noted that the
Bodo–Garo,
Konyak, and
Jingpho (Kachin) languages, as well as the extinct
Chairel language, shared distinctive roots for "sun" and "fire". proposed a grouping of the Bodo–Garo, Konyak (Northern Naga), and Jingpho languages, characterized by several shared
lexical innovations, including: • *sal "sun" • *war "fire" • *s-raŋ "sky" • *wa "father" • *nu "mother" Burling (1983) called the proposed group Sal, after the words
sal,
san and
jan for "sun" in various of these languages. argues that some of Burling's proposed innovations are either not attested across the Sal languages, or have cognates in other Sino-Tibetan languages. Nevertheless, Matisoff (2013) considers
Mru-Hkongso to be a separate Tibeto-Burman branch, but notes that Mru-Hkongso shares similarities with Bodo–Garo that could be due to the early split of Mruic from a Tibeto-Burman branch that included Bodo–Garo.
van Driem (2011) The
Brahmaputran branch of van Driem (2011) has three variants: •
Bodo–Garo and
Konyak. • Bodo–Garo, Konyak, and
Dhimalish. • Bodo–Garo, Konyak, Dhimalish, and
Kachin–Luic. However, Dhimalish is not accepted as a Sal language by
Glottolog. Sotrug (2015) and Gerber, et al. (2016) consider Dhimalish to be particularly closely related to the
Kiranti languages rather than to the Sal languages.
Matisoff (2012, 2013) James Matisoff (2012) makes the following observations about the Sal grouping. • Although
Bodo–Garo and Northeastern Naga (
Konyak) are indeed closely related, Jingpho and Northeastern Naga (Konyak) seem to be even more closely related to each other than Jingpho and Bodo-Garo are to each other. •
Luish is the Tibeto-Burman branch most closely related to Jingpho, for which further evidence is provided in Matisoff (2013). • Similarities between Jingpho and
Nungish are due to contact. Thus, Nungish is not particularly closely related to Jingpho, and is not a Sal language. On the other hand,
Lolo-Burmese appears to be more closely related to Nungish than to Jingpho. Matisoff (2012) notes that these Tibeto-Burman branches did not split off neatly in a tree-like fashion, but rather form a
linkage. Nevertheless, Matisoff (2013:30) ==References==