Overview People and language

1 Introduction

1.1 Overview

A brief survey among the Adi, a scheduled tribe distributed in Arunachal Pradesh of India, was carried out in order to determine whether besides the Padam any other Adi groups would benefit from translation work into their mother tongue. A team of two members conducted the research from July 10 to 17, 2004, and covered the following districts: East Siang, West Siang and Upper Siang. Sociolinguistic survey helps to assess whether language development and translation should be carried out for a particular people group. It looks at issues such as the relatedness of the language to other language varieties, whether the people are continuing to speak their language, how well the community understands a more widely spoken language, and the attitudes that the group has about their language. Thus the goals of this particular survey were the following: • To investigate language relationships in Adi, particularly the relationship between the Padam variety and more distinct Adi varieties such as Milang. • To find out the geographical areas where some of the smaller and lesser-known groups are living such as Tangam, Pailibo and Ramo. • Among Adi sub-groups for which there is doubt, find out patterns of language use, vitality and attitudes towards their own variety and other Adi varieties. • To investigate issues related to the impact of the Scriptures in Adi. During the course of the trip, a number of people were asked for their assistance in giving information, including college students as well as villagers. In addition, pastors and church leaders were contacted for their insights and assistance. Other people contributed to help complete the study. The researchers want to thank all those who assisted in various ways.

1.2 People and language

The Adi people are distributed in East Siang, West Siang, Upper Siang, Dibang Valley and some parts of Upper Subansiri districts of Arunachal Pradesh. According to the 1981 census, the total population of Adi, including all sub-groups, was 121,052. According to the 1991 census, the population rose to 158,409. The Adi community is predominantly rural with more than 98 percent of the population living in rural areas. The Adi live in the rugged mountainous and hilly terrain, which is covered by streams and tropical, dense evergreen, and semi-deciduous forests. The area abounds with bears, deer, wolves, hornbills, elephants, tigers and snow-bears. It enjoys a moderate climate with cool temperatures and heavy rainfall. Adi is a generic term, meaning ‘hill men’. Formerly the Adi were called Abor Roy 1967. They disliked the term because it meant ‘unruly’ or ‘savage’. According to Adi legend, Abo Tani was the first man from whom the community descended. The people originally came from the northern region and settled in the present area Singh 1995. The Adi are divided into fifteen major sub-groups, namely Ashing, Bokar, Bori, Gallong Galo, Gallo, Karko, Komkar, Milang, Minyong, Padam, Pailibo, Pangi, Pasi, Ramo, Shimong and Tangam Singh 1995:53. 1 1 The Galo have separated themselves from the Adi community, and do not consider themselves as Adi. The language code for Galo Adi is [adl] while for Adi the code is [adi], Ed. Among the Adi sub-groups, Ashing, Karko, Komkar, Milang, Minyong, Padam, Pailibo, Pangi, Pasi and Shimong are concentrated in the East Siang district. 2 Padam is concentrated in Dibang Valley district also. Bokar, Bori, Gallong, Ramo and Tangam are concentrated in West Siang district. Gallongs are found in some parts of Upper Subansiri as well. A council called kebang is common among Adi for resolving various disputes. There are three types of councils: bane-kebang village council, banggo-kebang comprising more than two villages, and bogum- bokang comprising the whole community of the state. A dispute is first taken before the village council, the bane-kebang. If the dispute is not resolved, it then moves to the higher councils. The Adi speak a language which is classified as Sino-Tibetan, Tibeto-Burman, North Assam, Tani Lewis et al. 2015. According to the Ethnologue, alternative names of Adi are Abor, Arbor, Lhoba, Luoba and Bogaer. For writing in Adi, Roman script is mostly used, with some Devanagri. For speaking with non-Adi people of the state, Hindi, Assamese and Nepali are used. 2 Results

2.1 Dialects