It Starts at Home

Argument and roadmap

Central claim: Community involvement can sustain language rejuvenation; policymakers have a facilitative role.

Endangered languages and language shift
Political context and speaker trends
The Tai Khamti case study
Findings and policy recommendations

Endangered languages in India

The North East has the largest count in the SPPEL list: 43 endangered languages.

Zone	Languages
North East	43
Northern	25
Southern	20
East Central	15
Andaman and Nicobar	9
West Central	5

Source: Zonal division of the SPPEL Endangered Languages List, reproduced from the original presentation.

Language shift: working definitions

Endangered language: a language at risk of dying out because it lacks speakers.
Language shift: speakers move from their mother tongue toward another dominant language.
Majority tongue: the area’s default language for much information about education and public affairs.

Did autonomy deliver?

Year	Political change
1953	States Reorganisation Commission formed
1963	Nagaland created
1970	Meghalaya becomes an autonomous state
1972	Tripura and Manipur become states
1987	Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh created

“Even the smallest of the mini states of north-east India is anything but culturally or linguistically homogeneous.”

Baruah, S. (1989). “Minority Policy in the North-East: Achievements and Dangers.” Economic and Political Weekly, 24(37), 2087–2091.

Scheduled-language speaker trends

26.7%

Growth in the share of scheduled-language speakers in Arunachal Pradesh during the 1990s

223%

Growth in the share of scheduled-language speakers in Mizoram during the 1990s

6.53%

Growth in the share of scheduled-language speakers in Assam during the 2000s

20.5%

Growth in the share of scheduled-language speakers in Nagaland during the 2000s

The Tai Khamti

Resident in Namsai District
Two-level social stratification
A majority or minority language at different subnational levels
Spoken across economic strata

Speaker-count estimates

Source	Speakers
Census 2011	12,890
Gaur et al. (2022)	5,000
Morey (2005)	7,500

Methodology

Interviews

Ten semi-structured interviews
Government workers, teachers, independent artistes, and clergymen
Respondents aged 25–56; all literate and educated up to graduate level

Analytical framework

Fishman’s (1991) reversing language shift framework guides the case study. Interviews examine:

Language identification and maintenance
Indigenous knowledge and documentation
Linguistic culture, including honorifics
Narrative forms

Findings: identification and knowledge

Community identification

“thoda Hindi toh bolte hai” — multiple speakers
Hindi versus Assamese
Language maintenance from elders to younger speakers
“We learn English only in school” — Namchoom
Tai Khamti Heritage and Literary Society
“Two or three generations from now, Khamti will still be spoken.”

Indigenous knowledge

No dictionary; script digitalisation in progress — Mannoi
No textbooks; teachers use Myanmarese material
Das and Tag (2004) versus Moungkang
Indigenous context and its uniqueness (Abbi, 2021)
Some words cannot be translated and may die with the language

Findings: honorifics and narratives

Honorifics

Honorifics carry over into majority-tongue speech without translation.
Translation becomes onerous when requested.
They exemplify “linguistic culture” (Schiffman, 1996).

Narrative forms

Almost all have heard folktales; few can remember them.
“Like my father used to tell me stories, I cannot quite remember that. Some stories I can tell… (but) not quite narrate like that.”
Stories are unique to the culture, not translations.
Songs are performed at festivals and distributed physically and online.

Recommendations

Cultural programmes

Ceremonial use reaffirms identity.
Programmes provide a forum for the community.
Resource constraint remains.

Build local capacity

Include community stakeholders in research and decisions.
Provide documentation training, tools, and resources.

Fund data collection

Large repositories require technical tools.
Current grants lag those abroad.
Gaur et al. (2022) report outdated primary data.

Create reference materials

Their absence limits language maintenance.
Community initiative needs support for resource-intensive work.

Closing thought

“Only a community can keep its language alive. No governmental or non-governmental initiative is sufficient in this regard.”

Gaur, C. R., Dey, S., & Mamta, K. (2022). Tribal and Indigenous Languages of India. UNESCO.