TOTO LANGUAGE

 

Latest Context

• Toto Shabda Sangraha, a trilingual dictionary that combines Toto, Bengali, and English language, will be made available in Kolkata on October 7, 2023, in an effort to support the preservation of the Toto language.
• The Toto language, which is only used by 1,600 people in West Bengal, is in danger of being extinct.

What is the Toto Language?

• The Toto tribal people speak the Sino-Tibetan language in regions of West Bengal that border Bhutan.
• It is classified as a language that is gravely in danger of extinction by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
• Although famous community member Dhaniram Toto, was awarded the Padma Shri in 2015.
• Toto is largely spoken orally.

About Toto People

• The Toto are a primitive and secluded tribal people that are restricted to the little village of Totopara in the Indian state of West Bengal's Jalpaiguri.
• According to the 2001 census, there were fewer Totos overall than in 2000, and they all resided in Totopara.
• People classified as mongoloid include the Totos.
• They often marry within their own tribe and are endogamous.
• The Toto family is patrilocal in nature and predominately of the nuclear type (a social system in which a married couple resides with the husband's parents). Joint families are common, though. Although polygamy is not forbidden, among the Toto, monogamy is the most common type of marriage. The Totos don't practise divorce as a tradition.

 

Q. With reference to India, the terms ‘HaIbi, Ho and Kui’ pertain to (UPSC-2021)

(a) dance forms of Northwest India

(b) musical instruments

(c) pre-historic cave paintings

(d) tribal languages

Ans: (d)

 

 

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