Lish (also called Lishpa or Khispi) is a
Kho-Bwa
The Kho-Bwa languages, also known as Bugunish and Kamengic, are a small family of languages spoken in Arunachal Pradesh, northeast India. The name ''Kho-Bwa'' was originally proposed by George van Driem (2001). It is based on the reconstructed ...
language of
West Kameng district
West Kameng (pronounced ) is a district of Arunachal Pradesh in northeastern India. It accounts for 8.86% of the total area of the state. The name is derived from the Kameng river, a tributary of the Brahmaputra, that flows through the district ...
,
Arunachal Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares int ...
in India. It is closely related to
Chug.
The Lish (population 1,567 in 1981) live in Dirang village, a few miles from Chug village, and in Gompatse. The Gompatse variety is not Lish proper, but is rather a lect closely related to Lish.
[Blench, Roger. 2015]
''The Mey languages and their classification''
Presentation given at the University of Sydney.
Lish is also spoken in Khispi village.
Despite speaking languages closely related to Mey (
Sherdukpen
The Sherdukpen are an ethnic group of Arunachal Pradesh state of India. Their population of 9,663 is centered in West Kameng district in the villages of Rupa, Jigaon, Thongri, Shergaon, to the south of Bomdila. All of these are at elevations be ...
), the people identify as Monpa, not Mey.
According to Lieberherr & Bodt (2017),
[Lieberherr, Ismael; Bodt, Timotheus Adrianus. 2017]
Sub-grouping Kho-Bwa based on shared core vocabulary
In ''Himalayan Linguistics'', 16(2). Lish is spoken by 1,500 people in 3 main villages.
References
Kho-Bwa languages
Languages of India
Endangered languages of India
Articles citing ISO change requests
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