Poula language explained

Poula
Also Known As:Poumai
States:Manipur, Nagaland
Ethnicity:Poumai Naga
Date:2011
Ref:e25
Familycolor:Sino-Tibetan
Fam2:Angami-Pochuri
Fam3:Angami
Iso3:pmx
Glotto:poum1235
Glottorefname:Poumei Naga
Glottofoot:no

Poula is an Angami-Pochuri language that is predominantly spoken by the Poumai Naga people in Senapati district in Manipur and Phek district in Nagaland, India. The language of Chingjaroi is also closely related to Poula but is distinct. A descriptive grammar of Poula is available.[1]

Grammar

Phonology

The phonology of Poula lacks syllable codas and also disallows consonant clusters in onset position. There are 25 consonant phonemes in Poula.

Consonants

! Labial! Alveolar! Palatal! Velar! Glottal
Plosivepronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /pʰ/pronounced as /tʰ/pronounced as /cʰ/pronounced as /kʰ/
pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Nasalpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/
Fricativepronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/
Affricatepronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/
Approximantpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Liquidpronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/

Vowels

There are six vowel phonemes in Poula.

FrontCentralBack
Highpronounced as /link/   pronounced as /link/ (pronounced as /link/)
Midpronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/
Lowpronounced as /link/

In Poula, the phoneme /ə/ is written with the grapheme 'ü' (now, many use it as 'ii') in Bible and Hymns which was devised by Bible Society of India. In addition Poula lacks high back round vowel [u] as a monophthong,[2] but [u] is present in nexus of diphthong; for example pou [pəu] `father'.

Tones

Poula is a tonal language, however tone is not currently marked in the orthography. There are four tonemes in Poula.[3]

Word Tone Gloss
pronounced as //na˥// High-falling 'baby'
pronounced as //na˦// Mid-Rising 'later'
pronounced as //na˧// Mid 'things'
pronounced as //na˩// Low 'paint'

Poula is an extremely innovative language–unlike Kuki-Chin languages–for having simple morphology.[4]

Morphology

Nouns and verbs are the two content word classes. There are no ‘adjective’ and ‘adverbs’ words classes, however nominalized verbs may modify nouns and non-finite converbial verbs may modify verbs. There several functional words found.[5]

References

  1. Veikho. Sahiinii Lemaina. A Grammar of Poumai Naga. University of Bern, Switzerland: PhD Dissertation.. 2019.
  2. Veikho . Sahiinii Lemaina . Sarmah . Priyankoo . Vowels and tones in Poula . Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area . 41 . 1 . 22–45 . 2018 . 10.1075/ltba.16022.lem . 69460833 .
  3. Veikho . Sahiinii Lemaina . Khyriem . Barika . Poula phonetics and phonology: An initial overview . North East Indian Linguistics . 7 . 47–62 . 2015 .
  4. Veikho. Sahiinii Lemaina. A Grammar of Poumai Naga. University of Bern, Switzerland: PhD Dissertation.. 2019.
  5. Veikho. Sahiinii Lemaina. A Grammar of Poumai Naga. University of Bern, Switzerland: PhD Dissertation.. 2019.

External links