Chakpa language

Last updated
Chakpa
Loi
Native to India
Region Manipur
Extinct since the 1950s [1]
Dialects
  • Andro
  • Sengmai (Sekmai)
  • Phayeng
  • Chairel
  • Khurkhul
iso3 = none
Language codes
ISO 639-3
Glottolog andr1245

Chakpa (Meitei) is a Sino-Tibetan language that was spoken in the Imphal valley of Manipur, India. It belonged to the Luish branch of the Sino-Tibetan family. Chakpa speakers have been shifted to that of Meitei language. [2] Varieties of the language included Sengmai and Andro. [3]

Contents

Chakpa was spoken in villages such as Andro, Sekmai (Sengmai), Phayeng,Khurkhul and Chairel, all of which are now Meitei-speaking villages. [2]

Other names

Loi (or Lui; hence "Luish") is a Meithei exonym that includes Chakpa. Although Chakpa are typically considered to be Loi, not all Loi are Chakpa. For example, Kakching and Kwakta are Loi villages that are not Chakpa. [2]

Documentation

Chakpa is preserved in written manuscripts that are recited by religious scholars during traditional ceremonies, such as those of the Lai Haraoba festival. [2]

Chakpa word lists can be found in McCulloch (1859) [4] and Basanta (1998). [5]

The Chairel variety is documented in a word list by McCulloch (1859). [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sino-Tibetan languages</span> Language family native to Asia

Sino-Tibetan is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. Around 1.4 billion people speak a Sino-Tibetan language. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Sinitic languages. Other Sino-Tibetan languages with large numbers of speakers include Burmese and the Tibetic languages. Four United Nations member states have a Sino-Tibetan language as their main native language. Other languages of the family are spoken in the Himalayas, the Southeast Asian Massif, and the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. Most of these have small speech communities in remote mountain areas, and as such are poorly documented.

Loi is the word in the Meitei language (Meiteilon) for the term "scheduled caste". The term Loi is given to the indigenous and aboriginal people of Manipur in northeast India who refused to adopt Hinduism or were semi-Hinduised when the newly converted Manipuri king ordered all his subjects to adopt the religion.

The Zo languages are a geographic and linguistic grouping within the Sino-Tibetan language family. This term is more factual and accurate than the widely used but imprecise term Kuki-Chin–Naga, which appears in James Matisoff's classification as a non-monophyletic branch of "Tibeto-Burman" used for convenience in Ethnologue. The genealogical relationships within the Zo languages, and their connections to the broader Sino-Tibetan family, remain unresolved and require further research.

Thadou, Kuki, or Thado Chin is a Sino-Tibetan language of the Northern Kuki-Chin sub-branch. It is spoken by the Thadou people in Northeast India. The speakers of this language use Meitei language as their second language (L2) according to the Ethnologue.

The Sal languages, also known as the Brahmaputran languages, are a branch of Tibeto-Burman languages spoken in northeast India, as well as parts of Bangladesh, Myanmar (Burma), and China.

The Jingpho-Luish, Jingpho-Asakian, Kachin–Luic, or Kachinic languages are a group of Sino-Tibetan languages belonging the Sal branch. They are spoken in northeastern India, Bangladesh and Myanmar, and consist of the Jingpho language and the Luish languages Sak, Kadu, Ganan, Andro, Sengmai, and Chairel. Ethnologue and Glottolog include the extinct or nearly extinct Taman language in the Jingpo branch, but Huziwara (2016) considers it to be unclassified within Tibeto-Burman.

The Tibeto-Kanauri languages, also called Bodic, Bodish–Himalayish, and Western Tibeto-Burman, are a proposed intermediate level of classification of the Sino-Tibetan languages, centered on the Tibetic languages and the Kinnauri dialect cluster. The conception of the relationship, or if it is even a valid group, varies between researchers.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tibeto-Burman languages</span> Group of the Sino-Tibetan language family

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manipur River</span> River in Manipur, India / Myanmar

Manipur River, also called Kathe Khyoung, is a river in India's Manipur state that flows into the Chin State of Myanmar, where it merges with the Myittha River, a tributary of the Chindwin river. It passes through Tonzang and Tedim town of Myanmar.

The Kadu people are an ethnic group in Myanmar. They speak the Kadu language. They mostly reside in the country's northwestern hills, centred around Katha, and are ethnolinguistically related to the Ganan and Sak peoples. The Kadu traditionally cultivate rice on irrigated terraces.

Proto-Tibeto-Burman is the reconstructed ancestor of the Tibeto-Burman languages, that is, the Sino-Tibetan languages, except for Chinese. An initial reconstruction was produced by Paul K. Benedict and since refined by James Matisoff. Several other researchers argue that the Tibeto-Burman languages sans Chinese do not constitute a monophyletic group within Sino-Tibetan, and therefore that Proto-Tibeto-Burman was the same language as Proto-Sino-Tibetan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kadu language</span> Sino-Tibetan language of Burma

Kadu or Kado ; is a Sino-Tibetan language of the Sal branch spoken in Sagaing Region, Myanmar by the Kadu people. Dialects are Settaw, Mawkhwin, and Mawteik [extinct], with 30,000 speakers total. Kadu is considered an endangered language, and is closely related to the Ganan and Sak languages.

Sak is a Sino-Tibetan language of the Sal branch spoken in Bangladesh and Myanmar by the Chak people.

The Luish, Asakian, or Sak languages are a group of Sino-Tibetan languages belonging to the Sal branch. They are spoken in Burma and Bangladesh, and consist of the Sak, Kadu, and Ganan languages. In recent years, Luish languages have been influenced by Burmese and Chakma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aimol language</span> Sino-Tibetan language spoken in India

Aimol, also known as Aimual, is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by the Aimol people of Manipur, India. It is considered endangered and has less than 9,000 speakers worldwide as per 2011 census. The speakers of this language use Meitei language as their second language (L2) according to the Ethnologue.

Central Tibeto-Burman or Central Trans-Himalayan is a proposed branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family proposed by Scott DeLancey (2015) on the basis of shared morphological evidence.

Ganan is a Sino-Tibetan language of northwestern Myanmar, spoken in Sagaing Region. It belongs to the Luish branch, and is most closely related to the Kadu language of Myanmar, with which it shares 84 to 89% lexical similarity. The Ganan dialects share 95 to 99% lexical similarity.

Taman is an extinct Sino-Tibetan language that was spoken in Htamanthi village in Homalin Township, Sagaing Region, northern Myanmar. It was documented in a list of 75 words in Brown (1911). Keisuke Huziwara (2016) discovered an elderly rememberer of Taman in Htamanthi who could remember some Taman phrases as well as a short song, but was not fluent in the Taman language. However, no fluent speakers of Taman remained in the area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pureiromba</span> Meitei Giver God of rain and agricultural prosperity

Pureiromba is a God in Meitei mythology and religion. He is the giver of rain and agricultural prosperity. He is one of the major Umang Lai deities. He is the Ancestor God of the Angom clan of the Meitei ethnicity.

References

  1. Christopher Moseley; Alexandre Nicolas (2010). "Atlas of the world's languages in danger". UNESCO . p. 202. Retrieved 2024-12-28.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Huziwara, Keisuke (2020). "On the Genetic Position of Chakpa Within Luish Languages". Himalayan Linguistics. 19 (2): 44–55. doi: 10.5070/H91150999 .
  3. Matisoff (2013)
  4. 1 2 McCulloch, W. (1859). Account of the Valley of Munnipore and of the Hill Tribes: With a Comparative Vocabulary of the Munnipore and Other Languages. Calcutta: Bengal Printing Company.
  5. Basanta, Ningombam (2008). Modernisation, Challenge and Response: A Study of the Chakpa Community of Manipur. New Delhi: Akansha Publishing House.

Further reading