Tamil Nadu News

Toda Language conservation

August 17 , 2025 16 hrs 0 min 14 0

Kurtaz Vasamalli (66) is leading efforts to preserve Toda through oral tradition documentation and literacy promotion.
The Toda language is a proto–South Dravidian language with no native script and is spoken by a few thousand people in the Nilgiri hills.
A Toda primer using Tamil script was developed in collaboration with the Scheme for Protection and Preservation of Endangered Languages (SPPEL).
The SPPEL is run by the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) under the Ministry of Education to document endangered Indian languages.
CIIL uses audio-video tools and linguistic software to create digital archives and dictionaries for languages like Toda.
The Sanchika website hosts Toda language samples and audio files for public access.