Toto language

Toto (Bengali: টোটো, Toto: 𞊒𞊪𞊒𞊪) is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken on the border of India and Bhutan, by the tribal Toto people in Totopara, West Bengal along the border with Bhutan. It is also spoken in Subhapara, Dhunchipara, and Panchayatpara hillocks on India-Bhutan border in Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal (Ethnologue).

Toto
𞊒𞊪𞊒𞊪, টোটো
The word "Toto" in Toto and Bengali script
Region	West Bengal
Ethnicity	Toto
Native speakers	1,411 (2014)[1]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Kiranti (?) Dhimalish Toto
Writing system	Bengali script and Toto script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	txo
Glottolog	toto1302
ELP	Toto
Toto is classified as Critically Endangered language by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger[2]

Status

Toto is listed as a critically endangered language by UNESCO, with perhaps 1,000 speakers.^[3] However, most families in the community speak Toto at home. Most children learn Toto at home, although they use Bengali in school.

Anthropological Survey of India (AnSI) set out to conduct a study on language of the Toto tribe, whose population has dwindled to 1,536, they did not realize that the language is more endangered than the tribe itself. Researchers as well the members of the Toto community admit that the language is under threat and the influence of other languages, particularly Nepali and Bengali, is increasing day by day.^[4]

The Himalayan Languages Project is working on the first grammatical sketch of Toto.

Phonology

Toto consists of 25 segmental phonemes, of which 19 are consonants and six are vowels. The phonemes of this language are as follows:

Vowels

There are six vowel phonemes in the Toto language: /i/, /e/, /ə/, /a/, /o/, /u/. They can be classified:

• horizontally into three groups as front unrounded, central unrounded and back rounded vowels;
• vertically into four groups as close, close-mid, open-mid and open.

There are eight diphthongs realized in Toto, these are:

• /eu/ — occurring in initial and medial positions,
• /au/, /ou/ — occurring only in the medial position,
• /ei/, /əi/, /ai/, /oi/ — occurring in medial and final positions, and
• /ui/ — occurring in all positions.^[1]

The following minimal pairs establish the phonetics status of the vowel:

/i/~/e/

/iŋ/ 'brother in-law', vs. /eŋ/ 'ginger'

/ciwa/ 'tear', vs. /cewa/ 'cut' (cloth)

/i/~/a/

/guJi/ 'owl', vs. /guJa/ 'pocket'

/nico/ 'fire', vs. /naco/ 'two'

/i/~/u/

/Jiya/ 'rat', vs. /Juya/ 'bird'

/ei/~/əi/

/e/~/a/

/lepa/ 'brain', vs. /lapa/ 'jungle betel leaf'

/kewa/ 'birth', vs. /kawa/ 'sound'

/e/~/o/

/je/ 'grass', vs. /jo/ 'breast'

Consonants

With regards to consonants, Toto has an inventory of seven sonorants (nasals and liquids) and twelve obstruents (stops and fricative), eight of which are contrastive in voicing. It also distinguishes the voiceless obstruents /t/ and /p/ with their aspirated equivalents /tʰ/ and /pʰ/, respectively.^[1]

		Bilabial		Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Glottal
		plain	aspirated	plain	aspirated
Stop	voiceless	p	pʰ	t	tʰ	c	k
	voiced	b		d		ɟ	g
Fricative				s				h
Nasal		m		n			ŋ
Approximant				l		j	w
Trill				r

Vocabulary

Below are some Toto words from van Driem (1995), who uses these words to suggest that Toto may be a Sal language.^[5]

