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Article published In: Asian Languages and Linguistics
Vol. 5:1 (2024) ► pp.132–177

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Evidence of a contact-induced change

Relative-correlative clause in a South Central (Kuki-Chin) language of the Tibeto-Burman branch in Bangladesh

 | Independent University, Bangladesh | SOAS University of London
Published online: 5 July 2024
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https://doi.org/10.1075/alal.00020.zak
Abstract
South Central Tibeto-Burman (also known as Kuki-Chin) forms a group of fifty languages spoken in the border area of Bangladesh, India and Burma. Due to their geographic distribution, speakers of South Central (SC) languages are in close contact with the superstrate languages, Bangla, Hindi and Burmese. The inevitable consequence of this longstanding contact on lesser-known languages of this region is understudied, especially structural diffusions. This paper presents a detailed discussion on relative-correlative (RC-CRC) construction in Hyow, a Southeastern SC language spoken by approximately four thousand people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh, where they are in close contact with Bangla and Marma (a dialect of Burmese). This empirical study demonstrates how RC-CRC construction in Hyow is structurally and distributionally similar to those in IA languages, taking a critical look at the existing literature on IA languages and using data therein for a comparative study. In doing so, this paper provides examples from Bangla, Hindi and Sanskrit, and refutes some of the observations made in previous scholarly works. This paper also explores how they might have developed in Hyow, which otherwise uses a nominalization as native strategy for forming relative clauses. Even though most part of this paper discusses the RC-CRC constructions in Hyow as a consequence of language contact, this paper presents new insights on RC-CRC constructions in Bangla as well comparing to other IA languages.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methodologies and data
  • 3.Language contact in the CHT
  • 4.Borrowing and replication of RC-CRC
    • 4.1Borrowed RC-CRC
      • 4.1.1The status of the correlative
      • 4.1.2Borrowed correlative pronoun
      • 4.1.3Postposed relative clause as afterthought
      • 4.1.4Postnominal relative clause
      • 4.1.5Double-headed relative clause
      • 4.1.6Borrowing or code-switching
    • 4.2Replicated RC-CRC
      • 4.2.1Position of the RC
      • 4.2.2Status of the head noun
      • 4.2.3Nature of the correlate
      • 4.2.4Reduplication of relative and correlative pronouns
      • 4.2.5Stacking of relative clauses
  • 5.Source of replication
  • 6.Motivation for RC-CRC
  • 7.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
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