Table Of ContentA Grammar of Baram
Tej R. Kanasakar
Yogendra P. Yadava
Krishna Prasad Chalise
Balaram Prasain
Dubi Nanda Dhakal
Krishna Paudel
A Grammar of Baram
Tej R. Kanasakar
Yogendra P. Yadava
Krishna Prasad Chalise
Balaram Prasain
Dubi Nanda Dhakal
Krishna Paudel
Published by:
Linguistic and Ethnographic Documentatation
of the Baram Language (LEDBL)
Central Department of Linguistics,
Tribhuvan University
Copyright
Linguistic and Ethnographic Documentatation
of the Baram Language (LEDBL) team
First edition
2011
ISBN
978-9937-524-22-3
Research Team
Prof. Dr. Tej R. Kansakar
Prof. Dr. Yogendra P. Yadava
Mr. Krishna Prasad Chalise
Mr. Balaram Prasain
Mr. Dubi Nanda Dhakal
Mr. Krishna Paudel
Language consultants
Mr. Tokman Baram
Mr. Dambar Bahadur Baram
Ms. Mina Baram
Mr. Tek Bahadur Baram
Ms. Panmati Baram
Ms. Dilmaya Baram
Mr. Santa Bahadur Baram
Mr. Sobal Singh Baram
Ms. Dauri Baram
Ms. Kamala Baram
Mr. Dil Bahadur Baram
Mr. Sankha Man Baram
Foreward
Linguistic and Ethnographic Documentation of the Baram Language
(LEDBL) team is pleased to bring out A Grammar of Baram in consonance with
one of the objectives of the LEDBL project.
We are grateful to the Endangered Languages Documentation
Programme (ELDP) for providing us with the major grants for the
documentation of the Baram language. We hope we have brought it to a
successful completion. We hope this will be a useful work for the study of
Tibeto-Burman languages of Nepal in general and Baram in particular.
We also hope this will serve as a reference grammar for those who wish
to study the Baram language. The data that can be obtained from the most fluent
speakers are included for presentation and analysis in this grammar. The
circumstances of the data collection are mentioned in the first part of the
grammar. When we began the documentation work, we suspected whether we
would be able to present the linguistic systems in the Baram language. However,
when we had data of considerable amount, we have tried to undertake full
analyses of the Baram language.
Linguistic and Ethnographic Documentation of the Baram Language
(LEDBL) has been supported by Endangered Languages Documentation
Programme, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of
London. We are grateful to ELDP for approving the grant to carry out the major
documentation programme.
We have envisaged that LEDBL project will be a part of ongoing the
ongoing Linguistic Survey of Nepal.
LEDBL Team
February, 2011
Acknowledgements
We received support from a number of people in completing the works
of the Linguistic and Ethnographic Documentation of the Baram Language
(LEDBL, MDP 0158) for its successful completion.
First of all we would like to thank Endangered Languages
Documentation Programme, School of Oriental and African Studies, University
of London for supporting the documentation of the Baram language. The
documentation would not have been possible without the financial support of
ELDP. We are also grateful to ELDP, SOAS for constant support during the
documentation period (March 2007-October31,2010).
Secondly, we would like to thank the Nepal Baram Association for
assisting us in the documentation process. They acquainted us with the Baram
community, and assisted in the field work and in overall documentation process.
The language consultants Mr. Tok Man Baram and Mr. Dammar Bahadur
Baram deserve special thanks for constant interactions with us during the project
period. They were always with us in answering a number of questions related to
their language.
At this point we would like to remember late David E. Watters and late
Michael Noonan. They encouraged us to do some documentation work in
Tibeto-Burman languages of Nepal. Their help in the initial phase of the project
planning is really memorable. They only live with us in our memories. We now
would like to express our heartfelt condolences to their families.
We were happy to work with the members of the Baram community
when we were at our field site in Dandagaun and when we were in the rigorous
processes of data collection in Gorkha bazaar. Finally, we thank the Central
Department of Linguistics for their assistance and logistic support during our
documentation work.
Finally, the Baram Research Team would like to express our sincere
appreciation to the academic and financial staff of the Central Department of
Linguistics, Tribhuvan University for their constant support and co-operation
during the entire research project.
