The Bugun language: Maintenance issues

One of the goals for researchers of an endangered language is to help the indigenous group to revive and maintain the language that is at risk of disappearing. Sange Phiang, a native Bugun, told me on my first field trip to the Bugun area in West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh that “our language will disappear very soon”. Sange, a middle school teacher, fears that in 25 years there will be no Bugun speakers. This fear is not unfounded.