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Prenasalised Consonants in Liangmai
Charengna Widinibou
Don Bosco College Autonomous Maram, India
DOI: https://doi.org/10.51584/IJRIAS.2025.100900012
Received: 10 Sep 2025; Accepted: 16 Sep 2025; Published: 10 October 2025
ABSTRACT
This paper discusses the prenasalized consonants found in Liangmai (ISO 639-3), a Tibeto-Burman language
with 49,800 speakers located in Manipur and Nagaland in Northeast India. The occurrence of prenasalized
consonants is prevalent in Liangmai, appearing with every consonantal phoneme within the language. This
study provides an acoustic analysis of the phonetic realization of two consonants in Liangmai, which are
orthographically represented as nthiu ‘boil’, nkan ‘jungle’, and nphia ‘broom’, among others. These
consonants are always articulatorily homorganic with the oral period and are often notably brief, creating the
impression of a single segment.
The paper aims to revisit the topic of prenasals, which has sparked controversy due to the presence of two
opposing perspectives. One perspective posits that prenasals constitute a single phoneme, while the other
argues that they function as a single syllable. It is important to note that the Handbook of the International
Phonetic Association does not mention any prenasalized consonants.
Keywords: Word Initial Prenasalized, Liangmai
INTRODUCTION
Liangmai (ISO 639-3 njn), belongs to the Tibeto-Burman language family under the Western-Naga group
1
(Post & Burling, 2017). It is mainly spoken in Manipur and Nagaland. In Manipur, Liangmais are mainly
found in Tamenglong, Kangpokpi, Senapati and Imphal west districts. In Nagaland, they are mainly settled in
Tening Subdivision including Jalukie of Peren district with a substantial number also living in the commercial
capital Dimapur, as well as the political capital Kohima. According to the 2011 Ethnologue, there are
approximately 49,800 Liangmai speakers in India (including Manipur and Nagaland. The government of
Nagaland documents, Liangmai and Zeme are collectively referred as Zeliang whereas in Manipur, these tribes
are recognised separately as Zeme and Liangmai
2
. And it must be mentioned that the Constitution order
Amendment Act, 2011 of the Parliament of India officially recognized Liangmai as a separate tribe.
In this paper, I present argue that prenasal in Liangmai is actually single unit, though there are others which are
not. There seems to be a clear distinction between prenasalized stops and nasal + stop sequences. This could be
what has caused much controversy; the failure to clearly distinguish between the two types of prenasals. I then
make recommendations on their adoption as unitary sounds by the International Phonetic Association and how
they should be included in the IPA chart. It is surprising that the Handbook of the International Phonetic
Association does not mention them at all; it suggests symbols for incorporation into the IPA.
There are two views regarding prenasalization: one view is that the prenasals form a single phoneme like mb,
mp, and the second view is that they function as a single syllable. In this paper, I present a meticulous account
of prenasalization and their functions in Liangmai spoken in Manipur.
1
Word initial prenalization is a common feature of Zeme Naga group namely- Zeme, Liangmai, Rongmei, Inpui, Marama Tibeto-
Burman languages spoken in Senapati, Noney and Tamenglong district of Manipur.
3
Liangmai is made up of two words LIANG and MAI. The word LIANG means "Support" or "grouped as one". MAI means people.
Thus, "Liangmai" mean the people who have grouped themselves in support of each other to live together as one community or tribe.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN APPLIED SCIENCE (IJRIAS)
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The paper presents an acoustic study of the phonetic realization of two consonants in Liangmai a Tibeto-
Burman, orthographically represented as mb and np. Liangmai is unique in that the prenasalized [m,n] can
occur before any consonants except approximant. The study of Liangmai prenasalized is based on a list of 300
words taken from both the Northern and Eastern dialects, in which there are 130 occurrences of the
prenasalized in the words initially and medially. This paper seeks to describe more precisely the phonetic
correlates of [
n
b] and [
n
p]. For the sake of simplicity, I will refer to these two phonemes as mb and np,
following orthographic convention. An acoustic analysis of prenasalized [m, n & ŋ] in the following
illustration below:
METHODOLOGY
Liangmai is one of the understudied Naga languages. At present, a few scholars from Manipur are working on
this language. Rev. William Pettigrew is the first man to introduce Christianity and spread the gospel among
the Liangmai people way back in 1919 A.D. Subsequently, the Christian missionaries took initiative to
translate the religious Hymns in Liangmai. Of late, modern gospels and rock songs are digitized and the audio-
visual are available in Manipur and Nagaland. Most recently “A Learner’s Book of Liangmai” (Widinibou,
2017) was published from Tezpur University, Tezpur, Assam, India and a large number of copies have been
distributed among the Liangmai community members of Nagaland. Thus, the present paper is a first step
towards more in-depth research into Liangmai, beginning with a prenasalized analysis of the language.
