Origin of Kusunda Language: A Debatable Issue

 

Origin of Kusunda Language: A Debatable Issue

 Kusunda is the unique language of this region which has no similarities among the other languages of the world. There has been a long debate among the linguists about the origin of the Kusunda language. However, a number of eminent linguists have written that Kusunda language might be Tibeto-Burman borrowings. Robert Shafer (1954) was the first scholar to notice Kusunda as a language isolate. Professor H. Fleming as well as most other linguists also believe that this is a language isolate. Yet, it may be argued that Indo-European, Tibeto-Burman as well as other languages also shared with Kusunda. It is a matter of serious study as to what is the genesis of Kusunda language in the Himalayas. The Kusunda people, their language and culture are very important to both linguists and anthropologists alike. Recently they have forgotten most of their own culture and tradition but their language still living at the moment. Prof. Pokherel (2012), describes that the Kusunda as a language isolate, not related to any common language of the world. According to him, there are about 20 language families in the world, among them are the Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, and Austro-Asiatic group of languages- Kusunda stands out because it is not phonologically, morphologically, synthetically and lexically related to any other languages of the world. He warns that if the Kusunda language becomes extinct, a unique and important part of our human heritage will be lost. A language isolate is a language which has no known structural or historical relationship to any other language (Crystal 1997: 328). Prominent Nepali linguist Yadav (2014), believes that Kusunda language do not belong to other South Asian languages, so it should be classified as Himalayish Group. But Jha (2006) insists that the Kusunda language is not related to the Tibeto-Burman family. According to him, one group of anthropologists and linguists propose that Ban Rajas are Tibeto-Burman people, another set their colleagues to argue that the Ban Rajas of Nepal is probably the remnants of the original populations that came to The Himalayas from Africa and traveled south and populated Australia, New-Zealand and the Indo-Pacific Islands.

The group of American anthropologists Whitehouse et.al (2004) mentioned similar types of concepts about Kusunda language. According to them, the Kusunda language is a very rare and unique language of Nepal. Their research indicates that the Kusunda language is a member of the Indo-Pacific family and this family of language is located on New Guinea and surrounding islands. According to their research, the possibility of Kusunda language is a remnant of the migration that led to the initial peopling of New Guinea and Australia warrants additional investigation from both linguistic and genetic perspectives. They also mention that Kusunda has been misclassified as a Tibeto-Burman language. Instead, they claim on some linguistic evidence that this language is a member of the Indo-Pacific family though it needs to be further supported by its speakers’ DNA evidence. Similar but more detailed concepts were described by Merritt (2006) on the Kusunda language of Nepal. The Kusunda has long been regarded as one of the three relic tribes of South Asia (the Vedda of Sri Lanka and the Andamanese of on the Andaman Islands are the other two). They are or were until recently, semi-nomadic hunters-gathers, living in Jungles and forests, with a language that shows no similar to surrounding languages. They are often described as shorter and darker than neighboring tribes. Current research indicates that the Kusunda language is a member of the Indo-Pacific family, with a pronominal system that is strikingly similar to that found in the Andaman Islands. This is a surprising finding inasmuch as the Indo-Pacific family is located on New Guinea and surrounding islands (including the Andamanese Islands), making Kusunda the first Indo-Pacific language ever found on the Asian mainland.

A recent study of the genetics of the Andaman –Islanders (Thangaraj et.al, 2006) found that they belong to mt DNA haplogroup M, which has been taken as an indicator of the first out-of-Africa migration that led to the initial peopling of Southeast Asia, New Guinea, and Australia. Furthermore, the Andamanese belong to a subgroup of M that has not been found in either Africa or Asia and they share a substitution at position 16357 that is only present at high frequencies in the Andaman Islands and in one of the major founding lineage of New Guinea and Island Melanesia. This genetic evidence suggests that the Andamanese are descendants of the first Paleolithic colonizers of Southeast Asia and if genetic data can be obtained from the few remaining Kusunda it will be interesting to see if this genetic evidence supports the conclusions we have reached on the basis of their language.

 According to Reinhard (1970), on the basis of vocabulary, the Kusunda language does not appear to be related to any of the major language families of South Asia. However, it does share a feature common to other Tibeto-Burman languages of the Himalayas. Based on the pronominalization, Reinhard proposed Kusunda probably belongs to the Munda language family. Other two possible options he proposed were either Kusunda borrowed pronominalization from Munda family at a later date indicating no relationship with the major languages families or Kusunda belongs to an archaic language group such as Burushaski and languages of the Caucasus from which Munda language might have borrowed pronominalization. The latest study indicates that the Kusunda, whose genetic affiliation was considered undecided earlier, has been now said to belong to the Himalayish group of Tibeto-Burman (Sino-Tibetan) languages (Grimes, 2000 and Yadav, 2014). But the Ethnologue (2009), continues to classify Kusunda as Tibeto-Burman language group. Similarly, B.K.Rana (2002), continues to insist that Kusunda is Tibeto-Burman on the basis of a few putative cognates and some very unconvincing typological corresponding. Hence, we can draw a conclusion that the Kusunda language belongs to the Tibeto-Burman language group found in Himalayan region.

 

References

Crystal, D. (1997). Language death, Cambridge University Press.

Ethnologue (2009). Languages of Nepal, Retrieved from,  http://www.enthnologue.org/

Grimes, J.A., Nielsen, S.J., Battaglioli, E., Miska, E.A., Speh, J.C., Berry, D.L., Atouf, F., Holdener, B.C., Mandel, G., & Kouzarides, T. (2000). Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't | Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Jha, A.R. (2006). Mentavolution: My thoughts on evolution/anthropology. Nepaliaashis. Retrieved from, Word press.com/2006/08/26/genetic-evidence-for-origins-of ban.rajas-kusundas-of-nepal.

Merritt, R. (2006). Evolution of human languages: An international project on the linguistic prehistory of humanity: Santa Fe Institute www.ehl.santafe.edu/ruhlen.htm.

Pokherel, M.P. (2012). B.B.C. Report. Retrieved from, www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17537845.

Rana, B.K. (2002). Kusunda language does not fall in any family. Retrieved from, http//listeerv.emich-Edu/CGI-bin/wa?A2=indou.

Reinhard, J. & Tim, T.(1970). A preliminary linguistic analysis and vocabulary of the Kusunda language. Summer Institute of linguistic, T. U. Nepal.

 Thangaraj, K., Chaubey, G., Reddy, A.G. et al. (2006). Unique origin of Andaman Islanders: insight from autosomal loci. J Hum Genet 51, 800–804. Retrieved from, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10038-006-0026-0

Whitehouse, P., Timothy, U., Ruhlen, M. & William S.-Y. Wang (2004). Kusunda: An Indo-pacific language in Nepal. Retrieved from, www.pnas.org/content/101/15/5692.

Yadav, Y.P. (2014). Language use in Nepal, Population monograph of Nepal, CBS, Kathmandu.