Globally native communities are witnessing the decline of their local languages and scripts. A Buddhist monastery in Assam has taken it upon itself to preserve the history, culture, and identity of the Tai Phake language.
UNESCO categorises a language as potentially ‘endangered’ if it is spoken by less than 10,000 people. This makes 3000 languages endangered out of the 7000 living languages in the world. In India, the situation is worrying as over 190 languages are at various stages of endangerment.
Linguistic expert Ganesh Devy told the Indian Express, that after the 1971 census, the Indian government decided that any language spoken by less than 10,000 people need not be included in the official list of languages; endangering already vulnerable languages. Devy has surveyed over 750 Indian languages and claims over 600 of these are endangered.
Dying languages of India
Many of the endangered languages belong to the nomadic and tribal communities of India. Potentially endangered languages Wadari, Kolhati, Golla, and Gisari are languages of nomadic people in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana. While Pauri, Korku, Haldi, and Mavchi are examples of endangered languages of tribal communities.
A large percentage of endangered languages belong to North East India. East Mojo draws attention to the critically endangered tribal languages of Assam, Manipur, and Arunachal Pradesh. Mra is a language spoken by the Mara tribe. There are only 350 speakers of this language. Tarao language from Manipur has little over 800 speakers. The language is predominantly spoken by the Tarao tribe and has its origins in Myanmar. It is believed the language is in use since 1075CE. Another fast-dying language is Tai Khamyang. The language has only 50 speakers, all living in the village of Powaimukh, Assam.
There are about 250 languages that have died out in recent years. The Bo language in Andaman disappeared in 2010 and the Majhi language in Sikkim disappeared in 2015.
Tai Phake
Tai Phake is an endangered language from Assam. The language belongs to a small community of 2000 people across nine villages in the districts of Tinsukia and Dibrugarh. It is assumed that the Tai Phake community migrated from Myanmar to India in the 1770s. They followed the Hinayana sect of Buddhism, like the Tai people of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. The community has been largely involved in paddy farming.
The largest village of the Tai Phake community in Assam is called Namphake. It was established in 1850. There are around 70 households and 600 individuals residing in the village.
Tai is not taught at local schools and mostly relies on family traditions and advice from monks of the local Buddhist monastery. The monastery has begun efforts to preserve the local history, culture and identity by rejuvenating the Tai language.
The idea was conceptualised by Paim Thee of the POY Foundation, a local non-profit organisation in Dibrugragh. He started the Tai Phake Study and Research Centre in 2018, in collaboration with the monastery. The monks preach the importance of saving the language as well as creating awareness for preserving the Tai Phake identity.
The monks hold classes in vacant government schools near the monastery. The classes use music and dance as a form of education. Often popular Bollywood songs are translated into Tai scripts. This has been a successful method for introducing youngsters to the language and encouraging them to practice it. These classes are held every weekend. There is no enrollment fee or age limit for students. They also hold dance workshops from time to time making the learning process more engaging.
The library at the monastery holds a collection of scripture from 300 years ago. These are accessible to the community to read about their rich cultural heritage. Paim Thee has increased efforts to preserve old Tai texts by making their digital copies. He is also documenting important Tai Tai Phake events through videos and photographs.
This initiative has been a success amongst the younger members of the community. However, Thee says that more efforts are been made to involve the older population in preserving the language.
Need to save minority languages
UNESCO recognises languages as an intrinsic part of the intangible heritage. In 2003, they held an international conference to discuss the safeguarding of endangered languages. The result of this conference was a document called, Langauge Vitality and Endangerment. This document stresses the importance of saving languages, a call for creating policies, initiatives and raising awareness, and documentation of languages.
Languages have a unique way of allowing their users to interpret the world. They are a tool for individuals and communities to express their cultural identities. Ayesha Kidwai of the Centre for Linguistics, School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, told Down To Earth, ” Tribal languages are a treasure trove of knowledge about a region’s flora, fauna and medicinal plants. Usually, this information is passed from generation to generation. However, when a language declines, that knowledge system is completely gone. With the loss of language comes the loss of everything in culture and loss of solidarity, the loss of Man himself.”