Rohingya language


Rohingya, also known as Ruáingga, is a language spoken by the Rohingya people of Rakhine State. It is an Eastern Indo-Aryan language belonging to the Bengali–Assamese branch, and is related to the Chittagonian language spoken in neighboring Bangladesh. The Rohingya language and Chittagonian are considered mutually intelligible.

Phonology

Consonants

Rohingya has primarily the following 25 native consonant phonemes. There are some other consonant phonemes which are from foreign languages such as Arabic, Bengali, Burmese and Urdu.

Vowels

There are six vowels and several diphthongs in the Rohingya language. They contrast between "open-o" and "closed-o" by using the different spellings / and / respectively.

Tones

Accented vowels, marked with an acute accent, represent stressed, and repeating a vowel lengthens it. Thus, tonals are marked by arranging the location of a stressed vowel in a lengthened pair, like and.

Grammar

Definite articles

1. If a noun ends with a vowel then the article is either án or wá if singular, or ún if plural or uncountable.
Usually wá is used for round-fatty objects, and án for flat-thin objects.
' '
Kéti án ' Kéti ún '
Fothú án ' Fothú ún '
Fata wá ' Fata ún '
Boro wá ' Boro ún '
Lou ún '
2. If a noun ends with a consonant then the article is the end-consonant plus án or wá for singular or ún for plural.
Debal lán ' Debal lún '
Mes sán ' Mes sún '
Kitap pwá ' Kitap pún '
Manúic cwá ' Manúic cún '
3. If a noun ends with r, then the article is g plus án or wá for singular or ún or ín for plural.
Tar gán ' Tar gún/gín '
Duar gán ' Duar gún/gín '
Kuñir gwá ' Kuñir gún/gín '
Faár gwá ' Faár gún/gín '

Note: gún is used for human and gín''' for non-human.

Indefinite articles

Indefinite articles can be used either before or after the noun. Uggwá usually is used for roll/round/fatty shaped objects and ekkán is for thin/flat shaped objects.
' '
Uggwá fata ' Hodún fata '
Ekkán fothú ' Hodún Fothú '
-or- -or-
Fata uggwá ' Fata hodún '
Fothú ekkán ' Fothú hodún '

Word order

Rohingya word order-1 is Subject–Object–Verb.
Subject Object Verb
Aññí bát hái .
Ite TV saá .
Ibá sairkél soré.
Itará ham ot za .
Rohingya word order-2 is Subject–Time-Place-Object–Verb.
Subject Time Place Object Verb
Ibá beínna gór ot bát há .
Tará biale duan ot TV saá.
Ite sair gwá báze hál hañsat sairkél soré.
Ítara nowá báze ofís ot ham ot zaa.
Rohingya word order-3 is Subject–Time--Place-Object–-Verb.
Subject Time ' Place ' Object Verb
Tuñí aijja noya eskul ot toratori/toratorigorí paathi goró.
You today new at school quickly party make.
Rohingya word order-4 is Subject–Time--Place-Object–-Verb_1-Verb_2.
Subject Time ' Place ' Object Verb_1 Verb_2
Tuñí aijja noya eskul ot toratori/toratorigorí paathi goittóu modot-goró.
You today new at school quickly party help to make.
English: You help to make party quickly at new school today.
More on Time extension:
Aijja Januari 24 tarík ót, cón 2017 beínna 4 gwá báze 15 miníth 5 sekén ót.
Today January dated 24, year 2017 in the morning at 4 o'clock 15 minutes 5 second.
Hailla Februari 30 tarík ót, cón 2017 ázinna 5 swá báze 25 minith 7 sekén ót.
Tomorrow January dated 30, year 2017 in the evening at 5 o'clock 25 minutes 7 second.
Goto hailla Oktubor 10 tarík ót, cón 2018 rait or 10 cwá báze 35 miníth 50 sekén ot.
Yesterday October dated 10, year 2018 in the night at 10 o'clock 35 minutes 50 second.

