Changki Ao language

Changki Ao is one of the dialects of the Ao language. It is the smallest of the three Ao languages, the other two being Chungli Ao, the prestige dialect, and Mongsen Ao.^[1] Changki has historically been considered a subgroup of Mongsen, but there are notable differences between the two; intelligibility between Changki and Mongsen may only be a recent phenomenon.^[2]

Changki Ao
Native to	India
Region	Nagaland
Ethnicity	Ao Naga
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Ao languages Ao language Changki Ao
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Glottolog	chan1311

Phonology

The following phonology is derived from Temsunungsang & Changkija (2025).^[2]

Vowels

Changki Ao has 4 vowels:

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid		ə
Open		a

[e] is an allophone of /i/ and /a/, and [o] is an allophone of /u/.

Consonants

Changki Ao has 21 consonants:

	Bilabial	Dental	Postalveolar	Palatal/Palato-alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n			ŋ
Plosive	pʰ   p	tʰ   t			kʰ   k	ʔ
Affricate		t͡sʰ   t͡s		t͡ʃʰ   t͡ʃ
Fricative		s   z				h
Approximant			ɹ̥   ɹ	j
Lateral			l