| Pnar | |
|---|---|
| Jaiñtia | |
| Ka Ktien Pnar | |
| Pronunciation | /kɑkt̪eːnpnɑr/ |
| Native to | India,Bangladesh |
| Ethnicity | Pnar people |
Native speakers | 395,124 (2011 census)[1] |
Austroasiatic
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | pbv |
| Glottolog | pnar1238 |
 Map of the Pnar Language | |
 Pnar is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger[2] | |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
Pnar (Ka Ktien Pnar), also known asJaiñtia[3] is anAustroasiatic language spoken inIndia andBangladesh.
As aKhasic language, Pnar belongs to a complexdialect continuum which includes mixed varieties whose exact relations remain a matter of debate among linguists. A language map ofMeghalaya designed by Anna Daladier shows two major Pnar-speaking areas separated by a thin strip ofKhasi andWar-speaking areas. Together, the two Pnar areas encompass most of theEast Jaintia Hills,West Jaintia Hills andWest Khasi Hills districts.[4]
A more recent map designed by Hiram Ring for a Khasic languages handbook by Paul Sidwell relies on a different classification. There, only the former two districts are labeled as Pnar, whereas the varieties spoken in the West Khasi Hills belong toMaharam, a related but distinct language. Both maps also show small pockets of Pnar speakers in the neighboring state ofAssam, In the former map, they are limited to the area directly adjacent to Meghalaya, whereas the latter map also shows a group of Pnar-speaking villages aroundHaflong.[5]
Pnar has 30 phonemes: 7 vowels and 23 consonants. Other sounds listed below are phonetic realizations.[6] The sounds in brackets are phonetic realizations and the sounds in slashes are phonemes.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | /i/ | [ɨ] | /u/ |
| Near-close | [ɪ] | [ʊ] | |
| Close-mid | /e/ | /o/ | |
| Mid | [ə] | ||
| Open-mid | /ɛ/ | [ʌ] | /ɔ/ |
| Open | /ɑ/ |
There is also one diphthong:/ia/.
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | /m/ | /n/ | /ɲ/ | /ŋ/ | |||
| Plosive | voiceless | /p/ | /t̪/ | /t/ | /tʃ/ | /k/ | /ʔ/ |
| voiced | /b/ | /d̪/ | /d/ | /dʒ/ | |||
| voicelessaspirated | /pʰ/ | /t̪ʰ/ | [tʃʰ] | /kʰ/ | |||
| voicedaspirated | [bʱ] | [d̪ʱ] | [dʒʱ] | ||||
| Fricative | /s/ | /h/ | |||||
| Trill | /r/ | ||||||
| Approximant | central | /w/ | /j/ | ||||
| Lateral | /l/ | ||||||
Syllables in Pnar can consist of a single nucleic vowel. Maximally, they can include a complex onset of two consonants, a diphthong nucleus, and a coda consonant. A second type of syllable contains a syllabic nasal/trill/lateral immediately following the onset consonant. This syllabic consonant behaves as the rhyme. (Ring, 2012: 141–2)
Pnar has agrammatical gender system, and its default word order isverb initial, unusual both for its family, and the area in which it's spoken.[7]