M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
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KUKI-CHIN IN MANIPUR
Of the four language families represented in Manipur, Tibeto-Burman has by far the largest number of mother tongues returned in the Indian census records. The Tibeto-Burman family is represented by the North East Frontier, Naga, and Kuki-Chin groups. Kuki-Chin group is spoken over a wider area by a larger number of speakers than by any other language group in Manipur.
GRIERSON'S CLASSIFICATION
Grierson classifies the Kuki-Chin group into various sub groups. The classification is not wholly linguistic. It is based on the migrational histories based on traditional beliefs. Hence, the titles given to the groups seem to revolve around georgraphical territories traditionally occupied by the various groups.
KUKI-CHIN TERRITORIES
The territories traditionally occupied by the people speaking the Kuki-Chin pre-literate languages have changed hands during the last two hundred years or so. The areas where the languages of the group are spoken were compact and reasonably contiguous under the British Empire, but these are now under three different administrative and sovereign territories, India, Myanmar, and Bangladesh.
THE NAMES - KUKI AND CHIN
The people who speak the Kuki-Chin preliterate languages and live in the Myanmar portion generally tend to call themselves as belonging to the group of Chins. The people speaking the Kuki-Chin preliterate languages living in the Indian territory tend to be named as Kuki-Chin in the literature that deals with the linguistic classification, but this common name is not adopted by the people themselves.
THE TERM KUKI
For various sociological and historical trends, the term Kuki is not very popular among several preliterate communities speaking the languages belonging to the Kuki-Chin group. Even the term Lushai, which was once popular among the Mizos, who are part of the Kuki-Chin group, is not popular. The term Mizo is more commonly used to refer to the Lushais and others in Mizoram.
MEITHEIS AND THE TERM KUKI-CHIN
Kuki and Chin are the words used to name or to identify a linguistic group that is distinct from other linguistic groups of the Tibeto-Burman family. But, when Kuki-Chin is given to the group as a whole, it incurs a lot of displeasure from the Meitheis (Manipuris), who do not want to be included under one roof with the "tribes". This social disinclination possibly may or may not have any linguistic weight to it, in spite of the known facts that Manipuri/Meithei has characteristics that closely resemble the core of the other Kuki-Chin languages.
At the same time, Manipuri/Meithei also exhibits many differences in the tonal, other phonological, morphological, and grammatical structures. Along with such distinctions, we also have a long recorded history of the Meithei/Manipuri people group with a materially advanced ways of agriculture and other industries for hundreds of years. The claim of the Meitheis/Manipuris that they form a language group by themselves will be settled in the future when detailed comparative studies are undertaken.
CONTROVERSY REGARDING THE USEOF THE TERM KUKI
Regarding Kuki also, there is a lot of controversy as to its usage. Though the various tribes within the Kuki-Chin preliterate group accept that they belong to one language group, there is not much enthusiasm with regard to the use of the label "Kuki" among them.
During my field work in early 1960s, I gathered from conversations with several leaders of the people groups speaking preliterate Kuki-Chin languages in Manipur that around 1920s, a feeling of hatred or prejudice or estrangement towards this term developed due to the "arm strong" tactics of some of the tribes. A publication by William Shaw (1928) set the ball rolling. "He praised only one tribe and under-rated the other tribes, which resulted in disunity, the quest for independent recognition and revolts against inclusion under a general name." The same feeling still persists, since a good number of the other tribes who do not want to be called by the name Kuki are by now well established, socially, economically, and politically.
THE DESIRE FOR POLITICAL UNITY UNDER A SINGLE NAME
The desire to get united under the term Kuki, however, still continues. In the 1960s, there was a powerful group of youngsters - College and High School students - who worked hard to unite the disunited tribes by bringing in the general term Kuki to denote all the Kuki-Chin tribes.
