Is your language dying?

A New York Times report on September 19, 2007 by JOHN NOBLE WILFORD states that half the 7000 existing languages might become extinct in this century. Does your mother tongue come under this category?

What brought my attention to this matter is an email discussion by some friends that was copied to me. It reflects the widespread apprehension that Malayalam, the vernacular of Kerala might be endangered.

The main reason for this fear is the apparent neglect of Malayalam by many Keralites. They prefer to send their children to English medium schools. Their line of thinking is obvious - a good command of spoken and written English would brighten the career opportunities for the younger generation.

My siblings and I studied in local schools. That gave us a good grounding in Malayalam. Then we went on to learn English. At home we spoke only Malayalam. I don’t think we missed any opportunities because of this.

Conditions are different now, of course. For nonresidents, in their interaction with others - in school, among friends, at workplace and in the daily chores – the mother tongue can hardly be used. At home too many prefer to talk in English.

There is some logic in parents accepting the situation. They themselves were probably educated in the English medium and find it easier to communicate in that language. Also, they might feel that it could help the children to improve their English.

On the other hand, they could be missing much. The Malayalam language, for instance, is rich in all forms of literature – poetry, short stories, novels, nonfiction. Kerala’s book publishing industry seems healthy, launching about 100 titles a month. The writers are making money. Many periodicals and newspapers have high circulation.

What then, is wrong? Perhaps the age group of the readers, though no reliable data is available. One rarely sees a young man with a Malayalam book. Sometimes, though a senior citizen, I get curious looks when carrying a Malayalam book while traveling.

A language dies for two reasons. The first is when its functionality declines. That means a tongue becomes irrelevant in a particular area if it cannot be used effectively there. It fades into the background and is activated only for occasional ethnic social events or on visits home. This is so true in the case of expatriates.

Secondly, a language cannot survive when it is unable to cope with the fast changing requirements of the evolving global village and remains static. Sanskrit and Latin are classic examples of this.

English, on the other hand, is considered to be the ‘killer’ language that threatens the existence of other tongues. Even the French are afraid of this British invasion. How did English attain and maintain such an increasingly predominant position?

It keeps growing continuously by absorbing many new words from several other languages. Then again, it gets adapted regionally. As a result, today we have so many geographical versions of English that are in active use and are well accepted. No other language can claim such flexibility.

A 2007 study sponsored by the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages and the National Geographic Society identified five areas globally where the original languages are fast vanishing.

India is not in that group. At least not yet.

Ends.

References:

1) Languages Die, but Not Their Last Words

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/science/19language.html

Accessed on Nov. 3, 2008

2) How Languages Die. Salikoko S. MUFWENE, University of Chicago

http://humanities.uchicago.edu/faculty/mufwene/publications/HOW_LANGUAGES_DIE.pdf

Accessed on Nov.3, 2008.

Also see:

Going to school in a feudal era

http://parayilat.blogspot.com/2007/04/going-to-school-in-feudal-era-part-1.html

Autobiography of a School

Across the black waters

Last month a cousin of mine asked me to advise his daughter about international travel. She was proceeding to the United States for the first time on a study cum training assignment.

I told the girl three things. One: never panic under any circumstance; keep cool and situations can be managed. Two: there might be jetlag after a long haul. Three: initially there could be problem with the American accent and difficulty in understanding what they say.

My first trip to US was in 1970. That was one week after a visit to Russia to assess that country’s tire industry. At that time I was the General Manager of the automobile tire project of Ruby Rubber Works Ltd and was shopping around for technical collaboration. Mr. KPU Menon, the then Production Manager of Premier Tyres accompanied me.

The Moscow tire factory was impressive. It had two parts. One was an old Ford tire facility that was dismantled and shipped out to Russia in 1942 to augment the war effort. The other was a modern automated plant with one million tires a year capacity, which was operated by about 350 workers. Most of them were women.

We were looked after well by the Russian government departments concerned. But all along there was a sense of insecurity. On landing at Moscow, our passports and the money we carried were taken away. In lieu of US dollars we were issued Intourist Coupons! Imagine being in a foreign country sans proof of identity and money, and without knowing the language.

A week after returning from Russia was the trip to Akron, Ohio, to the HQ of General Tires, which at that time was one of the tire majors in America. Our delegation was led by Mr. Mathew Marattukalam, MD of Ruby Rubber.

At the first meeting a General Tire executive made a presentation about his company. We didn’t understand much of what was said. After some hesitation I asked, “Can you have what you said translated into English?” There was brief silence and then the host’s Sr. Vice President laughed out. From that point on it was smooth sailing and later on we signed the technical collaboration agreement for Apollo Tyres, the company, which Mr. Mathew Marattukalam had promoted to implement the automobile tire project.

George Patton, the swashbuckling American general of WW II had a point when he once said that United States and Great Brittan were two great nations separated by a common language! Of course, ours was Indian English.

For me personally there was another happy outcome from the tie-up with General Tires – a great friendship with John Porosky, their VP for Indian operations.

Ends.

Note: ‘Across the Black Waters’ by Mulk Raj Anand is an outstanding novel about World War I in which over 65,000 Indian soldiers died. This work was translated into eleven European languages and is still in demand.