Turung language

The Turung language (Tailung, Tairong, Thai: (ภาษาไทตุรุง, pasa tai turung) is an extinct language formerly spoken in Assam. The Turung people who spoke this language now speak Assamese or Singpho languages.

The total population of the ethnic group is over 30,000 and primarily live in Jorhat, Golaghat and Karbi Anglong districts of Assam.

References

Tai peoples

Tai peoples refers to the population of descendants of speakers of a common proto-Tai language, including sub-populations which no longer speak a Tai language. Some 8-10 million people in Northeast India (not limited to Assam) descent from Ahom people but may have intermarried with others and now speak Assamese. Additional tens of thousands in India speak Tai languages (mostly in Arunachal Pradesh). Aside from India, Tai peoples can generally be identified through their language.

Names

Speakers of the many languages in the Tai branch of the Tai–Kadai language family are spread over many countries in Southern China, Indochina and Northeast India. Unsurprisingly, there are many terms used to describe the distinct Tai peoples of these regions.

In China, Southwestern Tai peoples are called by the very large umbrella term "Dai people", distinguishing them from the other speakers from the Tai branch of Tai–Kadai, who are known as the Rau.

Endonyms outside of China vary greatly; most common are variants of Tai, which may be taken to mean human; the more restricted term Lao is of unknown origin.

Northeast India

Northeast India is the eastern-most region of India. It is connected to East India via a narrow corridor squeezed between independent nations of Bhutan and Bangladesh. It comprises the contiguous Seven Sister States (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura), and the Himalayan state of Sikkim, and Jalpaiguri Division. Except for the Goalpara region of Assam, the rest did not become part of political India until the 19th century and later. The Brahmaputra valley area of Assam became a part of British India in 1824, with the hill regions annexed later. Sikkim was annexed to the Indian union through a referendum in 1975; it was recognized as part of Northeast India in the 1990s.

Northeast India is generally considered one of the most challenging regions of the country to govern. It has been the site of separatist movements among the tribal peoples, who speak languages related to Tibeto-Burman.

Northeast India constitutes about 8% of India's size; roughly 3/4th the size of the state of Maharashtra. Its population is approximately 40 million (2011 census), 3.1% of the total Indian population; roughly equal to that of Odisha.