Short Stories, Novels, Literature, Poetry, Essays, Articles, Experiences, Interviews, Columns and more at TeluguPeople.com

Telugu Language and its Future
- Prof. Narasimham Brahmandam

Page: 1 of 1

Old grammar texts of Telugu claim that Telugu is an off shoot of Praakrit, a derivative of Sanskrit. Praakrit is also a dead language like Sanskrit. In Sanskrit dramas, Praakrit was used for the dialogues of servants and other menial roles. Such a distinction between the language of the educated and the illiterate is common in all languages. The illiterate, who are more in number than the educated, have changed many words which they are unable to pronounce. In course of time, the changed versions become acceptable to the learned also. Thus Sri became siri, Raajni became raani and so on. All Sanskrit words and their derivatives are imbibed foreign words and do not constitute the basic Telugu. But clearly, Telugu has some basic features in common with other Dravidian languages, e.g., we have the short e and long e, short o and long o. But Sanskrit and its derived languages have only the long sound; we have two words for ‘we’ Meemu and manamu in the Dravidian group, while the Sanskrit group have only one word. We did not have aspirate letters, like kh, gh, ch, jh and so on. We improvised the letters into our alphabet to contend with Sanskrit words. And so on. In olden days, education meant religious education and learning the classics. Just as the Europeans learnt Latin and Greek, Indians learnt Sanskrit. Soon, the educated used many Sanskrit words in their speech and writings just as, to day, English is mixed with native languages. Imbibing Sanskrit went to such an extent that 80 percent of Telugu is Sanskrit or its derivative, Praakrit. Sanskrit, known as Deva Bhaasha, was held in high respect and Telugu as a language of lower status. Sanskrit words signified more honoured meaning than corresponding Telugu words. Gruham or parna saala were nobler than kompa or gudise. Samaasaas of Telugu words with Sanskrit words were prohibited. Even the Telugu grammar was written in Sanskrit. There seems to be a tacit acceptance, on the part of Telugu people, of the superiority of an extraneous language over their own. As hordes came through the Khyber Pass, Arabic and Persian words came into use first by the elite and later by the general public. Here again, the acceptance of superiority of the extraneous (foreign) to the native was responsible for the intake of the words. The most common word used in Telugu for the muslims is saayibulu which is a modification of Saahab. It is to be noted in this context, that few or no Telugu words went into Urdu as a result of the juxtaposition of the two languages for quite a few centuries. Then came the Europeans, especially, the English. And English words began their ingress into Telugu. English has received greater respect than Telugu. Due to the introduction of English in education as the First language, the educated slowly weaned themselves from Telugu. In fact, many of them feel proud that they are not familiar with Telugu. For emphasis or force, they began using the English expression. Meanwhile, as the campaign for use of ‘spoken Telugu’ in papers, magazines and now in books, became the order of the day, English also came into use as spoken Telugu. Now most sign boards are written in English and optionally in Telugu. Practically no sign board is completely in Telugu. ( Eg., Giitaa textiles, Vaani agencies, Ishwar & Sons, or & brothers etc.) Films use English freely in dialogues. Even titles are sometimes in English. In homes the mummy daddy culture has firmly taken root. Family relationships are the first casualty. Even a 3rd standard boy says ‘ma father, ma uncle’. Gentlemen and ladies are addressed as uncle and aunty. Old Telugu words are not understood by the general public and are confined to dictionaries. If some conservatives attempt translation of English words into Telugu, they are ridiculed. The tide has become a storm and there is no looking back. With the advent of the computer, English has become necessary for every one because the commands on the computer are all in English. And the key-board is in English alphabet. No one has attempted a wholly Telugu software because it is commercially (in respect of sales and profits) not viable. Now the future of Telugu is at cross roads. Should Telugu go back to regain the glory of the vast literature of the earlier centuries, or have a break from the past, accept the inevitable and welcome all the foreign words into its fabric and develop as modern Telugu; or, worse, abandon Telugu altogether and switch on to English. There is a strong opinion that Telugu has benefitted by imbibing words of other languages freely. Further, reversal to old Telugu will require translation of thousands of terms related to the developments in science and technology. It is a stupendous task which the Telugu region cannot afford not only due to the huge expenditure involved, but also due to lack of takers for