Patna: Climate change is not only wreaking havoc on lives, livelihoods and landscapes but also quietly erasing voices. Across Bihar, several indigenous languages are teetering on the edge of extinction and at the heart of this linguistic crisis lies an environmental one. As floods, droughts and shifting weather patterns force people to abandon ancestral lands, they are also leaving behind the words, songs and stories that once defined them.A recent study by Devina Krishna, a teacher at Patna Women’s College, laid bare this unsettling reality. Her research, titled ‘An Analysis of Vulnerable Languages of Bihar from an Ecological Linguistic Perspective’, appeared in the international journal ‘Jurnal Gramatika’. It explored how climate change and environmental degradation have become unlikely but potent agents in the loss of language in Bihar.“Environmental disasters have forced people to migrate, disrupting not only their ways of life but their ways of speaking. Language does not survive in isolation, it needs a habitat, a culture, a daily life. When these vanish, so too does the language,” the study found.India is home to some 197 endangered languages and Bihar’s own linguistic diversity is increasingly under threat. The study highlighted the precarious state of tongues such as Angika, Bajjika, Surjapuri and Tharu. These are not just dialects but repositories of regional identity, history and traditional knowledge.North Bihar, where nearly 76% of the population lives under the recurring shadow of floods, has become a hotspot of this quiet extinction. Entire communities have been displaced by rising waters and ruined harvests. As villagers migrate to urban areas in search of stability, their children grow up speaking Hindi or English, languages better suited to schools, jobs and city life, while Angika and Bajjika slip into silence.“Climate extremes are not only affecting crops and cattle. They are also uprooting languages, fragmenting communities and eroding a sense of belonging,” the study said.The Tharu-speaking people, traditionally rooted in close harmony with the forest and land, are now grappling with unpredictable rainfall and rising temperatures. These climatic shifts have reduced crop yields, adding economic strain and undermining the very lifestyle that sustains their language and culture.Further east, in Kishanganj, the heartland of Surjapuri, heatwaves, deforestation and erratic weather patterns are wreaking similar damage. “We are losing more than words. We are losing worldviews, oral traditions and indigenous wisdom,” Krishna’s study found.The study underlined how language loss goes hand in hand with the disappearance of traditional knowledge. Folk songs, once a part of village life, have grown faint. In Angika, words like ‘chiriya’ (bird) and ‘gacch’ (tree) are used less and less as the very birds and trees they refer to become rarer under changing climate conditions.“Language is intimately tied to ecology. As our environment changes, our vocabulary for it shrinks. And with that, entire cultures dim,” the study said. In Bihar, where the climate crisis meets cultural erosion, the disappearance of these languages serves as a stark reminder: when the land suffers, so too does the language that grows from it.Patna: Climate change has not only impacted the lives of human beings but has also contributed to the decline and extinction of several of their indigenous languages. Several indigenous languages of Bihar are either on the verge of extinction or have become ‘endangered’ principally due to climate change.According to a study conducted by Devina Krishna, a teacher at Patna Women’s College, climate change and environmental degradation have led to language loss in various parts of the state over the years. The study entitled ‘An analysis of vulnerable languages of Bihar from ecological linguistic perspective’ has been published in a recent issue of an international journal ‘Jurnal Gramatika’.The study indicates that some 197 languages are in various stages of endangerment in our country. In Bihar, a number of languages, including Angika, Bajjika, Surajpuri, and Tharu, are facing various levels of endangerment. As the state is plagued by recurrent calamities like floods, droughts, cyclones, lightning strikes and earthquakes, its linguistic fabric grapples with formidable challenges. These environmental adversities not only imperil human lives but also jeopardize the survival of indigenous languages.With 76% of the population of North Bihar living under the recurring threat of floods, including loss of human lives, livestock and assets worth crores of rupees, the state has been witnessing the disappearance of languages like Angika and Bajjika which are spoken by the affected communities, creating a linguistic ecological crisis.Frequent flooding and erratic rainfall patterns affect agriculture, human health and the environment. These factors have been affecting local farmers who are migrating to urban areas. The young generation of Angika and Bajjika have moved to places out of their native regions and they prefer to speak Hindi and English instead of their native languages. Most of them are moving out of their belts due to extremes of climatic conditions.In addition to Bajjika and Angika, languages like Tharu and Surjapuri are also facing extinction. Tharu-speaking communities are vulnerable to climate change with increased temperatures and altered precipitation patterns. Climate change has reduced crop yields leading to economic pressures and their ability to maintain traditional practices and language. Kishanganj, the chief Surjapuri-speaking belt experiences alternations in rainfall patterns, increased heat waves and deforestation.The study further points out that with the loss of language, traditional knowledge is also lost. The essence of folk songs has been completely lost due to the disappearance of indigenous languages. Words like ‘chiriya’ (bird) and ‘gacch’ (tree) in Angika are less commonly used as climate change is contributing to the loss of environmental vocabulary, it adds.