SG/MW small group 9/8/15

We worked Tuesday evening, 9/8/15.

We worked with Harsha in the seminar room from about 6:15-7 (we had some issues getting into the room).

He did not want tea.  I am not sure how we are supposed to give our consultants things if they do not want tea.  Like, Bowern suggested we give our consultants tea to make a comforting atmosphere, but he had already eaten, so I'm a little stuck.

To start, we interviewed him.  Harsha grew up in a middle-class Bengali neighborhood.  He noted that, usually, upper-caste Hindu Bengali speakers were either bʰɑngʰɑl or gʰoti.  The two have some small phonetic differences: for example, I did in bʰɑngʰɑl bengali is kʰortɑm, whereas in gʰoti bengali they say kʰortum.  Harsha's ancestors were originally from East Bengal, now known as Bangladesh.  There are more details about their migration on Swatmail.
Harsha speaks Bengali at home; he and his father can't speak much Hindi, but his mom can.  His mother's English is better than his father's, and he has no siblings.  Bengali was his first language, but he now feels like he reads in it more slowly than he does in English.  Harsha was born in New York but moved back to India when he was two and a half to live with his grandmother.  His parents moved back to Calcutta when he was 14 and then, when his grandmother died when he was 15, he lived there with his mom for two years and attended an international school where all classes were taught in English.

At Swarthmore, Harsha speaks Bengali mostly to give his friends a hard time, but he will also speak with Paroma.  He is working to read more literature in Bengali, as he spoke entirely English through school.  Speaking Bengali was considered "uncool."  Sometimes, he will speak Bengali online with friends, where he will transliterate words into English characters.

Harsha's maternal grandfather was an Indian doctor who traveled around India for work, which is why his mother speaks Hindi so well.  She has a brother and sister in Bangalore and Delhi respectively.  Harsha's dad's side of the family is all in Calcutta or immigrated west, although he has a Tamil aunt.

After we finished interviewing Harsha, we had some time left over, so we decided to look into reduplication.  Most of the examples he was able to give used t, although a few used ʈ.

Examples given:

kɑbɑr tɑbɑr

(g/k)ɑri tɑri - "Cars and (related) things"

boi toi

bæg tæg - "bag" with a sense of "that thing"

Harsha found the idea of using reduplication with a name odd at first, but was able to produce sæm tæm.

He was able to use reduplication with English words as well, to the same effect:

t͡ʃɛr tɛr (chair)

botol totol (bottle)

etc.

He tried English ?bæg fæg but wasn't comfortable with it.

*boi foi

He thought possibly togor nogor was valid, but for, say, tɑkɑ, money, he didn't think he could really do reduplication.  Reduplication seems to be somewhat related to pluralization, because tʰumɾo could not have reduplication because it could not be pluralized.

He did find it possible to say kumɾo tumɾo.

The reduplication for ston(d) is ston(d) ton(d), which is interesting because it's the first consonant cluster being dropped rather than just the first consonant.

Also interesting, Harsha believed that togoɾ nogoɾ was the valid reduplication for togoɾ, but he was unsure.

Verbs like koɾɛ, done, can't necessarily be reduplicated, but Harsha was able to give us the example sentence koɾɛ toɾɛfɛ lɛt͡ʃɛ, "He's done what needs to be done" (dismissive connotation.)  It may be a transcription error, but I am pretty certain the contrast between toɾɛfɛ and lɛt͡ʃɛ is valid, which is interesting because the reduplication has all been perfect before that point.  Assuming those two are the reduplicated ones.

Other sentences Harsha gave us include:

skulɛ boi toi niɛdʒou - "Take your books and things to school"

boi toi hɔbɛ - "There must be books and/or something (else/related)"

Other phrases were ɑbol tɑbol, an old nonsense rhyme that now means "nonsense",

hɑɾ tɑɾ, which was weird and might be uncertain

hɑɾgoɾ is the plural for bone (informal).  Bone could not be reduplicated.

ɑm - mango

ɑm ʈɑm is a valid construction

abul t̪ɑbul was also valid.

Sam believed most of the t's listed were retroflex.