Gyani Maiya Sen-Kusunda
Gyani Maiya Sen Kusunda in 2018
Gyani Maiya Sen Kusunda in 2018
Born1937
DiedJanuary 25, 2020(2020-01-25) (aged 82–83)[1]
Kulmor, Dang District, Nepal, Nepal[1]
NationalityNepalese
Other namesGyani Maiya,
Gyani Maiya Sen[2]

Gyani Maiya Sen-Kusunda (1937 – 25 January 2020) was a Kusunda community elder from Nepal. She was presumed to be the last known speaker of Kusunda,[3] a language isolate listed as the critically endangered language in the Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.[4] Sen-Kusunda could not converse with others in her community in Kusunda despite being fluent as the language fell out of use over time after the nomadic Kusunda community started to settle in villages and married outside the community. She was interviewed widely by linguists and other scholars in an effort to document the Kusunda language.[2]

She died on 25 January 2020.[1]

Early life

Sen-Kusunda was born in 1937 in the Dang district of Nepal to a family of hunter-gatherers and settled in the Kulmor village in Dang. Until the death of her mother in 1985, she actively spoke in Kusunda but did not have any scope for conversation in the language. By 2012, three Kusunda speakers, the mother and daughter duo Puni Thakuri and Kamala Khatri in addition to Sen-Kusunda, were reported. After Thakuri's death that year and Khatri's departure from Nepal in search of livelihoods left Sen-Kusunda to be the sole Kusunda speaker.[2] In 2010 the Tribhuvan University ran a language documentation and preservation programme by inviting both Khatri and Sen-Kusunda to Kathmandu but the project stalled due to shortage of funds.[5]

Career

Sen-Kusunda worked with scholars including B.K. Rana, Brian Houghton Hodgson, David E. Watters, Johan Reinhard, Madhav Prasad Pokharel and Uday Raj Aaley for the documentation of the Kusunda language.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Global Voices - Hope for dying Nepali language wanes as one of the last fluent speakers passes away at 85". Global Voices. 2020-01-31. Retrieved 2022-08-22.
  2. 1 2 3 "Nepal's mystery language on the verge of extinction". BBC News. 2012-05-12. Retrieved 2022-08-22.
  3. ↑ "Can Dying Languages Be Saved?". The New Yorker. 2015-03-23. Retrieved 2022-08-22.
  4. ↑ Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (3rd ed.). UNESCO. 2010. ISBN 978-92-3-104096-2. OL 27680143M. Wikidata Q28100282.
  5. ↑ "FEATURE: Nepal's Kusunda speaker mourns dying language - Taipei Times". www.taipeitimes.com. 2012-11-12. Retrieved 2022-08-22.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gyani Maiya Sen Kusunda.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.