<div dir="ltr"><span style class=""><h1>Tamil Nadu: where the masses set the norm</h1></span><span style="margin-top:5px;display:block" class=""><span style="display:inline-block;vertical-align:middle"><a class="" rel="author" href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toireporter/author-Kamini-Mathai.cms">Kamini Mathai</a>,TNN
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Aug 27, 2014, 06.41 AM IST</span></span><div class=""><div id="commentWrapper" class=""><div class="" id="sharebar"><div class="" id="storydiv"><div class=""><div class=""><span style="vertical-align:bottom;width:49px;height:86px"></span></div>
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<br><div style="border-bottom:1px solid black;padding-bottom:5px" class="" id="inc_dec"><div id="artext1" class=""><div class=""> <span>Word
is that Tamil is a language like no other. And researchers at the
People's Linguistic Survey of India have several reasons to offer. Their
decadelong research presented in a book on the languages of Tamil Nadu
-which will be released next month -shows that linguistically, the state
is a "unique cultural zone."</span><br> "In Tamil Nadu, it is the
`Tamil' of the working classes that is predominant, unlike most other
parts of the country and the world where it is the language habits of
the so-called upper classes of society that have become the norm," says
GN Devy, chairperson of PLSI. "This reflects on the inclusiveness of the
language and is possibly why Tamil will continue to grow," he says,
adding that the book documents 28 living languages in the state. <br><br>
But linguist V Gnanasundaram, who co-edited the book along with
linguistics professor K Rangan, adds a dampener. He says that their
evaluation also shows that Tamil is flourishing at only the lower levels
of administration, judiciary and education, but as one goes higher up
the pyramid, the language appears to lose out to English. "Both at the
district and the taluk levels, all the official records are maintained
in Tamil. But at the secretariat level, around 40% of the official
correspondence is in English," says Gnanasundaram. "All the
correspondence addressed to courts other than the village courts, are in
English. Statutory instruments such as notifications, orders and rules
are published in Tamil along with English translations. Recruitment
rules are also mostly in English," he adds. <br><br> Their book also
states that at the "offices subordinate to the secretariat, 95% of the
noting and drafting are done only in Tamil while at the secretariat
level this percentage drops to less than 40 and whenever an apt Tamil
word is not found, a relevant English word is used". <br><br>
"Linguistics has a socio-cultural aspect to it," says Gnansundaram.
"After Independence, states were re-organised based on languages, so
principles of democracy can reach the common man. English was looked at
as the language of colonization and the government wanted everything to
be in a language known to the people of the state," he says. But the
experience in Tamil Nadu shows that the intent of linguistic states may
not have been realized. <br><br> Rangan adds that this can have one of
three sociological explanations. It could be that there is a greater
number of non-natives in the administration, or administrators are
trained to use English and not the concerned local languages.Yet another
reason could be that in terms of attitude, English is still looked at
as the language of the elite or the empowered. <br><br> As a result,
more parents want to switch their children to Englishmedium schools,
which can ham per the growth of the language, says Rangan. But he
believes that judgments like the recent Madras high court one directing
all lower court verdicts and orders to be written in Tamil are ways to
help the language grow. <br><br> On the bright side, the research also
shows that many Tamils have a double linguistic identity, which is found
only in two other areas in India -Orissa and the north-east.Popular
non-indigenous languages are English, Urdu and Telugu. <br><br> Their
language equips Tamils to be in tune with the 21st century, PLSI
researchers say. They say that the Tamil linguistic structure encourages
scientific thinking, unlike other languages like Persian that are prone
to hyperbole."The Tamil language tunes the speaker to stay close to
fact. It is not as metaphoric as Persian or Urdu," says Devy .<br><br><a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Tamil-Nadu-where-the-masses-set-the-norm/articleshow/40967361.cms?intenttarget=no&utm_source=TOI_AShow_OBWidget&utm_medium=Int_Ref&utm_campaign=TOI_AShow">http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Tamil-Nadu-where-the-masses-set-the-norm/articleshow/40967361.cms?intenttarget=no&utm_source=TOI_AShow_OBWidget&utm_medium=Int_Ref&utm_campaign=TOI_AShow</a><br>
</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><span style="float:left" name="advenueINTEXT" id="advenueINTEXT"></span><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br>
Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br>
<br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------
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