36.1806, Diss: Indo-Aryan, Tibeto-Burman; Assamese, Bodo (India); Historical Linguistics, History of Linguistics, Phonetics, Phonology, Sociolinguistics: Zitaksyor Sonowal: "A phonological sketch of Sonowal kachari"

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-36-1806. Wed Jun 11 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.1806, Diss: Indo-Aryan, Tibeto-Burman; Assamese, Bodo (India); Historical Linguistics, History of Linguistics, Phonetics, Phonology, Sociolinguistics: Zitaksyor Sonowal: "A phonological sketch of Sonowal kachari"

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Date: 07-Jun-2025
From: Zitaksyor Sonowal [zitaksyor at gmail.com]
Subject: Historical Linguistics, History of Linguistics, Phonetics, Phonology, Sociolinguistics; A phonological sketch of Sonowal kachari: Sonowal (2025)


Institution: MA linguistics
Degree Date: 2025

Dissertation Title: A phonological sketch of Sonowal kachari

Dissertation URL:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1v_g5p1voCi11EoQ5oo02PGgQZ2Q7GhZx/view?usp=drivesdk

Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics
                     History of Linguistics
                     Phonetics
                     Phonology
                     Sociolinguistics

Subject Language(s): Assamese (asm)
                     Bodo (India) (brx)

Language Family(ies): Indo-Aryan
                      Tibeto-Burman

Dissertation Director(s): Prof. Hemalatha Nagarajan

Dissertation Abstract:

This dissertation attempts to provide a brief overview of the
phonological characteristics of the Sonowal Kachari language, an
endangered language once spoken by the Sonowal Kachari tribe. It is
considered endangered due to the lack of generational transmission
among members of the Sonowal Kachari community. This issue of language
vitality is also discussed in this paper to assess the current status
of the language.
The main aim of this work is to present the phonemic inventory of the
language and to analyse different phonological features such as
syllabic structure, word stress, and morphophonemic changes influenced
by contact with neighbouring languages namely, Bodo-Garo languages
like Tiwa, Bodo, Dimasa etc., which belong to the Tibeto-Burman
language family, and Assamese, which belongs to the Indo-Aryan
language family. This implies how close-contact with these languages
had impacted on the phonology of Sonowal Kachari language. However,
limitation of this research is the scarcity of available data and
documents to support the investigation. This research hopes to
introduce this endangered language to the world and safeguard the
existing vocabulary and its unique phonological features. By analysing
native words and loanwords from neighbouring languages within the
theoretical framework of Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky,
1991), we aim to identify the various constraints that govern these
changes.



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