Mru (ꯃꯔꯨ in Mru script)
Mru
Sino-Tibetan
Mru (also Mro or Mrung) is a Mruic language of the Sino-Tibetan family spoken by about 94,000 people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of southeastern Bangladesh and neighboring areas of Myanmar. Its main Bangladeshi concentration is in Bandarban District, with smaller communities in Rangamati. Mru is distinct from Mro-Khimi, a separate Kuki-Chin language of Myanmar. The language has verb-final SOV order and is traditionally oral. An independent left-to-right Mro alphabet was created in the 1980s, later gained broad community use, and has been encoded in Unicode since version 7.0; Latin transcription is also used in linguistic work.
Where it is spoken
31 core words in Mru
Water
o
/ɔ/
Fire
mai wa
/mɑɪ wɑ/
Sun
thum
/θum/
Moon
la
/lə/
Star
kɯr
/kɯr/
Mother
au
/əʔu/
Father
pa
/pə/
I
nga
/ŋa/
You
nang
/naŋ/
Name
ming
/miŋ/
Eye
mik
/mɪk/
Hand
bong
/boŋ/
Heart
tsak
/tsʰɑk/
Love
akiet
/əkiɛt/
Tree
tshing
/tsʰɪŋ/
House
khim
/kʲɪm/
Dog
takui
/təkuɪ/
Cat
tamin
/təmɪn/
Eat
tsa
/tsɑ/
Drink
kham
/kʰɑm/
One
lok
/ləkː/
Two
pəni
/pəni/
Hello
namaskaro
/nɑməskɑro/
Thank you
dhanyabad
/dʰənəbɑd/
Good
ayong
/əjoŋ/
Words compared
Compared with related Sino-Tibetan languages
| Meaning | Mru | Amdo Tibetan | Drung | Situ rGyalrong | Ersu | Ladakhi | Balti |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water | o /ɔ/ | ཆུ་ /tʂʰu/ | ʃə /ʃə/ | tʃʰu /tʃʰu/ | ɖʐo /ɖʐo/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ |
| Fire | mai wa /mɑɪ wɑ/ | མེ་ /mɛ/ | məə /məː/ | mə /mə/ | pʰu /pʰu/ | མེ /me/ | མེ /me/ |
| Sun | thum /θum/ | ཉི་མ་ /ɲəmɑ/ | nɯ /nɯ/ | niʂ /niʂ/ | ɲɔma /ɲɔma/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ |
| Moon | la /lə/ | ཟླ་བ་ /dʐɑwɑ/ | məŋ /məŋ/ | zla /zlɑ/ | ɬapʰɛ /ɬapʰɛ/ | ཟླ་བ /zlawa/ | ཟླ་བ /dawa/ |
| Star | kɯr /kɯr/ | སྐར་མ /hkarma/ | əkɯr /əkɯr/ | zgrɯ /zɡrɯ/ | ʁmɯ /ʁmɯ/ | སྐར་མ /skarma/ | སྐར་མ /skarma/ |
| Mother | au /əʔu/ | ཨ་མ་ /ɑ mɑ/ | ma /ma/ | ma /mɑ/ | ɑma /ɑma/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ |
| Father | pa /pə/ | ཕ་ /pʰɑ/ | pa /pa/ | pə /pə/ | ɑpa /ɑpa/ | ཨ་པ /apa/ | ཨ་ཕ /apʰa/ |
| I | nga /ŋa/ | ང /ŋa/ | nga /ŋa/ | nga /ŋa/ | ŋa /ŋa/ | ང /ŋa/ | ང /ŋa/ |
| You | nang /naŋ/ | ཁྱོད /tɕʰo/ | nə /nə/ | nənjo /nənɟo/ | no /no/ | ཁྱེད་རང /kʰeːraŋ/ | ཁྱང /kʰjaŋ/ |
| Name | ming /miŋ/ | མིང /mɪŋ/ | bɯng /bɯŋ/ | termi /tərmi/ | mbu /mbu/ | མིང /miŋ/ | མིང /miŋ/ |
| Eye | mik /mɪk/ | མིག་ /mik/ | mik /mik/ | miʂ /miʂ/ | mik /mik/ | མིག /mik/ | མིག /mik/ |
| Hand | bong /boŋ/ | ལག་པ་ /læɡ hɑ/ | kə /kə/ | laʂ /lɑʂ/ | pʰɔ /pʰɔ/ | ལག་པ /lakpa/ | ལག་པ /lakpa/ |
| Heart | tsak /tsʰɑk/ | སེམས་ /sɛm/ | ʃəŋ /ʃəŋ/ | tʰoŋ /tʰɔŋ/ | tʂʰɑ /tʂʰɑ/ | སྙིང /ɲiŋ/ | སྙིང /ɲiŋ/ |
| Love | akiet /əkiɛt/ | དགའ་ /ɡɑ/ | ʃit /ʃit/ | nə-ŋɯ /nə.ŋɯ/ | ŋɑ /ŋɑ/ | དགའ /ɡa/ | དགའ་བ /ɡaba/ |
| Tree | tshing /tsʰɪŋ/ | ཤིང་ /ʂɪŋ/ | sim /sim/ | sin /sin/ | ʂɑ /ʂɑ/ | ཤིང /ʃiŋ/ | ཤིང /ɕiŋ/ |
| House | khim /kʲɪm/ | ཁང་ /kʰɑŋ/ | im /im/ | kʰoŋ /kʰɔŋ/ | kʰɔ /kʰɔ/ | ཁང་པ /kʰaŋpa/ | ཁང་པ /kʰaŋpa/ |
| Dog | takui /təkuɪ/ | ཁྱི་ མོ་ /tʂʰə mɔ/ | kʰja /kʰja/ | kʰə /kʰə/ | ʈɽʰo /ʈɽʰo/ | ཁྱི /kʰi/ | ཁྱི /kʰi/ |
| Cat | tamin /təmɪn/ | ཀུ་ཕ་ /kufa/ | tsa /tsʰa/ | tsa /tsʰɑ/ | bvə̃ /bvə̃/ | བྱི་ལ /pila/ | བྱི་ལ /bjila/ |
| Eat | tsa /tsɑ/ | ཟ་ /zɑ/ | ʃə /ʃə/ | mə-za /mə.zɑ/ | tʂʰə /tʂʰə/ | ཟ /za/ | ཟ /za/ |
| Drink | kham /kʰɑm/ | ཐུང་ /tʰuŋ/ | pə /pə/ | nə-tɕʰə-n /nə.tɕʰə.n/ | ɕə /ɕə/ | འཐུང /tʰuŋ/ | ཐུང་ /tʰuŋ/ |
| One | lok /ləkː/ | གཅིག་ /tʂik/ | tik /tik/ | tʃʰiʂ /tʃʰiʂ/ | tə /tə/ | གཅིག /tɕik/ | གཅིག /tɕik/ |
| Two | pəni /pəni/ | གཉིས /hɲi/ | əni /əni/ | kanəs /kʰanəs/ | ɲi /ɲi/ | གཉིས /ɲis/ | གཉིས /ɲis/ |
| Hello | namaskaro /nɑməskɑro/ | བདེ་མོ་ /bdeː mo/ | ŋeŋ /ŋeŋ/ | ŋ̩ /ŋ̩/ | ni /ni/ | ཇུ་ལེ /dʑule/ | ཨ་སི་ལམ /asilam/ |
| Thank you | dhanyabad /dʰənəbɑd/ | ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ /tʰoktɕe tɕʰe/ | tʃʰɔ /tʃʰɔ/ | ʒo /ʒɔ/ | kʰadʑi /kʰadʑi/ | ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ /tʰuktɕetɕʰe/ | བཀའ་དྲིན་ཆེ /kadrintɕʰe/ |
| Good | ayong /əjoŋ/ | ཡག་པོ་ /jɑkpɑ/ | la /la/ | tʰuŋ /tʰʊŋ/ | zə /zə/ | ཡག་པོ /jakpo/ | ཡག་པོ /jakpo/ |
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