harvard aslip kusunda paper 2006[1]

8/14/2019 Harvard ASLIP Kusunda Paper 2006[1]

1/9

Significance of Kusundasand Their Language in TheTrans-Himalayan Region1B. K. RanaHarvard University,Cambridge, MAOctober 21- 22, 2006

General Background:The Kusunda language does not remain a not well studied andclassified language anymore now. The government of Nepal funded forits detailed study with some leading linguists in the country. TheNational Foundation for Development of Indigenous Nationalities[NFDIN] brought at least two fluent Kusunda speakers along with fewothers from western part of Nepal in Kathmandu, funded for their 3months stay to document data and organized a national seminar on thelanguage on October 10, 2004. Enough data has been obtained anddocumented. The study shows Kusunda language doesnt resemble to anyother languages in the world2.

Since, I left Nepal for USA in 2003, I have been unable to establishany direct communications with the Kusundas whom I could discoveramong the mid-hills of Nepal in early 2000. However, I could obtainsome other crucial data from Ms S. Thapa who brought Gyani Maya, afluent Kusunda speaker, in her hometown of Butwal in the westernplains of Nepal and video-graphed her interview in April 2003 3. Wehave already discussed on those data in the Fifth Harvard Roundtableon Ethnogenesis of South and Central Asiain Cambridge on May 10 -11, 2003.

Before the discovery of Raja Mama, a lone Kusunda of Tanahu in westNepal, the linguistic communities held a belief that Kusundas havealready vanished from the face of the earth and eventually theirprecious language also. But the discovery of Raja Mama opened up anew avenue for Kusunda research in recent years. This also led tothe preservation of this important indigenous tribal community andits profound linguistic heritage. Now, another important job has tobe done, providing direct benefit to the target community incompliance with the international laws, testing the Kusunda DNA.

1 Paper presented to the International Conference on the Substrate and Remnant Languagesof South, Southeast, East Asia & Sahul Land: "The Year of the Australoid" (9th HARVARDROUND TABLE ON THE ETHNOGENESIS OF SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA, ESCA): sponsored by the AsiaCenter, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA and theAssociation for the Study of Language in Prehistory (ASLIP) October 21 -22, 2006http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/9th-ESCA-announce.htm

2National Foundation for Indigenous Nationalities ,NFDINhttp://nfdin.gov.np/1/content/view/74/43 , Notes on Kusunda Grammar [ A language isolateof Nepal 2005]

3RECENTLY RECORDED MATERIALS ON THE KUSUNDA LANGUAGE.dochttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/Langhali_Forum/files/


2/9

2

The Nepal government has placed high priority to preserve certainnear-extinct indigenous communities and their heritage. The NationalFoundation for Indigenous Nationalities,[NFDIN] a government entityheaded by the Prime Minister, in whose governing council, Raja Mamahad been nominated a member in 2004 4 . This is a first record inNepalese history that a Kusunda got nominated to a government entity.

Raja Mama and Lil Bahadur Kusunda:After his discovery Raja Mama [Kusunda] drew enormous mediaattention in the country. The media still report him as a loneKusunda of Nepal; however, there are few more others in differentparts of western Nepal.

The photo below was taken in February 2000 in Tanahu when Idiscovered him. He said he was fifty years old. He should haveweighed 55 to 60 Kilograms and about 5 feet tall. He said to me hewas born in jungle. He doesnt remember anything about his father.He was a lonely fellow. He told me he used to hunt jungle fowl,forage yam, tuber and fruits. Nowadays, he doesnt go for a hunt. He

helps other in agriculture. He just gave me some 50 Kusunda words

Raja Mama Kusunda

4On Wednesday, August 25, 2004 Prof. Sant B. Gurung, Vice-Chairman of the Foundation, inan email message wrote, Raja Mama has been nominated as a member of governing council ofthe Foundation. The Study on Kusunda language has begun in Kathmandu from August bylinguists of Tribhuvan University supported by this foundation. The Foundation hasbrought three Kusunda for this purpose.


3/9

3

As Tamla Ukyab, then Member Secretary and ex-officio ExecutiveDirector of the Foundation told me over phone from Kathmandu thatthe government deposited in a fixed account Rs. 75,000.00 [littlemore than US $ 1000.00] in his name so that he could marry and starta family life. Now, he has married a woman Tamla Ukayb said. Both

Tamla Ukyab and Sant B. Gurung played a vital role for the recentstudy and preservation of Kusunda language. We are thankful of them.

Since, Raja Mama Kusunda had received wide media coverage in thecountry. Kusundas got prominence which led me to participate in the4th Harvard Rountable in 2002. After the roundtable, I wrote a fewarticles on the Kusunda and published in major dailies fromKathamadu. People began taking deep concern in the Kusundas.

