I was also going to post about inter-tribal perceptions of the main three tribes, but rather than risk offending anyone, I thought I'd just post about common perceptions of their languages, as well as my own.
Over the last few weeks I've stayed with Sumi (aka Sema) friends in Zunheboto, an Ao friend in Dimapur and now Angami friends here in Kohima. Given that the Angami, Ao and Sumi languages are three of the most commonly spoken Naga languages, I think I've started getting the hang of telling them apart if I hear them on the street in places like Dimapur and Kohima where people from all over the state gather.
Given that most of my research has been on Sumi, I can almost always tell if someone is speaking the language, even if I can't understand what they're saying. The most distinguishing feature of Sumi are what people often call 'guttural' sounds. More technically, these are the velar fricatives [x] and [ɣ] - [x] is found in languages like German, e.g. the sound represented by ch in achtung and [ɣ] sounds similar to French 'r', except it's not articulated as far back in the mouth. Sumi also has uvular stops [q] and [qh] which sound like swallowed up 'k's sound - [q] is found in standard Arabic, as in the word Quran.
My non-Sumi friends have also told that Sumis sound like they're arguing with each other when they speak, even when they're not. They're seen as quite a rowdy lot in general and the language is perceived as being 'harsh'. I'm not quite sure I completely agree with this, but there was one Sumi guy who I thought was always angry, just judging from the general loudness of his voice.
Angami on the other hand, is said to sound 'gentler', 'sweeter' and more 'melodic'. Again, I'm not sure I completely agree with this statement, but I do agree that it can sound more 'melodic'. This might have to something to do with the fact that Angami has more contrastive tones than Sumi: the Kohima dialect has been analysed as having 5, while Sumi only has 3. Also, the lack of 'gutturals' might have something to do with its perception as being 'gentler'.
As a non-speaker of Angami (apart from the few phrases I got my friends to teach me this week), I don't hear the tones at all. What I do listen out for are the consonant clusters 'kr' and 'pr', which Sumi and Ao lack. Angami also has a mid central vowel, like English schwa [Ə], which Sumi lacks.
Of the three, I've had the least experience with Ao, which is said to be the most 'singsong' of the main three languages. I can't comment much on it, except after spending 4 days with a speaker of (Mongsen) Ao, the most distinguishing feature for me is the high incidence of rhotic or 'r' sounds. It's sort of like when I hear Beijing Mandarin being spoken - all I tend to hear is 'rrr ... rrr ... rrr ...'
[Addendum: Lotha, the language of another major tribe, sounds like Ao, except speakers roll / trill their 'r's.]
Certainly, there are many other languages spoken which may fit these patterns, but given the relatively larger number of speakers for these languages, there's a higher probability that my guess is right.
Finally, my friends here can usually tell what tribe's someone's from just from the way they speak Nagamese (the local lingua franca based on Assamese but quite a bit of Hindi and Bengali vocabulary). For some of these friends, intonation seems to be a good cue. I'm sure it'd be an interesting linguistic topic to explore somewhere down the track.
Over the last few weeks I've stayed with Sumi (aka Sema) friends in Zunheboto, an Ao friend in Dimapur and now Angami friends here in Kohima. Given that the Angami, Ao and Sumi languages are three of the most commonly spoken Naga languages, I think I've started getting the hang of telling them apart if I hear them on the street in places like Dimapur and Kohima where people from all over the state gather.
Given that most of my research has been on Sumi, I can almost always tell if someone is speaking the language, even if I can't understand what they're saying. The most distinguishing feature of Sumi are what people often call 'guttural' sounds. More technically, these are the velar fricatives [x] and [ɣ] - [x] is found in languages like German, e.g. the sound represented by ch in achtung and [ɣ] sounds similar to French 'r', except it's not articulated as far back in the mouth. Sumi also has uvular stops [q] and [qh] which sound like swallowed up 'k's sound - [q] is found in standard Arabic, as in the word Quran.
My non-Sumi friends have also told that Sumis sound like they're arguing with each other when they speak, even when they're not. They're seen as quite a rowdy lot in general and the language is perceived as being 'harsh'. I'm not quite sure I completely agree with this, but there was one Sumi guy who I thought was always angry, just judging from the general loudness of his voice.
Angami on the other hand, is said to sound 'gentler', 'sweeter' and more 'melodic'. Again, I'm not sure I completely agree with this statement, but I do agree that it can sound more 'melodic'. This might have to something to do with the fact that Angami has more contrastive tones than Sumi: the Kohima dialect has been analysed as having 5, while Sumi only has 3. Also, the lack of 'gutturals' might have something to do with its perception as being 'gentler'.
As a non-speaker of Angami (apart from the few phrases I got my friends to teach me this week), I don't hear the tones at all. What I do listen out for are the consonant clusters 'kr' and 'pr', which Sumi and Ao lack. Angami also has a mid central vowel, like English schwa [Ə], which Sumi lacks.
Of the three, I've had the least experience with Ao, which is said to be the most 'singsong' of the main three languages. I can't comment much on it, except after spending 4 days with a speaker of (Mongsen) Ao, the most distinguishing feature for me is the high incidence of rhotic or 'r' sounds. It's sort of like when I hear Beijing Mandarin being spoken - all I tend to hear is 'rrr ... rrr ... rrr ...'
[Addendum: Lotha, the language of another major tribe, sounds like Ao, except speakers roll / trill their 'r's.]
Certainly, there are many other languages spoken which may fit these patterns, but given the relatively larger number of speakers for these languages, there's a higher probability that my guess is right.
Finally, my friends here can usually tell what tribe's someone's from just from the way they speak Nagamese (the local lingua franca based on Assamese but quite a bit of Hindi and Bengali vocabulary). For some of these friends, intonation seems to be a good cue. I'm sure it'd be an interesting linguistic topic to explore somewhere down the track.
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