How do languages mix? Does it begin in chaos, new migrants and old inhabitants needing a pidgin to communicate? Or does it happen more smoothly, in stages? And what is a prakrit? Why do we hear only of prakrits, and never of pidgins, in South Asia?
In this edition of Sarmaya Talks, Peggy Mohan will look at exactly how the mixed languages in South Asia came to life. Like a flame moving from wick to wick in early encounters between male settlers and locals skilled at learning languages, the language would start to ‘go native’ as it spread. This produced ‘father tongues’, with words taken from the migrant men’s language, but grammars that preserved the earlier languages of the ‘motherland’.
About Speaker: Born in Trinidad, West Indies, Peggy Mohan studied linguistics at the University of the West Indies and pursued a PhD in the same from the University of Michigan. She has taught linguistics at Howard University, Washington D.C., Jawaharlal Nehru University and Ashoka University, and mass communications at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. She is the author of Wanderers, Kings, Merchants (2021), which won the Mathrubhumi Book of the Year Award. Peggy has dabbled in cartoon animation, produced a television series in Hindi for children and taught music. She lives in New Delhi.
Meeting Point: Sarmaya Arts Foundation, 2nd Floor, Lawrence & Mayo Commercial Premises Co-op. Society Ltd., 276, Dr. D.N. Road, Fort, Mumbai - 400001Landmark: Next to Khadi Bhandar
Age group: Open to All
Seating will be first come first basis. Refreshments at 5:30 PM
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Address : Sarmaya Arts Foundation, 2nd Floor, Lawrence and Mayo Opticians, 276, Dr Dadabhai Naoroji Rd, Kala Ghoda, Fort, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400001, India
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