Akha language

Last updated
Akha
Native to Myanmar, China, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam
Ethnicity Akha
Native speakers
ca. 600,000 (2007) [1]
Dialects
  • Akha (Thailand Akha)
  • Hani Akha (Chinese Akha) Xishuangbanna Hani (Vietnamese Akha)
  • Lao Sung (Laotian Akha)
  • Kaw (Burmese Akha)
Language codes
ISO 639-3 ahk
Glottolog akha1245

Akha is the language spoken by the Akha people of southern China (Yunnan Province), eastern Burma (Shan State), northern Laos, and northern Thailand.

Contents

Western scholars group Akha, Hani and Honi into the Hani languages, treating all three as separate mutually unintelligible, but closely related, languages. The Hani languages are, in turn, classified in the Southern Loloish subgroup of Loloish. Loloish and the Mru languages are closely related and are grouped within Tibeto-Burman as the Lolo-Burmese languages.

In accordance with China's official classification of ethnic groups, which groups all speakers of Hani languages into one ethnicity, Chinese linguists consider all Hani languages, including Akha, to be dialects of a single language.

Speakers of Akha live in remote mountainous areas where it has developed into a wide-ranging dialect continuum. Dialects from villages separated by as little as ten kilometers may show marked differences. The isolated nature of Akha communities has also resulted in several villages with divergent dialects. Dialects from extreme ends of the continuum and the more divergent dialects are mutually unintelligible. [2]

Phonology

The Akha language, along with the dialect spoken in Alu village, 55 kilometers northwest of Chiang Rai city in Chiang Rai Province, Thailand is described below. Katsura conducted his study during the late 1960s. With a population of 400 it was, at the time, one of the largest Akha villages in Northern Thailand and was still growing as a result of cross-border migration from Burma. The Akha in Alu spoke no Standard Thai and communicated with outsiders using either Lahu Na or Shan.

Standard Akha has 25 or 26 consonants, and the Alu dialect has 23 or 24 consonants depending on how the syllabic nasal is analyzed. The /m̩/, realized variously as [ˀm] or [m̥], can be analyzed as a separate single consonant or as sequences of /ʔm/ and /hm/. Katsura chose the latter but listed the /m/ component of the syllabic consonant with the vowels. [2]

Consonant phonemes [3]
Labial Alveolar Alveolo-
palatal 		Velar Glottal
plainpal.plainpal.
Nasal m mʲ n nʲ ŋ
Stop tenuis p pʲ t k ʔ [lower-alpha 1]
voiced b bʲ d ɡ
Affricate tenuis ts tɕ
voiced dz dʑ
Fricative tenuis s ɕ x h
voiced z ʑ ɣ
Approximant l
  1. ↑ /ʔ/ is only heard initially within the absence of a consonant before a vowel
Consonant phonemes in the Alu dialect [2]
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Stop tenuis p t c k ʔ [lower-alpha 1]
aspiratepʰtʰcʰkʰ
voiced b d ɟ ɡ
Fricative tenuis s x h
voiced ɣ
Approximant l j
  1. ↑ Akha /ʔ/ is often described as glottal "tension" rather than a true stop

Any consonant may begin a syllable, but native Akha syllables which don't end in a vowel may only end in either -m or -ɔŋ. A few loan words have been noted that end in -aŋ or -aj. In the case of a nasal coda, some vowels become nasalized. Alu Akha distinguishes ten vowel qualities, contrasting rounded and unrounded back vowels at three heights while only the mid front vowels contrast roundness.

Vowel phonemes [3]
Front Central Back
unroundedroundedunroundedrounded
Close i y ɯ u
Mid e ø ə o
Open ɛ a ɑ ɔ
Vowel phonemes in the Alu dialect [2]
Front Back
unroundedroundedunroundedrounded
Close i ɯ u
Mid e ø ə o
Open ɛ a ɔ

Three vowels, /u/, /ɔ/ and /ɯ/, show marked nasalization when followed by a nasal consonant becoming /ũ/, /ɔ̃/ and /ɯ̃/, respectively.

