The Karbi language () is spoken by the
Karbi (also known as Mikir or Arleng) people of
Northeastern India
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It belongs to the
Sino-Tibetan language family
Sino-Tibetan, also cited as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese languages. ...
, but its position is unclear. Grierson (1903) classified it under Naga languages, Shafer (1974) and Bradley (1997) classify the Mikir languages as an aberrant
Kuki-Chin
The Kuki-Chin languages (also called Kuki-Chin-Mizo, Kukish or South-Central Tibeto-Burman languages) are a branch of 50 or so Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in northeastern India, western Myanmar and southeastern Bangladesh. Most speakers of th ...
branch, but Thurgood (2003) leaves them unclassified within Sino-Tibetan.
Blench and Post (2013) classify it as one of the most basal languages of the entire family.
History
Like most languages of
Northeast India
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, Karbi writing system is based on Roman script, occasionally in
Assamese script. The earliest written texts in Karbi were produced by Christian missionaries, in Roman script, especially by the American Baptist Mission and the Catholic Church. The missionaries brought out a newspaper in Karbi titled Birta in the year 1903, Rev. R.E. Neighbor's '' 'Vocabulary of English and Mikir, with Illustrative Sentences' '' published in 1878, which can be called the first Karbi dictionary. Sardoka Perrin Kay's '' 'English–Mikir Dictionary' '' published in 1904, Sir Charles Lyall and Edward Stack's ''The Mikirs'' in 1908, the first ethnographic details on the Karbis and G.D. Walker's '' 'A Dictionary of the Mikir Language' '' published in 1925 are some of the earliest known books on the Karbis and the Karbi language and grammar.
The Karbis have a rich oral tradition. The ''Mosera'' (recalling the past), a lengthy folk narrative that describes the origin and migration ordeal of the Karbis, is one such example.
Varieties
There is little dialect diversity except for the
Dumurali / Kamrup Karbi dialect, which is distinct enough to be considered a separate Karbi language.
Konnerth (2014) identifies two main Karbi varieties.
*Hills Karbi: Rongkhang or Ronghang dialect of
Karbi Anglong,
West Karbi Anglong district,
Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
*
Plains Karbi (Dumra Karbi): spoken in
Kamrup district
Kamrup Rural district, or simply Kamrup district (Pron: ˈkæmˌrəp or ˈkæmˌru:p), is an administrative district in the state of Assam in India formed by dividing the old Kamrup district into two in the year 2003; other being Kamrup Metro ...
and
Marigaon district
Morigaon district () is an administrative district in the state of Assam in India. The district headquarters is located at Morigaon. The ancient place of occult Mayong is located in this district as well as Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary.
Histo ...
, Assam, and in
Ri-Bhoi district,
Meghalaya
Meghalaya (, or , meaning "abode of clouds"; from Sanskrit , "cloud" + , "abode") is a state in northeastern India. Meghalaya was formed on 21 January 1972 by carving out two districts from the state of Assam: (a) the United Khasi Hills and J ...
.
Phonology
Data below are from Konnerth (2017).
[Konnerth, Linda. 2017. "Karbi." In ''The Sino-Tibetan Languages'' (2017).]
Consonants
Initial consonants
* Palatal /ɟ~j/ constitutes free variation between a stop and a glide production.
* Also, allophonic alternations typical for the area include /pʰ~ɸ/ (within the same speaker) and /r~ɾ~ɹ/ (intergenerational and interdialectal).
Final consonants
Vowels
Syllable structure
Karbi syllables may be the open (C)(C)V(V) or the closed (C)(C)VC. Possible onset consonant cluster combinations are as follows: .
Geographical distribution
India
Karbi is spoken in the following areas of Northeast India (''Ethnologue'').
*
Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
:
**
Darrang district
**
Dima Hasao district
Dima Hasao district (), earlier called North Cachar Hills 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 the two autonomous hill distr ...
(formerly North Cachar district)
**
East Kamrup district
**
Hojai district
**
Kamrup Metropolitan district
Kamrup Metropolitan district is one of the 35 districts in Assam state in north-eastern India. It was carved out of the erstwhile undivided Kamrup district in 2003 and covers an area equivalent to the area under the jurisdiction of the Guwahat ...
**
Karbi Anglong district
**
Lakhimpur district
Lakhimpur district ( ) is an administrative district in the state of Assam in India. The district headquarter is located at North Lakhimpur. The district is bounded on the North by Siang and Papumpare districts of Arunachal Pradesh and on the Ea ...
**
Marigaon district
Morigaon district () is an administrative district in the state of Assam in India. The district headquarters is located at Morigaon. The ancient place of occult Mayong is located in this district as well as Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary.
Histo ...
**
Nagaon district
Nagaon 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
Batadrowa gave birth to the Vaishnavite r ...
**
Sonitpur district
Sonitpur district ron: ˌsə(ʊ)nɪtˈpʊə or ˌʃə(ʊ)nɪtˈpʊəis an administrative district in the state of Assam in India. The district headquarters is located at Tezpur.
Etymology
The name of the is derived from a mythological story f ...
**
Biswanath district
**
Lakhimpur district
Lakhimpur district ( ) is an administrative district in the state of Assam in India. The district headquarter is located at North Lakhimpur. The district is bounded on the North by Siang and Papumpare districts of Arunachal Pradesh and on the Ea ...
**
South Kamrup district
**
West Karbi Anglong district
*
Arunachal Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares ...
:
**
Papum Pare district
Papum Pare district (Pron:/ˌpæpəm ˈpæɹɪ or ˈpɑ:ɹeɪ/) is an administrative district in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in India. As of 2011, it is the most populous district of Arunachal Pradesh (out of 20).
History
The district was ...
(Balijan circle)
*
Meghalaya
Meghalaya (, or , meaning "abode of clouds"; from Sanskrit , "cloud" + , "abode") is a state in northeastern India. Meghalaya was formed on 21 January 1972 by carving out two districts from the state of Assam: (a) the United Khasi Hills and J ...
:
**
East Khasi Hills district
East Khasi Hills is an administrative district in the state of Meghalaya in India. The district headquarters are located at Shillong. The district occupies an area of 2752 km² and has a population of 825,922 (as of 2011). , it is the most ...
**
Jaintia Hills district
**
Ri-Bhoi district
**
West Khasi Hills district
West Khasi Hills is an administrative district in the state of Meghalaya in India.
History
The West Khasi Hills district was carved out of the Khasi Hills district, which was divided into West and East Khasi Hills districts on 28 October 1976 ...
*
Nagaland
Nagaland () is a landlocked state in the northeastern 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 Sagaing Region of Myanmar to the east. Its capital cit ...
:
**foothills around
Dimapur
Bangladesh
An estimate 1500 Karbi live in Bangladesh.
[ https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/17559]
See also
*
Karbi script
Notes
References
*
*
{{Languages of Northeast India
Kuki-Chin–Naga languages
Languages of Assam
Languages of Arunachal Pradesh
Languages of Meghalaya
Endangered languages of India
Endangered Sino-Tibetan languages