The language policy of the post independent India – their use in administration, education, judiciary and mass media, derived tenets basically from the recommendations of the Commission/Committees set up for the reorganization of the states on linguistic lines which culminated in entering into the Constitution and Language related Acts of the States and Union Territories.
Karnataka with Kannada as the majority and official language is as multilingual as India is. It has a population of more than 4 crores. It is a home of well known and unknown 166 mother tongues. Also, it has a maximum percentage of linguistic minorities – 34.31%. It is construed linguistically as mini-India. The linguistic composition of the countable languages and its changing pattern in the past few decades presents an interesting picture.
Mother tongue |
1961 |
1971 |
1981 |
1991 |
Increase or Decrease |
Kannada |
65.17 |
65.94 |
65.69 |
66.2 |
+ 1.03 |
Hindi |
0.35 |
0.44 |
1.78 |
1.96 |
+ 1.61 |
Urdu |
8.64 |
9.00 |
9.53 |
9.96 |
+ 1.32 |
Malayalam |
1.30 |
1.41 |
1.60 |
1.68 |
+ 0.38 |
Tamil |
3.64 |
3.36 |
3.76 |
3.84 |
+ 0.20 |
Telugu |
8.68 |
8.17 |
8.12 |
7.39 |
- 1.29 |
Marathi |
4.55 |
4.05 |
3.77 |
3.64 |
- 0.91 |
Tulu |
3.61 |
3.56 |
3.30 |
3.06 |
- 0.55 |
Konkani |
2.08 |
1.96 |
1.74 |
1.57 |
- 0.51 |
Kodava |
0.33 |
0.24 |
|
0.21 |
- 0.12 |
Gujarati |
0.12 |
0.09 |
0.01 |
|
|
Mother tongue |
1981 |
K Kuruba |
0.564 |
J Kuruba |
0.093 |
Yerava |
0.051 |
Soliga |
0.043 |
Koraga |
0.040 |
In the context of globalization most of the languages are endangered and are at different points in the scale of endangerment. Accordingly there are different levels of language survival/endangerment. In order to understand these processes when we analyze the multilingual situation of Karnataka, it exhibits a multilayered situation in terms of power of languages to survive.
Layer 1: Kannada-the official language of the state.
Layer 2: Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi and Gujarati-the languages spoken by the linguistic
minorities in Karnataka, but are official languages in other states and do not depend on Karnataka for
their development / survival.
Layer 3: Tulu and Kodava: the languages with state patronization and the speakers generally have an economic
background which is far better than those in level 4 and 5.
Layer 4: Lambada/Lambani, Yerava, Soliga and Koraga: the languages spoken by the respective tribal population.
Layer 5: Jenukuruba and Kadukuruba: the dialects of Kannada spoken by the respective tribal population.
Languages of layer 4 and 5 are unheard and unsung by the powers that are.
Nomenclature attributed to each mother tongue too is very important- dialect, language, if language – major or minor or tribal. For example, due to various reasons Konkani got the status of a language, soon it got a state, became the official language of the concerned state got revitalized.
Recently there was a debate in the media that Kannada the official and major language of Karnataka is one of the endangered languages in the world. Within few days people discovered that it is not in the list of UNESCO’s list of endangered languages and expressed a sigh of relief. This brings us to the conclusion that even endangerment is also considered as a status and needs certification from some kind of agencies.
This paper presents linguistic and sociolinguistic profile of Tulu and Kodava languages on one hand and Konkani on the other hand and discusses the revisualization process that has given rebirth for their survival. Contrasts this with linguistic and sociolinguistic profile of Lambada / Lambani, Yerava, Soliga, Koraga, Jenukuruba and Kadukuruba which have got marginalized and are loosing their ground for the language(s) of wider communication.
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