Contents

Kokborok grammar

The principal structures of affirmative sentences in Kokborok are the following:

Subject

Naisok

Naisok

Complement

chwrai kaham.

boy good

Subject Complement

Naisok {chwrai kaham.}

Naisok {boy good}

Naisok is a good boy.

Subject

Naisok

Naisok

Object

mai

rice

Verb

chao.

eat

Subject Object Verb

Naisok mai chao.

Naisok rice eat

Naisok eats rice.

Possessive

Nini

Your

Subject

(bu)mung

name

Question

tamo?

what

Possessive Subject Question

Nini (bu)mung tamo?

Your name what

What is your name?

Subject

Nwng

You

Question

tamoni bagwi

what for

Verb

phai?

come

Subject Question Verb

Nwng {tamoni bagwi} phai?

You {what for} come

Why have you come?

Subject

Nwng

You

Verb and Question

thangnaide?

will go

Subject {Verb and Question}

Nwng thangnaide?

You {will go}

Will you go?

Subject

Nwng

You

Verb and Command

thangdi.

go

Subject {Verb and Command}

Nwng thangdi.

You go

You go.

In Kokborok grammar use of the notion of 'person' is almost absent; the form of verb is same for one who speaks, one who is spoken to, and one who is spoken about.

In Kokborok there are two numbers: Singular and plural. The plural marker is used at the end of the noun or pronoun. There are two plural markers: rok and song. Rok is universally used while song is used with human nouns only. The plural marker is normally used at the end of the noun or pronoun. But when the noun has an adjective the plural marker is used at the end of the adjective instead of the noun.

Examples:

• Bwrwirok Teliamura o thangnai. These women will go to Teliamura.
• O bwrwi naithokrok kaham rwchabo. These beautiful women sing very well.

In Kokborok there are four genders: masculine gender, feminine gender, common gender, and neuter gender. Words which denote male are masculine, words which denote female are feminine, words which can be both male and female are common gender, and words which cannot be either masculine or feminine are neuter gender.

There are various ways to change genders of words:

In Kokborok there are the nominative, accusative, instrumental, ablative, locative and possessive cases.

These case suffixes are used at the end of the noun/pronoun and there is no change in the form of the noun.

In Kokborok the adjectives come after the words they qualify. This rule is strictly followed only in the case of native adjectives. In case of loan adjectives the rule is rather loose. Kokborok adjectives may be divided into four classes:

1. pure adjectives
2. compound adjectives
3. verbal adjectives
4. K-adjectives

The first three classes may include both native and loan words. The fourth class is made of purely native words. e.g.:

1. hilik – heavy, heleng – light
2. bwkha kotor – (heart big) – brave, bwkha kusu – (heart small) – timid
3. leng – tire, lengjak – tired, ruk – to boil, rukjak – boiled.
4. kaham – good, kotor – big, kisi – wet.

Kokborok numerals are both decimal and vigesimal.

1. sa
2. nwi
3. tham
4. brwi
5. ba
6. dok
7. sni
8. char
9. chuku
10. chi

• ra – hundredth
• sara – one hundred
• sai – thousandth
• sasai- one thousand
• rwjag – a lakh

A numeral is organised as:

chi

ten

+

+

sa

one

chi + sa

ten + one

11

• Tripuri language
• Chinese language
• Burmese language
• Languages of India

This article has an unclear citation style. The references used may be made clearer with a different or consistent style of citation and footnoting. (February 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

• A simplified Kokborok Grammar, by Prof. Prabhas Chandra Dhar, 1987