This article is a part of our new series Dialectical, which explores the region's languages, their connections, and shared histories.
Out of the 7139 languages spoken in the world, almost 96 percent are spoken by a mere three percent of the world population. Three quarters of world languages are indigenous and are spoken in multilingual contexts. As in other parts of the world, Southasia also shows a high level of linguistic diversity in areas where indigenous people live. Some of these linguistically diverse areas in Southasia are Northeast India, Chota Nagpur Plateau, central India and northern Nepal. Although contact languages play an important role in these multilingual milieux, not much is known on how these contact languages have evolved and how linguistic diversity is maintained among indigenous communities. Some of these answers may lie in our understanding of contact languages such as Nagamese (Nagaland), Haflong Hindi (Assam), Halbi (central India), Sadri (in Jharkhand, Assam, North of West Bengal and Bangladesh, and Andaman Nicobar), and Sri Lankan Malay, a minority language in Sri Lanka.
In the hills
In the hills of the Northeast, an extended pidgin named Nagamese has developed among various Naga-language speakers. Nagaland is home to more than 16 Tibeto-Burman languages, where relative geographical isolation has led to great linguistic diversity. Nagamese is an Assamese-lexified (based) extended pidgin with influences from Hindi, English, and various Naga languages such as Angami, Sema, Ao, Lotha, Konyak, Zeme and Liangmai, Phom, Rengma and Sangtam. It is used for inter-lingual communication in markets, hospitals, legislative assemblies, churches and also as a medium of instruction. The emergence of a unified Naga identity irrespective of adivasi affiliation has led to situations where it has acquired the role of a mother tongue for children from the marriage of people from two different speech communities. Young people use it very commonly among themselves on the streets of Kohima, Dimapur, Mokokchung, and those living outside of Nagaland.