Barman language

Barman Thar (IPA: /bɔɾmɔn t^haɾ/), where “thar” means language, is a highly endangered language. It is a Tibeto-Burman language that belongs to the Boro–Garo sub-group. The population of the Barman Kachari community is 24,237, according to a 2017 census. However, only a small part of this population speaks the language.

Barman Thar
বৰ্মন ঠাৰ
Pronunciation	/bɔɾmɔn thaɾ/
Native to	Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland
Region	Northeast India, Kamarupa
Ethnicity	Barman Kacharis
Native speakers	24,000 (2017)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Sal Boro–Garo Barman Thar
Writing system	Assamese alphabet (presently used) Sylheti Nagri (formerly used)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–

History

Main article: Barman Kacharis

The Barman Kacharis are an indigenous Assamese community of Northeast India and are a subsection of the Dimasa people. They are mainly found in the districts of Lower Assam and in Barak Valley like Hailakandi and Karimganj and some parts of Arunachal Pradesh. Barman Kachari is one of the ancient ethnic groups of North-East India. Since the 2002 Amendment act, many Barman Kacharis in Assam are referred to as 'Barman'. They are mainly found in the districts of Udalguri, Baksa, Chirang, Kokrajhar, Darrang, Kamrup, Goalpara, Nagaon, Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Cachar and Barpeta. Barmans are called Kacharis because of their Kachari origin. They are spread diffusely, in Assam and in places such as Meghalaya, Tripura and Nagaland.

Barman Kachari villages are scattered over the state of Meghalaya, like the Garo Hills and Khasi Hills, and also in Tripura. Prior to Indian independence, several Barman Kachari settlements existed in the Mymensingh and Sylhet districts of present-day Bangladesh. Partition of the country had resulted in the migration of these people to then undivided Assam.

In 1708, during the reign of Tamradhaj, Kachari people adopted Hindu customs. By 1825, in the days of Govinda Chandra, the Kachari king, along with some noble families, had to flee Khaspur, migrating to Mymensingh and Sylhet. This was due to the invasions from Manipur and Konbaung rulers. In 1826, the Kachari king returned to his homeland after signing the Treaty of Yandaboo with the British, though the treaty stipulated that Assam be placed under British rule. The Kachari King Govinda Chandra died in 1830.

Demographics

The Barman Kacharis of Assam are classified as a Scheduled Tribe (Plains) in the valley of Barak (however, the Barman Kacharis of Brahmaputra Valley remain unscheduled till date). The Barman Kacharis number some 24,237 persons, according to a 2017 census. Out of this number, 12,555 are males and 11,503 are females. Their literacy rate is estimated at 4 percent. The level of literacy of males and females is 2.5% and 1.5%, respectively.

Documentation

The script of Barman Thar

The language of the Barman Kacharis had never been documented until 2019 when M.A. students in Linguistics and Language Technology (Batch 2018-2020) of Tezpur University carried out field work for the first time on this language.

Phonology

The Barman Thar phonemic inventory consists of eight vowels, nine diphthongs, and twenty consonants (including two semivowels).

Consonants

In Barman Thar, there are twenty consonants.

Bilabial

Labio-velar

Alveolar

Palatal

Velar

Glottal

Plosive

p

b

t

d

c

k

ɡ

Aspirated Plosive

ph

th

kh

Nasal

m

n

ŋ

Flap

ɾ

Fricative

s

z

h

Approximant

w

j

Lateral Approximant

l

pʰ and z have idiolectal variations. They are, by some people, sometimes pronounced as ɸ and d͡z respectively. For example, the word pʰa (meaning “father”) is sometimes pronounced as ɸa and nɐmza (meaning “bad”) is sometimes pronounced as nɐmd͡za.

Gemination

Gemination, which is the twinning of two consonants, is also found in the Barman language.

Phonemes	Example (Barman)	English Gloss
p+p	tʰɐppɐɾa	“ash”
t+tʰ	mɐttʰai	“big”
d+d	ɡɛddɛl	“new”
c+c	bicci	“egg”
k+k	nukkuruŋ	“eye”
k+kʰ	bɛkkʰuma	“dull”
m+m	dummua	“fever”
n+n	cunna	“cloth”
l+l	mulluk	“earth”

Consonant Clusters

In the study of Barman Thar, carried out by the students of Tezpur University, they found only one word, i.e. bɾui, with a consonant cluster. It is a cluster of two consonants, b and ɾ. And they found no final cluster in any word.

