Kachari language
Tibeto-Burman language of Assam, India
title: "Kachari language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["sal-languages", "languages-of-assam", "subject–object–verb-languages"] description: "Tibeto-Burman language of Assam, India" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kachari_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Tibeto-Burman language of Assam, India ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Kachari |
| nativename | কছাৰী |
| region | Assam, India |
| speakers | 16,000 |
| date | 2011 |
| ref | e25 |
| familycolor | Sino-Tibetan |
| fam2 | Brahmaputran |
| fam3 | Bodo–Garo |
| fam4 | Bodo |
| iso3 | xac |
| glotto | kach1279 |
| glottorefname | Kachari |
| :: |
|name=Kachari |nativename=কছাৰী |region=Assam, India |speakers=16,000 |date=2011 |ref=e25 |familycolor=Sino-Tibetan |fam2=Brahmaputran |fam3=Bodo–Garo |fam4=Bodo |iso3=xac |glotto=kach1279 |glottorefname=Kachari ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Map_of_the_Languages_and_Dialects_of_the_Bârâ_or_Bodo_Group_of_the_Tibeto-Burman_Family.jpg" caption="website=The Record News}}"] ::
Kachari is a Sino-Tibetan language of the Boro-Garo branch that is spoken in Assam, India. With fewer than 60,000 speakers recorded in 1997, and the Asam 2001 Census reporting a literacy rate of 81% the Kachari language is currently ranked as threatened. Kachari is closely related to surrounding languages, including Tiwa, Rābhā, Kochi and Mechi.
While there are still living adult speakers, many children are not learning Kachari as their primary language, instead being assimilated into the wider Assamese speaking communities.
Division
According to LSI, Kachari language was divided into Plain Kachari or Bårå(Boro) and Hill Kachari or Dimasa.
Phonology
Consonants
Kachari consists of the 13 consonants shown below and three Non-syllabics,(Frictional: h, frictionless palatal: y, frictionless rounded velar: w) : ::data[format=table]
| Bi-Labial | Denti-Alveolar | Alveolo-Palatal | Velar |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plosives | p^h | t^h | |
| Nasals | m | n | |
| Fricatives | s | ||
| Tremulant | r | ||
| Lateral | l | ||
| :: |
Vowels
::data[format=table]
| Front | Central | Back |
|---|---|---|
| High | i | |
| Mid | e | o |
| Low | a | |
| :: |
Prosody
- Tone
- Kachari is a tonal language, consisting of 4 tones high, mid, low and neutral (1, 2, 3, 0)
Grammar
''Syntax''
The word order of Kachari is [[Subject–object–verb|Subject-Object-Verb]] (SOV)
Kachari uses many instances of "compound words" to denote meaning. For example, the word for "boy", is really the combination of the Kachari words for "male" and "child". This also correlates with Kachari verbs, which can be agglutinated to form "compound verbs". While Kachari is not polysynthetic, its verbs act as a stem for descriptive adjective, adverbs or affixes to change its meaning. For example, the "conjugation of the regular verb active, 'nu-nǔ.' to see" results in the following: ::data[format=table]
| Verb "to See" |
|---|
| Case |
| Infinitive |
| Progressive |
| Simple Past |
| Past Progressive |
| Past Remote |
| -dangman |
| Simple Future |
| Paulo-post Future |
| -nǔ-sǔi |
| Imperative |
| -thang |
| :: |
''Tense''
Future Tense
As can be seen from the chart above, the future tense is indicated with -gan, while -si- indicates that the future event will occur soon or in the near future. One example is "Bí faigan", he will come, as opposed to "Bí faisigan", he will come (almost at once) or he is about to come.
Present Tense
Present tense is shown through three affixes, "ǔ", "dong" and "gô". The first two forms represent indefinite and definite forms and are far more common that "gô", which is frequently only used to answer questions in the affirmative.
Adjectives
Most adjectives can be added both before or after the noun it is describing, though it gains the case ending if it follows the noun, rather than precedes it. This follows the identification of as a strongly suffixing language. However, this classification goes against Konwar's description of Kachari and a related language, Karbi, as primarily prefixing to create adjectives.
Numerical adjectives are always inserted after the noun it is describing. For example, "ten goats" is "Burmá má-zǔ" with "Burmá" meaning goat, "má" being the classifier for "animal" and the number ten being "zǔ".
''Morphology''
Gender - Common nouns such as father, mother, brother or sister have distinct masculine and feminine words while other nouns including animals, will typically have the words for male and female, -jelá and -jeu respectively, added on as a suffix to denote gender. Other common masculine and feminine suffix forms that may be used include -zǎlá/-zǔ, -bundā/-bundi, -bóndá/-bóndi, -phántá/-phánti and -pherá/-pheri.
Number System
Kachari has a decimal system and counts to 10 with unique words, after which the number words combine to add to the larger number as shown in the chart below.
::data[format=table]
| 20. nɯizí | 2000. nɯí rɯ̀za |
|---|---|
| :: |
References
Bibliography
- Joseph, U.V., and Burling, Robbins. 2006. Comparative phonology of the Boro Garo languages. Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages Publication.
- Wood, Daniel Cody. 2008. An Initial Reconstruction of Proto-Boro-Garo. M.A. Thesis, University of Oregon.
References
- Grierson, G.A.. (1903). "Linguistic Survey of India, Volume III, Tibeto-Burman Family, Part II, "Specimens of the Bodo, Nāgā, and Kachin groups"".
- "Kachari". Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Twentieth edition.
- Robinson, William. (1849-01-01). "Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal "Notes on the Languages Spoken by the various tribes inhabiting the valley of Asam and its mountain confines."". G.H. Rouse, Baptist Mission Press.
- "Did you know Kachari is endangered?".
- "Linguistic Survey of India".
- Bhattacharya, Pramod Chandra. (1977). "A Descriptive Analysis of the Boro Language". The Pooran Press.
- Anderson, J. D.. (1895-01-01). "A collection of Kachári folk-tales and rhymes". Shillong.
- Endle, Sidney. (1884-01-01). "Outline Grammar of the Kachari (Bara) Language as Spoken in District Darrang, Assam: With Illustrative Sentences, Notes, Reading Lessons, and a Short Vocabulary". Assam Secretariat Press.
- "Language Kachari".
- Konwar, Aparna. (2002). "Some Aspects of the Boro and the Karbi morphology". Indian Linguistics.
- Brahma, Aleendra. (2009). "Sino-Tibetan Languages: Bodo".
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