Kinnauri language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kinnauri, also known as Kanauri, Kanor, Koonawur, or Kunawar is a Tibeto-Burman language (Sino-Tibetan stock) spoken in the Kinnaur district of the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh by approximately 49,000 native speakers.

Contents 1 Sounds 1.1 Consonants 1.2 Vowels 1.3 Syllables 2 Grammar 3 Bibliography

[edit] Sounds

This description is of the Pangi dialect of Kinnauri.

[edit] Consonants

		Bilabial	Labio-Velar	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	voiced	b		d	ɖ		ɡ
	voiceless	p		t	ʈ		k
	aspirated	pʰ		tʰ	ʈʰ		kʰ
Affricate	voiced			ʣ		ʤ
	voiceless			ʦ		ʧ
	aspirated			ʦʰ		ʧʰ
Nasal		m		n		ȵ	ŋ
Trill				r
Fricative				s		ʃ		h
Approximant			w	l		j

Note on palatals: /ʤ/, /ʧ/, /ʧʰ/, and /ʃ/ are post-alveolar. /ȵ/ is alveolo-palatal.

[edit] Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i / iː	ɨ / ɨː
Mid	e / eː		o / oː
Low		a / aː

Kinnauri has phonemic short and long vowels.

[edit] Syllables

/h/, aspirated obstruents (i.e. /pʰ/, /tʰ/, /ʈʰ/, /kʰ/, /ʦʰ/, /ʧʰ/), and glides (i.e. /w/, /j/) do not occur in syllable codas.

All consonants may occur in onsets and word-medially.

Kinnauri has the following types of syllables:

• (C)V(C)(C)(C)
• CCV(C)
• CCCVC

[edit] Grammar

[edit] Bibliography

• Grimes, Barbara F. (Ed.). (2000). Ethnologue: Languages of the world, (14th ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. ISBN 1-55671-106-9. (Online edition: http://www.ethnologue.com/).
• Nagano, Yasuhiko; & LaPolla, Randy J. (Eds.). (2001). New research on Zhangzhung and related Himalayan languages. Bon studies 3, Senri ethnological reports 19. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology.
• Takahashi, Yoshiharu. (2001). A descriptive study of Kinnauri (Pangi dialect): A preliminary report. In Y. Nagano & R. J. LaPolla (Eds.), New research on Zhangzhung and related Himalayan languages. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology.