Tangkhulic languages


The Tangkhulic and Tangkhul languages are a group of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken mostly in northeastern Manipur, India. Conventionally classified as "Naga," they are not clearly related to other Naga languages, and are conservatively classified as an independent Tangkhul–Maring branch of Tibeto-Burman, pending further research.
The Maringic languages appear to be closely related to the Tangkhulic family, but not part of it.

Languages

Tangkhulic languages include:
  • Tangkhul
  • Somra
  • Akyaung Ari
  • Kachai
  • Huishu
  • Tusom
  • Suansu
  • Challow
  • Kongai
The Tangkhulic languages are not particularly close to each other. Suansu, Challow, and Kongai were only documented starting from 2019.
Brown's "Southern Tangkhul" is a Kuki-Chin rather than Tangkhulic language. It has strong links with the recently discovered Sorbung language, which is also not Tangkhulic despite being spoken by ethnic Tangkhul. some northern villages in Tangkhul area have language more closely related to the Angami-Pochuri language group.
Koki, Long Phuri, Makuri, and Para are "Naga" languages spoken in and around Leshi Township, Myanmar. These four languages could possibly classify as Tangkhulic languages or Ao languages.

Classification

Mortensen classifies the Tangkhulic languages as follows.
  • Tangkhulic
  • *Northern: Huishu
  • *North-Central: Champhung
  • *East-Central
  • **Eastern
  • ***Kachai
  • ***Phadāng
  • **Central
  • ***Standard Tangkhul
  • ***Ukhrul
  • *Southern
  • **Brown's 'Central Tangkhul'
  • **South-Central
  • ***Khangoi
  • ***Brown's 'Northern Tangkhul'

    Reconstruction

Proto-Tangkhulic, the reconstructed ancestral proto-language of the Tangkhulic languages, has been reconstructed by Mortensen.
Mortensen lists the following phonological innovations from Proto-Tibeto-Burman to Proto-Tangkhulic.
  • PTB *s- > *th-; PTB *ts-, *sy- > *s-
  • PTB *dz-, *dzy-, *tsy- > *ts-
  • PTB *ky-, *gy- > *ʃ-
  • PTB *kr-, *tsy- > *c-
  • Neutralization of vowel length distinctions in non-low vowels
  • Dissimilation of aspiration in prefixes
Proto-Tangkhulic also has the nominalizing prefix *kV-.
Proto-Tangkhulic lexical innovations are:
  • *war ‘mushroom’
  • *kɔ.phuŋ ‘mountain’
  • *kɔ.mi ‘to give’
  • *khaj ‘fish’
  • *pan ‘hand’
  • *pej ‘foot’