Reduplicated Expressives in Lepcha

Reduplication is defined as repetition or copying of a word or a syllable either exactly or partially in order to bring modification in the semantic interpretation or to convey some special meaning. As observed in Lepcha, (a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Sikkim and Darjeeling district of West Bengal) reduplicated expressives (structures which represent sounds or senses) may belong to the category of full reduplication as well as partial reduplication. Being an important structural phenomenon of the South Asian languages reduplicated expressives play a vital role in the system of communication and so demands a vivid description of its form and function with reference to the semantic interpretation. The data of the present paper has been collected from field investigation conducted in Kalimpong subdivision of Darjeeling district of West Bengal

Diphthongs in Kanashi

Kanashi is identified as a Tibeto-Burman language of Sino-Tibetan language family. The language has been classified as a Kinauri language belonging to West-Himalayish group of Tibeto-Kanauri branch of Tibeto-Burman group. Kanashi has been referred by UNESCO as definitely endangered. Retrospective literature survey reveals that the language is yet to be documented properly. Therefore as a part of language documentation the phonological studies of Kanashi have been undertaken. The study of diphthongs of the language has been considered in the present paper. Diphthongs are the phonological segments where two vowels form clusters to form a single syllable. The data of the present paper has been collected from Kanashi native speakers during field investigation in Malana village of Himachal Pradesh. IPA has been used for data collection

KINSHIP TERMINOLOGY IN LEPCHA

Lepcha being a language of the Tibeto Burman language family exhibit structural traits of the of the kinship terminological system realised in the Indian subcontinent. Kinship terminology has been analysed by different scholars from different points of view like, generation, sex, affinity, collaterality, relative age, polarity, affinity, etc. The present paper examines the Lepcha kinship terminology keeping the existing structural criteria in view along with culture and language specific aspects into consideration

REDUPLICATION IN KANASHI

Kanashi, a Tibeto-Burman language is spoken in the Malana district of Himachal Pradesh in India. The present discussion concentrates on a particular grammatical phenomenon known as ‘reduplication’. By definition the concept of Reduplication stands for repetition or copying of a word or a syllable either exactly or with partial change in the phonological or morphological structure and the copied part is affixed to the base element in order to bring some modification in the semantic interpretation of the base element or to convey some special meaning. (Dattamajumdar, 2001:3). This study of reduplication is a part of the grammatical study of the Kanashi language which is an ongoing work. The data of the present work has been collected from Kanashi mother tongue speaker, an inhabitant of Malana district of Himachal Pradesh. The data has been collected and presented here using International Phonetic Alphabet

Ethno-Linguistic Vitality of Koch

The Koch language is spoken in the states of Assam (Goalpara, Nagaon, Dhubri, Kokrajhar, Chirang, Bongaigao, Barpeta, Baksa, Udalguri, Karbi Anglong, Golaghat districts), Meghalaya (West Garo Hills, South-West Garo Hills, South Garo Hills and East Khasi Hills Districts). Koches are found in West Bengal (Northern part) and also in Bangladesh. The speaker strength of Koch in India according to 2011 census is 36,434. Koch community is the bilingual speakers of Assamese, Bengali, Garo, Hindi, and English. Contact situations of Koch with Assamese and Bengali languages have made the language vulnerable to language shift. The UNESCO report mentions Koch as ‘Definitely Endangered’1. Koch has gained the status of a scheduled tribe in Meghalaya in 1987. Kondakov (2013) traces six distinct dialects of Koch, viz., Wanang, Koch-Rabha (Kocha), Harigaya, Margan, Chapra and Tintekiya. He (2013:24) states, “The relationship between the six Koch speech varieties are rather complex. They represent a dialect chain that stretches out from Koch-Rabha in the north to Tintekiya Koch in the south.” This is diagrammatically represented as - Koch-Rabha(Kocha)→Wanang→Harigaya→Margan, Chapra→Tintekiya where the adjacent dialects exhibit more lexical similarity than those at the ends. Nine ethno-linguistic varieties of Koch (also mentioned in Kondakov, 2013:5) have been reported during field investigation. These are Harigaya, Wanang, Tintekiya, Margan, Chapra, Satpariya, Sankar, Banai and Koch Mandai

Generation of sequence-specific, high affinity anti-DNA antibodies.

By taking advantage of the extreme stability of a protein-DNA complex, we have obtained two highly specific monoclonal antibodies against a predetermined palindromic DNA sequence corresponding to the binding site of the E2 transcriptional regulator of the human papillomavirus (HPV-16). The purified univalent antibody fragments bind to a double-stranded DNA oligonucleotide corresponding to the E2 binding site in solution with dissociation constants in the low and subnanomolar range. This affinity matches that of the natural DNA binding domain and is severalfold higher than the affinity of a homologous bovine E2 C-terminal domain (BPV-1) for the same DNA. These antibodies discriminate effectively among a number of double- and single-stranded synthetic DNAs with factors ranging from 125- to 20,000-fold the dissociation constant of the specific DNA sequence used in the immunogenic protein-DNA complex. Moreover, they are capable of fine specificity tuning, since they both bind less tightly to another HPV-16 E2 binding site, differing in only 1 base pair in a noncontact flexible region. Beyond the relevance of obtaining a specific anti-DNA response, these results provide a first glance at how DNA as an antigen is recognized specifically by an antibody. The accuracy of the spectroscopic method used for the binding analysis suggests that a detailed mechanistic analysis is attainable.Fil: Cerutti, Maria Laura. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Centeno, Juan M.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Goldbaum, Fernando Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: de Prat Gay, Gonzalo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; Argentin