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The Apatani language, or Tanii agun, is spoken by some 26,000 people living in the State of Arunachal Pradesh, India. It has been listed by UNESCO as a “definitely endangered” language.
Apatani belongs to the Tani branch of the Tibeto-Burman family. It is a tonal language that also contrasts vowel and consonant length. Dialectical variations exist but are not very important, and the fact that all Apatani can freely understand each other fosters in them a secure sense of common identity. Apatani is a highly agglutinative language, marked by the profusion of verbal suffixes denoting various tenses, moods and aspects. Any action can be expressed a few dozen ways by adding to the verb root various combinations of inflectional or derivational suffixes, along with several types of reduplication. Each of the many resulting forms gives different shades of meaning to the verb. Major lexical categories are nouns, verbs and adjectives. The language also has a wide array of classifiers and a case-marking system.
E-Book Content
Dictionary of the Apatani Language Pascal Bouchery
To cite this version: Pascal Bouchery. Dictionary of the Apatani Language: Apatani-English Dictionary (with EnglishApatani Index). 2016.
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DICTIONARY OF THE APATANI LANGUAGE Apatani-English Dictionary (with English-Apatani Index)
Compiled by: Dr. Pascal Bouchery, University of Poitiers, France.
Main contributors: Ngilyang Rinyo, Taku Tara, Gyati Tallo, Dani Sulu, Dr. Tage Kanno, Dr. Ngilyang Talley, Gyati Aapa, Roto Chobin, Hage Gumto. Other contributors: Kime Davis, Hage Nanku, Nani Lampung, Nending Ommo, Tage Laling.
This dictionary belongs to the Apatani people. It may be used or copied without permission from the copyright holder for private or educational purposes. For legal purposes a copyright notice is placed on it. No one may print this dictionary for sell, or sell this dictionary for profit without permission from the copyright holder. Copyright ©2009 Apatani Language Project - All Rights Reserved.
This dictionary can be cited as: Dictionary of Apatani Language (website), Apatani Language Project ed., http://www.apatani-language-society.com.
Contents
Preface to the Printed Edition
i
Acknowlegements
v
Word Trancription
vi
Dictionary Use
viii
Abbreviated Labels
ix
Apatani-English Dictionary
1-382
English-Apatani Index
383-701
i
Preface to the Printed Edition The Apatani language, or Tanii agun, is spoken by some 26,000 people living in the State of Arunachal Pradesh, India. It has been listed by UNESCO as a “definitely endangered” language in its electronic Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger 2009. Sadly, India’s Northeast Region, which hosts 120 out of country 196 threatened languages registered by UNESCO, has become a world “hotspot” of language endangerment. When, as a Social Anthropologist, I started a research study on the Apatani culture in 2007, that question was simply a non-issue for me. Having now become more familiar with the language I have acquired the conviction that