Kanashi Speech Community: An Ethno-Linguistic Profile^*

Kanashi is a language spoken in the Malana village of Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh. The language has no written form and the use of the language is restricted in the home and in the village domains. According to archive http://ethnologue.com the speaker strength of Kanashi is 1,400. Kanashi has been referred by UNESCO as ‘definitely’ endangered. The article examines the nature and extent of endangerment of the Kanashi language and studies the ethno-linguistic vitality of the speech community. The parameters of examining the ethno-linguistic vitality have been taken into consideration in order to observe the vitality status of the Kanashi language objectively. The data of the present article is based on field investigation carried out in the Malana village of Kullu district. Malana valley is connected by Rashol, a mountain pass via Nagar, Parbati valley and Chanderkhani pass. Approximately it requires a three to four hours trek to reach Malana via the dam over Parbati river. The height of the Malana village is approximately 10,000 ft above sea level. The existing views of the history of the speech community and the language have been dealt with importance. Taking cue from the factors to determine ethno-linguistic vitality proposed by UNESCO (2002-2003) and by Landweer (2008), a revised set of parameters has been considered for examining the vitality status of Kanashi. The significance of the study lies in throwing light to a lesser-known language, highlighting the ne ed for revitalization for an endangered Tibeto-Burman language of the north-western part of the Himalayas.