Rohingya language

Rohingya (, , , ) is an Indo-Aryan language belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family, spoken primarily by the Rohingya people, who are from Rakhine State of Myanmar. It is an Eastern Indo-Aryan language belonging to the Bengali–Assamese branch, and is closely related to the Chittagonian language spoken in neighbouring Bangladesh. The Rohingya, Chakma, Noakhali and Chittagonian languages have a high degree of mutual intelligibility.

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.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

|+Rohingya consonants

! colspan=2|

! Labial

! Dental/ Alveolar

! Retroflex

! Palatal

! Velar

! Glottal

! rowspan=2| Plosive

! colspan=2| Nasal

|()

! rowspan=2| Fricative

|()

! colspan=2| Flap

! rowspan=2| Approximant

A dental fricative may also be heard in words of Arabic origin.
is only used in words of foreign origin.
is heard as when preceding .
Allophones of can be heard as .

Vowels

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

|+ 1st analysis They contrast between "open-o" () and "closed-o" () by using the different spellings / and / respectively. According to another, is interpreted instead as a diphthong , leaving only 5 vowels.

thumb|375px|Layout of the Rohingya virtual keyboard.

A virtual keyboard was developed by Google for the Rohingya language in 2019 and allows users to type in the Rohingya script. Ahkter Husin, a Rohingya software developer developed a keyboard for Android phones which is available on Google Play Store. Ahkter Husin and Kyaw Zay Ya Lin Tun also developed a keyboard app for IOS. Rohingya programmers also developed an online Unicode keyboard converter.

Characters

{| class="wikitable"

|+Rohingya Hanifi script consonants -29

! colspan=6 | 𐴌𐴟𐴇𐴥𐴝𐴚𐴒𐴙𐴝 𐴇𐴥𐴡𐴌𐴟𐴉𐴢

|- align=center |

| 𐴅||𐴄||𐴃||𐴂||𐴁||𐴀

|- align=center |

| 𐴋||𐴊||𐴉||𐴈||𐴇||𐴆

|- align=center |

| 𐴑||𐴐||𐴏||𐴎||𐴍||𐴌

|- align=center |

| 𐴗||𐴖||𐴕||𐴔||𐴓||𐴒

|- align=center |

| ||𐴜||𐴛||𐴚||𐴙||𐴘

{| class="wikitable"

|+Rohingya Hanifi script vowels -7

! colspan=6 | 𐴌𐴟𐴇𐴥𐴝𐴚𐴒𐴙𐴝 𐴀𐴝𐴉𐴡𐴌 𐴀𐴞𐴉𐴡𐴌𐴢

|-align=center |

| 𐴢||𐴡||𐴠||𐴟||𐴞||𐴝

|- align=center |

| ||◌𐴧||◌𐴦||◌𐴥||◌𐴤||𐴣

{| class="wikitable"

|+Rohingya Hanifi script numerals

! colspan=10 | 𐴌𐴟𐴇𐴥𐴝𐴚𐴒𐴙𐴝 𐴓𐴡𐴔𐴁𐴡𐴌𐴢

|- align=center |

| 𐴰 || 𐴱 || 𐴲 || 𐴳 || 𐴴 || 𐴵 || 𐴶 || 𐴷 || 𐴸 || 𐴹

Rohingya Arabic script

The first Rohingya language texts, written in Arabic script, are claimed to be more than 200 years old, though there is no concrete evidence about it. 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 script includes 3 Arabic vowel diacritics, as well as 3 additional diacritics. Six "double diacritics" representing nasal vowels are also present. In addition, Rohingya Fonna also has 3 tone markers. Tone markers act as "modifiers" of vowel diacritics. In simpler words, they are "diacritics for the diacritics". They are written "outside" of the word, meaning that they are written above the vowel diacritic if the diacritic is written above the word, and they are written below the diacritic if the diacritic is written below the word. They are only ever written where there are vowel diacritics. This is important to note, as without the diacritic present, there is no way to distinguish between tone markers and I‘jām i.e. dots that are used for purpose of phonetic distinctions of consonants.

The Rohingya Fonna Unicode keyboard layout as well as a free font can be found here.

{| class="wikitable" dir="rtl"

|+Rohingya Arabic script consonants - 39

! colspan=6 |

|- align=center |

| ب||پ||ت||ٹ

|bgcolor="#FFEFD5"|ث

|ج

|- align=center |

| چ||ح||خ||د||ڈ

|bgcolor="#FFEFD5"|ذ

|- align=center |

| ر

|bgcolor="#d0dead"|ࢪ

|ڑ||ز||س||ش

|- align=center |

|bgcolor="#FFEFD5"|ص

|bgcolor="#FFEFD5"|ض

|bgcolor="#FFEFD5"|ط

|bgcolor="#FFEFD5"|ظ

|bgcolor="#FFEFD5"|ع

|bgcolor="#FFEFD5"|غ

|- align=center |

| ڠ

|ف

|bgcolor="#FFEFD5"|ڤ

|bgcolor="#FFEFD5"|ق

|‌ ک‌ || گ

|- align=center |

|‌ ل || م || ن || ں || و

|bgcolor="#d0dead"|ࢫ

|- align=center |

| ه

| ي

|bgcolor="#d0dead"|ࢬ

Letters in yellow boxes are solely used in loanwords. Letters in green boxes are uniquely Rohingya.

