Kinnauri language
Kinnauri, also known as Kanauri, Kanor, Koonawur, or Kunawar is a Tibeto-Burman language (Sino-Tibetan stock) spoken in the Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh by approximately 49,000 native speakers.
Table of contents |
Sounds
This description is of the Pangi dialect of Kinnauri.
Consonants
| Bilabial | Labio-Velar | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | voiced | b | d | ɖ | ɡ | |||
| voiceless | p | t | ʈ | k | ||||
| aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | ʈʰ | kʰ | ||||
| Affricate | voiced | ʣ | ʤ | |||||
| voiceless | ʦ | ʧ | ||||||
| aspirated | ʦʰ | ʧʰ | ||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ȵ | ŋ | ||||
| Trill | r | |||||||
| Fricative | s | ʃ | h | |||||
| Approximant | w | l | j | |||||
Note on palatals: /ʤ/, /ʧ/, /ʧʰ/, and /ʃ/ are post-alveolar. /ȵ/ is alveolo-palatal.
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
| High | i / iː | ɨ / ɨː | |
| Mid | e / eː | o / oː | |
| Low | a / aː |
Kinnauri has phonemic short and long vowels.
Syllables
/h/, aspirated obstruents (i.e. /pʰ/, /tʰ/, /ʈʰ/, /kʰ/, /ʦʰ/, /ʧʰ/), and glides (i.e. /w/, /j/) do not occur in syllable codas.
All consonants may occur in onsets and word-medially.
Kinnauri has the following types of syllables:
- (C)V(C)(C)(C)
- CCV(C)
- CCCVC
Grammar
Bibliography
- Grimes, Barbara F. (Ed.). (2000). Ethnologue: Languages of the world, (14th ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. ISBN 1–5567–1106–9. (Online edition: http://www.ethnologue.com/).
- Nagano, Yasuhiko; & LaPolla, Randy J. (Eds.). (2001). New research on Zhangzhung and related Himalayan languages. Bon studies 3, Senri ethnological reports 19. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology.
- Takahashi, Yoshiharu. (2001). A descriptive study of Kinnauri (Pangi dialect): A preliminary report. In Y. Nagano & R. J. LaPolla (Eds.), New research on Zhangzhung and related Himalayan languages. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology.
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