Pnar language
| Pnar | |
|---|---|
| Pnar | |
| Native to | India, Bangladesh |
| Ethnicity | Pnar people |
Native speakers | 319,324 (2011 census)[1] |
Austroasiatic
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | pbv |
| Glottolog | pnar1238 |
Pnar (also known as Jaintia[2]) is an Austroasiatic language spoken in India and Bangladesh.
Phonology
Pnar has 30 phonemes: 7 vowels and 23 consonants. Other sounds listed below are phonetic realizations.[3]
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | /i/ | [ɨ] | /u/ |
| Near-close | [ɪ] | [ʊ] | |
| Close-mid | /e/ | /o/ | |
| Mid | [ə] | ||
| Open-mid | /ɛ/ | [ʌ] | /ɔ/ |
| Open | /ɑ/ |
Consonants
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | /m/ | /n/ | /ɲ/ | /ŋ/ | |||
| Plosive | voiceless | /p/ | /t̪/ | /t/ | /tʃ/ | /k/ | /ʔ/ |
| voiced | /b/ | /d̪/ | /d/ | /dʒ/ | |||
| voiceless aspirated | /pʰ/ | /t̪ʰ/ | [tʃʰ] | /kʰ/ | |||
| voiced aspirated | [bʱ] | [d̪ʱ] | [dʒʱ] | ||||
| Fricative | /s/ | /h/ | |||||
| Trill | /r/ | ||||||
| Approximant | central | /w/ | /j/ | ||||
| Lateral | /l/ | ||||||
Syllable structure
Syllables in Pnar can consist of a single nucleic vowel. Maximally, they can include a complex onset of two consonants, a diphthong nucleus, and a coda consonant. A second type of syllable contains a syllabic nasal/trill/lateral immediately following the onset consonant. This syllabic consonant behaves as the rhyme. (Ring, 2012: 141-2)
References
- ^ "Statement 1: Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues - 2011". www.censusindia.gov.in. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved 2018-07-07.
- ^ Sidwell, Paul. (2005). The Katuic languages: classification, reconstruction and comparative lexicon. LINCOM studies in Asian linguistics, 58. Muenchen: Lincom Europa. ISBN 3-89586-802-7
- ^ Ring, Hiram. 2012. A phonetic description and phonemic analysis of Jowai-Pnar. Mon-Khmer Studies 40:133–175. https://www.academia.edu/2040472/A_phonetic_description_and_phonemic_analysis_of_Jowai-Pnar
- Choudhary, Narayam Kumar (2004). Word Order in Pnar (PDF). Jawaharlal Nehru University. p. 87. Retrieved 2009-08-14.