the translated words. Further, to the learner of a new technical term, both the English term as well as the newly coined word are equally strange and the translation does not make matters easier for him. Also most newly coined words are Sanskrit words and not Telugu. Even now, students who studied in Telugu medium find it difficult to catch up with those who studied in English medium. The popularity of the English medium schools, especially the convents, speaks for itself. Higher education is virtually all in English. Students going for higher education to the US, UK, and now, Australia, profit by learning science in English. By its long use in several countries for science and administration, and its precision in respect of meanings and spellings of words disciplined by standard dictionaries, updated from time to time, English has become the language of universal use, especially in our country. Even after over 50 years of independence, the authorized versions of all our acts and documents are in English. On the other hand, there is the mother tongue sentiment (similar to the patriotic sentiment) which is shared by many Telugus. It is a matter of self respect. It is to uphold this sentiment that Vajpayee, when he was foreign minister in the Janata Government made his speech in the UN in Hindi just to assert that the language representing about a fifth of humanity must be given its due place in the world body. Patriotic sentimentalists point to the fact that countries like Russia, Germany, France, Japan, China and many Spanish speaking countries, have achieved tremendous advancement in science and technology, using their own respective languages for science, while we have made little impact on the science or technology scene in spite of using English over approximately the same number of years. If our students go to any of these countries, they are asked to learn their language first so that they can follow the lessons in the language. Therefore, it is clear that English is not indispensable for scientific progress. There is a half-hearted attempt by the Government to make Telugu the official language in the State. There is a committee to oversee the progressive use of Telugu in all administrative matters. But ours is a multilingual country. Correspondence between different States and the States and the Center should be in a language understood by all. It has been English all along. Now Hindi is trying to take its place. Otherwise, every secretariat will have to employ an array of bilingual dubashis. Here there is also an element of language parochialism hindering the progress. Further, Hindi also suffers from some inadequacies faced by Telugu (and other regional languages) in its use for administration. And one cannot expect that every officer shall learn the administrative language of both Telugu and Hindi in addition to that of English. Leaving these problems faced by all languages in India in vernacularisation of administration, let us turn to Telugu and consider what needs to be done if Telugu should be developed to serve modern needs better. Languages do change with time, losing some old words, gaining some new ones, coining new words, changing idiom and grammar. But there should always be a contemporary grammar and dictionary that standardizes their use. It is like the Constitution. It may be amended any number of times. But, at any given time, the Constitution in force is inviolable. When the spoken language was adopted, such an attempt to standardize the spoken tongue had not been simultaneously taken up. There, naturally, are many variations in the use of Telugu in different parts of the country. If everyone uses his regional language, there is bound to be confusion and lack of precision. When it comes to official use, there should be only one form, the Standard form. For instance, English is spoken in various countries of the world in different dialects. But when it comes to official use, as in ceremonial speeches and documents, only the standard form, with acceptable grammar and diction, is employed by everybody. A committee appointed with scholars from the various Regional Universities should be authorized to define the standard Telugu. The grammar should define the form of the verbs especially with reference to tense and mood. The dictionary should give the word, the granthic, standard and colloquial and regional forms of the word, its etymology and the derivatives from the word. It is a stupendous task capable of accomplishment only by the government. But language is not on the priority list of our government because of more pressing economic and political issues. In official use, various forms of a word, as verb, noun, or adjective etc., would be needed according to the context, for brevity, or other reasons. The derivation of such words is not standard in Telugu. For example, take the verb ceeyu (to do);. Noun form of ceeyu is ceeta, but for Maayu it is Maapu. For ammu – ammakamu, pencu – pempakamu, konu – konugolu. Coming to derivatives, what is