| Also Known As: Paimi,Uri,Ao,Aorr,Nowgong,Cholimi,Hatigoria
Description:
Mongsen Ao is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken by the Ao of Nagaland in northeast India. Conventionally classified as "Naga", the Ao languages are not clearly related to other Naga languages. Gordon (2005) estimates that there are 141,000 speakers of Mongsen and Chungli Ao.
Missionary grammars from the late 19th century exist. A grammatical description is Gowda (1975). Coupe (2003) is one of the few acoustic studies published on a Kuki-Chin-Naga language (only three exist). Coupe also has a reference grammar in progress.
Two of the Ao languages are called "Ao". Chungli Ao is spoken in Molungyimchen and Molungyimsen and other villages throughout Ao territory by roughly 60% of the Ao-speaking population. The speech of Molungyimsen is the prestige dialect due to Baptist missionaries' influence. Most Ao can speak Chungli even if they are from Mongsen-speaking regions. Chungli is taught in schools. Various trans-Dikhu dialects of Chungly are spoken east of the Dikhu River in Yacham, Tengsa, and Longla. These are poorly documented; Yacham and Tengsa may be separate languages (van Driem 2001).
Mongsen Ao is spoken primarily in the western part of Ao territory. The Changki dialect is spoken..... full article at Wikipedia |
