Changki Ao is one of the dialects of the Ao language. It is the smallest of the three Ao languages, the other two being Chungli Ao, the prestige dialect, and Mongsen Ao.[1] Changki has historically been considered a subgroup of Mongsen, but there are notable differences between the two; intelligibility between Changki and Mongsen may only be a recent phenomenon.[2]
| Changki Ao | |
|---|---|
| Native to | India |
| Region | Nagaland |
| Ethnicity | Ao Naga |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | chan1311 |
Phonology
[edit]![[icon]](https://wikimax.nixinova.com/wp/en/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (December 2025) |
The following phonology is derived from Temsunungsang & Changkija (2025).[2]
Vowels
[edit]Changki Ao has 4 vowels:
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | ə | ||
| Open | a |
[e] is an allophone of /i/ and /a/, and [o] is an allophone of /u/.
Consonants
[edit]Changki Ao has 21 consonants:
| Bilabial | Dental | Postalveolar | Palatal/Palato-alveolar | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||
| Plosive | pʰ p | tʰ t | kʰ k | ʔ | ||
| Affricate | t͡sʰ t͡s | t͡ʃʰ t͡ʃ | ||||
| Fricative | s z | h | ||||
| Approximant | ɹ̥ ɹ | j | ||||
| Lateral | l |
References
[edit]- ^ Tzudir, Moakala; Sarmah, Priyankoo; Mahadeva Prasanna, S R (2021), "Analysis and modeling of dialect information in Ao, a low resource language", Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 149: 2976–2987, doi:10.1121/10.0004822, PMID 34241137
- ^ a b Temsunungsang, T; Changkija, Amenla, I (2025-10-13). "A description of Changki-Ao phonology with a note on orthography". Himalayan Linguistics. 24 (2). doi:10.5070/H9.35216. ISSN 1544-7502.
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