Tika R Pradhan

Kathmandu, March 15:

In order to preserve and develop the mother tongues of indigenous communities, the National Foundation for the Development of Indigenous and Nationalities (NFDIN) has prepared dictionaries in Sherpa, Lohorung, Mewahang, Baram and Gurung languages. “We have sent copies of the manuscript to the respective communities for review. Printing will be done as soon as they are approved,” said Jagat Man Gurung, NFDIN’s planning officer. He said the foundation has documented lingual status of three communities namely Chhantyal, Bhujel and Hayu. “It’s very difficult to find people speaking these languages,” Gurung said adding that the NFDIN has emphasised on ways to preserve languages that are on the verge of extinction after studying their status. The dictionaries, which have English and Nepali meanings, were compiled with the help informants who were invited to Kathmandu between January and June in 2004.

The dictionaries were prepared with the help of the Central Linguistic Department (CLD) of the Tribhuvan University and Centre for Nepalese and Asian Studies, said Tamla Ukyab, member-secretary of the NFDIN. Dr Yogendra Prasad Yadav, head of the CLD has been coordinating the project. The introduction part of the basic Mewahang-Nepali-English dictionary states that there is no practice of writing Mawahang script. As per the 2001 census there are 904 speakers of the Mawahang language — less than 0.01 per cent of the country’s total population. The language falls under the Bhot-Burmeli section of the China-Tibetan family. The Barams are considered to be highly marginalised community with very few mother language speakers. Their language is believed to be in use only among some 30 households in Danda Gaon of Gorkha. Even the president of the Gorkha Baram Association, Indra Bahadur Baram, can neither speak nor understand his mother tongue. Ukyab said the foundation is working to make it a regular programme. Other five languages would be chosen for next phase for documentation.