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Kokborok is the native language of the Tripuri community in the northeast Indian state of Tripura. The word Kokborok is composed of two words, kok which means "language" and borok which literally means "man" but is used to denote the Tripuri people. Thus Kokborok means "the language of man" or "the language of the Borok people".
There is a community of Kokborok speakers in neighbouring Bangladesh.
Kokborok Sounds and phonetics
Kokborok is a Tibeto-Burmese language and is closely related to the Boro language.It is a typical Tibeto-Burmese language and consists of the following vowels sounds:
1. 'a' as in Father
2. 'e' as in end
3. 'i' as in in
4. 'o' as in hot
5. 'u' as in put
6. 'w' as in German u, this a special sound and is not present in English but is very common in the Tibeto-Burmese languages.
The consonants are b,d,g,h,j,k,l,m,n,p,r,s,t,y along with combined consonants ch,kh,ph,th,ng.
N' is the pronunciation of the nasal sound. eg, In'-yes.
Ng is a conjoint letter and is generally used in the last syllable of a word. eg, Aming-cat; Holong-stone.
Ua is used like, uak-pig; uah-bamboo; uatwi-rain.
Uo is used like, thuo-sleeping; buo-beat.
Tone in Kokborok
There are two tones in kokborok, a high and a low tone. To explain the high tone of a word, h letter is fixed with the syllable when the high tone is pronounced.
example:
low tone High tone 1. lai-easy laih-crossed 2. bor-senseless bohr-to plant 3. cha-correct chah-to eat 4. nukhung-family nukhuhng-roof
Morphology
Morphologically kokborok words can be divided into five categories. They are the following.
(a) Original words: thang-go; phai-come; borok-man; kotor-big; kuchu-small; kwrwi-not;etc.
(b) Compound words, that is, words made of more than one original words: nai-see; thok-sweet; naithok-beautiful; mwtai-god; nog-house; mwtainog-temple; bwkha-heart; kotor-big; bwkhakotor-brave; etc.
(c) Words with suffixes: swrwng-learn; swrwngnai-learner; nugjak-seen; kaham-good; hamya- bad; etc.
(d) Naturalized loan words: gerogo-to roll; gwdna-shoulder; tebil- table; poito-faith; etc.
(e) Loan words: yar-friend; etc.
Dialects
The tripuri or the 'Borok' community consists of many tribes and sub-tribes in the Indian state of Tripura and the neighbouring provinces of the country Bangladesh. The main tribes have their own dialects, which differ only slightly among each other, though the dialect spoken around the capital Agartala, the western dialect spoken by Debbarma tribe, is taken as the standard for teaching and in literary writings.Itis understood by all the other tribes and is the lingua franca of the Hill tribes in the state.
The tribes and their dialects are listed as follows.
1. Debbarma (Western)
2. Reang (Eastern and Southeastern)
3. Noatia or Tripura (Southern)
4. Jamatia (Central)
5. Darlong (Northern)
6. Koloi
7. Molsom
8. Rupini
9. and other smaller tribes such as aiang,dahula,laitong,mrung,muslung.
Script issues
The issue of which script to use for the Kokborok language continues to provoke political controversy. The line of the Ganamukti Parishad of Dasarath Deb was that Bengali script ought to be used for the language. That policy is the one implemented by the Left Front government in Tripura. The ethnonationalist opposition, such as INPT, advocates usage of Latin script.
There have also been attempts to create an entirely new script for the language. The most notable one was constructed by Alinda Tripura. It is however, not in use.
External Links
www.boroksite.com A kokborok site for news and literature.