Applied Languages

The Kashmir University has launched the first trilingual English-Kashmiri-Hindi online dictionary ‘Kashmiri Zaban’, containing over 12,000 words.

The dictionary, compiled by the university’s Department of Linguistics, makes use of three scripts - the Roman script for English, Devangari script for Hindi and Modified Persio-Arabic script for Kashmiri.

“Launch of the dictionary was a historic moment for the varsity. The dictionary will be of great use to people, especially the non-Kashmiris for whom we are launching a course named Kashmiri for non-Kashmiri soon”, the University’s vice-chancellor Riyaz Punjabi said.

The dictionary was launched during the inaugural function of the 5-day workshop on a Dialect Survey on Kashmiri.

Read more: Press Trust of India

China Central Television (CCTV), a national TV station, will open a Russian language channel broadcast on Sept 10, bringing its foreign language channels total to five, Xinhua reports.

According to a statement issued by CCTV on Thursday, the Russian channel is expected to serve a potential 300-million audience in the 12 nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Eastern Europe and the Baltic states.

Audience in other countries will be able to watch it through the CCTV website, the statement said.

The channel will provide news, entertainment and programs to introduce China, Chinese culture and language round the clock, it said.

CCTV said it hopes the channel will help improve understanding between Chinese and people in Russian-spoken countries, the statement said.

CCTV currently broadcasts channels in the English, French, Spanish and Arabic languages.

Read more: Bernama

Aischa Bardoun sees herself as a trail-blazer. She is one of the first Moroccans to get a masters degree in the Amazigh language, spoken by the country’s Berber majority.

“We are very excited,” she says. “We studied the older texts that were passed down orally, but we are also writing new literature to reflect the current situation for Berbers in Morocco. It’s really ground-breaking.”

Although Berbers were Morocco’s first inhabitants and account for some 60% of Morocco’s population, they faced widespread discrimination and it is only now that the language is required to be taught in public school.

Their academic qualifications may not help them much on the job market, but the availability of a further degree in a subject that was once virtually outlawed in their North African country underscores Berber success in gaining official acceptance of the language.

As well as the University of Ibn Zohr offering degrees in Amazigh, an umbrella term for the three dialects of Berber that are spoken in Morocco, the previously oral-only language has moved further into the mainstream with the creation of a Royal Institute of Amazigh language and culture.

Although many Amazigh are illiterate, the government has put in place measures to assist schools to teach the written form of the language. The Royal Institute of Amazigh has overseen the creation of an alphabet based partly on the mystical signs and symbols of the Tuareg found inscribed on tombs and monuments.

This written form is expected to have a unifying effect. It is essentially a new form of the language which, it is hoped, all Moroccan Berbers will speak and understand.

And while Arabic remains the official language of the country, when it comes to music, young Moroccans either listen to Western music, or to rap in Amazigh.

Abullah Aourik, an artist and publisher of a magazine in Amazigh, wants to see Berber replace Arabic as the official language of the country. “We think it would be appropriate to change part of our constitution so that Arabic is no longer required for legal documents or for any official communication,” he insists.

“Most Moroccans grow up speaking Berber – why should they be at a disadvantage in having to use classical Arabic which is a foreign language whenever they brush up against bureaucracy?”

The government may not be ready yet to entertain this idea which seems far-fetched to even the majority of the Amazigh themselves, but the teaching of Amazigh in public schools and at university level could in the future lead to it being recognised as a national language – as it already is in Algeria, Mali and Niger.

Read more: BBC News