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An Introduction to Baram People and Language Krishna Prasad Chalise

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An Introduction to Baram People and Language Krishna Prasad Chalise Seminar on Multilingual Education Outline MLE Resource Centre, CERID/TU and UNESCO Kathmandu, Dec. 14, 2013 • Despite being small in area, Nepal possesses a striking linguistic plurality comprising 123 plus languages of different genetic stocks, distribution, literacy levels, degrees of vitality, ethnicity and so on (Census 2011; Yadava 2013). Linguistic diversity in Nepal: • As languages serve as fundamental means of communication and interpersonal relationship, linguistic diversity needs to be looked upon as a societal resource to its perspectives on MLE be planned for its full utilization. Robinson (as cited in The Mother-Tongue Dilemma, Yogendra P. Yadava UNESCO 2003) likewise notes that “for a multilingual [email protected] approach to work, governments must see linguistic diversity as a boon and not a problem to be dealt with.” • The most effective medium of instruction at the early grades of education is obviously the language which learners already know, i.e. a home language or mother tongue. 2 Linguistic diversity in Nepal: • However, Nepali, the official language which is non- native to the majority of Nepal‟s total population and a situation analysis unfamiliar to a sizeable population, alone has mostly • Nepal is a mosaic of linguistic diversity. remained in use as medium and subject of instruction in primary education at the community schools. • Approximations • Keeping in view the exigency of mother tongue-based education, there have been some initiatives recently i. the census enumerations of languages since 44 (1952/54), 36 (1961), 17 (1971), 18 (1981), 31 undertaken for implementing multilingual education (1991), 92 (2001), 123 (2011) (MLE) in Nepal's formal and non-formal education at ii. 140 (Noonan 2005) basic level. iii. 124 (Ethnologue 2012) • This paper aims to analyze the situation of linguistic iv. Individual estimates: 70 languages (Malla diversity in Nepal and explain how the existing linguistic 1989; Toba 1992); diversity may impinge upon MLE policy and practices in the country. • just approximations/not authentic enumerations 4 • Reasons: Map: Languages of Nepal i. Assimilation policy („one language, one nation‟) during the Panchayat regime and social exclusion ii. Cultural and linguistic awareness and assertion of ethnic identity following the democratic movements in Nepal. iv. Linguists‟ involvement in identification • Issues: • Too many languages and dialects • Controversies regarding the identity of languages and dialects -need for an authentic linguistic survey • Monolingual/multilingual speakers- Multilinguality • Lingua francas • Language continuum - Languages are not isolated units. 5 6 1 • Genetic affiliations: • Demography – four language families, viz. Indo-European, Sino- Tibetan, Austro-Asiatic, Dravidian; one, Kusunda, is a – The number of 'major' languages is 19 and their language isolate consisting of a single language cumulative percentage is 95.91%. Inversely, the without any genetic relationship with other languages. remaining 94+ languages are spoken by just about – Most of these languages belong to two language 4% of Nepal‟s total population. families, Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan, while only a few are Austro-Asiatic and Dravidian. In the Nepalese context, the Indo-European family » Introduce MLE programs in the major comprises Indo-Aryan languages, which form the largest group in terms of speakers, at nearly 82.06 languages initially and gradually extend them per cent. The speakers of Sino-Tibetan, Austro- to the remaining lesser spoken languages (as Asiatic and Dravidian languages constitute 17.46, practiced in some South East Asian countries). 0.19, and 0.13 per cent respectively, while Kusunda has just 28 speakers. • Easier to handle a classroom with students » Marginal number of speakers, e.g. 36 speaking languages of the same family – linguistic languages < 10,000 speakers + 37 languages similarities < 1000 speakers =73 languages (> 50%) • Problematic for a multilingual classroom with students speaking languages of differing families- linguistic differences 7 8 Language resources • Literate languages: – Single script – Multiple scripts • Devanagari • Non-Devanagari • Preliterate languages: – Recent development: most preliterate languages taking to (modified) Devanagari script – Need for discovering phonemic inventories in preliterate languages and developing their writing systems accordingly Language Resources: Language Attitude Materials Language Resources Feeling Prestigious (n=58) n=58 Newspaper 3% Magazine 5% 5% Journal 5% 10% Learning Material Yes 13% 6% Literacy Material No response Literature 7% Poems 16% Plays 97% 6% Fictions (Short stories, Novels) 10% 9% 8% Folk Songs (CD/Cassettes) Languages with adequate and Telefilm positive for introducing MLE insufficient materials Film 2 • IT localization – Electronic technology (the web, text and speech Language endangerment recordings, spell/grammar checker, machine translation, web dictionary, unicodification, etc.) has been sparsely used to support Nepal's languages, • In linguistically diverse countries, minority with the exception of Nepali. languages continue to be lost. • IT localization can help to promote MLE through digitized • 90% of human languages will face extinction by the language resources such multilingual translation, web dictionary, etc. end of the 21st century. In other words, only 600 of • Language documentation the 6,000 or so languages presently spoken will be – Though there is a growing trend in documenting both safe (Krauss 1992: 7; Crystal 2000: 18). major and minor languages, there still exist a large • Nepal is not immune from this global trend of number of minority preliterate languages which need to be documented to produce grammars, dictionaries, language endangerment. analyzed texts and reading materials. Some – A recent assessment made of language underdocumented languages also require further endangerment on the basis of the EGIDS (Yadava improvement in analysis. 2013) shows that most of the languages belong to the • To document undocumented languages for developing reading materials, basic grammars and dictionaries, e.g. category of threatened languages (6b), followed by LEDBL the category of vigorous languages (6a). 13 • MLE as a means of language preservation through its use in education – Pedagogically helpful Language and ethnicity – Preserving language through its use as it can be best preserved though use (in education and other domains) • Linguistic diversity closely related to ecological and • 102 castes and indigenous groups speak cultural diversity: a mutually reinforcing relationship more than 92 languages as their mother • Language revitalization, also referred to tongues. as language revival or reversing language shift, is the attempt by interested parties to halt or reverse the decline of a language or to revive an extinct one, • Relation: eg. Baram, Kusunda, etc. – There are quite a few cross-border and (remotely or i. one-to-one relation, e.g. Raute recently) migrant languages, which, despite being ii. one-to-many relation, e.g. spoken by minority groups in Nepal, cannot be Nepali evaluated as endangered since they are used by a large number of people in neighboring and remote iii. many-to-one, Dalits countries. - helpful through exploiting the educational15 materials already developed in a country. Conclusion • Since language is to be used as medium of instruction language development essential for introducing MLE. Thanks 3 .
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