Anu-Hkongso (also spelled Anu-Khongso) is a

Sino-Tibetan language Sino-Tibetan (also referred to as Trans-Himalayan) is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. Around 1.4 billion people speak a Sino-Tibetan language. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 ...

spoken between the Kaladan and Michaung rivers in

Paletwa Township Paletwa Township () is the only township of Paletwa District () in southwestern Chin State, Myanmar. It consists of Paletwa and Sami towns and Paletwa is the administrative center for the township. Geography Paletwa Township is located in south ...

Chin State Chin State (, ) is a state in western Myanmar. Chin State is bordered by Sagaing Division and Magway Division to the east, Rakhine State to the south, the Chattogram Division of Bangladesh to the west, and the Indian states of Mizoram to th ...

, Burma. It is closely related to Mru, forming the Mruic language branch, whose position within Sino-Tibetan is unclear. It consists of two dialects, Anu (''Añú'') and Hkongso (Khongso, Khaungtso). Hkongso and Anu speakers self-identify as ethnic

Chin people The Chin peoples (, ) are collection of ethnic groups native to the Chin State, Myanmar that speak the Kuki-Chin-Mizo languages, which are closely related but mutually unintelligible. The Chin identity, as a pan-ethnic identity, is a modern c ...

, although the Anu-Hkongso language is not classified as a

Kuki-Chin language The Kuki-Chin languages (also called Kukish or South-Central Tibeto-Burman languages) are a branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages, Sino-Tibetan language family spoken in northeastern India, western Myanmar and southeastern Bangladesh. Most not ...

.ISO 639-3 Change Request Number: 2011-031
/ref> Most Anu and Hkongso speakers can also speak Khumi. Anung has 72-76% lexical similarity with Mro-Khimi although mutual intelligibility is low, and 23-37% lexical similarity with neighbouring Chin languages. A written orthography for Khongso was created in 2014 by Rev. Kyaw Kyaw and the Language and Social Development Organization.

Varieties

Hkongso and Anu are mutually intelligible, and the languages 96-98%

lexical similarity In linguistics, lexical similarity is a measure of the degree to which the word sets of two given languages are similar. A lexical similarity of 1 (or 100%) would mean a total overlap between vocabularies, whereas 0 means there are no common words. ...

with each other. The ''Kasang'' claim to be Hkongso, and live in a small area just to the south of the main Hkongso area, in the villages of Lamoitong and Tuirong. The ''Anu'' live in scattered areas to the west of the main Hkongso area. Anu villages include Bedinwa, Onphuwa, Payung Chaung, Yeelawa, Daletsa Wa, Ohrangwa, Tuikin Along, and Khayu Chaung (Wright 2009:6). The Anu people consider themselves to consist of 4 subgroups, namely ''Hkum'', ''Hkong'' (Hkongso), ''Som'', and ''Kla''. However, the Hkongso maintain that they are an ethnic group equal to the Anu, but are not a subgroup of the Anu. The Kasang (also known as Khenlak, Ta-aw, Hkongsa-Asang, Hkongso-Asang, Asang, and Sangta) consider themselves as ethnic Hkongso, but their language is intelligible with Khumi rather than Anu. Kasang villages include Lamoitong and Tuirong. The

Mru language Mru, also known as Mrung (Murung), is a Sino-Tibetan languages, Sino-Tibetan language of Bangladesh and Myanmar. It is spoken by a community of Mru people, Mrus (Mros) inhabiting the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh with a population of 22 ...

is also closely related to Anu and Hkongso. The Mru had migrated to the

Chittagong Hills The Chittagong Hill Tracts (), often shortened to simply the Hill Tracts and abbreviated to CHT, refers to the three hilly districts within the Chittagong Division in southeastern Bangladesh, bordering India and Myanmar (Burma) in the east: K ...

from the Arakan Hills.

Distribution

Hkongso is spoken in the following villages of Paletwa Township. *Bahungtong *Halawa *Kanan *Kanlawa *Lakinwa *Likkung *Pahang *Paletwa *Pawa *Phongphai *Ringrong *Sami *Singkangkung *Tengwa *Tuikinwa *Vadengkung *Youngwa Hkongso subgroups (clans) are Htey (Htey Za), Kamu, Ngan, Gwa, Hteikloeh, Ngai, Rahnam, Kapu, Kasah, Namte, Krawktu, and Namluek. Leimi, Asang, and Likkheng are other languages spoken in the Paletwa Township area.

Phonology

Hkongso has minor syllables (also known sesquisyllables), which are typical of Mon-Khmer languages (Wright 2009:12-14).

Grammar

Unlike the

Kuki-Chin languages The Kuki-Chin languages (also called Kukish or South-Central Tibeto-Burman languages) are a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family spoken in northeastern India, western Myanmar and southeastern Bangladesh. Most notable Kuki-Chin-speaking ...

, Hkongso (kʰɔŋ˥˩sʰo˦˨) has no verb stem alternation and has SVO word order (Wright 2009).Wright, Jonathan Michael. 2009.
Hkongso Grammar Sketch
'. MA thesis, Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics. Also, unlike Mru and the Kuki-Chin languages, Hkongso has Neg-V word order (pre-verbal negation) instead of the V-Neg order (post-verbal negation) found in surrounding languages.

References

External links

Proto-Anu-Hkongso reconstructions
(Sino-Tibetan Branches Project) {{authority control Sino-Tibetan languages Languages of Myanmar