Kho-Bwa | |
---|---|
Kamengic Bugunish | |
Geographic distribution | Arunachal Pradesh |
Linguistic classification | Sino-Tibetan?
|
Subdivisions | |
Language codes | |
Glottolog | khob1235 |
The Kho-Bwa languages, also known as Kamengic, are a small family of languages, or pair of families, spoken in Arunachal Pradesh, northeast India. The name Kho-Bwa was originally proposed by George van Driem (2001). It is based on the reconstructed words *kho ("water") and *bwa ("fire"). Blench (2011) suggests the name Kamengic, from the Kameng area of Arunachal Pradesh. Alternatively, Anderson (2014) [1] refers to Kho-Bwa as Northeast Kamengic.
Both Van Driem and Blench group the Sherdukpen (or Mey), Lishpa (or Khispi), Chug (Duhumbi) and Sartang languages together. These form a language cluster and are clearly related. The pair of Sulung (or Puroik) and Khowa (or Bugun) languages are included in the family by Van Driem (2001) but provisionally treated as a second family by Blench (2024). [2]
These languages have traditionally been placed in the Tibeto-Burman group by the Linguistic Survey of India, but the justification of this is open to question.[ citation needed ] The languages have certainly been strongly influenced by the neighboring Sino-Tibetan languages, but this does not necessarily imply genetic unity and may possibly be a purely areal effect. [3]
The entire language family has about 15,000 speakers (including Puroik) or about 10,000 speakers (excluding Puroik), according to estimates made during the 2000s.
Word lists and sociolinguistic surveys of Kho-Bwa languages have also been conducted by Abraham, et al. (2018).
The internal structure of the Kho-Bwa group of languages is as follows. [2] The similarities between Puroik–Bugun and Sherdukpen/Mey are sporadic and may be due to contact. Lieberherr (2015) considers Puroik to be a Tibeto-Burman language, which would imply that at least Bugun is as well.
Lieberherr & Bodt (2017) [4] consider Puroik to be a Kho-Bwa language, and classify the Kho-Bwa languages as follows.
Based on computational phylogenetic analyses from Tresoldi et al. (2022), the phylogenetic tree of Kho-Bwa is roughly as follows: [5]
The following table of Kho-Bwa basic vocabulary items is from Blench (2015). [6]
Gloss | Mey (Shergaon) | Mey (Rupa) | Sartang (Jergaon) | Sartang (Rahung) | Lish (Khispi) | Chug (Duhumbi) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
one | hǎn | han | hèn | hân | hin | hin |
two | ɲǐt | ɲik | nìk | ně | ɲes | niʃ |
three | ùŋ | uŋ | ùŋ | ùún | ʔum | om |
four | pʰʃì | bsi | sì | psì | pʰəhi | psi |
five | kʰù | kʰu | kʰù | kʰu | kʰa | kʰa |
six | ʧùk | kit | ʧìk | ʨěy | ʧʰuʔ | ʧyk |
seven | ʃìt | sit | sìk | sǐ, sě | ʃis | his |
eight | sàʤát | sarʤat | sàrgè | sàrʤɛ́ | saɾgeʔ | saɾgeʔ |
nine | tʰkʰí | dʰikʰi | tʰkʰì | tɛ̀kʰɯ́ | ṱʰikʰu | ṱʰikʰu |
ten | sɔ̀ ̃ | sõ | sã̀ | sɔ | ʃan | ʃan |
head | kʰruk | kʰruk | kʰrǔk | kʰruʔ | kʰoloʔ | kʰloʔ |
nose | nupʰuŋ | nəfuŋ | nfùŋ | apʰuŋ | hempoŋ | heŋpʰoŋ |
eye | khibi | kivi | kábì | kʰaʔby | kʰumu | kʰum |
ear | kʰtùŋ | gtʰiŋ | gtʰìŋ | ktèíŋ | kʰutʰuŋ | kʰutʰuŋ |
tongue | laphõ | lapon | ? | le | loi | loi |
tooth | nuthuŋ | tokʧe | mísìŋ | nitʰiŋ | ʃiŋtuŋ | hintuŋ |
arm | ik | ik | ìk | ik | hu | hut |
leg | là | lapon | lɛ̌ | lɛ̌ | lei | lai |
belly | ʃrìŋ | sliŋ | srìŋ | sriŋ | hiɲiŋ | hiliŋ |
bone | skìk | skik | àhík | skik | ʃukuʃ | ʃukuʃ |
blood | hà | ha(a) | hɛ̀ | ha | hoi | hoi |
face | dòŋpù | bo | mi | zə̀í | doʔ | doŋpa |
tooth | ntùŋ | tokʧe | mísìŋ | ptə̀íŋ | ʃiŋtuŋ | hintuŋ |
stomach | àlà | karbu | ʧàk | phriŋ | hiɲiŋ | hiliŋ |
mouth | ʧàw | nəʧaw | so | ʨʨǒ | hoʧok | kʰoʧu |
rain | ʧuuma | nimi | nʧʰù | ʧuʧuba | namu | namu |
The Monpa (Tibetan: མོན་པ་, Wylie: mon pa, THL: mön pa are a major people of Arunachal Pradesh in northeastern India and one of the 56 officially recognized ethnic groups in China. Most Monpas live in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, with a population of 50,000, centered in the districts of Tawang and West Kameng. As of 2020 there were 11,143 Monpa people living in Tsona City in the southern Tibet Autonomous Region, where they are known as Menba. Of the 45,000 Monpas who live in Arunachal Pradesh, about 20,000 of them live in Tawang district, where they constitute about 97% of the district's population, and almost all of the remainder can be found in the West Kameng district, where they form about 77% of the district's population. A small number of them may be found in bordering areas of East Kameng and Bhutan.
