#bawm

BAWL (bisexually attracted women leaning, top flag) and BAWM (bisexually attracted men leaning, bottom flag) flags! Because I’ve seen some talk over whether bisexual girls/boys should call themselves lesbians/gays I created some flags!  

Amnesty International USA: 59 Indigenous Bawm people continue to be detained without trial in Chittagong Hill Tracts in southeastern Bangladesh. They are accused by the Bangladeshi authorities of being “terrorists”, suspected of being part of, or supporters of, a military group that allegedly robbed two public banks and held a bank manager hostage in April 2024. Of the 142 people arrested in April 2024, three have died in custody amidst concerns of lack of adequate healthcare, while those still in detention remain at serious risk. 80 people have been released on bail, but the other 59 Bawm people, including three children, continue to be jailed without trial. Bangladeshi authorities must either promptly charge individuals with an internationally recognizable criminal offense or release them.

Introduction

I wanted to compare numbers in the Bawm language to the ancestor of Sino-Tibetan as a whole. So, this is just taken from Wikipedia, just to give a basic intro to the language because my main focus here is historical linguistics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bawm_language "Native speakers: 16000 (2004-2011) Bawm or Bawm Zo, also known as Banjogi, is a Kuki-Chin language primarily spoken in Bangladesh. It is also spoken in adjacent regions of Northeast India and Myanmar.""Most of the Zohnahthlak communities live in Rangamati and Bandarban districts of Chittagong division in Bangladesh, with most of the Bawm community residing in the Bethel Para in Ruma subdistrict and Thanci subdistrict of the Bandarban district. Also, the Bawm reside in the Rangamati Sadar and Barkal and Bilaichari subdistricts of the Rangamati district." Numbers in Bawm compared to Proto-Kuki-Chin (All these page numbers taken from VanBik's Proto-Kuki-Chin: A Reconstructed Ancestor of the Kuki-Chin Languages STEDT Project University of California, Berkeley, 2009):

Bawm vs PKC

1 pakhat < *khat ⪤ *ʔat ⪤ *hat 450 2 panih < *ni? [844] 3 pathum < *thum [416], /Cognate to WB sûm ‘three’. 4 pa-li < *lii [1022], /cf. WB lê ‘four’, prefixal *b- at PTB level (cf. WT bźi). 5 panga < *ŋaa 855; WB ŋâ 6 paruk < *ruk 974, cf. WB khrok, WT drug, PTB *kruk 7 pasirih < *sa-ri? 672 8 pa-riat < *riat 935, cognate WB hrac, WT brgyad 9 pakua < *kua 302 10 para < *hraa 1100 11 lei-khat 12 lei-nih 20 kul < kul 302 21 kul lei-khat 100 za, za kat <*yaa 1207 100 sang

PST roots

Now let us look at the PST roots which gave rise to Bawm with some commentary. The PST is taken from Wiktionary with commentary from Matisoff's article (1995):

*kat is mentioned by Matisoff, section 3.12 (Matisoff, 1995, p.127)

*g-ni-s

*g-sum

*b-lij~ *b-ləj

*l-ŋaʔ

*k-ruk

*s-ni-s "Many Kuki-Chin-Naga languages have r-, ɣ- or g- root initial. Matisoff: "rhotacism"/liquefaction of nasal.", so basically s-ni-s -> s-ris, hypothetically matching our pattern sVri -> sari "4.2212 With rhotacism of the nasal root-initial The STC regards these forms as reflecting a quite separate root from *s-nis,233) but in my opinion they cannot be ostracized from this etymon. I believe these forms merely show "rhotacism" — i.e. a "liquefaction" of the nasal. We have already noted the regular development of *r to g in many KUKI-CHIN languages (above 4.214) . It seems clear that after some of these languages underwent rhotacism of the intervocalic nasal, the resulting liquid was then hardened to a voiced velar fricative or stop: *-n- > -r- > -g-." ([[ST Number Prefixes]], 1995, p.198) This is pretty self explanatory. If we consider n->r, then it makes sense how siri comes from s-ni-s.

*pə-rjat

*tə-ŋguʔ It could reflect the term in Kuki-Chin-Naga languages because it contains a velar and older reconstructions did show just k without the nasal, like "NINE *d-kaw (_ *d-kuw) x *s-gaw A *d-gaw" ([[ST Number Prefixes]], 1995, p.207)

*gip, *ts(j)i(j) ~ tsjaj 20 *m-kul 100 *b-r-jakə 1000 *s-tawŋ - has descendents in brnaches other than Kuki-Chin. Even Matisoff (1995, p.173) mentions that this form is constructued specifically based on Burmese. For now it seems the root for thousand in Bawm has unknown etymology.

Abbreviations:

PST= proto Sino-Tibetan STEDT= Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus KC= Kuki-Chin

References:

James, A., & マティソフ, J.A. (1995). Sino-Tibetan Numerals and the Play of Prefixes. In 国立民族学博物館研究報告 = Bulletin of the National Museum of Ethnology (Issue 1, pp. 105–252). https://doi.org/10.15021/00004192

VanBik, K (2009) Proto-Kuki-Chin: A Reconstructed Ancestor of the Kuki-Chin Languages. University of California, Berkeley

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Proto-Sino-Tibetan_numerals

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Proto-Sino-Tibetan_numerals

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bawm_language

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C42Q0bGl0iA

The Fruit of the Spirit (BAWM: Bible NT)

BAWM: Bible NT

Galatians (Galatia) 5:22-23

22 Thlarau rah lam chu zângfahnâk, lâwptlonâk, remnâk, dawnhkhonâk, vêlneihnâk, ṭhatnâk,

23 zumhkainâk, mi tangah dawnhkhonâk, sûmkhonâk tla asi dauh; chu hawi kalh kâng hen Dân thupêk rerêng a um lo.

The Fruit of the Spirit (BAWM: Bible NT)

BAWM: Bible NT Galatians (Galatia) 5:22-23 22 Thlarau rah lam chu zângfahnâk, lâwptlonâk, remnâk, dawnhkhonâk, vêlneihnâk, ṭhatnâk, 23 zumhkainâk, mi tangah dawnhkhonâk, sûmkhonâk tla asi dauh; chu hawi kalh kâng hen Dân thupêk rerêng a um lo.

The Armor of God (BAWM: Bible NT)

BAWM: Bible NT

Ephesians (Ephesi) 6:10-18

10 A dawnghchemnâk ah Lalpa ah leh a chaknâk ah thiltikhonâk nei hen hawng um u.

11 Diabol ngamlêmnâk tla chu nan do khonâk ding hen Pathian râlthuam rangtling hen a thuam u.

12 Kan paihpi mi tla hi taksa leh thisen an si lo, lalnâk leh thuneihnâk tla leh hi thim tlûnah lâirêltu tla leh vân mun tla ah thlarau sual um mi tla an si dauh.

13Churuangah, ni…