Mao Text book analysis

Heshu

Introduction of Mao in school syllabus starting from class I level has a conjecture that the
child has mastered Mao language and the English alphabets. Therefore, to show the similarity
of the sound systems in both the languages, the common symbols of representation are
brought forward. This is followed by the possible combination of simple sounds to form
meaningful words. In the next stage, revelation of sounds pertaining to Mao and which are
absent in the meta-language English such as the central unrounded vowels /ɨ/
orthographically represented as ‘ü’ is shown. Complex sounds such as aspirated /ph/, /th/, /kh/;
affricates such as voiced and voiceless labiodentals affricates /ȹf/, /ȸv/ which is
represented in orthography by ‘pf’ and ‘bv’; voiced, voiceless alveolar affricates /ts/, /dz/,
same fonts used in orthography; voiced and voiceless palatals palatal /tʃ/, /dʒ/ represented in
the orthography by ‘c’ and ‘j’ respectively; and voiceless alveolar tap /ɾ̥/ represented by
‘hr’; and also possible consonant clusters /pr, phr, kr, khr/ are introduced to the child. The
motivation for such approach could be to cater the young mind to realise the differences of
sound system in different languages. Then the child is now exposed to short stories and
rhymes. As the standard goes higher, longer stories that are contextually relevant are fed to
the child. By class V standard, general topics such as short stories on Mother Teresa, Gandhi,
Christmas, the wonder of science, Manipur, general festivals, among others are incorporated
in the syllabus so as to introduce different culture in order to inculcate a positive attitude
towards another culture. Overall framework of the syllabus can be said to be scientific though
it cannot be denied that there are ample room for further improvement.

It should be noted here that text books were written by non-linguist and also without
consulting their expertise knowledge. First obstacle faced by learner is to overcome the
spelling system. The problem of non-acceptance of the earlier standardised variety coupled
with introduction of different spellings as per the variety and whims of the author gives rise
to confusion both to the student as well as the teacher and school authority. Each author tries
to bring into their writings the closest representation of phonetic property of their variety in
orthography. It is worth noting here that the phonemic inventory of Mao pose a challenge
even to linguist. The status of consonantal phoneme described here as voiceless alveolar tap
remained a point of contention. While Giridhar, claims it to be a ‘coarticulated segment of a
voiceless trill and a voiceless glottal fricative’ (1994: 41) yet some other linguist1 claimed it
to be retroflex fricative. Further improvement over the previous representation can be seen in
Basena (1998) where the unaspirated and aspirated post alveolar stops are represented with tt
and tth respectively as against unaspirated and aspirated alveolar stop which has its
representation as t and th. However, orthographical representation of consonants can be said
to have been established.

A greater challenged is from the vowel sounds. A quick look into the relative position
of vowels in Mao as presented in Giridhar’s (op.cit) will showcase the problem.

1
Personal communication with Prof. R.N. Bhat and Prof. A. K. Mishra
 (Extracted from Giridhar, 1994:21)

The given figure highlights the relative space occupied by a phoneme. The large range
occupied by a sound creates confusion for its representation. In other words, the possible
relative articulatory range of the vowels showing phonetic variants within a variety
accompanied by phonological variation between regional varieties lead to representation of a
phoneme with different symbols or combinations of symbols. For instance, /ɨ/ at times are
represented with /i, e, a2/ or some other combination. The same is applied for /o/. This
uncertainty of spelling coupled with emergence of different varieties into their writings
creates confusion among learners. The vernacular writing system which tries to follow the
phonetic representation (loose usage the term phonetic) and the non-systematic spelling
system of English writings led at times to pronounce English word graphically.

Another bone of contention is the issue of tone. Different scholars claims different
numbers present in the language. Giridhar (1994) and Lokho3 are of the opinion that there are
only four distinct tones with the presence of another one which are usually merged to one of
the four in speech. However, Basena (1998) and Heshu (2008) are of the opinion that the fifth
one stand as full-fledged and thus consider five tones in the languages. This issue may not
exactly pose as having a direct consequence to language teaching but the indirect effect is the
attempt by some native scholars to incorporate tones into the writing system.

It should also be noted here that Mao is a vowel ending language and therefore, the
speakers find it hard to pronounce the consonants in the coda position when learning another
language. A classic example is the velar nasal /ŋ/ occurring at the coda position such as
swimming, singing, dancing etc, which are pronounced as alveolar nasal /n/. Interesting
phenomena of vowel epenthesis can also be seen in borrowed words such as japani from
Japan; sabuni ‘soap’ from sabon (Manipuri word); dosüla from disla ‘match box’ etc. The

2
Giridhar’s /a/ is /ɐ/ in my (Heshu) analysis.
3
Personal communication
nativisation of ocha from Indo-Aryan word chai for ‘tea’ shows the word structure of Mao
consisting minimum of two syllabic and thus a mono syllabic words are naturally added
another syllable.

Basena, N. Ashoohrii. 1998. An Introduction to Maola Grammar (Olalu): Expression in

English, Book – I. Self Publication. Printed at Beehive Computer System: Imphal

Heshu, Losii 2008. An Ethnosemantic Study of the Mao Language. Unpublished thesis
submitted to North Eastern Hill University, Shillong.