-CONJ

3CLT=good-more=DECL

‘It is better, if Lhingboi doesn’t go.’ (340) ìŋboǐ

a=ʦe-lou-le

lun=ʦe-po-in te

Lhingboi

3CLT=go-NEG-CONJ

LUN=go-neg=FUT

‘If Lhingboi doesn’t go, Lun will not go’

(341) léxá-thěm-loù

támpì á=ùm=è

book-skill-NEG many 3CLT=exist= DECL ‘There are many illiterates.’ ( 342) mí-phà-loù

kà=deí=pò=è

person-good-NEG 3CLT=exist=NEG=DECL ‘I don’t like a person who is not good.’

(343) ɑ́mɑ̀=ìn ɑ́=ùm-loù 3= ERG

ɑ́=hǒl

nòm=è

3 CLT=exist-NEG 3CLT=search like=DECL

‘He/she likes to look for things that are unavailable.’ 6.5.2.3 The Negative imperative -hí Negative imperative clauses are formed by adding the negative particle -hí after the head verb and before the imperitive marker -ìn. The negative particle -híʔ is used as a negation to all imperative constructions. (ref. Section 4.5.1.2) It is used to negate command, request, advice or hortative and is used more like a prohibitive marker. This is illustrated in (344) to (346). (344) kìʦá-hí-ìn fear-NEG-IMP ‘Don’t be afraid.’

(345) ímù-hí-ìn sleep-NEG-IMP ‘Don’t sleep.’

- 228 (346) zàʦá-hí-ìn shy-NEG-IMP ‘Don’t feel shy.’

6.5.2.4 The negative particle -dà The negative particle is less frequently used in the language as compared to other negative particles. -da is often used by the speaker as an expression to express hatred, unpleasantness or unwillingness to do something. It occurs with the Stem II form of the verb as in (347) to (350). -dà can also occur with imperatives and subordinate construction. (347) ká=mù-dà=è 1CLT=eat-NEG=DECL ‘I hate to see it.’ (348) ka=né-dà=è 1CLT=eat-NEG=DECL ‘I hate to eat.’ (349) kà=ʦé-da=e 1CLT=go-NEG= DECL ‘I hate to go.’ (350) kà=né-dà=è 1CLT=eat-NEG=DECL ‘I hate to eat.’ (351) nà=ʦé-nǒm-loù-lé 2=go=want-NEG=-CONJ

ʦé-dà-ìn go-NEG-IMP

‘If you don’t want to go, then don’t go.’

(352) ná=bǒl 2CLT=do

dà~dà-ìn

bǒl-hí-ìn

NEG~NEG-ADV

do-NEG-IMP

‘Don’t do it unwillingly.’

6.5.2.5 The negative particle -mò The negative particle -mò behaves like a morphological negator. Table (6.3) illustrates how the negative marker -mo is used to negate verbs to derive negative nouns below and illustrated in sentence (353). They behave like antonymns.

VERB

GLOSS

NEG

NOUN

GLOSS

PARTICLE

STEMII

né

eat

mò

→ né-mò

‘not edible’

thàm

touch

mò

→ thàm-

‘untouchable’

mò ʦaǐ

finish

mò

→ ʦaì-mò

‘that cannot be completed’

dòn

drink

mò

→ dòn -mo

‘undrinkable’

seì

say

mò

→ seì-mò

‘should not be told’

6.3 Verb+mo→noun (352) híʦé DEM

theí-hì

né-mò

á=hì

fruit-DEM

eat-NEG

3CLT=COP

‘This fruit cannot be taken’/ not edible.’ -mo can also be used to negate adjectives, which behave like antonymns as shown in table 6.4 and illustrated in (353) and (354).

ADJECTIVE

GLOSS

OPPOSITE

hoì

beautiful hoì-mò

‘ugly’

dàm

fine/well dàm-mò

‘unwell/sick’

thěm

expert

thěm-mò

GLOSS

‘not expert’

- 230 phà

p hà-mò

good

‘bad’

6.4Adjectives+mo→opposite adjectives mí-phà-mò-tá

(353) ámà 3

á=hì

person-good-NEG-INTS 3CLT=COP

‘He is a very bad person.’ (354) ámà 3

á=dǎm-mò=è 3CLT=fine-NEG=DECL

‘He is not well/sick.’ 6.5.3 Negative interrogative clauses In Thadou, interrogative constructions (both WH and yes or no questions) are negated by the negative particle lòu as shown in (355) and (356) below. The negative particle dà is used for tag questions and yes or no questions where the expected response is a positive one as illustrated in (357) to (359). (355) nà=húŋ-loù 2CLT=come-NEG

díŋ

hám

FUT

Q

‘Will you not come?’ (356) ìbǒlà nà=né-loù-hám why

2CLT=eat=NEG- Q

‘Why didn’t you eat?’ (357) ʦé dà=à

phá-hám

go

good-Q

NEG=CONJ

‘Is it fine not going?’ (358) nà=húŋ dà=díŋ 2=come

NEG=FUT

‘will you not come?’

hì-tám COP=Q

(359) húŋ come

dà

táìŋ=è

NEG

FUT=DECL

‘I will not come.’

6.5.4 Negative strengthening and negative polarity In Thadou, negation is strengthened through the addition of some suffixes like -xábéʔ/-hěl, which is suffixed to the verb.

(360) bǒl kǐt do

again

híʔ

béʔ-in

NEG

INTS- IMP

‘Don’t ever do it again?’ (361) kɑ̀=ʦé 1CLT=go

loù

hěl

dìŋ

ɑ́=hì

NEG

INTS

FUT

3CLT=COP

‘I will not go at all.’ (362) kɑ́=kì

mùtó xɑ̀

1CLT=REFL meet

INTS

híʔ

ǒn=è

NEG

DL=DECL

‘We have never met each other before.’

6.5.5 Double negation In Thadou, as in many other languages, double negative markers affirms the statement or makes the sentence a positive statement. There are different combinations of double negative markers with some changes in the meaning and construction.

6.5.5.1 -mò and -pò combination In this type of combination, two negatives make the statement a positive statement as seen in (363). (363) ámà mí-phà-mò

á=hì-pò=è

- 232 3

man-good-NEG 3CLT=COP-NEG=DECL

‘He is not a bad person.’

6.5.5.2 -hí and -mò combination The use of the prohibitive -hí and the negative marker -mò is used like a warning or prohibition. It rather strengthens the negativity of the imperative construction. (364) seì=hí-ìn say=NEG= IMP

seì=mò

á=hì

say-NEG

3CLT=COP

‘Don’t say as it is somthing not to be said.’

6.5.5.3 -loù and -pò This kind of construction is used as a kind of obligation. In other words, it is not possible for me not to go. This is used as an emphasis or urgency to do something. (365) ʦé-loù-theì

ká=hì

pò=è

go-NEG-can 1CLT=COP

NEG=DECL

‘It is not fine for me not to go.’

6.5.5.4 -loù and -hí (366) àn

né-loù-ìn

ímù-hí-ìn

food eat-NEG-CONJ sleep-NEG-IMP ‘Don’t sleep without eating.’ 6.5.5.5 -dà and -hí combination This combination of negation is used to express the certainty of the action or to confirm that something is definitely done as in (367). This sentence rather conveys the fact that he must have certainly done it. (367) bǒl-dà

hí

in tè

do-NEG

NEG

FUT

‘It is not that he will do it.’

6.5.5.6 -mò -loù -hí combination In Thadou, it is also possible to have three negative markers together in a sentence. This type of construction is to intensify the degree of the negative statement or confirming the negative statement. The sentence (268) can be interpreted as a very strong statement to confirm the fact that he is really a bad person. (368) ámà mí 3

p hà-mò-loù

á=hì

man good-NEG-NEG 3CLT=COP

hí

bé=è

NEG

INTS=DECL

‘It is not that he is not a good person.’ Other negative polarity items are words like ìmɑ̀ʦɑ́ ‘nothing’ koìmɑ̀ʦɑ́ ‘nobody’ hoìmɑ̀ʦɑ́ ‘nowhere’

(369) koìmɑ̀ʦɑ́ ín-ɑ̀ No one

ɑ̀=ʦěŋ-pò=è

house- LOC 3CLT=stay-NEG=DECL

‘No one stays in the house.’ (370) ìmɑ̀ʦɑ́ nothing

kɑ̀=bǒl-pò=è 1CLT=do-NEG=DECL

‘I’m not doing anything/ I’m doing nothing.’ (371) hoìmɑ̀ʦɑ́-à Nowhere- LOC

kɑ̀=ʦé-pò=è ICLT=go-NEG=DECL

‘I did not go anwhere/ I went no where.’

- 234 6.5.6 Negative co ordinator Negative co ordintar is also used in coordinate sentences to state that both the clauses are negative as seen in the following sentences. (372) áhoì

zòŋ

beautiful also

hì-loú

áhoì-mò

zòŋ

COP= NEG

beautiful-NEG also

hì-loú COP-NEG

‘Neither beautiful nor ugly.’ (373) kà=nú

zòŋ

ká=naǔ-nú

zòŋ

á=hùŋ

1CLT=mother also 1CLT=younger-F also 3CLT=come

pò=è NEG=DECL

‘Neither my mother nor my sister came.’

6.5.7 Non-overt negative environment There are also other ways of expressing negation without the use of the negative markers discussed in the foregoing section. Negation can also be expressed by the use of interrogative construction. Sentence (374) is to state that there will be none to trust you and in (375) also it means that there is no better person than Mangboi. (374) koì=ìn

zòŋ

nà=tása ̀n dìŋ-hám

who=ERG also 2CLT=trust

FUT-Q

‘Who will believe you?’ (375) mǎŋboǐ mangboi

sáŋà

phà

ná=mù

díŋ-hám

more

good

2CLT=see

FUT-Q

‘Will you find someone better than Mangboi?’

6.5.8 Summary Negation in Thadou is marked by negative particles which occur post verbally. There are five different negative morphemes. The choice of the negation and environment in which they occur and their functions is summarised in the following table.

NEGATIVE

ENVIRONMENT AND MEANING

PARTICLE

-loù

-loù is used to negate affirmative sentences with the ahi construction. It also occurs in the nominalised and relativised clauses and also used a negative conditional.

-pò

-pò is used to negate non imperative declarative sentences and occurs with the realis mood. It does not occur in the nominalised and relativised clauses.

-hí

-hí is the negative imperative particle and occurs in the negative imperative clauses. -hí negates the verb and adjective and so it can take intensifiers. It can also be used interchangeable used with -po to negate declarative statements.

-dà

-dà is a negative particle to show distress or dislike. It is also used as the interrogative negator.

-mò

-mò behaves like a morphological negator rather than sentential negator. 6.5: Negative marker and their functions

In Thadou, the use of double negation is not uncommon. The combination of negative markers and their interpretation is summarised in the following table.

NEGATIVE PARTICLE

INTERPRETATION

COMBINATIONS

-hí and -mò

The use of the prohibitive -hí and the negative marker -mò is used like a warning or prohibition. It rather strengthen the negativity of the imperative construction.

-loù and -hí

-loù and -hí combination is used in imperative construction as an advice or reminder the action should be done, where that speaker things that it will done otherwise.

-dà and -hí

this combination is used to express the certainty of the action or to confirm that something is definitely done.

-mò -loù and -hí

This type of construction is to intensify the degree of the negative statement or confirming the negative statement.

6.6: Combination of different negative partricles and their meaning

- 236 -

6.6

INTERROGATIVES This section looks at interrogatives and interrogative constructions in Thadou. Thadou can be classified as an ‘in-situ’ language in which the interrogative words occupy the same position as the constituent questioned. Interrogative constructions are typically divided into two subtypes: polar interrogatives and constituent interrogatives.

6.6.1 Polar interrogatives or yes/no interrogations Polar interrogatives are also called yes/no questions, as the answer the speaker expects iseither ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Polar interrogatives ask about the truth value or the degree of truth of theproposition expressed. 6.6.1.1 Unbiased polar interrogatives In the case of unbiased polar interrogatives, the speaker has no expectation of either apositive or a negative answer. In Thadou, unbiased polar interrogatives are marked by the interrogative particle -há/-hám . The following are examples of unbiased polar interrogatives. (376) mǎŋboǐ maŋboi

mí-phà-hám person good-Q

‘Is Mangboi a good person?’

(377) zǐŋlé

p haǐ-à

nǎ=ʦ́e

tomorrow imphal-LOC 2CLT=go

díŋ-hám FUT-Q

‘Will you go to Imphal tomorrow?’ 6.6.1.2 Alternative polarity/Alternative questions In alternative polarity constructions, the speaker typically provides two options from which the right answer might be drawn. In Thadou, alternative questions occur in the form of two interrogative clauses. In this construction, the speaker provides two possible answers and the hearer is free to chose from any one of the statements.

(378) boǐnù mí-phà-há

mí-phà-loù-há

boinu person-good-Q person-good-NEG-Q ‘Is Boinu a good person or not?’ (379) ná=nòp-há

ná=nòp-loù-há

2CLT=agree-Q 2CLT=agree-NEG-Q ‘Do you agree or disagree?’

6.6.2 Rhetorical interrogatives In this type of interrogatives, the speaker does not ask for new information; he/she already knows the answer. It is either to remind the hearer or to get re confirmation that a certain proposition is true. The tag is formed by adding -ná to the statement or proposition made. (380) keí ká=phà=è 1

1CLT=good=DECL

ná TAG

‘I am good. Right?’ (381) náŋ ná= haùsa ́=è 2

2CLT=rich= DECL

ná TAG

‘you are rich. Right?’

(382) túní

à= sá=é=è

today 3CLT=hot-INTS=DECL

ná TAG

‘It is very hot today. Right?’

6.6.3 Constituent interrogatives/WH-questions This type of interrogative is also called a wh-question, question-word question or content question. According to Givón (2001 vol II: 300), the speaker who asks a constituent question presupposes that the hearer shares with him some knowledge of a

- 238 state or an event, but the speaker still misses one element of the state or event. He expects information that allows him to complete the interpretation of a proposition. That missing element is then the focus of the constituent interrogative. This may be information central to the situation like subject, object, indirect object, or more circumstantial information relating to time, location, manner etc. In Thadou, the WH-word remains in-situ, in the slot where the referent being questioned would normally occur. The constituent interrogative constructions occur with the interrogative particle ham. In the following examples, we find the interrogative particle ha /ha m either after the interrogative word or as last element of the clause. The scope of the focus is the whole clause. In the following section, I will discuss the structure and nature of the different whwords found in the language. The list of question words are given in the following table. QUESTION WORD

MEANING

íp ì

thing (object or inanimate) ‘what’

koì

person (subject)

hoìʦè

GLOSS

‘who’ ‘which’

ítì

time

‘when’

íbǒlá

reason

‘why’

hoìlaǐ

location

‘where’

hoìláŋ

spatial

‘which side’

ítè

size

‘how big’

ízǎt

quantification

‘how much’

6.7: WH-Words in Thadou 6.6.3.1 íp ì-hám ‘What’ The WH-word -há/hám preceded by ip iforms the question ‘what’. It has a nonhuman implication as illustrated in sentences (383) and (384). (383) ná=mǐn 2CLT=name

ípì-hám what-Q

‘What is your name?’

(384) ípì what

nà=deí-hám 2CLT=like-Q

‘What do you want?’

6.6.3.2 koì-hám ‘who’ koi-ham forms the question word for ‘who’ and is used to refer to person as illustrated in the following sentences (385) and (386).

(385) koì

húŋ-hám

who come-Q ‘Who is coming’ (386) koì who

skǔl-à

ʦé

díŋ-hám

school-LOC

go

FUT-Q

‘Who will be going to school?’

6.6.3.3 íp ì-tì-hám‘how’ or ‘in which manner’ íp ì-tì followed by the question word -hám forms the question word ‘how’ or ‘in which manner’. It is used to ask about the manner in which something is done or has been done.

(387) ípì-tì ná=bǒl-ham how

2CLT=do-Q

‘How did you do it?’ (388) ípì-tì nà=ʦé how

2CLT=go

díŋ

hám

FUT

Q

‘How will you go?’

- 240 6.6.3.4 íbǒlà-ham ‘why’ ibola is used to question the cause or reason as illustrated in the examples below: (389) íbǒlà nà=húŋ-hám why

2CLT=come-Q

‘Why did you come? (390) íbǒlà nà=ká-hám why

2CLT=cry-Q

‘Why did you cry?

6.6.3.5 ízǎt ‘how much’ ízǎt is used to question the quantity or amount of something. It can be used both for count and non count nouns as can be seen in the examples below. (391) sǔm

ízǎt

ná=neì-há

money how much 2CLT=have-Q ‘How much money do you have?

(392) mí

ízǎt

ná=mù-há

person how many 2CLT= see-Q ‘How many people do you see?

6.6.3.6 ítè-hám ‘how big/small’ ítè is used to enquired about the size or the measurement of something. (393) nà=ín

ítè-hám

2POSS=house how-Q ‘How big is your house?

6.6.3.7 hoìʦě-hám ‘which one’ hoìʦě-hám is used to form the question for ‘which one’ or ‘which thing’ as illustrated in the sentences below. (394) hoìʦě-hám nà=ʦěnnà which-Q

ín

2 POSS=live house

‘Which is the house you live?’

6.6.3.8 hoilai-ham ‘where’ hoilai is used to ask about the location of the event or the action. This is illustrated in the examples below. (395) nà=ín

hoìlaǐ-hám

2 POSS=house where-Q ‘Where is your house?’ 6.6.3.9 6.6.3.10 hoilaŋ-ham ‘which side’ hoilaŋ is used to enquire about the direction of the event or the action. (396) nà=ín

hoì-láŋ-hám

2CLT=house which-side-Q ‘Which side is your house?’

6.6.4 WH-question word as indefinite pronouns WH-question words in Thadou can also function as indefinite pronouns denoting notions such as somebody, something, sometime, sometime. The positive indefinite pronouns are formed by one of the WH-questions followed by the interrogative particle followed by xát numeral ‘one.’ The negative indefinite pronoun is formed by combining the wh-question

and

the negative particle -màʦà.

The following

sentences are examples showing how wh-question words function as indefinite pronouns.

- 242 (397) koì-hám-xát à=húŋ=è who-Q-one

3CLT=come= DECL

‘Somebody is coming.’ (398) ípì-hám-xát

ká=mù=é

who-Q-one

1CLT=see =DECL

‘I saw something.’ (399) hoìlaǐ-hám-xát-à

kà=ʦé-nǒm=è

where-Q-one-LOC 3CLT=come=DECL ‘I want to go somewhere.’ (400) koì-màʦá á=nǒm-pò=è who-NEG

3CLT=agree-NEG=DECL

‘No one agreed.’ (401) hoì-màʦá-a

kà=ʦé-hí=è

where-NEG-LOC 1CLT=go=NEG=DECL ‘I didn’t go anywhere.’

6.6.5 Summary and conclusion The following conclusion be drawn about interrogatives in Thadou. 1. Thadou has both polar interrogatives (yes/no) and constituent interrogatives or

WH

questions. 2. In polar interrogatives, the interrogative particle occurs at the end of the clause. 3. In constituent interrogative, the interrogative particle can occur immediately after the wh-word or at the end of the clause. 4. Thus, Thadou can be classified as an ‘in-situ’ language.

6.7

PRONOMINALIZATION OR CROSS REFERENCING

This section deals with pronominalization, an important feature in of the Tibetoburman languages. Pronominalization or Cross Referencing is a feature of most

Tibeto-Burman languages. (Bauman 1975; Delancy 1989; Genetti 1994).

Cross

referencing requires the external NP to be marked on the verb. This type of marking is called agreement, person marking and ‘pronominalization’. Dolakha Newari is said to be having a cross referencing system where the subject is indexed on the verb Genetti 1994 and other Tibeto-Burman languages are described as having both subject and object cross-referenced on the verb. (Chepang and Hayu as described in Walters 1975). 6.7.1 Pronominalization in Thadou Thadou also belongs to the pronominliased languages where the verb cross referenced with either the subject NP or the object NP. The nature and structure of crossreferencing is discussed in the following section. 6.7.1.1 Pronominalization in intransitive clauses With the transitive verb, the subject is co reference when it takes an inanimate object as seen in the sentences (402 to 412). The examples below show cross referencing with an overt external argument for first person singular, dual, plural, exclusive and inclusive and also for second person singular dual plural, and third person singular, dual and plural. (402) keí skul-a 1

ka=ʦe=e

school-LOC 1CLT=go= DECL

‘I went to school.’ (403) keí-ni 1EX-DL

skul-á

ka=ʦe-on=e

school-LOC

1CLT=go-DL=DECL

‘Both of us went to school.’ (exluding the hearer).’ (404) eí-ni 1INCL-DL

skul-á

=ʦe-on=e

school-LOC

1CLT=go-DL= DECL

‘Both of us went to school.’ (The speaker and the hearer) (405) keí-ho 1PL-EX

skul-á

ka=ʦe-uv=e

school-LOC

1CLT=go-PL=DECL

- 244 ‘We went to school.’ (exluding the hearer). (406) eí-ho

skul-a

=ʦe-uv=e

1INCL-PL school-LOC 1CLT=go-PL= DECL ‘We went to school.’ (including the hearer).

(407) naŋ skul-á 2

na=ʦe=e

school-LOC 2CLT=go= DECL

‘you went to school.’

(408) naŋ-ni sku l-á 2-DL

na=ʦe-on=e

school-LOC 2CLT=go-DL=DECL

‘Two of you went to school.’

(409) naŋ-ho skul-á 2-PL

na=ʦe-uv=e

school-LOC 2CLT=go=DECL

‘All of you went to school.’ (410) ama sku l-á 3

a=ʦe=e

school-LOC 3CLT=go=DECL

‘He/she went to school.’ (411) ama-ni skul-á 3-DL

a=ʦe-on =e

school-LOC 3CLT=go= DECL

‘They went to school.’

(412) ama-ho sku l-á 3-PL

a=ʦe-u=ve

school-LOC 3CLT=go=DECL

‘He/she went to school.’

The above examples show that Thadou encodes only one argument on the verb, and that argument is the grammatical subject of the clause. This is indicated by the presence of the proclitics which comes with the verbs.

6.7.1.2 Pronominalization in transitive clauses with inanimate object This is also the case with the transitive verbs that takes arguments, when the verb takes an inanimate object as its argument as can be seen from the examples in the sentences (413 to 415) below. (413) kei=in hai

ka=ne=e

1= ERG mango 1CLT=eat=DECL ‘I am eating a mango.’ (414) naŋ=in hai 2= ERG

na=ne=e

mango 2CLT=eat= DECL

‘You are eating a mango.’ (415) ama=in haǐ 3= ERG

a=ne=e

mango 3CLT=eat=DECL

‘He/she is eating a mango.’ 6.7.1.3 Pronominalization in transitive clauses with animate object However, when the transitive verb takes an animate object as NP2, there are some exceptions to the paradigm of coreferecing of the verb with the subject. This is discussed in the following section.

6.7.1.3.1 First person subject with second person object When the subject of the transitive verb takes an animate object, the coreferencing of the verb is always with the subject as illustrated in (416) and (417).

- 246 -

(416) kei=in naŋ ka=luŋset=e 1-ERG

2

1CLT=love=DECL

‘I love you.’ (417) ke=in ama ka=luŋset=e 1= ERG 3

1CLT=love=DECL

‘I love him/her.’

6.7.1.3.2 Second person subject and first person object When the subject is the second person and object is the first person, the verb is co referenced with both the object and the subject and the order is reversed. (418) náŋ=in kei nei=luŋset=e 2= ERG

1

1CLT+2CLT=love=DECL

‘You love me.’

6.7.1.3.3 Second person subject and third person object However, when it takes the third person as the object, the co referenced is with subject. When the subject is the third person, the co referencing is always with the object of the transitive verb. (419) naŋ=in ama na=luŋset=e 2=ERG

3

2CLT=eat=DECL

‘You love him/her.’ 6.7.1.3.4 Third person subject and first person object When the subject is a third person and the object is a first person, the verb is co referenced with the object and not with the subject as can be seen from (420).

(420) ama=in kei ei=luŋset=e 3= ERG

1

1CLT=love= DECL

‘He/she loves me.’

6.7.1.3.5 Third person subject and second person object When the subject is a third person subject and the object is the second person, the co referencing is again with the subject and not with the object. (421) ama=in náŋ nà=lúŋsět=e 3= ERG

2

2CLT=love= DECL

‘He/she loves you.’

Cross-referencing on the verb allows for pro-drop. Payne describes cross referencing as an “anaphoric device” that “counts as the only reference to the subject of the verb” (1997:42). However, in Thadou, we find that cross-referencing is obligatory. Thus, an overt pronoun co-occurs with cross-referencing on the verb as can be seen from the examples above where the pronominal proclitic co-occurs with the cross-referencing on the verb. The paradigm for the cross-referencing system found in Thadou is presented in the table 6.8 below.

