TAWRÃ LANGUAGE AND
ANTHROPOLOGY
The Tawrã [=Taraon, Digaru
and Daruang in China] people are part of the ‘Mishmi’ group, which also
includes Idu and Kman. They live in Arunachal
Pradesh, Lohit District, Hayuliang, Changlagam, Goiliang circles, Dibang Valley
District; Assam, and also in China and Myanmar. The Tawrã people were 8,620 in the 2001 census in India. Population
total all countries: 9,470.
The Tawrã language has yet to
be studied by the methods of modern linguistics. The links below enable you to
download existing publications, as well as some preliminary materials I have
put together.
Topic |
Image |
PDFs of previously published work |
Linguistics |
|
Chakravarty, L.N. 1978. A dictionary of the Taraon language.
Shillong: NEFA. |
|
|
Pulu, Jatan 1991. A phrase book on
Taraon language. Itanagar: Directorate of Research. |
|
|
PDFs of unpublished work |
Linguistics |
|
Tawrã dictionary [compiled by Roger Blench] |
Anthropology |
|
|
Tawrã people consider themselves culturally close to the Kman people although
the two languages share very little. However, there have been several attempt
to develop a common writing system, including Krisikro (2006) and Tawsik ( 2014). Informal attempts from external
scholars appear to be continuing though with information about their work, they
are hard to assess.
The reader is strongly warned against the following volumes, as they
mix together data from the other Mishmi languages in some misguided attempt to
create a common grammar and lexicon;
Sastry, G.D.P. 1984. Mishmi grammar. Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages.
Sastry, G.D.P. 1991. Mishmi-English-Hindi dictionary. Mysore: Central Institute of
Indian Languages.
Bibliography
Campbell, G. 1874. Specimens
of Languages of India: Including Those of the Aboriginal Tribes of Bengal, the
Central Provinces, and the Eastern Frontier. Calcutta: Printed at the Bengal secretariat Press.
Chakravarty, L.N. 1978. A dictionary of the Taraon language.
Shillong: NEFA.
Konow, Sten 1902. Note on the languages spoken between the
Assam Valley and Tibet. The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great
Britain and Ireland, 1902:
127-137.
Krisikro, Sutik 2006.
Tawra: tako zo bra/ käman, pït sai brat.
Tezu: Graphic Systems.
Macgregor, C.R. 1887. Journal of the Expedition under
Col. Woodthorpe, R.E., from Upper Assam to the Irrawadi and return over the
Patkoi Range. Proc. Royal Geographical
Society, 9: 19-42.
Mills, J.P. 1952. The Mishmis of the Lohit Valley, Assam. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological
Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 82(1):1-12.
Needham, Jack F.
1886. A few Dîgârô (Târoan), (Mîjû)
M'jû, and Thibetian Words. Shillong.
Pulu, Jatan 1991. A phrase book on Taraon language.
Itanagar: Directorate of Research.
Robinson, W. 1856. Notes on the languages spoken by
the Mi-Shmis. Journal of the Asiatic
Society of Bengal, 24: 307-324.
Sun, Hongkai 1991. Zang Mianyu yuyin he cihui. [In Chinese]. Beijing: Zhōngguó Shèhuì Kēxué
Chūbǎnshè.
Sun, Hongkai 1999. On
the Himalayan languages of the eastern Himalayan area in China. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area,
22: 61-72.
Tawsik, Somodang 2014. Kaman-Tawrah. Tinsukia: Chitra printers.