Khasi language

Not to be confused with the Indo-Aryan Khāṣi language of Jammu and Kashmir.

Khasi
Ka Ktien Khasi, ক ক্ত্যেন খসি
Pronunciation	/ka kt̪eːn kʰasi/
Native to	India, Bangladesh
Region	Meghalaya, Assam
Ethnicity	Khasi people
Native speakers	1,037,964 (2011 census)
Language family	Austroasiatic Khasi-Palaungic Khasic Khasi-Pnar-Lyngngam Khasi
Writing system	Latin (Khasi alphabet) Bengali-Assamese
Language codes
ISO 639-2	kha
ISO 639-3	kha
Glottolog	khas1269
Khasi-speaking areas

Khasi language by a non-Khasi speaker, recorded in India

Khasi (Ka Ktien Khasi) is an Austroasiatic language spoken primarily in Meghalaya state in India by the Khasi people. It is also spoken by a sizeable population in Assam and Bangladesh. Khasi is part of the Austroasiatic language family, and is related to Khmer, Palaung, Vietnamese and Mon languages of Southeast Asia, and the Munda and Nicobarese branches of that family, which are spoken in east–central India and in the Nicobar Islands, respectively.

Although most of the 1.6 million Khasi speakers are found in Meghalaya, the language is also spoken by a number of people in the hill districts of Assam bordering with Meghalaya and by a sizeable population of people living in Bangladesh, close to the Indian border. Khasi has been an associate official language of some districts within Meghalaya since 2005, and as of May 2012, was no longer considered endangered by UNESCO. There are demands to include this language to the Eighth schedule to the constitution of India.

Speakers

Khasi speakers are mostly found in the Khasi Hills and Jaintia Hills region of Meghalaya. It is also spoken by a number of people in the hill districts of Assam and by a small population of people living in Bangladesh. Khasi has been an associate official language in Meghalaya since 2005.

Khasi is written using the Latin and Bengali-Assamese scripts. Both scripts are taught as part of the compulsory Khasi language subject in elementary up to high school in Meghalaya and Bangladesh respectively.

The main dialects of Khasi spoken are Sohra and Shillong dialect. Shillong dialects form a dialect continuum across the capital region. Sohra dialect, due to strong colonial patronisation, came to be regarded as Standard Khasi.

Phonology

This section discusses mainly the phonology of Standard Khasi as spoken in and around the capital city, Shillong.

Khasi, mainly spoken in Meghalaya, is surrounded by unrelated languages: Assamese to the north and east, Bengali to the south (both Indo-Aryan languages), Garo (a Tibeto-Burman language) to the west, and a plethora of other Tibeto-Burman languages including Manipuri, Mizo and Bodo.

Although over the course of time, language change has occurred, Khasi retains some distinctive features:

• Unlike the surrounding Tibeto-Burman languages, Khasi is not a tonal language.

Consonants

Consonant phonemes

				Labial		Dental		Alveolar		Post- alveolar		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Nasal				m		n						ɲ		ŋ
Stop		Unaspirated		p	b	t̪		d				c		k		ʔ
		Aspirated		pʰ	bʱ	t̪ʰ		dʱ						kʰ
Affricate		Unaspirated						dʒ
		Aspirated						dʒʱ
Fricative								s		ʃ						h
Approximant												j		w
Trill						r
Lat. Approximant						l

Examples

		IPA	Translation			IPA	Translation
m	mrad	[mraːt̚]	animal	n	nar	[nar]	iron
ɲ	ñia	[ɲaː]	aunt	ŋ	ngen	[ŋɛn]	wane
p	pan	[paːn]	ask	pʰ	phylla	[pʰɨlːaː]	special
b	blang	[blaŋ]	goat	bʱ	bhoi	[bʱɔɪ]	Bhoi
t̪	tdong	[t̪dɔŋ]	tail	tʰ	thah	[t̪ʰaːʔ]	ice
d	dur	[dʊr]	picture	dʱ	dheng	[dʱɛŋ]	park
c	beit	[bɛc]	straight
k	krung	[krʊŋ]	rib	kʰ	khring	[kʰrɪŋ]	entice
ʔ	pyut	[pʔʊt̚]	rotten
dʒ	jlaw	[dʒlaːʊ]	howl	dʒʱ	jhieh	[dʒʱeːʔ]	wet
s	syiem	[sʔeːm]	monarch	ʃ	shñiuh	[ʃɲoːʔ]	hair
h	hynmen	[hɨnmɛn]	sibling
r	rynsan	[rɨnsaːn]	platform	l	lieh	[leːʔ]	white
j	ïor	[jɔːr]	snow	w	wah	[waːʔ]	river