PERSON

PROCLITIC

ENCLITIC

First person singular

ka

e

First person dual inclusive

i

on

First person dual exclusive

ka

on

First person plural inclusive

i

uv

First person plural exclusive ka

uv

Second person singular

na

e

Second person dual

na

on

Second person plural

na

uv

Third person singular

a

e

Third person dual

a

on

- 248 Third person plural

a

uv

6.8: Pronominals in Thadou

6.7.2 Summary The table below summarizes the agreement pattern in Thadou. SUBJECT DIRECT OBJECT AGREEMENT PATTERN 1

1

subject agreement

1

2

subject agreement

1

3

subject agreement

2

1

object agreement+subject agreement

2

2

subject agreement

2

3

subject agreement

3

1

object agreement

3

2

object agreement

3

3

object agreement

6.9:Agreement pattern for transitive verbs in Thadou

6.8

SUMMARY

In this chapter, I have attempted to describe the language at the syntactic level. From the discussion, it is evident that Thadou exhibits most of the features of TibetoBurman languages and other closely related Kuki-Chin languages, the most interesting feature being pronominalization and its agreement with the verb.

7 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION This chapter provides a brief summary of the findings of the entire thesis. The salient phonological, morphological and syntactic features of the language are highlighted in this chapter. 7.1

THE LANGUAGE

Thadou (ISO 639-3: TCZ) is a Kuki-Chin language of the Nothern Kuki-Chin group of the Tibeto-Burman group of the Sino-Tibetan languages and is spoken mainly in the northeastern part of India including Manipur, Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura and some parts of the neighbouring country, Myanmar with a population of 2000,000 speakers approximately. It is also spoken in the Chittagong hill tracts of Bangladesh. 7.2

THE PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES

The segmental phonology of Thadou has a number of interesting features. The consonant system has an aspirated-non aspirated contrast in voiceless stops; labial, alveolar and velar nasals in all positions; glottal stops in final positions; /h/ in initial position; a contrast between unvoiced laterals /l/ and // (with allophones // /lh/). The voiceless lateral fricative /ɬ/ is accompanied throughout by aspiration or breathy voice. In compounds in which the first word ends in a vowel and the second begins with [ɬ], (a re-syllabification takes, with the lateral component [l] being produced, and the fricative component being produced as [h]. Stops are unrealeased in the final position. The vowel system of Thadou (Table 2.2) is phonemically simple, but phonetically intricate. Thadou has no contrastively nasal vowels; front vowels are unrounded, back vowels are rounded. The vowel system is characterised by a centralising tendency: the close and mid vowels are all somewhat centralised and rather remote from the cardinal vowels. The central vowels themselves, [a] and [ə], appear to be in contrast only in closed CVC syllables; in open CV syllables, the shwa [ə] does not occur. With very few exceptions, the vowels [a] and [ə] are in complementary distribution,depending on the length of the syllable. The structure of the syllable is simple (C1)V(C2) with the following restrictions. All consonants except the glottal stop // occur as C1. Only unreleased stops, /p/, /t/ //,

- 250 nasals /m/, /n/, /ŋ/ lateral /l/ occur as C2. Vowels are longer in open syllables and diphthongs occur mostly in open syllables with some exceptions. Thadou words are mostly monosyllabic in nature. At the suprasegmental phonology, tone is the most interesting feature of the language. Thadou has a combination of both register and contour type of tone. At the lexical level, Thadou has three contrastive tones and every syllable in the word carries one of these underlying tones. These tones are subject to tonal alternation in compound words. The two tonal alternations are contour simplification (LH+L→L+H) and high tone spreading (LH+LH→H+H). In addition to the lexical tone language, Thadou also has certain morphosyntactic tone (more typical of Niger-Congo languages). 7.3

NOUN AND NOUN MORPHOLOGY

Thadou is monosyllabic in that there is an almost perfect one-to-one correspondence between the syllable and the morpheme, especially for function morphemes. Basic nouns are also mostly mostly monosyllabic in nature and occur in all the three tones. In addition to basic nouns, there also derived nouns and compounds. 7.3.1 Pronoun and pronominals Pronouns in Thadou are either in free form or clitic/ bound form. The list of independent pronouns are listed in Table 3.15. Independent (non-bound) pronouns distinguish three persons and three numbers. Distinction is made between the inclusive/exclusive pronouns in the first person. Reflexive/reciprocal pronouns are phonetically same: pronoun-le pronoun for example keima le keima  ‘myself’,

maho le maho ‘themselves.’ The pronoun proclitic in the VP is oligatatory in all clause types except in: relative clauses, imperatives and in wh-questions without the subject. Only the deitic motion particles and the reciprocal/reflexive marker can come between the pronominal proclitic and the verb. There is no formal indication of possession other than juxtaposition of two nominals. The first of the two nominals in a sequence will be interpreted as possessor of the second. These proclitcs express person and mumbers. There are no differences in possessor marking based on semantic characteristics of the possessed entity.

Nominals may be modified by demonstrative deictic elements. Proximity and visibility both play an important part,viz. hiʦe ‘near the speaker’ xuʦe ‘away from the speaker’, xu laŋ ‘away from both the speaker and the addressee and not visible’. Thadou has dual and plural number. Number is indicated by cardinal numbers or morphology. Singular is unmarked and duality is marked by the numeral ni‘two’ and plurality is marked by -ho and -te on the noun. Marking of duality and plurality is not typically required in noun phrases; the verb bears obligatory marking for number: -on for dual and -u for plural With the exception of absolutives, which are unmarked, nominal phrase, nominal phrases bear on of a set of clitic particles. Subjects of transitive verbs bear the ergative case clitic =in. The locative case clitic=a  marks location. The instrument case marker =in marks the instrument with which the action is performed, the location from which the action originates, or the area/medium through which the action occurs. Most spatial notions are encoded through the use of abstract nouns which refer to locations, e.g. suŋ ‘area inside’, ʦuŋ ‘area on top’. Thadou has a few set of classifiers, which are compounded with numeral roots to form nominal attributes. Some classifiers referring to special semantic fields include mu ‘grandular substances’ pe ‘flat objects’ pum ‘round or oblong items, ʦeŋ ‘units of money’. 7.3.2 Order of the Noun Phrase Form classes include nominals (nouns, pronouns) and verbals (verbal and adjectival). Demonstratives, discourse marker, quantifiers and numeral compounds are minor class components of nominal phrases. A nominal phrase consists minimally of a head noun, which may either be possessed by a preceding noun, or bear a possessive proclitic. Quantifiers follow the head noun, and numeral quantification requires a classifier element compounded with a numeral root. Next, all non-absolutive noun phrase bear a case part particle. The final element in a nominal phrase is often a demonstrative element at the beginning of the noun phrase. Relative clauses, including expressions corresponding to adjectives in other languages, generally precede their heads, though the head may also occur internal to

- 252 the relative clause, giving the impression in some cases of a postnominal relative; adjectival roots may also occur in a distinct, non-finite construction following the nominal they modify.

7.4

VERB AND VERB MORPHOLOGY

Like nouns, simple verbs are mainly monosyllabic in nature. As in other languages, verbs play the most important role in a sentence. The verbal complex consists of a verb stem preceded by one of the proclitic element and followed by several postverbal particles. The verb phrase is the most complex part and interesting part of Thadou grammar as many particles form part in the verb phrase. Finite verbs are accompanied by preceded by the agreement proclitic and followed by the number agreement markers. Verb roots may be followed by sequences of upto several bound particles which distinguish modal, aspectual/Aktionsart, tense, mood, and various adverbial categories. There are several modal elements, which cut across categories in terms of their morphosyntax. Thadou makes a large number of subtle aspectual distinction. Some of the basic aspectual markers include nalai‘progressive’, tai ‘perfect and diŋ ‘irrealis’, which in its most basic use marks future tense. Other categories include zi for ‘habitual action’, ziŋ for iterated action.There is a basic tense distinction between future and non-future events. The future is marked by the irrealis marker -diŋ and the non-future is unmarked. The past event is sometimes marked with the evidential prefix na-. Comparitive and superlative constructions require the use of particles -zo ‘more’ and pen ‘most’. The negative markers in declarative clauses is-po. In imperative mood, the negation is marked by the prohibitive marker -hi. In the irrealis mood and non-finite clauses, the negative marker is-lou. The declarative mood is marked by the clause final clitic =e. -in is used as a non clause final particle and behaves like a connector in between two clauses in compound or complex constructions.

7.4.1 Pronoun clitic in the VP The pronoun clitic is obligatory in the VP in all clause types except in relative clause, wh-questions and imperative without the subject. Only the deitic motion particles, reciprocals/reflexives and evidential marker can come between the verb and the pronoun clitic. 7.4.2 Deitic motion verbs One of the characteristics of Tibeto-burman langauages is the deitic motion verbs. (Delancy 1985). In Thadou, these are not verbs but preverbal particles which are called deictic motion particles (DMP). The DMPs cliticise before the main verb stems and cause the verbal complex to receive an interpretation of the subject’s carrying out the action in a certain manner involving locomotion. In all instances, it is the individual expressed by the pronoun, which immediately preceds the DMP, that moves. Thadou has two DMPs: ga ‘away from the speaker and hin ‘towards the speaker’. These will also agree semantically and syntactically with the demonstrative pronoun and determiner on the NPs. 7.4.3 Stem I and Stem II verbs As in other Kuki-Chin languages, Thadou has two verbal paradigms known as Stem 1 and Stem II. The Stem 1 and Stem II verbs differ in their phonological shapes. Usually, the two forms differ in their tone and in the final segment. The Stem 1 usually has any one of the three tones and the Stem II usually has the low tone and the final segment is usually a stop. The phonological aspects of Stem II verbs have received considerable attention. With regard to their historical origin and their relationship to Stem I verbs, Loffler (1973) and Lehman (1982) have dealt with the pertinent data in related Chin languages. 7.4.4 Serial verbs and derived verbs Like most South Asian languages, Thadou has a productive system of serial verbs and derived verbs. Another type of verb concatenation involves DMPs and motion verbs that form one syntactic unit. The two DMPs (ga and hin ) can no longer stand as a

- 254 lexical main verb. This lexicalization of motion verbs is attested in many TB languages. The other type of derived verbs modify only Stem II verbs. These are adjectival verbs expressing degree or manner. (something like ‘ness’ in English). The others expressed causative or benifactive relationships. 7.4.5 Adverbs Adverbs generally precede the main verb. The adverbs are manner adverb, adverb of time and place. Adverbs require some sort of modifier like -in or locative marker a/a. 7.5

DERIVATIONAL MORPHOLOGY

Like other Tibeto-Burman language, the morphology of Thadou is very intricate and interesting. New words can be formed through different processes of derivation, affixation, cliticization and reduplication. 7.5.1 Compounding As in many other Tibeto-Burman languages, in Thadou too, formation of new words through the process of compounding two roots is highly productive. The most common compound nouns are Noun+Noun compounds, Noun+verb compounds and phrasal compound nouns. Compound verbs can be of Verb+Verb compound verb, verb+modifier compound verbs and adjectival compounds. Compounds can be either exocontric or endocentric. Often, the resulting compound is non-compositional. 7.5.2 Affixation Thadou has both prefixes and suffixes. Suffixation is more productive than prefixation in the languages. Some of the important affixes are discussed here. -na, which has numerous etymologically related throughout the morphology, also functions as a deverbalnominalizer which productively creates locative, instrumental and action nominals: touna ‘chair/seat’ (place for sitting) lupna ‘bed’ (place for sleeping) ha tnotna ‘tooth brush’ (instrument for brushing the teeth) and kip ena

‘donation’ (act of giving’ etc). Besides -na, there are two elements which derive nouns from bases :pi‘augmentative’ and -ʦa ‘diminutive’. Ordinal numbers are derived from numeral root by means of the suffix -na: xatna‘first’ni-na‘second’somna‘tenth’. Caustives markers are also suffixes that attached to the verb. Most valence-affecting morphology involves transitivization. Caustivization ivolves the process of suffixing the causative marker -sa. Gender is marked by the process of suffixation. Inanimate nouns are not marked for gender. In the case of animate human nouns male and female are indicated by suffixing -pa ‘male and -nu‘female’ respectively. Non human animate nouns genders are marked by suffixing -ʦal ‘masculine’ and -pi ‘feminine’ to the nouns. The plural marker -ho and collective marker -te are also suffixes to the noun. The nominalizer -dan ‘manner of doing’ is also a suffix to the Stem II verb to form a noun. The agentivizer -pa ‘the doer’ is a suffix to the Stem I form of the verb to form a noun which behaves like the -er of English. Reflexive/reciprocal marker is the same in Thadou. The difference is indicated by the number marker in the preceding noun and the number suffix in the following verb. Reflexivity/reciprocity is marked by prefixing -ki to the main verb. All case markers, expect ergative case marker occur as suffixes to the noun. 7.5.3 Clitics Because their phonological shapes and properties are so similar, it is often difficult to distinguish between particles and clitics. One distinction made between clitics and particles is that clitics are obligatory in construction whereas particles are not. Some of the clitics in Thadou are pronominal clitics: =ka ‘first person exclusive’, =i‘first person inclusive, =na ‘second person’ and =a ‘third person. Pronoun clitics are tightly bound to whatever they precede. The pronominal proclitics occur with the noun phrase to indicate possession and with the verb phrase as an agreement marker. The ergative marker=in:

