A sociolinguistic discourse analysis of assimilated English words: a usage-based model of language acquisition

Abstract

This study will explore how some words from a different language get assimilated into the dialogues of a community or group which speaks a totally different language or dialect. The Angami Nagas community of Nagaland is adopted as the case in point for this study, for they use a number of English words in their regular speaking irrespective of being English educated or not. The study is qualitative based research and the methodology includes the research methods of interviews and document analyses. The study reveals that the understanding of an external language through the use of assimilated words by a community or group with diverse associations with the source language, can lead to a usage-based model of language acquisition. The study discloses that diversity in the articulation of assimilated words cannot be strictly ruled out even in the presence of precision in usage and meaning. It is also found that, overtime, some assimilated words, in its original essence, get attached and identified with a group of things by the user community. The study concludes on the success of using assimilated words within a community or group with accuracy or near accuracy and assigns it as a usage-based model of basic language assimilation which can get remodeled in future studies of more formal language learning. It infers that assimilated words from an external language, used in the correct context, can lead to successful conversation or speech in varying contexts as the words become part of the communication to convey concepts and thoughts. The numerous works on the Angami Nagas, by and large, deal with their socio-cultural, economic and political status as an ethnic community and particularly with mostly their contribution and standing during the British times. In a diverging trend, this study is a pioneering exploration of the sociolinguistic pattern among the Angami Nagas in employing assimilated English words and phrases in their everyday usage.