There are several instances in Bengaluru nowadays wherein placards and huge hoardings put up by business establishments to advertise their product or shop are insulting the local language - Kannada - by printing Kannada characters on a miniscule scale, whereas English (sometimes even Hindi) characters rule the canvas and are larger than life itself.
This is an insult to the language, and also to the consumers in Bengaluru, who are predominantly Kannada speaking people itself. This is a prick in the Kannadiga consumer's pride and prestige.
Look at this image (seen in south Bengaluru), for instance: (spot the Kannada characters on this and you'll have to visit an eye-specialist soon!)
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Tara le
Tarle: It is always a pleasure reading your writing and sobering voice.
Glad to learn of unknown unknowns.
unknown, but secretly known!
Tarle,
Thanks for the revisit to the classification of abstraction and the unknown unknown funda. But tell you what, what you're hinting as unknown is surely something that can be unearthed using this unknown-known called language and the problems related to humankind from a linguistic perspective.
As City.zen rightly pointed out, a language is here for man, and not vice-versa. A lot of upliftment of peoples' lives is possible if one sees language beyond being an alphabet, or a huge set of words or even a pile of books written using it.
Isnt it true that language is one of the best inventions/evolutions man has ever made? And in this matter, the diversity in this tool called language is what adds thrill to it, and opens up that many more avenues full of opportunities. They could be in business, technology, or a profitable combination of these two, or could also be something else that eventually drives either of these. The last one there is what is subject to this thread - if the consumer forum demands or even if the polity rightly directs business establishments to use Kannada prominently on their ads, hoardings and placards, when advertising inside Karnataka, and make it apply to whatever the medium of advertising be, there is but a wide-open avenue now available for technology to develop around and using Kannada language. And business advertising is just one of the zillion things related to business where language can play a major role.
To make all that happen, we're the guys responsible. We have it in us to go out there and demand for Kannada. That is all it takes. There are capable people who can deliver to this demand that we create. Of course some of us could be party to that effort as well!
Coming to TS's concern about other civic problems, I am sure with technology and all such related growth happening under the carpet, one can always leverage such developmental works to meet the needs of resolving civic problems too. Isnt Praja (or Praje ?) a good example indeed of a technological advancement being put to good use for a civic cause?
I think there'll always be such problems, we need to invest our efforts at resolving the problem at the root, and like a game of Solitaire, after a good time invested, everything will start falling in place and we'll win.
-Nijavaada
Ugravada Pratibatanee bagge
Kannadigarigee Central Govt endaaaaaaa prathi vicharadallu anyayaa agtha eroo vicharaa ellarigu gothu edakkella karanaaa namma praja prathinidigaluu (MP's) ,mathu rashtriya pakshagaluu , nammade adaa pradeshika paksha barovaraguuu namma prathibatanee annu munduvarisabekuuu.
Linguistic Probelms
User Interaction Designer
Bangalore
The Karnataka Shops and