• aŋ- 'to drink'
• bɔcɔŋ 'shoulder'
• yoti 'cooking pot' (second syllable), cf. Dzongkha dî 'jug'
• uŋtí 'seed'
• haní 'today'
• tarí 'moon'
• lip- 'fall' (cf. Benedict's PTB *lip 'dive, sink, drown')
• tɛ́bo 'big' (first syllable)
• así 'shit'
• daŋkre 'right' (vs. 'left')
• buibé 'stomach' (first syllable); the second syllable -be is cognate with Toto biyá 'meat'
• biyá 'meat'
• wɔteŋ 'bamboo species' (first syllable), Nepali ḍhuṅgre ko ghās
• maʔoŋ 'paddy'
• bagreŋ 'wing'
• saní 'sun'
• jâr- 'stand'
• anji 'yesterday'
• böidi 'navel'
• lâru- 'bring'
• em- 'to shit'
• jiŋ- 'sleep'
• cici 'urine'
• kiya 'dog'
• miŋ 'name'
• daŋ 'horn'
• maibe 'flower'
• pǘyɔ 'snake'
• luŋtü 'stone'
• lɛbɛ́ 'tongue'
• maŋbü- 'to dream'
• nanuŋ 'ear'
• mico 'eye'
• ŋaya 'fish'
• musa 'body hair'
• ka 'I'
• taŋpa 'sole of the foot'
• paká 'pig'
• nati 'thou'
• satáŋ 'tooth'
• si- 'die'
• ca- 'eat'
• the- 'be sweet, taste sweet'
• toise 'mango' (suffix: -se)
• daŋse 'jackfruit' (suffix: -se)
• sâ- 'kill'
• dai- 'dig'
• köitü 'egg'
• yuŋ- 'sit, stay'
• ti 'water'
• mití 'tear'
• totí 'spit'
• wɛtí 'rain'
• yutí 'blood'
• yutí 'milk'
• dikɔ́ 'buffalo'
• ü- 'come down, descend'
• ŋɛtɔ́ŋ 'neck'
• to pa- 'weave'
• kai- 'cry'
• ŋɔká 'monkey'
• jüwɔ́ 'mouse, rat'

Pronouns

The Toto personal pronouns are (van Driem 1995):^[5]

	singular	plural
first person	ka	kibi
second person	nati	natibi
third person	aku	abi

Numerals

The Toto numerals are (van Driem 1995):^[5]

English numeral	bare stem for counting	counting humans	counting animals	inanimate objects
one	i	iccɔ	ippu	icce
two	ni	niso	nipu	nise
three	suŋ	sumcɔ	suŋpu	suŋse
four	di	dicɔ	dipu	dise
five	ŋa	ŋacɔ	ŋapu	ŋase
six	tu	tukcɔ	tukpu	tuse
seven	ni	nícɔ	nípu	níse
eight	yâ	yấcɔ	yấpu	yấse
nine	ku	kucɔ	kupu	kuse
ten	tâ	tâcɔ	tâpu	tâse
eleven	eghâra	eghârcɔ	eghârpu	eghârse
twelve	bâra	bârcɔ	bârpu	bârse
twenty	ikai	ikai cɔ	ikai pu	ikai se
twenty-one	ikai-so i	ikai-so iccɔ	ikai-so ippu	ikai-so icce
thirty	ikai-so tâ	ikai-so tâcɔ	ikai-so tâpu	ikai-so tâse
forty	nikai	nikai cɔ	nikai pu	nikai se
fifty	nikai-so tâ	nikai-so tâcɔ	nikai-so tâpu	nikai-so tâse
sixty	suŋkai	suŋkai cɔ	suŋkai pu	suŋkai se

Writing system

Toto script 𞊒𞊪𞊒𞊪
Script type	Alphabet
Creator	Dhaniram Toto
Published	2015
Region	Bengal
Languages	Toto
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Toto (294), ​Toto
Unicode
Unicode alias	Toto
Unicode range	U+1E290–U+1E2BF

An alphabetic script developed for the language by community elder and author, Dhaniram Toto, was published in 2015, and has seen limited but increasing use in literature, education, and computing; most significantly, the Toto alphabet was added to the Unicode Standard in September, 2021. Prior to the publication of this script, Dhaniram Toto and other members of the community (whose literacy rate as per sample survey carried out in 2003 was just 33.64 per cent) penned books and poems in the Bengali script.^[4]

Unicode

Main article: Toto (Unicode block)

The Toto alphabet was added to the Unicode Standard in September, 2021 with the release of version 14.0.