By this time, the Lushais and other tribes in the Lushai Hills (MIZORAM) had been moving towards calling themselves Mizo. Sandwiched between the unity efforts of the Nagas and the Mizos, these young leaders of Kuki movement thought that Kuki-Chin tribal peoples in Manipur could be united if only a common name was found and accepted by all the tribal groups. If linguistically mutually unintelligible Naga tribal peoples could get united under a single label Naga, why should the linguistically mutually intelligible Kuki-Chin, especially those from the Manipur state, could not get united?
This move had to face the strongest opposition from the well-established Thados because these youngsters proposed to change mainly the term Thado to Kuki; or it appeared to be so for the Thado leaders. The attempt to use a common name had some support from available linguistic facts because the Census reports earlier reported that the Thado speech was indeed spoken by a variety of groups, not necessarily belonging to the Thado tribe proper.
A common name such as Kuki, in this context, is only proper and just, according to the pro-Kuki leaders. They also claimed that Thado is just a name of a person, that no single sub-tribe or clan within the Thado tribe has inherited this name and used it, and that there are very large numbers of sub-tribes speaking the same idiom but having their own distinct and different names for their tongues.
This controversy still continues. The failure on the part of the pro-Kuki leaders to convince other independent tribal groups such as Hmar and Vaiphei makes it difficult for them to bring all Kuki-Chin tribal groups under the term Kuki only. This controversy between Thados and non-Theodos, who speak the same language, has not died down.
THE 1961 CENSUS
In the 1961 Census, which is a benchmark census in terms of recording the names of mother tongues, 69 mother tongue returns of Kuki-Chin group were identified. Out of these, 35 mother tongues were traced to the the list found in the Linguistic Survey of India and 33 were new names. The 1961 Census offered some tentative findings on the affiliations of these mother tongues. The Census classification for one mother tongue differed from that of the Linguisitic Survey of India.
THE SITUATION IN MANIPUR
The over all language situation of Manipur is twofold -in the plains Meithei/Manipuri is spoken and in the hills various but quite often mutually intelligible Kuki-Chin languages/dialects are used. The knowledge of Meithei/Manipuri is found to be very scarce in the interior hills even now, whereas in the hills adjoining the plains it is fairly understood and used. It may be generally said that Manipuri and English are by far the secondary languages among the tribal people.
In the schools the tribal students were asked to learn four languages - their mother tongue, English, Manipuri and Hindi. One professor of a local college very shrewdly remarked, "We are backward, but our burden is heavier than yours in that we are required to learn four languages unlike other fellow citizens." At the University level only Lushai/Mizo which was spoken less in Manipur but which was becoming more and more the written lingua franca among the independently recognized tribal groups such as Hmar, Gangte, and Vaiphei, excluding the Thados and other non-Thados, was offered as an alternative subject; other Kuki-Chin tribal languages/dialects were not offered.
THE MUTUAL INTELLIGIBILITY CRITERIA
The Lushais or the Mizos continue to be the largest block in the Kuki-Chin tribal group and also outside the Naga circle. They were supposed to be the model setters and were widely admired among the Hmars and others except the Thados and non-Thados who speak the same language.
The Kuki-Chin "tribal" language situation in Manipur is linguistically very interesting, but at the same time very complicated. It is linguistically very interesting in the sense that most of the dialects are mutually intelligible to one another. In Churachandpur that has the representation of all the Kuki-Chin tribes habitually settled in Manipur, the intelligibility is found astonishly to a great extent. Even writing is not a big barrier since the script used (the Roman script, with sometimes English spelling conventions) is the same for all the dialects. But the influence of Lushai/Mizo and the tendency to be different from other tribes steadily and slowly step up the pace of the split. But such a prediction needs to be tested by the quantitative and qualitative surveys that will throw more light on the previous splits and will improve the classification based on the migrational histories (generally traditional beliefs) also.
RESEARCH ON KUKI-CHIN DIALECTS OF MANIPUR
In terms of research, Kuki dialects have not been given a consideration reasonably due to them so long. It is true that the administrative necessities of the British Empire and genuine academic "curiosities" had led to the publication of some literature on Kuki tribes. But most of these were either geographically oriented reports, or mainly anthropological expositions by the officers, both civilian and military, who took extra interest in their "subjects." Even then, the majority of the published works recognized the importance of the languages of this group and hence every trustworthy treatise had a chapter or two necessarily on the languages.
