Phonology of borrowed words in Khasi

Phonology of Borrowed Words in Khasi

Awadesh K. Mishra

Abstract: The present paper examines the phonological changes that have taken place in the borrowed words from Indo-Aryan languages and English in Khasi. Khasi has borrowed hundreds of words from Indo-Aryan (IA) languages like Sylheti (a variety of Bengali spoken in the neighborhood), Assamese, Hindi, and also from English. There are more than a thousand borrowed words from IA languages, and a couple of hundred words from English. The English words/expressions, especially technical/administrative terms (e.g. historī ‘history’, phlim ‘film’,kolej ‘college’, skul ‘school’, ophisar ‘officer’, etc.) , are still being borrowed freely.  Borrowing in Khasi is not “gratuitous”. It borrowed only those words/terms for which it didn’t already have stock. In the process of adaptation, these borrowed words have undergone considerable phonological changes, viz., epenthesis ,  metathesis , word-final devoicing , deaspiration , cluster simplification , elision,  trillation ,  haplology , vowel harmony , etc.  Some words also show semantic changes . Phonological rules for some of the processes have been formulated, and some examples of interaction of rules and derivation of words have also been provided.

1.    Introduction

The Khasi language belongs to the Mon-Khmer branch of Austro-Asiatic family of languages and is spoken in Meghalaya by 1,128,575 persons (Census of India, 2001).

Khasi has borrowed words from Indo-Aryan (henceforth referred to as IA) languages like Sylheti (a variety of Bengali spoken in the neighborhood), Assamese, Hindi, etc. and also from English (henceforth referred to as E). U. Nissor Singh identifies about 500 words as borrowed—about 450 from Assamese, Bengali and Hindi, and about 50 from English and Arabic. But, in reality, there are more than a thousand borrowed words from IA languages, and more than 200 words from English (e.g., cake [kēk], bus [bOs], station [steshOn], bom (doktor (cancer [kansOr], tiket ( phone [phon], block [blOk], local [lokal], skul (ophis (pulit (  taksi (sikret (seat [sīt], rel (phut (bill, kaset (  Instead of creating/coining new technical terms/expressions, Khasi keeps borrowing from English, and thus we find hundreds of technical terms (the Khasi words/expressions in the introduction section are presented  as they appear in written form in Khasi newspapers, etc.) like students’ union, chairman, secretary, parliament, party/parti, advertisement, result, check, kommiti (kilometer, run, wiket (elektrik (model, actress (hospital, surrender, conference, 8^th schedule, address, building, earnest money, applai (batsman, entry form, player, registration, referee, machine, grammar, paragraph, poitri (part time, full time, council, konstitwensi (caste certificate, kabinet (salute, estimate, degree, seminar, engineer, outpost, formula,  etc. used in both written and spoken Khasi. 

Although the Khasi speakers have had a long interaction with Sylheti (Bengali), Nepali and Hindi speakers (from Bihar and U.P.), their speech seems to have been influenced more by the Sylheti (Bengali) speakers which can be seen in words like doi ( Hindi dahī)‘yogurt’, kubī (and not kobī< Hindi gobhī) ‘cabbage’, rī (and not Hindi/Bhojpuri sem/sīm ) ‘bean’, musla ( < Sylheti mǝsla ; and not  mǝsala ) ‘ spice’, pakha (< Sylheti pakha )‘fan’ (and not < Hindi pǝŋkha), rutī (< Sylheti rutī) ‘bread’,  etc.

In the process of adaptation, these borrowed words have undergone considerable number of phonological changes, viz., epenthesis, metathesis, devoicing, deaspiration, cluster simplification, elision, haplology, vowel harmony, etc. Some words also show semantic changes (e.g., IA aa  (Khasi atta ) ‘flour’ means ‘chapati ‘Indian bread’ , IA jila (Khasi jylla [jɨlla])  ‘district’ means ‘state’, bǝje ‘o’clock’ means ‘clock/watch’ in Khasi). Many of the words borrowed from English have also undergone orthographic changes (e.g., college → kolej, programme → prokram, computer → kompwitor, , actor → aktor, drug → drok, culture → kolshor, company → kompeni, scheme → skhim, film → phlim, scientist → saintis,  diamond → diamon, sentence → senten, district → distrik, license → laisen, politics → politik, record → rekod, nuclear → niwkliar, , application → aplikeshon, project → projek, accident → aksiden, goal → kol, contract → kontrak, television → telibishon, etc.

