LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 11 : 4 April 2011
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.

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A Brief Introduction to the Sound System of Sizang
A Kuki-Chin Language

Bobita Sarangthem Ph. D. Candidate
P. Madhubala, Ph. D.

Sizang village
A Sizang Village

Abstract

This paper attempts to present the sound system of Sizang, a Kuki-Chin language. By phonemic status is meant the distinctive function a speech sound or tone performs in keeping words (with their meanings) apart. The contrastive pairs demonstrate the phonemic status of the sounds concerned. Tones, vowels and consonants are dealt within that order to offer relatively extensive and reliable information on the sound system of Sizang. An inventory of the phonemes and allophones of Sizang, specifying their distribution and showing diagrammatically the consonant and vowel phonemes along with their place and manner of articulation are discussed as part of articulatory description.

Introduction

Sizang is a Kuki-Chin language of the Tibeto-Burman family. It is spoken by approximately 10,000 speakers in the Chin state of Myanmar and in north-eastern states of India. Manipur has many ethnic groups having their own ethnic identity. Sizang speaker are found in the southern direction of Manipur state, namely, Moreh, an international border town located on the Indo-Myanmar road south east of Imphal. Moreh is in India, and five kms away from this town is the Tamu town, its Myanmarese counterpart, where Sizang speakers are found in large numbers.

In this paper, an attempt is made to delineate the characteristic features of the sound system of Sizang, based on a lexicon eliciting from our informant Mr. Khampum (45yrs), a native speaker of Sizang, a resident of Tamu Town.

This paper attempts to present an inventory of the phonemes and allophones of Sizang, specifying their distribution and showing diagrammatically the consonant and vowel phonemes along with their place and manner of articulation. The segmental and supra-segmental phonemes are comprehensively given on account of articulatory description.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Bobita Sarangthem, Ph. D. Candidate
Department of Linguistics
Manipur University
Imphal 795001
Manipur
India
loken.lai@gmail.com

P. Madhubala, Ph.D.
Department of Linguistics
Manipur University
Imphal 795001
Manipur
India

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