The part played by the reports of the census is very noteworthy. Early in 1901 census, Grierson not only classified the dialects but also threw more light upon the tones of the languages. His comments on tones still basically hold good. The Census of 1931 added further information regarding the tribes. The information obtained in 1961 helps to locate the scene and the scope of the problem. Village-wise information, if collected, will give us a better handle on the real linguistic situation prevailing in the Manipur Hills.
Of the 69 Kuki Chin mother tongues returned in the 1961 Census, twelve languages/dialects were spoken by a considerable number of speakers and were concentrated or spread over a considerable area. These are as follows:
Manipuri/Meithei 636,430.
Thado (31,974). Nineteen mother tongues were grouped under Thado. The grouping will generally hold good except for the title of the language. Thado is an ancestor's name that is not used by any section/clan of the Thados; but somehow it has come to denote a group of tribes/sub-tribes or clans who are very akin to one anot6her. The resentment for this name mainly comes from two sources - if non-Thados accept this nomenclature, they are afraid that they will either be taken for the descendants of Thado, or be taken for the "subjects" of Thados; the second reason is the desire among certain sections of the people for unity, to get united under a single banner.
The mother tongue returns of Thado had a wide range of representation. There were a number of mother tongues such as Kipgen and Haokeep that are the names of the subjects/clans of the Thado tribe. Chongloi, Hangseen/Hansing and Lhovum, etc., are related to Thado linguistically; but different tribes make different claims as to their origin and identity. Khongzai is generally used by the Meitheis/Manipuris to denote Thados. Three persons returned Indoi as their mother tongue but this term really is just the word for a kind of indigenous religious rites.
The influence of English, Lushai and Biblical Translations have given spurt to the formation of a standard colloquial speech which the literates are very conscious about and are employing incessantly.
In Manipur, Thados form the largest Kuki-Chin tribal group and are widely spread in the hills. The group rivalry among the Thados and non-Thados are traditionally well known. The enmity between Hmar and Thado is still discernible.
The Hmar people are a highly organized tribe. The Hmars are not as widely spread as the Thados. They claim to be more akin to the Lushais and they are very actively putting forth works in their dialect. It has no other mother tongue returned. This may reveal the magnitude of consciousness of belonging to one single tribe by the different sub sects of the Hmar tribe. Anyway, it is admitted that there will be speech variations "here and there" depending upon the usually acknowledged factors.
There are also other important Kuki-Chin languages or dialects such as Paite, Simte Vaiphei, Gante, Teddim-Chin, etc. Anal, Chiru, Rangkhol, Halam, and Kom occupy an intermediary position between Kuki-Chin and Naga groups according to some reports. Unfortunately, detailed work on these dialects/languages are yet to be done.
A LINGUISTS' PARADISE
So long I wrote mainly about the Kuki-Chin group. There are several Naga languages/dialects spoken in Manipur centering around Ukhrul, Tengnoupal, Tamenglong, Mao, Maram, and Sadar Hills. Their relations vis-a-via Meithei/Manipuri need to be investigated. A survey of all the villages of Manipur will be a good beginning, but, unfortunately, the unsettled conditions prevailing in these parts do not help much.
Manipur is a linguists' paradise. It offers a wide range of dialects for analysis and classification. A fuller and up-to-date description of all the languages and dialects spoken in Manipur will not only be interesting but also will help meet the demand of the people to develop their languages and dialects as fit vehicles for education, mass media and governance.
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KUKI-CHIN IN MANIPUR
Of the four language families represented in Manipur, Tibeto-Burman has by far the largest number of mother tongues returned in the Indian census records. The Tibeto-Burman family is represented by the North East Frontier, Naga, and Kuki-Chin groups. Kuki-Chin group is spoken over a wider area by a larger number of speakers than by any other language group in Manipur.
