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2. Among these groups, Adi, Aka, Dafla and Missing have striking similarities. According to Grierson, "Abor Miris and Daflas speak dialects which are so closely related that they can justly be considered as one and the same form of speech". In turn, the Dafla and the Adi groups have striking similarities. The Mishmi group differs from the Dafla and the Adi groups in many respects, yet it is not difficult to arrive at their immediate common source by applying the comparative method. The following correspondences of cognate forms are sufficient to prove it.*

Digaru
Dafla
Mising


m-pu
óp
uepśk
‘arrow’
dhoN
dłm
dumit
‘hair’
me
ami
ami
‘man’
tab
tab
tabi
‘snake’
maši
eši
asi
‘water’

2.1. At the morphological level too, there are striking similarities. In Mishmi, the plural marker is /-loN/ which is similar to Mising pronoun plural marker /-lu/. Gender is natural in all these languages. Words for male and female are suffixed to distinguish gender, viz., in Aka, /-an/ and /-ani/ are suffixed to denote masculine and feminine respectively whereas in Mising /-ab¨/ denotes masculine and /-ane/ denotes feminine gender.
There are a few instances which prove the exigecy to consider that these languages must have branched off from a common parent speech.
3. Mising has eight dialects, categorized into three groups on the basis of linguistic similarities.
(a) Oyan, Pagro and Delu
(b) Sayang, Dambug, Somuwa and Moying
(c) Samuguria
4. These different dialects are named after the different clans in the Mising society. Dialectal variations are noticeable at the phonological and, to some extent, at the morphological level; but the speaker of one dialect easily understands the speech of the speaker of another dialect. Only Samuguria dialect differs from the rest of the dialects. It is heavily influenced by Assamese at the phonological, the morphological and the syntactic levels. A few examples given below will clear the point :
(a) At the phonological level, Samuguria has developed voiced aspirate sounds:

Samuguria
Sayang
gakhir
gakir
‘milk’
dekh
de
‘country’
aphut
apūt
‘foam’
sipary
mensaru
‘fox’
mekhola
mekola
‘petticoat’
bilahi
bilai
‘tomato’

(b) At the morphological level, the Samuguria dialect speakers freely use Assamese words. It won’t be pungent to say that even in their houses they use Assamese in their daily discourse, although they follow all the Mising codes and conducts.

Samuguria
Sayang


Singular
Plural
Singular
Plural
mekuri
mekuri-bilak
mekuri
mekuri-kirede
‘cat’
‘cats’
‘cat’
‘cats’
manuh
manuh-bilak
ami
ami-kiride
‘man’
‘men’
‘man’
‘men’

(c) At the syntactic level also Assamese influence on Samuguria is evident.

Samuguria
Sayang
Assamese
nan apin de
nane apin bitoka
ma bhat de
mother rice give
mother rice give
mother rice give
makbhai gļse
nokke birogidun
marbhai jayše
‘My brother is going’

 

 

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