English Language

The dominant international language, widely spoken in almost all countries is also one of the well-known languages of northeastern state of Mizoram. The wide spreading education scenario in the state pushed the literacy rate to the remarked ratio of 88.29% as well as became an essential part of the people’s day-to-day affairs.

English is the medium that is officially used in any of the formal occasions or ceremonies in Mizoram. Besides, English has spread its wings perpetually in the state academic and administration circle too.

It is stunning to find that the Christian missionaries who developed the Mizo language in the 19th century used English script to develop the Mizo alphabet. The Roman script in the language Mizo enhanced the proficiency of local inhabitant in English. The situation is that, even a small child of a primary school is proficient in speaking fluent English.

The simplicity and flexibleness of the language has facilitated the ever growing popularity of this language to be widely accepted in even the distant areas of the hilly terrains of Mizoram. Thus, in present days this language is flourishing in high spirits as one of the most preeminent languages of the Mizoram.

Mizo

Mizo is the most prominent language spoken by the people of Mizoram. Mizo’s are several tribal communities of Mizoram. Mizoram which was called the Lushai hills is the home district of these Mizo’s.

In etymological connotation the term Mizo implies a highlander. Literally, ‘Mi’ symbolizes human and ‘Zo’ means of the inhabitant of the upland terrain. This language Mizo emerges to be the lingua franca of the state. This language Mizo, comes under the Kuki-Chin branch of Tibeto-Burmese language. The tribe Mizo is formed by the collection of several small tribal communities namely, the Lushais, Kukis, Himars, Paithes, Pang, Raltes and Pawis. These tribes use to speak different dialect in accordance with their custom & culture. Among these various languages the most popular one is Lusei language. With the passage of time, this local language became the lingua franca of the northeast Indian states.

The relentless inducement of the Christian missionaries resulted in the development of this conversational dialect into a formal written script. The writing pattern of this language is a potpourri of Roman alphabet and Hunterian transcription. To make the writing pattern more interesting and attractive it is interlarded with traces of spelling system based on phonetics.

The amalgamation of various local dialects like the Mara, Fannai and the Chhangte resulted in the formation of Mizo language. This language exhibit the sense of gradual traditional enrichment intellectual appetite of the people of Mizoram. In order to further boost this language, the Mizoram University has a department to cater the requirements of study and research of this language.