"In the Quon dialect the 26 (twenty six) alphabets are fully used for writing purposes plus another extra vowel i.e. Ü which makes the total number of alphabets to 27. This Ü gives ½ (halff) sound of U and without this * U sound, no Naga dialect can be written. This half sound * was borrowed by Dr Rev. Clark from German language and introduced into the Naga languages sometime in 1872"

Thus, Lotha spoken in the Central villages particularly in and around Wokha is considered to be the standard one. The religious songs, textbooks and other literary works are composed in the dialect spoken in this area by the Lotha literature committee appointed by the Government of Nagaland.

Very few earlier works are found on Lotha. They include (1) Grierson’s Linguistic Survey of India vol. III part II. (2) Rev. W. E. Writter’s "Outline Grammar of Lotha Naga Language" published in 1888. (2) F.A. Marrison’s "Classification of Naga languages" London May 1966, Vol. I-II.

Regarding the Anthropological studies of Lotha Nagas, J.H.Hutton’s "The Angami Nagas" London, 1921 contains a chapter on Lothas. There is a separate book ‘Lotha Naga’ written by J.P.Mills dealing with the social aspects of Lotha Nagas. He has also written an article entitled Folk Stories in Lotha Naga published in J. A. S. B. M. S. Vol. 22, 1926, pp. 235-318.

Regarding teaching materials S. A. Perrine has written the following books :

1. Lotha Naga Primer (Shillong, Assam secretariat press, 1905, pp 86).

2. Lotha Naga Reader (Shillong, Assam Secretariat press, 1905, pp.202)

Lotha Naga Language is taught in school as mothertongue and is used as a medium of instruction in all the primary schools. The text book production branch of the Directorate of Education. Nagaland, produce text books in this language also. There is a literature Committee appointed by the Government of Nagaland which works for the development of Lotha Language and Literature. Nagaland Bhasha Parishat alsod has done some linguistic work on Naga languages including Lotha.

English is being taught as a compulsory subject from the primary stage to the secondary stage. It is the medium of instruction from class V and above. English is continued to be the State Language until one or more Naga Languages are sufficiently developed to replace it.

Hindi is being taught as a compulsory subject from class VIII. In classes IX and X it is being taught as an optional subject as per the regulations of the secondary board. Cash awards have, however, been instituted to encourage students to opt for Hindi.

The analysis of Lotha is mainly based on the utterrences of Mr. Zurenthung Ovung Lotha who was the main informant for this work. However, data were checked with several informants in different villages to find out the tonal and other variations in the language. Most of the informants were teachers, Mr. Zurenthung Ovung Lotha is working as Sub Inspector of schools in the office of the deputy inspector of schools at Wokha, Nagaland. He is a native of village phiro which is 18 miles away from Wokha but he is living in Wokha for the last many years.

Data were collected during two field trips to Nagaland, one from January 1973 to May 1973 and another from Oct. 1974 to Nov. 1974. The Data consist of three thousand lexical items, one thousand sentences and twelve sample texts. Apart from this many folk songs, folk stories and other cultural information were collected during the field work.

The present work is a descriptive study of the structure of Lotha Naga Language. The description covers phonology, Morphology and syntax of Lotha. The dictionary of Lotha is prepared separately.