Vowels

In Barman Thar, there are eight vowels and nine diphthongs.

Monophthongs

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Close-mid	e		o
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Near-open		ɐ
Open	a

Diphthongs

	i	u	a
i			ia
o	oi	ou
ɐ	ɐi
e	ei
u	ui		ua
a	ai	au

Morphology and Grammar

Case:

	Case	Marker	Examples
1.	(a) Nominative (b) Ergative	(a) ∅ (b) a	(a) ɾam ɾam-∅ Ram-NOM hibaja hiba-ja come-PST ɾam hibaja ɾam-∅ hiba-ja Ram-NOM come-PST “Ram has come.” (b) ɾama ɾam-a Ram-ERG thɛkasu thɛkasu mango caja ca-ja eat-PST ɾama thɛkasu caja ɾam-a thɛkasu ca-ja Ram-ERG mango eat-PST “Ram has eaten a mango.”
2.	Accusative	kɔ	ɾamkɔɾiɡɐm ɾamkɔ Ram-ACC ɾiɡɐm call ɾamkɔ ɾiɡɐm Ram-ACC call “Call Ram.”
3.	(a) Instrumental (b) Comitative	ca nɛ nɔɡɛ	(a) owa owa 3SG khɐttaica khɐttai-ca knife-INS thɛkasu-kɔ thɛkasu-kɔ mango dɛnnaja dɛn-naja cut-PST owa khɐttaica thɛkasu-kɔ dɛnnaja owa khɐttai-ca thɛkasu-kɔ dɛn-naja 3SG knife-INS mango cut-PST “S/he has cut (the) mango (b) ɐŋa ɐŋa 1SG ɔmɾitnɛ ɔmɾit-nɛ Amrit-GEN nɔɡɛ nɔɡɛ INS hiŋgɐn hiŋ-gɐn go-FUT ɐŋa ɔmɾitnɛ nɔɡɛ hiŋgɐn ɐŋa ɔmɾit-nɛ nɔɡɛ hiŋ-gɐn 1SG Amrit-GEN INS go-FUT “I will go with Amrit.”
	Genitive	nɛ	ɔmɾitnɛ ɔmɾit-nɛ Amrit-GEN nɔk nɔk house ɔmɾitnɛ nɔk ɔmɾit-nɛ nɔk Amrit-GEN house “Amrit's house”
	Locative	ou	ɐŋa ɐŋa 1SG tɛzpuɾou tɛzpuɾ-ou Tezpur-LOC dɔŋa dɔŋ-a be-PRS ɐŋa tɛzpuɾou dɔŋa ɐŋa tɛzpuɾ-ou dɔŋ-a 1SG Tezpur-LOC be-PRS “I am in Tezpur.”
6.	(a) Intentive Dative (b) Destinational Dative	nɛ nɛɡa ca	(a) ɔmɾitnɛ ɔmɾit-nɛ Amrit-GEN nɛɡa nɛɡa DAT ɔmɾitnɛ nɛɡa ɔmɾit-nɛ nɛɡa Amrit-GEN DAT “… for Amrit.” (b) tɛzpuɾca tɛzpuɾ-ca Tezpur-DAT tɛzpuɾca tɛzpuɾ-ca Tezpur-DAT “… to Tezpur.”
7.	Ablative	nɛ tukki	tɛzpuɾnɛ tɛzpuɾ-nɛ Tezpur-GEN tukki tukki ABL tɛzpuɾnɛ tukki tɛzpuɾ-nɛ tukki Tezpur-GEN ABL “… from Tezpur.”

Tense and Aspect

Three of the tenses are morphologically marked in Barman Thar.

Present:	owa owa 3SG hiŋa hiŋ-a go-PRS owa hiŋa owa hiŋ-a 3SG go-PRS “S/he goes.”
Past:	owa owa 3SG caja ca-ja eat-PST owa caja owa ca-ja 3SG eat-PST “S/he ate.”
Future:	owa owa 3SG ɾiŋɡɐn ɾiŋ-ɡɐn drink-FUT owa ɾiŋɡɐn owa ɾiŋ-ɡɐn 3SG drink-FUT “S/he will drink.”

