Changki Ao language

Changki Ao
Changki Ao
Native to	India
Region	Nagaland
Ethnicity	Ao Naga
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Ao languages Ao language Changki Ao; ; ; ;
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Glottolog	chan1311

Changki Ao is one of the dialects of the Ao language. The term "Changki" refers to the name of a village where it is spoken, which is located in the Jangpetkong range, one of the six mountain ranges in the Ao region.^[1] It is the smallest of the three Ao languages, the other two being Chungli Ao, the prestige dialect, and Mongsen Ao.^[2] Changki has historically been considered a subgroup of Mongsen, but there are notable differences between the two; intelligibility between Changki and Mongsen may only be a recent phenomenon.^[1]

Location and prevalence

Using information from the 2011 Indian census, it was estimated that there could be around 10,000 speakers of Changki (and its varieties). This estimation derived from combining the populations of 8 villages and hamlets, in which researchers found Changki speakers (around 3,200 people), and an estimated 6,000-7,000 people from those villages that live in surrounding towns and cities.^[1]

Phonology

The following phonology is derived from Temsunungsang & Changkija (2025).^[1]

Vowels

Changki Ao has 4 vowels:

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid		ə
Open		a

[e] is an allophone of /i/ and /a/, and [o] is an allophone of /u/.

Consonants

Changki Ao has 21 consonants:

		Bilabial	Dental	Post- alveolar	Palatal/ Pal-alv.	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n			ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t			k	ʔ
Plosive	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ			kʰ
Affricate	voiceless		t͡s		t͡ʃ
Affricate	aspirated		t͡sʰ		t͡ʃʰ
Fricative	voiced		z
Fricative	voiceless		s				h
Approximant	voiced			ɹ	j
	voiceless			ɹ̥
	lateral			l

References

1 2 3 4 Temsunungsang, T; Changkija, Amenla, I (2025-10-13). "A description of Changki-Ao phonology with a note on orthography". Himalayan Linguistics. 24 (2). doi:10.5070/H9.35216. ISSN 1544-7502.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
↑ Tzudir, Moakala; Sarmah, Priyankoo; Mahadeva Prasanna, S R (2021), "Analysis and modeling of dialect information in Ao, a low resource language", Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 149: 2976–2987, doi:10.1121/10.0004822, PMID 34241137

[TC2025-1] 1 2 3 4 Temsunungsang, T; Changkija, Amenla, I (2025-10-13). "A description of Changki-Ao phonology with a note on orthography". Himalayan Linguistics. 24 (2). doi:10.5070/H9.35216. ISSN 1544-7502.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

[2] Tzudir, Moakala; Sarmah, Priyankoo; Mahadeva Prasanna, S R (2021), "Analysis and modeling of dialect information in Ao, a low resource language", Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 149: 2976–2987, doi:10.1121/10.0004822, PMID 34241137

[1]

[2]