<div dir="ltr"> ForwardedFrom: <b class="gmail_sendername">'K. Kalyanasundaram' <a href="mailto:kalyan.geo@yahoo.com">kalyan.geo@yahoo.com</a> [gbinfitt]</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:gbinfitt@yahoogroups.com">gbinfitt@yahoogroups.com</a>></span><br><div class="gmail_quote">Date: Sat, Jan 23, 2016 at 3:35 AM<br><br>Re: Minority languages of India<br>To: "<a href="mailto:gbinfitt@yahoogroups.com">gbinfitt@yahoogroups.com</a>" <<a href="mailto:gbinfitt@yahoogroups.com">gbinfitt@yahoogroups.com</a>><br><br><br><br>
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<p></p><div style="color:#000;background-color:#fff;font-family:HelveticaNeue,Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Arial,Lucida Grande,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><div><div><div style="color:#000;background-color:#fff;font-family:HelveticaNeue,Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Arial,Lucida Grande,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><div dir="ltr">Dear friends:</div><div dir="ltr"><br clear="none"></div><div><div dir="ltr"><span>There are many "minority" languages in use in India for decades The Indian</span></div></div><div><span>Constitution does recognize them by inclusion in the "non-scheduled" languages list.</span></div><div><div>There is a very nice article by Dr. Rajeswari Pandharipande of the University <br></div><div dir="ltr">of Illinois, Urbana, USA on "minority languages of India" worth careful study <br></div><div dir="ltr">by all of us: <br></div></div><div dir="ltr"><a rel="nofollow" shape="rect" href="http://www.unesco.org/most/vl4n2pandhari.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.unesco.org/most/vl4n2pandhari.pdf</a><br clear="none"><span></span></div><div><div><br></div><div>As per the official Govt of India Census reports, Tamilnadu has many</div></div><div dir="ltr">minority languages/dialects ((Merriam Dict: dialect is a regional variety of language <br clear="none">distinguished by features of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation from other <br clear="none">regional varieties and constituting together with them a single language).</div><div dir="ltr"><div>Article 29(1) of the Indian Constitution states: “Any section of the citizens <br></div><div>residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having a distinct language, <br></div><div>script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same.” This <br></div><div>clearly guarantees the right of minorities to conserve their cultural as well <br></div><div>as linguistic traditions. (Note the presence of the keyword "script")<br></div></div><div><br clear="none"></div><div>As much as in Tamil, there is a growing interest in every minority language</div><div dir="ltr"><span>group to preserve and propagate their cultural heritage through all means in</span></div><div dir="ltr"><span>the current computer/electronic/virtual era. For dialects that do not have a</span></div><div dir="ltr"><span>script of their own, traditional practice has been to "transliterate" using the</span></div><div dir="ltr"><div><span>script of some other language. Western scholars for centuries wrote texts</span></div></div><div dir="ltr"><div><span>of Dravidian languages including Tamil using such transliteration schemes.</span></div></div><div dir="ltr">Diacritical markers are routinely used to make up for any situation where <br></div><div dir="ltr">there is no direct one-to-one correspondance and to make up for any phonetic <br></div><div dir="ltr">deficiencies. I am not sure if such attempts of "communication" one is trying <br></div><div dir="ltr">to "pollute" the target language used in transliteration (as long as the text is <br></div><div dir="ltr">clearly marked as transliteration).<br></div><div><br></div><div>With regard to the recent proposal to Unicode for insertion of the diacritical</div><div dir="ltr">marker Nukta to accommodate Badaga language transliteration in Tamil,</div><div dir="ltr">Badaga is one of the minority language spoken by ca. 170,000 population</div><div dir="ltr">in Niligris/Ooty region of Tamilnadu. In the past, Badaga was written in the</div><div dir="ltr">transliterated form using Latin/Roman or Kannada script characters. In <br></div><div dir="ltr">recent years there have been attempts by one Anandhan Raju and Yogesh <br></div><div dir="ltr">Raj Kadasoley to design a new alphabet for Badaga. They have done this by</div><div dir="ltr">a combination of existing scripts and diacritical markers:<br></div><div dir="ltr">see <a href="http://badaga.co/language/badaga-script/" target="_blank">http://badaga.co/language/badaga-script/</a><br><a href="http://badaga-script.blogspot.ch/" target="_blank">http://badaga-script.blogspot.ch/ <br></a></div><div dir="ltr"><a href="http://badaga-script.blogspot.ch/" target="_blank"></a><br></div><div dir="ltr">Time has come for the Govt of Tamilnadu to constitute a "minority languages</div><div dir="ltr">IT Implementation Commission" that can go into various aspects of the <br></div><div dir="ltr">aspirations of the minority communities of Tamilnadu and how best</div><div dir="ltr">their interests be served to digitally preserve and propagate their language</div><div dir="ltr">content and heritage. IMHO, simply because a language does not have a</div><div dir="ltr">script of its own, it is not fair to condemn that user community to forgo and</div><div dir="ltr">forget about their language once and for all. Transliteration is the only choice</div><div dir="ltr">for them and who should decide on what that target language be?</div><div dir="ltr">Unicode after all, has the supplementary plane and user-defined area for <br></div><div dir="ltr">such needs. Tamil Virtual Academy, as the IT nodal agency of the Govt.</div><div dir="ltr">of Tamilnadu has to urgently address this basic needs/aspirations of <br></div><div dir="ltr">minority communities.<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Before someone screams "Tamil language traitors", I want to emphasise that</div><div dir="ltr">I have great love, affection and admiration for my mother tongue Tamil. <br></div><div dir="ltr">I share the same concern as others and do not want it to be polluted or</div><div dir="ltr">mutilated by insertion of exotic characters or diacritical markers. Tamil</div><div dir="ltr">language never used any diacritical markers and this situation should</div><div dir="ltr">remain for ever. A minority languages protection IT commission should</div><div dir="ltr">explore all possible options and make formal recommendations on how</div><div dir="ltr">these minority communicate should write down what they have been</div><div dir="ltr">talking and calling something as their "mother tongue". We all have our</div><div dir="ltr">mother and mother tongue comes with it. Financial or other situations</div><div dir="ltr">does not take away these fundamental notion of mother tongue ;-)</div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">I do have some very good friends here who speak Badaga (a couple from</div><div dir="ltr">Ooty) and Thuli (a couple from KGF region of Karnataka). They are highly <br></div><div dir="ltr">qualified IT professionals (one with Ph.D in computer science) and they <br></div><div dir="ltr">are anxious to preserve their cultural heritage too, very much like us.<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">anbudan</div><div dir="ltr">Kalyan<br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div dir="ltr"><br clear="none"><span></span></div><div dir="ltr"><span><br clear="none"></span></div><div><br clear="none"><br clear="none"></div></div></div></div><div> <div style="font-family:HelveticaNeue,Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Arial,Lucida Grande,sans-serif;font-size:13px"> <div style="font-family:HelveticaNeue,Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Arial,Lucida Grande,sans-serif;font-size:16px"> <div><br><br></div><div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2" face="Arial"> On Friday, January 22, 2016 10:27 PM, "'N. Ganesan' <a href="mailto:naa.ganesan@gmail.com" target="_blank">naa.ganesan@gmail.com</a> [gbinfitt]" <<a href="mailto:gbinfitt@yahoogroups.com" target="_blank">gbinfitt@yahoogroups.com</a>> wrote:<br clear="none"></font></div> <br clear="none"><br clear="none"> <div><div>
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<div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div>There is a proposal to add Tamil Nukta sign in BMP. I think diacritics like these have<br clear="none"></div>to be carefully evaluated and proposed. <br clear="none"><br clear="none"></div><div>Here is a document from members of INFITT,<br clear="none"><a rel="nofollow" shape="rect" href="http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2016/16030-response-to-tamil-nukda.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2016/16030-response-to-tamil-nukda.pdf</a><br clear="none"></div><div><br clear="none"></div>I think for now, until a comprehensive review by experts, linguists, we don't have to add<br clear="none"></div>any new diacritics. This nukta will interact with Tamil PuLLi.<br clear="none"><br clear="none"></div>N. Ganesan<br clear="none"></div>
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</div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<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" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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