Hill Miri dialect
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| Hill Miri | |
|---|---|
| Sarak | |
| Region | Assam |
| Ethnicity | Hill Miri people |
|
Native speakers
|
unknown (undated figure of 10,100)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis)Individual code: mrg – (included under Plains Miri) |
| Glottolog | None |
Hill Miri or Sarak is a Tani language of India. It is spoken in Arunachal Pradesh by an estimated 9,000 people of the Hill Miri tribe.[2] It appears to be a dialect of the Nishi language.[3]
Contents
Description
Hill Miri is a member of the Tani branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages and is considered a dialect of the Nishi language. It is spoken by 9,000 people in the northern regions of India by the Hill Miri people[4] It is threatened because the younger generation is slowly breaking away from their people's tradition and language.[5] The term "Hill Miri" is an exonym, as the Hill Miri people identify themselves simply as Nyishi.[6] Many audiobooks of gospel narratives in the Hill Miri language have been collected.
History of scholarship
George Abraham Grierson, in his survey of India regarding its linguistics, researched the Nyishi language and published a record over a century ago.[citation needed]
Phonology
Consonants
The following table includes an inventory of Hill Miri consonants.[7]
| Labial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ[8] | ŋ | ||
| Stop | voiceless | p | t | c[9] | k | |
| voiced | b | d | ɟ[10] | ɡ | ||
| Fricative | s | ʃ | h | |||
| Approximant | w | l | j | |||
| Trill? | r | |||||
Vowels are front /i, e/, central /ɨ, ʉ, ə, a/,[11] and back /u, o/. Vowels occur long and short.
Grammar
The basic Hill Miri grammar and basic word order are like those of related Sino-Tibetan languages, similar to that of Nishi.
Numerals
| Hill Miri | |
|---|---|
| 1 | aken |
| 2 | eñi |
| 3 | oum |
| 4 | epi |
| 5 | ango/angngo |
| 6 | ake |
| 7 | kenne |
| 8 | pine |
| 9 | kora |
| 10 | íri |
Pronouns
Personal
| Singular | Plural | |
| 1st person | ngo | ngu-lu |
| 2nd person | no | nu-lu |
| 3rd person | bu, bú | bu-lu, bú-lu |
References
- ↑ Mising at Ethnologue (15th ed., 2005)
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Post, Mark W. (2013). Defoliating the Tani Stammbaum: An exercise in areal linguistics. Paper presented at the 13th Himalayan Languages Symposium. Canberra, Australian National University, Aug 9.
- ↑ http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/10414
- ↑ Hill Miri Audio
- ↑ Nabam Tadar Rikam, "Emerging religious Identities of Arunachal Pradesh", Mittal Publications, 2005
- ↑ Ju Namkung, "Phonological inventories of Tibeto-burman languages", Center for Southeast Asia Studies, University of California, 1996
- ↑ Value unclear, perhaps [nʲ]?
- ↑ Value unclear, perhaps [t͡ʃ]?
- ↑ Value unclear, perhaps [d͡ʒ]?
- ↑ Transcribed ⟨ɯ, y, ɤ, a⟩ in Namkung
Further reading
- Ivan Martin Simon, "Hill Miri language guide", Govt. of Arunachal Pradesh, 1976
- Matthew S. Dryer, "Word order in Tibeto-burman languages" Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, 2008
- Shri Aduk Tayeng, "Nishi Phrase book", Arunachal Pradesh, 1990
- P. T. Abraham, "A Grammar of Nyishi Language", 2005
- S. N. Goswami, "Nishing ( Bangni) Language Guide", 1995
External links
- Language articles citing Ethnologue 15
- Languages without Glottolog code
- Language articles with 'no date' set
- Languages which need ISO 639-3 comment
- Languages with neither ISO nor Glottolog code
- Pages with broken file links
- Articles with unsourced statements from May 2015
- Languages of Assam
- Tani languages
- Endangered Indian languages