Vowels

Vowel phonemes

			Front		Central		Back
			Short	Long	Short	Long	Short	Long
Close			ɪ	iː	ɨ		ʊ	uː
Mid-Close			e	eː			o	oː
Mid-Open			ɛ	ɛː			ɔ	ɔː
Open					a	aː

Examples

		IPA	Translation			IPA	Translation
ɪ	dinɡ	[dɪŋ]	fire	iː	ih	[iːʔ]	cooked
ɨ	ynda	[ɨndaː]	until
ʊ	plunɡ	[plʊŋ]	plump	uː	ruh	[ruːʔ]	also
e	miet	[met̚]	niɡht	eː	iermat	[eːrmat̚]	eyelash
o	lum	[lom]	hill	oː	ud	[oːt̚]	moan
ɛ	renɡ	[rɛŋ]	horn	ɛː	erïonɡ	[ɛːrjɔŋ]	whirlwind
ɔ	onɡ	[ɔŋ]	say	ɔː	Shillonɡ	[ʃɨlːɔːŋ]	Shillonɡ
a	sat	[sat̚]	spicy	aː	sad	[saːt̚]	ceilinɡ

Morphology

Khasi is an Austroasiatic language and has its distinct features of a large number of consonant conjuncts, with prefixing and infixing.

Nouns and noun phrases

Word order

The order of elements in a Khasi noun phrase is (Case marker)-(Demonstrative)-(Numeral)-(Classifier)-(Article)-Noun-(Adjective)-(Prepositional phrase)-(Relative clause), as can be seen from the following examples:

Gender

Khasi has a pervasive gender system. There are four genders in this language:

u masculine

ka feminine

i diminutive

ki plural

Humans and domestic animals have their natural gender:

ka kmie `mother'

u kpa `father'

ka syiar `hen'

u syiar `rooster'

Rabel (1961) writes: "the structure of a noun gives no indication of its gender, nor does its meaning, but Khasi natives are of the impression that nice, small creatures and things are feminine while big, ugly creatures and things are masculine....This impression is not borne out by the facts. There are countless examples of desirable and lovely creatures with masculine gender as well as of unpleasant or ugly creatures with feminine gender"

Though there are several counterexamples, Rabel says that there is some semantic regularity in the assignment of gender for the following semantic classes:

Feminine	Masculine
times, seasons
clothes	reptiles, insects, flora, trees
physical features of nature	heavenly bodies
manufactured articles	edible raw material
tools for polishing	tools for hammering, digging
trees of soft fibre	trees of hard fibre

The matrilineal aspect of the society can also be observed in the general gender assignment, where so, all central and primary resources associated with day-to-day activities are signified as Feminine; whereas Masculine signifies the secondary, the dependent or the insignificant.

Feminine	Masculine
Sun (Ka Sngi)	Moon (U Bnai)
Wood (Ka Dieng)	Tree (U Dieng)
Honey (Ka Ngap)	Bee (U Ngap)
House (Ka Ïing)	Column (U Rishot)
Cooked rice (Ka Ja)	Uncooked rice (U Khaw)

Classifiers

Khasi has a classifier system, apparently used only with numerals. Between the numeral and noun, the classifier tylli is used for non-humans, and the classifier ngut is used for humans, e.g.

Adjectives

There is some controversy about whether Khasi has a class of adjectives. Roberts cites examples like the following:

In nearly all instances of attributive adjectives, the apparent adjective has the prefix /ba-/, which seems to be a relativiser. There are, however, a few adjectives without the /ba-/ prefix:

When the adjective is the main predicate, it may appear without any verb 'be':

In this environment, the adjective is preceded by an agreement marker, like a verb. Thus it may be that Khasi does not have a separate part of speech for adjectives, but that they are a subtype of verb.

