Word Formation Process of Assamese

Word formation is the process of creating new words. In other words the ways in which new words are made on the basis of other words or morphemes. Most English vocabulary arises by making new lexemes out of old ones--either by adding an affix to previously existing forms, altering their word class, or combining them to produce compounds. These processes of construction are of interest to grammarians [1]. In this report I will try to write something on “Word formation of Assamese (Asomiya)”. The word Assamese is an English one, built on the same principle like Japanese, Chinese etc. The history and philology of the Assamese language was scientifically studied and presented for the first time by Dr. Banikanta Kakati[2]. The first Assamese grammar, “A Grammar of the Assamese Language” by William Robinson was published in 1839. In 1848, Nathan Brown published an Assamese Grammar, and in 1894, Prof. Nicholl published his “Sketch of Assamese Grammar”. After the work of Dr. Banikant Kakati, a number of research on Assamese linguistics were carried out by different researchers. In modern times the more comprehensive work on Assamese grammar was done by Upendra Nath Goswami[3], Golok Chandra Goswami[4] and Lilawati Saikia Bora[5].

Assamese word formation process is mainly manifested as affixation and compound formation, where the predominant morphological phenomenon is suffixation. Suffixation occurs both as inflection and derivation, and is usually concatenative. Though prefixes are also fairly frequent, the behaviour of the resultant words are often independent, use of suffixes in Assamese is more common than use of prefixes, and it is more extensive than in other Indic languages and English. A preliminary survey by Sharma [6] showed that about 48% words in an Assamese text of around 1600 words are inflectional or derivational whereas only about 19% words in an English text of about 1400 words are so. Similarly, in a sample Hindi text of about 1000 words, 26% were inflectional and derivational. In the following section we describe briefly the overall process of word formation of Assamese.

A. Compounding 

Compounding forms a word out of two or more root morphemes. The words are called compounds or compound words. English roots are typically free morphemes, so that means native compounds are made out of independent words that can occur by themselves.

• English
• mailman = mail + man; means mail carrier
• photograph = photo + graph; etc.
• Assamese
• বিয়াঘৰ = বিয়া + ঘৰ /biaɡʰɒɾ = bia + ghɒɾ /
• ৰভাতল = ৰভা + তল /ɾɒvatɒl = ɾɒva + tɒl/

B. Back Formation

In etymology, back-formation is the process of creating a new lexeme, usually by removing actual or supposed affixes. Back-formation is different from clipping – back-formation may change the part of speech or the word's meaning, whereas clipping creates shortened words from longer words, but does not change the part of speech or the meaning of the word.

• English
• biograph from biography
• bibliograph from bibliography
• Assamese
• দা ← দাদা /da ← dada/
• বা ← বাইদেউ /ba ← baidɛu/

C. Blending
A blend is a word formed from parts of two or more other words. Blends deal with the action of abridging and then combining various lexemes to form a new word. 

• English
• Breakfast + lunch = brunch
• smart + sassy = smassy
• motor + hotel = motel
• Assamese
• কুণপ + কৱন্ধ + চত্য = কুন্ধচ /kundʰɒs/
• সৌৱৰ্ণ + দাৰু = সোণাৰু /xonaɾu/

D. Clipping

Clipping is the word formation process which consists in the reduction of a word to one of its parts. Clipping is also known as "truncation" or "shortening. Clipping mainly consists of the following types:

Back clipping Back clipping is the most common type, in which the beginning is retained. The unclipped original may be either a simple or a composite.

• English
• ad (advertisement),
• exam (examination),
• fax (facsimile),
• gas (gasoline)
• Assamese
• দেউ (দেউৰী) /dɛuɾi/

Fore-clipping, Fore-clipping retains the final part.

• English:
• phone (telephone),
• varsity (university).
• Assamese:
• মাউৰী ← ঘাতমাউৰী /mauɾi ← ɡʰatmauɾi/
• কোঁৱৰ ← ৰাজকোঁৱৰ /koŋwɒɾ ← ɾazkoŋwɒɾ/
• কুঁৱৰী ← ৰাজকুঁৱৰী /koŋwɒɾi ← ɾazkoŋwɒɾi/

Middle clipping, In middle clipping, the middle of the word is retained.

• English
• flu (influenza)

Complex clipping, One part of the original compound most often remains intact.

mam (madam)

E. Calque
A calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation. 

• tele + vision = Television (Tele : Greek word tele means distance; Vision : Latin word vision means seeing)

F. Conversion 

Conversion, also called zero derivation, is a kind of word formation; specifically, it is the creation of a word from an existing word without any change in form. Often a word of one lexical category (part of speech) is converted to a word of another lexical category;

• মান /man/ when it appears singly it means the maan community from Myanmar who attacked Assam 17 times, during Aahom kingdom. Again when it appears before সন্মান /sanman/ it reflects respect.

G. Reduplication:

Reduplication is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word (or part of it) is repeated exactly or with a slight change. In general Assamese has three types of reduplication- চিক-মিক (rhyme word), দা-দৰমহা (repeating the first few parts of the word), মাছ-তাছ (adding rhyme words without meaning)

H. Coinage:

One of the least common processes of word-formation in English, and other languages, that is the invitation of totally new terms. The most typical sources are invented trade names for one company's product which become general terms. 

• English 
• Xerox
• Zipper
• Nylon, 
• Google

• Assamese 
• জালপঞ্জী /zalpɒnzi/
• সংগণক /sɒŋgɒnɒk/

I. Abbreviation or Acronym
An acronym is an abbreviation formed from the initial components in a phrase or a word. These components may be individual letters or parts of words.

• English 
• MA- Master of Arts
• Assamese 
• অগপ – অসম গন পৰিষদ /ɒɡp -ɒxɒm ɡɒnɒ pɒɾixɒd /

J. Eponym:
An eponym or name-giver is a person or object, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named.

• English
• Abenomics (Economic policies implemented by the Japanese government led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe since 2012)
• America: Named after Italian Map maker, Amerigo Vespucci
• Assamese 
• ধোদৰ আলি /dʰodɔɾ ali/
• কলীয়া-ভোমোৰা / kɒlia-bʰomoɾa/
• ৰিপ’জ /ɾipɔz/

Bibliography

1. David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, 2003.
2. Banikanta Kakati, Assamese: Its formation and Development, Lawyers book stall, 2001.
3. উপেন্দ্ৰনাথ গোস্বামী, ভাষা-বিজ্ঞান, মণি-মাণিক প্ৰকাশ, ২০০৯
4. গোলোক চন্দ্ৰ গোস্বামী, অসমীয়া ব্যাকৰণ প্ৰবেশ, ২০০০
5. লীলাৱতী শইকীয়া বৰা, অসমীয়া ভাষাৰ ৰূপতত্ত্ব, বনলতা, প্ৰথম প্ৰকাশ, ২০০৬
6. Utpal Sharma, Unsupervised Learning of Morphology of a Highly Inflectional Language, Phd. Thesis, 2006