Mysuru: The Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysuru celebrated the International Mother Language Day. As part of the celebration, cultural events of different states were organised.

Speaking after inaugurating the celebration, B N Patnaik, former professor of Linguistics, IIT Kanpur equated mother tongue to a bridge between different generations and a channel for the transmission of knowledge from generations to generations. He further expressed his unhappiness over the underrepresentation of mother tongues in the verbal repertoire of people and said that our own languages were becoming endangered in the capital cities of India. Vikram K Das, retired senior professor of Linguistics, spoke on the role of mother tongues in a Diasporic Context and V Giridhar Rao of Azim Premji University, Bangalore delivered a lecture on “Esperanto as a Home Language.”

On the occasion, 14 books representing various mother tongues and different facets of language studies were released. D G Rao, Director, CIIL, Mysore presided over the session. While lauding the role of mother tongue in education, Rao said that most of the eminent scholars who had contributed to this country had received their early education in their respective mother tongues. He further added that numerous studies had found that information or knowledge imparted in a mother tongue of the receiver was far more likely to be remembered by them rather than in a second or foreign language. However, for the effective propagation of mother tongues, support of language and information technology applications are required, he added. A linguistic campaign is also needed to create positive attitudes in public towards their respective mother tongues, added Rao.

Umarani P, Deputy Director, CIIL, briefed about her previous research experience of working with speakers of the minorities languages of Tibeto-Burman family and expressed her concern over the state of endangerment of those languages.