46 অসমীয়া ব্যাকৰণ আৰু ভাষাতত্ত্ব (ii) Districts and villages : Name. Derivation. Orang (Bhutanese) Bhut.Orang (=a basket carried on back like Ass. khans). Kulai (Khassi) Khas.-Kulai (=a horse). Gom (Bhutanese) Bhut.Cond (sprinp), Chiring Capori (Chutia) Chut.chiring (=buttock, hips), Ah-ting (=chasm)+Khang (eside), Tingking (Ahom) Tingkhang=side of the chasm. Ah-tipun (=the world). Tipam (Ahom) Ah.---ti (=place, ground) and uk Tcok (Ahom) (=chest, breast), tiok=chest place. Tegarcia (=mango). Thekägu (Garo) Bhut...-Tsangla (=the Bhutane: inhabi:- Tangla (Bhutanese) ing the plains). Kach.--dai (=water), Dimapur (Kachari) daima (=great river).. Chutaurang (ekite), cf. durang, the name of a Bhutia Basti on the Bhutan Darrang Chutia) | hill in charge of a chicf up-Dewangiri. Namti-dal (Ahom) Ah.--Nani (=water), t! (=place). | Nani-ii=water place), Polonga (Chutia) Chut.-- Pulunga (=straight, ctect). lamibari (Bhutanese) Bhut-Lama (=road). Beng•bari (in Darrang)। Bhut. Beng (=chang or platform). Bengtal (in Goalpata) Kach.-Hojai (=Bodos living on the Hojai Kachari) | hills or high land). Ah. ao-lang (==name of a place). Melcng (Ahom) Mik.- Rong (=a village), Rans-hang Rongkhang (Mikir) =a mikir clan, (2) Grammatical affinities (a) Gender :— In Sanskrit, as in the other Indo-European languages, not only the words signifying rational animals and living beings are classed as masculine or feminine but also those denoting some inanimate things and abstract ideas arc conceived of as having sexual distinctions. Such classification has also been followed in Assamese to a certain extent. Thus, for example, the word “usa” (dawn) is feminine in Assamese because it is so in San and conceived of as the goddess of light in Hindu mythology. Similarly, the word “Brahmaputra", the great river, is masculine because it is regarded as the son of Brahma, the Creator. The word on” (moon) is feminine in Assarnese because it is derived from “Jyotsna” (light) which is feminine in Sanskrit. | In the Tibeto-Burman family of languages, as in the Davidian, on the other hand, not only all nouns denoting irrational being and inanimate objects are regarded as destitute of sex but also rational beings and living creatures with the exception of the nouns of relationship are classed as having no distinction of sender. In these languages, as a general rule, the gender of animate objects is denoted by prefixing or affixing certain words to the nouns signifying such objects. But in the case of nouns of relation-
