Hill Miri dialect

Hill Miri
Hill Miri
Sarak
Region	Assam
Ethnicity	Hill Miri people
Native speakers	(undated figure of 10,100)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tani West Tani Nyishi Hill Miri; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis); Individual code:; mrg – (included under Plains Miri)
Glottolog	None
ELP	Hill Miri

Hill Miri or Sarak is a Tani language of India. It is spoken in Arunachal Pradesh by an estimated 9,000 people of the Hill Miri tribe.^[2] It appears to be a dialect of the Nishi language.^[3]

Portrait of a girl of the Hill Miri people

Description

Hill Miri is a member of the Tani branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages and is considered a dialect of the Nishi language. It is spoken by 9,000 people in the northern regions of India by the Hill Miri people^[4] It is threatened because the younger generation is slowly breaking away from their people's tradition and language.^[5] The term "Hill Miri" is an exonym, as the Hill Miri people identify themselves simply as Nyishi.^[6] Many audiobooks of gospel narratives in the Hill Miri language have been collected.

History of scholarship

George Abraham Grierson, in his survey of India regarding its linguistics, researched the Nyishi language and published a record over a century ago.^{[citation needed]}

Phonology

Consonants

The following table includes an inventory of Hill Miri consonants.^[7]

		Labial	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	ɲ^[8]	ŋ
Stop	voiceless	p	t	c^[9]	k
Stop	voiced	b	d	ɟ^[10]	ɡ
Fricative			s	ʃ		h
Approximant		w	l	j
Trill?			r

Vowels are front /i, e/, central /ɨ, ʉ, ə, a/,^[11] and back /u, o/. Vowels occur long and short.

Grammar

The basic Hill Miri grammar and basic word order are like those of related Sino-Tibetan languages, similar to that of Nishi.

Numerals

	Hill Miri
1	aken
2	eñi
3	oum
4	epi
5	ango/angngo
6	ake
7	kenne
8	pine
9	kora
10	íri

Pronouns

Personal

	Singular	Plural
1st person	ngo	ngu-lu
2nd person	no	nu-lu
3rd person	bu, bú	bu-lu, bú-lu

References

^ Mising at Ethnologue (15th ed., 2005)
^ Moseley, Christopher (2007). Encyclopedia of the world's endangered languages. Routledge. p. 298. ISBN 978-0-7007-1197-0. Retrieved 1 April 2012.
^ Post, Mark W. (2013). Defoliating the Tani Stammbaum: An exercise in areal linguistics. Paper presented at the 13th Himalayan Languages Symposium. Canberra, Australian National University, Aug 9.
^ http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/10414
^ Hill Miri Audio
^ Nabam Tadar Rikam, "Emerging religious Identities of Arunachal Pradesh", Mittal Publications, 2005
^ Ju Namkung, "Phonological inventories of Tibeto-burman languages", Center for Southeast Asia Studies, University of California, 1996
^ Value unclear, perhaps [nʲ]?
^ Value unclear, perhaps [t͡ʃ]?
^ Value unclear, perhaps [d͡ʒ]?
^ Transcribed ⟨ɯ, y, ɤ, a⟩ in Namkung

External links

[1] Mising at Ethnologue (15th ed., 2005)

[Moseley2007-2] Moseley, Christopher (2007). Encyclopedia of the world's endangered languages. Routledge. p. 298. ISBN 978-0-7007-1197-0. Retrieved 1 April 2012.

[3] Post, Mark W. (2013). Defoliating the Tani Stammbaum: An exercise in areal linguistics. Paper presented at the 13th Himalayan Languages Symposium. Canberra, Australian National University, Aug 9.

[4] ttp://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/10414

[5] Hill Miri Audio

[6] Nabam Tadar Rikam, "Emerging religious Identities of Arunachal Pradesh", Mittal Publications, 2005

[7] Ju Namkung, "Phonological inventories of Tibeto-burman languages", Center for Southeast Asia Studies, University of California, 1996

[8] Value unclear, perhaps [nʲ]?

[9] Value unclear, perhaps [t͡ʃ]?

[10] Value unclear, perhaps [d͡ʒ]?

[11] Transcribed ⟨ɯ, y, ɤ, a⟩ in Namkung

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

v t e Tani languages
Eastern	Bori Siang (Adi) Mising (Plains Miri) Bokar
Western	Apatani Damu Tangam Bangni-Tagin Na Nishi Hill Miri (Sarak) Yano Gallong