In the Zone : Analysis and Verification
4.4.6 As a natural and unmarked medium of verbal communication
1 : S :sang ope: émm lo ngolu Hai Iskul lokke Iunibarsiti potubdo:pé m mb r- ya:me k darém la:té:pa:ye. (‘Youth Society’ will embrace boys and girls studying in educational institutions from High Schools to the University.) 2 : Medikel kolej, Egrikalsar, Injiniyaring pola du:né ya:me-m mb rémgom
k té:pa:yé. (It will also include the youths studying in Medical, Agriculture and Engineering institutes.)
(Patiri, Suraj Kr., 2003).
The terms Hai Iskul (High School), Iunibarsiti (University), Medikel Kolej (Medical College), Egrikalsar (Agriculture), Injiniyaring (Engineering) are the Mising spellings of the English words given in brackets.
days, the Misings did not record birth dates as they do today. It is interesting to note that the basis of all calculations related to time is the great earthquack of 1950. This event is taken exactly as the birth of Jesus Christ is regarded as the basis of time calculations. Janoi says, her eldest son had already attained an age when he could go to the paddy fields for ploughing (13/14 years) at the time of the great earthquack.
She got married one year after attaining puberty. On the basis of these two events, her age is calculated. Her son Padmo Kutum (56) is a matriculate and is a teacher in the village primary school. The following is an excerpt of the interaction with Janoi and her son Padmo :
1 Q : Nok aminé okko émtang ? (What is your name ?) 2 Janoi : Janoi émtag. (It’s Janoi)
3 Q : Nokké boyohge édd ko idagbon, no mé:pa:sudang ? (How old are you, do you remember ?)
4 Janoi : E:h, ngoi édém kindon! (Eh, do I know it?)
5 : Gasumko ika:bo, ngoluk omoniyang-éi yéma:bo. (It’s quite a bit, even my contemporaries are no more.)
6 Padmo : (sitting beside)
A:si-nobboi man hobo, olop besiye hobo pare. (It may be 80/90, could be more.)
7 Q : Odokké, no a k yaméng-omma:ngém luposuddom Msingo:pé ludoyé ma lékoném mipagémsin luté:doyé. (While talking to your family members, do you speak Mising alone or you use Assamese also ?)
8 Janoi : Misingo:pé ludo, ngo mipagém lukinéima. (Mising only, I don’t know how to speak Assamese at all.)
9 Q : No baru Misingo:pé luddom asin mé:namém lungapsula:dang?
(Can you express all your feelings in Mising ?)
10 Janoi : Lungapsula:dak, kapil lungapsula:ma:yén ? (I can, why not ?) 11 : Ngo Mipagém lukin-tatkinéima. (I can’t speak Assamese nor do
I understand it.)
12 Q (to Padmo): Nokkéka, édd ko boyoh idu:bon ? (What would be your age ?) 13 Son : Ngokké, sapponna bosor par hoi goise. (Mine is already over
56 years.)
14 : Asoltu besi hobo. (The real age would be more.)
15 Q : Baru nomsin taddung, Misingé kapila agom luddom Mipagém lulusudang. (I am asking you too, why do Misings mix Assamese while speaking ?)
16 Padmo : Ngolu Misingé agom luddom Mipagém luluru:supa:dag. (We Misings must mix Assamese while speaking.)
17 : Odokké bohut karon thake, ek nombor-pé, Misi:lo hobdo p :ramdag, odokké dui nombor-pé, Mising luman Mising-ésin du:manlang. (It has a number of reasons, first, the Mising language is short of words, and second, there are some Misings who don’t speak Mising.)
18 Q : Baru, Mipagém luté:douém, kinsul ludoyé kinsuma:pé ludoyé?
(Ok, while mixing with Assamese are the speakers conscious about it ?)
19 Padmo : Abaya:ngém kinsul luma, supagéi ngo lulusudung. (Mostly they do unconsciously, now itself, I am mixing.)
20 : Ngo:tu kinsul luma, supag no luleno:laminé ngo kunsudungkuné. (I haven’t done it consciously, now that you have told this, so I am aware of it.)
21 : Odokké, lupérung émna lum lo:pag kinsul ludag. (And, when done intentionally, they are obviously conscious of it.)
For Janoi, the Mising language is quite sufficient for expressing her feelings. She says, she does not know Assamese at all and never talked to an Assamese person in her life. But even she, without being aware, uses an Assamese word (misingised form) when she says ‘ngoluk omoniyang-éi yéma:bo’ (persons of my age are no
more). This word ‘omoniyang’ is originally from the Assamese word ‘homoniya’
meaning ‘of same age’ - the sound of ‘h’ becomes that of ‘o’ and with ‘ng’ at the end of the word, it has become a Mising word. Further, her name itself is an Assamese word (meaning loved one). In this way, even the illiterate, particularly members of the older generations use a number of misingised Assamese words and in some cases direct Assamese words and short clauses mainly unconsciously. However, use of Assamese sentences or complete switch over to Assamese among the illiterate is not common. Her eldest son Padmo is literate and is a primary school teacher. He switches to Assamese as he guesses his mother’s age in Sentence 6 without being directly asked which indicates that it is a spontaneous outflow to help his mother.
