Noun compounding in Garo

Abstract

Anyone who has made a serious effort to learn one of the tribal languages of Southeast Asia must be impressed by the vast, varied and resourceful vocabulary used by its speakers. Gaining control over the lexicon of a language is always a formidable task, no less among rice farming moun¬taineers of Southeast Asia than among urban sophisticates of Europe. Indeed, since the processes of word formation are quite different in the two areas, it is Southeast Asia that poses the greater challenge for the European. In this paper, I want to describe just one of the means by which Garos, Tibeto-Burman highlanders of northeastern India, build up their rich vocabulary.'