Friends:
What is the outcome after all these 7 past glorious days?
The very existence and survival of Telugu Language, our mother tongue is
the root cause for an enigmatic typhoon in my temporal cortex. A number of
times, there was a discussion between myself and Kumar Vadaparty and Kumar
brought up the point that Telugu is a dead language for all practical
purposes. Further it was added that almost many Indian languages reach
that extinction list.
Recently Sri Pillalamarri and Sri Katta Murthy came up with the concept of
species extinction. This species could be an item of a literary lineage or
an entire literary genus by itself. With out contradicting their
assumption, I had to add to that list of species extinction, the
vyAvahArika BAsha or the mAmDalikAs.
Being a strong proponent for the revival of mAmDalika Telugu, I would favor
for the creation of mAmDalika Telugu dictionaries and thesaurus. This is a
Herculian project and not easy at all, at least for us who are here. No
doubt Gidugu, following the finger prints, if not the foot steps of
Gurajada, laid foundations for the vyAvahArika Telugu. That was a boon
ever given to the Telugu jIvi. Almost upto 90% in the literary arena,
broadcasting industry, cine field, drama world, news paper media, magazine
madness, and political trickology we see a kind of one common Telugu
language type. That is a good sign. It brought a lot of integrity at
least on the basis of using Telugu language among all the Telugus. What
happened as a consequence of this?
The mAmDalikAs suffered a lot. Most of them are on their last leg. There
is no thesaurus offering connection tables between the so called modern
Telugu of now a days and each of the mAmDalika species. That is a pity.
There is no documentation for certain words used in specific areas of
Telugu Nadu. You and I can list several thousands of such words which even
never reached the last page of the Telugu dictionary.
A significant number of times I posted several pieces of conversation in
Ganjam-Visakha Telugu expecting someone from other regions would pick it up
or follow it and write in their own mAmDalIkam. It never happened to my
disappointment. When Sri Velcheru Narayanarao posted the "anaganagA oka"
story, Sri Pillalamarri sent me a message to transcribe it into
Ganjam-Visakaha style. I did that and in turn asked him if someone else
could do that into other mAmDalIkAs. Hope it will happen one day on Telusa
and such things have a definite place in Telusa.
When Chy. Suresh Kolicala visited Sri Jampala's place during the
krIstamAs, we had a discussion on the origin and evolution of languages,
especially Kannada and Telugu. The discussion took off quickly and ended
somewhere. Of course Sri Jampala was the moderator. The take home lesson
was the extinction of a prototype language between Telugu and Kannada (not
Tulu)(to my understanding). Needless to mention, Chy. Suresh is an
authority on such subjects (for me - this young boy studies these subjects
religiously, understands them like his CS, and noticeably explains them
like his dad (a teacher)). Why did that prototype disappear? This is not
the place for such arguments.
Recently one of my respected colleagues, Dr. Asur Srinivasan (who is a
master of several European languages, Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Sanskrit, and
above all Telugu - reads Telugu better than I do) came over to my office
and asked me "What is the place for Sa, sa, sha, ha in Telugu? North
Indians say "Shamkar" and you say "Samkar". How do you write that word?".
I showed him the difference between "Sh" and "Sa". He told me that there
is a lingual difference and the North Indians don't write it as "Shamkar"
but will say "Shamkar". What happened to these lingual epithets in Telugu?
Weekend Thoughts - A new series I started from today. These are my
ramblings. They are not senseless. They are certainly not emotional.
They are my constant barin storms. Usually on Fridays, I go through
Nature, Science, and New Scientist to get the glimpse of Science. One
article entitled "DEATH OF A MOTHER TONGUE" in the 6th January, 1996 issue
of the New Scientist (from London) caught my attention. This article is a
very good one to be read by interested telusAers. This is a
thought-provoking essay. As mentioned in this article, Gail Vines says "A
third of the world's languages are in danger of imminent extinction. For
every one that dies, a whole culture and way of thinking may be lost
forever." That statement by Gail is alarming and causes a lot of concern
in me. That is what exactly is happening to several of our mAmDalIkAs.
As a blessing in disguise, at least in the latest Telugu cinemas, they
introduce Telangana style (of course for fun). On the flip side of the
coin, they are trying to educate people to recognize that style of Telugu.
What are the Telugu linguists doing to dig out such mAmDalIka styles
existing throughout Anadhra Desa? What are our governments doing to
preserve such styles? Are they at least trying to preserve those
communities in order to preserve their languages and cultures?