Tenses

Rohingya distinguishes 12 tenses, as shown in the examples below. In these tenses, the helping verb félai shows perfect action and félaat shows perfect continuous action. The helping verb táki and táikki are comparable to English "be" and "been".
Verb-form-suffix indicate both person and tense. The suffixes ~ir, ~yi, ~lám, ~youm are used for the first person, the suffixes ~or, ~yó, ~lá, ~bá for the 2nd person, and the suffixes ~ar, ~ye, ~l, ~bou for the 3rd person.
Similarly ~ir, ~or, ~ar indicate present continuous tense, ~yi, ~yó, ~ye present perfect tense, ~lám, ~lá, ~l past tense, and ~youm, ~bá, ~bou future tense.
First person :
1. Present
Aññí hái.
Aññí háir.
Aññí hái félaiyi.
Aññí hái félair.
2. Past
Aññí háiyi. Note: refer near past.
Aññí háailam. Note: refer far past.
Aññí háat táikkilám.
Aññí hái félailám.
Aññí hái félaat táikkilám.
3. Future
Aññí háiyoum.
Aññí háat tákiyoum.
Aññí háiyoum boi. "
Aññí hái félaiyoum.
Aññí hái félaat tákiyoum.
Second person :
1. Present
Tuñí/Oñne hóo.
Tuñí/Oñne hóor.
Tuñí/Oñne hái félaiyó. .
Tuñí/Oñne hái féloor. .
2. Past
Tuñí/Oñne háiyo. Note: refer near past.
Tuñí/Oñne háailá. Note: refer far past.
Tuñí/Oñne háat táikkilá.
Tuñí/Oñne hái félailá.
Tuñí/Oñne hái félaat táikkilá.
3. Future
Tuñí/Oñne háiba.
Tuñí/Oñne háat tákibá.
Tuñí/Oñne háiba goi. "
Tuñí/Oñne hái félaibá.
Tuñí/Oñne hái félaat tákibá.
Third persons :
1. Present
Ite/Ibá/Itará há.
Ite/Ibá/Itará hár.
Ite/Ibá/Itará hái boi. "
Ite/Ibá/Itará hái félaiye.
Ite/Ibá/Itará hái félaar.
2. Past
Ite/Ibá/Itará háaiye. Note: refer near past.
Ite/Ibá/Itará háail. Note: refer far past.
Ite/Ibá/Itará háat táikkil.
Ite/Ibá/Itará hái félail.
Ite/Ibá/Itará hái félaat táikkil.
3. Future
Ite/Ibá/Itará háibou.
Ite/Ibá/Itará háat tákibou.
Ite/Ibá/Itará háibou goi. "
Ite/Ibá/Itará hái félaibou.
Ite/Ibá/Itará hái félaat tákibou.

Pronouns

Gender: m=male, f=female, n=neuter., *=the person or object is near., **=the person or object is far.

Interrogative

The interrogative is indicated by né at the end of the sentence.
Itattú gór ekkán asé né?
Itattú gór ekkán asé.
Ibá za né?
Ibá za.
Itará giyé né?
Itará giyé.

Inflection for person

Rohingya verbs indicate person by suffixes.
Present Tense
lek = write
lekí = I/we write.
lekó = write
lekós = You write.
leké = He/she/they write.
Present Continuous Tense
lekír = I/we am/are writing.
lekór = You are writing.
lekér = He/she/they is/are writing.
Present Perfect Tense
lekífélaiyi = I/we have written.
lekífélaiyo = You have written.
lekífélaiyós = You have written.
lekífélaiye = He/she/they has/have written.
Future Tense
lekíyóum = I/we will write.
lekíbá = You will write.
lekíbi = You will write.
lekíbóu = He/she/they will write.
Past Tense
leikkí = I/we wrote.
leikkó = You wrote.
leikkós = You wrote.
leikké = He/she/they wrote.
Past Tense
leikkílám = I/we wrote long ago.
leikkílá = You wrote long ago.
leikkílí = You wrote long ago.
leikkíl = He/she/they wrote long ago.
Past Tense
lekítám = I/we would have written.
lekítá = You would have written.
lekítí = You would have written.
lekítóu = He/she/they would have written.
Forming Noun, Doer, Tool, Action
lekóon = act of writing.
e.g. Debalor uore lekóon gom noó. Writing on wall is not good.
lekóya = writer.
e.g. Itaráttú lekóya bicí. They-have many writers.
lekóni = thing with which you write.
e.g. Añártú honó lekóni nái. I-have no any writing-thing
lekát = in the action of writing.
e.g. Tui lekát asós. You are busy-in-writing.

