Mruic or Mru–Hkongso is a small group of Sino-Tibetan languages consisting of two languages, Mru and Anu-Hkongso. Their relationship within Sino-Tibetan is unclear.

Peterson & Wright (2009)Peterson, David A. and Jonathan Wright. 2009. Mru-Hkongso: a new Tibeto-Burman grouping. Paper presented at The 42nd International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics (ICSTLL 42), Chiang Mai. proposed the name Mru–Hkongso. DeLancey (2021) also uses the name Mru–Hkongso.

Classification Matisoff (2015)Matisoff, James A. 2015. The Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus. Berkeley: University of California. (PDF) classifies Mru as part of the Northeast Indian areal group, a linkage that includes Tani, Deng (Digaro), "Kuki-Chin–Naga", Meithei, Mikir, and Sal.

On the other hand, Bradley (1997) classifies Mru as part of Lolo-Burmese, based on Löffler's (1966) observations that Mru shares many phonological and lexical resemblances with Lolo-Burmese.

The Mru-Hkongso group was first proposed by Peterson & Wright (2009), who do not consider it to be a subgroup of Lolo-Burmese.

Peterson (2017:205)Peterson, David. 2017. "On Kuki-Chin subgrouping." In Picus Sizhi Ding and Jamin Pelkey, eds. Sociohistorical linguistics in Southeast Asia: New horizons for Tibeto-Burman studies in honor of David Bradley, 189-209. Leiden: Brill. notes that Mru and Hkongso do not have any features characteristic of Kuki-Chin languages that have been identified by VanBik (2009),VanBik, Kenneth. 2009. Proto-Kuki-Chin: A Reconstructed Ancestor of the Kuki-Chin Languages. STEDT Monograph 8. . including lack of the sound change Proto-Tibeto-Burman *s > tʰ, lack of Kuki-Chin-type verb stem alternation, and lack of the singular first person pronoun (1.) *kaj which is present in most Kuki-Chin languages.

Peterson (2009)Peterson, David A. 2009. "Where does Mru fit into Tibeto-Burman?" Paper presented at The 42nd International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics (ICSTLL 42), November 2009, Payap University, Chiangmai, Thailand. considers Mru-Hkongso to be a separate Tibeto-Burman branch, and notes the following similarities between Mru-Hkongso and Bodo–Garo languages. Bodo–Garo *=kho 'accusative'; Mru =k(öj) 'accusative' (Hkongso locative =ko) Bodo–Garo *=ba ‘also’; Mru-Hkongso =pö ‘also’ Bodo–Garo *–ram 'locative nominalizer'; Mru –ram 'locative nominalizer' Bodo–Garo *=gVn 'future marker'; Mru –köm ~ kön 'irrealis marker' (Hkongso ham) Bodo–Garo *–(k)ha 'past marker'; Mru –khaj ~ -hö 'past marker' (Hkongso kö ?) Bodo–Garo *–dV 'imperative marker'; Mru –diö 'imperative marker' (Hkongso de)

Peterson (2009) considers the similarities with Bodo–Garo to be due to the possible early split of Mruic from a Tibeto-Burman branch that included Bodo–Garo (see also Central Tibeto-Burman languages and Sal languages).

Grammar Both Mru and Hkongso display SVO (subject-verb-object) order instead of the SOV word order typical of most Tibeto-Burman languages.Ebersole, Harold. 1996. The Mru Language: A preliminary grammatical sketch. Ms.Jonathan Michael Wright. 2009. Hkongso Grammar Sketch. MA thesis, Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics. Bai, Sinitic, and Karenic are the only other Sino-Tibetan language branches with primarily verb-medial (SVO) word order.

References

Further reading Language and Social Development Organization. (2019). A Chin dialect survey (Part 1 of 2) [Data set]. (The 2008-03 Anu-Hkongso Chin survey contains data on both Anu-Hkongso and the Anok, Dawpreng, and Sungma dialects of Mru.)

External links Proto-Mru-Khongso reconstructions (Sino-Tibetan Branches Project)