Kuki-Chin languages

The Kuki-Chin languages (also called Kukish or South-Central Tibeto-Burman languages) are a branch of 50 or so Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in northeastern India, western Burma and eastern Bangladesh. Most speakers of these languages are known as Kukī in Assamese and as Chin in Burmese; some also identify as Lushei. Mizo is the most widely spoken of the Kuki-Chin languages.

Kuki-Chin
Kukish
EthnicityKuki, Mizo, Zomi, Chin
Geographic
distribution		India, Burma, Bangladesh
Linguistic classificationSino-Tibetan
Subdivisions
Glottologkuki1246  (Kuki-Chin)[1]

Kuki-Chin is sometimes placed under Kuki-Chin–Naga, a geographical rather than linguistic grouping.

Most Kuki-Chin languages are spoken in and around Chin State, Burma, with some languages spoken in Sagaing Division, Magway Region and Rakhine State as well. In Northeast India, many Northern Kuki-Chin languages are also spoken in Mizoram State and Manipur State, India, especially in Churachandpur District, Pherzawl District, Kangpokpi District, Senapati District. Northwestern Kuki-Chin languages are spoken mostly in Chandel District, Manipur.

Kuki-Chin is alternatively called South-Central Trans-Himalayan (or South Central Tibeto-Burman) by Konnerth (2018).[2]

Internal classification

The Karbi languages may be closely related to Kuki-Chin, but Thurgood (2003) and van Driem (2011) leave Karbi unclassified within Sino-Tibetan.[3][4]

The Kuki-Chin branches listed below are from VanBik (2009), with the Northwestern branch added from Scott DeLancey, et al. (2015),[5] and the Khumic branch (which has been split off from the Southern branch) from Peterson (2017).[6]

Kuki-Chin

Darlong and Ranglong are unclassified Kuki-Chin language. The recently discovered Sorbung language may be mixed language that could classify as either a Kuki-Chin or Tangkhul language (Mortenson & Keogh 2011).[7]

Anu-Hkongso speakers self-identify as ethnic Chin people, although their language is closely related to Mru rather than to Kuki-Chin languages. The Mruic languages constitute a separate Tibeto-Burman branch, and are not part of Kuki-Chin.[6]

VanBik (2009)

Kenneth VanBik's (2009:23) classified the Kuki-Chin languages based on shared sound changes (phonological innovations) from Proto-Kuki-Chin as follows.

Kuki-Chin

  • Central: *k(ʰ)r-, *p(ʰ)r- > *t(ʰ)r-; *k(ʰ)l-, *p(ʰ)l- > *t(ʰ)l-; *y- > *z-
  • Maraic: *kr- > *ts-; *-ʔ, *-r, *-l > -Ø; *-p, *-t, *-k > *-ʔ
    • Mara
      • Tlosai
        • Saikao
        • Siaha
      • Hlaipao
        • Heima
        • Lialai
        • Vahapi/Zyhno
      • HawThai
        • Sizo
          • Ngaphepi
          • Sabyu
          • Chapi
        • Lyvaw
          • Lochei
          • Tisih
          • Phybyu
    • Lautu
      • Hnaro
      • Chawngthia
    • Zophei
      • Vytu
      • SaTe/Awhsa
    • Senthang
      • Khuapi
      • Surkhua
    • Zotung
      • Calthawng
      • Innmai
  • Peripheral: *r- > *g-

Peterson (2017)

David A. Peterson's (2017:206)[6] internal classification of the Kuki-Chin languages is as follows.

Kuki-Chin

Peterson's Northeastern branch corresponds to VanBik's Northern branch, while Peterson's Northwestern corresponds to the Old Kuki branch of earlier classifications.

See also

References
  1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Kuki-Chin". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  2. Konnerth, Linda. 2018. The historical phonology of Monsang (Northwestern South-Central/“Kuki-Chin”): A case of reduction in phonological complexity. Himalayan Linguistics, Vol. 17(1): 19-49.
  3. Thurgood, Graham (2003) "A subgrouping of the Sino-Tibetan languages: The interaction between language contact, change, and inheritance." In G. Thurgood and R. LaPolla, eds., The Sino-Tibetan languages, pp. 13–14. London: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-7007-1129-1.
  4. van Driem, George L. (2011a), "Tibeto-Burman subgroups and historical grammar", Himalayan Linguistics Journal, 10 (1): 31–39, archived from the original on 12 January 2012.
  5. DeLancey, Scott; Krishna Boro; Linda Konnerth1; Amos Teo. 2015. Tibeto-Burman Languages of the Indo-Myanmar borderland. 31st South Asian Languages Analysis Roundtable, 14 May 2015.
  6. 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.
  7. David Mortenson and Jennifer Keogh. 2011. "Sorbung, an Undocumented Language of Manipur: its Phonology and Place in Tibeto-Burman", in JEALS 4, vol 1.

Bibliography
  • George van Driem (2001) Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region. Brill, ISBN 978-90-04-12062-4.
  • VanBik, Kenneth. 2009. Proto-Kuki-Chin: A Reconstructed Ancestor of the Kuki-Chin Languages. STEDT Monograph 8. ISBN 0-944613-47-0.

Further reading
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