/jam/ ' to buy'. /jam-re/' buyer'. /ma:w/ 'horse'. /ma:w-re/ .... boy-GEN name. ' Boy's name'. (41) am-a konje .... Bhatt, D.N.S. 1997. Noun-Verb distinction in Munda ...
NOUN MORPHOLOGY IN NIHALI AND KORKU: A COMPARATIVE ACCOUNT SHAILENDRA MOHAN
1. Introduction
This paper presents a comparative account of Noun Morphology in Nihali and Korku languages spoken in central India. The objective of this paper is to assess the similarities and differences in the noun morphology of Nihali and Korku. It has been hypothesized that Nihali may be related to Austro-Asiatic languages (Pinnow, 1963, Mundalay, 1996). It is in this context that the present paper attempts to discuss what can be inferred from the investigation on the noun morphology in Nihali and Korku. Korku is a North Munda language, the westernmost language of the Austro-Asiatic phylum. It is spoken mainly in Amaravati district of north Maharashtra and adjacent districts of southern Madhya Pradesh in Betul and Nimar. According to the 2001 census reports, the total number of Korku speakers is 5,74,481. The percentage of bilingualism according to 1991 census is 58.94.
Nihali is a language isolate spoken in central India. Presently, the Nihali language speakers are located in Jalgaon-Jamud tehsil of Maharastra state. Korku, Hindi, Marathi language speakers are in close contact with Nihali speakers. They are mainly spoken in Sonaballi, Kuardev, Jamud, Cicari, Vasali Nimkheri villages of the Jalgaon –Jamud tehsil.Their population may be around 2,500. They call themselves kalʈo and their speech kalʈo manɖi Nihali is considered a linguistic isolate, a language for which no historical (genetic) relationships can be established. However, some researchers have linked Nihali to other languages such as Nostratic (Dolgopolsky, 1996) Kusunda, a language spoken in Nepal (Fleming, 1996), and Ainu (Bengton, 1996). On the origin of Nihali words, Kuiper (1956) had argued that Nihali lexicon consists of cognates from Tibeto-Burman, Indo-Aryan, Dravidian and Munda languages of the sub-continent.
2. Materials and Method: The data on Nihali collected from speakers of Nihali language in Jalgaon-Jamud tehsil of Buldana district in Maharashtra and consists of text collection and elicited data on Noun morphology. The data on Korku drawn from Korku speakers in Nimar region of Madhya
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Pradesh and speakers from Jalgaon-jamud Tehsil of Buladan district in Maharashta.The data is mainly drawn from elicited data and collected text on Noun morphology.
3. Noun Morphology in Nihali and Korku: Noun forms in Nihali and Korku show the distinction of number and case. Nouns in Nihali and Korku are either root stems or derived stems i.e derived from various word roots by morphological processes. For example, word like /b:iya/ 'village' has plural form /b:iya-ʈa/ 'villages' and derived forms such as /cana/ 'dance' /cana-re- ʈa/ 'dance-er-s/.
Number Both Nihali and Korku show three-way distinction of number i.e singular, dual and plural. Singular nouns are unmarked, dual and plural are marked by {-iʈkel} and {- ʈa}in Nihali and {kiɲ} and {-ku} in Korku respectively. Inanimate nouns in Korku don't inflect for number; the category of number is usually expressed with the help of quantifiers like two, three with inanimate nouns in Korku. In Nihali by contrast, inanimate nouns can be inflected for plural only, i.e., only animate nouns inflect for dual number in Nihali. Thus animate nouns referring to both humans and non-human animates take both dual and plural markers in Nihali as well as in Korku. Nagaraja ( 2014:30) has reported {-hiʈkel} as dual number in Nihali.
Animate human nouns: Nihali (1)
singular /nana/ 'boy'
Dual /nana-iʈkel/ 'two-boys'
Plural /nana- ʈa/ 'boys'
/kol/ 'women'
/kol-iʈkel/ 'two-women'
/kol- ʈa/ 'women'
singular /poyra/ 'boy'
Dual /poyra- kiɲ / 'two-boys'
Plural /poyra- ku/ 'boys'
/tǝrǝi / 'girl'
/ tǝrǝi - kiɲ / 'two-girls'
/ tǝrǝi - ku / 'girls'
Korku
(2)
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Animate non-human nouns: Nihali (3)
singular /can/ 'fish' /berko/ ‘cat’
Dual /can-iʈkel/ 'two fish' / berko-iʈkel/ ‘two cat’
Plural /can- ʈa/ 'fishes' /berko- ʈa/ ‘ cats’
singular /kaku/ 'fish' /minu/ ‘cat’
Dual /kaku- kiɲ / 'two-fish' /minu-kin/ ‘two cat’
Plural /kaku- ku/ 'fishes' /minu-ku/ ‘ cats’
Korku (4)
Inanimate Nouns In Korku only animate nouns inflect for dual and plural while countable inanimate nouns take numerals or quantifiers to express plurality. Non-countable inanimate nouns take quantifiers to express plurality. Whereas in Nihali inanimate countable nouns take plural suffix only and non-countable mass inanimate nouns take quantifiers to express plurality. Inanimate countable noun: Nihali (5) /avar/ ' house' /cago/’stone’
Korku (6) /ura/ 'house'
/ir awar/ 'two houses' * /avar- iʈkel/ /ir cago/ ‘two stones’ */cago- iʈkel/
/ bari ura/ ' two houses' /* ura- kiɲ/
/avar- ʈa/ ' houses' /cago- ʈa/ ‘stones’
/ghoec ura/ 'many houses' */ura-ku/
Mass noun Nihali (7)
/joppo/ 'water'
/gʰonec- joppo/'lots of water'
/ kuĩ- ʈa- ki joppo/
‘ the water from/of many wells’
For some speakers /joppo- ʈa/ ‘the waters’ is also possible. Korku (8) / ɖa/ 'water' /gʰonec- ɖa /'lots of water'’ /kuĩ/ ‘ ‘well’ /bʰ ǝyan kuĩ/ ‘ many wells’ / bʰ ǝyan kuĩ-n ɖa/ ‘the water from/of many wells’
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Gender Gender in Nihali and Korku is not a part of grammatical system itself. Gender distinctions in both languages are expressed by the addition of words meaning ‘male’ and ‘female’ for nonhuman animates in Nihali, i.e. {jagʈo} is added to derive the masculine form while { kol}is added to derive the female form. In Nihali nouns referring to humans, the unmarked form is masculine and female form is derived adding {kol}. Nihali (9)
/cana-re/ ‘dancer’ /nay/
'dog'
/kollya/ ‘fox’
/kol cana-re/ ‘female dancer’
/kol nay or nay kol/ 'female dog'
/jagʈo nay/ ' male dog'
/kol kollya or kollya kol/ ‘female fox’
/ jagʈo kollya/’male fox’
The unmarked form is masculine i.e /nay/ refers to 'male dog'. In Nihali, in some case there are separate lexical forms to denote male and female. Nihali (10)
/pakin/ 'female peacock' /oɖow/ ‘female buffalo’
/jʰallya/ 'male peacock'’ /he:la/ ‘male buffalo
Korku (11)
/sitta/ ' male dog' /mara/' male peacock'
/nali sitta/ or /japai sitta/ ' female dog' / japai mara/ ' female peacock'
The unmarked form is masculine in Korku and female form is derived adding { japai}.
Some lexical items especially some kinship terms in Korku show gender distinction /-i/ as feminine and /-a/ used as masculine markers. /-i/ and /-a/ gender distinction in lexical items is borrowed from Indo-Aryan languages spoken in the area. Korku
(12)
masculine
feminine
/poyra/ ' boy' /tiya/ ' wife's younger brother' /nawra/ ' bride groom;
/tǝrǝi/ 'girl' /ɖukri/' old female' /neuri/ 'bride'
In Korku, /-je/ is used to mark the feminine gender and /- ʈe/ is marked for masculine gender especially in kinship terms. It was also reported in Nagaraja (1999). (13)
/kon/ 'son' /kon-je/ 'daughter' /kon- ʈe/ ‘male son /boko/ ' younger brother' /boko-je/ ' younger sister'/ boko-ʈe/‘younger brother’
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4. Derivations of Nouns: Agentive nouns Agentive nouns are derived by adding /-re/ suffix to both verbal root and noun root in Nihali. In Korku, two different related suffixes are found, viz. /-mitʰac/ and /-minij/, which can be added to both noun and verb roots. Nihali (14)
/cana/ ' to dance' /jam/ ' to buy' /ma:w/ 'horse'
/cana-re/ ' dancer' /jam-re/' buyer' /ma:w-re/ 'horse rider'
Korku (15)
/ ura/ ‘house’ /heje/ ‘to çome’ /ol/ ‘to write’
/ura-mitʰac/ or / ura-minij/ ‘house owner’ /heje- mitʰac/ or / heje-minij/ ‘comer’ /ol -mitʰac/ or / ol-minij/ ‘writer’