- 256 Like many languages of the Kuki-Chin group, Thadou is a partially ergative language. In a transitive clause, the agent is marked by a case marker =in on the subject noun phrase. At the same time, the obligatory pronominal clitics in the verb phrase are organised according to nominative-accustive principles. The ergative case marker is a clitic =in and not an affix because it follows the whole noun phrase. This should not be confused with the instrumental case suffix -in, which comes with the noun (the only difference is in the tone). Declarative mood marker=e is an enclitic that comes at the end of the finite clause in the clause final position. 7.5.4 Particles As mentioned earlier, particles are distinguished by their phonetic charactersitics, and by their grammatical function. Particles are usually low in content but high in function, specially in conveying the attitude of the speaker. Some particles are obligatory, depending on the context, but they are usually optional. Thadou is very rich in particles as can be seen in the following section. 7.5.4.1 Adverbial particles Adverbial particles have often been called ‘double adverbs’. They function as adverbs as they modify the verbs and are often reduplicated. Unlike adverbs, adverbial particles are iconic and convey a significant amount of information. Some of these include: speaker attitude, shape and size of the subject/object, speed and aspect. They are indispensible in narrative discourse, where they are often used to dramatise and highlight the significant events. Yet, inspite of their versatility, they do not have lexical meaning in and of themselves. For this reason, it is better to call them particles rather than independent words. The vowels in adverbial particles are iconic. Front vowels are used for smaller sizes, (children, women, small animals, etc.). A back vowel is used to represent larger sizes (men, large animals, erc.). The low vowel a is used for in between sizes (older children, small adults, etc.). This phenomenon is also found in other Kuki-Chin language like Mizo cf. Changte (1989) and also in other south East Asian languages, cf. Gregerson (1984).

Most adverbial particles are reduplicated (hence the term ‘double adverbs’). In instances where the two forms are not the same, the first will have a front vowel and the second will have a back vowel. These adverbial particles can modify active verbs. They can also modify non-active verbs and most stative verbs or adjectives. The front vowels are used for representing pleasantness and the back vowels are used for displeasure and unpleasantness. The emphatic marker for pronouns is ma. ‘self’. It can be roughly translated to mean something like ‘excluding all else. This is there many other Kuki-Chin languages like Mizo, Hmar etc. The intensifier particles, ta , e,moŋ, follow a general quantifier or an adjective. Intensifiers, when they modify can also follow the verb. The non-final particle, in which behave like a connecter in coordination and subordination is also a particle. 7.5.5 Reduplication Reduplication is a typological feature of Tibeto-Burman languages and Thadou is no exception to this. All major types of reduplications are found in the language. Reduplication in Thadou can be both morphological and lexical. Of the two types, lexical reduplication is more common in the language. Nouns, pronouns, verbs and adverbs, adjectives intensifiers can be reduplicated. Reduplication of words can bring about different semantic change. One interesting feature of the language is the reduplication of adverbial particles to express different meanings in different contexts. Nouns are reduplicated for distributive and exclusive meaning. All verbs can be reduplicated and this generally indicates regular action, simultaneity iteration or accentuation Adverbs can also be reduplicated and the meaning is for emphasis or urgency. Pronouns are reduplicated for reflexicity/reciprocity and emphasis. Truncated forms of proper nouns and address terms are reduplicated to show endearment and familiarity. Adverbial particles are reduplicated to add vitality and express one’s feeling of pleasantness, unhappiness, distress in discourse. However, they do not have lexical meaning in and of themselves. This is often employed in narration and is found more in the speech of children and women.

- 258 7.6

THE SYNTACTIC FEATURES

Thadou has many interesting syntactic features, which are summarised in this section. 7.6.1 Word order The basic word order in Thadou is SOV. Attributes follow the head noun; case markers follow the head noun; however, genitives precede the head noun (section 6.1) ; relative clauses precede the main clause. If the event is in focus, the word order is OVS. Arguments are often instantied by full NPs, their instantiation being assumed by a pronominal interpretation of verbal agreement marking. When full NPs are present, the basic word order is subject-object-verb, with variable placement of the subject and the object depending on their case marking and semantic factors. 7.6.2 Grammatical relations The basic system of grammatical relations as marked on nominals has an ergative/absolutive alignment, and verbal ablaut achieves the effect of an anti passive construction, in which both arguments of a transitive verb are absolutive, in which the object does not have access to all of the properties generally available to transitive objects. On the hand, verbal agreement has a fundamentally nominative/accusative alignment. The subject markers generally agree in number with the subject. There are some exceptions as discussed in section in (6.7). 7.6.2.1 Coordination Coordination of NPs involves the clitic =le, which also marks clausal conjunction. The most frequent frequent clausal coordination construction makes use of an encliticized particle =hi, which may otherwise appear clause-initially as an independent conjunction; prosodic inclusion in the first clause distinguishes the enclitic use from its clause-initial use. Subordination involves three basic types of construction: adverbial subordination, relativization, and complementation.

Finite indicative clauses may, without any formal modification, occur as the object of the oblique case particle =in /=a yield adverbial subordinate clauses expressing the circumstance under which an advent described in the main clause. Related to this subordination pattern is the marking of the protases of conditional clauses, which involves addition of the locative case particle and the discourse deitic ʦu-n, which tends to mark topicalization. Besides these relatively compositional subordination strategies, there are some less compositional subordinators, though parts of them are identifiable. Purposive clauses are marked by ze=in. Conditional clauses are marked by the conjunctive partcical le . 7.6.2.2 Relativization Relative clauses may be externally-or internally-headed, though both strategies are not available for all target types. Externally-head relatives are preposed finite clauses with a gap corresponding to the target of relativization. Relativization on given targets requires a particular ablaut grade and an invariant relative clause particle. 7.6.2.3 Complementation There is no distinction between direct and indirect speech, and verbs of cognition require a (quotative) complementizer based on the verb ti‘to say’. diŋin acts a purposive clause marker in other context also acts a complementizer. 7.6.3 Major sentence types Declarative sentences are coded by the declarative enclitic =e, which occurs in the clause final position. Equational copular sentences are formed with a predicate nominal and and the copula hi. Existential copula sentences also use the copular verb =hi. Jussive sentences are different from other sentences as they do not take the proclitic, which occurs with all other types of sentences. Imperative sentences take the imperative particle =in. The hortative have a different structure as it is marked by the hortative marker hi=te, which occurs in the clause final position.

- 260 Polar interrogatives are indicated by the sentence-final particle -ham. Content questions are characterized by left-dislocated dedicated question words and the interrogative particle -ha /ham. In transitive sentences, the subject must be represented by the obligatory pronoun clitic in the VP but the full NPs are often omitted. Some sentences require an object. 7.6.4 Pronominalization or Cross Referencing Thadou also belongs to the pronominliased languages where the verb is cross referenced with either the subject NP or the object NP. In Thadou, we find that crossreferencing is obligatory. Thus, an overt pronoun co-occurs with cross-referencing on the verb where the pronominal proclitic co-occurs with the cross-referencing on the verb. In intransitive clause, Thadou encodes only one argument on the verb, and that argument is the grammatical subject of the clause. This is indicated by the presence of the pronominal proclitic that comes with the verb and is co referenced with the subject. The paradigm for the cross-referencing system found in transitive clause in Thadou is very interesting as it differs with the nature of the subject and the object. The general pattern of co referecing is with the subject NP. However, there is an exception when the verb takes an animate subject and animate objects. When the subject is a second person and the object is a first person then the agreement is neither with the subject nor with the object of the transitive clause. When the subject is a third person the coreferencing is always with the object of the transitive verb. (see table 6.9 for detail). 7.7

CONCLUSION

I have attempted to describe the salient features of the language at different linguistic levels. From the discussion, it is evident that Thadou exhibits most of the features of Tibeto-Burman languages and other closely related Kuki-Chin languages. The most interesting phonological feature is its tone and tonal system. The morphology of the language is very intricate, the most interesting are the stem verb alternation and the serial verb construction. Of the two, verbal morphology is more complex than the noun morphology. Thadou does not have much of inflectional morphology, however, it is rather rich in derivational morphology. At the syntactic level, Thadou shares most

of the typological features of OV languages. One interesting feature of the language that it shares with other other Kuki-chin languages of the Tibeto-Burman languages is the presence of pronominalisation and the intricate nature of its coreferecing with the verb.

- 262 -

APPENDIX (1) ABSTRACT NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES 56 SL. NO

ENGLISH

THADOU

1.

all

ab ̀n

2.

beautiful

ahòi

3.

ugly

ahoilou

4.

sad

luŋhem

5.

lonely

ʦáŋxàt

6.

lovely

lúŋsetùm

7.

handsome

ahòi

8.

pity

lúŋset ùm/hepi

9.

mercy

xto ùm/hep i

10.

love

lúŋset/ailut

11.

hatred

múdà

12.

bad

áp halòu

13.

good

áp hà

14.

big

álèn

15.

small

ánèu

16.

huge

álèn/lentà

17.

tiny

neu ʦà

18.

brave

áhàt/áháŋsan

19.

coward

ámeisan

20.

busy

áboi

21.

careful

kíʦíthei/ʦíŋthei

22.

careless

xósá naneilòu

56

Abbi, A. 2001. A Manual of Linguistic Fieldwork and Structures of Indian languages. Germany: Limcom Europa. Appendix 2 pp. 244-248.

23.

broad

álèn

24.

narrow

ánèo

25.

clever

áʦìŋ

26.

wise

áʦìŋ

27.

cold

ádàp

28.

hot

ásà

29.

costly

ámántàm

30.

cheap

ámánbèi/ámánòm

31.

length

ásaudàn

32.

breadth

álétdàn

33.

size

álét áneo dàn

34.

dry

ág

35.

wet

ák̀t

36.

swampy

á

37.

dirty

ánèm

38.

clean

áthìeŋ

39.

muddy

bn̀

40.

difficult

áhása

41.

easy

ábèi

42.

empty

ákèu

43.

full

ádím

44.

joy

kípà

45.

sorrow

lúŋhèm

46.

emphathy

lúŋhèmpì

47.

truth

ádì

48.

false

ádìlou

49.

equal

ákíbáŋ

50.

unequal

ákíbáŋlou

51.

deep

áthú

- 264 52.

shallow

ánem/áthúlòu

53.

fear

kíʦát

54.

famous

áthúpi/ámínthàŋ

55.

fault

ám/ádílóu

56.

fool

áŋól

57.

foolish

áŋól/míŋól

58.

greed

papset̀

59.

greedy

papsè

60.

guilty

áthèmmò

61.

generosity

hŋp hàl

62.

heavy

ágí

63.

height

ásàndàn

64.

high

ásáŋ

65.

low

ánem

66.

holy

áthieŋ

67.

honest

kitá/thudí

68.

honesty

kitána

69.

humble

kinèusá

70.

innocent

monab ei/themmonabei

71

interest

thánòp

72.

kind

áp hà

73.

lame

élbài/ákibài

74.

lean

ág ŋ

75.

loud

ágíŋ

76.

low

ánèm

77.

mad

áŋ̀l

78.

many

átàm

79.

miser

miʦìp

80.

miserable

génthèitá

81.

mixed

ákíhàl

82.

more

átám

83.

mortal

áthìthéi

84.

much

támtá

85.

neat

athìeŋ

86.

new

áthá

87.

notorious

xánsè

88.

open

ákihòŋ

89.

old

álùi

90.

pale

adàŋ

91.

patient

lúŋnìeŋ

92.

patience

lúŋnìen

93.

poor

vàiʦát/ávàiʦà

94.

poverty

vàiʦátná

95.

raw

ásel/áhíŋ

96.

ready

ábeìsa/kigíŋsa

97.

