Konyak language

Konyak
Native to Nagaland, India
Ethnicity Konyak
Native speakers
 250,000 (2001 census)[1]
Sino-Tibetan
Language codes
ISO 639-3 nbe
Glottolog kony1248[2]

Konyak is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by the Konyak people of Nagaland, northeastern India.

Dialects

Ethnologue lists the following dialects of Konyak.

  • Angphang
  • Hopao
  • Changnyu
  • Chen
  • Chingkao
  • Chinglang
  • Choha
  • Gelekidoria
  • Jakphang
  • Longching
  • Longkhai
  • Longmein
  • Longwa
  • Mon
  • Mulung
  • Ngangching
  • Sang
  • Shanlang
  • Shunyuo
  • Shengha
  • Sima
  • Sowa
  • Shamnyuyanga
  • Tableng (Angwangku, Kongon, Mohung, Wakching)
  • Tabu
  • Tamkhungnyuo
  • Tang
  • Tobunyuo
  • Tolamleinyua
  • Totok

Tableng is the standard dialect spoken in Wanching and Wakching.

Phonology

There are three lexically contrastive contour tones in Konyak – rising (marked in writing by an acute accent – á), falling (marked by a grave accent – à) and level (unmarked).[3]

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i ɨ u
Mid e ə o
Open a

The vowels /a/, /o/ and /u/ are lengthened before approximants. /ə/ doesn't occur finally.

Consonants

Bilabial Dental/
Alveolar		 Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive p
pʰ		 t̪ c k
kʰ		 ʔ
Nasal m n̪ ɲ ŋ
Fricative s ɨ
Lateral l
Approximant w j

The stops /p/ and /k/ contrast with the aspirated /pʰ/ and /kʰ/. /p/ and /c/ become voiced intervocalically across morpheme boundaries. The dental /t/ is realised as an alveolar if preceded by a vowel with a rising tone. The approximants /w/ and /j/ are pronounced laxer and shorter after vowels; /w/ becomes tenser initially before high vowels. If morpheme-initial or intervocalic, /j/ is pronounced with audible friction.[4] /pʰ/, /kʰ/, /c/, /ɲ/, /s/, /h/ and /l/ do not occur morpheme-finally, while /ʔ/ does not appear morpheme-initially. Except for morpheme-initial /kp/ and /kʰl/, consonant clusters occur only medially.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Konyak at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Konyak Naga". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. ↑ Nagaraja 2010, p. 8
  4. ↑ Nagaraja 2010, pp. 21–2
  5. ↑ Nagaraja 2010, p. 23

Bibliography

Further reading

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