Korku Language: Grammar, Texts and Vocabulary

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KORKU LANGUAGE GRAMMAR, TEXTS, AND VOCABULARY

K. S. NAGARAJA

Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

1999

,

Korku Language: Grammar, Texts, and Vocabulary by K. S. Nagaraja Pub/zh"/Jed @' Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, 4-51-21 Nishigahara, Kita-ku, Tokyo 114-8580,]apan ©1999 Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa Prz'nz‘ed in ]a-pan at Fujiwara Printing Corporation.

Dedaxafed fo~fime/ me/mxwy of may teacher,

P:/07’? H.S.BLL£g/Lrb >9’

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The analysis of Korku language presented in this book is based upon the data that were collected over several years. As part of an ongoing work on preparation of

computational databases of Indian languages, I prepared a comparative vocabulary of Korku and Mundari. During this period, I thoroughly revised my earlier draft of Korku

grammar and included the comparative Korku-Mundari vocabulary as well as morpheme analysis of texts. Reviewing the texts gave some more insights into the grammar. My thanks are due to the Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies for inviting me as a visiting

professor and providing an excellent research environment. I thank Professor Hiroshi Ishii, the Director of this Institute, for all the arrangements, and to the administrative staff, particularly the liaison staff, and to Ms. Mayu Kusumi for their ever-cheerful cooperation and support. My thanks are due to the Japanese Ministry of Education, to the entire academic staff members and staff of Library for their support. It gives me great pleasure to convey my deepest gratitude and appreciation to Prof. Peri Bhaskararao, for making all arrangements during my visit to ILCAA and for guiding me throughout this work. This work would not have reached its present shape bereft of his guidance and encouragement. He and his family have been a great source of joy and inspiration. I fondly remember the constant interest and encouragement shown by Professor Tsuyoshi Nara. I am very much indebted to him.

I am grateful to my Institute, Deccan College Post-Graduate & Research Institute, Pune, India for allowing me to spend a year abroad. I am beholden to the Management Committee of Deccan College, its Director, Professor V.N.Misra and the Head of the Department of Linguistics, Dr.S.R.Sharma, for their encouragement and help in this regard. I thank my Korku informants, Mr. Sabulal Bhumka Kasda (Kasdekar) and Mr. Zambu (Zamarkar) for their patient co-operation and support. I am grateful to my wife and children for allowing me to be away fiom them for a year, and for their support, which has enabled me to complete this work. The staff of the publication section, who have brought out this volume very meticulously deserve my gratitude.

KS,

CONTENTS

I. 1.1. 1.2. 1.3. 1.4. 1.5.

Dedication Acknowledgements

iii

INTRODUCTION

1

iv

PHONOLOGY Inventory of Phonemes Illustration of contrasts

Description of speech sounds Distribution of Phonemes

H. III 3.1. 3.2. 3.2.1. 3.2.1.1 3 .2. 1.2. 3.2.1.3 3.2.2. 3.2.2.1

3.2.2.2. 3.3. 3.3.1. 3.3.2. 3.3.3. 3.3.4. 3.3.5. 3.3.6. 3.4. 3.4.1. 3.4.2. 3.4.3. 3.4.4. 3.4.5. 3.4.6. 3.4.7.

Syllabic stmcture

I\->|—l -PKJIO UJUJU)

MORPHOPHONEMICS

26

MORPHOLOGY

30 30 31 32 32 33 34 35 35 35 37 38 39 39 41 44 45 45 45 46 47 48 48 49 50

General remarks Nouns

Derivation Affixation Compounding Reduplication

Inflection Number Gender Pronouns

Personal pronouns Reflexive pronouns Demonstrative forms Interrogative forms

Indefinite forms Relative pronoun Case

Nominative case Accusative case Instrumental/Ablative case Dative/Locative case Genitive case Sociative case Postpositions

3.5. 3.5.1. 3.5.2. 3.5.2.1. 3.5.2.2. 3.5.2.3. 3.5.2.4. 3.5.3. 3.5.4. 3.5.5. 3.5.6. 3.5.7. 3.5.8. 3.5.9. 3.5.9.1. 3.5.9.2. 3.5.9.3. 3.6. 3.7. 3.8. 3.9.

IV. 4.1. 4.2. 4.2.1. 4.2.2. 4.3. 4.3.1. 4.3.2. 4.3.2.1. 4.3.2.2. 4.3.2.3. 4.3.3. 4.3.4.

Verbs General remarks

Formation of verbal bases Intransitive vs. transitive distinction Iterative base

Reciprocal base Causative base Verbal compounds Reduplication Imperative construction Infinitival verbal construction Negative formation Personal suffixes

Verbal structure Tense Aspect Mood Adjectives Numeral system Adverbs Particles SYNTAX

General remarks Phrasal structures

Noun phrase Verb phrase Sentence structure Word Order

Simple sentence A feature of agreement Placement of adverbials Dative Experiencer constructions Compound sentences

Complex sentences

V.

TEXTS

VI.

VOCABULARY

VII.

REFERENCES

INTRODUC TION

The Korku (also spelt as Kurku) language of India belongs to the Mimda group of Austroasiatic language family. It is the westem most language of this group i.e., there is no other Munda language spoken to its west in India. It is spoken in a vast area scattered in both the northern as well as the southern parts of Satpuda mountain ranges; in the adjacent districts of north Maharashtra state (mainly in the Melghat tehsil of Amiavati district by more than 50 thousand speakers), and in small numbers in Akola, Wardha, Yeotmal and Chanda districts (of Maharashtra as well; and in south Madhya Pradesh in the districts of Berar, Nimar, Betul, Hoshangabad and Chindwara, and in small numbers in Indore, Dewas and Bhopal, etc. There has been a gradual increase in the Korku population according to Census of India's decennial reports: 1961 report lists 2,09,000 Korkus, 1971: 2, 84,022 Korkus; 1981: 3,63,148 Korkus. The figures for 1991 Census is not available. The speakers of this language are geographically isolated from other Mtmda groups. Still, the language shows clear resemblances to Santali and Mundaii, spoken in the central and eastern parts of India. So, this language has been included in the North-Munda sub-branch of Mtmda group (Zide 1969). However it comes under Upper-Munda branch according to Bhattacha1ya's classification (1975).

Since 18th century European scholars have taken note of this language. Voysey published a vocabulary of this language in 1844. Dalton published an account of Korku people in 1872 in his Ethnology of Bengal. Drake wrote a grammar (probably for the first time) in 1903. I11 1914 Ramsey published a vocabulary of this language, and later in 1940 a Korku-Hindi-English dictionary. In the early sixties of this century Zide worked on this language (wider the so-called Munda project).

Almost at the same time Bhattacharya collected materials on l;l1iS language from several points, which he used in his various articles and a monograph (1975). Linguistic Survey of India (1906) has

a very brief section on this language. LSI and Drake use the name ‘kur/cu‘ for this tribe and the language; which is now more commonly pronounced as ‘k0rku'. The root is /kor0/ ~ /kuru/ ‘man’, takes the plural marker /-ku/ and becomes /korku ~ lcurkul ‘people’. Drake's study was a detailed one though more of traditional type. However he Was able to

recognize some peculiarities of this language. Among them the following are significant: presence of glottalized sounds which he called semiconsonants, presence of a flap sound, dental sounds as opposed to retroflex sounds. However his listing of sounds was from the phonetic point of view only, though he calls them alphabets. He was obviously influenced by the Indo-Aryan languages;

particularly Marathi; because of that he felt that the sounds- " ts, z, zh, tsch, zh, Rh " are found in this language. Among vowels he distinguished between short and long, and considered that there are three types of e and 0. According to him besides the regular short and long varieties, the other one

turns out to be more open type of these vowels, found in very few words. He mentioned what he called a 'guttural vowel‘ found in one word. He also recognized the presence of nasalization. He does

not make clear on which variety he has based his analysis. The grammar is fairly well-written taking the period of its publication into account. As per the practice of those days, he has put the description into two parts: Accidence and Syntax; though interestingly he has not used the term 'accidence' in the grammar portion proper. In the preface he does mention this term. However in the

second part the word Syntax has been used. It becomes apparent that he had understood the grammar fairly well; and also had read the grammar of Santali written by L.O. Skrefsrud; as it becomes clear from his remarks in various pans of the book. Also he had some knowledge of some Indo-Aryan

languages as well.

1

Norman Zide choose Dhami, a town in Amravati district, bordering Madhya Pradesh for his work. The most important observation of him is that this language has tonal contrast in the speech. However this needs to be verified instrumentally. Other features of interest are the following: lack of glottalized stops and presence of glottal sound, and nasalization. According to him there are two tones: high and low. The fact that glottalized sounds are lacking, is an indication of change in the language. Drake also had observed that these sounds could occur in final position, but when another

form with a voiced sound is added to them, they would lose their distinctiveness and change to voiced normal sounds. So they were more of allophones, at that time. In the present study as well no glottalized sounds have been observed, even allophonically. Bhattacharya collected samples of Korku from various points. In his comparative work he does not say anything about Zide's work. Also his statements are spread in various places instead of in one place. He considers that there are five vowels in Korku, but vowel length is not phonemic.

He established imaspirated stops as phonemes; four nasals and r, l, s, y, and w. Regarding aspiration he states: “Korku has aspirated consonants and also the aspirate h occurring very frequently". But he does not think it to be native of Munda He states that it is possible that the voiced glottal fricative h might be a native element of Munda phonology, from that aspirate stops might have developed. However he does not state whether synchronically it is necessary to establish aspirated sounds as phonemes or not. Regarding glottalized sounds he recognized that there are four in this language. They are:j’, D’, n’, andp’/b’. The data for the present monograph was collected from the speakers of a village called Salona, which is aroimd fifteen kms from Clukltaldara, the head-quarters of the Melghat tehsil in the state of Maharashtra. Two speakers provided the data and assisted the investigator extensively. They are Mt. Sabulal Bhumka Kasda (Kasdekar) and Mr. Zambu ( Zamarkar). Both are from Salona village. They were teachers in nearby primary schools. Folktales are collected from different people with the help of these two persons.

This monograph includes three main parts, grammar, texts and vocabulary. The grammar contains four chapters, in which aspects of phonology, and grammar have been described. The part of text contains twelve texts. These texts have been presented in two-tier boxes. The top box contains Korku forms, as far as possible in phrasal structure. The bottom box provides glosses for the lexical categories and grammatical status for the grammatical markers. Also, a free translation is provided after the boxes. The third part contains Vocabulary. In this there are two parts. First, an exhaustive list of vocabulary of the language, arranged in Roman alphabetical order is given. The second part contains a brief list of comparative vocabulary of Korku and Mundari, preceeded by a note on comparison and the correspondences found between them. However, it is not exhaustive. It is hoped that the presentation of all the three parts together provides a comprehensive view of the language. However a few aspects have not been discussed in this work, like study of suprasegmental features, and study of borrowing in the language. Also, it needs to be mentioned here that the study of verbs is not complete.

2

I. PHONOLOGY

1.1.Invent0ry of Phonemes Vowels: 1

1

F.

ll

9

Consonants: Bilabial Vl.p

Stops:

Alveo1ar*

Retroflex

Palatal

Velar

t

T

c

k

th

T11

ch

kh

D

j

g

Dh

jh

gh

Vl.Asp.

ph

Voiced

b

Vd.Asp.

bh

an

m

n

Nasals A Fricatives

T d

fi

s

Trills

Glottal

l1

1'

R

Flap

Laterals Frictionless continuants

1

L

T

w

y

* rrh d dh are dental stops; while n s r and l are alveolar. 1.2. Illustration of contrasts For the illustration of contrasts as far as possible minimal and sub-minimal pairs have been provided. (A.) Vowels: (a) height distinction: /i/-/u/: iThu ririm jilu

't0 teach’ ’t0 pickup’ ‘meat’

uThu rurum julu

5

'dal ' (curry) ‘to pound’ ‘to burn’

/i/-/e/:

Tica

’a spot’ (on cloth)

I€CH

Tiko ira

’a tick’ (an insect) ’to return/answer’

Tekko

ela ape mera je:ka

'creeper’ fvou’ (pl) 'near’ 'stray’ (animal)

ola apo mora _]0k2l

’wet mud’ fyou’ (sg. hon.) ’a cap’ (ofleaves) ’cheek’

era

't0 wear’ (a dhoti

ara

’to leave ’

azkhe

by a man) 'axe’

a:kha kula sena

’to hang’ ‘tiger’ flesh dung’ (animal)

ale

Iwe I

kora

’r0ad, path ’

’weak' ’t0 inspect’ (holding) ’t0 wet ’ (something)

era

‘to hit’ (with stones) ‘to desire’ ‘to wear’ (a dhoti by a man)

/e/-/o/:

/e/—/a/1

sene

'to throw’ (with speed) 't0 go’

ole koro

’t0 go’ 'man '

o: so

'dew’ (n)

oTha

'chin’

usu uThay

Tupo

‘butter’

Tupu

kule

/o/-/a/:

/0/—/u/:

(b)

short

vs.

long vowels:

/i/-/i:/: isa iTa

Twenty’ ’bel0w’

1:sa i:To

‘to pinch’ ‘brick’ (mucl)

el

’to eavesdr0p'

611'

’t0 sow’

aTa

’t0frfv, to porch’ ‘child’

a:Ta sacni

‘a meal, fi20d’ ’old woman’

gol

’to drink to the

go:l

poTa

extreme’ (esp. liquor) Qguts’

po:To

'a bundle’ (wheat (stalk) 'tip ofa plant’

/e/-/e:/: /a/-/a:/1

sani /0/-/0:/1

4

/u/-/u:/: uT ura (B)

‘mushroom ’ ‘house’

u:T

‘to swallow’

u:ri

‘to dress’

pulum

‘white’

bulum

‘salt’

tiwi

‘to lift‘

diwa

‘to light’ (a lamp)

Ti Tora

‘hand’ ‘wild banana’

Di Doira

‘it’ ‘a rope‘

co:

Iwhyl

jo

’afruit‘

kora

path/way’

gora

kara

‘singed rice inside a vessel’

gara

‘a male cow‘ (of3 years age) 'hailst0ne‘

Consonants:

(i) voiceless vs. voiced: /p/—/b/: /t/-/d/: /T/-/D/I

/c/-/j/: /k/-/g/:

(ii) unaspirated vs. aspirated stops:

In this section among the examples with aspirated sounds, probable borrowed words have been identified and are marked with a ‘(B)’. /p/-/ph/: apo pa:Ri

kapa

‘you’ (sg. hon.) ‘a shifi‘

a:pho

‘steam’ (B)

phaRi

‘to break‘ (B)

‘groove made at the one end ofa stick

apha

‘seed bed’

for tying thread’

/b/-/bh/: bubu

babadazr

‘to suck’ (juice) ‘action ofpecking’

bubhu

‘bark’ (dog's)

bha:bRa

‘to rent’ (B)

‘a low-lying area’

buruc

‘to spit‘

bhuru

118121

‘a relative’ ‘six’

natha thuru

/t/-/th/: turuy

5

‘nose thread’ (cattle) (B) ‘a handle‘ (ofsickle) (B)

/T/-/Th/: gaTa

‘mire’

gaTha

‘broken grain’

kaTu ciTi

‘to embrace‘ ‘ant’

kaTha ciThi

’bodyhair‘ ‘parting line in the hair’

darom

‘a courtyard’

dha:ran

andRa

‘blind’

andhra

Donga

‘a boat’

Dhonga

‘ant’ (a bigger

DanDa

‘a stick’

Dha:nDi

variety) (B) ‘spine’ (B)

Dic co:

‘he/she ’ ‘why '

ich

joka

/d/—/dh/:

/D/-/Dh/:

/c/-/ch/:

chokha

‘excrement’ flhuman) to cleanse’

‘cheek’

jhoka

‘bunch’ (banana,

julu jaRi

‘to burn’ ‘root’ (ofa plant)

jhulu jha:Ri

‘a personal name’ ‘a shrub ’ (B)

kara kula kola

‘singed rice in a vessel’ ‘a tiger’

khara khula

‘to undress’

khol

‘salty’ (B) ‘to open’ (B) ‘a deep place in water’ (B)

gidDi guguTu

’a donkey’ ‘to make into

ghiDi ghughu

’t0f0ld‘ 0’ully) (B) ‘an owl ’ (big variety) (B)

Tare Ta:TaDa Tala

']i'esh water’ ‘inside ‘

DuDa

‘owl’

gaDDa

‘a pit‘

/j/-/jh/: etc)

/k/-/khl1

/g/-/gh/1

(iii)

‘pole’ (used in construction) ‘darkness’ (B)

a string‘

Alveolar vs. retroflex stops: /t/-/T/:

tara tathaR tal /d/-/D/: duDi saddi

Ion I

‘to stop‘ (someone) ‘situation ‘

‘a gourd’ ‘hundred’

6

‘girl ’

(iv)(a)

alveolar trill vs. retroflex flap: /r/-/R/: sara atre

(b)

‘a monkey‘ (a variety) ‘to remove‘

atRe

‘noose’ (ofa rope) ‘intestine’

la

‘to give‘

ela

‘a creeper’

el pa:l

to ‘eavesdrop‘ ‘an ear ofcorn‘

hoLa kaLLa

‘to insist’ ‘become stifl’ (due to dryness) ‘adam ‘s apple‘ ‘reptile’

saRa

Trill vs. Lateral: /r/-/l/: ra: era

‘to roar’ ‘to wear‘ (a dhoti by a man)

e:r pa:r

(c)

‘to sow’ ‘all’

Alveolar lateral vs. Retroflex lateral: /l/-/L/:

(d)

(v)

kala

‘spirit’

kalla

‘to shout, howl‘

nalla

‘bamboo tube’

sela-bo:To

‘little finger‘

naLLa seLLa

Retroflex flap vs. retroflex lateral: ‘to meet’

hoLa

ma mu maTha

‘to cut‘ ‘nose’ ‘above/up‘

na nunu natha

ama

‘your’

a:na

Dazn

‘to be‘

Dafi

naru

‘baby sit‘

nazra

‘monkey’ (a variety)

hara

Nasals: /m/-/n/1

/n/-/fi/:

(vi)

to insist’

hoRa

‘to take‘ ‘to drink’ ‘nose thread’ (cattle) ‘story’

‘happened, became ’ ‘another’

Fricatives: /s/-/h/I sara

7

‘person on whom spirit comes‘

51:1 sorey

(vii)

‘a stone wall; barrier‘ ‘a toe-ring’

hi:r

‘sea’ ‘sweep ‘ ‘to give‘

beRya a:yra ya

Derwa azwre :j wa:

‘mad’ ‘a boil‘ Iorl

Nasalization: (restricted to /5/) Da Tya

1.3.

