The Lotha language is a
Sino-Tibetan
Sino-Tibetan, also cited as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese languages. ...
language spoken by approximately 180,000 people in
Wokha district
Wokha District (Pron:/ˈwəʊkə/) is a district of Nagaland state in India. It is the home of the Lotha Nagas. Gastronomically, it known for its variety of fermented bamboo shoots (bastenga). It holds an important place as the roosting site o ...
of west-central
Nagaland
Nagaland () is a landlocked state in the northeastern region of India. It is bordered by the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Assam to the west, Manipur to the south and the Sagaing Region of Myanmar to the east. Its capital cit ...
, India. It is centered in the small district of Wokha (capital Wokha). This district has more than 114 villages such as Pangti, Maraju (Merapani),
Englan
Englan is a small village in the district of Wokha, in the Nagaland state of India. Its name literally means ''The Path of the Sun''. It is one of the main centers of the district and is an active center of the Lotha language
The Lotha lang ...
, Baghty (Pakti) and others, where the language is widely spoken and studied.
Names
Alternate names include Chizima, Choimi, Hlota, Kyong, Lhota, Lotha, Lutha, Miklai, Tsindir, and Tsontsii (''Ethnologue'').
Dialects
''
Ethnologue
''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensi ...
'' lists the following dialects of Lotha.
*Live
*Tsontsü
*Ndreng
*Kyong
*Kyo
*Kyon
*Kyou
In the ''
Linguistic Survey of India
The Linguistic Survey of India (LSI) is a comprehensive survey of the languages of British India, describing 364 languages and dialects. The Survey was first proposed by George Abraham Grierson, a member of the Indian Civil Service and a linguis ...
'', linguist George Abraham Grierson analyzed various branches of languages in India and categorized various Naga languages into three groups: Western Naga, Eastern Naga, and Central Naga.
Lotha falls into the Central Naga group, which also includes the languages
Ao,
Sangtam, and
Yimkhiungrü.
Phonology
Consonants
* /v/ when followed by /o/ can also be heard as
in free variation.
* The pronunciation of the trills /r, rʰ/ may vary as approximants
, ɹʰor a retroflex fricative
among speakers.
*/j/ only occurs as phonemically aspirated as /jʰ/ among other dialects.
*Plosives /p, k/ can be heard as unreleased
̚, k̚in word-final position.
Vowels
* When /u/ follows a labial consonant or /k, kʰ/, the consonant is then affricated and /u/ is realized as unrounded
The result is then from /ku, kʰu, pu, pʰu/ to
vɯ, kfɯ, pvɯ, pfɯ
*/i/ may also tend to centralize and lower as
, əin open syllables when following sibilant sounds (/ʃi/ ~
ɨ~ʃə.
* /ə/ may also range in pronunciation to a back sound
*/i, u/ can also be heard shortened as
, ʊwithin the first syllable.
Orthography and literature
Lotha is written in the
Latin script
The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern ...
, introduced by the British and American missionaries in the late 19th century. It is a medium of education up to the post-graduate level in the state of Nagaland. It is also the language in which the church sermons are preached. The
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus ...
has been translated into the Lotha language, adding significantly to its vocabulary, which had an influence of
Assamese and
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
.
References
External links
Translation of the beginning of the Book of Genesis in Lotha
*
Sino-Tibetan Languages
Sino-Tibetan, also cited as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese languages ...
Endangered Languages Project: Lotha Naga
{{Languages of Northeast India
Ao languages
Languages of Nagaland
Endangered languages of India