2023/11/27 by Aaley, Uday Raj, Bodt, Timotheus A.
paper · doi:10.7275/ryd3-1113
In the mid-19th century, when first described to western science, the Kusunda people and their language were already in a precarious position. Since then, the language has been described as ‘dying’, ‘moribund’, ‘dead’ and ‘extinct’ on several occasions. Remarkably, though, Kusunda speakers survived right into the 21st century when changes to the political and social situation in Nepal inspired renewed ethnic and cultural consciousness among minority groups. In this context, the small remaining Kusunda community expressed their wish to document and describe whatever was still known about their language and culture and create a vibrant speech community once again. In this chapter, we describe and critically examine the ongoing efforts to teach the Kusunda language to community members again. While it is still too early to judge the success of the efforts to awaken the Kusunda language, we will show that its initialisation and continued progress depend on the interest of the community, the support of the government, and the efforts of a dedicated community linguist. We also briefly discuss the main limitations to the awakening efforts, including factors affecting attendance in and operation of language classes; we also present how traditional gender roles, marriage patterns, seniority relations, socioeconomic conditions, and scattered residence of the Kusunda community affect awakening effortsIn this chapter, we describe and critically examine the ongoing efforts to teach the Kusunda language to community members again. While it is still too early to judge the success of the efforts to awaken the Kusunda language, we will show that its initialisation and continued progress depend on the interest of the community, the support of the government, and the efforts of a dedicated community linguist. We also briefly discuss the main limitations to the awakening efforts, including factors affecting attendance in and operation of language classes; we also present how traditional gender roles, marriage patterns, seniority relations, socioeconomic conditions, and scattered residence of the Kusunda community affect awakening efforts.