KOKBOROK
– ART & CULTURE
News: Kokborok, Tripura's language without
a script
What's
in the news?
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Old struggles centred on a script for
Tripura's tribal Kokborok language have resurfaced in a series of protests by
political parties, student organisations, and tribal cultural and literary
forums.
Kokborok:
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Tripura’s script debate centring on
Kokborok is several decades old.
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Kokborok was first recognised as an official state language of the Tripura
state in 1979.
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The language is spoken by many of
Tripura’s 19 tribal communities as their first language.
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Tripura has nearly 30 percent of its
37lakh population from the tribal communities.
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However, Kokborok does not have its own
script, and there has long been an argument over whether it should be written
in the Bengali or Roman script.
Commissions:
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Two
commissions were set up under former legislator Shyama Charan Tripura and
linguist Pabitra Sarkar.
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While the erstwhile Left Front government
publicly preferred Bengali script, the Roman script for Kokborok Choba claims
that two commissions have found Roman as the favoured script for the majority
of tribal people.