NEW DELHI, Feb 18: More than 40 languages
or dialects in India are considered
to be endangered and is believed to be heading
towards extinction as only a few thousand
people speak them, officials said.
According to a report of the census directorate,
there are 22 scheduled languages
and 100 non-scheduled languages
in the country which are spoken by a large
number of people one lakh or more.
However, there are around 42 languages
which are spoken by less than 10,000
people. These are considered endangered
and may be heading towards extinction, a
home ministry official said.
A list prepared by UNESCO has also
mentioned about the 42 languages or dialects
in India which are endangered and
they may be heading towards extinction,
the official said.
The languages or dialects which were
considered endangered, include 11 from
Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Great Andamanese,
Jarawa, Lamongse, Luro,
Muot, Onge, Pu, Sanenyo, Sentilese,
Shompen and Takahanyilang), seven from
Manipur (Aimol, Aka, Koiren, Lamgang,
Langrong, Purum and Tarao) and four
from Himachal Pradesh (Baghati, Handuri,
Pangvali and Sirmaudi).
The other languages in the endangered
category are Manda, Parji and Pengo (Odisha),
Koraga and Kuruba (Karnataka),
Gadaba and Naiki (Andhra Pradesh), Kota
and Toda (Tamil Nadu), Mra and Na (Arunachal
Pradesh), Tai Nora and Tai Rong
(Assam), Bangani (Uttarakhand), Birhor
(Jharkhand), Nihali (Maharashtra), Ruga
(Meghalaya) and Toto (West Bengal).
The Central Institute of Indian Languages,
Mysore, has been working for
the protection and preservation of endangered
languages of the country, under a
Central scheme, another official said.
Under the programme, grammatical descriptions,
monolingual and bilingual dictionaries,
language primers, anthologies
of folklore, encyclopedias of all languages
or dialects especially those spoken by less
than 10,000 people are being prepared,
the official said.
Apart from the 22 scheduled languages,
there are 31 other languages in the
country which were given the status of
official language by various State governments
and Union Territories.
According to the census data, there are
1,635 rationalised mother tongues, 234
identifiable mother tongues and 22 major
languages in the country. PTI
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