The Dead and Dying Languages of India

India is said to be a home to about 1000 languages spoken in different pockets of the country out of which around 400 languages are already endangered and the remaining  languages could extinct if timely efforts are not made to preserve them.

According to the 2010 list of endangered languages presented by Unesco, Bodo, Dimasa, Hmar, Karbi, Mizo, Angami, Baitei, Deuri, Khasi, Kabui, Koch, Ao, Konyak, Metei and Mech fall under the category of most ‘vulnerable’ and ‘definitely endangered’ language.

The extensive study, conducted throughout the country over the past four years has found that 230 languages have “elapsed” while another 870 have survived the storms in richly diverse but rapidly growing India. Most of the vanished languages are supposed to belong to the nomadic communities scattered across the country.

There is no scientific tool available to measure the percentage of loss, but the language gap can be very well noticed. If we see the speaking pattern of older generation (60 to 80 years) and the younger generation (10 to 30 years) is quite different. The older people are still well versed with their language as compared to the youths who even can’t string together a single sentence in the same language.

According to government statistics, in 1961, India had 1,100 languages whereas a decade later, that number had reduced to a nearly 108. For saving the language culture in India, Government has initiated a Scheme known as “Protection and Preservation of Endangered Languages of India”.

Under this Scheme, the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysore works on protection, preservation and documentation of all the mother tongues/ languages of India spoken by less than 10,000 speakers keeping in mind the degree of endangerment and reduction in the domains of usage.WTN