Hmar language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hmar Hmar
Pronunciation:	IPA: /m̥a/
Spoken in:	Mizoram, Manipur, and Assam, India; Myanmar
Region:	Southeast Asia
Total speakers:	India: 50,000 (Ethnologue, 1997)
Language family:	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Kuki-Chin-Naga Kuki-Chin Central Kuki-Chin Hmar
Writing system:	Latin alphabet
Official status
Official language of:	none, recognized as a minority language in Assam, Manipur and Mizoram
Regulated by:	no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	`to be added`
ISO/FDIS 639-3:	`hmr`
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key.

The Hmar language belongs to the Kuki-Chin-Naga group of Tibeto-Burman stock of the great Sino-Tibetan family of languages. The speakers of the language are also known as Hmar. Many ethnic Hmar no longer speak Hmar as a first language, especially in Assam, where most Hmar learn Assamese as their mother tongue.

Hmar speakers are scattered over a vast area in Mizoram, Manipur, NC Hills and Cachar districts of Assam state, India. There is no homegenous settlement of Hmar speakers alone.

Hmar is a recognised language in the School curriculum of Assam, Manipur and Mizoram, and also recently recognised as one of the Modern Indian Language (MIL) at Manipur University.

According to the official 1991 census of the "Languages of India", there are 65,204 Hmar speakers.