Re: New pronunciation of Bangalore

Michael Farris wrote:
ranjit_mathews@xxxxxxxxx napisal(a):

many Indian English speakers use only English for a significant
proportion of the subjects they talk about and in cosmopolitan
gatherings where the best known common language is English, they use
English even for conversations they know how to conduct in an Indian
language.

That's sad. Why don't Indians care more about Indian languages?

For the 1st 15 years of independence, one could be schooled in an
Indian language and go on to join the Indian Administrative service, or
other high-flying careers. In the 60s, competitive entrance exams
conducted entirely in English were introduced, and grades in school
haven't counted for much since then. Those who went to English medium
schools had an advantage in these exams. So, schooling in languages
other than English fell out of demand. Madras Christian College High
School was forced to shut down its Indian language medium instruction,
for lack of enrollment, in 1975 or so. So, there is now a generation of
Indians who have been taught only in English and have learnt Indian
languages only as 2nd languages. If entrance exams were switched to
Indian languages, the upper crust would lose the edge they have by
virtue of their command of English, and the riff-raff would gain the
upper hand by virtue of their greater command of Indian languages.
Would the upper crust in the US agree to switch the language used for
SAT exams from English to Ebonics or Spanish?

In Europe it's accepted that the native language should serve as many
functions as possible, for small minority languages (like Frisian)
that's hard, but even Lithuanian or Slovak (with 5 million or less
speakers) are used at all levels of education and government AFAIK
widespread knowledge of foreign languages notwithstanding.


-michael farris

.

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