Live Breaking News & Updates on Preserve Its Indigenous Languages

Child reading Newa folk story, Dhaplaan Khyaa, by Durgalal Shrestha. Credit: ASHISH SHAKYA
KATMANDU, Feb 3 2021 (IPS) - At last count Nepal had 129 spoken languages, but even as new ones are identified, others are becoming extinct. At least 24 of the languages and dialects spoken in Nepal are ‘endangered’, and the next ones on the verge of disappearing are Dura, Kusunda, and Tillung, each of which have only one speaker left.
“It will not surprise me if these three languages will be the next to go. With no one left to speak, we will not be able to save them,” says Lok Bahadur Lopchan of the Language Commission of Nepal, which is entrusted with preserving Nepal’s linguistic diversity. ....

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