Ao languages


The Ao or Central Naga languages are a small family of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken by various Naga peoples of Nagaland in northeast India. Conventionally classified as "Naga", they are not clearly related to other Naga languages, and are conservatively classified as an independent branch of Sino-Tibetan, pending further research. There are around 607,000 speakers of the languages in total.
Coupe considers the Angami–Pochuri languages to be most closely related to Ao as part of a wider Angami–Ao group.

Languages

The following languages are widely accepted as Central Naga languages:
There are also various undescribed Ao varieties including Yacham and Tengsa, which may turn out to be separate languages.
The following "Naga" languages spoken in and around Leshi Township, Myanmar are classified as Ao languages by Saul.
  • Koki
  • Makury
  • Long Phuri
  • Para
Hsiu places Makury, Long Phuri, and Para into a Greater Central Naga branch, but excludes Koki.
  • Greater Central Naga
  • *Makury
  • *Long Phuri
  • *Para
  • *Central Naga
  • **Lotha
  • **Sangtam
  • **Yimchungrü
  • **Ao
Bruhn also surmises that Makury may be an Ao language.
Bruhn uses the term Central Naga to refer to all of the languages above, and uses the Ao to refer to only two languages, namely Chungli Ao and Mongsen Ao. The internal structure of Bruhn's Central Naga group is as follows.
;Central Naga
  • Lotha
  • Sangtam
  • Yimkhiungrü
  • Ao
  • *Chungli Ao
  • *Mongsen Ao
Coupe suggests that Wui, a recently described divergent language of eastern Nagaland, is likely a divergent Aoic language.

Reconstruction

Proto-Central Naga, the proto-language of this family, has been reconstructed by Bruhn.
Bruhn identifies the following four sound changes from Proto-Tibeto-Burman to Proto-Central Naga as sound changes that are characteristic of the Central Naga branch.
  1. PTB *-aw, *-əw, *-ow, *-u > PCN *-u ‘back diphthong merger’
  2. PTB *-r > PCN *-n ‘*r-coda nasalization’
  3. PTB *-s > PCN *-t ‘*s-coda occlusivization’
  4. PTB *-il, *‑al, *‑uːl > PCN *‑ə ‘*l-rime erosion’

    Reflexes of consonants

The following reflexes of initial consonants are known: