| Zou | |
| Also Known As: | Zo |
| States: | Manipur, India |
| Region: | Tonzang: Chin State, Chin Hills; In India: Mizoram and Manipur, Chandel, Singngat subdivision and Sungnu area; Churachandpur districts; Assam. |
| Ethnicity: | Zou |
| Date: | 2012 |
| Ref: | e25 |
| Familycolor: | Sino-Tibetan |
| Fam2: | Kuki-Chin-Mizo languages[1] |
| Fam3: | Northern Kuki-Chin-Mizo languages |
| Script: | Latin, Zoulai alphabet[2] |
| Iso3: | zom |
| Glotto: | zouu1235 |
| Glottorefname: | Zo |
Zo (also spelled Zou and also known as Zokam) is a Northern Kuki-Chin-Mizo language originating in western Burma and spoken also in Mizoram and Manipur in northeastern India.
The name Zou is sometimes used as a cover term for the languages of all Mizo people (Zo people) i.e. Kukish and Chin peoples, especially the Zomi people.
The term 'Zo' has been employed in many books to denote the word 'Zo', for simple reason of phonetic usage.
The Zo themselves employ the various terms Zo, Zou, and Jo to mean their tribe.
The set of 23 Zou consonantal phonemes can be established on the basis of the following minimal pairs or overlapping words. Besides these 23 Phonemes, 1 consonant is a borrowed phoneme (i.e. /r/), which is found only in loan words, in very rare cases (e.g. /r/ in /rəŋ/ "color"). Along with these consonants, Zou has 7 vowels: i, e, a, ɔ, o, u, ə.[3]
| Plosive | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| aspirated | pronounced as /pʰ/ | pronounced as /tʰ/ | pronounced as /kʰ/ | ||||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Affricate | 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/ | ||||
| Lateral | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Semivowel | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Open-mid | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ |
The Zo verbs can be classified into three types: Stem (1), Stem (2), Stem (3) as given below:[6]
| Stem 2 | Stem 3 | Stem 4 | ||
| piê-give | pie? | pe- | pieh | |
| puo-carry | puo? | po- | pua- |
The following is a sample text in Zou.
There are four major dialects of Zou in Myanmar and India: Haidawi, Khuongnung, Thangkhal, and Khodai.
Zomi numbers are counted as follows:[7]
| Numeral | Zou | English | Hindi | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | be̋m | zero | Hindi: शून्य | |
| 1 | khàt | one | Hindi: एक | |
| 2 | nì: | two | Hindi: दो | |
| 3 | thum | three | Hindi: तीन | |
| 4 | li: | four | Hindi: चार | |
| 5 | nga: | five | Hindi: पाँच | |
| 6 | gùh | six | Hindi: छह | |
| 7 | sagí | seven | Hindi: सात | |
| 8 | giét | eight | Hindi: आठ | |
| 9 | kuó | nine | Hindi: नौ | |
| 10 | sàwm, sôm | ten | Hindi: दस | |
| 11 | sàwm leh khàt | eleven | Hindi: ग्यारह | |
| 12 | sàwm leh nì | twelve | Hindi: बारह | |
| 13 | sàwm leh thum | thirteen | Hindi: तेरह | |
| 14 | sàwm leh li: | fourteen | Hindi: चौदह | |
| 15 | sàwm leh nga: | fifteen | Hindi: पंद्रह | |
| 16 | sàwm leh gùh | sixteen | Hindi: सोलह | |
| 17 | sàwm leh sagí | seventeen | Hindi: सत्रह | |
| 18 | sàwm leh giét | eighteen | Hindi: अठारह | |
| 19 | sàwm leh kuó | nineteen | Hindi: उन्नीस | |
| 20 | sàwmnì | twenty | Hindi: बीस | |
| 30 | sàwmthum | thirty | Hindi: तीस | |
| 40 | sàwmli: | forty | Hindi: चालीस | |
| 50 | sàwmnga: | fifty | Hindi: पचास | |
| 60 | sàwmgùh | sixty | Hindi: साठ | |
| 70 | sàwmsagí | seventy | Hindi: सत्तर | |
| 80 | sàwmgiét | eighty | Hindi: अस्सी | |
| 90 | sàwmkuò | ninety | Hindi: नव्वे | |
| 100 | zȁ | hundred | Hindi: सौ | |
| 1,000 | sa̋ng, tȕl | one thousand | Hindi: हज़ार | |
| 10,000 | si̋ng, tȕlsàwm, sa̋ngsàwm | ten thousand | Hindi: दस हज़ार | |
| 100,000 | nuòi, tȕlzà, sa̋ngzà | one hundred thousand, one lakh | Hindi: लाख | |
| 1,000,000 | nuòisàwm, sa̋ngtȕl, tȕltȕl | one million | Hindi: दस लाख | |
| 10,000,000 | thȅn, vâibêlsié, kráwl | ten million, one crore | Hindi: करोड़ | |
| 100,000,000 | thȅnzà, kráwl sàwm | one billion, ten crore | Hindi: अरब |
Zou is often written in a Latin script developed by Christian missionary J.H. Cope. In 1952, M. Siahzathang of Churachandpur created an alternative script known as Zolai or Zoulai, an alphabetic system with some alphasyllabic characteristics. The user community for the script is growing- Zou cultural, political, and literary organizations began to adopt the script beginning in the 1970s, and more recently, the Manipur State Government has shown support for both Siahzathang and the script.[8] [9]
As can be seen from the name Zo ("of the hills") and Mizoram ("people of the hill country"), Zo among the Northern Kuki-Chin-Mizo languagess is closely related to the Central languages such as the Duhlian (Lusei/Lushai) or Mizo language (endonym in Duhlian or Lushai is Mizo ṭawng), the lingua franca language of Mizoram.
Zou as spoken in India is similar to the Paite language of the Paite, though Zou lacks the word-final glottal stops present in Paite.[10] [11]
At its largest extent, the geographic area covered by the language group is a territory of approximately 60,000 square miles (160,000 km2) in size, in Burma, India and Bangladesh.[12] However political boundaries and political debates have distorted the extent of the area in some sources.[13]
It is used in Chin State, Tiddim, and the Chin Hills. Use of Burmese has increased in the Zo speaking Chin State since the 1950s.[14] Ethnologue reports that Zou is spoken in the following townships of Myanmar.
Tonzang, Hakha, and Tedim townships
Kalay, Khampat, and Tamu townships
Singngat subdivision and the Sungnu Sachih / Kana area
In Bangladesh it is used by the Bawm people(Mizo people).[16] [17]