Legendary Bangladeshi singer Runa Laila has expressed deep emotion after learning that one of her songs inspired the creation of a written alphabet for an endangered indigenous language in India.

The celebrated artiste said she felt honoured that a lyric from her decades-old song “Tumi Ami Likhi Praner Bornomala” could play a role in preserving the identity of an indigenous community.

Her reaction came after it emerged that Dhoniram Toto, a member of the Toto community in India’s West Bengal, drew inspiration from the song while developing a script for the community’s endangered language.

The Toto community, one of India’s smallest and oldest indigenous groups, lives in Totopara village near the Bhutan border in Alipurduar district. For generations, their language existed only in spoken form and had no written alphabet, putting it at risk of gradually disappearing.

According to Dhoniram Toto, the idea to create a script began after he heard the lyric “bornomala” (alphabet) in Runa Laila’s song on the radio nearly four decades ago. The line made him wonder why the Toto language did not have its own alphabet like other languages.

Motivated by that thought, he spent years researching and eventually developed a script now known as “Toto-Horof” or the “Totviko Alphabet”.

His contribution to preserving the community’s linguistic heritage later earned him the Padma Shri, one of India’s highest civilian honours.

Another Toto community member, Bhakta Toto, has also worked to document the language using the Bangla alphabet as part of efforts to preserve the community’s cultural identity.

For Runa Laila, the story has been a powerful reminder of music’s unexpected influence.

“To know that a song can inspire people beyond entertainment and contribute to something so culturally important is incredibly humbling,” she said.