Linguistic Diversity and the Preservation of Endangered Languages: a Case Study from Nepal Mark Turin
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Chapter 2 Language Use in Nepal
CHAPTER 2 LANGUAGE USE IN NEPAL Yogendra P. Yadava* Abstract This chapter aims to analyse the use of languages as mother tongues and second lan- guages in Nepal on the basis of data from the 2011 census, using tables, maps, and figures and providing explanations for certain facts following sociolinguistic insights. The findings of this chapter are presented in five sections. Section 1 shows the impor- tance of language enumeration in censuses and also Nepal’s linguistic diversity due to historical and typological reasons. Section 2 shows that the number of mother tongues have increased considerably from 92 (Census 2001) to 123 in the census of 2011 due to democratic movements and ensuing linguistic awareness among Nepalese people since 1990. These mother tongues (except Kusunda) belong to four language families: Indo- European, Sino-Tibetan, Austro-Asiatic and Dravidian, while Kusunda is a language isolate. They have been categorised into two main groups: major and minor. The major group consists of 19 mother tongues spoken by almost 96 % of the total population, while the minor group is made up of the remaining 104 plus languages spoken by about 4% of Nepal’s total population. Nepali, highly concentrated in the Hills, but unevenly distributed in other parts of the country, accounts for the largest number of speakers (44.64%). Several cross-border, foreign and recently migrated languages have also been reported in Nepal. Section 3 briefly deals with the factors (such as sex, rural/ urban areas, ethnicity, age, literacy etc.) that interact with language. Section 4 shows that according to the census of 2011, the majority of Nepal’s population (59%) speak only one language while the remaining 41% speak at least a second language. -
Thematic Section.Qxd
Contents Thematic Section zBuilding ICIMOD's Headquarters z Letter from the Director General z21st Anniversary Symposium z Advances in Policy Development zAround and About ICIMOD z Advances in Policy Development Tools - Research Updates & Project News z Alternative Approaches for Rural Income - Workshops, Meetings and Training Generation - Outreach and Networking z Increased Regional Cooperation in Biological - Memoranda of Understanding Conservation zLooking Back… z Flood Disaster Mitigation - At the Helm of ICIMOD: Director and z Overcoming Poverty Through Advocacy Deputy Director Generals z Partner Institution Profiles - Members of the Board of Governors, 1983-2004 - ICIMOD Staff Alumni 1983-2004 Centre News zGuest Editor's Views: z ICIMOD Headquarters - Inside Out - Who is Really Behind the Bandhs (Strikes) z Information & Communication Technology in Kathmandu? (ICT) Infrastructure at ICIMOD's New zPersonnel News Headquarters Location Map of the ICIMOD Headquarters Khumaltar, Lalitpur A.K. Thaku issn 1013-7386 Editorial Contact: ICIMOD Publications, [email protected] Guest Editors: Dr. Pema Gyamtsho and Srabani Roy Consultant Editor: Rosemary A. Thapa Coordinator: Nira Gurung Design & Layout: Ramesh Chaudhary. Printed by: Quality Printers (P) Ltd., Kathmandu, Nepal Cover photo: ICIMOD’s New Headquarters in Khumaltar, Lalitpur (Milan Raj Tuladhar) The views and interpretations in this newsletter are those of the author(s). They are not attributable to the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and do not -
Preliminary Etymological Notes on Thangmi Clan Names and Indigenous Explanations of Their Provenance
Preliminary etymological notes on Thangmi clan names and indigenous explanations of their provenance Sara Shneiderman and Mark Turin Introduction The Thangmi (Nepali Thâmî) are an ethnic group who number at least 35,000 and inhabit the central eastern hills of Nepal. The Thangmi claim to be autochthonous to the upper reaches of Dolakhâ district as well as to the eastern valleys of Sindhupâlcok, and they speak a Tibeto-Burman language which has two distinctly recognisable and mutu- ally incomprehensible dialects. While the greatest concentration of ethnic Thangmi and Thangmi speakers live in the area northeast of Kathmandu, there are additional populations in fifteen other districts of eastern Nepal, most