The Central Institute of Indian Languages has reached 25 years of age and it is a time for reflection about its origin, development, achievements and shortfalls.
The study of Indian language with the objective of preparing them for the new roles of national reconstruction and development was the concern of many from the independence of the country. The major responsibility to support such a study was to be taken up by the State. The Kher Commission of the Government of India recommended the establishment of three Central Institutes for this purpose. The Official Language Resolution of 1968 made the Central Government also responsible for the development of all Indian languages in addition to Hindi. These and other developments led to the establishment of Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) in Mysore on July 17, 1969.
The primary objective of the Institute is the development of Indian languages ensuring coordination between the various developmental activities at the governmental and non governmental levels and also by orienting linguistic research for the development of Indian languages. The Institute is also to contribute towards the maintenance of multilingualism of the country through language teaching, and translation and to strengthen the common bond between the Indian languages.
The work of the Institute consists of research, training and production of teaching materials. The results of these activities can be seen in its more than 300 publications and 6879 teachers trained in its Regional Language Centres. The Institute has been able to make an impact My grateful thanks are due to Dr. E. Annamalai, Director, CIIL, for his constant encouragement and guidance througho::: this project.
Mrs. Lalitha Handoo has provided Hindi glosses for this Dictionary. I thank her for her assistance. Iam thankful to Dr. R. A. Singh who has checked the Hindi entries.
I thank Shri J. Sharan for typing this manuscript and Shri N. H. Itagi for drawing the map and Shn K. Srinivasacharya for seeing it through the press.
Konyak Nagas are one of the sixteen major tribes who live in the state of Nagaland. ‘Konyak’ is the name of the language as well as the Community that speaks it. Among the sixteen communities, Konyak is the single largest tribe. Earlier Konyaks were known by various names-Angwanku, Tableng, Angphong and others. In fact there was no common name for these people. Only recently ‘Konyak’ term is used uniformly for them.
Konyaks inhabit the north-eastern district of Nagaland, namely the Mon district (formed in Dec. 1973). The area occupied by the Konyaks 1s primarily divided into two, viz. lower Konyak and Upper Konyak. The lower Konyak consists mostly of low lying areas with the hills, having a height of just about 3000 feet. The upper Konyak consists of high hills and thick forests spreading in the south upto the Patkoi hill ranges. The Konyaks have on the east a long Interna- tional border with Burma. The Upper Konyak are bounded on the south by Khiamngans, on the west by the Changs and the Phoms, ‘and on the north they are contiguous with the lower Konyaks.
The lower Konyaks are bounded on the south-west by. the Phoms, and on the west by the Aos. They have a long border on the north and north-east with Assam and Arunachal Pradesh respectively.
Mon town is the district headquarters. It is 20 kms. from Wakching, one of the important Konyak villages. The other important village are Wanching, Oting, Lapa, Jakpang, Phonching, Jabaka, Shangnyu, Chen and Champang. Konyaks according to 1971 Census reports numbered 73,338 speakers.
Konyak language has many dialects. According to Marrison (1967) these are 24 dialects ( all named after the village names where they are spoken). They are the following Angpang, Wakching or Angwanku or Tableng, Aopao, Changaya, Chen, Chingkso, Ching- long, Longkhoni, Longmein, Longwa, Mohung, Mon, Mulung, Ngangching, Sang, Shanlang, Shanyo, Tolaomleiyo and Totak.
The dialect spoken in the Wakching area is considered to be the standard dialect and text books and other literature are written inthis dialect. Therefore the data for the present study is also based on this dialect.
There are four major language families in India, viz., Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto- Chinese. The languages spoken in Nagaland belong to the Fibeto-Chinese family of languages. The Tibeto- Chinese language family has two sub-families—Siamese- Chinese and Tibeto-Burman. The Tibeto-Burman subfamily has two branches. The Tibeto-Himalayan branch and Assam-Burmese branch. The latter branch has four groups - a) Bodo, b) Naga, c) Kukichin, and d) Burmese.
The Naga group of languages are classifed into three groups by Grierson—
1. Western group, which includes Angami, Sema, Rengma, and Kezhma.
2. Central group which includes Ao, Lotha, Thukumi, Yim, Chunger, and a few other languages; and
3. Eastern group which includes Angwanku or Tableng (Konyak), Chingmegnu or Tamlu (Phom), Chang or Mamfung and afew others spoken outside Naga hills, viz., Banpara (Wanchu), Mohangia (Nocte), Mutonia, Assiringia, Moshang (Mohangia) and Tangsa (Shangge)- all in the present Arunachal Pradesh.
Konyaks belong to the eastern branch of Naga group of languages.
Later in 1967 Marrison classified Naga languages into five types based on typological comparison at the phonological, morphological ‘and syntactical levels.
According to this classification Konyak comes under Type Az, along with Phom and Chang, spoken in the northern part of Nagaland. It agrees with Griersons classification.
Konyaks like the rest of Nagaland belong to Mongoloid race. Though Konyaks are the single largest tribe, it is the most backward tribe among all the Naga tribes.
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