Institution: MA linguistics
Degree Date: 2025

Dissertation Title: A phonological sketch of Sonowal kachari

Dissertation URL: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1v_g5p1voCi11EoQ5oo02PGgQZ2Q7GhZx/view?usp=drivesdk

Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics
History of Linguistics
Phonetics
Phonology
Sociolinguistics

Subject Language(s): Assamese (asm)
Bodo (India) (brx)

Language Family(ies): Indo-Aryan
Tibeto-Burman

Dissertation Director(s): Prof. Hemalatha Nagarajan

Dissertation Abstract:

This dissertation attempts to provide a brief overview of the phonological characteristics of the Sonowal Kachari language, an endangered language once spoken by the Sonowal Kachari tribe. It is considered endangered due to the lack of generational transmission among members of the Sonowal Kachari community. This issue of language vitality is also discussed in this paper to assess the current status of the language.

The main aim of this work is to present the phonemic inventory of the language and to analyse different phonological features such as syllabic structure, word stress, and morphophonemic changes influenced by contact with neighbouring languages namely, Bodo-Garo languages like Tiwa, Bodo, Dimasa etc., which belong to the Tibeto-Burman language family, and Assamese, which belongs to the Indo-Aryan language family. This implies how close-contact with these languages had impacted on the phonology of Sonowal Kachari language. However, limitation of this research is the scarcity of available data and documents to support the investigation. This research hopes to introduce this endangered language to the world and safeguard the existing vocabulary and its unique phonological features. By analysing native words and loanwords from neighbouring languages within the theoretical framework of Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky, 1991), we aim to identify the various constraints that govern these changes.