The above observation leads to the debate about the distinction between noun vs. verb root in Munda languages. It has been cited that Mundari, a Munda language, is an example of a language without word classes, where a single word can function as nouns, verb, adjective, etc. according to the context (Hoffman, 1903). Bhat (1997:249) concludes for Munda that “the noun-verb distinction can only be viewed as a functional one”. Later, Evans and Osada ( 2005) argues that Munda languages clearly distinguishes nouns from verb
roots. (For
detailed discussion refer to Linguistic Typology 9, 2005)
5. Plural agreement with Adjective: Nihali and Korku both exhibit plural agreements with the adjectives. In Korku, plural agreement is shown with infixation process while in Nihali, it is suffixed to the adjectives. In Nihali, singular vs. plural suffixes are / -a vs.-el/. In Korku, /-pe-/ is the infix to show the plural agreement with the noun. Nihali (16)
/bhag-a nana/ /bhag-el nana- ʈa/ /bhag-a nay/ /bhag-el nay- ʈa/ /bhag-a awar/ /bhag-el awar- ʈa/
‘big child’ ‘big children’ ‘big dog’ ‘big dog ‘big house’ ‘big houses'
/kʰa-pe-t ɖʰega/ / kʰa-pe-t kon-ku/
'big stones' 'big boys'
Korku (17)
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/kʰat ɖʰega/ / kʰat kon/
'big stone' 'big boy'
6. Case marking in Nihali and Korku The cases and corresponding case markers found so far in Nihali and Korku are discussed as follows:
Nominative case: It marks the grammatical subject of a sentence. It is not overtly marked in both Nihali and Korku. They express subjects in a bare stem form without any overt case marking after it. Unlike other languages in India, there is no agreement of subject and verb in both languages. Nominative case marks both agents of transitives and subjects of intransitives. Nihali (18) nana aɖɖo-n boy.SG tree-ACC ‘The boy cut the tree’
ganɖa-i cut-PERF
(19) nana kǝppo-kin boy.SG sleep-PROG’ ‘The boy is sleeping’ (20) ram cawg-i Ram fear-PERF ‘Ram feared’ (21) nana cana-kin boy.SG dance-PROG ‘The boy is dancing’ Korku
(22) poriya siɲ-ke mama-lakken boy. SG tree- ACC cut- PROG ‘The boy is cutting the tree’ (23)
iɲ gi ʈij- lakken I sleep- PROG ‘I am sleeping’
Objective case: The objective case is signalled by the accusative suffix – n/na in Nihali and –ke/kʰe in Korku
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The accusative marker optionally appears on the object and generally marks themes and patients. The appearance of the accusative has to do with the factor ‘animacy’ i.e only animate objects take the objective case marker. Nihali
(24) jo ba ʈko ʈie-ken I mango eat-FUT ‘I will eat mango’ (25) jo komba-n I chicken-ACC ‘I will eat the chicken’
ʈie-ken eat-FUT
Korku (26) iɲ ambe I mango ‘I eat mango’
(27)
jojom-ba eat-FIN/FUT
ape si tta-ke You.PLU dog-ACC ‘ You hit the dog’
munɖa-ke-nec hit-PST-OBJMAR
In the above examples one can see that in (24) and (26) vs. (25) and (27), the noun subcategorises for objective case on the noun complement if it is animate (25),(27), but not if it is inanimate ( 24) and (26).
Dative case: The dative case marker can be used to mark the recipient only. In Korku, the dative form is used to mark the recipient and the patient/ theme. In Nihali, dative is marked differently. Nihali (28)
eʈey nana-ki pustǝk be-i he child-DAT book give-PERF 'He has given the child a book'
(29)
eʈey
nana-ki
he
child-DAT cat-ACC
berko-n
be-i give-PERF
'He has given the child a cat'
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Korku
(30)
iɲ
ɖiku-ke
kitab
ji-ke
I
they- DAT
book
give-PST
'I gave them the book' (31)
ape i ɲ-kʰe You.PLU I-ACC 'You gave me a dog'
si tta dog
ji-ke-nec give-PST- OBJMAR
Nihali (32)
eʈei-ki he-DAT 'He is hungry'
caʈo hungry
paʈ-i come-PERF
Korku (33) iɲ-en kʰusi ɖan I-DAT happy PST 'I was happy' In Nihali, the dative subject is marked by 'ki' which is also the dative marker while in Korku -en/-n marks the dative subject/ experiencer subject. It appears that Korku does not have the dative marker. The /-ke or -kʰe/ marker are a true primary object marker.