GRIERSON'S CLASSIFICATION
Grierson classifies the Kuki-Chin group into various sub groups. The classification is not wholly linguistic. It is based on the migrational histories based on traditional beliefs. Hence, the titles given to the groups seem to revolve around georgraphical territories traditionally occupied by the various groups.
KUKI-CHIN TERRITORIES
The territories traditionally occupied by the people speaking the Kuki-Chin pre-literate languages have changed hands during the last two hundred years or so. The areas where the languages of the group are spoken were compact and reasonably contiguous under the British Empire, but these are now under three different administrative and sovereign territories, India, Myanmar, and Bangladesh.
THE NAMES - KUKI AND CHIN
The people who speak the Kuki-Chin preliterate languages and live in the Myanmar portion generally tend to call themselves as belonging to the group of Chins. The people speaking the Kuki-Chin preliterate languages living in the Indian territory tend to be named as Kuki-Chin in the literature that deals with the linguistic classification, but this common name is not adopted by the people themselves.
THE TERM KUKI
For various sociological and historical trends, the term Kuki is not very popular among several preliterate communities speaking the languages belonging to the Kuki-Chin group. Even the term Lushai, which was once popular among the Mizos, who are part of the Kuki-Chin group, is not popular. The term Mizo is more commonly used to refer to the Lushais and others in Mizoram.
MEITHEIS AND THE TERM KUKI-CHIN
Kuki and Chin are the words used to name or to identify a linguistic group that is distinct from other linguistic groups of the Tibeto-Burman family. But, when Kuki-Chin is given to the group as a whole, it incurs a lot of displeasure from the Meitheis (Manipuris), who do not want to be included under one roof with the "tribes". This social disinclination possibly may or may not have any linguistic weight to it, in spite of the known facts that Manipuri/Meithei has characteristics that closely resemble the core of the other Kuki-Chin languages.
At the same time, Manipuri/Meithei also exhibits many differences in the tonal, other phonological, morphological, and grammatical structures. Along with such distinctions, we also have a long recorded history of the Meithei/Manipuri people group with a materially advanced ways of agriculture and other industries for hundreds of years. The claim of the Meitheis/Manipuris that they form a language group by themselves will be settled in the future when detailed comparative studies are undertaken.
CONTROVERSY REGARDING THE USEOF THE TERM KUKI
Regarding Kuki also, there is a lot of controversy as to its usage. Though the various tribes within the Kuki-Chin preliterate group accept that they belong to one language group, there is not much enthusiasm with regard to the use of the label "Kuki" among them.
During my field work in early 1960s, I gathered from conversations with several leaders of the people groups speaking preliterate Kuki-Chin languages in Manipur that around 1920s, a feeling of hatred or prejudice or estrangement towards this term developed due to the "arm strong" tactics of some of the tribes. A publication by William Shaw (1928) set the ball rolling. "He praised only one tribe and under-rated the other tribes, which resulted in disunity, the quest for independent recognition and revolts against inclusion under a general name." The same feeling still persists, since a good number of the other tribes who do not want to be called by the name Kuki are by now well established, socially, economically, and politically.
THE DESIRE FOR POLITICAL UNITY UNDER A SINGLE NAME
The desire to get united under the term Kuki, however, still continues. In the 1960s, there was a powerful group of youngsters - College and High School students - who worked hard to unite the disunited tribes by bringing in the general term Kuki to denote all the Kuki-Chin tribes.
By this time, the Lushais and other tribes in the Lushai Hills (MIZORAM) had been moving towards calling themselves Mizo. Sandwiched between the unity efforts of the Nagas and the Mizos, these young leaders of Kuki movement thought that Kuki-Chin tribal peoples in Manipur could be united if only a common name was found and accepted by all the tribal groups. If linguistically mutually unintelligible Naga tribal peoples could get united under a single label Naga, why should the linguistically mutually intelligible Kuki-Chin, especially those from the Manipur state, could not get united?
