Austroasiatic Research Articles

From Transcript to “Trans-Script”: Romanized Santali across Semiotic Media

Santali is an Austro-Asiatic language spoken throughout eastern India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. It is currently written in multiple scripts, including a Roman script devised by missionaries in the late nineteenth century, various Indic scripts, and an independently derived script, Ol-Chiki. Each of these script systems entails different sound-to-script relationships, especially for phones such as the word-final glottalized consonants, which are not present in the dominant Indo-European vernaculars. This article traces the historical transformations of sound-to-script relations in the various scripts of Santali and tracks in particular a Romanized Santali transcription orthography that developed as a way to mediate between different scripts. The Romanized Santali form assumed a particular importance as Santali speakers started using Santali in digital and online spaces due to software limitations. However, the differing use of variants within the script to represent sounds such as word-final glottal consonants shows that what appears to be a novel orthography is in fact a “trans-script,” rhematizing the historical and ideological trajectories of the various script systems already in use in nondigital domains. The article claims that the Romanized “trans-script,” though internally diverse, has been deployed to further the standardization project and cultural politics associated with the Ol-Chiki script.

НИКОБАРСКИЕ ЯЗЫКИ И ДРЕВНЕКХМЕРСКИЙ: ФОРМЫ ЗАВИСИМОЙ ПРЕДИКАЦИИ

The aim of this article is to show that Nicobarese languages Car and Nancowry, which are modern vernacular idioms of the indigenous population of the Nicobar Islands, and Old Khmer — the language of epigraphic inscriptions of 7th–15th A.D., possess a considerable fragment of grammatical system, which coincides in almost every detail. That is the system of forms of dependent predication, i.e. synthetic forms with allomorphs of labial and dental infixes and analytical forms with the marker ta. This fact is somewhat challenging since Nicobarese and Khmer are distant relatives, typologically different, they have different status and temporal affiliation. Data analysis shows that forms with ta in Nicobarese and Old Khmer are used in the same types of dependent predications, i.e. in verb, adjective, noun, pronoun, numeral modifiers, in relative clauses and clauses of time and reason, as well as in sentences with rheme shift. Infixed forms in the languages under comparison underwent lexicalization. However, as a relic they are still used in dependent predications of some types. In the languages compared we find similar examples of variation and dubbing of means marking dependent predication which successively replaced one another on the diachronic scale, i. e. infixed forms and forms with ta, forms with ta and conjunctions. Coincidence of the functional domain of forms of dependent predication in Nicobarese and Old Khmer is unique and cannot be found anywhere else all over the Austroasiatic phylum. In other Austroasiatic languages those forms are either extinct, or preserved as lexicalized units, or else are found in odd relic functions, e.g. the possession suffix ta in Santali.

Expressives and the multimodal depiction of social types in Mundari

AbstractPresent in many of the world's languages, expressives (also called ideophones or mimetics) are commonly discussed as iconic ‘depictions’ of speaker's sensual experiences. Yet anthropologists and linguists working with these constructions have noticed that they also index ‘social types’ that perdure across interactional events. This article analyzes the semiotic relation between depiction and social stereotypes embedded in expressive use by examining video data from interviews with speakers of Mundari, an expressive-rich Austro-Asiatic language spoken in eastern India. Presenting interview data taken from both lab-based elicitations as well as ethnographic interviews in Mundari-speaking villages, the article claims that speakers deploy multimodal resources such as gesture and gaze in concert with expressives in order to re-intepret social indexes as felt, embodied experiences (rheme) while also juxtaposing these experiences with elements in the immediately perceptible material world (dicent). The article also addresses issues of ethics, agency, and materiality entailed by multimodal expressive depiction. (Ideophones, multimodality, materiality, embodiment, semiotics)*

A comparative study of the tense and aspect in Standard Khasi and its varieties

In this study, we will undertake a comparative study of the syntax of the Tense and Aspect of Standard Khasi, an Austro-Asiatic language spoken in the state of Meghalaya and its two varieties Trangblang and Mawlong. Trangblang belongs to the War-Jaiñtia dialect of Khasi and is spoken in Trangblang village situated in Amlarem Block in Jaiñtia Hills District. Mawlong, on the other hand, is a War-Khasi dialect of Khasi and is spoken in Mawlong village located in the East Khasi Hills District. The main aim of this study is to compare and contrast the similarity and variation between these varieties when compared with the Standard Khasi using a comparative methodology. This study also aims to present the morphology of Tense and Aspect and to account for the syntactic analyses of Tense and Aspect in these varieties.

Pigmentation Phenotype Prediction of Chinese Populations from Different Language Families.

Objective To predict the pigmentation phenotypes of Chinese populations from different language families, analyze the differences and provide reference data for forensic anthropology and genetics. Methods The HIrisPlex-S multiplex amplification system with 41 loci related to pigmentation phenotypes was constructed in the laboratory, and 2 666 DNA samples of adult males of 17 populations from six language families, including Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, Altaic, Hmong-Mien, Tai-Kadai and Austro-Asiatic language families distributed in different regions of China were genotyped. The pigmentation phenotype category of each individual was predicted using the online prediction system （https://HIrisPlex.erasmusmc.nl/）, and then the output data were statistically analyzed. Results About 1.92% of the individuals of Asian-European admixed populations from Indo-European and Altaic language families had blue eyes and 34.29% had brown or gold hair. The phenotypes of the color of eyes and hair of other populations had no significant difference, all individuals had brown eyes and black hair. There were differences in skin color of populations of different language families and geographical areas. The Indo-European language family had the lightest skin color, and the Austro-Asiatic language family had the darkest skin color; the southwestern minority populations had a darker skin color than populations in the plain areas. Conclusion The prediction results of pigmentation phenotype of Chinese populations are consistent with the perception of the appearance of each population, proving the reliability of the system. The color of eyes and hair are mainly related to ancestral components, while the skin color shows the differences between language families, and is closely related to geographical distribution of populations.

Genetic Architecture of Southeast-coastal Indian tribal populations: A Y-chromosomal phylogenetic analysis

BackgroundY chromosome single nucleotide polymorphisms (Y-SNPs) are useful markers for reconstructing male lineages, haplogroup determinations, and paternity identifications. Since Y chromosome lacks recombination, the haplogroups of this series show a greater extent of diverse genome-specific geographical distributions and these haplogroups have been found to play a major role in forensic investigations and population genetics.Materials and methodsThe present study is aimed at determining the Y chromosomal phylogeny of two southeast coastal Indian tribal populations (Porja and Savara; N = 217), using a set of 15 bi-allelic markers on the non-recombining region of Y chromosome, representing two Austro-Asiatic (AA) language speaking populations.Results and conclusionsThe phylogenetic analysis revealed four paternal haplogroups, viz., H1*-M52, H1a*-M82, O2a*-M95, and R2-M124, with high frequency (84.79%) represented by the Austro-Asiatic-specific haplogroup O2a* (M95), confirming to the fact of O2a* haplogroup being the paternal signature of AA language family of Southeast Asians.

The genetic legacy of continental scale admixture in Indian Austroasiatic speakers

Surrounded by speakers of Indo-European, Dravidian and Tibeto-Burman languages, around 11 million Munda (a branch of Austroasiatic language family) speakers live in the densely populated and genetically diverse South Asia. Their genetic makeup holds components characteristic of South Asians as well as Southeast Asians. The admixture time between these components has been previously estimated on the basis of archaeology, linguistics and uniparental markers. Using genome-wide genotype data of 102 Munda speakers and contextual data from South and Southeast Asia, we retrieved admixture dates between 2000–3800 years ago for different populations of Munda. The best modern proxies for the source populations for the admixture with proportions 0.29/0.71 are Lao people from Laos and Dravidian speakers from Kerala in India. The South Asian population(s), with whom the incoming Southeast Asians intermixed, had a smaller proportion of West Eurasian genetic component than contemporary proxies. Somewhat surprisingly Malaysian Peninsular tribes rather than the geographically closer Austroasiatic languages speakers like Vietnamese and Cambodians show highest sharing of IBD segments with the Munda. In addition, we affirmed that the grouping of the Munda speakers into North and South Munda based on linguistics is in concordance with genome-wide data.

“Brāhmaṇa” as an honorific in “Indianized” mainland Southeast Asia: a linguistic approach

AbstractThis article aims at demonstrating that the Old Khmerb/vraḥoriginates from a syllabic depletion of the Sanskrit wordbrāhmaṇathrough a monosyllabization process, a widespread diachronic phenomenon among the Mon-Khmer languages of Mainland Southeast Asia. The paper will also show that this term must have been originally used as an honorific for deities and, consequently, for royalty. It therefore respectfully disagrees with two other current hypotheses according to whichb/vraḥwould be an autochthonous Mon-Khmer word or would originate in the Sanskrit/Pali wordvara-“excellent, splendid, noble”. After being borrowed from Sanskrit, the Old Khmerbraḥspread via a contact phenomenon: from Old Khmer to Old Siamese, from Old Siamese to Old Shan through the “Thai Continuum”, and from Old Shan to Old Burmese. The implications of this paper are twofold: firstly, it will sketch out a pattern for the historical relationships between different peoples of Mainland Southeast Asia; then, it will propose a first phase of Indianization in Southeast Asia, namely a local reconnotation of Indo-Aryan terms according to autochthonous socio-political contingencies, and consequently bring a draft answer to the “Woltersian” question: what is the local connotation of Indo-Aryan terms?

The synchronic and diachronic phonology of Va

AbstractVa, an obscure language of Southwestern Yunnan, belongs to the Wa-Lawa cluster under the Waic subgroup of Palaungic in the Austroasiatic language family. This article presents an overview of Va synchronic phonology and an account of its evolution from the Proto-Wa-Lawa sound system reconstructed by Gérard Diffloth. Modern Va phonology is characterized by fully monosyllabic word structure, reduced syllable canon, and a robust three-tone system. Its atypical phonological profile from an Austroasiatic perspective and its tonogenesis may be directly attributed to the sociolinguistic ambience of the Va-speaking areas. The phonological innovations discussed herein, including onset-driven tone splitting rules and coda-driven vowel splitting rules, will help determine the language’s distinct status within the Wa-Lawa language cluster.

Coordination between Lexical Tones and Melody in Traditional Kammu Singing

The study of the interaction between music and language is a small but rather active branch of musicology and linguistics. The two disciplines seldom meet. In this study we add a linguistic approach to our ethnomusicological knowledge. The cultural setting under study is Kammu, an Austroasiatic language spoken mainly in Laos. Kammu is a tone language where each syllable has a tone, either High or Low. The overarching melodic template is separated from tones to detect if or how lexical tones interact with melody. We study three genres, all performed by the same singer. The degree of preservation of lexical tones is genre dependent. Three main types of genres are found, tone-centered with melodic template built solely on lexical tones, melody- and tone-centered, and melody-centered in which lexical tones adapt to melody. (Less)

Pronoun system of the Stieng language

This paper presents the basics of the pronoun system of the Stieng language to define some similarities and differences between the pronouns of the Stieng language and those of the Vietnamese language. The pronoun system of each nation not only performs the function of communication but also expresses the linguistic and cultural characteristics of that nation. The position of the Stieng language pronouns and its expressiveness in communication has their own characteristics. Through the Stieng sentences we have recorded and investigated in Hon in Binh Phuoc province, we make some general remarks about the pronouns of the Stieng language and the interesting differences in the language system of the minority belonging to the Mon-Khmer language family. The paper is the first steps in understanding the use of pronouns in the Stieng language.

A preliminary study of Mnar

The present paper is an initiatory investigation of Mnar, a dialect of Khasi, which is classified under the Mon-Khmer branch of the Austro-Asiatic language family. Mnar occupies the area known as Jirang, which falls under the RiBhoi district of Meghalaya. Although, Mnar shares common structural traits with other Austro-Asiatic languages, it still exhibits unique properties, providing a great opportunity for succinct investigation of the structural patterns existing in the language.

