A Typological
outline of the Saroori language
Dr. Ravi Parihar,
Former Researcher & Faculty,
Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University,
Jammu and Kashmir,
India.
Abstract: This paper addresses the typological sketch
of the Saroori language, which is spoken by its speech community in the Saroor
region of district Kishtwar, Jammu and Kashmir, India. This language
is still an unexplored and lesser known to the linguistic world. The
present typological description of Saroori is the maiden attempt of its kind to
highlight the linguistic features at the following micro-levels of linguisticsː
phonology; morphology; and syntax. Saroori is also an Indo-Aryan language which
shows its grammatical agreement (subject-auxiliary) as identical to that of the
Sarazi agreement. However, these agreements of Saroori and Sarazi do not
conform with the agreement of the Bhadarwahi language, which is also an IA
language spoken in district Doda. Similarly, this paper discusses many useful
linguistic insights based on the typlogical outline of the Saroori
language.
Keywords: Saroori; Typology; Indo-Aryan; Sarazi; Bhadarwahi;
Undocumented.
1. Introduction
Saroori
is an Indo-Aryan language that is widely spoken in the Saroor region of
district Kishtwar in the Jammu province of the Union Territory of Jammu and
Kashmir, India. This language, similar to Bhadarwahi and Sarazi, is also
affiliated to the ‘Western Pahari’ subgroup of Indo-Aryan family of languages.
The vernacular term ‘Pahari’ stands for the languages that are spoken in the
‘hilly regions’ of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttrakhand.
The group ‘Western Pahari’ accommodates the seventeen languages, which
are spoken in Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab,
Madhya Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh regions (Kaur and Dwivedi, 2018). Unlike
Bhadarwahi (Bhidlai, Bhadrohi, Bhadarwali), the Saroori language has no
alternate names. In addition to Kishtwari, Saroori is also a primary language
of the district Kishtwar in J&K. This language has hardly its major lexical
similarity with the languages such as Bhadarwahi, Kashmiri, and Padderi.
Although Saroori is lexically most similar to the Bhalesi language, spoken in
the Bhalessa region of sub-district Gandoh of district Doda. Saroori is rich in its phonology, morphology, and
syntax; its richness is discussed in the following subsections of the present
typological sketch. The word order of simple sentences in the Saroori language
is similar to the other languages (Saroori and Bhadarwahi), that is,
subject-object-verb (SOV) type. Saroori has not been researched, documented,
and promoted by its native speakers or any linguist till the present day.
Therefore, Saroori is descriptively ignored and undocumented language; this
current study is an effort to realize the linguistic nature and importance of
Saroori. A brief genealogical sketch of the Saroori is presented as:
Figure 1: Geneological affiliation of Saroori
Table
1: Languages & locations in Jammu and Kashmir
|
S.No. |
District |
Language (s) |
S.No. |
District |
Language (s) |
|
1. |
Kathua |
Hindi and Dogri |
12. |
Kulgam |
Kashmiri |
|
2. |
Jammu |
Dogri |
13. |
Pulwama |
Urdu & Kashmiri |
|
3. |
Samba |
14. |
Shopian |
Pashtu |
|
|
4. |
Udhampur |
15. |
Budgam |
Burushaski |
|
|
5. |
Reasi |
Dogri |
16. |
Srinagar |
Kashmiri & Burushaski |
|
6. |
Rajouri |
Gojari & Pahari |
17. |
Ganderbal |
Kohistani |
|
7. |
Poonch |
Punchi & Pahari |
18. |
Bandipora |
Pashtu & Shina |
|
8. |
Doda |
Bhadarwahi & Sarazi |
19. |
Baramulla |
Pashtu |
|
9. |
Ramban |
Sarazi &
Pogli |
20. |
Kupwara |
Kohistani & Pashtu |
|
10. |
Kishtwar |
Saroori and
Kishtwari |
21. |
Kargil |
Ladakhi & Shina |
|
11. |
Anantnag |
Burushaski |
22. |
Leh |
Brokskat & Ladakhi |
2. Earlier studies
It is hard to find a mention of ‘Saroori ’ in any of the
volumes of the Linguistic Survey of India (Grierson, 1916). Also, Devy
and Koul could hardly capture the linguistic existence of the Saroori language
in The Languages of Jammu and Kashmir (2014), unlike Bhadarwahi, Sarazi,
Dogri, and Punchi. Saroori being a lesser known and undocumented language
invites immediate attention towards its linguistic documentation. Dcoumenting a
little known language is of much concern to the linguists who have been working
on the dirty feet approach. Saroori as the language under investigation
would get revitalized once its linguistic peculiarities are reported. None of
the previous studies showed any concern towards the Saroori language.
3. Phonology of Saroori
3.1 Consonants
The present synchronic study of the Saroori
language exhibited 25 consonants in its phonology, including voiceless
and voiced segments. There are eight places of articulation in Saroori;
bilabial; alveolar; dental; retroflex; post-alveolar; palatal; velar; and
glottal. These consonants are listed in the table 2.
Table
2: Consonants in Saroori
|
|
Bilabial -V
+V |
Alveolar -V
+V |
Dental -V
+V |
Retroflex -V
+V |
Post-alveolar -V
+V |
Palatal -V
+V |
Velar -V
+V |
Glottal -V
+V |
|
Plosive |
p
b |
|
t
d |
ʈ
ɖ |
|
|
k
ɡ |
|
|
Nasal |
m |
n |
|
ɳ |
|
ɲ |
ŋ |
|
|
Affricate |
|
ts |
|
|
|
tʃ
dʒ |
|
|
|
Fricative |
|
s
z |
|
|
ʃ |
|
|
h |
|
Tap |
|
|
|
ɽ |
|
|
|
|
|
Trill |
|
r |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Approximant Lateral Approximant |
w |
l |
|
|
|
j |
|
|
The manner of articulation of Saroori consonants includes
the following: plosive; nasals; affricates; fricatives; tap; trill; and the
approximant. In this table, the ‘–V’ denotes voiceless, and the ‘+V’ voiced
sound. Consonant can be either voiced or voiceless if it experiences the
maximum and zero vibration in the vocal cords while pronouncing them.
