Consonant Aspirations - Archive

For many people in South Asia, bandhs are a part of life. The first time I heard the word, I thought it was just the local pronunciation for 'ban'. I soon found out what a bandh really was. In fact, I'm living through another one right now. The word is sometimes translated as a 'strike', but it's different to the kind of labour union strike one might experience in the West. The word bandh comes from Hindi बंद which means 'closed' (pronounced like 'bund', but with a longer vowel sound, i.e. 'bahnd', but my friends in Nepal say it's pronounced more like 'bahn-duh' over there). Unsurprisingly, the main feature of a bandh is the forced closure of private businesses. Shopkeepers who dare open their doors are subjected to violence and arson by the party or organisation who called for the bandh. In addition, public transport is not allowed on the road but in some instances, all vehicular traffic is banned. Of course, with ever...

If you're ever had to enter an airport in India, you'll probably know that you need a print-out of your boarding pass just to enter the airport (though I wonder if they've started accepting screen displays on people's smart phones). No boarding pass, no entry. But if you're seeing friends off and really want to get inside the terminal, there's usually a booth where you can purchase an entry ticket to get into the airport. I assume the entry fee is mostly to keep 'undesirables' out of the actual terminal, forcing them to congregate right outside the exit to the airport. A few days ago I was seeing off some friends at Dimapur Airport, Nagaland's only airport. Unlike most airports in India, there aren't hoards of people waiting outside for arriving passengers. The reason is that there aren't that many flights into Dimapur, and many scheduled flights, especially the Indian Airlines ones, get cancelled - I see cancellation announcements most d...

Any visitor to Dimapur should know where 'Supermarket' is. It's close to the Railway Station and there're a few hotels around, including the Hotel Saramati (really not worth it for the price) and the De Oriental Dream hotel, and the Kachari ruins are right around the corner. Locals will know when you tell them you're going to 'Supermarket'. But don't expect an air-conditioned shop selling groceries. The place is more a complex than an actual supermarket. The signs all seem to suggest it should be rightfully known as the 'Naga Shopping Arcade' and to me, it's definitely more a 'shopping arcade' than 'supermarket'. The whole place certainly looks past its prime, but there are a few shops selling traditional 'tribal' clothes and items. There are also lots of shops selling more modern clothes. But what seems to define the place (and my friends use them as a landmarks) are the coffin shops available. I think...

Even though I've looked at Sumi tone for years (and I can speak another tone language, Mandarin), I still feel like I'm tone-deaf when I listen to the language. Fortunately, I've been getting a lot of help with Sumi tones thanks to my friend Cana , who apart from being a gifted artist, is also a gifted musician. Sumi has 3 contrastive tones: low, mid and high, all of which are fairly level (except when there's intonation involved). This means that there is a change in pitch height results in a new word, e.g. apuh [à.pù] ‘father’ apu [a.pu] ‘water scoop’ appu [à.pú] ‘son’ So apuh with low tone means 'father' and appu with high tone means 'son'. The change in spelling is a fairly recent one, which hasn't been universally adopted. But the main thing is, when you say the words out, the consonants and vowels are all the same, the only difference is pitch. I find the high tone easiest to perceive, but I often get the low and mid tones mix...

Over the weekend, I was in Kohima, where a friend had invited me to come on a trip up to the summit of Mount Japfü. A friend of his was organising the climb. At 3044m, it's Nagaland's second highest peak (after Saramati). The starting point was Dimori Cover, which I estimate is about 1500m above sea level (Kohima is about 1400m). I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I wasn't particularly fit, especially having spent the past 2 months with barely any exercise and putting on weight from eating loads of pork fat. I realised the day before that it was also a climbing competition. Given my history of back and knee problems, I thought getting to the top would be competition enough for me. The winner of the competition, who happened to come from my friend's village Khuzama, made it to the summit in a time of only 1h 22min. In contrast, it took us (well me, mostly) 5 hours. I was definitely not ready for the climb. The first part was easy enough. We then walked...

