Kokborok grammar is the grammar of the Kokborok language, also known as Tripuri or Tipra which is spoken by the Tripuri people, the native inhabitants of the state of Tripura. It is the official language of Tripura, a state located in Northeast India.
Syntax The principal structures of affirmative sentences in Kokborok are the following:
Person
In Kokborok grammar use of the notion of 'person' is almost absent; the form of verb is same for one who speaks, one who is spoken to, and one who is spoken about.
Number
In Kokborok there are two numbers: Singular and plural. The plural marker is used at the end of the noun or pronoun. There are two plural markers: rok and song. Rok is universally used while song is used with human nouns only. The plural marker is normally used at the end of the noun or pronoun. But when the noun has an adjective the plural marker is used at the end of the adjective instead of the noun.
Examples:
Bwrwirok Teliamura o thangnai. These women will go to Teliamura. O bwrwi naithokrok kaham rwchabo. These beautiful women sing very well.
Gender
In Kokborok there are four genders: masculine gender, feminine gender, common gender, and neuter gender. Words which denote male are masculine, words which denote female are feminine, words which can be both male and female are common gender, and words which cannot be either masculine or feminine are neuter gender.
+ Gender examples chwla man – masculine bwrwi woman – feminine chwrai child – common buphang tree – neuter
There are various ways to change genders of words:
+ Using different words bwsai husband bihik wife phayung brother hanok sister kiching male friend mare female friend
+ Adding i at the end of the masculine word sikla young man sikli young woman achu grandfather achui grandmother When the masculine words ends in a, the a is dropped.
+ Adding jwk at the end of the masculine word bwsa son bwsajwk daughter kwra father-in-law kwrajwk mother-in-law
+ Words of common gender are made masculine by adding suffixes, like sa, chwla/la, jua and feminine by adding ma, jwk, bwrwi pun goat punjua he goat punjwk she goat tok fowl tokla cock tokma hen takhum swan takhumchwla drake takhumbwrwi duck
Case and case endings
In Kokborok there are the nominative, accusative, instrumental, ablative, locative and possessive cases.
+ Case suffixes Nominative o Accusative no Instrumental bai Ablative ni Locative o Possessive ni
These case suffixes are used at the end of the noun/pronoun and there is no change in the form of the noun.
Adjective
In Kokborok the adjectives come after the words they qualify. This rule is strictly followed only in the case of native adjectives. In case of loan adjectives the rule is rather loose. Kokborok adjectives may be divided into four classes:
pure adjectives compound adjectives verbal adjectives K-adjectives
The first three classes may include both native and loan words. The fourth class is made of purely native words. e.g.:
hilik – heavy, heleng – light bwkha kotor – (heart big) – brave, bwkha kusu – (heart small) – timid leng – tire, lengjak – tired, ruk – to boil, rukjak – boiled. kaham – good, kotor – big, kisi – wet.
Numerals
Kokborok numerals are both decimal and vigesimal. sa nwi tham brwi ba dok sni char chuku chi
ra – hundredth sara – one hundred sai – thousandth sasai- one thousand rwjag – a lakh
A numeral is organised as:
See also Meitei grammar Tripuri language Chinese language Burmese language Languages of India Kokborok History
References
A simplified Kokborok Grammar, by Prof. Prabhas Chandra Dhar, 1987