Bangru (''Tadə Baŋru'' or ''Tadʑu Baŋru''), also known as Ləvai (''Ləwjɛ'') and occasionally as Northern Miji is a language spoken in Sarli Circle, northern

Kurung Kumey District Kurung Kumey district (Pron:/kʊˈɹʌŋ kʊˈmi/) is one of the 26 Districts of Arunachal Pradesh, districts of the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, with its district headquarters in Koloriang. Origin of name The name of this dis ...

by 1,500 people. Long unclassified due to poor documentation, it turns out to be related to the

Miji languages Miji (autonym: Dmay), also Dhammai or Sajolang, is a cluster of possibly Sino-Tibetan languages in Arunachal Pradesh, northeastern India. "Dialects" include at least two distinct languages, which are not particularly close, with only half of the ...

Distribution

Blench (2015),Blench, Roger. 2015
''The Mijiic languages: distribution, dialects, wordlist and classification''
m.s. citing Ramya (2012),Ramya, T. 2012. Bangrus of Arunachal Pradesh: An Ethnographic Profile. ''International Journal of Social Science Tomorrow'', 1(3):1-12. lists the Bangru (Northern Miji) villages Bala, Lee, Lower Lichila, Upper Lichila, Machane, Milli, Molo, Nade, Namju, Palo, Rerung, Sape, Sate (''saːtəː''), Wabia, and Walu’, as well as Sarli Town. Traditionally, the Bangru lived in the 'thirteen Bangru villages' (Bangru language: '). The linguistic zone where the Bangru language is used is the northern part of the hilly region of the Kurung Kumey district, mainly comprising the adjacent villages of the Sarli circle. In China, Bangru (transcribed in Chinese as ''Bengru'' 崩如) is spoken in the area of Bixia 比夏, southern Longzi County 隆子县,

Shannan Prefecture ShannanThe official spelling according to (), also romanized from Tibetan as Lhoka (; ), is a prefecture-level city in the southeastern Tibet Autonomous Region, China. Shannan includes Gonggar County within its jurisdiction with Gongkar Chö Mon ...

山南地区, Tibet — in the villages of Jieli 结列, Baluo 巴洛, Xiade 夏德, Li 利, Lilaqi 利拉齐, and Gelangge 嘎朗洛 (Li 2003).Li Daqin ��大勤 2003. "A sketch of Bengru" ��如语概况 ''Minzu Yuwen'' 2003(5), 64-80. Bangru is also spoken by many of the nearby Sulung people, who live in San'an Qulin Township 三安曲林乡 of Longzi County. Names of Bangru include ' (autonym), ' ( Bangni exonym), and ' ( Sulung exonym). There are also 6 people living in Douyu Village No. 1 (斗玉一村) on the Chinese side. Li (2003) reports that there are about 1,600 Bangru people as of 1980, and about 2,000 as of 2003. As with more than 90% of the residents of

, most Bangru speakers can also speak Nyasang, a

Nyishi language Nyishi (also known as Nishi, Nisi, Nishang, Nissi, Nyising, Leil, Aya, Akang, Bangni-Bangru, Solung) is a Sino-Tibetan language of the Tani branch spoken in Papum Pare, Lower Subansiri, Kurung Kumey, Kra Daadi, East Kameng, Pakke Kesang, ...

variety. Bangru speakers make up about 40% of the population of Sarli circle, which also has small numbers of Puroik speakers. The Bangru refer to themselves as the ''taːdə'' or ''taːdʑuː baŋruː'', and to the Eastern Miji and Western Miji as '. The Bangru claim that they are the descendants of one of the sons of the Grandmother Sun ('), while the Miji are the descendants of the other son who migrated to the Lada Circle area in

East Kameng district East Kameng district is one of districts of Arunachal Pradesh state in northeastern, India. It shares an international border with China in the north and district borders with West Kameng district to the west, Pakke-Kessang district to the south ...

. There are five Bangru clans: *Pisa (') *Melo (') *Tagang (') *Mili (') *Sape (') Bangru traditional religion revolved around reverence of the sun and moon ("our Grandfather Moon" ' and "our Grandmother Sun" '; ''see also''

Donyi-Polo Donyi-Polo (also Donyi-Poloism) is the designation given to the indigenous religion, of animistic and shamanic type, of the Tani and other Tibeto-Burman peoples of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam in Northeast India. The name "Donyi-Polo" means "Su ...

), but it is now being replaced by Christianity.

References

{{Arunachal languages Hrusish languages Languages of India Endangered languages of India