Tangkhulic languages

Tangkhul
Tangkhul
Luhupa
Ethnicity	Tangkhul Naga
Geographic; distribution	East Asia
Linguistic classification	Sino-Tibetan Tangkhul;
Subdivisions	Tangkhul; Maring;
Language codes
Glottolog	tang1335

The Tangkhul, Tangkhulic, or Luhupa languages are a small family of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken mostly in northeastern Manipur, India. Conventionally classified as "Naga", they are not clearly related to other Naga languages, and are conservatively classified as an independent branch of Tibeto-Burman, pending further research.

There are perhaps four Tangkhul languages,

Indian Tangkhul
Somra (Burmese Tangkhul), Akyaung Ari
Maring

They are not particularly close. No linguistic data is available for Maring. Ethnologue lists Khoibu as a second Maring language. The recently discovered Sorbung language could be either a Kukish or Tangkhulic language. Mortenson and Keogh (2011) consider a Kukish affiliation to be more likely, although they recognize that are strong links with Southern Tangkhul.^[1]

The recently discovered and as-yet unclassified Koki Naga language is about as close to the Tangkhul languages as they are to each other.

References

^ David Mortenson and Jennifer Keogh. 2011. Sorbung, an Undocumented Language of Manipur: its Phonology and Place in Tibeto-Burman. In JEALS 4, vol 1. http://jseals.org/JSEALS-4-1.pdf

George van Driem (2001) Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region. Brill.

[1] David Mortenson and Jennifer Keogh. 2011. Sorbung, an Undocumented Language of Manipur: its Phonology and Place in Tibeto-Burman. In JEALS 4, vol 1. http://jseals.org/JSEALS-4-1.pdf

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