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Social media rescues dying Indian languages

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/11/social-media-rescues-dying-indian-languages-201311277047252312.html

In the language of the Bhatu Kolhati, a remote nomadic tribe in India’s western Maharashtra state, tatti means tea and gulle is meat. But, Kuldeep Musale, 30, who belongs to this tribe barely remembers his mother tongue. Well educated and having studied in boarding schools since he was six, Musale instead uses the dominant languages – Hindi, Marathi and English.

His ancestors were traditional folk artists and dancers, but not Musale. He works like any other professional in Pune city, 150km from the provincial capital, Mumbai.

"When you don't hear a language you forget," he says.

The mobile phone is a blessing as that enables him to communicate with his parents who still live in his ancestral village. This has helped him keep in touch with his mother tongue. Not just that, Musale is consciously relearning his language which is on the endangered list. Whenever he goes home on vacation, he makes it a point to record songs and voices of elders on his smart phone.

Linguists say these are exciting times as technology promises to resurrect dying languages. At the very least, digital tools can help store the languages in archives. This has already started showing results.

"India today is showing a remarkable phenomenon of growth in non-protected and minority languages," says Ganesh Devy, chair of the People's Linguistic Survey of India.


India is the most linguistically diverse country on Earth, yet most of its languages are under threat by English, Hindi and other big ones. I'm glad that new technology is helping to preserve many of the languages, but it's probably too little too late for most of India's languages, as fewer and fewer people speak them with technology.
Preserve them to posterity yes, for practical everyday use, no.

Common tongue unites people.
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Who cares about some language that never got integrated into a common pool ? Just note it down for lulz and learn something useful instead

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