Poula language
Poula | |
---|---|
Poumai | |
Native to | Manipur, Nagaland |
Ethnicity | Poumai Naga |
Native speakers | 187,180 (2011 census)[1] |
Sino-Tibetan
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
pmx |
Poula is an Angami-Pochuri language that is predominantly spoken by the Poumai Naga people in Senapati district in Manipur and Phek district in Nagaland.
History
There is a dearth of written literature in Poula language. Some written Poula appeared in form of the Bible and Christian hymns, translated by the Bible Society of India in 2009. Prior to that a Poumai Literary Society was formed in 2007 with the intention of producing reading materials in the language. In order to standardize the language, the Poumai Literary Society has attempted koineization, which was not successful as it was not possible to account for all the varieties of the language. This was partly due to the fact that the Poula language and its varieties have not been identified, described or analyzed yet. To standardize the orthography, we first need to understand the phonlogy of the language.
Phonetics and phonology
Phonology of Poula lacks syllable coda and also disallow consonant clusters in onset position. There are 25 consonant phonemes in Poula.
Consonants
Bilabial | Labiodental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Gottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Stops | p pʰ b | t tʰ d | c cʰ | k kʰ g | ||
Nasal | m | n | ŋ ŋ̊ʰ | |||
Tap or flap | ɹ | |||||
Fricative | s | ɕ ʑ | h | |||
Affricate | tɕ dʑ | |||||
Approx | ʋ | j | ||||
Lateral | l |
Vowels
There are six vowel phonemes in Poula.
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
High | i y | ||
Mid | e | ə | o |
Low | a |
In Poula, the phoneme /ə/ is written with the grapheme 'ü' (now, many use it as 'ii') in Bible and Hymns which was devised by Bible Society of India. In addition Poula lacks high back round vowel [u] as a monophthong[2], but [u] is present in nexus of diphthong; for example pou [pəu] `father'.
Tones
Poula is a tonal language, however tone is still not marked in the orthography. There are four tonemes in Poula.[3]
Word | Tone | Gloss |
---|---|---|
/na˥/ | High-falling | 'baby' |
/na˦/ | Mid-Rising | 'later' |
/na˧/ | Mid | 'things' |
/na˩/ | Low | 'paint' |
References
- ↑ Poula at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016)
- ↑ Veikho, Sahiinii Lemaina; Sarmah, Priyankoo (2018). "Vowels and tones in Poula". Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, 41(1),22-45.
- ↑ Veikho, Sahiinii Lemaina; Khyriem, Barika (2015). "Poula phonetics and phonology: An initial overview". North East Indian Linguistics 7,47-62, Canberra, Australian National University: Asia-Pacific Linguistics Open Access.