Hill Miri dialect
{{Short description|Tani language of Arunachal Pradesh, India}}
{{use dmy dates|date=August 2024}}
{{distinguish|Plains Miri language}}
{{Infobox language
|name=Nyishi (Kamle)
|nativename=Sarak
|region=Arunachal Pradesh
|ethnicity=Nyishi (Kamle) people
|speakers=10,000
|date=2008
|familycolor=Sino-Tibetan
|fam2=Tani
|fam3=West Tani
|fam4=Nyishi
|iso3=none
|lc1=mrg
|ld1=(included under Plains Miri)
|glotto=none
}}
Nyishi (Kamle) or Sarak is a Tani language of India. It is spoken in Arunachal Pradesh by an estimated 9,000 people of the Nyishi tribe.{{cite book|last=Moseley|first=Christopher|title=Encyclopedia of the world's endangered languages|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dQt6XWloU10C&pg=PA298|access-date=1 April 2012|year=2007|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-7007-1197-0|page=298|archive-date=3 August 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240803174013/https://books.google.com/books?id=dQt6XWloU10C&pg=PA298|url-status=live}} It appears to be a dialect of the Nishi language.{{cite conference |last=Post |first=Mark W. |date=Aug 9, 2013 |url=https://www.academia.edu/4167715 |title=Defoliating the Tani Stammbaum: An exercise in areal linguistics |conference=13th Himalayan Languages Symposium |location=Canberra, Australian National University |access-date=2 November 2017 |archive-date=3 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240803174014/https://www.academia.edu/4167715 |url-status=live }}
Though Hili Miri is listed under Mising [mrg] in Ethnologue, Burling and Sun–experts on the Aranuchal Pradesh and Tani languages–treat Hill Miri and Mising as separate and distinct languages belonging to different branches of the Tani subgroup.{{Cite web |title=Did you know Hill Miri is threatened? |url=http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/10414 |access-date=2022-12-25 |website=Endangered Languages |language=en |archive-date=18 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150418223414/http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/10414 |url-status=live }}
Description
Nyishi (muri-mugli) is a member of the Tani branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages and is considered a dialect of the Nishi language. It is spoken by 9,000 people in the northern regions of India by the Nyishi people of Kamle. It is threatened because the younger generation is slowly breaking away from their people's traditions and language.{{cite web |url=http://www.livingtongues.org/hotspots/hotspot.GSA.Apatani.HillMiri.Nishi.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111006210743/http://www.livingtongues.org/hotspots/hotspot.GSA.Apatani.HillMiri.Nishi.html |archive-date=2011-10-06 |website=Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages |title=Aptani, Hill Miri, Nishi}}{{cite book |author=Nabam Tadar Rikam |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jP1tAAAAMAAJ |title=Emerging religious Identities of Arunachal Pradesh |publisher=Mittal Publications |year=2005 |isbn=978-81-8324-032-1 |access-date=2 August 2024 |archive-date=3 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240803174012/https://books.google.com/books?id=jP1tAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }} Many audio books of gospel narratives in the Nyishi language of Kamle have been collected.
History of scholarship
George Abraham Grierson, in his survey of India regarding its linguistics, researched the Nyishi language and published a record over a century ago.{{citation needed |date=May 2015}}
Phonology
=Consonants=
The following table includes an inventory of Nyishi (Kamle) consonants.{{cite book |editor=Ju Namkung |url=http://stedt.berkeley.edu/pubs_and_prods/STEDT_Monograph3_Phonological-Inv-TB.pdf |title=Phonological inventories of Tibeto-Burman languages |publisher=Center for Southeast Asia Studies, University of California |year=1996 |isbn=0-944613-28-4 |lccn=96-71235 |series=STEDT Monograph Series |volume=3}}
| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center
! colspan=2| ! Labial ! Alveolar ! Velar ! Glottal |
| colspan=2 | Nasal
| {{IPA link|m}} || {{IPA link|n}} || {{IPA link|ɲ}}Value unclear, perhaps {{IPA|[nʲ]}}? || {{IPA link|ŋ}} || |
|---|
| rowspan=2|Stop
! {{small|voiceless}} | {{IPA link|p}} || {{IPA link|t}} || {{IPA link|c}}Value unclear, perhaps {{IPAblink|t͡ʃ}}? || {{IPA link|k}} || |
| {{small|voiced}}
| {{IPA link|b}} || {{IPA link|d}} || {{IPA link|ɟ}}Value unclear, perhaps {{IPAblink|d͡ʒ}}? || {{IPA link|ɡ}} || |
| colspan=2| Fricative
| || {{IPA link|s}} || {{IPA link|ʃ}} || || {{IPA link|h}} |
| colspan=2 | Approximant
| {{IPA link|w}} || {{IPA link|l}} || {{IPA link|j}} || || |
| colspan=2|Trill?
| || {{IPA link|r}} || || || |
Vowels are front {{IPA|/i, e/}}, central {{IPA|/ɨ, ʉ, ə, a/}},Transcribed {{angbr IPA|ɯ, y, ɤ, a}} in Namkung and back {{IPA|/u, o/}}. Vowels occur long and short.
Grammar
{{unreferenced section|date=August 2024}}
The basic Nyishi (Kamle) grammar and basic word order are like those of related Sino-Tibetan languages, similar to that of Nishi.
=Numerals=
| class="wikitable" | |
| Nyishi (Kamle) | |
|---|---|
| 1 | aken |
| 2 | eñi |
| 3 | oum |
| 4 | epi |
| 5 | ango/angngo |
| 6 | ake |
| 7 | kenne |
| 8 | pine |
| 9 | kora |
| 10 | íri |
=Pronouns=
==Personal==
| class="wikitable" |
| || Singular || Plural |
|---|
| 1st person
| ngo || ngu-lu |
| 2nd person
| no || nu-lu |
| 3rd person
| bu, bú || bu-lu, bú-lu |
References
{{reflist}}
Further reading
- {{cite book |first=P. T. |last=Abraham |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222115712/http://www.rogerblench.info/Language/South%20Asia/NEI/Tani/Nishi/Linguistics/Nyishi%20grammar%20Abraham%202005.pdf |url=http://www.rogerblench.info/Language/South%20Asia/NEI/Tani/Nishi/Linguistics/Nyishi%20grammar%20Abraham%202005.pdf |archive-date=2015-12-22 |title=A Grammar of Nyishi Language |publisher=Farsight Publishers and Distributors |isbn=81-89297-07-4 |year=2005}}
- {{cite journal |first=Matthew S. |last=Dryer |url=http://linguistics.buffalo.edu/people/faculty/dryer/dryer/DryerTibetoBurmanWordOrder.pdf |title=Word order in Tibeto-Burman languages |journal=Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area | year=2008 |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=1–83 |doi=10.32655/LTBA.31.1.01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100611211708/http://linguistics.buffalo.edu/people/faculty/dryer/dryer/DryerTibetoBurmanWordOrder.pdf |archive-date=2010-06-11}}
- {{cite book |first=S. N. |last=Goswami |url=https://archive.org/details/NishingBangniLanguageGuideFINAL |title=Nishing (Bangni) Language Guide |year=1995 |publisher=Government of Arunachal Pradesh |isbn=81-7516-094-2}}
- {{cite book |first=Ivan Martin |last=Simon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d6S5AAAAIAAJ |title=Hill Miri language guide |publisher=Govt. of Arunachal Pradesh |year=1976}}
- {{cite book |author=Shri Aduk Tayeng |url=https://www.rogerblench.info/Language/NEI/Tani/Nishi/Linguistics/Nishi%20phrase%20book%20Tayeng%201990.pdf |title=Nishi Phrase book |publisher=Government of Arunachal Pradesh |year=1990}}
External links
- [http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/10414 Hill Miri profile at the Endangered Languages Project]
- [http://globalrecordings.net/en/program/C62162 Gospel narratives in Hill Miri dialect]
{{Sino-Tibetan languages}}
{{Tani languages}}
{{Arunachal languages}}
{{Languages of Northeast India}}