Purum is a Kuki-Chin language, belonging to the Northwestern or "Old Kuki" subfamily. Speakers consider themselves to be ethnic Naga people, rather than part of the Kuki and Chin ethnic groups. Peterson (2017)Peterson, David. 2017. "On Kuki-Chin subgrouping." In Picus Sizhi Ding and Jamin Pelkey, eds. Sociohistorical linguistics in Southeast Asia: New horizons for Tibeto-Burman studies in honor of David Bradley, 189-209. Leiden: Brill. classifies Purum as part of the Northwestern branch of Kuki-Chin. According Ethnologue, Purum shares a high degree of mutual intelligibility with Kharam. The speakers of this language use Meitei language as their second language (L2) according to the Ethnologue.
Geographical distribution Purum is spoken in Phaijol, Laikot, Thuisenpai, and Kharam Pallen villages of Senapati district, Manipur (Ethnologue).
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