Marinazhg at 11:46, 19 March 2026

2026-03-19T11:46:01Z

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{{short description|Sino-Tibetan language}}
{{Infobox language
| name = Anāl
| states = [[India]] and [[Myanmar]]
| region = Southeast [[Manipur]]
| ethnicity = [[Anāl Naga people|Anāl Naga]]
| speakers = {{sigfig|13900|2}}
| date = 2001 census
| ref = e18
| familycolor = Sino-Tibetan
| fam2 = [[Tibeto-Burman languages|Tibeto-Burman]]
| fam3 = [[Kuki-Chin-Naga languages|Kuki-Chin-Mizo]]
| fam4 = [[Kuki-Chin languages|Kuki-Chin]]
| fam5 = [[Northwestern Kuki-Chin languages|Northwestern]]
| iso3 = anm
| glotto = anal1239
| glottorefname = Anal
| dia1 = Langet
| script = [[Latin script]], [[Meitei script]] (to lesser extent)
| linglist = qfs
| lingname = Langet
}}

'''Anāl''', also known as '''Namfau''' after the two principal villages it is spoken in, is a [[Kuki-Chin languages|Kuki-Chin]] language, belonging to the [[Northwestern Kuki-Chin languages|Northwestern]] or "Old Kuki" subfamily,<ref>
{{citation |first=Graham |last=Thurgood |chapter=Sino-Tibetan: Genetic and Areal Subgroups |title=The Sino-Tibetan Languages |editor1=Graham Thurgood |editor2=Randy J. LaPolla |edition=2 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2016 |isbn=9781315399492 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PDglDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA22 |page=22}}
</ref>
spoken by the [[Anāl people|Anal people]] in [[India]] and a dwindling number in [[Burma]]. It had 13,900 speakers in India according to the 2001 census, and 50 in Burma in 2010.<ref name=e18/> The speakers of this language use the [[Meitei language]] as their [[second language]] (L2) according to the [[Ethnologue]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Meitei {{!}} Ethnologue |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/mni/ |website=[[Ethnologue]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190724203234/https://www.ethnologue.com/language/mni/ |archive-date=24 July 2019 |language=en}}</ref>

The [[Department of Language Planning and Implementation]] of the [[Government of Manipur]] offers a sum of {{INRConvert|5000|year=2013}}, to every individual who learns Anal language, under certain terms and conditions.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Applications invited for local language training programme |url=https://www.ifp.co.in/manipur/applications-invited-for-local-language-training-programme |website=[[Imphal Free Press]] |language=en}}</ref>

Anal is also written in the [[Latin script]],<ref name=B120>{{harvnb|Bareh|2007|p=120}}</ref> with a literacy rate of about 74%.<ref name=e18/>

Langet may be a dialect, though its position within Kukish is uncertain (Shafer 1955:106).{{update after|2012|9|27}}

==Geographical distribution==
Anal is spoken in southeastern [[Manipur]], in the [[Chandel district]], on the banks of the Chakpi River in towns such as [[Chandel, Manipur|Chandel]] and [[Chakpikarong]], and also in the [[Tengnoupal district]] (''[[Ethnologue]]'').

== Phonology ==

=== Consonants ===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
! colspan="2" |
![[Labial consonant|Labial]]
![[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
![[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
![[Velar consonant|Velar]]
![[Glottal fricative|Glottal]]
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
![[Voicelessness|voiceless]]
|[[Voiceless bilabial nasal|m̥]]
|[[Voiceless dental and alveolar nasals|n̥]]
|
|[[Voiceless velar nasal|ŋ̊]]
|
|-
![[Voice (phonetics)|voiced]]
|[[Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]
|[[Voiced dental and alveolar nasals|n]]
|
|[[Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]
|
|-
! rowspan="3" |[[Stop consonant|Plosive]]/ [[Affricate]]
![[Aspirated consonant|aspirated]]
|[[Aspirated consonant|pʰ]]
|[[Aspirated consonant|tʰ]]
|
|[[Aspirated consonant|kʰ]]
|
|-
![[Voicelessness|voiceless]]
|[[Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]
|[[Voiceless dental and alveolar plosives|t]]
|[[Voiceless postalveolar affricate|tʃ]]
|[[Voiceless velar plosive|k]]
|
|-
![[Voice (phonetics)|voiced]]
|[[Voiced bilabial nasal|b]]
|[[Voiced dental and alveolar plosives|d]]
|[[Voiced postalveolar affricate|dʒ]]
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Fricative consonant|Fricative]]
|
|[[Voiceless alveolar fricative|s]]
|
|
|[[Voiceless glottal fricative|h]]
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Approximant consonant|Approximant]]
![[Voice (phonetics)|voiced]]
|[[Voiced labiodental approximant|ʋ]]
|[[Voiced dental and alveolar lateral approximants|l]]
|
|
|
|-
![[Voicelessness|voiceless]]
|
|[[Voiceless dental and alveolar lateral fricatives|l̥]]
|
|
|
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Rhotic consonant|Rhotic]]
![[Voice (phonetics)|voiced]]
|
|[[Voiced dental and alveolar trills|r]]
|
|
|
|-
![[Voicelessness|voiceless]]
|
|[[Voiceless dental and alveolar trills|r̥]]
|
|
|
|}
/dʒ/ can also be heard as a glide [j] in free variation.

