| Vaiphei | |
|---|---|
| Region | India |
| Ethnicity | Vaiphei /Zo-Mizo |
Native speakers | 43,000 (2011 census)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | vap |
| Glottolog | vaip1239 |
| ELP | Vaiphei |
Vaiphei is aSino-Tibetan language belonging to theZo-Mizo linguistic subbranch of theTibeto-Burman group of languages. It is spoken mainly in theIndian state ofManipur and minutely inMizoram,Assam,Meghalaya, andTripura. The dialect spoken in Manipur exhibits a least partial mutual intelligibility with the other Zo-Mizo dialects of the area includingThadou,Hmar,Paite,Simte,Mizo andGangte languages.[2]
Vaiphei is spoken in more than 30 villages ofLamka District, SouthernManipur (Ethnologue).[full citation needed] There are also speakers inAssam,Meghalaya,Mizoram andTripura.[citation needed]
There is no official single spelling system, but many use the orthography ofMizo. Some writers use the circumflex ⟨ˆ⟩, but its meaning is inconsistent.[3]/ɔ/ is represented by ⟨o⟩ in open syllables and ⟨aw⟩ in closed syllables in the orthography.[4] The glottal stop/ʔ/ is represented by the letter ⟨h⟩.[5]
Vaiphei has the following consonants, with the first symbol being its orthographical form and the second one its representation in theIPA:[6]
| Labial | Labiodental | Alveolar | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | ⟨p⟩/p/ | ⟨t⟩/t/ | ⟨k⟩/k/ | ⟨h⟩ʔ | |
| aspirated | ⟨ph⟩/pʰ/ | ⟨th⟩/tʰ/ | ⟨kh⟩/kʰ/ | |||
| voiced | ⟨b⟩/b/ | ⟨d⟩/d/ | ⟨g⟩/ɡ/ | |||
| Affricate | ⟨ch⟩/ts/ | |||||
| Nasal | ⟨m⟩/m/ | ⟨n⟩/n/ | ⟨ng⟩/ŋ/ | |||
| Fricative | voiceless | ⟨s⟩/s/ | ⟨h⟩/h/ | |||
| voiced | ⟨v⟩/v/ | ⟨z⟩/z/ | ||||
| Lateral | ⟨l⟩/l/ | |||||
/p,t,k/ are heard asunreleased[p̚,t̚,k̚] in word-final position. The aspirated and voiced stops/pʰ,tʰ,kʰ,b,d,ɡ/ are restricted to syllable-initial position.[7]
The glottal stop occurs only in syllable-final position, always occurs with low tone, and can be deleted.[5]
The fricatives and the affricate do not occur word-finally.[8]
The voiceless plosives, nasals, and laterals can all be the first members in a vowel sequence, and all phonemes except the glottal stop can be the second.[9] Consonant clusters can be found in someloanwords, e.g.,/ilektrik/'electric'.[10]/p,t,k,m,n,ŋ,l/ can all formgeminates, e.g.,/seppatni/'Monday'.[11]
Vaiphei has five phonemicmonophthongs.[12]
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | ⟨i⟩/i/ | ⟨u⟩/u/ |
| Mid | ⟨e⟩/e/ | ⟨o/aw⟩/ɔ/ |
| Open | ⟨a⟩/ɑ/[a] |
/e/ tends to be realized as[ɛ] word-finally.[14]
Vaiphei has eightdiphthongs,/ai,ei,ui,ɔi,au,eu,iu,ɔu/. These can all occur in word-medially and word-finally, but/au,eu,iu,ɔu/ cannot occur word-initially.[15]
Vaiphei is a tonal language with three contrastive tones, twocontour tones and a low tone. Suantak (2013) uses numerals, where 1 is lowest and 5 is highest, and providesChao tone letters.[16]
| Tone | Chao tone letter | IPA | gloss |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low (21) | ˨˩ | /sa²¹/ | 'sing' |
| Rising (23) | ˨˧ | /sa²³/ | 'hot, meat' |
| Falling (52) | ˥˨ | /sa⁵²/ | 'thick' |
All three tones can occur on any vowel. All tones can occur with/m,n,ŋ,l,p,t,k/ though the rising and falling tones do not co-occur with the glottal stop/ʔ/.[18]
Tone sandhi occurs in compound words; for example, a low tone becomes a rising tone when preceded by a rising tone (e.g.,/in²³/'house' +/tsuŋ²¹/'above' →[in²³tsuŋ²³]'roof').[19]
The syllable structure in Vaiphei is (C)V(C). The maximal syllable is CVC.[20]
| Syllable | IPA | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| V | /u/ | 'elder (brother/sister' |
| VC | /in/ | 'house' |
| CV | /pa/ | 'father' |
| CVC | /gam/ | 'land' |
Sino-Tibetan branches | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WesternHimalayas (Himachal, Uttarakhand,Nepal,Sikkim) |
|  | |||
| EasternHimalayas (Tibet,Bhutan,Arunachal) | |||||
| Myanmar and Indo- Burmese border |
| ||||
| East andSoutheast Asia |
| ||||
| Dubious (possible isolates,Arunachal) |
| ||||
| Proposed groupings | |||||
| Proto-languages | |||||
Italics indicates single languages that are also considered to be separate branches. | |||||
Authority control databases: National |
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