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.
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 | h | |||
| Lateral | l | ||||
| Approximant | w | j |
The stops /p/ and /k/ conntrast 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 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/ don't occur morpheme-finally, while /ʔ/ doesn't appear morpheme-initially. Except for morpheme-initial /kp/ and /kʰl/, consonant clusters occur only medially.[5]
References
- ↑ Konyak at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Konyak Naga". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
- ↑ Nagaraja 2010, p. 8
- ↑ Nagaraja 2010, pp. 21–2
- ↑ Nagaraja 2010, p. 23
Bibliography
- Nagaraja, K.S. (2010), Konyak Grammar, Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages, ISBN 81-7342-195-1
Further reading
- Ine Jongne Jame (1957), Primer for Adults in Konyak Language, Guwahati
- Kumar, Brij Bihari (1972), Hindi-Konyak Dictionary, Kohima: Nagaland Bhasha Parishad
- Kumar, Brij Bihari (1972), Konyak Vyakaran ki Ruprekha, Kohima: Nagaland Bhasha Parishad
- Nagaraja, K.S. (1996), Kinship terms in Konyak Naga (PDF)
- Nagaraja, K.S., Konyak–Hindi–English Dictionary, Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages
- Nagaraja, K.S., "Relativization in Konyak", Indian Linguistics 45: 41–8
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