PESHAWAR: Different organisations have planned to organise various events on Thursday (today) to celebrate International Mother Language in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

According to experts, Pakistan is home to around different 70 languages and out of them about 30 are spoken in the northern part of the country. Unfortunately, Badeshi, a language in Swat, died in 2015 but another language Mankiali in Mansehra was discovered with around 455 to 500 speakers in 2018. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa enjoys rich linguistic diversity compared to rest of the country.

The Forum for Language Initiative (FLI), a body found in 2003, has revived several local languages by evolving their scripts, compilation of oral literature and producing books for schoolchildren.

In its recently released report, FLI has claimed to have evolved orthography of Ormuri language spoken in Kaniguram, South Waziristan tribal district.

The report said that it was the ancestral language of Burki tribe. Due to the current conflict in the area, the whole population of the group has migrated to different parts of the country. The total number of Ormuri speakers is around 60, 000.

“FLI’s advocacy team visited Batera village in Bisham in April 2018 and met with community people to explore about the Bateri language. Some 20,000 people live in this area and most of them speak the Bateri language but they cannot read or write in their language, Efforts are under way to revive it,” the report stated.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2019