Introduction
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Geography
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Lotha
Naga Language belongs to the Central group of Naga languages of
the Tibeto-Burman Language Family. It is spoken by the Lotha people
who live mainly in the Workha district of Nagaland.
Nagaland
became a fullfledged state of India on December 1, 1963. The state
covers an area of 16,488 square kilometers and is situated on the
North-East frontiers of the country. It is bounded by Assam in the
west and north and flanked by the Tirap district of Arunachala Pradesh
in the North-East. The southern boundary as marked by the state
of Manipur, while the Eastern limits of the state are coterminations
with the International boundry between India and Burm1.
Until
1957, Nagahills was one of the districts in Assam and Tuensang was
a division in the North-East Frontier Agency i.e. NEFA now called
Arunachal Pradesh, since, First December 1957, these two were constituted
as a separate administtrative unit known as Naga Hills-Tuensang
Area (i.e.NHTA) and put under one commissioner appointed by the
Govt. of India. This area was divided into three districts viz.,
Kohima, Mokokchung |
1.
Prakash Singh, ‘Nagaland’ published by the Director, National Book
Trust of India, A-5, Greenpark, New Delhi-16.
and
Tuensang for the convenience of the administration. Lotha
language area i.e. Wokha which was a sub-division of Mokokchung
district has now attained a status of a district in Nagaland.
Now, Nagaland has seven districts viz., Kohima, Mokokchung,
Tuensang, Wokha, Mon, phek and zunheboto. Total population
of Nagaland (1971 census) was 5, 15,561. According to the
1971 census the total number of Lotha speakers in Nagaland
was 36,728.
Lothas
do not call themselves by the name of ‘Lotha’. They refer to themselves
as ‘kyon’ which literally means ‘people’. According to a Local tradition,1
the word ‘Lotha’ was not used originally in its present form. The
term was originallyintroduced by the Assamese as ‘Lota’ which means
a creeper in Assamese. Then the Britishers during their rule in
this region pronounced it as ‘Lhota’ by aspiarating the initial
consonant. After independence of the country ‘Lhota’ was changed
to ‘Lotha’ which is the present form. |
Dialects
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It
is not clear about the number of dialects of Lotha. J.P. Mills in
his book ‘Lotha Naga’ says that the main division of Lotha Naga
is made by the river Doyang, those to the north being known as ‘Liye’
and those to the South as "Nderng". Investigator has not
noticed differences in Lotha language from one region to another
region except for some tones. Regarding the dialects of Lotha Late
N.L. Kinghen2 said as follows : |
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1.
(Late) Kinghen, N.L. Retired Additional Deputy Comissioner,
Nagaland and Ex-chairman of Lotha literature committee, Wokha,
Nagaland (personal communication)
2.
Late N. L. Kinghen. Retired Additional Deputy Commissioner,
Wokha Nagaland and Ex-Chairman Lotha Literature Committee,
Wokha, Nagaland (personal communication). |
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