AASU Completes Digital Preservation of Three Endangered Assam Languages

The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), with the Nanda Talukdar Foundation, has completed the digital preservation of three nearly extinct indigenous languages—Khamyang, Tai Phake and Singpho—under the Digitising Assam initiative.

The eight-month Endangered Language Programme documented manuscripts, photographs and extensive audio records, all of which are now available in the public domain for free access. Khamyang, spoken fluently by only one person worldwide, received urgent documentation support.

The project digitised thousands of manuscript pages, hundreds of photographs and detailed audio recordings across the three languages to preserve pronunciation, usage and cultural context. Despite existing speaker populations, language use is rapidly declining among younger generations, highlighting the importance of the initiative.