| Summary/Abstract |
The magnitude of the cultural diversity of the northeast almost defies imagination. Perhaps there is no comparable geographical area in the world which is home to cultural diversity of this magnitude. The linguistic diversity of the region is an inalienable part of this cultural diversity. Difficult as it is to individuate languages - (Is there one Bengali language or is there a cluster of fairly distinct languages individuated as a single language for a variety of reasons?) – there may be – on a fairly stringent count - close to two hundred languages spoken in the northeast. Many of these languages are on the UNESCO list of ‘endangered’ languages. Although, the number of languages may not quite coincide with the number of cultures, because a single culture can frequently embrace considerable linguistic variations, languages that are, in very large measure, independent of each other (e.g. Bhojpuri and Khasi), embody distinct cultures.
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