Zou language
Zou | |
---|---|
Zou | |
Native to | Manipur, India |
Region | Tonzang: Chin State, Chin Hills; In India: Mizoram and Manipur, Chandel, Singngat subdivision and Sungnu area; Churachandpur districts; Assam. |
Ethnicity | Zou Kuki |
Native speakers | 88,000 (2012)[1] |
Latin, Zoulai alphabet[3] | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | zom |
Glottolog | zouu1235 |
ELP | Zome |
Zo (also spelled Zou and also known as Zokam) is a Northern
.The name Zou is sometimes used as a cover term for the languages of all Mizo people (Zo people) i.e. Kukish and Chin peoples, especially the Zomi people.
The term 'Zo' has been employed in many books to denote the word 'Zo', for simple reason of phonetic usage.
The Zo themselves employ the various terms Zo, Zou, and Jo to mean their tribe.[1]
Phonology
The set of 23 Zou consonantal phonemes can be established on the basis of the following minimal pairs or overlapping words. Besides these 23 Phonemes, 1 consonant is a borrowed phoneme (i.e. /r/), which is found only in loan words, in very rare cases (e.g. /r/ in /rəŋ/ "color"). Along with these consonants, Zou has 7 vowels: i, e, a, ɔ, o, u, ə.[4]
Labial | Dental/ Alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | voiceless | p | t
|
c | k | ʔ |
aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | |||
voiced | b | d
|
ɟ | g | ||
Affricate | tʃ | |||||
Fricative | voiceless | v | s | h | ||
voiced | z | |||||
Nasal | m | n
|
ŋ | |||
Lateral | l
|
|||||
Semivowel | w | j |
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i | u | |
Close-mid | e | ə | o |
Open-mid | ɔ | ||
Open | a |
Orthography
Vowels
- a - [a]
- aw - [ɔ]
- e - [e/ə]
- i - [i~j]
- o - [o]
- u - [u~w][5]
Consonants
- b - [b]
- ch - [c]
- d - [d]
- g - [g]
- h - [h], [ʔ] at the end of a syllable
- j - [ɟ]
- k - [k]
- kh - [kʰ]
- l - [l]
- m - [m]
- n - [n]
- ng - [ŋ]
- p - [p]
- ph - [pʰ]
- r - [r]
- s - [s]
- t - [t]
- th - [tʰ]
- v - [ʋ]
- z - [z][6]
Types of Zo verbs
The Zo verbs can be classified into three types: Stem (1), Stem (2), Stem (3) as given below:[7]
Stem 1 | Stem 2 | Stem 3 | Stem 4 |
piê-give | pie? | pe- | pieh |
puo-carry | puo? | po- | pua- |
Sample text
The following is a sample text in Zou.
Zou | English |
---|---|
Maw na sung ma naw in, amaw sa pi ma in leimi in i piang a, a khawh ma ma - gam lua a i lua suhsuh ih mawnate ma ei bawl in eima pumpi ei man muda maithei, Ih mawnate -eeng taang gol lua a hi man in khat veivei eima mawnate eimon maisah zolo maithei va-ia kim lai, tuate lip khap sih saang a pamai eisa, ei khua tua ngeet-nguut ngeng ngong man a ih dial dual liang luang mawna nei van nuai ei mai sah thop valong, abieh huai tapo ma Jehova ki chi Pasian khat a na om ngang tangh hi. | As we are born in sin, we cannot even love ourselves and there is no knowledge about what is forgiveness, because of the enormous sins inherited in us. Even though we are in this situation, in spite of our enormous sins the one who has mercy, sympathises us and forgives us our sins is the God called Jehovah. |
There are four major dialects of Zou in Myanmar and India: Haidawi, Khuongnung, Thangkhal, and Khodai.