I

Semi-vowels: /W/—/y/:

(vnr)

hore

to mow ‘a quail Y

‘water’ ‘to break’ (thread)

D5 Tyfi

‘honey’ ‘wife ‘s younger brother‘

Description of speech sounds

In the above illustrations one may observe that the pairs which are used to illustrate the contrasts of unaspirated vs. aspirated sounds in the stops involve quite a few borrowed words. This may be because the feature of aspiration is not a native feature; but an innovative feature under the influence of non-Munda languages of the area. The nasal series which has contrasts in five points of articulation in other Munda languages, such as Mundari and Santali, is reduced to three in this language (Bilabial, Dental and Palatal). The retroflex and velar nasals have become allophones. One important feature which appears to have been lost in this language is the so-called ‘checked sounds‘. Synchronically they are not found in the language, even though its cognate languages, namely Mundari and Santali still retain them either non—phonemically, as in Mundari, and phonemically, as in Santali. A few illustrations have been provided here. ( ' marks checked sounds) G|0SS

Korku

Mundari (Bhaduri 1931)

Santali (Macpharl 1974)

hair, fur evening one to lose to stumble to swallow

huzp QWP mya aT/aD TokoT

ub'

up‘

a:yub miaD‘ a:d‘ tod ud

aY11P mit' at‘

to cut

geT giTij ra: ma

ger

get‘

giti

gitic

ra:‘ aRa:

rak

Da

da:

to lie down to roar house water

u:T

tohot‘ ut‘

oRak' dak’

It may be observed from above that Korku systematically has lost this feature, and Santali retains it completely; while Mundari retains to some extent only.

Vowels: /i i:/: /i/:

/i:/:

High front unrounded vowels: short and long: iTi ‘to open’ siTii iric ‘to extinguish‘ pigla iTa ‘below’ biTklril ini ‘this’ kiji ri ‘to pickup‘ siwli labRi ‘gravel’ Tu'l'I"i i:To

‘brick’ (mun)

izsa

‘to punch‘

ci:pa i:r

‘plants’juice’ ‘to reap‘

gizsi pi:wa

‘to sleep‘

‘to melt’ ’bujj"alo‘

‘to sell’ ‘a wooden rod‘ ‘sting’ (ofscorpion) ‘scrubber’ cuckoo ‘a thinfish‘ I

pi:lal4

X

>4

Jab

>4

b

>4

>4

>4

t th

>4

>4

>4

>4

>4

>4

>4

>4

>4

>4

>4

d T Th

x x

L

>4

>4

D C

X

X

X

X

X

X

“r

J k kh

x

x‘

1

x x

’

‘

XX]

>< >< >< >< x x x t

w:: =3a=

X,

[X

X

‘

x x x x

x x \

l

x x >< >
voiced sound + voiced sound: Dic

‘he/she‘ + -a ‘gen. suffix’ > Dija ‘his/her’ (-c > -j)

meT

‘eye’

+ Da ‘water’

> meDDa ‘tears’ (-T > -D)

meT

‘eye’

+ silij ‘sand’

> meDasilij ‘eyesand' (in context of eye only) ( -a- ‘possessive marker‘)

In the following example besides first level assimilation, there is a second level assimilation

takes place. That is, there is ‘voice assimilation’ in the first level assimilation; whereas in the secondlevel assimilation, assimilation of ‘point of articulation’ as well takes place. So, in the following example, (i) T > D; and (ii) D > j. (-j- is an incremental element). (bi)biT ‘to get up‘ + -en ‘past suf.‘ > biDjen > bijjen

The verb roots which end in a voiceless consonant change their final consonants to voiced varieties when they take imperative markers. oT

‘to pull’ + -e I oDe

roc

‘to press‘ + —e : roje

(b) In some cases even though the second sotmd is a voiceless one, still the preceding voiceless sound changes to its voiced variety. meT

‘eye’ + kasu ‘pain’

> meDkasu ‘eyesore’

Dec

’to break, destroy‘ + kursi ‘chair’ > Dejkursi ‘broken chair‘,

angluc ‘to bathe‘ + poTTa ‘a boy‘ > anglujpoTTa ‘bathing boy’ (c) It is also possible, as in the following, the assimilation may be from the point of articulation, even though the sounds involved are voiceless, as the following instance shows. Here palatal + velar, assimilates either progressively to become velar; or regressively to become palatal. -

26

Dic

‘he/she‘ + -ke ‘object suffix‘ > Dicke > Dikkel Dicce ‘(to) him‘

If there is a fmal vowel, as in certain verbs, the vowel gets dropped before the suffix is added, and then the assimilation takes place. gaDaTifie ‘to put underground’ + —ki ‘imperative marker‘ >

gaDaTifici ‘put underground (conceal uudergrotmd)’ (imp form) Dila Tifie ‘to give’ + —ki ‘imperative marker‘ : DilaTifi-ci ‘give’ (imp form)

(Also it is possible to have non-assimilated form as well. DilaTir"i-ki). In the following, though final voiceless sound changes to the voiced one under voicing conditions, it may again change to voiceless one, but a gemrninated type, as shown in the following. It may be a case of secondary change. Dic

‘he/she‘ + -a ‘gen. suffix‘ > Dija > Dicca ‘his’

In the following, the fmal voiced affricate is dropped when a voiceless velar consonant occurs after it; and in turn the velar consonant changes to palatal, producing an assimilation from the point of articulation. ifij

(2).

'1‘ + -ke ‘object suffix‘ >if1ce ‘(to) me‘

Deletion:

(a) Final vowel/consonant of a morpheme gets dropped when a morpheme beginning with a consonant is added to it. (i)

koro

‘person’ (sg.) + -ku ‘pl. suffix‘ > korku ‘people’ (p1.)

bo:To

‘finger’

+ jo:R ‘joint’

> bo:Tjo:R ‘finger joint’

Here final vowel gets dropped. (ii)

Dic

‘he/she‘ + -ku ‘pl. suffix‘ + -kifij ‘dual suffix‘

> Diku ‘they’. (pl.) > Dikifij ‘they’ (dual)

Here final -c gets dropped. But this type of change is not general in this language

as this does not operate

everywhere.

boko

‘younger brother’ + -ku ‘pl.suffix‘ > bokoku,

siTa

‘dog’ + -ku ‘pl. suffix‘ > siTal CVCCCVC

27

Dongor ‘forest’ + -en ‘dlc sufiix‘ > Dongren ‘in forest‘ kombor ‘body’ + -en ‘dlc suffix' > kombren ‘in/on the body‘ (3).(a)

Final vowels of morphemes with open syllable tend to be long. Long vowels

contract to become short when some element is added to a word in which the vowel is long. This is a very general change.

(b)

a:m

‘you’ + a ‘gen. sufiix‘ > ama ‘your’,

co:

‘why’ + -pha:r ‘a bound element‘ > copha(:)r ‘how/what‘,

kazpar

‘head’ + kasu ‘pain’ > kaparkasu ‘head ache’,

kole:

’to see‘ + -ec ‘person marker‘ > kolec ‘see’ (Imp.)

Length may get shifted to the next syllable.

sa:na

‘old (man)‘ + -ba > sana:ba

‘old man‘.

Length gets added between the morpheme boundaries. sa Da peDa mya

’to take‘ ‘water’ ‘to live‘ ‘one’

+ Ten > + Ten > + ba > + -ka >

sa:-Ten Da:-Ten peDa:-ba mya:-ka

‘taking’, ‘for water‘, ‘lives/will live‘, ‘only one‘

This is a very common insertion, visible between morpheme boundaries only. (4).

The palatal nasal [fi] when it occurs finally, has distinctive [-j] after it. That is,

it is [nj], a cluster. But when it occurs intervocally, the palatal affricate gets dropped; so only the palatal nasal remains. ifij

‘I’

+ -a ‘gen. sufiix.’ > ina

‘my’

Tefij

‘today’

+ -a > Tefia-raTo

‘to night‘.

(5). When identical vowels occur together (across morpheme operates and the vowel gets lengthened. ura (6).

junctures), sandhi

‘house’ + azru ‘to construct’ > urazru ‘to construct house‘, as inura:ru iTha:c ‘mason’.

This language does not encourage two non-identical vowels to occur in a

sequence (in a word). If they have to occur in a sequence, a consonant comes in between them as an increment, as in the following-

Da

‘water + -in/-en ‘dlc. suffix‘ > Dagen ‘in water‘

28

(7).

Dissimilation:

Only one instance of this type has been observed in the data: tha:D

(8)

‘to stay, live‘ + Dain ‘past imperfect marker‘ > tha:Dda:n (D + D > Dd)

Addition of a feature: A palatal glide is added in order to avoid vowel sequences. ongo ‘like’ > yongo, as in: ini-yongo, (instead of ini-ongo) ‘like this‘

vs. a:m-ongo ‘like you‘

29

III. MORPHOLOGY 3.1. General remarks A word in Korku is a rnirrirrrally meaningful free form which when segmented will have

no more than one free form.

Compositionally it may have a sequence of one or

more

phonemes between two successive junctures. e.g. /kor0/ ‘person’ is a single unsegmentable free

form; /k0rku/ ‘people’ consists of two morphemes, a free form ‘koro’ and a bound form, here called a suffix, -ku. So l and 2 both are words; while -ku is a bormd form and does not by itself constituteaword. So it is an affix (a suffix). The single free form is called the ‘root’. Aword may contain a single root at the minimum, or more than one root or may also have one or more affixes with the root. sa:na-ca:ndi ‘gold-silver‘, khu:b-sa:na-ca.-ndi ‘a lot of gold-silver‘, ba:rz'~

kor-kifij-Ten ‘from two people‘. This last construction contains four morphemes, ba.'ri ‘two’, koro ‘person’, -kifij ‘dual marker‘, -Ten 'dative case marker’. Formclasses:

Forrnclasses of Korku fall into the following types established

basis of morphological and syntactic

on the

considerations: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and

particles. The category of ‘noun’ is a cover term which contains besides nouns also pronouns which can function as ‘nouns’ but morphologically they are some what different. Nouns are those

which are inflected for number and case. Pronouns cannot take gender markers. Also, only pronouns can be differentiated for the three persons while nouns are always in third person. Verbs are those which are inflected for tense, aspect and mood. Adjectives are a sub-set of verbs, as they are capable of taking tense markers, and so function as verbs. They can occur with nouns as attributes. Adverbs modify verbs but as they are more free in their occurrence, they are treated as a separate type. The rest, namely the conjunctive elements, interjections are discussed under ‘particles’. It is necessary to keep in mind that the various formclasses that are set here are not as distinct and clear-cut, as probably IA and Dravidian languages might show. Here there is great amount of flexibility; a noun or an adjective, or even a locational adeverb can function as a verb. But still from a practical point of view all nouns are not changeable in this way. So establishing various forrnclasses does not become wholly redundant; as perhaps in Santali and Mundari (Bhat 1991, 1994). It has been observed here that while some nouns and almost all adjectives can frmction as verbs by taking tense markers, etc., the verbs themselves cannot be used conversely. Though this language is closely related to Mundari; probably due to the geographical isolation has lost many features of original Munda. So for the present description formclasses will be accepted as such which facilitates description of the structure. The morphemic structure of this language is predominantly CVCV, i.e. disyllabic. However the first consonant can be absent as well; some monosyllabic CV or VC morphemes also can be found. VC:

oR

’to pull‘,

aim

fvou‘,

o:l

’to write‘,

CV:

‘water’, '1', ‘this’, ‘what’, ‘tree’,

je ang

‘who ‘, ‘dawn ',

Ti

‘hand’,

ura kot

‘house ‘, ’to comb ’,

6T0

‘this much ';

CVCC

Da ifij ini co : ch sifij

Dic

‘he/she ’;

CVCV:

koro

person‘,

Tefij kula

‘today’; ‘tiger’,

cara

‘graze’;

heje

‘to come’;

VCC:

VCV: CVC:

m

VCVC:

aphay

‘three’,

aphir

CVCVC:

gomoj

god’,

krmum ‘urine’,

’tofly‘,

saikrun ’banyan‘,

gaphang ‘tomorrow’;

CVCCV:

derwa kenDe

‘sea’, ‘black’,

khamta ‘bow (n) ', saddi ‘hundred’,

CVCCVCi

kosreT

‘elder brother's son’,

ayom

‘mother’;

pulum

‘white’,

kolya

fox‘;

Dongor forest‘,CVCVCV: CVCVCVC1

Cacara ’to graze’ Q’ullform), bokoje ‘vounger sister‘ (selfs), kuktmum ’to urinate '.

Stem formation: Stems are formed by inflection or derivation By inflection, grammatical relationships such as number, gender, case, tense , are signalled. By that, the forinclass of the stem remains in the same class. That is, the words constitute a single paradigm; in such a situation a word is said to ‘inflect for’ number, tense, etc. In derivation ‘word-variations’ signal lexical relationships. That is, the result of a derivational process is anew word where as the result of an inflectional process is a different fonn of the same word. 3.2. NOUNS: Nouns are classified into the following types on the basis of whether they take certain elements like number markers. (a).

(b).

Animate norms are those which are capable of taking number markers.

siTa

‘dog’,

siTa-kifij

‘two dogs’,

siTa-ku ‘dogs’,

koro

‘man’,

kor-kifij

‘two men‘,

kor-ku ‘men/ people‘

Inanirnate nouns are those which are incapable of taking number markers.

Da

‘water’

*Da-kinj, *Da-ku.

However these can take quantifiers. E.g., klru:bDa ‘lot of water‘ With certain nouns, they give a different meaning. ura ga:w haT

‘house’ + -ku > uraku ‘members of a house’ ‘village’ + -ku > ga:wku ‘members of a village’ ‘market’ + -ku > haTiku ‘people in the market’

(Gender is not taken into consideration as it is not marked language, except in kinship words. refer to them).

(c).

morphologically in this

But gender can be marked by using free morphemes which

Infinitives: These nouns are obtained by adding infinitive suffix -a to the verb

roots.

ozl

’to write’ + -a > o:la ‘writing’ as in: ozlapen ‘writing pen’,

giTij

‘to sleep‘ + -a > giTijapalang ‘sleeping cot’ (palang ’cot');

angluc ’to bathe‘ + -a > anglujaDa ‘bathing water‘ (Da ‘water‘)

51

rabang ‘cold’ + -a> rabangakoyo ‘cold wind‘ (koyo ’wind‘) The morphological processes employed in this language are the following: affixation, compounding and reduplication. Affrxation is either infixation or suffixation. Interestingly, only

suffixation is employed in inflection; while both infixation and suflixation are employed in derivation, but at varying degrees.

3.2.1.

DERIVATION: Derivation uses both iniixation as well as suflixation as stated above.

In the data there is a single instance which can be considered to involve prefixation: hunju, ‘play’ :

Du-hunju ‘a local game’. Here a norm is derived by prefixing an element to another noun. But elsewhere no other instances of such formation can be found in this language. Therefore prefixation is not considered as a morphological process for this language. 3.2.1.1. Affixation Among the three possible types of affixations, process of infixation is least marked in nominal derivation. By infixation the resultant formations belong to diverse types instead of to any single type. So, though this process as such seems to be productive, the infixes themselves are largely restricted in their function and distribution. (i)

(ii)

-k-:

to derive a noun from a verb:

phaRi

’to break/split‘:

-dV-:

to derive a noun from another noun:

guRi

‘dry jowar plant‘ 1 gud(u)Ri ‘quilt’ (ofjowar plant).

pha.kRi ‘bamboo wall‘.

Suffixation is employed to derive agentive norms from verbal bases by sufiixing person 1narkers- -iTha:c (sg.), -kifij (dual), and -ku (pl.). jojom

‘to eat’: jojom-iTha:c joj om-kifij jojom-ku / jojom-in-ku

‘eater’ (sg.), ‘eaters’ (dual), ‘eaters’ (pl.)

In the case of plural, an additional bound form -in- is added optionally with -ku. But it's function is not clear. However with some nouns it cannot be added, as in the following: ga:w

‘village’ 1

ga:w-ku ‘villagers’

ura

‘house’ I

ura-ku

leika

‘many’ :

le:l -0), again probably due to distant assimilation in opposite direction, in the sense that the suffix itself changes here; while in the previous instance the vowel of the first syllable of the root changes to become similar to the sufiix. 3.3.

PRONOUNS

Pronouns are of various types: personal, demonstrative, interrogative, reflexive and relative. Except for the relative pronoun which is not marked overtly, others are well developed systems. However there is no morphological distinction between these functioning as pronouns and as adjectives. Only the place of occurrence decides their role.

37

3.3.1.

Personal Pronouns

The independent personal pronotms are the following:

I st person:

Singular

Dual

Plural

ifi(j)

alafij (incl.)

abufi (incl.)

alifij (excl.)

ale (excl.)

\

,

alam 2nd person:

a:m

apifij

ape

apo (hon.) 3rd person: M/asc./Fem.

Dic*/in-

Di-kifij

Di-ku

Neuter

Di*

[Di-kifij]

[Di-ku]

Reflexive:

hec~j

This system makes a three-way contrast as regards the number: singular, dual and plural combined with a three-way contrast on the basis of person: first, second and third. In the case of first person dual and plural, a distinction is made between inclusive (including the third person) and exclusive (excluding the third person). Formally only the ‘dual’ fonns show some similarities between all the three persons. The dual marker is -kifij, which is the regular dual number marker employed outside the person sphere as well. But here in lst and 2nd persons, the initial C- gets dropped. Also there is change of vowel i to a in the case of lst person inclusive dual form. The plural forms do not show any resemblance or relationship in relation to their singular counterparts, nor between themselves. So they are treated as monomorphemic forms. Only in the case of 3rd person plural -ku is the regular plural marker, also used outside this domain. alam is another form in first pronoun dual/plural. This form seems to be an additonal one with the regular plural pronouns, which are comparable to the forms found in Mtmdari and Santali. It does not take dual or plural markers.

In the second person, besides the regular forms, there is an honorific fonn also. It appears to be a borrowed one from Hindi. Its use is very rare, as can be observed from the texts. The situation of 3rd person pronouns is quite different. Here no distinction is made on the basis of gender, into masculine vs. feminine. So a single form taking munber markers provides the number distinctions. Therefore these may be called demonstrative pronouns as well. Here the distinction is between: ‘animate‘ vs. ‘inanimate‘. Animateness in singular form is marked by -c

added to the unmarked form. Hence the unmarked forms always will be inanimate. The unmarked form in- ‘proximate’, Di- ‘remote' functions more like demonstrative bases, as they can take number,

as well as many other elements. Similarly there are a few other forms like i- demonstrative proximate, u- demonstrative remote These are discussed in the section 3.3.3. below.

58

An altemative segmentation could be attempted in the case of 2nd person. It can be shown that the initial a- marks ‘2nd person‘, while -m marks 'sg‘, -pifij ‘dual', and -pe ‘plural’. Or, rne can treat ap- as non-sg. base, -ifij as ‘dual marker‘, and -e as ‘plural marker‘. However this

zialysis is non-productive as it cannot be extended to other persons. 3.3.2.

Reflexive pronoun

The marker is: hej ‘self. It occurs only in third person.hej-a a:khe 'self‘s axe‘ hej-a japay-konku sa:Ten self-pos wife-children taking

‘taking his own (selfs) wife (and) children‘ Dic hej-a mwa:r ab-jen he self-pasface wash-pt

‘he washed his face‘ It is also possible to have third person pronoun in reflexive place: Dic Dij-a mwazr abjen he washed hisface‘, without the reflexive pronoun. Similarly in other persons respective pronouns

are used.inj in-a mwazr ab-jen J I-pas face wash-pt

‘I washed my face‘ Observe the following pair of sentences:

(a)

ifij a:yna:-n in-ca Dugu-lakken I mirr0r—in I-emp see-cont ‘I am seeing myself in the mirror‘

(b)

ir"1jDic-cenifi-ca Do:khe-nej I

he—obj I-emp

see-pt~per

‘I myself saw him‘ In the last pair of sentences, with the first person singular pronoun- ifij ‘I‘, a restrictive clitic/particle is used, which may mean here ‘self. So, without the reflexive pronoun hej, it is possible to obtain similar constructions. In the above pair, (a) is reflexive, as the conditions for reflexivity are met; while (b) is emphatic, as the conditions for reflexivity are not met; though there is no morphological distinction between them. 3 . 3 . 3.

Demonstrative forms

Demonstrative pronouns fimction as third person anaphoiic pronouns. Basic contrast is between proximate vs. distant. In both, further distinction is made between ‘nearer to the speaker‘ and ‘far from the speaker‘. Thus a total of four distinctions are possible. Often distinction between the first two are not strictly maintained. Here also as stated above a distinction between animate vs. inanimate can be made.

39

Proximate g very near near Slngularfinan.)

ni

Distant remote

fer

1-ni no:-je

Di

.

ha/hu/ho

hu-je > hujje

ho:-je

Singulrzrfanim.)

nic

i-nic

Dic

huc>huj/ huje

Dual(anim.)

ni-kifij

in-kifij

Di—kifij

huj -kifij/

, .

no : -kifij Plural(anim.)

ni—ku

pinpointing

in-ku no:-ku

Di-ku

I ho:-kifij

huj-ku/ ‘

ho:-ku

It may be noted that ‘near‘ can be re-termed as ‘proximate’, and in this two subtypes are noted, one ‘near‘ and the other is ‘very near‘. The marker which designates ‘near‘ seems to be a bound prefix, i-; which is added to the ‘very near‘ forms, to obtain ‘near’ forms. The form for very near, sg., i.e., ni should be distinguished from its homophonous form, which is a specifier clitic, which can occur with pronouns: Dlj-ni ‘he (=that person) in reality/actually’. When dual and plural markers are added to the animate forms, the animate markers are not retained. So between animate and inanimate forms there is no overt distinction in dual and plural forms. Therefore in the above chart only animate forms are provided. Also the inanimate demonstrative forms do not take number markers. If the number markers are added to them, the

forms change to animate ones. Therefore there are no contrastive forms like Dic-kifij and Di-kinj, or Dic-ku and Di-ku. Only the latter forms are used. Some of the demonstrative adjectival and locational forms are obtained by prefixing i- to their bases, for obtaining proximate, and Di- for obtaining ‘remote’ forms. e-To

‘this much’ (i > e) De—To

‘that much‘ (-i- > -e—)

e-ne-n/ ‘at here’ (i > e) e-mie-n

De-n

i-phar

‘like this’

Di-phar ‘like that’

i-thin i-pl1in/ i-phifij

‘this-way’ ‘this-way’

Di-thin ‘that-way’ Di-phin ‘that-way’

*ha-phar *ha-thin *ha-phin

i-nga-n ’to/alhere’ i-nga-Ten fiom here‘

Di-nga-n ‘to/at there’ Di-nga-Ten firom there‘

*ha-ngan *ha-nga-Ten

i-nga

Di-nga ‘there’

*ha—nga

’here'

‘at there‘ (-i- > -e—) ha:-n ‘at there’ (distant: pinpointing)

There is also one fonn,- u-nga ‘there.I This form is equivalent to Di-nga. There is no distinction between form with u- and form with Di-. However there are no other forms using u-, in the data. It becomes clear from above, that i- and Di- forms are more common, so the distinction between them probably is more prominent than those involving ha- fonns or u- forms. There are two more forms in the above list. They are: no:- > noje ‘here’ (pin-pointing), ho:- > ho:je ‘there’ (pin-pointing); no:ku ‘here’ (pl.), and horku ‘there’ (pl.). These may be variants of ni- and ha/hu respectively.

40 l l

As in the case of personal pronouns, here too, inanimate elements do not take number markers. They can take quantifiers. 3.3.4.

Interrogative forms

Formally there is no disctinction between interrogative pronoims and interrogative demonstratives (adjectives). Depending upon their occurrence, they function either as pronouns or as demonstratives. The interrogative forms are the following. There are two free forms- je ’who’,

co:(ch) ‘what’ (interrogative demonstrative); and ‘what’ (questions reason);

and a bound form-

Ton-. For the use of the last one, one of the case suffixes need to be used, like -e > Tone ‘where’

(non-specific); Ton-g-an ‘at where‘ It is possible to have complex/derived interrogative forms by the addition of various suffixes.- co:-la ‘when’ (questioning time),

co-To ‘how much’ (quantity), co-phar/cuphar ‘how’

(quality/reason/cause), Ton-g-an ‘(at) where‘ (location). But ‘je‘ does not take any other bound elements except case sufiixes. je: It is used as an interrogative pronoun. Usually the interrogative element occurs before the verb. The first, in the following illustrations, has interrogative pronoun as subject; while in the third it is used as an object. Here the interrogative pronoun does not take the objective case marker; probably the object is interpreted here as inanimate. Otherwise it will take the objective case marker k(h)e, as in (d). lt can take other case markers as well, like dative, ablative, etc., as shown in (e, t). (a) (b)

azmje hoy you who be Diku-keje o:R-khe-(ku)

‘who are you?‘

they-dat who remove-pt-(per)

(c)

‘who removed them?‘

apeje hozna you-pl who (obj) want

‘whom you (pl) want?‘

(d)

a: mje-k(h)e DoDo-ba you who-obj see-np

‘whom will you see?‘

(e)

ifij inicithije-ke je

(i)

I this-letter who-IO give inicithije-ten sa:-li this letter who-abl get-pt

’to whom I give this letter?‘ ‘from whom (you) got this letter?‘

je can occur as an attribute as well. Then it functions like another interrogative element Tone.

(g)

inicje-konTe (hoy) this-anim. who(gen.)-child (be)

‘this (anim.) whose son?‘

The interrogative element co: (ch) can occur on its own, and in various combinations. Elderly speakers pronounces the word co:ch with initial aspiration, besides final aspiration, while the younger generation only retain aspiration in the fmal position. Therefore here that alone is maintained. Also co: and co:ch often are interchangeable. In general the function of an interrogative element is decided on the basis of the type of the verb occurring in the construction. Very rarely do one get instances of co: being employed directly. It usually questions a ‘reason’.-

41

co: aThika heje bha:j razja why yet

come

king

‘why did the king retmn yet?‘

Often it is replaceable by co:ch ‘why’, as in the following: ape co:/co: ch hehen you(pl) why come-pt

‘why you came?‘

a:m co:/co:ch ja:m-lakken you(sg) why weep-cont.

‘why are you weeping?‘

It can be used to question the attributive quality.am-a jimu co:ch you-r name what

‘What (is) your name?’

am-en co:ch ho:na you-to what want

‘what you want?‘

ini co:ch hoy

thisflnanim.) what is

‘what is this?‘

The interrogative element can occur at the end of a sentence. Here the copula is absent. So the interrogative element has come to the last position. In narrations copula is usually omitted. am-a Taklipo co:ch you-gen problem what

‘what is your problem?‘

ini ama a:khe ki co:ch thisyou-gen axe is what

‘Is this your axe?‘

a:m suTejbaki co:ch

you cure-anim. what

‘can you cure (someone)‘

Under voiced conditions, the final voiceless aspirate consonant in co:ch changes into voiced unaspirated consonant, as in co:j. It can take a genitive marker (a vowel after it), as in the followingape cosj-a bhent sa:-le you(pl) what-gen gifl bring-pt (q)

‘what gift you (pl.) brought?‘

a:m coy"-en heh-en you how-loc come-pt

‘how did you come?‘

As an answer to the above question, this can be provided: inj motor-en hehen I vehicle-in come-pt

‘I came by a motor‘

Besides the above possibilities, co: can combine with temporal and other elements. co:-la ‘when’ (questions temporal aspect): a:m erme-n c0:la heh-en you here-loc when come-pt

‘When you came here?’

42

co-phar 'why‘ (questions reason/ma.nner/state- it is dynamic as compared to co:ch): When phar is added to co:, the vowel of co: becomes short. a:m cophar kaTam-ken

you why

silent-immpt

‘why are you silent?‘

a:m copharjaili-talan Da:n

you how

cage—inside be

‘how were you inside the cage?‘

It can take case markers and a few other elements, including tense markers. With the tense markers they themselves function as verbs, as illustrated below.

(a)

cophar-ten

‘from where‘

(b)

cuphar-ba

‘What’ (will happen, now?) (cophar > cuphar)

cophar-Dazn how

co-To

be

‘how was (he)?‘

a:m cophar-lakken you what-pres-cont a:m cophar-khe

‘What are you doing?‘

you w/1at~pt

‘what did you do?‘

‘how many‘/ how much‘: (questions quantity): amken coTo-dama ho:na you-to howmuch-money want ‘how much money you want?‘ in-ku co To-korku hoy here-pl how many-people be

‘how many people are here?’

This interrogative form can take dual marker, or plural marker, ku. coTo-kifij ‘how many‘ (dual) angluj-poTTa-ku menan "coTo-ku goc-khe-ku-ja“ bathing-boy-s

said

how-many kill-pt-per-Re

‘the bathing boys said (enquired) " how many ki1led- Re?’ Ton-/Tong-: Ton- takes -e when no other suffix follows it. Tone. It questions ‘static location’. Besides, it can also question ‘identity’, as in attributive questions. It can take case markers. There is another fonn, Tuwon which is identical with Tongan. Ton-in ~ Ton-en ‘at where‘ Tone-bifij ‘which snake‘, ini Tone-bukko (hoy) this which-book (be)

book is this?‘

T0ne—khija japay hona which—ijype woman want

‘which type of girl (you) want?’

Tone-Dongor-en which-forest-in

‘in which forest‘,

Tone-uran tl1a:Dba which-house-in srav-np

‘in which house will (you) stay?’

ape-n Tone-ka ho:na _v0u(pl)-to which-defwam ‘which one you (pl.) want?‘

45

Tong- (questions dynamic location) takes -Vn (dative case suffix) when no other sufilx takes. Also, it can take other case suffixes as well. Tong-an calken where-to go

‘where are (you) going?‘

Tong-a-ten hehen where-fiom com-pt

‘from where did (you) come?‘

In possessive question constructions, predicate is not used. The question word may occur at the end of a sentence. ifi-a bukku Tonen I-gen book where-dlc

‘where (is) my book?‘ (inariim.)

am-a Doba Tone-j you-gen ox what-per

‘your ox which (anim.)?'

The interrogative forms can be reduplicated. When they undergo reduplication, they convey a sense of ‘plurality’ and ‘distribution’, remaining within the domain of interrogative. je-je co:ch-co:ch

‘who-who’ (pl.), ‘what‘which' (pl.),

cophar-cophar coTo-coTo co :ja-co:ja

‘how how‘ (pl.)‘ (the methods involved), ‘how much’ (pl), ‘why-why‘ (pl),

Tone-Tone ‘where’ (all), as in: Tone-Tone uran ‘to which-which house(s)’ Tongan-Tongan ‘where’ (pl), Tuwon-Tuwon

‘where’ (pl)

3.3.5. lndefmite forms

Indefinite pronoims are derived from the basic interrogative fonns by suffixing the marker -ka.

co:la co: ~ co:ch

‘when’: ‘what’:

cotla-ka co:cca/cocca-ka/cozcka

cophar/cuphar cozja coTo

‘what’ : cophar-ka 'why‘: coija-ka ’h0wmuch/many‘: coTo-ka/coTTa-ka

‘whatever/whatsoever’, ‘whatever’, ‘anything’,

je Tonec

‘who ': je-ka ‘which’ (anim.): Tonec-ka

someone’ some, any (anim.)’

Tongan/Tuwan

‘where’:

some where’ (indef), etc.

Tongan-ka/Tuwan-ka

‘always’, ‘some’,

This language marks two grades of indefiniteness in its morphology. The above one, with -ka suffix can be considered as of first grade, while the second grade is the one obtained by suffixing another form -bi to the indefinite form obtained as above. Though -bi is added to the first grade forms with -ka, sometimes -bi can be used without -ka as well. In the second itself, sometimes another form -to- also can be used before suffixing -bi. But its addition does not make much difference in meaning. On the whole, the second grade forms are more indefinite as compared to the first grade forms.

44

cocca-bi

\:

'a.ny’thing':

co:ch-ka-bi/

:1

co:ch-ka-to-bi

‘something or other‘,

co:ja-ka-bi co:la—ka-bi

‘whatsoever‘, ‘anytime:

co:la—ka-to-bi coTTa-ka-bi coTTa-ka-to-bi cophar-ka-(to)-bi

‘sometime or other‘, ‘however much’: ‘something or other‘, ‘somehow or other‘,

je-ka-(to)-bi

‘any/some one‘.

Similarly with other forms as well, indefinite forms can be obtained. 3.3.6.

Relative pronoun

Korku, like Munda languages in general does not have relative pronouns. However, a

J

borrowed word from Hindi, je is used for this function. Its use is highly limited. Out of twelve texts :rtly one instance of this type has been found. ni ghuDgije oleDjen ni nazn Tazjakha mwa:r-gi:r uca:-ken this horse RP cameout so this very goodface-etc. raise-immpr

‘this horse which cameout this (was) very good (with) face & etc. raised...‘ 3.4.

CASE

Case relations are expressed by suffixes as well as by postpositions. A case marker is attached to a noun or noun phrase as the last element. All the case relations are not marked by exclusive markers. For instance, dative and locative case relations are marked by a single a marker I')n. Similarly instrumental and ablative relations are marked by Ten/ten. Further both direct and indirect objects are marked by a single marker. The word order at the sentential level is the following- Subject-Object-Verb. The subject always occurs at the sentence initial position. However an adverbial phrase or a locative noun phrase might occur preceding the subject, though they are more free. When more than one object is present in a sentence, then the indirect object follows the direct object. The various cases and their markers are the following-

Nominative (subjective) case:

0 (zero),

Accusative (objective) case

(including direct and indirect objects): Instrumental and Ablative case: Dative case and Locative case Genitive/Possessive case: Sociative case (postposition) : 3.4.1.

0 (zero), k(h)e/ken Ten/ten (V)n 0 (zero), a gon, gella, sopTin

Nominative case

When a sentence has a single noun phrase it will be in nominative case. In such a situation absence of any overt case marker in the noun/pronoun (NP), will be construed to be in nominative case.

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(a)

ifij gaphang singrup sene-ba I tomorrow evening go-np ‘I go tomorrow evening‘

(b)

mya ra;nDojapay thana:Dda;n one widow stay-inpt ‘one widow was living‘

(c)

Di-kifij mya-komba palatifie-n dem-dual one-cock rear-pt ‘they were rearing a cock‘

(d)

komba daina-sa:Ten ura-n heh-en cock corn-take-ing house-dlc come—pt ‘the cock taking corn came home‘

3 .4.2.

Accusative case

The accusative marker is -k(h)e/ken, with or without aspiration. In some of the texts collected, this case marker is ken. In these k(h)e is not used. Its usage is obligatory in the case of animate nouns and optional in the case of inanimate nouns. Both direct object and indirect object have the same case marker. So, the order of NPs decide which NP is direct object and the other the indirect object. (i)(a)

hemran komba-ke ma:-khe-nec Hemran(N) cock-obj kill-pt—per 'Hemran killed a cock‘

(ii)

ifij siTa-ku-ke saya-ku-ba I dog-pl-obj take-per-np

‘I will take the dogs‘ (iii)

ra:ja razma-ke sita-ke ji-khe-nec king(N)Ram-to(IO) Sita-obj give-pt-per ‘the king gave Sita to Ram‘

(iv)

ifij ra:ma-Ice guru:ji-ke kokhofij kul-khe-nec I Rama-(IO) teacher-(obj) call (int) send-pt-per ‘I sent Rama to call the teacher‘

(v)(b)

ifij ga:Di-(ke) sege-ba I cart-obj bring-np

‘I will bring a/the cart‘ (vi)

am-ke ifij mya-kamaiy ghali-ba you-to(IO) I(N) one-work-obj give-np ‘I will give you a work‘

(vii)

ifij Dic-ke ambesasa lcule-c-lakken

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I he-obj mango-bring send-per-cont

‘I am sending him to bring mango‘ (viii)

Dic motor-ke kl1u:b jo:rten sendra-khe he vehicle-obj ints adv- drive-pt

‘he drove the vehicle very fast‘ In the presence of direct and indirect objects, both will take case markers if they are gnimate, and do not take it if they are inanimate, as in the above examples. Often when both DO and

ii) are present, IO can precede the subject as well. In such a situation it gets emphasized (as in vi) above).

(x) (xi)

Dikorku-ke ‘to those people‘ (Dikorku ‘those people‘), Do:krya-ke ‘to the old woman‘ (Dozkrya ‘old woman‘)

3 . 4. 3.

Instrumental/ablative case

The instrtunental and the ablative cases are marked by the same marker: -Ten/-ten. The type of NP with which the case marker is used, determines whether the case relation is instrumental or ablative. Nouns take this case marker directly. When this suffix is added, an increment -a- is also added to consonant-ending pronouns.

(a)

ifij k010m-ten ol-ba I pen-inst write-np ‘I write with a/the pen‘ koro a:khe-ten mama-lakken man axe-inst cut-cont

‘the man is cutting with an axe‘ a:m korku-ten

khabar kul-khe

you people-inst message send-pt

‘you sent the message with/through the people‘ Dongor-tala-ten forest-inside-by/through

‘through/by the forest‘ (b)

haTi-Ten

market-from ‘from market‘ kula-cabu-ten tiger-mouth-abl

‘from the tiger's mouth‘ maTa-Ten (c)

‘from above‘

ba:r(i)-kor-kifij-ten /ba:r(i) kor-kifi-a-Ten two—person-dual-from ‘from two people‘

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ifi-a-Ten heba Tullu I-pos-abl neg lift ‘from me lift not possible‘ (= I cannot lift)

(d)

Dij~a-Ten abufi-a-Ten ale~Ten

‘from him‘ ‘from us‘ ‘from us‘ (*ale-a-Ten)

Diku-Ten

‘from them‘ (*Diku-a-Ten)

-Ten is also used for expressing purpose. Da-Ten ‘for water‘

3.4.4.

Dative/Locative case

-(I/Yn is the dative/locative case suffix. The ‘V’ will be either zero, 1' or e depending on the environments. Ifthe root/stem ends in a vowel, the suffix‘s vowel gets dropped. Here in determining the type of case relation involved, the type of the verb (in the same clause) plays a significant role. (a)

Diku-n ‘to them‘ ( Diku ‘they‘) haT-in ‘to (the) market‘ (haT ‘market’: e- > i-) inij-en ‘to this (anim)‘ (inic~j ‘this’ (anim))

(b)

mya-ga:w-en mya-bhingiperiyar tha:D-da:n one village-dlc one-priest live-inpt

‘in one village one priest was living‘ (c)

(d)

Dongr-en komba cacara-lakken forest-dlc cock pick-cont ‘in (the) foresta cock is picking up (giains)‘ sabay-paiti-n all-World-dlc ‘in all the World‘

(e)

ra:ja-bagi:ca-n

king-garden-dlc ‘in the king's garden‘ ifij uran-ken ‘I am at home‘ (Here the stative verbal element ken marks the noun to be in locative case rather than dative case, as when there is a movement verb in the construction: ifij uran hehen ‘I came home‘.

3.4.5.

Genitive case

Genitive (possessive) marker is -a, 0 (zero). The overt marker is restricted to pronouns only; elsewhere it is zero; although some nouns can take the suflix optionally. Even within pronouns, all do not take it. That is, except ale 'we‘ (excl), ape ‘you’ (pl), and Diku ‘they’ (pl); others take this suflrix. In the case of ale, ape and Diku, very presence of a noun afler them puts them in

48

genitive construction (b). An increment element -g- gets added between the root/stem and the Sl1ffiX as in (d) below.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

ifi-a may

‘my mother‘,

alifi-a fia:y

‘our judgment‘

alam-a nistazr am-a aba

‘our comfort‘ ‘your father‘,

apifi-a anTe Dij-a konTe Dikiii-a jimu

‘your (dual) mother‘, ‘his son‘, ‘their (dual) name‘,

ale-kon ape-ga:w

‘our child‘ ‘your (pl) village‘,

Diku-ura

‘their (pl) house‘,

gomuj-sapna gaDa-gomoj Derwa-Da Dikoro japay

‘god's dream‘ (or: gomuja sapna), ‘river god‘, ‘sea water‘ (or: Derwaga Da ), ‘that man's wife‘,

Dongor-kora

‘forest path‘ (*Dongorga kora),

ura-ga usrin lokhondo-ga a:khe

‘house's front‘ or ‘front of the house‘, ‘iron axe‘ (lokhondo a:kl1e ‘p‘)

From (c) above it appears that some nouns can take genitive marker (optionally). If the resulting construction is a compound, then the genitive suffix is not added as in (b); while the marker is used as in (a) or (c) if the resulting construction is a phrase. 3.4.6.

Sociative case

Sociative case is marked by the postposition gon/gella/sopTin. (i)

mya acca Tare-gon/gella/sopTin

one good girl-soc ‘with a good girl‘ (ii)

ifia konje-gella/gon my girl soc

‘with my daughter‘

(iii)

Dija-gon/{gella

‘with him‘

ghurgi-gon

‘with (a/the) donkey‘,

ifij mya suri—g0n/gella/sopTin

I one knife-soc ‘I with a knife‘ (iv)

Dic dama—ge1la/gon/sopTin heh-en

he money soc

come-pt

‘he came with the money‘

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As far as this marker is concerned, all the variants have same function and distribution. One of sociative markers, gella takes what appears to be a case marker also as shown below. But it's ftmction is not clear. Dic-gella-n 3.4.7.

‘with him‘

Postpositions

Postpositions have functions similar to case suffixes. They are free morphemes.

The

sociative case forms such as gon, gella and sangwan are postpositions. Some of the postpositions

can function like nouns; so can take some of the case sufiixes as well, like locative, dative and ablative; as some of the illustrations below show. The following are noted in the data: (a)

mera

‘near‘ (locational-proxi1nity):

Diku-mera ‘near them‘ Diku-merazn ‘near them‘ (dativel locative) Diku-mera-Ten ‘from near them‘ (instrumentall ablative) (b)

lien/lifi

‘over/benef.‘ (benefactive):

chapni-ku-lien pirom Doy-ba

child-pl-over mercy show-np ‘(y0u) show mercy on children‘

ifi-a lifi-en pirom Doy-ba my over mercy show-np ‘show mercy on me‘ The difference between them is that- lien is used more like a suffix. That is, after it,

nothing gets added into that construction. However in the case of lift-, it takes the dative/locative case marker -Vn for its occurrence, more like a noun. Also, lifi- can be used non-benefactively as we1l.: kitab tezbala-lifien hoy book table-on/over be (np) ‘the book is on/over the table‘ Te:l Day ?)

Day-ba (c)

Some verbs which show this distinction more clearly:

s(y)a:- ‘to end/complete‘: s(y)a:gu-ba ari-

‘to feel happy‘:

‘will end‘ (intr.)

s(y)a:ge-ba

‘will complete‘ (tr.)

ariu—ba arie-ba

‘will feel happy‘ (intr.) ‘will make (some one) happy‘ (tr.)

Connected to the notion of intransitivity, is the notion of passivity. Passivity is not clearly marked in this language. Pirmow states that there is no special affix for the passivity (1966: l l2). The sense of indirecmess is marked by the same intransitive marker, but often has the form of (1/)u, attached to the verb directly, before other afifixes are added to it. sa:—yu-ba choka-yu-ba ira:-yu-ba

‘(some thing) ends/ will end‘ ‘will get cleansed‘, ‘will retum‘

3.5.2.2. Iterative base This is also called Intensive base. This base is obtained by the complete reduplication of the verbal root. The intensity increases depending upon the number of repetitions. Though most of the roots can be reduplicated completely, some do not undergo reduplication. For e.g. ji ‘to give‘. sene ‘to go‘: sene-sene~sene-ja sene-ja ‘going going‘ or ‘while going‘. In this process, a bound element -ja can be optionally attached to the root as in the above instance. Then it becomes part of the root (base) and so gets repeated. Semantically reduplication conveys a sense of continuity, intensity of an action. SimilarlyhandDi ‘to wander‘:

handDi-handDi

‘wandering wandering‘ (wandering for a long

time)

giTij ‘to sleep‘ : giTij-giTij ‘sleeping sleeping‘ DoDo-DoDo meT kasulajjen ‘by seeing-seeing eye(s) pained‘, etc. Besides complete reduplication, partial reduplication is also possible. Some verb roots when used in certain functions, repeat their initial CV- only. For instance - cara- > cacara- ‘to graze‘. An infinitive form always employs the reduplicated form of the verb roots if the root is reduplicable. Similarly except for definite past tense formation, other tenses can use reduplicated forms. In non-past tense, both reduplicated and non-reduplicated forms can be used. In such situations though often no distinction is made between them, it is possible to distinguish them in terms of ‘immediate’ vs. ‘delayed/later‘ action. (a) cikna ‘to be smooth/smoothen‘

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(b)

cikna-ba

‘will be smooth‘ (gradually/delayed)

cicikna-ba

‘will be smooth‘ (immediate).

boco-ba bocoge-ba

‘will fall‘ (intr.) ‘will fall‘ (tr., inanim.)

boboco-ba bocokhej-ba

‘will cause to fall‘ (tr., inanim) ‘will cause to fall‘ (caus.)

(b) above illustrates another use of partial reduplication, in that causative verbal bases are obtained in this way. It needs to be checked further to ascertain the extent of its use.

It is not possible to state by just observing the structure of verb roots whether they get reduplicated or not (native speakers are capable of identifying this). Hence, ideally each verb needs to be lexically marked for this feature. However one restriction noticed here is that a verb root having initial vowel does not get reduplicated. eg. anuj ‘to bend‘

The second restriction is that if the verb root has initial consonant cluster, then also it does not get reduplicated. e.g. bhrum ‘to sit/squat‘ (for animals only) A few infixes are employed in derivative function. But this process is not productive. Synchronically it appears to be a vestigial feature. They are marked in the following instances only. (i)

(ii) (iii) (iv)

-k- derives a verb from a noun:

-k-: kunum ‘urine’ > kulcnum ‘to pass urine/urinate‘ -r- is used to derive a verb from another verb. -r-: kokhot ‘to comb‘ (hair: self) > kokh.rot ‘to clean‘ (floor, etc). -kh0- is employed to derive a different type of verb, from a verbal root: kot ‘to comb‘ (hair of others): kokhot ‘to comb‘ (one’s own hair). An infix which indicates release from captivity, or some sort of hold, which occurs

with one verb only, as far as the data shows. oR ‘to pull/drag‘: + -lV- > oleR ‘emerge’

3.5.2.3. Reciprocal base Reciprocal base is formed by infixing -pV- in the verbal roots. In most of the cases, the V portion of the infix is a copy of the vowel of the initial syllable of the root. When the conditions for reciprocity is not fulfilled, then it functions as a ‘collective base marker‘, as in intransitive verbs. mtmDa ‘to beat‘: mupunDa ‘to beat each other‘ ma:nDi ‘to say‘ 1

ma:panDi

‘to speak‘(each other)

DoDo hoDa

Dopoyo hopDa

‘to see each other‘ ‘to meet‘

‘to see‘ : ‘to meet‘ :

Notice that the root DoDo ‘to see’ undergoes some changes.

This formation appears to be very significant in this language. This infix is used productively to derive ‘reciprocal/collective‘ verbal bases from the verbal roots. Some more illustrations are given below. sendra ‘to walk‘: sependra ‘walk together‘, niDe ‘to nm away ‘ : nipiDe ‘to run away together‘ munDac ‘to beat‘ : mupunDac ‘to beat each other‘ 56

khaDe ‘to grow‘ : oT ‘to leave‘ :

khapeDe ‘to grow together‘ opoT ‘to leave together

khuTa ‘to run away‘: suTu ‘front’: mera ‘near‘

khupuTa ‘to run away together‘ (intention of fighting involved) supuTu (pl), as in:Ta:w-supuTu ‘one behind another‘ (pl.). mepra(W) ‘be(come) near‘

3.5.2.4. Causative base Causative bases are formed in more than one way. (i). The other type is morphologically marked. Compare the verbal bases: (a)

giTij

‘to sleep‘

ari

‘to be happy‘:

vs.

giTij-khej

‘to cause to sleep‘;

ari-khej

‘make one happy‘,

(b)

bulum-fien bulum-khe

‘became anthill‘ (bulum ‘anthill‘ (noun)): ‘caused to become an anthill‘;

(c)

hindaDi hindaDi-ec

‘to wander‘ (intr.): ‘to cause someone to wander‘ (caus.);

(d)

kofiej-ba

‘will call (someone)‘:

kofikhej-ba

‘will cause to call (someone)‘;

biDe-ba

‘will get up (self)‘:

biDej-ba

‘will wake up‘ (some one);

I1am(u)ru-ba

‘will sink/drown‘ (self):

namurej-ba

‘will sink/drown‘ (someone); etc.

