Zou language

Zou (also spelled Zo and also known as Zokam) is a language of the Northeastern branch of Kuki-Chin languages^[2] originating in western Burma and spoken also in Mizoram and Manipur in northeastern India.

Zou
Zo
'Zo Lai' in Zolai alphabet
Native to	Manipur, India
Region	Tonzang: Chin State, Chin Hills; In India: Mizoram and Manipur, Chandel, Singngat subdivision and Sungnu area; Churachandpur districts; Assam.
Ethnicity	Zou
Native speakers	88,000 (2012)[1]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Kuki-Chin languages[2] Northeastern Kuki-Chin languages Zou
Writing system	Latin, Zoulai alphabet[3]
Language codes
ISO 639-3	zom
Glottolog	zouu1235
ELP	Zome

The name Zou is sometimes used as a cover term for the languages of all Mizo people (Zo people) i.e.Kukish and Chin peoples, especially the Zomi people.

The term 'Zo' has been employed in many books to denote the word 'Zo', for simple reason of phonetic usage.

The Zo themselves employ the various terms Zo, Zou, and Jo to mean their tribe.^[1]

Phonology

The set of 23 Zou consonantal phonemes can be established on the basis of the following minimal pairs or overlapping words. Besides these 23 Phonemes, 1 consonant is a borrowed phoneme (i.e. /r/), which is found only in loan words, in very rare cases (e.g. /r/ in /rəŋ/ "color"). Along with these consonants, Zou has 7 vowels: i, e, a, ɔ, o, u, ə.^[4]

Consonant Phonemes

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p	t	c	k	ʔ
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ		kʰ
	voiced	b	d	ɟ	g
Affricate				tʃ
Fricative	voiceless	v	s			h
	voiced		z
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Lateral			l
Semivowel		w		j

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-mid	e	ə	o
Open-mid			ɔ
Open		a

Orthography

Vowels

• a - [a]
• aw - [ɔ]
• e - [e/ə]
• i - [i~j]
• o - [o]
• u - [u~w]^[5]

Consonants

• b - [b]
• ch - [c]
• d - [d]
• g - [g]
• h - [h], [ʔ] at the end of a syllable
• j - [ɟ]
• k - [k]
• kh - [kʰ]
• l - [l]
• m - [m]
• n - [n]
• ng - [ŋ]
• p - [p]
• ph - [pʰ]
• r - [r]
• s - [s]
• t - [t]
• th - [tʰ]
• v - [ʋ]
• z - [z]^[6]

Types of Zo verbs

The Zo verbs can be classified into three types: Stem (1), Stem (2), Stem (3) as given below:^[7]

Types of Zo Verbs

Stem 1	Stem 2	Stem 3	Stem 4
piê-give	pie?	pe-	pieh
puo-carry	puo?	po-	pua-

Sample text

The following is a sample text in Zou.

Zou	English
Maw na sung ma naw in, amaw sa pi ma in leimi in i piang a, a khawh ma ma - gam lua a i lua suhsuh ih mawnate ma ei bawl in eima pumpi ei man muda maithei, Ih mawnate -eeng taang gol lua a hi man in khat veivei eima mawnate eimon maisah zolo maithei va-ia kim lai, tuate lip khap sih saang a pamai eisa, ei khua tua ngeet-nguut ngeng ngong man a ih dial dual liang luang mawna nei van nuai ei mai sah thop valong, abieh huai tapo ma Jehova ki chi Pasian khat a na om ngang tangh hi.	As we are born in sin, we cannot even love ourselves and there is no knowledge about what is forgiveness, because of the enormous sins inherited in us. Even though we are in this situation, in spite of our enormous sins the one who has mercy, sympathises us and forgives us our sins is the God called Jehovah.

There are four major dialects of Zou in Myanmar and India: Haidawi, Khuongnung, Thangkhal, and Khodai.

