Technology has added new words to everyday usage such as Internet, wireless, computer, cell phone, application and so on, but most of these have no equivalents in Telugu.
The linguistic fraternity is divided on what to do about this situation. At one end of the spectrum, traditionalists think new words should be coined by academia, but at the other, the view is that Telugu has the capacity to absorb alien words and doesn’t need any additions. A third argument calls for equivalents to be proposed by the users.
Telugu has been influenced by various languages, and a good part of the lexicon is derived from Sanskrit as also from Urdu, Odiya and Tamil. “As in Tamil Nadu, we need to constantly update the language by finding new equivalents for emerging words like fan and cell phone, for example, and disseminate them through popular media,” says Kethireddy Jagadishwara Reddy, convenor of Telugu Bhasha Parirakshana Vedika, Chennai. Tamil and Kannada are known to be vibrant in creating their own vocabulary and the people also effectively use it.
“Finding equivalents will help put them on paper, but to get them into the minds of the public and subsequently to get them to use the new words requires real affection for the mother tongue,” insists Sakam Nagaraja, president of Telugu Bhashodyama Samithi, Tirupati.
Intense feeling for the mother tongue among Telugus is not as strong today as it was during the formation of the Andhra State on linguistic basis. Some media houses have taken up the ambitious task but they may not arrive at a consensus on the usage, as they would await official sanction. This is where the Telugu Development Authority would come into the picture.
‘Commitment lacking’
The World Telugu Conference held in Tirupati four years ago expressed its resolve to form such an all-encompassing body, but the government confined itself to carving out a Ministry, which is seen by linguists to be without any real authority. “We don’t have a language policy like many other States. Politicians lament the pathetic state of affairs, but in reality, they don’t know the differences that separate language, literature and culture”, says Samala Ramesh Babu, Editor of Ammanudi , a Vijayawada-based monthly magazine that coins new words.
Though the government recently announced the creation of an authority, the way it is shaped will be crucial to determine the flow of new words into the Telugu lexicon.
