The Ao or Central Naga languages are a small family of
Sino-Tibetan languages spoken by various
Naga peoples of
Nagaland
Nagaland () is a landlocked States and union territories of India, state in the northeast India, northeastern region of India. It is bordered by the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Assam to the west, Manipur to the south and the ...
in northeast
India
India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...
. Conventionally classified as "Naga", they are not clearly related to other
Naga languages, and are conservatively classified as an independent branch of Sino-Tibetan, pending further research. There are around 607,000 speakers of the languages in total.
Coupe (2012)
[Coupe, Alexander R. 2012. Overcounting numeral systems and their relevance to sub-grouping in the Tibeto-Burman languages of Nagaland. Language and Linguistics / Academica Sinica 13. 193-220.] considers the
Angami–Pochuri languages to be most closely related to Ao as part of a wider ''Angami–Ao'' group.
Languages
The following languages are widely accepted as Central Naga languages:
*
Ao language
The Ao language is a Naga language spoken by the Ao Naga in Nagaland of northeast India.
Ao language cluster
''Ethnologue'' lists the following varieties of Ao.
* Mongsen Khari
*Changki
* Chongli (Chungli)
*Dordar (Yacham)
*Longla
Chongli and M ...
**
Chungli Ao
**
Mongsen Ao
*
Sangtam ('Thukumi')
*
Yimkhiungrü ('Yachumi')
*
Lotha (Lhota)
There are also various undescribed Ao varieties including Yacham and Tengsa, which may turn out to be separate languages (see
Mongsen Ao).
The following "Naga" languages spoken in and around
Leshi Township, Myanmar are classified as Ao languages ("Ao-Yimkhiungrü") by Saul (2005).
[Saul, J. D. 2005. ''The Naga of Burma: Their festivals, customs and way of life''. Bangkok, Thailand: Orchid Press.]
*
Koki
*
Makury
*
Long Phuri
*
Para
Para, or PARA, may refer to:
Businesses and organizations
* Paramount Global, traded as PARA on the Nasdaq stock exchange
* Para Group, the former name of CT Corp
* Para Rubber, now Skellerup, a New Zealand manufacturer
* Para USA, formerly ...
Bruhn (2014:370) also surmises that
Makury may be an Ao language.
Bruhn (2014) uses the term ''Central Naga'' to refer to all of the languages above, and uses the ''Ao'' to refer to only two languages, namely Chungli Ao and Mongsen Ao. The internal structure of Bruhn's Central Naga group is as follows.
;Central Naga
*
Lotha
*
Sangtam
*
Yimkhiungrü
*
Ao
**
Chungli Ao
**
Mongsen Ao
Reconstruction
Proto-Central Naga (Proto-Ao) has been reconstructed by Bruhn (2014).
Bruhn (2014:363) identifies the following four sound changes from
Proto-Tibeto-Burman (PTB) to Proto-Central Naga (PCN) as sound changes that are characteristic of the Central Naga branch.
#PTB *-a(ː)w, *-əw, *-ow, *-u > PCN *-u(ʔ) ‘back diphthong merger’
#PTB *-r > PCN *-n ‘*r-coda nasalization’
#PTB *-s > PCN *-t ‘*s-coda occlusivization’
#PTB *-i(ː)l, *‑al, *‑uːl > PCN *‑ə(ʔ) ‘*l-rime erosion’
See also
*
Ao Naga
*
Lotha Naga
*
Sangtam Naga
*
T Senka Ao
*
Yimkhiung Naga
References
*van Driem, George (2001). ''Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region.'' Leiden: Brill.
*Bruhn, Daniel Wayne. 2014.
A Phonological Reconstruction of Proto-Central Naga'. Ph.D. dissertation. University of California, Berkeley.
*Saul, J. D. 2005. ''The Naga of Burma: Their festivals, customs and way of life''. Bangkok, Thailand: Orchid Press.
*Barkman, Tiffany. 2014
''A descriptive grammar of Jejara (Para Naga)'' MA thesis, Chiang Mai: Payap University.
*Shi, Vong Tsuh. 2009.
Discourse studies of Makuri Naga narratives''. MA thesis, Chiang Mai: Payap University.
*Language and Social Development Organization (LSDO). 2006. ''A sociolinguistic survey of Makuri, Para, and Long Phuri Naga in Layshi Township, Myanmar''. Unpublished manuscript.
*Mills, J. P (1926). The Ao Nagas. London: MacMillan & Co.
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Languages of India