Kʼchò language


Kʼchò, or Mün, is a Kuki-Chin language of Myanmar. After a survey conducted in 2005 in Southern Chin State, Mang estimated the K’chò Region to be Mindat Township //, Kanpetlet Township // and one village in Matupi // or //. A written script for Kʼchò was created in 1929 by Rev. Dr. Herbert Cope, U Aung Shwe, and U Mang Kin.

Names

Kʼchò // is the native term for the people and the language. Alternate names have included Cho, K’cho, 'Cho, K’cho Chin, Mindat, Mün/Müün, Ng'men/Ng'meen.
  • Kʼchò is thought to be related to other native terms for Chin tribes, such as Zo, Kkhyou, Laizo, Asho and Hyow.
  • Müün is reported to be the group named after a mountain in the Hlet Lòng area. The form Ng'Müün is used by So-Hartmann, but is not known by the K'cho people.
  • Ng'mèèn is said to be a K'hngì Yung term referring to those north of their river area in what is now Mìndàt. It is not clear whether the term Ng'mèèn includes Nìtŭ and Hlet Lòng or not.
  • The British initially adopted the name Chinbok, but this turned out to be a derogatory name applied to other close languages, and it has been abandoned for those reasons.

Dialects

After a sociolinguistics survey in the K'cho speaking area in 2005, Kee Shein Mang, a linguist and a native speaker of Kʼchò recognised the following dialects
  • Hmǒng-K'cha, Mang’s term spoken between the Hmǒng Lòng and K'cha Lòng rivers
  • Nìtŭ is north of there, along the Hma Lòng river area, tributaries of Myithar river.
  • Hlet lòng dialect spoken in the Hlet lòng river area, west of the Hmóng-K'cha area.
  • K'hngì Yung is spoken along southern bank of the K'hngì Güng stream
The languages most closely related to Kʼchò are Kaang and Daai.

Linguistic studies

The initial description of the language is in a privately published manuscript by the Catholic missionary:
  • Marc Jordan, Chin Dictionary and Grammar. Privately Published.
It was based upon years of life and work among the people, and included around 7,000 words, and an initial grammar description based on European models. The dialect described there is what Mang calls Hmǒng-k'cha and has several thousand vocabulary items and a sizeable grammar description.
Here are some of the works on the language since then:
  • F. K. Lehman, 1963, wrote an anthropological work on Chin society, which includes some information about what appears to be the Nìtŭ dialect.
  • Kee Shein Mang and Stephen Nolan published a three way dictionary of over 4,500 words of the Hmǒng-k'cha dialect as well. It was designed to be used in conjunction with the Kʼchò-English Jordan dictionary. It includes the semantic categories included, tone on all items, and all stem II of verbs discovered to date.
  • Kee Shein Mang wrote a Masters thesis describing the stem alternation seen in the Hmǒng-k'cha dialect of Kʼchò.
  • Ng'Thang Ngai Om. wrote a history of the Kʼchò spelling system.
Other papers include a large number written by George Bedell and some by Stephen Nolan. See below for details.

Translations

The Bible is available in several translations:
The New Testament was translated by Sayar Ng'Thang Ngai Om in the Nìtŭ dialect
The Catholic K'cho Old and New Testaments were translated by Sayar John Ng'Ling Ghùng and are in Hmong-K'cha dialect.
  • Ghùng, John Ng'lìng. 1994. Old Testament Translation. Manuscript. Privately Published. Mindat.
  • K'khaanpùghĭ àh K'chü K'thài. 2002 Catholic Translation of the New Testament.

Larger works

  • Jordan, Marc. 1969 Chin Dictionary and Grammar. Privately Published.
  • Lehman, F. K. 1963. The Structure of Chin Society. A Tribal People of Burma Adapted to a Non-Western Civilization. University of Illinois Press.
  • *Ng'Thang Ngai Om. 2000. The History of Kʼchò Spelling. Privately Published.
  • Mang, Shein Mang. 2006. . Master’s thesis, Payap University.
  • Mang, Kee Shein and Stephen Nolan. 2010. English/Myanmar/K'cho Dictionary. Zinyatana Publishers. Yangon.

Detailed language analyses

  • Bedell, George. 2002a. Agreement in Kʼchò. Presented to the 33rd ICSTLL. Bangkok: Ramkhamhaeng University.
  • Bedell, George. 2002b. Scope in Kʼchò Questions. Presented to the 35th ICSTLL. Tempe: Arizona.
  • Bedell, George. 2001. Switch Reference in Kʼchò. Presented to the workshop on Tibeto-Burman Linguistics. UC Santa Barbara. University.
  • Bedell, George and Kee Shein Mang. 2009, Benefactives in K’cho. North East Indian Linguistics. Volume 2. Eds Stephen Morey, Mark Post. Pp 241-256*Bedell, George and Kee Shein Mang. 2001. Oct. "Interclausal Ergativity" in Kʼchò. Unpublished notes stimulated by Peterson and Van Bik presented to the UC Santa Barbara Tibeto-Burman Workshop in July, 2001.
  • Mang, Kee Shein and George Bedell, 2012. The Applicative Suffix –na in Kʼchò. Language in India. Volume 12:1 January pp 51 - 69
  • Mang, Kee Shein and George Bedell. 2008. Relative Clauses in Kʼchò. Paul Sidwell & Uri Tamor, eds. SEALSXVI: papers from the 16th meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society. Canberra, Pacific Linguistics, 2008, pp 21-34
  • Mang, Kee Shein and Stephen Nolan. 2010. Kʼchò Educational Poster . Private Publication.
  • Nolan, Stephen 2021. Tone and Pitch Lowering Behaviour in K'cho. A paper presented at the Australian Linguistics Society. La Trobe University.
  • Nolan, Stephen. 2006. High/Low Dissimilation in Kʼchò. Delivered to students at Payap University, Chiangmai, Thailand. Unpublished paper.
  • Nolan, Stephen. 2003 Verbal Alternation in Kʼchò: A Phonological Outline of Verb Stems. Presented at the 36th International Conference of Sino-Tibetan Language and Linguistics. La Trobe University. Australia
  • Nolan, Stephen. 2002. Spelling and the Alphabet in Kʼchò. Asian Cultural Studies Volume 28:127-138. Tokyo. Japan
  • Nolan, Stephen 2000. An Initial Description of Tone in ‘Cho. Proceedings of the 33rdInternational Conference of Sino-Tibetan Language and Linguistics, Ramkhamhaeng University, Thailand, pp. 69-77.
  • Nolan, Stephen and Kee Shein Mang 2003a.12 Kʼchò Verb List with Stem 1 and II Derivations. Unpublished List
  • Nolan, Stephen and Kee Shein Mang 2003b. Tonal diacritics, vowel length, stem II verbal forms and extended definitions added to 199 pages of the 1969 Jordan, Marc M.E.C. Chin Dictionary and Grammar, Mindat, Chin State, Myanmar. Unpublished copy.
  • So-Hartmann, Helga 2009. A Descriptive Grammar of Daai Chin. STEDT Monograph 7. University of California, Berkeley.