Prepositions and prepositional phrases

Khasi appears to have a well-developed group of prepositions, among them

bad 'with, and'

da 'with (instrumental)'

na 'from'

ha 'in, at'

Sha 'in, at'

jong 'of'

The following are examples of prepositional phrases:

Verbs and verb phrases

Agreement

Verbs agree with 3rd person subjects in gender, but there is no agreement for non-3rd persons (Roberts 1891):

	Singular	Plural
1st person	nga thoh 'I write'	ngi thoh 'we write’
2nd person	me thoh 'he (masc) writes' pha thoh 'she (fem) writes'	phi thoh 'you (pl). write'
3rd person	u thoh 'he writes' ka thoh 'she writes'	ki thoh 'they write’

The masculine and feminine markers /u/ and /ka/ are used even when there is a noun phrase subject (Roberts 1891:132):

Tense marking

Tense is shown through a set of particles that appear after the agreement markers but before the verb. Past is a particle /la/ and future is /yn/ (contracted to 'n after a vowel):

Khasi	English
U thoh.	He writes.
U thoh.	He wrote.
U la thoh.	He has written.
Un thoh	He will write.

Negation

Negation is also shown through a particle, /ym/ (contracted to 'm after a vowel), which appears between the agreement and the tense particle. There is a special past negation particle /shym/ in the past which replaces the ordinary past /la/ (Roberts 1891):

Khasi	English
Um ju thoh.	He doesn't write.
Um shym thoh.	He didn't write.
Um nym thoh	He won't write.
Um dei ban thoh	He shouldn't write.

Copulas

The copula is an ordinary verb in Khasi, as in the following sentence:

Causative verbs

Khasi has a morphological causative /pn-/ (Rabel 1961). (This is spelled pyn in Roberts (1891)):

Base verb	Gloss	Causative verb	Gloss
hiar	come down	pynhiar	let down, export
tip	know	pyntip	make known
phuh	blossom	pynphuh	beautify
ïaid	walk	pyn-ïaid	drive, put agoing
jot	torn	pyn-jot	destroy
poi	arrive	pyn-poi	deliver

Sentences

Word order

Word order in simple sentences is subject–verb–object (SVO):

However, VSO order is also found, especially after certain initial particles, like hangta 'then' (Rabel 1961).

Case marking

Sometimes the object is preceded by a particle ya (spelled ia in Roberts 1891). Roberts says "ia, 'to', 'for', 'against' implies direct and immediate relation. Hence its being the sign of the dative and of the accusative case as well"

It appears from Roberts (1891) that Khasi has differential object marking, since only some objects are marked accusative. Roberts notes that nouns that are definite usually have the accusative and those that are indefinite often do not.

Rabel (1961) says "the use of ïa is optional in the case of one object. In the case of two objects one of them must have ïa preceding.... If one of the objects is expressed by a pronoun, it must be preceded by ïa."

Broadly speaking, Khasi marks for eight cases, with the nominative case remaining unmarked, for a total of nine cases

Case	Marker
Nominative	unmarked
Accusative/ Dative	ïa
Ablative	na
Locative	ha
Allative	sha
Genitive	jong
Instrumental	da
Comitative	bad
Vocative	ko

All case markers can appear with or without the prenominal markers/articles 'u, ka, i and ki', and placed before the prenominal markers.

Passive

Khasi has a passive, but it involves removing the agent of the sentence without putting the patient in subject position. (A type called the 'non-ascensional passive'). Compare the following active-passive pair (Roberts 1891) where the patient continues to have accusative case and remains in the object position:

This type of passive is used, even when the passive agent is present in a prepositional phrase:

Questions

Yes-no questions seem to be distinguished from statements only by intonation:

Wh-questions don't involve moving the wh-element:

Embedded clauses

Subordinate clauses follow the main verb that selects them (Roberts 1891:169):

Relative clauses follow the nouns that they modify and agree in gender:

Syntax

Khasi has a SVO syntax, similar to English, but unlike all Indian languages, with the notable exception of Kashmiri, which has verb-second (v2) syntax.

Dialects of Khasi

Khasi has significant dialectal variation. Some dialects are Pnar, Sohra Khasi, Mylliem Khasi, Mawlai Khasi, Nongkrem Khasi, Bhoi Khasi Nonglung, Maram and War (not the same as the related War language). Bhoi Khasi in Ri Bhoi District, Nongpoh block, and Nonglung in Ri Bhoi District, Umsning block are very different from Standard Khasi, with different word order. They are distinct enough to be sometimes considered separate languages. Sohra and War are lexically very similar.