Remosam: The Language of Man, Ethnographic Language of Bondas (Tribal) in Southern Orissa

Remosam, popularly known as Remo means ‘language of man’. The Remo language is a Munda language in the Austro-Asiatic family that speaks by the Remo (BONDA) tribe of eastern India. The Remo-speaking Bonda occupy the Jeypore Hills in southern Orissa, west of the Machkund River in Malkangiri district, centered on Mundlipada .The Plain’s Remo are found primarily in 35 villages in Khairput block of Malkangiri district. There are two general dialects of Remo: Hill Remo or Upper Remo, which is spoken in the villages of the Jeypore Hills, and Plains Remo (or Lower Remo), which is spoken in the Malkangiri Plain between the Jeypore Hills and the main road into the region. Fernandez claims that there is evidence of... two [dialects] in the hills With fewer than nine thousand native speakers, Remo is one of the highlights of what the Living Tongues Institute has classified as the Greater South Asia Language Hotspot. Between 1950, when Remo was first extensively written about, and the present day, very little attention has been paid to this community. In 2005, the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages began a project to document Remo, to increase both awareness of and access to Remo on the Internet. The unique aspects of this language drew me for studying it further. There is a paucity of published sources and recent linguistic research on the language of Remo. What it really needs is a complete and up-to-date reference grammar and lexicon, which will move it beyond the status of an under-documented language and into the common cognizance of the linguistic community. This paper makes progress toward this goal by filling in gaps left by previous work on Remo in the areas of its phonetics and phonology. My hope is that others may use it in the future for the purposes of Investigating, Munda phonology, writing the aforementioned Remo reference grammar, or even learning how to speak this hidden treasure of a language.

Tone marks as vowel diacritics in two scripts: repurposing tone marks for non-tonal phenomena in Cado and other Southeast Asian languages

Many scripts in Southeast Asia have developed ways of marking tone. When adapting such scripts to write non-tonal languages, language communities often find other uses for these symbols. The case of Cado, an Austroasiatic language of the Katuic sub-branch in Vietnam and Laos, is particularly striking in that they use tone marks as vowel diacritics in two different scripts. Because Cado speakers live on both sides of the Vietnamese-Lao border, they have chosen to use two separate writing systems based on their respective national languages. This paper presents preliminary orthographies for Cado in the Roman and Lao scripts, based on the Vietnamese and Lao orthographies. Cado has no phonation contrast, but it does retain vowel length contrast. Both Cado orthographies adapt tone marks from the Vietnamese and Lao orthographies to distinguish either vowel length or vowel quality respectively. The phonetic motivation for this cross-categorical use of tone marks is discussed, and examples of other orthographies in Southeast Asia that adapt tone marks and other symbols beyond their traditional phonetic category are given and compared with Cado.

Jedek: A newly discovered Aslian variety of Malaysia

AbstractJedek is a previously unrecognized variety of the Northern Aslian subgroup of the Aslian branch of the Austroasiatic language family. It is spoken by about 280 individuals in the resettlement area of Sungai Rual, near Jeli in Kelantan state, Peninsular Malaysia. The community originally consisted of several bands of foragers along the middle reaches of the Pergau river. Jedek’s distinct status first became known during a linguistic survey carried out in the DOBES project

Erratum to: Complete mitochondrial genomes of Thai and Lao populations indicate an ancient origin of Austroasiatic groups and demic diffusion in the spread of Tai-Kadai languages.

The Tai–Kadai (TK) language family is thought to have originated in southern China and spread to Thailand and Laos, but it is not clear if TK languages spread by demic diffusion (i.e., a migration of people from southern China) or by cultural diffusion, with native Austroasiatic (AA) speakers switching to TK languages. To address this and other questions, we obtained 1234 complete mtDNA genome sequences from 51 TK and AA groups from Thailand and Laos. We find high genetic heterogeneity across the region, with 212 different haplogroups, and significant genetic differentiation among different samples from the same ethnolinguistic group. TK groups are more genetically homogeneous than AA groups, with the latter exhibiting more ancient/basal mtDNA lineages, and showing more drift effects. Modeling of demic diffusion, cultural diffusion, and admixture scenarios consistently supports the spread of TK languages by demic diffusion.

Reconstructing the population history of the largest tribe of India: the Dravidian speaking Gond.

The Gond comprise the largest tribal group of India with a population exceeding 12 million. Linguistically, the Gond belong to the Gondi-Manda subgroup of the South Central branch of the Dravidian language family. Ethnographers, anthropologists and linguists entertain mutually incompatible hypotheses on their origin. Genetic studies of these people have thus far suffered from the low resolution of the genetic data or the limited number of samples. Therefore, to gain a more comprehensive view on ancient ancestry and genetic affinities of the Gond with the neighbouring populations speaking Indo-European, Dravidian and Austroasiatic languages, we have studied four geographically distinct groups of Gond using high-resolution data. All the Gond groups share a common ancestry with a certain degree of isolation and differentiation. Our allele frequency and haplotype-based analyses reveal that the Gond share substantial genetic ancestry with the Indian Austroasiatic (ie, Munda) groups, rather than with the other Dravidian groups to whom they are most closely related linguistically.

