• According to ELA, difficult conditions at home and job prospects elsewhere have brought speakers of Seke to places such as Pokhara, Kathmandu and even New York. Therefore, the vulnerability of the language is linked to the migration of people to places where Seke is not spoken, which has reduced the intergenerational transmission of the language. Furthermore, the younger generation does not find much use in learning the language, giving preference to Nepali and English.

Languages in danger?

UNESCO has six degrees of endangerment. These are:

1. Safe, which are the languages spoken by all generations and their intergenerational transmission is uninterrupted.
2. Vulnerable languages, which are spoken by most children but may be restricted to certain domains.
3. Definitely endangered languages, which are no longer being learnt by children as their mother tongue.
4. Severely endangered are languages spoken by grandparents and older generations, and while the parent generation may understand it, they may not speak it with the children or among themselves.
5. Critically endangered languages are those of which the youngest speakers are the grandparents or older family members who may speak the language partially or infrequently.
6. Extinct languages, of which no speakers are left.

Considering these definitions, Seke may be considered to be a definitely endangered language.

Fact for Prelims:

The last year, 2019, was the International Year of Indigenous Languages, mandated by the United Nations (UN).

As per UNESCO, roughly 57 per cent of the world’s estimated 6,000 languages are safe, about 10 per cent are vulnerable, 10.7 per cent are definitely endangered, about 9 per cent are severely endangered, 9.6 per cent are critically endangered and about 3.8 per cent of all languages are extinct since 1950.

As per the Endangered Languages Project (ELP), there are roughly 201 endangered languages in India and about 70 in Nepal.