How to greet someone in Nagamese, Ao and Sümi
The first thirty seconds of a conversation carry most of the social information. Here is how to handle them in the three languages this site covers, including the Nagamese greetings most phrase lists get wrong, and why the formality choice matters more than getting the pronunciation right.
Nagamese
Nagamese is the safe default anywhere in Nagaland, because it is the language people use with strangers by design.
Start with the point most online phrase lists get wrong: Nagamese greets in English. People say Hello, Good morning, Good night and Thank you, the English words themselves. The Sanskrit-derived formulas used across much of mainland India (Namaste, Namaskar, Suprabhat, Shubh ratri) are not part of how people greet each other in Nagaland. An earlier version of this page listed some of them; that was a mistake, and it has been corrected.
The greeting that is genuinely local is a question about food. With someone you know, Bhaat khaishe? (literally "Have you eaten rice?") does much the same work as "How are you?" does in English. Rice is the centre of the everyday meal, so the question amounts to "Have you had your meal?". The usual reply is simply yes: Hoy, moi khaishe. You will also see it spelled khaishey; Nagamese spelling is not standardised.
| English | Nagamese |
|---|---|
| Hello. | Hello.the English word is used |
| Have you eaten? (everyday greeting) | Bhaat khaishe?lit. “rice eat-PAST” |
| Yes, I have eaten. | Hoy, moi khaishe. |
| How are you? (formal) | Apni kinika ase? |
| How are you? (informal) | Toi kinika ase? |
| I am fine. | Moi bhal ase. |
| What is your name? (formal) | Apni laga naam ki ase? |
| What is your name? (informal) | Toi laga naam ki ase? |
| My name is … | Moi laga naam … ase. |
| Where are you from? | Apni kot para ahise? |
| Good morning. / Good night. | Good morning. / Good night.said in English |
| Thank you. | Thank you.said in English |
| See you tomorrow. | Kali dekha hibo. |
Ao (Chungli)
Ao asks for your name with "who" rather than "what": Na tenüng shiba? is literally "your name is who?".
| English | Ao (Chungli) |
|---|---|
| What is your name? | Na tenüng shiba? |
| I know. | Ni metet. |
| I don't know. | Ni memetet. |
| I love you. | Ni na meimer. |
| This is very good! | Iba ya kanga tajung! |
| I don't speak Ao. | Ni Ao oshi mejembi. |
odi is worth knowing socially: it means "elder brother" and functions much as "bro" does in English, opening a friendly remark: Odi, iba ya kanga tajung! "Bro, this is really good!"
Sema (Sümi)
| English | Sema (Sümi) |
|---|---|
| Where do you live? | Noye khila ngo cheni kea? |
| Do you know him? | Noye pa ithi ani kesya? |
| I love you. | Niye no kimiye ani. |
| He is at home. | Pa aki-lo ani. |
Notice the sentence-final kea and kesya: Sümi marks a question with a particle at the end rather than by changing word order. Leave it off and you have made a statement.
Which language should you use?
- Talking to a stranger anywhere in Nagaland: Nagamese, or English.
- In Mokokchung district, to an Ao speaker: a greeting in Ao is a genuine gesture. It will usually be met with delight and then, mercifully, a switch to Nagamese or English.
- In Zünheboto district, to a Sümi speaker: the same applies with Sümi.
- In writing: English is the state's official language and dominates all written communication.
A useful and slightly counter-intuitive point: attempting an ancestral language and getting it wrong is generally received better than not attempting it. The relevant phrase, in that case, is Moi Nagamese kobo najane ("I don't speak Nagamese") said in Nagamese.
You can practise any of this in conversation with NagaChat, which corrects you as you go, or look up more in the phrasebook.
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.
- NagaTranslate community phrase set: every phrase on this page comes from the contributed dataset behind the translator; entries are not independently audited