ABSTRACT
By contact processes exercise, a linguist could win the trust of the endangered language community and, as a language planner, become one of the stakeholders in the changing scenario. The relationship between language and culture is interwoven in a unique manner in different traditions. One of the major consequences of technology-driven globalization has been the increasing marginalization of less-populated language communities and the intimidating hegemony of larger socio-economic networks. There has been a lurking fear that the forces of globalization will wipe out languages used by smaller populations, particularly those that do not have a written tradition. Illiterate tribals seem to carry heterogeneity in everyday life communications very lightly on their shoulders, unlike the conflicts over diversity of language use visible among literate cultures in the contemporary milieu. In the midst of cultural and linguistic heterogeneity in the North-East, it is interesting to note parallel efforts being made to form new alliances among erstwhile hostile language groups in Nagaland.
