24-Nov-2018: Odisha now has a lexicon for rare tribal languages
In what is seen as a significant step to keep vanishing tribal languages in circulation, the Odisha government has come out with lexicons of 21 such languages. The bilingual tribal dictionaries will be used in multilingual education (MLE) initiated by the State government at the elementary level in tribal-dominated districts.
The bilingual tribal dictionaries for MLE and trilingual tribal language proficiency modules in all the 21 tribal languages have been formulated by the Special Development Council. Both will help in enhancing proficiency in tribal languages. The tribal museum had been upgraded as the Odisha State Tribal Museum.
Odisha has a unique place on the tribal map of India for having the maximum number of Scheduled Tribe communities. The State is home to 62 different tribal communities, including 13 particularly vulnerable tribal groups. These tribes speak 21 languages and 74 dialects. Of the 21 tribal languages, seven have their own scripts. However, Odia is used as the medium of communication in the dictionaries.
Adoption of more widely spoken competitors, such as Odia, Hindi, English and dominant tribal languages, has hastened the disappearance of rare dialects. Preparation of the dictionaries is a small step towards ensuring that they are preserved and promoted.
Very few States have attempted preparing dictionaries in all tribal languages. Going forward, it will help everybody, including students, researchers and government officials.
31-Aug-2018: Union Home Minister chairs first review meeting of Department of Official Language
The Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh chaired first review meeting of the Department of Official Language of MHA to discuss the functioning and issues related to implementation of Hindi language in official work.
The Union Home Minister was appraised, through a presentation, about the achievements of the department in promoting and maximum use of Hindi language in day to day official work and among the general public. The Minster was informed that the department has developed a computer software called “Kanthasth” for translating the all kinds of official files from English to Hindi and vice versa to make the translation work simpler and quicker. The Minister suggested to update the software to make it capable of translating even from human voices. Secretary official Language, Shri Sailesh called for making the software user friendly and for public use also.
The Official language department has uploaded a dictionary of more than 15000 scientific and technical words on their website for technical usage. The Minister was informed about the Lila Mobile App for making the learning of Hindi language easier, which was launched on the occasion of Hindi Diwas last year.
An E-learning platform called the “Pravah” also being developed by the department for use in 16 Indian languages including English. It will be launched on Hindi Diwas on 14th September, 2018. Anybody can learn Hindi through his mother tongue with the help of this E-learning platform.
The Department has also started a virtual video conferencing for teaching Hindi in all the Indian language.
Minister of State (Home) Shri Kiren Rijiju, Secretary Official Language(OL) Shri Sailesh and Senior officers of the Office of RGI and Home Ministry were present in the meeting.
19-Aug-2018: Panini language laboratory inaugurated in Mauritius to promote Hindi.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj inaugurated "Panini Language Laboratory" at Mahatma Gandhi Institute (MGI) at Port Louis in Mauritius. The Lab has been gifted by the Government of India and it will help MGI in teaching of all Indian languages in Mauritius.
Similar lab is equipped with all modern technologies and similar facilities need to be build up in India also to promote Hindi and regional languages.
The eminent scholars have stressed upon on refinement of the Hindi language by making it simple and interesting. The delegates from across the globe attending 11th World Hindi Conference in Mauritius underlined the need of developing a software for Hindi which can be available to common people on a reasonable price.
During the discussions participants suggested that besides Devanagari, scripts of foreign languages can also be used to teach Hindi in abroad. The basic objective of three-day conference is to connect Hindi language with culture to spread and popularise it in the entire world.
On the second day of the conference deliberations on relations of Culture and Language with films, media and literature were held in four sessions. Renowned Hindi lyricist, screenwriter and poet Prasoon Joshi and other eminent scholars from India and Mauritius presided over these sessions.