ITANAGAR, 13 Mar: The North Eastern Council-funded research project titled “Documentation of endangered languages, oral narratives and cultures of the lesser-known tribal communities of Arunachal Pradesh” has been successfully completed and submitted to the NEC by the Centre for Endangered Languages (CFEL), Rajiv Gandhi University (RGU).
Three lesser-known communities of the state-Ashing (Adi) of Upper Siang, Nah (Tagin) of Upper Subansiri, and Brokpa (Monpa) of West Kameng districts were extensively studied under this project.
The tangible research outputs of this project are the five published books, including two monographs and three bilingual dictionaries, namely Ethnographic Profile of the Brokpa (Monpa) of Arunachal Pradesh (2023), Ethnographic Profile of the Nah (Tagin) of Arunachal Pradesh (2023), A Dictionary of Nah (2023) Brokpa-English Dictionary (2023) and Dictionary and Grammar of Ashing: A Moribund Language of Arunachal Pradesh (2022).
This research project was carried out under the supervision of principal investigator of the project prof. S. Simon John, who is also the coordinator of CFEL and AITS director and co-principal investigator Dr. Tarun Mene, assistant professor, AITS and the research team consists of Dr. Tame Ramya, Dr. Mechek Sampar Awan, Dr. Kaling Dabi, Dr. Kombong Darang and Tailyang Nampi.
Apart from the research and publications, various outreach programmes on the promotion of the indigenous languages and cultures were also conducted in Bomdo, Janbo, Migging, and Nyereng villages in Upper Siang district, Noksa village and Khonsa town in Tirap district, Taksing circle in Upper Subansiri district and Lubrang village in West Kameng district.
The CFEL under the aegis of the Arunachal Institute of Tribal Studies (AITS) is a University Grants Commission-sponsored research centre in RGU.
With prof. John as the coordinator and Dr. Lisa Lomdak and Dr. Wanglit Mongchan as the assistant coordinators, the centre has been functioning since 2016. Its main purpose is to carry out multidisciplinary study and documentation of the languages and cultures of lesser-known tribal communities of Arunachal Pradesh.
The Centre has extensively studied eight lesser-known communities of Arunachal and has produced three documentary films, published three newsletters and 10 books.
The books published by the centre before the NEC research project include, The Tangams: An Ethnolinguistic Study of the Critically Endangered Group of Arunachal Pradesh (2020), The Language and Ethnography of the Kaasiks of Arunachal Pradesh (2020), Kaasik-English Dictionary (2021), Meyor-English Dictionary (2022), and Language and Ethnography of Ollo (Nocte) of Arunachal Pradesh (2023).
The documentary films produced by the centre and directed by Dr. Kombong Darang include, “Ngok Miri Dekke Yoyo-Gaga Goktuanam Kiding” (2018), “The Songs We Sing, The Drums We Beat” (2020) and “Fading Tongue of the East” (2022) on Tangam, Kaasik and Meyor communities respectively. These films have been screened in various state, national and international film festivals and conferences. The documentary films on the Tangams and Kaasiks have won Best Documentary Film Awards at the Arunachal Film Festivals organized by the Film Federation of Arunachal in 2018 and 2024 respectively.
The Centre has been supported by the North-Eastern Council for the research project with effect from February 2021 to March 2023.
A team of CFEL-AITS-RGU submitted the final report of the research project along with the published books to the officials of the NEC on Monday at its headquarters in Shillong.
“These published books and produced documentary films on lesser-known communities were the outcomes of the extensive field studies and workshops conducted by the research team of CFEL and the active participation of the studied communities,” informed prof. John.