notably Râmechâp, Ilâm and Jhâpâ. This article is a preliminary report on Thangmi clan names. We shall present both the indigenous Thangmi oral exegesis for the origins of the clans, as well as a sociolin- guistic analysis tracing the possible etymologies of the names. Through these two ap- proaches we will show that the clan names themselves shed light on Thangmi culture and history, and also raise a number of important questions. With regard to marriage, the Thangmi practise group-endogamy and clan-exogamy, although the latter is more closely adhered to than the former. In other words, whilst it is considered sinful to marry or have sexual relations with an opposite sex relative until seven generations have elapsed, sexual relations culminating in marriage with non- Thangmi opposite sex partners are not taboo. Ethnic group endogamy could be repre- sented as preferential rather than prescriptive, whilst clan endogamy (including sexual relations with cross-cousins) is tantamount to incest. -
Peculiarities of Indian English As a Separate Language
Propósitos y Representaciones Jan. 2021, Vol. 9, SPE(1), e913 ISSN 2307-7999 Special Number: Educational practices and teacher training e-ISSN 2310-4635 http://dx.doi.org/10.20511/pyr2021.v9nSPE1.913 RESEARCH ARTICLES Peculiarities of Indian English as a separate language Características del inglés indio como idioma independiente Elizaveta Georgievna Grishechko Candidate of philological sciences, Assistant Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Economics, RUDN University, Moscow, Russia. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0799-1471 Gaurav Sharma Ph.D. student, Assistant Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Economics, RUDN University, Moscow, Russia. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3627-7859 Kristina Yaroslavovna Zheleznova Ph.D. student, Assistant Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Economics, RUDN University, Moscow, Russia. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8053-703X Received 02-12-20 Revised 04-25-20 Accepted 01-13-21 On line 01-21-21 *Correspondence Cite as: Email: [email protected] Grishechko, E., Sharma, G., Zheleznova, K. (2021). Peculiarities of Indian English as a separate language. Propósitos y Representaciones, 9 (SPE1), e913. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.20511/pyr2021.v9nSPE1.913 © Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola, Vicerrectorado de Investigación, 2021. This article is distributed under license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) Peculiarities of Indian English as a separate language Summary The following paper will reveal the varieties of English pronunciation in India, its features and characteristics. This research helped us to consider the history of occurrence of English in India, the influence of local languages on it, the birth of its own unique English, which is used in India now. -
Harrisons Malayalam Limited
Harrisons Malayalam Limited Instruments Amounts Rating Action (Rs. Crore1) (August 2016) Long-term - Fund based facilities 37.00 [ICRA]BB+(Stable) / withdrawn Long-term - Proposed facilities 6.10 Short-term - Non-fund based facilities 4.26 [ICRA]A4+ / withdrawn Long-term - Term loans 65.64 [ICRA]BB+(Stable) / outstanding ICRA has withdrawn the long-term rating of [ICRA]BB+ (pronounced ICRA double B plus)2 outstanding on the Rs. 37.00 crore fund based facilities, the Rs. 6.10 crore proposed facilities and the short-term rating of [ICRA]A4+ (pronounced ICRA A four plus) outstanding on the Rs. 4.26 crore non-fund based facilities of Harrisons Malayalam Limited (HML / the company), which was under notice of withdrawal, at the request of the company following the receipt of no dues letter from the bankers. The ratings for the aforementioned facilities are withdrawn as the period of notice of withdrawal ended. ICRA has long-term rating of [ICRA]BB+ (pronounced ICRA double B plus) with stable outlook outstanding for the Rs. 65.64 crore term loan facilities of the company. Company Profile HML is part of RPG Enterprises Ltd, an established group with interests in tyre, carbon black, power transmission, telecommunications, retail and entertainment. Incorporated in 1978, HML is primarily a rubber and tea producer, which contribute major share to the operating income. With eleven rubber plantations spread over 7,306 hectares of land in Kerala, HML is one of the major rubber plantation companies in India with a production of over 9,500 MT during FY2015. The Company is also one of the larger tea producers in South India, producing 15-18 million kgs of CTC and Orthodox teas in its thirteen tea gardens annually, the same spread over 6,021 hectares of land primarily in Kerala and some in Tamil Nadu. -
