Khasi language
|
|
Khasi is an Austroasiatic language spoken in the four districts of Meghalaya state in India (East Khasi Hills, West Khasi Hills, Jaiñtia Hills, andRi Bhoi).
The Khasi language is is related to the Mon-Khmer group of languages, and unrelated to the Mundari branch of the Austroasiatic family, which is widespread in East-Central India (Jharkhand state).
The number of speakers in Meghalaya is about 1,220,000. The language is also spoken by a number of people in the hill districts of Assam bordering with Meghalaya and by a sizable population of people living in Bangladesh, close to the Indian border.
In the past, the Khasi language had no scripts of its own. William Carey attempted to write the language with Bengali scripts between 1813 and 1838. A large number of books of the khasis was written in the Bangla script including the famous book "Ka Niyiom Jong Ka Khasi" or "The Rule of the Khasis", which is an important manuscript of the Seng Khasi religion. It was only in Thomas Jones, in 1841 wrote the language in Roman scripts. Being a simpler script to learn than the Bangla script, it was adopted.
The alphabet of the Khasi language:
- Capital letters A,B,K,D,E,G,Ng,H,I,Ï,J,L,M,N,Ñ,O,P,R,S,T,U,W,Y.
- Small letters a,b,k,d,e,g,ng,h,i,ï,j,l,m,n,ñ,o,p,r,s,t,u,w,y.
Khasi is rich in folklore and folktale, in fact behind most of the name of hills, mountains, rivers, waterfalls, birds, flowers, animals there is a story.
External Links
- Khasi Net (http://www.khasinet.org)