{| class="wikitable" dir="rtl"

|+Rohingya Arabic script vowels - 6

The character set table of the Rohingya writing system uses the Latin letters shown above (ç and ñ with green background). The vowels are written both unaccented (aeiou) and accented (áéíóú). The use of c, ç and ñ is adapted to the language; c represents (English sh), ç is the retroflex r (),

{| class="wikitable"

!Rohingya in Rohingya Latin alphabet

|:Manúic beggún azad hísafe, ar izzot arde hók ókkol ót, fúainna hísafe foida óiye. Fottí insán óttu honó forók sára elan ot aséde tamám hók ókkol arde azadi ókkol loi fáaida goróon ór hók asé. Ar, taráre dil arde demak diyé. Ótolla, taráttu ekzon loi arekzon bái hísafe maamela goróon saá.

!Rohingya in Hanifi Script

|dir="rtl"|.

!Rohingya in Rohingya Arabic Script

|dir="rtl"|

!Rohingya in Bengali—Assamese Script

| মানুইষ বেগ্গুন আজাদ হিসাফে, আর ইজ্জত আর্দে হক অক্কল অত, ফুয়াইন্না হিসাবে ফয়দা ওইয়ে। ফোত্তি ইন্সান ওত্তু হোনো ফরক ছাড়া এলান ওত আছেদে তামাম হক অক্কল আর্দে আজাদি অক্কল লই ফাইদা গরওন অর হক আছে। অতোল্লা, তারাত্তু একজন লই আরেকজন বাই হিসাফে মামেলা গরওন সা।

!English original:

|"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

!Bengali in Latin script

|Shômosto manush shadhinbhabe shôman môrjada ebong odhikar niye jônmogrohon kôre. Tãder bibek ebong buddhi achhe; shutorang shôkoleri êke ôporer proti bhratrittoshulobh mônobhab niye achôron kôra uchit.

!Assamese in Latin script

|Xôkôlû manuhê sadhinbhawê xôman môrzôda aru ôdhikar lôi zônmôgrôhôn kôrê. Xihôtôr bibêk aru buddhi asê aru xihôtê pôrôspôr bhratrittôrê asôrôn kôribô lagê.

!Chakma

|𑄝𑄬𑄉𑄴 𑄟𑄚𑄪𑄥𑄴𑄥𑄪𑄚𑄴 𑄥𑄴𑄤𑄙𑄩𑄚𑄴 𑄉𑄧𑄢𑄨 𑄃𑄬𑄇𑄴𑄇𑄧𑄃𑄨 𑄟𑄧𑄢𑄴𑄡𑄘 𑄃𑄢𑄴 𑄃𑄧𑄙𑄨𑄇𑄢𑄴 𑄣𑄧𑄚𑄬 𑄣𑄰 𑄎𑄧𑄚𑄴𑄟𑄧 𑄃𑄧𑄚𑄴𑅁 𑄖𑄢𑄢𑄴 𑄝𑄨𑄝𑄬𑄇𑄴 𑄝𑄪𑄘𑄴𑄙𑄨 𑄝𑄬𑄇𑄴𑄇𑄚𑄨 𑄃𑄉𑄬, 𑄥𑄬𑄚𑄧𑄖𑄴𑄖𑄬 𑄃𑄟𑄢𑄴 𑄝𑄬𑄇𑄴𑄇𑄪𑄚𑄬𑄣𑄴𑄣𑄬𑄃𑄨 𑄘𑄮𑄣𑄴 𑄌𑄨𑄖𑄴𑄖𑄧𑄣𑄰 𑄥𑄧𑄁𑄛𑄧𑄢𑄕 𑄃𑄪𑄌𑄨𑄖𑄴𑅁

!Chakma in Bengali-Assamese script

|বেগ মানুষসুন স্বাধীনগরি এক্কই মর্যাদা আর অধিকার লনে লই জন্ম অন। তারার বিবেক বুদ্ধি বেক্কানি আগে। সেনত্তে আমার বেক্কুনেল্লেই দোল চিত্তলই সংপরানা উচিৎ।

!Chakma in Latin script

|Beg manussun swadhīn gori ekkoi morzada ar odhikar lone loi jonmo on. Tarar bibek buddhi bekkani age, senotte amar bekkunellei dôl cittoloi soṁporana ucit.

!Chittagonian in Bengali-Assamese script

|বিয়াক মানুশ ইজ্‌জত এদ‌্দে অ়কর ই়শাবে আজাদ আর উ়য়াইন্‌না অ়ইয়েরে ফ়য়দা অ়য়। ই়তারাত্‌তু আহল এদ্‌দে বিবেক আছে ; এতল্‌লায় এজ্‌জন আরেজ্‌জনর উ়য়ারে ভাইয়ুর নান বেভার গরন দরহার।

!Chittagonian in Latin script

|Biyak manuś ijjôt edde ókôr íśabe ajad ar úyainnaa óiyere fôyda óy. Ítarattu ahôl edde bibek ase; etôllay ejjôn arejjônôr úyare bhaiyur nan bebhar gôrôn dôrhar.

!Noakhali in Bengali-Assamese script

|বেক মানুষ ইজ্জত আজ়্জ়ে হোকের হিসাইব্বে হোমাইন্যা ওই ফ়য়দা অয়, এতারগত্তে আক্কল আজ়্জ়ে বিবেক আজ়্জ়ে, হিল্লাই বুলি ইগ্গা আরিগ্গার লগে বাইয়ের নান বেবোয়ার করণ জরুরি।

!Noakhali in Latin script

|Bek mānush ijjot āzze hoker hisāibbe homāinnā oi foydā oy, etārgottē ākkol āzze bibek āzze, hillāi buli iggā ārigger loge bāyēr nān beboār koroṇ joruri.

Notes

References

External links

Rohingya Language Academy website
Rohingya Language Foundation website
English–Rohingya Dictionary
Rohingya font download
Tri-orthographic dictionary application Google Playstore