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Khasi

A language of India

ISO 639-3: kha

Population	865,000 in India (1997).
Region	Meghalaya, East and West Khasi Hills, Jaintia Hills districts; Assam, Cachar, Nagaon, North Cachar Hills, Lakhimpur, Kamrup districts; Manipur; West Bengal; Tripura. Also in Bangladesh.
Alternate names	Kahasi, Kassi, Khasa, Khashi, Khasiyas, Khuchia
Dialects	Bhoi-Khasi Khasi (Cherrapunji, Sohra), Khynrium, War. Bhoi Khasi in East Khasi Hills, Nongpoh block, and Nonglung in East Khasi Hills, Umksning block are very different from standard Khasi, with different word order. Many varieties have only partial mutual inherent intelligibility. War dialect is separate from War-Jaintia [aml]. Cherrapunji (Sohra) is the standard. Lexical similarity: 75% between War dialect and standard Khasi.
Classification	Austro-Asiatic, Mon-Khmer, Northern Mon-Khmer, Khasian
Language use	Government, courts, mass media in Meghalaya.
Language development	Literacy rate in L2: 63% in Meghalaya. Taught in primary schools. Radio programs. TV. Dictionary. Grammar. Bible: 1891.
Writing system	Bengali script, no longer in use. Latin script, used since around 1842.
Comments	A Scheduled Tribe. SVO. Mostly Christian, a few Hindu and Muslim.

Also spoken in:

Bangladesh

Language name	Khasi
Population	Very few speakers.
Language map	Bangladesh
Alternate names	Cossyah, Kahasi, Khasie, Khasiyas, Khassee, Khuchia, Kyi
Language use	Also use Bengali [ben].
Comments	The Lyngngam [lyg], Pnar [pbv], and War-Jaintia [aml] of Bangladesh identify ethnically with the Khasi.

Entries from the SIL Bibliography about this language:

Academic Publications

ALVES, Mark J., author. 2001. "Distributional properties of causative verbs in some Mon-Khmer languages."  

NAGARAJA, K. S., author. 1994. "Khasi dialects: a typological consideration."  

NAGARAJA, K. S., author. 1996. "The status of Lyngngam."  

SIMON, I. M., author. 1997. "On first looking into Paul K. Benedict’s Sino-Tibetan."