The Boro–Garo languages are a branch of

Sino-Tibetan languages Sino-Tibetan, also cited as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese languages. ...

, spoken primarily in

Northeast India , native_name_lang = mni , settlement_type = , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = , motto = , image_map = Northeast india.png , ...

and parts of

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million pe ...

. The Boro–Garo languages form four groups: Boro, Garo, Koch and Deori. Boro–Garo languages were historically very widespread throughout the

Brahmaputra Valley The Brahmaputra Valley is a region situated between hill ranges of the eastern and northeastern Himalayan range in Eastern India. The valley consists of the Western Brahmaputra Valley covering the regions of Goalpara and Kamrup; the Central ...

and in what are now the northern parts of

, and it is speculated that the proto-Boro-Garo language was the lingua franca of the Brahmaputra valley before it was replaced by

Assamese language Assamese (), also Asamiya ( ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken mainly in the north-east Indian state of Assam, where it is an official language, and it serves as a ''lingua franca'' of the wider region. The easternmost Indo-Iranian languag ...

, to which it has made major contributions.

Branches

The Boro-Garo languages were identified in the Grierson's Language Survey of India, and the names of the languages and their modern equivalents are given below in the table.

Sub groups

The Boro-Garo languages have been further divided into four subgroups by Burling. *

Koch languages The Koch languages are a small group of Boro-Garo languages a sub-branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in Northeast India. Burling (2012) calls this the "Rabha group". They are: * Atong * Koch * Ruga *Rabha The Rajbongshi, who currently ...

: Atong,

Koch Koch may refer to: People * Koch (surname), people with this surname * Koch dynasty, a dynasty in Assam and Bengal, north east India * Koch family * Koch people (or Koche), an ethnic group originally from the ancient Koch kingdom in north east ...

Ruga Ruga may refer to: * Ruga (anatomy), an anatomical fold *Ruga, Nepal * Ruga language, an extinct Sino-Tibetan language that was spoken in Meghalaya, India *Ruga-Ruga Ruga-Ruga (sometimes called Rugaruga) were irregular troops in Eastern Africa, ...

, Rabha * Garo languages: Garo, Megam *

Bodo languages The Boroic languages (also simply Boro languages in a wider sense) are a group of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in northeastern India. They are: * Boro * Dimasa * Kachari * Kokborok (Tripuri) * Tiwa The Barman language is a recently discovered B ...

Bodo Bodo may refer to: Ethnicity * Boro people, an ethno-linguistic group mainly from Northwest Assam, India * Bodo-Kachari people, an umbrella group from Nepal, India and Bangladesh that includes the Bodo people Culture and language * Boro cu ...

, Dimasa, Barman, Tiwa,

Kokborok Kokborok (also known as Tripuri or Tiprakok) is the main native language of the Tripuri people of the Indian state of Tripura and neighbouring areas of Bangladesh. Its name comes from ''kok'' meaning "verbal" and ''borok'' meaning "people" or ...

(Tripuri), Kachari,

Moran Moran may refer to: Places Antarctica * Moran Bluff, Marie Byrd Land * Moran Buttress, Marie Byrd Land * Moran Glacier, Alexander Island Asia * Moran Town, Assam, India * Moran, Israel, a kibbutz * Moran Hill, North Korea * Moran Station, a s ...

* Deori language Old Hajong may have been a Bodo–Garo language. Barman is a recently discovered Bodo–Garo language.A brief linguistic sketch of the Barman Thar (Language)
Tezpur University. Boro is an associate official language of the state of

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

(Tripuri) is one of the official languages of the state of

Tripura Tripura (, Bengali: ) is a state in Northeast India. The third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a population of 36.71 lakh ( 3.67 million). It is bordered by Assam and Mizoram to the eas ...

. Garo is an associate official language of

Meghalaya Meghalaya (, or , meaning "abode of clouds"; from Sanskrit , "cloud" + , "abode") is a state in northeastern India. Meghalaya was formed on 21 January 1972 by carving out two districts from the state of Assam: (a) the United Khasi Hills and Jai ...

. Megam has been strongly influenced by Khasic languages, while Deori-Chutia by the

Idu Mishmi language The Idu Mishmi language () is a small language spoken by the Mishmi people in Dibang Valley district, Lower Dibang Valley district, Lohit district, East Siang district, Upper Siang district of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh and in Za ...

. Languages of the family feature verb-final word order. There is some flexibility in the order of the arguments, but a nominative–accusative distinction is marked with post-nominal

clitic In morphology and syntax, a clitic (, backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a ...

s. The languages also prefix classifiers to numerals modifying nouns. tense, aspect and

mood Mood may refer to: *Mood (psychology), a relatively long lasting emotional state Music *The Mood, a British pop band from 1981 to 1984 * Mood (band), hip hop artists * ''Mood'' (Jacquees album), 2016 * ''Moods'' (Barbara Mandrell album), 1978 ...

are indicated using verbal suffixes.

Origins

The linkage of the Boro–Garo languages with Konyak and Jingphaw languages suggest that proto-Boro-Garo entered Assam from somewhere to the northeast. It has been proposed that the ''proto''-Boro-Garo language was a ''lingua franca'' of different linguistic communities, not all of who were native speakers, and that it began as a

creolized A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable natural language that develops from the simplifying and mixing of different languages into a new one within a fairly brief period of time: often, a pidgin evolved into a full-fledged language. Wh ...

lingua franca. This would account for the highly reduced morphology of Boro–Garo, with what morphology is present mostly being regular, loosely bound, and with transparent etymology, typical signs of recent origin.

Classification

Joseph & Burling (2006)

Joseph & Burling (2006:1-2) classify the Boro–Garo languages into four major groups. Wood (2008:6) also follows this classification. * Deori * Boro languages: Boro,

, Tiwa * Garo *

, Rabha, Wanang, Atong, and

Jacquesson (2006)

Jacquesson (2017:112)Jacquesson, François and van Breugel, Seino (2017). "The linguistic reconstruction of the past: The case of the Boro-Garo languages." In ''Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area'', 40, 90-122. [Note: English translation of the French original: Jacquesson, François (2006). ‘La reconstruction linguistique du passé: Le cas des language Boro-Garo’. ''Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris'' 101(1): 273–303.] classifies the Boro-Garo languages as follows, and recognizes three major branches (Western, Central, and Eastern). The

and Garo are grouped together as Western Boro-Garo. *Western ** Garo, ** Rabha,

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known a ...

** Boro, Mech **Bru ** Dimasa,

*Eastern ** Deori Jacquesson (2017) believes that the Boro–Garo languages had arrived in their present location from the southeast, and notes similarities shared with

Zeme languages The Zemeic, Zeme, or ZeliangrongMortensen, David R. (2003). �Comparative Tangkhul” Unpublished Qualifying Paper, UC Berkeley. languages are a branch of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken mostly in Indian state of Nagaland, Assam and Manipur in north ...

and

Kuki-Chin languages The Kuki-Chin languages (also called Kuki-Chin-Mizo, Kukish or South-Central Tibeto-Burman languages) are a branch of 50 or so Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in northeastern India, western Myanmar and southeastern Bangladesh. Most speakers of the ...

Reconstruction

Proto-Boro–Garo has been reconstructed by Joseph and Burling (2006) and by Wood (2008).

Notes

References

* *Joseph, U.V., and Burling, Robbins. 2006. ''Comparative phonology of the Boro Garo languages''. Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages Publication. *