Complete mitochondrial genomes of Thai and Lao populations indicate an ancient origin of Austroasiatic groups and demic diffusion in the spread of Tai\u2013Kadai languages

The Tai–Kadai (TK) language family is thought to have originated in southern China and spread to Thailand and Laos, but it is not clear if TK languages spread by demic diffusion (i.e., a migration of people from southern China) or by cultural diffusion, with native Austroasiatic (AA) speakers switching to TK languages. To address this and other questions, we obtained 1234 complete mtDNA genome sequences from 51 TK and AA groups from Thailand and Laos. We find high genetic heterogeneity across the region, with 212 different haplogroups, and significant genetic differentiation among different samples from the same ethnolinguistic group. TK groups are more genetically homogeneous than AA groups, with the latter exhibiting more ancient/basal mtDNA lineages, and showing more drift effects. Modeling of demic diffusion, cultural diffusion, and admixture scenarios consistently supports the spread of TK languages by demic diffusion.

The Semang Kensiu Orang Asli of Lubuk Legong, Baling: Their Language and Cultural Endangerment

This paper reports on a study on endangered indigenous Semang group of Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia, with the main focus on the Semang Kensiu sub-group of Orang Asli of Lubok Legong, Baling. It presents findings of the study on language choice based on 225 word lists conducted on the Semang Kensiu Orang Asli community in the northern state of Kedah, Malaysia. The Semang are the smallest group of Orang Asli sub groups in Peninsular Malaysia, and are classified under the Northern Aslian group (Benjamin, 2012). Their language belongs to Mon-Khmer language. They comprise only 3.2% of the Orang Asli population (JHEOA (1994)). JHEOA, 2008 statistics show that the total population has decreased to 2.6%. Some Orang Asli groups have suffered physical, cultural and language extinction over the last century. Wazir Jahan Karim (2001) notes that some groups of Orang Asli have experienced a demographic crisis, disappearing while others disperse into smaller groups and eventually assimilate with Malay or other Orang Asli communities. She expresses concern about the future of Semang languages due to this discouraging pattern of population growth. Burenhault (2001) also reported the threatened status of the Semang language. This is further supported by the findings of the study conducted by Fazrul Azmin Zakaria (2010) which state that the Semang Kensiu's language is at 2.25 on the scale of the UNESCO's Level of Endangerment suggesting that the Semang Kensiu's language is considered to be ‘severely endangered’ language under the UNESCO classification (2007).

Y-chromosome diversity suggests southern origin and Paleolithic backwave migration of Austro-Asiatic speakers from eastern Asia to the Indian subcontinent.

Analyses of an Asian-specific Y-chromosome lineage (O2a1-M95)—the dominant paternal lineage in Austro-Asiatic (AA) speaking populations, who are found on both sides of the Bay of Bengal—led to two competing hypothesis of this group’s geographic origin and migratory routes. One hypothesis posits the origin of the AA speakers in India and an eastward dispersal to Southeast Asia, while the other places an origin in Southeast Asia with westward dispersal to India. Here, we collected samples of AA-speaking populations from mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA) and southern China, and genotyped 16 Y-STRs of 343 males who belong to the O2a1-M95 lineage. Combining our samples with previous data, we analyzed both the Y-chromosome and mtDNA diversities. We generated a comprehensive picture of the O2a1-M95 lineage in Asia. We demonstrated that the O2a1-M95 lineage originated in the southern East Asia among the Daic-speaking populations ~20–40 thousand years ago and then dispersed southward to Southeast Asia after the Last Glacial Maximum before moving westward to the Indian subcontinent. This migration resulted in the current distribution of this Y-chromosome lineage in the AA-speaking populations. Further analysis of mtDNA diversity showed a different pattern, supporting a previously proposed sex-biased admixture of the AA-speaking populations in India.