The tourism tagline of Karnataka is ‘One State, Many Worlds’. But what is rarely discussed is the many languages present in the kingdom’s many worlds.
The Bangalore Literature Festival (BLF) debuted in its historic tenth edition this year with the theme ‘Multilingualism and Endangered Languages’ as its major theme here on Saturday. The highlight of this year’s festival is a series of panel discussions around the theme ‘Karnataka’s Many Languages World’, in which writers and speakers are fluent in languages like Tulu, Konkani, Kodava Tak, Koraga, Dakhni Urdu, Byari, Navyati and others. Kundapara Kannada, Halakki Kannada, Sankethi and Havyaka.
In one such session on ‘Scripting the Future for Endangered Languages’, the panelists highlighted the need to make scripts of endangered languages more accessible to speakers. Writer Kaveri Ponnappa, speaking about Kodava Tak, said that endangered languages need more speakers, and instead of a new script, you need a script that is more accessible to speakers. Advocating a script that reaches as many speakers as possible and widens its scope, he said the Kodavas have an important function – not only for those who live abroad, but also for other parts of India. who are no longer learning the Kannada script.
A Roman script would reach a larger number of people, agreed Saygita Hage from the NIT University Center for Tulu Studies, NITTE, while speaking about Tulu. “If the learners want to learn Tulu, the Kannada script is difficult to read. We have to take the modified Roman language even for those who cannot speak and read Kannada. It is much needed,” she said.
Author Vivek Shanbhag talks about the challenges faced by the Konkani language, which adopted multiple scripts to survive as speakers in different states like Kerala, Karnataka and Goa. “So the solution is suitable for Kodava and Tulu, but not for Konkani as they are different languages.”
But languages that are spoken only have a longer life, he said. “English is now facing Kannada. Such conflicts do not happen in Konkani households. Even today people speak Konkani at home. There is no one solution. We must understand the context and respond,” he said.
In another session, ‘Konkani: One Language, Many Scripts’, this was further discussed by Damodar Moujo, who was recently awarded the Jnanpith Prashasti for his works in Konkani. “Multiple vocabularies are recognized by multiple speakers. When I go to Mangaluru or Kochi, I look very carefully and find a lot of things that we have lost but they continue to use. That’s why I use these in my writings.” Though today the terminology is a bit different but it is not alien to us. We are getting closer day by day. Words used in Goa can be heard in Mangaluru and vice versa , “They said.
“I see the Konkani world as a cultural state. We are geographically divided. But culturally, we are one state. This is the main feature of the Konkani-speaking diaspora – they live in harmony, whether they are from Karnataka or Karnataka. Live in Kerala,” he said.
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