| Nocte | |
|---|---|
| Native to | India |
| Ethnicity | Nocte |
Native speakers | 33,000 (2001 census) [1] |
Sino-Tibetan
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | njb |
| Glottolog | noct1238 |
| ELP | Nocte Naga |
Nocte is a Northern Naga language of northeastern India.
Nocte is known by various alternate names, including:
Nocte belongs to the Northern Naga branch of the Konyak subgroup under the larger Sino-Tibetan language family. It is closely related to other Naga languages such as:
Linguistic studies show that Nocte shares phonological, grammatical, and lexical similarities with these languages, although it has evolved independently with distinct dialectal variations.
According to Ethnologue, Nocte is spoken in the following locations.
Nocte features a range of consonant and vowel phonemes, typical of the Northern Naga languages. Key phonological features include:
The grammatical structure of Nocte follows a subject-object-verb (SOV) order, with extensive use of suffixes to indicate case, number, and tense. Pronouns and honorifics are culturally important, reflecting social hierarchies within the Nocte community. [4]
Historically, Nocte was transmitted orally, and like many other tribal languages in the region, it did not have a formal script. The Roman script is now commonly used for writing Nocte, especially in educational and religious contexts. Efforts have been made to standardize the orthography of Nocte, including the development of primers and dictionaries.
Although Nocte is actively spoken by around 60,000 speakers (as per the 2011 Census), the language is considered vulnerable due to increasing influence from Hindi, Assamese, and English. [3] Young Nocte speakers are gradually shifting toward these languages in urban and educational contexts, threatening the intergenerational transmission of Nocte.
Efforts to preserve and promote Nocte include: