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Myoko, 2011: A Photo Gallery

By Cho | Published: March 28, 2011

Here are the random shots that I took during Myoko, 2011. I’m inserting the photo’s as gallery below without any caption. Do put in your captions for each photo in the comments for each photo.

All Photographs copyrighted to the author.

Posted in Apatani Society, Cho's Take, Photography, Through the lens of my Camera | 6 Comments

Nyokum Celebration

By GTallo | Published: February 27, 2011

Come February 26, 2011, Nyokum festival was celebrated across the state by Nyishi community in a big way. This reporter had set his focus on Mega Nyokum Celebration at Yazali and that of a village level Nyokum celebration at Talo village. They were contrasting yet impressive in their own different ways.

At Yazali the Nyokum celebration was indeed a mega event. The hon’ble MLA of the area Mr. Likha Saaya was involved body and soul in making it big. Tagged as hi-fi Saaya, he ensured that the event was hi-fi, be it the list of VVIPs attended in the event to the arrangement of Bollywood singers and actors to entertain public. The celebration site was delight to watch- long Nyishi house having a hearth each for all Anchal segments of Ziro-II area in a single roof, beautifully constructed food stalls and exhibition stalls and a grand stage. It appeared like beautifully conceived amusement park. He sent a clear message to the world that he is youthful leader with new ideas and lot of energy. The event was costly but it worth when one intends to showcase culture and tradition of a community.

At Talo, the celebration was simple and participation was complete. Here also youth energy was palpable. This reporter was told that during late1990s and early 2000, the Nyokum was not celebrated in the village for some years. Reason: about 90% of the population in the village got converted to Christianity. In year 2008 a group of young people just out from college did the soul searching on their root. They felt the necessity of celebration of Nyokum to get reconnected to their root. They formed a team, the Briyani Team, and started campaigning for the celebration of Nyokum and delinking religion from indigenous culture. Thanks to the effort of the Briyani Team, Nyokum celebration was reinstated in the village and has never looked back ever since.

Posted in G. Tallo's Take, Nyishi | 3 Comments

Popi Sarmin Society Website Launched

By AG | Published: January 24, 2011

Did we tell you that Arunachal Diary has a subsidiary called AG Design that looks after the design needs of Arunachal Diary? Of late, this design house has been taking assignments from the clients (NGO’s etc., based in Arunachal Pradesh) approaching AG Design for their design requirements right from print media to logo design to website design, development and hosting.

And it was quite a hectic week for team AG Design as it was giving final touches to the official site of Popi Sarmin Society before handing it over to the society for it’s official launch yesterday.

The Popi Sarmin Society’s official site was launched by Chief Guest Padi Richo, Hon’ble MLA and Parliamentary Secretary for Land Management & Labour and Employment in a special function held at Hotel Arun Subansiri, Itanagar yesterday.

Below are some of the photos of the event mailed by Popi Sarmin Society.

Posted in Apatani Society, website | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Quintessential of Apatani Phonetics

By AG | Published: January 21, 2011

-Dr. Hano Hailang, Freelancer

According to UN’s cultural agency UNESCO’s Atlas of the World Languages in Danger 2009, all the languages of Arunachal Pradesh are endangered of which Apatani language is obviously one of them. Apatani is listed as ‘vulnerable’ in degree of transmission as per the factor of Intergenerational Language Transmission.

Nending Ommo

Nending Ommo

Understanding the gravity of this situation, Nending Ommo is publishing a book on the sound systems of Apatani language titled “Quintessential of Apatani Phonetics” this Dree 2011. According to him, cultural change or dynamism and language assimilations and endangerment at this age of modernisation are inevitable. But the least as a sentient Linguist and a responsible Apatani, he feels he can contribute to the society is to document this endangered language. He opines that language is the epicentre of any culture and he hopes to bestow something meaningful to the logic of the axiom ‘Loss of Culture, Loss of identity’ in Apatani community context.

Ommo indubitably feels the need to preserve and save Apatani language and Apatani culture as the culture is as vulnerable as the language. The pressing need of the hour he feels is to document Apatani language, as preserving or saving language and culture are steps beyond initial documentation. If one’s language is lost it would be irreparable loss of cultural heritage as language is the source of the speakers’ identity and reflects a unique worldview and culture complex, mirroring the manner in which a speech community has resolved its problems in dealing with the world and has formulated its thinking, its system of philosophy and understanding of the world around it.

The proposed book “Quintessential of Apatani Phonetics” is an extended work of Ommo’s MA dissertation thesis titled “Phonology of Apatani” which was submitted under the guidance of Dr. Sonal Kulkarni- Joshi to Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute, Pune; the third oldest educational Institute of India. More meticulous field trips, solemn research works, exhaustive acoustic phonetic analysis and minute cross checking has been supplemented to his thesis. This book would be the first of the series; he plans to publish more books on Apatani language. Books on morphology and then syntax of Apatani language are in offing next in near future.

Mr. Nending Ommo, basically a Linguist, is working as Assistant Professor in English Department at Rang-Frah Government College, Changlang. Apart from his MA (English) and MPhil (English), he has his second MA in Linguistics. Previously, for two years he worked as Field Investigator on the project “Sociolinguistics study of Apatani as an endangered language” under North Eastern Language Development (NELD) at Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysore, Ministry of Human Resource, Government of India.

Posted in Apatani Society, Arunachal Pradesh | 7 Comments