Northeast India has various ethnic groups who have their own individual dialects. Unlike other states, northeast states were not divided based on languages but on administrative convenience.

The 75% of North East Indian languages belong to the four ancient language families, viz Indo-Aryan, Tibeto-Burman, Austro-Asiatic and Dravidian. According to the 1971 census, approximately 220 languages officially exist in the north-east Indian states, which basically belong to certain language families specifically of Indo-Aryan, Sino-Tibetan and Austric.

The Assamese language is popularly used mostly in the Brahmaputra Valley. It has branched out from the Indo-Aryan language family and is now adopted as a common language for various communities. The Khasi, Jaintia and War languages of Meghalaya belong to the Austro-Asiatic family. Some of the people in the Buri Dihing Valley of Assam speak Sino-Tibetan languages like Ahom, Khamti, Tai Phake etc.  a combination of the Tibeto-Burman and Chinese languages is represented by Bodo, Karbi, Rabha, Mising, Deori etc.(Assam); Garo, Biate (Meghalaya) Ao, Angami, Sema, Lotha, Konyak etc.(Nagaland); Mizo, Hmar, Chakma (Mizoram); Hrusso,, Apatani, Misimi etc. (Arunachal). The official language of Manipur is Meitei, spoken widely in the Imphal Valley. These languages pre-dominate separate hill areas of the state.