Majority of languages on verge of extinction (fwd)

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Last Updated: 06:00 AM NST Kathmandu - July 15, 2005 - Asar 31, 2062
Nepal Sambat 1125 Tachhalagaa Nawami - Friday

Majority of languages on verge of extinction

By Namoti Nembang
http://www.gorkhapatra.org.np/pageloader.php?file=2005/07/15/nation/ 
nation4

Nepal is a multiethnic, multicultural and multilingual country. As  
stated in the central Bureau of statisties CBS Report 2001, more than  
100 social groups speak 92+ languages. Amongst them Tibeto-Burman  
Languages have the largest number of speakers. Out of these only 16  
languages have more than 100,000 speakers of which only three have more  
than one million speakers. There is no language spoken by 100,000 to  
50,000 speakers. Only 18 languages have 50,000 to 10,000 speakers and  
the rest are spoken by less than 5,000 speakers. These figures show  
majority of the languages are on the verge of being extinct.

However, Tribhuwan University of Nepal and Leipzig University of  
Germanj are jointly involved in research and documentation of two most  
endangered languages, Chintang and Puma of eastern Nepal with the  
financial and technical help of Volkswagon Foundation and Max-Plank  
Institute of Germany.

A programme Lets Talk About Languages coordinated by Kedar Sharma  
sometime ago depicted the problem and present condition of some of the  
most endangered languages of Nepal. Among the most dangered languages  
are Chintang and Puma. There are approximately 2,000 speakers of  
Chintang in Dhuankuta district. But the Census Report (2001) gives  
number of speakers only eight (3 men and 5 women). Puma is spoken in  
certain areas of Khotang district and Udayapur by about 2,500 speakers  
as against the figure given by CBS Report.

The are even other languages such as Lepcha and Bote which are spoken  
only by the older generations. These are the languages, which only the  
old people can converse, adults can understand but cannot speak or  
reply and the children neither understand nor speak.

Children having little knowledge of their mother tongue and of which  
speakers are very less (i.e. 100500) are seriously endangered like  
Baramu, Tilung and Jerung. Language that is spoken by a handful of  
people of the older generation and whose number is less than 100 is  
called a moribund language such as Kusunda and Route. After those  
speakers die that language is supposed to be dead language.

According to Prof. Dr. Nobel Kishor Rai and linguist Bishnu Rai, the  
seriously endangered Chintang and Puma with only about 2,000 and 2,500  
speakers have become multilingual today. They speak Bantawa, Nepali  
languages and slowly giving up speaking their own mother tongue along  
with most of the Kiranti languages.

Though it is advantageous to be able to speak more than one language,  
but for a small community like Chintang and Puma, it often becomes  
deadly because multilingualism also means loosing ones own mother  
tongue.

There are many ways followed for the preservation and revival of  
languages. For instance, institutionalization research, proper  
documentation, audio-tapes, audio-video recordings of words, sentences,  
conversations, folk stories, myths, autobiographical stories, shamanic  
performances, rituals, transcription of the texts, conversations of  
child language etc could be done.

But it is not sufficient without the State coming forward giving up the  
policies for language discrimination, they said. Citing examples of  
language revivals in the world, Nobel Kishore Rai said that the Hebrew  
language was resurrected after the birth of the state of Israel. Jonkha  
language whose speakers was not more than 500,000 has been revitalized  
and now it is the State language of Bhutan and medium of education.  
Limbu with 50,000-60,000 populations is a living language in Sikkim  
with rich literature and being taught in schools and colleges.

If the community and the speakers are determined to take initiatives,  
their mother languages can be revitalised. He gave the example of  
languages like Newar, Limbu, Maithili, Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Magar, Tamang  
and some of the Rai groups are already moving ahead They say the best  
way is to speak at home, encourage family members, especially children,  
to speak in their mother tongue. And by building lexicon, increasing  
the usage of the language by writing and publishing different kinds of  
literature, magazines and books.
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