Fieldwork was carried out on three successive trips in six villages located in the Northern part of Tamei,
Tamenglong district, Manipur. During these trips we collected 300-word lists from Liangmai speakers. Our
field notes showed inconsistency in the articulation of where m, n and ŋ occur in the initial and medial
positions as they were articulated as prenasalized. I was not able to get exactly the same set of words from
each Village because there were dialectal differences. Liangmai-speaking adults between 19 and 65 years
participated in the study. There were 10 speakers from each village of which 5 male and 5 female. The data
shows that older generation used more nasal sound than the younger generation. For recording, the researcher
used recorder: A high-quality portable audio recorder Olympus Multi Track PCM LS-100 handy audio
recorder and Samsung Galaxy J7 smartphone were used for recording the data.
I selected six villages for this research study. They are listed in Table 1, along with a short description of each.
Table 1: Survey was conducted in 6 villages
Village
Area
Tamei
North-central (The political and commercial centre of Liangmai)
Ileng
Eastern-central
Chaton
Northern
Kadi
Eastern
Kuilong
Northern
Takou
Northern
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The study shows older generation used more prenasalised than young people
The data was collected from only six villages even though there are more than 60 villages where people speak
the Liangmai language. However, difficulty of travel in the Liangmai area is one of the reasons why the
researcher chose only these places to get the data. There is no public or local transportation to travel from
village to village. It is possible to travel by Jeep and Sumo Tata to some places in summer season but most of
the time people have to travel on foot.
Genetic Classification
A number of genetic classifications of Tibeto-Burman languages have been proposed since the study of this
language family began in the nineteenth century. Grierson (1903) made the first attempt to classify the Naga
languages. He placed Liangmai under the Kuki Naga group in relation to the Tibeto-Burman family. In Shafer
(1955, 1974), Benedict (1972) and Bradley (1997) Grierson’s classifications are accepted. However, with the
partial exception of Marrison’s (1967) typologically-oriented classification (which also incorporated lexical
correspondences), genetic sub-groupings of the languages of Northeast India remain based on lexical
comparisons and geographic proximity. Marrison (1967), in his comprehensive survey of the languages of
Northeast India, puts Liangmai under the Konyak group along with Tangsa, Konyak, Phom, Chang, Tangkhul,
Khoirao, Zeme, Puiron, and Nruanghei.
3
Burling (2017), on the other hand, proposes a new genetic classification of the Tibeto-Burman languages of
North-East India. He placed Liangmai under the Western Naga group. He pointed out, Zeme, Mzieme, and
Liangmai are particularly close and Nruanghmei (Rongmei, Kabui), Inpui, Khoirao, Thangal and Maram are a
bit more divergent (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Post & Burling (2017), Genetic Classification of Naga languages
Prenasalization
This paper pursues further the issue of the status of the prenasals in Liangmai language. The term ‘prenasals’ is
used in this paper to refer to a consonant cluster which consists of a sequence that begins with a nasal
articulation and ends with an oral articulation or even in a nasal articulation in some cases. This definition will
be given a more specific target later on in the paper. For a number of years now a debate has been raging as to
whether the prenasals are phonemic or not. Evidence has been adduced by Liangmais to either support the
phonemic status or to disclaim it. For example, it has traditionally been assumed that the prenasalized
consonants which are not morphologically complex are unitary segments because (1) the two components are
homorganic (2) they evidence surface length as ‘simple’ consonants, and (3) they function within a single
syllable. Equally strong views have been expressed to show that prenasals are single unit sounds. Liangmai
3
Marrison (1976)’s classification is based on a comparison between: i) initial consonants; ii) final consonants; iii) noun prefixes; iv)
agentive noun suffixes; v) classificatory verbal prefixes; vi) 5 lexical items (i.e.fire, fish, house, road, stone) and the position of the
negative particles in the syntax; and vii) usage of interrogative particles.
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language has units consisting of a nasal followed by a homorganic oral consonant in word-initial positions
(i.e., either mpi or nniu).
Zeme, Rongmei and Liangmai languages have close similarities in case of phonology, morphology and
syntactical levels. Linguistically very little work has been done on these languages. The prenasalized onset is
very common in these sister languages which occur in every consonantal phoneme. These prenasalized
consonants are analyzed as unitary segments that can occur word-initially and intervocalically. This is
illustrated in (1-a-c) the nasal+ plosives.
