India

The Ethnologue page at

https://www.ethnologue.com/language/ntx/25

for Tangkhul Naga (Myanmar) includes the following information under Dialects:

Somra. Very little dialect variation within Tangkhul (Somra) Naga. Somra village is the prestige dialect. Lexical similarity: 93%–94% with Tangkhul (Somra) Naga, 31% with Tangkhul Naga [nmf] in India, 51%–52% with Akyaung Ari Naga [nqy], 29%–32% with Kokak Naga [nxk].

There are two things puzzling about this.

1. Since this is about the Somra dialect, what does it mean to say that it has a 93%-94% lexical similarity with Tangkhul (Somra) Naga? How can it bear a similarity to itself?

2. This says “31% with Tangkhul Naga [nmf] in India”. This raises the question why this language is classified as a Tangkhulic language if the percent similarity is as low as this. Furthermore, the highest level of similarity noted is with Akyaung Ari Naga [nqy], which is labeled as Unclassified within Tibeto-Burman. in Ethnologue. This also suggests that it is not Tangkhulic.