Toto language
Toto | |
---|---|
𞊒𞊪𞊒𞊪, টোটো | |
The word "Toto" in Toto and Bengali script | |
Region | West Bengal |
Ethnicity | Toto |
Native speakers | 1,411 (2014)[1] |
Bengali script and Toto (script) | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | txo |
Glottolog | toto1302 |
ELP | Toto |
![]() Toto is classified as Critically Endangered language by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger[2] |
Toto (Bengali: টোটো, Toto: 𞊒𞊪𞊒𞊪) is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken on the border of India and Bhutan, by the tribal Toto people in Totopara, West Bengal along the border with Bhutan. It is also spoken in Subhapara, Dhunchipara, and Panchayatpara hillocks on India-Bhutan border in Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal (Ethnologue).
Status
[edit]Toto is listed as a critically endangered language by UNESCO, with perhaps 1,000 speakers.[3] However, most families in the community speak Toto at home. Most children learn Toto at home, although they use Bengali in school.
Anthropological Survey of India (AnSI) set out to conduct a study on language of the Toto tribe, whose population has dwindled to 1,536, they did not realize that the language is more endangered than the tribe itself. Researchers as well the members of the Toto community admit that the language is under threat and the influence of other languages, particularly Nepali and Bengali, is increasing day by day.[4]
The Himalayan Languages Project is working on the first grammatical sketch of Toto.
Phonology
[edit]Toto consists of 25 segmental phonemes, of which 19 are consonants and six are vowels. The phonemes of this language are as follows:
Vowels
[edit]There are six vowel phonemes in the Toto language: /i/, /e/, /ə/, /a/, /o/, /u/. They can be classified:
- horizontally into three groups as front unrounded, central unrounded and back rounded vowels;
- vertically into four groups as close, close-mid, open-mid and open.
There are eight diphthongs realized in Toto, these are:
- /eu/ — occurring in initial and medial positions,
- /au/, /ou/ — occurring only in the medial position,
- /ei/, /əi/, /ai/, /oi/ — occurring in medial and final positions, and
- /ui/ — occurring in all positions.[1]
The following minimal pairs establish the phonetics status of the vowel:
- /i/~/e/
- /iŋ/ 'brother in-law', vs. /eŋ/ 'ginger'
- /ciwa/ 'tear', vs. /cewa/ 'cut' (cloth)
- /i/~/a/
- /guJi/ 'owl', vs. /guJa/ 'pocket'
- /nico/ 'fire', vs. /naco/ 'two'
- /i/~/u/
- /Jiya/ 'rat', vs. /Juya/ 'bird'
- /ei/~/əi/
- /e/~/a/
- /lepa/ 'brain', vs. /lapa/ 'jungle betel leaf'
- /kewa/ 'birth', vs. /kawa/ 'sound'
- /e/~/o/
- /je/ 'grass', vs. /jo/ 'breast'
Consonants
[edit]With regards to consonants, Toto has an inventory of seven sonorants (nasals and liquids) and twelve obstruents (stops and fricative), eight of which are contrastive in voicing. It also distinguishes the voiceless obstruents /t/ and /p/ with their aspirated equivalents /tʰ/ and /pʰ/, respectively.[1]
Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
plain | aspirated | plain | aspirated | |||||
Stop | voiceless | p | pʰ | t | tʰ | c | k | |
voiced | b | d | ɟ | g | ||||
Fricative | s | h | ||||||
Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||
Approximant | l | j | w | |||||
Trill | r |
Vocabulary