University of California Press (University of California, Office of the President)
University of California Press (University of California, Office of the President) Year Paper vol Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman: System and Philosophy of Sino-Tibetan Reconstruction James A. Matisoff University of California, Berkeley This paper is posted at the eScholarship Repository, University of California. http://repositories.cdlib.org/ucpress/ucpl/vol 135 Copyright c 2003 by the author. Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman: System and Philosophy of Sino-Tibetan Reconstruction Abstract This 800-page volume is a clear and readable presentation of the current state of research on the history of the Tibeto-Burman (TB) language family, a typologically diverse group of over 250 languages spoken in Southern China, the Himalayas, NE India, and peninsular Southeast Asia. The TB languages are the only proven relatives of Chinese, with which they form the great Sino-Tibetan family. The exposition is systematic, treating the reconstruction of all the elements of the TB proto-syllable in turn, including initial consonants (Ch. III), prefixes (Ch. IV), monophthongal and diphthongal rhymes (Ch. V), final nasals (Ch. VII), final stops (Ch. VIII), final liquids (Ch. IX), root-final *-s (Ch. X), suffixes (Ch. XI). Particular attention is paid to variational phenomena at all historical levels (e.g. Ch. XII “Allofamic variation in rhymes”). This Handbook builds on the best previous scholarship, and adds up-to-date material that has accumulated over the past 30 years. It contains reconstruc- tions of over a thousand Tibeto-Burman roots, as well as suggested comparisons with several hundred Chinese etyma. It is liberally indexed and cross-referenced for maximum accessibility and internal consistency. -
Language Politics and State Policy in Nepal: a Newar Perspective
Language Politics and State Policy in Nepal: A Newar Perspective A Dissertation Submitted to the University of Tsukuba In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in International Public Policy Suwarn VAJRACHARYA 2014 To my mother, who taught me the value in a mother tongue and my father, who shared the virtue of empathy. ii Map-1: Original Nepal (Constituted of 12 districts) and Present Nepal iii Map-2: Nepal Mandala (Original Nepal demarcated by Mandalas) iv Map-3: Gorkha Nepal Expansion (1795-1816) v Map-4: Present Nepal by Ecological Zones (Mountain, Hill and Tarai zones) vi Map-5: Nepal by Language Families vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents viii List of Maps and Tables xiv Acknowledgements xv Acronyms and Abbreviations xix INTRODUCTION Research Objectives 1 Research Background 2 Research Questions 5 Research Methodology 5 Significance of the Study 6 Organization of Study 7 PART I NATIONALISM AND LANGUAGE POLITICS: VICTIMS OF HISTORY 10 CHAPTER ONE NEPAL: A REFLECTION OF UNITY IN DIVERSITY 1.1. Topography: A Unique Variety 11 1.2. Cultural Pluralism 13 1.3. Religiousness of People and the State 16 1.4. Linguistic Reality, ‘Official’ and ‘National’ Languages 17 CHAPTER TWO THE NEWAR: AN ACCOUNT OF AUTHORS & VICTIMS OF THEIR HISTORY 2.1. The Newar as Authors of their history 24 2.1.1. Definition of Nepal and Newar 25 2.1.2. Nepal Mandala and Nepal 27 Territory of Nepal Mandala 28 viii 2.1.3. The Newar as a Nation: Conglomeration of Diverse People 29 2.1.4. -
Language Documentation and Description Volume 8 Edited by Imogen Gunn and Mark Turin
