India: Khasi Withdrawn from UNESCO'S Endangered Language List

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SHILLONG (NNN-Bernama) -- The Khasi language of Meghalaya has been withdrawn from UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger as it is now considered "safe".

The language -- spoken by some 900,000 people in the state -- is no longer in danger, UNESCO declared on its website Friday, Press Trust of India reported.

The language, of the Mon-Khmer linguistic branch, had it status reassessed by the Atlas editorial board, which concluded that Khasi may be classified as "safe" on UNESCO's scale of language vitality.

Khasi is spoken in the Khasi and Jaintia hills and is also known as Khasia, Khassee, Cossyah or Kyi.

Recognised as the "associate official language" in Meghalaya since 2005, Khasi is widely used in several domains such as primary and secondary education, radio, television and religion, the UNESCO official website said.

Admitting that "some dialects" of Khasi are "dying" as they make way for the standardised variant, the editorial board said it was pleased to acknowledge that "the future of this language seems to be assured."

The Interactive Atlas has an online version since 2009 and is regularly updated based on feedback from linguists and speakers of endangered languages.

To date, the Atlas lists 2473 languages in danger from around the world.

It is classified in five degrees of vitality -- vulnerable, definitely endangered, severely endangered, critically endangered, and extinct. -- NNN-BERNAMA