3.2 Vowels in
Saroori
Saroori showed 11 vowels (short, long and reduced),
which formed their basis on the following tongue positions: height of the
tongue, includes four high vowels /i:/, /i/, /u:/ and /u/, and mid (middle
position of the tongue) vowels are /e/,
/e:/, /ə/,/o:/, and /o/, and low (low position of the tongue) vowels are /ə/, /o/,/ɑ/, and/ɑ:/. The vowels in Saroori
can be realized in the following examples:
/bɑːdʒɪ/ ‘father’; /hɑj/ ‘mother’; /ruːɽɪ/ ‘good’; /ʊɽɪ/ ‘there’; /ɪn/
‘this’; /kiːɽʊ/ ‘insect’; /es/ ‘him/her’; /keːs/ ‘when’; /kes/ ‘whom’; /ɡoːrʊ/
‘cattle’, and /horʊ/ ‘and’. The table for Saroori vowels follows
asː
Table 3ː Vowels in Saroori
|
|
Front |
Central |
Back |
|
High
(Long) High
(Short) |
iː ɪ |
|
uː ʊ |
|
Mid
(Short & Long) Lower
Mid |
e eː |
ə |
oː o |
|
Low
(Short & Long) |
|
|
ɑ
ɑː |
3.3 Phonotactics in Saroori
Unlike Sarazi, Saroori exhibited /ɲ/ nasal sound that
occurs at the word initial position as in /ɲɑ̃:ɳ/ ‘bath’. The consonants of
Saroori can be found at all the word positions. Vowels are also found at the
three word positionsː initial; medial; and the final. The nasal vowel examples
of Saroori are as: /kɑ̃:jɑ/ ‘last breath’, /mɑ̃:jɑ/ ‘wealth’, /əʊ̃/ ‘I’,
/kə̃ɳkʰʊ/ ‘someone’, etc. Similar to Sarazi and Bhadarwahi, Saroori also possesses the minimal pairing of sound
segments that can be seen in the following examples, /kʊtər/ ‘dog’ and /mʊtər/
‘urine’; /kes/ ‘whom’ and /tes/ ‘him’; /tsʰəɽ/ ‘put’ and /zʰəɽ/ ‘get down’, and
the like. These are presented in the following table:
Table 4ː Minimal pairs in Saroori
|
/k/ |
/m/ |
|
/k/ |
/t/ |
|
/tsʰ/ |
/zʰ/
|
The minimal pairs are also available for the Saroori
vowels as in /kes/ ‘whom’ and /keːs/ ‘when’; /kəɳ/ ‘who’ and /kʊɳ/
‘beetle’. In addition to this, each
consonant is found in all the positions. However, there is an exception too,
which is asː /ɳ/. This consonant in Saroori does not occur at the word
onset position. Consonant clusters (CC) in Saroori occur at all the word
postions (initial, medial, and final). For instance, CC (consonant + semi-vowel) at the word initial,
/kw/ as in /kwɑːrɪ/ ‘virgin; /ɡj/ in /ɡjɑn/ ‘knowledge; CC (velar stop +
consonant) at the word medial position, /kk/ as in /mekkʊ/ ‘axe’, /kk/ in
/kʊkkəɽ/ ‘cock’, /kɽ/ in /məkkɽ/ ‘monkey’, etc, CC (affricate + consonant) at
the word medial position, /tʃʰk/ as in /tʃtʃʰkno/ ‘to spill’, /tʃtʃʰ/ in /ətʃtʃʰɑ/
‘yes’, and CC at the word ending
position in Saroori follows asː /ɖɖ/ as
in /ɖʰəɖɖ/ ‘steep hill’; /kk/ in /ʈʊkkno/ ‘to prune’; and /tt/ as in /bətt/
‘foothpath’, etc.
3.4 Canonical forms of Saroori
The syllabic structure of Saroori exhibits the canonical
form as ‘CCVCVC’. The multisyllabic words are available in Saroori. These are
enlisted asː
V /iː/ ‘this’
VC /əs/ ‘we’
VCC /ətstsʰ/ ‘eye’
CV /kɪ/ ‘what’
CVC /kəɳ/ ‘who’
CVCCV /kəɳkʰʊ/ ‘someone’, /bəɡɽɪ/ ‘field’
CCVCV /treːdɪ/ ‘day after
tomorrow’, /kroːɽi/ ‘neck’, /kɽəjɪ/ ‘frying pan’
CVCCV /həɽwɑː/ ‘flood’
CCVCVC /trɪkɑːl/ ‘dusk’
Significantly, the vowel segment is necessary in each syllable,
and Saroori is no exception to this fact. However, the consonants are not
obligatory. The nucleus of the syllable is usually a vowel which occurs
at the word initial, middle, or final position. The onset and the coda
positions are always occupied by the consonant segments. Saroori accommodates
two consonants at the onset and coda positions respectively.
4. Morphology of Saroori
Morphology of Saroori experiences both prefixes and
suffixes. Infixes are unavailable in Sruri. The processes of prefixation and
suffixation are observed at a derivational and inflectional level of the Saroori
words. The morphology of the Saroori language is presented in the subsections; nominal
morphology, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs. These are open class of words.
