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University of Hyderabad faculty finds 2 endangered languages

The data collected showed that it belonged to the north subgroup of the Dravidian family of languages.

Hyderabad: A professor from University of Hyderabad discovered two endangered languages. This comes despite repeated efforts made by the Government to document endangered tribal and minor languages, several of which were still unknown to many.

Prof Panchanan Mohanty of the Centre for Endangered Languages and Mother Tongue Studies of UoH discovered Walmiki spoken in Odisha and on the bordering districts of Andhra Pradesh. The second one, Malhar, was spoken in a remote and isolated hamlet, some 165 km from Bhubaneswar.

After collection a preliminary analysis of Walmiki, he published a paper in the proceedings of the XX Annual Conference of the Foundation for Endangered Languages, UK. It was concluded that it was an isolate one and did not belong to a particular family of languages.

In the case of Malhar, the language had a community of just 75 speakers. The data collected showed that it belonged to the north subgroup of the Dravidian family of languages. It had close affinities with other North Dravidian languages like Malto and Kurux spoken in West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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