Indian Linguistics 83(1-2) 2022: 1-26 ISSN: 0378-0759 WORD FORMATION IN TIWA ALEENDRA BRAHMA Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysuru aleendra.b@gov.in ABSTRACT This paper describes word formation processes in Tiwa, a Tibeto-Burman language, spoken mostly in Assam and Meghalaya. Tiwa roots are usually monosyllabic in nature but as agglutination is employed in the language, multimorphemic words which are also polysyllabic are used much more frequently than monosyllabic words. The formation of new words in this language involves different word formation processes such as affixation, compounding, reduplication and onomatopoeia or echo word formation. All of these processes are prominent with compounding being the most productive among them. Keywords: word formation, Tiwa, compounding, reduplication, onomatopoeia 1. Introduction Tiwa aka Lalung comes under Bodo-Garo group of languages under the Assam-Burmese branch of the Tibeto-Burman (TB) sub-family of Tibeto-Chinese family (Grierson, 1927, pp. 53-4). According to another recent classification of TB languages by Post and Burling, it belongs to the Bodo part of Bodo-Garo under the Sal (Bodo-Konyak-Jingpho, Brahmaputran) languages of TB family (2017, pp. 224-5). The term ‘Tiwa’ is an autonym and ‘Lalung’ is an exonym (Brahma, 2014, p. 140). It is spoken in Karbi-Anglong (West), Marigaon, Nowgong, Hojai and Lakhimpur districts of Assam and Ri-Bhoi, West Jaintia Hills and East Jaintia Hills districts of Meghalaya (See Figure 1). Figure 1: Tiwa people dwelling areas in Assam and Meghalaya states of India