4.1 Nominal morphology in Saroori
Saroori
nouns show inflection for the gender, number, and case. Each noun in Saroori is
assigned a grammatical gender, either masculine or feminine. The distribution
of gender to inanimate objects is arbitrary in Saroori. Common nouns in Saroori
inflect for the gender, number, and case. Unlike the Sanskrit language, Saroori
has only two genders: masculine and feminine. Further, abstract nouns usually
do not inflect for numbers with some exception, but concrete nouns do. All the
masculine nouns in Saroori get suffixed with the vowel sound /o/ and the rest
end with either /ɪ/ or a consonant segment. For example, /ɡʰoɽo/ ‘horse’,
/tʃɑtʃo/ ‘uncle’, /bətʃtʃo/ ‘kid’, /kɑːw/ ‘crow’, /dʰʊpp/ ‘sunshine’, /luhɑr/
‘black-smith’, /kumhɑːr/ ‘potter’, etc. The majority of the feminine nouns in Saroori
take /ɪ/ vowel suffix as in /nɑnɪ/ ‘mother’s mother’, /bətstsʰɪ/ ‘cow’,
/mɑːhrɑːɳɪ/ ‘bride’, etc. Similar to Hindi, Saroori also admits the masculine
gender for the word /pəhɑːɽ/ ‘mountain’ and its diminutive form /pəhɑːɽɪ/ ‘little mountain’
is feminine. Therefore, like Sarazi and the other Western Pahari languages, the
gender of some entities in Saroori is
decided on account of their largeness and smallness.
4.2 Derivation in
Saroori
The process of derivation in Saroori involves the
derivational affixes /-kʰʊ/, /kʊ-/, /-ɳɪ/, /-dɑːr/, as in /kəɳ-kʰʊ/ ‘someone’, /kʊ-mɑ̃ːɳʊ/
‘inhumane’, /dʊkɑːn-dɑːr/ etc. In this
context, many masculine nouns undertake affixes and afterwards these derived
words receive their class of gender. A few of the examples that show derivation
from masculine to feminine nouns, follow asː /rɑːkəʃ/ ‘demon’ when added an
affix /-ɑːɳɪ/ to it, the derived word becomes /rɑːkəʃ-ɑːɳɪ/ ‘demon’s
counterpart’; /dʰoːbɪ/ ‘washerman’ becomes /dʰoːbəɳ/ ‘washerwoman’, etc.
4.3 Plural formation in Saroori
There
are many sound segments and the affixes, such as, /e/, /ɑ/, /ɪ/ and /-jo/ which
are employed in the process of plural formation in the Saroori language. For
example, /məʈʈʰʊ/ ‘boy’ pluralizes as /məʈʈʰɑ/
‘boys’; this example shows the vowel alteration from /ʊ/ to /ɑ/ while
pluralizing the word in Saroori. Plurals in Saroori pronouns are also seen in
large scale; though few of the examples are mentioned here for more
understanding of the pluralization processː /tʊ/ ‘you.2.SG’ becomes /tʊs/
‘you.2.PL’; /əʊ̃/ ‘I.1.SG’ becomes /əs/ ‘I.1.PL’.
4.4 Nominal declension in Saroori
Each noun in Saroori shows declension for singular and
plural forms, which are highlighted in the table asː
Table 5ː Nominal declension in Saroori
|
Case |
Singular |
Plural |
|
NOM.F |
/həj/
‘mother’ |
/həjɑ/
‘mothers’ |
|
Oblique
|
/həj/ |
/həj-ən/
|
|
Vocative
|
/həje/
|
/həjoʊ/
|
In the nominative case (NOM) of Saroori , the singular
noun /həj/ ‘mother’ experiences declension and the word becomes plural when an
affix /-ɑ/ is added. The oblique case /həj/ ‘mother’ becomes /həj-ən/
‘mother.PL.OBL’. Further, in /həj/ ‘mother’ takes an affix /-e/ in vocative
singular and the affix /-e/ is substituted with /-oʊ/ to derive the plural
vocative /həj-oʊ/ ‘mother.PL.VOC’. Following these, therefore, the nouns in
Saroori exhibit declension for the cases like (NOM; OBL; and VOC) and numbers
(SG and PL). Furthermore, the Saroori noun /kətɑːb/ ‘book.SG.F’ after
experiencing declension becomes /kətɑːbɑ/ ‘book.PL.F’. Also, the
masculine nouns in Saroori ending with a
vowel segment /o/ as in /ɡʰoːɽo/ ‘horse’ forms the plural /ɡʰoːɽe /. In this
example, the vowel /o/ alters from /o/ to /e/.
4.5 Adjective in Saroori
Saroori admits two kinds of adjectivesː masculine and
feminine. Therefore, the adjectives such
as /ruːɽʊ/ ‘good’, /nɪkɽʊ/ ‘small’, /bəɖʊ/ ‘big’, etc. admits their word final
segment /-ʊ/, which assigns the masculine gender to an adjective in Saroori .
In contrast to this, the adjectives such as, /ruːɽɪ/ ‘good’, /nɪkɽɪ/ ‘small’,
and /bəɖɪ/ ‘big’ are feminine one derived when they experience the substitution
of the affixes from /-ʊ/ to /-ɪ/.
4.6 Adverbs in Saroori
Saroori exhibited the time adverbials such as, /hʊnɑ/
‘now’, /tetʰɑːlɪ/ ‘then’, /ketʰɑːlɪ/ ‘when’; and place adverbials such as,
/ɪlʊ/ ‘here’ /kolʊ/ ‘where’, /telʊ/ ‘there’, and /ʊlʊ/ ‘there’. Further, the
place adverb /telʊ/ ‘there’ of Saroori
denotes the ‘far off’ or distant place, and the adverb /ʊlʊ/ ‘there’
considers the ‘nearer and visible’ at the time of speech act.
4.7 Pronouns in Saroori
Pronouns
can replace the nouns in all the languages of the world, including the
languages of Jammu and Kashmir such as Saroori, Bhadarwahi, Sarazi, Bhalesi,
Khashali, and many others too. There are multiple pronouns in Saroori which are
tabulated asː
Table 6ː Pronouns in Saroori
|
Pronouns
|
|
First
Person |
Second
Person |
Third
Person |
|
Singular
|
/əʊ̃/
‘I’ |
/tʊ/
‘you’ |
/te/
‘he/she’ |
|
|
Plural
|
/əs/
‘We’ |
/tʊs/
‘you’ |
/ten/
‘they’ |
The first person singular pronoun /əʊ̃/ ‘I.1.SG’ is alike
in the Western Pahari languages of Jammu and Kashmir, especially ‘Bhadarwahi,
Sarazi, Saroori , and Bhalesi’. Second person singular pronoun /tʊ/ ‘you’ is
also alike. Second person plural honorific shows variations in these languages,
for example /tuː/ ‘you.2.SG/PL.HON’ is in Sarazi; /tʊs/ ‘you.2.SG/PL.HON’ is in
Saroori ; and /tʊsɑ/ ‘you.2.SG/PL.HON’ is in Bhadarwahi. Further, Saroori and Bhadarwahi admit the third person
singular pronoun /te/ ‘3.SG.he/she’ alike; whereas, the third person plural
pronoun /ten/ ‘they.3.PL’ is also similar in both Saroori and Bhadarwahi. Contrary, Sarazi admits /teŋ/
‘he/she’ and /teɳ/ ‘they’ for third person singular and third person plural
respectively. Apart from these, there
are other kinds of pronouns in the Saroori language like interrogative;
relative; definite and indefinite; these are discussed in the subsections
asː
4.7.1 Interrogative pronouns in Saroori
Interrogative pronouns in Saroori help in eliciting the
information from the person who is interrogated. The pronoun in interrogation
either acts as a ‘Subject (Sub)’, ‘Ergative (Erg)’ or ‘Possessive (Poss)’ in
its different case forms. The table 8 contains the interrogative pronouns of Saroori,
which are asː
Table 7ː Interrogative
pronouns in Saroori
|
Singular |
Plural |
|
/kəɳ/
‘who’ (Sub) |
/kəɳ/
‘who’ (Sub) |
|
/keɳɪ/
‘who’ (Erg) |
/keɳeɪ̃/
‘who’ (Erg) |
|
/keseːw/j/
‘whose’ (Poss) |
/keseː/j/
‘whose’ (Poss) |
Table 8ː Relative pronouns in Saroori
|
Singular |
Plural |
|
/kəɳ/
‘who’ (Sub) |
/kəɳ/
‘who’ (Sub) |
|
/keɳɪ/
‘who’ (Erg) |
/keɳeɪ̃/
‘who’ (Erg) |
|
/keseːw/j/
‘whose’ (Poss) |
/keseː/j/
‘whose’ (Poss) |
Table 9ː Definite pronouns in Saroori
|
Singular |
Plural |
|
/iː/
‘this’ (Sub) |
/ɪn/
‘these’ (Sub) |
|
/ɪnɪ/
‘this’ (Erg) |
/ɪneĩ/
‘these’ (Erg) |
|
/ɪːseːw/j/
‘this’ (Poss) |
/ɪnkeːw/j/
‘these’ (Poss) |
Table 10ː Indefinite pronouns in Saroori
|
Singular |
Plural |
|
/kəɳkʰʊ/
‘someone’ (Sub) |
/kəɳkʰʊ/
‘someone’ (Sub) |
|
/kentʃɪ/
‘someone’ (Erg) |
/kentʃɪ/
‘someone’ (Erg) |
|
/kɪntʃeːw/j/
‘someone’ (Poss) |
/kentʃeː/j/
‘someone’ (Poss) |
The abbreviated forms employed in the tables follow asː
Sub = Subject; Erg = Ergative; and Poss = Possessive. In addition, in table 10, the singular
indefinite pronoun /kəɳkʰʊ/ ‘someone’ remains unaffected in its plural form.
The singularity and plurality of the indefinite pronoun /kəɳkʰʊ/ ‘someone’ in
Saroori can be confirmed only when
the present auxiliariesː /tʰʊ/ ‘AUX.PRST.SG.M’, /tʰɪ/ ‘AUX.PRST.SG.F’; /tʃʰe/ ‘AUX.PRST.PL.M’ and /tʰɪn/ ‘AUX.PRST.PL.F’
participate along with the indefinite pronoun.
4.8
Verbs and their morphology in Saroori
The verb is the mandatory element of a sentence, without
it, even a single sentence cannot be realized. Therefore, ‘verb’ is must in a
sentence. In the imperative constructions of Saroori, the subject noun is
covert in its nature. There are many verbs in the Saroori language, which are
listed in the following table.
Table 11ː The Saroori verbs
|
S.No.
|
Verbs
(SG) |
Verbs
(PL) |
|
1. |
/kʰə/ ‘eat.SG’ |
/kʰɑːtʰ/
‘eat.PL’ |
|
2. |
/pɪ/
‘drink.SG’ |
/piːtʰ/
‘drink.PL’ |
|
3. |
/de/
‘give.SG’ |
/deːtʰ/
‘give.PL’ |
|
4. |
/tsɪkk/
‘catch.SG’ |
/tsɪkkɑ/
‘catch.PL’ |
|
5. |
/kəɽ/
‘take out.SG’ |
/kəɽɑ/
‘take out.PL’ |
|
6. |
/zʰʊl/
‘sleep.SG’ |
/zʰʊlɑ/
‘sleep.PL’ |
Table 12ː Present habitual verb forms in Saroori
|
S.No. |
Singular
|
Plural
|
|
1. |
/kʰɑ̃ː/
‘eat’ |
/kʰɑ̃ː/
|
|
2. |
/pĩː/
‘drink’ |
/pĩː/ |
|
3. |
/zʰul/
‘sleep’ |
/zʰul/ |
|
4. |
/bɪʃ/
‘sit’ |
/bɪʃ/ |
|
5. |
/ʊʈʈʰ/
‘stand’ |
/ʊʈʈʰ/ |
|
6. |
/nəʃ/
‘run way’ |
/nəʃ/ |
|
7. |
/nətsts/
‘dance’ |
/nətsts/
|
The Saroori verbs in habitual aspect consider the base
forms: /x/ in both the singular and plural forms alike. Here ‘x’ is any base
verb in Saroori . When the base verb /x/ shows agreement with the singular
present auxiliary /tʰʊ/ and /tʰɪ/, the verb shows the habitual aspect in
singular form. Otherwise, the same verb acts plural when it takes the plural
auxiliary /tʃʰe/ ‘AUX.PL.M’ and /tʰɪn/ ‘AUX.PL.F’. Unlike Saroori, the present
habitual verbs in Bhadarwahi take /x-to/ and /x-tɪ/ along with a neutral
present auxiliary /ɑe/ ‘is.AUX.PRST’. In addition to the present habitual
verbs, the Saroori verbs for the
habitual past singular and plural are mentioned in the following table.
