Language History

Rohingya Language
History & Timeline

Q: How old is the Rohingya language?

The Rohingya language has roots in the Eastern Indo-Aryan linguistic tradition dating back at least to the 8th–10th centuries, when the Arakan region (now Rakhine State, Myanmar) developed distinct speech patterns influenced by Sanskrit, Pali, Arabic, and Persian. As a distinctly identifiable language variety, Rohingya has a documented history of at least 500–600 years.

Q: What script do Rohingya people use to write their language?

Rohingya is written in two scripts today: (1) Hanifi Rohingya script — a modern dedicated alphabet created in the 1970s–80s and added to Unicode in 2018, used by the majority of the community as the primary formal script; and (2) Rohingyalish — a Latin-based system widely used for digital and informal communication. Historically, an Arabic-derived script was also used, especially in religious education.

Q: When was Rohingya added to Unicode?

The Hanifi Rohingya script was officially added to the Unicode Standard in Unicode version 11.0, released in June 2018. It occupies the Unicode block U+10D00 through U+10D3F. This was a landmark event enabling Rohingya text to be reliably typed, stored, and displayed on modern devices worldwide.

Q: Is Rohingya an endangered language?

Rohingya is considered a threatened or endangered language due to the mass displacement of its speakers, decades of suppression in Myanmar, and the fragmented global diaspora. However, community-led preservation efforts, digital tools, diaspora education programs, and international academic support are working to sustain and revitalise the language.

Q: What language family does Rohingya belong to?

Rohingya is an Indo-Aryan language, part of the larger Indo-European language family. It is most closely related to Chittagonian (spoken in southern Bangladesh), and more distantly related to Bengali, Hindi, and Urdu. It has significant loanwords from Arabic and Persian due to historical Islamic influence in the Arakan region.

Q: Was Rohingya ever used on national radio or television?

Yes. Radio Burma (now MRTV) broadcast Rohingya-language programmes in the 1950s following Burmese independence — a period of relative cultural recognition for ethnic minorities. These broadcasts were discontinued following the 1962 military coup and the subsequent suppression of minority language media.

Q: What happened to the Rohingya language during the military crackdown?

Following the 2017 military crackdown that displaced over 700,000 Rohingya to Bangladesh, the language faced both severe disruption and a global wave of preservation activity. International organisations (UNHCR, Translators Without Borders) produced large-scale Rohingya materials for humanitarian communication, academic institutions funded language documentation projects, and diaspora communities intensified language education efforts.

Q: Who created the Hanifi Rohingya script?

The Hanifi Rohingya script was created by Mohammed Hanif, a Rohingya scholar, together with a group of community collaborators. It was developed primarily during the 1970s and 1980s — a period of cultural suppression in Burma — to provide the Rohingya language with a purpose-built, phonologically accurate writing system. It was named after Mohammed Hanif in his honour.

From 8th-century Indo-Aryan roots to Unicode adoption and AI-powered tools — the complete documented history of one of the world's most resilient endangered languages.

3.5M–4M

Estimated speakers worldwide

Active writing systems — Hanifi is the majority script

2018

Year Hanifi added to Unicode

1,000+

Years of documented history

Jump to: Early Roots Islamic Influence British Colonial Era Post-Independence Recognition Suppression Era Hanifi Script Unicode & Digital Crisis & Documentation Revival & Technology Scripts FAQ

The Rohingya language is one of the world's most resilient — surviving centuries of political turbulence, colonial disruption, state suppression, and mass displacement. Its history is inseparable from the history of the Rohingya people and the Arakan region. This timeline documents every major chapter: linguistic origins, script development, cultural flowering, suppression, digital preservation, and the ongoing global revival effort.

Historical Timeline

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8th – 15th Century Early Roots

Indo-Aryan Origins in Arakan

The Rohingya language emerges from Eastern Indo-Aryan linguistic traditions, developing distinct phonological and lexical characteristics in the Arakan (Rakhine) coastal region of what is now western Myanmar.

Language develops from Eastern Indo-Aryan linguistic branch
Early lexical influence from Sanskrit and Pali
Distinct pronunciation patterns emerge — unique vowel system, retroflex consonants
Regional dialects begin to form between coastal and inland Arakan
Mrauk-U kingdom enables multilingual contact with Arabic, Persian, and Mon speakers
Trade routes introduce loanwords from Persian and early Arabic

15th – 16th Century Islamic Influence

Arabic Script Adaptation & Islamic Integration

As Islam spread through the Arakan region via trade routes and the Sultanate of Bengal, Arabic script was adapted to write Rohingya sounds — establishing the Fonna script tradition still used in religious education today.

Arabic script adapted with diacritics to represent Rohingya phonemes — creating 'Fonna' script
Large-scale Persian and Arabic vocabulary integration into everyday speech
Religious texts (Quran recitation guides, fiqh texts) produced in Rohingya-Fonna
Oral tradition of qasida (religious poetry) and folk narrative flourishes
Arakan Sultanate patronage supports Islamic scholarship in Rohingya
Contact with Bengali Sultanate strengthens shared vocabulary with Chittagonian

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1824 – 1948 British Colonial Era

First Systematic Documentation

British colonial administration in Burma produced the first systematic written records of the Rohingya language — including grammar studies, census records, and the earliest experiments with Latin-script transcription.

British annexation of Arakan (1824) brings systematic linguistic documentation
Colonial census records formally document Rohingya-speaking population distribution
First formal grammar studies by European and colonial linguists
Early Latin-script transcription experiments by missionary societies
Rohingya used in primary-level colonial schooling — educational materials produced
Administrative contact with Chittagonian and Bengali documented shared features
British Indian army recruits Rohingya speakers during World War II — documented military glossaries

📻

1948 – 1962 Post-Independence Recognition

Radio, Literature & Cultural Flowering

In the years following Burmese independence, Rohingya enjoyed a rare period of cultural and political recognition — including state radio broadcasts, published literary magazines, and the formation of cultural organisations.

Radio Burma broadcasts regular Rohingya-language programming from the early 1950s
Literary magazines published in Rohingya — original poetry, fiction, essays
Cultural organisations established to support Rohingya arts and education
Rohingya used in parliamentary and public political discourse
Emergence of a canon of modern Rohingya literature — poets and writers named and celebrated
Language standardisation discussions begin among Rohingya intellectuals
Rohingya taught in some state schools in Arakan

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1970s – 1990s Suppression Era

Language Restrictions & Underground Preservation

Following the 1962 military coup and escalating ethnic nationalism, Rohingya was systematically removed from schools, media, and public life — driving language preservation underground into community-run settings.

1962 military coup initiates 'Burmanisation' policy — minority languages systematically suppressed
Rohingya removed from state school curricula entirely
Radio Burma discontinues Rohingya-language broadcasts
Cultural organisations disbanded or forced underground
1982 Citizenship Law denies Rohingya legal status — linguistic rights extinguished
Madrasa education preserves Fonna-script literacy underground
Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan diaspora maintain Rohingya schools and publications
Community poets and oral performers sustain literary tradition informally

𐴃

1975 – 2000 Hanifi Script

Creation of the Hanifi Rohingya Script

In the 1970s–80s, Rohingya scholar Mohammed Hanif and collaborators developed a purpose-built alphabet for the Rohingya language — the Hanifi script — designed to represent all Rohingya sounds accurately and serve as a unifying writing system.

Mohammed Hanif and collaborators develop the Hanifi Rohingya alphabet (primarily 1970s–80s)
Script written right to left — a true alphabet with 28 consonants and 10 dedicated vowels
Designed to represent all Rohingya sounds that Arabic and Latin scripts cannot fully capture
Adopted by diaspora educational networks in Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan
Rohingya-language publications produced in Hanifi in diaspora communities
Script standardisation workshops held by community organisations
Growing international academic recognition of Hanifi as the primary Rohingya script

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2000 – 2018 Unicode & Digital

Unicode Standardisation & Digital Preservation

The 2000s and 2010s saw the Rohingya language enter the digital age — with Unicode encoding proposals, the first digital fonts, online community formation, and the launch of digital dictionaries and learning resources.

First digital fonts developed for Rohingya Hanifi and Fonna scripts
Online Rohingya community forums and websites emerge
Digital Rohingya–English and Rohingya–Arabic dictionaries compiled and published
Unicode encoding proposal for Hanifi Rohingya script submitted and reviewed
Hanifi Rohingya officially added to Unicode 11.0 in 2018 (U+10D00–U+10D3F)
Google Noto project includes Noto Sans Hanifi Rohingya font
Rohingyalish (Latin-script) system develops for mobile and SMS communication
Early NLP research into Rohingya language begins in academic institutions

🌍

2010 – 2017 Crisis & Documentation

Displacement, Documentation & Global Diaspora

Large-scale displacement — culminating in the 2017 military crackdown that drove over 700,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh — paradoxically galvanised international efforts to document, preserve, and teach the Rohingya language.

2012 and 2017 violence in Rakhine State displaces hundreds of thousands of Rohingya
700,000+ Rohingya arrive in Bangladesh by late 2017 — Cox's Bazar becomes largest refugee camp globally
International urgency drives unprecedented language documentation funding
Endangered Languages Project, SOAS, and other institutions fund Rohingya corpus building
UNHCR and Translators Without Borders produce large-scale Rohingya humanitarian materials
Rohingya used as language of instruction in refugee camp schools
Demand for professional Rohingya translation and interpretation surges internationally
Oral history projects record Arakan dialect speakers for posterity

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2018 – Present Revival & Technology

International Recognition, AI & Language Revival

Following Unicode adoption and growing international recognition, Rohingya enters a new era of digital empowerment — with AI research, global educational programs, diaspora-led cultural revival, and technology tools making the language more accessible than ever.

Hanifi Rohingya in Unicode 11.0 (2018) — global digital accessibility unlocked
Noto Sans Hanifi Rohingya font released by Google — free, open-source
Academic NLP research produces first Rohingya machine translation datasets
Speech recognition and text-to-speech research begins for Rohingya
Diaspora schools in UK, USA, Canada, Malaysia teach Rohingya to second generation
YouTube, TikTok, and podcast content in Rohingya reaches global audiences
Free digital tools (keyboards, dictionaries) lower literacy barriers
UNESCO and international bodies support Rohingya as an endangered language requiring protection
Professional translation and interpretation services expand globally
AI language data collection projects support future NLP development

Script Evolution

Rohingya has two writing systems in active use today — the Hanifi script, used by the majority of the community, and Rohingyalish, the Latin-based system that dominates digital communication.

Majority Script

Hanifi Rohingya Script

𐴌�

𐴌𐴗𐴥𐴝𐴙𐴚𐴒𐴙𐴝

Period1970s–80s – Present

DirectionRight to Left

Primary useFormal writing, publications, official use, education

The modern dedicated alphabet for Rohingya, created by Mohammed Hanif and colleagues, and used by the majority of the community for written Rohingya. Encoded in Unicode since 2018, it is considered the most linguistically accurate script for Rohingya. A true alphabet with explicit vowel letters, it can represent every Rohingya sound precisely. Adopted for formal documents, community publications, education, and digital content.

Widely Used

Rohingyalish (Latin Script)

Ass

Assalamu alaikum. Tumi kemon aaso?

PeriodModern Era – Present

DirectionLeft to Right

Primary useSMS, WhatsApp, social media, informal digital communication

A Latin-alphabet writing system developed for digital communication, allowing Rohingya speakers to write their language on any standard keyboard or smartphone without special fonts. Rohingyalish uses systematic letter-to-sound correspondences and is the dominant script for informal digital communication among younger Rohingya speakers worldwide.

Try the scripts yourself: Type directly with the free Rohingya Keyboard, or look up words in the English–Rohingya Dictionary.

Modern Preservation Efforts

Today's initiatives safeguard Rohingya for future generations — combining technology, community, and international cooperation.

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Digital Archives

Rohingya–English digital dictionaries
Oral history audio documentation
Cultural artefact digitisation projects
Online community learning platforms
Endangered Languages Project datasets

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Global Initiatives

UNESCO endangered language support
International academic NLP research
Diaspora community education programs
Technology tool development
Parallel corpus building for AI training

📱

Technology

Hanifi Unicode fonts (Noto by Google)
Virtual keyboards and typing tools
Mobile apps for Rohingya literacy
Speech recognition research (ASR)
Text-to-speech (TTS) development

🏫

Education

Refugee camp schools in Cox's Bazar
Diaspora Rohingya language schools
Curriculum materials in Hanifi script
NGO community health education
Online Rohingya language courses

Key Dates at a Glance

8th–15th C. Rohingya language forms in Arakan from Indo-Aryan roots

15th–16th C. Arabic/Fonna script adopted as Islam spreads in Arakan

1824 British colonisation — first systematic language documentation

1948 Burmese independence — Radio Burma broadcasts in Rohingya

1962 Military coup — language restrictions and Burmanisation begin

1970s–80s Mohammed Hanif creates the Hanifi Rohingya alphabet

1982 Citizenship Law strips Rohingya of legal status

2000s First digital Rohingya fonts and Unicode encoding proposals

2017 Mass displacement — international language preservation efforts surge

2018 Hanifi Rohingya added to Unicode 11.0 (U+10D00–U+10D3F)

2020s AI research, digital tools, diaspora revival — ongoing

Present RohingyaLanguage.org provides free tools and professional services

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about the history and status of the Rohingya language.

How old is the Rohingya language?

What script do Rohingya people use to write their language?

When was Rohingya added to Unicode?

Is Rohingya an endangered language?

What language family does Rohingya belong to?

Was Rohingya ever used on national radio or television?

What happened to the Rohingya language during the military crackdown?

Who created the Hanifi Rohingya script?

Explore the Language

Learn to read and write Rohingya with our free tools and educational resources.

Learn the Alphabet Try the Keyboard

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Rohingya LanguageHistory & Timeline