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Tangsa, also known as Tase and Tase Naga, is a Sino-Tibetan language or language cluster spoken by the Tangsa people of Burma and north-eastern India. Some varieties, such as Shangge (Shanke[2]), are likely distinct languages. There are about 60,000 speakers in Burma and 40,000 speakers in India. The dialects of Tangsa have disparate levels of lexical similarity, ranging from 35%–97%.[3]
Geographical distribution
Tangsa is spoken in the following locations of Myanmar:[1]
Chamchang (Kimsing): Nongtham, Jotinkaikhe, Kharsang, Songking, Injan of Miao subdivision and Nampong-Jairampur-Nampong subdivision of Changlang district. The Chamchang dialect is adopted as a lingua franca by many sub-tribes in Sagaing Division of Myanmar. In India, Nagamese or Nefamese are typically used as a lingua franca. The first complete Bible of the Tangsas has been translated in Chamchang (Kimsing) by the Bible Society of India.[citation needed]
Mossang: Neotan Village, Old Plone, New Plone, Songking, Namphainong, Nayang village, Miao area, and Theremkan village, Nampong circle, Changlang District, Arunachal (Rekhung 1999)[7]
Lao Naga (Law, Loh) (ISO 639 nlq): 1,000 speakers (as of 2012) in Lahe Township. Most similar to Chen-Kayu Naga and the Chuyo and Gakat dialects of Tase Naga.
Chen-Kayu Naga (Kyan-Karyaw Naga) (ISO 639 nqq): 9,000 speakers (as of 2012) in 13 villages of Lahe Township. Dialects are Chen (Kyan) and Kayu (Kahyu, Kaiyaw, Karyaw, Kayaw). Most similar to the Chuyo and Gakat dialects of Tase Naga.
Dialects
There are four principal varieties:
Muklom
Pangwa Naga
Ponthai
Tikhak
Morey (2017)
Within Tangsa, the Pangwa group has about 20 subgroups in India. The Pangwa had migrated from Myanmar to India in the 20th century (Morey 2017). Pangwa subgroups are listed below, with autonyms listed in parentheses, where superscript digits are language-specific tone-marks.[8]
Other subgroups that do not belong to either the Pangwa or Tikhak groups are:[8]
Moklum
Ponthai (Nukta)
Havi (Hawoi)
Hakhun (haˀkʰun)
Thamphang (ʨampaŋ, Champang)
Thamkok (Chamkok)
Halang (Hehle)
Besides Pangwa and Tikhak, other Tangsa groups are:[9]
Muklom (Muklom, Hawoi)
Phong (also known as Ponthai)
Lann (2018)
Lann (2018:8) classifies the Tangsa language varieties as follows, and recognizes 11 subgroups.[10] IPA transcriptions for dialect names are also provided (Lann 2018:4-6), where superscript digits are language-specific tone-marks.[11]
Lann (2018:4) lists the Aktung, Angsü-Angsa, Giiyii, Gawngkaq, Khangcyu, Khangdo, Kumgaq, Punlam, Nukyaq, and Vangtak-Vangkaq dialects as being extinct or nearly extinct.[12]
Kaisan is a Northern Naga language variety spoken in several villages (including the village of Kaisan Chálám) in the Patkai area of Sagaing Region, Myanmar, as well as in Arunachal Pradesh, India.[13]
Sounds /β/ and /ʒ/ may vary freely between approximant sounds [w] and [j] and their fricative sounds, although the fricative sounds [β, ʒ] are more frequent. /ʒ/ may also be heard as a palatal [ʝ] in the Muklom dialect.
/x/ is mainly heard in the Muklom, Choglim and Joglei dialects.
A voiced dental fricative /ð/ may occur in the Ngaimong and Shecyü dialects.
[ɣ] is only heard as a contrastive sound among some speakers.
