Apatani (language)

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Apatani

Spoken in

India
speaker approx. 35,000
Linguistic
classification
Language codes
ISO 639-3

apt

Apatani (also Apa Tani or Tanw ) is an Indian language spoken in the Lower Subansiri district , Arunachal Pradesh . Apatani belongs to the Tibetan Burmese branch of the Sino- Tibetan languages and is classified in the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages ​​in Danger as an endangered language with the status "potentially endangered" ( vulnerable ).

Geographical spread

Apatani belongs to the Tani language group, which is spoken in the border region of Tibet, Assam, Bhutan and Burma. The Tani languages ​​are spoken by around 600,000 speakers from indigenous peoples in Arunachal Pradesh and northern Assam. Apatani is spoken by the Apatani people of the same name , who live in a south-central region, the Apatani Plateau, in the Lower Subansiri district in Arunachal Pradesh. Apatani is spoken in seven villages in the Ziro Valley: Hong, Hari, Biilla, Dutta, Hija, Mudang-Tage and Bamin Michi. The number of speakers of the Apatani is estimated at around 35,000 or 44,000 speakers, depending on the source.

There are different statements as to whether there are dialects in Apatani. According to one source, a distinction is made between the main dialect spoken in the villages of Biilla, Hija, Dutta, Bamin Michi and Mudang-Tage, the Hari dialect (spoken in the village of Hari) and the Hong dialect (spoken in the village of Hong).

Phonetics and Phonology

Apatani has seventeen consonants and nine vowels . In addition, Apatani is a tonal language .

Consonants

In Apatani there are the following consonants:

bilabial labio-
dental 		dental alveolar post-
alveolar 		retroflex palatal velar uvular phase-
ryngal 		glottal
stl. sth. stl. sth. stl. sth. stl. sth. stl. sth. stl. sth. stl. sth. stl. sth. stl. sth. stl. sth. stl. sth.
Plosives p b t d k G
Nasals m n ŋ
Vibrants
Taps / flaps ɾ
Fricatives s ç ʝ x H
lateral fricatives
Approximants
lateral approximants l ʎ

Vowels

In Apatani there are the following vowels:

front almost in
front 		central almost in the
back 		back
ung. ger. ung. ger. ung. ger. ung. ger. ung. ger.
closed i ɨ u
almost closed
half closed e O
medium
half open
almost open
open a

Note: In the literature, the (actually front) vowel / a / is mentioned, but PT Abraham describes it as an open central vowel.

Sound system

Apatani has a tone system, i.e. H. the type of tone causes a difference in meaning. The following example is based on a three-stage tone system: ami means 'cat' with a rising tone, 'eye' with a constant tone and 'tail' with a falling tone. However, there are also authors who assume a two-stage tone system (only rising vs. falling tone).

grammar

The main unit in Apatani, as in other languages ​​in Aruchanal Pradesh, is the syllable . Grammatical categories such as case and number are created by adding further forms. Dalvinder Singh Grewal classifies the languages ​​as agglutinating languages . Apatani knows the addition of prefixes and suffixes , reduplication and composition as word formation processes . A peculiarity of Apatani, as well as of other languages ​​in Aruchanal Pradesh, is the ability to denote body parts more precisely using prefixes and suffixes: alak means 'hand' in Apatani, lak-cin 'finger' and lak-do 'nail'.

In Apatani there are nouns and verbs as parts of speech. Adjectives are e.g. B. not seen by PT Abraham as a separate part of speech in Apatani. Instead, there are verbs that are also used as adjectives. Verbs in Apatani mostly consist of only one syllable, but it is possible to add more verbs to the main verb to change its meaning. So the verb ca (Eng. 'Climb') can be appended to other verbs to add the meaning 'move upwards': luca ( Eng .' Move up to convey something '), mɨca ( Eng .' Upwards move to do something '), bica ( Eng .' move up to give something ').

There are four types of tenses in Apatani: non-near past, near past, near future, not-near future. There is no present tense like in English or Hindi. A negation can be formed in Apatani with the negative verb ma or nyima : insi alyi ma (literally: this pig + (negative), dt. 'This is not a pig')

Apatani has seven cases: nominative (subject), accusative (object), instrumental , dative (intention), ablative , genitive (possessive) and locative . These cases are indicated by suffixes in Apatani, e.g. B. hi for nominative, mi for accusative or ka for genitive. A grammatical gender ( gender ) does not play a role in Apatani; There are only a few words like milo ( Eng . 'husband') or mihi ( Eng . 'wife') that have a natural gender. The suffix bo / po is used to indicate masculine and ni for feminine.

