Barman Thar (IPA: /bÃÂþmÃÂn t<sup>h</sup>aþ/), where âÂÂtharâ means language, is a highly endangered language. It is a Tibeto-Burman language that belongs to the BoroâÂÂGaro sub-group. The population of the Barman Kachari community is 24,237, according to a 2017 census. However, only a small part of this population speaks the language.
The Barman Kacharis are an indigenous Assamese community of Northeast India. They are mainly found in the districts of Lower Assam and some parts of Arunachal Pradesh. Barman Kachari is one of the ancient ethnic groups of North-East India. Since the 2002 Amendment act, many Barman Kacharis in Assam are referred to as 'Barman'. They are mainly found in the districts of Udalguri, Baksa, Chirang, Kokrajhar, Darrang, Kamrup, Goalpara, Nagaon, Lakhimpur, Dhemaji
The Barman Kacharis number some 24,237 persons, according to a 2017 census. Out of this number, 12,555 are males and 11,503 are females. Their literacy rate is estimated at 4 percent. The level of literacy of males and females is 2.5% and 1.5%, respectively.
The language of the Barman Kacharis had never been documented until 2019 when M.A. students in Linguistics and Language Technology (Batch 2018-2020) of Tezpur University carried out field work for the first time on this language.
The Barman Thar phonemic inventory consists of eight vowels, nine diphthongs, and twenty consonants (including two semivowels).
In Barman Thar, there are twenty consonants.
pð and z have idiolectal variations. They are, by some people, sometimes pronounced as ø and dáz respectively. For example, the word pða (meaning âÂÂfatherâÂÂ) is sometimes pronounced as øa and nÃÂmza (meaning âÂÂbadâÂÂ) is sometimes pronounced as nÃÂmdáza.
Gemination, which is the twinning of two consonants, is also found in the Barman language.
In the study of Barman Thar, carried out by the students of Tezpur University, they found only one word, i.e. bþui, with a consonant cluster. It is a cluster of two consonants, b and þ. And they found no final cluster in any word.
In Barman Thar, there are eight vowels and nine diphthongs.
Case:
Three of the tenses are morphologically marked in Barman Thar.
In Barman Thar, the present tense is marked with the suffix âÂÂ-aâÂÂ, the past tense, with âÂÂ-jaâ and the future tense, with âÂÂ-áÃÂnâÂÂ. And the following are the four aspects:
In Barman Thar, verbs are negated by suffixing âÂÂ-zaâ and âÂÂ-ziaâ for present and past tense respectively.
For example, the root word for the verb âÂÂeatâ in Barman Thar is âÂÂcaâÂÂ. The negative form of the word in the present tense is caza (ca+za), meaning âÂÂdo/does not eatâ and that in the past tense is cazia (ca+zia), meaning âÂÂdid not eatâÂÂ.
Again, in case of imperative sentences, the suffix -nÃÂÃ Â is use.
For example, mei canÃÂà  means âÂÂDon't eat rice.â [mei means âÂÂriceâÂÂ, and canÃÂà  is bi-morphemic, formed by the root word for âÂÂeatâÂÂ, i.e. ca, and the imperative negative marker -nÃÂà Â.]
In Barman Thar, there is one classifier, i.e. -ja.
Another feature of this language that needs to be mentioned is the presence of allomorphs.
Allomorphs of the past tense marker:
-ja is the past tense marker. But when this morpheme is suffixed to a verb ending in [m], it becomes -maja. For example, cum + -ja = cummaja. When it is suffixed to a verb ending in [n], it becomes -naja as in dÃÂn + -ja = dÃÂnnaja. When it is affixed to a verb ending in [à Â], it becomes -aja, as in hià Âaja (hià  + -ja).
Therefore, it can be said that -maja, -naja and -aja are allomorphs of the morpheme -ja.
Allomorphs of the ergative case marker:
-a is the ergative case marker in Barman Thar. However, when it is affixed to a noun ending in a vowel, it becomes -ja. For example, sita + -ja = sitaja.
So, -ja is an allomorph of the ergative case marker -a.