Tay Za speaking Falam

This video was recorded by Khup Lal in Falam, Chin State, Myanmar/ Burma, where Tay Za lives and works. Falam, also called Falam Chin, is spoken by as many as 100,000 people, primarily in the Myanma/Burmese state of Chin. A Sino-Tibetan language of the Chin or ‘Kukish’ linguistic family, it is closely related to other languages in Western Myanmar/ Burma and more distantly to the Tibetic languages of the Himalayas. Though it is a primarily spoken language, Falam is sometimes written with both the Latin and Bengali alphabets. Its community of mostly Christian speakers have also overseen a translation of the Bible. It is regionally recognized by the Myanma/Burmese government as the dialect of a single ‘Chin language’.