Banner image Credit: 

Sam D'Cruz - stock.adobe.com

Location of Chin State in Myanmar

TUBS, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Language Family: Sino-Tibetan >> Kuki-Chin >> Central

Population of Speakers：446 K

Hakha Lai, or Hakha Chin, is a language spoken mostly in the state of Chin, Myanmar. The native speakers of Hakha Lai are believed to be over 400 thousand, who live in Northwest Myanmar as well as in the neigboring area in India and Bangladesh.

In a Buddhist country of Myanmar, Chin people are mostly Christians because of the arrivals of missionaries to that area from the West historically. The great religious and cultural differences with the central government, caused misunderstanding of both sides and misfortune to the minor one and that caused the emigration of Chin people to Western countries, including the US. Today, we could find large communties in Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, Indiana.

A Chin language program was built up at Indiana University, Bloomington. Please visit their website.

Hakha Lai course is offered in Language Workshop of Summer, 2021