In Barman Thar, the present tense is marked with the suffix “-a”, the past tense, with “-ja” and the future tense, with “-ɡɐn”. And the following are the four aspects:

Present Perfect:	owa owa 3SG hibadɔ hiba-dɔ come-PRS.PRF owa hibadɔ owa hiba-dɔ 3SG come-PRS.PRF “S/he has come.”
Present Continuous:	owa owa 3SG hiŋa hiŋ-dɔŋ go-PRS.PROG owa hiŋa owa hiŋ-dɔŋ 3SG go-PRS.PROG “S/he is going.”
Past Perfect:	owa owa 3SG caniŋ ca-niŋ eat-PST.PRF owa caniŋ owa ca-niŋ 3SG eat-PST.PRF “S/he had eaten.”
Future Continuous:	owa owa 3SG ɾiŋdɔŋɡɐn ɾiŋ-dɔŋ-ɡɐn drink-PROG-FUT owa ɾiŋdɔŋɡɐn owa ɾiŋ-dɔŋ-ɡɐn 3SG drink-PROG-FUT “S/he will be drinking.”

Pronouns

		Singular	Plural
1st		ɐŋa	ciŋa
2nd		nɐŋ	nɐtɐŋ
	honorific	nɐtɐŋ	nɐŋɐtɐŋ
3rd		owa	otɐŋ
	honorific	otɐŋ

Negation

In Barman Thar, verbs are negated by suffixing “-za” and “-zia” for present and past tense respectively.

For example, the root word for the verb “eat” in Barman Thar is “ca”. The negative form of the word in the present tense is caza (ca+za), meaning “do/does not eat” and that in the past tense is cazia (ca+zia), meaning “did not eat”.

Again, in case of imperative sentences, the suffix -nɔŋ is use.

For example, mei canɔŋ means “Don't eat rice.” [mei means “rice”, and canɔŋ is bi-morphemic, formed by the root word for “eat”, i.e. ca, and the imperative negative marker -nɔŋ.]

Classifiers

In Barman Thar, there is one classifier, i.e. -ja.

doisaja

doisa-ja

boy-CL

sijai

sija-i

die-PFV

hiŋaja

hiŋ-(a)ja

go-PST

doisaja sijai hiŋaja

doisa-ja sija-i hiŋ-(a)ja

boy-CL die-PFV go-PST

“The boy died.”

Allomorphs

Another feature of this language that needs to be mentioned is the presence of allomorphs.

Allomorphs of the past tense marker:

-ja is the past tense marker. But when this morpheme is suffixed to a verb ending in [m], it becomes -maja. For example, cum + -ja = cummaja. When it is suffixed to a verb ending in [n], it becomes -naja as in dɛn + -ja = dɛnnaja. When it is affixed to a verb ending in [ŋ], it becomes -aja, as in hiŋaja (hiŋ + -ja).

Therefore, it can be said that -maja, -naja and -aja are allomorphs of the morpheme -ja.

Allomorphs of the ergative case marker:

-a is the ergative case marker in Barman Thar. However, when it is affixed to a noun ending in a vowel, it becomes -ja. For example, sita + -ja = sitaja.

So, -ja is an allomorph of the ergative case marker -a.

Bibliography

• DeLancey, Scott (2012). Hyslop, Gwendolyn; Morey, Stephen; w. Post, Mark (eds.). "On the Origin of Bodo-Garo". Northeast Indian Linguistics. 4: 3–20. doi:10.1017/UPO9789382264521.003. ISBN 9789382264521.
• Joseph, U.V., and Burling, Robbins. 2006. Comparative phonology of the Boro Garo languages. Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages Publication.
• Burling, Robbins (2003). "The Tibeto-Burman languages of northeast India". In Thurgood, Graham; LaPolla, Randy J. (eds.). The Sino-Tibetan languages. London: Routledge. pp. 169–191. ISBN 978-0-7007-1129-1.
• van Driem, George (2001). Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-12062-4.
• Wood, Daniel Cody (2008). An Initial Reconstruction of Proto-Boro-Garo (MA thesis). University of Oregon. hdl:1794/9485.