Numbers
Numeral | Zou | English | Hindi |
---|---|---|---|
0 | be̋m | zero | शून्य śūnya |
1 | khàt | one | एक ek |
2 | nì: | two | दो do |
3 | thum | three | तीन tīn |
4 | li: | four | चार cār |
5 | nga: | five | पाँच pā̃c |
6 | gùh | six | छह chah |
7 | sagí | seven | सात sāt |
8 | giét | eight | आठ āṭh |
9 | kuó | nine | नौ nau |
10 | sàwm, sôm | ten | दस das |
11 | sàwm leh khàt | eleven | ग्यारह gyārah |
12 | sàwm leh nì | twelve | बारह bārah |
13 | sàwm leh thum | thirteen | तेरह terah |
14 | sàwm leh li: | fourteen | चौदह caudah |
15 | sàwm leh nga: | fifteen | पंद्रह pandrah |
16 | sàwm leh gùh | sixteen | सोलह solah |
17 | sàwm leh sagí | seventeen | सत्रह satrah |
18 | sàwm leh giét | eighteen | अठारह aṭhārah |
19 | sàwm leh kuó | nineteen | उन्नीस unnīs |
20 | sàwmnì | twenty | बीस bīs |
30 | sàwmthum | thirty | तीस tīs |
40 | sàwmli: | forty | चालीस cālīs |
50 | sàwmnga: | fifty | पचास pacās |
60 | sàwmgùh | sixty | साठ sāṭh |
70 | sàwmsagí | seventy | सत्तर sattar |
80 | sàwmgiét | eighty | अस्सी assī |
90 | sàwmkuò | ninety | नव्वे navve |
100 | zȁ | hundred | सौ sau |
1,000 | sa̋ng, tȕl | one thousand | हज़ार hazār |
10,000 | si̋ng, tȕlsàwm, sa̋ngsàwm | ten thousand | दस हज़ार das hazār |
100,000 | nuòi, tȕlzà, sa̋ngzà | one hundred thousand, one lakh | लाख lākh |
1,000,000 | nuòisàwm, sa̋ngtȕl, tȕltȕl | one million | दस लाख das lākh |
10,000,000 | thȅn, vâibêlsié, kráwl | ten million, one crore | करोड़ karoṛ |
100,000,000 | thȅnzà, kráwl sàwm | one billion, ten crore | अरब arab |
Writing systems
Zou is often written in a Latin script developed by Christian missionary J.H. Cope. In 1952, M. Siahzathang of Churachandpur created an alternative script known as Zolai or Zoulai, an alphabetic system with some alphasyllabic characteristics. The user community for the script is growing- Zou cultural, political, and literary organizations began to adopt the script beginning in the 1970s, and more recently, the Manipur State Government has shown support for both Siahzathang and the script.[9][10]
Linguistic relations
As can be seen from the name Zo ("of the hills") and
Zou as spoken in India is similar to the Paite language of the Paite, though Zou lacks the word-final glottal stops present in Paite.[11][12]
Geographical extent
At its largest extent, the geographic area covered by the language group is a territory of approximately 60,000 square miles (160,000 km2) in size, in
In Burma
It is used in
- Chin State: Tonzang, Hakha, and Tedim townships
- Tamutownships
In India
- Manipur
- Chandel district: Singngat subdivision and the Sungnu Sachih / Kana area
- Churachandpur district
- Mizoram
- Assam[16]
In Bangladesh
In Bangladesh it is used by the
References
- ^ a b Zou at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ ISBN 978-8180697609.
- ^ "Zoulai". Omniglot.com. Archived from the original on 2021-12-28. Retrieved 2021-12-28.
- ^ Singh, Yashawanta; Himmat, Lukram (February 2013). "Zou Phonology" (PDF). Language in India. 13 (2): 683–701. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-11-23. Retrieved 2019-02-19.
- ^ "Zou language, script, and pronunciation". Omniglot. Archived from the original on 2019-07-06. Retrieved 2019-07-06.
- ^ "Zou language, script, and pronunciation". Omniglot. Archived from the original on 2019-07-06. Retrieved 2019-07-06.
- ^ Philip Thanglienmang Tungdim (2012). "A Descriptive Grammar of the Zo Language". Academia. Archived from the original on 25 March 2019. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
- ISBN 978-81-920282-0-0. Archivedfrom the original on 21 June 2023. Retrieved 20 August 2019.
- ^ Pandey, Anshuman (29 September 2010). "Introducing the Zou Script" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 July 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
- ^ Ian James; Mattias Persson (March 2012). "Script for Zou". skyknowledge.com. Archived from the original on 14 August 2018. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
- ISBN 978-81-7099-790-0. Retrieved 22 November 2010.
- ISBN 978-81-7154-769-2.
- ^ Encyclopaedia of South-Asian tribes - Volume 8 - Page 3436 Satinder Kumar - 2000 "According to the 1981 census, 12,515 persons speak the Zou language"
- OCLC 34850808.
But against the background of all such conflict the Zomi National Congress went a step further in its argument for a Zomi identity by claiming Thado language as Zomi language. In the Kuki-Chin group of tribes, numerical strength has played ...
- OCLC 645086982.
The Zomi language is descended from the Tibeto-Burman language domain. Though each tribal group speaks its own dialect, Burmese is widely used in Zoland (Chinland) due to Burmanization of military regime for over five decades
- ^ Shyamkishor, Ayangbam. "In Search of Common Identity: A Study of Chin-Kuki-Mizo Community in India" (PDF). International Journal of South Asian Studies: A Biannual Journal of South Asian Studies. 3 (1): 131–140. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-21. Retrieved 2014-02-03.
- ISBN 978-81-8370-346-8.
- ISBN 978-3-261-04935-3.
Further reading
- DeLancey, Scott (1987). "Part VIII: Sino-Tibetan languages". In Comrie, Bernard (ed.). The World's Major Languages. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 797–810. ISBN 978-0-19-520521-3.
- Thang, Khoi Lam (2001). A phonological reconstruction of Proto-Chin (PDF) (MA thesis). Chiang Mai: Payap University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-09-02.
- Button, Christopher Thomas James (2009). A Reconstruction of Proto Northern Chin in Old Burmese and Old Chinese Perspective (PDF) (Ph.D. dissertation). London: University of London. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-05-30.
- Button, Christopher Thomas James (2011). Proto Northern Chin. STEDT monograph. Vol. 10. Berkeley: University of California, Berkeley. ISBN 978-0-944613-49-8.