Editing Ahom language (section)

== History ==
{{main|Ahom people}}
The [[Ahom people]] and their language originated in [[Yunnan]] in south-west [[China]]. They migrated from the border between northern Vietnam and the Guangxi province of China,<ref name="French"/> to the [[Hukawng Valley]], along the upper reaches of the [[Chindwin river]], northern [[Burma]]. In the 13th century, they crossed the [[Patkai Range]].<ref name="auto1">{{harvcol|Terwiel|1996|p=276}}</ref> and settled in the [[Brahmaputra River]] valley, in Northeast India.<ref name="Diller">Diller, A. (1993). Tai Languages. In ''International Encyclopedia of Linguistics'' (Vol. 4, pp. 128–131). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.</ref> After increasing their power in Upper Assam, the Ahom people extended their power to the south of the river Brahmaputra and east of the river Dikho, which corresponds to the modern day districts of Dibrugarh and Sibsagar, Assam, where the Ahom still reside today.<ref name="auto1"/> Tai-Ahom was the exclusive court language of the [[Ahom kingdom]], where it was used to write state-histories or '[[Buranji]]s'.<ref>{{harvcol|Terwiel|1992|p=8}}</ref>

In the 16th and 17th centuries, the small Ahom community expanded their rule dramatically toward the west and they successfully saw off challenges from the [[Mughal Empire]] and other invaders.<ref name="auto1"/> The rapid expansion resulted in the Ahom people becoming a small minority in their own kingdom, of which they kept control. During the 17th century, the [[Assamese language]] entered the Ahom court and co-existed with the Tai-Ahom for some time before finally replacing it.<ref>"In (the 17th) century of Ahom-Mughal conflicts, (the Tai) language first coexisted with and then was progressively replaced by Assamese (Asamiya) at and outside the Court." {{Citation| last = Guha| first = Amalendu| title = The Ahom Political System: An Enquiry into the State Formation Process in Medieval Assam (1228–1714)| journal = Social Scientist| volume = 11 | date = December 1983| doi = 10.2307/3516963| issue = 12| jstor = 3516963 | url = https://figshare.com/articles/report/The_Ahom_Political_System_an_Enquiry_into_the_State_Formation_Process_in_Medieval_Assam_1228-1714/26443978/1/files/48186778.pdf |page=9}}</ref> Eventually the Ahom peasants too adopted the [[Assamese language]] over the Ahom language for secular purposes, while Ahom was restricted to religious use by Ahom priests.<ref name="auto1"/> The everyday usage of Ahom language ceased completely by the early 19th century.<ref>"It seems that by early in the 19th century, everyday usage of Ahom language had ceased and that Ahom people all spoke the [[Assamese language]] as their mother tongue." {{harvcol|Morey|2014|p=50}}</ref><ref name="Hongladarom" /> Although the language is no longer spoken, the exhaustive 1795 Ahom-Assamese lexicon known as the ''Bar Amra'' preserves the lexical forms of the language towards the end of the [[Ahom Kingdom]].{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

The language today is used chiefly for liturgical purposes, and is no longer used in daily life. While the written language (and ritualistic chants) survive in a vast number of written manuscripts, Ahom is therefore usually regarded as a dead language.<ref>{{harvcol|Morey|2014|p=50}}</ref> It retains cultural significance and is used for religious chants and to read literature.<ref name="Diller" /> This is complicated however by the fact that the phonology with its tone system has been completely lost, because the [[Ahom script]] does not mark tone and under-specifies vowel contrasts,<ref name="auto">{{harvcol|Morey|2014|p=55}}</ref> which obscures the meaning of words as tones are important to distinguish the meaning of words in tonal languages.<ref>Dipima Buragohain. ''Issues of Language Contact and Shift in Tai Ahom''</ref>

=== Translation efforts ===
[[File:Tai Script of Ahom Kingdom.jpg|thumb|right|250px|An Ahom manuscript preserved in the Department of Historical and Antiquarian Studies, Pan Bazaar, Guwahati.]]
Fabricated samples of the Ahom script delayed translation of legitimate Ahom texts. Several publications were created based on the fabricated samples, leading to incorrect grammatical analysis and dictionary resources that acted as a barrier to future researchers. A later translation of ''Ahom Buranji'', a major Ahom script was provided by Golap Chandra Barua, the same man responsible for fabricating samples of translated Ahom script. It was discovered years later, by Professor [[Prasert na Nagara]], that the translation was unreliable. Despite these difficulties, along with the lack of native speakers and specific text, studies in Ahom have prevailed, and certain available scripts have been translated and transliterated, using known words, characters and context.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{harvcol|Terwiel|1996|pp=283–284}}</ref>

=== Revitalization efforts ===
In 1954, at a meeting of [[Ahom people]] at Patsaku, Sibsagar District, the Tai Historical and Cultural Society of Assam was founded.{{sfn|Terwiel|1992}} Since the late 1960s, Ahom culture and traditions have witnessed a revival. In 1981 the Eastern Tai Literary Organization has been founded in Dhemaji, which produced language text books and publications in the Ahom script. Schools in Dibrugarh and Sibsagar districts started offering Tai language classes, teaching a mix of Tai Ahom, Phakey, Khamti and Central Thai.<ref>{{harvcol|Terwiel|1996|p=279}}</ref> The scholar Terwiel notes that the view of the Ahom language being a dead language is hotly contested by Ahom priests and spokesmen of the revival movement. According to them, the language did not die out because Ahom priests still use the language for religious purposes. Some even claim that the priestly class speaks Ahom as their mother tongue. Upon further investigation, it was determined that the priests could decipher the Ahom script and read the words aloud. However, because they did not know any tones, they did not have any idea of the meaning of the words except for the simplest expressions.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

