Kho-Bwa languages

Summary

The Kho-Bwa languages, also known as Kamengic, are a small family of languages spoken in Arunachal Pradesh, northeast India. The name Kho-Bwa was originally proposed by George van Driem (2001). It is based on the reconstructed words *kho ("water") and *bwa ("fire"). Blench (2011) suggests the name Kamengic, from the Kameng area of Arunachal Pradesh. Alternatively, Anderson (2014)[1] refers to Kho-Bwa as Northeast Kamengic.

Kho-Bwa
Kamengic
Bugunish
Geographic
distribution
Arunachal Pradesh
Linguistic classificationSino-Tibetan?
  • Kho-Bwa
Subdivisions
Glottologkhob1235

Both Van Driem and Blench group the Sherdukpen (or Mey), Lishpa (or Khispi), Chug (Duhumbi) and Sartang languages together. These form a language cluster and are clearly related. The Sulung (or Puroik) and Khowa (or Bugun) languages are included in the family by Van Driem (2001) but provisionally treated as language isolates, with no demonstrated genetic relationship to Kamengic, by Blench (2023).[2]

These languages have traditionally been placed in the Tibeto-Burman group by the Linguistic Survey of India, but the justification of this is open to question.[citation needed] The languages have certainly been strongly influenced by the neighboring Sino-Tibetan languages, but this does not necessarily imply genetic unity and may possibly be a purely areal effect.[3]

The entire language family has about 15,000 speakers (including Puroik) or about 10,000 speakers (excluding Puroik), according to estimates made during the 2000s.

Word lists and sociolinguistic surveys of Kho-Bwa languages have also been conducted by Abraham, et al. (2018).

Classification edit

The internal structure of the Kho-Bwa group of languages is as follows.[citation needed]

  • Kho-Bwa
    • Puroik
    • Bugun (Khowa)
    • Western Kho-Bwa
      • Mey–Sartang
        • Sherdukpen (Mey, Ngnok), divided into two varieties:
          • Shergaon
          • Rupa
        • Sartang (Bootpa, But Monpa, But Pa, Matchopa), 50%–60% lexical similarity with Mey.
      • Chug–Lish
        • Lish (Lish)
        • Chug (Chug Monpa, Chugpa, Monpa), close to Lish

Lieberherr & Bodt (2017) edit

Lieberherr & Bodt (2017)[4] consider Puroik to be a Kho-Bwa language, and classify the Kho-Bwa languages as follows.

Tresoldi et al. (2022) edit

Based on computational phylogenetic analyses from Tresoldi et al. (2022), the phylogenetic tree of Kho-Bwa is roughly as follows:[5]

  • Kho-Bwa
    • Western
      • Duhumbi–Khispi (Chug–Lish): Duhumbi (Chug), Khispi (Lish)
      • MeySartang: Shergaon, Rupa, Jerigaon, Khoina, Rahung, Khoitam
    • Bugun
      • A
        • Bulu, Rawa, Kojo Rojo
        • Sario Saria, Lasumpatte, Chayangtajo
      • B
        • Namphri, Kaspi
        • Wangho, Dikhyang
        • Singchaung, Bichom

Vocabulary edit

The following table of Kho-Bwa basic vocabulary items is from Blench (2015).[6]

Gloss Mey (Shergaon) Mey (Rupa) Sartang (Jergaon) Sartang (Rahung) Lish (Khispi) Chug (Duhumbi)
one hǎn han hèn hân hin hin
two ɲǐt ɲik nìk ɲes niʃ
three ùŋ ùŋ ùún ʔum om
four pʰʃì bsi psì pʰəhi psi
five kʰù kʰu kʰù kʰu kʰa kʰa
six ʧùk kit ʧìk ʨěy ʧʰuʔ ʧyk
seven ʃìt sit sìk sǐ, sě ʃis his
eight sàʤát sarʤat sàrgè sàrʤɛ́ saɾgeʔ saɾgeʔ
nine tʰkʰí dʰikʰi tʰkʰì tɛ̀kʰɯ́ ṱʰikʰu ṱʰikʰu
ten sɔ̀ ̃ sã̀ ʃan ʃan
head kʰruk kʰruk kʰrǔk kʰruʔ kʰoloʔ kʰloʔ
nose nupʰuŋ nəfuŋ nfùŋ apʰuŋ hempoŋ heŋpʰoŋ
eye khibi kivi kábì kʰaʔby kʰumu kʰum
ear kʰtùŋ gtʰiŋ gtʰìŋ ktèíŋ kʰutʰuŋ kʰutʰuŋ
tongue laphõ lapon ? le loi loi
tooth nuthuŋ tokʧe mísìŋ nitʰiŋ ʃiŋtuŋ hintuŋ
arm ik ik ìk ik hu hut
leg lapon lɛ̌ lɛ̌ lei lai
belly ʃrìŋ sliŋ srìŋ sriŋ hiɲiŋ hiliŋ
bone skìk skik àhík skik ʃukuʃ ʃukuʃ
blood ha(a) hɛ̀ ha hoi hoi
face dòŋpù bo mi zə̀í doʔ doŋpa
tooth ntùŋ tokʧe mísìŋ ptə̀íŋ ʃiŋtuŋ hintuŋ
stomach àlà karbu ʧàk phriŋ hiɲiŋ hiliŋ
mouth ʧàw nəʧaw so ʨʨǒ hoʧok kʰoʧu
rain ʧuuma nimi nʧʰù ʧuʧuba namu namu

