Tale of disappearing languages

The mother tongue is one of the most important treasures of a nation. Of course, it is a continuous part of the development in every field.
Back in 1952, on February 21, students demonstrating for recognition of Bangla as a national language in the then East Pakistan were shot and killed by police. And that was for protesting a step taken by the then Pakistani government to subdue the Bangla language and the identity of Bengali culture. On November 17, 1999, UNESCO declared February 21 as International Mother Language Day to promote linguistic, cultural diversity and multilingualism among  all international communities
We, the proud speakers of  dear Bangla, sacrificed more than any nation in the world for our language. So, it is supposed that we understand the necessity and importance of a mother tongue. But the question is _ how do we feel about other  languages, besides Bangla, spoken by various ethnic groups in our dear country?
According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics data from 2011, the country has 27 ethnic communities, comprising of about 1,784,000 people, and there are more than 40 languages spoken. Each of these languages represents a special culture and heritage. They encompass four language families and some even have their own scripts. Sadly, many of the ethnic languages are on the way to extinction because they have few surviving speakers. At least 12-18 of them are endangered at varying degrees.
Under the pressure of gradual extinction and lack of script, many ethnic communities have adopted Bangla or English as their spoken language and Bengali or Roman alphabets as their script. Whenever a language loses all of its native speakers, it becomes an extinct language.
While talking to this writer, Rimjhim Bristy Mree and Silchi Silmi, two students of Dhaka University who come from ethnic communities, shared their experience of Bangla language and culture, while feeling sorry for their mother tongue, Mandi, a dialect of Garo.
“We can now speak fluently in Bangla and say what we want to express. But the problem is we cannot speak our mother language as fluently as before and are gradually losing our confidence to communicate in our own tongue with other people from the same community,” they said. “Mandi is spoken by more than two lakh people, but it doesn’t have a written script of its own,” they added, hoping for the establishment of bilingual relationship among all the spoken languages of our country.
Such expression of concern is shared by many whose mother tongues are different to Bangla.  
The International Mother Language Institute (IMLI), which was founded on March 15, 2001 and inaugurated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on February 21, 2010 is the institutional outcome of the International Mother Language Day. The main purpose of IMLI is to build a centre for language planning and management, and equip it as a higher studies research institute.
The institute has launched a project for preservation and mobilisation of 37 languages. Only four of the target languages have their own scripts — Chakma, Marma, Mru, and Meithei. Some other ethnic communities, especially the two lakh tribal people living in Rajshahi, use a language called “Sadri”, adopting alphabets from Hindi, Bangla, Urdu and other languages. It is used in the Sylhet tea garden area by Telegu, Santhali, Nepali and Rai communities as a lingua franca. In north-eastern Bangladesh, Hari, Banai, Dalui, and Rajbongshi communities have started to use Bangla, abandoning their native languages due to lack of social recognition.
On the other hand, globalisation and economic considerations are having  negative impacts on local languages which can be seen as a new threat and an  emerging ‘language imperialism’ in the world. This might create survival crisis for many small languages, as over 500 million people across the globe use English as their first language, over 100 million use it as a second language, while another billion people are desperately trying to learn it.
So, a national language policy is needed to help promote the proper use of Bangla and safeguard endangered ethnic languages of different communities in our country.

The writer is a Masters (English) student of Dhaka College.

 

 

Tale of disappearing languages

The mother tongue is one of the most important treasures of a nation. Of course, it is a continuous part of the development in every field. Back in 1952, on February 21, students demonstrating for recognition of Bangla as a national language in the then East Pakistan were shot and killed by police. And that was for protesting a step taken by the then Pakistani government to subdue the Bangla language and the identity of Bengali culture. On November 17, 1999, UNESCO declared February 21 as International Mother Language Day to promote linguistic, cultural diversity and multilingualism among all international communities We, the proud speakers of dear Bangla, sacrificed more than any nation in the world for our language. So, it is supposed that we understand the necessity and importance of a mother tongue. But the question is _ how do we feel about other languages, besides Bangla, spoken by various ethnic groups in our dear country? According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics data from 2011, the country has 27 ethnic communities, comprising of about 1,784,000 people, and there are more than 40 languages spoken. Each of these languages represents a special culture and heritage. They encompass four language families and some even have their own scripts. Sadly, many of the ethnic languages are on the way to extinction because they have few surviving speakers. At least 12-18 of them are endangered at varying degrees. Under the pressure of gradual extinction and lack of script, many ethnic communities have adopted Bangla or English as their spoken language and Bengali or Roman alphabets as their script. Whenever a language loses all of its native speakers, it becomes an extinct language. While talking to this writer, Rimjhim Bristy Mree and Silchi Silmi, two students of Dhaka University who come from ethnic communities, shared their experience of Bangla language and culture, while feeling sorry for their mother tongue, Mandi, a dialect of Garo. We can now speak fluently in Bangla and say what we want to express. But the problem is we cannot speak our mother language as fluently as before and are gradually losing our confidence to communicate in our own tongue with other people from the same community, they said. Mandi is spoken by more than two lakh people, but it doesnt have a written script of its own, they added, hoping for the establishment of bilingual relationship among all the spoken languages of our country. Such expression of concern is shared by many whose mother tongues are different to Bangla. The International Mother Language Institute (IMLI), which was founded on March 15, 2001 and inaugurated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on February 21, 2010 is the institutional outcome of the International Mother Language Day. The main purpose of IMLI is to build a centre for language planning and management, and equip it as a higher studies research institute. The institute has launched a project for preservation and mobilisation of 37 languages. Only four of the target languages have their own scripts Chakma, Marma, Mru, and Meithei. Some other ethnic communities, especially the two lakh tribal people living in Rajshahi, use a language called Sadri, adopting alphabets from Hindi, Bangla, Urdu and other languages. It is used in the Sylhet tea garden area by Telegu, Santhali, Nepali and Rai communities as a lingua franca. In north-eastern Bangladesh, Hari, Banai, Dalui, and Rajbongshi communities have started to use Bangla, abandoning their native languages due to lack of social recognition. On the other hand, globalisation and economic considerations are having negative impacts on local languages which can be seen as a new threat and an emerging language imperialism in the world. This might create survival crisis for many small languages, as over 500 million people across the globe use English as their first language, over 100 million use it as a second language, while another billion people are desperately trying to learn it. So, a national language policy is needed to help promote the proper use of Bangla and safeguard endangered ethnic languages of different communities in our country. The writer is a Masters (English) student of Dhaka College.