Falam Chin, or Lai (Falam Chin), is a

Kuki-Chin language 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 ...

Falam Falam (, ) is a town in north-western Burma (Myanmar) near Burma's western border with the Indian state of Mizoram. The town was founded by Taisun tribe. The British arrived to Falam in 1892, and became an important base for British rule of the ...

township,

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 Ma ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

, and also in

Mizoram Mizoram () is a state in Northeast India, with Aizawl as its seat of government and capital city. The name of the state is derived from "Mizo", the self-described name of the native inhabitants, and "Ram", which in the Mizo language means "lan ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. Falam Chin is closely related to most Central Chin languages, especially Hakha Chin. The Falam people are primarily Christian and have translated the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

into Falam Chin.

Dialects

'' Ethnologue'' lists the following dialects of Falam. *Tlaisun (Shunkla, Sunkhla, Taishon, Tashom, Tashon) *Laizo (Laiso, Laizao, Laizo-Shimhrin) *Zahao (Lyen-Lyem, JaHau Yahow, Zahau, Zahau-Shimhrin, Za-How) *Sim Falam was a village name founded by the Tlaisun (also known as Tashon in English) tribe and Tashon was the original language spoken in Falam. Falam became increased in population from the surrounding tribes from Sunthla (also recorded as Sunkhla), Sim and Zahau (also recorded as Zahao) that created a new language based on these three tribes which are very different from Tlaisun language and this language was later popularly known as Laizo language. Laizo language was recorded as the first language used in the official radio broadcasting dialect of Chin in Myanmar (Burma). In order to be inclusive in Laizo language this language was later changed to Falam language although its official name recorded in the government is Laizo. Rupini and Koloi are also reported to be quite different. Dialects once misleadingly called Southern Luhupa are actually Northern Kuki-Chin, and evidently Falam. ''Ethnologue'' reports the following speaker populations of Falam dialects as of 1983: 9,000 Taisun, 16,000 Zanniat, 7,000 Khualsim, 4,000 Lente, 14,400 Zahau, 18,600 Laizo.

Written/Spoken Falam Chin

This is a sample of written Falam Chin: Falam Chin is written in romanized form, or in the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, with the exception of the letters Q, Y, J and X. However, the consonant ''ṭ'' (t with dot), ''ng'' (Guttural sound), and ''aw'' vowel (

IPA IPA commonly refers to: * India pale ale, a style of beer * International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation * Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound IPA may also refer to: Organizations International * Insolvency Practitioners ...

[] or []) are frequently used in both Chin literature and speaking.

Falam Chin Characters

Consonants b c d f g h j k l m n p r s t ṭ v z Vowels a .... as in amphibious aw.... as in omega (Long vowel) e .... as in example i .... as in interesting o .... as in son (Short vowel) u .... as in due The Falam language has five spoken vowels, but in writing, six are used. Of the five spoken, three of them, /u/, /a/, and /ɔ/ are spoke from the back of the mouth, /i/ is spoken from the top of the mouth, and /e/ is spoken from the middle. /ɔ/ can be pronounced as aw or o. ,

Dialects

Written/Spoken Falam Chin

Falam Chin Characters

References

Further reading