Kokborok Grammar

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Kokborok is language of the Bodo sub-group of the Tibeto-Burman sub-family of the Sino-Tibetan ( Indochinese ) Linguistic family. It is an official language of Tripura, a state of India.

Contents

1 Syntax
2 Verbs
3 Person
4 Number
5 Gender
6 Case and case endings
7 Adjective
8 Numerals
9 Classifiers
10 See also
11 References

Syntax

The principal structures of affirmative sentences in kokborok are the following:

a) Subject Complement

Naisok              cherai kaham.
(Naisok)            (boy good).
Naisok is a good boy.

b) Subject Object Verb

Naisok             mai             chao.
(Naisok)           (rice)          (eat).
Naisok eats rice.

c) Possessive Subject Question'

Nini             mung             tamo?
(Your)           (name)           (what)
What is your name?

d) Subject Question Verb

Nwng            tamoni bagwi      phai?
(You)            (what for)        (come)
Why have you come?

e) Subject Verb+Question

Nwng             thangnai de?
(You)             (will go)
Will you go?

f) Subject Verb+Command

Nwng            thang di.
(You)            (go)
You go.

Verbs

Person

In Kokborok grammar use of the notion of 'person' is almost absent; the form of verb is same for one who speaks , one who is spoken to, and one who is spoken about.

Number

In Kokborok there are two numbers: Singular and plural. The plural marker is iused at the end of the noun/ pronoun. There are two plural markers: rog and song. Rog is universally used while song is used with human nouns only. The plural marker is normally used at the end of the noun/pronoun. But when the noun has an adjective the plural marker is used at the end of the adjective instead of the noun. eg:

a) Bwrwirog Teliamura o thangnai. These woman will go to Teliamura.

b) O bwrwi naithokrog kaham rwchabo. These woman sing very well.

Gender

In Kokborok there are four genders: masculine gender, feminine gender, common gender, and neuter gender. Words which denote male are masculine, words which denote female are feminine, words which can be both male and female are common gender, and words which cannot be either masculine or feminine and neuter gender. eg,

borok - man - masculine
bwrwi - woman - feminine
cherai - child - common
bufang - tree - neuter

There are various ways to change genders of words: Using different words.

bwsai - husband     bwsai - wife
phaiyung - brother  hanok - sister
kiching - male friend      mare - female friend

Adding in at the end of the masculine word. When the masculine words ends in a, the a is dropped.

sikla - younger man   sikli - young woman
achu - grand father   achui - grand mother

Adding jwk at the end of the masculine word.

bwsa - son    bwsajwk - daughter
kwra - father-in-law    kwrajwk - mother-in-law

Words of common gender are made masculine by adding suffixes, like sa, chwla, jua and feminine by adding ma, jwk, bwrwi.

pun - goat    punjua - he goat    punjuk - she goat
tok - fowl    tokchwla - cock    tokma - hen
takhum - swan   takhumchwla - drake   takhum bwrwi - duck

Case and case endings

In Kokborok there are the nominative, accusative, instrumental, ablative, locative and possessive cases.

The case endings are the following:

Nominative: o
Accusative: no
Instrumental:   hai
Ablative:   ni
Locative:   o
Possessive:  ni

These case endings are used at the end of the noun/pronoun and there is no change in the form of the noun.

Adjective

In Kokborok the adjectives come after the words they qualify. This rue is strictly followed only in the case of native adjectives. In case of loan adjectives the rule is rather loose. Kokborok adjectives may be divided into four classes:

a) pure adjectives

b) compound adjectives

c) verbal adjectives

d) K-adjectives

The first three classes may include both native and loan words. The fourth class is made of purely native words. eg:

a) hilik - heavy, heleng - light

b) bwkha kotor - (heart big) - brave, bwkha kuchu - (heart small) - timid

c) leng - tire, lengjak - tired, rug - to boil, rugjak - boiled.

d) kaham - good, kotor - big, kisi - wet.

Numerals

Kokborok numerals are both decimal and vigesimal. sa, nwi, tham, brwi, ba, dok, sni, char, chuku, chi

rasa - hundred, saisa - thousand, rwjag - a lakh

Numeral is organised as:

chisa = chi + sa = ten + one = 11.

Classifiers

References

A simplified Kakbarak Grammar, by Prof. Prabhas Chandra Dhar, 1987

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