Zou language

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Zou
Zo, Zouham, Zoham, Zokam
'Zo Lai' in Zolai alphabet
Native toManipur, India
RegionTonzang: Chin State, Chin Hills;
In India: Mizoram and Manipur, Chandel, Singngat subdivision and Sungnu area; Churachandpur districts; Assam.
EthnicityZou
Native speakers
88,000 (2012)[1]
Latin, Zoulai alphabet[3]
Language codes
ISO 639-3zom
Glottologzouu1235
ELPZome

Zou (also spelled Zo and known as Zoham or Zokam) is a language of the Northeastern branch of Kuki-Chin languages[2] originating in western Burma and spoken also in Mizoram and Manipur in northeastern India.

The term Zou (more often "Zo") is sometimes used as a blanket term for the languages spoken by the Kuki-Chin-Mizo peoples.

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]

Consonant Phonemes
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
Vowels
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][5]

Types of Zou verbs

The Zou verbs can be classified into three types: Stem (1), Stem (2), Stem (3) as given below:[6]

Types of Zou Verbs
Stem 1 Stem 2 Stem 3 Stem 4
piê-give pie? pe- pieh
puo-carry puo? po- pua-

Numbers

Zou numbers are counted as follows:[7]

NumeralZouEnglishHindi
0 be̋mzeroशून्य śūnya
1 khàtoneएक ek
2 nìtwoदो do
3 thumthreeतीन tīn
4 lifourचार cār
5 ngafiveपाँच pā̃c
6 gùhsixछह chah
7 sagísevenसात sāt
8 giéteightआठ āṭh
9 kuónineनौ nau
10 sàwm, sômtenदस das
11 sàwm leh khàtelevenग्यारह gyārah
12 sàwm leh nìtwelveबारह bārah
13 sàwm leh thumthirteenतेरह terah
14 sàwm leh lifourteenचौदह caudah
15 sàwm leh ngafifteenपंद्रह pandrah
16 sàwm leh gùhsixteenसोलह solah
17 sàwm leh sagíseventeenसत्रह satrah
18 sàwm leh giéteighteenअठारह aṭhārah
19 sàwm leh kuónineteenउन्नीस unnīs
20 sàwmnìtwentyबीस bīs
30 sàwmthumthirtyतीस tīs
40 sàwmlifortyचालीस cālīs
50 sàwmngafiftyपचास pacās
60 sàwmgùhsixtyसाठ sāṭh
70 sàwmsagíseventyसत्तर sattar
80 sàwmgiéteightyअस्सी assī
90 sàwmkuòninetyनव्वे navve
100 zȁhundredसौ sau
1,000 sa̋ng, tȕlone thousandहज़ार hazār
10,000 si̋ng, tȕlsàwm, sa̋ngsàwmten thousandदस हज़ार das hazār
100,000 nuòi, tȕlzà, sa̋ngzàone hundred thousand, one lakhलाख lākh
1,000,000 nuòisàwm, sa̋ngtȕl, tȕltȕlone millionदस लाख das lākh
10,000,000 thȅn, vâibêlsié, kráwlten millionकरोड़ karoṛ
100,000,000 thȅnzà, kráwl sàwmone hundred millionदस करोड़ das karoṛ

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.[8][9]

Linguistic relations

Zou among the Northeastern Kuki-Chin languages is closely related to the Central languages such as the Duhlian (Lusei/Lushai) or Mizo language (endonym in Duhlian or Lushai is Mizo ṭawng), the lingua franca language of Mizoram.

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.[10][11]

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 Burma, India and Bangladesh.[12] However political boundaries and political debates have distorted the extent of the area in some sources.[13]

In Burma

It is used in Chin State, Tiddim, and the Chin Hills. Use of Burmese has increased in the Zo speaking Chin State since the 1950s.[14] Ethnologue reports that Zou is spoken in the following townships of Myanmar.

In India

In Bangladesh

In Bangladesh it is used by the Bawm people.[16][17]

References

  1. Zou at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. Haokip, Pauthang (2011). Socio-linguistic Situation in North-east India. Concept Publishing Company. p. 55. ISBN 978-8180697609.
  3. "Zoulai". Omniglot.com. Archived from the original on 28 December 2021. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  4. Singh, Yashawanta; Himmat, Lukram (February 2013). "Zou Phonology" (PDF). Language in India. 13 (2): 683–701. Archived (PDF) from the original on 23 November 2018. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
  5. "Zou language, script, and pronunciation". Omniglot. Archived from the original on 6 July 2019. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  6. Philip Thanglienmang Tungdim (2012). "A Descriptive Grammar of the Zo Language". Academia. Archived from the original on 25 March 2019. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
  7. Thangliènmâng Tungdim, Philip (2011). Zo-English-Hindi Kizìlna Lȁibú [Self-tutor book of Zo-English-Hindi]. New Delhi: Zou Cultural-cum-Literature Society India. ISBN 978-81-920282-0-0. Archived from the original on 21 June 2023. Retrieved 20 August 2019.
  8. Pandey, Anshuman (29 September 2010). "Introducing the Zou Script" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 July 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  9. Ian James; Mattias Persson (March 2012). "Script for Zou". skyknowledge.com. Archived from the original on 14 August 2018. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
  10. Bareh, Hamlet (2001). "Zou". Encyclopaedia of North-East India: Manipu. Mittal. pp. 260ff. ISBN 978-81-7099-790-0. Retrieved 22 November 2010.
  11. "Their language is called Zou which is similar to the language spoken by the Paite. Unlike the Zou, the Paite possess the terminal glottal stop 'h'. For example, a word for 'good' is hoih in Paite while it changes into hoi in the Zou language. Sannemla (Zou folksongs) are also popular among the Paite, although they are rendered in their individual dialect bearing the characteristic phonetic differences." Singh, Kumar Suresh; Horam, M. & Rizvi, S. H. M. (1998). People of India: Manipur. Anthropological Survey of India by Seagull Books. p. 253. ISBN 978-81-7154-769-2.
  12. Encyclopaedia of South-Asian tribes - Volume 8 - Page 3436 Satinder Kumar - 2000 "According to the 1981 census, 12,515 persons speak the Zou language"
  13. Gopalakrishnan, Ramamoorthy (1996). Socio-political framework in North-East India. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House. p. 150. 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 ...
  14. Nang Khen Khup (2007). Evaluating the Impact of Family Devotions Upon Selected Families from the Zomi Christian Community of Tulsa (Thesis). Oral Roberts University. p. 7. 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
  15. 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 21 March 2012. Retrieved 3 February 2014.
  16. Loncheu, Nathan (2013). Dena, Lal (ed.). Bawmzos: A Study Of The Chin-Kuki-Zo Tribes Of Chittagong. New Delhi: Akansha Publishing House. ISBN 978-81-8370-346-8.
  17. Reichle, Verena (1981). Bawm language and lore: Tibeto-Burman area. Europäische Hochschulschriften series 21, Linguistik: volume 14. Bern, Switzerland: P. Lang. ISBN 978-3-261-04935-3.

Further reading