| 1.4.5.
There are two significant suprasegmental features in this language,
viz., high tone and level tone which show contrast. |
| 1.4.6. Nasalized vowels
occur only in two words hi)
‘yes’ and i)hi)
‘no’. |
| 1.4.7. Lengthening
of a vowel denotes distance and is very often found accompanying with
demonstravtive particles. e.g., u ‘that’ u:
‘that which is far away’. Length otherwise is not significant. |
| 1.5.
Clusters: |
| 1.5.1. Vowel clusters
are rare. The few existing vowel clusters are across morpheme boundary. |
| 1.5.2. In Kokborok,
consonant clusters within a word are primarily formed by combining
nasals with other consonants. m and y are the most frequent
members of the clusters. |
| Example: |
|
mp
|
 mpa |
‘the
serive rendered by bride- groom before marriage’
|
|
mb
|
|
‘swelling’
|
|
mr
|
damra
|
‘small
sickle’
|
|
ml
|
kmla
|
‘orange’
|
|
|
|
nt
|
 ntay |
‘head
priest, who has right to perform ‘ker’
pooja’
|
|
nd
|
pilanda
|
‘bald’
|
n
|
|
‘fishing
net’
|
n
|
bani
|
‘barren
women’
|
 k |
paka
|
‘fan’
|
kh
|
|
‘come
out’
|
g
|
|
‘cripple’
|
1
|
yla
|
‘frog’
|
r
|
guri
|
‘powder’
|
|
|
|
‘world,
universe’
|
|
|
|
‘a
recipe of fried vegetable’
|
|
|
| Clusters are also
formed by dropping the inter-consonantal vowel which is identical
with the vowel in the consecutive syllable. The deleted vowel is the
first vowel in a disyllabic word and the second vowel in a trisyllabic
word. |
| Examples: |
|
phuru
|
®
phru
|
‘time’
|
 ray
|
®
ray
|
‘boy’
|
mnk
|
®
mnk
|
‘swallow’
|
|
|
®
sl
|
‘servant’
|
|
|
|
‘horn’
|
|
|
