Hajong is an Indo-Aryan language

Indo-Aryan languages

The Indo-Aryan languages constitutes a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, itself a branch of the Indo-European language family...

 with Tibeto-Burman

Tibeto-Burman languages

The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non-Chinese members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken thoughout the highlands of southeast Asia, as well as lowland areas in Burma ....

 roots spoken by more than 175,000 ethnic Hajong

Hajong

The Hajong is a tribal ethnic group in the Indian Subcontinent & four major Tribe in Meghalaya. Hajong people are spread out across northeast India and Bangladesh. At present their population is more than 100,000 in India and 30,000 in Bangladesh. Hajongs are predominantly rice farmers although...

 in the states of Assam

Assam

Assam , also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province , is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country...

, Meghalaya

Meghalaya

Meghalaya is a state in north-eastern India. The word "Meghalaya" literally means the Abode of Clouds in Sanskrit and other Indic languages. Meghalaya is a hilly strip in the eastern part of the country about 300 km long and 100 km wide, with a total area of about 8,700 sq mi . The...

, Arunachal Pradesh

Arunachal Pradesh

Arunachal Pradesh is a state of India, located in the far northeast. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south, and shares international borders with Burma in the east, Bhutan in the west, and the People's Republic of China in the north. The majority of the territory is claimed by...

 and West Bengal

West Bengal

West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...

 in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 and the Mymensingh District

History of Mymensingh

History of Mymensingh refers to the history of old or greater Mymensingh district, presently covered by Mymensingh, Kishoreganj, Netrakona, Tangail, Jamalpur, and Sherpur districts in Dhaka Division of Bangladesh. Mymensingh district was established by the British East India Company on 1 May 1787...

 in Bangladesh

Bangladesh

Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

. It is written in the Assamese script

Assamese script

The Assamese script is a variant of the Eastern Nagari script also used for Bengali and Bishnupriya Manipuri. The Eastern Nagari script belongs to the Brahmic family of scripts and has a continuous history of development from Nagari script, a precursor of Devanagari...

, and it is being supplanted by the Assamese language

Assamese language

Assamese is the easternmost Indo-Aryan language. It is used mainly in the state of Assam in North-East India. It is also the official language of Assam. It is also spoken in parts of Arunachal Pradesh and other northeast Indian states. Nagamese, an Assamese-based Creole language is widely used in...

in India. Hajong was originally a Tibeto-Burman language, but it was linguistically mixed with Bengali and Assamese.

Writing system

The Hajong language is written using both the Latin and the Bengali scripts. Although both of these scripts are in use in India, the Hajongs in Bangladesh expect to use the Bengali script since most education is in Bangla medium. Often, for writing Hajong, the Assamese version of the Bangla script is used. In each script, there is one added unique symbol for the close, back, unrounded vowel /ɯ/. In Latin script, it is written with "â". In Bengali script with "অৗ" or "কৗ" when it is syllable final.

Phonology

Hajong has 22 consonant phonemes, 2 approximants which have some characteristics of consonants namely /w/ and /j/, and 6 vowel phonemes. The vowel phonemes are /a/, /i/, /u/, /e/, /o/, and /ɯ/ (close, back, unrounded). It is somewhat ambiguous whether the final vowel is a phoneme or an allophone of [a] in the environment of other close vowels. The extra vowel /ɯ/ is not present in other Indo-Aryan languages, but is typical for the Tibeto-Burman family. The phonology of Hajong includes some vowel harmony and the devoicing of final consonants.

Grammar

As Hajong is an Eastern Indo-Aryan language, it behaves largely like those in its class, especially Bangla, with respect to word order and other basic grammatical features. Only significant differences are noted here. Hajong does not conjugate verbs in the same way Bangla or Asamiya do, but rather has a simplified system. Grierson documents this from the early 20th century as follows:

Hajong	English
mai āsē	I am
tai āsē	thou art
ai āsē	he is
āmlā āsē	we are
tumla āsē	you are
amlā āsē	they are

Note that not all of his observations of Hajong from the early 1900s still apply.

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:

Hajong (in IPA)	English	Case
buri-rɯ	the old woman	unmarked
buri-rɯ ge	to the old woman	dative
buri la	of the old woman	genitive
buri ni	to/at the old woman	locative
buri bʰaʲ	to the old woman	allative
buri t̪ʰiki	from the old woman	ablative
buri diɯ	through/by the help of the old woman	instrumental

Example short phrases

Hajong Phrases	Hajong Latin Script	Meaning
কুমায় জায়?	kumay jay?	Where are you going?
কেংকা আছে?	Kengka ase?	How are you?
তই আহিলে? ভিতুৰ ভায় আয়।	Toy ahile? Bhiturbhay ai.	You came? Come inside.
তলা আহাৰা ভালা হুছে।	Tola ahara bhala huse.	It was good of you to come.
ভাত খাছে?	Bhat khase?	Have you eaten?
চা খাবো?	Ca khabo?	Will you take tea?
তই কুন গাওলা?	Toy kun gawla?	What village are you from?
মই তাঙাবাৰিলা।	Moy Tangabarila.	I am from Tangabari.
এলা তই কুমায় থাকে?	Ela toy kumay thake?	Now where do you live?
তলা ঘৰৰা কুমায়?	Tola ghorra kumay?	Where is your house?
মলা ঘৰৰা হাৱাখানানি।	Mola ghorra Hawakhanani.	My house is in Hawakhana.
ইদৗ অগে বুজিয়ৗ দি।	Idâ oge bujiyâ di.	Explain this to him.
ইদৗনি লিখিক।	Idâni likhik.	Write it here.
ময় জাং।	Moy jang.	I'm going.
আবাৰ লাক পাবো।	Abar lak pabo.	We will meet again.

Further reading

Haldar, Gopal. 1986. A comparative grammar of East Bengali dialects. Calcutta: Puthipatra.