Varsity to help protect India`s endangered dialects

Kolkata: Linguists from across the nation will help in studying and preserving India`s endangered languages at the Viswa Bharati University (VBU) in West Bengal.

The varsity has been selected as the nodal research centre for endangered languages by the University Grants Commission, an official said. India occupies the top spot in UNESCO`s list of countries having maximum number of dialects at the thresh-hold of extinction. Moreover, as many as 42 dialects are on the critically endangered list and the total number of languages in danger is 197. Sabujkoli Sen, the VBU`s media interface committee`s chairperson said: "The centre will be functional in a month and a half and we will have research scholars contributing to the preservation and study of these languages". The varsity, located in the sylvan surroundings of Santiniketan, was founded by poet and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.