According to Terwiel, there are great differences between the old Ahom language of the manuscripts, which is easily recognizable as a Tai language, and what the revivalists call Ahom, which does not follow the rules of Tai grammar. It has also changed greatly regarding semantics, literally translating Assamese into Tai words, which leads to sentences which do not make sense to any Tai speaker. Terwiel therefore calls this revived language 'pseudo-Ahom'. Nevertheless, this revived language has been used passionately by revitalists and many neologisms have been created.<ref>{{harvcol|Terwiel|1996|pp=284–285}}</ref> The demand for translation into Tai-Ahom led to the creation of the first adequate modern dictionary by Nomal Chandra Gogoi in 1987, titled ''The Assamese-English-Tai Dictionary''. This dictionary allowed a reader to find the translation of 9,000 Assamese words into English and Tai. This dictionary filled in missing gaps of the Ahom vocabulary with Aiton and Khamti words and if those were not available, Lanna and Thai words were used. The result was a hodgepodge of multiple Tai languages, that was only linked to the Ahom language by the Ahom script in which the dictionary entries were written. The scholar Terwiel recommended in 1992 to base neo-Ahom on the grammar and tones of the very closely related Aiton language, which is still spoken in Assam.{{sfn|Terwiel|1992|pp=6–7}} Summarizing, the revivalists use a language consisting of a mixture of Tai words from multiple Tai languages, overlaid on an Assamese grammatical base.<ref>{{harvcol|Terwiel|1996|pp=286}}</ref>

In 1999, the scholar Morey reported that Ahom priests have resorted to compounding words to differentiate between words that are homophones in the revived language, since Ahom lost its tone system. For example in old Ahom, the word ''su'' for tiger and ''su'' for shirt would have sounded differently by pronouncing them with a different tone. In revived Ahom, they are now differentiated by compounding them with another word: ''tu'' for animal and ''pha'' for cloth respectively. Subsequently, ''tu su'' and ''pha su'' can be differentiated.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stephen |first1=Morey |chapter=Tai languages of Assam, a progress report — Does anything remain of the Tai Ahom language? |year= 2002 |editor1-first= David |editor1-last=Bradley|editor2-first=Maya |editor2-last=Bradley |title= Language Maintenance for Endangered Languages: An Active Approach |location= London |publisher= Curzon Press |pages= 98–113 |url=https://www.academia.edu/34802388 |access-date=14 June 2020}}</ref>

An effort has been made to revive the language by following the phonology of existing sister languages, especially [[Tai Aiton language|Tai-Aiton]] and [[Tai Phake language|Tai-Phake]].{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

The [[Institute of Tai Studies and Research]] (ITSAR), is a Tai-Ahom language teaching institute in [[Moranhat|Moran]], [[Sivasagar]], [[Assam]], India, established in 2001 and affiliated to [[Dibrugarh University]]. It offers a one-year Tai-Ahom language diploma course and a three-month certificate course in spoken Tai-Ahom.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gogoi |first1=Chao Medini Mohan |title=Revitalization of Endangered Language and Culture of the Ahoms: The Background, Problems and Prospects |date=2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Centre for Studies in Languages – Dibrugarh University |url=http://dibru.ac.in/schools-of-studies/humanities-and-social-science/centre-for-studies-in-languages |website=dibru.ac.in |language=en-gb |access-date=2020-06-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190723154536/http://dibru.ac.in/schools-of-studies/humanities-and-social-science/centre-for-studies-in-languages |archive-date=2019-07-23 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Other initiatives have been taken, such as workshops and language classes.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/north-east/language-route-to-roots-16-sign-up-for-tai-ahom-course-in-guwahati-school/cid/807743 |title=Language route to roots – 16 sign up for Tai Ahom course in Guwahati school |access-date=9 June 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sentinelassam.com/north-east-india-news/assam-news/workshop-on-tai-ahom-language-organized-at-doomdooma-assam/ |title=Workshop on Tai-Ahom Language Organized at Doomdooma, Assam |date=2 August 2018 |access-date=9 June 2020}}</ref> In 2019, the 'Tai Ahom Yuva Chatra Sanmilan, Assam' (TAYCSA), demanded that the Tai-Ahom language be included in the school curriculum of the state of Assam. They also demanded the creation of a two-year diploma course in Mahdavdeva University.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sentinelassam.com/north-east-india-news/assam-news/include-language-in-curriculum-demands-tai-ahom-organization/ |title=Include Language in Curriculum, Demands Tai-Ahom Organization |date=29 October 2019 |access-date=9 June 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://nenow.in/north-east-news/assam/clamour-for-introduction-tai-language-in-assam-schools.html |title=Clamour for introduction of Tai language in Assam schools |date=28 October 2019 |access-date=9 June 2020}}</ref>

An online dictionary containing nearly 5,000 entries (see External links) has been created by analyzing old manuscripts, especially the Bar Amra. A descriptive grammar of Ahom, based on the grammar found in old manuscripts, is being worked on. A sketch has been released, titled “A Sketch of Tai Ahom” by Stephen Morey.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Morey |first1=Stephen |chapter=Metadata and endangered archives: lessons from the Ahom Manuscripts Project |title=In From Dust to Digital: Ten Years of the Endangered Archives Programme |editor-last= Kominko |editor-first=Maja |location= Cambridge, UK |publisher=Open Book Publishers |date=2015 |pages=31–66 |jstor=j.ctt15m7nhp.13 |isbn=9781783740628 }}</ref>