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The genetic relationships among the Tibeto-Burman languages of eastern India and western Burma have always been problematic. While several linguists, including myself, have made stabs at sorting the problem out at higher levels, we can expect that serious progress will start with establishing lower-level groupings, on the order of Burling's (1983) hypothesis of a special relationship among Bodo-Garo, the Konyak Naga languages, and Jinghpaw. This paper discusses data which offer significant support to Burling's "Sal" hypothesis - I will present here what I think is strong comparative evidence for a quite close relationship between Jinghpaw and Nocte, which nails down one side of the triangular Sal grouping. |
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