A Micro-Typology of Contact Effects in Tibeto-Burman

Naplese Linguistics, 2015

Languages have natural tendency to merge when they are in contact. Historically, every language must have undergone a certain amount of influence from its neighbors. Sometimes languages mingle so much that a new speech form evolves and one is not able to make out the original form of language. The impact of close contact on the structure of language is easier to discern in some languages and more diffuse in others. Raji (Banrawat) is a little-known tribal community which resides in ten small hamlets in the state of Uttarakhand. They were located in India for the first time in 1823.Presently their population is around 732 in all the ten villages. It may be pointed out that for the last seventy years or so the Rajis are in continuous contact with completely unrelated linguistic stock, i.e. Kumauni the language of the linguistically richer and economically prosperous neighbors and Hindi-the language of school teachers and Government servants who visit Raji hamlets to monitor developmental schemes by the state government for their welfare. The present study aims to discuss the effects of language contact on this endangered language. It will primarily comment on language contact and the genetic position of Raji on the basis of collected data by the researcher herself.

2022

It has been speculated by linguists and historians that the Modern Standard Nepali language evolved from a form of the Indo-Aryan lects spoken in western Nepal. This paper aims to gain a better understanding of current and historical relationships between Nepali, western lects (Jumli and Dotyali), Kumaoni, and Hindi by exploring language diversification in this complex contact situation from the perspective of lexical evidence. The analysis relies on the principles of Historical Glottometry to create a representation of the genealogical subgroups of the lects under study, represented with the Wave Model, which allows for each event of language change to intersect, instead of being nested as in the typical Tree Model. This study explores some hints to contact patterns and historical relationships by exploring 25 wordlists from 21 different lects. Rather than relying on sound changes to understand the relationships as Francois does in his research (2013), the focus is on lexical innovations, both internal and external, as suggested by Kogan (2016). Thus, the measure of “subgroupiness” from this data is a count of borrowed terms and shared non-retained lexemes. Looking at the data, this paper discusses evidence of shared retention or shared innovation, observes instances of lexical borrowing, and visualizes the patterns of shared lexemes, demonstrating the study’s conclusions. This study finds that, despite the complexities of their differences caused by constant contact over time, all the lects under study are very closely related to each other, and all retain many Sanskrit words. There is also clear evidence of contact-induced change in all the lects, even those in the most remote regions, although some have more evidence of borrowing than others. Rather than forming a dialect continuum geographically from west to east, as some scholars have proposed, the Jumli and Far Western (Dotyali) lects are both more similar to Nepali than they are to each other. Jumli is the “subgroupiest,” having the most shared innovations within its lects, and show the least evidence of borrowing. The Far Western lects do not subgroup strongly, as suggested by the literature, rather they form complex layers of overlapping subgroups with influence from Kumaoni, Hindi, and Nepali. The paper concludes that the Historical Glottometry model seems to be a good fit for describing the relationships of these varieties. Hindi, Kumaoni, Nepali, Jumli, and the Far Western lects have very complex relationships, best pictured as overlapping subgroups rather than nodes on a family tree.

Language Contact : A Multidimensional Perspective (ed Kelechwua Ihemere) Cambridge Scholar publishing: Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, 2013

Diachronica - International Journal of Historical Linguistics., 2010

This study provides a description and analysis of contact-induced language change in a dialect of Burushaski spoken in Srinagar (India). I present a unique situation in which contact outcomes are reflected via interplay of various sociolinguistic factors involving simultaneous contact with two languages -Kashmiri and Urdu, each affecting the language in a specific way: lexical borrowing from Urdu and structural borrowing from Kashmiri. The effects of contact are examined in a trilingual context where the contact languages are placed in a dominance relationship with Urdu occupying the top of the language hierarchy while Burushaski and Kashmiri are competing at the bottom. Data indicate that lexical borrowing and structural borrowing are two different types of contact phenomena which can occur independently of each other. The two processes are influenced by different sociolinguistic factors which may interact in different ways in different contact situations resulting in different types of contact outcomes.

Academic Research Publishing Group, 2016

The language contact has been the primary concern of a number of sociolinguists across the world for decades. India, as well-known to all, is the home of diversity; linguistic, cultural, religious, and social diversity. All these aspects are interwoven together making India a vibrant nation promoting the impeccable idea of "unity in diversity". As a multilingual nation, the study of language contact, where hundreds of different languages are in a constant negotiation, provides an appropriate zone for investigating the language interaction and the sociolinguistic consequences resulting from such process. The Hindi language, the official and predominant language in India, coexists with many other national and indigenous languages. Jharkhand, on the other hand, is characterized with the most conservative tribes in India which managed to maintain their cultural and linguistic heritage over the years, though the ruthless creep of the other cultures and languages into their cultural and linguistic zones. In these tribal areas, many languages are spoken among which is the Kurukh language which is spoken by nearly two million of Oraon and some other tribal people who are scattered in different areas of Jharkhand and some adjacent states such as Odisha, Bihar, and West Bengal. This paper casts the light on the Kurukh’s contact with Hindi and Sadri, being the languages spoken in the area under scrutiny, tracing the sociolinguistic consequences of this interaction through studying a sample of these tribes residing in Mandar area. It also seeks to find out the sociolinguistic status quo of Kurukh and its status among its speakers through considering the contexts and situations in which both Hindi and Kurukh are used. In addition, the study attempts to consider the extent of the impact of this contact on the linguistic identity of the Kurukh speakers along with its future being classified as a vulnerable language. It has been reported that Hindi, Sadri, and Kurukh are used exchangeably in a complementary distribution. Kurukh is spoken in some certain domains; at home, talking with friends of the same speech community, and in-group occasions when they come together to celebrate their religious festivals or any other social occasions whereas Hindi and Sadri are used for conversing with people of other speech communities or when they are in the presence of out-group people. On the other hand, the children receive their education in Hindi-medium schools and some of them in that of English-medium. In the school context, the students of Kurukh background avoid using their mother tongue even when they talk to each other lest to be mocked at or stigmatized by their friends and classmates who do not understand their language. This linguistic behavior of the young generation puts the Kurukh language at stake and jeopardizes the linguistic identity of its speakers as the time goes by.

