Southern Anung ( autonym: ; ; ) is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by the Nung people in Fugong County,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, and

Kachin State Kachin State (; Jingpho language, Kachin: ) is the northernmost administrative divisions of Myanmar, state of Myanmar. It is bordered by China to the north and east (Tibet Autonomous Region, Tibet and Yunnan, respectively), Shan State to the sou ...

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

. The Anung language is closely related to the Derung and Rawang languages. Most of the Anung speakers in China have shifted to Lisu, although the speakers are classified as

Nu people The Nu people (; alternative names include Nusu, Nùng people, Nung, Zauzou and Along) are one of the List of Chinese ethnic groups, 56 ethnic groups recognized by the People's Republic of China. Their population of 27,000 is divided into the Nor ...

. The Northern Anung people speak a dialect of Derung, which is also called ''Anung'' (), but is not the same Anung discussed in this article. The Burmese and Chinese dialects of Anung have 87%

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. Anung has 73-76% lexical similarity with Derung, and 77-83% lexical similarity with the Matwang dialect of Rawang.

Demographics

Besides

and

, there are Anong people in

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

and

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

China

Anong is spoken by over 7,000 people in

in the following townships. * Shangpa (): 2,200 people * Lijia (): 1,100 people * Lumadeng (): 2,100 people * Lishadi (): 2,200 people

Myanmar

The majority of Anong speakers in Myanmar are found in

, specifically

Myitkyina Myitkyina (, ; Jingpho language, Jinghpaw: ''Myitkyina'', ; , ''Sèna'') is the capital city of Kachin State in Myanmar (Burma), located from Yangon, and from Mandalay. In Burmese language, Burmese it means "near the big river", and Myitkyina i ...

, Putao, Naungmun,

Machanbaw Machanbaw () is a town in the Kachin State of northernmost part of the Myanmar. It is on the Namtiyu River. The placename means means "confluence of the Machan River" in Jingpo language, Jingpo. References External linksSatellite map at Mapland ...

, Tannai, and Khaunglangphu. There are over 5000 Naw (Anong) people in Kachin State, Myanmar. * Putao: 2000 people *

: 3000 people * Tanai: 500 people In Myitkyina and Putao, there are literacy and language trainings every year. Some Naw people live in

Shan State Shan State (, ; , ) is a administrative divisions of Myanmar, state of Myanmar. Shan State borders China (Yunnan) to the north, Laos (Louang Namtha Province, Louang Namtha and Bokeo Provinces) to the east, and Thailand (Chiang Rai Province, Chia ...

, but it is not clear whether they still use Anong or not. There are also many living in cities such as

Yangon Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon was the List of capitals of Myanmar, capital of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the State Peace and Dev ...

, Khamti, and

Taunggyi Taunggyi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Shan State, Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast As ...

. Naw people are still mixed with the Lisu population.

Phonology

Consonants

Nung has 43 single consonants.

Notes

References

* *Wu, Nye. 2013.
A Sociolinguistic Study of the Vitality of Anung (Anong) In Myanmar
'. Master’s thesis, Payap University. *Shintani, Tadahiko. 2018. ''The Khwingsang language''. Linguistic survey of Tay cultural area, no. 113. Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA). {{Languages of China Nungish languages Endangered Sino-Tibetan languages