Anal or Anāl, also known as Pakan Naga after the two principal villages where it is spoken in, is a Southern Naga language, part of the Sino-Tibetan language family, spoken by the Anal people in India and a dwindling number in Myanmar. It had 83,000 speakers in India according to the 2001 census, and 55,000 in Myanmar in 2010. It has two principal clans, Murchal and Moshum, and is closest to Lamkang. The language of wider communication is Meitei language. Anal is written in the Latin script, with a literacy rate of about 87%.
Geographical distribution
Anal is spoken in Chandel district, southeastern Manipur, on the banks of the Chakpi River in Chandel, Chakpikarong, and Tangnoupal subdivisions (Ethnologue).
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | ||
| aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | |||
| voiced | b | d | ||||
| Affricate | voiceless | tʃ | ||||
| voiced | dʒ | |||||
| Fricative | s | h | ||||
| Nasal | voiceless | m̥ | n̥ | ŋ̊ | ||
| voiced | m | n | ŋ | |||
| Rhotic | voiceless | r̥ | ||||
| voiced | r | |||||
| Lateral | voiceless | l̥ | ||||
| voiced | l | |||||
| Approximant | ʋ | |||||
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | e | ə | o |
| Open | a |
Vocabulary
The following vocabulary exemplifies words in the language.
| 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’ |