Angami (Tenyidie): a short guide
Angami (Tenyidie in its standard written form) is the language of the Angami Nagas of the Kohima area, and one of the best-documented Naga languages. It is also one whose documentation disagrees with itself, which is worth knowing before you learn from any single source.
Where it is spoken
Angami is a Naga language spoken in the Naga Hills of north-east India, in Kohima district of Nagaland. There were an estimated 153,000 first-language speakers in 2011. On UNESCO's Language Vitality and Endangerment scale it is rated "vulnerable": most children still speak it, but its use may be restricted to certain domains.
The Angami people live mainly in Kohima, Chümoukedima and Dimapur districts, with part of their territory in Niuland district and in Senapati district of Manipur. They are traditionally divided into four regions (Chakhro, Northern, Southern and Western Angami), and belong to the wider Tenyimi group of related Naga peoples. The Chakhesang were formerly known as the Eastern Angami.
A well-documented language that disagrees with itself
Many grammars and word lists of Angami exist, in Tenyidie and in English, but they often conflict about its sounds and grammar. The main reason is that they were made at different times from speakers of different dialects: the early documentation, from the 1870s to the 1960s and mostly by Christian missionaries, rarely recorded who the informants were, and treated whichever variety the author met as "standard" Angami.
The complete Bible in Tenyidie was published in 1970. Other written Tenyidie includes folktale collections, church songbooks, school textbooks and exam papers, and a newer body of song lyrics.
The phrases below come from one of those early works, R. B. McCabe's Outline Grammar of the Angami Naga Language (1887), so their spelling is older than modern Tenyidie. McCabe notes that questions end in a particle (ga, ro or ma) placed at the very end of the sentence, which you can see in several of them.
Example phrases
| English | Angami (1887 spelling) |
|---|---|
| What is your name? | Unad sopoga? |
| Where are you going? | No kitsé votoga? |
| Who came? | Sopo vorga? |
| What do you want? | No kejipo chaaga? |
| I saw many birds in the jungle. | A nha nu pera nguperéwé. |
| How many coolies are there? | Kuli kichu baga? |
| English | Kohima Angami (1967) |
|---|---|
| water | dzü |
| house | ki |
| fire | mi |
| mother | azuo |
| father | apuo |
Sources and further reading
Grammar descriptions on this page are drawn from the reference material listed below and from the community phrase set behind the translator. Where the sources disagree with each other, or a speaker's correction disagrees with both, the speaker's usage is followed.
- Angami language: speakers, UNESCO status, documentation and text collections
- Angami Naga: distribution and regional divisions
- McCabe, R. B. (1887), *Outline Grammar of the Angami Naga Language, with a vocabulary and illustrative sentences*: example sentences and the question particles
- Marrison, G. E. (1967), *Naga Languages of North-East India*: word list, via Lexibank (CC BY 4.0)