She's 82 years old, and in poor health, the linguist who is trying to preserve the Dura language is trying to put together enough money to take her to Kathmandu in order to treat her health problems and keep her alive as long as he can in order to preserve as much of the language as possible.

There was another woman who spoke the language in a nearby village, but she died last year, so it is believed that this woman is the last person on earth that speaks this language and knows the old culture and traditions.  As Nepal formalizes the language, many of the old dialects and local languages are disappearing.

Standardization of language is a natural progression, but preserving the old languages and culture is an worthy task for historical, etymological, cultural and traditional reasons, and I'm glad they're trying to do this.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 01:59 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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