The intransitive verb can become causative by using -/chej as in (a); similarly a transitive

verb can take the same affix to become causative as in (d). Here -khej is used to mark causativity. It also has animate person marker -ec/j. Using that itself an intransitive verb changes to either transitive or causative. So, presence of animate marker, changes the verb to become either transitive or casuative. Also it means that in the particular construction, there is an object. nam(u)ru

‘to sink/drown‘:

nam(u)ru-ba nam(u)rej-ba

‘will sink/drown‘ (self), ‘will sink/drown‘ (some one:

biDe-ba biDej-ba sajaj-ba

‘will get up‘ (self): ‘will wake up‘ (some one) ‘will cure‘ (some one).

anirn.) biDe-

‘to get up/wake up‘:

sajaw- to cure‘: *saja-ba;

(iii) The data has only one pair of forms in which a prefix a- which functions as causative marker. nunu ‘to drink‘, its causative verbal base is a-nu ‘to cause to drink‘. (iv). The more commonly used method of obtaining causative verbs is to use a verb hoLa ‘to insist‘ with a verb, placing it immediately afier the root but before any tense marker is added. It conveys a sense of duress/force. (a) ant ‘to construct/build‘: aru-khe ‘constructed’ (khe ‘pt. m‘.), as in: ifij ga:Di aru-khe ‘I constructed a cart‘

57

(b)

aru-khe-nej ‘made’, as in: ifij Dicke ra:ja aru-khe-nej I

him

king V-pt—per

‘I made him king‘ (c)

aru-hoLa-khe-nej ‘made’, as in: ifij Dicke korkuten ra:ja aru—hoLa-khe-nej I him people-from king V-V-pt-per ‘I made him king by the people‘

Among the above three constructions, the first one is simple transitive construction, as it has an inanimate object. The second is a simple form of causative construction, with animate object. So here though overtly no difference is found in relation to the previous one, except for having the person marker, it is causative in its connotation as compared to the first. The third one is more causative than the second, and has indirect object or instrument is also present; here a sense of ‘duress/force‘ is involved. So here a causative verb hoLa is employed. Some of the similar constructions are given below. (a) ifij uriwen ‘I dressed‘ (selt) ifij Dicke urikhe I he-obj V-pt. ‘I dressed him‘ ifij siTa-Ten

sani-khe kapDe uri-we-nec

I Sita-from child-to cloth V-(cause)-pt-per ‘I made Sita to dress the child‘. (b)

ifij aphiryen ifij aphirkhenej

‘I flied‘: ‘I flied something (arrim.)‘

(c)

ifij ga:Di ca:lu-khe I vehicle start-pt‘ ‘I started the vehicle‘: inj ga:Di cacalu-hoLa-khe-nej I vehicle start-cause-pt-per ‘I started the vehicle‘ (= I forced the vehicle to start)

(d)

ifij suri lesarkhe ‘I sharpened the knife‘: ifij Dicke suri lelesar-hoLa-khe-nej I him knife sharpen-make-pt-per ‘I made him to sharpen the knife‘

When the verb occurs with the causative verb hoLa, the initial CV- gets repeated, if the root starts with a consonant, as can be observed from the above examples. Similar to khe, it is possible to use another form, wen which also functions as past tense marker in similar way, to mark simple causativeness. (It's distribution could not be ascertained). Some illustrations are provided here: (e)(i) ifij Dij aten curiwen ‘I made him to steal‘ ifij Dicke euciri-hoLa-khe-nej

58

I

him

steal force-pt-per

‘I forced him to steal‘ (ii)

iflj jilu hondar-khe ‘I cooked meat‘: ifij Dijaten jilu hondar-wen ‘I made him to cook meat’

(iii)

Dic ifike uri-khe ‘he dressed me‘ vs. Dic sitaten sanike kapDe uri-wen-ec he Sita-by child-to cloth dress—pt-per

‘he made Sita to dress the child‘ '; Lhe data there is one verb which derives causative form by repeating its initial CV. boco- ’to fall‘: boboco-ba, as in: ifij mya-ambe boboco-ba I one-mango fall-np ‘I will cause one mango to fall’ Compare this with the following: mya-ambe boco-ba one mango fall-np ‘one mango will fall‘

ifij

Dicce boco-khej-ba

I-sub he-obj fall-anim-np ‘I will cause him fall‘

As can be observed from above, when the object is inanimate, then only the verb root will get its CV reduplicated. When animate marker (-khej) is used, then simple form is used. However 1:‘ the verbal construction contains another form hoLa, then also the reduplicated form can be used. Similar is the case of the following verb: ifij Dicke(n) cuciri-hoLa-khe-nej I him-to steal-force-pt-per ‘I caused him to steal’ Here the verb root is curi ‘to steal’ [cu- of curi when gets repeated, the vowel changes to front type]. Here, besides the initial reduplication, causative verb hoLa is also used. So reduplication itself probably does not convey the sense of causativity. An interesting pair is available, wherein -a- seems to function as a causative marker. (ko)kofi ‘to call‘: kofi-khe-nej kofi-a-nej

‘called’ (someone) (cf. Hindi: bulaaya): ‘caused to call’ (someone) (cf. Hindi: bulaake laaya)

More data is needed to ascertain whether this marker is same as the prefix mentioned in (iii) above.

(a)

Hottative/permissive verbal constructions are obtained by sufifixing a bound

marker -le to the verb roots.

sisirifij ‘to sing‘ :sirifij-le '(please) sing’ (request), jojom ’to eat‘: jom-le '(please) eat‘ (request)

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(b)

Benefactive verbal constructions are obtained by suffixing —len to the verb roots. DoDon ‘to lift‘: Don-ki 'lift‘ (imp.): Don-ki-len 'lift‘ (for one's sake) jojom

‘to eat‘: jom-ki

jom-ki-len

‘eat‘ (for some one's sake)

‘eat‘ (imp.) :

cecara

‘to feed‘: cerawe-ku

cerawe-ku—len

‘feed‘ (for some ones sake (pl.))

‘feed’ (pl.):

3.5.3.

Verbal compounds In a verbal compound the verb is the head and other member(s) Coordinative and subordinative compounds are available.

is/are attribute(s).

Co-ordinative compounds: V-V:

asi-jom-ba beg eat will

‘will beg and eat‘ (sequential)

jom-khap-ten eat drink

‘by/after eating and drinkining'

giTij—subang

sleep sit

‘(to) sleep and then getup' (sequential)

goT-le pluck-bring

‘brought by plucking‘

curi-le-nej steal bring

‘steal and bring-pt.(anirn.)‘ (sequential),

As can be observed above, tense, person and such elements are usually added to the second member. But in the last two examples, it may be noted that tense marker as such is not clear. But the constructions as such are in past tense. The order of verbs marks the order of events taking place. The verb le ‘to bring‘ which occurs as second member in the last two compounds, cannot occur in isolation. Here it might mark past tense as well. Similar is the case of infinitive (purposive) compounds: giTij -sene-suTu sleep-go-before

‘before going to sleep‘

Here if the third member is taken into account, the whole construction becomes an adverbial construction. Restricting to first two members, they are in infinitive construction. Here the second member indicates the purpose of the action indicated by the first member.

Similarly in the followingjoj om-sene-lakken eat go-cont.

‘to eat going‘

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ghuDgi-sa ghalya horse-take for

‘for taking horse‘ (= to take (buy) a horse)

N-V subordinative compound:

cabu-cakhap-khe mouth open-pt

‘mouth open-ed‘ (obj. relation)

bhoy-heje-lakken

fragrance-come-cont.

‘fragrance- comi_ng‘( “ )

gada-gaghaTa ass search-inf

‘donkey-search(ing)‘( " )

man-DoDo

‘to honour‘ (‘heart- see‘) ( " )

Adv.v compound: iTan-agru-en below descend-pt 3.5.4.

‘climbed below‘

Reduplication

Reduplication in verbs is more productive than in nouns. Here reduplication is used as a morphological process. Iterative verbal bases are obtained by complete reduplication. ja:m ‘to weep‘: jazm-ja:m ‘while continuously weeping‘ mama ‘to cut‘: mama-mama ‘while cutting‘ mece ‘to chew‘: mece-mece ‘while chewing‘ One may repeat a verb to command or request one to continue an activity, as the followingjom to eat‘: jom-jom ‘continue eating!‘ sene ‘to go‘: sene-sene ‘go away (don't wait)!‘ By partial reduplication of verb roots, infinitive verbal bases are obtained. The initial CV portion of the root is reduplicated. caraca-cara ‘to graze/grazing‘ kerkeTke-kerkeT ‘to weed/weeding‘ jornjo-jom ‘to eat/eating‘ boco-

bo-boco

‘to fall/falling‘

sirifij-

si-sirifij

‘to sing/singing‘

nu-

nu-nu

‘to drink/drinking‘

sa-

sa-sa

‘to bring/bringing‘

Even if the C of the CV- portion of the root is aspirated, the reduplicated CV- does not contain aspiration (except in one case) as listed below: ghaTag(h)a-ghaTa ‘to find/fmding', bhartiba-bharti ‘to fill/filling‘ khalka-khal ‘to skin/skinning‘ (animal)

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3.5.5. Imperative construction Two allomorphs mark imperativeness: -e/-ki. These are used almost interchangeably in this function. However finer distinctions can be shown in that -e conveys ‘indirectness’, as well as an action that can be referred to as: ‘can be done after some time‘; whereas -ki indicates ‘directness’, an action that can be referred to as: ‘has to be done immediately. The use of these markers indicates that the ‘object’ referred to is ‘inanimate’. To obtain ‘animate imperatives‘, the number markers -ec ‘singular’, -kinj ‘dual’, and -ku ‘plural‘ are suffixed to the verb roots directly. These take the non-reduplicated forms of the verb roots. Verb roots ending in -e do not take an imperative marker; but take animate markers, as in (b) below. It may be noted here that the strength of 'irnperativeness‘ depends more on the intonation, and as such, they may even function as ‘request forms‘. In such situation an element which marks ‘intimateness‘ ja is often used. (a)

iTi

‘to open‘ :

iTi-e, iTi-ki

(b)

iTi

‘to open‘ :

iTi-ej / iTi-khec~j iTi-kifij iTi-ku

(sg. anirn.) (dual-anim.) (pl.anim.)

ara-khec ara-kifij ara-ku

(dual. anim.) (pl. anim.)

3I'3

sene biDe

heje

‘to release :

‘to go‘ : ‘to get up‘: ‘to come‘:

senec biDec hejec

(sg. anint)

(sg. anim.)

(sg. anim.) (sg. anim.)

With certain verb roots ending in -a, the suflix -e changes to -y, or gets g before -e In this process, the final vowel of the root may get lengthed. -

(11)

oja Toka joDa cina bella suban

‘to carry‘ (bundle) : to keep‘ (on an oven) : ‘to unite‘ : ‘to identify‘ : ‘to mix‘ : ‘to sit‘ :

ojay ~ oja-e Tokay joDay [*e; *ki] cinay ‘(ki ‘pos.‘) bellay (ki ‘pos.‘) subay; subay-e

(b)

la cuka kola ira

‘dig’: ‘to be wrong‘ 3 ‘to open‘: ‘to return‘:

la-ge cuka-ge kola-ge ira-ge

guru sen-

‘to die‘: ‘to go‘:

go-yu [*-e], go-j-e [*kr] senyu / sene

sasa

‘to bring‘:

S3-ll [*-e, *-ki]

( -u‘was asking‘ ‘was asking‘ (incomplete . ‘asked’ (tr.)

Here the first and last forms do not undergo CV- redupl;::::::. '; ‘Lie case of the first form, though it is in non-past formation, as it has animate marker -ec. :2 :2-i:_:'_":a:-2:1 takes place. But if the person marker is not used, then the verb root will be in ir.5:;:~.e fcrrr. have initial CV repeated, as illustrated below. In the last example above as it is ; _:>". 12:5: |:1

jom- ‘to eat’ nu- ‘to drirrk'

jojom-ba nunu-ba

duplication takes C)r- (D»-4 (llI

place. Except for past tense, elsewhere initial CV repetition is pcssible ‘eats/will ear" ‘drinks/‘will d:i;:';;'

However in a few instances some distinction is made. For i:s:2:.:e: boco boboco-ba

’to fall’ ‘falls/will fall‘.

boco-ba

‘falls "viii fall‘

vs.

Here the first is intransitive or agent less; while the second is transitive or with agent as illustrated in the following examples: mya ambe boco-ba

‘one mango will fall‘

ifij mya ambe boboco-ba I one mango V-fut ‘I will make one mango to fall‘ Similar1y,-

paRa~

‘to break‘

paRa-ba ‘breaks will break‘

papaRa-ba ghaTa—

(on it's own= intr.): ‘breaks/will break’ (some one; trans): ’to find‘ ghaTa-ba ‘findsmill (be) found‘:

gaghaTa-ba

‘finds/will find‘ (tr.)

However all verbs do not have this kind of distinction. So, some have only one of the possibilities.

(a)

saRu lesar

‘to swell’ ‘to sharpen’

saRu-ba ‘swells/will swell‘, lesare-ba ‘sharpens/will sharpen’

(b)

sirifij curikhal-

’to sing‘ ‘to steal‘ ‘to skin‘

sisirifij-ba ‘sings/will sing‘, cuciri-ba ‘steals/will steal’, ka-khal-ba ‘skins/will skin‘

In at least one verb, another type of distinction is found between CV- reduplicated and nonreduplicated non-past form -- the distinction will be between first person and other persons. sa:‘to take‘ sa:-ba vs. sasa:-ba, as in: (a)

Dic sazkar sa:-ba he sugar V-np

‘he will take sugar‘

70

(b)

inj dukana:Ten sazkar sasa:ba I shop-from sugar V-np ‘I will bring sugar from the shop’

In (a), the non-reduphcated form indicates that the subject is in third (or possibly second) person; while in (b), the reduplicated form indicates the subject is in first person. (Probably this is restricted to transitive verbs only). (b)

Past: In past, various forms are used with certain differences between them. -

A distinction between intransitive and transitive is made by using -en and -khe, respectively. (i) -khe used in verbs, indicates besides past sense, transitivity, intention, pinpose as well: rap-khe roc-khe

‘broke’ (rap ‘to brake‘), ‘pressed’ (roc ‘to press‘).

Here ariimateness is indicated by adding -nej which occurs after -khe. iDi-khe-nej ‘reached’ (iDi ’to reach‘), Tifi-khe-nej ‘threw’ (Tine ’to throw‘), suTi-khe-nej ‘improved’ (suTi ‘to get improved‘). julu-khe

‘burnt’ (julu ‘to burn’):

julu-khe-nej

‘burned’ (tr. anim.)

When this suffix is used with certain forms, like nouns, it converts a noun into a causative verbal form. (see sec. 3.5.2 (4)). (ii) -en: indicates immediate past tense, and non-intentionality, and intransitivity, as well. gliaTa ‘to find‘ ghaTa-en ‘found’ ol ‘to go‘ ol-en ‘went’ giTij ‘to sleep‘ giTij-en ‘slept’ pala ~ paplatifi- ‘to rear‘ palatifien ‘reared’ irii kamazy Da—en ‘this work got overlgot completed’: vs. ifij ini kama:y Da—khe ‘I completedjdid this work‘ acca vs. u:(j) anuj

‘to be good/1 acca-en > accayen ‘became good’ (intr). to become good‘ acca-khe ‘became good / cured‘ (tr.)

‘to jump’

uhen

‘jumped’ (intr.):

vs.

uj -khe-nej

‘flied’ (tr. > cans.)

‘to bend‘

anu-en

‘bended’

Some verb roots, similar to acca ‘to be good‘, mentioned above, while taking this suffix get a palatal glide before the suffix. However the glide is not very strong. To a great extent it depends upon the individual speakers. On the whole, roots ending in a vowel, or in a trill or a lateral get the glide. hindaDi ‘to wander’

hindaRi~y-en

71

‘wandered’

it

suTi ‘to improve‘ khanda ‘to shoulder‘ jul

’to bum‘

khamazl ‘to swell‘ aphir ’to fly’ Also:

koR-

'to bend’

thana:D ’to stay‘ ‘neg. form‘ ban-

suTi-y-en khanda-y-en jul-y-en khama:l-y-en aphir-y-en koR-y-en thana:D—y-en ban-y-en

‘improved’ ‘shouldered’ ‘bumed' (intr.)

‘swelled’ ‘flied’ ‘bended’

‘stayed’ ‘past of negative

Some verb roots having one of the following fmal consonants, take a palatal voiced affricate before the tense sufiix is added to them. saRup- ’to run‘ saRup-j -en ‘ran’, aynb- ‘to become ayup-j-en ‘became evening‘ evening‘

biD— soDkhaD oR/ oleR

’to wake up‘ ‘to fall‘ ‘become young‘ ‘to emerge, ‘to come out

biD-j-en soD-j -en khaD-j-en oR-j-en oleR-j-en

‘woke up‘ ‘fell’ ‘became young ‘emerged, came out ‘

laj-

'to start’

laj-j-en

‘started’

With those verb roots which have a nasal sound in the final position, this suffix has an allomorph- nan/nen.

suban ‘to sit‘ jwa:n ‘young’ tengen ‘stand’ Di-thin ‘that way‘ bangon ‘say no‘ TaTam ‘get thirsty’ lokom ‘get tired‘ bulum

‘white’

malum ‘knowledge’ (iii)

suban-nan jwa:n-nan tengen-flan

Dithin-nan bangon-nan TaTarn-fian lokom-nan bulum-flan malum nan

‘sat’ ‘became young/ grew young ‘stood’ ‘became that way’ ‘said no‘ 'becarne thirsty‘ ‘got tired‘ ‘became white ‘understood’

-n:

Completion of an activity, but in an intranitive way is expressed by this

ukliu paRa

‘to break’

marker.

pura bella jitasage

‘to conceal‘ ‘to complete’ ’to mix‘ ’to be alive‘ ’to end‘

ukhufi paRafi purafi bellafi jitafi safi

‘concealed’

‘broke’ ‘became complete ‘got mixed‘,

‘became alive‘, ‘ended’, etc.

(iv) -ken conveys a sense of ‘immediate past or immediate imperfect‘ Often the action as marked by this marker indicates an incompleteness of an action or state concemed (In the Texts, it is marked by ’irnrnpt‘). aphir-ken ‘wandered! is about to wander‘ (aphir ‘wander) soT-ken ‘felll is about to fall’ (soT ‘to fall‘) Tengen-ken ‘stood/ is about to stand’ (Tengene ‘to stand’) aru-ken ‘constructed/is about to construct’

72

T

(v) -e : The following verb roots cannot take -khe, instead take -e to mark past tense. In that process, certain changes take place in the roots as well. sasa ~ sa:li ‘to bring’ sazle ‘brought’ phaRi

’to break‘

‘phaRie ‘broke’

khuTi asi

‘to continue‘ ‘to beg’

kliuTie ‘continued’ asiwe ‘begged’

ja:m TuTul

’to weep‘ ’to lift‘

(-w— gets added between the vowels) jatwe ‘wept’ (-m > -w- ) Tul-ye-nej ‘lifted’

cina(y)

‘to identify‘

( -y- glide gets added before the suffix). cina-ye-nej ‘identified’.