[edit]Below are some Toto words from van Driem (1995), who uses these words to suggest that Toto may be a Sal language.[5]
- aŋ- 'to drink'
- bɔcɔŋ 'shoulder'
- yoti 'cooking pot' (second syllable), cf. Dzongkha dî 'jug'
- uŋtí 'seed'
- haní 'today'
- tarí 'moon'
- lip- 'fall' (cf. Benedict's PTB *lip 'dive, sink, drown')
- tɛ́bo 'big' (first syllable)
- así 'shit'
- daŋkre 'right' (vs. 'left')
- buibé 'stomach' (first syllable); the second syllable -be is cognate with Toto biyá 'meat'
- biyá 'meat'
- wɔteŋ 'bamboo species' (first syllable), Nepali ḍhuṅgre ko ghās
- maʔoŋ 'paddy'
- bagreŋ 'wing'
- saní 'sun'
- jâr- 'stand'
- anji 'yesterday'
- böidi 'navel'
- lâru- 'bring'
- em- 'to shit'
- jiŋ- 'sleep'
- cici 'urine'
- kiya 'dog'
- miŋ 'name'
- daŋ 'horn'
- maibe 'flower'
- pǘyɔ 'snake'
- luŋtü 'stone'
- lɛbɛ́ 'tongue'
- maŋbü- 'to dream'
- nanuŋ 'ear'
- mico 'eye'
- ŋaya 'fish'
- musa 'body hair'
- ka 'I'
- taŋpa 'sole of the foot'
- paká 'pig'
- nati 'thou'
- satáŋ 'tooth'
- si- 'die'
- ca- 'eat'
- the- 'be sweet, taste sweet'
- toise 'mango' (suffix: -se)
- daŋse 'jackfruit' (suffix: -se)
- sâ- 'kill'
- dai- 'dig'
- köitü 'egg'
- yuŋ- 'sit, stay'
- ti 'water'
- mití 'tear'
- totí 'spit'
- wɛtí 'rain'
- yutí 'blood'
- yutí 'milk'
- dikɔ́ 'buffalo'
- ü- 'come down, descend'
- ŋɛtɔ́ŋ 'neck'
- to pa- 'weave'
- kai- 'cry'
- ŋɔká 'monkey'
- jüwɔ́ 'mouse, rat'
Pronouns
[edit]The Toto personal pronouns are (van Driem 1995):[5]
singular | plural | |
---|---|---|
first person | ka | kibi |
second person | nati | natibi |
third person | aku | abi |
Numerals
[edit]The Toto numerals are (van Driem 1995):[5]
English numeral | bare stem for counting | counting humans | counting animals | inanimate objects |
---|---|---|---|---|
one | i | iccɔ | ippu | icce |
two | ni | niso | nipu | nise |
three | suŋ | sumcɔ | suŋpu | suŋse |
four | di | dicɔ | dipu | dise |
five | ŋa | ŋacɔ | ŋapu | ŋase |
six | tu | tukcɔ | tukpu | tuse |
seven | ni | nícɔ | nípu | níse |
eight | yâ | yấcɔ | yấpu | yấse |
nine | ku | kucɔ | kupu | kuse |
ten | tâ | tâcɔ | tâpu | tâse |
eleven | eghâra | eghârcɔ | eghârpu | eghârse |
twelve | bâra | bârcɔ | bârpu | bârse |
twenty | ikai | ikai cɔ | ikai pu | ikai se |
twenty-one | ikai-so i | ikai-so iccɔ | ikai-so ippu | ikai-so icce |
thirty | ikai-so tâ | ikai-so tâcɔ | ikai-so tâpu | ikai-so tâse |
forty | nikai | nikai cɔ | nikai pu | nikai se |
fifty | nikai-so tâ | nikai-so tâcɔ | nikai-so tâpu | nikai-so tâse |
sixty | suŋkai | suŋkai cɔ | suŋkai pu | suŋkai se |
Writing system
[edit]Toto script 𞊒𞊪𞊒𞊪 | |
---|---|
Script type | |
Creator | Dhaniram Toto |
Published | 2015
|
Region | Bengal |
Languages | Toto |
ISO 15924 | |
ISO 15924 | Toto (294), Toto |
Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Toto |
U+1E290–U+1E2BF |
An alphabetic script developed for the language by community elder and author, Dhaniram Toto, was published in 2015, and has seen limited but increasing use in literature, education, and computing; most significantly, the Toto alphabet was added to the Unicode Standard in September, 2021. Prior to the publication of this script, Dhaniram Toto and other members of the community (whose literacy rate as per sample survey carried out in 2003 was just 33.64 per cent) penned books and poems in the Bengali script.[4]
Unicode
[edit]The Toto alphabet was added to the Unicode Standard in September, 2021 with the release of version 14.0.
