Toto Shabda Sangraha

Toto Shabda Sangraha

Subject :Geography

Section: Indian geo

Context: A language spoken by barely 1,600 people living in parts of West Bengal bordering Bhutan is to get a dictionary, thanks to the efforts of a professor at the University of Calcutta.

What is Toto language?

• Toto is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by the Toto tribal people, primarily in parts of West Bengal bordering Bhutan.
• Toto is traditionally a spoken language, and although a script was developed in 2015 by Dhaniram Toto, many Toto people still write in the Bengali script .

Endangered Status

 Toto is considered a critically endangered language by UNESCO, with an estimated 1,000 speakers or fewer. Despite this endangered status, many families within the Toto community still use the language at home. It is often the primary language children learn at home, although they use Bengali when attending school.

• Language Preservation Efforts: Researchers and members of the Toto community are aware of the endangered status of the language. The influence of other languages, particularly Nepali and Bengali, is increasing, posing a threat to Toto. Efforts are being made to document and preserve the language, including the Himalayan Languages Project’s work on creating the first grammatical sketch of Toto.