Almost one year after the discovery of Raja Mama Kusunda, All NepalIndigenous Peoples Convention, [ANIPC], one of the non-governmentalorganizations of indigenous peoples, organized its second nationalconvention in Kathmandu in April 2001. Hundreds of representativesfrom among different indigenous peoples communities in the country

participated in the convention. The convention organizers told theywanted to hear and understand the issues of the indigenous tribalcommunities directly from their own mouths.

Lil Bahadur Kusunda, born in 1949Therefore, the convention organizers had also invited Lil BahadurKusunda and his middle son Setu Lal Kusunda from Tiram Ward 6. BudhiChaur, of Pyuthan district 5 . Lil Bahadur Kusunda had arrivedKathmandu with his particular traditional Kusunda weapons: bow andarrow. This Kusunda has also forgotten most of the Kusunda words asthe Raja Mama Kusunda of Tanahu.

5 Pyuthan, Rolpa, Rukum, Sallyan, Shurkhet and Dang districts are in mid-western Nepaland there may be some other Kusundas.


4/9

4

Lil Bahadur Kusunda has married a non-Kusunda woman and has 18members in his family. He told me he lived in the jungle for 28years. He doesnt speak any Kusunda. Since his is an inter-castemarriage, his children and grand-children are therefore also unknownabout the Kusunda language. He told hurufor bow and gurufor thearrow. Actually, in Kusunda bow is called tutand arrow - mui6.

Chepangs, Rautes, and Kusundas:Chepangs were also a hunting group of people in the central hills ofNepal whose population size is 52237 [2001]. Nowadays, they donthunt. They live in Gorkha, Dhadhing, Makawanpur and Chitwandistricts quite close to Kathmandu. These Chepangs speak one ofthe TB languages.

Rautes, population 658 [2001], are another group of foraging tribalcommunity in western part of Nepal. They speak Khamchi, a TBlanguage and roam, even today, amongst the deep forests in westernpart of Nepal. In the jungle they make huts tying together somevines with branches of small trees. Such huts are called rautees.These Rautes run away from the Kusundas as the latter treat them as

their subjects. Rautes hunt monkeys and eat them.

The Chepangs do not call themselves Thakuris while Rautes andKusundas have taken Thakuri surnames as: Shahi, Sen, Mallaand Shah.A Thakuri erupts in bad temper when one talks of Kusunda in front ofhim. I had that kind of experience in one of my expeditions insearch for Kusundas. The Thakuris are derogatively called Kusundas.The Kusunda origin story as documented by Reinhard and Toba tellsKusunda, Thakuri and Magars are blood brothers7. This story, however,is in indigenous Kusunda language, sounds fairly recent.

Kusundas used to have some taboos: as they would not touch cow-dongs,would not eat or drink anything put in a milk pot. In other words,they would not eat anything if you have put some milk in a jar or

bowl or whatever and used it later to give some rice or pulses tothe Kusundas. The Kusundas would not live inside a house or hut

6Cf. Kham Magar guleli = bow and mui = arrow7 1. /hancaa?i cinda mong-andi daahat gitaak ci?nda /firstly those king-to threechildren were 2. /taaina? isyi naha mong wa?aaid-ai gidi duguci mizar thenthere from king die -(v) his son eldest mong dhanzigan/ king became. 3. /namong-a-nun keti kam-ai/ this king -?- (v) field work (v 4. /tainaa qaadi ug-uo-da/waaci watudan/ then paddy come up not, bushes grew 5. /qapiraa mahimudadi-g-ai aambugatan wet-uoda/and water buffalo milk- he- (v) milkcome not. /qapiraa mudada-ai uyu watan/and milk - (v) bloodcome-out. 6./qapiraa gidaa-nun iyan-da zingia arzigan/and he -(p) leg-on oil rub 7. /paasidai naatu mihaa? waad-ai/black like mancome-out -(v)8. /mizut manzala-nun aa?-zi/younger (brother)second - (p) say -(v) 9. /mam nu natan kamanan anu-n-na brother youwhatever work do- you - ? wein ag-uoda/good is not. 10. /nu raaza daanzi-nu yi?aaninu/you king remain you can not11. / nu gilong dazi haau-nu yotata?a-zi pa?adaan-zi/you forest live go -you beg-(v) hunt- (vi)12./tainagilong-da mihaa? isyi naha ugi/ then jungle -in man there from come 13./manzala paalo ugan raaza gua/second son turn come king be 14./manzala kaam agandan kanianzi wein agan/ second son work done allgood become 15. /sambaga manzala raaza git baha dambagan/thus second son kinghe firm got16. mong-nun candi puza agandanking Chandi worship done.

