36 languages in Arunachal face extinction threat

Out of the 36 languages some of them facing the threat include Koro, Miji, Nath, Bugun, Meyor, Tangam and Puroik, representatives of the Foundation for Endangered Languages and Central Institute of Indian Languages (Mysore) told a workshop here yesterday.

These languages are among the 196 languages listed as endangered throughout the world by UNESCO.

Professor J P Tamuli from Gauhati University, in his address said the vulnerability of tribal languages in North East, including Arunachal Pradesh, was due to homogenisation of languages, unwritten languages and bigger languages having dominating influence on smaller ones.

"Another area that remains grim is that when our oral languages do not percolate down to the younger generations," Tamuli said.

He also pitched for a 'help us to help you' method to be adopted by the communities and the field level linguists besides using modern-day technologies and introducing mother tongue based multilingual activities to make the foundation of language education strong.

"Time has come when we should do something by using the platforms of village panchayats, schools and legislators and empower ourselves to identify the endangered languages and act accordingly for their preservation," state Finance Minister Setong Sena said.

He asked academicians, linguists, intelligentsia and village panchayats to make concerted efforts for proper documentation and preservation of all the tribal languages.

A three-day workshop on status of unwritten and endangered languages of Arunachal Pradesh' began here yesterday.

The workshop cum symposium is being organised by the Arunachal Institute of Tribal Studies under Rajiv Gandhi University in collaboration with Guwahati-based North East Regional Centre of Indira Gandhi National Centre of Arts.