HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Zemeic, Zeme, or ZeliangrongMortensen, David R. (2003). �
Comparative Tangkhul
” Unpublished Qualifying Paper, UC Berkeley.
languages are a branch of
Sino-Tibetan languages Sino-Tibetan, also cited as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese languages ...
spoken mostly in Indian state of
Nagaland Nagaland () is a landlocked state in the northeastern region of India. It is bordered by the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Assam to the west, Manipur to the south and the Sagaing Region of Myanmar to the east. Its capital cit ...
,
Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
and
Manipur Manipur () ( mni, Kangleipak) is a state in Northeast India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. It is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west. It also borders two regions of ...
in
northeast India , native_name_lang = mni , settlement_type = , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = , motto = , image_map = Northeast india.png , ...
. It may have close relationship with other
Naga languages The Naga languages are a geographic and ethnic grouping of languages under the Kuki-Chin-Naga languages, spoken mostly by Naga peoples. Northern Naga languages do not fall within the group, in spite of being spoken by Naga groups; instead, t ...
pending further research. The corresponding ethnic group is the
Zeliangrong Zeliangrong people are one of the major indigenous Naga communities living in the tri-junction of Assam, Manipur and Nagaland in India. They are the descendants of Nguiba. The term "Zeliangrong" refers to the Zeme, Liangmai and Rongmei Na ...
people. There were 63,529 Zeliang-speaking people in India in 2011. ''Ethnologue'' gives the name ''Western Naga'' for the Zeme languages.


Languages

The Zemeic languages are: * Zeme * Liangmai * Rongmei * Mzieme (Northern Zeme) * Puiron * Khoirao (Thangal) * Maram The Zeme and Rongmei language clusters are close enough to sometimes be considered dialects of a single ''Zeliang'' language. Van Driem (2011) lists the varieties, from south to north, as: :Mzieme, Khoirao, Maram, Puiron, Zeme (also known as Empeo Naga, Kacha Naga, Kochu Naga), Nruanghmei (also known as Rongmei, Kabui), Liangmai (also known as Kwoireng) ( Inpui and Puimei, which are sometimes listed, are not distinct.)


References

* George van Driem (2001) ''Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region.'' Brill. * Languages of India {{st-lang-stub