Bugun language
Bugun, also known as Khowa, is a small possible language isolate spoken in Arunachal Pradesh state of India by the Bugun. They numbered about 1,700 in 2011.
| Bugun | |
|---|---|
| Khowa | |
| Native to | India |
| Region | Arunachal Pradesh |
| Ethnicity | Bugun (Khowa) |
Native speakers | (900 cited 2001)[1] |
Sino-Tibetan?
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | bgg |
| Glottolog | bugu1246 |
| ELP | Bugun |
Bugun, also known as Khowa, is a small possible language isolate spoken in Arunachal Pradesh state of India by the Bugun. They numbered about 1,700 in 2011.
Phonology
[edit]Vowels
[edit]| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Open | ä |
Consonants
[edit]| Labial | Coronal | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Post- velar |
Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ||||||
| Stop | voiceless | p | t | ʈ | k | |||
| voiced | b | d | ɖ | ɡ | ɢ | |||
| breathy | bʱ | dʱ | ɖʱ | ɡʱ | ||||
| Affricate | voiceless | ts | ʈʂ | tɕ | ||||
| voiced | dz | ɖʐ | dʑ | |||||
| breathy | dzʱ | ɖʐʱ | dʑʱ | |||||
| Fricative | voiceless | s | ʂ | ɕ | x | |||
| voiced | v | z | ʐ | ʑ | ɣ | ɦ | ||
| Approximant | l ɫ | j | ||||||
| Rhotic | ɾ | |||||||
Classification
[edit]Bugun is classified as a Kho-Bwa language in Blench & Post (2013), although Blench (2015)[2] believes Bugun may actually be unrelated to the rest of the Kho-Bwa languages.
Dialects
[edit]Lieberherr & Bodt (2017)[3] list the following Bugun dialects along with their numbers of speakers.
- Dikhyang (100 speakers)
- Singchung (680 speakers)
- Wangho (220 speakers)
- Bichom (630 speakers)
- Kaspi (80 speakers)
- Namphri (180 speakers)
Distribution
[edit]Bugun is spoken in the following villages in southern West Kameng District, Arunachal Pradesh (Dondrup 1990:iv).[4] The total population numbered 800 in 1981. Names in parentheses are spellings as given in Ethnologue.
- Wanghoo (Wangho)
- Singchung
- Kaspi (New Kaspi)
- Lichini
- Ramo (Ramu)
- Namphri
- Chithu (Situ)
- Sachida (Sachita)
- Pani-Phu
- Ditching (Diching)
- Dikhiyang (Dikiang)
- Bicham (Bichom) (a recently founded hamlet)
Ethnologue also lists Mangopom village. These villages are located on the mountains on both sides of Rupa River.
References
[edit]- ^ Bugun at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Blench, Roger. 2015. The Mey languages and their classification. Presentation given at the University of Sydney.
- ^ Lieberherr, Ismael; Bodt, Timotheus Adrianus. 2017. Sub-grouping Kho-Bwa based on shared core vocabulary. In Himalayan Linguistics, 16(2).
- ^ Dondrup, Rinchin. 1990. Bugun language guide. Itanagar: Directorate of Research, Government of Arunachal Pradesh.
Further reading
[edit]- Barbora, M. (2025). "Bugun: An Endangered Language and Community of Arunachal Pradesh, India". In N. S. Dash; S. Arulmozi; N. Ramesh (eds.). Handbook on Endangered South Asian and Southeast Asian Languages. Cham: Springer. pp. 275–308. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-80752-7_13.
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