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Mizo
Spoken in	India, Bangladesh, Burma, Israel
Region	Mizoram, Tripura, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland
Ethnicity	Mizo people
Native speakers	674,756 (India)  (2001[1])
Language family	Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman) Kukish Central Mizo
Official status
Official language in	Mizoram (India)
Language codes
ISO 639-2	lus
ISO 639-3	lus

The Mizo language, or Mizo ṭawng, is spoken natively by the Mizo people of Mizoram, a state in the Indian Union, of Chin State in Burma, and in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. The language is also known as Lushai, a colonial term, as the Lusei tribe was the first to have external exposure. Though still common, Lushai is considered incorrect by the Mizo themselves.^[2] Much poetic language is derived from Pawi language, Paite language, and Hmar language, and most known ancient poems considered to be in the Mizo language are in Pawi language.^[3]

History[link]

The Mizo language belongs to the Kukish branch of the Tibeto-Burman family of languages. The numerous clans of the Mizo had respective dialects, amongst which the Lushai (Lusei, by Mizo themselves) dialect was most common, and which subsequently became the Mizo language and the lingua franca of the Kuki peoples due to its extensive and exclusive use by the Christian missionaries.

Writing System[link]

Christian missionaries^[4] started developing an alphabet for the language by adapting the Italian alphabet^{[dubious – discuss]} and the Hunterian system of transliteration. The 25 letters used for writing in Mizo language are:

A circumflex ^ was later added to the vowels to indicate long vowels, viz., â, ê, î, ô, û, which were insufficient to fully express Mizo tone. Recently,^[when?] a leading newspaper in Mizoram, Vanglaini, the magazine Kristian Ṭhalai, and other publishers began using á, à, ä, é, è, ë, í, ì, ï, ó, ò, ú, ù, ü to indicate the long intonations and tones. However, this does not differentiate the different intonations that short tones can have^[7][8].

Relation with other languages[link]

Mizo language is similar or related to other languages of the Tibeto-Burman family^[9] and Austro-Asiatic languages.^[10]. The Kukish languages (which native Mizo speakers call Zohnahthlâk ṭawngho/Mizo ṭawngho) have a substantial amount of words in common^[11], and Hmar and Mizo language are especially similar; they are close to being mutually intelligible at the spoken level, and they are mostly mutually intelligible at the poetic level.

Mizo and Burmese[link]

The following few words suggest that Mizo and the Burmese are of the same family: kun ("to bend"), kam ("bank of a river"), kha ("bitter"), sam ("hair"), mei ("fire"), that ("to kill"), ni ("sun") hnih ("two") li ("four") nga ("five")

Phonology[link]

Vowels[link]

Mizo language has eight tones and intonations for each of the vowels a, aw, e, i and u, four of which are reduced tones and the other four long tones. The vowel o has only three tones, all of them of the reduced type; it has almost exactly the same sound as the diphthong /oʊ/ found in American English. However, the vowels can be represented as follows:

The vowel o has almost exactly the same sound as the diphthong /oʊ/ in American English.

Consonants[link]

Diphthongs[link]

Tone[link]

Mizo is a tonal language, in which differences in pitch and pitch contour can change the meanings of words. Tone systems have developed independently in many of the daughter languages largely through simplifications in the set of possible syllable-final and syllable-initial consonants. Typically, a distinction between voiceless and voiced initial consonants is replaced by a distinction between high and low tone, while falling and rising tones developed from syllable-final h and glottal stop, which themselves often reflect earlier consonants.

