Re: Telugu script withering away?
D. Sreenivasa Rao (dsr@VNET.IBM.COM)
Thu, 24 Jul 97 10:21:09 -0400
Ramana Juvvadi writes:
:>Bapa Rao writes:
:>
:> > I think the economic cost would be very high. (e.g., all the printed
:> > would have to be replicated) The claimed benefits should justify the
:>
:>When I say Telugu script might give way to Roman, I don not mean
:>forcibly converting everything that exists in Telugu script to Roman.
:>If at all it happens, it is likely to be a slow process addressing the
:>market needs wherever necessary. For example consider the children
:>of Telugu diaspora. By diaspora I mean those in other states in India
:>too. Most of the children don't learn Telugu script but speak it at
:>home. Should we be upset if some entrepeneur publishes books in
:>Romanized Telugu. Will this market segment increase in future to
:>the extent that Roman is an alternate script for Telugu? What are
:>consequences if it happens?
In fact, there is already such a book, or a series of books. I mentioned
about this on Telusa quite some time ago. The author is a retired prof
by the name of Dr. B. Narasimham. The book is targeted towards
pravAsAndhrula children, and is titled "Learning Telugu through English
Script" or some such. I got a fairly enthusiastic repsonse from a
handful of Americans + Indian American kids that I passed it on to.
I can get you the exact details if you are interested. Keep in mind
though that it is about 4-5 years old and is written for Telugus in
India but outside AP, and the author himself has probably hardly ever
lived outside Andhra borders.....
As for the consequences, I think it is too utopian to wait for an
economic reason to show up for people to get interested in learning
their native language. I think any such effort should be limited to
simply providing yet another convenience to the people too distracted
by the pressures of making a living. As such, consequences do not seem
that breath-taking.
:> > Discover magazine had a recent article in which they described a study
:> > that suggests that linguistic diversity is inversely related to
:> > "globalization" of economy. If most of the trade in A.P.'s economy
I am not contesting the results of this study, but this is sort of
counter-intuitive to what has happened in the last two or more decades
of explosive globalization. I don't see any decrease in the Japanese
people's usage of their mother tounge. In Europe, trade has been
multi-national for several decades, and I don't see any less adherents
to their respective languages. eToccI, it seems like the finding
most applies to third world countries that have woken up to the
benefits of a modern economy only in this day and age of globalization
and not in the previous eras of national industrialization.
And most of these countries are already heavily influenced by western
culture anyway.
:>To be honest, I am not convinced that Romanization will add to the
:>growth of Telugu either. However, I am not convinced that we will be
:>able to give any economic reasons for learning Telugu in the near future.
:>That may be a little cynical but I would be happy to be proved wrong.
I still think there need not be any economic incentives to simply make
a person be interested in his mother tongue. It is an innate, inherent
and natural thing to happen. The way to look at it is to make sure that
any such person with an interest has all the conveniences and tools
that make it easy for him to pursue it, and that language complications
donot deter him or her. Beyond this, playing a more pro-active role
requires building up a coherent movement to make any impact at all.
--sreenivas-- dsr@vnet.ibm.com