rich

áhau

98.

right

ádí

99.

ripe

amìn

100.

sharp

áhiem

101.

shut

xá

102.

short

áʦòm

103.

shy

zaʦát

104.

shyness

zaʦátna

105.

similar

ákílòu

106.

similarity

ákílona

107.

size

álét ánèudàn

108.

slow

áŋàn

109.

smart

ánel/ágún

110.

smooth

áz̀l/ánàam

111.

swift

ágáŋ

- 266 112.

solid

áàŋ

113.

square

ádúŋ ávài kibàŋ

114.

straight

ázàŋ

115.

strong

áhát

116.

strength

thà/hátná

117

stupid

áŋ̀l/miʦávèi

118

tame

áŋùi

119.

terrible

ágímnei

120.

thin

ág ̀ŋ

121.

tired

álál/átháʦ̀l

122.

true

ádí

123.

truth

ádíná

124.

thick

ásà

125.

thin

ápà

126.

uncivilized

xáŋtóulòu

127.

use

ákízàŋ/ákímàŋ

128.

useful

mánʦáphàtá

129.

useless

pánnab èi

130.

variety

zàtʦ̀mʦ̀m

131.

weak

ásám

132.

wealth

néi/góu

- 268 APPENDIX (II) BASIC SENTENCES FOR DATA COLLECTION Basic sentence list is based on Abbi (2001)57 Simple (1) maŋ=in

hai

min a=ne=e

mangboi= ERG mango ripe 3CLT=eat=DECL ‘Mangboi is eating a ripe mango.’ (2) boinu=in

hai

min a=ne=e

boinu=ERG mango ripe 3CLT=eat= DECL ‘Boinu is eating a ripe mango.’ (3) lalboi=in

hai

a=at=e

lalboi=ERG mango 3CLT=cut=DECL ‘Laboi is cutting a mango.’ (4) lalboi=in

ʦem-in

hai

a=at=e

lalboy= ERG knife-INS mango 3CLT=cut= DECL ‘Lalboi is cutting a mango with a knife.’ (5) kim=in

hai

a=at

pet-in

a=xut

a=kiat=e

kim=ERG mango 3CLT=cut moment-LOC 3CLT=hand 3CLT=cut= DECL ‘Kim cuts her finger while cutting mango.’ (6) kim=in

bus-a

hai

a=ne=e

kim=ERG bus-LOC mango 3CLT=eat= DECL ‘Kim is eating a mango in the bus.’

57

Abbi, A. 2001. A Manual of Linguistic Fieldwork and Structures of Indian languages. Germany: Limcom Europa. Appendix 5 pp. 248-252.

(7) thaŋ=in

ziŋka -in

hai

a=ne=e

thang= ERG morning-LOC mango 3CLT=eat= DECL ‘Thang ate mango in the morning.’ (8) ʦapaŋ-pa=in mithai child-M=ERG

zouse a=ne-ta=e

sweets all

3CLT=eat-PERF=DECL

‘The boy has eaten up all the sweets.’ Negatives (1) kei sku l-a 1

ka=ʦe-po=e

school-LOC 1CLT=go-NEG=DECL

‘I did not go to school.’ (2) kei phai-a 1

ka=ʦe-lou

imphal-LOC 1CLT=go-NEG

diŋ

ahi

FUT

COP

‘I will not go to Imphal.’

(3) zanhi-in

sku l-a

ka=ʦe-po=e

yesterday-LOC school-LOC 1CLT=go-NEG=DECL ‘Yesterday, I did not go to school.’ (4) ʦapaŋ ʦu=n child

DEF=ERG

a=nao-nu 

a=vo-po=e

3CLT=younger-F 3CLT=hit-NEG=DECL

‘The child did not hit her sister.’ (5) lexa

a=sim-lou

ze

uv-

them-vet-na

a=paʦaŋ

po-uv=e

skill-test-

ADJ=success

NEG-

in book 3CLT=studyNEG

CAUS

PL-C

NOMZ

‘Because they did not study, they fail in the exam.’

PL= DECL

- 270 -

(6) ka=nu

zoŋ

ka=nao-nu

zoŋ

a=huŋ

1CLT=mother also 1CLT=younger-F also 3CLT=come ‘Neither my mother came nor my sister.’ (7) sai-pi elephant-AUG

ʦu

a=thi-po=e

DEF

3CLT=die-NEG= DECL

‘The elephant did not die.’

Imperatives (1) huŋ-lut-in come-enter-IMP ‘Come in.’ (2) lut-hi-in/o enter-NEG-IMP ‘Do not come in.’ (3) luŋset-ta-in

huŋ-tou-o/in

love INTS-ADV come-sit-IMP ‘Please sit down.’ (4) lut enter

p hal-lou

ah i

allow-NEG

COP

‘Admission is prohibited.’

(5) pot-do-in Get-out-IMP ‘Get out.’ (6) luŋset-ta-in

huŋ-lut-in

po=e NEG=DECL

love-INTS-ADV come-enter-IMP ‘Please come in.’ (7) lexa book

ha-sim-in INTS-study- IMP

‘Study hard.’ (8) nei=huŋ-vil

ziŋ-uv-o

2CLT=come-visit often-PL-IMP ‘Visit us more often.’ (9) kot

xa-in

door close-IMP ‘Close the door.’ (10) lexabu hin -ʦoi-in book

bring-IMP

‘Bring the book.’

Conditional and Coordination (1)

mithai nei=pe-lou

le

ka-ka

diŋ

ah i

sweet

COND

1CLT=cry

FUT

COP

2CLT=give-NEG

‘If you don’t give me the sweets, 1 will cry.’

(2) nei= vo 2CLT=beat

le

ka=ka

diŋ

ah i

COND

1CLT=cry

FUT

COP

‘If you hit me, I will cry.’

(3) a=huŋ

va

3CLT=come early

le

lexa-thot

ʦu

a=mu

diŋ

ah i

COND

letter-send

DEF

3CLT=see

FUT

COP

‘If he had come earlier, he would have seen the letter.’

- 272 -

(4) thusim ʦu story

DEF

ei=do

le

a=bona ka=sei-pe

1CLT=ask

COND

ADJ=all

tei

1CLT=say-BEN certain

diŋ

ahi

FUT

COP

If he asks me, I will certainly tell the whole story.’

(5) a=huŋ-nom 3CLT=come-want

le

huŋ-in-te

COND

come-CONJ-should

‘If he wants to come he should come.’ (6) kikim

le

lelen hou-in-a

a=ʦe-on=e

kikim and lelen worship-house-LOC 3CLT=go-DU= DECL ‘Kikim and Lelen went to church.’ (7) ʦapaŋ ho-n child

bu

PL=ERG

a=ne

uv-in tui

rice 3CLT=eat

PL-C

dap

a- don -uv=e

water cold 3CLT=drink-PL=DECL

‘Children ate rice and drank cold water.’

in ah inla a=umʦen

(8) boinu a-hoi boinu

ADJ-beautiful

C

but

a-pha-poi

3CLT=behavior

ADJ-good-NEG

‘Boinu is beautiful but ill natured.’ Literary, it means ‘Boinu is beautiful but her way of behaving is not good.’ (9) lalboi=in

ei=kitho-pi

lalboi=ERG 1CLT=help-

diŋ

lun vaŋ a=kitho -pi

lou

diŋ

ah i

FUT

lun but

NEG

FUT

COP

BEN

3CLT=helpBEN

‘Lalboi will help me but not Lun.’

Inclusive/Exclusive (1) zanhi-in

ei-ho

sin ima

ve-in

i=ʦe

uv=e

yesterday-LOC

1 INCL-PL

film

see-CONJ

1CLT=go

PL=DECL

‘Yesterday, we had gone to see the movie.’ (+addresser)’(+ addressee)

(2) zanhin

kei-ho

sin ima ve-in

Yesterday 1EXCL -PL film

ka=ʦe

see-CONJ 1CLT=go

uv=e PL=DECL

‘Yesterday, we had gone to see the movie.’ (-the addressee)’

(3) zanhin yesterday-LOC

ei-ni

sin ima ve-in

INCL-DU

film

i=ʦe

see-C 1CLT=go

on =e DU=DECL

Yesterday, we (dual) had gone to see the movie (the addressee). (4) zanhin

naŋ sin ima ve-in

Yesterday-LOC 2

film

na=ʦe=e

see-CONJ 2CLT=go= DECL

‘Yesterday, you went to see the movie.’ (5) zanhin

naŋ-ni

sin ima ve-in na=ʦe-on=e

Yesterday you-DU film

see

2=go DU-DECL

‘Yesterday, you (dual) went to see the movie’ (6) iti

pha-mo

how good- NEG

hi-tam gotna COP-Q

i=ʦan

punishment 1CLT.INCL=get

u=hi PL= COP

We got punishment, how bad (+ addressee). (7) iti

phat-mo

how good- NEG

hi-tam gotna COP-Q

ka-ʦan u-hi

punishment 1EXCL-got-PL= COP

‘We got punishment, how bad (-addressee).’ (8) ei=ni

gotna

i=ʦan-on -hi

1INCL=DU punishment 1CLT=get-DU-CONJ

a=pha

mo=e

ADJ=good

NEG=DECL

‘We (dual) got punishment, how bad (+addressee).’

- 274 -

(9) kei-ni

gotna

a-pha-mo-e=e

ka=ʦan-on hi

1 EXCL-DU punishment 1-got-DU

COP

ADJ-good-NEG-very=DECL

‘We (dual) got punishment, how bad (-addressee).’

Interrogatives (1) na=min

ip i-ham

2CLt=name

what-Q

‘What is your name?’ (2) hoilai-a na=ʦen-ham where

2CLT=stay-Q

Where do you stay?

(3) na=dam

hi-nam

2CLT=healthy

COP-Q

How are you? (4) iti-le

p hai-a

na=ʦe

when-ADV imphal-LOC 2CLT=go ‘When will you go to Imphal?’ (5) ibola phai-a why

na=ʦe

imphal-LOC 2CLT=go

‘Why are you going to Imphal?’

(6) ama koi-ham 3

who-Q

Who is he/she?

ham Q

diŋ

ham

FUT

Q

(7) izat

na =mu-em

How much

2CLT=get-Q

‘How much did you get?’

(8) na=ne 2CLT=eat

ta-em PRF-Q

‘Have you eaten?’

(9) ziŋ-le

ka=huŋ

tomorrow -LOC 1CLT=come

diŋ

ha

FUT

Q

‘Shall I come tomorrow?’ (10) tuni today

thuso

na=mu-a

news

2CLT=see-Q

‘Did you see the papers today?’ (11) tuni-le

in -a

an

na=hon

today-LOC house-LOC food 2CLT=cook

diŋ

ham

FUT

Q

‘Will you be cooking today at home?’ (12) ama-in

ipi

3=ERG

gel

what think

in te tia

na=gel-em

FUT

2CLT=think-Q

COMP

‘What do you think he was thinking?’ (13) hoiʦe which

xu

na=nao-pa -ham

DEM

2 CLT=younger-M-Q

‘Which one is your brother?’ Relativization, Participialization, Adjectives (1) zanhia

xusi ʦapaŋ-pa ʦu

tu-in

a=thi-tai

- 276 Yesterday fever

boy

REFL

today-ADV 3CLT-die-PRF

‘The boy who had fever yesterday died today.’

(2) xon suke-pa ʦu cup broke-M

ga-kou-in

REFL

go-call-IMP

‘Call the boy who broke the glass.’

(3) zanhi-a Yesterday-ADV

xon

suke-pa

ʦu

hin-kou-in

cup

broke-M

REFL

call-IMP

‘Call the boy who broke the glass the day before yesterday.’

(4) thiŋ-ba

boŋ

plant-branch broken

ʦu

pai-maŋ-in

DEF

throw-away-IMP

‘Throw away the broke branch.’

(5) zoŋ monkey

a=um

e=e

ʦu

niŋkital

DEF

nuisance 3CLT=exist very=DECL

‘The monkey was a nuisance.’

(6) thikil-a kixai luxu ʦu nail-LOC hung cap

REFL

a=xe=e 3CLT=fell= DECL

‘The cap which was hung on the nail fell.’

(7) xusi vei fever

ʦapaŋ-pa ʦu

suffer child-M

‘The fevered boy died.’

REF

a=thi=e 3CLT=die=DECL

(8) xon suke-pa ʦu

hin-kou-in

cup break-M

go-call-IMP

REF

‘Call the glass breaker boy.’

(9) ʦa-don-pa tea-drink-boy

ʦu

hin -kou-in

REF

go-call-IMP

‘Call the tea drinker boy.’

