Khasi

Khasi belongs to the Austroasiatic language family, specifically classified within the Khasic branch.

Speakers

According to the 2011 Census of India, there are approximately 1,431,344 speakers of Khasi in India.

Distribution in India

The language is primarily spoken in the state of Meghalaya, particularly within the East Khasi Hills, West Khasi Hills, South West Khasi Hills, Eastern West Khasi Hills, and Ri-Bhoi districts. Significant speaker communities are also found in the neighbouring state of Assam.

Major Grammatical Features

• Phonology: Khasi is a non-tonal language. It features a moderately large inventory of consonants, including aspirated stops, and allows complex initial consonant clusters. It contrasts short and long vowels.
• Morphology: Khasi is largely analytical, though it employs a rich set of derivational prefixes (such as the causative pyn-) and infixes. Nouns are obligatorily marked for grammatical gender using four proclitic articles: u (masculine), ka (feminine), i (diminutive/affectionate), and ki (plural).
• Syntax: The basic word order is strictly Subject-Verb-Object (SVO). It is a head-initial language, meaning that prepositions are used instead of postpositions, and nouns typically precede their modifying adjectives and genitive phrases.

Further reading

• Learn more via the Wikipedia search for Khasi language.
• Detailed catalog information is available on the Glottolog entry for Khasi.
• Linguistic metadata can be verified via the ISO 639-3 Registry for Khasi.