Tone phonemes [4]
High
Mid
Low

There are three tones: high, mid and low. Laryngealized vowels[ clarification needed ] commonly occur with mid and low tone, but only rarely with high tone (mostly in loan words and personal names). There are no contour tones. Syllabic [m̩] occurs with all three plain tones and laryngealized with the two common tones. [4]

Grammar

Like many other Tibeto-Burman languages, the basic word order of Akha is agent-object-verb (SOV). [5] It is a topic-prominent language where the marking of agents are not obligatory and the noun phrase is often topicalized. [5] Also, serial verb constructions and sentence-final particles are frequently used in the sentences. [5]

The noun phrase

The basic order of the Akha noun phrase is noun-adjective-demonstrative-pronoun-numeral-classifier. [5] Grammatical relations and semantic roles may be marked by postpositional particles. [6]

Evidentiality and Egophoricity

Some of the Akha sentence-final particles mark evidentiality and/or egophoricity. [7] [8] For instance, the particle ŋá expresses inference from what the speaker saw. [9]

In interrogative sentences, má or mɛ́ is used for confirmation; the same particles in the answer express information that the speaker knows for sure. [9]

àkhà

má

ló?

àkhà má ló?

"Are you an Akha?"

àkhà

má.

àkhà má.

"Yes, I am."

àkhà

mɛ́

ló?

àkhà mɛ́ ló?

"Is he an Akha?"

àkhà

mɛ́.

àkhà mɛ́.

"Yes, he is."

Note that má appears in the second-person question and the first-person declarative while mɛ́ is used otherwise.

Varieties

Laos

The table below lists the Akha varieties surveyed in Kingsada (1999), Shintani (2001), and Kato (2008), with autonyms and informant birthplaces given as well. All locations are in Phongsaly Province, northern Laos.

Akha varieties of Phongsaly Province, northern Laos
Language Autonym LocationsSource
Ko-Palapa33la33tsʰɔ55ja11Sen Kham village, Khua District, Phongsaly Province Kingsada (1999)
Ko-Omakɔ33ɔ55ma11Nana village, Phongsaly District, Phongsaly Province Kingsada (1999)
Ko-Phusokɔ33pʰɯ55sɔ33Phapung Kao village, Bun Neua District, Phongsaly Province Kingsada (1999)
Ko-Pulia11kʰa11pu33li11Culaosaen Kao village, Bun Tay District, Phongsaly Province Kingsada (1999)
Ko-Chipia a11kʰa11cɛ11pja11Sano Kao village, Bun Tay District, Phongsaly Province Kingsada (1999)
Ko-Eupaɯ21pa21Cabe village, Bun Tay District, Phongsaly Province Shintani (2001)
Ko-Nyaüa11kʰa11ɲa11ɯ55Huayphot village, Khua District, Phongsaly Province Shintani (2001)
Ko-Lumalu21ma21Lasamay village, Samphan District, Phongsaly Province Shintani (2001)
Akha Nukuia21kʰa21, nu21ɣø21a21kʰa21[ clarification needed ]Kungci village, Nyot U District, Phongsaly Province Kato (2008)
Akha Chicho-Ban Pasang village, Muang Sing district, Luang Namtha Province Hayashi (2018) [10]

Akha Chicho, spoken in Ban Pasang village, Muang Sing district, Luang Namtha Province, is documented in Hayashi (2018). [10] Hayashi (2018: 8) reports that Akha Chicho is mutually intelligible with Akha Buli. Nearby, Akha Kopien (also known as Botche) is spoken in another part of Muang Sing District, Luang Namtha Province, Laos. Some Akha Kopien words are as follows. [11]