The Unicode block for Toto is U+1E290–U+1E2BF:
Toto[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
U+1E29x | 𞊐 | 𞊑 | 𞊒 | 𞊓 | 𞊔 | 𞊕 | 𞊖 | 𞊗 | 𞊘 | 𞊙 | 𞊚 | 𞊛 | 𞊜 | 𞊝 | 𞊞 | 𞊟 |
U+1E2Ax | 𞊠 | 𞊡 | 𞊢 | 𞊣 | 𞊤 | 𞊥 | 𞊦 | 𞊧 | 𞊨 | 𞊩 | 𞊪 | 𞊫 | 𞊬 | 𞊭 | 𞊮 | |
U+1E2Bx | ||||||||||||||||
Notes |
See also
[edit]- Dhimalish comparative vocabulary list (Wiktionary)
Notes
[edit]- ^ a b c "Languages of India" (PDF). Retrieved 2015-02-08.|
- ^ Moseley, Christopher; Nicolas, Alexander, eds. (2010). Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (PDF) (3rd ed.). Paris: UNESCO. pp. 43–47. ISBN 978-92-3-104096-2. Archived from the original on 23 July 2022.
- ^ Ben Doherty (April 29, 2012). "India's tribal people fast becoming lost for words". The Age. Retrieved 2015-02-08.
- ^ a b Singh, Shiv Sahay (1 August 2014). "Toto language more endangered than tribe". The Hindu. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
- ^ a b c van Driem, George. 1995. The Ṭoṭo language of the Bhutanese duars. Paper presented at ICSTLL 28.
References
[edit]- Amitabha, S. (1993). Toto, Society and Change: A Sub-Himalayan Tribe of West Bengal. Firma KLM.
- Basumatary, C. (2014). The Phonological Study of Toto Language. Language in India, 14:6, 59–84. Retrieved February 9, 2015, from http://languageinindia.com/june2014/chibiramtotophonology1.pdf
- Chaudhuri, B. (1992). Tribal Transformation in India. New Delhi, India: Inter-India Publications.
- Doherty, B. (2012, April 29). India's Tribal People Fast Becoming Lost for Words. Retrieved February 8, 2015, from http://www.smh.com.au/world/indias-tribal-people-fast-becoming-lost-for-words-20120429-1xted.html
- Grierson, George A. (1909). Linguistic Survey of India. Vol. III, Part 1, Tibeto-Burman family. General introduction. Specimens of the Tibetan dialects, the Himalayan dialects and the North Assam group. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India.
- Mehrotra, R. (1974). Endangered Languages in India. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 105–114. Retrieved February 9, 2015, from https://web.archive.org/web/20111016074549/http://www.degruyter.de/journals/ijsl/detailEn.cfm
- Perumalsamy P (2016) "Toto Language" in Linguistic Survey of India West Bengal Volume I by Office of the Registrar General India: New Delhi pp 628–702 https://censusindia.gov.in/nada/index.php/catalog/34826
- Singh, S. (2014, August 1). Toto Language More Endangered Than Tribe. Retrieved February 8, 2015, from http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/kolkata/toto-language-more-endangered-than-tribe/article6270931.ece
- van Driem, G., & Bronkhorst, J. (2001). Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region Containing an Introduction to the Symbiotic Theory of Language (pp. 559–760). Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Academic Pub.
- van Driem, G. (2007). South Asia and Middle East. In C. Moseley (Ed.), Encyclopedia of the World's Endangered Languages (pp. 289–348). London and New York: Routledge.
- van Driem, George. 1995. The Ṭoṭo language of the Bhutanese duars. Paper presented at ICSTLL 28.