Simte language

Last updated
Simte
Kuki
Native to India
Region Manipur
Native speakers
10,200 (2001 census) [1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 smt
Glottolog simt1238
ELP Simte

Simte is a Kuki-Chin language of India. It is spoken primarily by the Simte in Northeastern India, who are concentrated in Manipur and adjacent areas of Mizoram and Assam. The dialect spoken in Manipur exhibits partial mutual intelligibility with the other Kuki-Chin dialects of the area including Thadou, Hmar, Vaiphei, Paite, Kom and Gangte. [2] It is written in Latin script.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kuki people</span> Ethnic group in India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar

The Kuki people are an ethnic group in the Northeastern Indian states of Manipur, Nagaland, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram, as well as the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh and Myanmar. The Kuki constitute one of several hill tribes within India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. In Northeast India, they are present in all states except Arunachal Pradesh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bishnupur district</span> District of Manipur in India

Bishnupur district or Bishenpur district, is a district of Manipur state in northeastern India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chandel district</span> District of Manipur in India

Chandel district is one of the 16 districts of Manipur state in northeastern India. Its headquarters is the town of Chandel. In December 2016, a part of the district was split to establish the new Tengnoupal district. The district is mainly populated by Kuki-Zo and Old Kuki/Naga tribal people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ukhrul district</span> District of Manipur in India

Ukhrul district is an administrative district of the state of Manipur in India with its headquarters at Ukhrul. The Ukhrul district has a long history dating back to the 1920s when it was created as the North-East Hill Sub-Division of the then princely state of Manipur. In 2016, the Kamjong subdivision of the Ukhrul district was spun out as a separate district, leading to the present configuration of the Ukhrul district.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imphal West district</span> District of Manipur in India

Imphal West district is one of the sixteen districts of Manipur state in northeastern India. As of 2011, it is the most populous district in the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zou people</span> Ethnic group living in Myanmar and Northeast India

The Zou people Is a Kuki ethnic group, that is an indigenous community living along the frontier of India and Burma, they are a sub-group of the Kuki people/Zo people. In India, they live with and are similar in language and habits to the Thadou people and Paite and the Simte peoples. In Burma, the Zou are counted among the Chin people. They are a hill people, "Zou" may plainly means "Hills" denoting the Zous are "people of the hills" or "of the hills", and "Zou" has also a different meaning in Zou language that is "complete" or another word for it is "finish". But, the Zou people believed that they incepted the name 'Zou' from their forefather 'Zou' or 'Zo', believed to be the progenitor of the broad Chin-Kuki-Mizo people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zou language</span> Sino-Tibetan language of Burma and India

Zo is a Northern Kuki-Chin-Mizo language originating in western Burma and spoken also in Mizoram in northeastern India.

The Kuki-Chin–Naga languages are a geographic clustering of languages of the Sino-Tibetan family in James Matisoff's classification used by Ethnologue, which groups it under the non-monophyletic "Tibeto-Burman". Their genealogical relationship both to each other and to the rest of Sino-Tibetan is unresolved, but Matisoff lumps them together as a convenience pending further research.

Thadou or Thado Chin is a Sino-Tibetan language of the Northern Kuki-Chin-Mizo sub-branch. It is spoken by the Boipu/Boinu/Boipi or boi(servant) people collectively in Myanmar and in Mizoram, Nagaland and Assam And bordering Myanmar(Myanmar Origin). The speakers of this language use Burmeese language as their second language (L2) according to the Ethnologue.

The Simte are one of the Zo ethnic tribe in Northeast India. They are mainly concentrated in the southern parts of the state of Manipur. Most of the Simte are descendants of Ngaihte. Sim means South in their dialect. Simte people mainly settled in Thanlon Sub-Division, Lamka town in Churachandpur, Manipur, Motbung, Leimakhong and parts of Nagaland areas. A significant number also are settled in neighbouring areas of Mizoram and Assam. There are also Simte in Chin State in Myanmar.

The Kuki-Chin languages are a branch of 50 or so Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in northeastern India, western Myanmar and southeastern Bangladesh. Speakers of these languages are Mizo in Mizoram, Kuki people or southern Naga people in Manipur, and Chin people in Myanmar.

The Zo people is a term to denote all the speakers of the Kuki-Chin languages who inhabit areas of India, Myanmar and the Chittagong hill tracts of Bangladesh. The Mizo, Chin, and Kuki-Zomi people are the main ethnic groups.

Paite is a Sino-Tibetan Language and spoken by a group of Paite people. There are different Paite dialects; Some notable Paite dialects are Bukpi, Lousau, Valpau, Dapzal, Tuichiap, Sukte, Dim, Lamzang and Sihzang. The language exhibits mutual intelligibility with the other languages of the region including Thadou, Hmar, Vaiphei, Simte, Kom, Gangte and other languages. The name Paite could translate to 'the people who went', 'a group of people marching'.

Sakachep also known as Khelma, is a Central Kuki-Chin-Mizo language of Northeast India. Dialects are Khelma, Thangachep, and Sakachep (Ethnologue). VanBik (2009) classifies Sakachep as closely related to Hmar.

Vaiphei is a Sino-Tibetan language belonging to the Kuki-Chin linguistic subbranch of the Tibeto-Burman group of languages. It is spoken mainly in the Myanmar minutely in Manipur-KukiZogam,Mizoram, Assam, Meghalaya, and Tripura. The dialect spoken in Myanmar exhibits a least partial mutual intelligibility with the other Mizo/Kukish dialects of the area including Thadou, Hmar, Paite, Simte, Kom and Gangte languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gangte language</span> Sino-Tibetan language of India

Gangte is a Sino-Tibetan language of Kuki-Chin linguistic sub branch of Northeastern India. Its speakers primarily live in Manipur and the adjacent areas of Meghalaya and Assam. The language appears to be homogeneous with no known dialectal variation and exhibits at least partial mutual intelligibility with the other Chin-Kuki-Mizo dialects of the area including Thadou, Hmar, Vaiphei, Simte, Kom and Paite languages. The speakers of this language use Meitei language as their second language (L2) according to the Ethnologue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aimol language</span> Sino-Tibetan language spoken in India

Aimol, also known as Aimual, is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by the Aimol people of Manipur, India. It is considered endangered and has less than 9,000 speakers worldwide as per 2011 census. The speakers of this language use Meitei language as their second language (L2) according to the Ethnologue.

Sorbung is a recently discovered Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Manipur, northeastern India. Although the speakers are ethnically Tangkhul, it appears to be a non-Tangkhulic Kuki-Chin language, as it shows strong links with what was called 'Southern Tangkhul' in Brown (1837), which was also a non-Tangkhulic language spoke by ethnic Tangkhul.

Northern Kuki-Chin is a branch of Kuki-Chin languages. It is called Northeastern Kuki-Chin by Peterson (2017) to distinguish it from the Northwestern Kuki-Chin languages. VanBik (2009:31) also calls the branch Northern Chin or Zo.

The Hmar languages or Hmaric languages are a subbranch of the Kukish branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family which comprises Hmar proper, Biate, Hrangkhol, Sakachep, Zote, Darlong, Thiek, Saihriem (Faihriem) and others. The Hmar languages are often treated as dialects of a single language, since differences between them are reportedly minor. The speakers of the language are also known as Hmar.

References

  1. Distribution of the 100 non-scheduled languages, n° 87 Simte
  2. Singh, Chungkham Yashawanta (1995). "The linguistic situation in Manipur" (PDF). Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area. 18 (1): 129–134. Retrieved 19 June 2014.