LANGUAGE IN INDIA

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Volume 26:6 June 2026
ISSN 1930-2940

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Some Morphophonemic Processes in Changtongya Jungli

Moachiba Jamir, M.A., NET-JRF

Abstract

Changtongya Jungli (CJ henceforth) is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken by the natives of Changtongya village from the Ao tribe of Nagaland. It is a regional colloquial variety of the standardized Jungli (previous orthography was “Chungli”). CJ has been overlooked in linguistic studies as compared to the standard varieties of Jungli and Mongsen (Coupe (2003); Coupe (2004); Temsunungsang (2009); Bruhn (2010); Walling (2017); Aier & Koshy (2024)). The present paper addresses this dearth by providing a systematic morphophonemic analysis of the changes that can be found in comparing standard Jungli to CJ. The research utilises established frameworks on morphophonemic processes such as debuccalization, deletion and deaffrication, to situate it within established working theories in morphophonemics as also evidenced in other languages. Analysing the morphophonemic processes in CJ shows the changes are not random, but follow specific linguistic rules. The study concludes that colloquial varieties have their own systematic linguistic processes just like standardized languages. Dialectal studies such as these add value to one’s perception of “coarse” dialects while also providing many more avenues for research in fields such as historical linguistics for the Ao group of languages and Tibeto-Burman languages in general.

Keywords:Dialect Study, Changtongya Jungli, Morphophonology, Tibeto-Burman.

Introduction

The Ao group of languages can be divided into three prominent varieties: Jungli, Mongsen and Changki (Walling: 2017) (Coupe: 2003). Some villages may have both Jungli and Mongsen speakers, some may have only Mongsen, only Changki, or only Jungli speakers, and Changtongya village is one where only Jungli speakers dwell and where CJ is spoken.

The Ao-Naga Territory is divided into Six ranges: Ongpangkong, Langpangkong, Asetkong, Changkikong (Jangpetkong), Japukong, and Tsürangkong which have a number of villages each and are situated mostly east of the Dikhu river

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Moachiba Jamir, M.A., NET-JRF
Junior Research Fellow
Department of Linguistics
University of Kashmir
jamirmoachiba@gmail.com

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