Benefactive case: In both Nihali and Korku languages, benefactive is marked by / gʰelya/. Nihali (34)
eʈey ram-gʰelya pustǝk ko-i he ram-BEN Book buy-PERF 'He has bought a book for Ram '
Korku (35)
ɖic
ram- gʰelya kitab sa-le he ram-BEN book buy-PERF 'He has bought a book for Ram'
Genitive case: The Genitive case is the case that observes the relationship of something with a noun or a pronoun. In Nihali, the Gentive is marked by -n/na while in Korku, it is marked by -a/ya/ga. Nihali
(36)
ram-na nana Ram-GEN son ‘Ram's son’
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(37)
ram-na nana- ʈa Ram-GEN son-PLU ‘Ram’s sons’
(38)
enge-n nana- ʈa my-GEN son-PLU ‘My sons’
Korku (39)
iɲ-ya konje I-GEN daughter ' my daughter'
(40). porya-ga jumu boy-GEN name ‘ Boy's name’ (41) am-a konje you-GEN daughter ‘ Your daughter’ Instrumental Case: The instrument marker marks the instrument by means of which an action is performed. Nihali doesnot have an instrument case. Rather it uses dative case in both instrument and manner functions. Korku on the other hand has an instrument case marker that has instrument and manner functions. Nihali (42) eʈla caku-ki ka:w ganɖa-i they knife-INST meat cut-PERF ' They cut the meat with the knife'
(43) eʈey he 'He ran fast'
jor-ki fastness- INST
cerg-i run-PERF
Korku (44) ɖiku caku- ʈen Jilu ma-wen they knife-INST meat cut-PERF 'They cut the meat with the knife' (45) ɖic jor-- ʈen sarup-en he Fastness-INST Run-PERF 'He ran fast' Comitative case: Nihali and Korku mark the comitative in a similar way.
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Nihali (46)
eʈey
eng-e-gon haʈo-ka he I-GEN-COM Market-EMP 'He went to the market with me
er-i go-PERF
Korku (47)
ɖic
iɲ-ya-gon haʈi he I-GEN-COM Market 'He went to the market with me’
ol-en go-PERF
The commutative is marked with a fused postpositional structure and has the shape N-GEN-COM.
7. Spatial Markers: There are four important spatial markers that are widely discussed. The case labels for these case are: ablative (source), perlative (path), allative (goal) and locative (static location).
Ablative, Perlative and Allative cases: Nihali marks the source of motion as well as the path distinctively while Korku marks the source of motion and the path by the same form. The ablative and perlative cases are marked by separate case suffixes in Nihali while Korku marks them in a similar way using ablative-perlative case marker.
Nihali (48)
jo jam ɖo-kon I Jamud- ABL 'I came from Jamud'
pa ʈ-i Come-PERF
(49)
jo avar-bunɖin paʈ-i I house- through come-PERF 'I came through the house'
Korku (50)
iɲ jamud- ʈen I Jamud- ABL 'I came from Jamud'
hec-ken come-PERF
(51)
iɲ ura- ʈen hec-ken I house-through come-PERF 'I came through the house'
Nihali and Korku also marks the static and dynamic ablatives in similar ways. The end point marker, i.e allative is marked by ʈam and ʈay in Nihali and Korku respectively.
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Nihali (52)
eʈey
jǝlgaon-kon jamud- ʈam sǝrǝko he Jalgaon-ABL Jamud- LOC road 'He built a road from Jalgaon to Jamud'
eʈey
jǝlgaon-kon jamud- ʈam he Jalgaon-ABL Jamud- LOC 'He ranfrom Jalgaon to Jamud'
(53)
arku-i make-PERF
cerg-i run-PERF
Korku
ɖic
jǝlgaon- ʈen jamud- ʈay sǝrǝko he Jalgaon-ABL Jamud- LOC road 'He built a road from Jalgaon to Jamud'
(54)
(55)
ɖic
jǝlgaon- ʈen jamud- ʈay he Jalgaon-ABL Jamud- LOC 'He ranfrom Jalgaon to Jamud'
haru-ke make-PERF
sarup-ke run-PERF
Locative case: Nihali marks the locative-on with postpostion /-kajar/and locative -in by postposition / -minjar/. Korku marks the locative -on with /-liyen/ and locative -in with /-ʈalan/.
