Hmar Tawng Inchukna A Lexical Study of the Hmar Language and Usages

Abstract

The Hmar language is widely spoken by the Hmar tribe living in Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, and Meghalaya. G. A. Grierson has documented the language in Linguistic Survey of India in the 19th Century while the Christian Missionaries made it a written language at the turn of 20th Century. Though the language was reduced to a written one for less than a century, the language has made quite a remarkable progress. The language is now recognized as medium of instruction up to the Upper Primary level in Manipur and Assam. The language has also been recognized for study up to the first year at Degree level, both in Manipur University and Assam University as a language paper. Therefore, the need of a standard Lexicon of the Language is very urgent and real. Though there are works of word books and dictionaries, they do not show different aspects of usages which make it difficult for non native speakers to grasp the deeper meaning of words. Although the author does not claim that the present edition is an exhaustive work in that direction, or that it is a standard work in terms of a good Lexicon, the present book in the form of a dictionary is expected to help in the study as well as understanding the Hmar language to a great extent.