CIIL to document these languages; Dictionaries to be brought out and ethnic knowledge system to be recorded.
Mysore :
Anthropological Survey of India (ASI) in collaboration with Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) has organised a two-day workshop on ‘Endangered tribal languages in South India’ at ASI’s Manav Bhavan in Bogadi II Stage here since yesterday.
CIIL will take up a mega project under which it will document nearly 500 endangered languages in the country, each spoken by less than 10,000 people. The project has got its nod in principle by the Ministry of HRD and CIIL will collaborate with Universities and Institutes in carrying out the project.
Speaking to media persons, L. Rama- moorthy, Head, Linguistic Data Consortium for Indian Languages, CIIL, said that the work would be taken up under a scheme to preserve and protect endangered languages.
“The objective is to bring out dictionaries and also document and preserve the ethnic knowledge system enshrined in the languages, including folklore. It would also extend to frame grammar rules. Also, experts would give suggestions for revitalisation of these languages. The project would be carried out phase-wise. About 70 languages from different parts of the country would be studied in the first phase and 500 words would be taken up in a span of 10 years,” said Ramamoorthy and added that the study and documentation of each language would cost Rs. 6 lakh to Rs. 8 lakh.
Earlier, P.K. Misra, President, Anthropological Association, Mysore, inaugurated the workshop on ‘Endangered tribal languages-Initiatives from CIIL.’ Speaking on the occasion, he said “Language is embedded in society and culture. It is an important tool to identify people belonging to different communities. The region, inhabited by Jenu Kuruba community, is also home to other communities like Betta Kuruba, Soliga, Yerawa and others,” and added, “The status of language should be understood in the context of society and culture which were not static but under constant change. Even the changing external environmental factors have affected the traditional lifestyle of the tribal people.”
Ramamoorthy, during the workshop, quoting a survey, said that there was no consensus on the status of endangered languages. “While the Census of India 2001 fixed the number as 122, Anthropological Survey of India put it at 323, while a UNESCO report said 196 Indian languages were endangered,” he said and added, “Language is a complex phenomenon and its use is also complex due to the onset of globalisation. We get to know one’s culture through the clan’s name of the community to which they belong. In fact, many languages are known through their communities.” He hoped that the workshop could work out parameters and tools to identify an endangered language.
Lawrence Surendra, Senior Fellow, Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), who delivered a special lecture on ‘Endangered tribal languages and cultures’ said, “There is a link between language and bio-diversity as they reinforce each other. Language represents knowledge. Endangerment of language is far more serious than that of culture because with the extinction of language, the entire encyclopaedia of knowledge enshrined in that language would be lost forever.”
C.R. Satyanarayana, Deputy Director & Head, Anthropological Survey of India, Southern Regional Centre, subject experts from different Universities and Institutes are attending the workshop which concludes today.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / February 25th, 2014