Rohingya grammatical case

Example of a Rohingya case inflection is given below, using the singular forms of the Rohingya term for "hóliba " which belongs to Rohingya's first declension class.
Seventy or more different forms are available in Rohingya. A hyphen between letters is to be removed, it is used for initial understanding only — how the word is formed.
;Command
01 lek =write Tui yián ehón lek. You write this right now.
02 lek-ó =write Tuñí yián ehón lekó. You write this right now.
03 lek-á =cause to write Tui/Tuñí John ór áta leká/lekó. You ask John to write.
04 lek-í-de =help to write Tui/Tuñí ibáre lekíde/lekído. You help John in writing.
;Present
05 lek-í =write Aññí hámicá gór ot lekí. I always write at home.
06 lek-ó =write Tuñí hámicá gór ot lekó. You always write at home.
07 lek-ó-s =write Tui hámicá gór ot lekós. You always write at home.
08 lek-é =write Tará hámicá gór ot leké. They always write at home.
;Continuous
09 lek-í-r =writing Aññí ciñçí ekkán lekír. I am writing a letter now.
10 lek-ó-or =writing Tuñí/Tui ciñçí ekkán lekóor. You are writing a letter now.
11 lek-é-r =writing Tará ciñçí ekkán lekér. They are writing a letter now.
;Perfect
12 lek-í-féla-iyi =have written Aññí ciñçí lekífélaiyi. I have written a letter.
13 lek-í-féla-iyo =have written Tuñí ciñçí lekífélaiyi. You have written a letter.
14 lek-í-féla-iyo-s =have written Tui ciñçí lekífélaiyos. You have written a letter.
15 lek-í-féla-iye =has/have written Tará ciñçí lekífélaiye. They have written a letter.
;Past
16 leik-kí =wrote Aññí ciñçí ekkán leikkí. I wrote a letter.
17 leik-kó =wrote Tuñí ciñçí ekkán leikkó. You wrote a letter.
18 leik-kó-s =wrote Tui ciñçí ekkán leikkós. You wrote a letter.
19 leik-ké =wrote Tará ciñçí ekkán leikké. They wrote a letter.
;Future
20 lek-í-youm =will write Aññí ciñçí ekkán lekíyoum. I will write a letter.
21 lek-í-ba =will write Tuñí ciñçí ekkán lekíba. You will write a letter.
22 lek-í-bi =will write Tui ciñçí ekkán lekkíbi. You will write a letter.
23 lek-í-bou =will write Tará ciñçí ekkán lekíbou. They will write a letter.
;Alternative
24 leik-kyóum =will write Aññí ciñçí ekkán leikkyóum. I will write a letter.
25 leik-bá =will write Tuñí ciñçí ekkán leikbá. You will write a letter.
26 leik-bí =will write Tui ciñçí ekkán leikbí. You will write a letter.
27 leik-bóu =will write Tará ciñçí ekkán leikbóu. They will write a letter.
;Passive
28 lek-á-giye = Ciñçí ekkán lekágiyé. A letter is/was written.
;Possibility
29 lek-á-za =being writable Ciñçí yián leká za. This letter is not writable.
30 lek-á-za-ibou =being writable in future Ciñçí yián leká zaibou. This letter will be writable.
31 lek-á-di-ya-za =can be made writable Ciñçí yián lekádiyaza. This letter can be made writable.
;Noun
32 lek-á =writing Leká yián bicí cúndor. This writing is very beautiful.
33 lek-ó-on =act of writing Email beggún óttu lekóon saá. All should write emails.
34 lek-ó-ya =person who writes Ahmed bála lekóya. Ahmed is a good writer.
35 lek-ó-ni =thing used to write Añártu honó lekóni ciz nái. I do not have anything to write with.
36 lek-á-ni =tool used to write Añártu honó lekáni boudh nái. I do not have any writing board.
37 lek-á-lekí =activities to write Tuáñrár bútore lekáleki tákoon saá. There should be writing between you.
;Adjective
38 lek-é-de =thing used for writing Añártu honó lekéde ciz nái. I do noy have any writable thing.
39 leik-kyá =of written Kitab ibá fura leikká. This book is fully written.
40 leik-kyé-dé=of that written Añártu honó leikkyéde juab nái. I do not have any written answer.
;Adverb
41 lek-í lek-í =by writing & writing/while writing Ite gór ottu lekí lekí aiyér. He is coming from home while writing.
;Immediate present
42 lek-í-lam =acted to write Aññí habos sán lekílam. I write the letter.
43 lek-í-la =acted to write Tuñí habos sán lekíla. You write the letter.
44 lek-í-li =acted to write Tui habos sán lekíli. You write the letter.
45 lek-í-lou =acted to write Tará habos sán lekílou. They write the letter.
;Alternative
46 leik-lám =acted to write Aññí habos sán lekílam. I write the letter.
47 leik-lá =acted to write Tuñí habos sán lekíla. You write the letter.
48 leik-lí =acted to write Tui habos sán lekíli. You write the letter.
49 leik-lou =acted to write Tará habos sán lekílou. They write the letter.
;Long past
50 leik-kí-lam =had written Aññí habos sán leikkílam. I had written this paper long ago.
51 leik-kí-la =had written Tuñí habos sán leikkíla. You had written this paper long ago.
52 leik-kí-li =had written Tui habos sán leikkíli. You had written this paper long ago.
53 leik-kí-l =had written Tará habos sán leikkíl. They had written this paper long ago.
;Remote future
54 lek-í-youm éri =will write later Aññí habos sán lekíyoum éri. I will write the paper sometime later.
55 lek-í-ba ri =will write later Tuñí habos sán lekíba ri. You will write the paper sometime later.
56 lek-í-bi ri =will write later Tui habos sán lekíbi ri. You write the paper sometime later.
57 lek-í-bou ri =will write later Tará habos sán lekíbou ri. They will write the paper sometime later.
;Conditional
58 lek-í-tam =would have written Aññí email lán lekítam. I would have written the email.
59 lek-í-ta =would have written Tuñí email lán lekíta i. You would have written the email.
60 lek-í-ti =would have written Tui email lán lekíti. You would have written the email.
61 lek-í-tou =would have written Tará email lán lekítou. They would have written the email.
;Alternative
62 leik-tám =would have written Aññí email lán leiktám. I would have written the email.
63 leik-tá =would have written Tuñí email lán leiktá. You would have written the email.
64 leik-tí =would have written Tui email lán leiktí. You would have written the email.
65 leik-tóu =would have written Tará email lán leiktóu. They would have written the email.
;Request/allow
66 lek-ó-na =please write Meérbanigorí lekóna. Please write the letter.
67 lek-ó-goi =allowed to write Tuñí lekó gói. Let you write.
;Alternative
68 lek-se-ná =please write Meérbanigorí leksená. Please write the letter.
69 lek-gói =allowed to write Tui lek gói. Let you write.
;If
70 lek-í-le =if person write Tuñí lekíle gom óibou. It will be good if you write.

