Lyngngam is an Austroasiatic language of Northeast India closely related to Khasi language. Once listed as a dialect of Khasi, Lyngngam has in recent literature been classified as a distinct language. Lyngngam speakers have food and dress similar to the neighboring Garo people.
Phonology
Consonant inventory
The following table lists the consonants attested in Lyngngam. { | class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" |- ! colspan = "2" | ! Bilabial ! Alveolar ! Palatal ! Velar ! Glottal |- ! colspan = "2" | Nasal | | | | | |- ! rowspan = "3" | Stop ! voiceless | | | | | |- ! aspirated | | | | | |- ! voiced | | | | | |- ! colspan = "2" | Voiceless fricative | | | | | |- ! colspan = "2" | Liquid | | | | | |- ! colspan = "2" | Glide | | | | | |} The main difference with the Khasi language is that Lyngngam does not possess the voiced aspirated series. Furthermore, Lyngngam does not have the phoneme . Words which have in Khasi typically have or in Lyngngam, as in the following pairs of cognates: { | class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" |- ! Lyngngam ! Khasi ! meaning |- | | | bone |- | | | 10 |- | | | hair |- | | | chisel |}
Vowel inventory
The following table lists the vowel inventory of the language. The only vowels showing a length distinction are and , in contradistinction to Khasi, where length is distinctive for all vowels. { | class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" |- ! ! Frontunrounded ! Centralunrounded ! Backrounded |- ! High | | | |- ! Mid | | | |- ! Low | colspan="3" | |}
Words with diphthongs in Khasi have monophthongs in Lyngngam, as in the following pairs of cognates: { | class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" |- ! Lyngngam ! Khasi ! meaning |- | | | month |- | | | dog |- | | | night |}