Kho-Bwa languages

The Kho-Bwa languages, also known as 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 words *kho ("water") and *bwa ("fire"). Blench (2011) suggests the name Kamengic, from the Kameng area of Arunachal Pradesh. Alternatively, Anderson (2014)[1] refers to Kho-Bwa as Northeast Kamengic.

Kho-Bwa
Kamengic
Bugunish
Geographic
distribution		Arunachal Pradesh
Linguistic classificationSino-Tibetan?
  • Kho-Bwa
Subdivisions
Glottologkhob1235

Both Van Driem and Blench group the Sherdukpen (or Mey), Lishpa (or Khispi), Chug (Duhumbi) and Sartang languages together. These form a language cluster and are clearly related. The Sulung (or Puroik) and Khowa (or Bugun) languages are included in the family by Van Driem (2001) but provisionally treated as language isolates, with no demonstrated genetic relationship to Kamengic, by Blench (2023).[2]

These languages have traditionally been placed in the Tibeto-Burman group by the Linguistic Survey of India, but the justification of this is open to question. The languages have certainly been strongly influenced by the neighboring Sino-Tibetan languages, but this does not necessarily imply genetic unity and may possibly be a purely areal effect.[3]

The entire language family has about 15,000 speakers (including Puroik) or about 10,000 speakers (excluding Puroik), according to estimates made during the 2000s.

Word lists and sociolinguistic surveys of Kho-Bwa languages have also been conducted by Abraham, et al. (2018).

Classification

The internal structure of the Kho-Bwa group of languages is as follows.

  • Puroik
  • Bugun (Khowa)
  • Western Kho-Bwa
    • Mey–Sartang
      • Sherdukpen (Mey, Ngnok), divided into two varieties:
        • Shergaon
        • Rupa
      • Sartang (Bootpa, But Monpa, But Pa, Matchopa), 50%–60% lexical similarity with Mey.
    • Chug–Lish
      • Lish (Lish)
      • Chug (Chug Monpa, Chugpa, Monpa), close to Lish

Lieberherr & Bodt (2017)

Lieberherr & Bodt (2017)[4] consider Puroik to be a Kho-Bwa language, and classify the Kho-Bwa languages as follows.

Kho-Bwa

Tresoldi et al. (2022)

Based on computational phylogenetic analyses from Tresoldi et al. (2022), the phylogenetic tree of Kho-Bwa is roughly as follows:[5]

  • Western
    • Duhumbi–Khispi (Chug–Lish): Duhumbi (Chug), Khispi (Lish)
    • Mey–Sartang: Shergaon, Rupa, Jerigaon, Khoina, Rahung, Khoitam
  • Bugun
    • A
      • Bulu, Rawa, Kojo Rojo
      • Sario Saria, Lasumpatte, Chayangtajo
    • B
      • Namphri, Kaspi
      • Wangho, Dikhyang
      • Singchaung, Bichom

Vocabulary

The following table of Kho-Bwa basic vocabulary items is from Blench (2015).[6]

Gloss Mey (Shergaon) Mey (Rupa) Sartang (Jergaon) Sartang (Rahung) Lish (Khispi) Chug (Duhumbi)
one hǎnhanhènhânhinhin
two ɲǐtɲiknìkněɲesniʃ
three ùŋuŋùŋùúnʔumom
four pʰʃìbsisìpsìpʰəhipsi
five kʰùkʰukʰùkʰukʰakʰa
six ʧùkkitʧìkʨěyʧʰuʔʧyk
seven ʃìtsitsìksǐ, sěʃishis
eight sàʤátsarʤatsàrgèsàrʤɛ́saɾgeʔsaɾgeʔ
nine tʰkʰídʰikʰitʰkʰìtɛ̀kʰɯ́ṱʰikʰuṱʰikʰu
ten sɔ̀ ̃sõsã̀sɔʃanʃan
head kʰrukkʰrukkʰrǔkkʰruʔkʰoloʔkʰloʔ
nose nupʰuŋnəfuŋnfùŋapʰuŋhempoŋheŋpʰoŋ
eye khibikivikábìkʰaʔbykʰumukʰum
ear kʰtùŋgtʰiŋgtʰìŋktèíŋkʰutʰuŋkʰutʰuŋ
tongue laphõlapon ?leloiloi
tooth nuthuŋtokʧemísìŋnitʰiŋʃiŋtuŋhintuŋ
arm ikikìkikhuhut
leg làlaponlɛ̌lɛ̌leilai
belly ʃrìŋsliŋsrìŋsriŋhiɲiŋhiliŋ
bone skìkskikàhíkskikʃukuʃʃukuʃ
blood hàha(a)hɛ̀hahoihoi
face dòŋpùbomizə̀ídoʔdoŋpa
tooth ntùŋtokʧemísìŋptə̀íŋʃiŋtuŋhintuŋ
stomach àlàkarbuʧàkphriŋhiɲiŋhiliŋ
mouth ʧàwnəʧawsoʨʨǒhoʧokkʰoʧu
rain ʧuumaniminʧʰùʧuʧubanamunamu

See also

Further reading
  • Ismail Lieberherr and Timotheus Adrianus Bodt. (2017) Sub-grouping Kho-Bwa based on shared core vocabulary. Himalayan Linguistics 16(2). 26–63. Paper (CLDF Dataset on Zenodo doi:10.5281/zenodo.2553234)
  • Binny Abraham, Kara Sako, Elina Kinny, Isapdaile Zeliang (2018). Sociolinguistic Research among Selected Groups in Western Arunachal Pradesh: Highlighting Monpa. SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2018–009. (CLDF Dataset on Zenodo. doi:10.5281/zenodo.3537601)
  • Bodt, T. and J.-M. List (2019). Testing the predictive strength of the comparative method: An ongoing experiment on unattested words in Western Kho-Bwa languages. Papers in Historical Phonology 4.1. 22–44. doi:10.2218/pihph.4.2019.3037 (CLDF Dataset on Zenodo doi:10.5281/zenodo.3537604)
  • Bodt, Timotheus A.; List, Johann-Mattis (2021). "Reflex prediction: A case study of Western Kho-Bwa". Diachronica. doi:10.1075/dia.20009.bod.

References
  1. 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.
  2. What is the evidence that the isolate languages of Arunachal Pradesh are genuinely Trans-Himalayan?
  3. Blench (2011): "Certainly, the phonology and morphology of Arunachali languages looks superficially like Tibeto-Burman, which explains their placing in the Linguistic Survey of India. Unfortunately, this is rather where matters have remained [... this paper] proposes we should take seriously the underlying presumption probably implied in Konow's statement in Linguistic Survey of India. Volume III, 1, Tibeto-Burman family, Calcutta (1909:572)], that these languages may not be Sino-Tibetan but simply have been influenced by it; that they are language isolates."
  4. Lieberherr, Ismael; Bodt, Timotheus Adrianus. 2017. Sub-grouping Kho-Bwa based on shared core vocabulary. In Himalayan Linguistics, 16(2).
  5. Tiago Tresoldi; Christoph Rzymski; Robert Forkel; Simon J. Greenhill; Johann-Mattis List; Russell D. Gray (2022). "Managing Historical Linguistic Data for Computational Phylogenetics and Computer-Assisted Language Comparison". The Open Handbook of Linguistic Data Management. The MIT Press. pp. 345–354. doi:10.7551/mitpress/12200.003.0033. ISBN 978-0-262-36607-6.
  6. Blench, Roger. 2015. The Mey languages and their classification. Presentation given at the University of Sydney, 21 August 2015.
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