Nyishi (also known as Nishi, Nisi, Nishang, Nissi, Nyising, Leil, Aya, Akang, Bangni-Bangru, Solung) is a
Sino-Tibetan language of the
Tani branch spoken in
Papum Pare,
Lower Subansiri,
Kurung Kumey,
Kra Daadi,
East Kameng,
Pakke Kesang, Kamle districts of
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 ...
and
Darrang District of
Assam
Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...
in
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 ...
. According to the 2011
census of India
The decennial census of India has been conducted 15 times, as of 2011. While it has been undertaken every 10 years, beginning in 1872 under Viceroy Lord Mayo, the first complete census was taken in 1872. Post 1949, it has been conducted by the R ...
, the population of the Nishi speakers is approximately 280,000. Though there are plenty of variations across regions, the dialects of Nishi, such as Akang, Aya, Nyishi (raga), Tagin are easily mutually intelligible, with the exception of the rather small in population Bangni-Bangru and Solung Dialects being very different from the former. 'Nisi' is sometimes used as a cover term for western Tani languages.
Nishi is a
subject–object–verb language.
Origin
The main origin of this language has been pointed out by George Abraham Grierson as ‘Dafla’. He included different varieties under a common name which is known as North Assam group. The varieties are Dafla, Miri and Abor according to him. Daflas used to denote them as ‘Nyi-Shi’. these tribes inhabited between the Assam Valley and Tibet. Then they started to spread in
Lakhimpur,
Sibsagar
{{Infobox settlement
, name = Sivasagar
, settlement_type = Metropolis
, image_skyline = Sivasagar.jpg
, image_alt = {{multiple image
, border = infobox
, total_width = 270
, image_style ...
and
Darrang Districts of
Assam
Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...
. Mr. William Robinson in his notes mentioned that Daflas were spread over a region from 92°50’ to 94° north latitude.
The word ''nyishi'' itself means "upland man", and is a
compound of ''nyi'' ("man") and ''shi'' ("highland").
They are probably descendants of peoples who separated from
Khasi 4,200 years ago.
Phonology
Nishi is a
tonal language
Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All oral languages use pitch to express emotional and other para-linguistic information and to convey emphasi ...
that utilizes three tones: rising, neutral, and falling.
These can be applied to all of its
vowel
A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...
s, and often can change the word's meaning:
: ''bénam'' – "to hold"
: ''benam'' – "to deliver"
: ''bènam'' – "to vomit"
These are the consonants of Nyishi. Where the orthography differs from the IPA, the orthography is bolded. Velar fricative
appears in less than ten words in Abraham's vocabulary list, and is regarded as questionably phonemic.
Grammar
Nyishi distinguishes between
number
A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...
,
person
A person (: people or persons, depending on context) is a being who has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations suc ...
, and
case
Case or CASE may refer to:
Instances
* Instantiation (disambiguation), a realization of a concept, theme, or design
* Special case, an instance that differs in a certain way from others of the type
Containers
* Case (goods), a package of relate ...
. It does not have a gender system, but special affixes can be added to nouns to denote gender.
Pronouns
Vocabulary
Numerals
The counting system differs when referring to human vs. non-human objects.
References
Further reading
Post, Mark W. (2013)
Paper presented at the 13th Himalayan Languages Symposium. Canberra, Australian National University, Aug 9.
{{Languages of Northeast India
Languages of Assam
Languages of Arunachal Pradesh
Tani languages
Endangered languages of India
Tonal languages
Subject–object–verb languages
Endangered Sino-Tibetan languages
Vulnerable languages