Again while asked, he switches off and on to L2 while making his reply. According to him, mostly the Misings switch to Assamese in making verbal communications without being aware of the switching. However, while making intentional switches, they are conscious about it. He gives his own current speech as an example and, as he says, after being aware of it now, he speaks Mising without using Assamese in Sentence 19, 20, and 21.
Example 2
Setting : Inside the house of Parboti Doley at village Gali on the evening of October 21, 2007. One of the cows has not returned home till evening. The guwal (cowboy) returns after looking around in the village and reports that it has not been found.
Three boys of the village too are present in the household on a casual visit to the family. The boys extend their help in exploring the possibilities as to where the cow could go. The conversation takes place as follows :
1 Parboti : (To the guwal) Sunil-a no okol dungan go:ru raki ma:pé. (Sunil, where were you without herding the cattle ?)
2 Sunil : Élé ka:k Jibon b :na nangol ésingko té:ledpo:teika émna dal-ko té:bikanna. (As asked by uncle Jibon, I went to cut down a tree- branch for making a plough.)
3 : Kontégo:ngkona, oddoina yokka:né. (It took a moment only, then the cow got lost.)
4 Boy A : Pe:gérang dukan yabkurdo koyo lo:tu:do nésin dol du:dop ka:tai.
(In the afternoon, it was seen grazing behind the shop of the Pegu household.)
5 Boy B : Okodén gai-dé:ye domora-dé:ye. (Which one, the mother or the he- calf.)
6 Parboti : Gai-dé:na. (The mother.)
7 Boy B : Éi, Sunil kangk ta:k, domora:dé guwali-té du:yé, kama:yé. (Hello, Sunil, go and see if the he-calf is there in the cowshed.)
8 Sunil : Dung, koyobo g a:dungkubo. (It’s there, it has returned quite sometime back.)
9 Boy B : Émpém lo g a:yéku, ya:yo. (Then it will come back, Grandmother.) 10 : Aodém mége:la anédé okol yokyen. (Where will the mother go
leaving the calf.)
As Parboti asks her cowboy Sunil why he did not herd the cattle properly in Sentence 1, she switches over to Assamese when she uses go:ru raki meaning herding of cattle. This comes from the Assamese ‘goru rokha’ with the same meaning. It has come into the Mising vocabulary with intonations fitting the Mising tongue. This is used as a compound verb and is now an integral part of the Mising vocabulary in the rural areas. Similarly, the words, Konteg in Sentence 3, is the intonated version of
‘Khyontek’ meaning ‘moment’ and guwali in Sentence 7 is the Misingised form of the Assamese ‘guhali’ meaning cowshed. Some words are used as the original Assamese words, such as, nangol (plough) and dal (branch of a tree) in Sentence 2, dukan (shop) in Sentence 4, gai (mother cow) and domora (he-calf) in Sentence 5 and 6. Although the Assamese-origin words and phrases figure spontaneously in the Mising vocabulary as innate parts of speech, they are borrowed from the Assamese- speaking society during acculturation. Now they are deeply rooted in the vocabulary, many of them intonated and misingised as seen above. Mising speakers use them
unconsciously as an unmarked medium of communication during all forms of conversation in the villages.
Example 3
Setting : The community hall of village Gali on April 15, 2002. A group discussion is in progress on bilingualism and its use by the Misings. The group discussion is attended by eight participants. Among them is Birkudhar Pao (56) who is a High School teacher working at Laimekuri. In reply to a question by one of the participants, he says the following :
1 Q : Émpém lo, Pao sir-b luk toka, ngolu Mipag agom lulusuma:pé a ké asin mé:namém lula:ma:ne? (Then, Pao sir, please give your viewpoints, cant’t we express our feelings without mixing with the Assamese language ?)
2 Birkudhar : Lulusupé idag. (We have to talk in a mixture.)
3 : Édd koi ludaggom, Misingo:pé lungaplangkuma. (Whatever you say, we can not express all our feelings through Mising alone.) 4 Karon ngolu Asom desor manuh, ngolu édémpéi ika:bo. (Because,
we are the people of Assam, we have become a mixed-language speaker.)
5 : Lulusul lunamdéi ngoluk bhasha-pé ika:bo. (Talking in a mixed language itself has become our language.)
According to Birkudhar Pao, the Misings are far from being able to express their feelings in Mising alone. Language-mixing in verbal interactions must be resorted to if one has to express his/her feelings. This is mainly because of the fact that the Misings are living in a mixed social setting with the Assamese–speaking people with whom they interact everyday. He further states that talking in a mixed language itself has become the unmarked language of the Misings.