WORD FORMATION IN THADOU

ABSTRACT

Thadou is one of the major Tibeto-Burman languages spoken in Northeast Indian

state of Manipur, Nagaland and Assam. The language is also spoken in Myanmar
(Burma) in close proximity with other Kuki-Chin languages such as Tiddim, Sizang,
Lai, etc whose number is difficult to quantify. Thadou is mutually intelligible with other
Kuki-Chin languages, viz. Paite, Simte, Gangte, Vaiphei and Zou and closely related to
Hmar and Mizo. The name Thadou is matter of controversy among the speakers of the
language. When Thadou was recognized as the name of the language in Manipur in
1956, not all sections of the community were happy to identify themselves as Thadou.
Their contention being that Thadou being just one of the names of the clans in the
geneology of their tribe could not be used as the embraced name of their language.
Since then, an attempt to change the language from Thadou to Kuki was initiated by the
non-Thadous who were not in favour of using the name of their language as Thadou.
Such attempt to change the name of the language was never free from opposition from
the pro-Thadous who insisted the name Thadou be used as the name of the language.
Since, then many efforts to resolve the controversy surrounding the nomenclature of the
language were initiated especially from intellectual class. As a result of these efforts, the
name of the language was renamed as Thadou-Kuki by blending the two terms Thadou
and Kuki as Thadou-Kuki. Since then, the literary committee of the language made it
mandatory that all textbooks taught in Manipur should bear the name Thadou-Kuki.

But, in Nagaland and Assam the language remains to be known as Kuki only. This
study prefers to call the language as Thadou for the simple reason that most of the
existing literature uses the language in question either as Thado, Thadou or ThadouKuki.
Thadou grammar has received less attention than its phonology. For one, the
area is basically inaccessible to foreigners so that fieldwork is virtually impossible.
Also, very few, native speakers are trained in Linguistics so that non-Thadous
attempting to study the language have very scant resources. Moreover, since most of the
literature on Thadou has been written by foreigners, the available information is not
completely reliable. Most of the available literature on Thadou are too scanty and
seldom discusses the morphology of the language. Thus, the present study is the first of
its kind which provides detailed information about the morphology of the language in
general and word formation in particular. The present study also discusses the word
formation strategies viz. inflectional, derivation, compounding and reduplication in
greater detail. Thadou has larger number of inflectional affixes than derivational affixes.
Formation of new words by means of prefixation is relatively unproductive than that of
suffixation. Compounding is by far the most productive means of deriving new words in
Thadou. Thadou has both endocentric and exocentric compound. Again these
compounds can be either right-headed or left-headed. In addition, Thadou had coordinate, conjunctive and opaque compound. Thadou is noted for the occurrence of
chiming adverbs. Chiming adverbs is a special kind of reduplicated adverb, very
common in the colloquial style in which there is a variation in the vowels of the adverb
(Peri Bhaskararao (1989:110). The process of Chiming is attributed to be one of the

characteristics of colloquial style. Bhaskararao also observs that simple reduplication is

less common among adverbs as compared to chiming. Like in Tiddim, chimed adverbs
in Thadou are always composed of two syllables which begin with a consonant: the
second syllable being a copy of the first syllable except that in a majority of the cases
the vowel of the second syllable is more open than that of the first syllables.
The present study is divided into 6 chapters. Chapter 1 discusses the background
of the Thadous in terms of their language, geographical location and bilingualism, etc.
This chapter also discusses at length the linguistic situation in Manipur and the position
of Thadou within the Tibeto-Burman language family as outlined by different TibetoBurmanists, viz. Bradley (1997), Grierson (1904), Matisoff (2003) and Benedict (1972).
In addition to the above mentioned, the present chapter also discusses the origin, custom
and traditions of the Thadous that have been handed down until the present days in the
form of oral literature.
Chapter 2 reviews the available literature of Thadou written by different
linguists both Indian and foreign scholars alike. The earliest accounts of the language
were written by the British administrators and anthropologists namely, Stewards ( 1856),
Grierson (1904), Hodson (1906) and William Shaw (1929).
Steward (1856) provides a brief phonological description in addition to
providing a brief description each on the various grammatical categories, viz. articles,
nouns, adjectives, pronouns and verbs. But made no mentioned on adverbs.
Grierson (1904) provides a sketchy account on the phonology and grammar of
the language in a limited way. At the level of grammatical description, Grierson begins
with the inconsistency in the pronunciation of the language. But in the absence of any