Some verbs can take both -e and -khe. Then the dist:inction is that while —e is used in first person only, and -khe is used with other persons. This distinction is not always maintained. jili

’to give‘

jikhe

‘gave’

jile ‘gave’ (vi) -ne: This suffix also marks past tense. It is not used with all the verbs. The following are the ones with which it is used. uThay ’to capture/lift‘ uThay-ne ‘captured’, phuriDoy ’to rope in (an animal)‘ phunDoy-ne ‘roped’, peDac ’to name (for sacrifice)’ peDaccane ‘narned‘ caray

’to feed‘

carawane

(for sacrifice) ‘fed’ (-y > wa), etc.

(vii) -phe: This suffix seems to be used only in the following verb. Here it indicates completion of an activity, as well. jojom ‘to eat‘ jo-phe ‘ate’ 3.5.9.2. Aspect

The aspectual distinctions are of two types: one based on progression, into non-past progressive (continuous), past progressive (continuous), and the other based on completion, into imperfect and perfect. (i)(a) Non-past progressive (continuous): It is marked by adding a marker lakken directly to the verb stem. This marker though appears to be composite, as it does not occur elsewhere either in part or as whole, (though -en is used as a past amarker), is considered here as a single unit. V-lakkeni

o:l curi jojom

‘to write‘ ‘to steal’ ’to eat‘

o:l-lakken cucuri-lakken jojom-lakken

‘(is) writing‘ ‘(is) stealing‘ ‘(is) eating‘

(b) Past progressive (continuous): Past continuous forms are obtained by adding an element Da:n to the above forms (non-past progressive forms). o:l-lakken-Dazn ‘was writing‘ cucuri-lakken-Da:n ‘was stealing’ jojom-lakken-Da:n ‘was eating‘

73 ‘-

\\

(ii)(a)

Imperfect:

Imperfect forms are obtained by adding Da:n to a verb in immediate past! immediate non-past formation. V-ken-Da;n: o:l

‘to write‘

o:l-ken o:1—ken-Da:n

‘(is) about to write/wrote‘ ‘was about to write/wrote‘

nunu

‘to drink‘

sene To1suban aru

‘to go‘ ‘to tie‘ ‘to sit‘ ‘to construct‘

nunu-ken nunu-ken-Dazn sene-ken-Da:n Tol-ken-Dazn suban-ken-Dazn aru-ken-Da:n

‘(am) about to drink/drank‘ 1 ‘was about to drink/drank‘ ‘was about to go‘ ‘was about to be tied‘ ‘was about to be sitting/was sitting‘ ‘was about to construct‘

(ii)(b) Past Perfect: Past perfect forms are obtained by adding Darn to the verbs in past tense forms, either transitive or intransitive. (a) V-en-Dain: nunu ‘to drink‘ adir ‘to reach‘

01

‘to go‘

ukhu

‘to conceal‘

hej-

‘to come‘

aru

to construct‘

(b) V-khe-Dazn adir

to reach‘

komra- ‘to enquire‘

nu-en

‘drank‘:

nu-en-Da:n

‘had drtmk‘

adir-en > adir-yen ‘reached‘:

adir-yen-Dazn ‘had reached“ ol-en ‘went‘: ol-en-Dazn ‘had gone‘ ukhu-wen ‘concealed’: ukhu-wen-Da:n ‘had concealed‘; heh-en/hen ‘came’: heh-en-Da:n/ hen-Da:n ‘had come‘ aru-en-Da:n ‘had constructed‘ adir-khe-Datn komra-khe

‘had reached‘ ‘enquired’:

komra-khe-Da:n ‘had enquired‘ 9

‘to write‘ 0:1 ‘to eat‘ jom komra ‘to enquire‘ (c) V-le-Da:n:

Ji-

‘to give‘

sa-

‘to bring’

o:l-khe-Da:n ‘had written’ jom-khe-Da:n ‘had eaten‘ etc kornia-khe-nec-Daxn ‘(I) had enquired (about him)‘ komra-khe-mi-Da:n ‘(I) had enquired (about you)‘ ji-1e ji-le-Dazn sa:-le sa: -le-Da:n

‘gave’: ‘had given‘. ‘brought’: ‘had brought‘

3.5.9.3. Mood All the verbal forms discussed under ‘tense’ and ‘aspect’ are said to be in ‘indicative mood. It is possible to express certain other moods by attaching certain elements to the verbal stem. They are discussed below.

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_

Habitual past activity in narrative prose is marked by a homophonous suffix: suffix: Da:n. (i) It is usually called ‘narrative past tense‘. It is directly added to the verb root. Here it is referred to as indefinite past tense. (abbreviated as ‘inpt’). 'inpt'). 0:1 ‘to write‘ 0:1-Datn o:1-Datn ‘would write‘

(ii)

DoDo

‘to do‘

DoDo-Da:n DODO—D2llI1

tha:D/ t.ha:D/ thana:D sa sene cara cam

‘to stay/be‘

tha;Dda:n/ ‘would stay/would be‘ thana:Dda:n tl1ana:Dda:n sasa-Da:n ‘would bring sene-Da:n sene-Dazn ‘would go‘ cacara sene-Dazn ‘would go to graze‘

‘to bring‘ ‘to go‘ to graze‘

‘would do‘

Probability mood: The marker is -ki. It is added to the non-past form of the verbal

construction. jomaru o:l-

‘to eat‘ ‘to build‘ to write‘

jojom-ba ‘eats/will eat’, eat‘, jom-ki-ba ‘might eat‘ aru-ba ‘builds/will build‘, aru-ki-ba ‘might construct‘ o:l-ba ‘writes/will Write‘, write‘, o:l-ki-ba ‘might write‘

(111)

Benefactive mood: -len : It is added to the imperative form of the verb. ozl ‘to write‘ o:l-ki ‘write’ (imp): 0:1-ki-len o:l-ki-len ‘(you) write‘ (for some one's one‘s sake), sa ‘to bring‘ sazli ‘bring’ (imp): sa:li-len 'bring‘ (for some one's ‘bring’ one‘s sake) ‘immerse’ (imp.): Tupu-kl Tupu-lci Tupu ‘to immerse‘ Tupuki-len ‘immerse‘ (for someone’s ‘immerse’ someone‘s sake)

(iv) (8)

Permissive mood: -Daw 0:1 ‘to write‘ ’to wn'te‘ o:l-Daw niDe to run‘ niD-Daw na:ka Dic sen-Daw-ec now he go-perm.-per ‘now let him go‘ (I don't care) 'now ifij Dicke sen-Daw-khe-nec I him go allow-pt-per ‘I allowed him to go‘

(b) (C)

‘(can) write‘, ‘(can) run away‘

It may be noted from above that this marker can occur with the imperative stem with or without person markers following it; as in (a) and (b) above; or immediately after the verb stem, preceding other elements such as tense and person elements, as in (c), above.

(V)

Request: The marker is -yu~/-du . This is added to the verbal roots directly. peDa ‘to stay‘ peDa-yu~ ‘(please) stay‘ '(please) tha:y thazy ‘to stay‘ tha:y-yu~ thaty-yu~ ‘(please) stay‘ '(please) azm Den sen-yu~ a:m ‘you go there‘ aim Den sen-yu~-en a:m ‘you go there‘ (inst (just now) azm Den sen-yu~-len a:m ‘you go there‘ (just now- have to go)

Optative: This marker is —khu. It is added to imperative or non-past stems. In case (Vi) of imperative stems this marker alone is added to the verb; whereas it is placed immediately after the verb stem and followed by the non-past marker.

(H)

beTa a:m atrambo-Ten peDa-khu ifij seneba mazmaco-ke ma:maco-ke DoDo 75

(b)

son you comfortab-ly live-opt I go-np uncle-obj see-inf ‘you live comfortably, I will go to see (your) uncle‘ (ifij) sezku-khu-ba ‘(I) will warm myself (-0 > -u) (let me warm myself) (ifij) angluc-khu-ba ‘(I) will take bath‘

(vii) -khu- forms: It is the homophonous form of the above marker (vii). In non-past formations, an element khu is added before the tense marker to indicate habituality. But when another form -lak- is with it, it conveys an intensive and continuous activity. This habituality is of

different type as compared to that of Daxrz above (sec.3.5.l0.3), in that this is restricted to non-past formation as well as it has negative inference to the referent; where as Da.-n is added to the verb roots directly.

ja:m

‘to weep‘

ja:m-khu-ba

‘would weep‘

ja:m-lak-khu-ba ‘will keep Weeping‘,

ajom DoDo

‘to listen’ ajom-khu-ba ‘would listen‘ ajom-lak-khu-ba ‘will keep listening’ ‘to see‘ DoDo-khu-ba ‘would see‘ DoDo-lak-khu-ba ‘will keep seeing‘

When khu is used with out -lak- it conveys a habitual sense; while with -lak- it conveys a

continuous and intensive sense. (viii) Da construction: To mark that an action/event is about to take place,an element Da is suffixed to the verb root directly. While no other tense markers occur; person markers can preceede it. jom ‘to eat‘ jojom-Da ‘is/was about to eat‘ munDa ‘to beat‘ munDa-mi-Da ‘is/was about to beat me‘ kuTha ‘to beat‘ kuTha-mi-Da ‘is/was about to beat me‘, etc. (ix) -ni-bhala construction: This construction is made up of two elements ni ‘restrictive marker‘, and bhala ‘good, for good sake‘, a borrowed word. In this type of construction ni-bhala is added at the end of verbal construction. Basically it conveys a desiderative sense; i.e., which should have been done, but not done. It can be added to the verb root directly; or it can be added to the verb in past tense, as in (b). (a)

heje

‘to come‘

heje-ni-bhala

sene ‘to go‘ kama:y ‘to work‘ paDaTifie ‘to study‘ saRup ‘to run‘ (b)

ghaTa ‘to find‘ ghaTar"1-ni-bhala

‘should have come‘

sene-ni-bhala ‘should have gone‘ kama:y—ni-bhala ‘should have worked‘ paDaTifie-ni-bhala ‘should have studied‘ saRube-ni—bhala ‘should have ran‘ (-p > b; insertion of vowel /e/ for declustering) ghaTafi ‘fotmd‘: ‘should have searched‘, etc.

(x)

ka construction: In a verbal construction, this element can be suffixed immediately to the verb before other elements are added; by which ‘intensiveness‘ is indicated. saDup ’to run‘ Dic saDup-ka-lalcken ‘he continues to run‘, jom ‘to eat‘ Dic jojom-ka-lakken ‘he continues to eat‘, peDa ’to stay‘ peDa-ka ‘(X) just stays‘, suban

‘to sit’

suban-ka-Da:n

‘used to continue/just sit‘,

aprang ’to quarrel‘ aprang-ka-Da:n ‘used to continue/just quarrel‘, etc.

76

(xi) Incomplete verbs: While most of the verbs can take t/a/m markers, there are a few verbs which are restricted in their distribution. These are called incomplete or defective verbs. They are the following: (a) Da:n ‘to be‘: It is used only in past tense of existential constructions, and possessive constructions. Da.'n also functions as an independent verb when it occurs with norninals. This form can be used with nominal forms like nouns as well, without the use of overt verbal elements. Then it refers to incompletive past tense. Such expression is very common in narratives. As it can function as an independent verb here only, it is considered as a defective verb. (i)

Dic ini-razjo ra:ja Darn he this-kingdom king be (pt) ‘he was the king of this kingdom‘ mya ga:w Da.-n one village be (pt) ‘one village was‘ (there was a village), mya ra:ja Dasrz

one king be (pt) ‘one king was‘ (there was a king), (ii)

Di-kifi-en aphay-kon-kn Dazn dem-dual-dlc three-child-pl have (pt) ‘they had three sons (children)‘, etc.

It negates possession, when it takes a negative marker. DayTe-n konku-pucuku ban/baw Da.-n brother-dlc children neg have (pt) ‘the elder brother did not have any children‘

(b) hoy: In order to fullfil the needs of comparable form in non-past tense to the above form, it seems that a verb from Indo-Aryan has been adopted. It is hoy. Dic ini-raijo ra:ja hoy he this kingdom king be (np) ‘he is the king of this kingdom’ Similarlykitazb uragen hoy book house-loc be (np) ‘the book is in the house‘ ra:mu uragatalanec (hoy) raam house-inside-loc be (np) ‘Ramu is inside the house‘

inikoro kakaRa hoy this-man fair be (np) ‘this man is fair‘

Tonekoro aphison ba:bu hoy whichperson afiice-loc clerk be (np)

77

‘someone is a clerk in the office‘ Dic dosi ban hoy he culprit not be (np)

‘he is not the culprit‘, etc. Te:fij a:phiso ba:ribajeTen hoy ‘today the oflice is from two O'clock‘

From the above illustrations it becomes clear that hoy is used not only in existential constructions but also in identificational constructions as well. (c)

There is a verb similar to hoy. That is: tha:D ‘to be; to live/stay‘. mya ga:w tha:D ‘one village is‘

It can take imperfect aspect marker Da:n. mya:ga:Wen ba:risa:na-Do:krya tha.'D-da.-n (D > d)

one village-in two oldman-oldwoman live-inpt ‘In one village two oldrnen and old women were living‘ tha:D can have an alternative form thana:D, with an infix -nV-. Synchronically atleast there is no difference between simple and infixed forms. It ftmctions like a regular verb, to mean ‘to live/to stay‘. mya ra:nDo-japay tharza:D-dam one widow live-inpt ‘one widow was living‘ (staying) (d) laj- ‘to start/begin‘: It is used only in- non-past; immediate past and past perfect; as illustrated below. Often it occurs after an infinitve verb The palatal affricate tends to get geminated. karna:y lajju-ba ‘it starts/will start to work ‘ ka1na:y-ku laj-j-en ‘it started to work‘(by many people) kuTha-mi lajju-ba ‘it starts/will start to work‘ (by lst or 2nd person) kuTha—mi laj-j-en

‘it started to beat‘

kuTha-mi lajj-en-Dazn

‘it had started to beat‘

This verb cannot take transitive past suffix -khe, immediate past suffix -ken; continuous aspect suffix -lakken, imperfect suffix Dam (suffixed directly to the verb), etc. Therefore this verb is

considered as irregular. Elsewhere, an Indo-Aryan verb ca:lu- ‘to start‘ is used; as in: kamazy ca: lu-khe ‘to work started‘, etc. (e) bo: I ‘to go‘: When one or more persons are getting ready to move, one more person can join them by saying: ifij bi b0:-ba ‘I will also come‘ (with you). It may be sequential as: a:m bo: ‘you go‘, followed by ifij seneba ‘I will go‘. This verb is used only in these types.

(xii)

a:m bo:

‘you go...‘ (I will come later)

bo: na:ka bo:-ja na:ka

‘go now‘ (imp.), ‘ibid‘ (affectionately ‘you go now‘)

Non-finite verbal constructions (other than infmitive construction): 78

(1)(a)

Gerundial constructions: These are obtained in two Ways. (a) By using a homophonous form of ablative case

marker -Ten to the verb roots.directly.

Da kiji mama sa

‘to do‘ ‘to sell‘ ’to cut‘ ‘to take‘, as in:

Da:-Ten kiji-Ten ma:Ten sipayku sa:-Ten

‘by/after doing‘, ‘by/after selling‘, ‘by/after cutting‘, ‘taking soldiers‘

heje-Ten ‘While coming‘ ba:raga:Ri----sorey----Tiwil-Ten twelve-cartload toering lift-by

‘lifting 12 cart loads of toe-rings‘ giTij biD jom

‘to sleep‘ ‘to Wake up‘ ‘to eat‘

giTij ken-a-Ten ‘after slept‘ (-a- increment element) biDj en-a-Ten ‘after waking up‘ joen-a-Ten ‘after eating (ate)‘, etc.

