Documenting Paite

A. Saha, B. Lahiri & R. KumarJNU, New Delhi

Paite: The Community

✗ The Paites are one of the constituting tribes of the Zomi group.

✗ The word paite means “a group of people marching “(pai-march; te - "plural maker").

✗ The Paites are a recognised scheduled tribe in Manipur as well as in Mizoram. They live in Churachandpur district in Southern Manipur.

Paite: The Community

✗ They were referred to as Chin-Kuki group in the past. At present, they call themselves Paite.

✗ They believe in supreme god Pathian and believed to have originated from a cave or /Khul/ or called /siŋrum/.

✗ Their population is 49,271 (as per the population census 2001) spreading over 125 villages.

Paite: On the Map

Paite: The Language

✗ Paite is a Tibeto-Burman language mainly spoken in Churachandpur District, Khuga Valley, and Copur Bazar in Manipur.

✗ It is also spoken in some parts of Mizoram, Tripura and Assam.

✗ Outside India some variety of Paite is spoken in Myanmar also.

Documenting a language

✗ A language documentation is “a lasting, multipurpose record of a language”. (Himmelmann, 2006).

✗ In general it is an exhaustive recording of language in all its hues and forms.

✗ It has five major components – phonetic documentation, ethnographical study, descriptive grammar, dictionary and metadata.

Documenting Paite

✗ In the present paper we present just an initial attempt to document Paite.

✗ In no way at all, at this stage, is this documentation exhaustive or multipurpose.

✗ We have done some phonetic documentation, a basic ethnographic study of the language and a very basic dictionary of a few hundred basic words.

Paite: The “Unsafe” Language?

✗ With a population of just around 50,000 (according to Census 2001) and the restricted use of language in home domain, the UNESCO Atlas of Endangered Languages has classified it as “unsafe” language.

✗ However the native speakers largely believe that the language should be learnt by the children. So it might be long before the language becomes really endangered or moribund.

The “Unsafe” in Paite✗ Conversion of Paite people into Christianity

has affected the language to a large extend. Now they cannot recall the names of their traditional costume, traditional festival and also have forgotten other useful traditional knowledge.

✗ This shows, how language, religion and sense of identity are weaved together to decide the ethnography of a community. Change of any one from the three changes the ethnography of the community.

Ethnolinguistics✗ Ethnography in linguistics basically refers to

“the study of the culture of language” (Hill, 2006).

✗ The study of ethnography in linguistics is to capture the culture of a community through its language.

✗ Terms related to various cultural aspects are collected to get a picture of the community.

✗ The ethnolinguistics reflects the community’s setting, ideas, beliefs, cultures, values and attitudes. It shows how the community perceives the world.

Greetings✗ When one man meets the other then they

greet each-other by saying /cibaibu/ which is somewhat like ‘hello’. But they do not shake hands or do any gesture.

✗ The term /cibaibu/ is different from /dammo/. ̪The later means ‘how are you’ but is said to greet when a man meets the other. By asking such question one does not really want to know about the health of the other person but just wants to wish him ‘hello’.

NOTE - Same thing is also found in Bangla where a person just says /b alo/ which means “are you fine?” or “how are ʰyou?” just to greet the person.

Greetings

✗ The terms used to greet the elders are similar to that of the kinship terms for grandfather /pu/ and grandmother /pi/. Perhaps by using same terms they want to make the elderly person feel like they are like their own grandparents.

Kinship Terms

✗ Kinship terms are very productive in Paite. /pa/ is used for father which also becomes affix for other male kinship terms.

– /pu-pa-te/ - ancestor (as / pu-te/ -grand - ̪ ̪father).

– /tu-pa/ - Grand – uncle̪

✗ Similarly the word for mother /nu/ is also used as an female marking affix in words like

– /tu-nu/ - Grand – aunt̪

(nu-woman; pa-man).

Kinship Terms

✗ It can be seen that /u/ is used for elder and /ŋao/ for younger

– /u-pa/ - elder – brother

– /ŋao-pa/ -younger - brother.

– /u-nu/ - elder sister

– /ŋao-nu/ - younger sister.

Kinship Terms ✗ Most of the kinship terms follow a logical rule

like /ta/ is used for child and to get the word ̪son the suffix /pa/ is added; /ta-pa/- son. ̪

✗ Similarly to get the word ‘daughter’ the suffix for female /nu/ is added to /ta/ ; /ta-nu/ - ̪ ̪daughter.

