LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Linguistic Purism and Language Planning in a Multilingual Context
Tamil in Pondicherry

L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.

Preface

Tamil is a dynamic living language with ancient heritage and moorings. Continuously spoken and written for over 2000 years, Tamil offers many interesting dimensions for us to investigate. Arguments in favor of some form of linguistic purism to maintain the distinctive characteristic of Tamil have their roots in an ancient grammar, possibly written two-thousand years ago. That the same tendency comes up with great vigor in modern times is amazing, and deserves a deep study in conjunction with sociological, political, cultural and even economic factors.

In this monograph I undertake this study of linguistic purism in a multilingual context, drawing materials from the Union Territory of Pondicherry, where the majority of the people speak Tamil as their first language.

Pondicherry was a colony of the French, and had been ceded to the Indian Union by the French in 1962. This Union Territory has three enclaves: the Tamil enclave surrounded by Tamilnadu, a Malayalam enclave surrounded by Kerala, where Malayalam is the dominant language, and a Telugu enclave surrounded by Andhra Pradesh, where Telugu is the dominant language. In addition, because of Aurobindo cultus, a good number of Bengalis find their residence in Pondicherry. In addition, since joining the Indian Union, a good number of the speakers of the Indo-Aryan family of languages have arrived to pursue their business and other interests. Again, modern New Age Movement followers from Europe and America make Pondicherry their destination for spiritual and corporate living in Auroville.

Language planning becomes, then, very complex. Added to this mix is the demand and insistence on pursuing linguistic purism in so far as Tamil is concerned. When Hindi and other Indian languages seek their renewal and enrichment deleting commonly used Urdu-Persian-Arabic words and constructions, and drawing heavily from Sanskrit sources, Tamil, another classical language of India, with continuity as its important distinguishing mark, seeks to strengthen and enlarge its domains of use drawing from its own ancient sources, etc.

This book is part of my continuing research interests relating to sociological, political and linguistic processes in Indian languages. I do hope that the readers will find this book interesting and useful to understand the linguistic undercurrents in India.

My grateful thanks are due to the editors of Language in India www.languageinindia.com, who have kindly provided me with this opportunity to publish my thoughts and concerns.

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1 A Study of Language Use in Pondicherry

Chapter 2 Linguistic Landscape Tokens in Pondicherry

Chapter 3 European Impact and Paradigm Shift in Tamil Development

Chapter 4 Multilingualism and Second Language Acquisition/Learning in Pondicherry

Chapter 5 Puristic Idiom: The Case of Tamil

Chapter 6 The Ideology Behind Tamil Purism

Chapter 7 Attitudes towards Tamil Purism: An Evaluation

Chapter 8 The Notion of Tamil Development in Pondicherry - Theory and Practice

Chapter 9 Futuristic Planning & Values of Tamil Language in Cyber Space

References

L. Ramamoorthy

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