Yes:
• Yes. Nagamese is not a Naga language. It is as simple as that.
• Yes, it is a threat. English is a medium language for connecting, teaching, official use and global importance. Which is imperative to our State and people. Local languages (tribal dialects/language) are our roots, identity, culture, originality and imperative necessary for each tribes. It must be uncompromising. Lastly, Nagamese is a bazaar language, connecting different tribes, non locals and open language. Note: all the tribal languages are in red list while Tenyidia is the most spoken language is also in the list. There are 22 official languages (Inclusive of English and Rajasthani 24) in 8 Schedule. Naga language/dialect of each tribe may at least need 20 more years to even get recognition excluding Tenyidie which may get it sooner. We must promote more of our dialects and not normalize Nagamese over your own tribal language.
• We Naga have to develop our own language by assimilation of all the common Naga dialect without border
• Yes, Nagamese is destroying Naga languages. Nagamese is nothing more than a market language which is a concoction of Assamese and Bengali. Nagamese does not have even a single word from any of the Naga languages. It is surprising that Nagamese has become so widespread these days.
• Yes. Nagamese is undermining both Naga languages and English language. Beyond Nagaland, there is no relevance of Nagamese.
• The reason is that we belong to different tribes and speak different dialects in the villages. When interactions take place with other tribes the lingua franca is nagamese. Those children born and brought up in towns and cities have not learnt properly their mother tongues begin to interact with friends in Nagamese only. This trend is really a threat to indigenous languages.
• Nagamese is used in the market for communicating. It is nothing more than this. So it is dangerous to see Nagas uplift Nagamese from a market medium of communication to a language. This unnatural elevation is not good for the indigenous languages of Nagaland.
• This street tailored linguistic has no affiliation nor background roots connected with Naga culture, tradition and values in any form. Let this be form of street conversation but not to be used in any official infact should be discouraged. The more we use it gives a sense of inviting alien culture. Let English be the main form of language other than our mother tongue which gives essence and legit reflecting as a true Naga.
• Its a blessing for Nagas
• Yes for people who stays in Dimapur
• Yes. Because it has no originality or authenticity of Nagas' dialect.
• Yes it is. Most young generations have forgotten their mother tongue, replying to parents in nagamese.
• Naga people are forgetting their own mother tongue in favor of nagamese
• You will forget your language
• Local languages are being replaced by Nagamese even at homes in urban areas. Very disturbing trend for the local languages
• Yes. With the changing population in Nagaland the use of Nagamese will only increase. Just look at Dimapur, the number of Nagas are much less than the non-locals and this itself will change the use of language. In a few years time, this situation will become even more problem.
• Yes, Nagamese cannot be considered a language. It is a mixed up market language that was used for Nagas to communicate with the plain people from Assam.
• Yes, Nagaland is losing its identity. A number of Naga languages have already been threatened. One of the causes for this is the use of Nagamese.
• Yes. In the absence of a common Naga language, there has been a justle for a language where Nagas can communicate with one another. English is the best option since it has usage outside Nagaland and in the world. However, since majority of the Nagas are not educated, the use of Nagamese has become more popular. Nagamese is spoken only in Nagaland and has no use outside of this.
• Yes. Historically Nagamese has found to have no relation to any of the Naga languages. This introduction of Assamese and Bengali by the British colonial administrators in Naga schools have created this mishmash called Nagamese. It was very unpopular to speak Nagamese before and it was only used to communicate in the market and with non-locals. But today, Nagamese is becoming more popular among the younger Nagas and this is going to not only affect Naga languages but also the culture.
• Yes. Nagamese does not even have one Naga word in it. Nagamese is more like Assamese. It will definitely hurt Naga languages. You can already see how Nagamese is influencing Naga society and affecting Naga languages in places in Dimapur.
• We have a wide gap between the educated and uneducated. This is one of the reasons why Nagamese is growing and will have negative impact on our mother tongue. If the education system in Nagaland was better and if the gap between educated and uneducated was not as much, Nagamese would not have grown.
• Yes. During the recent North East Games, a number of players (especially boxing) were obviously non-locals. This attracted a lot of comments on the youtube chat box and a number of them commented how Nagaland is being taken over. I think the same is happening to the languages where Nagamese is overtaking our own native mother tongue.
• Yes. Can you believe it, even official meetings are being spoken in Nagamese. This is heights.
• Yes, local indigenous languages are being affected by Nagamese. This is the harsh truth.
No:
• The tribes invented their own language in ancient times, more as protective measure than a language to communicate between inter tribes.
• Until and unless Nagamese becomes a subject/course introduce in the school or college our indigenous Naga language is not a threat. There is no other universal language other than Nagamese in Nagaland where all sections of people can Converse at ease.
• No nagamese is a common Naga language. Each tribe has our own tribal language
• No... But it should be our task to speak in one's own dialect to safeguard our indigenous Naga language
• Nagamese serves as a bridge for communication among different Naga tribes and between Nagas and non-Nagas. Efforts to preserve indigenous languages should be balanced with the recognition of the practical realities of language use in modern society.
• I think nagamese is unifying language for different tribes of Nagaland.
• How else will the residents communicate? The same goes for English or Hindi...
• Because it's just a medium to communicate between different communities
Others:
• Young Naga people will say that Nagamese is necessary but they dont know the historical context how Nagamese came to being. This ignorance of the history makes the young people susceptible to Nagamese.
• Yes, No and So many others.... So many ways to look at this problem
• It should not be taken as threat. We cannot do away with Nagamese but we are also responsible to keep our own local dialects alive. Always speak your own dialects at home with your children. Other dialects are secondary and children can also learn them outside our homes, from schools, from friends, from bazaar, from street etc etc
• Most Europeans speak two or three languages , learn more languages you will have an edge over one who speaks only one or two languages
• Of course, English is the most spoken language universally but it seems English is more threatening than the Nagamese. Although Nagamese is use commonly for communication purposes it isn't used for writing in most cases and therefore, people use either their dialect or English for writing. Our government should come up with each dialect to be taught compulsorily up to 10 standards. It reminds me of Aura and Aure an unknown tribe in the Amazon forest, nobody recognised the dialect they speak. With the death of the Aure Today, only the Aura remains. 100 years down the line this can happen to some of our tribal dialects if not all. Because even within the same tribe speaks more of the 6 or 10 dialects. For example, the Phom Naga tribe is the least compared to different tribes in Nagaland but speaks more than 5 dialects.
We speak Nagamese mostly with people who don't know our own dialect. So I don't see any threat in it. The only only case of a threat is families acting high standard and always interacting with each other in either English or Nagamese. Their children grows up not knowing their own.
