Wancho language

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 to	India
Native speakers	59,154 (2011 census)[1]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Sal Konyak Konyak–Chang Wancho
Writing system	Wancho script Devanagari
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nnp
Glottolog	wanc1238
ELP	Wancho Naga

People

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

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

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]