New script for tribal languages in India

A short article in the online newspaper newKerala.com reports that the Abo Tani group of tribes in the Arunachal Pradesh area of India is to have their own script for transcribing their languages. The script is called Tanilipi (www.tanilipi.com is no longer live), and it was authorised in 2001 as a common script for use with these indigenous languages. The script's creator, Toni Koyu, claimed that Roman and Devanagari scripts were not useful for representing these tribal languages, but that it would help restore and preserve those tribal languages that are on the verge of extinction.

New words in Gaelic

Today's Sunday Times reports on a scheme to add several new words to Gaelic, as recommended by a panel constituted by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA). Words proposed include such essentials as Pizza (Piotsa), Curry (Coiridh), and Lesbian (Leasbach). The Sunday Times managed to find a leading Scottish linguist, Charles Jones, to rail against the idea, although he managed to stop short of calling it "political correctness gone mad".

Points of interest in the article are the facts that there are fewer than 60,000 Gaelic speakers in Scotland, which is less than two percent of the population, and that for a language to survive a third of those who speak it need to be under 25, whereas about 20 percent of Gaelic speakers are in that age bracket. We also learn that in April (last year) Gaelic was given official recognition by the Scottish Parliament, leading to the setting up of the Bord na Gaidhlig, to promote the language.