Nihali (56)
kajar-ki pustǝk ʈebǝl book table on-LOC 'The book is on the table'
(57)
ram avar-minjar-ki book house-in-LOC 'Ram is in the house'
imni be
imni be
Korku (58)
pustǝk ʈebǝl-liyen book table-LOC 'The book is on the table'
(59)
ram ura-ʈalan-tic book house-in-LOC 'Ram is in the house'
ʈaka be
ke-nec be- OBJMAR
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8. Nihali and Korku comparison: The comparative account of Nihali and Korku case system is as follows: Case Nominative Objective/ Accusative Dative Benefactive Experiencer Subject Genitive Comitative Instrumental Ablative Perlative Allative Locative-on Locative-in
Nihali ɸ -n/na -ki - gʰelya -ki -n/na -gon -ki -kon - bunɖin - ʈam -kajar-ki -minjar
Korku ɸ -ke/kʰe -ke/ kʰe - gʰelya -en -a/ya/ga -gon - ʈen - ʈen - ʈen - ʈay - liyen - ʈalan
9. Conclusion:
It is observed that Nihali and Korku exhibit different forms and different morphological processes. Inanimate nouns, gender system, possession, interrogative forms, postpostions etc. exhibit different forms and processes. It is also observed that Nihali marks the dative and dative subject, instrumental and locative with the same form while Korku marks the objective/accusative, dative with the same form while instrumental, ablative and perlative with the same form. Both Nihali and Korku mark benefactive and comitative cases in a similar way. It can also be concluded that Nihali has a 3-way distinction between accusative vs, dative vs. benefactive. Nihali seems to have an actual dative subject marker but Korku appears to have a typologically different experience marker, since it is marked by /-en/ other than the objective marker.The benefactive marked similarly in the both languages. It seems that they may have originated from a possible 3rd source. Since, benefactive was originally marked verbally in Korku, the direction of borrowing would likely be from Nihali. This may be unexpected sociolinguistically. The phonology makes it seem like its possible source may be Indo-Aryan since the /-gʰ/ sound is not a Munda sound historically.
COLOPHON I am very much indebted to Prof. Greg Anderson who helped me with his valuable suggestions for the improvement of this paper. I am thankful to my Nihali informants, Vijay Yadav, Bhawram, Bhaujja buddha and Devidas powar, and to my Korku informants, Tibu Kazde, Silal sir and
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Jawarkar sir. I am also thankful to ELDP, SOAS London and Deccan College PG & RI, field
grant to pursue the study. References: Anderson, Gregory D.S. 2006. The Munda Verb. Typological Perspectives. Berlin: Mouton ---. 2008 (ed.), The Munda Languages. London / New York: Routledge. Bengton, John, D. 1996. Nihali and Ainu. Mother Tongue,49-50. Bhattacharya, Sudhibhushan. 1975. Studies in Comparative Munda Linguistics. Simla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study. Blake, Barry J 2001. Case. Cambridge: Cambridge university press. Bhatt, D.N.S. 1997. Noun-Verb distinction in Munda languages. In Anvita Abbi ( Ed.), Languages of Tribal and Indegenipous Peoples of India: The Ethnic Space, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas, pp227-251. Dolgopolsky, A.B. 1996. Nihali and Nostratic. Mother tongue,61-66. Evans, N & T. Osada 2005. Mundari: The myth of language without word classes. Linguistic Typology 9,351-390. Fleming, H.C. 1996. Looking to the west and North: Nihali and Kusunda find links. Mother Tongue,67-74. Hoffman, John.2003. Mundari Grammar. Calcutta: The Secretariat Press. Mohan, S.2014. Some observations on Nihali. Paper presented at ICOLSI-36, University of Kerala, Thiruvanthapuram. Mundalay, Asha.1996. Nihali lexicon. Mother Tongue, 11-47. Nagaraja, K.S. 1999. Korku Language. Grammar Texts, and Vocabulary. Tokyo: Institute for
the
Study of Language and Cultures of Asia and Africa ---2006-2007. Nahali and Korku: A comparative note. Bulletin of the Deccan College Research Institute, Vol. 66/67, pp. 315-322. Peterson, John.2005. There’s a grain of truth in every “myth, or Why the discussion of lexical classes in Mundari isn’t quiet over yet. Linguistic Typology 9,pp-391-441. Pinnow, H.-J.1963. The postion of the Munda Languages within Austroasiatic language family. In H.L. Shorto ( Ed). Linguistic Comparison in South East and the Pacific. SOAS: London,pp 140-152. Whitehouse, Paul. 1997. “The External Relationships of the Nihali and Kusunda Languages.” Mother Tongue 3:4-49.
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