(10) luxu a=kixai cap

3CLT=hang

ʦu

a=xe=e

DEF

3CLt=fell-down= DECL

‘The hung cap fell down.’ (11) mo-na-nei-lou

ʦapaŋ

fault-NOMZ-have-NEG

child

‘The innocent child’/blameless child.’

(12) ʦapaŋ ʦu child

DEF

mona-nei-lou 

a=hi

fault-have-NEG 3CLT=COP

‘The child is innocent.’

Causatives, Passives/ Incapabilitatives (1) minu=in

a=ʦa

a=va=e

mother= ERG 3CLT=child 3CLT=feed= DECL ‘The mother fed the baby.’ (2) minu mother

ʦu=n

a=ʦa

ʦu

nurse-nu a=va

sa =e

DEF=ERG

3CLT=child

DEF

nurse-F

CAUS=DECL

‘The mother made the nurse feed the baby.’

3CLT=feed

- 278 -

(3) a=pa=in

so-pa

lexa

zouse a=pai-ma ŋ-sa=e

3CLT=father=ERG servant-M paper all

3CLT=throw-away-CAUS=DECL

‘His father got all the papers thrown away by the servant.’

(4) numeinu ʦu=n girl

DEF= ERG

so-nu

ʦu

in -mai

a=sutheŋ

sa=e

servant-F

DEF

house-front 3CLT=clean

CAUS=DECL

‘The girl is getting the verandah cleaned by the maid.’

(5) boipu=in

iŋboi

sim-sa-in

koma lenpu lexa

boipu=ERG lhingboi to

a=ti

lenpu book study-CAUS-IMP 3CLT=COMP

‘Boipu asked Lhingboi to make Lenpu study hard.’

(6) zilkuŋ-pu=n

ʦapaŋ ʦu

teacher-M=ERG child

lexa

sa=e

a=sim

book 3CLT=study

DEF

CAUS=DECL

‘The teacher made the child study.’

(7) sap-pa=in

thiŋ-tn -pa

officer-M=ERG wood cut-M

ʦu

thiŋ

a=tn

DEF

wood 3CLT=cut

sa=e CAUS=DECL

‘The officer is making the wood cutter cut the trees.’ (8) thiŋphuŋ-ho ʦu trees- PL

DEF

a=ki-phu=e 3CLT= REFL-cut=DECL

‘Trees were cut.’ (9) a=u-nu =in

a=nao-pa 

3CLT=elder-F=ERG 3CLT=younger-M

ʦu

a=imut-sa=e

DEF

3CLT=sleep=CAUS=COP

‘The sister is making the little brother sleep.’

(10) ra jiv gandhi ʦu rajiv gandhi

DEF

bomb-a

ki-that

a=hi

bomb-INS

REFL-killed

3CLT=COP

‘Rajiv Gandhi was killed by a bomb.’

(11) komputer a=sim computer 3CLT=study

sa 

hile

nato a=mu

diŋ

a=hi

CAUS

COND

work

FUT

COP

3CLT=get

‘If he had made him study computers he would have got the job.’

science ei=sim-sa-uv=e

(12) kaden ka=inko-te=n alas

1CLT=family=ERG science 1CLT= study-CAUS-PL= DECL

‘Alas my parents had made me study science.’

(13) hai bottle

ʦu

ka=suke=e

DEF

1CLT=broke =DECL

‘The bottle broke (by me).’

(14) bu rice

hi

india a

mi

DEF

india

people most=ERG

LOC

atamzo=in  a=ne=e 3CLT=eat=DECL

‘Rice is eaten by most people in India.’ (15) za nla=in numei xt Lastnight

girl

one

a=ki-suse=e 3CLT= REFL-spoilt=DECL

‘A girl was raped last night.’ (16) melseta-in gunda-ho vo badly-ADV

gunda-PL

beat

in

kana

CONJ

1 PRF exist=DECL

‘I was beaten furiously by the gondas.’

um=e

- 280 (17) an food

ʦu

ʦapaŋ ʦu=n

gaŋta in

a=ne

DEF

child

fast

3CLT=eat can-NEG= DECL

DEF=ERG

LOC

‘The food cannot be eaten fast by the child.’

(18) adap ze-in cold

lexa

ka=sun

thei-po=e

because book 1CLT=write able-NEG= DECL

‘Because of cold, writing cannot be done by me.’

Cases, Agreement, Coindexing (1) ʦapaŋ-pa a=kiʦem=e child-M

3CLT=play =DECL

‘The boy is playing.’ (2) ʦapaŋ-pa bol-in child-M

a=kiʦem=e

ball-with 3CLT=play=DECL

‘The boy is playing with the ball.’ (3) ʦapaŋ-pa=in mot

a=ne=e

child-M= ERG banana 3CLT=eat=DECL ‘The boy ate the banana.’

(4) ʦapaŋ-pa phata-in child-M

a=kiʦem=e

good-ADV 3CLT=play=DECL

‘The boy played well.’ (5) ʦapaŋ-nu=in an child-F=ERG

a=ne

food 3CLT=eat

‘The girl had eaten the meal.’

ta=e PRF=DECL

thei-po=e

(6) ka=nu=in

tu-a

an

a=hon

1CLT=mother=ERG now-LOC food 3CLT=cook

diŋ

a=hi

FUT

3CLT= COP

‘My mother will cook now.’ (7) (kei) ka=luŋ 1

anom-po=e

1CLT=mind fine-NEG=DECL

‘I am sad.’ (8) ram a=gil

a=kel=e

ram 3CLT=stomach

ADJ =hungry= DECL

‘Ram is hungry.’ (9) lexabu ʦu

lado

in -la ŋ

dokaŋ-a

book

pick up

CONJ-then

table-LOC keep-IMP

DEF

koi-in

‘Pick up the book and keep it on the table.’ (10) sa kol ʦu horse

a=an

pe-in

3CLT=food give-IMP

DEF

‘Give the horse the feed.’ (11) luŋset-ta-in

pon -hoʦu

so p-in

love-INTS-ADV cloth-PL DEF wash-IMP ‘Wash the clothes please.’ (12) kim=in

a=nu

lexa

a=thot=e

kim=ERG 3CLT=mother letter 3CLT=send=DECL ‘Kim wrote a letter to her mom.’

(13) xoizu

xoi

honey bee

akon / ki-la-do ABL

REFL-take-out

‘Honey is extracted from bees.’

a=hi 3CLT=COP

- 282 (14) lenpu lalboi to lenpu lalboi

a=kina=e 3CLT=fight=DECL

COM

‘Lenpu fought with Lalboi.’

(15

pathen =i

)

n

leiset hi

thil

hoita-

to

a=sem

tha

a=hi

ho

God= ER

worl

DE

thin

beautiful

CO

3CLT=mad

alon

3CLT=CO

G

d

F

g

-PL

M

e

g

P

‘God made the world with beautiful things.’

lai le

(16) xoxal autumn

ADV

thiŋ-ba

ho thiŋp huŋ akona xe-a=e

tree branch

PL

tree

‘The leaves fall from the trees in autumn.’

(17) ka=ʦa-nu

diŋ sum

nei=pe-in

1CLT=child-F for money 2CLT=give-IMP ‘Give money for my daughter.’

(18) in-a

koima a=um-po=e

house-LOC none

3CLT=exist-NEG=DECL

‘Nobody is at home.’ (19) thil

zouse ʦŋ

som-in

ka=ʦo=e

thing every rupee ten-ABL 1CLT=buy= DECL ‘I bought everything in ten rupees.’ (20) hon -a

paʦa a=hom=e

ABL

fall-down= DECL

garden-LOC flower

ADJ=bloom=DECL

‘Flowers are blooming in the garden.’

(21) lexabu ʦu book

doxaŋ-a

DEF

a=um=e

table-LOC 3CLT=exist=DECL

‘The book is on the table.’ (22) pon -ho cloth-PL

ʦu

dokaŋ-ʦuŋ-a

a=ki-koi=e

DEF

table-top-LOC 3CLT=REFL-keep=DECL

‘Clothes are kept on the top of the table.’

(23) lexabu-ho thiŋko ŋ to-a book-PL

box

a=ki-koi=e

bottom-LOC 3CLT=REFL-keep=DECL

‘Books are kept at the bottom of the box.’

(24) in

tom-a

hon

xt

a=um=e

house behind-LOC garden one 3CLT=exist=DECL ‘There is a garden behind the house.’

(25) in

mai-a

hai

p huŋ xt

house front-LOC mango tree

a=um=e

one 3CLT=exist=DECL

‘There is a mango tree in front of the house.’

(26) iŋboi

bazar

kai-in

a=loi-te

lhiŋboi market shopping 1CLT=friend-

to

bou

COM

only go

PL

‘Lhingboi will go shopping only with her friends.’

ʦe diŋ FUT

a=hi 3CLT=COP

- 284 -

(27) maŋ nao-nu

kiʦenna

maŋ younger sibling-F wedding

diŋ

ziŋ

ah i

FUT

tomorrow

COP

‘Mang’s sister’s wedding is tomorrow.’ (28) lun xon a-dum lun cup

a=hi

ADJ-blue

3CLT=COP

Lun’s cup is blue. (29) so mni-le-ŋa twenty-and-five

man

ʦini

hin -ʦo-in

cost

sugar

go-buy-IMP

Buy twenty five rupees sugar (ie for 25 rupees) phoŋ hi-in

(30) lexabu pheŋmai-ho ʦu book

page-PL

DET

turn

NEG-IMP

‘Don’t turn the book’s pages.’ (31) a=in

ka=ʦe

masaŋ-in

ka=von

ka=kixel=e

3CLT=house 1CLT=go before-CONJ 1CLT= cloth 1CLT=change=DECL ‘Before I went to her house, I changed my clothes.’

Comparatives/Contrastive (1)

tuikul tui well

saŋin vaduŋ tui

water more river

water

a=theŋ

zo =e

ADJ=clean

ST=DECL

‘River water is cleaner than well water.’

(2) gaŋga tui ganga

water

a-theŋ

pen =e

ADJ-clean

most=DECL

‘The Ganga water is the cleanest.’

(3) delhi a-san delhi

ADJ-hot

siloŋ

vaŋ a-dap=e

shillong but

ADJ -cold= DECL

‘Delhi is hot but Shillong is cold.’

(4) india-te

a=vaiʦa-in

ahin za pan-te vaŋ a=hi-po=e

India-PL

ADJ=poor-C

but

japan-PL but

3CLT= COP-NEG=DECL

‘Indians are poor but Japanese are not.’ (5) kei

saŋxol naŋ-a

1POSS shirt

sa ŋin a-kaŋ

2-POSS more

zo=e

ADJ-white

MKR= DECL

‘My shirt is whiter than yours.’ Echo-Formation (1) ʦa

them-xt

don -in

tea little-one drink-IMP ‘Please have some tea.’ (2) an -me

them-xt

ʦo-a

a=ʦe=e

vegetables little-one buy-to 3CLT=go=DECL ‘He has gone to buy some vegetables.’ (3) a=zin eina 3CLT=wedding

a

touna themxt

LOC

chair

little one 3CLT=got= DECL

‘He got some chairs on his wedding.’ (4) tou-in/o sit-IMP ‘sit’

a=mu=e

- 286 (5) ka=ʦe

thei-po=e

1CLT=go can-NEG= DECL ‘I cannot walk.’ (6) ibola na=luŋhaŋ-ham why

2CLT=mind-hungry-Q

‘Why do you get angry?’

(7) ʦapaŋ ho=n child

PL=ERG

sa xau a=kipo

uv-in skul-a

bag

PL-C

3CLT=carry

school-LOC 3CLT=go-PL=DECL

‘Children go to school carrying bags.’

(8) la-sa

ze-in

lol

song-sing because throat

a-se-po=e ADJ-spoil-NEG=DECL

‘The throat does not go bad because of singing.’

