itself, on the
basis of the shared features these varieties at the phonological level
can be sub-grouped into three:
|
| (a) |
a southern
regional variety (SP), consisting of the speakers of Angami,
Kachari, Zemi, Liangmei, Rongmei, Rengma,Sema, Khezha, Chokri
and Mao.
|
| (b) |
a northern
regional variety (NP) consisting of the speakers of Konyak,
Sangtam, Phom, Chang and Khiamngan; and
|
| (c) |
a central
regional variety (CP) consisting of the speakers of Ao, Lotha
and Yimchunger. |
|
Of the three
regional varieties, the SP shows the maximal opposition in the
consonants7 in that only this variety shows
opposition between voiced and unvoiced stops. The NP has the least
oppositional features in that in addition to the neutralization of the
voiced/unvoiced opposition with the stops, it shows alternation
between the flap and the lateral on the one hand and amongst the
fricatives on the other hand. The central variety has an intermediary
position in that it retains the flap, the lateral and the three
fricatives as distinct phonemic inventory of the SP in given below:
|
|
vowels |
|
Consonants |
| i |
 |
u |
P |
t |
c |
k |
| e |
a |
i |
b |
d |
j |
g |
| |
|
|
Ph |
th |
ch |
kh |
| |
|
|
bh |
dh |
jh |
gh |
| |
|
|
m |
n |
|
n. |
| |
|
|
|
r1 |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
s. |
s. |
h |
| |
|
|
w |
|
y |
|
|
The vowels have
no special limitations in their distribution, but very few consonants
occur in the word-final position. jh occurs in a
very few words and the words having jh can also
be pronounced with its unaspirated counterpart, but the words having/j
cannot be propounded with jh. Given below are
two sets of words to illustrate the opposition amongst the vowels and
consonants. The Naga Pidgin words given below are in phonemic script.
|
| (a) Vowels |
mikuri ‘cat’,
mekele ‘girls dothi’, macor ‘mosquito’, maki ‘fly’ mokura ‘spider’,
mukosta ‘poetry’.
|
| (b) Consonants |
puk ‘insect’,
tukri ‘basket’, culi ‘feather’, kukur ‘dog’ bura ‘old age’, dud
‘breast of a girl’, jug ‘jeech’, guli ‘bullet’, phuli ‘swelling’, tuka
‘spit’, cuy sawa ‘touch’, kuka ‘cough’, bura ‘fine (adj)’, dul ‘drum’,
juja ‘wrestling’, gura ‘around’, muk ‘face’, nuare ‘literate’, be´a
‘deaf’, ruk ‘disease’, lum ‘fur’, suta ‘thread’, suta ‘interest
(loan)’, huy ‘sleep’, wul ‘wool’, yudi koridi ‘defeat (imp)’.
|
Grammar:
|
The pidgin under
consideration has a few grammatical classes which can be basically
sub-grouped into two, declinable and indeclinable. The noun, the
pronoun, the numeral and the verb in this pidgin are declinable while
the adjective, the demonstrative, the adverb, the intensifier and the
particles are indeclinable. The noun and the pronoun show opposition
in case. The numerals take some case suffixes. The verb shows
opposition in tense, aspect and modals. Though all the varieties of
the Naga Pidgin have the same number of grammatical classes, the
grammatical categories occurring with each class do not show any
uniformity with different varieties of the pidgin. A brief discussion
of these follows.
|
Number:
|
In the Angami
variety,8 the grammatical category of number is
available only with the nouns and the personal pronouns. The nouns
take/bilak/and the pronouns take/khan/as the markers of plurality.
However, the nouns referring to non-human class (Nnh class) optionally
delete the plural marker when the context gives the clue, whereas the
nouns referring to the human beings (NH class) delete the plural maker
only when it is in construction with a quantifier or a numeral.
|
This is a
characteristic feature of most of the Naga languages.6
|
The Zemi, the
Rongmei, the Rengma the Khezha, the Mao and the Chokri varieties
belonging to the Southern pidgin (SP) show absence of plurality with
the nouns referring to the inanimate being (Nina class) but show its
presence with NH class and the nouns referring to animate non-human
beings (Nanh class), e.g.,
|
suali
‘girl’ sualikhan
‘girls’
kukur ‘dog’ kukurkhan
‘dogs’
pata ‘leaf’ pata
‘leaves’ |
|
|