See also edit

  • Kho-Bwa comparative vocabulary lists (Wiktionary)

Further reading edit

  • Ismail Lieberherr and Timotheus Adrianus Bodt. (2017) Sub-grouping Kho-Bwa based on shared core vocabulary. Himalayan Linguistics 16(2). 26–63. Paper (CLDF Dataset on Zenodo doi:10.5281/zenodo.2553234)
  • Binny Abraham, Kara Sako, Elina Kinny, Isapdaile Zeliang (2018). Sociolinguistic Research among Selected Groups in Western Arunachal Pradesh: Highlighting Monpa. SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2018–009. (CLDF Dataset on Zenodo. doi:10.5281/zenodo.3537601)
  • Bodt, T. and J.-M. List (2019). Testing the predictive strength of the comparative method: An ongoing experiment on unattested words in Western Kho-Bwa languages. Papers in Historical Phonology 4.1. 22–44. doi:10.2218/pihph.4.2019.3037 (CLDF Dataset on Zenodo doi:10.5281/zenodo.3537604)
  • Bodt, Timotheus A.; List, Johann-Mattis (2021). "Reflex prediction: A case study of Western Kho-Bwa". Diachronica. doi:10.1075/dia.20009.bod.

References edit

  1. ^ Anderson, Gregory D.S. 2014. On the classification of the Hruso (Aka) language. Paper presented at the 20th Himalayan Languages Symposium, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
  2. ^ What is the evidence that the isolate languages of Arunachal Pradesh are genuinely Trans-Himalayan?
  3. ^ Blench (2011): "Certainly, the phonology and morphology of Arunachali languages looks superficially like Tibeto-Burman, which explains their placing in the Linguistic Survey of India. Unfortunately, this is rather where matters have remained [... this paper] proposes we should take seriously the underlying presumption probably implied in Konow's statement in Linguistic Survey of India. Volume III, 1, Tibeto-Burman family, Calcutta (1909:572)], that these languages may not be Sino-Tibetan but simply have been influenced by it; that they are language isolates."
  4. ^ Lieberherr, Ismael; Bodt, Timotheus Adrianus. 2017. Sub-grouping Kho-Bwa based on shared core vocabulary. In Himalayan Linguistics, 16(2).
  5. ^ Tiago Tresoldi; Christoph Rzymski; Robert Forkel; Simon J. Greenhill; Johann-Mattis List; Russell D. Gray (2022). "Managing Historical Linguistic Data for Computational Phylogenetics and Computer-Assisted Language Comparison". The Open Handbook of Linguistic Data Management. The MIT Press. pp. 345–354. doi:10.7551/mitpress/12200.003.0033. ISBN 978-0-262-36607-6.
  6. ^ Blench, Roger. 2015. The Mey languages and their classification. Presentation given at the University of Sydney, 21 August 2015.
  • George van Driem (2001) Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region. Brill.
  • Blench, Roger. 2011. (De)classifying Arunachal languages: Reconsidering the evidence
  • Lieberherr, Ismael; Bodt, Timotheus Adrianus. 2017. Sub-grouping Kho-Bwa based on shared core vocabulary. In Himalayan Linguistics, 16(2).
  • Abraham, Binny, Kara Sako, Elina Kinny, Isapdaile Zeliang. 2018. Sociolinguistic Research among Selected Groups in Western Arunachal Pradesh: Highlighting Monpa. SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2018–009.