Central Kuki-Chin languages

Central Kuki-Chin is a branch of the Kuki-Chin languages. Central Kuki-Chin languages are spoken primarily in Mizoram, India and in Hakha Township and Falam Township of Chin State, Myanmar.

Central Kuki-Chin
Central Chin
Ethnicity	Mizo and Chin
Geographic distribution	Myanmar and Northeast India
Linguistic classification	Sino-Tibetan Kuki-Chin Central Kuki-Chin
Glottolog	cent2330  (Central Kuki-Chin)

Official use

Mizo is the official language of Mizoram State, India, while Hakha Chin is the lingua franca of Chin State, Myanmar.

Classification

VanBik (2009:23) classifies the Central Kuki-Chin languages as follows.

Central Kuki-Chin

• Pangkhua?
• Laamtuk Thet (Tawr): Laamtuk, Ruavaan dialects
• Lai languages
  • Hakha cluster: Halkha, Farrawn, Thantlang, Mi-E, Zokhua
  • Falam cluster: Bawm, Bualkhaw, Laizo, Lente, Khualsim, Khuangli, Sim, Tlaisun, Zanniat
• Mizo languages
  • Mizo cluster: Fanai, Hualngo, Lusei, Khiangte, Renthlei
  • Hmar cluster Hmar

VanBik (2009) is unsure about the classification of Pangkhua, and tentatively places it within Central Kuki-Chin.

Sound changes

VanBik (2009) lists the following sound changes from Proto-Kuki-Chin to Proto-Central Chin.

• Proto-Kuki-Chin *k(ʰ)r-, *p(ʰ)r- > Proto-Central Chin *t(ʰ)r-
• Proto-Kuki-Chin *k(ʰ)l-, *p(ʰ)l- > Proto-Central Chin *t(ʰ)l-
• Proto-Kuki-Chin *y- > Proto-Central Chin *z-

See also

• Lai languages

References

• Peterson, David. 2017. "On Kuki-Chin subgrouping." In Picus Sizhi Ding and Jamin Pelkey, eds. Sociohistorical linguistics in Southeast Asia: New horizons for Tibeto-Burman studies in honor of David Bradley, 189-209. Leiden: Brill.
• VanBik, Kenneth. 2009. Proto-Kuki-Chin: A Reconstructed Ancestor of the Kuki-Chin Languages. STEDT Monograph 8. ISBN 0-944613-47-0.