There is a borrowed postposition/adverb, badon ‘after‘ used in the same function. It can be substituted for -Ten above. jojom-a-badon ‘after eating‘, Do ‘to see‘ Doen-a-badon ‘after seeing (saw)‘, heh ‘to come’ hehen-a-badon ‘after coming (came)‘, etc. Similalry, it is possible to obtain non-finite constructions by using ghalya ‘for’ with the verbs. ifi-a ura-n heje-ghalya Dic kira-ken I-pos house-dlc come-for he promise-imrnpt ‘he has promised to come (to visit) to my village‘ (2)(b) Done construction: This element is suffixed to the non-finite verb form. It conveys a sense of ‘as/by‘. This construction usually precedes a finite verbal construction.. In this type of construction both the actions are simultaneous. This marker seems to be made up of the verb Do ‘to do‘ and a bound element -ne. I-lowever Done alone is not used elsewhere. So it is treated as a single unit. jom-Done sendra-Done ol-en

‘while eating‘ ‘went walking‘

pa:rku saRup-Done hen all-pl run-by come-pt

‘all (anim.) came running‘

“ra:1nra:m“ men-Done biij-en Ram Ram say—by

(biD-jen > bijj en)

getup-pt

‘(he) got up saying “Ram Rarn‘" inkifrj ja:m-Done singrupTen ura-n ol-en

these-two weep-by evening-abl house-dlc go-pt ‘these two went home while weeping in the evening‘ inkifij higra-higra-Done dusradin Di-kifi-a mera-n ol-en these-two fear—fear ~by nextday they-two-pos near-dlc go-pt

‘these two went near them (afraid) next day‘

79

In the last instance above, it has a adverbializing effect. However it may be interpreted as a

verb itself, as in this language there is no clear-cut distinction between verb and adverb. (as mentioned above). (2) Another type of non-finite construction is obtained by using forms okoT0/khento after the verb roots. This is also very similar to the above type. Among the two forms listed here, the second form is not frequent. In the following illustrations with and without -ga, and with and without -n no difference seems to be made.

heje-khento/okoTo ‘while coming,‘ heje-ga okoTon ‘while coming‘ coming’ sene-ga okoTon ‘while going‘, Di-dhangar-ku ene-Ten sene-khento/okoTo dem-dhangar-pl here-abl go-while

‘those shepherds, while going from here...‘ (3)

By using suTu ‘before’ 'before‘ with the verbs, non-fmite non-fnite verbal constructions are obtained. bibiT-a su Tu Dic gomoj-ke pu:ja-khe sow (inf) (int) before he god-IO pray—pt 'before sowing he prayed god‘ ‘before gada-ke kikiji su Tu Dic khub munDa-khe-nec donkey-obj sell (inf) before he much beat-pt-per ‘before selling the donkey he beat it thoroughly‘

3.6. ADJECTIVES Forms which can modify nouns are called adjectives. In this language the category of adjectives is not at all distinct from verbs as mentioned earlier. However they are treated separately here, as they can modify nouns. The adjectives can be classified into various kinds on the basis of their semantic connotation (Dixon 1982). They can specify age (young vs. old), value (good vs. bad), human propensity (happy vs. unhappy vs. angry), dimensions (small vs. big), physical property (light, sweet, bitter), colour (black, red), speed (fast, slow), and ninnbers numbers (one, two), etc. The adjective form precedes the head noun which it modifies. Illustrations:

1. Age: l. juna une sazna sa:na

'old‘ ‘old’ ‘new’ 'new' 'old‘ ‘old’

juna-koro une-jinghi sa:na-koro

‘old-man‘ ‘new life‘ ‘old man‘

‘good’ ‘bad’ ‘bad‘ ‘rough’

saja-koro bura-koro DoTo~—lubu DoTo~—1ubu

‘good man‘ ‘bad man‘ ‘rough cloth‘

‘proper’, 'proper‘, 'proper‘ ‘proper’

airambo ‘comfort’, ‘comf0rt',

'big‘ ‘big’

kha:T-koro

‘big man‘,

khuib-Da khu:b-Da

‘heavy-water’ (lot of water), ‘heavy-water‘

2. Value: saja bura Do'l‘o~ DoTo~ 3. Human propensity: cefi sway 4. dimensions: kha:T

khutp/b ‘well/heavy‘

80

-

1

sa:ra/ sabay

‘all’

sazra-parti

‘all/whole world‘,

pa:r

‘all’

pair-kundajhara ‘all/whole Ktmda grass‘

5. physical property: sim(b)il ‘sweet’,

kaTij

‘bitter’

kenDe

ra:Ta

‘red’

6. colour: ‘black’,

7. speed: 8. numbers:

suki ‘slow’, kithay ‘fast’ These have been discussed separately, below. (sec. 3.7.)

The above adjectives are simple, non-derived ones. Adjectives form a relatively closedset. However they do not have any overt markers. An interesting limitation of this set is that they are incapable of occurring in ‘comparative’ and ‘superlative degree‘ constructions. In other words, there are no morphological markers to convey ‘comparative’ and ‘superlative’ degrees. Instead an ‘intensifier’ is employed to indicate ‘superlative’ degree; while ablative case marker is used to express ‘comparative degree. (a) khu:b ‘very/much‘: ifia ga:w khu:b acca (hoy) my village very good (be) ‘my village is very good‘ (b)

Di-bili-Ten ini-bili simbil hoy dem-fiuit-abl dem-fruit sweet is ‘this fruit is sweeter than that fruit‘

The adjective kha:T/D ‘big’ can function as an intenisifer as well. kha:D-baka ‘very bad‘ (baka ‘bad‘): kha:D-baka koro ‘very bad person’ Adjectives can be reduplicated. By that the meaning of the base gets intensified. uni-uni kapRe

‘new-new cloth‘ (very new cloth)

juna-juna ma:nDi ‘old-old word‘ (very old word(s)), etc. caTa ‘hot’ caTa-caTa ‘very hot‘ Besides modifying nouns, adjectives in this language can take tense markers. In otherwords they can function as predicates (see above). Among the adjectives ‘colour terms‘ have to some extent a process of derivation. The simple colour adjectives are the followingkenDe ‘black’, ra:Ta ‘red’, pulum ‘white’, nizla ‘blue/green‘, etc. Only for the adjective kenDe by sufllxing -a, a form kenDwa ‘blackish’ is derived. It is surprising that other colour adjectives cannot be used similarly. However to convey similar concept, another fonn, a free form (a particle) khija is used. kenDe-khija ‘like black’ / ‘blackish’, as in: in-en kenDe-khija Do-ken I-dlc black-like appear-immpt

‘to me (something) appeared like black / blackish‘. Another form bha:T0 is used in the same function:

81

ra:Ta-bha:To pultun-bha:To

‘like red /red like’ ‘like whitel white like‘, etc.

When certain adjectives occur with norms, instead of occturing directly- take a possessive /genitive marker -a with them. This has to be checked with the use of more data. rabang ‘cold’ + koyo ‘wind/air‘: rabang-a-koyo ‘coldvsind‘

Observe the following constructions: (l) urubtmg-fien Da ‘cooled water‘ (water which is/has been cooled) usu-en Doba ‘weak bullock‘ (bullock which has become weak) TongRe-n sani

‘weak child‘ (child which is?/has become weak)?

-

In the above adjectives urubung, usu and TongRe take with them intransitive past tense marker. Also it expresses completive sense. So they convey a sense of ‘attained status‘. (2) o:la-pen ‘writing pen‘, (pen for writing) olen-koro ‘went person‘, (person who went) a:y-sene koro ‘now going person‘, (person who goes now) lazj-ken japay ‘pregnant woman‘ (lit. swollen woman). 3.7. NUMERAL SYSTEM

(i) This language like other Munda languages has a vigesimal system, wherein there is a basic unit for ‘twenty’. So the cotmting of higher numerals beyond '20’ will have '20’ as the basic unit. However it should be made clear at the outset that the numeral system as presented here particularly for the higher numerals is a potential system rather than the one actually in use. Due to the irrfiuence of non-Munda languages of the area, the counting heavily borrows elements of other languages, as the texts amply reveal. The basic numerals of this system are the following- l mya, 2 ba.-r/ba:rjva, 3 aphay/apltva, 4 uphun/uphunya, 5 money/monoya, 6 turuy/turuya, 7 ey/eyva, 8 ila:r ilanjva, 9 aray/’ araya, 10 gel/geiva, 20 isa, 100 saddi.

Among these, the terms for 20 and 100 seem to be borrowed ones, probably from IndoAryan. The potential system has the following features: The teens are obtained by suffixing the lower numerals 1 to 9 to the imit often. gel-mya ‘l l’, gel-ba:rya '12‘, gel-uphun '14‘, etc. Here an altemative way of counting ‘teens’ is possible. That involves the use of conjunctive marker Do ‘and’, as followsgel Do mya ‘ten and one‘ = ll, gel Do ba:rya ‘ten and two‘ = 12, etc. The higher numerals are obtained by adding lower numerals to the unit of '20‘. (a) (b)

isa-mya '21‘, isa-gel '30‘,

isabazrya isagel-ba:rya

'22‘, etc. '32‘, etc.

(c)

ba:ri isa '40’,

ba:ri isagel

'50‘,

aphayisa '60‘,

aphayisagel

'70‘,

82

(d)

uphunisa '80‘, myasaddi gel-saddi

uphunisagel ‘90‘, ‘one hundred‘, ‘ten hundred’ (‘one thousand‘).

As can be observed from above, the ‘tens’ are obtained by sufiixing lower nmnerals to isa. When gel '10‘ is suffixed to isa, the relationship between them will be of addition; while the relationship between a lower numeral occuring preceding the isa unit, will be of multiplication. Similarly, l to 10 (gel) which are lower units as compared to saddi ‘I00’, can occur with saddi,

preceding it. Then also the relationship between them will be that of multiplication. From the structural point of view, in the above formations, both ’word‘ as well as ‘phrase’ constructions are found. The ‘phrase’ constructions are those in which the first constituent ends in a vowel and the second constituent begins with a vowel, like (c) above. Here only forms for 40 and 50 are in phrasal structure. Here from the ‘wholeness’ point of view no segregation is made between ’word‘ constructions and ‘phrasal’ constructions. As stated above, in their daily transactions and activities except for the lower numerals 1 to 10, others are not that fiequently used.

All the tenns for fractions are taken from Indo-Aryan sources: azda ‘half, pazw ‘quarter’ (ii)

Frequentative fonns are obtained by suffixing a bound forrn- -bera to the numerals. mya-bera ‘once’, ba:ri-bera ‘twice’, etc.

However beyond these (beyond the above numbers), higher numerals are not usually used to obtain such forms. Instead an intensifier eTha ‘more’ is used. Numeral ‘one’ can occur with koro ‘person’, to express animateness. mikhor ‘one person‘ (mya ‘one’ + koro ’person‘). mya koro ka:molakken ‘one person/man is working‘, mikhor/mighom ka:molakken ‘one is working’; (iii)

Numerals can be repeated to give distributive sense. First three numerals change to

some extent optionally.

mya+mya > mya-mya/mimma ba:ri-ba:ri > ba-bazr thayla aphay-aphay > apho-apho thayla

‘one one‘ (one each), ‘two-two bags (two bags each)’ ‘three-three bags (three bags each)‘

(iv) Ordinals: Here first few ordinal numbers are obtained, using native elements. But these are not in common use. In case of necessity to use such forms, borrowed ones are used i.e., peala ‘first’, etc. It is possible to obtain ordinal numbers by simply justaposing a number with a noun. Here no overt marker is used to mark ordinalness; but only the context is the guiding factor. mya-meT ‘one eye‘ or ‘first eye‘, ba:ri-meT ‘two eyes‘ or ‘second eye‘ (v)

‘times’ numerals are obtained by suffixing -hel/-hepTa to the basic numerals l to

10. mya-hel/hepTa ‘one time‘, ba:ri-helfhepTa ‘two times‘, gel-hel/hepTa ‘ten times’

83

(d)

uphunisa '80’, myasaddi

uphunisagel ‘one hundred’,

'90‘,

gel-saddi

‘ten hundred‘ (‘one thousand‘).

As can be observed from above, the ‘tens’ are obtained by suffixing lower numerals to isa.

When gel '10’ is suffixed to isa, the relationship between them will be of addition; while the relationship between a lower numeral occuring preceding the isa unit, will be of multiplication. Similarly, 1 to 10 (gel) which are lower units as compared to saddi ‘I00’, can occur with saddi, preceding it. Then also the relationship between them will be that of multiplication. From the structural point of view, in the above formations, both ’word‘ as well as ‘phrase’ constructions are found. The ‘phrase’ constructions are those in which the first constituent ends in a vowel and the second constituent begins with a vowel, like (c) above. Here only forms for 40 and 50 are in phrasal structure. Here from the ‘wholeness’ point of view no segregation is made between ‘word’ constructions and ‘phrasal’ constructions. As stated above, in their daily transactions and activities except for the lower numerals 1 to I0, others are not that frequently used. All the terms for fractions are taken from Indo-Aryan sources: azda ‘half’, pa:w ‘quarter’ (ii)

Frequentative forms are obtained by suffixing a bound forrn- -bera to the numerals. mya-bera ‘once’, ba:ri-bera ‘twice’, etc.

However beyond these (beyond the above numbers), higher numerals are not usually used to obtain such forms. Instead an intensifier eTha ‘more’ is used. Numeral ‘one’ can occur with koro ‘person’, to express anirnateness. mikhor ‘one person‘ (mya ‘one’ + koro ’person‘). mya koro ka:molakken

‘one person/man is working‘,

mikhor/mighom ka:molakken

‘one is working’;

(iii) Numerals can be repeated to give distributive sense. First three numerals change to some extent optionally. mya+mya > mya-mya/mirnma ‘one one’ (one each), ba:ri-ba:ri > ba-bazr thayla ‘two-two bags (two bags each)‘ aphay-aphay > apho-apho thayla ‘three-three bags (three bags each)‘ (iv) Ordinals: Here first few ordinal numbers are obtained, using native elements. But these are not in common use. In case of necessity to use such forms, borrowed ones are used i.e., peala ‘first’, etc. It is possible to obtain ordinal numbers by simply justaposing a number with a noun. Here no overt marker is used to mark ordinahress; but only the context is the guiding factor.

(v)

mya-meT

‘one eye‘ or ‘first eye‘,

ba:ri-meT

‘two eyes’ or ‘second eye‘

‘times’ numerals are obtained by suffixing -hel/-hepTa to the basic numerals I to

10.

mya-hel/hepTa ‘one time‘, ba:ri-hel/hepTa ‘two times‘, gel-hel/hepTa ‘ten times’

85

3.8. ADVERBS

Those forms which are capable of modifying the verbs are called adverbs. In this language they precede the verbal constructions.

(A)

Adverbs can be classified on semantic basis mainly into the following types. 1.

2.

Manner adverbs: bage-bage-ten ‘slowly’, ma:nDuka ‘intentionally’,

meje-ten jhaTTo

‘properly’, ‘quickly’,

jhaTpaT

‘quickly’,

khija

‘like’,

lekhan

‘like’, etc.

Spatial adverbs: Den ho:-je

‘there’ ‘there’

Taiw no:-je

‘behind’ ’here' (this one)

no:ku ‘here’ (pl.:anim.) hozku ‘there’ (pl.: anim.) na:n ‘here’ (pinpointing) ha:n ‘there’ (visible) interrogative form like- Tonen/Tongan ‘where’, etc. (for details sec. 3.3.4) 3.

4.

Temporal adverbs: a:y ‘now’, eTasa:l (kha:T)-lazga ‘since (long time)‘ manawarso ‘last year’, singrup ba:don ‘after’, cola Frequency adverbs: eTha ‘again’, agitho agri ‘at least’ (as in: Tefij agri

‘next year’, ‘evening’, ‘when’ ‘at least‘. ‘at least today’),

(B) Structure of adverbs: Adverbs do not have any general derivative markers. However ablative case marker ten/Ten itself is used in this way, with so-called adjectives, nouns, etc., in obtaining manner adverbs. However, in general, instead of derivation, compounding seems to be prefered particularly among the temporal adverbs. Here some of the basic temporal adverbs are listed in (a), followed by the complex (compound) structures as in (b). (a) din ‘day’, phejar ‘morning’, paTTa / gaphang ‘tomorrow’,

(b)

(c)

singiup ra:To

‘evening’, ‘night’,

Tefij a:ng-paTTa azng-paTTa-phejar gaphang-phejar gaphang-tisrapha:r manawarso tu:sa:l

‘day’; ‘next day‘ (a:ng ’dawn‘), ‘nextday morning’, ‘tomorrow morning‘, ‘tomorrow aftemoon‘ (tisra ‘third’, pha:r ‘part/stage‘) ‘last year‘ (warso ‘year’, mana ‘previous’), ‘third year back from now’ (sa:l ‘year’, tu: ?),

eTasa:l

‘next year’ (eTa ‘next/coming‘).

An adverb is obtained by using an intensifier with a noun: jenum-bhar ‘lifelong’ (jenum ‘life’, bhar ‘complete/all’)

‘__L

Adverbs undergo reduplication quite commonly. By that, a sense of (i) continuity is marked. din-din ‘day after day‘; (ii) intensity: highlighting the intensity of an event/action/time - in such

situations an emphatic element -ma- is infixed; or an element ka is suflixed: ra:Tra:To / ra:To:ra:T ‘in the night itself, ra:To-ma-ra:To Diphina Diphin-ka jhaTTo ‘quickly’:

‘in the very night itself, ‘as before‘ (as previously), jhaTTojhaTl‘o ‘very quickly‘.

phejar-man

‘early morning‘ (before dawn),

ra:To-bhar

‘whole night‘

By adding ablative/instrumental case marker -ten/-Ten to certain adjectives like- a:ramb0

‘comfort’, cefi ‘proper’, sway ‘proper’, adverbs are derived. airambo-Ten ‘comfortably’, cefi-Ten

‘properly’,

sway(a)-Ten jo:r-Ten

‘properly’, ‘forcefully’ / ‘very energetically‘,

pakka-Ten kha:T-Ten

‘well/properly‘, ‘loudly’.

