Rongmei is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by the Rongmei Naga community in Northeast India.[1] It has been called Songbu and is close to Zeme and Liangmai. The language has been nomenclatured as "Ruangmei" and studied as a First Language paper from class I to X of Board of Secondary Education, Manipur.[2] Ruangmei is studied as a Minor Indian Language (MIL) in Class XI & XII of Council of Higher Secondary Education Manipur (COHSEM).[3]
Rongmei | |
---|---|
Songbu | |
Ruanglat, "Ruangmei" | |
![]() Rongmei written in Meitei script | |
Region | Assam, Manipur and Nagaland |
Ethnicity | Rongmei Naga |
Native speakers | 350,580 approx |
Language family | Sino-Tibetan
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | nbu |
Glottolog | rong1266 |
ELP | Rongmei Naga |
Rongmei is mostly spoken in the three states of Assam, Manipur and Nagaland.[4]
It is the most spoken language in Tamenglong district and Noney district; and the second most spoken language in Imphal West district and Bishnupur district of Manipur.[5]
Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive/ Affricate |
voiceless | p | t | tʃ | k | |
aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | |||
voiced | b | d | dʒ | ɡ | ||
Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||
Fricative | s | h | ||||
Trill | r | |||||
Approximant | lateral | l | ||||
central | w | j |
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i | u | |
Mid | e | ə | o |
Open | a |
A lower-mid elongated sound [ɐː] also occurs only in word-medial positions.[6]
Sino-Tibetan branches | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Western Himalayas (Himachal, Uttarakhand, Nepal, Sikkim) |
| ![]() | |||
Eastern Himalayas (Tibet, Bhutan, Arunachal) | |||||
Myanmar and Indo-Burmese border |
| ||||
East and Southeast Asia |
| ||||
Dubious (possible isolates) (Arunachal) |
| ||||
Proposed groupings |
| ||||
Proto-languages |
| ||||
Italics indicates single languages that are also considered to be separate branches. |
Kuki-Chin–Naga languages | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kuki-Chin |
| ||||||||||||
Naga |
| ||||||||||||
Meitei | |||||||||||||
Karbic |
| |||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Arunachal Pradesh |
| ||||||||||||||||
Assam |
| ||||||||||||||||
Manipur |
| ||||||||||||||||
Meghalaya |
| ||||||||||||||||
Mizoram | |||||||||||||||||
Nagaland |
| ||||||||||||||||
Sikkim | |||||||||||||||||
Tripura |
|