Person markings in Kom

Person markings in Tibeto-Burman, especially the Kuki-Chin languages, are morphologically rich and context-sensitive. There are two types of person markings, preverbal and postverbal (see DeLancey 1989, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014; Driem 1993; Peterson 2003). The preverbal prefixes are usually the reduced forms of independent pronouns (Matisoff 2003: 89) and represent a Kuki-Chin innovation (Delancey 1989:323). The postverbal suffixes are archaic morphemes that can be traced back to Proto-Tibeto-Burman (Delancey 2013).

This talk will discuss the person markings found in Kom, an underdocumented language spoken in Manipur, northeast India. Kom has unusually high inter-dialectal and individual variation, making it an interesting case for studying verb agreement and argument indexation. Preliminary data from six villages has uncovered both existing and new sources of variation. While dialectal variation across different villages was expected, variation is also observed within speakers from the same villages, depending upon age, literacy and mobility. Mention can be made of the variation based on colloquial vs non-colloquial as well as the sociolect variant forms that certain groups has developed. Thus, the documentation and description of synchronic variation in Kom provide new insights regarding changes and diversification in the domain of person marking. This is crucial for understanding processes of diachronic change in person marking patterns in Tibeto-Burman languages.

Keywords: Kom, Tibeto-Burman language, person markings, language change and variation.