This move had to face the strongest opposition from the well-established Thados because these youngsters proposed to change mainly the term Thado to Kuki; or it appeared to be so for the Thado leaders. The attempt to use a common name had some support from available linguistic facts because the Census reports earlier reported that the Thado speech was indeed spoken by a variety of groups, not necessarily belonging to the Thado tribe proper.
A common name such as Kuki, in this context, is only proper and just, according to the pro-Kuki leaders. They also claimed that Thado is just a name of a person, that no single sub-tribe or clan within the Thado tribe has inherited this name and used it, and that there are very large numbers of sub-tribes speaking the same idiom but having their own distinct and different names for their tongues.
This controversy still continues. The failure on the part of the pro-Kuki leaders to convince other independent tribal groups such as Hmar and Vaiphei makes it difficult for them to bring all Kuki-Chin tribal groups under the term Kuki only. This controversy between Thados and non-Theodos, who speak the same language, has not died down.
THE 1961 CENSUS
In the 1961 Census, which is a benchmark census in terms of recording the names of mother tongues, 69 mother tongue returns of Kuki-Chin group were identified. Out of these, 35 mother tongues were traced to the the list found in the Linguistic Survey of India and 33 were new names. The 1961 Census offered some tentative findings on the affiliations of these mother tongues. The Census classification for one mother tongue differed from that of the Linguisitic Survey of India.
THE SITUATION IN MANIPUR
The over all language situation of Manipur is twofold -in the plains Meithei/Manipuri is spoken and in the hills various but quite often mutually intelligible Kuki-Chin languages/dialects are used. The knowledge of Meithei/Manipuri is found to be very scarce in the interior hills even now, whereas in the hills adjoining the plains it is fairly understood and used. It may be generally said that Manipuri and English are by far the secondary languages among the tribal people.
In the schools the tribal students were asked to learn four languages - their mother tongue, English, Manipuri and Hindi. One professor of a local college very shrewdly remarked, "We are backward, but our burden is heavier than yours in that we are required to learn four languages unlike other fellow citizens." At the University level only Lushai/Mizo which was spoken less in Manipur but which was becoming more and more the written lingua franca among the independently recognized tribal groups such as Hmar, Gangte, and Vaiphei, excluding the Thados and other non-Thados, was offered as an alternative subject; other Kuki-Chin tribal languages/dialects were not offered.
THE MUTUAL INTELLIGIBILITY CRITERIA
The Lushais or the Mizos continue to be the largest block in the Kuki-Chin tribal group and also outside the Naga circle. They were supposed to be the model setters and were widely admired among the Hmars and others except the Thados and non-Thados who speak the same language.
The Kuki-Chin "tribal" language situation in Manipur is linguistically very interesting, but at the same time very complicated. It is linguistically very interesting in the sense that most of the dialects are mutually intelligible to one another. In Churachandpur that has the representation of all the Kuki-Chin tribes habitually settled in Manipur, the intelligibility is found astonishly to a great extent. Even writing is not a big barrier since the script used (the Roman script, with sometimes English spelling conventions) is the same for all the dialects. But the influence of Lushai/Mizo and the tendency to be different from other tribes steadily and slowly step up the pace of the split. But such a prediction needs to be tested by the quantitative and qualitative surveys that will throw more light on the previous splits and will improve the classification based on the migrational histories (generally traditional beliefs) also.
RESEARCH ON KUKI-CHIN DIALECTS OF MANIPUR
In terms of research, Kuki dialects have not been given a consideration reasonably due to them so long. It is true that the administrative necessities of the British Empire and genuine academic "curiosities" had led to the publication of some literature on Kuki tribes. But most of these were either geographically oriented reports, or mainly anthropological expositions by the officers, both civilian and military, who took extra interest in their "subjects." Even then, the majority of the published works recognized the importance of the languages of this group and hence every trustworthy treatise had a chapter or two necessarily on the languages.
The part played by the reports of the census is very noteworthy. Early in 1901 census, Grierson not only classified the dialects but also threw more light upon the tones of the languages. His comments on tones still basically hold good. The Census of 1931 added further information regarding the tribes. The information obtained in 1961 helps to locate the scene and the scope of the problem. Village-wise information, if collected, will give us a better handle on the real linguistic situation prevailing in the Manipur Hills.