At the beginning of the article in the New Scientist another important
sentence caught my attention profoundly - "If language is a virus, as rock
star Laurie Anderson proclaims, then a handful have proved remarkably easy
to catch. Just five languages - Chinese, English, Spanish, Russian, and
Hindi - have now infected more than half of the world's people." That is a
good sign for the growth of those languages but it raises hell of a concern
as other languages are suppressed. Are you reminded of the British
colonial rule in India?
Another sentence in that article which is remarkable - "Take India. With
the coming of electronic mass media, Hindi is finally spreading because
everyone wants to watch the best television programming". I guess, the AP
Dooradarshan is trying to restore/propagate the Telugu language as a whole
but the question is are they trying to keep up/propagate the mAmDalIkAs.
Another sentence in the same article that is alarming - "Whorf claimed taht
one North American Indian tribe, the Hopi, had no cocept of time because it
seemed to be absent in their language." I wonder about similar things
among Savaras of my native place. After Sri Gidugu Ramamurthy provided a
detailed language analysis of Savara language, nothing happened among
Savara literacy and Savara language of North East Andhra and South East
Orissa. It is more than half a century. Think about the Lambadi language
and the Koya language.
The article also says "Comments about biological diversity can sound rather
patronising to people who are being slaughtered for economic reasons and
whose languages are disappearing." That is exactly what is happening in
the USA among our children and grand children. This is more of a bigger
concern to me. Either for vanity or for true preservation of our language
how much are we trying to preserve/teach our language among our youngsters?
Are we as serious as our Gujarati counterparts in this country in this
aspect? Do we really care to preserve Telugu here? It is not our concern
at all amDI - One of my fellow dwellers here in Columbus says. This
generation of young Telugus eventually will forget the language and their
successors will forget that Telugu even exists in this world. This may
sound like a pessimistic prsumption. If you think so, that is fine with me
but please don't attach "EMOTIONAL" labels to me. Thanks for that.
The last part of this article says "As media and communication technologies
spread, more and more speakers of "minority" languages will abandon their
linguistic heritage in favour of a dominant language associated with
wealth, prestige, and political power. It is a phenomenon technically
known as "language shift", though some linguists also call it "linguistic
imperialism" and "linguistic genocide." That is certainly a painful
statement to know. To me this linguistic imperialism is certainly
happening in the US Telugu Community.. If it is a language shift (taking
the literary meaning of the words), it is ok. But it leads eventually to
linguistic genocide of Telugu language in the US among our children - that
is frightening.
The article also offers a solution to prevent this linguistic genocide.
That is "thoughtfully planned bilingualism" according to Einar Haugen, a
linguist born in urban Iowa of Norwegian origin. According to the article
in the aforementioned New Scientist "Haugen wants each of us to have a
"native, homely, familiar everyday language in which we can live and love",
as well as a second language of wider communication that will enable us to
jet around the world." That is certainly true. Many of us here in the US
among the Telugus are bi- and trilingual. We should encourage our children
to practise and adhere to their mother tongue. Let them be bilingual.
Haugan also argues that bilingualism is not harmful but mind-expanding.
Haugan adds to that "Anyone who thinks that learning a language may change
the structure of the brain would have to agree." So, please go
"bilingual". Speak Telugu at home. Let the kids speak Telugu at home.
A lot of things happen at the National and Regional Telugu Conventions.
Certainly kids participate in several cultural events. I only see a
certain age group there (usually between 4-14) in those cultural events.
Is it true that past 14 our kids don't like to participate in Telugu
Cultural Events? How much they are eager to use their language past 14.
Under the chairmanship of Sri Jampala at the 10th TANA-SCIT meeting, there
was an issue of teaching our kids Telugu via computers. Somewhere there
was a mention of Sri Velcheru Narayanarao's name. After wards, yet
something has to come up as an outcome of that meeting.
A few months ago, Chy. Kamala raised the issue of "easy reading Telugu
material for easy understanding". For 24 hours there was a downpour of
messages on Telusa. What were the actions? None so far! This subject has
to be rejuvinated. We have to catalogue such literature. That is very
useful.
What about bringing out a computer-aided Telugu Teaching Method? This
should be both spoken and written. Bapu-Ramana has an excellent package.
Can it be truned into a computer version?
Let us use the electronic boon - the computer explosion. Let us invent
tools and techniques on bytes to teach Telugu here in the US.
---pAlana
(Weekend Thoughts)
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References:
1) Death of A Mother Tongue : New Scientist, 6th Jan, 1996 # 2011. P21-24
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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed above are not those of the CAS at all.
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