Zou language

Zo (literally "of the hills"), or Zomi, is a Northern Kukish language originating in northwestern Burma and spoken also in Manipur in northeastern India, where the name is spelled Zou.

The name Zo/Zomi is sometimes used as a cover term for the languages of all Kukish and Chin peoples. (See Zo people.)

Linguistic relations

As can be seen from the name Zo ("of the hills") and Mizoram ("people hill country"), Zo among the Northern Kukish languages is closely related to the Central Kukish languages such as the Lushai or Mizo language (endonym in Lushai is Mizo ṭawng), the main language of Mizoram.

Relation to Paite language

Zou as spoken in India is similar to the Paite language of the Paite, though Zou does not have the guttural stop W.

Geographical extent

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. However political boundaries and political debates have distorted the extent of the area in some sources.