<p>At the first international conference of the Linguistic Society of India, S N Sridhar, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor, State University of New York, USA, listed four threats of English over regional languages and mother tongues in the country, here on Wednesday.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Delivering the keynote address on ‘The World of a Multilingual: An Indian Perspective’ at the Central Institute of Indian Languages, he said that the extravagant and gratuitous borrowing of words from English caused words of a language to go out of use, affecting the original form of the language.<br /><br />Code-mixing - mixing of two or more languages in speech, with English ruins the purity, structure and aesthetics of the regional languages, he said. Apart from these he said that epistemic threat, which marginalises native modes of thinking and expression due to the use of a foreign language and existential threat, where an overwhelming influence of a language results in less number of speakers of a regional language, as perils faced by regional languages and mother tongues.<br /><br />Kannada’s hegemons<br /><br />In his address, he also spoke of two ‘hegemons’, Sanskrit and English respectively, that have had an influence on the regional language, Kannada. <br /><br />“According to scholars of the language, tens of thousands of words have come in, even into basic vocabulary, not only from Sanskrit, but also Prakrit, Marathi, Hindi and Urdu,” he said. This interaction of languages, enriched the technical as well as everyday vocabulary of the language and the Kannada Varnamale (syllabary) expanded to accommodate foreign syllables. This was then used creatively to coin thousands of neologisms not found in the original languages. However, such excesses have also affected the language, he said.<br /><br />One of the steps to reclaim ‘purity’ of Kannada would be to eliminate Sanskrit influence from its grammar, terminology etc. “Kannada needs Kannada’s own grammar,” he said.<br />Kitchen languages<br /><br />Speaking on the ‘hegemony’ of English, he said that urban children have brought English home to communicate with ‘intimate domains’ such as family and friends.<br /><br />“English is their dominant language. Many are either functionally illiterate and non-fluent in their mother tongues. As a result, there are fears that regional languages and mother tongues will be reduced to kitchen languages for use in bazaars and with servants,” he said.<br /><br />Due to this, advocates of the regional languages call for protectionist measures from the State, he said.<br /><br />Multi-lingualism<br /><br />‘Multilingualism is both the site and a constituent force where grand themes of the Indian civilizational narrative, such as diversity, pluralism and tolerance are played out,” he said.<br />Major movements of Indian or South Asian history have involved language. Language was important factors which had a say in historical events ranging from Aryan migration to growth of Buddhism and Jainism, from Muslim rule to Bhakti and Veerashaiva movements, from European colonisation to Independence movement, he said.</p>
<p>At the first international conference of the Linguistic Society of India, S N Sridhar, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor, State University of New York, USA, listed four threats of English over regional languages and mother tongues in the country, here on Wednesday.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Delivering the keynote address on ‘The World of a Multilingual: An Indian Perspective’ at the Central Institute of Indian Languages, he said that the extravagant and gratuitous borrowing of words from English caused words of a language to go out of use, affecting the original form of the language.<br /><br />Code-mixing - mixing of two or more languages in speech, with English ruins the purity, structure and aesthetics of the regional languages, he said. Apart from these he said that epistemic threat, which marginalises native modes of thinking and expression due to the use of a foreign language and existential threat, where an overwhelming influence of a language results in less number of speakers of a regional language, as perils faced by regional languages and mother tongues.<br /><br />Kannada’s hegemons<br /><br />In his address, he also spoke of two ‘hegemons’, Sanskrit and English respectively, that have had an influence on the regional language, Kannada. <br /><br />“According to scholars of the language, tens of thousands of words have come in, even into basic vocabulary, not only from Sanskrit, but also Prakrit, Marathi, Hindi and Urdu,” he said. This interaction of languages, enriched the technical as well as everyday vocabulary of the language and the Kannada Varnamale (syllabary) expanded to accommodate foreign syllables. This was then used creatively to coin thousands of neologisms not found in the original languages. However, such excesses have also affected the language, he said.<br /><br />One of the steps to reclaim ‘purity’ of Kannada would be to eliminate Sanskrit influence from its grammar, terminology etc. “Kannada needs Kannada’s own grammar,” he said.<br />Kitchen languages<br /><br />Speaking on the ‘hegemony’ of English, he said that urban children have brought English home to communicate with ‘intimate domains’ such as family and friends.<br /><br />“English is their dominant language. Many are either functionally illiterate and non-fluent in their mother tongues. As a result, there are fears that regional languages and mother tongues will be reduced to kitchen languages for use in bazaars and with servants,” he said.<br /><br />Due to this, advocates of the regional languages call for protectionist measures from the State, he said.<br /><br />Multi-lingualism<br /><br />‘Multilingualism is both the site and a constituent force where grand themes of the Indian civilizational narrative, such as diversity, pluralism and tolerance are played out,” he said.<br />Major movements of Indian or South Asian history have involved language. Language was important factors which had a say in historical events ranging from Aryan migration to growth of Buddhism and Jainism, from Muslim rule to Bhakti and Veerashaiva movements, from European colonisation to Independence movement, he said.</p>
