Srinagar, Nov 14: A three day national seminar on “Linguistic and Language Development in Jammu and Kashmir with special Reference to Tribal Languages of the State” organized by Department of Linguistics, University of Kashmir, Central Institute of Indian Languages Mysore and Urdu Teaching and Research Centre, Lucknow commenced in the varsity on Monday.
 Addressing the gathering, KU Registrar, Prof S Fayyaz congratulated the department for organizing the seminar, saying “Languages are a great gift from God and they not only add variety and richness to the life, but also help in taking forward human understanding and share intellect”.
 He said there was a great challenge from the negative impact of globalization due to which regional languages were under attack. We need to preserve our mother tongue and other languages spoken in J&K, he said.
 Prof. Fayyaz appreciated the department’s efforts to build linkages with sister departments throughout the country and advised the faculty to actively involve scholars from other languages to build linkages and play their role for the development of tribal languages of the state.
 Head department of Linguistics, Prof Nazir Ahmad Dhar said in the past couple of decades, tribal languages, a hitherto forgotten and less focused on discipline had started becoming the focus of intensive study.
 Former Director CIIL Mysore and chief guest, Prof. Rajesh Sachdeva gave statistical references to the plight of tribal societies in the North-East of India and how the number of the tribal people speaking their own languages was dwindling. “We should take cue from the negative trends in the Gonds and Bhil tribes such as the dwindling number of these Tribals speaking their native language and seek ways to safeguard native languages of J&K”.
 Prof. Sachdeva cautioned that if linguistic studies of the tribal languages were not undertaken seriously and oral traditions were not safeguarded, such languages would die a slow, but sure death.
 Head department Linguistics, University of Delhi, Prof. R C Sharma, stressed on the need to take scientific measures to preserve native languages. “To preserve the language in a certain codified manner, we need to develop the department of linguistics and befriend natives of the language” he added.
 Prof. K V Subarao from CALTS - University of Hyderabad said there was a dire need to create a sense of dignity, honour, respect and love towards our regional, sub-regional and tribal languages. “We need to inculcate a sense of belongingness towards our languages and must strive to learn them and pass them on to posterity to keep them alive” he said.
 Many publications of the department were also released on the occasion including latest issue of inter disciplinary journal of linguistics (IJL).

Lastupdate on : Mon, 14 Nov 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:00:00 IST