Classifiers (1) lexa-bu-ni

a=kigu-maŋ=e

book-CLF-two 3CLT=stolen away= DECL ‘Two books were stolen.’ (2) xulai a-xun there

LOC-DEM

go

pum

ni

(3) a moon

kol round

‘Round moon’ (4) pasal xt

a=um=e

bamboo round two 3CLT=exist=DECL

‘Two longish bamboos were lying there.’

a=ʦe-uv=e

boy

one

‘One boy’

(31) numei xt girl

one

‘One girl’

Reduplication 1 ol~ol-in

ka=ʦe=e

slow~slow-ADV 1CLT=go= DECL ‘I was walking very slowly.’ (2) a=huŋ~huŋ

zeŋ=e

3CLT=come~come often=DECL ‘He came again and again.’ a=ne-em

(3) ipi~pi

what~what 3CLT=eat-Q ‘What all did he eat?’ (4) iti~ti when~ ADV

le

na=huŋ

diŋ

ham

ADV

2CLT=come

FUT

Q

‘When will you come?’ (5) itile lamka-a when

na=ʦe

churachandpur-LOC 2CLT=go

diŋ

ham

FUT

Q

‘When will you got to Churachanpur?’ (6) ka=von -ho

hoilai~lai-a

um-ham

1CLT=cloth-PL where~where-LOC exist-Q

- 288 ‘Where are all my clothes?’

(7) a=tou~tou

ze-in

a=lal=e

3CLT=sit~sit because 3CLT=tired=DECL ‘He was tired of sitting.’ (8) lexathot ka=sut~sut letter

ze-in

ka=ʦim=e

1=write~write because 1CLT=bore=DECL

‘I got bored writing letters.’ (9) a=an-ne

pum~pum-in

a=ham=e

3CLT=food-eat with~with-CONJ 3CLT=talk= DECL ‘She was talking while eating.’ (10) lampi-a

a=ʦe

pet-in

ʦapaŋ ʦu

road-LOC 3CLT=walk moment-CONJ child

DEF

a=u=e 3CLT=fall=DECL

‘The child felt down while walking on the footpath.’

(11

a=tv

vet

pet-in

guʦa-

)

a=sum

to

ho-in

a=zamma

uv=e

ŋ

3CLT

watc

moment

thief-

3CLT=mone

CO

3CLT=run-

PL=DEC

-tv

h

-C

PL= ER

y

M

away

L

G

‘While he was watching the TV, the thieves ran away with the cash.’

(12) kofi coffee

a-sat~asa

nei=pe-o

ADJ-hot~hot

2CLT=give-IMP

‘Give me very hot coffee.’ (13) komla

asan ~asan-ho a-um=e

orange red~red-PL

ADJ-sweet=DECL

‘Red red oranges are sweet.’

(14) hai

aum~aum

hin-ʦoi-in

mango sweet~sweet sweet go-bring-IMP ‘Bring some sweet sweet mangoes.’

(15) tho

ta~ta-ho

sa ŋ

hedge high very~very-PL

xu

iti

na=ʦop

kan

DEM

how 2CLT=jump over

diŋ

ham

FUT

Q

‘How are you going to jump over these high high hedges?’

(16) thil

zouse ʦu

things all

DET

abon -in

themxt~xt

nei=pe-in

all-CONJ little one~one 2CLT=give-IMP

‘Give me little little of all the varieties of everything.’ huŋ-hi-in

(17) ka=nuŋ~nuŋ-a

1CLT=behind~behind-LOC come-NEG-IMP ‘Don’t come after me.’ (18) xt

vei

ahiloule xt

one time or

vei-le

huŋ

tei~tei

one time-CONJ come sure~sure

diŋ

a=h i

FUT

3CLT=COP

‘Sometime or the other, he will surely come.’ Compound Verb (1) saip i

the ʦu

elephant old

DEF

a=thi=e 3CLT=die=DECL

‘The old elephant died.’

(2) ka=pa

in-a

a=huŋ

in a=loi-te

a=kile

ta-uv=e

- 290 1CLT=father house-

3CLT=come

LOC

C

3CLT=friend- 3CLT=return

PRF-

PL

PL=DECL

‘By the time papa came home, his friends had left.’

(3) lexathot ʦu letter

nei=pe-in 2CLT=give-IMP

DEF

‘Give me the letter.’

(4) pot-do-in Get-out-IMP ‘Get out.’

(6) luŋset-ta-in sa ŋxol lum love-LOC

shirt

xt

warm one

ki-sa-o REFL-knit- IMP

‘Please knit a sweeter for yourself.’ (7) kim

la-sa

ve-in

kim song sing see-IMP ‘See kim sing.’ (8) a=tau=e 3CLT=sit= DECL ‘He sat down.’

Conjunct Verbs/Converbs (1) an

a=ne zou-in

food 3=eat

ka=pa

xolai-leŋ-in a=ʦe=e

after-ADV 1CLT=father stroll

‘Having eaten his meal, papa went for a stroll.’

3CLT=go=DECL

(2) lexathot-ʦu sim letter-DEF

giŋ-in

read loud-IMP

‘Read the letter loud.’ (3) in-ʦu

phata-in

ve-in

house-DEF good-ADV see-IMP ‘See the house properly.’

a=ep-a

(4) a=nao-pa 

vaŋin a-phaʦom-pi

3CLT=younger-M 3CLT=cheat but

ADJ=benefit-BEN

‘He did not do well having cheated his own brother.’

(5) ga-ve-in go-see-IMP ‘Go and see.’ (6) ei=vo

in

a=zam-maŋ=e

1CLT=hit and 3CLT=ran-away=DECL ‘He hit me and ran away.’ Infinitive, Complements (1) hilai-a

na=huŋ

ka=dei-po=e

here-LOC 2CLT=come 1CLT=like-NEG= DECL ‘I do not like your coming here.’

(2) koi-ham p hata-a who-Q

an

ne-nom-lou

good-ADV food eat-like-NEG

‘Who does not like to eat well?’

de

po=e

even

NEG=DECL

- 292 (3) ama a=huŋ 3

kile

zein

a=soʦa=e

a=nu

3CLT=come return because 3CLT=mother 3CLT=survive=DECL

‘Because of his coming back his mom survived.’

(4) ama=in

ka=daa

xosuŋ

va

3CLT=ERG village 1CLT=leave soon

diŋ

ahi

a=ti=e

FUT

COP

3CLT=say=DECL

‘He told me that he was leaving the town soon.’

(5) ama a=huŋ 3

kile

ze-in

a=nu

a=soʦa=e

3CLT=come return because 3CLT=mother 3CLT=survive=DECL

‘Because of his coming back his mom survived.’ (6) ama=in xosuŋ 3= ERG

ka=daa

va

village 1CLT=leave soon

diŋ

ahi

a=ti

FUT

COP

3CLT=say

‘He told me that he was leaving the town soon.’

(7) ama-in an 3= ERG

hon

ka=thanom=e

a=ti

food cook 1CLT=like COP=DECL 3CLT=say

‘She said that she likes to cook’ (8) ka=nao-nu=in

haptamasa n go

1CLT=younger-F=ERG last week

aha

zu=e

a=ti

rain very rain= DECL 3CLT=say

‘My sister told me that it rained heavily last week.’

Word order/ Topic and Focus Scrambling (1) ama=in thusim ʦu 3= ERG

story

DEF

a-di=e

ti-in

ADJ-true=DECL

say-CONJ 1CLT=say-BEN=DECL

‘She told me that the story was true.’

ei=sei-pe=e

(2) ama ka=in -a 3

1CLT=house-

a=huŋ

diŋ

a=huŋ-lou

diŋ

ka=he-po=e

3CLT=come

FUT

3CLT=come-

FUT

1CLT=know-

LOC

NEG

NEG=DECL

‘I don’t know whether he will come to my house.’

(3) neŋ=in

kim

luŋset-pa ʦu

neng=ERG kim love-M

a=muda=e 3CLT=hate=DECL

DEF

‘Neng hated the boy who loved Kim.’ sa-ta

(4) lun diŋin lexa lun for

sim

book thick-very read

a=bei=e ADJ=easy=DECL

‘It is easy for Lun to read fat books.’

(5) ama-nu melhoi ahi-po=e 3-F

good

COP-NEG=DECL

‘She is not a beautiful girl.’ (5b) ama-nu a-hoi-po=e 3-F

ADJ-good-NEG= DECL

‘She is not beautiful.’ (6) hiʦe gamza ŋ a DEM

jungle

thiŋp huŋ a=um-po=e tree

LOC

3CLT=exist-NEG=DECL

‘There are no trees in this jungle.’ (7) ah ipoi hiʦe hi no

this

na=gel

DEM

tabaŋ ahi-po=e

2CLT=think like

COP-NEG=DECL

‘No, this is not as you think.’ (8) ah i-po=e COP-NEG= DECL

koima a-um- poi none

ti

ka=nom-po=e

3-exist- NEG say 1CLT=agree-NEG=DECL

‘No, I do not agree that no one is there.

- 294 -

(9) ibola na=huŋ why

lou-ham

2CLT=come

NEG-Q

‘Why did you not come?’ (10) naŋ miŋol na=hi-po=e you fool

2CLT=COP-NEG= DECL

‘You are not a fool.’ (11) koi

sin ima na=vet

who film

2CLT=see

sa -a

koi

CAUS-Q

who money 2CLT=give-Q

sum

na=pe-a

‘Who did you show the film and whom did you give the money?’

(12) ka=loi-nu

sinima ka=vet-sa=e

1CLT=friend-F film

1CLT=see-CAUS=COP

‘I showed my friend a film.’

(13) ka=kin

ka=ʦai

teŋle bou

1CLT=work 1CLT=finish then

in -a

ka=ʦe

only house-LOC 1CLT=go

‘I will go home but after finishing the job.’

(14) in-ʦu house-DEF

a-neo-nan

ah in a-hoi=e

ADJ-small= CONJ

but

ADJ -beautiful=DECL

‘No doubt it was a small house, but it was beautiful.’

(15) a=naonu-in

pasal zouse a=luŋset

3CLT=sister= ERG boy

all

3CLT=love

‘‘Every boy is not loved by his sister.’

ahi-po=e COP-NEG=DECL

diŋ

ahi

FUT

COP

(16) kina-na

um-lou

sinima-ho-xu nom ka=sa=e

fight-NOMZ exist-NEG film-PL-DEM

like

1CLT=feel=DECL

‘I like the films that have no violence.’

(17) lexabu-ho ka=ki-la book-PL

le

1CLT=REFL-take back

diŋ

a=hi

FUT

3CLT=COP

‘Books, I will take back.’

(18) tui

a=loŋ

water flowing

xu

a=nen ŋai

po=e

DEM

dirty

NEG=DECL

usually

‘Running water is never dirty.’

(19) delkop kikop-pa -xt ka=in -u-va  turban

wear-M-one

a=huŋ

va-lut=e

1CLT=house-PL-LOC 3CLT=come roam-enter=DECL

‘A man who was wearing a turban barged into our house.’

(20) ama miŋol hi-nte tin 3

mad

COP

COMP

ka=gel=e 1CLT=think=DECL

‘I think he is mad.’

(21) ama=in tuni-n 3=ERG

them-vet-na

a=um-po=e

today LOC skill-see-NOMZ 3CLT=exist-NEG= DECL

‘He said that exams were not held today.’

(22) them-vet-na

tunia

akiʦai diŋ

skill-see-NMZ today finish

FUT

‘I wanted the exam to be over today.’

ka=dei=e 1CLT=like= DECL

a=ti COMP

- 296 -

(23) kim=in

lampi a=pel

kim=ERG road

pet-in maŋ

3CLT=cross while

a=mu=e

mang 3CLT=see=DECL

‘Kim saw Mang while she was crossing the road.’ (24) ibola kid el-u why

fight-PL

ham ti

ka=luŋdoŋ=e

Q

1CLT=wonder=DECL

COMP

‘I wondered why they were fighting.’

(25) ama=in kiloixomna 3=ERG

organisation

ʦu

kithopi in te ti

ka=gel-po=e

DEM

help

1CLT=think-NEG=DECL

FUT

COMP

‘I don’t think that he will help the organization.’

(26) in-a

na=ʦe-nom-ham

house-LOC

2CLT=go-want-Q

‘You want to go home. Is not it?’ (27) ama=in na=hin-kou po-inte 3=ERG

2CLT=call

NEG-FUT

na Q

He will not call. Would he?

Interrogation, Complementation (1) ama=in ipi 3= ERG

a=bol

na=het-a

what 3CLT=do 2CLT=know-Q

‘Do you know what he did?’ (2) koi

lexa

sim

who book read

diŋ FUT

a na=gel-a 2CLT=think-Q

‘Who do you think will read the book?’