The eight tones and intonations that the vowel a (and the vowels aw, e, i, u, and this constitutes all the tones in the Mizo language) can have can be shown by the letter sequence p-a-n-g, as follows^[13]:

• long rising intonation: páng as in páng là (which has the same intonation as sáng in the sentence Thingküng sáng tak kan huanah a ding).
• long falling intionation: pàng as in Tui a kawt pàng pâng mai (which has the same intonation as vàng in the word vànglaini).
• peaking intonation: pâng as in Tui a kawt pàng pâng mai (which has the same intonation as thlûk in I hla phuah thlûk chu a va mawi ve).
• dipping intonation: päng as in Tuibur a hmuam päng mai (which has the same intonation as säm in Kan huan ka säm vêl mai mai).
• short rising intonation: pǎng as in naupǎng (which has the same intonation as thǎng in Kan huanah thǎng ka kam).
• short falling intonation: pȧng as in I va inkhuih pȧng ve? (which has the same intonation as pȧn in I lam ka rawn pȧn)
• short middle tone (with no pitch variation): pang as in A dik lo nghâl pang (which has the same tone as man in Sazu ka man)
• short low tone (with no pitch variation): pạng as in I pạng a sá a nih kha (which has the same tone as chạl in I chạlah thosí a fù).

Sample sentences[link]

The following table illustrates the pronunciations of various consonants, vowels and diphthongs found in Mizo language:

References and further reading for this section^{[14][15][16][17]}.

Grammar[link]

Mizo contains many analyzable polysyllables, which are polysyllabic units in which the individual syllables have meaning by themselves. In a true monosyllabic language, polysyllables are mostly confined to compound words, such as "lighthouse". The first syllables of compounds tend over time to be de-stressed, and may eventually be reduced to prefixed consonants. The word nuntheihna ("survival") is composed of nung ("to live"), theih ("possible") and na (a nominalizing suffix); likewise, theihna means "possibility". Virtually all polysyllabic morphemes in Mizo can be shown to originate in this way. For example, the disyllabic form phengphehlep ("butterfly"), which occurs in one dialect of the Trung (or Dulung) language of Yunnan, is actually a reduced form of the compound blak kwar, found in a closely related dialect. It is reported over 18 of the dialects share about 850 words with the same meaning. For example, ban ("arm"), ke ("leg"), thla ("wing", "month"), lu ("head") and kut ("hand").

Word order[link]

Mizo declarative word order is Object-subject-verb (OSV). For example:

• Lehkhabu ka ziak (I write/am writing a book)

However, even if one says Ka ziak lehkhabu, its meaning is not changed, nor does it become incorrect; the word order becomes Subject-verb-object. But this form is used only in particular situations.

Verbs[link]

Conjugation[link]

The verbs (called thiltih in Mizo)^[18] are not conjugated as in languages such as English and French by changing the desinence of words, but the tense (in a sentence) is clarified by the aspect and the addition of some particles, such as^[19]

• ang (for forming simple future),
• tawh (for forming simple past and past perfect),
• mék (for forming progressive tenses, present and past),
• dáwn (for forming simple future),
• dáwn mék (for forming near future),

etc.

Modification of verbs[link]

Mizo verbs are often used in the Gerund, and most verbs change desinence in the Gerund; this modification is called tihdanglamna. This modified form is also the past participle. Some verbs which undergo modification are tabulated below:

However, even if the spelling of a verb is not changed, its tone is sometimes changed. For example the verbs tum (to aim), hum (to protect) etc. change tones; the tone is lowered in the modified form. There is a third class of verbs - that of verbs which neither change tone nor are inflected (modified). Examples include hneh (to conquer), hnek (to strike with one's fist).

Modification of words is not restricted to verbs; adjectives, adverbs etc. are also modified.

Nouns[link]

Construction[link]

There is no gender for nouns, and there are no articles. There are some specefic suffixes for forming nouns from verbs and adjectives, the most common of which are -na and -zia. The suffix -na is used for forming nouns from both verbs and adjectives, whereas -zia is used specifically for nominalising adjectives. For example,

• tlù (v. to fall) - tlûkna (n. fall)
• hmu (v. to see) - hmuhna (n. sight, seeing, vision)
• süal (adj. evil) - sualna (n. sin)/sualzia (n. evilness)

Declension of nouns[link]

Mizo nouns undergo declension into cases. The main cases can be classified as follows^[20]:

Pluralisation[link]

Nouns are pluralized by suffixing -te, -ho, -teho or -hote, for example:

Pronouns[link]

Forms[link]

All Mizo pronouns occur in two forms, namely in free form and clitic form^[21]:

The free form is mostly used for emphasis, and has to be used in conjuntion with either the clitic form or an appropriate pronominal particle, as shown in the following examples:

1. Kei (=I free form) ka (=I clitic form)lo tel ve kher a ngai em?. This is a somewhat emphatic way of saying Ka lo tel ve kher a ngai em?
2. Nangni (=you pl., free form) in (you pl., clitic form) zo tawh em? This is a somewhat emphatic way of saying Nangni in zo tawh em?
3. Ani (he/she) a (s/he) kal ve chuan a ṭha lo vang.

The clitic form is also used as a genitive form of the pronoun.

Declension[link]

Mizo pronouns, like Mizo nouns, are declined into cases as follows:

Adjectives[link]

Mizo adjectives (Mizo: hrilhfiahna) follow the nouns they describe, as follows:

Negation[link]

For declarative sentences, negation is achieved by adding the particle lo (not) at the end of a sentence. For example

Also, for words such as engmah (nothing), tumah (nobody) etc., unlike English we have to add the negation particle lo; for example

Thus we have to use double negation for such cases.

Unique Parts of Speech in Mizo ṭawng[link]

All kinds of Parts of Speech like noun, pronoun, verbs, etc. can be found in Mizo language with some additional unique kinds - post-positions and double adverbs.

Sample texts in Mizo ṭawng[link]

Some Mizo words and phrases[link]

Counting numbers[link]

Mizo literature[link]

Books[link]

The Mizo language has a thriving literature with Mizo departments in Mizoram University and Manipur University . The governing body is the Mizo Academy of Letters, which awards the annual literary prize MAL Book of the Year since 1989. The books awarded so far and their authors are tabulated below along with the years^[28]:

This award is only for books originally written in Mizo and not for translations, and it has been awarded every year since 1989. The award has been given to books on history and religion, but most of the winners are novels. Each year, the academy examines about a hundred books (in 2011, 149 books were examined)^[29], out of which it selects the top 20, and then first shortlistling it further to top 10, and then to top 5, then top 3, finally chooses the winner.

The academy also awards lifetime achievement in Mizo literature.

Some of the most well-known Mizo writers include James Dokhuma, Ṭhuamtea Khawlhring, C. Laizawna, C. Lalnunchanga, Vanneihtluanga etc.

Newspaper[link]

(In alphabetical order)

• Vanglaini
• Zothlifim Daily Newspaper

Statistics[link]

There are around 700,000 speakers of Mizo language: 674,756 speakers in India (2001 census); 1,041 speakers in Bangladesh (1981 census); 12,500 speakers in Burma (1983 census).

See also[link]

• Hunterian transliteration
• Mizo grammar
• Mizo literature

Notes and references[link]

Others:

1. The Ethnologue, 13th Edition, Barbara F. Grimes, Editor, 1996, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Inc.
2. K. S. Singh: 1995, People of India-Mizoram, Volume XXXIII, Anthropological Survey of India, Calcutta.
3. Grierson, G. A. (Ed.) (1904b). Tibeto-Burman Family: Specimens of the Kuki-Chin and Burma Groups, Volume III Part III of Linguistic Survey of India. Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta.
4. Grierson, G. A: 1995, Languages of North-Eastern India, Gian Publishing House, New Delhi.
5. Lunghnema, V., Mizo chanchin (B.C. 300 aṭanga 1929 A.D.), 1993.

External links[link]

• Lorrain, J. Herbert (James Herbert) Dictionary of the Lushai language. Calcutta : Asiatic Society, 1940. (Bibliotheca Indica, 261)
• Mizoram.nic.in Official website of Mizoram.
• Mizoram Presbyterian
• Mizoram Baptist
• Mizoram Adventist

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