Why in News?

• A Global Language Park in Pune will celebrate and promote linguistic diversity.

About the news:

• The first such experiment in the  country, and perhaps the world, the eminent linguist Ganesh Devy plans to setup a Global Language Park (bhasha van in Hindi) in Pune.
• It will be located on a one-acre plot on the premises of the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU).
• Conceptualised as part of the 84th PEN(Poets, Essayists, Novelists)International Congress that is under way in the city, the park will have about 80 ‘language trees.’
• Akin to the concept of a language tree in English grammar, each of the 80 trees will symbolise a major or minor language tree sprouting from the important language families.
• Each tree  represents  the  languages and dialects derived from the family or parent tree, explaining the connection between natural  trees and languages in the Linguists estimate that the world has more than 140 language families, each with its  member-languages and dialects.
• Set to open in January 2019, the park will have a tree-lined walkway. Each plant will be equipped with a ‘bespoke audio tour’ to aid visitors. Audio samples of songs, poems, folk tales, sayings, and jokes will be drawn from different world languages.