About Sema Language

Sema Language

Prominent in the north-eastern part of India, Sema is mainly an Angami-Pochuri language belonging to the family of Sino-Tibetan languages, that is spoken by some communities in the north-eastern state of Nagaland in India. Precisely, it is the Sumi Naga community that speaks this language. Sema is also known by some other names. These are: Simi as well as Sumi.

According to the 2001 census of India, there are more than approximately 1,04,000 native speakers of Sema language residing in the state of Nagaland.

Coming to the geographical distribution of the language in the state, Sema is spoken by the people residing in the central as well as southern parts of Nagaland.

This includes the following districts: Kohima district, Zunheboto district, Tuensang district, as well as the Mokokchung district.

Additionally, Sema language is also spoken in around seven villages in the northeastern state of Assam in India; and all these villages are in the Tinsukia district of Assam state.

Coming to the dialects of Sema language, there are fundamentally four of them. These are: Dayang dialect, also known as Western Sumi, Lazemi dialect, Zhimomi dialect, and lastly, Zumomi dialect. The language has 6 vowels and a list of 34 consonants.