According to the Census of India 2011, there are 121 languages and 270 mother tongues that are spoken by more than 10,000 people. There are many languages which are spoken by less than 10,000 people. There is an urgent need to document, describe, prepare dictionaries, grammar and other teaching and learning resources for the development of these languages, said CIIL Director Shailendra Mohan.
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“We must develop these languages to unlock the highest potential of human beings. At CIIL, we believe that it is our responsibility to project a view that language is a facilitator for developing the highest potential of human beings,” he said, in his presidential address at the week-long training programme on language documentation that began at the CIIL here on Wednesday.
Technology will define the next decade for Indian languages – the way Indians communicate and the access to information is changing very fast in this digital world. “I strongly believe that these divides created by technology may also be bridged by technology itself,” he said.
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He stressed the need for creating technology-driven resources in Indian languages to move forward. “Because, I find technology can provide a level playing field for these lesser known or minor languages spoken in India. Perhaps, the future will be judged on languages that have digital resources versus languages that do not have digital resources,” he opined.
Various types of technological tools and techniques are being used in the training programme.
While doing language documentation, we also need to look into the commonness among these languages, he felt.