phonetic chart, it is often difficult to determine the accuracy of the pronunciation from
the examples he provides. For example, in his observation about the long and short
vowels, Grierson provides kht and khat one and n and na thy to be the long and
short forms where in both the instances, the vowel is schwa which is always short.
Other inconsistencies in the pronunciation pointed out by Grierson are the
interchangeability of the vowels u and o in word like khut or khot hand which are
found in the speech of the speakers of the language even today. But, other examples he
provides to show how the vowels u and a in words like um or am to be are not simply
true from the native speakers point of view. The correct form of to be is um and not

am. Regarding the contracted form of concurrent vowels (vowels occurring adjacent to
each other), Grierson rightly pointed out that such vowels are often contracted, though
few of the examples he provides are not always true. It is to be noted here that,
whenever two vowels occur adjacent to each other, either one of the vowels gets deleted
or a glide is inserted to break such vowel sequences. To compensate the loss of the
vowel which gets deleted a length symbolize as (:) is often inserted in place where the
vowel gets deleted. Some of the examples he provides to show how vowels are
contracted are: a-pa:n for a-pa-in by his father, pe:n for pe-in give IMP, la:n for la-in
take IMP etc.
T.C. Hodson, (1906) provides an informative account of the language including
a specimen of sentence lists and also a section on Thadou-English Dictionary and

English-Thadou Dictionary. At the level of phonology, Hodson begins with the

description of Thadou alphabets on lines of transliteration suggested to him by Sir
Charles Lyall. Hodson also discusses at length the vowel modification, consonants

changes as well as tone and stress in Thadou. At the level of morphology, Hodson also
discusses the different parts of speech where he stressed at length on the articles,
numerals, verbal constructions, postpositions and compound words. Again, at the level
of syntax, Hodson provides a sketchy account of the word order and formation of
interrogative construction in Thadou. Though Hodsons work is not exhaustive study in
itself, in that much of the affixal morphology has been omitted, tones are not marked
and little to no description of syntax, it still remains a useful source of information for
the language.
Thodou has been described by two Indian linguists, viz. Thirumalai (1972) and
Krishan (1980) in the seventies and eighties. While the work of Thirumalai is focused
purely on the phonology, Krishan for the first time discusses the grammar of Thadou in
the light of taxonomic descriptive Linguistics.
Pauthang Haokip a native speaker has also contributed commendable articles on
the various aspects of the language in various journals. The most scientific description
of the language is that of Hyman (2004) who provides the three chapters on phonology,
nouns and verbs in Thadou.
Chapter 3 deals with the different types of derivation processes in Thadou. The
most productive derivational affixes are the prefix a- and the suffix -na which derives
nouns from the corresponding verbs after the affixation is applied. Another important
word formation in Thadou is compounding. Thadou exhibits both endocentric and
exocentric compounds which may be either right headed or left headed. Thadou also
exhibits co-ordinate, conjunctive and opaque compounds which are discussed in the
present chapter. The third important word formation process in Thadou is reduplication.

Thadou has a special kind of reduplicated adverbs which is often termed as chiming
adverbs, in which adverbs are composed of two syllables, the second syllable being a
copy of the first syllable. The present chapter provides an exhaustive list of reduplicated
adverbs in Thadou.
Chapter 4 discusses the nominal morphology of Thadou. Nouns can be
distinguished from other lexical categories on morphological grounds. For example,
nouns but not verbs can be suffixed by gender, number or case markers. Proper nouns
and common nouns are mostly free standing. Thadou exhibits split demonstrative
pronouns in which the pronoun can precede as well as follow the head nouns.
Possessive pronouns precede the possessed items. Thadou nouns are not marked for
grammatical gender. Semantic gender for animate human nouns may be indicated as
feminine or masculine by nu or pa, or by pi or pu, depending on the age or
profession of a person. All kingship terms lower in hierarchy of grandparents,
profession and rulers are indicated by -nu and pa. Unlike, animate human nouns,
animate non-human nouns take the gender suffix -pi and tsal respectively. Inanimate
nouns do not take gender markers. Thadou has two numbers: singular and plural. The
plural marker ho is used to indicate general nouns both animate and inanimate objects.
The plural marker te is used to indicate particular group of animate nouns or clans
names. Thadou has seven case markers, viz, ergative, absolutive, instrumental, locative,
associative, genitive and ablative. Thadou is an ergative-absolutive language where the
sole argument (the subject) of the transitive verb is marked differently and the subject
of the intransitive verb and the object of the transitive verb are marked in the same way.
The case marker for the subject of the intransitive verb and the object of the transitive

