Tiwa language (India)
Tiwa is a Tibeto-Burman (Sino-Tibetan) language spoken by the Tiwa people in Assam and Meghalaya in North East India. Tiwa language is similar to Boro, Dimasa, Kokborok and Garo language of India.
Tiwa dialects
Tiwa is spoken in northwestern Karbi Anglong district and further north in parts of Morigaon District / Nagaon district in the plains of Assam. There is a cluster of Tiwa villages in the northeastern Ri-Bhoi District of Meghalaya. For want of precise knowledge, it is difficult to speak of strictly delimited Tiwa dialects. On the one hand, Tiwa, probably with the exception of the variety of Tiwa spoken near Sonapur in Assam, is a single language, any of its dialects being mutually intelligible with any other. On the other hand, some lexical items, like the few given below for five different varieties of Tiwa, show enough variety to arouse one's curiosity. For example:| Marjông | Amsái | Magró | Amkhâ | Rongkhói |
| khôja chonggól/khôja parí | khûji parí | khôdali | chonggól parí | chonglá parí |
| Marjông | Amsái | Magró | Amkhâ | Rongkhói |
| changkhâm parí | chengkhrâ parí | chobogâ | chengkhânang parí | changkhâm parí |
| Marjông | Amsái | Magró | Amkhâ | Rongkhói |
| chãmái | changmái | chambé | chamái | chamái |
| Marjông | Amsái | Magró | Amkhâ | Rongkhói |
| ngá peré | remthól | kremthól | prethél | lerógai/kremthó |
| Marjông | Amsái | Magró | Amkhâ | Rongkhói |
| kogé rothôk | kogrêk págrek | konggé latháp | konglék | konglék |
The words for fish are less divergent and may offer a way of dividing the dialects into some groups. The Marjông dialect forms the basis of this language topic. However, wherever possible the dialectal synonyms of Amsái, Margó and Amkhâ have also been given, The Marj and Ams varieties are perfectly mutually intelligible, although the two groups easily recognize the differences in the other group.
Tiwa dialectal variations appear to be clustered around groups of villages that are held together by Tiwa religio-cultural rituals and celebrations that are traditionally held in a particular village and are centered around a priest who resides there. Such alliances of villages also had their own geographic area of jurisdiction and lands for cultivation. The priest and the regular conduct of rituals and ceremonies gave such groups of villages socio-cultural cohesion. The earlier traditional system, which must have had stricter village coalitions, has suffered marginal disintegration in recent times.
In West Karbi Anglong district, the villages of Marjông, Amsái, Rongkhói, Amnî Baró and Amnî Sá still have their priests. The priest of the Amrî section now resides in Boksong. A Tiwa group is known as Amkhâ, which had its center at Suphing, got dispersed and does not have a priest at present.
In the Ri-Bhoi District of Meghalaya, the villages of Amjông, Lumphúi, and Phat Magró have their functioning priests even now. There is a section of Tiwa's in and around Mayông, but there is no Mayông priest at the present time. It is believed that as only a person from the Maslông clan could become a priest when there was no one to inherit the priestly mantle at the death of the last Mayông priest, their priestly lineage came to an end, The Maslóng clan itself seems to have disappeared. The priest of the Sâgra section appears to have lost his ritual area of influence. The same is true of a section of Tiwa's known as Ligrâ that does not have a functioning priest now.
Language and geographical distribution
Tiwa is spoken in the following districts.- Assam
- *East Karbi Anglong and West Karbi Anglong districts
- *Nagaon district
- *Morigaon district
- *Kamrup district
- *Dhemaji district
- Meghalaya
- *Khasi Hills district
Script
Like most languages of the hill tribes of Northeast, India, Tiwa people do not have their own script. They use the Roman script and occasionally use Assamese script.Tiwa alphabet
Tiwa in Latin script has a different system, distinct from that of English. Tiwa uses a 24-letter alphabet by removing the letters F, Q, V, X and Z from the basic Latin alphabet and adding the diacritic letters ′, ^ and ~ namely thópti, thópkho and kungái which is treated as a letter in its own right. Tiwa alphabet have 5-letter vowels and 16-letter consonant.| Capital letters | A | B | CH | D | E | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | U | W | Y | ′ | ^ | ~ |
| Small letters | a | b | ch | d | e | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | r | s | t | u | w | y | ′ | ^ | ~ |
| English pronunciation | ah | bee | chee | dee | ay | gay | esh | ee | jay | kay | ell | emm | enn | ow | pee | aar | ess | tee | woo | double yu | why | thoptee | thopkow | koowai |
| Assamese pronunciation | আ | বি | চি | ডি | এ | গে | এইচ্ | ই | জে | কে | এল্ | এম | এন্ | অ | পি | আৰ্ | এচ্ | টি | উ | ডাৱলিউ | ৱাই | থপ্তি | থপ্ক | কুঙাই |
| Tiwa | A | E | I | O | U |
| Assamese pronunciation | আ | এ | ই | অ | উ |
| Tiwa | B | CH | D | G | H | J | K | L | M | N | P | R | S | T | W | Y |
| Assamese pronunciation | বি | চি | ডি | গে | এইচ্ | জে | কে | এল্ | এম | এন্ | পি | আৰ্ | এচ্ | টি | ডাৱলিউ | ৱাই |
The spelling system
The Tiwa orthographic tradition is to a large extent straightforward; the letters represent the sounds they are generally associated with. However, exceptions in the language's sound system itself calls for some adjustments to be made in some areas. We consider below a few such areas. Check the Tiwa Mor chart below.Tiwa does not use sounds that require the use of the letters f, q, v, x, z. It does not have b, d, j, and g in the word-initial and word-final positions ; ch- occurs only in the beginning of words. There is no contrast between c and ch in Tiwa; the sound represented by ch is an unaspirated sound in Tiwa. Keeping to the local orthographic practice, ch has been used in this topic.
In the word-initial position b, d, j, and g occur in a few words, most of them of recent origin. In some instances, one of these can be seen as being protected by a preceding word with which it co-occurs in a fixed manner, as in kher bon 'thatch and other types of grass', which we take as two words as they have their own tones, The same can be said of the adverbial bén in hûldi bén 'very yellowish', and a few other words beginning with b, d, j, and g.
Tiwa does not have word-medial p, t, c, k. They may occur as clusters in each other's company as in shíkta 'animal-trap', apcháp 'haphazardly', the recently coined thópti 'acute accent', and others. When a vocalic suffix is added to a root that has p, t, k as its final consonant, that final p, t, k gets voiced to b, d, and g respectively, as in ráp- 'help' > rápa 'to help' or rápo 'will help'. A similar situation arises when ti- 'two' is prefixed to a noun or a numeral classifier that has an initial p, t, c or k, as in tin 'day' > titin 'two days'. However, in all such instances p, t, and k have been used consistently.
There are a handful of exceptions where the unproductive nature of the suffix, as in thrúba thrúbi 'unnoticed; quietly', has forced us to keep the new voiced medial. A similar point can be said about chebé chabá 'in a damp and wet manner', which is recognizable as related to chép chép 'Wet and muddy', where the established tone shift to the right makes a case for the medial voiced -b- even stronger.
The word thuke 'till' is of a different type; the final -e is an adverbial suffix. Here medial k really sounds k and not g. As a matter of fact, it is pronounced as ' or '. The morpheme boundary is not disturbed by suffixation. There are other similar instances that involve consonants other than a plosive, like mile 'all, everything', chile 'as having a shiny film or sheen' and chole 'as whole grains'.
There are some recently borrowed words where the medial p, t, k are really voiceless consonants, like:
- kalapân – Spades
- thin pati – A type of card game
- ita – Brick
- riti – File
- ritî tustûr – Customs and traditions
- eka – Ace
- duki – Card mark 2
- rekót – Record
Tiwa's tendency to avoid b-, d-, j-, g- in the initial position and -p-, -t-, -ch-, -k- in the middle of a simple word places a burden on the speakers when naturalizing borrowed words. If the free variations pon ~ bon 'strike, tobôl ~ dobôl ~ dabûl 'double' and methêng ~ medêng ~ mitîng 'meeting' are any indication, we can make a safe bet that voiced initial plosives and voiceless medial plosives will get more and more established in the language.
