Northern Kuki-Chin (or Northeastern Kuki-Chin) is a branch of

Kuki-Chin languages The Kuki-Chin languages (also called Kuki-Chin-Mizo, Kukish or South-Central Tibeto-Burman languages) are a branch of 50 or so Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in northeastern India, western Myanmar and southeastern Bangladesh. Most speakers of the ...

. It is called ''Northeastern Kuki-Chin'' by Peterson (2017) to distinguish it from the

Northwestern Kuki-Chin languages Southern Naga, also Old Kuki or Northwestern Kuki-Chin,Andrew Hsiu (2019) is a branch of Kuki-Chin-Naga languages. Speakers are from Kuki-Chin-Mizos people like Kom tribes such as Aimol, Kom, Koireng and others and Nagas. Languages Scott ...

. VanBik (2009:31) also calls the branch ''Northern Chin'' or ''Zo''. Except for Thado speakers, most Northern Kuki-Chin speakers self-identify as part of a wider

Zomi The Zomi are an ethnic group which can be found in India, Myanmar and in Chittagong hill tracks of Bangladesh. The word Zomi is used to describe an ethnic group, which is also known as the Chin people, Chin, the Mizo people, Mizo, the Kuki peop ...

ethnic group.

Lingua francas

Tedim Tedim (, , ( Zo: ''Tedim Khawpi'', pronounced ; is a town in and the administrative seat of Tedim Township, Chin State, in the north-western part of Burma. It is the second largest town in Chin State. The town's four major boroughs (''vengte'') a ...

is the local

lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...

of northern

Chin State Chin State (, ) is a state in western Myanmar. The Chin State is bordered by Sagaing Division and Magway Division to the east, Rakhine State to the south, Bangladesh to the south-west, and the Indian states of Mizoram to the west and Manipur t ...

, Myanmar, while Thado (also known as Kuki) is the local

of much of southern

Manipur Manipur () ( mni, Kangleipak) is a state in Northeast India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. It is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west. It also borders two regions of Myanm ...

State, India.

Languages

VanBik (2009) includes the following languages as Northern Kuki-Chin languages. The positions of Ngawn and

Ralte {{unreferenced, date=June 2016 The Ralte tribes were mostly found scattered in the northern part of today's Aizawl, Kolasib and Serchhip Mamit, Lunglei District and all over Mizoram. Tahan (Myanmar) Bangladesh, Tripura, Assam and Manipur India . Th ...

are not addressed by VanBik (2009), but they are classified as Northern Kuki-Chin in

Glottolog ''Glottolog'' is a bibliographic database of the world's lesser-known languages, developed and maintained first at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany (between 2015 and 2020 at the Max Planck Institute for ...

. * Thado (Kuki) *

* Paite *

Gangte Gangte is an ethnic group mainly living in the Indian state of Manipur. They belong to the Zo people and are parts of the Kuki or under Mizo tribe and are recognised a tribe of Manipur, India. They are also indigenous inhabitants of Mizoram, ...

* Simte *

Chiru The Tibetan antelope or chiru (''Pantholops hodgsonii'') (, pronounced ; ) is a medium-sized bovid native to the northeastern Tibetan plateau. Most of the population live within the Chinese border, while some scatter across India and Bhutan in ...

* Sizang *

* Vaiphei * Zo * Ngawn

Zomi languages

The ''Zomi'' languages refer to most of the Northern Kuki-Chin languages, excluding Thado (Kuki) and a few other peripheral languages. ''Zomi'' is a cultural cover term that refers to speakers of languages such as

, Paite, Simte, Zou, Vaiphei, and

. Organizations such as the Zomi Language & Literature Society (ZOLLS) in

Churachandpur Churachandpur ( Meitei pronunciation: ''/tʃʊraːˌtʃaːnɗpʊr/'') is the district headquarter of the Churachandpur District in the Indian state of Manipur. It is named after the Meitei King Churachand Singh, the Maharaja of Manipur Kingdom. ...

, Manipur, India are currently working on developing a unified standard "Zomi" language.S. Dal Sian Pau. 2014. ''The comparative study of Proto-Zomi (Kuki-Chin) languages''. Lamka, Manipur, India: Zomi Language & Literature Society (ZOLLS).

Classification

VanBik (2009:31) divides the Northern Kuki-Chin branch into two major

language cluster A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varie ...

s, namely the ''Thado'' cluster and ''Sizang'' cluster. *''Thado'' cluster: Thado/ Kuki,

, Khuangsai, Paite, Vuite,

, Zou,

*''Sizang'' cluster: Sizang/Siyin,

Guite Guite is the progenitor clan of Mizo people He is also said to be the Older Brother of Thadou progenitor of the Thadou people. Mostly the Guite clan speak mizo language . Some known as Zomi and few also as kuki in India and as Zogam in Myanmar ...

/Nguite, Vaiphei, Zo

Sound changes

VanBik (2009) lists the following

sound change A sound change, in historical linguistics, is a change in the pronunciation of a language. A sound change can involve the replacement of one speech sound (or, more generally, one phonetic feature value) by a different one (called phonetic chang ...

s from Proto-Kuki-Chin to Proto-Northern Chin. *Proto-Kuki-Chin *-r > Proto-Northern Chin *-''k'' *Proto-Kuki-Chin * θ- > Proto-Northern Chin *''ts''- *Proto-Kuki-Chin *kl- > Proto-Northern Chin *''tl''-

References