List of abbreviations
1 first person
2 second person
3 third person
A agent-like argument of canonical transitive verb
ABL ablative
ABS absolutive
ACC accusative
ADJ adjective
ADV adverb(ial)
ADVZ adjectivizer
ANDA andative
APPOX approximate
AUX auxiliary
C consonant
CAUS causative
CLF classifier
CNFT counterfactual participle
COM comitative
COMP complementizer
COMPR comparative
CONC concessive
COND conditional
COP copula
DAT dative
DEM demonstrative
DESID desiderative
DET determiner
DIST distal
DISTR distributive
DUR durative
EMPH emphatic
EXCLAM exclamative
F feminine
G glide
GEN genitive
HAB habitual
HOR hortative
HS hearsay
IMP imperative
INF infinitive
INST instrumental
INTR intransitive
IPA international phonetic alphabet
LIT literally
LOC locative
N- non- (e.g. NPST non-past)
NEG negative
NOM nominative
NOMN nominalized noun
NP noun phrase
NUM numeral
O object
ONO onomatopoic
OPT optative
PART particle
PASS passive
PVF perfect
PTB proto Tibeto-Burman
PL plural
POSS possessive
PROB probability
PROG progressive
PROH phrohibitive
PROX proximal/proximate
PST past
PURP purposive
QUANT quantifier
QUOT quotative
R recepient
RECP reciprocal
REFL reflexive
REL relative
S subject
SG singular
TAM tense, aspect, mood
TB Tibeto-Burman
V Vowel (with reference to syllable structure)
V Verb
Vd voiced
Vl voiceless
VP verb phrase
VS Vikram Saambat (era)
VOC vocative
* unacceptable expressions
1 Introduction
1.1 The Baram people
Baram people belong to the Sinitic community. The alternative terms
Baram and Baramu are used as both ethnonyms and glossonyns. Other terms are
also found to have been used to refer to Baram in the past. Hodgson (1847) and
Grierson (1909) used Bhramu while Bista (1980) used Bhra:mu and Ba:rhmu
alternatively to refer to the people. Baram people, however, prefer to call
themselves as Balbang1, which means 'people' or 'human kind' in their language.
In their physical appearance, they resemble the Gurungs and Magars but
linguistically and culturally they are very different from any of the neighboring
Tibeto-Burman communities. According to Thapa (1996:7-8), their clan and
subclan names are similar to those of Sunuwars.
The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) report of Nepal, 2001 shows that
the Central-Southern part of Gorkha district, along Daraundi and Budhigandaki
rivers and their tributaries in the Western-Nepal, is the main area where Baram
people live. A very small number of these people live in Dhading, Lalitpur,
Lamjung, Tanahun and Syanja districts.
Map 1.1 Gorkha district in the map of Nepal
According to the report, the total population of Baram is 7383 which is
0.01% of the total population of Nepal. Of the total population of Baram 6709
(90.9%) live in the Gorkha district and the rest live in the other parts of Nepal.
Baram people consider themselves to be indigenous to the areas where
they have been living, but Thapa (1996) argues that their differences from any of
1 It is a compound form in which bal means 'human' and bang means 'group' or class. It is
used in the villages where people still speak the Baram language. The villages where
people gave up speaking the language use the term Baram.
1
the neighboring TB communities show that Baram migrated to the present
location after wandering through several places and is thus a dislocated group
from its ancestral community. He has tried to explain how Barams came to the
present places from the eastern part of Nepal where Sunuwars are settled now.
Map 1.2: The distribution of the Baram people in Gorkha district
There are several controversies about the precise location of the Baram
people in the past. According to Hodgson (1840), the habitat of Baram was the
region called 'Gharga', east of the river 'Kali'. He mentioned that they lived in the
lower regions infested with malaria,and seemed immune to the disease. The
word ‘Gharga’ phonetically sounds similar to ‘Gorkha’ and, in fact, Gorkha lies
east of the Kali Gandaki River. It shows that probably Hodgson was correct in
his statement, but because of misspelling or mispronunciation he used the word
‘Gharga’. His saying "… they lived in the lower regions2…" also can be justified
with the help of a Baram myth which states that previously Baram people used
to live in the river valleys, but later when Brahmins and/or Kshetris migrated
there, they deserted them and moved up the mountains. There are still several
Baram settlements in the river valleys3.
Grierson and Konow (1909), however, argue that Baram was one of the
tribes from Nepal Terai4.
2 The river valleys in the areas are the lower regions, which are hot and malarious.
3 The Baram settlements like Mailung, Jarang, some part of Chhoprak, etc. are still in
the river valleys.
4 Baram settlements are not found in the Terai but in the river valleys at present and
there is no evidence that shows they lived in the Terai in the past. As stated in
Grierson (1909), the source of information for Grierson and Konow (1903) was
Hodgson (1840) in which he states ‘...they lived in the lower regions infested with
malaria…’ Grierson and Konow may have generalized that the lower region infested
with malaria was Terai but they did not conjuncture that the river valleys in the
mountainous regions might also be hot and malarious.
2
