Assamese অসমীয়া Ôxômiya
Spoken in:	India, Bhutan & USA (DE, NJ & NY)
Region:	Assam
Total speakers:	13,079,696 (in 1991)[1]
Ranking:	52
Language family:	Indo-European  Indo-Iranian   Indo-Aryan    Eastern Group     Bengali-Assamese      Assamese
Writing system:	Assamese script
Official status
Official language in:	India (Assam)
Regulated by:	no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	as
ISO 639-2:	asm
ISO 639-3:	asm
This page contains Indic text. India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country The Kingdom of Bhutan (buːˈtɑːn is a Landlocked nation in South Asia. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Assam) ( Assamese: অসম Ôxôm) is a northeastern state of India with its capital at Dispur, a suburb of the city This is a list of languages, ordered by the number of native-language speakers, with some data for second-language use List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Indo-Iranian language group constitutes the easternmost extant branch of the Indo-European family of languages The Indo-Aryan languages (within the context of Indo-European studies also Indic) are a branch of the Indo-European language family The Indo-Aryan languages include some 210 ( SIL estimate languages and dialects spoken by many people in Asia; this language family is a part of the A writing system is a type of Symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in Language. The Assamese script (অসমীয়া আখৰ Ôxômiya Akhôr) is a variant of the Eastern Nagari script also used for Bengali and Bishnupriya India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country Assam) ( Assamese: অসম Ôxôm) is a northeastern state of India with its capital at Dispur, a suburb of the city This is a list of bodies that regulate Standard languages Natural languages Auxiliary languages Interlingua The auxiliary language ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages The Brahmic family is a family of syllabaries (writing systems used in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and parts of Central Asia and East Asia, Without rendering support you may see irregular vowel positioning and a lack of conjuncts. More...

Assamese (অসমীয়া Ôxômiya) (IPA: [ɔxɔmija]) is the easternmost Indo-Aryan language, spoken mainly in the state of Assam in North-East India. The Indo-Aryan languages (within the context of Indo-European studies also Indic) are a branch of the Indo-European language family India is a union of states comprising twenty-eight states and seven union territories. Assam) ( Assamese: অসম Ôxôm) is a northeastern state of India with its capital at Dispur, a suburb of the city North-East India refers to the easternmost region of India consisting of the contiguous Seven Sister States and Sikkim. It is also the official language of Assam. It is also spoken in parts of Arunachal Pradesh and other northeast Indian states. Arunachal Pradesh (अरुणाचल प्रदेश   Aruṇācal Pradeś is the easternmost state of India North-East India refers to the easternmost region of India consisting of the contiguous Seven Sister States and Sikkim. Small pockets of Assamese speakers can be found in Bhutan. The Kingdom of Bhutan (buːˈtɑːn is a Landlocked nation in South Asia. The easternmost of Indo-European languages, it is spoken by over 13 million people. ^[1]

The English word "Assamese" is built on the same principle as "Japanese", "Taiwanese", etc. It is based on the English word "Assam" by which the tract consisting of the Brahmaputra valley is known. The people call their state Ôxôm and their language Ôxômiya.

Contents 1 Formation of Assamese 2 Writing 3 Morphology and grammar 4 Phonetics 4.1 Alveolar Stops 4.2 Voiceless Velar Fricative 4.3 Velar nasal 4.4 Vowel inventory 5 Dialects 6 Assamese literature 7 See also 8 Notes 9 References 10 External links

Formation of Assamese

Assamese and the cognate languages, Bengali and Oriya, developed from Magadhi Prakrit. Oriya (ଓଡ଼ିଆ oṛiā) is one of the Indian Languages mainly spoken in the Indian state of Orissa. Magadhi Prakrit is of one of the three Dramatic Prakrits the written languages of Ancient India after the decline of Sanskrit as an official language ^[2] According to linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji, the Magadhi Prakrit in the east gave rise to four Apabhramsa dialects: Radha, Vanga, Varendra and Kamarupa; and the Kamarupa Apabhramsa, keeping to the north of the Ganges, gave rise to the North Bengal dialects in West Bengal and Assamese in the Brahmaputra valley. Suniti Kumar Chatterji ( Bengali: সুনীতিকুমার চট্টোপাধ্যায় Shunitikumar Chôṭṭopaddhae) (1890-1977 was a Kamrupi ( Assamese: কামৰুপি Bengali: কামরুপি is the language that was spoken in the Kamarupa kingdom in the first millennium The Ganges (ˈgænʤiːz also Ganga, Devanāgarī: hi गंगा in most Indian languages) is the major river in the Indian subcontinent West Bengal ( Bengali: পশ্চিমবঙ্গ Poshchim Bônggo poʃtʃim bɔŋgo is a state in eastern India. The Brahmaputra, also called Tsangpo-Brahmaputra is a Trans-boundary river and one of the major Rivers of Asia. ^[3] Though early compositions in Assamese exist from the 13th century, the earliest relics of the language can be found in paleographic records of the Kamarupa Kingdom from the 5th century to the 12th century. The 5th century is the period from 401 to 500 in accordance with the Julian calendar in Anno Domini / Common Era. ^[4] Assamese language features have been discovered in the 9th century Charyapada, which are Buddhist verses discovered in 1907 in Nepal, and which came from the end of the Apabhramsa period. The 9th century is the period from 801 to 900 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian / Common Era. The Charyapada ( Bangla: চর্যাপদ Assamese: চৰ্যাপদ is a collection of 8th-12th century Vajrayana Buddhist Caryagiti Year 1907 ( MCMVII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Early compositions matured in the 14th century, during the reign of the Kamata king Durlabhnarayana of the Khen dynasty, when Madhav Kandali composed the Kotha Ramayana. The Kamata kingdom appeared in the western part of the older Kamarupa kingdom in the 13th century, after the fall of the Pala dynasty. The Khen dynasty of Assam replaced the Pala dynasty in the 12th century. Madhava Kandali was a 14th century Assamese poet notable for the earliest rendering of the Valmiki Ramayana into Assamese verse ( Kotha Kotha Ramayana is a poem written by the powerful Assamese poet Madhava Kandali during the 14th century and is one of many versions of Ramayana Since the time of the Charyapada, Assamese has been influenced by the languages belonging to the Sino-Tibetan and Austroasiatic families. The Austro-Asiatic languages are a large Language family of Southeast Asia, and also scattered throughout India and Bangladesh.

Assamese became the court language in the Ahom kingdom by the 17th century. The Ahom Kingdom (1228–1826 called Kingdom of Assam in medieval times was a medieval kingdom in the Brahmaputra valley in Assam that maintained its As a means of recording the passage of Time, the 17th Century was that Century which lasted from 1601 - 1700 in the Gregorian calendar ^[5]

Writing

Assamese uses the Assamese script, a variant of the Eastern Nagari script, which traces its descent from the Gupta script. The Assamese script (অসমীয়া আখৰ Ôxômiya Akhôr) is a variant of the Eastern Nagari script also used for Bengali and Bishnupriya The Eastern Nagari script (also known as the Eastern Neo-Brahmic script or the Purvi Script) is an Abugida system of writing The Gupta script (or Gupta Brahmi) was used for writing Sanskrit and is associated with the Gupta Empire of India which was a period of material ^[6] There is a strong tradition of writing from early times. Examples can be seen in edicts, land grants and copper plates of medieval kings. Assam had its own system of writing on the bark of the saanchi tree in which religious texts and chronicles were written. The present-day spellings in Assamese are not necessarily phonetic. Hemkosh, the second Assamese dictionary, introduced spellings based on Sanskrit which are now the standard. Hemkosh ( Assamese: হেমকোষ Hêmkûx, hɛmkʊx is the first Etymological dictionary of the Assamese Language based on Sanskrit Sanskrit (sa संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk, for short sa संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam) is a historical

Morphology and grammar

The Assamese language has the following characteristic morphological features^[7]

• Gender and number are not grammatically marked
• There is lexical distinction of gender in the third person pronoun.
• Transitive verbs are distinguished from intransitive.
• The agentive case is overtly marked as distinct from the accusative.
• Kinship nouns are inflected for personal pronominal possession.
• Adverbs can be derived from the verb roots.
• A passive construction may be employed idiomatically.

Phonetics

The Assamese phonetic inventory consists of eight oral vowel phonemes, three nasalized vowel phonemes, fifteen diphthongs (two nasalized diphthongs) and twenty-one consonant phonemes. ^[8] For a consistent phonemic representation of the Assamese language, all English-language Wikipedia articles that include words in Assamese will use the Romanization scheme. The phoneME project is Sun Microsystems reference implementation of Java virtual machine and associated libraries of Java ME with source licensed under the GNU

In International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and Romanization (ROM) transcriptions

Vowels   Front Central Back   IPA ROM IPA ROM IPA ROM High i i     u u High-mid         ʊ û Mid e e     o o Low-mid ɛ ê     ɔ ô Low     a a

Consonants   Labial Alveolar Velar Glottal   IPA ROM IPA ROM IPA ROM IPA ROM Voiceless stops p pʰ p ph t tʰ t th k kʰ k kh     Voiced stops b bʰ b bh d dʰ d dh ɡ ɡʰ g gh     Voiceless fricatives     s s x x h h Voiced fricatives     z z         Nasals m m n n ŋ ng     Approximants w w l, ɹ l,r

Assamese phonetics has many distinguishing features vis-à-vis the other Indic languages of the Indo-European family. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic In Linguistics, romanization (or latinization, also spelled romanisation or latinisation) is the representation of a Word or The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic

Alveolar Stops

The Assamese phoneme inventory is unique in the Indic group of languages in its lack of a dental-retroflex distinction in coronal stops. Historically, the dental stops and retroflex stops both merged into alveolar stops. In Linguistics, a dental consonant or dental is a Consonant that is articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth such as /t/ /d/ /n/ and In Phonetics, retroflex consonants are Consonant sounds used in some Languages (They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants This makes Assamese resemble non-Indic languages in its use of the coronal major place of articulation. The only other language to have fronted retroflex stops into alveolars is the closely-related eastern dialects of Bengali (although a contrast with dental stops remains in those dialects).

Voiceless Velar Fricative

Unlike most eastern Indic languages, Assamese is also noted for the presence of the voiceless velar fricative x,(x, IITG, pronounced by a native speaker) historically derived from what used to be coronal sibilants. The voiceless velar fricative, informally known as the hard ch, is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati ( IIT Guwahati or IITG) an autonomous institute for education and research in science engineering and technology located The derivation of the velar fricative from the coronal sibilant [s] is evident in the name of the language in Assamese; some Assamese prefer to write Oxomiya/Ôxômiya instead of Asomiya/Asamiya to reflect the sound, represented by [x] in the International Phonetic Alphabet. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic This sound [x] was present in Vedic Sanskrit, but disappeared in classical Sanskrit. Vedic Sanskrit is an ancient Indian language, the language of the Vedas, the oldest Shruti texts of Hinduism. It was brought back into the phonology of Assamese as a result of lenition of the three Sanskrit sibilants. Lenition is a kind of Consonant mutation that appears in many Languages Along with assimilation, it is one of the primary sources of historical change A sibilant is a type of Fricative or Affricate Consonant, made by directing a jet of air through a narrow channel in the Vocal tract towards This sound is present in other nearby languages, like Chittagonian. Chittagonian (চাটগাঁইয়া বুলি Chaţgãia Buli) is an Indo-European language spoken by the people of Chittagong in Bangladesh

The sound is variously transcribed in the IPA as a voiceless velar fricative [x], a voiceless uvular fricative [χ], and a voiceless velar approximant [ɰ̥] by leading phonologists and phoneticians. Some variations of the sound is expected within different population groups and dialects, and depending on the speaker, speech register, and quality of recording, all three symbols may approximate the acoustic reading of the actual Assamese phoneme.

Velar nasal

Assamese, in contrast to other Indo-Aryan languages, uses the velar nasal extensively. In these languages the velar nasal is always attached to a homorganic sound, whereas it is used singly in Assamese. ^[9]

Vowel inventory

Eastern Indic languages like Assamese, Bengali, Sylheti, and Oriya do not have a vowel length distinction, but have a wide set of back rounded vowels. Sylheti (native name সিলটী Silôţi; Bengali name সিলেটী Sileţi) is the language of Sylhet, the north-eastern region Oriya (ଓଡ଼ିଆ oṛiā) is one of the Indian Languages mainly spoken in the Indian state of Orissa. In the case of Assamese, there are four back rounded vowels, including ô [ɔ], o [o], û [ʊ], and u [u]. These four vowels contrast phonemically, as demonstrated by the minimal set কলা kôla [kɔla] 'deaf', ক'লা kola [kola] 'black', কোলা kûla [kʊla] 'lap', and কুলা kula [kula] 'winnowing fan'.

The high-mid back rounded vowel û [ʊ] is unique in this branch of the language family, and sounds very much to foreigners as something between [o] and [u]. This vowel is found in Assamese words such as পোত pût [pʊt] "to bury".

Dialects

In the middle of the 19th century the dialect spoken in the Sibsagar area came into focus because it was made the official language of the state by the British and because the Christian missionaries based their work in this region. The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar WikipediaWikiProject Indian cities for details --> Sibsagar ( Assamese: শিৱসাগৰ Xiwôxagôr) is a city in the Sibsagar district Now the Assamese spoken in and around Guwahati, located geographically in the middle of the Assamese spoken region, is accepted as the standard Assamese. WikipediaWikiProject Indian cities for details --> Guwahati ( Assamese: গুৱাহাটী previously spelled Gauhati) is a major city in The Assamese taught in schools and used in newspapers today has evolved and incorporated elements from different dialects of the language. Banikanta Kakati identified two dialects which he named (1) Eastern and (2) Western dialects. A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος dialektos) is a variety of a Language that is characteristic of a particular group of However, recent linguistic studies have identified four dialect groups [1] (Moral 1992^[10]), listed below from east to west:

• Eastern group, spoken in and other districts around Sibsagar district
• Central group spoken in present Nagaon district and adjoining areas
• Kamrupi group spoken in undivided Kamrup, Nalbari, Barpeta, Darrang, Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon districts
• Goalpariya group spoken in Goalpara, Dhubri, Kokrajhar and Bongaigoan districts

Assamese literature

Main article: Assamese literature

There is a growing and strong body of literature in this language. Kamrupi ( Assamese: কামৰুপি Bengali: কামরুপি is the language that was spoken in the Kamarupa kingdom in the first millennium Assamese literature is the entire corpus of poetry novels short stories documents etc written in the Assamese language. The first characteristics of this language are seen in the Charyapadas composed in the 8th-12th century. The Charyapada ( Bangla: চর্যাপদ Assamese: চৰ্যাপদ is a collection of 8th-12th century Vajrayana Buddhist Caryagiti The 8th century is the period from 701 to 800 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian / Common Era. The first examples emerge in writings of court poets in the 14th century, the finest example of which is Madhav Kandali's Kotha Ramayana, as well as popular ballad in the form of Ojapali. Madhava Kandali was a 14th century Assamese poet notable for the earliest rendering of the Valmiki Ramayana into Assamese verse ( Kotha Kotha Ramayana is a poem written by the powerful Assamese poet Madhava Kandali during the 14th century and is one of many versions of Ramayana The 16th--17th century saw a flourishing of Vaishnavite literature, leading up to the emergence of modern forms of literature in the late 19th century. As a means of recording the passage of Time, the 17th Century was that Century which lasted from 1601 - 1700 in the Gregorian calendar The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar

See also

• Charyapada
• Languages of India
• List of national languages of India
• List of Indian languages by total speakers
• List of languages by number of native speakers

Notes

References

External links

• A Dictionary in Assamese and English (1867) First Assamese dictionary by Miles Bronson from (books. google. com)
• English-Assamese Online Dictionary
• The Creative Visionary: Jyoti Prasad Agarwalla (1903-1951)
• Assamese Language and Literature
• Assamese Language Sample
• Ethnologue report for Assamese
• Xophura - Collection of writings in Assamese
• Assamese - UCLA Phonetics Lab Data

The University of California Los Angeles (generally known as UCLA) is a public research university located in Westwood Los Angeles, California, United

---

© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic