A nation with only a few people who vaguely remember their mother tongue

Relocating from the Ban Ve hydroelectric reservoir area, the O Du people, also known as the Tay Hat ethnic group (meaning hungry and ragged) have settled in Vang Mon village (Nga My commune - Tuong Duong) since 2006. According to Party Secretary Lo Van Tinh, the whole village currently has 102 households with 426 people, of which the original O Du people only have about 200 people left.

Vang Mon Village, resettlement area of ​​the O Du people. Photo: Dao Tho

A reality shows that most of the O Du people today communicate with each other and with outsiders in Thai, Kinh... even though they have their own language.

Mr. Lo Van Tinh said: “The O Du people cannot marry people of the same family, so they have to look for people from other ethnic groups. Therefore, when speaking to each other, they do not use the O Du language but use other languages ​​because these languages ​​are more common.”

Because the number of O Du people is small, and those who still know their mother tongue can be counted on the fingers of one hand, this language is increasingly being lost. Of the more than 200 people of O Du origin today, almost none can speak their own language fluently.

Currently, only two O Du people, Lo Van Phuc and Lo Van Binh, can vaguely remember their mother tongue. Photo: Dinh Tuan

According to statistics from the Ethnic Affairs Department of Tuong Duong district, in the village where the O Du people live today, there are only very few people who can speak the O Du language. Since the first relocation here, there were about 10 old people who knew this language, but now there are only 2 old people, Lo Van Phuc and Lo Van Binh.

Mr. Lo Van Phuc and Mr. Lo Van Binh are both over 70 years old. Talking to us, Mr. Phuc said that he is the one who can speak the most O Du language, but he can only speak it vaguely. If the words are too difficult or he doesn't know them, he has to use Thai to "intersperse" them. In their free time, he and Mr. Lo Van Binh still sit and talk to each other in O Du, but they can only speak simple sentences in daily life.

For some people like Mr. Lo Van Tinh - Party Cell Secretary, it is understandable when others speak the O Du language, but we have to endure it. "What we are most worried about now is that our children are not interested in our ethnic language. If we tell them to learn it today, they will forget it tomorrow because when they go out, they use Thai, Kinh, etc. If anyone volunteers to learn the O Du language and then come back to teach it to others, we are willing to contribute money and rice to support them," said Mr. Lo Van Phuc.

O Du women grow cassava as animal feed. Photo: Dao Tho

Mr. Quang Van Dang - Head of the Ethnic Affairs Department of Tuong Duong district said: “The district has also had many policies to preserve the culture of the O Du people, including opening classes to teach the language. However, the O Du people do not have their own writing system, so when they learn some languages, they quickly forget them. What is even more difficult is that many O Du people are no longer interested in their ethnic culture. In the near future, there will also be a number of development programs for this ethnic community, but they will mainly focus on socio-economic development.”