| Zeme | |
| Nativename: | Zeliang |
| States: | India |
| Region: | Assam, Manipur, Nagaland |
| Ethnicity: | Zeme Naga |
| Date: | 2011 census |
| Ref: | e25 |
| Familycolor: | Sino-Tibetan |
| Fam2: | Tibeto-Burman |
| Fam3: | Central Tibeto-Burman languages (?) |
| Fam4: | Kuki-Chin-Naga |
| Fam5: | Zemeic |
| Iso3: | nzm |
| Glotto: | zeme1240 |
| Glottorefname: | Zeme Naga |
Zeme (also called Empeo, Jeme, Kacha and Zemi) is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken in northeastern India. It is one of the dialects spoken by the Zeme Naga, the other being Mzieme.
Zeme (dialects: Paren, Njauna) is spoken in:
Most Zeme speakers are bi- or multi-lingual in the regional lingua franca of Manipuri and English.
Zeme belongs to the Kuki-Chin section of the Kamarupan group of the Baric sub-division of Tibeto-Burman language family. It is closely related to the neighboring languages of Liangmai and Rongmei.
| Plosive/ Affricate | voiceless | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| aspirated | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| voiced | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Nasal | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Fricative | voiceless | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| voiced | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||
| Trill | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||
| Approximant | lateral | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| central | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| Close | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |
| Open | pronounced as /ink/ |
Zeme also has six diphthongs: pronounced as //ai, ao, oi, əu, ui, əi//.
Like other Tibeto-Burman languages, Zeme is a tonal language. Most of the words in the language are monosyllabic in nature.
Gender and number are not marked on Zeme verbs. The basic word order is SOV, with an alternate order of OSV, making it a verb-final language.
There are 7 categories of numerals in the language: Cardinals, ordinals, fractionals, multiplicatives, distributives, restrictives, and approximates. The following are cardinal numerals:
| 1 | one | ə-ket | |
| 2 | two | ke-na | |
| 3 | three | kə-čum | |
| 4 | four | mə-dai | |
| 5 | five | mə-ŋəiyu | |
| 6 | six | sə-rok | |
| 7 | seven | sə-na | |
| 8 | eight | tə-set | |
| 9 | nine | sə-kui | |
| 10 | ten | kə-rəiyu | |
| 20 | twenty | iŋkai | |
| 30 | thirty | him-rəiyu | |
| 40 | forty | he-dai | |
| 50 | fifty | riŋ-ŋəiyu | |
| 60 | sixty | riyak-sərok | |
| 70 | seventy | riyak-səna | |
| 80 | eighty | riyak-təset | |
| 90 | ninety | riyak-səkui | |
| 100 | one hundred | hai | |
| 1000 | one thousand | čəŋ |