Nasalization in Tiwa
Although not widespread in the language, Tiwa has nasalization as a phoneme. Even among the few nasalized Tiwa words, we can spot minimal pairs like:- rew rew – Accompanied by an unpleasant feeling
- rẽw rẽw – slow repetitive squeaky noise
- praw praw – of splashing water
- prãw prãw – of the humming of bees
Tiwa tones
Tiwa has two phonemic tones: a falling tone called thópkho ' in Tiwa, and a rising tone called thópti ' in Tiwa.- re – And
- ré – Cloth
- cha – Not have
- chá- – Eat
- rom- – Engage
- róm- – Catch
- shu- – Peck, gore
- shú- – Pound
Tone shift and tone change
There is a tendency for the tone to shift to the right in actual speech. In some compounds the tone shift is an established part of the word: tudí 'egg', moná in moná chína 'to like' and the adverbial/aspectual manó . There are a few instances where the tonal shift occurs across the word-boundary, as in: kidâp 'book', but hísap kídap 'account', and shêna 'strip' but ngá shéna 'fish cut into strips'.Sometimes a word turns up with a different tone when it enters into a compound. This phenomenon is not uniform across the different dialects of Tiwa. In the Marjông dialect there is tingkhí 'leg-mortar' and thá tingkhî 'a variety of yam '; similarly musí 'rat' and musî chelé 'a variety of mousetrap'. In the Amsái dialect their equivalents are thá tingkhí and musí chelé, without the tone change. Other examples are musí 'rat' and musî chelé 'a type of mousetrap'; khễya 'a medium-sized palm tree with sweet-scented flowers' and khum khễya 'the sweet-scented flowers of this palm tree'; sháguni 'porous sieving basket' and shak shâguni 'to purify'.
Marking the tones
In this topic the high tone is marked in all instances. Two conventional rules have been followed in marking the falling tone:monosyllabic roots having a falling tone are not marked for tone. Accordingly, tan 'offering' is not marked for its falling tone, while tán 'cut' is marked for its high tone. We did not extend this rule to include the falling tone on all first-syllables, in order to be able to have a visual clue to differentiate words like shuwa 'the pecking' and shûwa 'rubbish, impurity'.
The adverbs such as mile 'all, everything', lore 'as having a shiny film or sheen', chole 'as whole grains' and many others are analyzed as having a monosyllabic root and the adverbial suffix -e; following rule such adverbs are unmarked, if they have a falling tone. In some cases the root is also a free word, while many of them are no longer free morphemes in the present state of the language.
Polysyllabic roots and tones
The area of polysyllabic roots is a difficult area for tonal analysis. There are no straight forward minimal pairs of bare roots that are differentiated by the position of the same tone, We do have examples like kojá 'red' and kojâ- 'be free; have free time'; or, rojá- 'sing' and rojâ- 'thick'.The Amsái dialect does have some examples, like sarí 'whetstone' and sári 'a little' as in kai sári 'a little each'; khagái 'baby boy' and khágai- 'tie paddy bundle in the middle'; ná-na 'to enter', na-na 'to appear' and naná 'why'.
Tiwa appears to have a preference for disyllabic roots. Tiwa does have several 3-syllable words, but 3-syllable roots also tend to have a secondary tone, as in shorondó . This may partially be governed by the segmental constitution of the initial syllable itself. Four syllable roots tend to be split into two disyllabic words, with two tones, as in tariphûra 'tree-less and open ', shuguphûra 'hypocritical ' and hâbuskharya 'greedy'.
Polysyllabic minimal pairs
It is difficult to come across polysyllabic roots that are differentiated by the position of the same tone. One instance we have encountered is milâi- 'be in agreement' and mîlai ~ milâi 'everything'. Following the second conventional rule regarding marking falling tones, mile is not marked for its falling tone. The interaction of roots and suffixes gives rise to a number of such minimal pairs. We have:- chána — To eat
- chaná/chana — That there may not be
- cháwa — The eating
- chawa — To sift
- chawá/chawa — That which is not there
- khúla — To scoop; to serve out
- khulá — Land where cotton is cultivated
Partial predictability of the Tiwa falling tone
The segmental composition of the disyllabic roots gives a clue as to where a falling tone would be, if that root has a falling tone. If such a root has a syllable with h, s, sh, ph, th or kh as the initial the falling tone would be on that syllable. Examples are: hûri 'winged white ant', sâra 'care, concern', asî 'aunt', shôron 'echo form of lat 'shame', phâmdim 'rheumatism', mathî 'world', khûnda 'post', makhâ 'hill'. Polysyllabic roots that have two or more syllables with these consonants probably follow some pattern; but we have not studied them systematically.If a disyllabic root does not have a syllable with h, s, sh, ph, th or kh, then the falling tone would be on the final syllable, as in mindâi 'deity', mandâr 'tree ', alî 'path', rogôm 'method', muyûm 'acne; pimple'.
As a further proof of this pattern in Tiwa, we have variations like khâru/karû, khûndar/kundâr and chenê tenê/thêne 'somehow', In the same direction we have karôn 'reason' and khâron 'reason' borrowed from Assamese কাৰণ 'reason'.
