Endangered languages of Nepal

Measurement of the Endangerment of Kusunda Language

A global record of the language, Nepal currently has as many as 126 living languages (Ethnologue 2005) and according to CBS (2011), there are 123 languages that existed in Nepal. That is a huge figure for a country with a total area of only 147,181 sq.km.-overs 22 times smaller than India (which has 415 living languages), over 65 times smaller than China (236 living languages) or the USA (162 living languages) (Ethnologue 2005). Compare that to the dead (extinct) languages in each of the above countries, at least 3 of Nepal’s languages are extinct- Dura, Kusunda, and Waling. Ethnologue also lists 13 extinct languages for India, 1 for China, and 73 for the USA. Clearly, the fear that other indigenous languages may become extinct is a legitimate fear. Although Nepali has spoken by almost half of the entire population of 20.6 million people, and other major languages such as Maithali (12.1%), Bhojpuri(7.4%), Tharu (5.8%), Tamang (5.1%), Newar (3.6%) may not be facing immediate extinction, and more than 100 other less Known languages are in the endangered situation. (Fyuba and Koirala 2006). Some other researchers believe that Nepal has more than 140 languages and more than 85% are in endangered situations.

Most endangered languages of Nepal 

The data shows that most of the ethnic languages of Nepal continuously are in endangered situations. According to CBS (2011), out of 123, there are about 45 languages have less than a thousand speakers which are listed on the following table:

Table no.1: Most endangered languages of Nepal

S. N.	Name of languages	Linguistic population 2001	Linguistic population 2011
1	Kusunda	87	28
2	Jero/Jerung	271	1763
3	Tilung	310	1424
4	Churaute	408	1075
5	Kisan	489	1178
6	Sam	23	201
7	Koche	54	280
8	Oriya	159	584
9	Sanskrit	823	1669
10	Limkhim	97	129
11	Khamchi (Raute)	518	461
12	Kaike	794	50
13	Khariya	1575	238
14	Kagate	10	99
15	Lhomi	04	808
16	Sadhani	02	122
17	Assamese	03	476
18	Nagamese	06	10
19	Mizo	08	32
20	Kuki	09	29
21	Dzonkha	09	80
22	Kurmali	13	227
23	Hariyanwi	33	889
24	Sindhi	72	518
25	Baram	342	155

Source: CBS 2001 and 2011.

From this table, we can say that a large number of languages of Nepal are in an endangered position and have less than two thousand population. Some more languages which have less than a thousand populations are also included in the population census 2011, and these are Byansi (480), Surel (287), Bankariya (69), Gadhawali (38), Malpande (247), Dhuleli (347), Belhare (599), Phangduwali (290), Jumli (851), Sonaha (579), Dadeldhuri (488) and Manange (392). Hence, this data shows that more than 40% of languages have less than a thousand populations and are severely in endangered situations. Now the language commission of Nepal and the central department of linguistic, Tribhuvan University has been trying to document the minor language by making the documentary and publishing a report.

Measurement of the Endangerment of Kusunda Language 

Language shift is the process in which a group of speakers of a language or speech community comes to use another language which may result in the partial or total abandonment of the first or mother tongue. Taking active measures to counter language shift is referred to as fostering language maintenance and/or language revitalization. A language assessment is a prerequisite both to understanding language shift and to take measures to reverse it. The most influential have been Fishman’s (1991) Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (GIDS, updated by Simons and Lewis (2010) as EGIDS, and the UNESCO (2003) “nine factors.” These tools can be used for the assessment of any language and are mentioned on the following points:

 1. Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (GIDS; Fishman 1991)

 It is the tool first developed by Fishman in the period 1991 and noted that intergenerational transmission - whether parents passed on the language to their children - was critical in determining the continuity of a language. He developed a scale with eight levels, in which the first six levels (1–6) the language is being maintained. In the last two levels (7 & 8), however, adult speakers are not passing the language on to their children, who have shifted to another language. The table below illustrates this scale:

 Table no.2: GIDS Description

1.      The language is used in education, work, mass media, and government at the nationwide level.

2.      The language is used for local and regional mass media and governmental services.

3.      The language is used for local and regional work by both insiders and outsiders.

4.      Literacy in the language is transmitted through education.

5.      The language is used orally by all generations and is effectively used in written form throughout the community.

6.      The language is used orally by all generations and is being learned by children as their first language.

7.      The child-bearing generation knows the language well enough to use it with their elders but is not transmitted it to their children.

8.      The only remaining speakers of the language are members of the grandparent generation.

Source: Fishman (1991).

 The GID Scale focuses on language domains (Levels 1-3), literacy (Level 4-5), and Inter-generational transmission (Levels 6-8). Levels 5 & 6 above illustrate the most common preconditions for language loss to occur, even though the speakers have not yet shifted to the other language. Kusunda language can be evaluated from Level 8, in which only remaining speakers are the members of grandparent’s generation and language is in the critically endangered situation.

