Atlas of the Endangered Languages of the World

In recent times, there has been a renewed interest in languages undergoing endangerment. Year 2008 being the international year of languages, has put sharper limelight on the plight of these languages. We must be aware here that centuries of our ignorance and marginalization has not only resulted in death of hundreds of these languages but also in the loss of the precious bio-cultural heritage accumulated over several thousands of years. Disciplines of Language documentation and language revitalization has emerged  as a response to this problem.  There has been some new developments recently on this front. UNESCO has been engaged in preparation of a new atlas of the endangered languages of the world.

The project is UNESCO’s Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger.

This project has been given shape under the leadership of renowned linguist Dr Chris Mosley. Norwegian Government has played a considerable role in this project by being a major fund giver.

Visit this website for more information

http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?pg=00139

Recently Center for Linguistics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi organized and hosted an enlightening seminar focused on ‘Language Archiving in the 21st Century‘ (27th October 2009). The seminar was attended by Dr.Chris Mosley (UNESCO), Dr Peter Austin (SOAS London), Dr Anvita Abbi (JNU, Chief Organizer and chairperson), Dr Pramod K Pandey (JNU organizer), Dr K Subbarao (Delhi University), Dr Girish Nath Jha (JNU), Dr Veneeta Dayal (Rutgers University), Dr Chaitra Puttaswamy(IIT Kanpur), Ms Kalika Bali (Microsoft Research), Dr Ayesha Kidwai (JNU organizer), Dr Shreenathan (Dravidian University, Kuppam), Mr Pramod Kumar (JNU), Dr Gail Coelho (Australia), Mr Abhishek Avtans (CIH, Agra) and Mr Mayank Jain among others. The seminar was followed by a sumptmous dinner hosted by Center for Linguistics for participants and language lovers at JNU cafeteria.

Prior to seminar day Prof Peter Austin delivered a special public talk on the state of Linguistics and Language Documentation (26th October 2009) at JNU Campus

To view the detailed program of the seminar click below

Program_Language Archiving in the 21st Century

Developing Lexical Resources for Varieties of Hindi

Indian linguistic area as envisaged by late Prof MB Emeneau in his seminal paper entitled ‘India as a Linguistic Area’ (1956) is home to a total of 234 mother tongues with over ten thousands speakers (2001 Census) and numerous smaller and lesser known languages belonging to at least five major language families viz the Indo Aryan, Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman, Austro Asiatic and Andamanese spoken by a vast population spread across Indian subcontinent. Not going much deep into the reasons, it is important to mention that the number of mother tongues which are accounted in the census data have seen an increase from 184 in 1991 to 234 in 2001. Notwithstanding the conservative estimate of Ethnologue (2008) that 20 percent of world’s living languages are moribund including the ones spoken in India, this increase in number of mother tongues has shown us the ray of hope by increasingly visible assertion by people to identify with their languages. Surprisingly the situation for Indo Aryan language family with almost 15 languages out of the 22 recognized in the eighth schedule of the constitution of India does not seem to be too well with respect to its smaller and lesser known members. Gradually many of these lesser known languages are losing their speakers in face of bigger and mightier languages and eventually dying an unnatural death resulting in loss of precious bio-cultural knowledge accumulated over many centuries.

One of the measures to counter this unwanted situation is the centuries-old practice of building grammars and dictionaries. It is true that complete language revitalization cannot be achieved by mere preparation of grammars and dictionary. There is lot more which needs to be done in this respect. However it is sure that development of these resources paves the way for wider community involvement and awareness culminating in the preservation of the precious traditional knowledge for future generations. To read more of this article (published by ICFAI books  http://www.iupindia.org/) click below

hindi_varieties_avtans-kumar

International Year of Languages: 2008

United Nations has declared year 2008 as the international year of languages but it is also the international year of ‘Sanitation’, ‘Reef’, ‘Planet Earth’ and ‘Potato’. So in the year 2008 languages have competition from reefs, sanitation, planet earth and of course from potatoes? Most of us would agree that we do not need to celebrate something like international year of languages when we have many other productive things to look after. Thanks to environmentalist and Green House effect Coral reefs and our mother earth has become a sort of apples of eyes for both government and non-governmental agencies. On the other hand ‘sanitation’ is something related directly to us through diseases, social norms etc. But languages are like dirt bags we want to leave behind keeping only the ones which survive us.

Languages are not treated as a natural resource by almost all of us. They are not like uranium which will drive an elected government into hysteria (as in India recently). So we will not bat an eyelid when more than 50 per cent of the approximately 7,000 languages spoken in the world are likely to die out within a few generations, and 96 per cent of these languages are spoken by a mere 4 per cent of the world’s population. Only a few hundred languages have genuinely been given pride of place in education systems and the public domain, and less than a hundred are used in the digital world (source UNESCO 2008).

