Himalayan Linguistics

This paper offers the first linguistic description of Igu, the shamanic language of the Kera’a (also 'Idu (Mishmi)'), and thus presents one of the first linguistic descriptions of an Eastern Himalayan ritual language. The Kera’a are a Tibeto-Burman-speaking society of ca. 10 000-16 000 members, based in and around the very northeastern Himalayan river valley of India, in the Dibang Valley and Lower Dibang Valley districts of Arunachal Pradesh. The Kera’a refer to their modern spoken language simply as Kera’a or Kera’a ekobe (‘Kera’a tongue’). For shamanic rituals, shamans recite in Igu (or Igu ekobe ), which the Kera’a consider to be a separate language from Kera'a. Igu is mastered and used by shamans (and their assistants) in rituals, as well as passively understood by knowledgeable elders. This paper demonstrates that Igu is a language in its own right, which partially differs on all core levels - lexical, phonological, morphological, syntactic - from Kera'a. While these differences can in part be accounted for by genre differences, they also point to Igu retaining ancestral forms and structures. Igu consists of several different historical layers, both older and more recent, and its research can thus make valuable contributions to elucidating Eastern Himalayan ethnolinguistic history.