LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 22:11 November 2022
ISSN 1930-2940

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Causative Constructions in Pnar

Gamidalah War, Ph.D. Scholar

Abstract

Pnar is a dialect of Khasi belonging to the Mon-Khmer group of the Austro-Asiatic language family, spoken in the West and East Jaintia Hills district of Meghalaya and a few pockets of the neighbouring state of Assam and neighbouring country of Bangladesh. The study of causatives in Pnar demonstrates that Pnar has only one type of causative i.e., morphological causative which is derived by attaching the prefix pən- or tən- to the main verb. Morphological causatives according to (Payne,1997, p.176) “are one kind of “valence increasing” operation formed on the basis of intransitive or transitive events.” This paper looks into the valency properties of the causatives in Pnar, thereby focussing on the argument structure of the causative constructions found in Pnar.

Keywords: Causatives, Valency, Pnar, Khasi, Mon-Khmer, Austro-Asiatic.

1.1. Introduction: The Language

The Pnars are one of the sub-tribes of the Khasi residing in the districts of West Jaintia Hills and East Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya. A small minority of Pnar speakers also reside in the bordering state of Assam and the neighbouring country of Bangladesh. The Pnars are commonly referred to as the Jaintias which is incorrect. Many people consider Jaintia as one of the tribes of Meghalaya. But ‘Jaintia' is not a tribe but the home of the Pnar speaking community along with some of the other sub-tribes of Khasi - the Wars and the Bhois. The Pnar speakers of the Jaintia Hills reside in the central region of Jaintia Hills district, the Wars cover the southern region, whereas the Bhois are found in the northern regions. All three sub-tribes are collectively called “the Jaintias” because they all call this area home. Pnar is the most widely spoken language in the Jaintia Hills region, with Jowai Pnar being the language of communication amongst the various communities residing here. Pnar also has other varieties spoken all over the region. Most of the Pnar speaking villages in Jaintia hills have their own variety of Pnar which are mutually intelligible. Although the language is widely spoken, it does not have a script, and thus has very limited written literature.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Gamidalah War
Ph.D. Scholar
North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong
gamz.aqua@gmail.com
Mobile no.: 9612106740/9863768516
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