A collaborative documentation of Saihriem
Hlingi talks about the critically endangered Saihriem dance, last performed in the late 1990s, all while going about her daily chores. Photo by Faka Aimol 2018. Click on image to access collection.
| Language | Saihriem |
| Depositor | Anujeema Saikia, Sahiinii L. Veikho |
| Affiliation | Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi |
| Location | India |
| Collection ID | 0803 |
| Grant ID | MDP1024 |
| Funding Body | ELDP |
| Collection Status | Collection online |
| Landing Page Handle | http://hdl.handle.net/2196/9f205c1e-b3d3-41e8-8548-42b9c87f04ed |
Summary of the collection
The deposit is a result of documentation of Saihriem, an endangered South-Central Trans-Himalayan language spoken by 600-700 people in Assam’s Cachar district. It aims to produce extensive audio-visual recordings covering various genres of language use and cultural practices. The project will create a multilingual lexical database and compile a sociolinguistic profile. Emphasizing collaborative documentation, capacity building and community involvement, the work will contribute to understanding Saihriem’s unique features and its position within South-Central languages, while addressing the ongoing language shift and erosion of traditional cultural elements.
Group represented
The Saihriem-speaking community comprises a diverse mixture of clans from both Saihriem proper and other South-Central Tibeto-Burman language groups. These include speakers from Aimol, Hrangkhol, Vaiphei, and Thadou communities. The group’s history involves migration into the Barak Valley of Assam from Manipur in the 20th century, with oral accounts suggesting different origin stories. Some consider the village of Saihriemkho as the epicenter of later Saihriem outmigration, while others view Balisor as the meeting point for Saihriem speakers.The community underwent significant cultural changes with their conversion to Christianity in 1984. The Saihriem speakers are spread across seven villages in the Barak Valley. Their unique migration history and the intermixing of various Tibeto-Burman clans have led to a complex linguistic and cultural landscape, which this project documents.
Language information
Saihriem, a South-Central Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Assam’s Barak Valley, is pivotal for understanding the prehistory of the Eastern Himalayas and the broader Trans-Himalayan language family. Despite its significance, Saihriem remains critically under-documented, with scarce comprehensive records of South-Central languages from the Barak Valley available. This project aims to provide the first thorough documentation of Saihriem, generating a substantial corpus covering various genres. It will explore the language’s migration history, grammar, lexicon, and discourse patterns, while also examining the sociolinguistic factors affecting its use and transmission.
Acknowledgement and citation
To refer to any data from the collection, please cite as follows:
Saiki, Anujeema, and Sahiinii Lemaina Veikho. 2024. A collaborative documentation of Saihriem. Endangered Languages Archive. Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/2196/4add98c3-a4d9-4679-a162-1d32d446cee9. Accessed on [insert date here].
