Wancho (वांचो‎) is a Konyak language of north-eastern India. Wancho is spoken in 36 villages of southeastern Longding district, Tirap district, Arunachal Pradesh, as well as in Assam and Nagaland (Ethnologue). Alternate names include Banpara Naga, Joboka, Jokoba.

Wancho
𞋒𞋀𞋉𞋃𞋕
वांचो‎
The word 'Wancho' in Wancho script
Native toIndia
Native speakers
59,154 (2011 census)[1]
Wancho script
Devanagari
Language codes
ISO 639-3nnp
Glottologwanc1238
ELPWancho Naga

People

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Wancho is spoken by the Wancho people who have a population of 56,866 according to a 2011 consensus, and mainly populate the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. Although a minority, these inhabitants have a rich culture with rituals, ceremonial practices, religion, and various dialects of Wancho.[2]

 
The Wancho Ngun sign, equivalent to Indian rupee (₹)

Dialects

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Ethnologue lists the following dialects of Wancho.

  • Changnoi
  • Bor Muthun (Bor Mutonia)
  • Horu Muthun
  • Kulung Muthun (Mithan)

There is significant variation among the dialects spoken in the upper and lower regions.

Orthography

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Wancho is generally written in either Devanagari or Latin script. Between 2001 and 2012, teacher Banwang Losu devised a unique alphabetic Wancho script which is taught in some schools.[3] In 2019, the script was officially published into Unicode 12.0.[4]

References

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  1. ^ "Statement 1: Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues - 2011". www.censusindia.gov.in. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
  2. ^ “Wancho people.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 8 Feb. 2018
  3. ^ Everson, Michael (26 July 2017). "L2/17-067R: Proposal to encode the Wancho script in the UCS" (PDF).
  4. ^ Unicode, Inc. "Announcing The Unicode® Standard, Version 12.0". {{cite web}}: |first1= has generic name (help)