=== Vowels ===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
!<ref>{{Cite book |last=Devi |first=Thounaojam Thajamanbi |title=A Descriptive Grammar of Anal |publisher=Silchar: Assam University |year=2015}}</ref>
![[Front vowel|Front]]
![[Central vowel|Central]]
![[Back vowel|Back]]
|- align="center"
![[Close vowel|Close]]
|[[Close front unrounded vowel|i]]
|
|[[Close back rounded vowel|u]]
|-
![[Mid vowel|Mid]]
|[[Close-mid front unrounded vowel|e]]
|[[Mid central vowel|ə]]
|[[Close-mid back rounded vowel|o]]
|- align="center"
![[Open vowel|Open]]
|
|[[Open front unrounded vowel|a]]
|
|}

==Vocabulary==
The following vocabulary exemplifies words in the language.<ref>{{harvnb|Bareh|2007|pp=119–128}}</ref>
{| class=wikitable
!Anal||gloss||Anal||gloss
|-
|khol || 'deep hole'; 'social division' || ahno ||'kind of short skirt'
|-
|lunguin || 'kind of long shawl' || zupar || 'rice beer'
|-
|piruili || '[[elopement]]' || Jol min || '[[bride price]]'
|-
|ithin || 'divorce' || sinnuperu || 'adultery'
|-
|pakum || 'hearth' || mote || 'first-born'
|-
|kopu || 'second-born' || cakhow || 'brown rice'
|-
|khon || 'fifty rupees' || thunlon || 'grave'
|-
|dao || 'kind of iron blade' || shingkho || 'plate'
|-
|vopum|| 'basket' || athiru || 'kind of bead necklace'
|-
|akarfo || 'kind of China necklace' || sanamba || 'kind of fiddle'
|-
|tilli || 'kind of flageolet' || tuklee || 'kind of loom'
|}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Bareh |first=Hamlet|title=Encyclopaedia of North-East India: Manipur|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XScmdGvMf7IC&q=%22anal+language%22+india&pg=PA120 |year=2007 |publisher=Mittal |volume=III |location=New Delhi |isbn=978-81-7099-790-0}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Prakash |first=Col Ved|title=Encyclopaedia of North-East India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wxkC9S2jYCkC&q=%22anal+language%22+india&pg=PA1515 |year=2007 |publisher=Atlantic |location=New Delhi |isbn=978-81-269-0708-3}}

== External links ==
* ELAR collection: [https://elar.soas.ac.uk/Collection/MPI1035093 A community-driven documentation of natural discourse in Anal, an endangered Tibeto-Burman language] deposited by Pavel Ozerov
* [https://doreco.huma-num.fr/languages/anal1239 Anal DoReCo corpus] compiled by Pavel Ozerov. Audio recordings of narrative texts, with transcriptions time-aligned at the phone level and translations.

{{Sino-Tibetan languages}}
{{Kuki-Chin–Naga languages}}
{{Languages of Burma}}
{{Languages of Northeast India}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Kuki-Chin languages]]
[[Category:Languages of Manipur]]
[[Category:Endangered languages of India]]
[[Category:Endangered Sino-Tibetan languages]]

{{st-lang-stub}}

Anāl language - Revision history

Marinazhg at 11:46, 19 March 2026