Writing systems

Rohingya Hanifi script

The Hanifi Rohingya script is a unified script for the Rohingya language. Rohingya was first written in the 19th century with a version of the Perso-Arabic script. In 1975, an orthographic Arabic script was developed, based on the Urdu alphabet.
In the 1980s, Mohammad Hanif and his colleagues created the suitable phonetic script based on Arabic letters; it has been compared to the N’ko script. The script also includes a set of decimal numbers.
A virtual keyboard was developed by Google for the Rohingya language in 2019 and allows users to type directly in Rohingya script. The Rohingya Unicode keyboard layout can be found .

Characters

Arabic script

Written in Arabic script, the first Rohingya language texts are more than 200 years old. While Arakan was under British rule, the Rohingya people used mainly English and Urdu for written communication. Since independence in 1948, Burmese has been used in all official communications. Since the early 1960s, Rohingya scholars have started to realize the need for a writing system suited to their own language.
In 1975 a writing system was developed using Arabic letters; other scholars adopted Urdu script to remedy some deficiencies of the Arabic. Neither proved satisfactory, however, and most Rohingyas found it difficult to read the language in either version.
Following these attempts, Maulana Hanif achieved a dedicated right-to-left alphabet for the Rohingya language in 1983. Named after its author, the Hanifi alphabet is a modified form of the Arabic alphabet, with additional borrowings from Latin and Burmese alphabets.
At present, a is available. It is based on Arabic letters with additional tone signs. Tests that have been conducted suggest that this script can be learned in a matter of hours if the reader has learned Arabic in a madrassa.
The Rohingya Fonna Unicode keyboard layout as well as a free font can be found .

Roman script

In 1999 E.M. Siddique Basu was able to simplify the Rohingya writing using Latin letters. It is an intuitive writing system which can be learnt easily and is known as Rohingyalish or Rohingya Fonna that uses only 26 Roman letters, five accented vowels, and two additional Latin characters for retroflex and nasal sounds.
A aB bC cÇ çD dE eF f
G gH hI iJ jK kL lM m
N nÑ ñO oP pQ qR rS s
T tU uV vW wX xY yZ z

Q, V, and X are used only for loan-words.
The character set table of the Rohingyalish writing system uses the Latin letters shown above. The vowels are written both unaccented and accented. The use of c, ç and ñ is adapted to the language; c represents , ç is the retroflex r, and ñ indicates a nasalized vowel. Crucially, these can all be accessed from an English keyboard, for example by using the English International keyboard.
Names and pronunciation of letters

The names of the letters of the Latin Rohingyalish alphabet are similar to the names of the letters of the English alphabet.
GraphemePronunciationName
a/a/ee
b/b/bii
c/ʃ/cii
ç/ɽ/çii
d/d̪/dii
e/e/ii
f/f/ef
g/g/jii
h/h, x/eech
i/i/ai
j/ɟ/jee
k/k/kee
l/l/el
m/m/em
n/n/en
ñ/◌̃/ añ
o/ɔ/oou
p/p/pii
q/q/kyuu
r/r/er
s/s/es
t/t̪/tii
u/u/yuu
v/v/vii
w/w/dblyuu
x/ks/eks
y/j/way
z/z/zed

GraphemePronunciation
ch/c/
dh/ɖ/
h'/h/
kh/x/
ng/ŋ/
ny/ɲ/
ou/o/
th/t̪/
ts/t̪/

Long vowels in Rohingyalish are spelled with double vowels: for example, a long is spelled as "oo", while a long is spelled as "oou".

Sample text

The following is a sample text in Rohingya of the Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
Rohingya in Rohingya Latin alphabet
Bengali in Latin script
Assamese in Latin script