BHUBANESWAR: Close to 40 per cent of the world’s 7,000 languages including dialects spoken by indigenous people groups have already disappeared and several of them are on the verge of getting extinct, opined experts.
“The world is facing the danger of losing its languages several of which are already listed as endangered and loss of languages equates to loss of culture,” said K Sreenivasarao, secretary of the Sahitya Akademi, while addressing the inaugural program of the two-day All India Tribal Writers’ Meet which began at Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (SOA) here on Wednesday.
The two-day conference, which has attracted around 70 tribal writers from different parts of the country, has been organised by the Sahitya Akademi in collaboration with the Centre for Preservation, Propagation and Restoration of Ancient Culture and Heritage of India (PPRACHIN), the conservation arm of SOA to mark the International Day of World’s Indigenous People celebrated on August 9.
The event, inaugurated by poet Haladhar Nag was attended by eminent scholars and writers Jagannath Das, Gourahari Das, Chaitanya Prasad Majhi and head of PPRACHIN Gayatribala Panda. Eminent linguist Debi Prasanna Patnaik was also present. Vice-Chancellor of SOA Pradipta Kumar Nanda presided over the programme.