Table 13ː Saroori verbs in the habitual past
|
S.No. |
Singular |
Plural |
Past auxiliary |
|
1. |
/bɪʃ/ ‘sit.M’ |
/bɪʃ/ ‘sit.M’ |
/tʰoʊ/ |
|
2. |
/bɪʃ / ‘sit.F’ |
/bɪʃ/ ‘sit.F’ |
/tʰoːj/ |
|
3. |
/əɳ/ ‘bring.M’ |
/əɳ/ ‘bring.M’ |
/tʰoʊ/ |
|
4. |
/əɳ/ ‘bring.F’ |
/əɳ/ ‘bring.F’ |
/tʰoːj/ |
Considering the table 13, one important question strikes
hereː ‘how can it be confirmed that a particular verb is either singular or
plural? The past auxiliaries /tʰoʊ/ ‘AUX.PST.M’ and /tʰoːj/ ‘AUX.PST.F’ are
accountable for assigning a particular number (singular or plural) to any root
verb in Saroori . Therefore, any verb /x/ in Saroori agrees with an auxiliary
past singular or plural. Also, the Saroori verbs for the perfective form are discussed in
the following section.
Table 14ː Saroori
verbs in the perfective form
|
S.No. |
Verb
(stem) |
Masculine
past |
Feminine
past |
|
1. |
/ʊʃɑːr/
‘throw’ |
/ʊʃɑːr
-o/ |
/ʊʃɑːr-ɪ/
|
|
2. |
/tʰʊkk/
‘spittle’ |
/tʰʊkk-ʊ/
|
/tʰʊkk-ɪ/
|
|
3. |
/tʃʊkk/
‘lift’ |
/tʃʊkk-ʊ/
|
/tʃʊkk-ɪ/
|
|
4. |
/zʰʊl/
‘sleep’ |
/zʰʊl-o/
|
/zʰʊl-ɪ/ |
|
5. |
/herɑːl/
‘burn’ |
/herɑːl-o/ |
/herɑːl-ɪ/
|
In table 14, the base forms of the Saroori verbs are
highlighted in the masculine and feminine past perfective forms. These verbs
show their endings with the vowels ‘/-o/ and /-ʊ/’, and /-ɪ/ respectively. In the Saroori
language, the masculine and feminine genders could equally apply the masculine
past verb /ʊʃɑːr-o/ ‘throw.PST’. The masculine nature of the word /ʊʃɑːr-o/
‘throw.PST’ is understood in the sense that something that is ‘thrown’ has a
masculine nature; and the verb has nothing to do with the gender of the Saroori
nouns, especially in the verb perfective forms. Accordingly, the Saroori
feminine perfective verbs in the past form are affixed with /-ɪ/ as in /ʊʃɑːr-ɪ/
‘throw.PST.F’. This Saroori verb can be used by both the genders irrespective
of the gender of the nouns that are ‘thrown’. The progressive verbs in
Saroori are highlighted in table 15 for the masculine and feminine genders.
Table 15ː Progressive
markers in Saroori
|
S.No. |
Singular |
Plural |
Gender |
|
1. |
/rəwow/ |
/rəwow/ |
Masculine |
|
2. |
/rəwoj/ |
/rəwoj/ |
Feminine |
Table 15
reflects the progressive markers in Saroori for both the masculine and
feminine genders. The words /rəwow/ and /rəwoj/ are singular progressives for
masculine and feminine nouns of Saroori. These progressives always occur with
their respective nouns along with the main verbs /zʰʊlɪ/ ‘sleep.OBL’, and /pəɽɪ/
‘read.OBL’. For instance, /nɪʈʈʊ kʰeɖɖɪ rəwow tʃʰo/ ‘Nitu is playing.’ and /səŋɡiːtɑ
kʰeɖɖɪ rəwoj tʰɪ/ ‘Sangeeta is playing.’ Therefore, the progressive marker /rəwow/
‘live.PROG.M’ and /rəwoj/ ‘live.PROG.F’ are applicable to the masculine and
feminine genders. Both the progressive markers in Saroori possess the consonant
sound segment at the word final position, unlike Sarazi. Similar to Bhadarwahi,
there are distinct words in Saroori which are treated as the progressive
markers.
4.8.1 Auxiliary verbs
in Saroori
There are three kinds of
auxiliaries in the Saroori languageː present; past; and presumptive. The
present auxiliary in Saroori is of two kindsː singular and plural, which are
also based on the forms of their genders. Such auxiliaries follow as in the
table.
Table 16ː Present
auxiliaries in Saroori
|
Singular |
Plural |
|
/tʰʊ/ and /tʰɪ/ |
/tʃʰe/ and /tʰɪn/ |
The present auxiliary
/tʰʊ/ ‘AUX.PRST.SG.M’ in Saroori is used
with the masculine nouns. For example, /rəmeːʃ roʈʈɪ kʰɑ̃ː tʰʊ/ ‘Ramesh eats
food.’ Another auxiliary /tʰɪ/ ‘AUX.PRST.SG.F’ agrees with the Saroori feminine
nouns. Therefore, unlike Bhadarwahi, the auxiliaries in Saroori vary for
both the masculine and feminine genders. Further, the past auxiliaries in Saroori
follow asː
Table 17ː Past
auxiliaries in Saroori
|
Past
auxiliaries |
Singular
|
Plural
|
|
Masculine |
/tʰoʊ/ |
/tʰoʊ/
|
|
Feminine
|
/tʰoːj/
|
/tʰoːj/
|
The past auxiliaries in Saroori are also distinct for
both the masculine and feminine genders, such as /tʰoʊ/ ‘AUX.PST.M.SG.PL’ and
/tʰoːj/ ‘AUX.PST.F.SG.PL’. The singular past auxiliary /tʰoʊ/ ‘AUX.PST.SG.M’ shows
concord with the masculine subject like Ramesh, Raju, Deepak, and many others.
