Aiton is a language spoken in Assam, India by the Aiton people. It is also known as Antonia or Sham Doaniya.[1] It is one of the four actively-spoken languages in the Southwestern branch of of the Tai family of languages; the other three are Khamti, Phake, and Khamyang.[2] Aiton is classified as a threatened language. There are about 1500 speakers of Aiton. Although the Tai Aiton language is not immediately in danger of extinction, the number of people who have knowledge of its traditional writing system is decreasing.[3] The Aiton people live primarily in the Dhonsiri Valley on the south bank of the Brahmaputra[4] and there are some speakers living in the Jorhat and Karbi Anglung districts. The Tai Aiton people settled in India close to three hundred or two hundred years ago and it is traditionally believed that they arrived from Burma seeking refuge from oppression.[5] Despite how long they have been in Assam, many members of the older generation are not fluent in Assamese, the official language of the state. There are many historical and sacred manuscripts in the language. The Tai Aiton people follow Buddhism and share many cultural practices with the other Tai ethnic groups.[6] The Tai languages share many grammatical similarities, a writing system, and much of their vocabulary. [7]
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- ^ "Did you know Aiton is threatened?". Endangered Languages. Retrieved 2017-03-10.
- ^ Morey, Stephen. "Tonal change in the Tai languages of Northeast India." Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 28.2 (2005): 139-202.
- ^ Bradley, David, and Maya Bradley. Language Endangerment and Language Maintenance: An Active Approach. Routledge, 2013.
- ^ Diller, A. V., Edmondson, J. A., & Luo, Y. (2014). The Tai-Kadai languages. London: Routledge.
- ^ Burgohain, Joya. "The Aitons: Some aspects of their life and culture." (2013).
- ^ Morey, S. (2008). North East Indian Linguistics. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press India.
- ^ Diller, A. (1992). Tai languages in Assam: daughters or ghosts? In C.J. Compton and J.F. Hartmann (Ed.), Papers on Tai languages, Linguistics, and Literatures, 5-43. Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Northern Illinois University.