Reacting to the enlistment of 196 endangered Indian languages in the UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, 2009, the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) is all set to draw attention to the issue. The Intangible Cultural Heritage Division of INTACH, which was set up last year, is holding a two-day international seminar on endangered languages in the country from Thursday.

“India has one of the highest numbers of endangered languages and this is a matter of great concern. When a language dies, that is, when no language knower is left, when no documentation, recording, film, or written word remains, then the loss is indeed very great,” said SK Misra, chairman, INTACH.

According to the UNESCO findings, there are around 120 endangered languages in Northeast, 44 in Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand and about 42 in Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal. One of the predictions of experts is also that by the end of the century about 50 percent of the languages across the world will be extinct.

“We reacted to the latest information and decided to place endangered languages in our priority area. So we have decided to hold a seminar to help us gain valuable insights from international and national experts,” Misra said.

The objectives of the seminar will be to spread awareness of the existence and dangers of losing endangered languages and ascertaining the place of minorities and regional languages in education and society.

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