Hajong language

The language now spoken by the Hajong people may be considered an Indo-Aryan language because of language shift from a Tibeto-Burman language. Old Hajong or Khati Hajong may have been related to Garo, of Tibeto-Burman origin. ==Variations==

The Hajong Language varies within the clans because of regional variations. There are five notable clans of the Hajong people. :* Doskinw :* Korebaryw :* Susungyw :* Barohazaryw :* Miespwryw ==Writing system==

The Hajong language is written by using both the Latin and the Bengali scripts. Although both scripts are used in India, the Hajongs in Bangladesh expect to use the Bengali script since most education is in Bengali medium. However, Hajongs living is Dhemaji and surrounding areas use Assamese script. In each script, there is one added unique symbol for the close back unrounded vowel /ɯ/. In Latin script, it is written with "w" and in the Eastern Nagari script with "" at the end of a syllable. ==Phonology==

Hajong has 23 consonant phonemes, 8 vowel phonemes, and 2 approximants that have some characteristics of consonants: /w/ and /j/ act as diphthongs. The vowel phonemes are /a/, /i/, /u/, /e/, /ɛ/, /o/, /ɔ/ and /ɯ/ (close, back, unrounded). Unlike other Indo-Aryan languages, Hajong language has only one 'i' and 'u'. It is somewhat ambiguous whether the final vowel is a phoneme or an allophone of [a] in the environment of other close vowels. Codas j and ch in the final position of a syllable turns into an s sound. Hajong includes some vowel harmony and the devoicing of final consonants. Vowels play an important role in changing the meaning of words and the grammatical structure of sentences. Unlike in most other Indo-Aryan languages like Assamese and Bengali, Hajong has no distinction between longer and shorter /i/ and /u/. The Assamese script lacks some vowels unique to Hajong phonology, which is gradually leading to a vowel shift. Since vowels play an important role in Hajong grammar, the grammatical structure is also changing. ==Grammar==

Hajong primarily has a canonical word order of subject–object–verb, and the subject, object, and verb of a sentence appear or usually appear in that order. Hajong has a strong tendency to use postpositions, rather than prepositions; to place auxiliary verbs after the action verb; to place genitive noun phrases before the possessed noun; and to have subordinators appear at the end of subordinate clauses. Hajong is an agglutinative language in which words are often combined and compressed, and there is often no pause between words of a sentence. Even though it is considered an Eastern Indo-Aryan language, Hajong does not conjugate verbs in the same way as Bengali or Asamiya but rather has a simplified system. The case endings in Hajong are also unique compared to other Indo-Aryan languages and may represent affinity with Tibeto-Burman languages. The following table is taken from Phillips: ==Notes==