0.0.
Angami Naga, phonemically  hg m
n g,
is a language belonging to the Naga group of languages of the
Tibeto-Burman family. It is spoken by a population of 68,522*
(All India figure in the 1971 census) mainly in the Kohima District
of the State of Nagaland. Kohima village atop a hill and overlooking
the Kohima town, the capital town of Nagaland, is the biggest
Angami settlement.
0.1. Broadly, Angami may be said to have three dialects
: the Kohima dialect, considered the standard, spoken in and
around Kohima village and town, Khonoma dialect, spoken in
and around Khonoma village to the West of Kohima and Chakr
or Chorki, formerly called Eastern Angami spoken in villages
like Chazuba, Purba
etc. to the east of Kohima in the Phek district. There are
systematic differences among these three dialects. A categorical
three-dialect classification of the language would however
miss the mark. Because of the inter-village, inter-clan feud
resulting in lack of communicatiion, the language varies almost
from village to village. Language variation increases with
the geographical distance between the villages. The more the
geographical distance, the more is mutual intelligibility
affected. The variety spoken in a northern Angami village,
in Rkhroma,
for example, differs considerably from the Kohima dialect.
So is the case with Visema, Kidima, Jakhama and Khuzama the
Southern Angami villages, the variety of Angami spoken in
Khuzama showing convergence with Mao Naga. In fact, an Angami
boy from Kohima is unlikely to understand a boy from Khuzama.
0.2. Ura Academy, a native agency for developmental
efforts in Angami has initiated a number of moves to ‘develop’
the language. It plans to publish books on various subjects
in Angami. It conducts various courses of different
levels for proficiency in Angami. It has published in 1974
the first piece of written creative literature in the language-a
novel. The text-book production branch of the Education Directorate
under an Angami language officer publishes books in Angami
in different subjects, most of them being translations. Consequent
upon the training imparted in a material production workshop
by the Central Insitute of Indian Languages in 1974 in Dimapur,
there have been efforts at writing original primers in Angami.
Angami is taught as a subject upto SSLC and functions as
medium of instruction in all subjects upto 6th std. in the
Kohima district.
Ura Dze is the only monthly periodical in Angami.
Although Angami has a rich and long folkloristica tradition,
the first non-oral piece of creative literature has
come out, as noted earlier, recently (1974) in the form
of a nover ‘Puo a Meho tha zo....’ by Shrhozelie,
a former Education Minister of Nagaland. |
