Chungli or Jungli Ao is the prestige dialect of Ao and it is a Sino-Tibetan language of northeast India. It is the most widely spoken of the Ao languages which also comprise Mongsen Ao and Changki. It is taught up to the tenth grade in schools of the Mokokchung district. It is also spoken by the Ao Nagas of Nagaland, a hill state in northeast India. Being the official language of religion, the dialect has a Bible translation and is used in church services as well as to make public announcements.[3] A local Chungli newspaper, Tir Yimyim, is also published online.[4] The number of speakers who reported Chungli Ao as their mother tongue are approximately 130,000 according to the 2011 census report of India.
During the American Baptist Mission to Naga Hills, Dr E.W. Clark first came in contact with the Molungkimong village that paved the way for a common Ao language. Chungli Ao is spoken in Molungkimong and Molungyimsen and other villages throughout Ao territory by roughly 50% of the Ao-speaking population. The speech of Molungkimong is the prestige dialect due to Baptistmissionaries' influence. Most Ao can speak Chungli even if they are from Mongsen-speaking regions. Chungli is taught in schools.
Phonology
Chungli Ao phonology has been described in Gowda (1972, 1975),[5][6] Temsunungsang (2009, 2014, 2021)[7][8][9] and Bruhn (2010).[10] Bruhn's description is based on a native speaker of Mongsen Ao who learned Chungli Ao after the age of 9,[10]:213 while Temsunungsang's analysis is based on monolingual Chungli speakers.[7]:5
Vowels
Four-vowel system
Bruhn[10]:214 and Temsunungsang[9] separately posit a four-vowel inventory for Chungli Ao.
/ə/ (Bruhn's notation; Temsunungsang notates this as /ɯ/) varies between [ə] and [ɯ] based on the phonetic environment. Temsunungsang finds that /ə/ surfaces as [ə] before non-velar coda consonants and [ɯ], a back vowel, before velar codas[7]:20–25 and in monosyllabic words consisting of a single open syllable.[9] According to Bruhn, [ɛ] is also found as an allophone of /ə/.[10]:214
Bruhn states that /u/ varies between [u] and [o]; he has not determined the conditioning of these variants.[10]:215
Gowda (1975)
Gowda (1975) sets up the following six-vowel inventory:
/e/ is retroflex [ɘ˞] in CVC syllables, [e] otherwise.
/a/ is [ʌ] with a falling tone, [a] otherwise.
/o/ is [ɔ] when adjacent to a velar consonant, [o] otherwise.
There is some indication in the description that the back unrounded vowels may be central. /a/ behaves as a non-back vowel in that it triggers an epenthetic /j/ rather than a /w/.[6]:23–24
123/ptk/ are optionally aspirated [pʰtʰkʰ] in initial position. They are voiced [bdɡ] between voiced sounds and [ptk] elsewhere.
↑The "palatal affricate" phoneme; see §Notation of palatal consonants. Gowda describes this as being voiced between voiced sounds but remaining voiceless elsewhere. It is alveolar [t͡s] before /ɯ/, even intervocalically.
Gowda and Temsunungsang both refer to a "palatal affricate" phoneme. Gowda describes this affricate as a "voiceless palatal affricate"[6]:11 that is produced by "raising the front of the tongue towards the hard palate";[5]:26 however, Temsunungsang would rather transcribe the "palatal affricate" with /tʃ/.[9]
Gowda, Bruhn and Temsunungsang all agree on the existence of a palatalized allophone of /s/ before /i/. Gowda refers to this allophone as a "voiceless palatal fricative",[6]:12 while Bruhn and Temsunungsang instead transcribe this allophone as [ʃ].[10]:214[7]:27
Source-exclusive consonants
Gowda describes a sound /𝼅/, a "voiced retroflex lateral fricative", produced by having the blade of the tongue turned back toward the hard palate, with the air producing friction when it passes between the tongue and the palate, and then passing freely over the sides of the tongue.[5]:32–33 No retroflex lateral fricative appears in the descriptions of Temsunungsang nor Bruhn. Temsunungsang does refer to a flap rhotic he notates with /r/ that he has once placed in the "dental" column of a phoneme inventory.[9] Meanwhile, Bruhn lists /ɹ/ but no flap. Neither a flap nor /ɹ/ appear in Gowda's work.
Phonotactics
Ao syllables may be CVC, where either C may be a cluster of two consonants. Word-initially, the only consonant clusters are /t𝼅/ and /p𝼅/. Word-finally, and excluding cases of -VwC and -VyC, the only clusters are /ʔk/ and /lʔ/. Word-medially, other sequences occur, with the most complex being /𝼅tp𝼅/. Another medial cluster not predictable from the preceding is /ʔnc͡ç/.
Tones
Chungli Ao has three register tones: mid, low high. High is restricted, normally occurring only before low as a falling tone. There are also high-low and low-mid contour tones on single syllables. On disyllabic words, the most common tone patters are MM and HL, with LL and LM less common. ML and HH are very rare / marginal, except in that ML and HL may vary allophonically depending on the casualness of speech. These facts suggest that at least most apparently high tones are actually mid tones upstepped before a low tone.[11]
Morphology
1) Chungli Ao is an agglutinative language where the verbs lack person and number marking. For example:
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