A report in The Pioneer suggests that the discovery of a new language in Arunachel Pradesh might not be such a brilliant thing after all. The problem is that the new language, called Koro, is spoken by less than a thousand people and is in danger of imminent extinction. The language was discovered by the National Geographic Enduring Voices project, which strives to preserve endangered languages by identifying language hotspots and documenting the languages and cultures within them.
It's always exciting to discover a new language (see previous post - Lost language found), especially one that is still extant but suitably obscure, although it is important to make a record of it before it disappears; especially so for those that are purely spoken languages. Koro is a Tibeto-Burman language (related to Tibetan and Burmese), and was discovered while researchers were studying two other languages from this little-known region: Aka and Miji.
What is particularly unusual about the Koro speakers is that they live as a sub-group of the Aka tribe, but their languages have almost nothing in common. It is very rare for separate languages to co-exist among integrated groups where there is no acknowledged ethnic difference. Because of an absence of written records it is going to be very difficult, if not impossible, to determine how and when the Koro speakers became attached to the Aka speakers, and what therefore is the prognosis for their language.
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