Hello Readers,
Today is UNESCO World Mother Language Day. What is your mother language and what do you love about it? Let me start with mine. I am blessed to be born in a Tamil family, and am immensely grateful to God, for giving Tamil as my mother tongue. It was disheartening for me to see that Tamil, one of the classical languages that has all the aspects to drive humanity towards a harmonious life, is left out in UNESCO's writing peace manual last year. However, that inspired me to start a blog that discusses all about Tamil, so here we are.
Languages serve as both tools for communication and repositories of humanity's collective wisdom, knowledge, and experiences. They connect the intangible mind with the physical body, allowing the soul to converse with the world through the senses. In fact, language is what brings meaning to what the eye sees. In Tamil, there's a saying, Ennum (Numbers) Ezhuthum (and Alphabets) Kan ena thagum (are like eyes) - by the lady Saint Avvaiyar.
The mother tongue, in particular, serves as a key that unlocks an individual's potential for growth and self-awareness. Language is a subject that should not be ignored, nor should it be blindly praised without substance. Rather, it should be approached practically as a tool to shape our thinking and guide a society towards progress. Language is one of the many things that distinguishes human beings from the rest of the species that coexist with us on this clueless floating rock brimming with water. Respect to languages is one of the crucial characteristics of civilized men. So, with respect to everyone's mother tongue, let's proceed...
One doesn't get to choose their parents, likewise their mother tongue, beyond choice. Rather, it is the language itself that selects us to be born into its community of speakers, contingent upon a soul's level of development and it's progress towards greater awareness and liberation. Just IMO. More on this later.
Here are few things I love and feel proud about Tamil:
One of the 7 classical languages in the world, with equal weights of literary and grammatical richness.
One of the oldest languages in the world, although the exact when-abouts are debatable, Thirukkural, the nexus point of all philosophical works in the world as well as Tamil, dates back to 2000 years or older. If a civilization has such a well documented philosophy, which is unbiased, inclusive and timeless, 2000 years ago, I leave it to your imagination, how much longer it could've existed in this world to come to such collective maturity and clarity.
A Language which is still evolving and advances with it's speakers, with an ever growing vocabulary to include modern world's rapid progress. Bring anything new, Tamil can give it's speakers a well defined word for that which might have never existed before.
A Language with very deep, yet overlooked, underrated, philosophical wisdom and clarity that is needed for a true seeker. Works including Thirukkural, Naladiyar, Moodhurai etc. have so much to offer for anyone who wishes to sculpt themselves to perfection as a human being. Many of my friends from the west seem to be blocked by the broad and basic philosophy tied with Hinduism and Sanatan, but there's much deeper philosophical wisdom ready to be unearthed in Tamil which can make this world a better place.
A language that possesses wisdom without being tethered to any specific religion or ethnic group, as well as offering practical observations about God.Let me quote an example from Thirukkural, which says as below: Dheivathal Agadhu(What God shall never do) Eninum (yet) Muyarchi (Effort) Tan Meivarutha (of one's mind and body) Cooli tharum (shall make happen) Such a truth cannot be declared by any religious body tied to a particular language, as it would shake the very foundations of the faith upon which it stands.
The depth of philosophical wisdom infused into the Tamil language is so profound that even its fundamental structure and grammar were built upon profound inferences about life. Allow me to illustrate.
Like most other languages, Tamil has vowels and consonants. But in Tamil we call them Uyir Ezhuthukal (letters of life) and Mei Ezhuthukal (letters without life) and compounding both to form Uyir Mei Ezhuthukal (Living Letters).
While teaching someone my mother tongue, I often see a sense of fascination when they get to see how this works. Uyir Ezhuthukal or vowels, function on their own, how life or energy is able to exist without a body, letters A, Aa, E, Ee, are all used as expressive sounds in day to day life. A, Aa (exclaim, yell in pain) E, Ee (Laugh, Ee means to give) Etc. Mei Ezhuthu are those which have a staccato like pronunciation of closed phonetics, Ik, Ing, Ich, Inj, It, etc. These letters don't have any meaning by themselves and work only in conjunction between other letters, between Uyir, Mei or Uyir and UyirMei etc. And when these 2 letters combine and permutate, it gives birth to Uyirmei Ezhuthu (total of 216 letters).
The Uyir or life force is imperceptible to the naked eye, as only the physical body is visible to us. Similarly, in the UyirMei ezhuthu, when the Uyir Ezhuthu and Mei Ezhuthu combine, the Uyir Ezhuthu influences the phonetic shape of the Mei Ezhuthu, even though it remains concealed to the eyes. For example, when 'Ik' and 'Aa' combine, they form 'Kaa'.
Not only the language of Tamil, but the speakers of it, has been historically known for their humility, talent, power and above all compassion and inclusion. A Tamil poem by Kaniyan Poongundranar from 6 BCE says:
Yaadhum Oorey (Anywhere is our place, the world is but one village) Yaavarum Kelir (Everyone is related)
It further goes on to insists the reader to stay humble, not to discriminate, not to look down on people, among various other life lessons. 6 BCE, that is, just think about it for a moment.
These are few of the many reasons I wish, Tamil could be the global mother language. With the advent of internet, access to information and truth to commoners around the world, I am writing this blog to add my tiny speck of a brick to bridge Tamil with you, my beloved reader.
Present day, Tamil is deeply neglected by it's own speakers due to western influence, media propaganda and political influences, which needs to be changed with a sense of urgency, in my opinion. My goal is to shift the perspective on Tamil, not only as my mother language but also as a language for world peace.
So, What is your mother language and what do you feel proud about it? Let's exchange ideas and learn together. Comment below and share this article.
Notes:
More about Thirukkural in my other article: Read here
This article in my mother tongue Tamil: Read here
To learn more about Tamil, keep visiting my blog.
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