Sopvoma or Mao is a

Sino-Tibetan 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. ...

language of Angami–Pochuri linguistic sub branch. It is spoken primarily in Senapati district, northwestern

Manipur Manipur () ( mni, Kangleipak) is a state in Northeast India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. It is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west. It also borders two regions of ...

and in

Nagaland Nagaland () is a landlocked state in the northeastern region of India. It is bordered by the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Assam to the west, Manipur to the south and the Sagaing Region of Myanmar to the east. Its capital cit ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. It is similar to Angami. According to ''

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensi ...

'' (2009), the Paomata dialect may be the same as Poumei (Poumai) Naga, which has received a separate ISO code. See

Mao Naga Language Sopvoma or Mao is a Sino-Tibetan language of Angami–Pochuri linguistic sub branch. It is spoken primarily in Senapati district, northwestern Manipur and in Nagaland, India. It is similar to Angami. According to '' Ethnologue'' (2009), t ...

for further details. Mao is somewhat similar to the Sino-Tibetian languages in terms of grammar and style of use. Unlike English it is a phonetic and tonal language. Spoken mainly by the Mao Nagas A story referring to the Angami peoples and the Mao peoples (Not to be confused with China's ex-chairman) shows how the two amicably split into the north and south (i.e.

), also showing why the two languages are similar. The script has been lost for years, following a story where a mouse/mice ate the script written on animal-skin causing the script to be lost and ultimately leading to

illiteracy Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in Writing, written form in some specific context of use. In other wo ...

in the area, therefore the Latin script has been used (Which hasn't been an accurate way to display the tonal language).

Phonology

Consonants

* /t͡ʃʰ/ and /w/ only rarely occur, and with /t͡ʃʰ/ only occurring in word-initial position. * The pre-aspirated voiceless /ʰr̥/, may have a word-initial allophone of , �rarely occurs phonemically. * �only occurs marginally from loanwords. * /t̪, p͡f/ in word-initial position may be heard as ̪ʰ, p͡fʰin free variation, rarely as phonemic. * /h/ may have an allophone of word-initially, word medially in free variation. rarely occurs as a phoneme. * /m/ before a central vowel /ɨ/ can have an allophone of a labiodental . * /n/ before high vowel sounds can have an allophone of a palatalized .

Vowels

* �only occurs inter-morphemically. * /ɨ/ can be heard as rounded �in free variation. * In word-initial position, /i, u/ can be lowered to �, ʊ * /e, o/ can be lowered to �, ɔin word-final position.

Our Father (Sample)

Tones

There are 4 tones and a neutral tone: * High tone * Rising tone * Neutral tone * Rising Falling tone * Falling / Low tone

References

__FORCETOC__ Angami–Pochuri languages Languages of Manipur Languages of Nagaland Endangered Sino-Tibetan languages {{India-culture-stub