The Kurux Language

Grammar, Texts and Lexicon

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The Kurux Language: Grammar, Texts and Lexicon by Masato Kobayashi and Bablu Tirkey is a comprehensive description of Kurux, a northern Dravidian tribal language with two million speakers. Isolated in the Chota Nagpur Plateau of Eastern India, Kurux shows a unique mixture of archaic Dravidian traits and innovations induced by contact with neighboring Indo-Aryan and Munda languages, and has posed questions regarding language change and Dravidian subgrouping.

Making use of first-hand materials from their fieldwork, Kobayashi and Tirkey analyze the complexities of the language in the grammar section. This book also contains transcribed and glossed texts, and a lexicon with more than 9,000 entries, and serves both as reference for linguists and learning resource for students.

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Front Matter
Pages: i–xvii
Introduction
Pages: 1–20
Phonology
Pages: 23–69
Morphology
Pages: 70–173
Syntax and Pragmatics
Pages: 174–234
Semantics
Pages: 235–298
Lexicon
Pages: 299–318
Glossed Texts
Pages: 321–572
Lexicon
Pages: 573–771
Bibliography
Pages: 773–778
Indexes
Pages: 779–791
Masato Kobayashi, Ph.D. (2000), University of Pennsylvania, is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Tokyo. He has worked on ancient and modern Indian languages, and is the author of Texts and Grammar of Malto (Vizianagaram, Kotoba Books, 2012).

Bablu Tirkey (1980-2015) was a Lecturer of Kurux at Doranda College, Ranchi. Firmly established in Kurux tradition, he worked on Kurux language and literature, and authored the Kurux novel Khatrka Ropnas gahi Tungul (‘Poor Ropna’s Dream’) (Bendora, Manas Prakashan, 2017).
List of Tables
List of Figures
List of Abbreviations

1 Introduction
 § 1  Typological Overview
 § 2  Profile of the Language
 § 3  Language Endangerment
 § 4  Writing Systems and Transcription
 § 5  Name of the Language
 § 6  Dialectal Variation
 § 7  Genetic Relationship
 § 8  Lexicon
 § 9  Convergence
 § 10  Previous Studies
 § 11  Fieldwork and Materials
 § 12  Organization of the Book
 § 13  Acknowledgment

Grammar



2 Phonology
 § 14  Vowels
 § 15  Vowel Length
 § 16  Umlaut
 § 17  Consonants
 § 18  Geminates and Singletons
 § 19  Metathesis and Linearity
 § 20  Syllable
 § 21  Stress and Rhythm
 § 22  Intonation
 § 23  Morphophonology
 § 24  Sound Changes up to Proto-Kurux-Malto
 § 25  Phonological Alternations within Kurux
 § 26  Summary of Historical Phonology
3 Morphology
 § 27  Characteristics of Kurux Morphology
 § 28  Parts of Speech
 § 29  Nouns: Nominal Stems and Bases
 § 30  Nouns: Gender
 § 31  Nouns: Number
 § 32  Nouns: Cases
 § 33  Diminutive and Augmentative
 § 34  Compound Nouns and Adjectives
 § 35  Pronouns: Personal Pronouns
 § 36  Pronouns: Reflexives
 § 37  Pronouns: Possessives
 § 38  Pronouns: Demonstratives
 § 39  Pronouns: Interrogatives and Indefinites
 § 40  Pronouns: Cases of Personal and Reflexive Pronouns
 § 41  Pronouns: Cases of Demonstratives and Interrogatives
 § 42  Adpositions
 § 43  Agreement Suffix and Predicative Nominals
 § 44  Adjectives: Simple
 § 45  Adjectives in -taː, -iyaː, -madʰheː and -aːboː
 § 46  Adjectives: Suffixes Deriving Demonyms etc.
 § 47  Numerals and Classifiers
 § 48  Adverbs
 § 49  Preverbs
 § 50  Verbs
 § 51  Verbal Roots and Verbal Bases
 § 52  Past Stem and the Primary Verb Classes
 § 53  Irregular Verb Inflection
 § 54  Verb Inflection: Simple Tenses
 § 55  Complex Aspectual Forms: Perfect
 § 56  Complex Aspectual Forms: Progressive
 § 57  Complex Aspectual Forms: ciʔ-aː Benefactive
 § 58  Verb Inflection: Modal Forms
 § 59  Verb Inflection: Inter-Female Forms
 § 60  Copula and Existential Verbs
 § 61  Copular Clauses and Concord
 § 62  Derived Verbal Bases
 § 63  Frequentative Verbs
 § 64  Infinitives
 § 65  Inflection Reduction
 § 66  Perfect and Imperfect Participles
 § 67  Agentive Participle
 § 68  Adverbial Participles
 § 69  Converb
 § 70  Origin of the Kurux-Malto Past Inflection

4 Syntax and Pragmatics
 § 71  Word Order
 § 72  Coordinating Conjunctions
 § 73  Subordinating Conjunctions
 § 74  Complementizer
 § 75  Reflexives and Logophorics
 § 76  Relative Clauses
 § 77  The -madʰheː Construction and Adnominal PPs
 § 78  Conditional and Counterfactual
 § 79  Complex Predicates
 § 80  Voice and Argument Alternation
 § 81  Passive and Grammatical Relations
 § 82  Stative Passive Construction
 § 83  Use of the -aː Infinitive
 § 84  Use of the -naː Infinitive
 § 85  Non-nominative Subjects
 § 86  Impersonal Construction
 § 87  Topic and Focus
 § 88  Phrasal Clitics
 § 89  Clausal Clitics

5 Semantics
 § 90  Spatial Deixis
 § 91  Animacy, Number, Gender and Person
 § 92  Use of the Copular Verbs
 § 93  Possession
 § 94  Question
 § 95  Deictic Verbs
 § 96  Definiteness and Differential Object Marking
 § 97  Lexical Aspect
 § 98  Use of the Simple Tenses
 § 99  Use of the Aspectual Forms
 § 100  Modality
 § 101  Use of the Causative
 § 102  Function of the Passive Voice
 § 103  Volition or Control over the Action
 § 104  Negation
 § 105  Negative Polarity Items
 § 106  Politeness
 § 107  Use of Cases: Nominative
 § 108  Use of Cases: Accusative
 § 109  Use of Cases: Dative
 § 110  Use of Cases: Instrumental-Ablative
 § 111  Use of Cases: Genitive
 § 112  Use of Cases: Locative

6 Lexicon
 § 113  Characteristics of the Kurux Lexicon
 § 114  Inherited Etyma
 § 115  Loanwords and Toponyms
 § 116  Source of Loanwords
 § 117  Semantic Shift, Doublets and False Friends
 § 118  Kinship Terms
 § 119  Personal Names
 § 120  Echo Words and Onomatopoeia
 § 121  Interjections
 § 122  Euphemistic Expression
 § 123  Fauna and Flora

Texts



7 Glossed Texts
 § 124  Home Visit (Dialogue)
 § 125  From Bablu Tirkey, Poor Ropna’s Dream (2017)
 § 126  Sone the Vulture
 § 127  Life Story of a Farmer
 § 128  The Bihar Famine (1966–1967) and my Father
 § 129  Letiya the Thief
 § 130  Building a Career
 § 131  King’s Seven Daughters and a Rakshas
 § 132  Story of Two Orphans and the Banyan Seed
 § 133  Seven Brothers and a Sister
 § 134  Story of a Man and a Tiger
 § 135  Myth of Fire and Rain
 § 136  Why Oraons Observe the Karam Festival

Lexicon

Bibliography
Word Index
General Index
All interested in Dravidian linguistics, North Dravidian hypothesis, contact-induced language change, Indian tribal folklore, and anyone learning Kurux.
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