Digaro languages

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Digaro
Northern Mishmi
Geographic
distribution
Arunachal Pradesh
Linguistic classificationpossibly Sino-Tibetan or an independent family
Subdivisions
Glottologmish1241[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).

Names of Mishmi peoples
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]

  1. ordinary speech
  2. speech of hunters: lexical substitution, the replacement of animal names and others by special lexical forms, and sometimes short poems
  3. speech of priests/shamans: more complex, involving much language which is difficult to understand, and also lengthy descriptions of sacrificial animals
  4. poetic/lyrical register (not in Idu, but appears in Kman)
  5. mediation register (only in Idu?)
  6. babytalk register

References[edit]

  1. ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Digarish". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  2. ^ https://www.academia.edu/20110685/Mishmi_language_development