Last week I was invited to a family picnic at Khükiye Lukhai. I was looking forward to it. I didn't know whether it would be next to a stream, but I was told fish was on the menu. It turned out to be right next to my friend's uncle's akhabo 'fish pond' right next to their fields. The only downer was that after weeks of sunshine, it rained the entire day. The remnants of Cyclone Thane which hit Tamil Nadu had made their way up to the Northeast. Thankfully there was the field hut / house - a little resting shed next to the field where people can rest. And prepare food if necessary. Given that there were more than 10 of us, they also set up a tarpaulin shelter next to the house. And my friends and their cousins all ate from a big banana leaf. As promised, there was fish caught that morning from the akhabo . Which my friends wrapped in banana leaves and grilled with a little bit of organic lemon. Not the best weather for a picnic, but the food...

Even though I'm currently in Dimapur and am off to Kohima soon for the weekend, I thought I'd do a quick post about another village where I've spent a bit of time on this trip. I'm not sure how well-known it is even in the district - I met a girl who had only recently heard about it despite living in the district most of her life. The name of the village is Khükiye Lukhai. It's special because it's the home village of the friends I stay with when I'm in Zunheboto. It's a Sumi vilalge, located right next to the town of Satakha in Zunheboto district. In fact, I'm told that parts of Satakha actually belong to the village. Khükiye Lukhai was actually two villages that merged into one. The two villages were founded by two brothers, Khükiye and Lukhai - it's pretty common for Sumi villages to be named after their founders. The entrance to the village The church - having seen other churches around here, I reckon it's in need of some renovat...

(I was originally going to title this post "Cute animals that don't always end up on people's menus", but thought it was a bit too long and a little unappealing.) Chinese people are often said to eat anything. I'm sure many people in India probably have a similar impression of the Nagas (if they've even heard about them). The thing is, most animals in Nagaland are eaten, but there're always a few creatures that don't quite make it to the menu. One animal that doesn't typically feature in people's cooking here is cat meat ( akhosa shi ), although there are certainly people who do eat cat. Hutton (1921) noted that cats were not eaten among the Semas due to a number of superstitions associated with them. Dog meat ( atsü shi ) is much more commonly eaten in Nagaland, as in many parts of China and SE Asia. However, even here, not all people will willingly consume dog. I have many friends here who steer clear of dog meat. There's also a c...

One complaint I hear from my Sumi / Sema friends is that if they're seen wearing red clothing, leather jackets, or worse, a red leather jacket, (and add sunglasses) other Naga friends will instantly ridicule them for dressing like a typical Sema (I imagine a scene where people point at them and say accusingly, 'Seeeema'!) So traumatic was this experience of school / college that some Sumi friends went through a phase where they avoided wearing red altogether. Some of them still avoid wearing red! Apparently, part of this stereotype originated in the 1980s when leather jackets and sunglasses were all the rage with Sumi men. I'm not sure how the 'red' stereotype started though. In any case, I don't think it's fair that they get this sort of flack from other Nagas, who can wear leather or red without fear of reprieve. I also don't see anything wrong with wearing red with black leather - they make a good combination. I can't say I approve of red ...

Since we're in the new year, I thought I'd share a neat thing I learnt about Sumi a few weeks back. The word for 'last year' in Sumi is khanikü [ kʰa˩ ni˩ kɨ˩ ] or [ kʰan˩ kɨ˩ ], with low tone on all the three syllables. The word for 'two years before' is khanikü (alternatively, kkhanikü ) [ kʰa˥ ni˩ kɨ˩ ] or [ kʰan˥˩ kɨ˩ ] with high tone on the first syllable instead of low. Being the language nerd I am, I thought this was cool. But then I found out that the word for 'next year' is toku [ to˩ ku˧ ], with low tone on the first syllable, then mid tone on the next. The word for 'two years from now' is -wait for it- toku (alternatively, ttoku ) [ to˥ ku˩ ] with high tone on the first syllable instead of low as well! Now that's something to blog about! One explanation offered was that people was that in order to say 'two years ago', people repeated the word khanikü , and started emphasising the second one by placing high tone on...