Toto language

Toto তোতো  is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken on the border of India and Bhutan, by the tribal Toto people in Totopara, West Bengal along the border with Bhutan. It is also spoken in Subhapara, Dhunchipara, and Panchayatpara hillocks on India-Bhutan border in Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal (Ethnologue).

Toto
 তোতো
RegionWest Bengal
EthnicityToto
Native speakers
1,411 (2014)[1]
Bengali script and Toto (script)
Language codes
ISO 639-3txo
Glottologtoto1302
ELPToto[2]

Status

Toto is listed as a critically endangered language by UNESCO, with perhaps 1,000 speakers.[3] However, most families in the community speak Toto at home. Most children learn Toto at home, although they use Bengali in school.

Anthropological Survey of India (AnSI) set out to conduct a study on language of the Toto tribe, whose population has dwindled to 1,536, they did not realize that the language is more endangered than the tribe itself. Researchers and even the members of Toto community admit that the language is under threat and influence of other languages, particularly Nepali and Bengali, is increasing day by day. [4]

The Himalayan Languages Project is working on the first grammatical sketch of Toto. Himalayan Languages Project have arguably contributed more to advancing Tibeto-Burman linguistics than all other working scholars combined. George van Driem outlines the contributions of linguistics, archaeology and genetics to the population history of the greater Himalayan region. He emphasizes the role of genetics in the study of Tibeto-Burman linguistics.[5]

Phonology

Vowels

Toto Language consists of 25 segmental Phonemes of which 19 are consonants and 6 are vowels. The phonemes of this language are as follows: Vowels: These are 6 vowel phonemes in Toto language. They can be classified horizontally into three as front unrounded, central unrounded and back rounded vowels and vertically as close, close-mid, open-mid and open.

The following minimal pairs establish the phonetics status of the vowel

/i/~/u/

/Jiya/ ‘rat’

/Juya/ ‘bird’

/i/~/e/

/iŋ/ ‘brother in-law’

/eŋ/ ‘ginger’

/ciwa/ ‘tear’

/cewa/ ‘cut’ (cloth)

/i/~/a/

/guJi/ ‘owl’

/guJa/ ‘pocket’

/nico/ ‘fire’

/naco/ ‘two’

/e/~/o/

/je/ ‘grass’

/jo/ ‘breast’

/e/~/a/

/lepa/ ‘brain’

/lapa/ ‘jungle betel leaf’

/kewa/ ‘birth’

/kawa/ ‘sound’

There are eight diphthongs realized in Toto language. These are /ei/, /ai/, /oi/, /ui/, /əi/, /eu/, /au/ and /ou/. Diphthong /ui/ occurs in all positions, /eu/ occurs initial and medial positions, /ai/, /oi/, /əi/, and /ei/ occur medial and final positions. While /ou/ and /au/ occur only in the medial positions.[1] Furthermore, with regard to consonants, Toto has an inventory of ten obstruents, eight of which are contrastive in voicing. Toto also distinguishes the voiceless obstruents /t/ and /p/ with its aspirated equivalents /tʰ/ and /pʰ/, respectively. [1]

Consonants
Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
plain aspirated plain aspirated
Stop voiceless p pʰ t tʰ c k
voiced b d ɟ g
Fricative s h
Nasal m n ŋ
Approximant l j w
Trill r

Vocabulary

Below are some Toto words from van Driem (1995), who uses these words to suggest that Toto may be a Sal language.[6]

  • aŋ- ‘to drink’
  • bɔcɔŋ ‘shoulder’
  • yoti ‘cooking pot’ (second syllable), cf. Dzongkha dî ‘jug’
  • uŋtí ‘seed’
  • haní ‘today’
  • tarí ‘moon’
  • lip- ‘fall’ (cf. Benedict’s PTB *lip ‘dive, sink, drown’)
  • tɛ́bo ‘big’ (first syllable)
  • así ‘shit’
  • daŋkre ‘right’ (vs. ‘left’)
  • buibé ‘stomach’ (first syllable); the second syllable <-be> is cognate with Toto biyá ‘meat’
  • biyá ‘meat’
  • wɔteŋ ‘bamboo species’ (first syllable), Nepali ḍhuṅgre ko ghās
  • maʔoŋ ‘paddy’
  • bagreŋ ‘wing’
  • saní ‘sun’
  • jâr- ‘stand’
  • anji ‘yesterday’
  • böidi ‘navel’
  • lâru- ‘bring’
  • em- ‘to shit’
  • jiŋ- ‘sleep’
  • cici ‘urine’
  • kiya ‘dog’
  • miŋ ‘name’
  • daŋ ‘horn’
  • maibe ‘flower’
  • pǘyɔ ‘snake’
  • luŋtü ‘stone’
  • lɛbɛ́ ‘tongue’
  • maŋbü- ‘to dream’
  • nanuŋ ‘ear’
  • mico ‘eye’
  • ŋaya ‘fish’
  • musa ‘body hair’
  • ka ‘I’
  • taŋpa ‘sole of the foot’
  • paká ‘pig’
  • nati ‘thou’
  • satáŋ ‘tooth’
  • si- ‘die’
  • ca- ‘eat’
  • the- ‘be sweet, taste sweet’
  • toise ‘mango’ (suffix: <-se>)
  • daŋse ‘jackfruit’ (suffix: <-se>)
  • sâ- ‘kill’
  • dai- ‘dig’
  • köitü ‘egg’
  • yuŋ- ‘sit, stay’
  • ti ‘water’
  • mití ‘tear’
  • totí ‘spit’
  • wɛtí ‘rain’
  • yutí ‘blood’
  • yutí ‘milk’
  • dikɔ́ ‘buffalo’
  • ü- ‘come down, descend’
  • ŋɛtɔ́ŋ ‘neck’
  • to pa- ‘weave’
  • kai- ‘cry’
  • ŋɔká ‘monkey’
  • jüwɔ́ ‘mouse, rat’

Pronouns

The Toto personal pronouns are (van Driem 1995):[6]

singularplural
first person kakibi
second person natinatibi
third person akuabi

Numerals

The Toto numerals are (van Driem 1995):[6]

English numeralbare stem for countingcounting humanscounting animalsinanimate objects
one iiccɔippuicce
two ninisonipunise
three suŋsumcɔsuŋpusuŋse
four didicɔdipudise
five ŋaŋacɔŋapuŋase
six tutukcɔtukputuse
seven ninícɔnípuníse
eight yâyấcɔyấpuyấse
nine kukucɔkupukuse
ten tâtâcɔtâputâse
eleven eghâraeghârcɔeghârpueghârse
twelve bârabârcɔbârpubârse
twenty ikaiikai cɔikai puikai se
twenty-one ikai-so iikai-so iccɔikai-so ippuikai-so icce
thirty ikai-so tâikai-so tâcɔikai-so tâpuikai-so tâse
forty nikainikai cɔnikai punikai se
fifty nikai-so tânikai-so tâcɔnikai-so tâpunikai-so tâse
sixty suŋkaisuŋkai cɔsuŋkai pusuŋkai se

    Writing system
    Toto script
    
    Type
    LanguagesToto
    CreatorDhaniram Toto
    Published
    2015
    DirectionLeft-to-right
    ISO 15924Toto, 294

    An alphabetic script developed for the language by community elder and author Dhaniram Toto was published in 2015, and has seen limited but increasing use in literature, education, and computing; a proposal for encoding this script was accepted by the Unicode technical committee on October 8, 2019, and is currently awaiting ISO balloting.[7][8] Prior to the publication of this script, Dhaniram Toto and other members of the community (whose literacy rate as per sample survey carried out in 2003 was just 33.64 per cent) penned books and poems in the Bengali script.[4]

    See also

    Notes
    1. "Languages of India" (PDF). Retrieved 2015-02-08.|
    2. Endangered Languages Project data for Toto.
    3. Ben Doherty (April 29, 2012). "India's tribal people fast becoming lost for words". The Age. Retrieved 2015-02-08.
    4. Singh, Shiv Sahay (1 August 2014). "Toto language more endangered than tribe". The Hindu. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
    5. Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region Containing an Introduction to the Symbiotic Theory of Language
    6. van Driem, George. 1995. The Ṭoṭo language of the Bhutanese duars. Paper presented at ICSTLL 28.
    7. Anderson, Deborah (27 September 2019). "L2/19-330: Proposal for encoding the Toto script in the SMP of the UCS" (PDF). Retrieved 18 December 2019.
    8. "Proposed New Characters: The Pipeline". Unicode Consortium. Retrieved 18 December 2019.

    References
    This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.