Juang language
Munda language of Odisha, India
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The Juang language is a Munda language of the Austroasiatic language family spoken primarily by the Juang people of Odisha state, eastern India.
Classification
The Juang language belongs to the Munda language family, the whole of which is classified as a branch of the greater Austroasiatic language family. Among the Munda languages, Juang is considered to be most closely related to Kharia, although Anderson considers Juang and Kharia to have split off from each other relatively early.[1]
Juang can be roughly divided into the Hill and Plains varieties, both of which are spoken in Odisha (Patnaik 2008:508).
- Hill Juang: Gonasika Hills (in Keonjhar district) and Pallara Hills
- Plains Juang: about 147 villages in southern Keonjhar district and eastern Dhenkanal district
Distribution
Juang is spoken by about 30,875 people according to the 2001 Indian census, 65% of ethnic population[2] In Odisha state, it is spoken in southern Keonjhar district, northern Angul district, and eastern Dhenkanal district (Patnaik 2008:508).
Juang is currently an Endangered language and is considered to vulnerable, or (not spoken by children outside of home).
Juang currently has roughly under 20,000 speakers remaining
Phonology
Vowels
/e/ has a variant of /ɛ/. /a/ is sometimes realized as a schwa.[4]
Glide realization tends to occur when words that have one among two vowels /u/ and /i/, or both, preceded another vowel.[4]
- arɔkia → arɔkja "they two"
- uaɭi → waɭi "child"
- kui → kwi "get"
- kua → kwa "handful"
- dui → dwi "two"
All Juang vowels can be nasalized. There are some attested cases where nasalization may have phonemic status, like in follow minimal pairs:[3]
- tɔɔro "I fastened" vs. tɔ̃ɔ̃rɔ "elephant trunk"
- kɔnia "marriageable" kɔ̃ɳia "safe"
Consonants
Some minimal pairs listed below demonstrate Juang distinguishment between phonemes:[3]
- /ʈ/ vs. /t̪/: ʈɔke "cheat" vs. tɔke "tired"
- /t̪/ vs. /d̪/: tɔke "tired" vs. dɔkɔ "sit"
- /p/ vs. /b/: page "break" vs. bɔge "command"
- /b/ vs. /m/: bɔge "command" vs. mɔtej "nose"
- /k/ vs. /g/: kɔŋ "know" vs. gɔn "weave"
- /k/ vs. /tʃ/: kɔke "shaves" vs. tʃake "taste"
- /tʃ/ vs. /dʒ/: tʃake "taste" vs. dʒɔge "watch"
- /r/ vs. /l/: rɔge "flour" vs. lage "continue"
Retroflex stops are rare in word-final position.
Prosody
Stress in phonological words is always released on the second syllable.[5] In sentence, intonation falls on the last word, usually a verb.[6]
Morphology
Being in state of assimilation into larger Indo-Aryan populations, Juang speakers have borrowed a significant portion of vocabulary from Hindi and Oriya, while the head-marking feature of the language is eroding.
Nominals
Juang differentiates three numbers: singular (unmarked), dual (-kia), and plural (-ki).[7]
The number system is divided into two sets which are used depending on degree of honorificity. For examples, muinʈo ('one') is used to refer something in non-honorific expression, and minog (one.HON) is used to address something in respectful way.[7]
Numeral classifier goʈa is used when numerals occur prenominally.[8]
tini
three
goʈa
CLF
uaɭi-ɖi-ki
child-DEF-PL
'three children'
Juang is a nominative-accusative language; pronouns and noun phrases are unmarked or marked by case markers to indicate syntactic roles.[8]
- Nominative case: unmarked.
- Accusative/Dative cases: -te, sometimes -bo or -bɔ.
- Genitive case: -a/-rɔ/-ra/-ka (-ka for emphatic expressions)[9]
- Locative cases: -bɔ/-ya/-ɖa/-e/-ra/-re[10]
- Ablative case: -ta/-tasun[11]
Gender in Juang is marked by several affixes.
Nominative subject, genitive, non-finite verbs and few finite verbs are suffixed with definiteness markers -ɖe, -re, and -ro. The genitive suffix -ka is sometimes interpreted as marking emphasis type of definiteness.[12]
Juang has a simple set of free pronouns and interrogative pronouns. The free pronouns can be marked by case and possessive suffixes. Interrogatives can take case markers and occur in several case-marked positions.[13]
| singular | dual | plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | aiɲ | am | arɔ |
| 2nd person | ninba | apa | arɔkia |
| 3rd person | niɲ | ape | arɔki |
| [13] | Interrogatives |
|---|---|
| biri | 'what?' |
| adi-aliŋa | 'why?' |
| adi-a | 'whose?' |
| adi-te | 'whom?' |
| adi | 'who?' |
Juang has complex word derivation processes that involve not only reduplication, prefixation, suffixation, but also ambifixation.[14]
gata "say" → a-gata-e "untold story" ɔːnɔ "saw" → a-ɔn-dʒɔnɔ "unseen things"
Verbs
In Juang a number of roots are clearly exempt from the Transitive verb/Intransitive verb opposition, so that the function of the root can be determined only from its co-occurrence with the particular set of tense markers.
For Example,
pag- Set I 'to break' -Set II 'to be broken1
rag- Set I 'to tear' - Set II 'to be torn1
guj- Set I 'to wash' - Set II 'to be was
Juang verbs are increasingly becoming similar with those of Kharia: object indexing is being lost gradually due to superstratum pressure from Aryan. Nowadays, as it is, Juang object indexing is no longer obligatory or productive as compared to other Munda languages or at the time when Matson (1964) made his observation.[15][16]
| patient | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1SG | 1DU | 1PL | 2SG | 2DU | 2PL | 3SG | 3DU | 3PL | ||
agent |
1SG | Ø-Σ/V/-m[a] | Ø-Σ/V/-pa | Ø-Σ/V/-pe | Ø-Σ/V/-Ø | (-kia) | (-ki) | |||
| 1DU.INCL | ba-Σ-m | ba-Σ-pa | ba-Σ-pe | |||||||
| 1PL.EXCL | nV-Σ-m | nV-Σ-pa | nV-Σ-pe | |||||||
| 2SG | mV-Σ-ŋ | mV-Σ-ŋba | mV-Σ-ɲeniɲ | |||||||
| 2DU | a-Σ-ŋ | a-Σ-ŋba | a-Σ-ɲeniɲ | |||||||
| 2PL | V-Σ-ŋ | V-Σ-ŋba | V-Σ-ɲeniɲ | |||||||
| 3SG | Σ/mV/-ŋ | Σ/mV/-ŋba | Σ/mV/-ɲeniɲ | Σ/mV/-m | Σ/mV/-pa | Σ/mV/-pe | ||||
| 3DU | Σ-ŋ-kia | Σ-ŋba-kia | Σ-ɲeniɲ-kia | Σ-m-kia | Σ-pa-kia | Σ-pe-kia | ||||
| 3PL | Σ-ŋ-ki | Σ-ŋba-ki | Σ-ɲeniɲ-ki | Σ-m-ki | Σ-pa-ki | Σ-pe-ki | ||||
Writing System
The writing system used by people who speak the Juang language is Odia.
Notes
- Ø:unmarked, /V/–infixing a vowel, /mV/–infixing m(vowel of the verb stem).
