Takhva Language

Takhva (/ˈtax.va/) is a minor Oayi language of the Takhva-Muhyar branch, representing the lower-upland sister to Muhyar and one of the clearest comparative bridges to Tsang’hi. It preserves much of the older Oayi root shape, with a mostly (C)V(C) to (C)(C)V(C) syllable rhythm, predictable penultimate stress, and a compact vowel system /i e ɨ ɞ a o u/. Its consonant inventory includes /q qʼ x χ ħ β ŋ/, retaining old pressure consonants and weakened traces of the Oayi nasal-release system, though without Muhyar’s full creaky-vowel development. Takhva keeps a reduced F/C/R register contrast, mostly fossilized in lexical and discourse functions. Morphosyntactically, it is lightly agglutinative and predominantly suffixing, with head-final tendencies, postpositions, compact compounds, and a conservative upland lexicon useful for reconstructing both Muhyar and Tsang’hi.