The situation of other languages in our country

Language is the most crucial tool for expression and communication for a human being. By language, people get to embrace their national ethos. Even though in present times, many people are multilingual.

According to UNESCO, there are roughly about 7000 languages around the globe. UNESCO also says that we are losing one language every two weeks. This is why the preservation of language is important.

Bengali is the seventh most spoken language on earth. The struggles the Bengali language has been through to become an official language is truly incredible. No other language has had the same travails. In 1971, the Bangladesh Liberation War finally established Bangla as an official language. By going through a lot of struggles, the Bangla language is currently in a respected position. In the home of the Bengali language, Bangladesh, people of other languages live as well. People of different ethnicities, speak their language. How are they doing? What is the condition of their language?

In the year of 1987, an announcement in courts and offices stated that Bengali is the official state language of Bangladesh. Since then, all the organizations in Bangladesh are using Bengali for their official purposes.

However many people with different languages live in Bangladesh. There are debates about how many languages are there in Bangladesh. A few years ago, the present government gave recognition to about 50 languages of different ethnicity.

Among these ethnicities, the larger communities have their own scripts: for example, Chakma, Santhal, Manipuri, Tripura, etc. They have their own alphabets and they can read and write in their own language. Some organizations are working on these ethnic languages but in a relatively small scale. Much more can and should be done. However, we do appreciate the progress in this connection. Amon other organisations organizations SIL Bangladesh holds a special place. They are working on minor ethnic language preservation. They are also recovering alphabets for Coch, Kol, Hajon, Mahle and Kurok languages. Last year they translated the iconic speech of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahaman’s historic March 7 speech into 22 different languages.

Working with minor ethnic languages is challenging because these ethnic groups are apparently not very serious about their language preservation. They give more importance to their day-to-day needs. Private organizations try to stand by their side and try to make them realize that they’re almost about to lose their language. They comprehend them, they have to save their language and preserve their own scripts.

These ethnic groups are more worried about their existence and they are using their language rarely. They are realizing that they have to join the mainstream Bengalis in order to get employed and work with them. And this is why they are trying to communicate with the mainstream Bengalis, by doing so they are using their own language not as much as they did before. Even though they are using their own language to communicate with their families and community, day by day it is becoming less frequent.

At the present time, most teenagers from minor ethnic communities are using their own language with much less frequency. Research shows that these teenagers have little idea about their alphabet. To know about the written form of their languages researchers have to go to middle-aged people. From them, researchers can gather information about their alphabets and written dialects.

There are some activities, for children to test their knowledge of their own language. Sometimes the kids are asked about their own ethnic poems and stories.

Even if they communicate with us in Bangla, they still have love and affection towards their own culture and language. For education purposes, when they join national curriculum schools, they seem to struggle. When they start going to school, they notice differences such as the language and cultural barriers between them. As they have a language barrier it is sometimes hard for them to communicate with other students. They also face cultural differences between them. The major problem for them is that they cannot understand Bangla clearly and this is why they every now and then have problems among them.

Many ethnicities are losing their languages. It has become difficult for researchers to work with them. Their mother tongue is still alive. They can speak in their own language but they are still not able to give proper information about their alphabet. In many cases, even after extensive research only sixty to seventy per cent of the words could be recovered.

With this progress so far, they have already begun working on a dictionary. The dictionary is being made to make their ethnicity, of which language is an integral part, future proof.

Convincing them about their language preservation is the toughest challenge. Sadly, there is no realization among them about the importance of language preservation. They are still not worried about their language being lost. Involving them in such cases is very difficult; holding them into these matters is also quite tough.

They are still not able to dream big regarding this vital issue. They are also embarrassed to talk about this issue. The younger audience participates more than the adults. To make them aware of the situation we have to talk about their rights to empower them. It is a special type of work. Working on their language is not an easy thing to do. In addition to language, the process includes the economy, history, politics, culture, heritage, rights, social policy, and so on and so forth.

The relatively larger communities are working on their own language preservation. The minor ethnicities show no interest towards this. People who are working for them have to be imaginative and devise a proper plan for them and improve step by step. Because of their lack of concentration and seriousness their heritage is being lost gradually.

Some languages are being used by two or three communities at the same time. It is difficult to find the original identity of their language, without proper research it is not possible. For this reason, language preservation takes a long period.

In our country, for language preservation, there is an institute called International Mother Language Institute. On 1999, 21st February, Bangla as a language got recognition from the whole world as International Mother Language Day.

On 2001, March 15 the then Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan was present and laid the foundation of the International Mother Tongue Institute. However, this institute took a long time to get going.

In 2010 some activities started. Other than the Bengali language, the institute can also work for the preservation and alphabet-making of other languages. It is still unclear today, what exactly they are working on. But they still have a lot of unfinished work in our country for languages. As minor ethnicities are a part of our country and the citizens of our country, we must stand by them. Aside from Bengali, we should also work with minor ethnical groups about their language.

People who are in a relatively better position in the minor ethnic communities should come forward and represent their ethnic groups. Other developed countries and organizations are interested to provide help to these ethnic groups. By taking their help, the government can support these groups.

The writer is a freelance columnist. She can be contacted at shanu.mostafiz@gmail.com