Thadou language

Thadou
Native to	India, Burma
Ethnicity	Thadou people
Native speakers	(270,000 cited 1983 and 2001 censuses)[1]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman) Kukish Northern Thadou
Language codes
ISO 639-3	tcz
Glottolog	thad1238[2]

Thadou (Thado, Thaadou, Thado-Ubiphei, Thado-Pao) is a common Kukish language spoken widely in the northeastern part of India and Burma. The Saimar dialect^[3] was reported in the Indian press in 2012 to be spoken by only four people in one village in the state of Tripura.^[4] The variety spoken in Manipur has partial mutual intelligibility with the other Kukish varieties of the area including Paite, Hmar, Vaiphei, Simte, Kom and Gangte languages.^[5]

Geographical distribution

Thadou is spoken in the following locations (Ethnologue).

• Manipur
  • Chandel district
  • Churachandpur district
  • Senapati district
  • Tamenglong district
• Assam
• Northeastern Mizoram
• Kohima district, Nagaland
• Tripura

Dialects

Ethnologue lists the following dialects of Thadou. There is high mutual intelligibility among dialects.

• Changsen
• Jangshen
• Kaokeep
• Khongzai
• Kipgen
• Langiung
• Sairang
• Thangngen
• Hawkip
• Shithlou
• Singson (Shingsol)

References

1. Thadou at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Thado Chin". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
3. Albrecht Klose, 2001. Languages of the world
4. "Just 4 people keep a language alive". The Hindu. 18 July 2012. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
5. Singh, Chungkham Yashawanta (1995). "The linguistic situation in Manipur" (PDF). Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 18 (1): 129–134. Retrieved 19 June 2014.