Mru language


Mru, also known as Mrung, is a Sino-Tibetan language and one of the recognized languages of Bangladesh. It is spoken by a community of Mros inhabiting the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh with a population of 22,000 according to the 1991 census, and in Burma. The Mros are the second-largest tribal group in Bandarban District of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. A small group of Mros also live in Rangamati Hill District.
The Mru language is considered "Severely endangered" by UNESCO.

Classification

Mru forms the Mruic language branch with Hkongso and Anu, which are spoken in Paletwa Township, Chin State, Myanmar. The position of Mruic with Sino-Tibetan is unclear.

Distribution

The Mros live in forest areas of Lama, Ruma, Alikaram, and Thanchi near Chimbuk Mountain of Bandarban District. They also live in Sittwe, Rakhine State, Burma.

Subdivisions

Ethnologue lists 3 main dialects as Anok, Dowpreng, and Sungma, as well as the 2 minor dialects of Domrong and Rumma.
There are five Mru dialects according to Ebersole.
There are five major Mro clans.
Rashel also lists another classification scheme which lists ten Mro clans.
Unlike the Kuki-Chin languages, Mru has SVO word order.

Numerals

Rashel lists the following Mro numerals.
  1. lɔk
  2. pre
  3. ʃum
  4. taːli
  5. taŋa
  6. trok
  7. rinit
  8. riyat
  9. tako
  10. h:muit

    Script

The Mru script is an indigenous, messianic script: In the 1980s Menlay Murang created the religion of Khrama and with it a new script for the Mru language.
The script is written from left to right and has its own set of digits. It does not use tone marks.
The Mru language is written in both the Latin and Mru scripts.

Unicode

The Mru alphabet was added to the Unicode Standard in June, 2014 with the release of version 7.0.
The Unicode block for the Mru script, called Mro, is U+16A40–U+16A6F: