The Tedim language (also called Zo or Zopau) is a Kuki-Chin language spoken mostly in the southern Indo-Burmese border. It is the native language of the Tedim tribe of the Zomi people, and a form of standardized dialect merging from the Sukte and Kamhau dialects. It is a subject–object–verb language, and negation follows the verb. It is primarily written in Latin script and is mutually intelligible with the Paite language.
History Christian missionaries translated the New Testament into the Tedim language in 1932.
Tedim was the primary language spoken by Pau Cin Hau, a religious leader who lived from 1859 to 1948. He also devised a logographic and later simplified alphabetic script for writing materials in Zomi.
Phonology The phonology of Tedim can be described as (C)V(V)(C)T order, where C represents a consonant, V represents a vowel, T represents a tone, and parentheses enclose optional constituents of a syllable.
Consonants LabialAlveolarAlveolo-palatalVelarGlottalPlosive/Affricatevoicelessaspirated()voicedFricativevoicelessvoicedNasalApproximant
Approximants [j, w] can be heard as allophones of vowels /i̯, u̯/ within diphthongs. /x/ can also be heard as an aspirated velar stop [kʰ] in free variation.
Vowels FrontCentralBackClose Mid Open
+DiphthongsFrontCentralBackCloseiu̯ i̯aui̯ uːi̯ u̯aMidei̯ ɛːi̯ eu̯ ɛːu̯ou̯ oi̯ ɔːi̯Openai̯ aːi̯ au̯ aːu̯
Sounds /ɛ, ɔ/ may have short allophones of more close [e, o].
Tone
Numbers Tedim numbers are counted as follows. NumeralTedimEnglishHindi0 zero 1 one 2 two 3 three 4 four 5 five 6 six 7 seven 8 eight 9 nine 10 ten 11 eleven 12 twelve 13 thirteen 14 fourteen 15 fifteen 16 sixteen 17 seventeen 18 eighteen 19 nineteen 20 twenty 30 thirty 40 forty 50 fifty 60 sixty 70 seventy 80 eighty 90 ninety 100 , hundred 1,000 one thousand 10,000 one thousand 1,000,000 one million 1,000,000,000 one billion
Sample Excerpt from the Book of Genesis in Tedim language and English. Tedim/ZopauA kipat cilin Pasian in vantung leh leitung a piangsak hi. Leitung in lim leh meel nei loin a awngthawlpi ahi hi. Tuipi tung tengah khua mial bikbek a, tua tui tungah Pasian' huih a nung hi. Pasian in, "Khuavak om ta hen", ci hi, tua ciangin khuavak om pah hi. Pasian in khuavak hoih hi ci-in mu hi, Pasian in khuamial panin khuavak khenkhia hi. Pasian in khuavak pen Sun ci a khuamial pen Zan ci hi. Nitak hong bei-in, zingsang hong tung a, ni khat ni ahi hi. Pasian in, "Tuite' laizang-ah van kuumpi om hen la, tua van kuumpi in tui leh tui kikhensak hen", ci hi. Pasian in van kuumpi bawl a, van kuumpi tunga om tuite leh van kuumpi nuai-a om tuite a khen hi. Tua mah bangin piang pah hi. Pasian in van kuumpi pen Vantung ci hi. Nitak hong bei-in, zingsang hong tung a, ni nihna ahi hi.EnglishIn the beginning God created heaven and earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep water. The spirit of God was hovering over the water. Then God said, "Let there be light!" So there was light. God saw the light was good. So God separated the light from the darkness. God named the light "day", and the darkness he named "night". There was evening, then morning, the first day. Then God said, "Let there be a horizon in the middle of the water in order to separate the water". So God made the horizon and separated the water above and below the horizon. And so it was. God named what was above the horizon "sky". There was evening, then morning, a second day.
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