Apatani is an SOV language i.e. That is, the sentence has the structure subject-object-verb.

font

The Apatani script is based on the Latin alphabet. The alphabet for Apatani was developed by the Apatani Language Development Committee (ALDC), which was established by the Apatani Cultural and Literary Society (ACLS).

literature

General descriptions and grammars

  • PT Abraham: Apatani Grammar . Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore 1985.
  • Christopher Moseley (Ed.): Atlas of the World's Languages ​​in Danger , 3rd edition. Paris, UNESCO Publishing, 2010. ( online version )
  • IM Simon: An Introduction to Apatani . Government of India Press, Gangtok, Sikkim 1972.
  • Dalvinder Singh Grewal: Tribes of Arunachal Pradesh: Identity, Culture, and Languages . South Asia Publications, Delhi 1997, ISBN 81-7433-019-4 .
  • Jackson T.-S. Sun: Tani Languages . In: Graham Thurgood, Randy J. LaPolla (Eds.): The Sino-Tibetan Languages . Routledge, London 2003, ISBN 0-7007-1129-5 .

Dictionaries

  • Pascal Bouchery: Dictionary of the Apatani Language . Apatani Language Project 2009.
  • PT Abraham: Apatani-English-Hindi Dictionary . (CIIL Dictionary Series, 3.) Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore 1987.

Ethnological

  • Christoph von Fürer-Heimendorf: The Apa Tanis and Their Neighbors . Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1962.

Linguistic classification

  • Tianshin Jackson Sun: A Historical-Comparative Study of the Tani (Mirish) Branch in Tibeto-Burman . Dissertation, University of California at Berkeley, 1993.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Apatani . In: Ethnologue . ( ethnologue.com [accessed November 22, 2018]).
  2. ^ UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages ​​in Danger. Retrieved November 25, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Jackson T.-S. Sun: Tani Languages . In: Graham Thurgood, Randy J. LaPolla (Eds.): The Sino-Tibetan Languages . Routledge, London / New York 2003, ISBN 0-7007-1129-5 , pp. 456 .
  4. ↑ Statement 1: Abstract of speakers' strength of languages ​​and mother tongues - 2011. In: www.censusindia.gov.in (Census India). Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India, accessed November 25, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Days Kanno, Hage Yaapa: Tanw Aguñ: An Audio Dictionary of the Apatani Language. Apatani Language Development Committee, 2015, accessed November 25, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Christoph von Furer-home village: The Apa Tanis and Their Neighbors . Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1962, pp. 64 .
  7. ↑ PT Abraham: Apatani Grammar . Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore 1985, pp. 10-16 .
  8. ↑ PT Abraham: Apatani Grammar . Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore 1985, pp. 7 .
  9. ↑ PT Abraham: Apatani Grammar . Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore 1985, pp. 5-6 .
  10. ^ Alfons Weidert: Tibeto-Burman Tonology: A Comparative Account . S. 215-259 .
  11. ↑ Dalvinder Singh Grewal: Tribes of Arunachal Pradesh: Identity, Culture and Languages . tape 2 . South Asia Publications, New Delhi 1997, ISBN 81-7433-018-6 , pp. 166, 181 .
  12. ↑ a b P.T. Abraham: Apatani Grammar . Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore 1985, pp. 24 .
  13. ↑ Dalvinder Singh Grewal: Tribes of Arunachal Pradesh: Identity, Culture and Languages . tape 2 . South Asia Publications, New Delhi 1997, ISBN 81-7433-018-6 , pp. 168 .
  14. ↑ PT Abraham: Apatani Grammar . Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore 1985, pp. 67, 73 .
  15. ↑ PT Abraham: Apatani Grammar . Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore 1985, pp. 107 .
  16. ↑ Dalvinder Singh Grewal: Tribes of Arunachal Pradesh: Identity, Culture and Languages . tape 2 . South Asia Publications, New Delhi 1997, ISBN 81-7433-018-6 , pp. 171 .
  17. ↑ PT Abraham: Apatani Grammar . Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore 1985, pp. 121 .
  18. ↑ Days Kanno, Hage Yaapa: Tanw Aguñ: An Audio Dictionary of the Apatani Language - Alphabets. Apatani Language Development Committee, 2015, accessed November 25, 2018 .