TheTani languages encompass a group of closely related languages spoken by theTani people innortheastern India, primarily inArunachal Pradesh andAssam. These languages belong to the Sino-Tibetan family and include several major dialects such as inMising,Galo,Apatani,Adi,Tagin, andNyishi.

The Tani languages are spoken by about 2,170,500 people ofArunachal Pradesh, including theAdi,Apatani,Galo,Mising,Nyishi,Tagin, and of theEast Kameng,West Kameng,Papumpare,Lower Subansiri,Upper Subansiri,West Siang,East Siang,Upper Siang,Lower Dibang Valley andLohit districts of Arunachal Pradesh andDhemaji,North Lakhimpur,Sonitpur,Majuli etc. districts of Assam. In Arunachal Pradesh alone the Tani-speaking area covers some 40,000 square kilometers, or roughly half the size of the state. Scattered Tani communities spill over the Sino-Indian border into adjacent areas inMêdog (Miguba people),Mainling (Bokar and Tagin peoples), andLhünzê (Bangni,Na,Bayi, Dazu, andMara peoples) counties of Tibet.

The nameTani was originally suggested by Jackson Tianshin Sun in his 1993 doctoral dissertation.^[1]

The Tani languages are conservatively classified as a distinct branch in Sino-Tibetan. Their closest relatives may be their eastern neighbors theDigaro languages, Taraon and Idu; this was first suggested by Sun (1993), but a relationship has not yet been systematically demonstrated. Blench (2014) suggests that Tani has aGreater Siangicsubstratum, with the Greater Siangic languages being a non-Sino-Tibetan language family consisting ofIdu-Taraon andSiangic languages.

Mark Post (2015)^[2] observes that Tani typologically fits into theMainland Southeast Asia linguistic area, which typically has creoloid morphosyntactic patterns,^[3] rather than with the languages of the Tibetosphere. Post (2015) also notes that Tani culture is similar to those of Mainland Southeast Asian hill tribe cultures, and is not particularly adapted to cold montane environments.

A provisional classification in Sun (1993), who argued that Tani is a primary branch ofTibeto-Burman (within Sino-Tibetan), is:

To Eastern Tani, van Driem (2008)^[4] adds the following possible languages:

Tangam

Milang has traditionally been classified as a divergent Tani language, but in 2011 was tentatively reclassified asSiangic (Post & Blench 2011).

Proto-Tani was partially reconstructed by Sun (1993). A large number of reconstructed roots have cognates in other Sino-Tibetan languages. However, a great deal of Proto-Tani vocabulary have no cognates within Sino-Tibetan (Post 2011), and most Tani grammar seems to be secondary, without cognates in grammatically conservative Sino-Tibetan languages such asJingpho or theKiranti languages (Post 2006). Post (2012)^[5] suggests that Apatani and Milang have non-Tani substrata, and that as early Tani languages had expanded deeper into Arunachal Pradesh, mixing with non-Tani languages occurred.

Mark Post (2013)^[6] proposes the following revised classification for the Tani languages.

The undocumentedAshing language presumably belongs here.

However, Macario (2015) notes that many Apatani words are closer to reconstructions ofProto-Tibeto-Burman (Matisoff 2003) than to Proto-Tani (Sun 1993). Possible explanations include Apatani having a substratum belonging to an extinct Tibeto-Burman branch or language phylum, or linguistic variation in Proto-Tani.^[7]

Sun (1993: 254–255) lists the following 25 lexicalisoglosses between Western Tani and Eastern Tani.

TheTani Language Foundation (TLF) is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and revitalizing the linguistic and cultural heritage of the Tani people, an indigenous group primarily residing in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, India. Established by a group of college students of Tani ethnicity, TLF focuses on unifying the various dialects of the Tani languages and ensuring their continued relevance in contemporary society.^[8]

Founded by Luke Rimmo (Mingkeng) Lego and Takar Mili, TLF focuses on preserving the various dialects of the Tani languages and ensuring their continued relevance in contemporary society.^[9][10]

• Siangic languages
• Greater Siangic languages

• Bradley, David, 1997. "Tibeto-Burman languages and classification." In David Bradley, ed.Tibeto-Burman languages of the Himalayas. Canberra, Australian National University Press: 1–72.ISBN 978-0-85883-456-9.
• Blench, Roger (2014).Fallen leaves blow away: a neo-Hammarstromian approach to Sino-Tibetan classification. Presentation given at the University of New England, Armidale, 6 September 2014.
• James A. Matisoff, 2003.The Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman: System and Philosophy of Sino-Tibetan Reconstruction. Berkeley, University of California Press.ISBN 978-0-520-09843-5.
• van Driem, George, 2001.Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region. Brill.ISBN 978-90-04-12062-4.
• Post, Mark, 2006. "Compounding and the structure of the Tani lexicon."Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area29 (1): 41–60.
• Post, Mark, 2011. "Isolate substrates, creolization and the internal diversity of Tibeto-Burman."Workshop on The Roots of Linguistic Diversity. The Cairns Institute, James Cook University, Australia, June 9–10.
• Post, Mark, 2012. "The language, culture, environment and origins of Proto-Tani speakers: What is knowable, and what is not (yet)." In T. Huber and S. Blackburn, Eds.Origins and Migrations in the Extended Eastern Himalayas. Leiden, Brill: 161–194.ISBN 978-90-04-22691-3.
• Post, Mark W. and Roger Blench, 2011. "Siangic: A new language phylum in North East India."6th International Conference of the North East Indian Linguistics Society, Tezpur University, Assam, India, January 29 – February 2.
• Sun, Tianshin Jackson, 1993.A Historical–Comparative Study of the Tani (Mirish) Branch in Tibeto-Burman.Archived 4 March 2016 at theWayback Machine Berkeley, University of California PhD Dissertation.

• Tani languages
• Languages of Assam

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