Nefamese or ''Arunamese'' is a

pidgin A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified form of contact language that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn f ...

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeast India. It was formed from the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and India declared it as a state on 20 February 1987. Itanagar is its capital and la ...

(formerly NEFA), India. Its classification is unclear; ''Ethnologue'' states that it is based on the

Assamese language Assamese () or Asamiya ( ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken mainly in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam, where it is an official language. It has long served as a ''lingua franca'' in parts of Northeast India."Axomiya is the major langu ...

, but also that it is most closely related to the Sino-Tibetan Gallong like the Assamese language formed out by the mixture of languages like Austroasiatic, Tibeto-Burman, Tai and

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

family of languages. Nefamese emerged in eastern Arunachal Pradesh as a

lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make co ...

among the Nyishi, Adi, Apatanai, Khampti, Hill Miri, Idu Mishimi, Nocte, Wancho, Tagin, Mompa, Zakhring, and Bugun peoples, among others—between them and with other Indigenous Assamese people and other Indigenous groups of

Northeast India Northeast India, officially the North Eastern Region (NER), is the easternmost region of India representing both a geographic and political Administrative divisions of India, administrative division of the country. It comprises eight States and ...

. The language is threatened by, and has perhaps somewhat been replaced by, the use of

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

Phonology

See also

References

Further reading