At one time Kamrup or Kamarupa was a mighty kingdom but today it is a lost kingdom so the people who scattered in different areas of the mighty kingdom now forms different dialects.
Though Kamrupi, the language of Kamrup or Kamarupa today is an endangered language, it was a mighty language of the mighty kingdom; it gave birth to several dialects as such Bangali, Jhadkhandi , modern Assamese, modern Bengali, Radhi and Varendri .
Kamrupi giving birth to several dialects may be called a sub-phenomena similar to that of the phenomena that Sanskrit giving birth to some languages including Kamrupi - or Latin giving birth to some languages.
Kamrupi today denotes a group of dialects of Assamese language spoken in the undivided Kamrup district of Assam. The four main dialects that form this group are Kamrupi, Nalbariya, Barpetiya and South Kamrupi [Moral, 1992]. These dialects are spoken in the present districts of Kamrup, Nalbari, Barpeta, Darrang, Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon in Assam. The name is derived from the Kamarupa kingdom that existed from the fourth to the eleventh century, ruled by three major dynasties.
The modern Bengali scholers like Suniti Kumar Chatterjee and Sukumar Sen [1] had listed Kamrupi as a dialect of Bengali as it is spoken in North Bengal, also sometimes called Kamatapuri named after the Kamata kingdom that succeeded the Kamarupa kingdom in the 13th century. The Assamese Kamrupi and the Bengali Kamrupi are very similar (according to Suniti Kumar Chatterjee). The division possibly occurred due to the division in the 16th-17th century of the Koch kingdom that succeeded the Kamata kingdom that included North Bengal and west Assam, and today it forms a dialect continuum.
The word Bengal is a new word and it was derived from Kamrupi word Bang Laa . Similarly, bang Aali gives the word Bangali which is Bengali today. The word Assam is derived from a Kamrupi word asama or assama. From all directions, it is clear that Kamrupi gave birth to a range of dialects.
- The IIT Guwahati author in the link also carelessly overlooked the original work of Dr. Banikanta Kakati.
- Not only that the author in the link bundled up three distinct phonemes of the modern Assamese into one phoneme - read more in Phonetics' section of the link Assamese
A phenomenal difference between modern Assamese and present Kamrupi is the usage of present perfect form with Sanskritize pronunciation which is missing in modern Assamese.
This form in Kamrupi is composed using Sanskritized pronunciations while this grammar is dominant in currently spoken versions of Kamrupi throughout undivided Kamrup, Goalpara and all the way further west to Cooch Behar .
"In addition to Kamrupi wisdom , Kamrupi lokageet , Goalparia lokageet and Vaishnava divine song bargeet are also sung in present perfect form. It is spectacular - over 90% of the sloka found in the yester year Kamrupi scriptures were composed using this grammar found in today's spoken Kamrupi."
- quoted directly from the paper entitled "Some Kamrupi Wisdom and Recitation Norms" author Dr. Rabin Deka published by Asom Sahitya Sabha (Assam Literary Socity) North America branch in "Luitor Pora Mississippi ", 20th publication, July 2003.
The linguist Dr. Banikanta Kakati also took the above-discussed grammar into account in order for him to define the language spoken in Upper Assam area as a dialect of Kamrupi. The Ahom occupation was one of the main factors behind the formation of this dialect (now called modern Assamese) of Kamrupi.
Volumes of ancient scriptures were written in Kamrupi using Old Devnagari script-set, but inclued few foreign alphabets as well.
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Last updated: 10-25-2005 05:38:00