The marking of tones could have been made simpler by taking advantage of this behaviour of Tiwa and by not marking the falling tone on 2-syllable roots. However, we have resisted from taking this step for two reasons:
There are a few words that do not follow this rule. Some of them are:
- îni/hîni — Look here!
- ûya/hûya — Look there!
- îya — Interjection
- îngguri — Enquiry
- êngleng — Cicada
- pâiling — Cicada
- kûrleng — Cicada,
- parê- — Increase, grow in number
- pare — Of the week
- pare — Of the wind
Tiwa suffixes and tones
Tiwa suffixes are of four types:1. Suffixes that do not have an inherent tone. These suffixes are coloured by the tone that precedes them. These may be considered true suffixes, and to this category belongs suffixes like the infinitive −a, the dative −a, the nominalizer −a, the non-past −w/-o, the optative −thong, the conditional −gai, the negative −y and the present −do.
After the negative −ya all the suffixes of group have the peculiar behaviour of taking the rising tone. Accordingly, we have, phiwa 'the coming; somebody who is coming' and phiyawá 'the not coming, who is not coming'; os 'to give' and osyaná 'not to give'. The spelling system used in Tiwa language incorporates this phenomenon. The chart below represents the rather complex behaviour of these suffixes when they are used after cha 'there be not'.
| Suffix after cha 'no' | Marjông | Amsái |
| Genitive −ne | -ne/-né | -ne/-né |
| Nominalizer −wa | -wa/-wá | -wa/-wá |
| Optative −thong | -thong | -thóng |
| Infinitive −na | -na | -na/-ná |
| Conditional −gai | -gai | -gai/-gái |
| Present −do | -do | -do |
This generates a complex situation with many free variations such as chane/chané 'because there is not', chawa/chawá 'that which is not there', chagai 'if there isn't',, chana 'to be not', chaithong, chaido 'there isn't'. In this topic the forms chana, chane, chawa, chagai, chaithong and chaido have been preferred because they are the regular forms and are common to both Marj and Ams.
2. Suffixes that have an inherent falling tone. Some of the suffixes that belong to this set are the instrumental −rê, the plural −râw and −mân, −bô 'also' and −dô, −lô, −sê that generate different shades of emphasis.
3. Suffixes that have an inherent rising tone. To this group belongs the imperative −bó and −thó as well as the non-continuative −khá.
4. The directional suffix −jing is all by itself; it takes the falling tone when preceded by the rising tone and vice versa. So we have nójîng 'towards the house' but tijíng 'to the water source/well'.
A general characteristic of Tiwa is that the tones, whether the falling or the rising tone, spread to the right until they encounter the opposite unyielding tone, after which that new tone colours the following syllables, till that itself is encountered by the other tone in a stubborn pose. This principle is used in marking the tones of the syllables of larger words in this dictionary, and appears to capture the essence of the Tiwa tonal behaviour. Some examples are given below:
- phiyasekhá – S/he will definitely not come
- phiyakhásê – S/he will not come
- Nábô phiwbó/líwbo bo! – suppose you too will come/go !
- pibúrlôbó – It is indeed they
More about Marjông and Amsái
Marjông and Amsái, only four kilometers apart by road from village centre to village centre and separated only by a broad swath of paddy-land, show a considerable amount of dialectal differences. Apart from the situations where Marjông and Amsái use different words for the same concept, there are others where the differences are only segmental and tonal, but very evident:| Marjông Dialect | Amsái Dialect | English Meaning |
| shânli | shândi | Flat round sieving basket |
| lawbé | lawphé | Rind |
Tonal differences between Marjông and Amsái
The tonal differences between Marjông and Amsái make an interesting point of study. If the two dialects agree that a particular word has a falling tone, then the two dialects place the falling tone on the same syllable in a word. We did not come across any instances where the two dialects have the falling tone on different syllables of a word. However, there are a few of instances where the two dialects have different tones, as in:| Marjông Dialect | Amsái Dialect | English Meaning |
| ajadî | ajádi | Effortlessly |
| amaidí | amaidî | Sleep |
| apcháp | apchâp | Carelessly |
| chenthôr | chenthór | Spinning wheel |
| anthlâ | anthlá | Dress |
| eké | ekê | The same |
| longkhrâ | longkhrá | Left over |
| nunâi | nunái | Baby |
| mewâ | mewá | Male |
| thûngi | thungúi; thungí | Tree-house |
| khôjo | khojó | Cough |
| panthâ | panthá | Packet of rice |
| shûpti | shúpti | Spittle |
The two dialects exploit the position of the rising tone in polysyllabic roots even to a greater degree. Below are but a few of the many instances:
| Marjông Dialect | Amsái Dialect | English Meaning |
| hándo | handó | Section |
| hóndo | hondó | Hiccup |
| chakhlá | chákhla | Ladder; flight of stairs |
| amukhá | amúkha | So-and-so; some indefinite person |
Partial predictability of the rising tone in the Marjông dialect
A closer look at these disyllabic words that have the high tone on different syllables in Marj and Ams reveals that Marj extends the rule explained in 5.5 regarding the falling tone to include the high tone, while Ams does not follow this rule for the high tone. That is, if a disyllabic word with a high tone has a syllable with h, s, sh, ph, th or kh as the initial, then in the Marjông dialect, the high tone will be on that syllable, while this is not the case in the Amsái dialect.| Marjông Dialect | Amsái Dialect | English Meaning |
| khábal | khabál | Head |
| khíni | khuní | Hair |
| Húgai | Hugái | A clan name |
| chashéna | cháshena | Offer |
| phágra | phagrá | Father |
| shégal | shegál | Evil spirit |
| thábrap | thabráp | Lungs |
A further proof for the above rule comes from the following table of words.
