Moran (''Morān'') is an extinct Boro-Garo language which was spoken in

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 ...

Northeast India Northeast India, officially the North Eastern Region (NER), is the easternmost region of India representing both a geographic and political Administrative divisions of India, administrative division of the country. It comprises eight States and ...

(mostly

Tinsukia district Tinsukia district is one of the 34 administrative districts in the state of Assam, India. The district headquarters is located at Tinsukia city. The district occupies an area of 3790 km2. History 16th century The area of the present ...

) and related to Dimasa language. The census returned 78 speakers in 1901, 24 in 1911 and none in 1931, and the only source of this language exists in a 1904 article by P R Gurdon. The speakers of this language have shifted to the

Assamese language Assamese () or Asamiya ( ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken mainly in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam, where it is an official language. It has long served as a ''lingua franca'' in parts of Northeast India."Axomiya is the major langu ...

. The name "Moran" reportedly means 'forest dweller'.

Family

mother - aai father - aabai man - sadai woman - saisi boy - sadaira girl - saisira father's father - deuta father's mother - aaboi respected/friend - oi u person - sadai elder person - sadaira

Numerals

1 - Sē 2 - Ne 3 - Sām 4 - Biri 5 - Bāha 6 - Do 7 - Sini 8 - Sak 9 - Saku (zi-kho) 10 - Ti

History

According to the research W.B. Brown, the original language of the Morans was a Kachari language. During the medieval period (13th-16th century), the Morans as well as Chutias after coming in contact and becoming partially assimilated by the invading Shans, resorted to speaking the ''lingua franca'', which was a mixture of their native tongue and Prakrit. This process of transition gave rise to the Moran language, which over time was again replaced by a modern form of Assamese which had a greater influence of

Prakrit Prakrit ( ) is a group of vernacular classical Middle Indo-Aryan languages that were used in the Indian subcontinent from around the 5th century BCE to the 12th century CE. The term Prakrit is usually applied to the middle period of Middle Ind ...

. The Morans now are found mostly in the

Tinsukia Tinsukia (Pron: ˌtɪnˈsʊkiə) is an industrial city. It is situated north-east of Guwahati and away from the border with Arunachal Pradesh. Tinsukia serves as the headquarters of the Moran Autonomous Council, which is the governing counci ...

district. They were greatly migratory due to

jhum Jhum or Jhoom cultivation is the form of slash-and-burn agriculture that is practised in certain parts of Northeast India and by the indigenous communities in Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. It is a traditional agricultural technique t ...

ming or shifting cultivation even during the colonial era. They gradually migrated north from their original location to Tipam and Charaideo, where the first Tai immigrants met them; this move was probably due to spread of wet-rice cultivation. When the British arrived in the 19th century, the area between Dibrugarh and Sadiya was mostly virgin forestsSaikia, Yasmin,''Fragmented Memories: Struggling to be Tai-Ahom in India'', p. 105 and the chief habitat of the Morans. In the early part of Ahom rule, they were employed in menial capacities as hewers of wood and drawers of water. During the later part of Ahom rule, they were found in areas like Kakotal, Mariani, Holongapar, and Jhansi, where they chiefly worked as ''Kapahiya'' (cotton-growers), which demonstrates their scattering around the south bank of the Brahmaputra with the expansion of the Ahom kingdom. The Moran as well other Kacharis word for water is "Di", which apparently forms the first syllable of all major rivers of Upper Assam including Dibang, Disang, Dikhou, Dikrong, Dikarai, Dihing, Digaru, Difolu, Dimow, Disoi, and so on; this shows that the group were the dominant tribe in the entire region with their seat in Sadiya, the earliest known power and civilisation of Chutias. They were probably the eastern Kachari branch which became isolated during the ahom rule.

Notes

References

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External links

Moran
at Brahmaputra Studies Database {{Languages of Northeast India Sal languages Languages of Assam Extinct languages of Asia Languages extinct in the 1900s