Countering the challenges of globalization faced by endangered languages of North Pakistan
- Zubair Torwali
Abstract
Indigenous communities living in the mountainous terrain and valleys of the region of Gilgit-Baltistan and upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, northern Pakistan, speak over 30 languages. Some of these are Balti, Bateri, Burushaski, Chilloso, Dameli, Dumaki, Gawarbati, Gawri, Indus Kohistani, Kalasha, Khowar, Palula, Shina, Torwali, Ushojo, Wakhi, and Yidgha. According to Moseley (2010), all these languages are considered to be endangered because of a number of challenges the communities speaking them face: lack of political organization, suppressed identities, no written tradition, marginalization and globalization, impact of dominant languages over these languages, life in a difficult ecology, poverty, and migration.
The cultural, political, linguistic, and ecological milieu is leading to language and cultural loss among these communities. Notwithstanding these extremely tough challenges, there are some good initiatives being carried out privately by community members that are focused on reversing language and cultural loss by documentation, transmission to the coming generation, and trying to make the languages relevant in pedagogical settings.1
Keywords: Globalization, Endangered Languages, northern Pakistan
How to Cite:
Torwali, Z., (2020) “Countering the challenges of globalization faced by endangered languages of North Pakistan”, Language Documentation and Description 17, 44-65. doi: https://doi.org/10.25894/ldd96