yâp

Yâp refers to a language spoken by the Garo people, an indigenous tribe native to the North-East Indian state of Meghalaya. It is also known as Aiton or Akar and is a member of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Yâp is widely spoken in the Garo Hills, which comprises of the three districts of East Garo Hills, West Garo Hills, and South Garo Hills.

The Yâp language is reportedly mutually intelligible with other related languages of the Sino-Tibetan family, such as Ri-Bho language and the Chakma language. Yâp is distinct from the Assamese and Bengali languages, with the latter being more widely spoken languages in the North-East region. The language primarily consists of oral traditions and is passed on from generation to generation.

While research is limited, Yâp is known to be a noteworthy speaker of the non-standard unwritten speech varieties of the North-Eastern states. Ethnolinguistic classifications identify it as a western Garo language. As per a study, the various dialects of Yâp are spoken by over 30,00 people in the Garo hill territories.

The essential characteristics of the Yâp language incorporate a primal emphasis on polysynthesis in its morphological and phonological aspects. The Yâp language has not been standardized in any current script. Instead of adopting the existing modern languages, the Raw Garo culture goes for the freedom of oral tradition, falling into an archaic panorama within their reciprocal retention schema. It was initially one of the five languages of the Garo language family and has not lost its cultural essence despite extensive informational holdsup.