Kaman (Geman, Geman Deng, Kùmán, Kman), or Miju (Miju, Mishmi, Midzu), is a small language of India and China. Long assumed to be 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 ...

, it may be a

language isolate A language isolate is a language that has no demonstrable genetic relationship with any other languages. Basque in Europe, Ainu and Burushaski in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, Haida and Zuni in North America, Kanoê in South America, and Tiwi ...

Locations

In China, the Miju are known as the Deng 僜人. The Deng number over 1,000 in

Zayü County Zayul County ()
KNAB, retrieved 5 July 2021. Idu or ' (义都) people. In India, Miju is spoken in Hawai Circle and the Parsuram Kund area of

Lohit District Lohit () is an administrative district in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in India. The district headquarters is located at Tezu. As of 2011 it is the third most populous district of Arunachal Pradesh, after Papum Pare and Changlang. Etymol ...

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeast India. It was formed from the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and India declared it as a state on 20 February 1987. Itanagar is its capital and la ...

(Boro 1978, Dasgupta 1977). ''Ethnologue'' reports that Miju is spoken in 25 villages located in high altitude areas to the east of upper Lohit and Dau valleys, which are located east of the Haguliang, Billong, and Tilai valleys.

Phonology

These are the sounds in the Miju/Kaman language.

Consonants

Vowels

/ɯ/ may also be heard as �

Tones

There are three main tones in the Miju language, rising (á), falling (à), and level (ā).

Registers

Kman has various registers that are used in different situations. These include:Blench, Roger. 2022.
Why would a language with 5000 speakers have seven registers? Register-flipping in the isolates of Northeast India compromises the unitary concept of language
'. Cambridge: Kay Williamson Education Foundation.

Shamanic

Shamanic register is used by

Shamans Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit world through Altered state of consciousness, altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of th ...

during rituals and is made up of a series of lexical substitutions and periphrasic constructions, the original of these are often specualted to be from an archaic version of the language or another language but this cannot be proven.

Hunting

Hunting register is used by hunters and when hunting large and dangerous animals such as

Takin The takin (''Budorcas taxicolor''; ), also called cattle chamois or gnu goat, is a large species of ungulate of the subfamily Caprinae found in the eastern Himalayas. It includes four subspecies: the Mishmi takin (''B. t. taxicolor''), the golde ...

it is the only form of speech that can be used. Hutning register consists of lexical substitutions of words mostly but not exclusively relating to hunting. other meters include: *cursing and scolding *poetic *babytalk *mediation *mourning

References