The Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh recently launched a significant book titled ‘Tangams: An Ethnolinguistic Study Of The Critically Endangered Group Of Arunachal Pradesh’. This fact-rich volume provides precious data about threatened oral narratives such as ritual songs, lamentation songs, lullabies, and festival songs in the Tangam tongue, a language now spoken by only 253 individuals in the Tangam community.
Tangam Community Overview
The Tangam people, a lesser-known community residing in Arunachal Pradesh’s Paindem circle’s hamlet of Kugging, are part of the larger Adi tribe. The single prior record of the Tangams was from a 1975 publication called “Tangams”, which assessed the community’s population to be 2,000, dispersed across 25 villages.
About the Tangam Language
Tangam is an oral language that falls under the Tani group within the larger Tibeto-Burman language family. The UNESCO World Atlas of Endangered Languages labelled this language as “critically endangered” back in 2009.
Decline of the Tangam Language
Several factors have contributed to the diminishing use of the Tangam language. With low population, smaller languages are more susceptible to extinction. The community’s multilingualism has also played a role, as Tangams have had to adopt multiple languages to interact with neighboring communities. Now, they rarely use their own language due to its restricted presence in one village. Furthermore, the lack of proper infrastructure, from education and health facilities to basic amenities like drinking water, roads, and electricity, has hindered the language’s preservation and growth.
Linguistic Diversity in Arunachal Pradesh
Despite the richness of linguistic variety in Arunachal Pradesh, it was not until 2018 that the state government initiated an official linguistic survey. Prior to that, only the People’s Linguistic Survey of India published in 2017 existed as a linguistic resource. According to experts, there are approximately 32-34 languages spoken in Arunachal Pradesh, and this figure could rise to 90 if all dialects within these languages are included. The region’s languages belong predominantly to the Sino-Tibetan language family, specifically the Tibeto-Burman and Tai language groups.
Endangered Languages of Arunachal Pradesh
The UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger has noted over 26 languages from Arunachal Pradesh as endangered, with categories ranging from ‘unsafe’ to ‘definitely endangered’ and ‘critically endangered’. The younger generation, particularly in urban areas, tend to favour English, Assamese, and Arunachalee Hindi over their indigenous tongues which has facilitated the decline of these languages.
Preserving Tangam Heritage
The study behind the book adopted a multidisciplinary approach, taking into account not just language but also rituals, folklore, food habits, belief systems, etc. The goal is to assist future Tangam generations in retaining their unique identity as an ethnolinguistic group. The volume is expected to attract readers interested in ethnolinguistics, anthropology, and folkloristics of lesser-studied tribes.
