Konyak language

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Konyak
Native to Nagaland, India
Ethnicity Konyak
Native speakers
250,000 (2001 census)[1]
Sino-Tibetan
Language codes
ISO 639-3 nbe
Glottolog kony1248[2]
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Konyak is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by the Konyak people of Nagaland, northeastern India.

Dialects

Ethnologue lists the following dialects of Konyak.

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3

Tableng is the standard dialect spoken in Wanching and Wakching.

Phonology

There are three lexically contrastive contour tones in Konyak – rising (marked in writing by an acute accent – á), falling (marked by a grave accent – à) and level (unmarked).[3]

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i ɨ u
Mid e ə o
Open a

The vowels /a/, /o/ and /u/ are lengthened before approximants. /ə/ doesn't occur finally.

Consonants

Bilabial Dental/
Alveolar
Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive p
c k
ʔ
Nasal m ɲ ŋ
Fricative s h
Lateral l
Approximant w j

The stops /p/ and /k/ contrast with the aspirated /pʰ/ and /kʰ/. /p/ and /c/ become voiced intervocalically across morpheme boundaries. The dental /t/ is realised as an alveolar if preceded by a vowel with a rising tone. The approximants /w/ and /j/ are pronounced laxer and shorter after vowels; /w/ becomes tenser initially before high vowels. If morpheme-initial or intervocalic, /j/ is pronounced with audible friction.[4] /pʰ/, /kʰ/, /c/, /ɲ/, /s/, /h/ and /l/ do not occur morpheme-finally, while /ʔ/ does not appear morpheme-initially. Except for morpheme-initial /kp/ and /kʰl/, consonant clusters occur only medially.[5]

References

  1. Konyak at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
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  3. Nagaraja 2010, p. 8
  4. Nagaraja 2010, pp. 21–2
  5. Nagaraja 2010, p. 23

Bibliography

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Further reading

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