Rising Voices » Meet Janak Raj Bhatta, the host of the @AsiaLangsOnline Twitter account for Aug 27

Photo provided by Janak Raj Bhatta

As part of a new social media campaign to celebrate linguistic diversity online throughout Asia, every week a different language activist and advocate will be taking turns managing the @AsiaLangsOnline ^[1] Twitter account to share their experiences with the revitalization and promotion of their native languages. This campaign is a collaboration between Rising Voices ^[2], the Digital Empowerment Foundation ^[3], and the O Foundation ^[4].

Each week, the upcoming host will answer several questions about their background and will give a brief overview of their language. This Q&A is with Janak Bhatta (@JRBhatta ^[5]) who will provide a sneak preview of what he will be discussing during his week as host.

Rising Voices: Please tell us about yourself.

I am Janak Raj Bhatta from Darchula Nepal (currently in Lalitpur, Nepal). I am contributing on Wikimedia projects. I have actively worked on Doteli Wikipedia, Nepali Wikipedia, Commons, Incubator projects etc.

RV: What is the current status of your language on the internet and offline?

About two years ago we established Doteli Wikipedia (dty.wikipedia.org ^[6]). Now, the Doteli wiktionary is in its incubation phase. We are trying to bring out this wiktionary from incubator. For use of Doteli language the discussions and seminars conducted by Language Commission of Nepal for the official use in province 7 (where Doteli language widely spoken). Besides this maintain language Profile, word collections, dictionary formation work going on.

RV: On what topics do you plan to focus during the week that you’ll manage the @AsiaLangsOnline Twitter account?

I would like to focus on following topics;

Current status of my language

Challenges and difficulties of my language

Select words and phrases in my language

Future of my language

Our cultures and traditions

About relevant historical places etc.

RV: What are the main motivations for your digital activism for your language? What are your hopes and dreams for your language?

“Every two weeks a language dies.” I saw a report with this statement and it touched me deeply. Therefore, I am here to contribute my knowledge for my mother tongue as well as preserving other marginal and endangered language. My hopes and dreams for my language are very positive. This language will be official language (discussion is going on) of province 7 (where Doteli language widely spoken). Hopefully, this will boost its status.