Case Systems in Bodo and Dimasa

The case systems in Bodo and Dimasa, two of the sister languages of the Bodo-Garo group under the Tibeto-Burman sub-family of the Sino-Tibetan language family, are both nominative-accusative. There are ten overt case markers in Bodo against eight overt case markers in Dimasa. The nominative marker in Bodo is overt but it is covert in Dimasa. The case markers in these languages are divided into core and non-core in this paper, to study their alignment and assignment in different possible clause-types such as kernel sentences, causative sentences, active and passive sentences, reciprocal and reflexive constructions, transitive and intransitive constructions, etc. Case markers in these languages are assigned by both head verb and noun to dependent nouns/nominals. The similarities and dissimilarities in the Bodo and Dimasa case systems as well as a few different concepts involved in case licensing in these languages are analyzed and discussed in this study. Core case markers in these languages are also discussed in terms of their definiteness feature while co-occurring with nominals.