Assamese

Assamese may refer to:

Assamese people, a socio-ethnolinguistic identity of north-eastern India
People of Assam, multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic and multi-religious people of Assam
Assamese language, one of the easternmost Indo-Aryan languages
Assamese script, a writing system of the Assamese language
- Assamese (Unicode block)
Culture of Assam, the culture of Assamese people
Assamese cuisine, a style of cooking
Assam tea, a black tea
Assam silk, three types of indigenous wild silk

• Assamese : The identification of Assamese has always been confusing as it lacks a proper definition. However, looking into the history, we can easily extract the exact definition.

The word Assamese comes from Assam , which comes from Asom , which again traces its origin to Axom or simply the Ahom kingdom. And Assamese is spelled in Assamese language as oxomiya ( অসমীয়া) , which is a compound word of Axom (অসম/ আহোম) and the suffix iya ( ঈয়া, a prominent suffix in Assamese language; e.g : তুংখুঙীয়া, টেঙাপনীয়া, নলবৰীয়া, গোৱালপৰীয়া, etc . ) .

Thus this observation helps us to get the definition .

An Assamese is the one , whose family has been living , tracing his ancestors being a citizen of the Ahom kingdom and the kingdoms the Ahom kingdom absorbed ( Chutiya kingdom , Koch kingdom, Kachari Kingdom and tribal chiefdoms like the Shingphoo, Dafala, Abor, Naga, Achik, Khasiya , Mishmi, etc ) , at a part of the history .

Though now many communities, have separated due to political reasons, this is the most logical definition to be given on basis of study .

As for the language, what we call Assamese, is may or may not be mandatory for a Assamese person to speak, as the language historically is called dexh bhaxa ( the country language, i.e, Northeast India , or simply Assam ) . This language is also called Kamrupi language, with its many variations spoken all over Northeast India . Though it now declined . The script the language used is Kamrupi nagari , simply called Assamese script . This language is the lingua franca for the region for thousands of years , evolving through influences from the tribal languages, which now stands as the Assamese language. This language was patronized by Kacharis, Koches , Ahoms and Tsutiyas . For which , it became such developed and standard .

-> conclusion : Assamese identity and Assamese language is two different thing, however tied deeply to each other , often connecting the whole community and singing the history of Assamese community. Thus, Assamese identity and Assamese language are different but not separable.

See also