Mizo language

The following table illustrates the similarity between Mizo and other members of the Sino-Tibetan family.[11] The words given are cognates, whose origins could be traced back to the proto-language Proto-Sino-Tibetan (given in the first column of the table).

References for the above table:[12][13]

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") etc.

The 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:[14]

Mizo has the following triphthongs:

• iai, as in iai, piai
• iau as in riau ruau, tiau tuau etc.
• uai, as in uai, zuai, tuai, vuai
• uau, as in riau ruau, tiau tuau, suau suau

Mizo has the following consonants, with the first symbol being its orthographical form and the second one its representation in the IPA:[14]

1. The glottal and glottalised consonants appear only in final position.

As Mizo is a tonal language, differences in pitch and pitch contour can change the meanings of words. Tone systems have developed independently in many daughter languages, largely by 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, and 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 are shown by the letter sequence p-a-n-g, as follows:[15]

• long high tone: páng as in páng là (which has the same intonation as sáng in the sentence Thingküng sáng tak kan huanah a ding).
• long low tone: pàng as in Tui a kawt pàng pâng mai (which has the same intonation as vàng in the word vànglaini).
• peaking tone: 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 tone: 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 tone: pǎng as in naupǎng (which has the same intonation as thǎng in Kan huanah thǎng ka kam).
• short falling tone: pȧng as in I va inkhuih pȧng ve? (which has the same intonation as pȧn in I lam ka rawn pȧn)
• short mid tone: pang as in A dik lo nghâl pang (which has the same tone as man in Sazu ka man)
• short low tone: pạng as in I pạng a sá a nih kha (which has the same tone as chạl in I chạlah thosí a fù).

Note that the exact orthography of tones with diacritics is still not standardised (notably for differentiating the four short tones with confusive or conflicting choices of diacritics) except for the differentiation of long versus short tones using the circumflex. As well, the need of at least 7 diacritics may cause complications to design easy keyboard layouts, even if they use dead keys, and even if not all basic Latin letters are needed for Mizo itself, so publications may represent the short tones using digrams (e.g. by appending some apostrophe or glottal letter) to reduce the number of diacritics needed to only 4 (those used now for the long tones) on only two dead keys.

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

References and further reading for this section.[16][17][18][19]

The declarative word order in Mizo 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.

The verbs (called thiltih in Mizo)[20] 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[21]

• 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.

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 used as 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 – those 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.

There is no gender for nouns, and there are no articles. There are some specific 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)
• hmù (v. to see) – hmuhna (n. sight, seeing, vision)
• suäl (adj. evil) – suàlna (n. sin)/suàlzia (n. evilness)

Mizo nouns undergo declension into cases. The main cases can be classified as follows:[22]

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

All Mizo pronouns occur in two forms, namely in free form and clitic form:[22]

The free form is mostly used for emphasis, and has to be used in conjunction 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.

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

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

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.

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.

Mizo 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:[25]

This award is only for books originally written in Mizo, 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 its winners are novels. Each year, the academy examines about 100 books (in 2011, 149 books were examined),[26] 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 best-known Mizo writers include James Dokhuma, Ṭhuamtea Khawlhring, C. Laizawna, C. Lalnunchanga, Vanneihtluanga etc.

The Mizoram Press Information Bureau lists some twenty Mizo daily newspapers just in Aizawl city, as of March 2013.[27] The following list gives some of the most well-known newspapers published in the Mizo language.

Most of them are daily newspapers.