Sangtam language

Sangtam
Thukumi
Lophomi
Native to	Nagaland, India
Region	West-central Nagaland, Workha district
Ethnicity	Sangtam Naga
Native speakers	84,000 (2001 census)[1]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Ao Sangtam
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nsa
Glottolog	sang1321[2]

Sangtam, also called Thukumi, Isachanure, or Lophomi, is an Ao language spoken in northeast India. It is spoken in Kiphire subdivision and Chare circle in Tuensang district, Nagaland, India.

Dialects

Ethnologue lists the following dialects of Sangtam.

• Kizare
• Pirr (Northern Sangtam)
• Phelongre
• Thukumi (Central Sangtam)
• Photsimi
• Purr (Southern Sangtam)

The standardized dialect of Sangtam is based based on the Tsadanger village speech variety.

Phonology

Sangtam is unusual in having two stops with bilabial trilled release, /t̪͡ʙ, t̪͡ʙ̥ʰ/.^[3]

Sangtam consonants

p pʰ	t̪ t̪ʰ	ʈʵ ʈʵʰ	c cʰ	k kʰ	ʔ
t̪͡ʙ t̪͡ʙ̥ʰ	t̪s t̪sʰ		tʃ tʃʰ
m	n		ɲ	ŋ
(f v)	s (z?)		ʃ	x	h
	l	ɹ	j

Vowels are /a ə e i ʌ o u/, tones High, Mid, Low.

References

1. Sangtam at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Sangtam Naga". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
3. Coupe (2015) "Prestopped bilabial trills in Sangtam", Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Glasgow, 10–14 August 2015