Hill Miri dialect should not be confused with Plains Miri language.
| Nyishi (Kamle) | |
| Nativename: | Sarak |
| Region: | Arunachal Pradesh |
| Ethnicity: | Nyishi (Kamle) people |
| Speakers: | 10,000 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| Familycolor: | Sino-Tibetan |
| Fam2: | Tani |
| Fam3: | West Tani |
| Fam4: | Nyishi |
| Iso3: | none |
| Lc1: | mrg |
| Ld1: | (included under Plains Miri) |
| Glotto: | none |
Nyishi (Kamle) or Sarak is a Tani language of India. It is spoken in Arunachal Pradesh by an estimated 9,000 people of the Nyishi tribe.[1] It appears to be a dialect of the Nishi language.[2]
Though Hili Miri is listed under Mising [mrg] in Ethnologue, Burling and Sun–experts on the Aranuchal Pradesh and Tani languages–treat Hill Miri and Mising as separate and distinct languages belonging to different branches of the Tani subgroup.[3]
Nyishi (muri-mugli) is a member of the Tani branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages and is considered a dialect of the Nishi language. It is spoken by 9,000 people in the northern regions of India by the Nyishi people of Kamle.[3] It is threatened because the younger generation is slowly breaking away from their people's traditions and language.[4] [5] Many audio books of gospel narratives in the Nyishi language of Kamle have been collected.
George Abraham Grierson, in his survey of India regarding its linguistics, researched the Nyishi language and published a record over a century ago.
The following table includes an inventory of Nyishi (Kamle) consonants.[6]
| Labial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/[7] | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Stop | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/[8] | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/[9] | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Trill? | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
Vowels are front pronounced as //i, e//, central pronounced as //ɨ, ʉ, ə, a//,[10] and back pronounced as //u, o//. Vowels occur long and short.
The basic Nyishi (Kamle) grammar and basic word order are like those of related Sino-Tibetan languages, similar to that of Nishi.
| Nyishi (Kamle) | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | aken | |
| 2 | eñi | |
| 3 | oum | |
| 4 | epi | |
| 5 | ango/angngo | |
| 6 | ake | |
| 7 | kenne | |
| 8 | pine | |
| 9 | kora | |
| 10 | íri |
| Singular | Plural | ||
| 1st person | ngo | ngu-lu | |
| 2nd person | no | nu-lu | |
| 3rd person | bu, bú | bu-lu, bú-lu |