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 (with Maringic) are conservatively classified as an independent Tangkhul–Maring branch of Tibeto-Burman, pending further research.

Tangkhulic
Geographic distribution	Ukhrul District, Manipur, India; Naga Self-Administered Zone, Myanmar
Ethnicity	Tangkhul
Linguistic classification	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Central Tibeto-Burman (?) Kuki-Chin–Naga Tangkhul–Maring Tangkhulic
Language codes
Glottolog	sino1246

The Maringic languages appear to be closely related to the Tangkhulic family, but not part of it.

Languages

Tangkhulic languages include:

• Tangkhul (Indian Tangkhul)
• Somra (Burmese Tangkhul)
• 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" (Southern Luhupa?) 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 (Chingjaroi, Jessami, Soraphung Razai) 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 (2003:5) 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 (2012).

Mortensen (2003:5-7) lists the following phonological innovations (sound changes) from Proto-Tibeto-Burman (PTB) 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’ (found exclusively in Tangkhulic)
• *kɔ.phuŋ ‘mountain’ (found exclusively in Tangkhulic)
• *kɔ.mi ‘to give’ (found exclusively in Tangkhulic)
• *khaj ‘fish’ (also found in some Zeme and Angami languages)
• *pan ‘hand’ (also found in some Zeme languages)
• *pej ‘foot’ (also found in some Zeme and Angami languages)

References

• George van Driem (2001) Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region. Brill.
• Mortensen, David R. and James A. Miller (2013). “A reconstruction of Proto-Tangkhulic rhymes.” Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 36(1): 1-32.
• Mortensen, David R. (2012). Database of Tangkhulic Languages. (unpublished ms. contributed to STEDT).
• Mortensen, David R. and James A. Miller (2009). “Proto-Tangkhul Onsets in Comparative Perspective.” International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics 42, Chiangmai, November 4.
• Mortensen, David R. (2003). “Comparative Tangkhul.” Unpublished Qualifying Paper, UC Berkeley.
• Mortensen, David. 2014. The Tangkhulic Tongues - How I Started Working on Endangered Languages.