Record and protect an endangered Tibeto-Burman language
Pahari Language Documentation
A community-driven initiative to document, transcribe, and teach the Pahari language — a Tibeto-Burman tongue spoken across Nepal's mid-hills that is rapidly losing ground to Nepali. Field teams record elder speakers, build audio glossaries, and produce school primers so children encounter their mother tongue in the classroom for the first time.
Program Overview
Pahari Language Documentation is delivered by the Nepal Pahari Development Association through field work, community gatherings and training. Community members work directly with elders, craftspeople and researchers — hands-on from the very beginning.
The programme runs across Pahari settlements in Lalitpur and the mid-hills, records what the elders carry, and builds the next generation of custodians who will keep the language and traditions speaking.
What the programme involves
Focus Area
Language & Linguistics
Approach
Community-led, field-based
Where
Kathmandu Valley & mid-hills