Most of the borrowed words belong to the category of noun, but one can also find some borrowed adjectives (e.g., pura (IA) ‘full/complete’, thok (IA) ‘fake’, thik (IA) ‘correct’, beaiñ (IA) ‘illegal’, suk (IA) ‘happy’, etc. ), adverbs (e.g., bar (IA) ‘out(side)’,  kha-ma-kha (IA) ‘unnecessarily/in vain’, hOrkit ( hǝrgiz) ‘in no case’, etc.),  verbs (e.g., puraw (lute (IA) ‘plunder’, nujOr (ǝjǝr dal-) ‘scrutinize’, map (IA) ‘forgive’,  rakhe (IA) ‘observe/celebrate’ , batai (IA) ‘tell’, hikai (pathai (ha-) ‘send’, kubur (mynjur [mɨnjur] (   pass (E) ‘pass (an exam)’ , off (< E. switch off), phone (E) ‘make a phone call’, etc. ), and even emphatic particle (e.g., hī (IA)).

Almost all the borrowed words are treated as feminine in Khasi (and take the feminine article ka). The exceptions (masculine words which take the masculine article u ) include u bOm (nomber (stabilizer (E), u line (E), u shabi (IA) ‘key’, u kulai (IA) ‘horse’, u drok (sikret (atta (IA) ‘chapati/Indian bread’, u cake (E), u atoshkhana (IA) ‘chimney’, u roket (meter (E), u bilor (khulOm  ‘pen’ (kǝlOm), u khejur ‘date fruit’, u jhur ‘vegetable’, u luta ‘brass cup’, u budam (E) ‘button’, u khir (prek ‘nail’, u ruti ‘loaf’, u dak (it ‘brick’, u piat (piskOt (ckas) ‘screw driver’, u pita (  rynsun [rɨnsun] (.

2.         Phonological Processes

2.1.      Cluster simplification:

Khasi doesn’t allow word final consonant clusters; hence a consonant cluster at the end of a borrowed word is simplified.                                                   

C →   ø  /   C— #                           

benc (E) →   ben ‘bench’

kæmp (E) →   kem ‘camp’

tost (E) →   tos ‘toast’

distrikt (E) →   distrik ‘district’

dOrkhast (IA) →   dOrkhat ‘petition’(dOrkhast>dOrkhas> dOrkhat)

2.2.      Devoicing:

(i) Khasi lacks voiced velar stops /g/ and /gh/. Hence, /g/ and /gh/ are realized as voiceless velar stops /k/ and /kh/ (word final /kh/ changes to /k/ by another rule) in borrowed words.     

      C

-continuant

-anterior

-coronal                 →    [-voice]           

+back

+high

+voice

gajor (IA) → kajOr ‘carrot’

ghī (IA) →  khī ‘clarified butter’

gulī (IA) →   kulī ‘pill’

grep (E) →   krep ‘grape’

(ii) Word final /b/ and /d/ are realized as /p/ and /t/ respectively. Thus,

tǝlOb (IA) →  tulOp ‘salary’

nǝsīb (IA) →  nusīp ‘luck, fate’        

sūd (IA) →  sūt ‘interest’

miad (IA)  →  miat ‘period of time’ 

           C                  

    -continuant

    +anterior

    -high                   →  [-voice]   /   — #  

    -back                   

    +voice

2.3.      Vowel harmony:

In bi-/tri-syllabic words the high vowel of the final syllable affects the vowel of the previous syllable(s) which has the same height but may or may not have the same lip rounding.

bætrī (E) →   bitrī ‘battery’

pərī (IA) →  purī ‘fairy’

nehu →   nihū ‘an acronym for North Eastern Hill University’

telī (IA) →   tilī ‘oilman’

hešu →   hišu ‘Heshu (name of a man)’

rObi-bar →  rubi-bar ‘Sunday’

2.4.      Fricativization:

Khasi lacks the voiceless palatal stops and affricates. Hence, /c/ and /ch/ are realized as /š/ in  the IA borrowed words.

        C  

            -continuant

            -voice                     →  [+continuant]          

            -anterior         

            +coronal

cīnī (IA) →   šinī ‘sugar’

cithī (IA) → šithī ‘letter’

chutī (IA) → šutī ‘leave/holiday’

 cabī (IA) →  šabī ‘key’

 ca (IA) →  ša ‘tea’

2.5.      Raising:

If the low front vowel /æ/ and the mid central vowel /ǝ/ occur in the first syllable of borrowed words, they are raised to /e/ and /u/ respectively (almost always).

pænt (E) →   pent^┐ ‘pants’

bæg (E) →  bek ‘bag’

nǝsīb (IA) →   nusīp ‘luck’

mǝsla (IA) →  musla ‘spice’

jǝbab (IA) →  jubap ‘reply’

sǝrOk (IA)  →   surOk

2.6.      Defricativization:

Khasi words never end in a fricative or an affricate. Hence, the fricatives /s, š, z/ and affricates /c, j/ at the end of borrowed words change to dental stop /t/. 

