Languages
Every tribe in Nagaland has its own unique language. Nagas speak 20 different dialects (16 tribes in Nagaland including Kuki and Dimasa) belonging to the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. The traditional languages do not have any script of their own. The Christian missionaries used Roman script for these languages.
In 1967, the Nagaland Assembly proclaimed English as the official language of Nagaland and is the medium for education in Nagaland.
Nagamese, a creole language form of Indo-Aryan Assamese and local dialects is the most widely spoken market language. Every tribe has its own mother tongue but communicates with other tribes in Nagamese. As such Nagamese is the lingua franca of the people of Nagaland. The "Kaccha Nagas" of Manipur communicate with each other in Meitei, the common language of the people of Manipur.
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Famous quotes containing the word languages:
“I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigree of nations.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“The trouble with foreign languages is, you have to think before your speak.”
—Swedish proverb, trans. by Verne Moberg.
“Wealth is so much the greatest good that Fortune has to bestow that in the Latin and English languages it has usurped her name.”
—William Lamb Melbourne, 2nd Viscount (1779–1848)