LWM 500: A Grammar of Majhi

 A Grammar of Majhi

 

Dubi Nanda Dhakal
Tribhuvan University, Nepal 

Grammar of Majhi is the first-ever detailed grammatical analysis of the Majhi language spoken by about 24000 speakers in Nepal. Majhi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in Nepal. The language seems to have been recorded as ‘Kuswar’ in some previous studies. The lexical comparison suggests that there are some varieties of Majhi. This grammatical description is based on the variety spoken in the Tamakoshi areas of eastern Nepal. One of the interesting features in the nominal morphology is the pronominal possessive suffixes attaching to nouns in genitive phrases. In addition, the verb agreement is controlled by both the subject and object simultaneously. Moreover, the verbs also agree with the dative subjects. The Majhi language mainly makes use of suffixes but allows a few prefixes.

This grammatical description covers all major aspects of the grammar, such as phonology, morphology and syntax. The appendix includes the verb paradigms, kinship terms and an interlinearized text. This grammatical description will be a contribution to the study of languages of Nepal in general and lesser-known Indo-Aryan languages of Nepal in particular.

ISBN 9783862885497. Languages of the World/Materials 500. 219pp. 2014.