-ten can be used with verbs as well. It can take either verb in past tense or direct verb itself. However the construction will become a non-fmite one. It is similar to ba: don ‘after’ mentioned

above. joen-a-ten/ ‘after eating‘ (= after completing eating) (-a- is an increment) joen-a-ba:don jojom-a-ten ‘from eating’ (jojom ‘to eat’) biDjen-a-ten ‘after getting up‘ (biDjen ‘got up’) giTijken-a-ten/ ‘after sleeping‘ (giTijken ‘slept‘) giTij-a-ba:don jom-khap—ten

‘after eat-drinking’ (khap ‘to drink‘)

Da:-ten Dakhe-ba:don

‘after doing‘ (DaDa ‘to do‘) ‘after completion (of a work)’ (Dakhe ’did‘)

Certain adjectives are directly used without modification as adverbs. bhala

‘well/properly‘,

a:rpa:r acca kithay

’straight(ly)’, ‘proper(ly)’, ‘fast’,

awel

‘well’;

-ka: marks ‘regularity/habituality‘ (of frequency): ro:j(u) ‘day’ : rozju-ka ‘daily’ - (as in: ro.-juka lekhan ‘like/as daily‘ = as usual) This -ka form when used with interrogative forms, results in indefinite forms. cola ‘when’: cola-ka ‘sometime’, Tone ‘where’: Tone-ka ‘somewhere’ a:Do ‘real’ (?): a:Doka ‘really/truely' Adverbs can occur sentence-finally as well: ifij heje-bi ban gaphang I come- incl. neg tomorrow ‘I will not come tomorrow at all‘

85

Adverbial phrases are obtained using certain postpositions. rozjuka lekhan ‘like/as daily‘ (as usual) a:Ta dina ba:don ‘after eight day(s)' pe:laka khija

‘as before‘ (pezlaka ‘before/previously‘, khija ‘as/like‘)

3.9. PARTICLES This section contains some of the forms which do not fit in any where else. These include conjunctive forms, inclusive/emphatic markers ka, bi, pa:r, inteijections The given fonns may function in other roles as well. ki has many functions, as mainly as a sentential conjunctive, it can occur with either a negative or interrogative element as well, to provide an alternative, or to question a statement.

(1).

Conjunctive forms are the following: (a) co-ordinative marker: Da, ‘and’, (b) alternative marker: ya/ne/ki/bhala ‘or/otherwise‘, (c) adversative marker: phene/phire ‘but'; lekin ‘but‘, ni ‘so’

Illustrations for these conjuctive particles will be provided in the next section, as their combinations will be in phrasal constructions. Here some illustration is provided for ki and other particles. : ki: Its sentential function is illustrated in sec. 4.3.3.(t). Here the combination of ki and a negative/ interrogative element is illustrated. The construction as such will be in phrasal structure. Da: lokhRu-lajjen ki ban ji:wja:nwarku-n peDagajaga ghaTawba ki ban water dry-started or not living animals-to livable-place find-will or not

'(whether) water started diying or not, for living beings livable place will be found or not‘ Similarly, ki can occur with interrogative element co:ch, as in the followingini ama a:khe ki co:ch this your axe ? what ‘(is) this your axe?‘ De:Ten azdhajeba ki co:ch that from half give-will ? what ‘from that (from your life-span) will you give half?‘ (2). ka : This form is used widely in the language. It conveys emphasis, inclusiveness, restrictiveness as well. Often it is very difficult to distinguish between these various functions. It occurs immediately after a form which has to be marked. It is used with verbs to express ‘intensiveness‘ of an activity. (see 3.5.10.3.(x) )

ifia-ka japay

‘my own wife‘ (emphasis, restrictiveness),

Di:-ka usri-Thuni

‘that-very front pole‘ ( 'ibid'),

ifia-ka a:khe

‘my own axe‘ ('ibid'),

bifijku-ka fia:Ri

‘snakes themselves as ropes‘ (emphasis),

Di-ka balti-dora ba:ri-ka meT

‘that bucket‘s thread itself‘ (emphasis), ‘both the eyes‘ (inclusiveness),

ba:ri-ka japay-dhoTa ama-ka Ti

‘both husband and wife’ (inclusiveness), ‘your hand also‘ (inclusiveness),

86

l__.l.__

hec-ka anTe-konTe-ka mya:-ka a:khe mya:-ka siTaDa

‘he himself also‘ (inclusiveness), ‘mother (and) son only‘ (sense of restrictiveness) ‘only one axe‘ (restrictiveness), ‘even one drop of water‘ (emphasis);

Also, it can take an adverbial, to provide a habitual sense, as inro:ju-ka ‘daily’

(3)-

bi : Conveys inclusiveness. ba:ri-bi meT ‘both the eyes‘,

ifia-bi khatiya ‘my bed also‘, monoy-bi Dulcriku ‘all the five women (wives)', ba:ri-bi thayla ‘both the bags‘, abtuia ayomba-bi ‘our parents-also‘. Indefinite forms are obtained by suffixing this particle with or without ka, to interrogative forms. cocca-bi je-ka-bi kuc-to-bi

(4)

‘anything‘ (co: ~ co:ch ‘what‘), ‘any/some-one‘ (ie ‘who‘)' also: ‘something or other‘ (kuc ‘some thing‘) (for details see 3.3.5)

pa:r ‘a11‘1

It marks inclusiveness‘, totality, used as an adjective with a noun phrase. It's position of occurrence is relatively free, in that it can occur either after the noun (phrase) or before. Also, it can take the plural marker -ku as well. Then it functions as a noun. khajaina mazl pa:r ‘treasury thing all‘ (all things of treasury) (3) Diku pa.-r-lcu ‘they-all‘ pa:r khaja:na mazl ‘all treasury thing(s)' (b) pa.-r kundajhara ‘whole of kunda grass‘ pa.-r-ku apna apna ura (.o>;~.> Infmitives. These elements can occur singly with the nominal heads, or together to give raise to complex combinations. However all the elements carmot occur in a single construction. All these elements precede the nominal head. When these elements occur singly with a nomr, they constitute ‘words’. Only when the combinations include more than one attribute, then the combinations give rise to phrases. The combinations with item 4, namely possessive fonns leads to phrases. (1).

dem. + Noun: Di-kamazy ini-parti

that work‘, ‘this world’,

90

ini(c) sazdu ‘this saint‘, Di-bhingiperiyar ‘that priest‘ (2).

adj. + Noun:

acca-koro kha:T-kula sazra-parti fiazra-ma

‘good man’, ‘big tiger‘, ‘whole world‘, ‘another house‘,

une-jinghi

‘new life‘

(3).

num. + Noun: mya-ga:w ba:ri-sa:na-Dotkrya aphay-konku

‘one village‘, ‘two old-man and woman‘, ‘three children‘

(4).

possessive -a + noun: in-a a:khe

‘my axe‘,

(5).

khajana ma:l ura-ga usri hej-a a:khe

‘things of the treasury", ‘house's front‘ (porch), ‘his axe’

neg_ + noun: bin-ka sokRa

‘even without cake‘

Here the negative word is a borrowed one. It takes -ka, the emphatic particle (6).

Infinitive (-ga) + noun sene-ga-hukum go-to permission

‘permission to go’

heje-sene kor-ku come-go person-pl

‘coming-going people‘

In the above, except for type 4, all others give raise to ‘words’, rather than to phrases. In the case of 4th, because of the genitive marker, phrasal structure is maintained. Here if the genitive marker is not overtly used (sec. 3.4.5), then the construction results in a ‘word’ only. In bigger combinations, wherever the genitive marker is used, the phrasal structure is maintained than elsewhere. Similarly, the presence of definite marker -ka, or inclusive marker -bi in these constructions leads to phrases. (7).

(8).

dem. + gen. + N: Di-din-a ra:To am-a ba:rimeT Di-Daingor-a DiDom Di-dama ma:nDi

‘that day's night‘ (that day night),

‘your second eye‘, ‘that branch‘s milk‘, ‘that money's word‘, etc

gen. ph. + N: in-a ayomba ura I-pos parent house

‘my parent's house‘, 91

Di-ka usri Thuni that-emp front pole

‘that front‘s pole (itself)‘,

alifi-a bi aba jimu we-pos also father name

‘our father's name also‘

(This contains other elements as well).

(9).

quan.(adj) + gen. + N: alifi-a sabko puri we-pos all poverty

‘all our Worry/poverty‘,

du: sra-ka ba:wa:ji bagica another-emp-saint garden ‘another saint‘s garden‘,

(10)

mya-bi siTa-Da one-incl drop-water

‘even one drop of water‘,

kha:T larnba-1akRi

‘big (very) long stick‘,

mya simbil-jo:

‘one/a sweet fruit‘.

dem. + adj. + N:

ni pa:r sozna-ca:ndi this all gold—silver

(11)

‘this all gold-silver‘.

nurn-adj -N:

mya accaTare monoy-bharti-thayli

‘one good girl’ ‘five firll bag(s)‘

N(pos)-pp-N: te:bal-a lifi-a kitazb

‘book (which is) on the table‘

te:bal-a khozka kitazb table-pos drawer book

‘book in the drawer of the table‘

Tukhu-khija Da pestle-like water

‘pestle like water‘,

sabay-parti ji:w all-world life

‘life of all the world‘

bina ayomba chapnikifij neg parents child-dual

(12)

‘children without parents‘

num-adj-N-N: monoy-bharti-cawli-thayli ‘five full rice bags(s)‘ (= five bags full of rice)

92

(13)

More complex structures are possible: Di ura-ga jizw-ja:nwar—ku that house-pos living-animal-pl ‘living beings of that house‘, thoDasa peDa-ga khija jaga little live-to/for like place ‘a little livable like space/place’, mya: kha:T hawe:li ma:Di ura-khija Donga one big house story house-like boat ‘one big many storied house-like boat‘ sabay parti-ga ji:w-jaznwar-ku kor-ku all world-pos living-animal-pl people-pl ‘the living beings, people of the whole world‘ sabay parti-ga ji:w—ja:nwar-ku ciDi-mungi(ku) all world-pos living-anirnal-pl insect and such (pl) ‘all living beings birds and such of the world‘

All the above noun phrases are subordinate endocentric constnrctions. Some of the coordinate constructions are mentioned below.

(a)

with the additive conjunctive co-ordinate marker D0 ‘and’sa:na Do Dozkrya ‘old man and woman‘ mya-DayTe Do bokoje:Te ‘one elder brother and younger sister (sibling) siDi-ku-menDa-ku ‘sheep (pl) (and) goats’

(b)

with the conjunctive alternative marker ya ‘or’: ifij ya ifia Day ‘I or my elder brother‘

This marker appears to be a borrowed one from Indo-Aryan. Often without the marker as well it is possible to convey this sense. ba:ri-aphay hel ‘two three times‘ (= two or three times) monoy-turuy korku ‘five-six people‘ (= five or six people) There is another element which is used in this type of situations; though it is used in other situations as well. That is, bhala which means ‘or’, more appropriately ‘other wise’: Di-kula-ke uTha bhala gogoy that-tiger-obj capture or die ‘(the king will insist you) to capture that tiger or/other wise die’

(

b

bhmm ’to squat‘ (animals) : l‘/1

>

burum ‘lie down‘ (used of animals only)

1‘

thumba ‘a water bottle : tnmba made of hollowed gourd‘ T71

>

T/t

Thembo ‘a drop’ uThu ‘a curly’

Tipa: utu

kh

>

ukhu

‘to conceal‘

k: uku

ukhRe ‘to pour’ lekha:y ‘to count‘ Tukhu ‘pestle’

sh

>

ukuRi leka: Tuku

‘to pour out‘ ‘mallet for husking paddy’

g

ghama ’to pour‘ ghuzso ‘rat’ (4)

‘a dIOp'

gazmai 'afiixed to ‘da:’ means ’to rain" g1iDu ‘a middle-sized rat‘

Korku shows a lack of initial vowel where Mundari has it.lang

‘tongue’

:

a:la:ng

286

raTa ‘red’ kiji ‘to sell‘ bhnun ‘to brood’

a:1a:‘ azkhring/azkiring azbrum ‘to hatch‘

(over eggs)

(5)

(6)

Do

‘and’

oRo

-ch

:corresponds to

-j '1

ich

‘excrement'

3

ij‘ ‘stool‘, ‘pass stool‘

Korku has only a vowel whereas Mundari has a VC in such a context, as illustrated by the

following;

i (7)

‘to give‘

em/om ‘to give, pay‘

Korku has palatal voiced affricate which corresponds to Mtmdari frictionless continuant

or a diphthong:

ja:m (8)

‘to weep’

ia:m/ eazm

‘weep, cry; grieve‘

Korku retroflex stop corresponds to retroflex flap in Mundari: Do

‘and’

1

oRo

(9) (a) Korku seems to add a consonant at the beginning of a word, where Mundari has a vowel beginning: huzp (b)

‘hair’

I

ub‘

The reverse of the above type is also found. That is, adding h- in Mundari where as Korku

has vowel begim1ings.-

a:khe isa

‘axe’ ‘twenty’

hazke hisi

In the following, first Korku vocabulary is presented, followed by a listing of comparative

vocabulary of Korku-Mundari. In the first list, an ‘asterisk’ has been placed in an entry which has a correspondence in Mundari.

287

List 1. Korku - English Vocabulary Korku

Gncat.

a*

pos

aba*

n

abufia* abung* abtuij* acambo aca:r* acca acchu

v

adir(u)*

v

aDi agara aga:ju:d-bifij agitho

n

pos V

pron V

n v/adj

v n adv

asn

adv

agru*

v

flsRa

adj

ajamaTifie ajapurkha aji ajigar ajom* akarbakar akej akkal

n

akra:t

v

akhajji alaggo alaggo-alaggo

n

v n I1

n V

n n

adv adv

ale*

pron

alhazl

V

alifi-a

pos

alifij*

pron

allopallo

n

alnsa

I1

alu

ll

am-a* amasudin

n

pos

Gloss possessive sufiix father our (pl: inclusive) to wash (hand, etc.) we (pl: inclusive) surprise cloth ‘s end cure, be good; good sneeze reach flood proceed; overtake huge snake; python at least at least climb down, take down (something) much; more test ancestors husband's sister crocodile listen, hear nausea wooden comb idea become waste afestival ofsummer season separatefly) separately we (pl: exclusive)

lazy our (dual: exclusive) we (dual: exclusive) the loose end ofa garment gaps in the woodjoint potato your (sg.) new moonday

288

ambe ambe-arnbraty amberasso anawa andajo and.Ra

n

andhra andhRi

n

anga angara angi

n

ansi-sinsi

n

n n n adj n/adj n n n

angluj

v

angluj-singluj 311811

n

ans11p*

n/v

n

mango mango grove mango juice fault doubtful blind (man) darkness blind woman a coat cinder (red hot charcoal) shirt shirt, & such bathe bathing & such early morning dawn yawn

angu:p* ani

v

anini

v

anTe anTeba:Te anu* anuj

n

mother

n

parents

v

afi (ka)

part

ape* apo

pron

apifij*

pron

apra aprazng apha aphal aphay/aphya* aphir aphla

v

cause to drink, to suckle bend alright; good you Cal.) you (sg. -honor.) you (dual) divorce quarrel seedbed hand-over (something) three fly (anim.) pull down; take out release, leave; abandon; discard cross beam (cart wheel's) leajjz vegetable

ara‘2. ara3. ara arambo aranga aranga-turanga ara-pa:1a

n

v

pron

v n v num v v v n n

end (0fknlfe/ sickle) boil

n

comfort

n

overnightfood, stale food overnight'sfood & such leajjx vegetable & such

I1

289

nine sweep rejoice (become happy) request, pray, worship apply (oil, etc. to body)

araylaraya* are ari aijo

num

arka

v

arsa aru aRa aRasupaRasu(ku) aRawuba asayRa asi*

adj

lazy

v

v

build, make, forge collapse (due to weakness) neighbour(s) lie down

n

bee type insect

v

beg enter chipper newly born baby (Oxfamily) swing intestine lose fiy (dry thing), parch remove

v v v

V

n

3513

v

asula asur asut atRi aT/aD* aTa* aTir/aTre

n

aTkom

n

aThika

sub

8W

n

egg not yet (even afler long time) elder brother's wife

awel aweljaga awezn

adj

good

n n

awkali

adj

awkaliDa awlukal awlka ayna ayomba ayomkokofia

n

goodplace metal hole at the axis fast summer rain

ayTafi

part

#13/1111*

v

n v n v v V

adj

taste

n

a:b* azdalazdha azja a:kha a:khe*

v

n

mirror parents mother and son (excludingfather) till now become evening wash (body) hah‘ grandfather hang axe

a:khu

n

iron axis ofa cart

a:m*

pron

you (Se-)

n n

num n v

2 90

a:na a:nDu a:nDuga:bo a:ng* a:ngpaTTa

adv

next day

a:ngpaTTaphejar

adv

next day morning feed

a:nu a:pho azram azrambo-Ten azri a:rpa:r anti a: sapa: su(ku) a: si-iTha : e a:Ta* a:Ta-gi:Ta a:Ta-patni

story

testicle hen about to lav eggs dawn

steam

adv

CISUW

adv

straight(ly) ceremony ofwaving lighted lamp neighbour(s),' nearby beggar flour; meal, food food & such food-water kitchen twist (making rope)

adv

now mother's younger sister, step mother a boil

a:Taunarakhuli

a:To azwrezj a:y azyi a:yra ba

sweep

non-past suflix

grain; paddy rice action ofpecking (for eg bv afowl) save, survive duck goose

baba* baba-cawli*

babadazr bacaTifie badak badakkho i badara/badra badare badaRa badaRba:ju badaRkone badla badlaTifie

S/or scratch cloud south side south side, southern direction change; revenge revenge against; change carpenter

baDay

bage* bagebage

blame; abuse comfortablv

adv adv

slowly very slowly, whisperzngly

291

bageTika bagi:ca bagla

bajam/bajan baka* baka-koro baki bal