Madras High Court laments 'murder' of Tamil; flags falling standards of language in official communications

The Madras High Court recently said that while it was common for one to “liberally mix English words” even when one was speaking in one’s mother tongue, any official communication issued in the State in the Tamil language must be completely “grammatically and linguistically correct.”.In an order passed on October 18, Justice GR Swaminathan said that increasingly, the standards of being proficient in one’s mother tongue were falling, and that it should be a cause of much concern.“I have dwelt on this subject because the official communications must be grammatically and linguistically correct. We are all concerned about the fall in standards. We are not able to speak in chaste Tamil without a liberal mix of English words. At least our written language must be pure and free of errors,” the order stated..The Court recorded the same in a petition filed by a local claiming that his electricity bills were erroneously inflated and that the electric meter at his residence must be changed.While the Court was going through the notice sent by the State authorities asking the petitioner to clear all outstanding bills, it noted that the last word in such notice had been misspelt..Instead of using the Tamil alphabet that denotes the ‘ra’ sound, the notice had used the similar Tamil alphabet that denotes the ‘raa’ sound with an emphasis and an added syllable..The Court then summoned the State department official who had authored such notice and asked her if she realised the mistake she had made. However, the official was unable to realise the mistake despite the Court having pointed it out to her..This led Justice Swaminathan to remark on the falling standards of proficiency in one’s mother tongue. The judge also recorded a personal anecdote where his wife had received a bill after purchasing some goods. The bill that was typed in Tamil had a spelling error which had caused a hilarious situation. The term used in Tamil to say ‘Baaki' (balance) had been misspelt as 'Pakki' (scoundrel)..The Court went on to say that such errors had become commonplace these days and that even several orders of the High Court that had been signed by judges, contained glaring grammatical or spelling errors. However, while the Court’s orders were in English, and some mistakes could be understandable, making mistakes in one’s mother tongue was unacceptable, the Court said.“I am conscious that those living in glass houses should not throw stones at others. The certified copies of the orders signed by the High Court Judges often bristle with spelling and grammatical errors. But as the immortal poet Bharathiyar said in a different context, it is one thing to maul and mutilate English language but murdering mother tongue is unacceptable,” Justice Swaminathan said..The judge let go of the error in the State electricity department’s notice though, and simply directed the authorities to look into the petitioner’s grievance and change the electricity meter if needed..[Read Order]