Khiamniungan Naga phrasebook



Patsho Khiamniungan or colloquially Patsho Nyu is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken in North Eastern parts of India in the state of Nagaland, Noklak district. It also refers to the people living in the district mostly inhibiting the western part, that of Patsho range, southern part i.e. Thuonoknyu administrative circle and sparingly all over Noklak. Above all, it is a village with one of the highest number of Population in the region. Sometimes, it refers to Patsho speaking group of people who are native to and belong to Patsho Village. The language is widely known who are native to Noklak district and parts of Myanmar.

Grammar
Patsho Khiamniungan word order is subject-object-verb: "I-subject him-object see-verb." Subjects (especially I and you) are often omitted if these are clear from the context.

Patsho has postpositions instead of prepositions: like hui khem or jam khem, "bridge below" or "house below" respectively instead of "below the house."

Patsho people or Khiamniungans refer to each other rather in terms like elder brother, elder sister, younger sibling, uncle, aunt, grandmother, grandfather, manager, teacher etc. than by using the straight word like you even if this person is actually not. The other common words used daily are the words "pie" for the male and "wu-ai" for female is such a humble and polite reference to someone either close or strangers, especially among younger people. Those two completed word form would be "pienie" and "wuynie". Additionally, it's not uncommon to refer to yourself by using such an expression ( example: "[I] Father will cook you a nice dinner." Which feels like saying "This or myself father will...").

To keep in mind that the word for older brother is simply "tei" or "teihai", while the word for older sister is "nou" or "nouhai". The word for the younger ones is simply neu or neuhai for both male or female.

Vowels
There are six vowels in Patsho

Consonant

 * a : like 'a' in 'father',


 * e : like 'e' in 'bed'


 * i : like 'ee' in 'beet'


 * o : like 'o' in 'orange' or 'author'


 * u : like 'oo' in 'hoop', 'look' in open positions or like 'o' in 'hope' in close positions, such as in final 'uh' and 'uk' combinations.


 * ü : like in 'banana'.

Consonant
There are 21 consonants, which are all pronounce with the letter vowel ü like the sound found in in the word 'banana'. So, to exemplify, the letter ch or h should be pronounced chü, or hü respectively.

Written language
Patsho Khiamniungan is written in Latin script with twenty seven letters. Some letters are combined to form a letter, for example t, s, and h are different and separate., but there is tsh as one letter, found in (among others) the word Patsho. Another example could be kh and ng both found in the word Khiamniungan.

Phrase list
Used at the initial phone calls or during meeting or visit someone.
 * hǖhêi(huhei).
 * Hello.


 * Shâu-òh nyîvâ kǜ jǖnòi*

who knows.

A rhetorical statement uttered to show that the person uttering it neither knows the answer nor knows who might. ''Nong tikü naih tsak nü-e, tikü naih memtsho. Shâu-òh nyîvâ kǜ jǖnòi'' It could be one or the other, or both. Who knows

Local terms. Basic vocabulary