A Preliminary Linguistic Analysis and Vocabulary of the Kusunda Language by JohanReinhard and Sueyoshi Toba, Summer institute of Linguistics, Tribhuvan University, Nepal.September 1970


5/9

5

tied with ropes or vines. The Kusundas would not kill monkeys formeat. These are the striking differences between Kusundas and Rautes.Kusundas do not say themselves Kusunda. They shun this word. Intheir own language they prefer calling themselves a myahaq aKing or gelang de mahaq - king of forest. Could this Kusundatitle be given by some other advanced communities to the Kusundas?

Kusundas, Mundas, Nihals and Jarawas:While talking of Kusundas, the Mundas also come into our mind. TheSanthal or Santhali is one of the Munda languages. Santhals haveeven developed a script of their own. This is also a pronominalizedlanguage.

Sanskrit and Prakrit have derived hundreds of words from the Proto-Munda [Kuiper,1948] 8 . However, the Proto-Munda ka-la(n)ja andcertain words such as: Sanskrit al-in-jara, Pali al-an-jara andNihali len-jo pose some problems to designate Munda as Austro-Asiatic [Witzel,2000] 9 . Also the view of having some links in Nihaliand Kusunda [Fleming, 1996] has also been contested that Nihali nolanguage at all but a `so-called' or seeming language [Zide, 1995 ?].

The photo below of a Munda king also looks different than both theRaja Mama and Lil Bahadur Kusunda.

Anil Munda and his wifePicture (courtesy HRCBM-Khulna): Mr. Anil Munda is the king of Mundas

at Koyera, Khulna of Bangladeshhttp://www.hrtribune.com/Munda/Munda_part-I.html

8 Munda lexemes in Sanskrithttp://www.hindunet.org/saraswati/dictionary/9MUNDA.HTM9 The Languages of Harapppa http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/IndusLang.pdf


6/9

6

The picture below of two Jarawa young boys 10 actually does not looklike that of Raja Mama Kusunda and Lil Bahadur Kusunda. The boys inthis picture look South Indian stock while both Raja Mama and LilBahadur Kusunda have longer hair and different facial feature.

Jarawa boysPhoto courtesy: Ausaf Sayeed http://www.ausafsayeed.com/jarawa.html

A Designated Language Isolate:The Kusunda has been designated a language isolate. The most recentstudy carried out by David E. Watters and others again designateKusunda as a language isolate. He writes the Kusunda has norelationship with any other languages in the world.

There is enough Kusunda vocabulary on the Kusunda language. And,there has been a lot more works on the Kusunda being left undoneafter Hodgson and Reinhard & Toba.

Until recently the most popular Kusunda sentences among linguistsused to be chi kadi gaman (I rice eat), git kadi gaman (He rice eats) and nu kadinaman (You rice eat)11. Now David Watters has worked on this and finds

10 Negrito tribes - wrongly referred to as Jarawa - of Andamans

http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/originals/Justin/art-justs.htm#1

11 Cf. Kham Magar nga yai/kang jyonga(I rice eat), wola yai/kang jyowa(He rice eats) and nanga yai/kang jyona(You rice eat)


7/9

7

five basic pronouns as: chi I, tok we, nu you, nok you(plural) and gina he, she, that and the equivalent of theygina dzina they two, gina da they three gina pyangdzang theyfour, gina pandang they five and gina many, they many. Heoffers the following sentences:

First Person:a. t-am-an sl I ate

b. t-am-da-n pl We ate

Second Persona. n-am-an sl You ate

b. n-am-da-n pl You ate

Third Person:a. g-am-an sl He/she ate

b. g-am-da-n pl They ate

The singular morpheme -anis replaced by -duand plural morphemeda-nby da-kin future tense below:

First Person:a. t-am-du sl. I will eat

b. t-am-da-k pl. We will eat

Second Person:a. n-am-du sl. You will eat

b. n-am-dak pl. You [pl] will eat

Third Person:a. g-am-du sl. He/she will eat

b. g-am-da- k They will eat

The above Kusunda sentence chi [kadi] gaman for English I eat

[rice] also sometimes spoken taman. And while speaking, Kusundassay taman only leaving kadi = rice. A phonetic change t >ch or ch > t takes place here. The Kusunda pronoun chimeaning I changes into ti, gets pronominalized taman andappears to be a single word.

Kusunda: a Mother language ?There has been no agreement on whether Kusunda is a language isolateor otherwise. Now, we have enough data with which we can tell that


8/9

8

Kusunda doesnt have any relationship with any other languages inthe world, however by accident or whatever, there are quite a numberof Kusunda words among different languages.

