Vaiphei language

Vaiphei
"Vaiphei" in Meitei script
Region	India
Ethnicity	Vaiphei / Zo people
Native speakers	43,000 (2011 census)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman) Kuki-Chin languages Northeastern Kuki-Chin languages Vaiphei
Language codes
ISO 639-3	vap
Glottolog	vaip1239
ELP	Vaiphei

Vaiphei is a Sino-Tibetan language belonging to the Kuki-Chin languages linguistic sub-branch of the Tibeto-Burman group of languages. It is spoken mainly in the Indian state of Manipur and minutely in Mizoram, Assam, Meghalaya, and Tripura. The dialect spoken in Manipur exhibits a least partial mutual intelligibility with the other Zo-Mizo dialects of the area including Thadou, Hmar, Paite, Simte, Mizo and Gangte languages.

Geographical distribution

Vaiphei is spoken in more than 30 villages of Lamka District, Southern Manipur (Ethnologue). There are also speakers in Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura.

Orthography

There is no official single spelling system, but many use the orthography of Mizo. Some writers use the circumflex ⟨ˆ⟩, but its meaning is inconsistent. /ɔ/ is represented by ⟨o⟩ in open syllables and ⟨aw⟩ in closed syllables in the orthography. The glottal stop /ʔ/ is represented by the letter ⟨h⟩.

Phonology

Consonants

Vaiphei has the following consonants, with the first symbol being its orthographical form and the second one its representation in the IPA:

		Labial	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	⟨p⟩ /p/	⟨t⟩ /t/	⟨k⟩ /k/	⟨h⟩ ʔ
	aspirated	⟨ph⟩ /pʰ/	⟨th⟩ /tʰ/	⟨kh⟩ /kʰ/
	voiced	⟨b⟩ /b/	⟨d⟩ /d/	⟨g⟩ /ɡ/
Affricate			⟨ch⟩ /ts/
Nasal		⟨m⟩ /m/	⟨n⟩ /n/	⟨ng⟩ /ŋ/
Fricative	voiceless		⟨s⟩ /s/		⟨h⟩ /h/
	voiced	⟨v⟩ /v/	⟨z⟩ /z/
Lateral			⟨l⟩ /l/

/p, t, k/ are heard as unreleased [p̚, t̚, k̚] in word-final position. The aspirated and voiced stops /pʰ, tʰ, kʰ, b, d, ɡ/ are restricted to syllable-initial position.

The glottal stop occurs only in syllable-final position, always occurs with low tone, and can be deleted.

The fricatives and the affricate do not occur word-finally.

The voiceless plosives, nasals, and laterals can all be the first members in a vowel sequence, and all phonemes except the glottal stop can be the second. Consonant clusters can be found in some loanwords, e.g., /ilektrik/ 'electric'. /p, t, k, m, n, ŋ, l/ can all form geminates, e.g., /seppatni/ 'Monday'.

Vowels

Monophthongs

Vaiphei has five phonemic monophthongs.

	Front	Back
Close	⟨i⟩ /i/	⟨u⟩ /u/
Mid	⟨e⟩ /e/	⟨o/aw⟩ /ɔ/
Open		⟨a⟩ /ɑ/

/e/ tends to be realized as [ɛ] word-finally.

Diphthongs

Vaiphei has eight diphthongs, /ai, ei, ui, ɔi, au, eu, iu, ɔu/. These can all occur in word-medially and word-finally, but /au, eu, iu, ɔu/ cannot occur word-initially.

Tone

Vaiphei is a tonal language with three contrastive tones, two contour tones and a low tone. Suantak (2013) uses numerals, where 1 is lowest and 5 is highest, and provides Chao tone letters.

Tones

Tone	Chao tone letter	IPA	gloss
Low (21)	˨˩	/sa²¹/	'sing'
Rising (23)	˨˧	/sa²³/	'hot, meat'
Falling (52)	˥˨	/sa⁵²/	'thick'

All three tones can occur on any vowel. All tones can occur with /m, n, ŋ, l, p, t, k/ though the rising and falling tones do not co-occur with the glottal stop /ʔ/.

Tone sandhi occurs in compound words; for example, a low tone becomes a rising tone when preceded by a rising tone (e.g., /in²³/ 'house' + /tsuŋ²¹/ 'above' → [in²³tsuŋ²³] 'roof').

Syllable structure

The syllable structure in Vaiphei is (C)V(C). The maximal syllable is CVC.

Basic syllable patterns

Syllable	IPA	Gloss
V	/u/	'elder (brother/sister'
VC	/in/	'house'
CV	/pa/	'father'
CVC	/gam/	'land'

Sources

• "Abstract of Speakers' Strength of Languages and Mother Tongues - 2011" (PDF). censusindia.gov.in. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 February 2022. Retrieved 12 June 2022.
• Suantak, Khawlsonkim (2013). Vaiphei Phonetic, Phonology, and Morphology: A Descriptive Study. Department of Linguistics (PhD thesis). North-Eastern Hill University. Retrieved 7 November 2025.