| Marjông Dialect | Amsái Dialect |
| thúgra/tugrá | thúgra/túgra |
| thúgla/tuglá | thúgla/túgla |
| thúgu thúgu/tugú tugú | thugú thugú |
Borrowings into Tiwa
Tiwa appears to have made good use of the languages that it came into contact with in its past and is surrounded by at present, to enhance its store of words and linguistic devises. Borrowings from the Indo-Aryan languages Assamese/Bengali and Hindi/Nepali and, to a lesser extent, from the Austro-Asiatic Khasi and the Tibeto-Burman Karbi are discernible in the Tiwa lexicon. Today's educated persons sprinkle English words generously into their speech.Borrowings from Assamese
The main source of borrowing appears to be Assamese. In transcribing the Assamese words the following convention has been used:ক খ গ ঘ ঙ
চ ছ জ ঝ ঞ
ট ঠ ড ঢ ণ
ত থ দ ধ ন
প ফ ব ভ ম
য ৰ ল ৱ
শ ষ স হ
ক্ষ ড় ঢ় য়
The vowel symbols used are: ɑ, ā, i, ī, ē, u, ū and o .
A brief analysis of the way Tiwa has accommodated the Indo-Aryan borrowings is outlined below. The orthographic forms of the Assamese words, rather than the phonemic forms, are taken for analysis, which is mostly restricted to the initials.
1. Initial Assamese voiceless plosives, excluding the palatals, are realised as voiceless aspirated plosives in Tiwa. Accordingly, প and ফ become ph, while ট, ঠ, ত and থ become th; ক and খ become kh in Tiwa.
| Assamese | Tiwa | English |
| কমাৰ | khâmar | Blacksmith |
| কানি | khâni | Opium |
| কোন | khon | Corner |
| খৰচ | khôros | Expense |
| খাজনা | khâjona | Tax |
| খেতৰ | khêdor | Goblin; type of spirit |
| টকা | thâga | Money |
| কেলা | thêgla | Angel; messenger |
| টেমা | thêma | Small container |
| ঠগ | thok | Feature; shape |
| ঠেঙা | thênga | Pants |
| ঠোলা | thôla | Cone |
| তৰােৱাল | thrûwal | Sword |
| তিৰী | thîri | Woman |
| তুলা | thûla | Cotton |
| থল | thol | Lowlands |
| থান | than | Place |
| থাৰা | thôra | Pestle |
| পিতল | phîdul | Brass |
| পদম | phûdum | Lotus |
| পথাৰ | phádar | Paddy-field |
| ফটিকা | phûdiga | Distilled liquor' |
| ফাটক | phâdek | Prison |
| ফিতা | phîda | Wick; tape |
2. Initial Assamese unaspirated voiced plosives, including the palatal, are realized as voiced unaspirated plosives in Tiwa. Accordingly, গ, জ, ড as well as দ and ব turn out as k, c, t and p respectively in Tiwa.
