Digaro languages
| Digaro | |
|---|---|
| Northern Mishmi | |
| Geographic distribution | Arunachal Pradesh |
| Linguistic classification | possibly Sino-Tibetan or an independent family
|
| Subdivisions | |
| Glottolog | mish1241[1] |
The Digaro (Digarish) or Northern Mishmi (Mishmic) 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[edit]
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[edit]
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 | da˧˩raŋ˥˧ | tɕi˧˩moŋ˧˥ | tɑ˧˩rɑŋ˧˥ | Digaru; Digaru Mishmi |
| Kaman people | tɕɑu˥˧ | kɯ˧˩mɑn˧˥ | mi˧˩tɕu˥ | Midzu |
| Idu people | dju˥; dju˥ta˧˩rɑŋ˥˧; dɑi˥˧ |
min˧˩dɑu˥; hu˥˧ |
i˥˧du˥ | Chulikata Mishmi |
| Zha people 扎人 | tɕɑ˧˩kʰen˥ | tɕɑ˧˩kreŋ˧˥ | — | — |
| Tibetan people | lɑ˧˩mɑ˥; mei˥˧bom˥ |
dɯ˧˩luŋ˧˥; hɑi˧˥hɯl˥ |
ɑ˧˩mi˥˧; pu˥˧; mi˧˩si˥pu˥˧ |
— |
Registers[edit]
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[edit]
- ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Digarish". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
- ^ https://www.academia.edu/20110685/Mishmi_language_development
- 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.
