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Abstract
This paper attempts to provide an ethnolinguistic profile of Sonowal Kachari, a language once spoken in Assam. The Sonowal Kachari belongs to the Mongoloid race of people. They are predominantly found in the districts of Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Sibsagar, Goalpara and Jorhat districts of Upper Assam. The total population of the area under the jurisdiction of Sonowal Kachari Autonomous Council, which comprises of 450 villages according to Survey of India Census Report, 2011 is about 3,12,656. The Sonowals share close affinity with the Boros and Dimasas in terms of religion, deities and clan structure. The arrival of the Tai Ahoms and the subsequent battles and power struggles with the Kacharis weakened the social structure of the Sonowals. As a result, the Sonowals along with other tribes most probably had to learn Assamese after the Ahom king made it the official court language during their rule. Though Assamese was primarily used as the lingua franca of the Ahom kingdom, later it engulfed the local languages and gradually became the mother tongue of the Sonowals.