| Zou | |
|---|---|
| Zo | |
 'Zo Lai' in Zolai alphabet | |
| Native to | Manipur, India |
| Region | Tonzang:Chin State,Chin Hills; In India:Mizoram andManipur,Chandel,Singngat subdivision and Sungnu area;Churachandpur districts;Assam. |
| Ethnicity | Zou |
Native speakers | 88,000 (2012)[1] |
| Latin,Zoulai alphabet[3] | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | zom |
| Glottolog | zouu1235 |
| ELP | Zome |
Zou (also spelledZo and also known asZokam) is a language of theNortheastern branch ofKuki-Chin languages[2] originating in westernBurma and spoken also inMizoram andManipur in northeasternIndia.
The name Zou is sometimes used as a cover term for the languages of allMizo people (Zo people) i.e.,Kukish andChin peoples, especially theZomi 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]
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 | |||||
| Trill | (r) | |||||
| Semivowel | w | j | ||||
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Close-mid | e | ə | o |
| Open-mid | ɔ | ||
| Open | a |
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- |
Zomi numbers are counted as follows:[8]
| Numeral | Zou | English | Hindi |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | be̋m | zero | शून्यśūnya |
| 1 | khàt | one | एकek |
| 2 | nì: | two | दोdo |
| 3 | thum | three | तीनtīn |
| 4 | li: | four | चारcār |
| 5 | nga: | five | पाँचpā̃c |
| 6 | gùh | six | छहchah |
| 7 | sagí | seven | सातsāt |
| 8 | giét | eight | आठāṭh |
| 9 | kuó | nine | नौnau |
| 10 | sàwm,sôm | ten | दसdas |
| 11 | sàwm leh khàt | eleven | ग्यारहgyārah |
| 12 | sàwm leh nì | twelve | बारहbārah |
| 13 | sàwm leh thum | thirteen | तेरहterah |
| 14 | sàwm leh li: | fourteen | चौदहcaudah |
| 15 | sàwm leh nga: | fifteen | पंद्रहpandrah |
| 16 | sàwm leh gùh | sixteen | सोलहsolah |
| 17 | sàwm leh sagí | seventeen | सत्रहsatrah |
| 18 | sàwm leh giét | eighteen | अठारहaṭhārah |
| 19 | sàwm leh kuó | nineteen | उन्नीसunnīs |
| 20 | sàwmnì | twenty | बीसbīs |
| 30 | sàwmthum | thirty | तीसtīs |
| 40 | sàwmli: | forty | चालीसcālīs |
| 50 | sàwmnga: | fifty | पचासpacās |
| 60 | sàwmgùh | sixty | साठsāṭh |
| 70 | sàwmsagí | seventy | सत्तरsattar |
| 80 | sàwmgiét | eighty | अस्सीassī |
| 90 | sàwmkuò | ninety | नव्वेnavve |
| 100 | zȁ | hundred | सौsau |
| 1,000 | sa̋ng,tȕl | one thousand | हज़ारhazār |
| 10,000 | si̋ng,tȕlsàwm,sa̋ngsàwm | ten thousand | दस हज़ारdas hazār |
| 100,000 | nuòi,tȕlzà,sa̋ngzà | one hundred thousand, one lakh | लाखlākh |
| 1,000,000 | nuòisàwm,sa̋ngtȕl,tȕltȕl | one million | दस लाखdas lākh |
| 10,000,000 | thȅn,vâibêlsié,kráwl | ten million, one crore | करोड़karoṛ |
| 100,000,000 | thȅnzà,kráwl sàwm | one billion, ten crore | अरबarab |
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, analphabetic system with somealphasyllabic 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, theManipur State Government has shown support for both Siahzathang and the script.[9][10]
Zou among theNortheastern Kuki-Chin languages is closely related to the Central languages such as theDuhlian (Lusei/Lushai) orMizo language (endonym inDuhlian orLushai isMizo ṭawng), thelingua franca language ofMizoram.[citation needed]
Zou as spoken in India is similar to thePaite language of thePaite, though Zou lacks the word-final glottal stops present in Paite.[11][12]
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, inBurma,India andBangladesh.[13] However political boundaries and political debates have distorted the extent of the area in some sources.[14]
It is used inChin State,Tiddim, and theChin Hills. Use of Burmese has increased in the Zo speaking Chin State since the 1950s.[15]Ethnologue reports that Zou is spoken in the following townships of Myanmar.
In Bangladesh it is used by theBawm people.[17][18]
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 ...
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
Sino-Tibetan branches | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WesternHimalayas (Himachal, Uttarakhand,Nepal,Sikkim) |
|  | |||
| EasternHimalayas (Tibet,Bhutan,Arunachal) | |||||
| Myanmar and Indo- Burmese border |
| ||||
| East andSoutheast Asia |
| ||||
| Dubious (possible isolates,Arunachal) |
| ||||
| Proposed groupings | |||||
| Proto-languages | |||||
Italics indicates single languages that are also considered to be separate branches. | |||||