1. (a). [mb, nd, ng]
(b). [mp, nt, nk]
(c). [mp
h
, nt
h
, nk
h
]
Prenasalized consonants are widely used in the Zeme-Naga languages of the Tibeto-Burman family, such
as Zeme, Liangmai and Rongmei. The following table (2 a-h) illustrates the nasal+ plosives cluster
prenasalized consonants. The symbols in §1 have been used in literature to represent the sounds described but
have not been officially recognized by the IPA.
Table 2 Prenasalized Plosives in Liangmai
IPA
Meaning
Liangmai
IPA
Meaning
2(a)
[
n
bu]
‘short’
2(b)
ndiu
[
n
diu]
‘swamp’
2(c)
[
m
pa]
4
‘cottage’
2(d)
nga
[
n
ga]
‘steal’
2(e)
[
n
tuaŋ]
‘shoulder’
2(f)
nki
[
n
ki]
‘roam’
2(g)
[
n
k
h
am]
‘door’
2(h)
nthiu
[
n
t
h
iu]
‘boil’
In the following figure 1, there was a burst but periodicity did not begin for a time after the burst. This interval
was 20-30 ms long and looked like it could be a partially articulated tap (also generally 20-30 ms long). An
example of this is in Figure 1 below. There is an obvious burst of the stop, followed by 27 ms of irregular
noise, and then periodicity of the following vowel.
Figure 1. A section of mpa 'cottage', showing labial voiced release
Prenasalized has a shorter nasal segment and a longer preceding vowel
The bilabial consonant mb in initial position is always realized as a plain stop. Initial nd is also usually
realized as a plain stop in Liangmai. In medial position there is fairly even distribution of the various
4
A prenasalized consonant [ᵐb] in Liangmai has a shorter nasal segment and a longer preceding vowel
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realizations. In terms of dialectal variation, there are a few tendencies. There are no medial trilled releases in
Liangmai several in each of the other locations. All locations have a few instances of medial fricative release
and all but have several medial plain stops. With the available data it is not possible to distinguish between
dialectal variation and individual speaker variation, since we only have data from one speaker in each location.
The tendencies could possibly correlate with either one.
Figure 2 Spectrograms and acoustic waveforms of /ndiu/ ‘swamp’ recorded in isolation, showing the
prenasalized [nd]. Prenasalized [n] and alveolar unaspirated voiced stop [d] release as initial prenasalized
consonants in Liangmai
Prenasalized has a shorter nasal segment and a longer preceding vowel
Prenasalized stops (NCs): complex segments composed of a nasal closure followed by a homorganic oral
release (Anderson 1976, Herbert 1986).
Table 3 Prenasalized (NC) inventory in Liangmai
Bilabial
Alveolar
Velar
Voiceless
p p
h
t t
h
k k
h
Voiced
b
d
g
Prenasalized
[
m
p,
m
p
h
m
b]
[
n
p,
n
p
h
n
b]
[
m
t,
n
t
h
,
n
d,
n
d]
[
n
k,
n
k
h
,
n
g]
Nasal
m
n
ŋ
Prenasalized
[mm]
[nn]
[ŋŋ]
Figure 3 presence of NC’s short oral closure and release burst (here, Δ burst).L
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L: /mbe/
Present: anywhere where NCs are released.
m-ba
n-da
R:/pambo/
Absent: anywhere where NCs are not released.
pan-penbo
Figure 4 minimally, difference in nasal vs oral CV transitions, where Ns are followed by nasal transitions and
NCs are followed by oral transitions (Δ CV transitions).
[mbe] NC release initial prenasalized but not [pambo] in the right side
Table 4 Results for initial prenasalized
Bilabial
Alveolar
Velar
p[np&mp]✓ ph[np
h
&mp
h
]✓
b[nb&mb]✓, [nm&mm] ✓
w[w]*
t[nt]✓ th[nt
h
]✓d[nd]✓
n[nn]✓ts[nts]✓s[ns]✓
z[nz]✓ l[nl]✓r[nr]✓
k[nk]✓ k
h
[nk
h
]
g[ng]✓ ŋ[ŋŋ]✓
Table 5 Results for intervocalic prenasalized
Bilabial
Alveolar
Velar
p[np&mp]* ph[np
h
&mp
h
]✓
b[mb]✓, [nm&mm]*
w[w]*
t[nt]✓ th[nt
h
]✓d[nd]✓
n[nn]* ts[nts]* s[ns]*
z[nz]✓ l[nl]✓r[nr]*
k[nk]* k
h
[nk
h
]✓
g[ng]* ŋ[ŋŋ]*
Liangmai has a full series of initial prenasalized with affricate and fricatives at every place of articulation. The
example are illustrated in (3-a-f) below
Table 6 Prenasalized with affricate and fricative
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IPA
Gloss
3(a)
[
n
tsou]
‘elbow’
3(b)
[ntsi]
‘sister’
3(c)
[
n
zan]
‘divide’
3(d)
[
n
zabo]
‘things mix with hand’
3(e)
[
n
san]
‘forehead’
3(f)
[
n
siŋ]
‘kind of rack to dry things above the kitchen’
Figure 5 presents an example of an initial nts realized as a prenasalized
We look at each of the acoustic realization of nts, nz, ns it turns as prenasalized alveolar affricate and fricative
release. The nts, nz, ns are realized as prenasalized based on the data.
