AN entire language is set to die out because only one person remains alive who speaks it.
Tribeswoman Gyani Maiya Sen, 75, is fluent in Kusunda – a language from western Nepal of unknown origins and mysterious sentence structures which has baffled linguists for years.
Only about 100 Kusunda tribespeople remain, but Ms Sen is the only one who can speak the language. It has made her the main focus for campaigners who are eager to preserve the “important” tongue.
Ms Sen, who crushes stones for a living and who also speaks Nepali, says: “I feel very sad for not being able to speak with people from my own community. They neither understand nor speak the Kusunda language – it will die with me.”
Researchers have so far identified three vowels and 15 consonants in the Kusunda language. But experts have warned that the complicated structure means it will become extinct if future generations of the nomadic tribe don’t adopt it.
Madhav Prasad Pokharel, a professor of linguistics at Nepal’s Tribhuvan University, says: “If the Kusunda language vanishes, a unique part of our human heritage will be lost forever.”
Linguists are now demanding the Nepalese government introduce a policy to protect the language.