The Siangic languages (or Koro-Holon languages
[Anderson, Gregory D.S. 2014. ''On the classification of the Hruso (Aka) language''. Paper presented at the 20th Himalayan Languages Symposium, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.]) are a small family of possibly
Sino-Tibetan languages
Sino-Tibetan, also cited as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese languages. ...
spoken in
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 ...
, northeast India. The Siangic languages consist of
Koro Koro may refer to:
Geography
*Koro Island, a Fijian island
* Koro Sea, in the Pacific Ocean
* Koro, Ivory Coast
*Koro, Mali
* Koro, Wisconsin, United States, an unincorporated community
Languages
*Koro language (India), an endangered language spo ...
and
Milang
Milang ( ) is a town and locality located in the Australian state of South Australia on the west coast of Lake Alexandrina (South Australia), Lake Alexandrina about south-east of the state capital of Adelaide city centre, Adelaide and about nor ...
.
Classification
Milang, which has been extensively influenced by
Padam Padam may refer to:
*''Padam... Padam...'', a song by Édith Piaf
*Padam, Ladakh, India
*Padam people, of India
*Padam (musical composition), in Carnatic music
*Southern Command (Israel) (''Pikud Darom'')
{{disambiguation ...
(a
Tani language), is alternatively classified as a divergent
Tani language (Post & Blench 2011). Koro has undergone influence from
Hruso (Post & Blench 2011). However, Milang and Koro do not belong to either the Tani or
Hrusish groups of languages.
It is unclear whether the Siangic is a branch of Sino-Tibetan or an independent
language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in hist ...
that has undergone extensive Sino-Tibetan influence. Post & Blench (2011) note that Siangic has a substratum of unknown origin, and consider Siangic to be an independent language family. Anderson (2014),
who refers to Siangic as Koro-Holon instead, considers Siangic (Koro-Holon) to be a branch of Sino-Tibetan rather than an independent language family.
Greater Siangic
Roger Blench
Roger Marsh Blench (born August 1, 1953) is a British linguist, ethnomusicologist and development anthropologist. He has an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and is based in Cambridge, England. He researches, publishes, and works ...
(2014) proposes a
Greater Siangic family that includes the ''
Digaro languages
The Digaro (Digarish), Northern Mishmi (Mishmic), or Kera'a–Tawrã languages are a small family of possibly Sino-Tibetan languages spoken by the Mishmi people of southeastern Tibet and Arunachal Pradesh.
The languages are Idu and Taraon (Di ...
'' (
Idu Mishmi and
Taraon) and ''Pre-Tani'', the hypothetical substrate language branch of Tani before it became relexified by Sino-Tibetan.
*Proto-Greater Siangic
**Pre-
Tani
**
Idu-
Taraon
**Proto-Siangic
***
Koro Koro may refer to:
Geography
*Koro Island, a Fijian island
* Koro Sea, in the Pacific Ocean
* Koro, Ivory Coast
*Koro, Mali
* Koro, Wisconsin, United States, an unincorporated community
Languages
*Koro language (India), an endangered language spo ...
***
Milang
Milang ( ) is a town and locality located in the Australian state of South Australia on the west coast of Lake Alexandrina (South Australia), Lake Alexandrina about south-east of the state capital of Adelaide city centre, Adelaide and about nor ...
Reconstruction
Post & Blench (2011)
The following Proto-Siangic forms reconstructed by Mark Post &
Roger Blench
Roger Marsh Blench (born August 1, 1953) is a British linguist, ethnomusicologist and development anthropologist. He has an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and is based in Cambridge, England. He researches, publishes, and works ...
(2011:8-9) do not have lexical parallels with Proto-
Tani, and are unique to the Siangic branch.
Modi (2013)
Modi (2013)
[Modi, Yankee. 2013. ''The nearest relatives of the Tani group''. Paper presented at the 19th Himalayan Languages Symposium, Canberra, Australia.] lists the following Proto-Siangic forms, along with forms for Milang, Koro, Idu, Taraon, and Proto-Tani. Additional cognate sets that were not included in Post & Blench (2011) include ''black, house, salt, fat,'' and ''today''.
See also
*
Greater Siangic comparative vocabulary list (Wiktionary)
References and notes
Bibliography
* Post, Mark W. and Roger Blench (2011).
Siangic: A new language phylum in North East India, ''6th International Conference of the North East India Linguistics Society'', Tezpur University, Assam, India, 31 Jan – 2 Feb.
* Blench, Roger (2014).
Fallen leaves blow away: a neo-Hammarstromian approach to Sino-Tibetan classification'. Presentation given at the University of New England, Armidale, 6 September 2014.
{{Eurasian languages
Greater Siangic languages
Languages of India
Proposed language families