IMLI - Centre of Global Languages
By Bipul K Debnath
The International Mother Language Institute (IMLI) in Dhaka, Bangladeshs first UNESCO recognised institute, is now actively working to establish itself as a centre of global languages by archiving and carrying out research on a myriad of mother tongues, many of which face extinction.
Inaugurated on February 21, 2010, IMLI, located at Segunbagicha, is now busy collecting data on different mother tongues from various sources. To catch up with technological advancements, the institute is also planning to make its collection available online so that anyone can access the data from anywhere.
Ahead of the 65th anniversary of our Shaheed Dibash on February 21, which is now observed as International Mother Language Day, Jinnat Imtiaz Ali, director general of IMLI, talked to The Weekend Independent regarding the institutes activities and achievements.
On February 21, 1952 five protesters were shot dead by police on the Dhaka University campus for demanding Bangla as the state language of then East Pakistan. The day was declared as International Mother Language Day by UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation) in 2000 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity, as well as multilingualism.
While sharing information about the ongoing ethno-linguistic survey of Bangladesh, the DG said field-level data collection started on February 27, 2015. Survey teams have already collected data on Garo, Banai, Dalu, Koch, Lyngngam, Hodi and Barman ethnic groups living in Mymensingh, Netrakona, Tangail, Sherpur and Gazipur districts.
The report of linguistic survey is being published. We hope it will be out in two parts within this month. If we want to explain the data, we have to say that the picture of ethnic languages in Bangladesh is now clear. We have 40 languages, including Bangla, in our country. Now, based on that, we can go ahead, Ali said. Teams are now collecting information on languages spoken by different ethnic groups in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Sylhet, Coxs Bazaar and Patuakhali, according to an IMLI newsletter.
Describing the category of languages in terms of how widely spoken they are, the DG said a safe language has more than 50,000 speakers, a relatively unsafe language has below 50,000 speakers, while an endangered language has only 30,000 speakers or less.
Rangnetcha in Rangpur is an endangered language that has only 35 survivors, Ali told this correspondent.
Talking about the language archive, the DG said there is a parliamentary committee for language documentation under the Ministry of Cultural Affairs. We are trying to make both physical and virtual display of our data. The committee is preparing a virtual archive with the cultural history of languages and their written scripts, so that people can access them using the internet. We have already received technical assistance and we started this project this fiscal year, said Ali. Good news is that the parliamentary committee has recommended that all ethnic languages of Bangladesh must be stored, preserved and documented, he added.
Explaining techniques for preserving writing systems, Ali said, Several steps are taken in this regard. A group has already been formed with language specialists and computer scientists. They will go to the field to collect data. Training has to be given to develop necessary software. Later, we will do compilation, editing and verification of the data. We will also get grammar from the respective languages. After that, we will sit with the community and get mutual consent for a universal writing system of that language. Finally, a dictionary will be compiled with the verified data, the DG said.
We have to classify languages according to philology. Later, we have to develop software and keyboard layouts. Finding suitable teachers will be a problem for this. So, we will have to provide training for them. Besides that, we have to create a digital program so that children can learn easily with the help of a guide. The project will be done chronologically. Preparation task is time-consuming, but it will be possible within the shortest period of time. The plus point is that we have already started the project, said Ali, who is an expert in linguistics and a researcher on phonetics and phonology.
The institute also runs a Foreign Language Training Centre (FLTC), which offers courses in six languages, and there is a plan to introduce classes in 10 top languages of the world in terms of number of speakers.
Of course, Bangla will be there. Through this project, the internationalisation of Bangla will be possible. There will be two types of courses _ a short course and a certificate course for two years. The certificate course will be equivalent to post-graduation, Ali said. We also have a plan to provide scholarships for MPhil or PhD researchers. Their field work will increase our database and enrich our language institute. We want to provide scholarships for two researchers, he added.
Steps have also been taken to digitalise the museum on writing systems at the institute. We have already taken steps to digitalise our museum. We are doing a new project on the 5th floor of IMLI. That is an archive for writing systems of global languages. It will also be online. We welcome those who visit the museum, but we want to connect people by means of virtual communication, the DG said.
About collecting writing systems of various languages, Ali said, Thanks to the internet, nothing is impossible. We can collect data from books, research journals and our foreign friends. They take photos of their alphabets and send them to us. We reproduce the writing system of the languages. Say, for example, we pronounce the Bangla alphabets sbr , sbr a. Those who are not native speakers, they cannot understand their sounds by just looking at the letters. So, we are planning to make audio versions (of the alphabets) so they can hear the respective pronunciations by just clicking on a letter. If they want to know the pronunciation of selected Bangla poems, they can also get that in this way.
Regarding the present state of Bangla language in the country, the director general concluded: If we notice the recent usage of Bangla, a sad feeling circulates among us. Needless to say Bangla language has its own typology. It is being hampered in many ways and thus, the features of the language are being changed. It is not harmful for a language to take in some foreign words and adapt them as needed. There is no absolute original language at present. Each and every language is exchanging words with each other. For example, foreign words like balti (bucket), anarosh (pinapple), etc, have now become Bangla words. But now, we see blending of Bangla with Hindi or English words in the same sentence, which is very much detrimental to our language. We can give up this kind of practice by our own effort. Some see it as a stylistic variation. But mainly, it is an inferiority complex. If I cannot express my feeling, emotion, knowledge, education and intellect in my own language, I cannot express those correctly in any other language of the world. In the book Probondho, Jagadish Chandra Basu says, Those who are afraid of practising science in Bangla, either they do not know Bangla or they do not understand science properly.
Photos: File, Courtesy
