K Keshava Rao stress on standardisng Telugu

Hyderabad: Senior journalists on Monday urged the State government to collect and restore Telugu words which are apt translations or alternatives to popularly-used words from English and other languages used in Telugu especially in Telangana.

They strongly felt the need for standardisation of language used in media including print, broadcast (television) and New Media (web) which have a direct impact on people’s lives and eventually on literature.

Addressing a meeting on ‘Telugu in Print and Electronic Media’ on the fourth day of the ongoing World Telugu Conference at Ravindra Bharati, former journalist and Rajya Sabha member K Keshava Rao emphasised the need to standardise Telugu language in Telangana for usage in print including newspapers and textbooks.

“Telangana dialect has a special place among people and they can easily relate with colloquial language. As language used in media travels easily among people, we can popularise Telangana dialect by standardising it, failing which Telugu would lose its originality and result in linguistic chaos,” he said.

Agreeing with him, veteran journalist Potturi Venkateswara Rao said due to globalisation, there was an influx of new words in colluqial Telugu but not in print media or text books as Telugu had not been standardised in a long time. Instead of restoring some forgotten Telugu words, some media houses are coining new words and imposing them on people which is unwanted,” he said. He suggested newspapers to use their reporters network to collect and prepare a dictionary of colloquial Telugu words from public to use in media.

Another veteran journalist and author GS Varadachari found nothing wrong in using English words in colloquial Telugu but warned journalists against making true translations from English without proper knowledge of the word’s origin. Senior journalist T Udayavarlu urged the Telangana State Media Academy to constitute a committee of journalists and language experts to standardise Telugu used in media and text books in Telangana.

Central Information Commissioner Madabhushi Sridhar said Telugu was being extensively used only in media even as administration and education were heavily dependent on English for communication and information.

Besides pressing for institutional effort for extensive usage of Telugu, he wanted the State government to make efforts to teach all subjects in Telugu upto graduation including technical subjects in streams such as engineering and medicine failing which language might exist only in literary works.

Despite seepage of English words into Telugu, Chief Public Relations Officer at Chief Minister’s Office Vanam Jwala Narasimha found no threat to Telugu language and said any language evolves only through inclusion of new words.

‘Namaste Telangana’ Editor Katta Shekhar Reddy expressed concern over fading out of reading habit among younger generation who were unaware of various Telugu literary forms. “As a result, young reporters are unable to convey information or expression properly to their readers,” he said. All India Radio journalist Sumanaspathi from Adilabad station also highlighted usage of colloquial language by private FM channels which is gaining popularity among people.