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Koro Aka
Language Documentation Project
Most people of the tribal group known as
the Aka of West Kameng and East Kameng
districts of Arunachal Pradesh speak a
language called ʁuso, written Hruso.
But there is also a small sub-tribe of
about 800-1200 people that are locally
known as the Koro-Aka, who speak an
entirely separate language from the
Hruso-Aka. Culturally part of the Aka
tribe, the Koro Aka language is a
separate and unique language of the
Tibeto-Burman family, and not a dialect
of the Hruso language (Anderson and
Murmu 2010).
As research from Living Tongues
Institute for Endangered Languages has
shown, Koro is clearly not a part of
Hrusish linguistically, which does most
likely include the other local language
Miji, in addition to Hruso. To be sure,
it is clear that Koro Aka is not a
variety of Hruso Aka in any sense. In
fact, Koro and Miji have at least as
many parallels lexically as do Koro and
Hruso.
Indeed, there are very few unique
Koro-Hruso isoglosses, and in fact
little has been borrowed across the
languages. However, this may not
actually be that surprising if you think
about the nature of the relationship
between Koro and Hruso. It is precisely
different linguistic practices that
distinguish the Koro Aka from the Hruso
Aka, who are otherwise basically
identical culturally, and they both are
considered by themselves to be part of
the same tribe.
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Koro Aka consultants Kachim and Gujupi,
Kichang village |
Koro Aka does however share certain
lexical and grammatical correspondences
with a number of different related
languages of Arunachal Pradesh. While
Koro Aka does not appear to be a Tani
language per se, it does share some
notable commonalities with languages of
both the Western and Eastern Tani areas,
and indeed with Proto-Tani itself (Sun
1993). For example, within Western Tani,
perhaps not unexpectedly, local
languages spoken relatively close to the
Koro Aka setllements, e.g., certain
Western Nishi varieties like Yano and
Nyisu, show many parallels with Koro.
Whatever the exact nature of the
relationship is, Koro appears to have
significant parallels with Proto-Tani
and the divergent and important Milang
language, which may itself be a sister
to the Tani family (Post 2009/2010).
Note that it is particularly within the
domain of lexical items that Milang
possesses but that are not found in
other Tani languages that Koro shows the
most similarities to, perhaps reflecting
a (now assimilated) non-Tani substrate
language that is common to both Milang
and Koro Aka.
Koro also shows fewer but an overall
noteworthy number of correspondences
with the Digarish family, with the as
yet unclassified Tibeto-Burman languages
of western Arunachal Pradesh
representing the Kho-Bwa cluster (van
Driem 2001): Bugun, Sulung and
Sherdukpen, and with the Midzuish family
as well. All of these language groups
are spoken in Arunachal Pradesh, and a
few in adjacent parts of China as well.
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Katya Yame and Sunil Yame, Koro
consultants,
Kadeya village |
It is far from an understatement that
much remains to be done on the Koro
language. This includes as full as
possible descriptions of its lexicon,
phonology, and grammar, also to resolve
the history and taxonomy of this
enigmatic Tibeto-Burman language.
Further, we understand very little at
present how, in the face of ethnically
mixed marriages and submerged or
homogenized cultural identities, has the
tiny community of this ‘hidden’ language
Koro managed to preserve its own
identity linguistically. Koro is
presently beginning to feel pressure
from, and exhibit shift to, Hindi, many
young Koro use Hindi exclusively. Thus,
we must act now to continue addressing
some of the most pressing and urgent
tasks before this unique and enigmatic
Tibeto-Burman language of Arunachal
Pradesh vanishes forever.
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Khandu Degio (Hruso-Aka
consultant), David Harrison, Sange Degio
(Koro-Aka consultant), Ganesh Murmu,
Greg Anderson in Palizi |
Originally under the auspices of the
Enduring Voices Project, Living Tongues
Institute Director Dr. Greg Anderson,
Research Director Dr. David Harrison,
and Santal language activist and Living
Tongues Institute Local Coordinator for
Jharkhand and NE India, Ganesh Murmu,
together with Koro language activist and
community member Sange Degio have been
working on this ‘hidden’ Koro language
of Arunachal Pradesh. We have been
gathering materials for a comprehensive
documentation of the Koro language since
early 2008. After presenting our
preliminary findings at conferences in
the US and India in 2008 and 2009, our
first academic paper on Koro was
published in 2010; a larger study is
currently in preparation.
REFERENCES:
Anderson, G. D. S. and G. Murmu. 2010.
Preliminary notes on Koro: a ‘hidden’
language of Arunachal Pradesh. In Indian
Linguistics 71: 1-32.
Post, Mark. 2009. The relationship
between Milang and 'Proto-Tani'. Paper
presented at the 4th International
Conference of the North-East Indian
Linguistics Society, North Eastern Hill
University, Shillong, Meghalaya, India,
January 15-17.
Sun, Jackson T.S. 1993. A
Historical-Comparative Study of the Tani
(Mirish) Branch of Tibeto-Burman. Ph. D.
dissertation, University of California,
Berkeley.
_____ 1994. The linguistic position of
Tani (Mirish) in Tibeto-Burman: A
lexical assessment. Linguistics of the
Tibeto-Burman Area 16 (2): 143-188.
van Driem, G.. 2001. Languages of the
Himalayas. 2 Volumes. Leiden: Brill.
_____ 2008. Endangered Languages of
South Asia. In M. Brenzinger (ed.)
Language Diversity Endangered, 303-341.
Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter |
