Zo Parallel Bible Corpus (zo-bible)

A sentence-aligned parallel Bible corpus covering 8 closely related Zo speech varieties (cataloged under Glottocode kuki1246 in legacy databases) and English across 10 translation versions (30,974 canonical verses): Hmar (CLB & OV), Mizo (CLB & OV), Paite, Vaiphei, Thadou, Gangte, Zou, and English (WEB).

This dataset is maintained as part of the Hmar Heritage Archival Project by the Hmar Heritage Foundation.

Taxonomy & Language Standards Notice:
The Hmar Heritage Foundation formally rejects legacy colonial exonyms such as "Kuki-Chin-Naga" and "Kuki-Chin", adopting the indigenous autonym Zo for the language family node cataloged under Glottocode kuki1246. While individual ISO 639-3 language codes (hmr, lus, pck, vap, tcz, gnb, zom) remain strictly preserved for full software and dataset compatibility, higher-level metadata tags have been updated to reflect community endonyms and modern comparative phonology. For the complete rationale on why we adopt Zo over legacy exonyms, read our official Language Standards & Classification Policy.

Included Languages and Versions

ISO 639-3	Glottocode	Language	Version	Publisher / Attribution
hmr	hmar1240	Hmar	CLB	Pathien Lekhabu Inthieng (BSI)
hmr	hmar1240	Hmar	OV	Pathien Lekhabu Inthieng (BSI)
lus	mizo1240	Mizo	CLB	Pathian Lehkhabu Thianghlim (BSI)
lus	mizo1240	Mizo	OV	Pathian Lehkhabu Thianghlim (BSI)
pck	pait1247	Paite	BSI	Pathian Laisiangthou (BSI)
vap	vaip1238	Vaiphei	BSI	Pathian Lekhabu Thiangtho (BSI)
tcz	thad1238	Thadou	BSI	Pathen Thutheng Bu (BSI)
gnb	gang1238	Gangte	BSI	Pathien Lekhabu Thiengtho (BSI)
zom	zomi1240	Zou	BSI	Laisiengthou CL (BSI)
eng	stan1293	English	WEB	World English Bible (Public Domain)

Repository Structure

.
├── data/
│   ├── bible-001.json        # Genesis (1,533 verses)
│   ├── bible-002.json        # Exodus (1,213 verses)
│   ├── ...
│   └── bible-066.json        # Revelation (405 verses)
├── metadata.json              # Complete dataset manifest
└── README.md

Data Format

Each record in data/bible-*.json corresponds to a canonical verse anchor:

{
  "id": "GEN_001_001",
  "book_num": 1,
  "book_name": "Genesis",
  "usfm_code": "GEN",
  "chapter": 1,
  "verse": 1,
  "translations": [
    {
      "iso_639_3": "hmr",
      "glottocode": "hmar1240",
      "language_name": "Hmar",
      "version": "CLB",
      "native_book_name": "INṬANNA",
      "text": "A tîrin Pathienin hnuoi le vân a siem a."
    },
    {
      "iso_639_3": "lus",
      "glottocode": "mizo1240",
      "language_name": "Mizo",
      "version": "OV",
      "native_book_name": "GENESIS",
      "text": "A tîrin Pathianin lei leh vân a siam a."
    },
    {
      "iso_639_3": "eng",
      "glottocode": "stan1293",
      "language_name": "English",
      "version": "WEB",
      "native_book_name": "Genesis",
      "text": "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."
    }
  ]
}

Fields

• id (string): Unique verse identifier (USFM_CHAPTER_VERSE).
• book_num (integer): Canonical Bible book number (1 to 66).
• book_name (string): English book name.
• usfm_code (string): Standard 3-letter USFM code.
• chapter (integer): Chapter number.
• verse (integer): Verse number.
• translations (array): Array of translation objects containing:
  • iso_639_3 (string): ISO 639-3 language code.
  • glottocode (string): Glottolog language code.
  • language_name (string): Primary language name.
  • version (string): Translation version tag.
  • native_book_name (string): Book title in the native language/script.
  • text (string): Clean verse text.

License and Attribution

MIT License for dataset structure and curation. Bible texts sourced from publications by the Bible Society of India and public domain World English Bible. Curated by the Hmar Heritage Foundation.

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Citation & Attribution

If you use this dataset in your research or tools, please cite:

@dataset{zo_bible_parallel_2026,
  author       = {Hmar Heritage Foundation},
  title        = {Parallel Zo Languages Bible Corpus},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Hugging Face},
  iso_code     = {hmr},
  glottolog    = {hmar1241},
  clade        = {Zo Languages},
  howpublished = {\url{https://huggingface.co/datasets/hmar-heritage-org/zo-bible}}
}