Mru, also known as Mrung (Murung), is a Sino-Tibetan language of Bangladesh and Myanmar. It is spoken by a community of Mrus (Mros) inhabiting the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh with a population of 22,000 according to the 1991 census, and in Rakhine State, Myanmar. The Mrus are the second-largest tribal group in Bandarban District of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. A small group of Mros also live in Rangamati Hill District. Classification Mru forms the Mruic language branch with Hkongso and Anu, which are spoken in Paletwa Township, Chin State, Myanmar. The position of Mruic with Sino-Tibetan is unclear. Distribution The Mros live in forest areas of Lama, Ruma, Alikaram, and Thanchi near Chimbuk Mountain of Bandarban District, Bangladesh (Rashel 2009). In Myanmar, they also live in Buthidaung Township and Ponnagyun Township in Sittwe District (Akiab), Rakhine State. Subdivisions Ethnologue (22nd edition) lists 3 main dialects as Anok, Dowpreng (Dopreng), and Sungma (Tshungma), as well as the 2 minor dialects of Domrong and Rumma. Anok: largest and central Tshungma: in the north Domrong: in the lowlands north of the Matamuri Dopreng: in far south and into Arakan Rumma: in far south and into Arakan There are five Mru dialects according to Ebersole (1996). Anawk Süngma Dopreng Tamsa Rengmitsa There are five major Mro clans (Rashel 2009). Dengua Premsang Kongloi Maizer Ganaroo Gnar Rashel (2009) also lists another classification scheme which lists ten Mro clans. Yarua (subdivisions below) Khatpo Chimlung Zongnow Sangkan Chawla Ngaringcha Tang Deng Kough Tam-tu-chah Kanbak Prenju Naichah Yomore Rum/Rumthu Grammar Unlike the Kuki-Chin languages, Mru has SVO (subject-verb-object) word order (Ebersole 1996). Phonology Consonants /s/ can also be heard as [ʃ]. Vowels Numerals Rashel (2009:159) lists the following Mro numerals. lok pre sum tle tnga trok rinit riyat tako homod Script The Mru script is an indigenous, messianic script: In the 1980s Menlay Murang (also known as Manley Mro) created the religion of Khrama (or Crama) and with it a new script for the Mru language. The script is written from left to right and has its own set of digits. It does not use tone marks. The Mru language is written in both the Latin and Mru scripts. Unicode The Mru alphabet was added to the Unicode Standard in June, 2014 with the release of version 7.0. The Unicode block for the Mru script, called Mro, is U+16A40–U+16A6F: See also Mru word list (Wiktionary) References Ebersole,