DRAFT

A GRAMMATICAL SKETCH OF FALAM CHIN

TYLER DAVIS

AL605 Grammatical Analysis

Date

DRAFT
TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 Introduction.................................................................................................................1
1.1 Language Typology..............................................................................................1
1.2 People...................................................................................................................2
1.3 My Informant.......................................................................................................2
1.4 Other Sources.......................................................................................................3
2 Morphology.................................................................................................................4
2.1 The Falam Word...................................................................................................4
2.1.1 Distinguishing Positions +1 and +2..............................................................4
2.1.2 Nominalization and Adverbialization............................................................5
2.1.3 Number..........................................................................................................5
2.2 Inflectional Affixes...............................................................................................5
2.2.1 Age................................................................................................................5
2.2.2 Gender...........................................................................................................6
2.2.3 Plurality.........................................................................................................6
2.2.4 Reciprocity....................................................................................................7
2.2.5 Size................................................................................................................7
2.3 Derivational Affixes.............................................................................................7
2.3.1 Nominalizers.................................................................................................7
2.3.2 Adverbializers................................................................................................8
2.3.3 Causitivizers..................................................................................................8
2.4 Non-Affixational Constructions...........................................................................8
2.4.1 Noun and Noun Noun Constructions.....................................................10
2.4.2 Noun and Verb Noun Constructions.......................................................10
2.4.3 Verb and Verb Verb Constructions..........................................................10
2.4.4 Noun and Verb Verb Constructions........................................................10
Bibliography................................................................................................................12

ii

DRAFT

1 Introduction

Falam Chin is a Central Chin language of the

Kuki-Chin branch of the Tibeto-Burman family

(Bradley 1997:30). The population of Falam

speakers in Myanmar according to The Ethnologue is

ca. 69,000 and the language status (vitality)

according to the EGIDS scale is 5 (Developing)

(2015). The largest language spoken in the Falam

township area besides Falam itself is Hakha Lai
(aka Lai holh), which is spoken by ca. 100,000

people in Myanmar, and has the status of 3 (Wider

Communication) on the EGIDS scale (ibid.). The

location of speakers of Falam Chin in relation to the

speakers of Hakha Chin is shown in Figure 1.

1.1 Language Typology

Figure 1: Location of Falam

Falam Chin is classified under the Kuki-Chin and Hakha in Chin State.
family of Tibeto-Burman by VanBik (2009:fig. 6) as (Image adapted from Lewis
Central Chin and is grouped together with Hakha (2015))
under the category of Lai (See Figure 2, page 2).

Languages of Kuki-Chin are described by Bradley as, characterised by tones [...]

extensive verb morphology often involving tonal alternations, and extensive
suffixing with more limited prefixation. [T]he basic word
order is SOV (Bradley 2002:88)1. The languages of

PKC

Central Chin (Laamtuk Thet-Lai-Mizo) Group, as VanBik

*kr-

calls it, are distinguished from other Kuki-Chin languages

*pr-

in that the original Proto-Kuki-Chin (PKC) consonant

clusters undergo homorganic assimilation into ProtoCentral-Chin (PCC) (VanBik 2009:39). VanBiks

conclusions on the consonant clusters are summarized in

Table 1.

*kl-

*pl-

*khr-

PCC
*tr-

*tl-

*thr-

Referring specifically to Falam and Bawm, VanBik

*phr-

claims that these two languages separate themselves from

*khl-

*thl-

*y-

*z-

Hakha Lai in that PCC *tsh-, *s-, and *s- merge to /s/
(2009:45). For example, Hakhas /tsha/ thick is
1

This quote is modified from Bradley (1997:26).

Table 1: Proto-Kuki-Chin
Initials in Proto-Central-

Chin adapted from

VanBik (2009).

DRAFT

rendered in Falam as /sa/. VanBik lists the following dialects of Falam: Bawm,
Bualkhua, Laizo, Lente, Khualsim, Khuangli, Sim, Tlaisun, Za-ngiat (VanBik 2009:fig.
10).

Proto-Kuki-Chin

Peripheral

North

Thadou

Sizang

Central

South

Khumi

Cho-Asho

L. Thet

Lai

Hakha

Falam

Maraic

Mizo

Lushei Hmar Mara Zotung Senthang

Figure 2: VanBik's grouping of Proto-Kuki-Chin, taken from (VanBik 2009:fig.

6)

1.2 People

The speakers of the Falam originate from six different cities in the Falam

township (2015). Ethnologue (ibid.) also claims that there are Falam (Halam)
speakers in India totaling around 38,300, but Bradley (2002:87) claims that the
Halam people belong to a different linguistic division of Tibeto-Burman called OldKuki. Vumson describes the Falam as a people who had the most-powerful
chieftainship in all of Chin State before the colonial period began (1985:9). Lehman
remarks to the contrary that, their powers, moreover, usually were not as great as
those of a Hak[h]a chief or of the Hak[h]a bawi clans (1963:146).

