Khasi
Austroasiatic (Khasian)
Khasi is the principal language of Meghalaya state in northeast India, with ~1.6M speakers, plus communities in Bangladesh's Sylhet division. It is one of only two Austroasiatic groups with substantial speaker populations outside Southeast Asia (the other being Munda) — the Khasians are descendants of an early Austroasiatic migration into eastern India. Khasi society is matrilineal (one of the few major matrilineal societies in the world), with property and kinship traced through women. The Latin orthography was developed by Welsh missionaries in the early 19th century. Khasi is co-official in Meghalaya alongside Garo and English. Has SVO order, no tones (unusual for Austroasiatic), and rich derivational morphology.
Where it is spoken
31 core words in Khasi
Water
um
/um/
Fire
ding
/diŋ/
Sun
ka sngi
/ka sŋi/
Moon
bnai
/bnai/
Star
khlur
/kʰlur/
Mother
mei
/mei/
Father
kpa
/kpa/
I
nga
/ŋa/
You
me
/me/
Name
kyrteng
/kirtɛŋ/
Eye
ka khmat
/ka kʰmat/
Hand
ka kti
/ka kti/
Heart
ka jingmut
/ka dʒiŋmut/
Love
ieid
/iəid/
Tree
u dieng
/u diəŋ/
House
ka ïing
/ka jiŋ/
Dog
u ksew
/u ksew/
Cat
u miaw
/u miau/
Eat
bam
/bam/
Drink
dih
/dih/
One
wei
/wei/
Two
ar
/ar/
Hello
khublei
/kʰublei/
Thank you
khublei shibun
/kʰublei ʃibun/
Good
bha
/bʱa/
Sources
Words compared
Compared with related Austroasiatic (Khasian) languages
| Meaning | Khasi | Kurtöp | Ladakhi | Pyu | Sikkimese | Sherpa | Eastern Bru |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water | um /um/ | khwe /kʰwe/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ | ʔuy /uj/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ | daak /daːk/ |
| Fire | ding /diŋ/ | mi /mi/ | མེ /me/ | vyaŋ /wjaŋ/ | མེ /me/ | མེ /me/ | oih /ʔoiʔ/ |
| Sun | ka sngi /ka sŋi/ | ningpe /niŋpe/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ | ño /ɲo/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ | mat plei /mat plei/ |
| Moon | bnai /bnai/ | lai /lai/ | ཟླ་བ /zlawa/ | hla /hla/ | ཟླ་བ /dawa/ | ཟླ་བ /dawa/ | kasai /kasai/ |
| Star | khlur /kʰlur/ | karma /karma/ | སྐར་མ /skarma/ | kar /karʔ/ | སྐར་མ་ /kaːma/ | སྐར་མ /karma/ | mansơ /mənsɤ/ |
| Mother | mei /mei/ | amai /amai/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ | na /na/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ | amey /amej/ |
| Father | kpa /kpa/ | apai /apai/ | ཨ་པ /apa/ | paʔ /paʔ/ | ཨ་པ /apa/ | ཨ་པ /apa/ | amung /amuŋ/ |
| I | nga /ŋa/ | ngat /ŋat/ | ང /ŋa/ | ŋa /ŋa/ | ང་ /ŋa/ | ང /ŋa/ | cứq /kɯʔ/ |
| You | me /me/ | wit /wit/ | ཁྱེད་རང /kʰeːraŋ/ | naŋ /naŋ/ | ཁྱེད་རང་ /kʰeraŋ/ | ཁྱེད་རང /kʰeraŋ/ | mới /mɤːj/ |
| Name | kyrteng /kirtɛŋ/ | ming /miŋ/ | མིང /miŋ/ | miŋ /miŋ/ | མིང་ /miŋ/ | མིང /miŋ/ | ramoh /rəmɔːh/ |
| Eye | ka khmat /ka kʰmat/ | mik /mik/ | མིག /mik/ | mik /mik/ | མིག /mik/ | མིག /mik/ | mat /mat/ |
| Hand | ka kti /ka kti/ | lak /lak/ | ལག་པ /lakpa/ | lak /lak/ | ལག /lak/ | ལག་པ /lakpa/ | ati /ati/ |
| Heart | ka jingmut /ka dʒiŋmut/ | nying /ɲiŋ/ | སྙིང /ɲiŋ/ | — /—/ | སྙིང /ɲiŋ/ | སྙིང /ɲiŋ/ | plong /ploŋ/ |
| Love | ieid /iəid/ | ga /ɡa/ | དགའ /ɡa/ | — /—/ | དགའ /ɡa/ | བློ་ཆོ /lotɕʰo/ | hong /hoŋ/ |
| Tree | u dieng /u diəŋ/ | shing /ɕiŋ/ | ཤིང /ʃiŋ/ | siŋ /siŋ/ | ཤིང /ɕiŋ/ | སྡོང་པོ /dompo/ | aleng /aleŋ/ |
| House | ka ïing /ka jiŋ/ | khim /kʰim/ | ཁང་པ /kʰaŋpa/ | vaiŋ /waiŋ/ | ཁྱིམ /tɕim/ | ནང /naŋ/ | dung /duŋ/ |
| Dog | u ksew /u ksew/ | khwi /kʰwi/ | ཁྱི /kʰi/ | kwiy /kwij/ | ཁྱི /tɕʰi/ | ཁྱི /kʰi/ | acho /atʃo/ |
| Cat | u miaw /u miau/ | byila /bila/ | བྱི་ལ /pila/ | — /—/ | ཞི་མི /ʑimi/ | བྱི་ལ /bila/ | miew /mieu/ |
| Eat | bam /bam/ | za /za/ | ཟ /za/ | cyaʔ /tɕaʔ/ | ཟ /za/ | ཟ /za/ | cha /tʃa/ |
| Drink | dih /dih/ | thung /tʰuŋ/ | འཐུང /tʰuŋ/ | — /—/ | འཐུང /tʰuŋ/ | འཐུང /tʰuŋ/ | ngoot /ŋoːt/ |
| One | wei /wei/ | thê /tʰe/ | གཅིག /tɕik/ | te /te/ | གཅིག /tɕik/ | ཅིག /tɕik/ | muoi /muoi/ |
| Two | ar /ar/ | zon /zon/ | གཉིས /ɲis/ | nit /nit/ | གཉིས་ /ɲiː/ | གཉིས /ɲi/ | bar /ɓaːr/ |
| Hello | khublei /kʰublei/ | kuzu zangpo /kuzu zaŋpo/ | ཇུ་ལེ /dʑule/ | — /—/ | ཁམས་བཟང /kʰamsaŋ/ | ཏ་ཤེས་ཏེ་ལེ /ʈʰaɕi tɕʰele/ | te /te/ |
| Thank you | khublei shibun /kʰublei ʃibun/ | kadrinche /kadrintɕe/ | ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ /tʰuktɕetɕʰe/ | — /—/ | ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ /tʰuktɕetɕe/ | ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ /tʰuktɕetɕʰe/ | kuhng /kuhŋ/ |
| Good | bha /bʱa/ | lekpo /lekpo/ | ཡག་པོ /jakpo/ | — /—/ | ལེགས་པོ /lekpo/ | ཡག་པོ /jakpo/ | huom /huom/ |
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