Karnataka - Mother tongues thrive even in multi-cultural societies

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Date:20/02/2008 URL:
http://www.thehindu.com/2008/02/20/stories/2008022060490300.htm
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Karnataka - Bangalore

Mother tongues thrive even in multi-cultural societies

Deepa Kurup

Unlike in U.S. where 211 languages recorded in 1960 have dwindled to about
six, here we face no threat to our languages In India, there are 1,576
mother tongue languages Language is constantly evolving to a different
context and space

BANGALORE: Ravi, a local grocery shop owner in Shantinagar, speaks seven
languages and understands nine. He tends to exaggerate as he proudly
states that he has worked all over the country. Further probing reveals
that his multilingualism works well in his line of work. It helps to know
English and Hindi, but nothing gets a person comfortable like a sentence
or two in his mother tongue, he says. Anyone who has visited his shop
knows that he is constantly trying to guess where you are from, so that he
can tailor his sales pitch to buy that bag of chips you dont really want.

Today, the concept of mother tongue is a difficult one to grapple with.
Often confused with local language in an increasingly multicultural
society, with mixed marriages and modernisation, there is constant
breast-beating about how languages may die out and move from the
functional space to a strictly domestic domain. However, linguists say
that is hardly the case.

Unfounded fears


In India, there are 1,576 mother tongue languages with separate
grammatical structures and syntax and 1,796 languages classified as other
mother tongues, according to the 1901 census. Most of these languages are
still very much there. We are not a civilisation which is about to start a
linguistic genocide, says Udai Narayan Singh, Director of Central
Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore. English is not the real devil. It
can be a language of commerce, trade, law and a lot more but it has its
own space, he explains, as he points to the various regional channels
mushrooming in the visual media. Back in the 1950s, Russian was the
language of biology; most of chemistry was in French and engineering in
German, all of which have now moved into the English domain. However, this
does not mean that these languages have faced a setback of any sort.

A 2007 survey by the National Geographic said that half of the worlds
7,000 languages are expected to disappear before the end of this century;
every 14 days a language dies. So what is it that is lost when a language
fades to oblivion? From music and riddles to medicine and therapy, a large
portion of traditional know-how  passed on orally through different
aspects of language and structure  will be lost in translation.

Language is also constantly evolving to a different context and space. In
Kannada also there is so much knowledge in scriptures about alternative
medicine, herbs and the like. Now if the next generation does not study or
document this, the level of expertise needed to read and interpret will
not be available, says Prof. Singh. That is the real crisis, he points
out. Unlike in the West where in the U.S. alone 211 languages recorded in
1960 have already dwindled down to about six, here we face no threat to
most of our languages.

Census


Though there have been several censuses conducted officially, the
Government only releases records of languages spoken by a minimum of
10,000 people. Though we have wanted to study languages and document
these, these details about endangered languages are not shared with us
citing security reasons, says Prof. Singh. One of the problems maybe that
several of these are spoken in border areas, however, the CIIL has made a
request to the Government to make these details available.

On the one hand are languages like Andamanese where the population of the
community may have marginally increased but due to diversification the
number of speakers is on the decline. On the other, there are languages
like Gehri and Tinani from Himachal Pradesh which find no mention in the
Census but carry on undocumented and unaided, in all their richness in
vocabulary and construction.

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http://www.hindu.com/2008/02/20/stories/2008022060490300.htm