Of the 69 Kuki Chin mother tongues returned in the 1961 Census, twelve languages/dialects were spoken by a considerable number of speakers and were concentrated or spread over a considerable area. These are as follows:
Manipuri/Meithei 636,430.
Thado (31,974). Nineteen mother tongues were grouped under Thado. The grouping will generally hold good except for the title of the language. Thado is an ancestor's name that is not used by any section/clan of the Thados; but somehow it has come to denote a group of tribes/sub-tribes or clans who are very akin to one anot6her. The resentment for this name mainly comes from two sources - if non-Thados accept this nomenclature, they are afraid that they will either be taken for the descendants of Thado, or be taken for the "subjects" of Thados; the second reason is the desire among certain sections of the people for unity, to get united under a single banner.
The mother tongue returns of Thado had a wide range of representation. There were a number of mother tongues such as Kipgen and Haokeep that are the names of the subjects/clans of the Thado tribe. Chongloi, Hangseen/Hansing and Lhovum, etc., are related to Thado linguistically; but different tribes make different claims as to their origin and identity. Khongzai is generally used by the Meitheis/Manipuris to denote Thados. Three persons returned Indoi as their mother tongue but this term really is just the word for a kind of indigenous religious rites.
The influence of English, Lushai and Biblical Translations have given spurt to the formation of a standard colloquial speech which the literates are very conscious about and are employing incessantly.
In Manipur, Thados form the largest Kuki-Chin tribal group and are widely spread in the hills. The group rivalry among the Thados and non-Thados are traditionally well known. The enmity between Hmar and Thado is still discernible.
The Hmar people are a highly organized tribe. The Hmars are not as widely spread as the Thados. They claim to be more akin to the Lushais and they are very actively putting forth works in their dialect. It has no other mother tongue returned. This may reveal the magnitude of consciousness of belonging to one single tribe by the different sub sects of the Hmar tribe. Anyway, it is admitted that there will be speech variations "here and there" depending upon the usually acknowledged factors.
There are also other important Kuki-Chin languages or dialects such as Paite, Simte Vaiphei, Gante, Teddim-Chin, etc. Anal, Chiru, Rangkhol, Halam, and Kom occupy an intermediary position between Kuki-Chin and Naga groups according to some reports. Unfortunately, detailed work on these dialects/languages are yet to be done.
A LINGUISTS' PARADISE
So long I wrote mainly about the Kuki-Chin group. There are several Naga languages/dialects spoken in Manipur centering around Ukhrul, Tengnoupal, Tamenglong, Mao, Maram, and Sadar Hills. Their relations vis-a-via Meithei/Manipuri need to be investigated. A survey of all the villages of Manipur will be a good beginning, but, unfortunately, the unsettled conditions prevailing in these parts do not help much.
Manipur is a linguists' paradise. It offers a wide range of dialects for analysis and classification. A fuller and up-to-date description of all the languages and dialects spoken in Manipur will not only be interesting but also will help meet the demand of the people to develop their languages and dialects as fit vehicles for education, mass media and governance.
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A NOTE ON CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS BHARTRHARI - A LINGUISTIC PHILOSOPHERNo World Beyond the Sphere of Language A CORPUS BASED LINGUISTIC TOOL FOR MACHINE TRANSLATION:-ING AND ITS EQUIVALENTS IN TAMIL A PRELUDE TO TEACHING GRAMMAR AESTHETICALLY THE EFFECT OF COMMUNICATIVE ANXIETY ON INTENDED MEANING - SHAHARYAR'S BARISH THE NEUROLINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVES OFLANGUAGE ACQUISITION, LATERALIZATION AND BILINGUALISM - A REVIEW THADOU LINGUISTIC SITUATION IN MANIPUR HOME PAGE CONTACT EDITOR
M. S. ThirumalaiE-mail: thirumalai@bethfel.org
M. S. ThirumalaiE-mail: thirumalai@bethfel.org
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