2016

The language contact has been the primary concern of a number of sociolinguists across the world for decades. India, as well-known to all, is the home of diversity; linguistic, cultural, religious, and social diversity. All these aspects are interwoven together making India a vibrant nation promoting the impeccable idea of "unity in diversity". As a multilingual nation, the study of language contact, where hundreds of different languages are in a constant negotiation, provides an appropriate zone for investigating the language interaction and the sociolinguistic consequences resulting from such process. The Hindi language, the official and predominant language in India, coexists with many other national and indigenous languages. Jharkhand, on the other hand, is characterized with the most conservative tribes in India which managed to maintain their cultural and linguistic heritage over the years though the ruthless creep of the other cultures and languages into their cultural and linguistic zones. In these tribal areas, many languages are spoken among which is the Kurukh language which is spoken by nearly two million of Oraon and some other tribal people who are scattered in different areas of Jharkhand and some adjacent states such as Odisha, Bihar, and West Bengal. This paper casts the light on the Kurukh’s contact with Hindi and Sadri, being the languages spoken in the area under scrutiny, tracing the sociolinguistic consequences of this interaction through studying a sample of these tribes residing in Mandar area. It also seeks to find out the sociolinguistic status quo of Kurukh and its status among its speakers through considering the contexts and situations in which both Hindi and Kurukh are used. In addition, the study attempts to consider the extent of the impact of this contact on the linguistic identity of the Kurukh speakers along with its future being classified as a vulnerable language. It has been reported that Hindi, Sadri, and Kurukh are used exchangeably in a complementary distribution. Kurukh is spoken in some certain domains; at home, talking with friends of the same speech community, and in-group occasions when they come together to celebrate their religious festivals or any other social occasions whereas Hindi and Sadri are used for conversing with people of other speech communities or when they are in the presence of out-group people. On the other hand, the children receive their education in Hindi-medium schools and some of them in that of English-medium. In the school context, the students of Kurukh background avoid using their mother tongue even when they talk to each other lest to be mocked at or stigmatized by their friends and classmates who do not understand their language. This linguistic behavior of the young generation puts the Kurukh language at stake and jeopardizes the linguistic identity of its speakers as the time goes by.

Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature, 2020

The book under review is a noteworthy publication for two specific reasons. First, it deals with a unique geo-cultural region which has been gradually coming into wider focus for various reasons including literary-cultural ones. Two prominent "nations" which have attracted global attention in this respect are Nepal and Tibet. Secondly, exclusive focus of the chapters in this book is on the linguistic contact zones in the Himalayan region. The "contact zones" initiate dialogues between languages but at the same time the very contact generates a battle for establishing hegemonic control over other competing languages. As the book demonstrates, official language policies, coupled with popular perceptions and practices, create hierarchies between "mainstream" languages and local "dialects," between written and oral languages, and between systemically "structured" language and poorly structured languages. All the contributors have

2016

India, as well-known to all, is the home of diversity; linguistic, cultural, religious, and social diversity. All these aspects are interwoven together making India a vibrant nation promoting the impeccable idea of "unity in diversity". As a multilingual nation, the study of language contact, where hundreds of different languages are in a constant negotiation, provides an appropriate zone for investigating the language interaction and the sociolinguistic consequences resulting from such process. This paper casts the light on the Kurukh"s contact with Hindi and Sadri, being the languages spoken in the area under scrutiny, tracing the sociolinguistic consequences of this interaction through studying a sample of these tribes residing in Mandar area. It also seeks to find out the sociolinguistic status quo of Kurukh and its status among its speakers through considering the contexts and situations in which both Hindi and Kurukh are used. It has been reported that Hindi, Sadri, and Kurukh are used exchangeably in a complementary distribution. Kurukh is spoken in some certain domains; at home, talking with friends of the same speech community, and in-group occasions when they come together to celebrate their religious festivals or any other social occasions whereas Hindi and Sadri are used for conversing with people of other speech communities or when they are in the presence of out-group people. On the other hand, the children receive their education in Hindi-medium schools and some of them in that of Englishmedium. In the school context, the students of Kurukh background avoid using their mother tongue even when they talk to each other lest to be mocked at or stigmatized by their friends and classmates who do not understand their language. This linguistic behavior of the young generation puts the Kurukh language at stake and jeopardizes the linguistic identity of its speakers as the time goes by.

The focus of this research is to study language contact and resulting language mixing in two states of India; Arunachal Pradesh (AP) and Meghalaya. It will be argued that the effect of borrowing/interference is not compartmentalized to certain grammatical subsystems. It will also be proposed that mixed languages can have more than two participants and several participants can contribute at distinct linguistic levels. This paper focuses on the interplay of several Indo-Aryan languages such as, Hindi, Assamese, Bangla, Nepali, Maithili and Bhojpuri with the Tibeto-Burman (TB) and Austro-Asiatic (AA) languages. The paper would present certain similarities between two Contact Hindi (CHs) and also note their certain peculiar features. The data findings would be tested against several proposed theories of contact language formation. The present paper is divided into separate sections; theory, methodology, data, results and conclusions.