Originally all peoples of the Chin Hills worshiped spirits, and the Rih La in

Falam district was viewed as a strong contact point with those spirits (Suantak
1985:16). Christianity has since entered the Chin Hills of Myanmar, and
subsequently, most Falam are self-identified Christians with one estimate at 61% 2.

1.3 My Informant

To obtain language data from Falam Chin, the researcher will be assisted by

Cross Eng Lian Hngak, a first-year student in the Linguistics program of Payap
University. He is a native Falam speaker of the Taisun clan. He was born in Kalay,
Sagain Division, Myanmar and later moved to Yangon before attending seminary in
Chiang Mai, Thailand. He grew up using three languages in everyday life: Falam,

Estimate obtained from http://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/12044/BM

DRAFT

Mizo (Lushei), and Burmese. He claims native-like fluency in all three languages,
and the researcher has also heard him converse comfortably in Hakha.

1.4 Other Sources

There is a Masters thesis on Falam phonology from a Payap alumnus, which

will be used as a reference to help me transcribe utterances from the informant (see
Khar Thuan 2008 in bibliography). Other than that, the researcher has thus far
found no academic articles or theses dealing with the Falam Chin language.
However, there are several unpublished word lists by Gordon Luce from his Chin
Hills Linguistics Tour (see 1959 in bibliography) which should prove to be helpful.

DRAFT

2 Morphology

The aim of this chapter is to give a brief description of Falam morphology

based on the information elicited from the primary informant with no prior
consultation of any other academic source dealing with Falam syntax and
morphology. 2.1 contains an overview of how a word in Falam is constructed.
2.2 aims to describe various inflectional affixes, followed by 2.3 which describes
derivational affixes. Afterwards, an overview of non-derivational affixes in Falam is
provided in 2.4, with a focus on how nouns and verbs may combine in various
orders to form new compound exocentric and endocentric nouns and verbs.

2.1 The Falam Word

If a position class chart were to be constructed of a non-compound Falam

word, the construction would be equal to that displayed in Table 2:

Table 2: Falam Word Position Class Chart (optional elements in parenthesis)

+1

+2

+3

+4

la

nak

pawl

no

ten

pi

tu

Root (Size 1) (Size 2/Age) (NMLZ/ADVZ) (Number)

tum
te

2.1.1 Distinguishing Positions +1 and +2

The first element is the root of the word, which can either be a noun or a

verb. The second element in the +1 position are the morphemes -tum AUG and -te
DIM. These morphemes refer to the relative size of a noun, such as:
(1)

cabu -te

book DIM

small book

The morphemes in the Size 1 category are separated from those in the Size 2
category, in that the morphemes in the latter category are not only affixable to the
morphemes in the former category, but take on a different meaning with animate
nouns, where they denote age. For example:

DRAFT

(2)

Cabu-tum-pi

pe

aw

book-AUG-big to.me give REQUEST

Give me a big book.

Example 2 is grammatical with both -tum and -pi affixed to cabu book, but -pi here
emphasizes the size of the book, which is inanimate. Compare this to (3), where the
noun is animate:

(3) amah cu
3sg

fa-la-no-te

si

SUB child-young.girl-young-DIM 3sg.agr be.true

She is a young girl.

The word fa-la-no-te young girl actually breaks the pattern of the position chart, as
it allows -te to follow -no in the morphology. The researcher proposes this
construction is hierarchical and that -te is further modifying the already young girl.
Meaning, the girl is not only very young, but also a small very young girl. Further
elicitation is needed to test this theory, however.

2.1.2 Nominalization and Adverbialization

The standard procedure for nominalization in Falam Chin is the affixation of

the morpheme (abbreviated henceforth as NMLZ) -nak or -tu to the final position of
a verb. Similarly, adverbialization is carried out by the adverbializing morpheme
(ADVZ) -ten. More attention will be given to these morphemes in 2.3.1-2.3.2.

2.1.3 Number

There is only one affix for number in Falam Chin, which is placed at the end

of a regular noun, which is -pawl. More attention will be given to this morpheme in
2.2.3.

2.2 Inflectional Affixes

In Falam, inflectional affixes are realized to encode age, gender, plurality,

reciprocity, and size. These affixes are all formed as suffixes, which attach to the
noun root.

2.2.1 Age

Age is encoded with several morphemes: mainly -la young, -no very young,

and -pi mature. These usually follow the root noun immediately in the +1 position
(see 2.1.1) and can be modified by affixes having to do with size (see 2.2.5). An

DRAFT

example using both -la and -no can be seen in (3) on page 5. The root word fa
offspring is modified by -la young to form the word fa-la virgin3, which is further
modified by -no very young and -te small to add specificity to the virgins youth
and size. The use of -pi mature can be seen in (4):

(4) lo

ah

caw-pi-pawl

an

um

field LOC cow-mature-PL 3pl.agr reside

There are big (mature) cows in the field.

-pi mature here, refers not to the size of the cows, but to the fact that they are fully
grown due to their age.

2.2.2 Gender

There are two affixes in Falam which denote gender, namely -nu FEM and

-pa MASC. Both terms are derived from nouns: female and male, respectively.
Nouns which denote both humans and animals may be modified by these gender
affixes. Two examples are shown below:

(5) fa-pa

si

ka

duh

child-MASC to exist 1sg.agr desire

I want a son.
(6) ka

fa-nu

fel

tuk

1sg.POSS child-FEM 3sg.agr well.behaved very

my daughter is very well-behaved.

2.2.3 Plurality

Plurality (PL) in Falam Chin is encoded by the affix -pawl, which is

grammaticalized from pawl a group. It should be noted that in the standard Falam
orthography, pawl is usually written as a separate word. However, the morph only
indicates PL when a noun is present. Therefore, it is analyzed here as an affix.

[X]NOUN

Meaning: X

[X-pawl]NOUN

Meaning: X-PL

According to my informant, this word refers to a young girl, although there is nothing in the
grammatical encoding to suggest this.

DRAFT

2.2.4 Reciprocity

Reciprocity is encoded in Falam with the reciprocal (RECIP) -aw. It affixes to

the verb in a sentence, such as:

(7) an sual-aw

3pl fight-RECIP

They are fighting (each other).

Therefore, the basic rule for making any verb reciprocal in Falam Chin is:

[X]VERB

Meaning: X

[X-aw]VERB

Meaning: X eachother

2.2.5 Size

There are two main affixes in Falam Chin which denote size: -te, which is a

diminutive (DIM) affix, and -tum, which functions as an augmentative (AUG) affix
and lexically means large.

[X]NOUN

Meaning: X

[X-te]NOUN

[X]NOUN

Meaning: small X Meaning: X

[X-tum]NOUN

Meaning: large X

2.3 Derivational Affixes

Falam has four basic derivational affixes: -nak and -tu, both nominalizers

(NMLZ); -ten, an adverbializer (ADVZ); and -ter, a causitive suffix (CAUS). Every
one of these derivational affixes modify verbs, and the researcher has not found any
verbalizers at the present time.

2.3.1 Nominalizers

There are two basic NMLZs in Falam morphology, namely -nak and -tu. The

former has cognates in other Kuki-Chin languages, such as Daai (-naak) (SoHartmann 2012:sec. 3.3.1.6), Hakha (-nak) (Loss & Bawi Tawng 2015), Sizang ((a-)
-na) (Stern 1963:sec. 2.22.3), and Tedim (-na) (Henderson 1965:100101). It
attaches to verbs to form abstract nouns:

(8) malsawm -nak

to.bless

NMLZ

a blessing

(9) duhdawt -nak

to.love

NMLZ

love

-tu is similar in morphological form to -nak, but functions as a descriptor for people.
For example:

DRAFT

(10) duhdawt -tu

to.love

(11) pe

NMLZ

lover

-tu

(12) zum

-tu

give NMLZ

create NMLZ

giver

creator

2.3.2 Adverbializers

Adverbs may be derived from verbs in Falam when the adverbializer (ADVZ)

-ten is suffixed to the verb root, as in (13):

(13) tha

-ten

tuah aw

good -ADVZ do

REQUEST

Do it well.

Tha is a verb meaning to be good, which changes its meaning to well when
suffixed with -ten. The ADVZ may be suffixed to almost any verb, but the researcher
expects that there are exceptions, although none have yet been found.

2.3.3 Causitivizers

Causitivity is encoded through the causitivizing verbal suffix (CAUS) -ter. It

can be used in a phrase with two verbs, as shown here:

(14) anih cu

thei

-ter

duh hlah aw

3sg ERG know -CAUS want NEG REQUEST

I dont want him to know.

The literal translation of a phrase like this, would be please, [I] do not want it [to
be made] know[n] to him. The main verb here is actually duh want, with it
modifying the condition of the causitivized verb thei.

2.4 Non-Affixational Constructions

In Falam Chin, entire words may be used as affixes to form new words, both

with endocentric and exocentric meaning. The basic constructions of such words are
comprised of at least two words (in some cases, a third is added). The constructions
are as follows:

Table 3: Falam Compound Word Combinations

DRAFT

W1 Class

W2 Class

Result

Noun

Noun

Noun

Noun

Verb

Noun

Verb

Noun

Noun

Verb

Verb

Verb

Noun

Verb

Verb

The majority of these words are endocentric in nature, in that their meanings are
derived from one or both of the words which are compounded. In each example
provided below, any exocentric words will be discussed.

2.4.1 Noun and Noun Noun Constructions

A few examples of this construction are presented in Table 4:

Table 4: Compound nouns (Noun + Noun)

W1

W1M

kua village
sii

Word

W2 W2M Word
lal

Meaning

king kawlal village leader

medicine zung office siizung

hospital

Both examples in this construction are made up of nouns and are endocentric in
nature.

2.4.2 Noun and Verb Noun Constructions

Various noun and verb constructions with either the noun in the first position

or the verb in first position are possible in Falam. Here are a few examples:
Table 5: Noun + Verb Constructions

W1

W1M

W2

then swing (v) bawm

Word

W2M

Word

box

Thenbawm

cradle

Meaning

pawl

group

kom

combine

Pawlkom

organization

so

material

ser

smith (v)

soser

blacksmith

DRAFT

There are two examples with the verb in the second position of the word, and one
with the verb in the first position. However, all compound words here have
endocentric meanings.

2.4.3 Verb and Verb Verb Constructions

A few examples of this construction are presented in Table 6:

Table 6: Verb + Verb Constructions

W1 W1M

W2

W2M

Word

Meaning

feh

go

suak leave

fesuak

set.out

full

thau

puarthau

conceited

puar

fat

thei know thiam able theithiam understand

tlan

run

suak leave tlansuak

escape

Besides the word puarthau conceited, which is idiomatic and thus exocentric, all of
the compound words here have endocentric meanings from their respective root
words.

2.4.4 Noun and Verb Verb Constructions

A few examples of this construction are presented in Table 7:

Table 7: Noun + Verb -> Verb Constructions

Word 1
hnih

sung
thin

W1M

W2

W2M W3 W3M

Word

laughter suah release sai quake hnihsuahsai

insides dawk
lung

tawi

leak

sungdawk

short

ter CAUS thintawiter

Meaning

tell a joke

have diarrhea
to irritate

Only one word out of these three could be considered endocentric, and that is
sungdawk have diarrhea. The other two verbs dont resemble the meaning which
they convey (in fact, hnihsuahsai appears to be suggesting uncontrollable laughter,
rather than joke-telling).

2.5 Conclusions

From these data, it can be concluded, that Falam Chin contains both

inflectional and derivational morphemes. Within the derivational category, Falam

Chin has affixational and non-affixational morphemes, and in the latter category,
both endocentric and exocentric meanings can be derived when forming words.

10

DRAFT
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bradley, David. 1997. Tibeto-Burman languages and classification. In David Bradley

(ed.), Papers in Southeast Asian linguistics No. 14: Tibeto-Burman languages
of the Himalayas, vol. A-86, 172. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
http://sealang.net/sala/archives/pdf4/bradley1997tibeto-burman.pdf (31
January, 2014).
Bradley, David. 2002. The subgrouping of Tibeto-Burman. In Christopher I. Beckwith
(ed.), Medieval Tibeto-Burman Languages: PIATS 2000, vol. 2/6, 73112.
(Brills Tibetan Studies Library). Leiden; Boston; Kln: Brill.
Henderson, Eugnie JA. 1965. Tiddim Chin: A descriptive analysis of two texts. . Vol.
15. Oxford University Press.
Khar Thuan. 2008. A Phonological Description of Falam Chin. Chiang Mai, Thailand:
Payap University MA in Linguistics.
Lehman, Frederick K. 1963. The structure of Chin society: A tribal people of Burma
adapted to a non-western civilization. ( 3). University of Illinois Press.
Loss, Daniel & Bawi Tawng. 2015. Types of Nominalization in Lai with Further
Exploration into the Possible Functions of -nak. Paper presented at the The
25th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, Chiang Mai,
Thailand.
Luce, Gordon H. 1959. Chin Hills-Linguistic Tour (Dec. 1954)-University Project.
Journal of Burma Research Society 42(1). 1931.
So-Hartmann, Helga. 2012. A Descriptive Grammar of Daai Chin. (STEDT
Monograph Series 7). STEDT Monograph.
Stern, Theodore. 1963. A provisional sketch of Sizang (Siyin) Chin. Asia Major 10.
(New Series). 222278.
Suantak, Vumson. 1985. Zo History: With an introduction to Zo Culture, Economy,
Religion and Their Status as an Ethnic Minority in India, Burma, and
Bangladesh. Published by the author.
VanBik, Kenneth. 2009. Proto-Kuki-Chin: a reconstructed ancestor of the Kuki-Chin
languages. (Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus Project,
Department of Linguistics Research Unit in University of California,
Berkeley.). Berkeley, CA.
http://stedt.berkeley.edu/pubs_and_prods/STEDT_Monograph8_Proto-KukiChin.pdf (11 January, 2015).
2015. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Eighteenth. Dallas, Texas: SIL
International. http://www.ethnologue.com/.

11