Language saves humanity: Chair Dr Thakur

Kathmandu, Aug 29: Chairman of the Language Commission, Dr Gopal Thakur, has said there is huge importance of languages in nation-building and protection of the entire human species. Chairman Dr Thakur said it in the 2nd International Conference on 'Geolinguistics Trends: Language Contact, Conflict, Policy and Pedagogical Practices' that kicked off in the federal capital on Friday. "Once human beings forget their languages, they will automatically become extinct," Dr Thakur said, adding that the politics of languages killed numbers of languages. As the politics of the country changed, the awareness of preserving and promoting languages has been transformed. The monolingual mind set has been changed into a multilingual mindset at present, according to him. The two-day conference is organized by the Geolinguistics Society of Nepal to whet multidimensional aspects of languages, informed Dr Aita Bishowkarma, Chairman of the Society. The keynote speaker Dr Grigory Kazakov, Associate Professor of Mgimo University of Moscow talked on language promotion and protection, including the marginalization of the languages in Nepal, Japan and Guana. Similarly, Professor Emeritus Hikaru Kitabayashi from Daito Bunka University emphasized multilingualism in Nepal. He is the Co-President of the American Society of Geolinguistics and patron of the Geolinguistics Society of Nepal. He asserted that Nepal has a golden opportunity to maintain linguistic harmony through geolinguistics perspectives. Some 39 research papers, both by novice researchers and established geolinguistics scholars from Nepal, India, Japan, Russia, Canada and America are being presented in the conference. A renowned linguist from Nepal, Amrit Yonjan Tamang, described his life involvement with the evolution of language policies in Nepal. A panel discussion on 'multilingualism, pedagogical practices and geolinguistics' has been scheduled for next day, according to Dr Bishowkarma.