(3) ei-kitetna run-competition

ʦu

koi=in

a=zo

diŋ-ham

DEF

who= ERG

3CLT=win

FUT-Q

Who will win the race? (4) ram huŋ ram come

diŋ

iti

na=het-em

FUT

how 2CLT=know-Q

‘How do you know that Ram is coming?’ (5) koi=in

la

a=sa

who=ERG song 3CLT=sing

diŋ

na=het-em

FUT

2CLT=know-Q

‘Do you know who will sing’

(6) iti-le

boipu huŋ

when-LOC boipu come

diŋ

na=sei-thei-dem

FUT

2CLT=say-able-Q

‘When can you tell when Boipu is coming?’ Dative Subjects (1) ka=luŋ

a=nom-po=e

3CLT=mind

3CLT=fine-NEG=DECL

‘I am sad.’ (2) busi ka=vei=e cold

1CLT=get=DECL

‘I have cold/ cough.’ (3) ʦapaŋ-ho a=kiʦem child-PL

nom uv=e

3CLT=play like

PL= DECL

‘Children like to play in the garden.’ (4) lalboi za-ʦep

a=zosa-ta=e

- 298 lalboi cigarette-smoking 3CLT=habituated -PRF=DECL ‘Lalboi is in the habit of smoking.’

(5) ʦoŋ=in

dukan /dor akon=in

ʦoŋ=ERG shop

lexa

a=dei=e

from= ADV book 3CLT=like=DECL

‘Chong wants books from the store.’

(7) ka=tha

a-ʦol=e

1CLT=strength

ADJ-tired=DECL

‘I am feeling tired.’ (8) gari kiŋa-na-a bus

puŋ

ni

a=tou-ta-uv=e

stop-NOMZ-LOC hour two 3=sit-PRF-PL= DECL

‘They have been sitting at the bus stop for two hours.’ (9) ka=za

aʦa=e

1CLT=shy feel=DECL ‘I fee shy.’ (10) ka=luŋ

a-haŋ=e

1 POSS=mind

ADJ-angry=DECL

‘He got angry.’

(11) ziŋ-le

na=huŋ

aŋai=e

tomorrow-LOC 2CLT=come need=DECL ‘You will have to come tomorrow’

(12) tu-a

in

ka=ʦe

aŋai=e

now LOC house 1CLT=go need=DECL ‘I have to go home now’

a=o=e

(13) ama thaŋ-a 2

trap-LOC 3CLT=trap=DECL

‘She was caught in the trap.’ (14) mih em=in xut man= ERG

ni

le

keŋ ni

hand two and leg

a=nei=e

two 3CLT=have=DECL

‘Man has two hands and two feet.’

(15) ka=nao-nu=in

ʦa

thum

a=nei=e

1CLT=younger-F-ERG child three 3CLT=have= DECL ‘My sister has three children.’

(16) ka=pa=in

su m

tam-pi

a=nei=e

1CLT=father=ERG money plenty-AUG 3CLT=have=DECL ‘My father has plenty of money.’ (17) ka=loi

lui

xat

akon-in lexathot xt

1CLT=friend old one from

letter

one 1CLT=see=DECL

‘I got a letter from an old friend.’ (18) lampi-a

su m

pum

xt

a=mu=e

road-LOC money round one 3CLT=see=DECL ‘She found a coin on the road.’ (19) meri=in ʦa-pa xt a=nei=e mary= ERG child-M one 3CLT=have=DECL ‘Mary had a baby boy.’

ka=mu=e

- 300 (20) lenpu a=haŋsan =e lenpu 3CLT=courage=DECL ‘Lenpu has courage.’ (21) in

ʦun kot

house

DEF

ni

a=nei=e

door two 3CLT=have=DECL

‘The house has two doors.’ (23) thiŋ-ba

dondo=e

a=huŋ

plant-branch

3CLT=come sprouted= DECL

‘The plant sprouted branches.’

(24) a-ni Two-

a=kizut

zou-in

3CLT=massage after-

months

hoi-do-ta=e

ʦapaŋ ʦu

a=huŋ

child

3CLT=come beautiful-

DEF

PRF=DECL

LOC

‘After two months of massaging, the child became beautiful.’

(25) min in-te

in-suŋ-mi

minin-PL house-inside-person

a-tam

uv=e

ADJ-plenty

PL=DECL

‘Minin has a large family.’ APPENDIX (III): NARRATIVE (I)

A story about why man is not able to see ghosts Malai malai in mihem le thilha thakhat anahin. Mihon thilha ho ana that that jeng uvinin ahi. Nikhat thilha ho lah a khat pathenpa koma ache in “vo pathen, mihem ten eithat that jeng uvin eithachai gam diu ahitai anatin ahileh chuin pathen pan thilhapa koma chun, “chol lai vom khuh hal in lang atuikhuhuh uvah lhah lut lechun amit lai u vom in tin, chuteng namuthei lou diu ahi tai” ati. Hichun, thilhapa ache in pathenpan a sei peh bang bang chun agabol tan ahi, hiche a kon a chu mihem ten thilhaho a mu thei lou u ahitai.

Free translation Long long ago, human beings and spirits used to be alike. Man very often used to kill the spirits. One day, one of the spirits went to God and said, “God, human beings have also killed us and very soon we will perish”. Then, God answered, mix some black yeast and put it in their well. Then, they will not be able to see you. Therefore, the spirit did as directed by God. From then on, human beings are not able to see ghosts any longer. . (1) ma-lai~ma-lai-in mihem le before-PROG~

man

CONJ

thi-a

thaxt ana- hi

dead-spirit same

PST-COP

‘Long long ago, man and ghost used to be equal.’

(2) ah in mihem ho=in but

man

PL= ERG

thi-a-ho

a=that athat

zeŋ

dead-spirit-

3CLT=kill~3 CLT=kill always

uv=e PL=DECL

PL

However, man used to always kill the spirits.’

(3) nixt

thi-a-ho

la-a

xt

pathen koma a=ʦe-in

one -day dead-spirit-PL among one god

to

3CLT=go=CONJ

‘One day, one of the ghost went to God’

(4) vo pathen mihemten voc. God

ei-that~that

zeŋ

man-PL-ERG 3pl-kill~kill always

u=vin PL=CONJ

‘O God! Human beings are always killing us (5) ei=tha-ʦaiga m

diu

ahitai

a=na=tin

ahi-le

3PL=kill-finish

FUT

COP=PERF

3CLT= PST=say

COP-CONJ

and we they are going to finish destroying us’

- 302 -

. (6) ʦuin pathen-pa=n then

thiapa

koma ʦun

God-MAS= ERG dead-ghost-MAS to

dem

then, God said to the ghost, (7) ʦol- lai vom yeast-middle-black

xu

hal inlaŋ

a=tuixuuv-a

DEM

mix CONJ then 3CLT=well-PL-LOC put CONJ-ADV

If you mix black yeast and put it in their well (8) a=mit

lai-u 

vom

in tin

3CLT=eye middle-PL black

CONJ

‘then their eyes will become black (8) ʦuteŋ na=mu-theilou then

2CLT=see-able-NEG

diŋ u

ahitai

FUT-PL

COP=DECL

they will not be able to see you anymore’

(9) hiʦun thi-a-pa then

a=ʦe-in

pathen=in

dead-ghost-M 3CLT=go-CONJ God=ERG

then, the ghost went (9) a=sei-pe

baŋ~baŋ ʦun a=gabol=tai

3CLt=say-BEN like~like

3CLT=do=PERF

‘and did as God had told him’ (10) hiʦeni DEM-day

akona ʦu

mihem-te-in

from

man-PL-ERG

DET

From that day on, (11) thi-a-ho=in

a=mu-theilou u

ahitai

alut le-ʦun

dead-ghost-PL

3CLT=see-can-NEG-PL

COP-PERF

‘From that day on, human beings are not able to see ghost anymore’.

APPENDIX (IV): NARRATIVES (1)

How the dog lost its horns This is a story that explains how the dog lost its horn and why dogs and goats are enimies. Uichan aki akimansah thu nidanglaiyin uichan ki aneiyin kelcha ki bei ahi. Nikhat nupi khatnin suma si asun ahile sumsunga chun sinat adalhan ahi uichan sinat chu leh-ing atile akia adongin hijehchun ai akoiyin alu asulutnin ahile, kelcha guhthim chan ahungin mi mulou kah chan, uicha ki chu akito inn ache mangtai. Uicha ahung phatnin aki aholmotai. Hiche a patna chu kelchan ki aneiyin uicha ki neilou ahitai. Hijehchun tugeiyin uicha le kelcha akihot lheh in ahi.Uichan lopmanin agun chena aki amansahtai. Chapangho uichabang chun lop hih hel un nagun chenau kisuhmo getnunate.

Translation

- 304 How the dog lost its horns In the earlier days, dogs used to have horns but goats did not. One day, a lady was grinding black sesame in a mortar58. There were some left over in the grinder and the dog came there and tried to lick and get a taste of the left over. However, it couldn’t get its head inside the mortar because of the horns. Therefore, the dog took out its horns and kept it nearby inorder to get inside the mortar easily. The goat saw this and secretly came, took the horn, put it on itself and went away. When the dog came out of the mortar, it couldn’t find its horns anymore. The goat had already taken it away. This is how the dogs do not have horns but the goats have. That is the reason why till today dogs and goats are still great enemies. This is how the dog lost its horn, the symbol of respect and dignity. Therefore, children, don’t be greedy like the dog lest you lost your self respect.

(1). ni-daŋ-laiyin

uiʦa=in

ki

a=neiyin

day-different-while dog=CONJ horn 3CLT=have=CONJ ‘In the olden days, dogs had horn

keʦa ki-bei goat

a=hi

horn-less 3CLT=COP

but goats did not have.’ (2) ni-xt

nup i-xt=in

su m-a

si

a=su-in

day-one woman- one=ERG mortar-LOC sesame 1CLT=grind-CONJ ‘One day, while a woman was grinding black sesame in the mortar

58

ahile su m-suŋa

ʦun

si-nat

then

DEM

sesame-pieces 3CLT=leave-CONJ

mortar-inside-LOC

The mortar is a bowl, typically made of hard wood, ceramic or stone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortar_and_pestle

a=daa-in

ahi COP

She left some pieces inside the grinder.’ (3) uiʦa=in

si-nat

dog= ERG sesame-leaf over

ʦu

le

iŋ ati-le

DEM

lick

MOD-CONJ

‘The dog wanted to lick the left over a=ki=a

a=doŋ-in

3CLT=horn=LOC 3CLT=block-CONJ ‘but it was blocked by its horns.’ (4) hizeʦun

a=ki

a=kikoi=in

a=lu

a=sulut=in

that is why 3CLT=horn 3CLT=keep=CONJ 3CLT=head 3CLT=push inside=C ‘So, the goat kept aside its horn and tries to push its head inside the mortor.’ ahile kelʦa guthimʦan a=huŋ-in then

goat

secretly

mi-mu-lou-kaʦan

3CLT=come-CONJ people-see-NEG-while

Then the goat came in secretly, unnoticed by anybody

uiʦa ki

ʦu

a=kitoin

dog

DEM

3CLt=put 3CLT=go way-PERF

horn

aʦemaŋtai

and put on the dog’s horn and then walk away.’ . (5) uiʦa a=huŋ dog

phat-in

a=ki

a=hol-mo -tai

3CLT=come time-ADV 3CLT=horn 3CLT=search-NEG-PERF

When the dog came, it could not find its horn. (6) hiʦe-a DEM-ADV

patna ʦu

uiʦa=in

start

dog=ERG horn 3CLT=have-NEG 3CLT= COP-PERF

DEM

ki

a=nei-lou

‘It was from that time that the dog does not have horns. (7) hize-ʦun tu-geiyin

uiʦa le

kelʦa

a=hi-tai

- 306 therefore

now-till-ADV

DOG

and goat

‘That is why, till today dogs and goats a=ki-hot e-in

a=hi

3CLT= REC-hate-INTS-CONJ 3CLT=COP still hate each other very much.’ (8) uiʦa=in DOG=ERG

lop -manin

a=gunʦena

a=ki

a=man satai

greed-BECAUSE 3CLT=dignity 3CLT=HORN 3CLT=lost-PERF

‘Because of greed, the dog lost its symbol of respect, its horns. (9) ʦapaŋ-ho uiʦa baŋ ʦun child-PL

dog

like

DEM

lop-hi-un greedy-NEG-IMP

‘Children, don’t be greedy like the dog’. (10) na=gun ʦena-u 3CLT= DIGNITY-PL

ki-man sa

get

uvin

nate

refl-lost

LEST

PL=DECL

MOD

‘Otherwise, you will lose your own self respect and dignity’.

APPENDIX (V) Chart 1: Map of Manipur showing the work was undertaken

- 308 -

APPENDIX (VI) Chart 2: Map of Myanmar showing where Thadou is spoken59

59

This map is taken from: Khoi Lam Thang. 2001. A phonological reconstruction of proto-Chin. unpublished MA thesis, Payap University, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

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