Football coaching camp underway in Kohima

Correspondent
Renowned Tenyidie scholar, writer, teacher and retired bureaucrat, Vizonyü Liezietsu has urged youths to preserve their mother tongue as most of the local dialects even in Nagaland faced the threat of going extinct.
Addressing footballers of team Kohima district, comprising mostly of players from Tenyidie speaking villages, at their coaching camp, Tsiesema, during a skill training programme organised by Kohima District Football Association (KDFA), Liezietsu urged the players to give importance to their mother tongue.
He said vernacular of every region were the actual wealth and treasure of people of that region and likewise 10 Naga tribes having a common ancestry speak Tenyidie.
Liezietsu pointed out that despite Tenyidie being the mother language of those Tenyimi tribes, they all have their respective dialects which varies widely and often have little to no resemblance with Tenyidie.
While encouraging the players to respect their own local dialects he advocated on the need to speak and learn the standardized Tenyidie language which has the capability to provide more scopes in the long run besides preserving it for posterity.
He said like any other language Tenyidie also has its own share of limitations and so there was a need to preserve it.
Notably, all Naga languages have been listed as endangered language by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
He further called on all educated people from the Tenyidie speaking communities to learn the vernacular language. According to him, reading the Tenyidie Bible, books published by the Ura Academy (UA) -a Tenyidie literary society established in 1971, and participation at cultural and social gatherings would greatly help speakers to learn and preserve the language.
He observed that while it was important to learn the language at any point of time, he highlighted that learning the language the right way and at an early age was paramount.
With the National Education Policy (NEP) set to be rolled out soon, Liezietsu said that one’s own language would be made a compulsory subject. He exuded confidence that Tenyidie as a language would also soon be recognized by the government.
About 20 players are currently camping at the KDFA coaching camp since Monday. Besides football trainings KDFA officials, seizing the opportunity, are imparting soft skills and moral science sessions to build the players.
16 football teams, representing all the districts of Nagaland, are set to compete for the Dr. T. Ao Inter-District Football Trophy, scheduled from April 18-29 to be held at Mokokchung.