Sümi, also Sema, is a
Sino-Tibetan
Sino-Tibetan (also referred to as Trans-Himalayan) is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. Around 1.4 billion people speak a Sino-Tibetan language. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 ...
language spoken in
Nagaland
Nagaland () is a States and union territories of India, state in the northeast India, north-eastern 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 Naga Sel ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
. It is spoken by the
Sümi Naga people. It differs from every other Naga languages due to the presence of guttural sounds.
Geographical distribution
Sümi is spoken in central and southern
Nagaland
Nagaland () is a States and union territories of India, state in the northeast India, north-eastern 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 Naga Sel ...
, mainly in
Zünheboto District. There are also good number of speakers in parts of
Niuland,
Dimapur
Dimapur () is the largest city and municipality in the Indian state of Nagaland. As of 2024 , the municipality had a population of 172,000. The city is the main gateway and commercial centre of Nagaland. Located near the border with Assam along ...
,
Chümoukedima and
Kiphire District(s), as well as in 7 villages of
Tinsukia District,
Assam
Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...
(''Ethnologue'').
Dialects
''
Ethnologue
''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' 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 comprehensive catalogue of languages. It w ...
'' lists the following dialects of Sümi.
*Dayang (Western Sümi)
*Lazami
*Jimomi
*Zumomi
Phonology
The transcriptions in this section use the
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standard written representation ...
.
Vowels

The vowels of Sümi are as follows:
Notes:
* The close front and the close central vowels have been variously described as near-close and close . The close back vowel has only been described as close .
** In the word-medial position, can be realized as mid .
* The mid vowels can be realized as either close-mid or open-mid .
** describes the close-mid allophone of as slightly advanced .
* has been variously described as near-open and open .
** After uvular stops, can be realized as open back unrounded .
Consonants
The consonants of Sümi are as follows:
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
External links
Sümi DoReCo corpuscompiled by Amos Teo. Audio recordings of narrative texts with transcriptions time-aligned at the phone level, translations, and time-aligned morphological annotations.
Languages of Nagaland
Angami–Pochuri languages
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