Word with prenasalized and nasals of two consonants in Liangmai
Table 7 Prenasalized with nasal
Liangmai
IPA
Gloss
4(a)
mmang
m
maŋ
‘hearth’
4(b)
nniubo
n
niubo
‘taboo’
4(c)
ngngang
ŋ
ŋaŋ
‘look up’
4(d)
ngngen
ŋ
ŋen
‘yawning’
4(e)
ngngan
ŋ
ŋan
‘snoring’
Figure 6 Spectrograms and acoustic waveforms of /mmang/ ‘hearth’ and /nniubo/ were recorded in isolation,
showing the positive prenasalized for [mm [and [nn] respectively.
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Word with prenasalized lateral and flap of two consonants cluster initially in Liangmai
Table 8 prenasalized with lateral and flap
IPA
Gloss
5(a)
[
n
la]
‘navel’
5(b)
[
n
li]
‘tongue’
5(c)
[
n
rou]
‘comb’
5(d)
[
n
raŋ]
‘high pitch sound’
Figure 7 Spectrograms and acoustic waveforms of /nla/ ‘navel’ and /nli/ ‘tongue’ were recorded in isolation,
showing prenasalized of [nl]
Syllabicity and Timing
The fact that the units making up the prenasals usually find themselves in one syllable has been taken as proof
that the consecutive consonants in a prenasal form a unit segment or one sound. Here are examples of
syllabification of words in Liangmai.
Table 9 Words with intervocalic prenasalized
Liangmai
IPA
Gloss
6(a)
ka.nkhinbo
ka
n
k
h
inbo
‘move backward’
6(b)
ka.nbumbo
ka
n
bumbo
‘to lay egg’
6(c)
a.mpui
a
m
pui
‘stomach’
Fig 8 Spectrograms and acoustic waveforms of /ka.nkhinbo/ ‘move backward’ and /ka.nbumbo/ ‘to lay egg’
were recorded in isolation, showing an intervocalic prenasalized
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Prenasalized consonants occur in intervocalic positions stems, and thus seems to be part of medial prenasalized
consonants in the language.
The internal structure of the syllable generally follows the sonority hierarchy. In the normal syllable the centre
of the syllable is the most prominent and the margins least prominent
Looking at any of the prenasals, one notices that the sonority hierarchy theory of syllable structure predicts that
a syllable-initial prenasalized stop is unexpected (Ewen 1982). In a syllable like /mb/ the sonority of the initial
nasal is greater than that of the following stop. This fact, that order of components in a prenasalized consonant
is contrary to the sonority hierarchy, is an important piece of evidence traditionally cited as pointing to the
unitary status of prenasalized. There would therefore be no syllable which begins with a prenasalized stop as
this violates the general principles of syllable structure. Furthermore, the canonical Liangmai syllable is of a
CV form and therefore the prenasalized consonants are analysed as simple consonant units.
Evidence for Cluster Analysis
Though in the previous section we argued that the prenasal is a single unit, there is evidence to the contrary.
We now go through that evidence with the assistance of examples.
Syllables and Timing
Phonetically, a syllable is a unit of timing in a language. While in the previous section, examples of words in
which the prenasals occupied a syllable were shown, the contrary happens here.
Table 10 word initial nasal can be syllabic.
