Dang, March 18 (RSS):
Efforts are being made to in Dang to preserve and promote the Magar Kham language.
The Magar Language Literature and Culture Foundation Center Dang has started this campaign. As the new generation of Magar Kham community is not showing interest in the language, the preservation of the Kham language has started, said Kritiman Pun, president of the foundation, “Lately, the new generation has stopped showing interest in Magar Kham language and hence we are working to protect and promote this ancient Magar asset.”
He says that this language is disappearing due to the lack of communities that speak the traditional Kham language. It is disappearing due to lack of transfer of Kham language to the new generation.
There is no special script for Magar language Devanagari has been accepted for it. Although the mother tongue of the Magar community who migrated from Rolpa, Rukum to Dang is Kham, Nepali Khas language is more spoken in this community. Pun said that as children have started speaking Nepali language as their first language, the Kham language is feared to disappear completely.
The estimated population of Magar ethnic community in the country is around 2.5 million Magar and only about 1.9 million speak the Magar language, according to the Foundation.