Classrooms at the Adivasi Academy in western India echo to the speech patterns of languages that may soon become no more than a meaningless jumble of noises. Kukna, Panchmahali and Rathvi are just three of dozens of tribal Indian tongues taught at the academy, which was set up in 1996 in an attempt to preserve the country's indigenous cultures.
印度西部「原住民學會」開班授課，以回應即將淪為一堆毫無意義雜亂噪音的語文的言語模式。孔卡尼語、潘奇馬哈斯語和拉瓦語只是原住民學會所教的數十種部落語言中的三種，為了力圖保存印度本土文化，該學會於1996年創立。
India's 1.16-billion people speak more than 6,500 languages and dialects, according to the 2001 census. But almost 200 of them are seriously endangered, says the United Nations cultural agency UNESCO, as Hindi and English strengthen their grip in an increasingly mobile and interconnected world.
2001年普查發現，印度11億6000萬人所說的語言和方言超過6500種。但聯合國文化機構「教科文組織」透露，隨著印度文和英文在日益流動及相互聯繫的世界中，加強其主宰地位，其中近200種已嚴重瀕危。
"If younger generations don't learn these languages, they will be forgotten," said academy teacher Jeetendra Vasava, 29. "Without education in the next 30 years the current speakers will get old and these languages will die."
原住民學會教師、29歲的瓦沙瓦說：「如果年輕世代不學這些語文，它們將被遺忘，未來30年如果學校不教，等目前還會說的人老了，這些語文也就滅絕了。」
Vasava, who believes India's rich diversity will be wrecked if local languages disappear, is a fine example of the nation's polyglot nature. He speaks more than ten languages -- including his mother tongue Vasavi, which is spoken by less than 80,000 people in Gujarat and the western state of Maharashtra.
瓦沙瓦深信，如果本土語言消失，印度豐富的多元文化將毀於一旦，這也是印度是多語言國家的最好例證。瓦沙瓦可以說十餘種語言，包括他的母語瓦薩維語，這種語言只有古吉拉特省和印度西部馬哈拉特拉省不到8萬人還會說。
India's most endangered languages survive only in remote locations -- the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the Himalayas, and northeastern regions bordering Bhutan and China -- where indigenous and nomadic groups remain strong.
印度唯有偏遠地區還保留最可能滅絕的語言，其中包括安達曼及尼古巴群島、喜馬拉雅山區及鄰近不丹和中國的東北邊區，這些地方還有很多原住民和游牧族群。
But there are signs of a fightback against the effects of population decline and the rise of more prominent languages. The Adivasi Academy trains 40 students a year to become cultural activists in native tongues such as Rathvi, which has around 118,000 speakers from the Rathva Bhils tribe in Gujarat and the central state of Madhya Pradesh.
但已有跡象顯示，印度正在反制人口減少和較強勢語言崛起之勢。原住民學會每年培訓40名學生成為像拉瓦這類本土語言的文化運動義工，古吉拉特省的拉瓦比哈爾部族及印度中部的馬德拉省約11萬8000人仍會說拉瓦語。
Like many Indian languages, Rathvi did not have a written form until the academy created a script and illustrated glossary so that it could be taught in schools.
一如很多印度語言，拉瓦語並未形諸文字，直到原住民學會創造文字及圖解辭彙方便學校教學後才有文字。
"When teachers would come to villages from outside they did not speak Rathvi, so the children could not understand them," said Sanjay Rathava, who spent two years studying at the academy in the town of Tejgadh. He graduated in 2005 with a diploma in tribal studies and now oversees production of a Rathvi-language children's magazine called "Bol", which academy founder Ganesh Devy describes as "a humble version of Reader's Digest."
在德卡村該學會研讀兩年的拉薩瓦說：「當老師從外地剛到村子裡時，他們不會說拉瓦語，因此孩子上課時根本霧煞煞。」拉薩瓦2005年畢業時，拿到部族研究證書，現在負責督導拉瓦語兒童刊物Bol（吟唱語言）的出版製作，在原住民學會創辦人戴威口中，Bol是「簡約版讀者文摘」。
Academy members read out articles from the magazine to villagers -- many of whom cannot read in Gujarati or Hindi let alone Rathvi -- and Devy said keeping any indigenous language in everyday use is a major struggle. "At home I speak to my kids in Rathvi," said Rathava. "If I don't, they will forget it and eventually nobody will know how to speak it.
學會成員向村民朗讀雜誌裡的文章，因為大多數村民看不懂古吉拉特文或印度文，遑論拉瓦文了。戴威並說，每天說本土語言是一大挑戰。拉薩瓦說：「在家時，我用拉瓦語和孩子交談，否則他們會忘光光，最後再也沒有人知道怎麼說這種語言了。」
Only five of the 50 people living on Strait Island, part of the Andaman and Nicobar chain belonging to India, speak Great Andamanese, one of the seven indigenous languages on the archipelago, according to researcher Anvita Abbi. The dwindling population of native Great Andamanese speakers on Strait -- aged between their 40s and 80s -- have all but given up on passing down their language, said Abbi, chair of the Centre for Linguistics at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. "Inter-generational transfer is becoming less, and languages die for this basic reason," she said.
研究員安薇塔．艾比指出，目前仍存活於印度安達曼及尼古巴群島所屬海峽群島上的50個原住民中，只有5人會說群島7種本土語言之一的「大安達曼語」。目前擔任新德里尼赫魯大學語言中心主任的艾比並指出，海峽群島40到80來歲母語為「大安達曼語」的人口越來越少，他們已經放棄傳承他們的語言。她說：「跨世代傳承減少，語言就因為這個很基本的原因消逝。」
Experts say the UNESCO atlas is not a comprehensive list of dying languages -- Great Andamanese is not on it -- and that there are hundreds more at risk of disappearing because they are considered too small to be included in the census. "By and large the country does not know what has happened to these languages," said Devy.
專家指出，聯合國教科文組織的圖譜未能全面而周延的表列消失的語言，像大安達曼語就未上榜，何況還有數百種語言也面臨消失的危險，因為咸認這些語言太微不足道而未接受普查。戴威說：「大體上，印度不清楚這些語言的情況。」
Larger languages survive due to strongly motivated communities who fear for their identity. "In the case of Urdu and Punjabi they are backed by religion and politics and therefore their chances of survival are better," said Udaya Narayana Singh, one of the editors of the UNESCO atlas, referring to the languages usually associated with India's Muslims and Sikhs respectively.
比較主流的語言因社會有強烈的企圖心，擔心定位危機而得以留存下來。聯合國教科文組織圖譜主編之一辛哈說：「以烏爾都語和旁遮普語為例，由於有宗教和政治為後盾，存活率較高。」這兩種語言是分別為印度穆斯林和錫克教教徒最常說的語言。
India's constitution lists 22 official languages, with English -- the lingua franca for business and academics -- given associate status. But many regional vernaculars remain confined to the home and unable to attract "intellectual capital," Devy warned. "It is the absence of livelihood options for people that is the greatest threat to any language," he said. In this picture taken on October 31, 2009, Adivasi Academy founder Ganesh Devy displays some of his books.
印度憲法條列22種官方語言，其中工商界和學界通用的英文是準官方語言。但戴威警告說，很多地方方言仍限於家裡交談，無法吸引「知識之都」，他又說：「人民缺乏謀生之道，是任何語言所面臨的最大威脅。」在這張攝於今年10月31日的照片中，「原住民學會」創辦人戴威展示他的著作。（法新社）