Ao is a Kuki-Chin-Naga language (of the Tibeto-Burman family) spoken by the Ao of Nagaland in northeast India. Gordon (2005) estimates that there are 141,000 speakers. ISO 639 is one of several international standards that lists short codes for language names. ... SIL International is a non-profit, Christian, scientific organization with the main purpose to study, develop and document lesser-known languages for the purpose of expanding linguistic knowledge, promoting world literacy and aiding minority language development. ... This list of languages is alphabetical by English name. ... The Tibeto-Burman linguistic subfamily of the proposed Sino-Tibetan language family is spoken in various central and south Asian countries: Myanmar (Burmese language), Tibet (Tibetan language), northern Thailand (Mong language), Nepal, Bhutan, India (Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and the Ladakh region of... Jump to: navigation, search This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

Missionary grammars from the late 19th century exist. A grammatical description is Gowda (1975). Coupe (2003) is one of the few acoustic studies published on a Kuki-Chin-Naga language (only three exist). Coupe also has a reference grammar in progress. Acoustic phonetics is a subfield of phonetics which deals with acoustic aspects of speech sounds. ...

Regional variation

Location of Nagaland

There are 2 main varieties of Ao with various sub-lects: Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... This page is a candidate to be moved to Wiktionary. ...

1. Chungli
   • Chungli
   • trans-Dikhu "dialects"
2. Mongsen
   • Mongsen
   • Changki

Chungli is spoken in Molungyimchen and Molungyimsen and other villages throughout Ao territory by roughly 60% of the Ao-speaking population. The speech of Molungyimsen is the prestige dialect due to Baptist missionaries' influence. Most Ao can speak Chungli even if they are from Mongsen-speaking regions. Chungli is taught in schools. The trans-Dikhu lects are spoken east of the Dikhu River in Yacham, Tengsa, and Longla. A prestige dialect is the dialect spoken by the most prestigious people in a speech community large enough to sustain multiple dialects. ... Jump to: navigation, search Baptist churches are part of a Christian movement often regarded as an Evangelical, Protestant denomination. ... A missionary is a propagator of religion, often an evangelist or other representative of a religious community who works among those outside of that community. ...

Mongsen is spoken primarily in the western part of Ao territory. Changki is spoken in the Changkikong and Chapvukong mountains and is reportedly close to the Mongsen variety.

The speech of each Ao village has its own distinctive characteristics. Many villages contain both Chungli and Mongsen speakers.

Sounds

This section describes the sound system of Mongsen Ao as spoken in Waromung village and is based on Coupe (2003).

Consonants

Mongsen Ao has 20 (or 21) consonants: Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from the revision dated 2005-07-20, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ...

• Dental consonants /t, tʰ, ʦ, ʦʰ, s, z, n, l/ are laminal denti-alveolar.
• The post-alveolar approximant /ɹ/ varies from an apical post-alveolar to a subapical retroflex articulation: [ɹ̱~ɻ].
• The glottal stop /ʔ/ occurs only at the end of words. However, in this position it contrasts with words ending in vowels: /āmī/ 'spear' vs. /āmīʔ/ 'person'. When a suffix is added to such words, the /ʔ/ is deleted: /tʃàʔ/ 'to eat' + /-ʉ̄ʔ/ CAUS → /tʃàʉʔ/ 'to cause to eat'. Thus, the glottal stop has a somewhat marginal phonemic status.

In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. ... Dentals are consonants articulated with either the lower or the upper teeth, or both. ... Postalveolar (or palato-alveolar) consonants are consonants articulated with the tip of the tongue between the alveolar ridge (the place of articulation for alveolar consonants) and the palate (the place of articulation for palatal consonants). ... Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the middle or back part of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth). ... Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum). ... The vocal cords, also known as vocal folds, are composed of twin infoldings of mucous membrane stretched horizontally across the human larynx. ... A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies the release of some stop consonants. ... In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies the release of some stop consonants. ... An affricate is a consonant that begins like a stop (most often an alveovelar, such as [t] or [d]) and that doesnt have a release of its own, but opens directly into a fricative (or, in one language, into a trill). ... In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies the release of some stop consonants. ... In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies the release of some stop consonants. ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... Phoneticians define phonation as use of the laryngeal system to generate an audible source of acoustic energy, i. ... Phoneticians define phonation as use of the laryngeal system to generate an audible source of acoustic energy, i. ... (adj. ... Approximants are speech sounds that could be regarded as intermediate between vowels and typical consonants. ... A central or medial consonant is a consonant sound that is produced when air flows across the center of the mouth over the tongue. ... Laterals are L-like consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue, while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both sides of the tongue. ... Jump to: navigation, search A laminal consonant is a phone produced by obstructing the air passage with the blade of the tongue, which is the flat top front surface just behind the tip of the tongue. ... Jump to: navigation, search Dentals are consonants such as t, d, n, and l articulated with either the lower or the upper teeth, or both, rather than with the gum ridge as in English. ... Apical, from the Latin APEX (plural apices), meaning to be at the apex or tip, has a number of meanings. ... The retroflex approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... The glottal stop or voiceless glottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in many spoken languages. ...

Vowels

Mongsen Ao has 6 vowels: Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from the revision dated 2005-07-18, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ...

