The Mysuru-based Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) has proposed to launch the Language Repository of India and it may be named as “Bharatiya Bhasha Sangam”. It will be a repository of languages, including languages from the Scheme for Protection and Preservation of Endangered Languages (SPPEL), Bhasha Mandakini, fieldwork data of around 160 languages, classical languages’ texts, CIIL books and others.
“The repository will create a data corpus in formats that can be easily accessed by linguists, communities and others. The repository may also help computational linguistics, language teaching and other sub-domains. In future, we would extend this repository to individuals, institutions and Universities for depositing their linguistic resources on the portal,” said Prof. Shailendra Mohan, Director, CIIL, Mysuru.
In his address at the 54th Foundation Day of CIIL here on Sunday, Prof. Mohan said that CIIL is also planning to launch “Makers of Indian Linguistics”, a series of biographical monographs on linguists who have made significant contributions to the development of linguistics in India and abroad since ancient times.
The CIIL director said the Institute has completed several projects to enable and strengthen the languages of India. Bhasha Mandakini, MILES, Anukruti are a few of them. The pedagogical materials for various languages published by the CIIL have been followed by individuals as well as institutions across the country, he added.
Ms. Neeta Prasad, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Education, Department of Higher Education, Government of India, who was the chief guest, virtually took part in the programme. Prof D P Pattanayak, founder director, CIIL was the guest of honour.
Former directors of CIIL Prof. Udaya Narayana Singh, Prof. Rajesh Sachdeva, Prof. Awdesh Kumar Mishra were present.
