Mao language (India)

Mao
Mao
Sopvoma, Emela, Mao' La
Pronunciation	mau
Native to	India
Region	Nagaland, Manipur
Ethnicity	Mao Naga, Poumai Naga
Native speakers	240,205 (2011 census)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Kuki-Chin-Naga Angami–Pochuri Mao; ; ; ;
Official status
Recognised minority; language in	India
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either:; nbi – Mao; pmx – Poumei Naga
Glottolog	naga1397
ELP	Mao Naga

Mao, also known as Sopvoma, is a Sino-Tibetan language of the Angami–Pochuri linguistic sub-branch. It is spoken primarily in Senapati district, northwestern Manipur and in Nagaland, India. It is similar to Tenyidie.

Phonology

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p	t̪	t		k
	aspirated	pʰ	(t̪ʰ)	tʰ		kʰ
	voiced	b	d̪			(ɡ)
Affricate	voiceless	p͡f		t͡s	t͡ʃ
	aspirated	(p͡fʰ)			t͡ʃʰ
	voiced	b͡v		d͡z	d͡ʒ
Fricative	voiceless	f		s	ʃ		h
Fricative	voiced	v		z	ʒ
Nasal		m		n		ŋ
Trill	voiced			r
Trill	voiceless			ʰr̥
Lateral				l
Approximant		(w)			j

/t͡ʃʰ/ and /w/ only rarely occur, and with /t͡ʃʰ/ only occurring in word-initial position.
The pre-aspirated voiceless /ʰr̥/, may have a word-initial allophone of [ʂ], [ʂ] rarely occurs phonemically.
[ɡ] only occurs marginally from loanwords.
/t̪, p͡f/ in word-initial position may be heard as [t̪ʰ, p͡fʰ] in free variation, rarely as phonemic.
/h/ may have an allophone of [x] word-initially, word medially in free variation. [x] rarely occurs as a phoneme.
/m/ before a central vowel /ɨ/ can have an allophone of a labiodental [ɱ].
/n/ before high vowel sounds can have an allophone of a palatalized [nʲ].

↑ "Statement 1: Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues – 2011". censusindia.gov.in. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
↑ "Mao (Naga) language and alphabet". omniglot.com. Retrieved 15 April 2023.
↑ "Mao (Naga) language and alphabet". omniglot.com. Retrieved 15 April 2023.
↑ "Evaluation of the morphological rules for the Tenyidie language: a low-resource language".
↑ Giridhar, P. P. (1994). Mao Naga Grammar. Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)