Dura language

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Dura is the name of a critically endangered language of Nepal, and of the ethnic group that has historically spoken it. It has been classified in the West Bodish group of Tibeto-Burman languages, though more recent work classifies it as its own independent group within Tibeto-Burman.[1] Many of the Dura have switched to speaking Nepali, and the Dura language has sometimes been thought to be extinct. Some of the people who have switched to Nepali for their daily speech still use Dura only for saying prayers.[2]

The ethnic Dura people mostly live in the Lamjung District, with some in the neighboring Tanahu District, of the Gandaki Zone of central Tibet.[3] They mostly live on farms in hilly country.[3] Different recent census counts have reported the number of Dura people anywhere from 3,397 to 5,676.[3]

The Himalayan Languages Project is working on recording additional knowledge of Dura.[4] Around 1,500 words and 250 sentences in Dura have been recorded. The last known speaker of the language is the 82-year old Soma Devi Dura.[5]

[edit] External link

[edit] References

  1. ^ Kraayenbrink et al., "Language and Genes of the Greater Himalayan Region", preprint, http://www.le.ac.uk/genetics/maj4/Himalayan_OMLLreport.pdf, retrieved September 12, 2007
  2. ^ Van Driem, George. Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region, Brill Academic Publishers 2002 (ISBN 978-9004103900)
  3. ^ a b c Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN) - Dura
  4. ^ Programme Description | Himalayan Languages Project
  5. ^ "The last of Nepal's Dura speakers", BBC News, January 15, 2008. 


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5,676 5,169 ^http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7189898.stm

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