Alternate Names: Koc, Kocch, Koce, Kocha, Kochboli, Konch
Dialects: Harigaya, Margan (Dasgaya), Tintekiya, Wanang. Tintekiya in Meghalaya is intelligible with same dialect in Bangladesh; Tintekiya not intelligible with other Koch dialects; Koch-Rabha and Harigaya are mutually intelligible with Wanang; Dasgaya and Harigaya are mutually intelligible; these form a dialect chain (Koch-Rabha-Wanang-Harigaya-Dasgaya-Tintekiya). Lexical similarity: 90% between Tintekiya Koch of India and Bangladesh; Tintekiya: 44%–55% with other Koch dialects; Kock: 31%–39% with Rongdani Rabha ,, 13%–17% with Garo ,. Lexical borrowing is heavier when it comes to high register vocabulary; Koch has borrowed words from Bangla ,, Assamese , and Hajong ,.
Genealogy:
Demographics: 30,000 in India (2007 survey), increasing. Includes only the Koch of Garo Hills, Meghalaya, India. Population total all countries: 36,000. 0 monolinguals.
Language Use: Vigorous. Non-Koch in Koch villages normally speak Koch. Only 6 of the 8 endogamous groups still speak their mother tongue: Tintekiya, Wanang, Harigaya, Dasgaya, Chapra, and Koch-Rabha. Sankar and Satpariya have no known speakers. All domains. All ages. Positive attitudes. Also use Assamese [asm], Bengali [ben], Bodo [brx], English [eng], Garo [grt], Hajong [haj], Hindi [hin], Nepali [npi], Rabha [rah].
Language Development: Literacy rate in L2: Approximately 75% in any of the following languages: Assamese [asm], Bangla [ben], Garo [grt], English [eng], Hindi [hin], Rabha [rah], or Bodo [brx]. Show a growing interest toward education (Singh 1994).
Writing System: Bengali
Nation of Origin: India
Other Comments: A Scheduled Tribe in Meghalaya. Koch-Rabha belongs to Koch linguistically and ethnically but claims identity with the Rabha for political reasons. Traditional religion, Christian, Hindu.