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Volume 25:9 September 2025
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Pronominal Features in Shahlang Nongdaju, a Variety of Khasi

Livadora Lyngdoh Mawdkhap, Ph.D. and
Saralin, A. Lyngdoh

Abstract

Nongdaju is a sub variety of Lyngngam, a variety of Khasi belonging to Mon- Khmer branch of Austro-Asiatic language. It is primarily spoken in West Khasi Hills District of Meghalaya, India. The data have been obtained from six native speakers who were above the age of 45 years. This paper examines how the nature of pronouns and the pronominal forms are reflected in the pronominal system of this variety. The analyses of data reveal that the Personal Pronouns in Shahlang Nongdaju has a free form and function alone within the noun phrase and the personal pronouns exhibited in the object position are considered as strong pronouns. Gender and number are not marked by any grammatical features before the noun or head noun. The interrogative particles encode grammatical features of locative case marker /he/. The reflexive pronouns have both mono-morphemic and poly-morphemic reduplicated form and the reciprocals are exhibited only in plural pronominal forms. In addition, data analysis reveals that personal pronouns can be formed and functioned both morphologically and syntactically.

Keywords:Khasi, Nongdaju, pronominals, personal pronouns, gender.

Introduction

Nongdaju is a sub variety of Lyngngam (Bareh, 1977), a variety of Khasi belonging to Mon-Khmer branch of Austro-Asiatic language family (Diffloth, 2005). Khasi has four dialects, such as: Jaintia or Pnar, War, Bhoi and Lyngngam (Grierson, 1904). Nongdaju is located in Mawshynrut Tehsil of West Khasi Hills District in Meghalaya, India. It is situated 32km away from sub-district headquarter Mawshynrut and 75km away from District Headquarter Nongstoin. Nongdaju is represented by Nongdaju and Nongriangmaw. These two villages are located in the western parts of West Khasi Hills bordering Garo Hills. Nongdaju is the hearth of Lyngngam area. According to the Government of India Census 2011, Nongdaju has a total population of 584 people. The Nongdaju Village consists mostly of the Lyngngam community and also other inhabitants of Meghalaya either Garo, Khasis from West Khasi Hills and few Nepalese. The major objective of this study is to describe the nature of pronouns and to analyse the pronominal forms as reflected in the pronominal system of this variety of language. For this research the data have been collected from the native speakers who were above the age of 45 years. This research is descriptive in nature and Basic Linguistic Theory has been used in analysing the data.

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

Livadora Lyngdoh Mawdkhap, Ph.D.
North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong
lyngdohliva598@gmail.com
&
Saralin, A. Lyngdoh
Associate Professor
North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong
saralyngdoh@gmail.com

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