Book on Arunachal’s endangered speech community released by CM 

 

ITANAGAR, Jul 6: The book titled ‘The Tangams: An Ethnolinguistic Study of The Critically Endangered Group of Arunachal Pradesh’ which is an outcome of painstaking efforts by various authors and the Centre For Endangered Languages (CFEL), Arunachal Institute of Tribal Studies (AITS), Rajiv Gandhi University was released on Monday by Chief Minister Pema Khandu.
The Chief Minister while stressing on timely preservation of the mother tongues of Arunachal, said that language loss is a reason for cultural erosion. The event was attended by RGU VC Professor Saket Kushwaha, Pro VC Professor Amitava Mitra, Registrar Professor Tomo Riba, Director AITS and Coordinator, CFEL Professor S. Simon John, Professor Jumyir Basar and Senior Research Fellow, CFEL Kaling Dabi.
The book is based on the Tangams, a critically endangered speech community of Arunachal Pradesh and one of the lesser-known ethnolinguistic groups within the Adi tribe domiciled at Kugging village in Upper Siang district. According to the CFEL field survey conducted in 2016, the total population of the community is just 253 and concentrated in one village only. It contains a study of the Tangam language which will give crucial insights into the knowledge of language structures within the Tani group of languages. The chapters also contain valuable primary data on endangered oral narratives like ritual songs, lamentation songs, lullaby, festival songs, religion and the socio-political life and belief systems of the tribe and it expected that the book will be useful not only for the future generations of the community, but also for linguists, anthropologists, educators and policymakers.
The book is the output of four years of extensive field research and documentation carried out by the CFEL research team at Kugging village and its co-authors are Kaling Dabi, Kombong Darang, Rejhoney Borang, Chera Devi, Rumi Deuri. Jointly edited by Lisa Lomdak and Rejhoney Borang, Professor S. Simon John has played the role of executive editor. It is published jointly by the CFEL, which is a UGC-sponsored centre and Himalayan Publishers, New Delhi.
It needs mentioning that CFEL has been actively functioning since 2016 with a multidisciplinary approach and its research team comprises scholars from linguistics, anthropology, folklore, tribal studies and mass communication. 
Currently, the Centre is focusing on field survey, documentation, outreach programmes and analysis of critically endangered languages of the state with simultaneous studies on the speech communities in socio-cultural contexts. CMO 

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
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