The Dimasa language is a

Tibeto-Burman The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non- Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people speak ...

language spoken by the

Dimasa people The Dimasa people or Dimasa Kachari people are an ethnolinguistic community presently inhabiting in Assam and Nagaland states in Northeastern India. They speak Dimasa, a Tibeto-Burman language. This community is fairly homogeneous and excl ...

of the

Northeastern India Northeast India, officially the North Eastern Region (NER), is the easternmost region of India representing both a geographic and political administrative division of the country. It comprises eight states—Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, M ...

n states of

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

and

Nagaland Nagaland () is a States and union territories of India, state in the northeast India, north-eastern region of India. It is bordered by the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Assam to the west, Manipur to the south, and the Naga Sel ...

. The Dimasa language is known to Dimasas as "Grao-Dima" and it is similar to

Boro BORO (Business Objects Reference Ontology) is an approach to developing ontological or semantic models for large complex operational applications that consists of a top ontology as well as a process for constructing the ontology. It was originally ...

Kokborok Kokborok (or Tripuri) is a Tibeto-Burman language of the Indian state of Tripura and neighbouring areas of Bangladesh. Its name comes from ''kók'' meaning "verbal" or "language" and ''borok'' meaning "people" or "human", It is one of the anci ...

and

Garo language Garo, also referred to by its endonym A·chikku, is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in the Northeast Indian states of Meghalaya, Assam, and Tripura. It is also spoken in certain areas of the neighbouring Bangladesh. According to the 2001 cen ...

s. The Dimasa language is one of the oldest languages spoken in

North East India Northeast India, officially the North Eastern Region (NER), is the easternmost region of India representing both a geographic and political administrative division of the country. It comprises eight states—Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, M ...

, particularly in

Etymology

The word ''Dimasa'' etymologically translates to ''Children'' 'sa''of the big river 'dima'', i.e. the mighty Tsang, which is known as

Brahmaputra The Brahmaputra is a trans-boundary river which flows through Southwestern China, Northeastern India, and Bangladesh. It is known as Brahmaputra or Luit in Assamese, Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibetan, the Siang/Dihang River in Arunachali, and ...

by the Assamese. The Dimasa word ''dzi''/''Dí'', meaning water, forms the root of the names of many of the major rivers of

and of

in general, such as ''Dibang'' (plenty of water), ''Diyung'' (huge river), ''Dikrang'' (green river), ''Dikhow'' (fetched water), and many others. The

is known as ''Tsangi'' (the purifier) and Lohit is known as ''Di Lao'' (long river) among the Dimasas even now. Many of the important towns and cities in

and

received their names from Dimasa words such as

Diphu Diphu () is a town in the Karbi Anglong district of the state of Assam, India. It is the meeting place of the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council and the headquarter of Karbi Anglong district. Etymology The word ''Diphu'' came from Dimasa langu ...

Maibang Maibang (IPA: mai-bang ''mai means rice and bang means much defining a land of prosperity) is a town and a town area committee in Dima Hasao district in the Indian state of Assam. Maibang is also one of the three sub-divisions of Dima Hasao D ...

, Dimabang (a capital of the

Dimasa Kingdom The Dimasa Kingdom also known as Kachari kingdom was a late medieval/early modern kingdom in Assam, Northeast India ruled by Dimasa kings. The Dimasa kingdom and others ( Kamata, Chutiya) that developed in the wake of the Kamarupa kingdom we ...

) etc. In fact, the Dimasa language is one of the last languages of

to retain its original vocabulary without being compromised by foreign languages.

Geographical distribution

Dimasa is spoken in: *

Dima Hasao district Dima Hasao district (), is an administrative district in the state of Assam, India. As of 2011, it is the least populous district of Assam. Dima Hasao district is one of two autonomous hill districts of Assam. The district headquarters Haflong ...

(formerly North Cachar Hills district),

Cachar district Cachar district is an administrative districts of Assam, district in the state of Assam in India. After independence, the pre-existing undivided Cachar district was split into four districts: Dima Hasao district, Dima Hasao (formerly North Cachar ...

Karbi Anglong district Karbi Anglong district is an District, administrative unit in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Assam. It is an autonomous district administered by the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) according to the provisions ...

West Karbi Anglong district The West Karbi Anglong district is an District, administrative unit in the India, Indian state of Assam. It is a List of districts of Assam, relatively new district formed out of the existing Karbi Anglong district in 2016. The administrative h ...

Nagaon district Nagaon district is an administrative district in the Indian state of Assam. At the time of the 2011 census it was the most populous district in Assam, before Hojai district was split from it in 2016. History Bordowa was the birthplace of the ...

Hojai district Hojai District is a district in Assam, India. It was formed on 15 August 2015. The headquarters of the district is situated at Sankardev Nagar, which is about 8 km away from Hojai town. Hojai District was formed from three tehsils of N ...

(formerly a part of Nagaon district) *

Meghalaya Meghalaya (; "the abode of clouds") is a states and union territories of India, state in northeast India. Its capital is Shillong. Meghalaya was formed on 21 January 1972 by carving out two districts from the Assam: the United Khasi Hills an ...

Mizoram Mizoram is a states and union territories of India, state in northeastern India, with Aizawl as its Capital city, capital and largest city. It shares 722-kilometres (449 miles) of international borders with Bangladesh to the west, and Myanmar t ...

Phonology

Vowels

There are six vowels in Dimasa language. * All vowels can occurs in all three positions, except // which occurs only medially.

Diphthongs

Consonants

There are sixteen consonants in the Dimasa language. * The three voiceless aspirated stops, //, are unreleased in syllable final position. Their unaspirated voiced counterparts are released and cannot occur word final position. * Sometimes // are pronounced as // respectively. * The consonants // can occur in all position. * The consonants // cannot occur in Dimasa indigenous words, but can occur in loan words. * The consonants // cannot appear in word final positions in Dimasa. * The consonants // cannot appear in word initial positions.

Grammar

Dimasa is an inflectional language. The verbs are inflected for number, tense, case, voice, aspect, mood but not for gender and person.

Pronouns

Sentence syntax

The verb is rarely inflected for person and gender.

Subject–object–verb word order In linguistic typology, a subject–object–verb (SOV) language is one in which the subject, object, and verb of a sentence always or usually appear in that order. If English were SOV, "Sam apples ate" would be an ordinary sentence, as oppos ...

is usual;

Object–verb–subject word order In linguistic typology, object–verb–subject (OVS) or object–verb–agent (OVA) is a rare permutation of word order. OVS denotes the sequence object–verb– subject in unmarked expressions: ''Apples ate Sam'', ''Thorns have roses''. The pas ...

also occurs.

Writing system

Dimasa is written using

Latin script The Latin script, also known as the Roman script, is a writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae in Magna Graecia. The Gree ...

, which has been introduced in the lower primary education system in Dima Hasao District. The main guiding force behind it is the Dimasa Lairidim Hosom, a literary apex body of the Dimasa community. The

Bengali script The Bengali script or Bangla alphabet (, Romanization of Bengali, romanized: ''Bāṅlā bôrṇômālā'') is the standard writing system used to write the Bengali language, and has historically been used to write Sanskrit within Bengal. ...

is used in Cachar, where the Bengali people live alongside Dimasas.

Notes

References

* * *

External links

Dimasa Language Resource
collection of Dimasa language documentation in the Computational Resource for South Asian Languages (CoRSAL) archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Dimasa Language Sal languages Languages of Assam Languages of Nagaland Endangered languages of India