The Buguns are one of the earliest recognized schedule tribe of India, majority of them, inhabiting the Singchung Sub-Division of West Kameng District of Arunachal Pradesh. Buguns live in several exogamous clans. Traditionally, the predominant occupation was agriculture, supported with other allied activities like fishing and hunting, cattle rearing etc. Buguns have their own folklores, songs, dances, music and rituals. A rare bird, the Bugun liocichla, was named after the tribe.
The Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh has a total population of roughly 1.4 million on an area of 84,000 km2, amounting to a population density of about 17 pop./km2. The "indigenous groups" account for about two thirds of population, while immigrants, mostly of Bengali/Hindi belt origin, account for the remaining third.
The Tani language, often referred to as Tani languages, encompasses a group of closely related languages spoken by the Tani people in the northeastern region of India, primarily in the state of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam. These languages belong to the Sino-Tibetan family and include several major dialects such as Nyishi, Galo, Apatani, Adi, Tagin, and Mising.
Tshangla is a Sino-Tibetan language of the Bodish branch closely related to the Tibetic languages. Tshangla is primarily spoken in Eastern Bhutan and acts as a lingua franca in the region; it is also spoken in the adjoining Tawang tract in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh and the Pemako region of Tibet. Tshangla is the principal pre-Tibetan language of Bhutan.
The Hrusish or Southeast Kamengic languages possibly constitute a Sino-Tibetan branch in Arunachal Pradesh, northeast India. They are Hruso (Aka) and Mijiic. In Glottolog, Hammarström, et al. does not accept Hrusish, and considers similarities between Hruso and Miji to be due to loanwords.
Bodish, named for the Tibetan ethnonym Bod, is a proposed grouping consisting of the Tibetic languages and associated Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in Tibet, North India, Nepal, Bhutan, and North Pakistan. It has not been demonstrated that all these languages form a clade, characterized by shared innovations, within Sino-Tibetan.
The East Bodish languages are a small group of non-Tibetic Bodish languages spoken in eastern Bhutan and adjacent areas of Tibet and India. They include:
The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non-Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people speak Tibeto-Burman languages. The name derives from the most widely spoken of these languages, Burmese and the Tibetic languages, which also have extensive literary traditions, dating from the 12th and 7th centuries respectively. Most of the other languages are spoken by much smaller communities, and many of them have not been described in detail.
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.
ʼOle, also called ʼOlekha or Black Mountain Monpa, is a possibly Sino-Tibetan language spoken by about 1,000 people in the Black Mountains of Wangdue Phodrang and Trongsa Districts in western Bhutan. The term ʼOle refers to a clan of speakers.
Bugun, also known as Khowa, is a small possible language isolate spoken in Arunachal Pradesh state of India by the Bugun. They numbered about 1,700 in 2011.
The Puroik language is a possible language isolate spoken by the Puroik people of Arunachal Pradesh in India and of Lhünzê County, Tibet, in China.
Sherdukpen is a small language of India. It is one of the Kho-Bwa languages. There are two distinct varieties, Mey of Shergaon and Mey of Rupa. The name Sherdukpen comes from the words Shergaon and Tukpen. The language is known to speakers as Mey nyuk.
Lish is a Kho-Bwa language of West Kameng district, Arunachal Pradesh in India. It is a dialect of the same language as Chug and Gompatse.
Miji, also given the dialect names Sajolang and Dhammai, is a dialect cluster traditionally counted as one of the Sino-Tibetan languages that is spoken in Arunachal Pradesh, northeastern India. The varieties are not particularly close, with only half of the vocabulary in common between the languages of East Kameng District and West Kameng District. Long assumed to be Sino-Tibetan languages, Miji and the recently discovered Bangru language may instead form a small independent language family.
Bangru, also known as Ləvai (Ləwjɛ) and occasionally as Northern Miji is a language spoken in Sarli Circle, northern Kurung Kumey District by 1,500 people. Long unclassified due to poor documentation, it turns out to be related to the Miji languages.
Chug is a Kho-Bwa language of West Kameng district, Arunachal Pradesh in India. It is a dialect of the same language as Lish and Gompatse.
Sartang is a small language of India. It is one of the Kho-Bwa languages, closest to Sherdukpen. Varieties include Sartang of Jergaon and Sartang of Rahung.
Arunachal languages are various languages in Arunachal Pradesh, India traditionally classified as Sino-Tibetan languages, but that may be language isolates and independent language families according to some scholars. Blench (2011) proposed four language isolates and three independent families. However, this is disputed by Anderson (2014) and others, who consider them to be primary branches of Sino-Tibetan rather than as isolates or independent language phyla.