Numbers

Zomi numbers are counted as follows:^[8]

Numeral	Zou	English	Hindi
0	be̋m	zero	शून्य śūnya
1	khàt	one	एक ek
2	nì:	two	दो do
3	thum	three	तीन tīn
4	li:	four	चार cār
5	nga:	five	पाँच pā̃c
6	gùh	six	छह chah
7	sagí	seven	सात sāt
8	giét	eight	आठ āṭh
9	kuó	nine	नौ nau
10	sàwm, sôm	ten	दस das
11	sàwm leh khàt	eleven	ग्यारह gyārah
12	sàwm leh nì	twelve	बारह bārah
13	sàwm leh thum	thirteen	तेरह terah
14	sàwm leh li:	fourteen	चौदह caudah
15	sàwm leh nga:	fifteen	पंद्रह pandrah
16	sàwm leh gùh	sixteen	सोलह solah
17	sàwm leh sagí	seventeen	सत्रह satrah
18	sàwm leh giét	eighteen	अठारह aṭhārah
19	sàwm leh kuó	nineteen	उन्नीस unnīs
20	sàwmnì	twenty	बीस bīs
30	sàwmthum	thirty	तीस tīs
40	sàwmli:	forty	चालीस cālīs
50	sàwmnga:	fifty	पचास pacās
60	sàwmgùh	sixty	साठ sāṭh
70	sàwmsagí	seventy	सत्तर sattar
80	sàwmgiét	eighty	अस्सी assī
90	sàwmkuò	ninety	नव्वे navve
100	zȁ	hundred	सौ sau
1,000	sa̋ng, tȕl	one thousand	हज़ार hazār
10,000	si̋ng, tȕlsàwm, sa̋ngsàwm	ten thousand	दस हज़ार das hazār
100,000	nuòi, tȕlzà, sa̋ngzà	one hundred thousand, one lakh	लाख lākh
1,000,000	nuòisàwm, sa̋ngtȕl, tȕltȕl	one million	दस लाख das lākh
10,000,000	thȅn, vâibêlsié, kráwl	ten million, one crore	करोड़ karoṛ
100,000,000	thȅnzà, kráwl sàwm	one billion, ten crore	अरब arab

Writing systems

Zou is often written in a Latin script developed by Christian missionary J.H. Cope. In 1952, M. Siahzathang of Churachandpur created an alternative script known as Zolai or Zoulai, an alphabetic system with some alphasyllabic characteristics. The user community for the script is growing- Zou cultural, political, and literary organizations began to adopt the script beginning in the 1970s, and more recently, the Manipur State Government has shown support for both Siahzathang and the script.^[9][10]

Linguistic relations

Zou among the Northeastern Kuki-Chin languages is closely related to the Central languages such as the Duhlian (Lusei/Lushai) or Mizo language (endonym in Duhlian or Lushai is Mizo ṭawng), the lingua franca language of Mizoram.^{[citation needed]}

Zou as spoken in India is similar to the Paite language of the Paite, though Zou lacks the word-final glottal stops present in Paite.^[11][12]

Geographical extent

At its largest extent, the geographic area covered by the language group is a territory of approximately 60,000 square miles (160,000 km2) in size, in Burma, India and Bangladesh.^[13] However political boundaries and political debates have distorted the extent of the area in some sources.^[14]

In Burma

It is used in Chin State, Tiddim, and the Chin Hills. Use of Burmese has increased in the Zo speaking Chin State since the 1950s.^[15] Ethnologue reports that Zou is spoken in the following townships of Myanmar.

• Chin State: Tonzang, Hakha, and Tedim townships
• Sagaing Division: Kalay, Khampat, and Tamu townships

In India

• Manipur
  • Chandel district: Singngat subdivision and the Sungnu Sachih / Kana area
  • Churachandpur district
• Mizoram
• Assam^[16]

In Bangladesh

In Bangladesh it is used by the Bawm people.^[17][18]