South Asian Lang Analysis summit-2006' on Dec 19

Mysore Dec 12: 26th annual conference of South Asian Language Analysis will be held at CIIL, Mysore from December 19-21, 2006. This conference is jointly sponsored by Kannada University, Hampi and Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore. SALA conference is held mainly in USA. This is for the second time it is being held in India.

Linguists consider that South Asia as a linguistic Area. Languages of this area have long history and are repositories of Linguistic features which are of much interest to scholars. Modernization has thrown up new challenges for the languages of this area. It is interesting to study the various strategies adopted by these languages to face and over come these challenges.

In a news conference, Dr. Udayanarayana Singh Director CIIL and Dr. Vivek Rai, vice-chancellor Kannada University Hampi briefed details of the Conference. Mr. Lingadevaru Halemane convenor of the conference was also present. This year there will be 106 scholars presenting their research papers. Nearly thirty of these papers are from research scholars. These young scholars are doing research in different Universities in the country and abroad. Twenty scholars come from abroad. They include scholars from USA, UK, Germany, France, Iran, Sri Lanka, Bangla Desha and Pakistan.

The conference is inaugurated by Prof. Harish Trivedi, Professor of English at Delhi University. Dr.Purnima Mehta. Director-general of American Institute of Indian Studies will be the guest of honor. Mr.Girish Karnad, Eminent Play Wright will deliver the valedictory address.

Five plenary talks are scheduled in these three days. Prof. Rajeshwari Pandharipande of University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, USA (Language and Religion), Prof, B. H. Krishnamurthy, Eminent Linguist, Hyderabad (The Aryans and Dravidians) , Prof. Yamuna Kachru,Prof. emeritus,University of Illinois,USA ( Language in social and ethnic context),Prof. Udayanarayan Singh (New Linguistic Survey of India) ,Prof,Meenakshi Mukharjee, Prof of English, Hyderabad (English in an uneven world) are the speakers in these plenary sessions. These plenary talks are scheduled in such a way that all scholars attending the conference can take part in the discussions.

There will be three panel discussions. Kannada Development Authority, Bangalore is sponsoring the panel on 'Impact of globalization on Indian languages with special reference to Kannada'. It is befitting to have this discussion in this year of golden jubilee celebration of unification of Karnataka. Six scholars are taking part in this discussion; they will discuss the linguistic aspect of the process called globalization, Prof. Siddalingaiah, Chairman, Kannada Development Authority will take part in the panel discussion.

The Printers (Mysore) Pvt.Ltd, Bangalore is sponsoring a panel discussion on "Language and Media" Scholars will discuss the role played by language in traditional print media and the New Media. Five scholars including the Editor of www.oneindia.in are taking part in the discussion.

The Central Sahitya Academy has sponsored the third panel. This panel is on Rajarao.(1928-2006) Rajarao was from Karnataka. His early writings were in Kannada, Though he stayed for better part of his life in France and USA, his cultural roots were strongly Indian. The organizing committee for the conference thought that it right to pay tribute to that great soul in this conference.

The papers will be presented in thirty seven sessions. Four parallel sessions will be held at a time. A workshop on syntax of tense and aspect in Indian languages will be held.

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