Post by Thoithoi O'Cottage on Mar 13, 2019 18:47:11 GMT 5.5
Manipuri being an agglutinating language, every single syllable in its words tends to be a morpheme, bound or free. There are distinct parts in words whose meanings are not yet defined but it does not mean that they are random meaningless appendices to the words. Such parts occur in an adequate number of words and so it is reasonable to classify them as morphemes whose meanings have yet to be determined definitely.
I have been thinking of the probable meaning of -লাং (lang) and -রাং (rang) in words like pirang, samlang, liklang and khomlang, and probably also heirang, leirang and mollang. There must be quite a few more words that can be added to this list. I am wondering if it is reasonable to think yellang and cherang and perhaps singnang too are compound words formed like this.
The meaning of the above words except singnang, yellang and cherang are given by the first monosyllabic morphemes--pirang means pi (tear), samlang means sam (hair), khomlang means khom (mother's milk), heirang means hei (fruits), leirang means lei (flowers), and mollang means mon (pillow). The addition of lang/rang does not make any basic difference in the meanings of the words, except that the words turn literary, not used in common speech or writing. Unlike these, singnang, yellang and cherang are incomplete without nang, lang and rang--they are compound words, and this morpheme (in its various forms) is not functionally the same as in the former cases, though the meaning, I think, is the same.
What does lang/rang in these words indicate or what sense does it add to the words it is affixed if the meaning is not changed by its addition or removal? The only way to work out the meaning of this morpheme that I know is to see if this this morpheme can affixed to any or certain categories of words. This morpheme cannot be affixed to any category of words. Then what category or categories of words it can be affixed? Lang/rang can be suffixed only to nouns to form nouns and verbs. Then, can we add this to any category of nouns? No, we cannot. By examining the type of words to which it is found affixed, we can safely conclude that lang/rang is affixed to a limited number of nouns of a certain semantic category to form a limited number of nouns and a still more limited number of verbs. What is this semantic category, then? Let's see.
Pirang (tear) is liquid, steaming and flowing. Samlang (hair) is associated with women's or girls' hair and since female hair is usually kept long, it is flowy, stringy, wavy, soft and delicate. I have never come across samlang being used in association with a man (though Meitei men used to have long hair until very recently--the poet Thangjam Ibopishak told me N. Nillamani of Naoremthong says Meitei men adopted keeping short hair by imitating the British) or with anybody with short, cropped hair. Khomlang is liquid and flowing. It thus seem like lang/rang is suffixed to some (only a limited number of) words that have a sense of liquidity, flowiness and delicateness. It would be worthwhile to bring to mind the phrases makoi marang, mari marang, and by extension, marou marang (of a person: not honest or straightforward; to say metaphorically, having a mind whose strings of thought run this way and that way and you cannot easily make out what is what) and mafam marang (in mafam marang khangdaba--something very confusing, intricate, unstraightforward as in a mess of wool in which the string runs in a confusing way and you cannot find the ends). We also often hear the humorous form koirang. Pi (tear), sam (air) and khom (mother's milk) are liquid and flowy, but these properties or attributes come to the fore when lang/rang is suffixed to these words, and there is a semantic difference between the words without and without this suffix.
In this scheme, the affixing of lang to mon must have come after pirang, samlang and khomlang in time by adopting this style, in a metaphorical fashion because mollang is used in a sense sentimentally associated with tears of love, perhaps picturing a pillow wet with tears.
There is a sense of delicateness in lei (flowers), but this property and the romantic attributes associated with flowers come to the fore when rang is affixed to lei. Lei, thus, is different semantically from leirang. Heirang must have evolved after leirang in this very fashion.
Khoirangba, khourangba and the phrase ishou langba (and think of the compound noun ishoulang) are verbal. With the meaning of ol unclear yet, we have yet to determine if ollangba is such a derivation.
I have been thinking of the probable meaning of -লাং (lang) and -রাং (rang) in words like pirang, samlang, liklang and khomlang, and probably also heirang, leirang and mollang. There must be quite a few more words that can be added to this list. I am wondering if it is reasonable to think yellang and cherang and perhaps singnang too are compound words formed like this.
The meaning of the above words except singnang, yellang and cherang are given by the first monosyllabic morphemes--pirang means pi (tear), samlang means sam (hair), khomlang means khom (mother's milk), heirang means hei (fruits), leirang means lei (flowers), and mollang means mon (pillow). The addition of lang/rang does not make any basic difference in the meanings of the words, except that the words turn literary, not used in common speech or writing. Unlike these, singnang, yellang and cherang are incomplete without nang, lang and rang--they are compound words, and this morpheme (in its various forms) is not functionally the same as in the former cases, though the meaning, I think, is the same.
What does lang/rang in these words indicate or what sense does it add to the words it is affixed if the meaning is not changed by its addition or removal? The only way to work out the meaning of this morpheme that I know is to see if this this morpheme can affixed to any or certain categories of words. This morpheme cannot be affixed to any category of words. Then what category or categories of words it can be affixed? Lang/rang can be suffixed only to nouns to form nouns and verbs. Then, can we add this to any category of nouns? No, we cannot. By examining the type of words to which it is found affixed, we can safely conclude that lang/rang is affixed to a limited number of nouns of a certain semantic category to form a limited number of nouns and a still more limited number of verbs. What is this semantic category, then? Let's see.
Pirang (tear) is liquid, steaming and flowing. Samlang (hair) is associated with women's or girls' hair and since female hair is usually kept long, it is flowy, stringy, wavy, soft and delicate. I have never come across samlang being used in association with a man (though Meitei men used to have long hair until very recently--the poet Thangjam Ibopishak told me N. Nillamani of Naoremthong says Meitei men adopted keeping short hair by imitating the British) or with anybody with short, cropped hair. Khomlang is liquid and flowing. It thus seem like lang/rang is suffixed to some (only a limited number of) words that have a sense of liquidity, flowiness and delicateness. It would be worthwhile to bring to mind the phrases makoi marang, mari marang, and by extension, marou marang (of a person: not honest or straightforward; to say metaphorically, having a mind whose strings of thought run this way and that way and you cannot easily make out what is what) and mafam marang (in mafam marang khangdaba--something very confusing, intricate, unstraightforward as in a mess of wool in which the string runs in a confusing way and you cannot find the ends). We also often hear the humorous form koirang. Pi (tear), sam (air) and khom (mother's milk) are liquid and flowy, but these properties or attributes come to the fore when lang/rang is suffixed to these words, and there is a semantic difference between the words without and without this suffix.
In this scheme, the affixing of lang to mon must have come after pirang, samlang and khomlang in time by adopting this style, in a metaphorical fashion because mollang is used in a sense sentimentally associated with tears of love, perhaps picturing a pillow wet with tears.
There is a sense of delicateness in lei (flowers), but this property and the romantic attributes associated with flowers come to the fore when rang is affixed to lei. Lei, thus, is different semantically from leirang. Heirang must have evolved after leirang in this very fashion.
Khoirangba, khourangba and the phrase ishou langba (and think of the compound noun ishoulang) are verbal. With the meaning of ol unclear yet, we have yet to determine if ollangba is such a derivation.
To be continued.