Odia in Festival of Indian Languages

Saturday 4 May 2024

Odia in Festival of Indian Languages

"The explosion of media over the past two decades means local stories can be told in local languages at a mass level in ways that was impossible in the past.
In print. On radio. On TV. Online. On digital video. Even on hoardings. As the regional language pipes grow, brands have wonderful new avenues via which they can speak to their consumers.
Festival of Indian Languages (FOIL) is a conference that will try to paint the linguistic patchwork that keeps together the magical idea of India.
Are we tapping all the opportunities that localisation of language offers? What more could we do? FOIL is the first such multimedia conference in the country that explores the power of local languages in mass media. It has been organised by afaqs!"

Languages are special.

Languages keep us connected.

They truly provide a "linguistic patchwork."

I am so excited to learn of the Festival of Indian Languages (FOIL) being organized by AFAQs.

The moment I received an invitation to attend, I started reading more by visiting their website. The starting lines of this post and the above image are from their About section.

https://events.afaqs.com/festival-of-indian-languages

I love the representation of all our National languages together.

I found my mother tongue "Odia" too on the list.

Odia is the sixth classical language of India.

However, the spelling of "Odia" needs to be updated in the list.

Presently, "Oriya" is mentioned in the list.

Many, who have done their schooling before the second decade of this century, have studied/read about "Oriya" in school textbooks.

"Oriya" has been changed to "Odia" in 2011.

School books probably got updated after some years.

But, the general usage and conception is still- "Oriya" or "Odiya" etc.

This X (Twitter) thread has more info-

In 2011, the name of Orissa state & Oriya language was changed to #Odisha & #Odia respectively by the efforts of our CM Shri @Naveen_Odisha @CMO_Odisha.

More than a decade later, there's still lack of info. #Confusion #SpellingIsOdisha #SpellingIsOdia https://t.co/L8pd3S3vAq pic.twitter.com/fHvEt1z1Ie
— Anita Sabat - ଡ. ଅନୀତା ସାବତ (@anitaexplorer) January 11, 2022

Corrections are a challenge in this age of digital technology when there are innumerable articles with the wrong spellings, names & information.

Past reports/ available information are consulted and the same is shared.

For example, when trusted sources of information- websites and people use old spellings or incorrect names etc, those are followed and shared by many.

When new people want to consult or share, they will believe the sources of information provided by the Government.

22 Languages are included in the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution.

https://rajbhasha.gov.in/en/languages-included-eighth-schedule-indian-constitution

If there is misinformation in Government sources, the same gets shared further.

Sadly, there has been no update even after our outreach via Twitter and also by email 2 years ago.

Kindly note, @RajbhashaVibhag #Odia #SpellingIsOdia

Website is yet to be updated- https://t.co/1cohvluEnR

The last website update was on 17 May 2022;
above tweet request was on 16 May 2022;
update awaited.
Languages must be correctly spelled🙏@rashtrapatibhvn @GovernorOdisha
— Anita Sabat - ଡ. ଅନୀତା ସାବତ (@anitaexplorer) May 4, 2024

Odia- the language of Odisha.

Websites, books, files etc need to be updated🙏https://t.co/sc0zCXE9ze @MIB_India @PIB_India @PIBHomeAffairs @PIBFactCheck @MoIB_Official @ianuragthakur @rashtrapatibhvn @GovernorOdisha @CMO_Odisha #CorrectRepresentation #Odia #SpellingIsOdia pic.twitter.com/COWd8oLCSJ
— Anita Sabat - ଡ. ଅନୀତା ସାବତ (@anitaexplorer) May 4, 2024