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Figure 7. Dandagaun, Takukot-8
Kansakar et al.: A sociolinguistic study of the Baram language
In Mailung, we could find only nine speakers, all of whom were older than 60 years. 14 Of
these, only two speakers, an elderly couple, use Baram at home in daily communication. The remainder
do not use it because they are the only speakers in their households.
Dandagaun is the only place where the language is still spoken. 129 people identified themselves
as native speakers of Baram. It was reported that in some of the villages there are handfuls of
speakers who either married from the two villages or who learned the language from the villages
in various ways. 15
The research team carried out a detailed sociolinguistic study of Dandagaun village. For
this purpose, we visited and collected data from every household. There are four major toles in the
village: Gaira Tole, Mukhiya Tole, Danda Tole, and Pallogaun Tole. In total, 684 people live in
114 households; 357 are male and 327 are female. Of the total population only 18% (129 out of
684) identified themselves as speakers of the language. Of these, 39.53% (51 out of 129) are fluent
speakers (defined as those who use it in daily life, even if only in a limited number of domains),
34.10% (44 out of 129) are semi-speakers, and 26.35% (34 out of 129) are not really speakers but
have tacit knowledge of the language to a certain extent. All of the speakers are bilingual and elderly.
Most of the fluent speakers are above 60 years of age. The youngest fluent speaker we found is
14 As of the time of publication there are only 8 speakers; one has recently passed away.
15 We noted that if a person knew only a few words and sentences of Baram, people called him or her a Baram
speaker.
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