Greater Siangic languages explained

Greater Siangic
Acceptance:	proposed
Region:	Arunachal Pradesh
Familycolor:	Sino-Tibetan
Family:	Sino-Tibetan? or an independent family
Child1:	Siangic
Child2:	Digaro
Child3:	Pre-Tani
Glotto:	none

Greater Siangic is a language grouping that includes the Siangic languages, Digaro languages (Idu Mishmi and Taraon) and Pre-Tani, the hypothetical substrate language branch of Tani before it became relexified by Sino-Tibetan. The Greater Siangic grouping was proposed by Roger Blench (2014), based on exclusively shared lexical items that had been noted by Modi (2013). Blench (2014) argues that Greater Siangic is an independent language family that has undergone areal influences from Sino-Tibetan languages, and is not a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family itself.

Various lexical items exclusively shared by Milang, Koro, Taraon, and Idu have also been noted by Modi (2013).^[1] Modi (2013) suggests that Taraon could be closer to Milang than Idu is.

Languages

Blench (2014) lists the following languages in Greater Siangic.

• Greater Siangic
  • Pre-Tani
  • Idu-Taraon
  • Siangic
    • Koro
    • Milang

Sound correspondences

Modi (2013: 20-22)^[1] notes the following sound correspondences among Milang, Taraon, Idu, and Proto-Tani.

Milang	Taraon	Idu	Proto-Tani
-u	-a	-a	-o
h-	s-
C-	Cl-	Cr-
c-	t-	t-

See also

• Greater Siangic comparative vocabulary list (Wiktionary)

References

• Blench, Roger (2014). Fallen leaves blow away: a neo-Hammarstromian approach to Sino-Tibetan classification. Presentation given at the University of New England, Armidale, 6 September 2014.
• Post, Mark W. and Roger Blench (2011). "Siangic: A new language phylum in North East India", 6th International Conference of the North East India Linguistics Society, Tezpur University, Assam, India, Jan 31 – Feb 2.

Notes and References

1. Modi, Yankee. 2013. The nearest relatives of the Tani group. Paper presented at the 19th Himalayan Languages Symposium, Canberra, Australia.