For instance, /rəmeːʃ ɡʰəre nə tʰoʊ/ ‘Ramesh was not at home.’ Therefore, the
past auxiliary /tʰoʊ/ cannot be used when there is a feminine subject like
Nisha, Reena, Shalu, Koshalya, etc. Similarly, the past feminine auxiliary
/tʰoːj/ agrees with the feminine nouns only. The presumptive auxiliaries in Saroori
are presented in the following tableː
Table 18ː Presumptive
auxiliaries in Saroori
|
S.No. |
Presumptive auxiliaries |
Singular |
Plural |
|
1. |
Masculine |
/bʰo-lo/ |
/bʰo-le/ |
|
2. |
Feminine |
/bʰo-lɪ/ |
/bʰo-lɪ/ |
In table 18, the
presumptive auxiliaries in the Saroori language fall under the masculine and
feminine, and the singular and plural categories. Similar to Sarazi and
Bhadarwahi, the stem /bʰo/ is the base form of a Saroori presumptive, which
undergoes inflection with the affixes, such as, /-lo/ and /-lɪ/ for the
masculine and feminine singular presumptive. Further, the plural presumptive
auxiliaries are /bʰo-le/ and /bʰo-lɪ/ for masculine and feminine plurals
respectively.
4.9 Verb inflection
in Saroori
The Western Pahari languages of
Jammu and Kashmir experience inflection at the level of morphology, where a
verb inflects for the distinctive markers. Similarly, Saroori is also one of the Western Pahari languages
that exhibits the verb inflection with the following inflectional affixesː
Root (Verb) /bɪʃ/ ‘sit’
Infinitive
/bɪʃ-nʊ/
‘to sit’
Imperfective participle (Feminine)
/bɪʃ-tʰɪ/ ‘She sits’
Impf. participle (Masculine) /bɪʃ-tʰʊ/ ‘walks’
Perfective participle (Feminine) /bɪʃ-ɪ/ ‘sat’
Perf. participle (Masculine) /bɪʃ-o/ ‘sat’
First causative
(CAUS-I) /bɪʃ-ɑːl/ ‘X causes someone
to sit’
Second causative
(CAUS-II) /bɪʃ-ɑːlɑːw /
‘X causes someone to make someone else sit’
The verbal paradigm in Saroori
exhibited that the suffixes such as, /-nʊ/, /-tʰɪ/, /-tʰʊ/, /-ɪ/, /-o/, /ɑːl/
and /-ɑːlɑːw/ participate in the process of the Saroori verb inflections. Out
of these verb inflecting affixes, there are two present simple auxiliaries
/tʰɪ/ ‘AUX.PRST.SG.F’ and /tʰʊ/ ‘AUX.PRST.SG.M’, which help the stem /bɪʃ/
‘sit’ to form imperfective participles in Saroori verbal paradigm.
5. Saroori syntactic structure
A simple sentence in
a language like Sarazi, Bhadarwahi, Bhalesi, Saroori, etc contains ‘subject and
predicate’. The predicate in a Saroori sentence contains the ‘predicator’
and an ‘object’. In Saroori , the predicate follows the noun phrase (NP)
argument of the sentence, such as: /niːlmɑ roʈʈɪ kʰɑ̃ː tʰɪ/ ‘Neelma eats food.’
In this sentence, Neelma is the subject, and the predicate contains the object
/roʈʈɪ/ ‘food’, and /kʰɑ̃ː/ ‘main verb’ plus /tʰɪ/ ‘AUX.PRST.SG.F’. The main
features of the Saroori syntax are discussed asː
5.1 Word order in Saroori
The word order of a
simple sentence in Saroori is
subject-object-verb (SOV) type, which follows asː /kɑ̃ːtɑ pɑːɳɪ pĩː tʰɪ/
‘Kanta drinks water.’ In this example, /kɑ̃ːtɑ/ is the subject, /pɑːɳɪ/ ‘water’
is the object, and /pĩː tʰɪ/ ‘drinks’ is the ‘verb plus an auxiliary’.
Therefore, the order of words of simple sentence in Saroori is SOV type. Such a word order is obtained
only for the transitive verbs. Otherwise, for intransitive verb, the order of
the words in Saroori sentences becomes SV type, where an object is lacking.
Therefore, significantly, the intransitive verb has capacity to have only one
argument, NP. For this reason, the SV type word order of Saroori does not hold
an object. If the order of words in a Saroori sentence is altered, the
resulting sentence would likely become unacceptable by the native speakers.
Otherwise, if accepted, the producer of such a sentence will be a non-native
speaker of Saroori. Therefore, the primary order of words in a simple sentence
of Saroori must be kept intact.
5.2 Subject-auxiliary agreement
in Saroori
The Western Pahari
languages of Jammu and Kashmir, such as Sarazi, Bhadarwahi, Bhalesi, Padri,
Khashali, Saroori , and Rudhari experience the morpho-syntactic agreement in
which either the subject-verb or subject-auxiliary concord occurs. Therefore,
this section discusses how an agreement works in the Saroori language. The
process of an agreement in Saroori
follows in the following example:
Saroori: (1) /sɑːɡər pɑ̃ːɳɪ
pĩː tʰʊ/
Sagar.M water.M drink AUX.PRST.SG.M
‘Sagar
drinks water.’
