| Chakma | |
| Also Known As: | Changhma, Daingnet |
| States: | Bangladesh and India |
| Region: | Chittagong Hill Tracts CADC, Mizoram Tripura Arunachal Pradesh |
| Ethnicity: | Chakma, Daingnet |
| Speakers: | 483,299 in Bangladesh (2022)[1] |
| Speakers2: | 228,000 in India (2011) |
| Familycolor: | Indo-European |
| Fam2: | Indo-Iranian |
| Fam3: | Indo-Aryan |
| Fam4: | Eastern |
| Fam5: | Bengali–Assamese |
| Script: | Chakma script, Latin script, Bengali script |
| Ietf: | ccp |
| Iso3: | ccp |
| Glotto: | chak1266 |
Chakma (; autonym:, Changhma Bhach|script=Latn) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Chakma and Daingnet people. The language has common features with other languages in the region like the Chittagonian, Tanchangya, Arakanese and others. It has 483,299 speakers in Bangladesh primarily the Chittagong Hill Tracts, and another 230,000 in India, including 97,000 in Mizoram,[2] Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh. It is written using the Chakma script, but literacy in this script is low.
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 (CADC) which consists of the Tuichawng constituency of Lawngtlai district in Mizoram 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.[3]
In 2012, the government of Tripura announced the implementation of Chakma language in Chakma Script (or Ajhā Pāṭh) in primary schools of Tripura. 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."[4] [5]
"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, Sadri (Orao community) and Achik."[6]
Mor Thengari (My Bicycle) was Bangladesh's first Chakma-language movie. However, it was banned in Bangladesh due to its controversial plot.[7]
| Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Close-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Open-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ |
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| breathy | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Affricate | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Trill/Tap | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
The Chakma and Daingnet people now speak what may be considered divergent dialects of Magadhi Prakrit. However, this is due to language shift from a Tibeto-Burman language; that medieval language may have been related to Sak[10] or Chairel[11] (and therefore of the Brahmaputran branch).
See main article: Chakma script. The Chakma script is an abugida that belongs to the Brahmic family of scripts. Chakma evolved from the Burmese script, which was ultimately derived from Pallava.[12] [13] [14]
The following is a sample text in Chakma of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:[15]
| All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. |
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 government of Tripura under The Directorate of Kokborok & Other Minority Languages in 2004 through Bengali script and since 2013 through Chakma script (also known as Ajhā Pāṭh). Presently, the Chakma language is being taught in 87 schools.