Paite is a

Sino-Tibetan Language 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 by a subgroup of the Chin Kuki people. There are different Paite

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that ...

s. The language exhibits mutual intelligibility with the other languages of the region including

Hmar Hmar may refer to: *Hmars or Hmar people *Hmar language Hmar language, also known by its endonym Khawsak Ṭawng, belongs to the Kukish languages, Kukish branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages, Sino-Tibetan family of languages. The speakers of ...

, Vaiphei, Simte, Kom,

Gangte Gangte is an ethnic group mainly living in the Indian state of Manipur. They belong to the Zo people and are parts of the Kuki or under Mizo tribe and are recognised a tribe of Manipur, India. They are also indigenous inhabitants of Mizoram, ...

and other languages. The name Paite could translate to 'the people who went', 'a group of people marching', or it can even be construed to mean 'nomads'.

Paite alphabet (Paite laimal)

The alphabet was propounded by Shri T. Vialphung in 1903 which was extracted from the Roman alphabet and has 18 consonants and 6 vowels. Out of 18 consonant phonemes in Paite, 11 of them are glottal stops, 4 fricatives, 2 nasal and 1 lateral. This version of the Paite alphabet is called 'Paite Laimal' and has been in use since 1903. Diphthongs 'iai'(yai) and 'uau'(wao) are the Triphthongs of Paite language. Five prominent tones in Paite are:https://www.jiocloud.com/share/?s=z17jlfUI9ir0if-922LjQFfkmacdIOm1xSjnQ-G2NZY8BX.....backups sak mil paite * rising (Tungkal) (á), * rising-falling (Tungkal-niamkiak) (â), * falling (Niamkiak) (à), * falling-rising (Niamkiak-tungkal) (ã), * and flat/levelled (Pheipai) (ā). The number of tones differ with variations in region and dialect.

Numbers

Sample text

The following is a sample text in Paite of Article 1 of the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, ...

: There are two major dialects of Paite spoken in

Manipur Manipur () ( mni, Kangleipak) is a States and territories of India, 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 ...

: Lamjang and Dapjal; and 4 minor dialects which are Songtal, Bukpi, Lousau & Kangkap.

Grammar

Paite grammar is fairly complex because of a number of word modification and a fairly complex noun structure.

Word order

Paite's declarative word structure is Object–subject–verb. If the word order and grammar isn't followed, sentences and phrases lose their meaning. For example, if 'Laibu a gelh', which translates to 'He writes a book', was written as 'Gelh a laibu' with the verb preceding and the subject and object succeeding respectively, the phrase would then translate to 'Writes he a book'.

Geographical distribution

Paite is spoken mainly in the following locations (''Ethnologue''). *

: Lamka phaizang,

Churachandpur district Churachandpur District ( Meitei pronunciation: ''/tʃʊraːˌtʃaːnɗpʊr/''), is one of the 16 districts in the southwestern corner of the Indian state of Manipur that covers an area of . It is named after the Meitei King Churachand Singh, ...

, Pherzawl district, Jiribam district,

Imphal Imphal ( Meitei pronunciation: /im.pʰal/; English pronunciation: ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Manipur. The metropolitan centre of the city contains the ruins of Kangla Palace (also known as Kangla Fort), the royal seat of the ...

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", the self-described name of the native inhabitants, and "Ram", which in the Mizo language means "lan ...

: 30 villages of

Champhai District Champhai district is one of the eleven districts of Mizoram state in India. The district is bounded on the north by Churachandpur district of Manipur state, on the west by Saitual and Serchhip districts, and on the south and east by Myanmar. T ...

, Aizawl district and newly formed Khawzawl district, Saitual district. *

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 eas ...

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 ...

: Karbi Anglong *

Meghalaya Meghalaya (, or , meaning "abode of clouds"; from Sanskrit , "cloud" + , "abode") is a state in northeastern India. Meghalaya was formed on 21 January 1972 by carving out two districts from the state of Assam: (a) the United Khasi Hills and Jai ...

Nagaland Nagaland () is a landlocked States and union territories of India, state in the northeast India, 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 ...

Chin State Chin State (, ) is a state in western Myanmar. The Chin State is bordered by Sagaing Division and Magway Division to the east, Rakhine State to the south, Bangladesh to the south-west, and the Indian states of Mizoram to the west and Manipu ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

(In Myanmar, the language is also known as Tedim Zomi, which in turn is also related to the

Tedim Township Tedim or Tiddim Township ( my, တီးတိန်မြို့နယ်) is a township in Tedim District of the Chin State of Myanmar (Burma). The administrative centre for the township is the town of Tedim. Tedim is the most populous towns ...

) *

Rangamati Rangamati (Bengali: রাঙ্গামাটি;) is the administrative headquarter and town of Rangamati Hill District in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. The town is located at 22°37'60N 92°12'0E and has an altitude of . The dist ...

, Chittagong Hills Tract

Education and Academic

Paite language can now be taken up as one of the MIL subjects offered in the Three-Year Degree course in Manipur University. The Academic Council of the university in its meeting held on April 22, 2004 gave its approval for the inclusion of Paite as one of the MIL subjects after considering recommendation by the Board of Studies of the School of Humanities, and also in recognition of the richness of the language and its literature including creative writing.