Hakha-Chin language

Infobox Language
name=Hakha Chin
nativename=
familycolor=Sino-Tibetan
states=Burma/Myanmar, India, Bangladesh
region=
speakers=446,264
fam1=Sino-Tibetan
fam2=Tibeto-Burman
fam3=Kuki-Chin-Naga
fam4=Kuki-Chin
fam5=Central
nation=
agency=
iso1=
iso2b=cnh
iso2t=cnh
iso3=cnh

Hakha Chin is a language spoken in southern Asia by 446,264 people. [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=cnh Hakha-China] , Ethnologue, 1983, 1991, 1996, 2000, access date August 9, 2008] The total figure includes 2,000 Zokhua, and 60,100 Lai speakers. The speakers are largely concentrated in eastern India in addition to Myanmar/Burma with a small amount of speakers in Bangladesh in South Asia and northwestern Southeast Asian region.

Literacy and literature

The literacy rates are lower for the elder people and higher in the younger generations. The Hakha-China language uses the Roman Script unlike most languages of India and Bangladesh who use Devangari script or other southeast-asian alphabets. Between 1978 and 1999 the Bible was translated into the language.

Dialects

There are three dialects: Klangklang (or Thlantlang), Zokhua, and Shonshe.

Myanmar/Burma

The language is spoken by 100,000 in Burma also known as Myanmar in 1991 according to UBS. In Burma, the language is also known as Haka, Hakha, Baungshe, and Lai.

Bangladesh

In 2000 1,264 spoke it in Bangladesh according to WCD. The language is also known as simply: Haka, Baungshe, or Lai here. Bangladesh is where Shonshe is spoken and it may be a language in its own right.

India

There were 345,000 speakers in India according to UBS in 1996. It is also known as: Haka, Baungshe, Lai, Lai Pawi, Lai Hawlh. The majority of the youth is literate in India. It is taught in primary schools in this nation. In India it is spoken in the Mizoram District, Chhimtuipui District and Aizawl district in addition to Meghalaya at the southernmost tip of Assam area.

People

The Hakha-Chin people and the Hakha-Chin speaking people are largely of the Lai Pawi tribe of people. In the nation of India, they are a Scheduled Tribe, that is to say they have official government as a separate and distinct community, people, and culture. These people live in the forests and jungles of India. These remote areas are very hilly and mountainous. The livelihoods of most of them are based on swidden agriculture. The predominant religion in practice by Hakha-Chin speakers in Christianity and not Buddhism, Islam or Hinduism.

Bibliography

* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_work.asp?id=37940 Bedell, George. 1997. "Causatives and clause union in Lai (Chin)."]

References