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New Delhi, Delhi, India
A professor of the University of Hyderabad has discovered two new languages.
Professor Panchanan Mohanty, former dean of the School of Humanities discovered the languages- Walmiki and Malhar. These languages are spoken in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.
As a part of the research activity of the Centre for Endangered Languages and Mother Tongue Studies, UoH, Prof Mohanty of the department of linguists, discovered two languages - Walmiki and Malhar. Linguists do not know that these two languages exist. Only a few people living in the forest and hilly areas speak these languages. Surprisingly, they have remained out of public focus.
According to a release from the university, "Prof Mohanty collected some data and did a preliminary analysis of this language. He published a paper in the proceedings of the XX annual conference of the Foundation for Endangered Languages, UK".
"The name of the language, Walmiki, "is interesting and indicative because the speech community claims descent from the great Indian saint-poet Valmiki," the release added.
The languages are categorised `endangered’ as the number of people speaking is small. For instance Malhar is spoken by just 75 including children from a particular community. These people live in a remote and isolated hamlet about 165 kms from Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha.
The discovery has been made and announced by Panchanan Mohanty of the Centre for Endangered Languages and Mother Tongue Studies at the UoH. He has collected data, did preliminary analysis and published a paper in the proceedings of the XX Annual Conference of the Foundation for Endangered Languages, UK.
Walmiki is spoken in the district of Koraput and in the bordering districts of Andhra Pradesh. The etymology of the name is also interesting. It indicates that the community speaking the language have descent from the Indian saint-poet Valmiki, who is credited to have written one version of the epic Ramayana.
Though less than 100 speak the language Malhar, they are very fluent as they live completely detached from the Odia speaking neighbours. They survive on daily labour and collections from the nearby forest, sayd Mohanty. Analyis indicated that the tongue belongs to the North Dravidian subgroup of the Dravidian family of languages.