Linguistic and Cultural Revival: The Role of FLI in Northern Pakistan

Abstract

The northernmost mountainous region of Pakistan is characterized by its linguistic and cultural diversity. The region hosts over 30 language communities, with populations varying from a few hundred individuals to several million. Most of the languages spoken by the communities belong to the Indo-Iranian branch, while others belong to the Tibeto-Burman and isolate linguistic groups. Until recently, the languages of many of these communities were under threat of extinction, primarily due to a lack of sufficient revitalization efforts and institutional support. The speakers were shifting to widely spoken languages.

Forum for Language Initiatives (FLI) was founded in 2002 to help language communities revitalize, maintain, and promote their mother tongues. FLI worked with language communities to develop orthographies, start MTB-MLE pilot projects, raise awareness about language rights, and advocate for the inclusion of these languages in school curricula. Furthermore, FLI contributed to resolving computational challenges related to languages. 

The situation in these language communities is much different now than it was in 2002. Many trainees of FLI are engaged in preserving and developing their native languages, leading to the transformation of many spoken languages into written form and the production of books. The speakers of the languages are now able to use their mother tongue in increasing domains like social media. Some have formed community-based organizations and established mother-tongue-based education programs. Two provincial governments have done legislation to include the languages of their constituency in the school curricula. Further, one province implemented the legislation by developing schools’ books up to grade-9 in four languages and started using books in classrooms. The language communities are holding cultural events like music and poetry sessions in their mother tongue.

Data for this paper has been collected through personal experience, focus group discussion, informal interviews, and literature review. This paper concludes that a comprehensive survey must be conducted for the linguistic and cultural revitalization initiative, in order to identify all community members who can contribute to the preservation of their native language. The strategic planning of an organization should consider the needs of community members. This paper serves as a case study for organizations aiming to revitalize endangered languages and cultures.