Conference on South Asian languages gets under way

Mysore, Dec 20 (UNI) A host of linguistic experts from across the world were taking part in a three-day conference on South Asian Languages Analysis (SALA), at the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) here.

More than 100 scholars from India, the USA, France, the UK, Iran, Germany, Pakistan and Bangladesh were participating in the mega event, jointly organised by CIIL and Kannada University, Hampi.

Inaugurating the conference yesterday, Prof Harish Trivedi, Professor of English, Delhi University, called for a serious approach in safeguarding and integrating the regional languages into English.

''Since we are getting into a situation where one third of the world population is busy reading English, which has become the world language, the integration of regional languages takes precedence.'' He observed that globalisation had set in a linguistic and cultural order for sustenance of the world economic order. While India chose the multi-language model, Pakistan and Sri Lanka opted for one language formula, both of which were a failure, he opined.

The conference would dwelve on the diasporic creativity of the languages, apart from creating a base for better understanding of South Asian languages in the era of globalisation when borders become thin and knowledge sharing an essential tool in not only safeguarding these languages, but also on various steps to be taken to integrate them into the world diaspora of popular languages.

CIIL Director Udayanarayana Singh, speaking on the occassion, said this conferecne was important as a new lingustic survey of India would be taken up in the country after nearly 100 years. It would help to add information to the survey, to commence from April next year.

There would be three panel discussions and the Kannada Development Authority would organise a discussion on Impact of globalisation on Indian languages with special reference to Kannada.

The Printers (Mysore) Private Limited, publishers of Deccan Herald and Prajavani, would sponsor discussions on language and media and the role played by language in traditional print media and the new media.

Papers would be presented in 37 sessions and a workshop on syntax of tense and aspect in Indian languages had also been scheduled during the conference. The entire proceedings of the conference would be documented and submitted to the HRD Ministry.

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