Liangmai
IPA
Meaning
Liangmai
IPA
Meaning
7(a).
nbibo
[
n
bibo]
‘fart’
7(b).
ndah
[
n
dah]
‘olden day’
7(c).
mpe
[
m
pe]
‘moss’
7(d).
nga
[
n
ga]
‘your chest’
7(e).
ntu
[
n
tu]
‘name of village’
7(f).
nkan
[
n
kan]
‘jungle’
7(g).
nkha
[
n
k
h
a]
‘basket’
7(h).
nthibo
[
n
t
h
ibo]
‘wrestling’
Figure 9 Spectrograms and acoustic waveforms of /nbibo/ ‘fart’ recorded in isolation, showing the initial
prenasalized
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Meinhf’s law
Some evidence in support of the cluster analysis comes from a phonological rule in Luganda called Meinhof’s
Law. In Liangmai language, there is evidence of this law that /ng/ match the prenasalized to /ng/, which is
phonetically [ŋg], /m/ match the prenasalized /m/ and /n/ match the prenasalized /n/ which is phonetically [
n
n],
along with the fact that this series is restricted to voiced prenasalized consonants, makes their interpretation as
a series of unit phonemes attractive. The symbols in §8 have been used in literature to represent the sounds
described but have not been officially recognized by the IPA.
Table 11 prenasalized with nasals
Liangmai
IPA
Gloss
8(a)
mmang
m
maŋ
‘hearth’
8(b)
nniubo
n
niubo
‘taboo’
8(c)
ngngang
ŋ
ŋaŋ
‘look up’
8(d)
ngngen
ŋ
ŋen
‘yawning’
8(e)
ngngan
ŋ
ŋan
‘snoring’
Although the affected segments (highlighted above) might be termed as prenasalized consonants, the output of
the rule is clearly a long (geminate) nasal consonant or nasal plus obstruent which are derived. Thus, we are
dealing with two distinct segments.
Spectrograms and acoustic waveforms of /ngngen/ ‘yawning’ and /ngngang/ ‘look up’ were recorded in
isolation, showing prenasalized of [ng]
In this language, word initial nasal sound /ng+ng/ forms a cluster, which is phonetically [ŋŋ] along with the
fact that this series is restricted to voiced prenasalized consonants, makes their interpretation as a series of unit
syllable.
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Affricates and fricative
One type of evidence that has been given with respect to the ‘one or two segment’ issue has revolved around
the status of the affricates (Ewen 1982); which at least phonetically appear to involve two distinct phases – a
closure and some kind of friction phase. Phonetically, all the examples of sound sequences given above are
comparable to the combination of sounds found in affricates or dental affricative [ts] and fricatives [s, z].
Many languages have prenasalized consonants which show sequential organization of features at the
subsegmental level. Affricates show the simultaneous association of a single C slot with two segmental
distinctive feature matrices. Affricates like [ts] are described using the feature [+ delayed release] in SPE
(Herbert 1975). They can be represented this way:
A similar argument can be used for the prenasals to show that they are just one sound
Prenasalized consonants phonetically involve a change from velic opening to velic closure in the course of the
production of the two sounds in what appears to be normal segment length.
Suggestions:
1. The issue arises regarding whether initial prenasalized sounds should be considered as distinct features
when discussing the Tibeto-Burman languages within the Southeast Asian linguistic context.
2. Liangmai ought to integrate this prenasalized element into its writing system to enhance the
distinctiveness of the language.
3. The languages of Zeme, Liangmai, and Rongmei are notably different among the Naga, possessing the
nasalization features n- and m; however, it seems that this sound is gradually fading over time.
4. The language lacks a structured grammar and rules; therefore, the addition or omission of these nasal
sounds does not result in a significant impact, as there is no prescriptive grammar in place.
5. The Liangmai should regard this prenasalization as an important linguistic feature, and it should be
incorporated into the orthography to enrich the language.
CONCLUSION
Currently, the evidence provided in this paper presents a dual perspective: prenasals are either single unit
sounds or composed of distinct sounds. To substantiate the claim that the prenasals in Liangmai are single
segments, I have utilized the following evidence: (a) they exhibit similarities to affricates in their internal
structure, (b) they are homorganic, and (c) they operate within a single syllable. Conversely, the evidence
supporting the notion that prenasals consist of separate sounds includes: (a) their occurrence in different
syllables and (b) Meinhof’s Law.Word initial prenasalizations are widely used in Liangmai language.
1. Further acoustic study will be helpful for a better understanding of the nature of prenasalization in the
language and need to be addressed in future research.
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2. As an extension from this study, it will also be valuable to do a revision of the existing orthography.
3. Studies in prenasalization in other dialects of Liangmai, like Liangmai in Nagaland, and also Zeme and
Rongmei can be taken up for further studies.
REFERENCES
1. Ali, L. H. (1982), "Some observations on the nasal-fricative sequences in English," J. of
Phonetics, Vol. 10, 315-323.
2. Anderson, Stephen. (1976). Nasal Consonants and the Internal Structure of Segments. In Language 52.
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