the word for one who does? None. We go to Sanskrit and use Karta, for vinu –none, Sanskrit - srota. For many verbs, we are not familiar with such derivatives. With adjectival derivatives, the position is worse. It is necessary to prepare an exhaustive list of all derivatives in a tabular form and make it available to journalists, offices and the general public. Prefixes (upasargas) are used to change the meaning of words in Sanskrit and, occasionally, in Telugu also. But the change they bring about in the meaning is not standard. The familiar example given in grammar texts is haara, aa-haara, vi-haara, sam-haara, etc. But the addition of aa, vi, or sam to other words does not necessarily give the same change of meaning. Vi with jaya means increased success; but vi with dhava means devoid of husband. Telugu prefixes like munu, venu, pai, krii, are rarely used. In English, prefixes have been standardized. Sub, super, trans, etc, carry the same meaning always. That helps precision. An exhaustive list of prefixes with their standard connotation has to be authorized by a committee of scholars, at least, for future use. For sometime past, elder Telugus in North America used to lament the loss of touch in their children with the Telugu Classics. Now this is shared by elder Telugus in their motherland itself. The World Telugu Organizations have been busy honouring dignitaries and artistes of Telugu but have spared little time for this problem of the new generation losing touch with the classics. One of the reasons for NRI children loosing touch with the mother tongue is the difficulty of mastering the Telugu script to enable reading fluently. A few minor groups in America have started publishing manuscript or computer magazines of Telugu in English script. Probably some of them are also corresponding with each other in this script. The method of transliteration has not been standardized, each group improvising its own scheme of the alphabet for the different sounds in the Telugu language. There is a need to standardize this alphabet to suit our needs and not necessarily following the English method of spelling which is neither standard nor reasonable in most cases. Long ago, such a script, named the Roman Script, was adopted by world consensus for Sanskrit, using superscripts and subscripts like ā, ī, and ū for the long sound of the respective vowels, and ś for the s as in words like Samson, Siva etc., and ņ to represent the n sound in Krishna and so on. This is now universally followed. Since the hyphens and dots above and below letters is not available on most type writers and computer key boards, some other method which avoids such marks has to be evolved. It is to be firmly understood that we shall adopt the script today as we adopted the Brahmi script centuries ago. Practically all the languages of Europe adopt the same script for their languages but each with its own scheme of spelling. We should also shed the historic nostalgia with the English spelling and work out our own scheme to suit our needs. However, it is doubtful whether any change or additional script will be welcomed by the bulk of Telugus, because of the mother-tongue sentiment. In this connection, we may recall the failure of a committee constituted long ago to work our a common script for Telugu and Kannada which are so closely like each other. If the standardization of the English alphabet for Telugu takes place, and the NRI groups create a demand, it is possible that some commercial concerns may come forward to print books with excerpts from classical literature in that script. This will enable people of other languages to learn Telugu more easily and help Telugu to extend faster. Suggestions made to magazines and journals in Andhra Pradesh, to have a column or two in their issues to familiarize the new script, have so far fallen on deaf ears. If a similar demand is forthcoming from other languages of India, the script can become an alternative script for all languages in India and may even be christened the Bhaarat script. If, in the distant future, Bhaarat script gains ground, it will confer the benefit of national integration and the students in India will be spared the need for learning three scripts (English, Hindi and the mother tongue scripts). Shall we add a script and save the language? Or save the script and sacrifice the language? But who will bell the cat? Let lovers of the Telugu language in the world, think deeply about the problem and insist on discussion of the problem in World Meets of Telugu held periodically in several countries and come out with comprehensive suggestions for implementation by the Andhra Pradesh Government. The language is the only binding force that holds Telugus together. With the future of the language itself in jeopardy, what else will hold the Telugus together?

Syrette alfol oversprinkling. Chibouque whoopee demulsification crystallometry retentive porbeagle trireme stokehold bituminize nonvoid.

Read 1 Comment(s) posted so far on this Article!

Page: 1 of 1