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STRUCTURES O B ’ ASSAMESE AN I.) < ./>!•' - A CONTRASTIVE S'X'UOY A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GAUHATI UNIVERSITY FOR AWARD OF Ph.D. DEGREE IN LINGUISTICS MISS ANJANA CHOUDHURY Research Scholar, NEREC, GUWAHAT1 1995 OR, PA MESH PATHAK MA. PH. D r.ifjptt. of Assamese Co'.ton Coliege Go^ehati-781001 This is to certify that Ms. Anjana Choudhury, Research Scholar, NEREC, Guwahati- 6 worked under my guidance for her Ph. D. degree. Her dissertation on 'STRUCTURES OF ASSAMESE AND GARO - A CONTRASTIVE STUDY' is an original work, and so far as I understand, she has not submitted this work for any other degree anywhere else. I have all the best wishes for her. P4Wy?athak) 4, De$t: of Assamese Cotton College Guwahati . ^*1 'rwiim This is virtually the outcome of my research conducted during the period of my scholarship granted to me by the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore to work under the supervision of Dr. F.N. Dutta Baruah from the 1st of January 1993 to 31st of December 1994. The rough sketch was done then. This was subsequently modified and was given the form of a thesis to fulfil the Ph.D. requirement of Gauhati University under the tonnal guidance of Dr. Ramesh Pathak, a recognised Guide of Gauhati I :nivei vit\ ! am highly indebted to both of them. It also received suggestions from Dr. E. Annamalai. Director. C.I.I.L., Mysore. I am thankful to him. Oct. Si , 1995 Miss Anjana Chaucitnuy, Research Scholar Six Mile, Joya Naqar, Khanapara , Guwaha t i - . INFORMANTS ASSAMESE Self, Guwahati Sri. Debendra Pati Goswami, Goalpara Mr. Sambhu Nath Chakravarty, Nalbari Mr. Indreswar Sharma, Nogaon Dr. Sadhinata Mahanta, Tezpur Miss Mery Puzari, Jorhat Miss Jyoti Rekha Duarah, Sibsagar GARO Sri. Monoronjan Marak, Bongaigaon Miss Nandini A.Sangma, North Salmara Mr. Sudhir J.Sangma, Boko Mrs. Ila Ch. Sangma, Amerigog Ghy-23 Mr. Milton Sangma, NEHU, Shillong Mr. Lindreek Sheera Tura Govt. College Miss Philomina Sangma Tura Govt. College ABBREVIATIONS A Aspect Abl Ablative ACC Accusative Adjective Adverb adjective Agentive Allative Ass Assamese Aux Auxiliary * c consonant r- Cau Causative ' causative class classifier Col Column Determiner Determiner Dative Definitive definitive def-cum-clas definitive-cum-classifier Dem Demonstrative dem demonstrative Eng English G Garo Gen Genitive hon honorific Inter Interrogative Inter Pron Interrogative Pronoun Intr V Intransitive verb intr intransitive Ins Instrumental ins instrumental Loc Locative loc locative more-hon more-honorific NP Noun Phrase N Noun Nom Nominative nom nominative Num Numeral Neg Negative Non-cau Non-causative non-hon non-honorific 0 Object Obj Object P Person Pron Pronoun Proc Process Qua Quantifier Redup Reduplicated rep. repeating S Subject Sub Subject sec. section T Tense tr transitive V vowel V Verb VI Voiceless Vd Voiced vs verb stem VP Verb Phrase w West Li 7 ^^ ^ 1 '7' J - • Jr ‘ LINGUISTIC SYMBOLS / // Indicates phonemic brackets and contains a phoneme or phonemic material /[] indicates phonetic brackets and contains an allophone or / phonetic material. (\ indicates morDhemic brackets and contains a morpheme or > leads to < comes from before a morpheme suffix after a morpheme prefix before and after a morpheme Infix. (hyphen) before or after a form implies its combining nature + plus, with, indicates combination / alternately, or $ q> zero above phoneme nasalisation, varies J * indicates ill form ^/ASPIRATED PHONEME : It is typed in general alphabetical model to avoid topsyturvy in typing. CONTENTS Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Assamese-Its Identity and Homeland 1 1.2 Historical Development of Assamese i 1.3 Dialects of Assamese 3 1.4 Assamese script 4 1.5 Phoneme-Grapheme correspondence ■_> 1.6 Garo-Its Identity and Homeland 5 1.7 Historical Development of Garo 6 1.8 Dialects of Garo 7 1.9 Script used to write Garo 8 1.10 Possible Convergence 9 1.11 Typological Sketch 10 1.12 Concluding Remarks 10 Chapter 2 Phonemic Inventories of Assamese 11 and Garo 2.1 Vowel phonemes in Assamese LI 2.2 Monophthongs 13 2.3 Description of Assamese Monophthongs 12 and Illustrations of their occurrence 2.4 Assamese Diphthongs 16 2.5 Assamese Glides 18 2.6 Consonant phonemes in Assamese 19 2.7 The stops 19 2.8 Description of Assamese stops and Illustrations of their occurrence 2.9 The Nasals '/ 2.10 Description of Assamese Nasal 27 Sounds and Illustration of their occurrence 2.11 The Fricatives 28 2.12 Illustrations of the occurrence 29 of fricatives 2.13 The Lateral 31 2.14 The Trill 32 2.15 Vowel phonemes in Garo 33 2.16 Monophthongs 33 2.17 Description of Garo vowels and 34 illustration of their occurrence 2.18 Diphthongs 37 2.19 Triphthongs M 2.20 Consonant phonemes 38 2.21 The stops 38 2.22 Description of Garo stops and their '9 illustration of occurrence 2.23 Glottal stop 42 2.24 The Nasals 42 2.25 The Fricatives 44 2.26 The Affricates 45 2.27 The Lateral 46