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
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| 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) |
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| Eastern Himalayas (Tibet, Bhutan, Arunachal) | |||||
| Myanmar and Indo-Burmese border |
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| East and Southeast Asia |
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| Dubious (possible isolates) (Arunachal) |
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| Proposed groupings |
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| Proto-languages |
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Italics indicates single languages that are also considered to be separate branches. | |||||
Kuki-Chin–Naga languages | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kuki-Chin |
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| Naga |
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| Meitei | |||||||||||||
| Karbic | |||||||||||||
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arunachal Pradesh |
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| Assam |
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| Manipur |
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| Meghalaya |
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| Mizoram | |||||||||||||||||
| Nagaland |
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| Sikkim | |||||||||||||||||
| Tripura |
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