Ralte 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 ...

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 ...

. Fewer than a thousand Ralte people speak the language.

Geographical distribution

Ralte is spoken in the following locations ('' Ethnologue''). *

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 ...

(mainly

Aizawl district Aizawl district is one of the eleven districts of Mizoram state in India. The district is bounded on the north by Kolasib district, on the west by Mamit district, on the south by Serchhip district, on the southwest by Lunglei district and on th ...

, and also scattered in

Lunglei district Lunglei district is one of the eleven districts of Mizoram state in India. As of 2011 it is the second most populous district in the state, after Aizawl. It is also the largest district in Mizoram with an area of 4,572 km2(1,765 sq mi). ...

and Chhimtuipui district) *

Manipur Manipur () ( mni, Kangleipak) is a States and territories of India, 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 ...

Jampui Hills Jampui Hills is a part of the Mizo hills (Lushai Hills) range located in the North Tripura district in the north eastern part of the Indian state of Tripura. The average altitude of the hill range is approximately 1000 metres above sea leve ...

North Tripura district North Tripura is an administrative district in the state of Tripura in India. The district headquarters are located at Dharmanagar. The district occupies an area of 1422.19 km² and has a population of 693,947 (as of 2011). History The te ...

Tripura Tripura (, Bengali: ) is a state in Northeast India. The third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a population of 36.71 lakh ( 3.67 million). It is bordered by Assam and Mizoram to the eas ...

Vocabulary

Below are comparative

Swadesh list The Swadesh list ("Swadesh" is pronounced ) is a classic compilation of tentatively universal concepts for the purposes of lexicostatistics. Translations of the Swadesh list into a set of languages allow researchers to quantify the interrelatedness ...

s of Ralte,

Mizo Mizo may refer to: *Mizo people, an ethnic group native to north-eastern India, western Myanmar (Burma) and eastern Bangladesh *Mizo language, a language spoken by the Mizo people *Mizoram, a state in Northeast India *Lusei people, an ethnic group ...

, and

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 ...

from Otsuka (2016).

References

*Otsuka, Kosei. 2016
A Basic Vocabulary and a Text of the Ralte Language
''Asian and African Languages and Linguistics'' 10. 325–344. *Otsuka, Kosei. 2019
Verb stem alternation in Ralte
''GENGO BUNKA KENKYU (STUDIES IN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE), Graduate School of Language and Culture Osaka University'' 45. 161–178. *Otsuka, Kosei. 2021
A phonological comparison of Ralte and Proto-Kuki-Chin
''ARIAKE Kumamoto University Linguistic Papers'' 20. 21–38. {{Languages of Northeast India Kuki-Chin languages Languages of Manipur Languages of Mizoram Languages of Tripura