Health of the Tamil language: An American Perspective
TAMIL TRIBUNE, April 2004 (ID. 2004-04-01)
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In September 2002 and again in January 2003 I went to Chennai (Madras) to participate in volunteer projects, for a total of six weeks. I had studied Tamil in preparation for these trips, but I did not really have a sense of it as a living language because I only knew it from books and language instruction tapes. When I got to Chennai, I was thrilled to see signs in Tamil everywhere, to hear it spoken by ordinary people, and to try speaking it myself (I found the most difficult part was understanding what people said back to me).
However, I was a little shocked to realize the encroachment English had made into Tamil. For example, while reading street signs and billboards, I realized that many of them were actually English, but written using the Tamil alphabet. I was also "corrected" on a number of occasions when I tried to use what I considered to be the correct Tamil word, and was told to use an English word instead! All living languages borrow words from other languages, so I am not suggesting that Tamil speakers attempt to purge Tamil of all words that are not "pure" Tamil (which is probably impossible in any case). But I would caution that a point comes when a language begins to lose integrity if its core grammar and vocabulary are subjected to too much "borrowing". I hope the Tamil people realize that their language and its literature are a precious possession, and that they do everything possible to preserve it.
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