2.  Extended GIDS (Lewis and Simons 2010)

The UNESCO language assessment tool was designed on a small scale and based on language use surveys.  Broad language survey sources on the internet list population figures, approximate numbers of speakers; the premier source in this genre, the Ethnologue ( 2009), often assigns a language vitality label (“vigorous,” “threatened,” “extinct”), and sometimes lists in house documentation. Lewis (2006) used the Ethnologue’s data on 100 languages, including four Tibeto-Burman languages, to test the UNESCO model.  Lewis and Simons (2010) propose to extend Fishman’s simpler GIDS model from eight to ten levels. Their model retains Fishman’s concise single-table format and his focus on language domains, literacy, and intergenerational transmission. It adds two levels that concern the relationship of ethnic identity to high-prestige linguistic remnants such as greetings, which Lewis and Simons aptly term symbolic proficiency (Levels 9 & 10). According to Lewis and Simons (2010) “A language can be evaluated in terms of the EGIDS by answering five key questions regarding the identity function, vehicular, state of intergenerational language transmission, literacy acquisition status, and a societal profile of generational language use”. The EGIDS is given in the following table

 Table no.3: EGIDS description 

EGIDS LEVEL	EGIDS LABEL	EGIDS DESCRIPTION	UNESCO Descriptor
0	International	The language is used internationally for a broad range of functions.	Safe
1	National	The language is used in education, work, mass media, and government at the nationwide level.	Safe
2	Regional	The language is used for local and regional mass media and governmental services.	Safe
3	Trade	The language is used for local and regional work by both insiders and outsiders.	Safe
4	Educational	Literacy in the language is being transmitted through a system of public education.	Safe
5	Written	The language is used orally by all generations and is effectively used in written form in parts of the community.	Safe
6a	Vigorous	The language is used orally by all generations and is being learned by children as their first language.	Safe
6b	Threatened	The language is used orally by all generations but only some of the childbearing generation is transmitted it to their children.	Vulnerable
7	Shifting	The childbearing generation knows the language well enough to use it among themselves but none are transmitting it to their children.	Definitely Endangered
8a	Moribund	The only remaining active speakers of the language are members of the grandparent generation.	Severely Endangered
8b	Nearly Extinct	The only remaining speakers of the language are members of the grandparent generation or older who have little opportunity to use the language.	Critically Endangered
9	Dormant	The language serves as a reminder of heritage identity for an ethnic community. No one has more than symbolic proficiency.	Extinct
10	Extinct	No one retains a sense of ethnic identity associated with the language, even for symbolic purposes.	Extinct

Source: Fishman 1991, UNESCO 2003, Lewis and Simons 2010.

As can be seen, the EGIDS proposal focuses heavily on existing language domains and intergenerational transmission. In a compact format, it provides more nuanced descriptors between levels. It identifies the transition from levels 6b to 7 (Threatened, with only some intergenerational transmission, to Shifting, with no transmission) as the critical point in language attrition. In adding Levels 9 & 10, this model specifies the likely “highly limited domain” of language use found in UNESCO’s Factor 4, Level 1. Kusunda language belongs to the criteria 8a and 8b i.e. severely endangered and critically endangered situation.

 Overall, however, the EGIDS proposal simplifies assessment, in that it does not take into account the absolute or relative speaker numbers, community language attitudes, government policies, and existing documentation. Nonetheless, its emphasis on intergenerational transmission (Levels 6–8) means that this assessment tool also requires in situ language use.

 3. UNESCO’s “Nine Factors” (2003)

 It is the most useful tool for endangered languages and developed by UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Unit (2003) and committed to focusing on language as part of cultural heritage, and convened an Ad Hoc Expert Group on Endangered Languages.

In the document Language Vitality and Endangerment (UNESCO 2003), the group detailed a set of determining factors that allow a speaker community or outsiders to assess the vitality of a language. It has nine factors and most factors have grades (0 through 5), where zero represents the complete shift to another language (termed extinct in UNESCO parlance), and five represents the vitality of a language for that factor (termed safe). The following table indicates the position of the Kusunda language and its endangerment process.

Table no.4: Assessment of Kusunda Language

S.N.	Factors	Rating	Level of endangerment
1	Intergenerational language transmission	1(speakers of only great-grandparents generation)	Critically endangered
2	The absolute number of speakers	28 (CBS-2011) and six from the field study.	Critically endangered
3	The proportion of speakers within the total population	1	Critically endangered
4	Trends in existing language domains	0 (not used in any domain)	Extinct
5	Response to new domains and media	0 (not used in any new domain)	Inactive
6	Materials for language education and literacy	0 (no orthography)	-
7	Official status and use: governmental and institutional language attitudes and policies	1 (neither recognized nor protected)	Forced assimilated
8	Community members attitude towards their own language	0 (prefer to use dominant languages.)	-
9	Amount and quality of documentation	0 (no materials)	undocumented

 

From this table, we can say that the Kusunda language is critically endangered which has a limited number of speakers above 60 years and intergenerational transmission had already broken almost 30-40 years ago. Kusunda language is more vulnerable but technically it is a moribund language, which means that no children are currently learning it. Kusunda is unique not only because it is moribund but it is also endangered and isolate language.

 References

Central Bureau of Statistics (2001). Population census. National Planning Commission (NPC), Thapathali, Kathmandu.

 Central Bureau of Statistics (2011). Population census. National Planning Commission (NPC), Thapathali, Kathmandu.

Fishman, J. A. (1991).  Reversing language shift, Clevedon, UK, Multilingual Matters Ltd.

Lewis, M.P. & Simons, G.F. (2010). Assessing endangerment: expanding fishman's gids, Article  in  Revue Roumaine de Linguistique · April 2010 DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511783364.003

UNESCO. (2003). Language vitality and endangerment, Presented at the International Expert Meeting on UNESCO Programme Safeguarding of Endangered Languages, Paris: UNESCO Ad Hoc Expert Group on Endangered Languages. Retrieved from https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000183699

UNESCO (2009).  UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, UNESCO. Retrieved from  http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?pg=00139.