Saroori: (2) /rɑːdʰɑ pɑ̃ːɳɪ pĩː
tʰɪ/
Radha.F water.M drink AUX.PRST.SG.F
‘Radha drinks
water.’
In the examples (1) and (2),
there are two gendersː /sɑːɡər/ ‘Sagar.M’ and /rɑːdʰɑ/ ‘Radha.F’. Further, /pɪ/
is the base form of the verb ‘drink’ that becomes /pĩː/ for both the masculine
and feminine genders alike. Therefore, the main verb /pĩː/ ‘drink’ does
not inflect for the gender of the noun at subject position, when undergoes an
agreement. However, the Saroori auxiliaries /tʰʊ/ ‘AUX.PRST.SG.M’ and /tʰɪ/
‘AUX.PRST.SG.F’ participate in the agreement with masculine and feminine
subject nouns respectively. Further, past auxiliaries /tʰow/ ‘AUX.PST.SG.M’ and
/tʰoj/ ‘AUX.PST.SG.F’ participate in the subject-auxiliary agreement in Saroori
along with any verb called /x/. Unlike Bhadarwahi and Hindi, Saroori exhibits
the subject-auxiliary agreement. Therefore, the subject-auxiliary debate is
necessary to carry out further that follow asː
5.2.1 Agreement in the past tense of Saroori
Sarooriː (3) /rəmeːʃ roʈɪ kʰɑ̃ː
tʰow/
Ramesh.M
Food.F eat AUX.PST.SG.M
‘Ramesh used to
eat food.’
Sarooriː (4) /rɪdʰɪmɑ roʈɪ kʰɑ̃ː tʰoj/
Ridhima.F
Food.F eat AUX.PST.SG.F
‘Ridhima used to eat
food.’
Consider the examples (3) and
(4), the past auxiliaries /tʰow/ ‘AUX.PST.SG.M’ and /tʰoj/ ‘AUX.PST.SG.F’ agree
with their masculine /rəmeːʃ/ ‘Ramesh.M’ and feminine /rɪdʰɪmɑ/ ‘Ridhima.F’
genders respectively. However, the agreement in auxiliaries in (1) and (2)
inflect for their respective genders. In these sentences, the past auxiliaries
/tʰow/ ‘AUX.PST.SG.M’ and /tʰoj/ ‘AUX.PST.SG.F’ agree with respect to their
respective genders, masculine and feminine.
5.3 Case system of Saroori
There are the following
categories of grammatical cases in Saroori : nominative (NOM); oblique (OBL);
ergative (ERG); locative (LOC); accusative (ACC); instrumental (INST); ablative
(ABL); genitive (GEN) and vocative (VOC). An example for each of the Saroori cases follows as:
5.3.1 Nominative case in
Saroori
Sarooriː (5) /rɑːdʒʊ kʊkəɽ kʰɑ̃ː tʰʊ/
Raju.M
Cock.M eat.Impf AUX.PRST.SG.M
‘Raju
eats chicken.’
In sentence (5), the subject /rɑːdʒʊ/
‘Raju’ does not have any overt case marker as the NP argument is in the
nominative case. Therefore, similar to other Indo-Aryan languages (like Hindi
and Sarazi), Saroori noun at the subject position remains unmarked in the
nominative case; this is also known to have the subjective case. Therefore, no
explicit case marker is observable in the nominative case in Saroori and the
other Indo-Aryan languages likewise.
5.3.2 Ergative case in
Saroori
Sarooriː (6) /rɑːm-ɪ kəm
kerʊ/
Ram.M.ERG work do.PST
‘Ram did work.’
Example (6) of the Saroori
sentence holds /rəmeːʃ/ ‘Ramesh.M’ as a subject noun and an ergative case
marker /-ɪ/ is affixed to it. In this manner, there is an explicit case marker
attached to the noun at the subject position in the ergative case of Saroori
syntax. For feminine subject, the ergative case marker is different in Saroori
, for example, /kõʃ-ɑ kəm kerʊ/ ‘Lady did work.’. In this example, /kõːʃ/ is
‘lady’ and /-ɑ/ is an ergative marker.
5.3.3 Vocative case in
Saroori
Sarooriː (7) /oː bɑːdʒ-iː te məro/
Oh Father.VOC he.3.SG.M die.PST
‘Oǃ
Father, he diedǃ’
In this example, /bɑːdʒɪ/
‘Father’ is the subject noun. The vocative marker /-iː/ is affixed to the noun
/bɑːdʒɪ/ ‘Father’; this case marker serves two functionsː one is to bring
attention of the ‘father’ to an incident, and the second is to ‘call out’ when
something mishap occurs. The prime purpose of the vocative case is to make the
listener attentive towards the speaker’s intentions.
5.3.4 Oblique case in
Saroori
In an oblique case in Saroori ,
the lexical change occurs from nominative to objective case. For example, /əʊ̃/
‘I.1.SG’ and /mĩ/ ‘I.1.SG.OBL’, here, the first lexeme is ‘I’ first person
pronoun that is in the subjective case, which becomes oblique ‘me’ and behaves
as an objective case. Only the word inflects, and no explicit marker is seen in
the oblique case of Saroori . Furthermore, oblique case can also be realized
considering an example such as, /məʈʈʰʊ/ ‘boy.SG’ becomes /məʈʈʰe/
‘boy.PL.OBL’. The oblique case occurs when the former word inflects for number
(singular to plural) and gives rise to the latter one.
5.3.5 Accusative case in
Saroori
Accusative case in Saroori
considers a particular NP argument (NP), especially one that is in agreement
with the transitive verb of the sentence. Further, the noun that experiences accusative
case gets affected, as an external force acts upon that noun. Therefore,
such a noun’s state experiences an agency’s intervention. An example follows
asː
Saroori: (8) /rəmeːʃ-ɪ rəkeːʃ-e
ɡoːɖɪ dɪtɪ/
Ramesh.ERG Rakesh.ACC beat give.PST.3.SG
‘Ramesh beats up Rakesh.’
