Ethnicity Tangkhul Naga Linguistic classification Sino-Tibetan
Tangkhul Glottolog tang1335 | Geographic
distribution East Asia Subdivisions Tangkhul
Maring | |
The Tangkhul, Tangkhulic, or Luhupa languages are a small family of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken mostly in northeastern Manipur, India. Conventionally classified as "Naga", they are not clearly related to other Naga languages, and are conservatively classified as an independent branch of Tibeto-Burman, pending further research.
There are perhaps four Tangkhul languages,
They are not particularly close. No linguistic data is available for Maring. Ethnologue lists Khoibu as a second Maring language. The recently discovered Sorbung language could be either a Kukish or Tangkhulic language. Mortenson and Keogh (2011) consider a Kukish affiliation to be more likely, although they recognize that are strong links with Southern Tangkhul.
The recently discovered and as-yet unclassified Koki Naga language is about as close to the Tangkhul languages as they are to each other.