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Mruic
Mru–Hkongso
Geographic distribution	Burma, Bangladesh
Linguistic classification	Sino-Tibetan Mruic
Subdivisions	Mru Anu-Hkongso
Glottolog	`mrui1235`

Mruic or Mru–Hkongso is a small group of Sino-Tibetan languages consisting of two languages, Mru and Anu-Hkongso. Their relationship within Sino-Tibetan is unclear.

Peterson & Wright (2009)^[1] proposed the name Mru–Hkongso. DeLancey (2021) also uses the name Mru–Hkongso.^[2]

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Classification

Matisoff (2015)^[3]^[4] classifies Mru as part of the Northeast Indian areal group, a linkage^[5] that includes Tani, Deng (Digaro), "Kuki-Chin–Naga", Meithei, Mikir, and Sal.

On the other hand, Bradley (1997) classifies Mru as part of Lolo-Burmese, based on Löffler's (1966) observations that Mru shares many phonological and lexical resemblances with Lolo-Burmese.^[6]^[7]

The Mru-Hkongso group was first proposed by Peterson & Wright (2009),^[1] who do not consider it to be a subgroup of Lolo-Burmese.

Peterson (2017:205)^[8] notes that Mru and Hkongso do not have any features characteristic of Kuki-Chin languages that have been identified by VanBik (2009),^[9] including lack of the sound change Proto-Tibeto-Burman *s > tʰ, lack of Kuki-Chin-type verb stem alternation, and lack of the singular first person pronoun (1.SG) *kaj which is present in most Kuki-Chin languages.

Peterson (2009)^[10] considers Mru-Hkongso to be a separate Tibeto-Burman branch, and notes the following similarities between Mru-Hkongso and Bodo–Garo languages.

Bodo–Garo *=kho 'accusative'; Mru =k(öj) 'accusative' (Hkongso locative =ko)
Bodo–Garo *=ba ‘also’; Mru-Hkongso =pö ‘also’
Bodo–Garo *–ram 'locative nominalizer'; Mru –ram 'locative nominalizer'
Bodo–Garo *=gVn 'future marker'; Mru –köm ~ kön 'irrealis marker' (Hkongso ham)
Bodo–Garo *–(k)ha 'past marker'; Mru –khaj ~ -hö 'past marker' (Hkongso kö ?)
Bodo–Garo *–dV 'imperative marker'; Mru –diö 'imperative marker' (Hkongso de)

Peterson (2009)^[10] considers the similarities with Bodo–Garo to be due to the possible early split of Mruic from a Tibeto-Burman branch that included Bodo–Garo (see also Central Tibeto-Burman languages and Sal languages).

Grammar

Both Mru and Hkongso display SVO (subject-verb-object) order instead of the SOV word order typical of most Tibeto-Burman languages.^[10]^[11]^[12] Bai, Sinitic, and Karenic are the only other Sino-Tibetan language branches with primarily verb-medial (SVO) word order.

References

^ ^a ^b Peterson, David A. and Jonathan Wright. 2009. Mru-Hkongso: a new Tibeto-Burman grouping. Paper presented at The 42nd International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics (ICSTLL 42), Chiang Mai.
^ DeLancey, Scott (2021). "Classifying Trans-Himalayan (Sino-Tibetan) languages". The Languages and Linguistics of Mainland Southeast Asia. De Gruyter. pp. 207–224. doi:10.1515/9783110558142-012. ISBN 978-3-11-055814-2.
^ Matisoff, James A. 2015. The Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus. Berkeley: University of California. (PDF)
^ Matisoff, James A. (2003). Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman: System and Philosophy of Sino-Tibetan Reconstruction. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-520-09843-5.
^ DeLancey, Scott (2015). "Morphological Evidence for a Central Branch of Trans-Himalayan (Sino-Tibetan)". Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale. 44 (2): 122–149. doi:10.1163/19606028-00442p02.
^ Löffler, Lorenz G. (1966). "The contribution of Mru to Sino-Tibetan linguistics". Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft. 116 (1): 118–159. JSTOR 43369896.
^ Bradley, David (1997). "Tibeto-Burman languages and classification" (PDF). Tibeto-Burman languages of the Himalayas, Papers in South East Asian linguistics. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 1–71.
^ Peterson, David. 2017. "On Kuki-Chin subgrouping." In Picus Sizhi Ding and Jamin Pelkey, eds. Sociohistorical linguistics in Southeast Asia: New horizons for Tibeto-Burman studies in honor of David Bradley, 189-209. Leiden: Brill.
^ VanBik, Kenneth. 2009. Proto-Kuki-Chin: A Reconstructed Ancestor of the Kuki-Chin Languages. STEDT Monograph 8. ISBN 0-944613-47-0.
^ ^a ^b ^c Peterson, David A. 2009. "Where does Mru fit into Tibeto-Burman?" Paper presented at The 42nd International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics (ICSTLL 42), November 2009, Payap University, Chiangmai, Thailand.
^ Ebersole, Harold. 1996. The Mru Language: A preliminary grammatical sketch. Ms.
^ Jonathan Michael Wright. 2009. Hkongso Grammar Sketch. MA thesis, Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics.