Goalpariya dialects
| Goalpariya | |
|---|---|
| Goālpāriya | |
| গোৱালপাৰীয়া | |
| Native to | Western Assam |
| Dialects | Western Golapariya, Eastern Goalpariya |
| Assamese alphabet | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | None |
| Part of a series on |
| Indo-European topics |
|---|
 |
Goalpariya is a group of
History
The Eastern Magadhi Prakrit gave rise to four historical dialects—Radhi, Varendri, Kamarupi and Vanga. The Kamarupi dialect gave rise to Indo-Aryan speeches of Brahmaputra valley, including Goalpariya, and the KRNB lects spoken outside Assam.
Dialects
There are three identified dialects in this group: (1) Eastern, (2) Western and (3) Intermediate.
Region
The Goalpara region is the westernmost part of Brahmaputra Valley. It is bounded in north by Bhutan, on the east by Kamrup region, on the south by Garo Hills of Meghalaya and on the west by Cooch Behar district, Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal and Rangpur District of Bangladesh.
In ancient times it was included in
Later region became a part of the
Background and controversies
The Goalpariya dialects have been subject of much controversy, primarily because they fall on a dialect continuum. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, there was a debate on whether they were dialects of Bengali or Assamese languages.[8] The Irish linguist George Abraham Grierson claimed in his Linguistic Survey of India that the western and southern dialects were Rajbonshi, and thus a northern Bengali dialect; and that the eastern dialect was Assamese.[9] Bengali linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji also followed this classification in his thesis, adding western Goalpariya to the northern Bengali dialects.[10] The debate never died down and authors continue to critically examine the nation building aspects of this debate.[11]
Assamese scholars consider Goalpariya is a part of the Assamese dialects, specifically, a western Assamese dialect.[12] The two erstwhile western districts of Assam, Kamrup and Goalpara, possess several local dialects. The Goalpariya dialect is similar to the Rajbonshi dialect which evolved under the Koch dynasty, and also similar to Bengali dialects spoken in northern Bengal. The differences between the eastern and western Assamese dialects are wide and range over the whole field of phonology, morphology and, not infrequently, vocabulary.
Phonology
The dialects of Goalpara straddle the Assamese-Bengali language divides and display features from both languages. Though the phonemes in the eastern dialects approach those of Assamese, the western dialect approach those of Bengali. The distinctive velar fricative /x/ present in Assamese is present in the eastern dialect, but absent in the western dialect. The dental and alveolar distinction in Bengali are found in the western dialect, but merged into alveolars in the eastern dialect in consonance with Assamese. Further the aspirated /ch/ is present in Bengali as well as the western dialect, but absent in eastern Goalparia dialect and Assamese.[13]
Grammar
Gender
The nouns in Goalpariya language takes [i] or [ni] as suffix to indicate feminine gender. If the noun ends in a vowel, it replaces the vowel with [i], if in consonant it suffixes [ni] as feminine marker. For example,
| Masculine | Meaning | Feminine | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| chengr-a | boy | chengr-i | girl |
| bet-a | son | bet-i | daughter |
| daktar | doctor(m) | daktar-ni | doctor(fem) |
Verbs
Verb: Kha (to eat)
Simple present tense
| singular | plural | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| word | meaning | word | meaning | |
| 1st person | mui kha-ng
|
i eat
|
amra kha-i
|
we eat
|
| 2nd person | tui kha-is
|
you eat
|
tumra kha-n
|
you eat
|
| 3rd person | oui kha-y
|
he/she eats
|
umra kha-y
|
they eat
|
Folk community and culture
The people who speak this dialect, call themselves deshi, a dominant section, leaving out the
Folk song or Lokogeet
Goalpariya Lokogeet is a folk music of Goalpara, sung to traditional lyrics. It was primarily Pratima Barua Pandey, who raised the profile of this hitherto unknown genre of music nationally in India. Currently, albums of Goalpariya songs are released commercially; and Goalpariya musical motifs and instruments are increasingly used in popular music in India.
