Rongmei language

Rongmei
Songbu
Ruanglat, "Ruangmei"
Region	Assam, Manipur and Nagaland
Ethnicity	Rongmei Naga
Native speakers	(undated figure of 350,580[ citation needed ])
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Central Tibeto-Burman (?) Kuki-Chin-Naga Zemeic Rongmei
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nbu
Glottolog	rong1266
ELP	Rongmei Naga

Rongmei (also Ruangmei) is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by the Rongmei Naga community in Northeast India. ^[1] It has been called Songbu and is close to Zeme and Liangmai. The language has been nomenclatured as "Ruangmei" and studied as a First Language paper from class I to X of Board of Secondary Education, Manipur. ^[2] Ruangmei is studied as a Minor Indian Language (MIL) in Class XI & XII of Council of Higher Secondary Education Manipur (COHSEM). ^[3]

Geography

Rongmei is mostly spoken in the three states of Assam, Manipur and Nagaland. ^[4]

It is the most spoken language in Tamenglong district and Noney district; and the second most spoken language in Imphal West district and Bishnupur district of Manipur. ^[5]

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t	tʃ	k
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ		kʰ
	voiced	b	d	dʒ	ɡ
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Fricative			s			h
Trill			r
Approximant	lateral		l
	central	w		j

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Open		a

A lower-mid elongated sound [ɐː] also occurs only in word-medial positions. ^[6]

Further reading

• Gangmei, G. (2012). Ruangmei-English Dictionary . Tamenglong, Manipur. (PDF file)

References

1. "Naga, Rongmei". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
2. "Board of secondary education manipur- BSEM".
3. "Welcome to Council of Higher Secondary Education, Manipur".
4. "Distribution of 99 non schedule languages" (PDF). Census India. MHA, Govt of India. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
5. "Census of language in India 2011". MHA, Govt of India.
6. Tiwari, Surendra K. (1971). A descriptive grammar of Kabui. Poona: Deccan College.