February Iruvai Okkati

The Mother Tongue Day

This is closely related to my Accent neutralization post. Our education system, industry needs, short-sighted political posturing and above all the monoculture of the Internet seem to be consigning our mother tongues to a permanent second language status.

As the article notes, "The health of a handful of languages is said to be pretty good, the sheer size of their speakers will ensure that they survive well beyond 100 years, but here again the question would be in how vibrant a form would they exist. Will they be around just to perform kitchen chores or would they lead the debates of the world?"

The article itself doesn't make any solid recommendations on how we can revive these languages. But that's a good question, what can be done? Interestingly, the local language movies (Tamil and Telugu in particular) seem to be serving a good cause here.