Atong
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Number of speakers and language vitality
The current, 2022 edition of Ethnolgue insdicates that the number of people speaking Atong, or its "user population" is 10,000. This total number is made up of the number of speakers in India (4,600), and the number of speakers in Bangladesh (5400 by calculation). Bangladesh is not mentioned here by Ethnologue, but since Bangladesh is the only other country where Atong is spoken, this can be inferred. Atong is currently classified as a mid-sized, endangered language, while its EGIDS level in its primary country (not specifically mentioned anythere but by inference this should be Bangladesh) is 6b, which means 'threatened'. It has been mentioned by Majewicz (2021:14), that the number of speakers as given by Ethnologue has not changed since 2009. Majewicz (idem) also refers to spkeaker statistics pubished by others about Atong, which suggest that the number of Atong speakers is less than 10,000. However, while the number of speakers provided by Ethnologue has remained the same of the years, the vitality status of the language has gotten worse over the years. It would be good to find out, if this is in any way possible, firstly, how many speakers of Atong there currently are in both India and Bangladesh; and secondly, what the level of language transmission to the next generation is, so that the vitality status of the language can be presented with more accuracy. Whoever might go out into the field to establish these numbers should be careful not to count as Atong speakers those people who identify as Atong but do not speak the language.
Reference
Majewicz, Alfred F. Seino van Breugel. 2021. Review: A dictionary of Atong, a Tibeto-Burman language of Northeast India and Bangladesh. Lingua Posnaniensis LXIII (1). 113-118.
We will change the hub (primary) country for Atong [aot] from India to Bangladesh, for inclusion in the next edition of the Ethnologue.
Atong is also spoken in Bangladesh
In its current, 2022 edition, Ethnologue gives India, specifically Meghalaya state: south Garo Hills district; possibly Assam state: south Kamrup district, as the location where Atong is spoken. At the same time, two numbers of speakers are indicated, viz. those in India and the total number of users in all countries. This prompts the question if Atong is also spoken outside of India. There is a number of publications that indicate that Atong is also spoken in Bangladesh, in areas adjacent to where Atong is spoken in Meghalaya State in India, e.g. Kim et al. (2012) and van Breugel (2014, 2019, 2022). It might be useful to cross-reference the web page of Ethnologue that lists the languages spoken in Bangladesh, where it is mentioned that Atong is spoken there. The URL of this web page is: https://www.ethnologue.com/country/bd/languages.
References
van Breugel, Seino. 2014. A grammar of Atong. Leiden, Boston: Brill.
van Breugel, Seino. 2019. Atong Texts: Glossed, translated and annotated narratives in a Tibeto-Burman language of Meghalaya, Northeast India. Leiden, Boston: Brill.
van Breugel, Seino. 2022. A dictionary of Atong: A Tibeto-Burman language of Northeast India and Bangladesh. Berlin, Boston: de Gruyter Mouton.
Kim, Amy; Seung Kim; Sayed Ahmad & Mridul Sangma. 2012. The Garos of Bangladesh: a sociolinguistic survey. SIL International.
No action taken.
Resources available on Atong
Ethnologue does link to the OLAC resources in and about Atong. However, there are also other rescources that I think are worth mentioning on the Atong (aot) web page.
References
Breugel, Seino van. 2021. A dictionary of Atong: A Tibeto-Burman language of Northeast India and Bangladesh. Berlin, Boston: de Gruyter Mouton.
Breugel, Seino van. 2019. Atong Texts: Glossed, translated and annotated narratives in a Tibeto-Burman language of Meghalaya, Northeast India. Leiden, Boston: Brill.
Breugel, Seino van. 2014. A grammar of Atong. Leiden, Boston: Brill.
Content Descriptions
Van Breugel 2021 is a dictionary of Atong as spoken in India, which provides a rigorous, well-illustrated and well-referenced lexical description of the language. It contains an Atong-English and English-Atong dictionary, as well as semantic lexica, grammatical lexica, which allow the reader quick access to lists of members of the various Atong word classes, collocations and idiomatic expressions. There is also a grammatical compendium, which makes this book self-contained. The Appendix of Photos provides visual illustrations to many of the Atong dictionary entries, and offers the reader a glance at the physical environment in which the language is spoken.
Van Breugel 2019 is a bundle of 37 glossed, translated and annotated narratives in Atong recirded during the author's fieldwork. Each text is preceded by a literary analysis. A photo appendix provides visual illustrations to the texts.
Van Breugel 2014 is a typologically informed reference grammar of Atong.
We will add another text collection in Development Status for Atong [aot] in India.
For a more accurate map of the Atong-speaking area
The map Ethnologue uses to indicate the area where Atong is spoken, URL: https://www.ethnologue.com/language/aot/map, is, I think, not entirely accurate. According to my own research, Atong is also spoken in the streaming area of he Symsang River (see van Breugel, 2014:1, 2019:1) within the South Garo Hills District, which more to the west of the aread indicated on Ethnologue's map. Atong roughly starts in the village of Nongal Bibra in the north of the district, and is spoken all the way down to Baghmara, roughly along the road between Williamnagar and Banghamara drawn in yellow on Ethnologue's map. Both within the Garo and Kahsi Hills, Atong-speaking villages occur side by side with villages speaking other languages (dialects of Garo, Lyngam etc.). It even occurs that villages are split between language communities. The village of Shallang (a.k.a. Cha'lang in Atong and Garo) in the West Kahsi Hills District for example, is spilt in two: the Lyngam speakers living on one side of the main road, and the Atong/Garo speakers living on the other side. Therefore, it is good to note that any map indicating the extent of the Atong-speaking area will necessarily cover places where other languages are (also) spoken. Maps of the Atong language area have been published in van Breugel (2014, 2019, 2020). These maps are not very precise about the situation in Bangladesh, given that the author did not do research on Atong in that country.
References
van Breugel, Seino. 2014. A grammar of Atong. Leiden, Boston: Brill.
van Breugel, Seino. 2019. Atong Texts: Glossed, translated and annotated narratives in a Tibeto-Burman language of Meghalaya, Northeast India. Leiden, Boston: Brill.
van Breugel, Seino. 2020a. New perspectives on Atong kinship terms. In: Q. Marak & Sarit K. Chaudhuri (eds.). The cultural heritage of Meghalaya. Oxford, New York: Routledge. 205-250.
We have sent this on to the cartographers for their consideration, and they have contacted Seino by email on June 29, 2022.