ENGLISH IS NO LONGER
A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Considering the linguistic communities, there are about 7000 languages spoken in the world today. More than 700 languages are spoken in our country India. Hindi language as First Language / Mother Tongue is mainly spoken in North India. In South India, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada languages are widely used as first language and English as second language. In our Maharashtra, Marathi is the third most spoken language after Hindi and English. Each state has its own language like Marathi in Maharashtra, Kannada in Karnataka, Punjabi in Punjab, Bengali in Bengal, Telugu in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil in Tamil Nadu etc.
However, in metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, multi-lingual groups of people can be seen as many provincial people live there for the purpose of employment, industry, education and trade. As Indian languages were not propagated as much outside the Indian subcontinent, they remained only regional languages.
On the contrary, because of the propagation, spread, prevalence of the English language in India and the whole world, the English language was not limited to England and America but became known as a universal and global language. Internationally, English is given priority as the language of cultural, scientific, literary, educational exchange, communication and transaction.
Certain word usages from numerous languages have been incorporated into the English language. E.g. Veranda, Morcha, Andolan, Gherao, Bandobast, Zamindar, Watanadar, Lathi, Grihalakshmi, etc., many Marathi words have been included in the English vocabulary. There are many countries where English is spoken more widely than England and America.
The number of students studying in English medium, the number of students studying abroad is extremely high and it has been increasing day by day. And that is why no one can deny that English language has been recognized as the language of highly educated, knowledgeable people, the language of guaranteed employment anywhere in the world, the language of countless opportunities, the language of international communication, the language of global communication, the language of science and technology.
The original draft of the Constitution of India is in English only. Hindi language has not yet achieved the status of a national language. English language has gained unique importance as the language of Indian constitution, law, administration, court- work, higher education, national bank-work. In India, along with major cities, even in cities, talukas and even in some villages, the number of English medium schools is increasing. English medium schools, convent schools are mushroomed on the nooks and corners of India. In short, the spread of the English language from "local to global" is astounding. That is probably why Vishnusastri Chiplunkar called the English language "tigress's milk". Even Pandit Nehru has glorified the English language as a window to the world.
Almost 70 percent of books, dailies, weekly, magazine, research papers in the world are found in English language. Popular regional language movies, and major books are translated into English language and vice versa and therefore, English is considered as a rich global language. Finally, one would like to say that if the English language is treated as a tigress's milk, one has to ride this tiger without fear and drink its milk.
0 Comments