top
Kom has presented itself as an interesting speech community. Though they inhabit the one geographical area i.e. the state of Manipur, they do not settle in one compact area. They are scattered in every nook and corner of the state. So, unlike other speech communities, they are the most scattered speech communities of the state. There is no specific District or areas in Manipur to be called as a Kom dominated area. They are minority in all districts of Manipur wherever they are found.
More over, they have high degree of variation in their speech, which seems to be due to dialect variation. However, in spite of all these, all of them identify themselves as the speaker of the same language, i.e. Kom. Hence they constitute a Kom speech community.
Kom has been in contact with the various linguistic communities for ages.
Code mixing and, code switching is one of the most common phenomena found among the Kom speakers.
Being the most bilingual people they tend to use other languages as well.
Kom, Manipuri, English and even Hindi are some of the most commonly used codes.
Koms, though very conscious of their language, do have some impact of the invasion of other dominant languages. The ethnic closeness with the Kukis and the influence of the dominant Manipuri language has led to the convergence of Kom language upto some extent. Though the intensity of the convergence may seem to be low but it may have a great bearing in a long run since it is an ongoing process.
Due to contact with other languages Kom has borrowed a good number of vocabularies in its lexicon. The borrowed words are those that do not exist already. It has the borrowed words both from Manipuri and English. It also has considerable number of borrowed Hindustani words. Some Hindustani words of Arabic origin are also seen in the Kom vocabularies, which are believed to have been borrowed via Manipuri.
The study on the Kom speakers reveals that Koms are highly bilingual people. It appears that there is very less number of monolingual Kom compare to speakers of other languages. Ethno linguistic minority status seems to induce a negative attitude towards their own languages. Koms in urban areas and those of the families who are in minority are seeing to shift easily to the dominant language of the area. The Koms in rural areas and those in groups or who are in majority seems to maintain their indigenous language. It is often found that Koms in Senapati District, in Saikul and Mokokchung area have shown a kind of societal or equitable bilingualism. So it is difficult to identify or make out whether the person is a Kom or a Kuki speaker. The people of the area, which have equal number Kom, and Kuki speakers use either or both of the two languages at home, playground and market places. Kom living in and around the villages of Kukis and Hmars not only shift their language but their clan affiliation as well. Kom, Kuki and Hmar are culturally and linguistically very close to each other. Koms are considered as the indigenous tribe of Manipur. They are believed to have entered Manipur next to the Meiteis. They were subjects of the Meitei king or the Maharaja of Manipur. They were constantly in contact with the dominant Meiteis of the plains of Manipur for ages. Till today they live together in the valleys of Manipur. Meitei or Manipuri, the language of the Meiteis, who are numerically, socially and economically dominant, is the official language or the lingua franca of the people of the state. So their long contact with the Meiteis has created a situation where the speakers’ competence in the two languages is almost of equal degree resulting in a thread to their own language. Moreover, the prestige attachment and the economic opportunity provided by dominant language compel the Koms to shift to majority language to the extent of neglecting their own language. Most of all there are various social and economic issues that are interlinked to motivate the Kom speakers to shift to other language or change the loyalty to the dominant language.
Copyright CIIL-India Mysore