[n̪] may be heard as an allophone of /n/ by some speakers when followed by the diphthong /ɯi/.[14]
/ɹ/ may also be heard as [ɹ̠] or [ɻ] in the Muklom dialect.[15]
In 1990, Mr. Lakhum Mossang from Namphai Nong, Arunachal Pradesh in India created an alphabet for the Tangsa language. He taught the alphabet in public events and festivals, and promoted the script with community organisations and schools. In 2021, there were about 100 people who are using the script.[16] The Tangsa Script Development Committee was founded in 2019 and continues development of the script after the passing of Lakhum Mossang in order ensure accommodation to the wide range of Tangsa varieties spoken in the region. The script has not yet gained widespread adoption.
Beyond the use of Lakhum Mossang's script, Tangsa varieties are generally written in the Latin alphabet with multiple different spelling conventions in use. One such Roman orthography is that for Mossang, designed by Reverend Gam Win and used in the Mossang translation of the Bible. Different Roman orthographies are in use among different subtribes, often with considerable variation. These differences tend to follow Christian denominational divisions.
The Gam Win Romanization for Mossang is as follows:
Tonal vowels
Each vowel of the Tangsa alphabet notes a combination representing one of 11 phonemic base vowels:[17]
o
[o]
v
[ə]
i
[i]
a
[a]
e
[e]
u
[u]
aw
[ɔ]
ue / ü
[ɤ]
ui
[ɯ]
uiu
[ɯu]
m
[m̩]
modified by one of four distinctive vocalic tones (noted in Latin transcriptions by trailing consonnants appended after the base vowel):
-c
[˦]
thuic tsanz (voice-hard) - mid-high level or rising
-x
[˧]
thuic hvlz (voice-middle) - mid-high falling
-z
[˩]
thuic nyenz (voice-soft) - low falling with creaky phonation
-q
[ˀ]
thuic htaq (voice-break/cut) - short, final glottal stop[17]
As well, the Tangsa alphabet includes a few additional separate letters for distinctive tonal vowels :
-ng
[ŋ]
(final) - modifier written after the base vowel+tone
awx
[ɔ̆˧]
(short variant) - usually not distinguished in Latin transcriptions
uex
[ɤː˧]
(long variant) - usually not distinguished in Latin transcriptions
uez
[ɤ̆˩]
(short variant) - usually not distinguished in Latin transcriptions
Consonants
Unlike Brahmic-derived abugidas most often used for languages in India and Burma, the 31 consonants of the Tangsa alphabet (used to write Sino-Tibetan languages and not Brahmic-based languages) don't carry any inherent vowel:[17]
The Tangsa alphabet was added to the Unicode Standard in September, 2021 with the release of version 14.0.
The Unicode block for Tangsa is U+16A70–U+16ACF. The 48 base vowels (with tones) are encoded in U+16A70–U+16A9F, the 31 base consonants are encoded in U+16AA0–U+16ABE, and ten decimal digits are encoded in U+16AC0–U+16AC9:
^Shintani, Tadahiko. 2015. The Shanke language. Linguistic survey of Tay cultural area (LSTCA) no. 104. Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA).
^"Myanmar". Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-10-10.
^Rekhung, Winlang. 1988. Jugli Language Guide. Itanagar: Directorate of Research, Government of Arunachal Pradesh.
^Rekhung, Winlang. 1988. Lungchang Language Guide. Itanagar: Directorate of Research, Government of Arunachal Pradesh.
^Rekhung, Winlang. 1992. Tutsa Language Guide. Itanagar: Directorate of Research, Government of Arunachal Pradesh.
^Rekhung, Winlang. 1999. Mungshang Language Guide. Itanagar: Directorate of Research, Government of Arunachal Pradesh.
^Morey, Stephen (2015). "The internal diversity of Tangsa: vocabulary and morphosyntax". In Post, Mark; Konnerth, Linda; Morey, Stephen; et al. (eds.). Language and Culture in Northeast India and Beyond: In honor of Robbins Burling. Canberra: Asia-Pacific Linguistics. pp. 23–40. hdl:1885/38458. ISBN9781922185259.
^ abMorey, Stephen (2017). Tangsa (2nd ed.). In Randy J. LaPolla and Graham Thurgood (eds.), The Sino-Tibetan languages: London: Routledge. pp. 350–368.
^ abMulder, Mijke (2020). A Descriptive Grammar of Muklom Tangsa. La Trobe University.
