Digaro languages
Language family of Tibet and northeast India
| Digaro | |
|---|---|
| Northern Mishmi | |
| Geographic distribution | Arunachal Pradesh |
| Linguistic classification | possibly Sino-Tibetan or an independent family
|
| Subdivisions |
|
| Glottolog | mish1241 |
The Digaro (Digarish), Northern Mishmi (Mishmic), or Kera'a–Tawrã[1] languages are a small family of possibly Sino-Tibetan languages spoken by the Mishmi people of southeastern Tibet and Arunachal Pradesh.
The languages are Idu and Taraon (Digaro, Darang).
External relationships
They are not related to the Southern Mishmi Midzu languages, apart from possibly being Sino-Tibetan. However, Blench and Post (2011) suggests that they may not even be Sino-Tibetan, but rather an independent language family of their own.
Blench (2014) classifies the Digaro languages as part of the Greater Siangic group of languages.
Names
Autonyms and exonyms for Digaro-speaking peoples, as well as Miju (Kaman), are given below (Jiang, et al. 2013:2-3).
| Taraon name | Kaman name | Idu name | Assamese name | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taraon people | da31 raŋ53 | tɕi31 moŋ35 | tɑ31 rɑŋ35 | Digaru; Digaru Mishmi |
| Kaman people | tɕɑu53 | kɯ31 mɑn35 | mi31 tɕu55 | Midzu |
| Idu people | dju55; dju55 ta31 rɑŋ53; dɑi53 | min31 dɑu55; hu53 | i53 du55 | Chulikata Mishmi |
| Zha people 扎人 | tɕɑ31 kʰen55 | tɕɑ31 kreŋ35 | — | — |
| Tibetan people | lɑ31 mɑ55; mei53 bom55 | dɯ31 luŋ35; hɑi35 hɯl55 | ɑ31 mi53; pu53; mi31 si55 pu53 | — |
Registers
Idu, Tawra, Kman, and Meyor all share a system of multiple language registers, which are (Blench 2016):[2]
- ordinary speech
- speech of hunters: lexical substitution, the replacement of animal names and others by special lexical forms, and sometimes short poems
- speech of priests/shamans: more complex, involving much language which is difficult to understand, and also lengthy descriptions of sacrificial animals
- poetic/lyrical register (not in Idu, but appears in Kman)
- mediation register (only in Idu?)
- babytalk register
References
- ^ DeLancey, Scott (2021). "Classifying Trans-Himalayan (Sino-Tibetan) languages". The Languages and Linguistics of Mainland Southeast Asia. De Gruyter. pp. 207–224. doi:10.1515/9783110558142-012. ISBN 9783110558142. S2CID 238722139.
- ^ Blench, Roger. "(PDF) Mishmi language development | Roger Blench - Academia.edu".
- Blench, Roger (2011) (De)classifying Arunachal languages: Reconstructing the evidence
- Blench, Roger (2014). Fallen leaves blow away: a neo-Hammarstromian approach to Sino-Tibetan classification. Presentation given at the University of New England, Armidale, 6 September 2014.
- Blench, Roger. 2017. The ‘Mishmi’ languages, Idu, Tawra and Kman: a mismatch between cultural and linguistic relations.
- Jiang Huo [江获], Li Daqin [李大勤], Sun Hongkai [孙宏开] (2013). A study of Taraon [达让语研]. Beijing: Ethnic Publishing House [民族出版社]. ISBN 9787105129324
- van Driem, George (2001) Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region. Brill.
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Sino-Tibetan branches
(Himachal, Uttarakhand, Nepal, Sikkim)
| Greater Magaric |
|---|
(Tibet, Bhutan, Arunachal)
| "Naga" | |
|---|---|
| Sal |
| Burmo-Qiangic |
|---|
(Arunachal)
| Greater Siangic |
|---|
Italics indicates single languages that are also considered to be separate branches.
