ABSTRACT
Ethnolinguistics is a part of anthropological linguistics concerned with the study of the interrelation between a language and the cultural behaviour of those who speak it. Ethnolinguistics brings onto a common platform the linguistic and cultural specificities of a community and shows how tradition, cultural practices, rites and rituals, and general life-style influence the language of an ethnic community. This chapter investigates the ethnic and linguistic features of Shabar Kharia, one of the four most primitive tribes of West Bengal, the other three being Toto, Birhorh and Lodha. The language is on the verge of extinction as the native speakers of that language are switching over to some other languages for day-to-day communication. Being essentially a synthetic language Shabar Kharia abounds in verbs going through the process of affixation. It incorporates several syntactic and semantic modifiers in agreement with the verb used.
