Zeme (also called Empeo and Zemi) is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken in northeastern India. It is one of the dialects spoken by the Zeme Naga, the other being Mzieme.
Geography and demography Zeme (dialects: Paren, Njauna) is spoken in: North Cachar hills district, Assam Tamenglong district, Manipur Peren district, Nagaland Most Zeme speakers are bi- or multi-lingual in the regional lingua franca of Manipuri and English.
Classification Zeme belongs to the Kuki-Chin-Naga section of the Kamarupa group of the Baric sub-division of Tibeto-Burman language family. It is closely related to the neighboring languages of Liangmai and Rongmei.
Phonology Consonants +ConsonantsLabialAlveolarPalatalVelarGlottalNasalPlosive/AffricateaspiratedvoicelessvoicedFricativevoicelessvoicedTrillApproximantlateralmedian
Vowels +MonophthongsFrontCentralBackCloseMidOpen
Zeme also has six diphthongs: .
Like other Tibeto-Burman languages, Zeme is a tonal language. Most of the words in the language are monosyllabic in nature.
Grammar Gender and number are not marked on Zeme verbs. The basic word order is SOV, with an alternate order of OSV, making it a verb-final language.
There are 7 categories of numerals in the language: cardinals, ordinals, fractionals, multiplicatives, distributives, restrictives, and approximates. The following are cardinal numerals: + Cardinal numbersValueGlossNum1one2two3three4four5five6six7seven8eight9nine10ten20twenty30thirty40forty50fifty60sixty70seventy80eighty90ninety100one hundred1000one thousand Compound numerals are formed by adding two numerals together, with the bigger numeral, usually a multiple of 10, preceding the smaller one. The decade numerals from 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, and 90 are formed by multiplication of decade by basic numerals by 10. The numeral 'ten' in Zeme has four allomorphs: , , and .
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