Chakma language (; autonym: , ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Chakma and

Daingnet people The Daingnet people ( my, ဒိုင်းနက်လူမျိုး), also known as the Thetkama people ( my, သက္ကမ) are an ethnic group indigenous to northern Rakhine State, Myanmar. According to their own internal census in 199 ...

. The language has common features with other languages in the region like the Chittagonian, Tanchangya, Arakanese and others. It is spoken by nearly 320,000 people in southeast Bangladesh in

Chittagong Hill Tracts The Chittagong Hill Tracts ( bn, পার্বত্য চট্টগ্রাম, Parbotto Chottogram), often shortened to simply the Hill Tracts and abbreviated to CHT, are group of districts within the Chittagong Division in southeast ...

, and another 230,000 in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, including 96,972 in Mizoram,

Tripura Tripura (, Bengali: ) is a state in Northeast India. The third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a population of 36.71 lakh ( 3.67 million). It is bordered by Assam and Mizoram to the east a ...

and

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares int ...

. It is written using the

Chakma script The Chakma Script (''Ajhā pāṭh''), also called Ajhā pāṭh, Ojhapath, Ojhopath, Aaojhapath, is an abugida used for the Chakma language, and recently for the Pali language. History The Chakma script is an abugida that belongs to the Brahmic ...

, which is also called Awzhā Pāṭh, sometimes romanised Ojhopath. Literacy in Chakma script is low.

Status

It is officially recognized by the Government of Tripura in India and also by the Government of Bangladesh. In India, it is also spoken primarily in the

Chakma Autonomous District Council The Chakma Autonomous District Council (CADC) is an autonomous council for the Chakma people living in the south-western part of Mizoram, India. It covers the Tuichawng (Chawngte) subdivision of Lawngtlai district. Its headquarters is at Kama ...

(CADC) which consists of the Tuichawng constituency of

Lawngtlai district Lawngtlai district is one of the eleven districts of Mizoram state in India. The district is bounded on the north by Lunglei district, on the west by Bangladesh, on the south by Myanmar and on the east by Saiha district. The district occupies a ...

Mizoram Mizoram () is a state in Northeast India, with Aizawl as its seat of government and capital city. The name of the state is derived from "Mizo people, Mizo", the endonym, self-described name of the native inhabitants, and "Ram", which in the Mizo ...

and many places in Tripura. Although there were no Chakma language radio or television stations as of 2011, the language has a presence in social media and on YouTube. The Hill Education Chakma Script website provides tutorials, videos, e-books, and Chakma language forums. In 2012, the Government of Tripura announced the implementation of Chakma language in Chakma Script (or Ajhā Pāṭh) in primary schools of

. Imparting of education up to the elementary stage in the mother tongue is a national policy. To begin with, Chakma language subjects in its own scripts has been introduced in 87 primary schools in Chakma concentrated areas in Tripura." "In preparation for the January 2014 education season, the national curriculum and textbook board has already started printing books in six languages ... Chakma, Kokborok (Tripura community), Marma,

Santal The Santal or Santhal are an Austroasiatic speaking Munda ethnic group in South Asia. Santals are the largest tribe in the Jharkhand and West Bengal state of India in terms of population and are also found in the states of Odisha, Bihar and A ...

, Sadri (Orao community) and Achik." ''

Mor Thengari ''My Bicycle'' ( Chakma: ''Mor Thengari'') is a Bangladeshi indie film directed by Aung Rakhine. It is the country's first Chakma language film. The Bangladesh Film Censor Board blocked the commercial release of the film, which speculators have ...

'' (My Bicycle) was Bangladesh's first Chakma-language movie. However, it was banned in Bangladesh due to its controversial plot.

Phonology

Vowels

Consonants

* can be heard as in intervocalic and word-final positions. * can be heard as in word-initial and intervocalic positions. * A sound is rare, and in some cases, is a free variant sound of .

Medieval Chakma

The Chakma and

now speak what may be considered divergent dialects of Magadhi Prakrit. However, this is due to

language shift Language shift, also known as language transfer or language replacement or language assimilation, is the process whereby a speech community shifts to a different language, usually over an extended period of time. Often, languages that are perceiv ...

from a

Tibeto-Burman language The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non-Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people speak ...

; that medieval language may have been related to Sak or Chairel (and therefore of the Brahmaputran branch).

Writing system

The Chakma script is an

abugida An abugida (, from Ge'ez language, Ge'ez: ), sometimes known as alphasyllabary, neosyllabary or pseudo-alphabet, is a segmental Writing systems#Segmental writing system, writing system in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as units; ...

that belongs to the

Brahmic family of scripts The Brahmic scripts, also known as Indic scripts, are a family of abugida writing systems. They are used throughout the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and parts of East Asia. They are descended from the Brahmi script of ancient India ...

. Chakma evolved from the

Burmese script Burmese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Myanmar, a country in Southeast Asia * Burmese people * Burmese language * Burmese alphabet * Burmese cuisine * Burmese culture Animals * Burmese cat * Burmese chicken * Burmese (horse), a ...

, which was ultimately derived from

Pallava The Pallava dynasty existed from 275 CE to 897 CE, ruling a significant portion of the Deccan, also known as Tondaimandalam. The dynasty rose to prominence after the downfall of the Satavahana dynasty, with whom they had formerly served as fe ...

Educational institutions

The Chakma language is being taught in many Government and private schools in India (Tripura, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh) and Bangladesh. The Chakma language was officially introduced in primary schools by the Govt. of Tripura under The Directorate of Kokborok & Other Minority Languages in 2004 through Bengali Script and since 2013 through

(also known as Ajhā Pāṭh). Presently, the Chakma language is being taught in 87 schools.

References

*Cāṅmā, Cirajyoti and Maṅgal Cāṅgmā. 1982. ''Cāṅmār āg pudhi'' (Chakma primer). Rāṅamāṭi:Cāṅmābhāṣā Prakāśanā Pariṣad. *Khisa, Bhagadatta. 2001. ''Cāṅmā pattham pāt'' (Chakma primer.) Rāṅamāṭi: Tribal Cultural Institute(TCI). *Singā. 2004. ''Phagadāṅ''

External links

Ethnologue reportUnicode Font for the languageChakma Script

Chakma Bangla BlogKeyboard">Chakma Prototype KeyboardChakma Unicode ConverterAvailable Chakma Unicode Font
* * * {{Eastern Indo-Aryan languages Eastern Indo-Aryan languages Languages of Bangladesh Chakma Languages of Mizoram Languages of Tripura Languages of Arunachal Pradesh