Makyam Naga (Lasam, Macham Naga, Makyan, Pongnyun, Paung Nyuan) is a

Sino-Tibetan Sino-Tibetan (also referred to as Trans-Himalayan) is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. Around 1.4 billion people speak a Sino-Tibetan language. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 ...

language spoken in

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

. The Western Makyam Naga dialects share 99%

lexical similarity In linguistics, lexical similarity is a measure of the degree to which the word sets of two given languages are similar. A lexical similarity of 1 (or 100%) would mean a total overlap between vocabularies, whereas 0 means there are no common words. ...

. It is closely related to other

Konyak languages The Konyak languages, or alternatively the Konyakian, Northern Naga, or Patkaian languages, is a branch of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken by various Naga peoples in southeastern Arunachal Pradesh and northeastern Nagaland states of northeastern ...

. Makyam is 31%–35% lexically similar with Ponyo-Gongwang Naga, 29%–36% with Leinong Naga, and 27%–28% with Lao variety of

Konyak Naga The Konyaks are a major Naga ethnic group native to the Northeast Indian state of Nagaland. They inhabit in the Mon District, which is also known as ''The Land of the Anghs''. The ''Anghs''/''Wangs'' are their traditional chiefs whom they ho ...

Classification

Makyam belongs to the Khiamniungic subgroup within the Konyak–Chang group of languages (Naw Sawu 2016:6).Naw Sawu. 2016.
Descriptive Phonology of Makyam Naga
'. M.A. dissertation. Chiang Mai: Payap University. It is closely related to Leinong than to Khiamniungan. *Khiamniungic **'' Khiamniungan Naga'' **Leinong-Makyam ***'' Leinong Naga'' ***''Makyam Naga''

Distribution

Makyam is spoken in 13 villages of northeast

Lahe Township Lahe Township () is a township located within the Naga Self-Administered Zone of Sagaing Division, Myanmar. The principal town is Lahe. Towns and villages Languages The following languages are spoken in Lahe Township. *Kyan, Karyaw (northwes ...

and

Hkamti Township Hkamti Township ( ) is the only township of Hkamti District in the Sagaing Region of Myanmar.

Sagaing Division Sagaing Region (, ; formerly Sagaing Division) is an administrative divisions of Myanmar, administrative region of Myanmar, located in the north-western part of the country between latitude 21° 30' north and longitude 94° 97' east. It is border ...

, Myanmar (''Ethnologue''). Main dialect variation is between the western Makyan villages and Kuku villages. Makyam is spoken in the following 18 villages, which are located just to the east of Lahe town in

, Myanmar. They add up to a total of 1,026 households and 4,994 persons (Naw Sawu 2016:8). Old village names are given in parentheses. *San Tong (Nouk Hai) *Makyam (Ngaung Ke) *Kha Lai (Khun Old Kha Lai) *New Kha Lai (Pyan Kha Lai) *Long Khin (Long Nouk) *Lun Htaung *Wutha (Zay Tam Nouk) *Kuku Nokkon (Khaunouk Hai) *Myang Kuku (Khaunouk Suam) *Ahang Kuku *Taw Law (New Wutha) *Pin Htaung Lon Shout *Lepandar *Zi Phyu Kone, Kham Ti Township *Sin Te *Ma Kyam Kha *Lahe *Ma Kaw Rain The majority of Makyam speakers can also speak Leinong, as the two languages are spoken in the same area (Naw Sawu 2016:10).

Phonology

* /ə/ only appears in open syllables. Additionally, the following diphthongs have been observed: /ia/, /ua/, /uo/, /oa/, /ue/, /ɔu/, /uɛ/, /ei/, /ea/, /ie/, /iɛ/, /ou/, /au/, /ai/. Makyam also has five tones: * ˧˩ - mid-falling * ˧˥ - mid-rising * ˧ - mid, level * ˥˩ - high-falling * ˥ - high, level

References

External links

Numerals in Makyam
{{Languages of Burma Sal languages Languages of Myanmar