In example (8), Ramesh has an
ergative case marker /-ɪ/, and Rakesh has the accusative marker /-e/ as he
undergoes the action performed by Ramesh. This example reflects that something
is done to Rakesh. Hence Rakesh is in the accusative case marking in Saroori.
5.3.6 Locative case in
Saroori
In Saroori , a locative case
discusses the location where an action is initiated. An example of the locative
case in Saroori follows asː
Saroori: (9) /ɡʰəreː bəɳ-e ɡoːrʊ nhẽ tʃʰe/
Parents jungle.LOC
cattle take AUX.PRST.PL
‘Parents
take the cattle to Jungle.’
In example (9), an affix /-e/ is
associated with the lexeme /bəɳ/ ‘jungle’. This special marker attached to the
place ‘jungle’, acts as a locative marker. Further, another locative marker in Saroori
is /-mɑ̃/ ‘in’ as in /ɪs tʃəndeː mɑ̃ pese nɑ̃ː/ ‘money is unavailable in this
pocket.’ Therefore, Saroori exhibits two locative markers; /-e/ and /mɑ̃/.
5.3.7 Instrumental case in
Saroori
This case considers an instrument
that is employed with noun phrase (NP) argument. An example of the instrumental
case in Saroori follows asː
Saroori: (10) /dʒənək-ɪ tʃɑːkʊ sɑː kɪmoʊ kəʈʊ/
Janak.M.ERG knife
with.INST citrus fruit cut.PST
‘Janak cut the citrus fruit with a
knife.’
In example (10), the instrumental
case marker is /-sa/ ‘with’ that is affixed with an instrument /tʃɑːkʊ/
‘knife’. Such a case marker is known as instrumental (INST) one, which uses an
instrument for an activity. Saroori also admits the body parts of a human being
which could be used in the instrumental case, for example, /rəke;ʃ-ɪ sʊreːʃ-e həttʰe-sɑː
bəzɑːj/ ‘Rakesh hit Suresh with hand.’ In this example, /həttʰe-sɑː/ is ‘with
hand’. Therefore, both the animates and inanimates participate in the
instrumental case of Saroori .
5.3.8 Ablative case in
Saroori
Saroori ablative (ABL) case
admits the marker /-ɑː/. This case marker is suffixed with a particular noun
phrase (NP) argument of the Saroori language. An example of an ablative case in
Saroori follows asː
Saroori: (11) /məʈʈʰʊ tʃʰətt-ɑ kʰɪrkʊ/
Boy.M roof-from fall.PST.M
‘Boy
fell down from the rooftop.’
5.3.9 Genitive case in Saroori
Genitive case in Saroori admits
the relationship of an NP with another NP in a sentence. An example of the
genitive case in Saroori follows asː
Sarooriː (12) /siːtɑ rɑːm-eɪ
kõːʃ tʰɪ/
Sita.F Ram.M.GEN wife.F AUX.PRST.SG.F
‘Sita
is Ram’s wife.’
Sarooriː (13) /rɑːm siːtɑ-ew kʰəsəm tʰʊ/
Ram.M
Sita.F.GEN husband AUX.PRST.SG.M
‘Ram is Sita’s husband.’
In the examples (12) and (13), Saroori
shows two genitive markersː /-eɪ/ and /-ew/ which are affixed to the masculine
and feminine nouns respectively. Both of these markers exhibit the genetic
relationship of two nouns with each other in the Saroori language.
6. Conclusion
The genesis of this typological
sketch of the Saroori language relies on the fieldwork carried out during
2018-22. This section of the present research highlights the linguistic
typology of the Saroori language. It is spoken in the Saroor region of district
Kishtwar in the territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India.
Unlike Sarazi,
Saroori does not have much regional variations. Also, the languages such as
Padri, Bhadarwahi, Sarazi, and Bhalesi are lexically least similar to the
Saroori language. Furthermore, this language exhibits the mono-syllabic,
bi-syllabic and poly-syllabic words in its phonological
context. The phonemic inventories of the Saroori phonology
include 25 consonants and 11 vowels.
Majority of the Saroori words take suffixes, and others admit prefixes
and become negating ones such as, /kʊ-mɑ̃ːɳʊ/ ‘inhumane’, /nɪ-kəmmɪ/
‘inefficient, and many more. The syntactic study of Saroori exhibits the SOV
type word order for an unmarked transitive clause; otherwise, the order for
unmarked intransitive clause remains objectless, and hence the word order for objectless clause in
Saroori becomes ‘SV’, subject-verb. Also, the Saroori word order for simple
clause is flexible as its ‘object’ and ‘verb’ can interchange their positions,
and the meaning of the resulting sentence remains unchanged. However, altering
the object-verb position in a Saroori sentence leads to the view that the
sentence is produced by a non-native speaker of Saroori. Furthermore, unlike
Bhadarwahi and Hindi, the grammatical agreement in Saroori occurs between the
subject-auxiliary of a sentence. This kind of agreement is also contrary to the
agreement in the Hindi language (subject-verb agreement). In addition to this,
the grammatical cases and their markers are discussed in the present study of Saroori.
There are special case markers in Saroori for all the cases, except the
nominative one, which remains unmarked, and possesses no overt case marker. The
present research while concluding urges the linguistic researchers to carry out
the in-depth research on Saroori so much so that it could be revitalized for
futurity and the linguistic insights can be shared with the linguistic world.
Acknowledgements:
I am indebted to all the native speakers of Saroori in
general and to the following ones in particular: Smt. Koshalya Devi, my mother
who speaks Saroori with me. Saroori is her mother tongue: her sisters; Smt.
Nirmala Devi and Smt. Sita Devi-were the core informants of Saroori during this
documentation on the Saroori language. Thanks are due to everyone who helped in
elicting and analyzing the data of Saroori. Mr. Neeraj Thakur, as an informant
of Saroori suggested some minor but significant corrections while analyzing the
data of Saroori. I am grateful to him.
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