Neglect of mother tongue leads to its extinction: Karnataka

The lack of pride in one's own language and the reluctance to speak their mother tongue will ultimately lead to its extinction, state Minister for Kannada, Culture and Tourism C T Ravi said on Saturday.

The existence of a language is dependent on the people who speak it. People start neglecting their own language when they lose pride in their culture, he said inaugurating the silver jubilee celebrations of Karnataka Konkani Sahitya Academy at Karkala in Udupi district.

The Minister said language and culture are two sides of the same coin, adding culture will survive only when the language survives.

The country has around 1,200 languages which are complementary to each other in terms of their development, he said.

Konkani language is nurtured by Kannada language. People should preserve local and regional languages for the future generation. Many regional languages are facing threat of extinction due to the people's love for English. Though the language should be learned, it should not be at the cost of one's mother tongue, the minister said.

As part of the silver jubilee, 25 achievers in various fields of Konkani were honoured on the occasion.

Konkani Sahitya Akademi president K Jagadish Pai, in his introductory speech, outlined the achievements of the Academy in the last 25 years.

Udupi-Chikkamagaluru MP Shobha Karandlaje, Karkala MLA V Sunil Kumar and litterateur Gokuldas Prabhu were among those present.