Central Kuki-Chin languages

Central Kuki-Chin is a branch of the Kuki-Chin languages. Central Kuki-Chin languages are spoken primarily in Mizoram, India and in Hakha Township and Falam Township of Chin State, Myanmar.

Central Kuki-Chin
Central Chin
EthnicityMizo and Chin
Geographic
distribution		Myanmar and Northeast India
Linguistic classificationSino-Tibetan
Glottologcent2330  (Central Kuki-Chin)[1]

Official use

Mizo is the official language of Mizoram State, India, while Hakha Chin is the lingua franca of Chin State, Myanmar.

Classification

VanBik (2009:23) classifies the Central Kuki-Chin languages as follows.

Central Kuki-Chin
  • Pangkhua?
  • Laamtuk Thet (Tawr): Laamtuk, Ruavaan dialects
  • Lai languages
  • Mizo languages
    • Mizo cluster: Fan-ai/Pawi Lusei, Hualngo, Lushai, Khiangte, Renthlei
    • Hmar cluster: Khosak, Thiek, Faihriem, Darlong, Darngawn, Biate, Khawthlang, Lutung/Chawnthei/Hmar Lusei, Lungtau, Leiri, Hrangkhol, Halam, Koilam, Hrangchal, Khowbung, Zote, Lawitlang.

VanBik (2009) is unsure about the classification of Pangkhua, and tentatively places it within Central Kuki-Chin.

Sound changes

VanBik (2009) lists the following sound changes from Proto-Kuki-Chin to Proto-Central Chin.

  • Proto-Kuki-Chin *k(ʰ)r-, *p(ʰ)r- > Proto-Central Chin *t(ʰ)r-
  • Proto-Kuki-Chin *k(ʰ)l-, *p(ʰ)l- > Proto-Central Chin *t(ʰ)l-
  • Proto-Kuki-Chin *y- > Proto-Central Chin *z-

See also

References
  1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Central Kuki-Chin". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  • Peterson, David. 2017. "On Kuki-Chin subgrouping." In Picus Sizhi Ding and Jamin Pelkey, eds. Sociohistorical linguistics in Southeast Asia: New horizons for Tibeto-Burman studies in honor of David Bradley, 189-209. Leiden: Brill.
  • VanBik, Kenneth. 2009. Proto-Kuki-Chin: A Reconstructed Ancestor of the Kuki-Chin Languages. STEDT Monograph 8. ISBN 0-944613-47-0.
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