The Kusunda mai = mother, suta= thread, mahi= water buffaloand mizaor azaki (cf. Sanskrit aja) = goat are interesting tonote here. John Bengston attributes Kusunda mai to Proto-Human.

The Kusunda pronoun nu and Jarawa, a language spoken in the Southand Middle Andaman ni offer same meaning - the second person you.The Jarawa onnaho= tooth and Kusunda ouho = tooth look alikewhile Jarawa na:ppo= fish and Kusunda nasa= fish have nasalsounds in their initial syllables.

John McWhorter points out that Kusunda and Oko-Juwoi, a languageonce spoken in India, have some similarities by close accident orwhatever. He finds Kusunda chi= I and Juwoi tui= I, Kusundachee = my and Juwoi tii-ye = my and Kusunda gida= he/she andJuwoi kite= my12.

We now understand Kusunda has given its cognates to so many of

different languages and therefore it would be reasonable todesignate it a Mother Language or similar other title than anyisolate. This language is not in isolation but has shared with manyothers in the world.

References:Fleming, Harold 1996: Looking to the West and North: Nihali andKusunda Find Links Mother Tongue II, Journal of the Association forthe Study of Language in Prehistory, Issue II ( December 1996).

Hodgson, Brian H. 1857: Journal of Asiatic Society - Bengal andAsian Educational Services C-2/15, SDA, Hauz Khas, New Delhi-110016

Justin, Anstice 2000: Who are the Jarawa?http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/originals/Justin/art-justs.htm#1

Kuiper, F.B.J. 1948: Proto-Munda Words in Sanskrit, Amsterdam,Verhandeling der Koninklijke Nederlandsche Akademie VanWetenschappen, Afd. Letterkunde, Nieuwe Reeks Deel Li, No. 3]http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati/dictionary/9MUNDA.HTM

12Can relationships between languages be determined after 80,000 years?So in that light, we must take note that Kusunda for "I" is CHI, where in Juwoi it isTUI. T becomes CH constantly over time: witness how many Americans say "chree" instead of

TREE. Then Kusunda for "my" is CHI-YI -- and in Juwoi, TII-YE. Kusunda for "you": NU. InJuwoi, NGUI. "Your" in Kusunda: NI-YI. In Juwoi: NGII-YE. Note that pattern of stickingon a YE or YI -- this is too close to be an accident. "He/she" in Kusunda is GIDA. InJuwoi it is KITE -- and if you think about it, G is basically K enunciated in a slightlydifferent way. And yet there is no way that the Kusunda have been helicoptering over themillennia to the Andaman islands. And certainly not to Western New Guinea, where in theSeget language, Kusunda's CHI, NU, GIDA comes out as TET, NEN and GAO (remember that CHcomes from T all the time). And then way over on the Solomon Islands east of New Guinea,the same pattern echoes: where Seget has NEN for "you" and GAO for "he," Savosavo has NOand GO.


9/9

9

McWhorter, John 2004: Can relationships between languages bedetermined after 80,000 years?http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001037.html

Rana, B. K. 2002: New Materials on the Kusunda Language: The

Fourth Harvard Roundtable onEthnogenesis of South and Central AsiaCambridge MA, USAMay 11 - 13, 2002.http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~sanskrit/RoundTableSchedule.htmlhttp://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/kusunda.htm,http://nepalresearch.org/publications/kusunda_materials.pdf

___________ 2003: Recently Recorded Materials on the KusundaLanguage:The Fifth Harvard Roundtable onEthnogenesis of South andCentral AsiaCambridge MA, USAMay 10 - 11, 2003http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~sanskrit/RoundTableSchedule03.htmlhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/Langhali_Forum/files/

___________ 2005: Additional Data and Analysis on Kusunda (Nepal) Mother Tongue, Journal of the Association for the Study ofLanguage in Prehistory, Issue X 2005

Reinhard, Johan and Toba, Sueyoshi 1970: A Preliminary LinguisticAnalysis and Vocabulary of the Kusunda Language Summer institute ofLinguistics, Tribhuvan University, Nepal. September 1970.

Sayeed, Ausaf : Jarawa Tribes -- Confluence of The Present withThe Past http://www.ausafsayeed.com/jarawa.html

Watters, David E. et.al 2005 : Notes on Kusunda grammar ( a languageisolate of Nepal) National Foundation for the Development ofIndigenous Nationalities, Kathmandu, Nepal.

Witzel, Michael 2000: The Languages of Harappa [February 17, 2000]Zide, Norman 1995 [?]: The Status of Nihali, University of Chicagohttp://www.ling.hawaii.edu/austroasiatic/AA/nihali

*****

harvard aslip kusunda paper 2006[1]

Documents