VOWELS IN TAI-KHAM

The Tai ethnic group of North-east India is one of the largest ethnic groups of the region. It is an established fact that the Khamti entered into Assam through the Patkai pass from the Upper Burma towards the last part of the 18th century. The Khamti were the original inhabitants of the Khamti-lang or Khamti-mung or the great Khamti land in the valley of the river Irrawaddy in Burma in 1751 (Rahman, 2005). They are mainly concentrated in Namsai, Arunachal Pradesh but a little part of the group spread in Assam also. Khamti word is the combination of two words, ‘Kham' and ‘Ti'. Literally, Kham means gold and Ti means region or place. According to Grierson, the Khamti language belongs to the Tai speech family of the Siamese-Chinese family, coming under Indo-Chinese super family. The first Tai-Khamti kingdom was in Sadiya, Assam. In Assam, they spread in Narayanpur of Lakhimpur district and Tinsukia district. Narayanpur has the largest number of Tai-Khamtis in Assam. Data for this research has been collected from Bor-Khamti gaon situated in Narayanpur. The Tai-Khamti language has a few speakers which led a threat for the preservation of the language. Therefore, in this prospect ‘Vowels in Tai-Khamti' has been chosen to study the vowel analysis of the language. The sounds which are produced without any obstruction or stricture in the vocal tract are known as vowel. The Khamti language has 16 vowels. Among these seven have long forms. In this paper, the phonetic transcription, classification of the vowels according to their height, length and nature and initial, medial and final positions of the vowels has been chosen for study. Moreover, the paper will also focus into the diphthongs used in the language.