Vanishing Voices of Andaman & Nicobar

Abstract

Languages are the centerpiece of the cultural diversity of the world. They are the most vulnerable part of the world’s cultural heritage. Currently, more than 7000 languages are spoken in the world, albeit more than half of them are obsolete. Many languages are disappearing day by day, taking with them a great wealth of knowledge of their culture, the natural environment and the history. The coastal areas have witnessed a tremendous loss of spoken diversity over the past few years. In short, it is indeed true to say “Enraged sea level is not only engulfing the coastal lands but also their native spoken languages.” India is a densely polyglot country, out of 400 native tongues spoken here, 350 are rapidly losing their speakers. The same is true for languages all over the world. This work addresses the need to preserve the endangered indigenous languages of Indian coastal regions. The current work mainly highlights the current state of languages in Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Karnataka, Rann of Kutch and a few other coastal areas of India.

Keywords: Cultural diversity, linguistics, language endangerment, language extinction, language preservation, indigenous languages

Cite this Article

Yadav Vandana, Yadav Anshul. Vanishing Voices of Andaman & Nicobar. Omniscience: A Multi-disciplinary Journal (OSMJ). 2015; 5(3): 1–6p.