With 1 surviving speaker, Dura going dodo way

KATHMANDU, Jan 9 – Soma Devi Dura is 82. Given the life expectancy of an average Nepali, she is nearing her last days. Soma Devi’s death won’t merely be the death of an individual. The only source of a language of Nepal’s western hills will die with her.

Researchers and university professors say the octogenarian lady is the only native speaker of the Dura language, which used to be spoken in parts of Lamjung and Tanahun districts in western Nepal.
“My finding is that the only living person who can speak Dura is Soma Devi,” says Kedar Bilash Nagila, a PhD scholar who is writing a thesis on the critically endangered Dura language.
Nagila says Soma Devi is the only authentic source of information for the thesis which he is preparing as a sequel to his MA thesis.
Professor Madhav Prasad Pokharel, a senior linguist at the Central Department of Linguistics at Tribhuvan University says, “In case anything happens to Soma Devi, the entire effort to preserve the endangered language will receive a jolt.”

Soma Devi lives in Handikhola of Dura Danda, Lamjung. Her husband, son and five daughters cannot speak Dura.
Nagila said lack of transmission of the Dura language between generations is the major reason behind its becoming endangered, while the dominance of Nepali speakers in surrounding areas is another reason.

Modnath Prashrit, a culture expert, said a language becomes endangered when the community to which it belongs decides that it is an impediment. “Children may discard their native tongue after realizing that other more-widely spoken languages are more useful,” he explained.

Kishore Dura, president of Dura Seva Samaj, added, “Government policy promoting only the Khas (Nepali) language also led to the endangering of indigenous languages like Dura”.

Dura Seva Samaj and researcher Nagila have been planning to bring Soma Devi to Kathmandu with the support of the National Foundation for Development of Indigenous Nationalities so that the language of which only 1,500 words and 250 sentences have been documented so far can be documented.

“We are very corncerned about the threat faced by the Dura language,”said Lok Bahadur Thapa, member secretary of the Foundation. He said the Foundation is holding discussions with both the researcher and the Dura Seva Samaj to bring Soma Devi to Kathmandu.

To add to the threat faced by Dura, Soma Devi is blind and deaf and would need special hearing equipment to facilitate documentation of the language. “We hope we will be able to overcome the problems soon,” said Thapa.

Kishore said there is a ray of hope for the language as it is now being taught to children of the Dura community with the help of the 1,500 words and 250 sentences that have been documented. Two books have already been prepared on the language. “We are trying to publish an edited version of the books,” he said.

Prof Yogendra Prasad Yadav, chief of the Central Department of Linguistics at TU, said, “The key to getting a language revitalized is getting a new generation of speakers.”