| Assamese | Tiwa | English |
| গৰাকী | korakhî | Master |
| গাল | kal | Cheek |
| গীত | kit | Song |
| জৰী | churí | Rope |
| জাত | chat | Tribe |
| জোৰা | chorâ | Joint |
| ডাবৰ | tabôr | Basin |
| ডাঙৰি | tangrî | Sheaf |
| ডুবি | tubî | Deep place in a river |
| দলঙ | tolông | Bridge |
| দস্তুৰ | tustûr | Custom |
| দিন | tin | Day |
| বজাৰ | pajâr | Market |
| বাৰ | parô | Twelve |
| বেলেগ | pelêk | Different |
3. Initial Assamese voiced aspirates appear to have taken two main routes depending on the number of syllables of the word:
' monosyllabic words having such initials become disyllabic words in Tiwa by splitting apart the place-of-articulation and the aspiration, accompanied by devoicing of the consonant. Although there are not many examples, the pattern is evident.
| Assamese | Tiwa | English |
| ঘৰ | kohôr | House-hold |
| ঘাই | kahâi | Chief person |
| ঝাক | chahâk | Herd |
| ধাৰ | tahâr | Edge |
| ভাগ | pahâk | Share; portion |
| ভাঙ্ | pahâng | Hemp |
' polysyllabic words undergo two changes: the aspiration is just ignored and the consonant is devoiced.
| Assamese | Tiwa | English |
| ঘণ্টা | kondâ | Hour |
| ঘিলা | kilâ | Wheel |
| ঘুগুৰা | kugurâ | Small tinkling bell |
| ঘুমটি | kumthî | Sleep |
| ঢেঁকী | tingkhí | Mortar |
| ঢেলা | telâ | Pale; cloudy |
| ধৰণ | torôn | Method |
| ধাতু | tathû | Breath; life; spirit |
| ধেমালি | temalî | Light-hearted; simple |
| ভনতাৰ | pandâr | Granary |
| ভালুক | palûk | Bear |
| ভলুকা বাঁহ | pulkhû wathí | Bamboo |
4. Assamese shistorical affricates that have become fricatives in Assamese itself turn up as fricative sh in Tiwa.
| Assamese | Tiwa | English |
| চকী | shûgi | Chair |
| চলন | shôlon | Behaviour |
| ছয় | shui | Six |
| ছেকনী | sháguni | Conical basket for sifting |
5. Assamese শ and স become s, while becomes হ as h in Tiwa.
| Assamese | Tiwa | English |
| শ | so | Hundred |
| শগুন | sîgun | Vulture |
| সকল | sógol | All |
| সতিনী | sûduni | Concubine |
| হাতী | hâdi | Elephant |
| হুদু | hûdu | Owl |
There are some exceptions that apparently go contrary to these patterns. Some of them may be genuine exceptions whose reasons will need to be probed in greater depth, others point to a shallower time-depth of the borrowing.
Double borrowing
There are a few instances of the same lexeme being borrowed more than once. The different resultant forms vindicate the above analysis. Some examples are| Assamese | Tiwa | English |
| চিন্তা | shînda | Concern |
| sînta | Worry | |
| কাম | kham | Cultural/religious function |
| kam | Work | |
| নিয়ম | nem | Religion |
| niyôm | Custom; rule |
Such second borrowing also gives rise to voiced stop initials as seen in the following free variations.
| Assamese | Tiwa | English |
| দৰ্জি | turjî/durjî | Tailor |
| দশ | tos/dos | Ten |
| দলং | tolông/dolông | Bridge |
Vocabulary
Numerals
Tiwa has a decimal system and counts to 10 with unique words, after which the number words combine to add to the larger number as shown in the chart below.| Number | In Tiwa language | In English |
| 1 | Kisha | One |
| 2 | Kining | Two |
| 3 | Tham | Three |
| 4 | Broi | Four |
| 5 | Ba | Five |
| 6 | Dok | Six |
| 7 | Sin | Seven |
| 8 | Shan | Eight |
| 9 | Chuku | Nine |
| 10 | Chi | Ten |
| 11 | Chi sha | Eleven |
| 12 | Chi ning | Twelve |
| 13 | Chi tham | Thirteen |
| 14 | Chi broi | Fourteen |
| 15 | Chi ba | Fifteen |
| 16 | Chi dok | Sixteen |
| 17 | Chi sin | Seventeen |
| 18 | Chi shan | Eighteen |
| 19 | Chi chuku | Nineteen |
| 20 | Ning chi | Twenty |
| 100 | Rai sha | One Hundred |
| 200 | Ning rai | Two Hundred |
| 300 | Tham rai | Three Hundred |
| 4,00 | Broi rai | Four Hundred |
| 5,00 | Ba rai | Five Hundred |
| 10,00 | Sai | One Thousand |
| 10,0000 | Rai sai sa | One Lakh |