| Also Known As: Le,Lusago,Lei,Lukhai,Whelngo,Lusai,Duhlian Twang,Lusei,Sailau,Lushei,Hualngo,Dulien,Mizo,Lushai
Description:
The Mizo language is spoken in Mizoram, known as the Lushai Hills District till 1954, and which is now a state in the Indian Union. The word Mizo is a generic term applying to all Mizos living in Mizoram and its adjoining areas of Manipur, Tripura, the Chittagong Hill tracts and Chin Hills. Mizo literally means "Highlander" (mi = "people", zo = "highland"). The language is also known as Lushai.
The language of the Mizo comes under the Kuki-Chin branch of Tibeto-Burman. The numerous clans of the Mizo had respective dialects, amongst which the Mizo dialect, originally known as Duhlian or Lusei (by the Mizo themselves), was most common, and which subsequently became the lingua franca of the state.
Christian missionaries started developing a script for the language adopting the Roman alphabet with a phonetic form of spelling based on the Hunterian system of transliteration. The letters and digraphs used are: a, â, á, à, aw, b, ch, d, e, ê, é, è, f, g, ng, h, i, ì, í, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, û, v, and z.
Later there were radical developments in the language where the symbol â used for the sound of long o was replaced by aŵ with a circumflex, and the symbol a used for plain o..... full article at Wikipedia |