Geo-physical conditions
There are some variations in the dialect as one move from one place to another which is not surprising as when there is a physical separation in terms of distance. According to Birendra Nath Dutta, the former president of the
In this context, the following examples will serve to show that the dialect of these zones have many points in common with that of Kamrup.
Eastern Kamrup: 1. Api gila gharor para olaw 2. Bhal amta kaikhal
Western Kamrup: 1. Api gila gharar para ola 2. Bhal atmu kai khalak.
The western zone on the other hand, being contiguous to North Bengal, could not remain unaffected from the Bengali influence. For example, Bengali words such as matha (head), pakhi (birds) and Assamese words such as duar (door), chuli (hair), bihan (morning), which were used in early Assamese, are used by the people of Goalpara. There are some peculiarities in the dialect of Goalpara. For example, uyak aisa khaibe (he has to come), mok ei kamta or kajta kara khai (I have to do this work). Again, sometimes "L" becomes "N" in western dialect, such as lage becomes nage and lal becomes nal (red), infusing another difference in the dialect. In the Goalpariya dialect, expressions such as pet peta (rotten), tiktika (deep) are very common. It is worth noting that the Maithili word angcha (garment), and Hindi words such as kawari (door) and damad (bridegroom) have directly entered into the Goalpariya dialect and are still found in the same form and carrying the same meaning.
In popular culture
- Sonar Baran Pakhi is a Goalpariya language film.[15]
References
- ^ Legacy, to cherish & preserve, by Nikhilesh Barua (2005), The Telegraph, India
- ^ Asom Abhidhan, Banalata, S. K. Baruah (2002), Guwahati, Assam
- ^ Saikia, Arunabh. "'We don't want to be identified on the basis of our religion,' say Assam's indigenous Desi Muslims". Scroll.in. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
- ^ (Dutta 2003, pp. 103–104)
- ^ Chatterji's tabulation reproduced in Figure 7-3, (Toulmin 2006, p. 302)
- ^ (Dutta 1995, p. 285)
- ^ (Dutta 1995, p. 289)
- ^ (Dutta 1995, p. 281)
- ^ (Dutta 1995, p. 282)
- ^ Chatterji's 1926 tabulation reproduced in Figure 7-3 (Toulmin 2006, p. 302)
- ^ (Misra 2006)
- ^ Principal languages of Assam, Online Assam Portal
- ^ (Dutta 2003, p. 104)
- ^ Mahajan, Akshay (1 June 2018). "People of Clay : A personal exploration of Goalpariya culture". The Caravan. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
- ^ "Sonar Baran Pakhi: This biopic on an acclaimed folk singer from Assam is a must-watch". Firstpost. 2 December 2017. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
Bibliography
- Dutta, Birendranath (1995). "A Note on the Dialects of Goalpara". A Study of the Folk Culture of the Goalpara Region of Assam. Guwahati, Assam: University Publication Department, Gauhati University. pp. 281–301.
- Dutta, Birendranath (1973). "A Note on the Dialects of Goalpara" (PDF). A Study of the Folk Culture of the Goalpara Region of Assam (PhD). Guwahati, Assam: Gauhati University. pp. 423–453. hdl:10603/67892.
- Dutta, Birendranath (2003). "Non-Standard Forms of Assamese: Their Socio-cultural Role". In Miri, Mrinal (ed.). Linguistic Situation In North-East India (2nd ed.). Concept Publishing Company, New Delhi. pp. 101–110.
- Misra, Sanghamitra (2006). "Redrawing frontiers: Language, resistance and the imagining of a Goalparia people". The Indian Economic and Social History Review. 43 (2). Sage Publications: 199–225. S2CID 143102568.
- Toulmin, Mathew W S (2006). Reconstructing linguistic history in a dialect continuum: The Kamta, Rajbanshi, and Northern Deshi Bangla subgroup of Indo-Aryan (Ph.D.). The Australian National University.