The Siangic languages (or Koro-Holon languagesAnderson, Gregory D.S. 2014. ''On the classification of the Hruso (Aka) language''. Paper presented at the 20th Himalayan Languages Symposium, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.) are a small family of possibly

Sino-Tibetan languages Sino-Tibetan, also cited as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese languages ...

spoken in

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares ...

, northeast India. The Siangic languages consist of Koro and Milang.

Classification

Milang, which has been extensively influenced by Padam (a Tani language), is alternatively classified as a divergent Tani language (Post & Blench 2011). Koro has undergone influence from Hruso (Post & Blench 2011). However, Milang and Koro do not belong to either the Tani or Hrusish groups of languages. It is unclear whether the Siangic is a branch of Sino-Tibetan or an independent

language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in h ...

that has undergone extensive Sino-Tibetan influence. Post & Blench (2011) note that Siangic has a substratum of unknown origin, and consider Siangic to be an independent language family. Anderson (2014), who refers to Siangic as Koro-Holon instead, considers Siangic (Koro-Holon) to be a branch of Sino-Tibetan rather than an independent language family.

Greater Siangic

Roger Blench Roger Marsh Blench (born August 1, 1953) is a British linguist, ethnomusicologist and development anthropologist. He has an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and is based in Cambridge, England. He researches, publishes, and w ...

(2014) proposes a Greater Siangic family that includes the ''

Digaro languages The Digaro (Digarish), Northern Mishmi (Mishmic), or Kera'a–Tawrã languages are a small family of possibly Sino-Tibetan languages spoken by the Mishmi people of southeastern Tibet and Arunachal Pradesh. The languages are Idu and Taraon (D ...

'' ( Idu Mishmi and Taraon) and ''Pre-Tani'', the hypothetical substrate language branch of Tani before it became relexified by Sino-Tibetan. *Proto-Greater Siangic **Pre- Tani ** Idu- Taraon **Proto-Siangic *** Koro *** Milang

Reconstruction

Post & Blench (2011)

The following Proto-Siangic forms reconstructed by Mark Post &

(2011:8-9) do not have lexical parallels with Proto- Tani, and are unique to the Siangic branch.

Modi (2013)

Modi (2013)Modi, Yankee. 2013. ''The nearest relatives of the Tani group''. Paper presented at the 19th Himalayan Languages Symposium, Canberra, Australia. lists the following Proto-Siangic forms, along with forms for Milang, Koro, Idu, Taraon, and Proto-Tani. Additional cognate sets that were not included in Post & Blench (2011) include ''black, house, salt, fat,'' and ''today''.

References and notes

Bibliography

* Post, Mark W. and Roger Blench (2011).
Siangic: A new language phylum in North East India
, ''6th International Conference of the North East India Linguistics Society'', Tezpur University, Assam, India, 31 Jan – 2 Feb. * Blench, Roger (2014).
Fallen leaves blow away: a neo-Hammarstromian approach to Sino-Tibetan classification
'. Presentation given at the University of New England, Armidale, 6 September 2014. {{Eurasian languages Greater Siangic languages Languages of India Proposed language families