Khasi language

Khasi (Ka Ktien Khasi) is an Austroasiatic language with just over a million speakers in north-east India, primarily the Khasi people in the state of Meghalaya. It has associate official status in some districts of this state. The closest relatives of Khasi are the other languages in the Khasic group of the Shillong Plateau; these include Pnar, Lyngngam and War. Khasi is written using the Latin and Bengali-Assamese scripts. Khasi is natively spoken by people in India (as of 2011). It is the first language of one third of the population of Meghalaya, or , and its speakers are mostly found in the Khasi Hills and Jaintia Hills regions. There are also small Khasi-speaking communities in neighbouring states of India, the largest of which is in Assam: people. There is also a very small number of speakers in Bangladesh. Khasi has been an associate official language of some districts within Meghalaya since 2005, and as of 2012, was no longer considered endangered by UNESCO. There are demands to include this language to the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India. There are a number of books (including novels, poetry, and religious works) as well as newspapers in the Khasi language. The most famous Khasi poet is U Soso Tham (1873–1940). The online newspaper U Mawphor is published in the Khasi language. Khasi has significant dialectal variation. Some dialects are Pnar, Sohra Khasi, Mylliem Khasi, Mawlai Khasi, Nongkrem Khasi, Bhoi Khasi Nonglung, Maram and War (not the same as the related War language). Bhoi Khasi in Ri Bhoi District, Nongpoh block, and Nonglung in Ri Bhoi District, Umsning block are very different from Standard Khasi, with different word order. They are distinct enough to be sometimes considered separate languages. Sohra and War are lexically very similar. The Sohra dialect is taken as Standard Khasi as it was the first dialect to be written in Latin and Bengali scripts by the British. While Standard Khasi is spoken by majority in Shillong, it is in turn significantly different from the other Shillong dialects (eight at most) which form a dialect continuum across the capital region.