Thadou, Kuki, or Thado Chin is a

Sino-Tibetan Sino-Tibetan (also referred to as Trans-Himalayan) is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. Around 1.4 billion people speak a Sino-Tibetan language. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 ...

language of the Northeastern sub-branch of

Kuki-Chin The Kuki-Chin languages (also called Kukish or South-Central Tibeto-Burman languages) are a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family spoken in northeastern India, western Myanmar and southeastern Bangladesh. Most notable Kuki-Chin-speaking ...

. It is spoken by the

Thadou people Thadou people, also called Thadou Kukis, are the Thadou language-speaking Kuki people inhabiting Northeast India, Myanmar, Burma, and Bangladesh. "Thadou" is also the name of a particular clan among the Thadou Kukis. Other clans of Thadou Kukis ...

Northeast India Northeast India, officially the North Eastern Region (NER), is the easternmost region of India representing both a geographic and political Administrative divisions of India, administrative division of the country. It comprises eight States and ...

(specifically in

Manipur Manipur () is a state in northeastern India with Imphal as its capital. It borders the Indian states of Assam to the west, Mizoram to the south, and Nagaland to the north and shares the international border with Myanmar, specifically t ...

and

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

). The speakers of this language use

Meitei language Meitei (; ) also known as Manipuri ), is a Tibeto-Burman language of northeast India. It is the official language and the lingua franca of Manipur and an additional official language in four districts of Assam. It is one of the scheduled ...

as their

second language A second language (L2) is a language spoken in addition to one's first language (L1). A second language may be a neighbouring language, another language of the speaker's home country, or a foreign language. A speaker's dominant language, which ...

(L2) according to the

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensive catalogue of languages. It w ...

. The language is known by many names, including Thado, Thado-Pao, Thado-Ubiphei, Thādo, Thaadou Kuki, or just Kuki or Chin. There are several dialects of this language: Hangshing, Khongsai, Kipgen, Saimar, Langiung, Sairang, Thangngeo, Haokip, Sitlhou, Singson (Shingsol). The Saimar dialect was reported in the Indian press in 2012 to be spoken by only four people in one village in the state of

Tripura Tripura () is a States and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a populat ...

. The variety spoken in

has partial mutual intelligibility with the other Mizo-Kuki-Chin languages varieties of the area including Paite,

Hmar Hmar may refer to: *Hmars or Hmar people, in northeastern India **Hmar languages, Tibeto-Burman subfamily of languages, spoken by the Hmar ***Hmar language The Hmar language (Hmar: ''Khawsak Țawng'') is a Northern Mizo language spoken by the ...

, Vaiphei, Simte, Kom and Gangte languages.

Geographical distribution

Thadou is spoken in the following locations (''

''). *

***

Chandel district 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 pop ...

***

Churachandpur district Churachandpur District (Meitei language, Meitei pronunciation: ''/tʃʊraːˌtʃaːnɗpʊr/''), is one of the 16 List of districts of Manipur, districts of the Indian state of Manipur populated mainly by Kuki-Zo people. The name honours former M ...

***

Senapati district Senapati district (Meitei language, Meitei pronunciation:/se.na.pə.ti/), is one of the 16 districts of Manipur, districts of the Indian state of Manipur. The present Senapati district was formed in December 2016, after spawning off the Sadar Hil ...

***

Kangpokpi district Kangpokpi district ( Meitei pronunciation: /kāng-pōk-pī/) is one of the 16 districts in the Indian state of Manipur. It was created in December 2016 from areas in the Sadar Hills region which were previously part of Senapati District. The ...

***

Tengnoupal district Tengnoupal district :/teŋ-nə́u-pəl/) is a district in Manipur, India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the ...

***

Pherzawl district Pherzawl district is located in the southern part of the state of Manipur. It is bounded on the east by Churachandpur District; on the north by Tamenglong District, Noney District and Jiribam district; on the west by the Cachar District of As ...

***

Karbi Anglong Karbi may refer to: Places * Karbi, Armenia * Karbi Anglong Plateau, an extension of the Indian Plate in Assam, India * Karbi Anglong district, a district of Assam, north-eastern India Other uses * Karbi people, an ethnic group of North-e ...

(Mikil Hills) ***NC hills ( Dima Hasoa)

Dialects

'' lists the following dialects of Thadou, the names of which mostly correspond to clan names. There is high mutual intelligibility among dialects. *Lupho *Lupheng *Misao *Hangsing *Chongloi *Khongsai *Kipgen *Langiung *Sairang *Thangngeo *Haokip *Sitlhou *Touthang *Haolai *Singson (Shingsol) *Hanghal *Lhouvum *Mate *Lhungdim *Baite The Saimar dialect is only spoken by 4 people in one village, which is located in

Phonology

Consonants

* /p t k/ are heard unreleased as ̚ t̚ k̚in word-final position. * is heard as more apical when occurring before front and central vowels. * can have a cognate of an aspirated velar plosive in the dialect spoken in Burma. * can have an allophone of in word-medial position.

Geographical distribution

Dialects

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

References

Further reading