– Grandfather pu

– Grandmother pi

– Parent nu – le – pa – te ̪

– Father-in-law pa-zon

– Mother-in-law nu-zon

Marriage

✗ Siŋpikibxia-The boy’s parents go to the girl’s parent with a kettle full of tea. If the girl’s parents drink the tea then it means that they have accepted the proposal of marriage. Traditionally rice beer was used.

✗ Traditional necklace made of red beads called / xibab/ is worn by the bride and she carries a basket made of bamboo called /seŋ/.

✗ The grooms’ parents pay money to the bride’s parents, which is called /mou – man/ (mou – bride; man – price).

Marriage

✗ When the marriage is fixed then the girl’s parents keep their demands in front of the boy’s parents. There is a negotiation called /mou - man kihoulim/, then an amount is fixed.

✗ Whatever the bride wants, she brings with her which is known as /mou–ken/ (ken-thing). Generally there are things like a knife /t ul/, a mattress /puanfa/ and a ʰgarland made of red beads called /hi/.

✗ After the negotiation marriage day is fixed /kitteŋ – di ̪ ̪ ̪- ise/ (marry-kitteŋ; di-date; ise-fix). Then the ɲ ̪ ̪ ̪ ɲmarriage day is announced in the family and friends which is called /kitteŋ – di/.̪ ̪ ̪

Pronoun

✗ In the pronoun system one do not find degree of honour.

✗ In the third person singular number there is a distinction between male and female though there are also generic terms which can be used. /hoai/ means that and /pa/ is used as a suffix for male and /nu/ for female so /hoai-pa/ is ‘that man’ and /huai-nu/ is that woman.

Pronoun

Child birth✗ nau-minp uana ʰ – (nau-baby) It is the ceremony

of naming the baby. It is also celebrated with tea.

✗ First boy child is named by the child’s paternal grandfather, but if it is a girl then she is named by her maternal grandmother. The second boy is named by father’s elder brother if father has no elder brother then by mother’s elder brother, if that also is not possible then by father or grandfather.

✗ But the boy child is always named by a male member of the family and a girl child by the female.

Child birth✗ Every person has three syllables in his/her

name. The person who names the child gives his/her name’s third syllable to the child which becomes the first syllable of the child’s name. So a first child’s name’s first syllable is his grandfather’s name’s last syllable.

– Birth piaŋna

– Have a baby nau - nei

– Expecting nau – nei-dek̪

– Miscarriage nau – siak

– Abortion nau – pai (throw) / hisia (kill)

Games✗ Some of the traditional games:

– pegnumkap – Games played with marbles.

– ciaŋxepte̪ – Played with sticks where a stick is kept in a hole and it is hit by another stick. When it comes out of the hole it is again hit with a stick. Winner is the one who can throw the stick to the farthest.

– suite̪ – This game is generally played by the girls. On the ground some boxes are drawn and the girls throw stone in it and then jump through the boxes with one leg.

NOTE: Generally all these games are found all over India by different names.

Death ✗ In the terms related to death too the

compounding of the words to form a new word can be witnessed. The word for dead is /misi/ so the others words are formed with compounding words with it.

– Corpse misi – luaŋmisip um ʰ

– Graveside service misi – p oenaʰ

– Life after death misi-xoa

– Pray for the dead mesi-humsat

✗ The language have individual words for things like keep someone's memory alive /b ogije/.ʰ

Supernatural Elements✗ Like a typical tribal culture this tribe too believes on

the supernatural elements. There are about ten types of supernatural elements which the informants could name. All these creatures have their own characteristics.

✗ Moreover most of these supernatural elements are believed to be dwelling in the forest that shows that the region must be full of forest and the basic occupation of the men was hunting. These spirits are set to disturb the hunters or men passing from the forest.

✗ ixaʃ : - Normal spirit living here and there. After death a person may become / ixa:/ʃ

Supernatural Elements

✗ zomisaŋ – This spirit stays in the forest in the form of a tall man. If someone sees him in the way then he is given way to go ahead.

✗ doe̪ – This spirit dwells in the forest and can change itself into different creatures like snake or any other animal. They misguide men passing from the forest and make them forget their way due to which they keep on making circles of the forest.

✗ p eisamʰ - The foot is not in front of the leg as the humans have but it is behind the leg. It can also fly. It blesses man. It is also often worshipped.

Colours ✗ In the names of the colour also it can be seen

that compounding is highly used. /r ŋ/ is used ɔfor colour and /zoŋ/ is monkey so brown (money’s colour) is /zoŋ-r ŋ/. Similarly /wud/ is ɔ ̪ash so grey colour is /wud-r ŋ/.̪ ɔ

✗ For the word ‘deep’ /dup/ is used so to say ̪any deep colour, the name of the colour + deep is written, e.g. /s ŋ – dup/ is deep red as ɔ ̪red – /s ŋ/. Similarly, /daŋ/ is used for dull. ɔ ̪/daŋ/ and /dup/ can also be used as adjectives ̪ ̪for looks. Yellow – eŋ, Blue – pol / dum, ̪Green – hiŋ

Number System✗ The number system is quite interesting and

logical. If one knows to count 1 to 10 then he can count till infinity.

✗ There is different words from 1to 10. From 11 it becomes 10 + 1, so the word for 10 is /s m/ and ɔ1 is /xat/, then 11 is /s m-le-xat/ (/le/ is for ̪ ɔ ̪‘and’).

✗ If it is 20 then 10 x 2 is written /s m-nik/ (/nik/ is ɔ2). /za/ is used for multiplies of 100 so 100 is 100 x 1 /za-xat/ and 200 is 100 x 2 / za-ni/. ̪Multiplies of thousand is / saŋ/ so 1000 is 1000 x 1 /saŋ-xat/ and 200 is 1000 x 2 /saŋ-ni/.̪

Number System

✗ Similarly the ordinal system is also quite systematic. /na/ is added after every number to make it ordinal so first is /xat-na/. Similarly, ̪second is /ni-na/ and so on.

– First – xat-na̪

– Second – ni-na

– Third – thun-na

– Fourth – rili-na

– Fifth – ŋa-ni

– Century - kumzabi

Number System

✗ Similarly the ordinal system is also quite systematic. /na/ is added after every number to make it ordinal so first is /xat-na/. Similarly, ̪second is /ni-na/ and so on.

– First – xat-na̪

– Second – ni-na

– Third – thun-na

– Fourth – rili-na

– Fifth – ŋa-ni

– Century - kumzabi

Body Parts✗ Body parts are also very productive like the kinship

terms. /na:k/ is the word for the nose and something is added to the word for the nose to get any part of the nose, like nose bridge / na:k-tuŋg/ and for nose ̪hair /na:k-mul/. Same thing is done with other terms also.

– Eye mit̪

– Eyebrow mit-ŋo̪

– Ear bil

– Earlope bil-pek

– Leg khe

– Foot khe-pek

– Body pumpi

Other Terms

✗ Other Paite terms like name of the seven days, names of the seasons and folktales were also collected.

✗ Folk tales also represent the tribe’s faith in supernatural powers. Mostly these tales depict stories of love; love between one brother with the other, between the brother and the sister and between two lovers.

✗ It is not so that all the stories will have a happy ending.

Folk Tales✗ They depict some morals; the morals which are

very indigenous to the tribe like a story called thaŋho: le liando says a girl who is married to ̪another family must never look back to her parent’s house. At the end it also states that a mother who deserts her child should never be taken back by the child. Deserting a child by the mother is taken as sin.

✗ This story even says that if a brother has a piece of a grain then he should even share that with his brother. It also reveals the village life where all the tribe gathers and shares the hunt when one person gets a hunt.

A Phonetic Annotation of ‘Paite’

Sound recording

✗ sounds and sentences from Paite are recorded in a CENIX digital sound recorder.

✗ converted into the .wav (Waveform Audio File Format)files by using the software given with the recorder.

✗ These sounds and sentences are also transcribed simultaneously along with the recording process.

Transcription

Sound Slicing

✗ Slicing the sounds is necessary because analysis becomes difficult and complex in praat with longer sound files.

✗ For current purpose Wavepad is used and it is an open resource software.

✗ Sounds are sliced and given different names according to their id numbers in the questionnaire that we followed.

Basic word list_27_moi

Praat Window

Praat Analysis: TextGrid File

✗ Sound name. TEXTGRID FILE

✗ Read from file

✗ Annotate to text grid

✗ Tier names are provided such as phoneme word meaning source etc.

✗ Both sound files and text grid files are selected together and ‘edit’ button is clicked.

Praat Text grid File Format

✗ To create labeled points, mouse-click on the line between the spectrogram and the new tier below.

✗ Click in the little circle that it creates. When it turns red, type your label.

✗ Each label will be saved and connected with the particular time-point.

Praat Analysis

Praat Analysis

✗ Four level of representation

– Phonemic

– Word

– Meaning

– source

Preparation of Metadata✗ For the preparation of metadata Microsoft excel sheet is used.

Developing the Dictionary

✗ The present dictionary is a bilingual as well as biscriptal dictionary of Paite-English.

✗ It is a multimedia dictionary i.e., there are sound recordings and/or pictures for most of the words included in the dictionary.

✗ The dictionary, in its present form, has all the words from the basic word list given by Swades and also the extended word lists for Indian languages given by Abbi.

Tools for developing the dictionary

✗ The dictionary has been made using three major tools – Toolbox, Lexique pro and Praat.

✗ Toolbox is a simple software provided by SIL for the linguistic field work.

✗ We have developed the dictionary in this software as it provides separate facilities for preparing the dictionary and the textual database.

Lexique Pro

✗ Lexique Pro is again a software provided by SIL.

✗ But unlike Toolbox it is exclusively meant for dictionaries.

✗ Moreover while Toolbox is a kind of editor where we make all kinds of entries and edit the data, Lexique Pro is more of a viewer where the dictionary is arranged in the proper format for the viewers to access it and even make some small changes to it.

Praat

✗ Praat, as most of us know, is quite a sophisticated tool for analysing and slicing the sounds of a language.

✗ Praat was primarily used to slice the words out of the bigger recorded chunks.

✗ These sliced sounds were then appended with the words in the dictionary.

✗ These sounds could be played and heard while going through the dictionary.

Making of the Dictionary✗ In its current form the dictionary has 440

words with around 60 photographs, sounds for more than 100 words and around 120 words have example sentences.

✗ The dictionary, besides the photographs, sounds and examples also contain the variant forms of a lexeme (if any), the part of speech, the definition of the word, the semantic domain to which the word belongs and any other additional information (if any) related to the word.

Making of the Dictionary✗ Besides these, a detailed source of each entry

is given.

✗ The source follows the following format—Name of the language/Name of the researcher/Name of the language expert/Date of the data collection/Name of the notebook in which the data is written-Page No. of the notebook-Entry No. of the notebook for that word or sentence.

✗ In the dictionary, since the language does not have a script of its own, IPA transcriptions are used to write all the entries in Paite.

Presenting the Dictionary

✗ The final version of the dictionary has been exported to the Lexique Pro for the purposes of presentation to the genral audience.

✗ Furthermore, once the dictionary acquires a substantial number of entries then we plan to put it up on the web as a searchable dictionary.

Advantages: Portability Factor

✗ There are several advantages related to the use of Toolbox for developing the dictionary.

✗ One of the bigger advantages is the ease of exporting it to the Lexique Pro.

✗ It can then be converted into a standalone executable programme

✗ This programme could be easily transported anywhere and run on any system without installing a new software.

Advantages: Accessibility Factor

✗ The second advantage is again related to the Lexique Pro.

✗ Lexique Pro directly transfers the dictionary in the HTML format.

✗ In this format the dictionary is automatically transferred into an alphabetical, searchable format.

✗ This could directly hosted from any server, thereby, making it accessible throughout the globe.

Other Advantages

✗ Other advantage is the ease of entering and maintaining the data in Toolbox when compared to other general purpose editors.

✗ Moreover it is also very helpful to have data in Toolbox if we want to publish the dictionary.

✗ The data can be easily exported to a simple text editor in the form of a properly arranged and formatted dictionary.

A Demo

✗ This is a typical entry in the Toolbox.

Summing Up

✗ Overall we have sliced, annotated and analysed ....words of Paite.

✗ The ethnographic study has made some major advancements, with quite a significant collection of data pertaining to such major areas as supernatural elements, local ceremonies and festivals, number system, colours, games and kinship terminology.

✗ The dictionary is just the beginning, with only the basic words included in it as of now but we are adding more words to it on a regular basis.

The Road Ahead

✗ First of all we plan to collect as much linguistic data as possible, since documentation requires an exhaustive databse of the language.

✗ This data would be sliced, annotated and analysed thoroughly.

✗ Furthermore we plan to build a databse of voice fragments and diphones in the language, which could be sent to the MBROLA project for speech synthesis.

The Road Ahead

✗ We also plan to extend this brief ethnographic sketch into a detailed ethnographic description of the community.

✗ As for the dictionary, we plan to build a lexicon of at least 50,000 words with sounds and examples for every word and pictures for as much as possible.

✗ We will try to put this dictionary on the web and also provide an executable file for its installation as a standalone application.

✗ Finally we will also try to produce a brief grammatical sketch of the language.

Open to Questions!