Changki Ao language
| Changki Ao | |
|---|---|
| Native to | India |
| Region | Nagaland |
| Ethnicity | Ao Naga |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | chan1311 |
Changki Ao is one of the dialects of the Ao language. The term "Changki" refers to the name of a village where it is spoken, which is located in the Jangpetkong range, one of the six mountain ranges in the Ao region.[1] It is the smallest of the three Ao languages, the other two being Chungli Ao, the prestige dialect, and Mongsen Ao.[2] Changki has historically been considered a subgroup of Mongsen, but there are notable differences between the two; intelligibility between Changki and Mongsen may only be a recent phenomenon.[1]
Location and prevalence
[edit]Using information from the 2011 Indian census, it was estimated that there could be around 10,000 speakers of Changki (and its varieties). This estimation derived from combining the populations of 8 villages and hamlets, in which researchers found Changki speakers (around 3,200 people), and an estimated 6,000-7,000 people from those villages that live in surrounding towns and cities.[1]
Phonology
[edit]![[icon]](/restyle/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding missing information. (December 2025) |
The following phonology is derived from Temsunungsang & Changkija (2025).[1]
Vowels
[edit]Changki Ao has 4 vowels:
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | ə | ||
| Open | a |
[e] is an allophone of /i/ and /a/, and [o] is an allophone of /u/.
Consonants
[edit]Changki Ao has 21 consonants:
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 Temsunungsang, T; Changkija, Amenla, I (2025-10-13). "A description of Changki-Ao phonology with a note on orthography". Himalayan Linguistics. 24 (2). doi:10.5070/H9.35216. ISSN 1544-7502.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ↑ Tzudir, Moakala; Sarmah, Priyankoo; Mahadeva Prasanna, S R (2021), "Analysis and modeling of dialect information in Ao, a low resource language", Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 149: 2976–2987, doi:10.1121/10.0004822, PMID 34241137