ELL: RE: spam and conviction

[Gail M. Coelho]

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Date: Thu, 01 Apr 1999 18:11:57 -0600
From: "Gail M. Coelho" <gail at utxvms.cc.utexas.edu>
Subject: Re: ELL: RE: spam and conviction
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I second that! I do want to hear about the Welsh Language Society and all
other societies, fieldwork, gripes, etc. that people have in relation to
endangered languages.

I for one am interested in the following language area:

The Betta Kurumbas are an adivasi (Indian word for 'indigenous') group who
live in the Nilgiri Mountains of South India. One of the things that
interest me the most about these people is that with them one encounters
not only problems arising from British colonialism, but Indian colonialism
as a continuation of what the British started. From what I read, the
Nilgiris was relatively isolated from the rest of India because it's
foothills were covered with malaria-infested forests that were difficult to
traverse. Several ethnic groups lived within the Nilgiris, and they had an
interesting caste-like relationship with each other. One groups herded
buffalo and produced mild; another cultivated food crops; another produced
equipment (tools, etc.), played music at festivals, made leather, etc;
another lived in the forest and gathered forest-goods. They bartered these
with each other and occasionally also with people down in the plains. Each
group lived in separate villages and spoke different languages. Sounds like
a pretty idyllic existence to me, though it must definitely have had its
problems.

This isolation ended in the 19th century, when the British 'discovered' the
Nilgiris and discovered especially that (a) the rich forest soil and
climate was good for tea and coffee plantations and (b) the mountain
coolness was a relief from the summer heat of the plains. They set about
'developing' the area, setting up towns and plantations, and importing
large numbers of Indian labourers to work there. When they left, 'their'
land was bought up by (non-Nilgiri) Indians and the plantations have of
course multiplied. The place is being rapidly deforested and tea and coffee
is being planted where virgin forests once stood. The indigenous groups
have been edged out of their orginal lands and have become marginalized,
underprivileged groups. They can no longer pursue their traditional
lifestyles and there's barely any place for them in the new world we now
have there. They're poor where they were once rich -- even if they didn't
own 'title deeds' to any land. They're a national problem, where until the
British arrived, they were no problem to anyone at all. I blame the British
for starting all this, but now we are no less to blame for continuing with
what the British started.

As far as language is concerned, this situation looks to me like a prime
candidate for impending language loss. The adivasis do maintain their
language, but its possible that contact with the non-Nilgiris languages
that are now socially dominant there will affect their language
tremendously. In any case, I want to find out what the situation is and
work on describing their language.

I havn't heard of any language societies in the Nilgiris, though there are
NGOs that work on adivasi welfare issues. Maybe some linguists could start
one sometime!

Gail Coelho

At 02:49 PM 4/1/99 -0500, you wrote:
>I, for one, would be interested in hearing about the Welsh Language Society.
>Why do you feel this is an inappropriate forum? I'd also be interested in
>hearing about the situation in the Euskara communities in France and Spain,
>the Euchee project going on in Oklahoma, Hawaiian-speaking communities on
>the Big Island, etc. If Matthew is monopolizing the list, it's not his
>fault. Others involved in this work elsewhere in the world should take his
>initiative and get some information out on this list.
>
>Seriously, I think Matthew is right. What is the point of all the billions
>of dollars spent on academic  research if we are going to insist that it
>remain quarantined from the real world? I think this list is a good place
>for academic-oriented folks to interact with those out in the field. How
>else is this going to happen? And why would you think that this would be a
>bad thing? I'm afraid I don't understand.
>
>David Harris
>Washington, DC
>
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