Language Documentation and Description Volume 8 Edited by Imogen Gunn and Mark Turin Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project Department of Linguistics School of Oriental and African Studies Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square London WC1H 0XG United Kingdom Ph. +44-20-7898-4578 Fax. +44-20-7898-4349 http://www.hrelp.org Language Documentation and Description is published annually by the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project. For information, contact the address above, or email to [email protected]. © 2010 The Authors all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, on any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the authors. ISBN 1740-6234 Printed in the United Kingdom LDD 8 Table of contents Editors’ Preface 5 Imogen Gunn and Mark Turin List of Contributors 11 Rewards and Issues in Studying Oral Literature: Some personal 13 reflections Ruth Finnegan Reading the Lontars: Endangered literature practices of Lombok, 27 eastern Indonesia Peter Austin Recording Oral Literature in a Literate Society: A case study 49 from the northern Philippines Roger Blench and Fredeliza Campos Documenting Ceremonial Dialogues: An in vitro performance 66 and the problem of textualisation Martin Gaenszle The Parched Grain Chant: Parallel verse and simultaneous action 83 in Magar rituals Michael Oppitz Re-sounding the Spirits of Altaian Oral Epic Performance: 125 Kai throat-singing and its repercussions Carole Pegg Participatory Culture Documentation on the Tibetan Plateau 140 Gerald Roche, Ban+de mkhar, Bkra shis bzang po, G.yu lha, Snying dkar skyid, Tshe ring rnam gyal, Zla ba sgrol ma, and Charles Kevin Stuart ‘Producing’ Thangmi Ritual Texts: Practice, performance and 159 collaboration Sara Shneiderman ‘Producing’ Thangmi Ritual Texts: 1 Practice, performance and collaboration Sara Shneiderman, St Catharine’s College, Cambridge 1. -
The Thangmi of Nepal and India Sara Shneiderman, Mark Turin
Revisiting ethnography, recognizing a forgotten people: The Thangmi of Nepal and India Sara Shneiderman, Mark Turin To cite this version: Sara Shneiderman, Mark Turin. Revisiting ethnography, recognizing a forgotten people: The Thangmi of Nepal and India. Studies in Nepali History and Society, Mandala Book Point, 2006, 11 (1), pp.97- 181. halshs-03083422 HAL Id: halshs-03083422 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-03083422 Submitted on 27 Jan 2021 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. 96 Celayne Heaton Shrestha Onta, Pratyoush. 1996'1. Ambivalence Denied: The Making of Ra~triya Itihas in REVISITING ETHNOGRAPHY, RECOGNIZING Panchayat Era Textbooks. Contrihutions to Nepalese Studies 23(1): 213 254. AFORGOTTEN PEOPLE: THE THANGMI OF Onta, Pratyoush. 1996b. Creating a Brave Nepali Nation in British India: the NEPAL AND INDIA Rhetoric of Jati Improvement, Rediscovery of Bhanubhakta, and the Writing of Blr History. Studies in Nepali Historv and Society I(I): 37-76. Sara Shneiderman and Mark Turin Onta, Pratyoush. 1997. Activities in a 'Fossil State': Balkrishna Sarna and the Improvisation of Nepali Identity. Studies in Nepali History and Society 2(\): 69-102. There is no idea about the origin of the Thami communitv or the term Perera, Jehan. -
Features of Indian English
Indian Writing in English, Paper No. XI, Semester V Features of Indian English Indian English is any of the forms of English characteristic of the Indian subcontinent. English has slowly become the lingua franca of India, and is the language of their cultural and political elites, offering significant economic, political and social advantage to fluent speakers. Though English is one of modern India's twenty-two official languages, only a few hundred thousand Indians have English as their first language. According to the 2005 India Human Development Survey, of the 41,554 surveyed households reported that 72 percent of men (29,918) did not speak any English, 28 percent (11,635) spoke some English, and 5 percent (2,077) spoke fluent English. Among women, the corresponding percentages were 83 percent (34,489) speaking no English, 17 percent (7,064) speaking some English, and 3 percent (1,246) speaking English fluently. According to statistics of District Information System for Education (DISE) of National University of Educational Planning and Administration under Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, enrolment in English-medium schools increased by 50% between 2008-09 and 2013-14. The number of English-medium schools students in India increased from over 1.5 crore in 2008-09 to 2.9 crore by 2013-14. Indian English generally uses the Indian numbering system. Idiomatic forms derived from Indian literary languages and vernaculars have been absorbed into Indian English. Nevertheless, there remains general homogeneity in phonetics, vocabulary, and phraseology between variants of the Indian English dialect. History: English language public instruction began in India in the 1830s during the rule of the East India Company (India was then, and is today, one of the most linguistically diverse regions of the world). -