                                       -continuant

                   C                             +anterior

            +continuant        →     +coronal

            +coronal                        -voice                       /   — #  

                                                   -aspirated                   

piaj (IA)  →   piat ‘onion’     

hǝrgij (IA) → hOrkit ‘in no case’

pulis (E) →   pulit ‘police’

brʌš (E) →   brut ‘brush’

lalǝc (IA) →   lālOt ‘greedy’

khaj (IA) →   khait ‘ring-worm’

It is interesting to note here that sometimes, when there is a need to disambiguate homophonous words resulting from the application of the above rule, the application of the rule is blocked.

glas (E) →  klat ‘glass, tumbler’

klas (E) →   klas    ‘class’

2.7.      Elision:          

            (i) In some cases, a vowel/syllable is elided in borrowed words. Although a vowel /syllable may be deleted in any position, usually it is the initial vowel/syllable that gets elided.

[+syllabic]  →   ø  /   # —

ilastik (E) →   listik (lastik before Vowel Harmony) ‘elastic’

thikana (IA) →   thikna ‘regular, certain’

tamasa (IA) → tamsa ‘a show’

ǝtiar (IA) →   tiar ‘weapon, tool’

(ii) The word-final /l/ after a diphthong (/ai/ in particular) gets elided.

[+lateral]→   ø  /   VV̯ — #  

                       

dail (IA) →   dai ‘lentil’

korǝil (IA) → kOrai ‘a variety of bitter gourd/ kakrol (in Bengali)’

2.8.      Deaspiration:

            All aspirated consonants become deaspirated word finally.

                      C

            [+aspirated]    →   [-aspirated]   /   — #

            dūdh (IA) →  dūd ‘milk’

            dukh (IA) →    duk ‘poor’

            sukh (IA) →   suk ‘happy’

            Khasi tends to deaspirate voiced aspirated consonants in other positions as well.

            bhindī (IA) →  bindī ‘okra/lady’s finger’

2.9.      Metathesis:

            A few of the borrowed words exhibit the process of metathesis.

            bǝksis (IA) →  buskit  ‘reward, gift’ (bǝksis > buksis > buksit > buskit)   

            philm (E) → phlim ‘film’

2.10.    Voicing assimilation:

            In some cases, the voiceless consonants appearing before a voiced segment (usually a Vowel) become voiced.

                 C

[-voice]            →       [+voice]   /  — [+voice]

butam (E; through Sylheti) → budam ‘button’

            ispat (IA) →  isbat ‘steel’

2.11.    Haplology:

            Khasi has masculine and feminine singular articles u and ka respectively. If the borrowed word begins with the syllable /ka-/ or /u-/ it is reinterpreted as bi-morphemic word. Hence The initial u or ka part of a borrowed word gets deleted, because Khasi speakers analyze these elements as the Khasi articles, and then the articles are reapplied.

kagǝz (IA) →   kOt (ka  kakOt  >   ka  kOt by the application of rules 2.2, 2.5 and 2.6

 kagǝz becomes kakOt ) ‘paper’

            kǝtarī (IA) →    tarī ‘knife’ (ka  katarī > ka  tarī)

            uri (IA) →   rī ‘bean’ (u urī > u  rī )

            ustad (IA) →  stad ‘clever,wise’ (u  ustad > u  stad)

2.12.    Epenthesis:

            (i) In some cases, a consonant (usually /t/ or /r/) is inserted at the end of a borrowed word.

            ø →   C  / — #

            thana (IA) →   thanat ‘police station’

            tarajū (IA) →   tarajur ‘scale/balance’

            (ii) A vowel is inserted between a sequence of consonants occurring in medial position.    

            ø →  V  / C —  C

mulk (IA) →   muluk ‘country’

2.13.    Vocalization:

            The semi-vowel /y/ changes to /i/ intervocalically.

            aya (IA) →   aia ‘an Ayah’

            maya (IA) →   maia  ‘mystery’

            naya (IA) →   naia ‘new (as in ‘new paise’)’

2.14.    Trillation:

No Khasi word can end in a /l/. Hence, the word-final /l/ in a borrowed word changes to /r/. But the educated speakers of younger generation and those living in cities tend to retain word final /l/ in English words like ‘ball’, ‘goal’, etc.