The Unicode block for Toto is U+1E290–U+1E2BF:

Toto[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

U+1E29x

𞊐

𞊑

𞊒

𞊓

𞊔

𞊕

𞊖

𞊗

𞊘

𞊙

𞊚

𞊛

𞊜

𞊝

𞊞

𞊟

U+1E2Ax

𞊠

𞊡

𞊢

𞊣

𞊤

𞊥

𞊦

𞊧

𞊨

𞊩

𞊪

𞊫

𞊬

𞊭

𞊮

U+1E2Bx

Notes 1.^ As of Unicode version 16.0 2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

See also

• Dhimalish comparative vocabulary list (Wiktionary)

Notes

1. "Languages of India" (PDF). Retrieved 2015-02-08.|
2. Moseley, Christopher; Nicolas, Alexander, eds. (2010). Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (PDF) (3rd ed.). Paris: UNESCO. pp. 43–47. ISBN 978-92-3-104096-2. Archived from the original on 23 July 2022.
3. Ben Doherty (April 29, 2012). "India's tribal people fast becoming lost for words". The Age. Retrieved 2015-02-08.
4. Singh, Shiv Sahay (1 August 2014). "Toto language more endangered than tribe". The Hindu. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
5. van Driem, George. 1995. The Ṭoṭo language of the Bhutanese duars. Paper presented at ICSTLL 28.

References

• Amitabha, S. (1993). Toto, Society and Change: A Sub-Himalayan Tribe of West Bengal. Firma KLM.
• Basumatary, C. (2014). The Phonological Study of Toto Language. Language in India, 14:6, 59–84. Retrieved February 9, 2015, from http://languageinindia.com/june2014/chibiramtotophonology1.pdf
• Chaudhuri, B. (1992). Tribal Transformation in India. New Delhi, India: Inter-India Publications.
• Doherty, B. (2012, April 29). India's Tribal People Fast Becoming Lost for Words. Retrieved February 8, 2015, from http://www.smh.com.au/world/indias-tribal-people-fast-becoming-lost-for-words-20120429-1xted.html
• Grierson, George A. (1909). Linguistic Survey of India. Vol. III, Part 1, Tibeto-Burman family. General introduction. Specimens of the Tibetan dialects, the Himalayan dialects and the North Assam group. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India.
• Mehrotra, R. (1974). Endangered Languages in India. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 105–114. Retrieved February 9, 2015, from https://web.archive.org/web/20111016074549/http://www.degruyter.de/journals/ijsl/detailEn.cfm
• Perumalsamy P (2016) "Toto Language" in Linguistic Survey of India West Bengal Volume I by Office of the Registrar General India: New Delhi pp 628–702 https://censusindia.gov.in/nada/index.php/catalog/34826
• Singh, S. (2014, August 1). Toto Language More Endangered Than Tribe. Retrieved February 8, 2015, from http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/kolkata/toto-language-more-endangered-than-tribe/article6270931.ece
• van Driem, G., & Bronkhorst, J. (2001). Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region Containing an Introduction to the Symbiotic Theory of Language (pp. 559–760). Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Academic Pub.
• van Driem, G. (2007). South Asia and Middle East. In C. Moseley (Ed.), Encyclopedia of the World's Endangered Languages (pp. 289–348). London and New York: Routledge.
• van Driem, George. 1995. The Ṭoṭo language of the Bhutanese duars. Paper presented at ICSTLL 28.

External links

• India's Tribal People Fast Becoming Lost for Words
• About Toto People
• Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
• World Oral Literature Project
• Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16th Edition (2009)