Manifestations of a Lingua-Franca

Hindrance to Folk, Oral Tradition and Cultural Memory of Kinnaura Tribe

Abstract

The tribal communities face the dichotomy of quest of phenomenal emancipation via integration to the outer world and conundrum of losing the oral traditions and cultural memory, and eventually the diminishing identity. The heterogeneous tribal community of Kinnauras living in high altitude area of Himachal Pradesh. The socio-ethno-linguistic profile amongst kinnauras found with remarkably diverse and multilingual dialects of the Tibeto-Burman family of languages. Kinnauras have profound roots in Indian intellectual and religio-cultural traditions and texts Bhagvatpurana, Bhavricopanishad, and Indian epics of Ramayana and Mahabhatrata. Kinnaur, or kanawaring, as in local dialect, district is inhabitant of the land is known as kanawara or kanawaras, mentioned in ancient literature as demi-gods or half-human-half God appearance of the inhabitants of the land.

Emergence of hindi as the lingua-franca have helped kinnauras integrated into urban India, finding jobs, education and better working opportunities, however the community found it challenging to transfer the tacit knowledge of folk and oral traditions, like; music and socio-linguistic profile of their forefathers to the next generation, one of the reasons emerges as the language homogeneity amongst the Kinnauras. Increasingly, community members converse in hindi and amalgamation of hindi words in songs and daily lives of kinnauras is the new normal.  The paper aims to examine the following:

1. An etic perspective of manifestations of the lingua-franca.
2. Quest of Emancipation-Ethno-linguistics analyses and folk knowledge of the kinnauras.