An alphabetical letter is a mere written sign. It carries a meaning, good or bad, only when joined with others. Likewise, a meaningful sentence in any language might give the ignorant the impression of a magical mumbo-jumbo. To him or her, all this is merely the part of a cryptic exercise. But just imagine what an immense power a word or a sentence carries! A short sentence can arouse strong emotions of joy or sadness in a person. In others it might carry a message of fear, hatred or compassion. We can think of passion-charged love letters or the immortal love poems. One can feel the whole being of one's beloved as he or she goes through these forms of writings.
All this is possible because mankind is blessed with one of the most unique gifts of nature -- language. To those unlettered, a written script is filled with some abstract signs. If they remain illiterate until they leave this world, their birth as human beings becomes meaningless in many respects; they may not realise that they have deprived themselves of a great treasure of life. But many others around them do.
The birth of full-grown, mature languages dates back to the earliest period of civilisations. According to many linguists, a number of languages may have evolved almost at the same time in different continents. But when it comes to the early forms of the written language, we have to turn to the Mesopotamian region that includes Assyria, Sumer or Babylon. The evolution of ancient human languages reached a remarkable zenith on the banks of the Egyptian Nile.
Most of the early forms of old languages have died away. Some became completely extinct. While many others kept evolving by being absorbed into cognate languages, or taking from others the newer forms of expression. A language never dies entirely if it keeps its door open to words and idioms from other tongues. Moreover, a language has also to be continually used verbally for it to remain alive. Over the last century, dozens of once-vibrant languages have disappeared -- especially in the remote areas of Africa and South America. Due to its closed, Jewish-centred nature, Yiddish is now confined to small communities in a few European countries. Had Isaac Bashevis Singer not won the Nobel Prize for his Yiddish novel, the language would have remained unknown to many in today's world.
According to linguists, approximately 7000 languages will face extinction by the end of this century. The most alarming fact is across the world, one language is dying every 14 days. Many of us must have read the news about the 2012 death of the last speaker of Kusunda, an ancient language in Nepal. With the old woman's death, Kusunda has vanished from this planet. In the present world, there are languages which are spoken by small communities, in cases people numbering less than one hundred. Scores of indigenous languages in Africa, South, Southeast Asia and Latin America are on the verge of complete disappearance. A lot of languages once boasted of their written forms, which had eventually been overwhelmed by the predominant scripts of the area. Alongside, the less spoken languages have the propensity to give in to the major tongues used in a region. The poor condition of many indigenous languages in Bangladesh lends credence to this truth. The language now spoken by Chakmas in Chittagong Hill Tracts is said to have once possessed a written script. It no longer exists. The Mandis or the Garos in the north-eastern Bangladesh have a mostly unused script; in the neighbouring Meghalaya state in India the Garo language is used as an official medium of education. Manipuri, a rich language spoken by the ethnic communities of the similar name in the Sylhet region, has a distinctive script in India's Manipur state. The Tripura community takes pride in its literature composed in Kokborok language, which is predominant in India's north-eastern Tripura state.
Languages used by a country's indigenous ethnic communities add to the richness and splendour of its national culture. For their survival, these languages need state support and patronage. There are many reasons behind the disintegration of a major language. Reduction in its speakers is one of them. However, in spite of their closed nature, many conservative languages have long been surviving with glory. Their pidgin forms, spoken in their former colonies, play a great role here. On the other hand, English is not 'closed'; it has been eclectic since its formative days in the 10th century. Being once a mighty colonial power, Britain has embraced a lot of cultures and languages ranging from that in the Americas, Australia to southern and middle-eastern Asia. At places, English infiltrated the local languages, and vice versa. Thanks to its eclecticism, the spontaneous entry of foreign words and terms has not spoilt the purity of English. Instead, it has continued to get richer.
Bengali or Bangla is considered the fifth-most widely spoken language in the world. People speaking this Indo-Aryan language live in Bangladesh, Paschimbanga and Tripura states in India, and in parts of Assam. It is the state language of Bangladesh. Coming to the present state of Bengali, we encounter a unique one in this country -- which is completely different from that in the places mentioned. In Bangladesh, people ranging from the language-related scholars and academics, the media to commoners increasingly appear to have forgotten the fact that Bengali is the only language in history, for which people have embraced martyrdom. The chief reason for this sacrifice was protecting the honour of the language. It is the Language Movement of 1952 that formed the base of the later struggle for independence of Bangladesh.
Given the sacrilege being committed these days in the use of Bangla, one has cogent reasons to believe that we do not deserve the gift that comes in the form of a great language. Few appear to feel any pricks of conscience as they jump on the bandwagon of changing or simplifying Bangla spellings. Amid the mindless orgy of giving Bangla a 'modern and smart' look, the young learners are paying a heavy price in the form of confusion and befuddlement. Nobody bothers about their agonies. On the other hand, to their utter incredulity and horror, many adult readers keep discovering weird sentence constructions in Bangla newspapers and textbooks -- and the fictions by popular writers. This is unimaginable in English, French, German or Russian - not even in Hindi or Urdu.
The private TV channels in the country keep on experimenting with the spoken Bangla at will. The Bangla that exists in independent Bangladesh is perhaps the only language in today's world which does not have a standard form. It is fast becoming an orphaned language.
A nation's quintessential identity or the soul is embedded in its language. Any dishonour to it chips away at the state's survival with dignity. By trifling with the blood-soaked Bangla, we are actually trivialising all our achievements.
shihabskr@ymail.com
When a nation trifles with its mother tongue
Shihab Sarkar | Published: September 05, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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