• The high central /ʉ/ is rounded.
• The two low vowels /a, a̰/ differ in terms of phonation type. /a/ has modal voice (i.e. normal phonation); /a̰/ has creaky voice (a.k.a. vocal fry, laryngealization). Coupe (2003) argues that this is a separate vowel phoneme and not a tone, a glottal stop, or resulting from prosodic effects.

A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... Phoneticians define phonation as use of the laryngeal system to generate an audible source of acoustic energy, i. ... Creaky voice (also called laryngealisation or vocal fry, especially in the US), is a special kind of phonation in which the arytenoid cartilages in the larynx are drawn together; as a result, the vocal folds are compressed rather tightly, becoming relatively slack and compact, and forming a large, irregularly vibrating... A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. ... A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... An open vowel is a vowel sound of a type used in most spoken languages. ... Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ... In phonetics, vowel roundedness refers to the amount of rounding in the lips during the articulation of a vowel. ... Phoneticians define phonation as use of the laryngeal system to generate an audible source of acoustic energy, i. ... Creaky voice (also called laryngealisation or vocal fry, especially in the US), is a special kind of phonation in which the arytenoid cartilages in the larynx are drawn together; as a result, the vocal folds are compressed rather tightly, becoming relatively slack and compact, and forming a large, irregularly vibrating... Jump to: navigation, search In oral language, a phoneme is the theoretical basic unit of sound that can be used to distinguish words or morphemes; that is, changing a phoneme in a word produces either nonsense, or a different word with a different meaning. ... This article or section uses Ruby annotation. ... The glottal stop or voiceless glottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in many spoken languages. ...

Tone

Ao is a tonal language with 3 contrasting lexical tones: Tone refers to the use of pitch in language to distinguish words. ... This article or section uses Ruby annotation. ...

• high
• mid
• low

All are register tones.

Syllable and phonotactics

The generalized syllable structure of Ao is abbreviated as the following: Phonotactics (in Greek phone = voice and tactic = course) is a branch of phonology that deals with restrictions in a language on the permissible combinations of phonemes. ... Jump to: navigation, search This article discusses the unit of speech. ...

(C₁)V(G)(C₂)+T

(C₁)

• Any of the 20 consonants may appear as an optional syllable onset (excluding the word-final /ʔ/).

V Jump to: navigation, search In phonetics and phonology, a syllable onset is the part of a syllable that precedes the syllable nucleus. ...

• All 6 vowels may occur as the syllable nucleus.

(G)

• The optional glide elements following the head vowel are essentially non-syllabic offglide realizations of the 4 vowels /i, ʉ, u, a/. For example, /jàuŋ/ → [jàu̯ŋ] 'species of centipede'.
• The following are the possible tautsyllabic combinations: [iu̯, ia̯, əʉ̯, əu̯, ai̯, aʉ̯, au̯].

(C₂) Glide has several possible meanings: The Glide API was a proprietary 3D graphics API developed by 3dfx used on their Voodoo graphics cards. ...

• The following consonants may occur in the optional syllable coda: unaspirated stops, nasals, and the rhotic /p, t, k, m, n, ŋ, ɹ/. The glottal stop with its restricted distribution also occurs but only word-finally.

T Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ...

All syllables occur with one of the three tones. In a VG sequence, tone only occurs the vowel head.

Grammar

Ao is an subject object verb language. In linguistic typology, Subject Object Verb (SOV) is the type of languages in which the subject, object, and verb of a sentence appear (usually) in that order. ...

Orthography

Ao orthography is based on the Roman alphabet and was developed in the 1880s by the Christian missionary Edward W. Clark for Chungli Ao. The system is not based on phonemic principles and does not represent tone. A Christian bible was published using the orthography in 1964. Coupe (2003) suggests a more consisent orthography for Mongsen Ao. The orthography of a language is the set of rules of how to write correctly in the writing system of a language. ... ... Jump to: navigation, search A missionary is a propagator of religion, often an evangelist or other representative of a religious community who works among those outside of that community. ...

See also

• Ao (people)
• Tibeto-Burman languages

The Tibeto-Burman linguistic subfamily of the proposed Sino-Tibetan language family is spoken in various central and south Asian countries: Myanmar (the Burmese language as well as the languages of minorities like the Karens and Kachins), Tibet (Tibetan language), northern Thailand (Lahu, Lisu, Akha languages), southern China, Nepal, Bhutan...

Links

• Ethnologue: Naga, Ao
• Ao
• Naga, Ao (Rosetta Project)
• Bible Translation in Ao Naga (Language in India)
• Narrating an Ao Naga Folktale (Language in India)

Bibliography

• Clark, E. W. (1981). The Ao-Naga grammar with illustrations, phrases, and vocabulary. Delhi: Gian Publications, Mittal Publishers Distributors. (Original work published 1893).
• Coupe, A. R. (2003). A phonetic and phonological description of Ao: A Tibeto-Burman language of Nagaland, north-east India. Pacific linguistics (No. 543). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University. ISBN 0-85883-519-3.
• Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (Ed.). (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the world (15th ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. ISBN 1-55671-159-X. (Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com).
• Gowda, K. S. Gurubasave. (1972). Ao-Naga phonetic reader. CIIL phonetic reader series (No. 7). Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages.
• Gowda, K. S. Gurubasave. (1975). Ao grammar. Grammar series (No. 1). Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages.