Konyak language


Konyak is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by the Konyak people of Nagaland, northeastern India.

Dialects

Ethnologue lists the following dialects of Konyak.
Tableng is the standard dialect spoken in Wanching and Wakching.

Phonology

There are three lexically contrastive contour tones in Konyak – rising, falling and level.

Vowels

FrontCentralBack
Close
Mid
Open

The vowels, and are lengthened before approximants. doesn't occur finally.

Consonants

BilabialDental/
Alveolar
PalatalVelarGlottal
Plosive

Nasal
Fricative
Lateral
Approximant

The stops and contrast with the aspirated and. and become voiced intervocalically across morpheme boundaries. The dental is realised as an alveolar if preceded by a vowel with a rising tone. The approximants and are pronounced laxer and shorter after vowels; becomes tenser initially before high vowels. If morpheme-initial or intervocalic, is pronounced with audible friction.,,,,, and do not occur morpheme-finally, while does not appear morpheme-initially. Except for morpheme-initial and, consonant clusters occur only medially.