Badeshi: Only three men speak this language in the world
What's the story
Have you ever head of Badeshi? A language once popular in remote snow-clad mountain hamlets of Northern Pakistan, it has only three speakers left in the world now, reports the BBC. Though widely considered extinct now, BBC found three old men in Pakistan's Bishigram Valley who can still speak in Badeshi. Read on for more.
Context
It was once widely spoken in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province
According to Ethnologue, an authoritative resource on world languages, Badeshi has had no active known speakers for three generations now. Classifying it as a dormant language with no written script, Ethnologue claims it was once widely spoken in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province but died out over the years as locals started to prefer more dominant regional languages such as Torwali and Pashto.
Reasons
What killed Badeshi?
Gul, Rahim Gul and Ali Sher - the only three men who can still speak Badeshi - say it was popular until a generation ago. Then locals started marrying women of other villages, who spoke Torwali. Their children learned from them. Moreover, several local men speak in Pashto, which they picked up from Swat District, where they go for work, thus abandoning Badeshi altogether.
No hope
Too late for action
The three men fear that Badeshi would die with them. Not having many to speak it with, they too have started to forget it. They regret not teaching their children Badeshi while raising them. Today, the youths in the valley either speak Torwali or Pashto. None of them know Badeshi. In fact, over the years a stigma has developed against speaking it.
In memoriam
You too can learn a bit of Badeshi
It might be too late to save Badeshi now, but here are a few phrases of the dying language, as provided by the BBC, which you can learn to keep its memory alive. *Meen naao Rahim Gul thi: My name is Rahim Gul *Meen Badeshi jibe aasa: I speak Badeshi *Theen haal khale thi: How do you do? *May grot khekti: I have eaten