GlossAkha Kopien/Botche
sunnɤŋ⁵⁵ma³³
moonba³³la³³
wateru⁵⁵tɕṵ²¹
firemi²¹dza²¹
tigerxa²¹la²¹
buffaloa²¹ȵo²¹
roadga⁵⁵ko⁵⁵
light (adj.)jɔ³³pʰja³³
crowo̰²¹a̰²¹
duckdʑi³³dʑi³³
birdtɕḭ³³ja̰³³
tamarindma³³xa⁵⁵a⁵⁵bḛ³³
hota²¹lo⁵⁵
newa²¹ɕḭ²¹
raino̰²¹ta̰²¹
nowȵa²¹ŋ̩⁵⁵
whata²¹pa²¹
onetɤ̰³³
twon̩³³
threese⁵⁵
fourli³³
fiveŋa³³
sixko̰³³
sevenɕḭ³³
eightjḛ³³
ninedʑø²¹
tentsɤ⁵⁵

There are 15 Akha subgroups in Phongsaly Province, with autonyms given in parentheses. [12]

China

In Jinghong City and Menghai County, the two major Hani subgroups are Jiuwei 鸠为 and Jizuo 吉坐. [13] The Jizuo 吉坐 are the largest Hani ethnic subgroup in Jinghong.

The Jiuwei claim to have migrated from Honghe and Mojiang. The Jiuwei live in various villages in Jinghong, including:

There are also ethnic Hani that are locally called Aini 爱尼 living in 7 villages on Nanlin Mountain 南林山 of southwestern Jinghong, namely Manbage 曼八阁, Manjinglong 曼景龙, Manjingnan 曼景囡, Mangudu 曼固独, Manbaqi 曼把奇, Manbasan 曼巴伞, and Manjingmai 曼景卖. [14]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Akha at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. 1 2 3 4 Katsura, M. (1973). "Phonemes of the Alu Dialect of Akha". Papers in Southeast Asian Linguistics No.3. Pacific Linguistics, the Australian National University. 3 (3): 35–54.
  3. 1 2 Lewis, Paul (February 1968). "Akha phonology". Anthropological Linguistics. Trustees of Indiana University. 10 (2): 8–18. JSTOR   30029167.
  4. 1 2 Lewis, Paul (1973). "Tone in the Akha Language". Anthropological Linguistics. 15 (4): 183–188. ISSN   0003-5483. JSTOR   30029534.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Hansson, Inga-Lill (2003). "Akha". In Graham Thurgood and Randy J. LaPolla (ed.). The Sino-Tibetan Languages. London &New York: Routledge. p. 241.
  6. ↑ Hansson, Inga-Lill (2003). "Akha". In Graham Thurgood and Randy J. LaPolla (ed.). The Sino-Tibetan Languages. London &New York: Routledge. p. 242.
  7. ↑ Egerod, Søren (1985). "Typological features in Akha". Linguistics of the Sino-Tibetan area: The state of the art. Papers presented to Paul K. Benedict for his 71st birthday., C-87 (PDF). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 96–104. doi:10.15144/PL-C87.96.
  8. ↑ San Roque, Lila; Floyd, Simeon; Norcliffe, Elisabeth (2018). "Egophoricity: An introduction". Egophoricity. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 1–78. doi:10.1075/tsl.118.01san. ISBN   978-90-272-0699-2. ISSN   0167-7373.
  9. 1 2 Hansson, Inga-Lill (2003). "Akha". In Graham Thurgood and Randy J. LaPolla (ed.). The Sino-Tibetan Languages. London &New York: Routledge. p. 248.
  10. 1 2 Hayashi, Norihiko. 2018. A Phonological Sketch of Akha Chicho: A Lolo-Burmese language of Luang Namtha, Laos. Proceedings of the 51st International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics (2018). Kyoto: Kyoto University.
  11. ↑ Hayashi, Norihiko (2023). A Phonological Sketch of Akha Kopien. 56th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, 10-12 October 2023. Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok.
  12. ↑ Kato, Takashi (2023). Linguistic varieties of Khir in Laos. 56th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, 10-12 October 2023. Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok.
  13. ↑ 云南省编辑委员会编. 2009. "景洪县哈尼族社会调查." In 哈尼族社会历史调查, p.116-119. 民族出版社. ISBN   9787105087754
  14. ↑ 云南省编辑委员会编. 2009. "景洪县南林山哈尼族社会调查." In 哈尼族社会历史调查, p.109-119. 民族出版社. ISBN   9787105087754

Further reading

Word lists for language varieties of Laos
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