verb are both absent. The instrumental case is marked by in which is homophonous
with that of the ergative marker. The locative marker is expressed by -a. The genitive
case is marked by the possessive pronominal markers or by suffixing the clitic a to the
nouns or pronouns when the possessed noun is not specified. The ablative case is
expressed by pat or kon. The associative case is expressed by to which is placed
immediately after the person with whom the action is done. Thadou has reasonably
large set of classifiers which appear only with nouns. The classifiers in Thadou refer to
special semantic fields which include round or oblong items, drop of liquid, elongated
items, etc.
The chapter also includes important discussion on the sub-types of nouns such as
common nouns, proper nouns, inherently possessed nouns, nature nouns, nouns related
to spirit worship, location nouns and direction nouns. Under the section on pronouns,
the chapter also discusses an indefinite pronouns, demonstratives pronouns,
interrogatives pronouns, numerals, possessive pronouns and reflexive pronouns.
Chapter 5 is divided into two parts, viz. verbs and adverbs. Verbs in Thadou can
be identified by a number of distinguishing properties. The lists of properties include,
negation, agreement, pre-verbal and post-verbal directional, aspectual, applicative,
modals and onomatopoeic expressives. Vendler (1967) identified four classes of verbs
according to Aktionsart (German for form of action): Activities, States, Achievements
and Accomplishments. In order to identify Aktionsart class of verbs, various
grammatical tests have been suggested and these tests necessarily have to be different
for different languages. The section on verbs explains only those tests which are useful

and useable in Thadou. These include: Activity, State, Accomplishment, Causative

Accomplishment, Semelfactive manner adverbs and Temporal duration.
Thadou has no tense markers, e non future and di future, function as verb
phrase clitics. When an accomplishment is marked by e there is no indication of
whether the event described by the clause is taking place at the time of speaking or has
already taken place at some prior time. The clauses which are marked by -e may be
interpreted as either past tense or present tense depending on whether the action has
taken place just prior to the time of speaking or is taking place at the time of speaking.
The future marker di on the other hand, typically marks event that will take
place subsequently to the time of speaking. At the same time, di also indicates an
affirmation of the speaker that a certain event is already decided on and will be carried
out (as far as it is humanly possible, of course).
In Thadou, as in most of the worlds language, aspect occurs with greater
frequency than tense-marking and mood (Bybee 1985). Modality is expressed by lexical
means, by adverb- like forms that follow the main verb and can be preceded by other
constituents of the phrase. Deictic modality has to do with the necessity or possibility of
actions and is associated with the social functions and obligation. (Bybee and
Fleischman 1995:4).
Many linguists and grammarians do not make a distinction between mood and
modality. However, Thadou seems to make a distinction between mood and modality.
The category of mood is typically divided into: declarative, subjunctive, imperative and
interrogative. Mood has to do with the way the speaker wants to communicate.
Declarative mood is used when the speaker wants to indicate that he is making a

statement, reporting real event or making assertions that a certain event is taking place
or is not taking place (negative assertion). Subjunctive mood is used for hypothetical
events, where the speaker wants to express that certain proposition is possible,
desirable, doubtful and only potentially true (Audvilc.1999:286). Imperative mood is
used by the speaker if he wants to manipulate the hearer to respond physically to his
request.
The second part of the fifth chapter is devoted to discussing the adverbs of
Thadou. Adverbs are usually referred to as heterogeneous word class (Givon:2001
vol.87) which covers a wide range of semantic concepts and is typically the most
unrestricted word class in terms of syntactic distribution. The common characteristic of
adverbs consists in the facts that they modify event or state. The section on adverbs
discusses the different types of adverbs, viz. time adverbial, adverb of manner and
adverb of direction.
Chapter 6 provides a summary and findings of the present study chapter by
chapter.
An appendix containing an exhaustive list of Thadou lexicon has been appended
at the end to assist the readers in shaping their understanding about the word structure
of language under study. It is also hoped that the word lists will be useful for future
comparative researchers who wish to undertake comparative studies on the languages of
Northeast India in particular or with other languages in general.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bedell, George. 1995. Agreement in Lai, in Papers from the Fifth Annual Meeting of

Southeast Asian Linguistics Society. Tempe, Arizona: Program for Southeast

Asian Studies, Arizona, pp 21-33.
Bedell, George. 2000. Agreement in Cho. Paper presented at the 33rd International
Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, 2-6 October 2000,
Ramkhamhaeng University, Bangkok & Trang Province.
Bedell, George. 2004. Agreement in Mara. Paper presented at the 37th International
Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, 29 Sept.- 3 Oct. 2004,
University of Lund, Sweden.
Benedict, Paul K, 1972. (Contributing editor: A. Matisoff) Sino-Tibetan: A Conspectus.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Benedict, Paul K. 1972. Sino-Tibetan. A Conspectus. Contributing editor, James A.
Matisoff. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.
Bhaskararao, Peri. 1989. The Process of Chimming in Tidim Chin. LTBA 12:110-33.
Bhat, D. N. S. 1969. Tangkhur-Naga vocabulary. Poona: Deccan College Postgraduate
Research Institute.
Brojen, H. 2003. A descriptive grammar of Chothe. Unpublished PhD dissertation,
Manipur University.
Brown, G. (1972). Phonological Rules and Dialect Variation: A Study of the Phonology

of Lumasaaba. Cambridge: Cambridge University press.

Burling, Robbins, 1961. A Garo Grammar. Pune: Deccan College.
Burling, Robbins. 1999. On Kamarupan, in Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area.
22.2: 169 171.

10

Burling, Robbins. 2003. The Tibeto-Burman languages of northeastern India. In Graham

Thurgood and Randy J. LaPolla (eds.), The Sino-Tibetan languages, 169-191.
London & New York: Routledge.
Burling, Robbins. 1984. Noun Compounding in Garo. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman
Area. 8.1: 14-42.
Burquest, Donald A. and Payne, David L. 1993. Phonological analysis: A functional

approach. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.

Bybee, Joan. 1997. Semantic Aspects of Morphological Typology, in Essays on

Language Function and Language Type, ed. by Joan Bybee, John Haiman and
Sandra A. Thompson. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp 25-37.
Chelliah, Shobhana L. 1997. A grammar of Meithei. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Chhangte, Lalnunthangi, 1987. The Grammar of Simple Clauses in Mizo. Southeast

Asian Syntax, ed by David Bradley. Pacific Linguistics.

Chhangte, Lalnunthangi. (1986). A Preliminary Grammar of Mizo Language.
(unpublished M.A. dissertation). Arlington: University of Texas.
Chomsky, N. (1964). Current Issue in Linguistics Theory. The Hague: Mouton.
Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspect of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT
Press.
Clark, J and Yallop, C. (1990). An introduction to Phonetics and Phonology, Oxford:
Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
Comrie, Bernard. (ed). 1990. The Major Languages of East and South-East Asia.
London:
Comrie, Bernard. 1985b. Tense. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Comrie, Bernard. 1976. Aspect. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
11

Crystal, David. A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. 5th Edition. Malden:

Blackwell.
DeLancey, Scott. 1989. Verb Agreement in Proto-Tibeto-Burman. In Bulletin of the

School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 52.2: 315-333.

