Hajong- A Study in Relation to Assamese and Bengali

Abstract

Hajong is a language used by the ethnic tribe called Hajong living in the states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and West Bengal in India and the Mymensing district in Bangladesh. The Hajong language belongs to the Indo Aryan (IA) family of language. As per the Ethnologue, Hajong is classified as Indo-European > Indo- Iranian > Indo- Aryan > Eastern zone > Bengali- Assamese. The Hajong language used by the Hajong people today may be considered as a mixture of Assamese and Bengali (involving different dialects of these languages). The Hajongs of Assam are seen to use a mixture of Kamrupi and Goalparia dialects of the Assamese language in their conversation. However, Ratan Kumar Ray Hajong (1982) holds that the Hajongs had their own language in the distant past and it disappeared in course of time the certain reasons for which are known to nobody. Our study reveals that Hajong as spoken in the present day has affinity with Assamese and Bengali as well as it has some unique features of its own. “Hajong is classified as an Indo-Aryan language. It has some degree of similarity with Assamese and Bengali, the two IA languages spoken in the region” (Guts 2012). The paper tries to introduce this tribal language and analyze how it has affinity with Assamese and Bengali.It also tries to discuss about its linguistic features along with its present status concerning its development.