Cover not available
Article published In:
Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area
Vol. 43:1 (2020) ► pp.147–189

Northern Sangtam phonetics, phonology and word list

| Nanyang Technological University
This paper presents a comprehensive phonetic and phonological description of Northern Sangtam, an essentially undescribed Tibeto-Burman language of central Nagaland belonging to the Aoic subgroup. It is a noteworthy language from a number of phonological perspectives, not least because its phoneme inventory contains two of the world’s rarest phonemes: a pre-stopped bilabial trill, and a doubly-articulated labial-coronal nasal. These unique segments are described in detail, and an attempt is made to determine how they might have developed their phonemic status. The tone system is also of interest, as it demonstrates evidence of debuccalization resulting in the development of a new high tone. Following a systematic description of the syllable and word structure, the tone system, and the segmental phonology, some observed age-related differences in the phoneme inventory are discussed. The paper is linked to an online repository containing the audio-visual data and transcribed word lists of approximately 900 items, based on the recorded utterances of eight speakers.
Keywords: Tibeto-Burman, Indo-Burmic, Aoic, Sangtam, phonetics, phonology, tone, language documentation, historical linguistics, typology, Nagaland
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Previous work
  • 3.Dialects and genetic classification
  • 4.Sources of data and presentation
  • 5.Limitations of this study
  • 6.Phonotactics
    • 6.1Syllable structure
    • 6.2Vowel-vowel sequences
    • 6.3Rhyme patterns
    • 6.4Word structure
  • 7.Suprasegmental phonology
  • 8.Consonant phoneme inventory
    • 8.1Plosives
    • 8.2Affricates
    • 8.3Pre-stopped bilabial trill
    • 8.4Nasals
    • 8.5Doubly-articulated labial-coronal nasal
    • 8.6Fricatives
    • 8.7Approximants
  • 9.Vowel phoneme inventory
    • 9.1Monophthongs
    • 9.2Transphonologized nasality
  • 10.Aged-related phonological differences in Northern Sangtam
  • 11.Concluding comments
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 28 August 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ltba.19014.cou
References (50)
References
Benedict, Paul K. 1972. Sino-Tibetan: A conspectus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bielenberg, Brian & Zhalie Nienu. 2001. Chokri (Phek dialect): Phonetics, phonology. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 24.(2). 85–122.Google Scholar
Bouchery, Pascal & Lemlila Sangtam. 2012. The Kinship terminology of the Sangtam Nagas. European Bulletin of Himalayan Research 411. 9–29.Google Scholar
Bruhn, Daniel Wayne. 2014. A phonological construction of Proto-Central Naga. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Burling, Robbins. 1999. On “Kamarupan”. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 22.(2). 169–171.Google Scholar
. 2003. The Tibeto-Burman languages of northeastern India. In Thurgood, Graham and Randy J. LaPolla (eds.), The Sino-Tibetan languages, 169–191.Google Scholar
Clark, Mary Mead. [1893] 2002. The Ao-Naga grammar. New Delhi: Mittal Publications.Google Scholar
Chao, Y. 1930. A system of “tone-letters”. Le Maître Phonetique 301. 24–27.Google Scholar
Coupe, Alexander R. 2003. A phonetic and phonological description of Ao: a Tibeto-Burman language of Nagaland, north-east India. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
2007a. A grammar of Mongsen Ao. Mouton Grammar Library 39. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2007b. Converging patterns of clause linkage in Nagaland. In Matti Miestamo & Bernhard Wälchli (eds.), New challenges in typology: Broadening the horizons and redefining the foundations. [Trends in Linguistics, Studies and Monographs 1891], 339–361. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
(ed.) 2008. Special issue on nominalization in Tibeto-Burman, Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area Vol. 31.(2).Google Scholar
2011. On core case marking patterns in two Tibeto-Burman languages of Nagaland. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 34.(2). 21–47.Google Scholar
2012. Overcounting numeral systems and their relevance to sub- grouping in the Tibeto-Burman languages of Nagaland. Language and Linguistics 13.(1). 193–220.Google Scholar
2013. Phonological peculiarities of Sangtam: A preliminary investigation. Paper read at the 19th Himalayan Languages Symposium, The Australian National University, Canberra 6–7 September.
2014. Strategies for analyzing tone languages. Language Documentation & Conservation 81: 462–489. [URL]
2015. Pre-stopped bilabial trills in Sangtam. In The Scottish Consortium for ICPhS 2015 (ed.), Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Glasgow, UK: the University of Glasgow. ISBN 978-0-85261-941-4. Paper no. 07341. 1–5.Google Scholar
2017. Mongsen Ao. In Thurgood, Graham & Randy J. LaPolla (eds.), The Sino-Tibetan languages, 2nd Edn., 277–301. Oxford and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Eberhard, David M., Gary F. Simons, & Charles D. Fennig (eds.) 2019. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Twenty-second edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Online edition: [URL]. Accessed 13/06/2019.
Everett, Daniel L. & Barbara Kern. 1997. Wari’. Routledge: London & New York.Google Scholar
Grierson, George Abraham. (ed.). 1967 Reprint. Linguistic survey of India. Vol 31, Part 21. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. Series first published 1903–1928.Google Scholar
Haudricourt, André-Georges. 1954. De l’origine des tons en vietnamien. Journal Asiatique 2421. 69–82.Google Scholar
Hutton, John Henry. 1921. The Angami Nagas, with some notes on neighbouring tribes. London: MacMillan and Co.Google Scholar
. 1986. Reprint. Diaries of two tours in the unadministered area, east of the Naga Hills. Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. 11, No. 1. Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal. Delhi: Mittal Publications. First published 1929.Google Scholar
Imchen. 2014. Linguistic ecology of Sangtam. In War, J. and S. K. Singh and S. A. Lyngdoh & B. Khyriem (eds.), Tibeto-Burman linguistics of North-East India, 54–75. Guwahati: EBH Publishers.Google Scholar
Jakobson, Roman & Morris Halle. 1956. Fundamentals of language. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Kauffmann, H. E. 1939. Kurze Ethnographie der nördlichen Sangtam-Naga (Lophomi), Assam. Anthropos 341. 207–245.Google Scholar
Kumar, Braj Bihari. 1973. Hindi-Sangtam dictionary. Kohima: Nagaland Bhasha Parishad.Google Scholar
Ladefoged, Peter & Ian Maddieson. 1996. The sounds of the world’s languages. Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Ladefoged, Peter & Daniel Everett. 1996. The status of phonetic rarities. Language 72.(4). 794–800. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
LaPolla, Randy J. 1994. Parallel grammaticalizations in the Tibeto-Burman languages: evidence of Sapir’s ‘drift’. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 17(1). 61–80.Google Scholar
MacEachern, M. R., Kern, B., Ladefoged, P. 1997. Wari’ phonetic structures. Journal of Amazonian Languages 1(1). 3–28.Google Scholar
Maddieson, Ian. 2013. Consonant inventories. In Matthew S. Dryer & Martin Haspelmath (eds.), The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. (Available online at [URL], Accessed on 2019-09-13.)
Marrison, Geoffrey Edward. 1967. The classification of the Naga languages of north-east India, Volume 1 (Text). Unpublished PhD dissertation, Department of Phonetics and Linguistics, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.Google Scholar
Matisoff, James A. 1973. Tonogenesis in Southeast Asia. In Larry M. Hyman (ed.), Consonant types and tone, 71–95. Southern California Occasional Papers in Linguistics No. 1. Los Angeles: Linguistics Program of the University of Southern California.Google Scholar
1989. The bulging monosyllable, or the mora the merrier: Echo-vowel adverbialization in Lahu. In J. Davidson (ed.), South-East Asian Linguistics: Essays in Honour of Eugenie J. A. Henderson, 163–97. London: School of Oriental and African Studies.Google Scholar
1991. Sino-Tibetan linguistics: Present state and future prospects. Annual Review of Anthropology 201: 469–504. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1999. In defense of Kamarupan. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 22(2). 173–182.Google Scholar
2003. Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman: System and philosophy of Sino-Tibetan reconstruction. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Mills, John P. 1922. The Lotha Nagas. London: MacMillan & Co.Google Scholar
1926. The Ao Nagas. London: MacMillan & Co.Google Scholar
No author. 2016. Yusüp: Bilingual dictionary of Sangtam Naga. Dimapur, Nagaland: Sangtam Literature Board.Google Scholar
Reid, Robert. 1942. History of the frontier areas bordering on Assam, from 1883–1942. Shillong: Assam Government Press.Google Scholar
Sampson, Rodney. 2011. Nasal vowel evolution in Romance. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sapir, Edward. 1921. Language: An introduction to the study of speech. Orlando FL: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Temsunungsang, T. 2009. Aspects of the prosodic phonology of Ao: An inter-dialectal study. Unpublished PhD dissertation, The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad.Google Scholar
Teo, Amos. 2014. A phonological and phonetic description of Sumi, a Tibeto-Burman language of Nagaland. Canberra: Asia-Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
Weidert, Alfons. 1987. Tibeto-Burman tonology: A comparative account. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Witter, W. E. 1888. Outline grammar of the Lhōtā Nāgā language: With a vocabulary and illustrative sentences. Calcutta: Supt. of Govt. Print.Google Scholar
Wolfenden, Stuart Norris. 1929. Outlines of Tibeto-Burman linguistic morphology. London: Royal Asiatic Society.Google Scholar
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Ivani, Jessica K.
2023. Suansu language from northeastern India. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 46:1 ► pp. 138 ff. DOI logo
Evans, Jonathan P. & Johakso Manyu
2021. The sounds of Tawrã (Digaru-Mishmi), a Tibeto-Burman language. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 44:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.