Kukish languages

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Kukish
Kuki/Chin
Ethnicity: Kuki = Chin, Mizo, Naga, Karbi, Mro
Geographic
distribution:		 India, Burma, Bangladesh
Linguistic classification: Sino-Tibetan
Subdivisions:
  • ? Karbi
  • Northern
  • Central
  • Southern
  • ? Meitei
Ethnologue code: 17-4075

The Kukish languages, also known as Kuki-Chin (Kuki/Chin), Mizo/Kuki/Chin, or Kuki Naga, are a branch of 50 or so Tibeto-Burman languages spoken in northeastern India, western Burma and eastern Bangladesh. Most speakers of these languages are known as Kukī in Assamese and as Chin in Burmese; some also identify as Naga. The Mizo people are ethnically distinct.

Kukish is sometimes placed under Kuki-Chin–Naga, a geographical rather than linguistic grouping.

Subclassification

There is general agreement that the Karbi languages are related to, or part of, Kukish, but they are aberrant. However, Thurgood (2003) leaves Karbi unclassified within Tibeto-Burman.[1] The Mru language, once classified as Kukish, is now thought to be closer to Lolo–Burmese.

The internal classification of the Kukish languages proper has changed little in a century:

Bradley (1997) includes Meithei.[2] Ethnologue 16 had included several additional languages in Northern (or in the case of Darlong, Central) Kukish, but the 17th edition leaves them unclassified within Tibeto-Burman. They are:

Darlong, Monsang (Naga), Tarao (Naga), Ranglong, Sakachep.

The recently discovered Sorbung language may likely be a Kukish language, although it could also be a Tangkhulic language (Mortenson & Keogh 2011).[3]

Anu-Hkongso is sometimes labeled as Chin but is unclassified. The recently discovered Saihriem language is reported to be Northern Kukish.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Thurgood, Graham (2003) "A subgrouping of the Sino-Tibetan languages: The interaction between language contact, change, and inheritance." In G. Thurgood and R. LaPolla, eds., The Sino-Tibetan languages, pp 13–14. London: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-7007-1129-1.
  2. ↑ Bradley, David (1997), "Tibeto-Burman languages and classification", in Tibeto-Burman languages of the Himalayas, Papers in South East Asian linguistics 14, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, pp 1–71, ISBN 978-0-85883-456-9.
  3. ↑ David Mortenson and Jennifer Keogh. 2011. "Sorbung, an Undocumented Language of Manipur: its Phonology and Place in Tibeto-Burman", in JEALS 4, vol 1.

References

  • George van Driem (2001) Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region. Brill, ISBN 978-90-04-12062-4.

Further reading

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