The Sohra dialect is taken as Standard Khasi as it was the first dialect to be written in Latin and Bengali scripts by the British. Standard Khasi is in turn significantly different from the Shillong dialects (eight at most) which form a dialect continuum across the capital region.

Script

In the past, the Khasi language had no script of its own. Some of the Khasi Syiems of old used to keep official records and communicate with one another on paper primarily using the Bengali script. William Carey wrote the language with the Bengali script between 1813 and 1838. A large number of Khasi books were written in the Bengali script, including the famous book Ka Niyom Jong Ki Khasi or The Religion of the Khasis, which is an important work on the Khasi religion. The Welsh missionary, Thomas Jones, in 1841 wrote the language in the Latin script. As a result, the Latin alphabet of the language has a few similarities with the Welsh alphabet. The first journal in Khasi was U Nongkit Khubor (The Messenger) published at Mawphlang in 1889 by William Williams.

Khasi alphabet

Khasi in Latin script has a different system, distinct from that of English. Khasi uses a 23-letter alphabet by removing the letters c, f, q, v, x and z from the basic Latin alphabet and adding the diacritic letters ï and ñ, and the digraph ng, which is treated as a letter in its own right.

Khasi Alphabet

Capital letters	A	B	K	D	E	G	Ng	H	I	Ï	J	L	M	N	Ñ	O	P	R	S	T	U	W	Y
Small letters	a	b	k	d	e	g	ng	h	i	ï	j	l	m	n	ñ	o	p	r	s	t	u	w	y
English Pronunciation	ah	bee	kay	dee	ay	eg	eng	esh	ee	yee	jay	ell	emm	enn	eñ	oh	pea	aar	ess	tee	oo	double yu	why
Assamese	আ	ব	ক	দ	এ	গ	ঙ	হ	ই	য	জ	ল	ম	ন	ঞ	অ	প	ৰ	স	ত	উ	র	য়
Bengali	আ	ব	ক	দ	এ	গ	অং	হ	ই	য়ি	জ	ল	ম	ন	ঞ	ও	প	র	স	ত	উ	ঊ	ঈ

Note

• The peculiar placement of k is due to it replacing c. c and ch were originally used in place of k and kh. When c was removed from the alphabet, k was put in its place.
• The inclusion of g is only due to its presence in the letter ng. It is not used independently in any word of native origin.
• h represents both the fricative sound as well as the glottal stop word-finally.
• y is not pronounced as in year, but acts as a schwa, and as a glottal stop between vowels. The sound in year is written with ï.

Sample text in Khasi

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Khasi Alphabet

Ïa ki bynriew baroh la kha laitluid bad ki ïaryngkat ha ka burom bad ki hok. Ha ki la bsiap da ka bor pyrkhat bad ka jingïatiplem bad ha ka mynsiem jingsngew shipara, ki dei ban ïatrei bynrap lang.

(Jinis 1 jong ka Jingpynbna-Ïar Satlak ïa ki Hok Longbriew-Manbriew)

Assamese script যা কি বৃনৰ‌্যের বাৰহ লা খা লাচলোছ বাড কী যৰূঙ্কট হা কি বুৰম বাড ক হক. হাকি লা বৃস্যপ দা ক বৰ-পৃৰ্খট বাড ক চিংযাতিপলেম বাড হা ক মৃন্স্যেম চিংস্ঙেউ শীপাৰা, কী দেই বাণ যত্ৰেই বৃনৰাপ লাং.

(জিনিস বানৃঙ্গং জং ক চিংপৃনবৃনা-যাৰ সত্লাক যা কি হক লংব্ৰ্যের-মানব্র্যের.)

IPA

jaː ki bɨnreʊ baːrɔʔ laː kʰaː lacloc bat ki jaːrɨŋkat haː kaː burɔm bat ki hɔk. haː ki laː bsjap daː kaː bɔːr pɨrkʰat bat kaː dʒɪŋjaːtɪplɛm bat haː kaː mɨnseːm dʒɨŋsŋɛʊ ʃiparaː ki dɛɪ ban jaːtrɛɪ bɨnrap laŋ

(dʒinɪs banɨŋkɔŋ dʒɔŋ kaː dʒɨŋpɨnbnaː-jaːr satlak jaː ki hɔk lɔŋbreʊ manbreʊ)

Gloss

To the human all are born free and they equal in the dignity and the rights. In them are endowed with the power thought and the conscience and in the spirit feeling fraternity they should to work assist together.

(Article first of the Declaration Universal of the Rights Humanity)

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should work towards each other in a spirit of brotherhood.

Basic vocabulary

Khasi language	English
Khublei (khu-blei)	Thank You
Phi long kumno?	How are you? In short it is also used as "Kumno?”
Nga khlaiñ	I am fine.
Kumne	Short form response to 'Kumno?' meaning 'like this'.
Um	Water
Ja	(cooked) rice
Dohkha (doh-kha)	fish (meat)
Dohsyiar (doh-syiar)	chicken (meat)
Dohsniang (doh-sni-ang)	pork (meat)
Dohmasi (doh-ma-si)	beef (meat)
Dohblang (doh-bl-ang)	mutton (meat)
Jyntah (jyn-tah)	dish (meat/vegetable)
Jhur (jh-ur)	vegetable
Dai	lentils
Mluh (ml-uh)	salt
Duna (du-na)	less
Sohmynken (soh-myn-ken)	chilli
Sngewbha ai biang seh	Please give again (serve again).
Lah biang	enough
Sngewbha ai um seh	Please give water.
Sngewbha ai ja seh	Please give food (rice).
Sngewbha ai jyntah seh	Please give (side dish) vegetable / meat.
Ai aiu? / Kwah aiu?	What do you want?
Sngewbha ai kwai seh	Please give 'kwai'.
Aiu?	What?
Mynno?	When? (past)
Lano?	When? (future)
Hangno? / Shano?	Where?
Kumno?	How?
Thiah suk.	Sleep well. (The equivalent of "Good Night".)
Kumno ngan leit sha Nan Polok?	How do I go to Ward's Lake?
Katno ka dor une / kane?	What is the price of this? (une is masculine gender, kane is feminine gender and ine is neutral gender)
Leit suk.	Happy journey
Reply is "Shong suk.”	Literal meaning is "Stay happy.”

Numbers

1	wei
2	ar
3	lai
4	saw
5	san
6	hynriew
7	hynñiew
8	phra
9	khyndai
10	shiphew
20	arphew
30	laiphew
40	sawphew
50	sanphew
60	hynriewphew
70	hynñiewphew
80	phraphew
90	khyndaiphew
100	shispah
200	arspah
300	laispah
400	sawspah
500	sanspah
600	hynriewspah
700	hynñiewspah
800	phraspah
900	khyndaispah
1000	shihajar
10000	shiphewhajar
100000	shilak
10000000	shiklur
1000000000	shiarab

Publications in Khasi

There are a number of books (including novels, poetry, and religious works) as well as newspapers in the Khasi language. The most famous Khasi poet is U Soso Tham (1873–1940). The online newspaper U Mawphor is published in the Khasi language.

References

Sources

• Nagaraja, K. S. 1985. Khasi – A Descriptive Analysis. Poona: Deccan College Postgraduate Research Institute.
• Pryse, William. 1855. An Introduction to the Khasia Language. (Reproduced 1988)
• Rabel, Lili. 1961. Khasi, a Language of Assam. Baton Rouge, La: Louisiana State University Press.
• Rabel-Heymann. 1977. "Gender in Khasi nouns". Journal of Mon-Khmer Studies 6:247–272
• Roberts, H. 1891. A Grammar of the Khassi Language. For the use of schools, native students, officers and English residents. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner.
• Singh, Nissor. 1906. Khasi-English Dictionary. Shillong: Eastern Bengal and Assam State Secretariat Press.

Further reading

• 2006-e. Khasi. In E. K. Brown (ed.) Encyclopedia of Languages and Linguistics. Oxford: Elsevier Press.

External links

• Online Khasi literature
• Entry for Khasi at the Language Information Service of India
• The World Atlas of Language Structures Online: Khasi
• Resource Center for Indian Language Technology Solutions: Khasi
• Khasi to English Vocabulary
• Basic words and phrases in Khasi language