What about the language?
I just came to read a blog post that discusses the linguistic chauvinism and about the need of preserving a certain language. The language in question was Malayalam. The author of the post obviously got angry by the comment of a Government school teacher that a criminal case should be booked against the parents who send their kids to English medium schools. And I felt that both the comments from professor and the blogger have too much emotional elements in it.
The comment from the professor is of course stupid and irresponsible. Capital punishment to parents for sending their kids to the school of their choice is more of a laughable view point. However, in the process of placing counter arguments I feel that the blogger too has got emotional. There were a couple of questions raised in the post:
1) I speak malayalam, and read/write it with some difficulty, yet I do not see the point in learning poetry and prose! I mean, what is the whole idea?
A language is not just a mere tool for communication. There is a huge wealth of knowledge base that comes with it which is perfected across several years by several generations and passed on from generation to generation. This wealth of knowledge is recorded in various forms – Literature (and by literature, I am not referring to fiction only), proverbs, folk songs etc. Most of these forms contribute to a historical record of the then social system, society, eco system, weather and life in general. These have time and over shaped up the culture and our social and individual identity.
Now a possible question: Can the same not be translated to a globally accepted language, like English, so that it will be available to all those who are interested and they will not have to face the difficult of learning a particular language?
As well know, the language loses it’s beauty and more importantly the context, when it is translated. To understand something that is written in a language with it’s original beauty and context, you need to read it in the language in which it is written. The translations can have several interpretations and can be politically abused.
2) Languages evolve, but do they get killed?
Speaking of the death of a language, here is a quote from Wikipedia:
The most common process leading to language death is one in which a community of speakers of one language becomes bilingual in another language, and gradually shifts allegiance to the second language until they cease to use their original (or heritage) language. This is a process of assimilation which may be voluntary or may be forced upon a population. Speakers of some languages, particularly regional or minority languages, may decide to abandon them based on economic or utilitarian grounds, in favour of languages regarded as having greater utility or prestige.
Ironically, the languages which even evolve in itself can get killed by the same people who use it. The next question would be whether we need to preserve a language which is not in need by the same people who use it. But there comes the importance of preserving the knowledge treasure that the language has generated. And whether a person should acquire this knowledge or not is a personal choice, but there is no doubt that we don’t have any right to deny that treasure to the future generations to come, hence the need of preseverance.
English medium education and Malayalam
Learning English is essential these days to compete in the globalized world. I do not question that (and the sad state of affiars in Kerala state proves that even the English medium schools are not helping our children on using that language properly). But the news that the children being punished or fined for speaking Malayalam in the school premises do not leave a good impression on the kind of English education system that we have. This leaves an impression in the children that speaking Malayalam is a henious thing to do and they would begin to see their own language as third-class (which will then lead to view one’s own culture and tradition as third-class).
Linguistic chauvinism
Too much of love for anything that we hold dear to our hearts could make us extremists. So we need to take good care of the whole language-love not leading to regional or linguistic chauvinism. There is nothing wrong in taking pride of one’s own language or culture but when it turns to establish that only ours is supreme, it will cause trouble. That is what we see from the recent examples of social troubles caused by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena during anti-North Indian campaign or Kannada Rakshana Vedige during Raj Kumar’s capture and death.
[Image source: Wikipedia]
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October 16th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
Wonderful comment Jo! Once again, you have echoed my thoughts. Its surprising that such a comment has come from a Malayalee (well not literally though
) because the fact that I appreciate most about Mallus is their tendency to speak in Malayalam when they met fellow Malayalees and how sweetness does that language possess! I am a language freak and jump on any opportunity to learn a new language and this drive made me learn to read and write in Malayalam too 
October 16th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Thanks Ravi.
I have this fascination about a couple of other languages too. Tamil, for example. I was so attracted to it after watching a couple of Mani Ratnam movies. I should say his movie “Iruvar” contributed a lot to it. The dialogues that Prakash Raj delivers in that movie are amazing! And btw, I can read and write Tamil to a certain extent. 
Self-learnt!
October 17th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
hey Jo..that was a good post…as u said, i myself had this tendency to look low upon my own language malayalam, cos of this “dont speak malayalam” or else u get punished syndrome running in our school..but its after i joined college, and getting exposed to everyone else who appreciates the language and everyting else other than cbse books that i started to like the language..
and started actually noticing the beauty in every single line of lyric in movie songs to start off…
if i try to translate those to english…the whole beauty is of the song is lost..
even the jokes are not funny when it gets moved to another language..
now i love the language, our culture arts food etc..cos its unique and it only belongs to people of that small strip of land..and am a part of it..
gotto keep it going…
October 17th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Thanks Dev.
October 18th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
I fear that the malayalam language is dying. I dont have any solid proof or anything, but I just see the trends and they tell me about the slow decay.
Most of the jobs that college students from kerala get are in MNCs or simlar companies outside of kerala. They settle in far away places, and because of todays relatively liberal culture, fall in love and mary people from outside the state. And then they speak a common language (mostly english).
what is going to happen to the children of this non-keralite mallu generation? Will they be able to speak Malayalam? Or will they speak Hindi and English and forget about their heritage?
I speak of this because I have seen it in my family.
And as for schools forcing students to speak in English, in the case of my school, it backfired. Because the school insisted on students to speak in English, everyone started speaking in malayalam.
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:53 am
That was a very nice post. In Chennai too, lot of english medium schools insist children to speak english at home especially during primary standards so that they develop tat habit. Ya, even I hv heard cases of fine at chennai too. In fact when I was studying we were asked to write imposition 100 times for speaking in tamil during lunch time. Still we wud secretly communicate..Keeping in touch with native language s sumthing very very essential..
I too love to learn new languages. Always had a passion to master malayalam as it has lot of things in common with tamil. Though I have lot of scope of learning from my own in laws from kerala, I have nt done it yet. Learnt to speak reasonable telugu from one of my best friends.She was even smarter, learnt from to read n write tamil. Sometimes, friendship helps better in such things. Btw, kudos to u too Jo.. thats really inspiring..
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Thanks Ramya
October 25th, 2008 at 8:26 am
Jo Said:
October 16th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Thanks Ravi. I have this fascination about a couple of other languages too. Tamil, for example
I can read and write Tamil to a certain extent. Self-learnt!
Dear Jo
Hope I’m not digressing too far ! Its Friday night after all
Glad you have this fascination about other languages. I had similar fascinations as well; lost it once & still struggling with the other ;(.
I was learning a native American lndian anguage; spent some 18 years in Zuni Pueblo – USA.
Learned some of the “ZUNI” language and lost interest after few weeks. Still regretting. Easily I’d been the 2nd East Indian speaking an American Indian Language (an Uncle of mine is very fluent )
As I have gotten older (40++) I’m finding it very difficult to learn a new language. In this case ” Spanish”. All my employees except for 2, speaks only Spanish.. imagine what I go through everyday
As a thamizhan who never felt that much of any difference at all between Malayalam & Tamil, I’m happy to see a fellow human who wants to learn one of ‘THE’ “mozhikaL”.
Glad you don’t have the “mental hick ups” , some of the mallus & thamizhans seem to have !
don’t give up.
I’ll send a “thirukkuRaL” Cd to you soon.
btw
Listen to a true Legend talking about Malayalam & Tamil
Good Luck.
October 25th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
It is very interesting note that you have learnt an American Indian language. I am sure learning indigenous language would open up a whole new world of wisdom. Would you care to share those advantages and experiences on this?
The first I heard about thirukkuRaL was in a Bangalore-Mysore-Coimbatore bus trip. My co-passenger was a man from Coimbatore and he gave me a brief intro into thirukkuRaL and even quoted some verses which I do not remember much now. But I remember that it was an interesting conversation.
October 25th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
[Couple of links that did not show up in the earlier comment. I assume you have HTML turned off.]
1. K.J.Y talking about some interesting stuff:
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=0iznqMZy5qY
2. Zuni Pueblo:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuni_Pueblo
**
One of the main reasons to learn the Zuni Language was, thought I needed to; later as I felt so much more @ home there, I thought I should. When I said ‘hello’, ‘what’s going on’, ‘what’s your name’, or ‘I don’t know’ in Zuni, the reaction was friendly and cheerful. This particular language is a spoken language with no written script. I tried to write the words in English or Tamil and learn to reach fluency but somehow lost the focus along the way.
btw
When I have the rare curiosity to read a Malayalam or Kannada blog, use this tool to convert them to Tamil.
http://transliterator.blogspot.com/
Hope there is a similar one to do vica versa.
This site is useful too
http://www.higopi.com/index.html
October 28th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
Wow, thank you so much for all those links!
October 29th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
hey jo ,
Our language won’t die even in this tech-world.
We don’t respect it ; But , even Google respects it.
They had now enabled Malayalam langague on Google.we can also use Malayalam on gtalk ;- just add
to your friend list.
There are also a lot of malayalam blogs also on blogger.
November 19th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
You breath fresh sunshine onto everything you write