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A speaking tree — of languages </h1>
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January 18, 2018 16:09 IST
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<p>02bg- Dr G.N. Devy, Chairperson, PLSI
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<h2 class="gmail-intro">
Ganesh N. Devy provides insights into different dialects, his linguistic
survey and how his team wrote grammar for different visual-gestural
communications
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<p class="gmail-drop-caps"> Although Sahitya Akademi Awardee Dr. Ganesh N.
Devy’s interest is language, he clarifies that he is not a linguist. “I
am a literary critic and a cultural activist,” he says. Devy gave up his
job as Professor of English and began working with tribals, and his
friendship with Mahasweta Devi made him a committed crusader for tribal
causes. Devy was in Chennai to deliver the G.S. Srinivasan Memorial
Lecture at C.P.R. Foundation.</p><p>The culture, the rights of tribes
and their languages have been major concerns for Devy, who founded the
Adivasi Academy, in Tejgadh, and also the Bhasha centre. In 1996, he
came up with a magazine for tribal languages called ‘Dhol.’ Tribals
rallied round the magazine, although they could not read. A language not
having its own script is no big deal, says Devy. English, after all,
uses the Roman script, and Sanskrit has gone through several scripts. He
points out that Malayalam, Kannada, etc., were used to write Sanskrit
as Sanskrit.</p><p>Devy says Panini was the originator of the Indian
tradition of linguistic survey. “Panini studied different languages and
came up with a shared grammar for all of them. His work is a grammar of
grammars.” Panini standardised different varieties of Sanskrit that were
in vogue, and gave Sanskrit a theoretical construct. He adds that
Matanga’s Brihaddesi was a survey of Indian languages in their musical
aspect. In British times, there was Grierson’s Survey. In the 11th
Five-Year Plan — 2007 to 2012 — the Government of India allocated funds
for a new linguistic survey. But language often being a bone of
contention, the Government was afraid that the survey might trigger
linguistic dissensions in the country. So, it did not take off.</p><p>Devy
then decided that a linguistic survey did not have to depend on
government initiatives, but could be done by the people themselves. And
thus was born the PLSI — People’s Linguistic Survey of India — the
operative word being ‘people,’ because the entire effort was driven by
the voluntary spirit of people. Three thousand people were involved, and
they included labourers, shopkeepers, etc. A driver of a civil servant
used to note down words and their meanings in his interactions with
different people, just out of sheer interest. He and others like him
were roped in. The survey began in 2010 and the first compilation with
450 languages was ready in about 20 months.</p><h2><p>Tribal languages</p></h2><p>
In 2012, the Tata trust offered ₹80 lakhs for further work. Different
volumes were compiled for scheduled and unscheduled languages. For the
unscheduled languages, like tribal languages, details included history
of the language, its grammar, a song or story popular in that society,
proverbs, and words relating to nature. “Words relating to kinship are
many in some tribal languages,” says Devy. The Gonds, for example, have
seven words for different maternal aunts.</p><p>There are volumes for
different States too, which also have details about the scripts
prevailing in the state. In West Bengal, there are 11 scripts in all,
for languages like Nepali, Santali, Urdu, besides Bengali. Twenty
national volumes have also been brought out. One of them is about the
different sign languages used in different States. “We even wrote the
grammar for these sign languages,” says Devy. One volume was about
shared Indian languages. For instance, Karen, a language spoken in the
Andamans, is also spoken in Myanmar.</p><p>Three national volumes are
devoted to English, German, French, Portuguese, etc. Why did Dr. Devy
have to cover foreign languages? “Because there are people in India
whose mother tongues are foreign languages. In 1961, more than 100
foreign languages served as the mother tongue of Indians.”</p><p>One
volume is for Sanskrit and Hindi; one is about language census and
language policy, and there is also one on the future of Indian
languages. “In all, we have 92 books, 50 volumes, roughly 35,000 printed
pages. The raw manuscripts were placed at the spot where Gandhi was
assassinated, symbolically presenting the work to the nation.”</p><p>Can
Indian languages withstand the English onslaught? “My guess is that
maybe a hundred years from now, English will have a place as a scheduled
language, but Indian languages will have a way of negotiating with
English at par. Indian languages are catching up in the cyberspace.
Besides, no language can completely wipe out other languages. Every
language, including English, has a carrying power, beyond which it will
crack. There was a time when it seemed that Sanskrit would dominate the
other Prakrits. But the other Prakrits survived and Sanskrit is not
spoken.”</p><p>But Sanskrit survives in a different way. It may no
longer be spoken, but it lives on in many Indian languages, I point out.
“I agree. My great grandfather may be dead, but I carry his genes, and
so does Sanskrit continue to live. Which is why I say that you should
never try to learn Sanskrit. Just pick it up. If you know any Indian
language, it’s easy to pick up Sanskrit. You just have to get the knack
of splitting the Sanskrit words.”</p><p>Devy believes that Indians are
essentially multi-lingual. “In Europe, people are self-conscious when
they hear languages they can’t understand. But we don’t react that way.”</p><p>Devy
says that his image of India is like artist Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh’s
speaking tree. “In my tree, the minor tribal languages are the roots.
They are not visible, but nourish the tree. The majestic branches are
the scheduled languages. The sky is the English language, and the sky is
not going to fall on the tree.”</p><p><strong>Knew 14 languages</strong></p>Dr.
Devy delivered the G.S. Srinivasan memorial lecture at C.P.R.
foundation. Dancer Padma Subrahmanyam said that civil servant G.S.
Srinivasan was proficient in 14 languages, and books filled every inch
of space in his house. Srinivasan, a self-effacing scholar, was working
towards a Ph.D. in Sanskrit when he passed away<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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