Nov
02
The Central Government has decided to accede to confer the status of classical languages on Kannada and Telugu. This follows the recommendation of the Committee of Linguistic Experts set up by the government. The fight for the prestigious status for the two languages was launched by academicians and language experts in AP and Karnataka after the UPA government had accorded the classical language status to Tamil in 2004. To be classified as classical, a language must fulfill four criteria laid down by the government. Among them are that the language must have a recorded history of at least 1,500-2000 years and its literary tradition must be original and not borrowed from any speech community and must have a large and rich body of ancient literature. Till now, Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit and Tamil have been accorded classical language status. Actually What does getting the ‘classical’ tag mean? According classical language status would greatly boost research, preservation and spread of the language.
