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Kho-Bwa languages

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

The Kho-Bwa languages, also known as Bugunish and 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, or alternatively Bugun–Mey, after its two main members. Alternatively, Anderson (2014)[1] refers to Kho-Bwa as Northeast Kamengic.

Both Van Driem and Blench group the Bugun (or Khowa), the Mey (or Sherdukpen), and the Lishpa (or Lish) languages. The Puroik (or Sulung) language is included in the group by Van Driem but treated as a language isolate with no genetic relation to Kamengic by Blench.

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.[2]

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

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

  • 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)[3] consider Puroik to be a Kho-Bwa language, and classify the Kho-Bwa languages as follows.

Kho-Bwa

Vocabulary

The following table of Kho-Bwa basic vocabulary items is from Blench (2015).[4]

Gloss Mey (Shergaon) Mey (Rupa) Sartang (Jergaon) Sartang (Rahung) Lish (Khispi) Chug (Duhumbi)
one hǎn han hèn hân hin hin
two ɲǐt ɲik nìk ně ɲes niʃ
three ùŋ uŋ ùŋ ùún ʔum om
four pʰʃì bsi sì 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 ̃ sõ sã̀ sɔ 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 là lapon lɛ̌ lɛ̌ lei lai
belly ʃrìŋ sliŋ srìŋ sriŋ hiɲiŋ hiliŋ
bone skìk skik àhík skik ʃukuʃ ʃukuʃ
blood hà 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

Further reading

  • Tiago Tresoldi, & Johann-Mattis List. (2019). Sub-grouping Kho-Bwa based on shared core vocabulary (Version v0.1) [Data set]. Zenodo. doi:10.5281/zenodo.2553234
  • Johann-Mattis List, Mei Shin Wu, Robert Forkel, & Tiago Tresoldi. (2019). lexibank/bodtkhobwa: Lexical Cognates in Western Kho-Bwa (Version v2.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. doi:10.5281/zenodo.3537604
  • Yunfan Lai, Mei Shin Wu, Johann-Mattis List, & Nathanael Schweikhard. (2019). lexibank/abrahammonpa: Sociolinguistic Research on Monpa (Version v2.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. doi:10.5281/zenodo.3537601

References

  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. ^ 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."
  3. ^ Lieberherr, Ismael; Bodt, Timotheus Adrianus. 2017. Sub-grouping Kho-Bwa based on shared core vocabulary. In Himalayan Linguistics, 16(2).
  4. ^ Blench, Roger. 2015. The Mey languages and their classification. Presentation given at the University of Sydney, 21 August 2015.
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