From: dorai@cs.rice.edu (Dorai Sitaram)
Subject: Re: Naangaam Tamil
Keywords: science, Tamil, education, language
Organization: Rice University, Houston
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 04:43:36 GMT

In article <1992Jul24.030014.24288@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> ssankara@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Sornam Sankara) writes:
>    " anaivarum oru kai uyarthittal
>      anaigaL pala nam kattidalam  "

...and clog up the whole dam(n) place! ;->

>     Much more than reforming the letters we need to reform the people
>involved.  There are three important group of people who should give up their
>present state of lethargy, pessimism or egos and work together.
>
>(i) Linguists:
>
>     Linguists are the top among them  to be consulted for any development of
>languages.  Linguistics comprises the general theories about language, the
>techniques and the concepts related to a description of the structures of a
>language, the principles and processes involved in the changes that take place
>from period to period in a language, the principles and the concepts involved
>in comparing languages and the adaptation of all the above for some practical
>purpose.  Unfortunately in India, linguistics is one of the neglected
>discipiline and many think that linguistics is learning some language or
>literature etc. It is a formal science and involves a knowledge of humanities
>and sciences.  Though there have been many good linguists in India who time and
>again stress the developments of Indian languages but are not taken seriously
>by the government and the people.  Those linguists are also to be blamed for
>their strict adherence to academic research.

What do you want these linguists to do?  Do you want them to
_prescribe_ -- dirty word for any modern linguist! -- a cure so that
Tamil can recover from its stagnation?  Do you want their educated
help in fashioning vocabulary?  Is vocabulary -- or, more precisely,
_standardized_ vocabulary -- all that is lacking in getting Tamil on
to its scientific feet?  What if I said that a more serious flaw of
Tamil is the absence of relative clauses?

I find your articles quite interesting, but they seem symptomatic of
the very paralysis that you decry.  You make impassioned pleas for
united and active participation by certain groups of people in the
"development" of Tamil.  Frankly, I don't think any language gets
going that way.  Linguists, e.g., can only observe.  They cannot, and
probably should not, shape the way a particular language develops.  It
is up to the individual to use h/er discretion in navigating h/er
course through innovation, usage, and necessity.  It is also
disingenuous to suggest that effort is being wasted on something else
like non-science-related writing or script hackery.  Such activities
couldn't possibly affect, positively or negatively, the growth -- or
even birth -- of scientific Tamil, and it is needlessly rude to
insinuate that they are somehow thwarting the advance of the language.

About your call for unity: who isn't?  Everyone, of course, would like
everybody else to be united _for h/er own ideas_.

All IMHO.

>  In the next few articles, I will write about "language for science' in
>general and with respect to Tamil.

I look forward to it.

--d

-- 

dorai@titan.rice.edu   !    It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
dorai@owlnet.rice.edu  !      it may be we shall touch the Happy Isles.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil