Mising language

There are 629,954 speakers (as per Census of India, 2011), who inhabit mostly in the Dhemaji district, Lakhimpur, Sonitpur, Dibrugarh, Sibsagar, Jorhat, Majuli, Golaghat, Tinsukia districts of Assam and also some parts of Arunachal Pradesh.

The Mising, Padam and Minyong speak dialects of the same language.

For the year 2011, for the first time, Sahitya Akademi, India’s highest literary body, recognised Mising eligible for receiving one of the six Bhasha Samman awards, for the category of the non-recognised languages, “that have developed sufficiently to merit the award”.

Through this convention, we will come to know who has worked in developing the language and literature, and the Bhasa Samman, which carries Rs 1 lakh prize money, will be a recognition of this effort.”“After selecting the communities for the award for one year, the system is to move on to other communities in the next year so that all such languages are given a chance to come up.”Ethnologue gives the following locations for Mising speakers.

The Hill Miri live in Arunachal Pradesh, while the Plains Miri live in Assam.