Pangkhu language

Pangkhua (Pangkhu), or Paang, is a Kuki-Chin language primarily spoken in Bangladesh and India. Most speakers of Pangkhu are bilingual in Bengali or Mizo in the respective countries and most education in Pangkhu is conducted in that language.

Since there is essentially no literature in Pangkhua, other than oral folk tales and songs, the Pangkhua community members use Lushai literature. There are minimal language differences between Pangkhua, Tlanglau, Falam Chin, Bawm and Mizo.

Dialects The dialects of the two main communities that use Pangkhu, Bilaichari and Konglak, share 88% of their basic vocabulary. Residents of Pangkhua Para refer to their village as Dinthar (IPA: ; from Mizo d̪in 'stay' and Mizo and Pangkua t̪ʰar 'new')

Phonology Pangkhu has twenty-one consonant phonemes: +Pangkhu consonantsBilabialLabio-dentalDentalAlveolarPost-alveolarPalatalVelarGlottalplainasp.plainasp.plainasp.StopVoicelesspʰ t̪ʰ kʰ ()Voiced FricativeVoiceless~~VoicedAffricate RhoticNasal Glide Lateral However, only unaspirated voiceless stops, /h/, /r/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, and /l/ may occur at syllable coda. When stops occur in coda position, they are not audibly released. The glottal fricative /h/ may be deleted syllable-initially.

There are also seven vowel phonemes: +FrontCentralBackHighClose-midMidOpen-midLow The vowel [æ] serves as an allophone of /e/ and [o] serves as an allophone of /u/. Vowel length contrasts occur only in closed syllables and diphthongs. There are 9 diphthongs, these being /ɑi/, /ɑu/, /ei/, /eu/, /əu/, /ou/, /iɑ/, /uɑ/, and /ui/. Diphthongs and long vowels are monophthongized following another syllable.

The basic syllable structure of Pangkhu is (C)(L)V(X), with L being a lateral consonant and X being a coda consonant.

There are two tones: a high tone and low tone.

Morphology

Derivational affixes

Diminutive and augmentative Augmentative -pui and diminutive -te can be affixed to kinship terms in order to denote relative age or size. +Pangkhua diminutives and augmentativesRootGlossDiminutiveAugmentativepɑfatherpɑte 'father's younger brother'pɑpui 'father's elder brother'numothernute 'mother's younger sister'nupui 'mother's elder sister'thingtreethingte 'tree-plant'thingpui 'big tree'tuiwatertuite 'small river'tuipui 'river'kuthandkutte 'little finger'kutpui 'thumb'

Gender The gender suffixes -pɑ and -mɑ may derive a new referent from a root, as in lɑl 'monarch', lɑlpɑ 'king, and lɑlnu 'queen'.

Negation Negation -ləu can be suffixed to a root to denote its opposite, as in dam 'healthy' and damləu 'sick'.

Noun forms In Pangkhua, only human nouns can be marked for plurality and only animate marked for gender. Relator nouns share a function similar to adpositions in other languages. +Relator nounsSemanticsFormGlossLocationalkiɑngbykung'from, near'lɑi'between'ler'at the top'mɑng'in front'nuɑi'under'sung'inside'chung'on top'nung'behind, later'Temporalsung/hun'during'Directionalkɑng'by'Associativeruɑl'with'Ablativethɒ(k)'from'Benefactive(mə)rɑng'for'

References

Bibliography

Pangkhu language

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