In India, situation is slightly better than many other places in the world due to its diverse and large population. But India is also home to various endangered languages on the verge of extinction or about to take the death ride. Take a look at the following table:

Languages with Less than 100,000 Speakers in India (Census of India, 2001)
Name of Language	No. of Speakers	Name of Language	No. of Speakers
Adi	97,012	Kishtwari	33,429
Adi Gallong/ Gallong	61,887	Koch	28,578
Adi Miniyong/ Miniyong	17,274	Koda/Kora	36,528
Anal	21,420	Kodu	45,428
Angami	49,685	Kol	12,720
Apatani	28,422	Kom	14,673
Balti	20,051	Koraku	27,942
Bangni	18,842	Kudubi/ Kudumbi	10,192
Baori	27,242	Kuki	47,856
Bhadrawahi	66,918	Kuruba/ Kurumba	14,613
Bharmauri/ Gaddi	66,246	Labani	22,162
Bhoi Khasi	14,882	Lahauli	20,138
Bhotia	68,800	Lahnda	92,234
Bhumij	30,719	Lakher	34,751
Bishnupriya	72,899	Lalung	27,072
Chakhesang	11,415	Laria	67,697
Chakru/Chokri	83,560	Lepcha	50,629
Chang	62,408	Liangmei	34,077
Churahi	61,199	Limbu	28,127
Deori	27,960	Malwani	46,851
Dhurwa	45,310	Maram	37,340
Dorli	37,731	Maria	88,984
Gadaba	26,082	Maring	22,326
Gangte	14,394	Mawchi	99,474
Garasia	51,183	Mishmi	17,283
Gujari	48,747	Mogh	30,559
Gujrao/Gujrau	43,414	Monpa	51,035
Haijong/Hajong	63,188	Mura	14,204
Halam	14,316	Muria	16,620
Hmar	83,404	Muwasi	29,288
Jatapu	39,319	Nicobarese	28,784
Juang	23,708	Nocte	27,749
Kabui	29,175	Paite	64,065
Kaikadi	23,694	Pangwali	16,285
Kalari	26,797	Paradhi	49,290
Khairari	11,937	Pawi	24,965
Khandeshi	17,413	Pochury	16,728
Khezha	39,436	Proja	92,774
Khiemnungan	37,755	Rai	10,446
Kinnauri	64,817	Rajbangsi	82,570
		Reang	76,450
		Relli	21,965
		Rengma	61,345
		Rongmei	61,197
		Sangtam	84,171
		Sherpa	18,342
		Shina	34,251
		Simte	10,225
		Siraji	87,179
		Sirmauri	31,144
		Sondwari	59,221
		Tadavi	99,348
		Tagin	38,244
		Tamang	17,494
		Tangsa	12,604
		Tikhir	16,828
		Vaiphei	39,673
		Wancho	49,072
		War	25,886
		Yerava	19,643
		Yerukala/ Yerukula	69,533
		Yimchungre	72,030
		Zanskari	11,443
		Zeliang	61,547
		Zemi	34,102
		Zou	20,857

‡ Apart from these languages, there are many for which no separate data has been enumerated by Census of India, 2001.

In fact the language data for this census (2001) was collected on the basis of a model suggested by G A Grierson’s Linguistic Survey of India conducted between 1886 and 1927. Since then no new pan-Indian linguistic survey has been conducted yet. Does this speak the tale of our apathy to languages in general?

By the end of this century many of the languages cited above might not see the dawn of the new century. One could argue that India would be better place to live without these many languages. But when languages fade, so does the world’s rich tapestry of cultural diversity. Opportunities, traditions, memory, unique modes of thinking and expression – valuable resources for ensuring a better future – are also lost.

Languages are souls of our society which keep us alive across the centuries. And when we lose them we lose the whole world view which gives us the existence. You have to ask an elderly Angami how he feels when he hears his grand children faltering in speaking Angami language. He or she would certainly tell you, that they have lost their tongues. This is true for any of the languages threatened by increasing menace of homogenization through globalization and politics of language.

We have to realize that without these languages we could not have survived many winters, floods, storms and droughts which threatened our existence on planet earth since time immortal. Languages and bio-diversity are related. And this unique relationship has kept us alive in all bad times in human history.

This international year of languages gives us the opportunity that we realize that languages are valuable human and natural resources and we have to do more than conducting pompous seminars and workshops to deal with the issue of language endangerment and conservation. We need to educate people that languages should be conserved by all means beginning with a real time linguistic survey of India. It is time that we realize multilingualism is the way to blessed life. And destruction of tower of Babel was a boon in disguise (to read the Bible story click on the link below).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Babel

Language documentation in Andamans: Highs and Lows

It is not surprising that language deaths go unnoticed when 10% of world languages are spoken by less than 100 speakers. Great Andamanese, is a highly endangered mixed language spoken by less than ten speakers from a community of 53 aboriginal people in Strait Island, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, India.

Great Andamanese is one of the oldest living languages of the world spoken by the Negrito population who are being identified by modern geneticists to be the initial settlers of the northern coastal areas of the Indian Ocean 50-70 thousand years ago from –out –of-Africa migration. This fact alone makes its documentation very essential for preserving linguistic and cultural characteristics unique to its location, and for opening new insights for linguists, cognitive scientists, geneticists, philosophers, and also for shaping our understanding of population genetics and human migration.

For a community, which is on the verge of losing its language completely, it becomes imperative that it gets urgent attention from people related to language documentation and revitalization.Great Andamanese is a highly endangered language today due to several reasons ranging from external forces such as such as military, economic, religious, cultural or educational subjugation to internal forces such as a community’s negative attitude towards its own language. And often these forces combine to produce disastrous results for an endangered language.

Language documentation not only helps in maintenance, revitalization and motivation for transmission of an endangered language to next generations but also engender a change in attitude towards language by the speech community, which is very vital for turning the tide over.

Though it is difficult to turn the tide back completely, language documentation does provide us with enough ways to slow down the process of language death.