Central Kuki-Chin is a branch of the Kuki-Chin languages. Central Kuki-Chin languages are spoken primarily in Mizoram, India and in Hakha Township and Falam Township of Chin State, Myanmar.
Official use Mizo is the official language of Mizoram State, India.
Classification VanBik (2009:23) classifies the Central Kuki-Chin languages as follows.
Central Kuki-Chin
Pangkhua? Laamtuk Thet (Tawr): Laamtuk, Ruavaan dialects Lai languages Hakha cluster: Halkha, Farrawn, Thantlang, Mi-E, Zokhua Falam cluster: Bawm, Bualkhaw, Laizo, Lente, Khualsim, Khuangli, Sim, Tlaisun, Zanniat Mizo languages Mizo cluster: Fanai, Hualngo, Lusei, Khiangte, Renthlei Hmar cluster: Hmar
VanBik (2009) is unsure about the classification of Pangkhua, and tentatively places it within Central Kuki-Chin.
Sound changes VanBik (2009) lists the following sound changes from Proto-Kuki-Chin to Proto-Central Chin.
Proto-Kuki-Chin *k(ʰ)r-, *p(ʰ)r- > Proto-Central Chin *t(ʰ)r- Proto-Kuki-Chin *k(ʰ)l-, *p(ʰ)l- > Proto-Central Chin *t(ʰ)l- Proto-Kuki-Chin *y- > Proto-Central Chin *z-
See also Lai languages
References
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. VanBik, Kenneth. 2009. Proto-Kuki-Chin: A Reconstructed Ancestor of the Kuki-Chin Languages. STEDT Monograph 8. .