Hakha Chin

Not to be confused with Burmese language or Hakka Chinese.

Lai
"Language" or "Speak" [1]
Laiholh
Pronunciation	La-i
Native to	Myanmar, India, Bangladesh
Region	Chin, Myanmar
Ethnicity	Chin
Native speakers	circa 450,000
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Central Tibeto-Burman Kuki-Chin-Naga Kuki-Chin Central Lai Lai
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	cnh
Glottolog	haka1240  laic1236
ELP	Hakha Chin

Lai, Laiholh, or Pawi is a Kuki-Chin language spoken in central Chin State in Myanmar, and Lawngtlai district of Mizoram, India. Hakha Chin-speaking minorities are also found in the Sagaing and Magway Regions of Myanmar, and in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of southeastern Bangladesh by the Bawm minority.

There are over 450,000 speakers of this language.

Hakha Chin is the lingua franca in Thantlang and Hakha townships of Chin State.

Distribution

The Hakha Chin (Lai) speakers are largely in Chin State, Burma and Mizoram in Northeast India, with a sizeable number of speakers in south-eastern Bangladesh. Nowadays, approximately one hundred thousand Hakha Chin speakers are living in the Western countries, such as Canada, Denmark, Germany, Norway, and the United States, as well as Australia and New Zealand.

In India, they are a Scheduled Tribe, which means the government recognizes them as a distinct people.

As they mostly live in hilly or even mountainous remote areas, most Hakha-Chin speakers in Chin State, Burma, Mizoram and in Northeast India and south-eastern Bangladesh rely on swidden agriculture. Hakha-Chin speakers are predominantly Christian.

Burma

As of 1991, there were 100,000 Hakha-Chin speakers in Burma. Dialects vary from village to village.

Bangladesh

Chin is spoken by roughly half a million people.The precise count of Hakha Chin speakers in Bangladesh is difficult to ascertain, but it is widely recognized that a significant population residing in the Chittagong Hill Tracts speaks the language.

India

As of 1996, there were 345,000 Hakha-Chin speakers in India, mostly in the Lawngtlai, Lunglei, and Aizawl districts of Mizoram as well as the southernmost tip of Assam. In India, the language is also known as Lai Pawi and Lai Hawlh and is taught in some primary schools. Most of its younger speakers in India are literate.

Western Countries

Currently, around 100,000 Hakha Chin speakers are living in the Western countries, such as Canada, Denmark, Germany, Norway, and the United States, as well as Australia and New Zealand.

Mutual intelligibility

Hakha Chin serves as a lingua franca in most parts of Chin State and is a native language in Hakha, Thantlang, and parts of Matupi. Derived from the same Lai dialect and sharing 85% of their phonology, Falam Chin speakers can easily communicate with Hakha speakers. As the capital of Chin State, Hakha provides government employment and business opportunities to people living elsewhere in Chin State. These people live here temporarily or permanently, and their families eventually learn how to speak Lai holh (Hakha).

The Chin people use Latin script (Hakha alphabet) as their writing system.

Phonology

Syllable structure

Words in the Hakha Chin language are predominantly monosyllabic with some sesqui syllables featuring a "reduced syllable". Full syllables are either open or closed with a rising, falling, or low tone.

Consonants

The Hakha Chin language differentiates between voiced, voiceless, and voiceless aspirated obstruents. Additionally, two sets of sonorants are realised.

		Labial	Alveolar		Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
			central	lateral
Nasal	voiced	m	n				ŋ
	voiceless	m̥	n̥				ŋ̊
Plosive	tenuis	p	t		ʈ		k	ʔ
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ		ʈʰ		kʰ
	voiced	b	d				(ɡ)
Affricate	tenuis		t͡s	tɬ
	aspirated		t͡sʰ	tɬʰ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s					h
	voiced	v	z
Liquid	voiced		r	l
	voiceless		r̥	l̥
Semivowel		w				j

Consonants allowed in syllable codas are /p, t, k, m, n, ŋ, l, r, j, w/.

Consonants /m, n, ŋ, l, r/ occurring in syllable-final position may also occur as glottalized [mˀ, nˀ, ŋˀ, lˀ, rˀ].

The unattested parent language, Proto-Chin, featured a voiced velar plosive ɡ. The phoneme itself was lost in all of its daughter languages, due to a spirantisation to ɣ, which a labialisation followed afterwards. Only certain loanwords, not native words, have the voiced velar plosive.

In the Hakha alphabet, ⟨h⟩ transcribes the glottal fricative in initial position, but a glottal stop in coda position. Voiceless approximants are distinguished in writing from their voiced counterparts with a prefixed ⟨h⟩.

Vowels

The Hakha language features seven vowels which may be long or short. Allophones occur for closed syllables.

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e		ɔ
Open		a

In final position, /e/ can be heard as [ɛ].

The Hakha language also features diphthongs.

	Front	Central	Back
Close	ia   iu		ui   ua
Mid	ei   eu		ɔi
Open		ai   au

Grammar

Hakha-Chin is a subject-object-verb (SOV) language, and negation follows the verb.

Literacy and literature

Literacy rates are lower for older generations and higher in younger generations. The Hakha-Chin language uses the Latin script, unlike most languages of India and Bangladesh which use Devanagari or other Southeast Asian alphabets. Between 1978 and 1999, the Bible was translated into the language.

Language Use and Vitality

Primary Language: Hakha Chin is typically the primary language spoken by the Hakha Chin people in their daily lives. It serves as a means of communication within families, communities, and in local institutions.

Language Vitality: Despite the pressures from Burmese, the official language of Myanmar, Hakha Chin continues to be actively used in various domains, including religious ceremonies, cultural events, and community gatherings.

Cultural Significance

Identity: The Hakha Chin language plays a crucial role in preserving and promoting the cultural identity of the Hakha Chin people. It is used in traditional songs, stories, and religious practices.

Literature and Media: There is a growing body of literature and media produced in Hakha Chin, including books, newspapers, radio broadcasts, and more recently, digital content.

Challenges and Preservation Efforts

Endangered Status: Like many indigenous languages around the world, Hakha Chin faces challenges from cultural assimilation and globalization. Efforts are underway to promote its use and ensure its survival among younger generations.

Education: There are initiatives to develop educational materials and programs in Hakha Chin to strengthen literacy and language skills among speakers, particularly children and youth.

Overall, Hakha Chin is not just a means of communication but a repository of cultural heritage and identity for the Hakha Chin people. Efforts to document, preserve, and promote the language are crucial for its continued vitality and relevance in the modern world.

Bibliography

• Peterson, David A. (2003). "Hakha Lai" In Graham Thurgood and Randy J. LaPolla, eds. The Sino-Tibetan Languages, 409–426. London: Routledge

See also

• Lai languages
• Lai people

External links

• Online English to Chin (Hakha) Dictionary with Audio Pronunciations
• English to Haka Chin Online Dictionary
• Lai Language Resource collection of Hakha Lai language documentation in the Computational Resource for South Asian Languages (CoRSAL) archive