| Lyngngam | |
|---|---|
| Lyngam | |
| Native to | India |
| Region | Meghalaya, Assam |
Native speakers | 11,586 (2011 census) [1] |
Austroasiatic
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | lyg |
| Glottolog | lyng1241 |
Lyngngam is an Austroasiatic language of Northeast India closely related to Khasic languages. Once listed as a dialect of Khasi, Lyngngam has in recent literature been classified as a distinct language and believed to be former Garo speakers. Lyngngam speakers have food and dress similar to the neighboring Garo people, who consider the ancestors of speakers of the Lyngngam language to belong to the Garo Megam tribe. Some speakers of Lyngngam still use surnames which originate from the Garo language.
The following table lists the consonants attested in Lyngngam. [2]
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | /m/ | /n/ | /ɲ/ | /ŋ/ | ||
| Stop | voiceless | /p/ | /t/ | /c/ | /k/ | /ʔ/ |
| aspirated | /pʰ/ | /tʰ/ | /cʰ/ | /kʰ/ | ||
| voiced | /b/ | /d/ | /ɟ/ | /ɡ/ | ||
| Voiceless fricative | /s/ | /h/ | ||||
| Liquid | /l,r/ | |||||
| Glide | /w/ | /j/ | ||||
The main difference with the Khasi language is that Lyngngam does not possess the voiced aspirated series. Furthermore, Lyngngam does not have the phoneme /ç/. Words which have /ç/ in Khasi typically have /c/ or /s/ in Lyngngam, [3] as in the following pairs of cognates:
| Lyngngam | Khasi | meaning |
|---|---|---|
| cʔeŋ | çʔeŋ | bone |
| cɨppʰeu | çipʰeu | 10 |
| sɲjək | çɲiuʔ | hair |
| snaːr | çnjaʔ | chisel |
The following table lists the vowel inventory of the language. [2] The only vowels showing a length distinction are /i/ and /a/, in contradistinction to Khasi, where length is distinctive for all vowels.
Words with diphthongs in Khasi have monophthongs in Lyngngam, [3] as in the following pairs of cognates:
| Lyngngam | Khasi | meaning |
|---|---|---|
| bni | bnaːi | month |
| ksu | ksəu | dog |
| mot | miet | night |
