Pnar language
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| Pnar | |
|---|---|
| Jaiñtia | |
| Script error: No such module "Lang". | |
| Pronunciation | Script error: No such module "IPA". |
| Native to | India, Bangladesh |
| Ethnicity | Pnar people |
Native speakers | 395,124 (2011 census)[1] |
Austroasiatic
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | pbv |
| Glottolog | pnar1238 |
| ELP | Template:Endangered Languages Project |
| Linguasphere | Template:Infobox language/lingualist |
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| Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:InfoboxImage/data' not found. Map of the Pnar Language | |
| Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:InfoboxImage/data' not found. Pnar is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.[2] | |
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Pnar (Script error: No such module "Lang".), also known as Jaiñtia[3] is an Austroasiatic language spoken in India and Bangladesh.
Geographic distribution
As a Khasic language, Pnar belongs to a complex dialect continuum which includes mixed varieties whose exact relations remain a matter of debate among linguists. A language map of Meghalaya designed by Anna Daladier shows two major Pnar-speaking areas separated by a thin strip of Khasi and War-speaking areas. Together, the two Pnar areas encompass most of the East Jaintia Hills, West Jaintia Hills and West 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 to Maharam, a related but distinct language. Both maps also show small pockets of Pnar speakers in the neighboring state of Assam, 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 around Haflong.[5]
Phonology
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.
Vowels
| 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: Script error: No such module "IPA"..
Consonants
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | /m/ | /n/ | /ɲ/ | /ŋ/ | |||
| Plosive | voiceless | /p/ | /t̪/ | /t/ | /tʃ/ | /k/ | /ʔ/ |
| voiced | /b/ | /d̪/ | /d/ | /dʒ/ | |||
| voiceless aspirated | /pʰ/ | /t̪ʰ/ | [tʃʰ] | /kʰ/ | |||
| voiced aspirated | [bʱ] | [d̪ʱ] | [dʒʱ] | ||||
| Fricative | /s/ | /h/ | |||||
| Trill | /r/ | ||||||
| Approximant | median | /w/ | /j/ | ||||
| Lateral | /l/ | ||||||
Syllable structure
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)
Grammar
Pnar has a grammatical gender system, and its default word order is verb initial, unusual both for its family, and the area in which it's spoken.[7]
References
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- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Statement 1: Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues - 2011". www.censusindia.gov.in. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."World Atlas of Languages: Pnar". en.wal.unesco.org. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Sidwell, Paul (2005). The Katuic languages: classification, reconstruction and comparative lexicon. LINCOM studies in Asian linguistics, 58. Muenchen: Lincom Europa. ISBN 3-89586-802-7.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Nagaraja, K. S.; Sidwell, Paul; Greenhill, Simon (2013). "A lexicostatistical study of the Khasian languages: Khasi, Pnar, Lyngngam, and Wae". Mon-Khmer Studies. 42: 1‒11.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Sidwell, Paul. "Khasian Languages Project".
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Ring, Hiram (2012). "A phonetic description and phonemic analysis of Jowai-Pnar". Mon-Khmer Studies. 40: 133–175.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Ring, Hiram (2015). A Grammar of Pnar (PhD thesis). Nanyang Technological University.
- Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Choudhary, Narayam Kumar (2004). Word Order in Pnar (PDF) (Masters thesis). Jawaharlal Nehru University. p. 87. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
- Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Ring, Hiram (2015). A Grammar of Pnar (PhD thesis). Nanyang Technological University.
External links
- http://projekt.ht.lu.se/rwaai RWAAI (Repository and Workspace for Austroasiatic Intangible Heritage)
- http://hdl.handle.net/10050/00-0000-0000-0003-D187-C@view Pnar in RWAAI Digital Archive
- Pnar DoReCo corpus compiled by Hiram Ring. Audio recordings of narrative texts with transcriptions time-aligned at the phone level, translations, and time-aligned morphological annotations.
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