tai khamyang

8/12/2019 Tai Khamyang

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Tai Khamyang

The Tai Khamyangs is one of the Tai groups of Assam who migrated from Southeast

Asiain eighteenth century. Of course, there are some different views when the Khamuangs

entered Assam. According to Dr Padmeswar Gogoi the Khamyangs entered Assam in the early

part of eighteenth century, Dr Lila Gogois view is, it was in the middle of Eighteenth century.

But Tarwell said it was in the early part of nineteenth century.

Before crossed thePatkaithey lived inMoung kong. (Gogoi, 17). According to Tai

Khamyang history, The Khamyangs came from Khamjang (Khammeans gold andyangmeans

place, thus, theKhamjangmeans the place of gold) nearbyMaung Mitand Maung Kong and

send by king Sau Khan Pha,to find his brother Sukapha. In Tai language, the yispronounced as jand thus, the wordKhamyangare pronounced asKhamjang(Ibid, p.30).

Sukapha, the king of Ahoms spent a little time inKhamjangbefore he crossed thePatkaihills.

That is why the king ofMoung Mitdecided to send the Khamyangs to search Sukapha.

The Khamyang came with their family and inhabited inKhew Nong Nok jangnear to

Patkai.Nongmeans lake and khewmeans blue. The meaning ofNong Khewis blue water bill.

The another wordNok Jangmeans Paddy bird. The Khamyngs established two new villages

Man-Nam(Manmeans village andNammeans water) andMan Noi(Man= village and Noy=

hill) respectively and spent almost 200 years in that place. Due to attack of Singphows rapidly

the Khamyangs were decided to leave the place and crossed thePatkaihills and spent someyears inKhamjang Nat(Khamyang field) in Sanglang district of Arunachal Pradesh.

Again, the fear of attack from Singphows, the Khamyangs decided to came near to the

Khamtis.Nam Sum (Tengapani) andMoung Teola(Sadia) were the place, where the Khamtis

dwelt in. During the period, the Khamtis and Khamyangs rebelled and fought against the Ahom.

But Ahoms defeted them and most of the Khamyangs were arrested in the war. The Ahoms

brings them to Titabor. One of the Khamyangs group came to Sarupatherof Golaghatdistrict

and inhabited near the Turungs (one of the Tai group of Assam). Again, later in the British

period, the Khamyangs and Khamtis jointly rebelled against the British and the result was

khamyang had displaced from Sadia to Sivasagar district.

According to Tai Khamyang Buranji, one of the Tai groups called Man Noi came to

Rangpur, the capital city of Ahoms, in 1874. It has been mentioned earlier that theMan Noi

groups of Khamyangs were already arrested by Ahoms during the war. Later, Purnananda

Burgohain, the chief of the cabinet released them and theMan Noigroup of Khamyangs

inhabited inDhaliwith the other group KhanyangsMan Nam.


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TheKhamyangs are mentioned asNorainBuranji. Many people said them asPani Nora

too. According to Tai Khamyang Buranji, Most of the year, a big part of the Moung Kong were

logged with water, spread from the lakeNong KhewandNong Jang.People called them as Na

la.Nameans field and lameans damp. Later, the word na labecomes nora. For that reason the

people ofMoung Kongwere called na laor nora and thatsway the kingdoms was called na la

or nora rajya.

U N Gohain mentioned that the Kahmyangs were the care-taker of Patkai mountain pass.

Those, who inspected the hill area of Patkai were calledMan noi(Bam nora) and the same, those

who inspected the wetland of Patkai were calledMan Nam(Pani nora).

Greirson mentioned the area where the Kahmyangs were inhabitant and number of the

people who speaks their language. The location and numbers are as follows-

Khamti: Lakshimpur- 2930

Phakial: Lakishimpur- 625

Nora: Sivasagar- 300

Turung: Sivasagar- 150

Aiton: Sivasagar and Naga Hill- 200

Following is a phonological and a grammatical sketch of the

Khamyang Language:

3.1.Phononology:

3.1.1. Consonant Phonemes:There are 16 consonants in the Khamyang language. One of the main characteristics

of the consonant system is the existence of a glottal stop. Another major characteristic is thateach letter of the Khamyang is pronounced with A sound inherentlyattached.


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Biabial dental/

Alveolar

palatal velar glottal

Voiceless

unaspirated

stops

p t c k ?

Voiceless

aspirated

stops

ph th kh

Voicedstops

b

Nasals m n N

Voiceless

fricative

s h

Lateral l

Semi-vowel

y

3.1.2. Vowel Phonemes :

front mid back

Close i u

Close mid e F o

Open mid E

Open , A

These vowel phonemes cannot be used as vowel letters. Indeed, these aresymbols. To write the vowel letter, the vowel symbol mustbe fixed with the consonant

letter to make a word. (Gohain, Aimyakhang : Elementary Tai Primer with Grammar.-


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04)

Khamyang is a monosyllabic language. One of the main characteristics of the

language is that each word has several tones. Different tones make different meanings.There are six tones (Morey, Stephen: The Tai Language of Assam- A Grammar

and texts-161) in the Khamyang language. The tones are

1. mid level with slight fall2. high level then falling3. low, falling and glottalized

4. high level then falling with glottal ending

5. low falling6. level, with possible rise at the end.

For example, the syllable mA, shows five of these tones.

mA1 shoulder

mA2 comemA3 crazy

mA4 horse

mA6 dog

tai khamyang

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