THANGMI SURNAMES Pratigya Regmi [email protected]
matrilineages. Lineages are distinguished, THANGMI SURNAMES however, from unilineal descent groupings whose Pratigya Regmi members believe they are descended from a [email protected] common ancestor, but do not know the genealogical connections. Such categories of groups are called clans.” In general, a surname or The Thangmi language community has an clan name is a name that comes down from the atypical surname and clan system, which is father's side, from the grandfather, father, son, basically differentiated by gender. Males and great grandson, etc. but in Thangmi, the system is females have different surnames and clans. different. According to the Furer-Haimendorf Surname and clan identity is passed down from notes, as referred in Turin (2006:34), a double the same sex parents, so two opposite sex siblings decent system is the most important social from the same biological parents have different characteristics of Thangmi, by which men inherit clan affiliations. clan membership from their fathers, and women Keywords: Surname, clan, ethnolinguistic, through their mothers. It is an uncommon feature forefather, foremother of social structures of Himalayan groups. This study is primarily based on the 1. Introduction ethnolinguistic research carried out in March- April 2014, among the Thangmi language This paper is an attempt to present the Thangmi community of the Doramba Village Council-1 surnames system. Thangmi belongs to the Sino- (former Daduwa VDC), Tinghare in Ramechhap Tibetan family, Tibeto-Burman, Western Tibeto- district. This paper employs the ethnolinguistic Burman, Himalayan, Central Himalayan, approach to present and analyze the data. In this Thangmi-Baraamu (Ethnologue 2012). Thangmi paper, we present the indigenous Thangmi inhabits many districts of Nepal although interpretation of their surname and clan origin, as indigenous and autonomous to only Dolakha, well as the semantic analysis of the various Sindupalchock and Ramechap districts of Nepal surnames and clan names. -
Promotion of Sanskrit and Sanskritic Culture in India
International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 10, Issue 12, December 2020 474 ISSN 2250-3153 Promotion of Sanskrit and Sanskritic Culture in India Sebabrata Bhattacharjee Assistant Professor, Department of Sanskrit, S.S. College, Hailakandi, Assam DOI: 10.29322/IJSRP.10.12.2020.p10852 http://dx.doi.org/10.29322/IJSRP.10.12.2020.p10852 Abstract- This paper is oriented to study the efforts made for the steps taken for promotion of Sanskritic culture and Sanskritic promotion of Sanskrit language and Sanskritic culture in India in education. This paper makes a modest attempt to accumulate its post independent and post- liberal period. Sanskrit language, information on that line and assess the extent of initiatives at which had a glory in ancient time has gradually come to a status different level to promote Sanskrit education and culture. of medium of chanting mantras and worshiping language in India. There are initiatives by governmental and non-governmental organisations, and even some people who work independently for II. PROMOTING SANSKRITIC EDUCATION AND INITIATIVES reviving the past glory of Sanskrit. It needs to gauge the extent of After the growth of vernacular languages, Sanskrit did not such initiative and its success. This paper tries to see the different remain as living language and is mostly used for certain specific initiatives taken by people and government to promote Sanskrit purposes, mostly as medium of instruction and publication or culture and education. writing literary piece. Sanskrit is one of the 22 official languages in India. It is the second official language of two of the states in Index Terms- Sanskrit, promotion, education, culture, India.