+vocalic

+consonantal

+anterior

+coronal                     →   [-anterior] / —  #

+voice

+continuant

-nasal

 

            rumal (IA) →   rumar ‘handkerchief'               

            dǝlīl (IA) →   dulīr  ‘document’

            apīl (E) →   apīr ‘appeal’

2.15.        Lateralization  :

In almost all the borrowed words, medial /r/ (usually between two vowels or between a consonant and a vowel) changes to /l/.

+vocalic

+consonantal

-anterior

+coronal                     →   [+anterior] /  V — V

+voice

+continuant

-nasal

 

mura (IA) → mula ‘a low stool made of plaited canes’

            garī (IA) → kalī ‘motor car, carriage’

            krōr (IA) → klūr ‘one crore’

2.16.        Diphthongization  :

In some cases, the word final /a/ is diphthongized (especially when the previous syllable contains /u/). Consider the following examples.

               -vocalic                           +vocalic

ø →                                                 -consonantal     — #

               -consonantal                   +low                                            

                                                                   +long

gua (IA) →  kuāy   ‘betel nut’

            gura (IA) → kulāy ‘horse’ (gura > kurā> kulā > kulāy)

            dǝria (IA) → duriāw  ‘sea’

            pǝtia (IA)  → patiāw ‘to trust/believe’

2.17.        Denasalization  :

Khasi doesn’t have nasalized vowels; hence the nasalized vowels in borrowed words are realized as non-nasalized.  

                  V

            [+nasal]  →  [-nasal]

            ĩt (IA) → it ‘brick’

            ũt (IA) →  ut ‘camel’

            phãsi (IA) → phasi ‘to hang’ 

2.18.        Ablaut  :

In almost all the di-/tri-syllabic words, a  vowel other than a /u/ occurring in the first syllable after a single consonant  changes to high, central, unrounded vowel [ɨ] before a sonorant consonant. 

   V

+high                                                   +consonantal      

-low                   →   [+back]  / —   

            -back                                                   +sonorant

            -round

            gǝnda  →    kɨnda ‘rhinocerous’

            ghǝnta  →    kɨnta ‘hour’

            pOrda  →    pɨrda ‘curtain’

            pirthī   →    pɨrthei ‘earth’

            mǝntrī →  mɨntrī  ‘minister’

            pǝlla  →    pɨlla ‘pan of scales’

           

3. Rule Interaction and Derivation:

            Now let’s see some examples of rule interaction and derivation of words.

(a) mukotduma (Assamese/Bengali; seen as composed of two parts mukot and duma) ‘court case/law suit’

UR                                          /mukoddǝma/

Devoicing                                mukotdǝma

Raising                                    mukotduma

PR                                           [mukotduma]

(b) kuay (IA)  ‘betel nut’

UR                                          /gua /

Devoicing                                kua

Diphthongization                    kuay

PR                                           [kuay]

(c) klumar (IA)          ‘disorder(ly)’

UR                                          /gulmal/

Devoicing                                kulmal

Trillation                                  kulmar

Metathesis                               klumar

PR                                           [klumar]

(d) kumud (E)            ‘commode’

UR                                          /kǝmod/

Raising                                    kumod

Vowel Harmony                     kumud

PR                                           [kumud]

(e) dOrkhat (IA)        ‘petition/application’

UR                                          dOrkhast

Cluster Simplification             dOrkhas

Defricativization                     dOrkhat

PR                                           [dOrkhat]

REFERENCES

1. Abbi, Anvita and Awadesh K. Mishra. 1985. ‘Consonant clusters and the syllabic structure of Meitei’, in Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, Univ. of California, Berkeley, USA, Vol.8.2.
2. _____________________________. 1986. ‘Some aspects of Meitei phonology’, in International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics, Trivandrum, Vol.22, No.2.
3. Nagaraja, K.S. 1996. ‘Consonant cluster combinations in Khasi’, in Indian Linguistics, Vol.57.    
4. __________. 1985. Khasi: a Descriptive Study. Pune: Deccan College.
5. Rabel, Lili. 1961. Khasi: a Language of Assam. Louisiana State University Press.
6. Singh, U Nissor. 2002 (Reprint). Khasi-English Dictionary. Delhi: Mittal Publications.

© 2009 Awadesh K. Mishra, English & Foreign Languages University

Shillong Campus, Shillong 793022.

akmishraeflu@yahoo.com