Dixon, R. M. W. 1972. The Dyirbal Language of North Queensland.London: Cambridge
University Press
Driem, George van. 1987. A grammar of Limbu. Berlin, New York, Amsterdam:
Mouton de Gruyter.
Dutta Baruah, P.N, 1996. Hmar Grammar. Mysore, CIIL.
Gangte, T.S, 1993. The Kukis of Manipur: A Historical Analysis. New Delhi: Gyan
Publishing.
Givn, T. 1990a. Syntax. A functional-typological introduction, Vol. II. Amsterdam,
Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Goldsmith, J. (1979). Auto Segmental Phonology, Doctoral dissertation, MIT.
Grierson, G. A. 1904. Linguistic Survey of India, Vol. III, Parts and III, Calcutta:
Government Printing.
Hale, A. (1982).

Research on Tibeto-Burman Languages, New York: Mouton

Publishers.
Haokip, Pauthang. 2012. Negation in Thadou. Himalayan Linguistics. Vol. 11(2): 1
20.
Haokip, Pauthang. 2011. The languages of Manipur: a case study of the Kuki-Chin.

Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman area. Volume 34.1.

Haokip, Pauthang. 2008. Phonological structure of Thadou. South Asian language

Review. VOL.XVIII. No. 1.

12

Haokip, Pauthang. 2007. Thadou-Kuki word book: A classified vocabulary. Private

circulation.
Hartman, Helga-So. 2009. A descriptive grammar of Daai Chin. Berkeley: University
of California STEDT [STEDT Monograph Series 7].
Henderson, Eugenie J.A. (1965). Tidim Chin: A Descriptive Analysis of Two Texts.
New York: Oxford University Press.
Henderson, Eugnie J.A. 1948. Notes on the Syllable Structure of Lushai, in Bulletin

of the School of Oriental and African Studies 12: 712-725.

Hodson, T.C. (1906). Thaado Grammar. Shillong: Eastern Bengal and Assam
Secretariat Printing Office.
Hyman, Larry and T. Haokip. 2004 draft. Kuki-Thaadow grammar.
http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/people/person_detail.php?person=19
Khoi Lam Thang. (2001). Phonological Reconstruction of Proto-Chin. Thailand: Payap
University. Unpublished Ph.D dissertation.
Krishan, Shree. (1980). Thadou: A Grammatical Sketch. Calcutta: Anthropological
Survey of India.
Lehman, F.K. 1976. Wolfendents Non-Pronominal a-prefix in Tibeto-Burman: Two
Arguments from Southern Chin and Some proposed Semantic Correlates.
Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 2.1: 19-44
Luce, Gordon H. 1959. Chin-Hills-Linguistic Tour (Dec. 1954), in Journal of the

Burma Research Society, vol. 42, no. 1, pp 19-31.

Lyons, John. (1969). Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.

13

Matisoff, James A. 1972. Lahu nominalization, relativization and genitivization, in

Syntax and Semantics, vol. 1, ed. by J. Kimball, pp: 237-257.

Peterson, David A. 2000. On the status of southern Chin. Paper presented at the 33rd
International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, 2nd-6th
October 2000, Ramkhamhaeng University, Bangkok & Trang Province.
Schane, S.A. (1968). French Phonology and Morphology. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press.
Sen, Sipra. 1992. Tribes and Castes of Manipur. New Delhi: Mittal Publications.
Shafer, Robert. 1966. Introduction to Sino-Tibetan. Wiesbaden: Otto Harassowitz.
Shaw, William. 1929. The Thadou Kukis (reprint: 1983. Delhi: Cultural Publishing
House).
Shopen, Timothy. (ed.). 1985. Language typology and syntactic description. Volumes IIII. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Singh, Chungkham Jashawanta. 2000. Manipuri grammar. New Delhi: Rajesh
Publications.
Spencer, Andrew and Arnold M. Zwicky. eds. 1998. The Handbook of Morphology.
Oxford: Blackwell.
Stewart, R. 1856. A slight notice on the grammar of the Thadou or New Kookie
language. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 25.178-188.
Thirumalai, M. S. 1972. Thaadou phonetic reader. Mysore: Central Institute of Indian
Languages.
VanBik, Kenneth. 2009. Proto-Kuki-Chin: A Reconstructed ancestor of the Kuki-Chin

languages. Berkeley: University of California STEDT [STEDT Monograph Series

8].

14