Under the scheme “Protection and Preservation of Endangered
Languages of India” the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) is working
on preservation, protection and documentation of all the languages of India
which are spoken by less than ten thousand speakers. One of such language,
Nihali, exists in Buldhana district and around the village of Tembi near Tapti
river on the Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh border. As per UNESCO report this
language has been declared as the Critically Endangered Language in 2014.
But this language became the matter of attraction for linguists
when Franciscus Kuiper (1956) first suggested that probably Nihali is unrelated
to any other languages of the world. On the origin of Nihali words,
Kuiper had argued that Nihali lexicon consists of cognates from Tibeto-Burman,
Indo-Aryan, Dravidian and Munda languages of the sub-continent.
On the other hand, some researchers have linked Nihali to other
languages such as Nostratic (Dolgopolsky, 1996) Kusunda, a language spoken in
Nepal (Fleming, 1996), and Ainu spoken in Japan (Bengton, 1996). Nihali
speakers as well as the entire ethnic group call themselves kalʈo and their
speech kalʈo manɖi.
Typically, the minority language in such an arrangement would lose
ground to the majority language and in time die out. Spoken by some 2,500
villagers on the Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh border, the language is on the
verge of extinction as speakers shifting their language into Korku-Marathi or
Hindi to find work, and marrying with other communities.
Prof. Shailendra Mohan, Head of Department, Pune’s Deccan
College Postgraduate and Research Institute began his research on language’s
origins, digging at its roots. He was also awarded a grant from the Endangered
Languages Project (ELP) by the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS),
London, for attempting the first documentation of Nihali in 2013.
Prof. Mohan soon discovered that Nihali speakers have their own
version of Panchatantra or fable even their understanding of history and
mythology was so different from that of the others. They sing songs of Ramayana
but at the same time worship Ravana as their hero.
The documentation programmes inculcated sensitivity towards their
language and now they realized that their language is special as well as the
number of the speakers are very less. Very interestingly, present day Nihali
speakers use 60-70% of lexical items from its neighbouring languages but the
core vocabulary is really unique in itself.
Nihali shows three-way distinction of number i.e singular, dual
and plural. Singular nouns are unmarked, dual and plural are marked by [-iʈkel]
and [- ʈa] in Nihali. Numerals used in Nihali are not related to any other
langugaes.
Although it has been also hypothesized that Nihali may be related to Austro-Asiatic languages (Pinnow, 1963, Mundalay, 1996). Kuiper opined that the differences might be argot (code words used among the criminals). Whatever be its antiquity it is our responsibility to save this unique semiotic system (Nihali language) of understanding the world.
Although it has been also hypothesized that Nihali may be related to Austro-Asiatic languages (Pinnow, 1963, Mundalay, 1996). Kuiper opined that the differences might be argot (code words used among the criminals). Whatever be its antiquity it is our responsibility to save this unique semiotic system (Nihali language) of understanding the world.
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Husain Khan Linguistic Society. All rights reserved.
