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COMMUNICATION | LANGUAGE CONFLICTS
Crossing The Language Barrier
Building the bridges that unite humanity
‘This is mine, that is his, say the small minded,
The wise believe that the entire world is a family.’
— Verse from the ancient Sanskrit text, the Maha Upanishad, 6.71–75
I am trying to learn German, and if I miss a day’s lessons, the green Duo Lingo owl on the language learning app, looks unhappy. ‘Die Eule’ has breached my phone and my email. I cannot open either without her looking like she is about to burst into tears.
Why German? Someone told me it is easy to learn.
And because we go back a long way, German and Malayalam, my mother tongue. From 1836 to 1859, Hermann Gundert, lived in Kerala. He was a missionary, a linguist, educationist, writer and publisher. He established schools.
And, most importantly for the Malayalam language, he compiled the first Malayalam dictionary. Today, more than a century later, that tome is spoken of, with reverence. I remember the respect in my parents’ voices, when they spoke about it.
The German-born British philologist, orientalist and Indologist, Max Mueller, committed his whole life to the study of Indian languages with a…
