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Pangkhua (Pangkhu), or Paang, is a Kuki-Chin language primarily spoken in Bangladesh. Most speakers of Pangkhu are bilingual in Bengali, and most education in Pangkhu is conducted in that language.
| Pangkhua | |
|---|---|
| Pangkhu | |
| Native to | Bangladesh |
| Region | Bilaichari, Jorachari, Barkal, & Baghaichari districts, and parts of Rangamati district.Chamdur valley and Adjacent hills in Lawngtlai district, Tlabung and West Phaileng subdivision. |
Native speakers | 3,200 in Bangladesh (2012)[1] unknown number in India[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | pkh |
| Glottolog | pank1249 |
| ELP | Pankhu |
Since there is essentially no literature in Pangkhua, other than oral folk tales and songs, the Pangkhua community members use Lushai literature. There are minimal language differences between Pangkhua, Tlanglau, Falam Chin, Bawm and Mizo.[2]
The dialects of the two main communities that use Pangkhu, Bilaichari and Konglak, share 88% of their basic vocabulary. Residents of Pangkhua Para refer to their village as Dinthar (IPA: /d̪int̪ʰar/; from Mizo d̪in 'stay' and Mizo and Pangkua t̪ʰar 'new')
Pangkhu has twenty-one consonant phonemes:
However, only unaspirated voiceless stops, /h/, /r/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, and /l/ may occur at syllable coda. When stops occur in coda position, they are not audibly released. The glottal fricative /h/ may be deleted syllable-initially.
There are also seven vowel phonemes:
The vowel [æ] serves as an allophone of /e/ and [o] serves as an allophone of /u/. Vowel length contrasts occur only in closed syllables and diphthongs. There are 9 diphthongs, these being /ɑi/, /ɑu/, /ei/, /eu/, /əu/, /ou/, /iɑ/, /uɑ/, and /ui/. Diphthongs and long vowels are monophthongized following another syllable.
The basic syllable structure of Pangkhu is (C)(L)V(X), with L being a lateral consonant and X being a coda consonant.
There are two tones: a high tone and low tone.[3]
Derivational affixes
Diminutive and augmentative
Augmentative -pui and diminutive -te can be affixed to kinship terms in order to denote relative age or size.
| Root | Gloss | Diminutive | Augmentative |
|---|---|---|---|
| pɑ | father | pɑte 'father's younger brother' | pɑpui 'father's elder brother' |
| nu | mother | nute 'mother's younger sister' | nupui 'mother's elder sister' |
| thing | tree | thingte 'tree-plant' | thingpui 'big tree' |
| tui | water | tuite 'small river' | tuipui 'river' |
| kut | hand | kutte 'little finger' | kutpui 'thumb' |
Gender
The gender suffixes -pɑ and -mɑ may derive a new referent from a root, as in lɑl 'monarch', lɑlpɑ 'king, and lɑlnu 'queen'.
Negation
Negation -ləu can be suffixed to a root to denote its opposite, as in dam 'healthy' and damləu 'sick'.
Noun forms
In Pangkhua, only human nouns can be marked for plurality and only animate marked for gender. Relator nouns share a function similar to adpositions in other languages.
| Semantics | Form | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| Locational | kiɑng | by |
| kung | 'from, near' | |
| lɑi | 'between' | |
| ler | 'at the top' | |
| mɑng | 'in front' | |
| nuɑi | 'under' | |
| sung | 'inside' | |
| chung | 'on top' | |
| nung | 'behind, later' | |
| Temporal | sung/hun | 'during' |
| Directional | kɑng | 'by' |
| Associative | ruɑl | 'with' |
| Ablative | thɒ(k) | 'from' |
| Benefactive | (mə)rɑng | 'for' |
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