The Chin people, numbering more than 1 million, live in the mountainous Chin Hills area of North-western Burma, and in Manipur, India. The name Chin, which generally refers to the 300,000 Chins of Burma, is believed to derive from the Burmese word for ‘friend’. Indian Chins, a group that includes the Manipuri and others, are called by the general term ‘Kuki’. The Chins speaking languages of Tibeto-Burman family, related, within the Kuki Chin language group, to numerous tongues of north-east India, notably Lushai.

Asho, or Southern, Chins, live in the plains of the Irrawaddy lowlands of Burma, considerably separated from the other Chin groups. Their name reflects a form of a root ‘zo’, which according to some means ‘hillsmen’, and is found in many Chin designations, i.e. Mizo and Laizo. the Asho language is closely related to the Saingbaung Chin tongue.

Eugene A. Nida, Ph. D., Th.D., The Book of a Thousand Tongues,
UBS, 1972, p.67