TAWRÃ LANGUAGE AND ANTHROPOLOGY

The Tawrã [=Taraon, Digaru and Daruang in China] people are part of the ‘Mishmi’ group, which also includes Idu and Kman. They live in Arunachal Pradesh, Lohit District, Hayuliang, Changlagam, Goiliang circles, Dibang Valley District; Assam, and also in China and Myanmar. The Tawrã people were 8,620 in the 2001 census in India. Population total all countries: 9,470.

The Tawrã language has yet to be studied by the methods of modern linguistics. The links below enable you to download existing publications, as well as some preliminary materials I have put together.

Topic	Image	PDFs of previously published work
Linguistics		Chakravarty, L.N. 1978. A dictionary of the Taraon language. Shillong: NEFA.
		Pulu, Jatan 1991. A phrase book on Taraon language. Itanagar: Directorate of Research.
		PDFs of unpublished work
Linguistics		Tawrã dictionary [compiled by Roger Blench]
Anthropology

Tawrã people consider themselves culturally close to the Kman people although the two languages share very little. However, there have been several attempt to develop a common writing system, including Krisikro (2006) and Tawsik ( 2014). Informal attempts from external scholars appear to be continuing though with information about their work, they are hard to assess.

The reader is strongly warned against the following volumes, as they mix together data from the other Mishmi languages in some misguided attempt to create a common grammar and lexicon;

Sastry, G.D.P. 1984. Mishmi grammar. Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages.

Sastry, G.D.P. 1991. Mishmi-English-Hindi dictionary. Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages.

Bibliography

Campbell, G. 1874. Specimens of Languages of India: Including Those of the Aboriginal Tribes of Bengal, the Central Provinces, and the Eastern Frontier. Calcutta: Printed at the Bengal secretariat Press.

Chakravarty, L.N. 1978. A dictionary of the Taraon language. Shillong: NEFA.

Konow, Sten 1902. Note on the languages spoken between the Assam Valley and Tibet. The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1902: 127-137.

Krisikro, Sutik 2006. Tawra: tako zo bra/ käman, pït sai brat. Tezu: Graphic Systems.

Macgregor, C.R. 1887. Journal of the Expedition under Col. Woodthorpe, R.E., from Upper Assam to the Irrawadi and return over the Patkoi Range. Proc. Royal Geographical Society, 9: 19-42.

Mills, J.P. 1952. The Mishmis of the Lohit Valley, Assam. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 82(1):1-12.

Needham, Jack F. 1886. A few Dîgârô (Târoan), (Mîjû) M'jû, and Thibetian Words. Shillong.

Pulu, Jatan 1991. A phrase book on Taraon language. Itanagar: Directorate of Research.

Robinson, W. 1856. Notes on the languages spoken by the Mi-Shmis. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 24: 307-324.

Sun, Hongkai 1991. Zang Mianyu yuyin he cihui. [In Chinese]. Beijing: Zhōngguó Shèhuì Kēxué Chūbǎnshè.

Sun, Hongkai 1999. On the Himalayan languages of the eastern Himalayan area in China. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, 22: 61-72.

Tawsik, Somodang 2014. Kaman-Tawrah. Tinsukia: Chitra printers.