Kukish languages

Kukish
Kuki/Chin
Ethnicity:	Kuki people = Chin people, Mizo people, Naga people
Geographic distribution:	India, Burma
Linguistic classification:	Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman) Kukish
Subdivisions:	? Karbi Northern Central Southern ? Meitei

The Kukish languages, also known as Kuki-Chin (Kuki/Chin) and Mizo–Kuki/Chin, are a family of fifty Tibeto-Burman languages spoken in eastern India and Burma. Most speakers of these languages are known as Kukī in Assamese and as Chin in Burmese; some are also identified as Naga, though the Mizo (Lushai) are also ethnically distinct.

Languages

There is general agreement that the Karbi languages are related to, or part of, Kukish, but they are aberrant. However, Thurgood (2003) leaves Karbi unclassified within Tibeto-Burman. The Mru language once classified as Kukish is now thought to be closer to Lolo–Burmese.

The internal classification of the Kukish languages proper has changed little in a century:

• Karbi (Mikir): Karbi, Amri
• Kukish
  • Central: Mizo (Lushai), Zyphe, Bawm (Banjogi), Hmar, Hakha (Lai Pawi), Ngawn, Senthang, Tawr, Zotung, Darlong, Pangkhua
  • Northern: Falam (Hallam, incl. Laizo, Zahao), Anal, Hrangkhol, Zo (Zou, Zome), Aimol, Biete (Bete), Paite, Siyin (Sizaang), Tedim (Tiddim), Thado, Chiru, Gangte, Kom, Lamkang, Chothe (Naga), Kharam (Naga), Milhiem, Monsang (Naga), Moyon (Naga), Purum (Naga), Tarao (Naga), Ralte, Ranglong, Sakachep, Simte, Vaiphei, Yos
  • Southern: Shö (Asho/Khyang, Bualkhaw, Chinbon, and Shendu), Mara (Lakher), Khumi (Khumi proper and Khumi Awa), Daai (Nitu), Mro, Mün, Nga La, Welaung (Rawngtu)

Bradley (1997) includes Meithei.

See also

• Lai languages

References

• George van Driem (2001) Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region. Brill.
• Thurgood, Graham (2003) "A subgrouping of the Sino-Tibetan languages: The interaction between language contact, change, and inheritance." In G. Thurgood and R. LaPolla, eds., The Sino-Tibetan languages, pp 13–14. London: Routledge.