The ‘language murder’
Zubair Torwali

What happens when a language dies might be an irrelevant question for those who think English is a symbol of civilisation, the means of development and the bearer of progress. But language scientists think otherwise. They assert that any language – written or spoken – is the bearer of an individual’s, a community’s or a nation’s culture, identity and wisdom.
Sociolinguists think language is an essential part of this universe and suggest languages be preserved, documented and promoted. There are more than 6,000 languages spoken in the world, of which only ten percent are said to be able to survive over a few decades. Researchers claim a language dies biweekly in the world today. Around 60 languages are spoken in Pakistan, and that’s excluding Urdu and English. Besides the national and official languages, the other languages of which Pakistanis are aware of are misnamed as ‘regional languages’ viz Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi and Balochi. Even these languages are not fully ‘public’, meaning that they are not taught to students nor are they incorporated in the media, which is an affective tool to preserve and spread a language.
Although there is some good news regarding Pashto and Sindhi, most Pakistanis do not know what other languages are spoken in different areas of the country. Even the otherwise well-informed literary figures and researchers do not know about these languages; and whenever they come under discussion at different forums the participants dismiss them altogether, saying, ‘Oh, these are but ‘dialects’. The reason behind this apathy is that these languages have no nationalist political parties supporting them, and those who speak them are not politically or socially well off enough to have a say in the affairs of the state. Nevertheless these factors do not make these languages less important. Many of them have histories as old as the history of Sanskrit in the Subcontinent.
Historical data reveals that over the centuries, invaders either killed or drove out indigenous people from the land they invaded to peripheral areas such as rock-locked valleys in mountains, which resulted in severing all contact with their tribes or clans. Over time, the common language or languages evolved into separate languages. Isolated from others who could understand their language and therefore preserve its original form, these people could not share a common power centre – consequently becoming alien to each other.
Demonised and demoralised politically, socially and economically these indigenous people were left as ‘speech communities’ only – with languages that they used for verbal communication only, not knowing how to read or write. Meanwhile, many ‘shifted’ to other languages completely and today nobody can determine the exact number of speakers of the indigenous languages. Anthropologists and linguists pinpoint a number of forces or processes that cause the extinction of a language. Change in language is a natural process where an old language evolves into a new language as in the case of ancient Greek and Old English.
‘Language murder’ or murder of language occurs when invading rulers impose their language or languages on those they rule, leading to the original language to become all but obsolete, colonially called vernacular. The other phenomenon that linguists discuss is ‘language suicide’ that happens when a particular language community does not want their language to be made public because they think their ‘language and culture’ are responsible for the miseries that they are afflicted with.
In reality, both language murder and suicide are the effects of the same cause. A community deems its language inappropriate, uncivilised, and responsible for their miseries because of the long held policies of the rulers towards them. This accelerates ‘language shift’, which is the most common cause of the death of a language. Today the ‘regional languages’ of Pakistan face the phenomenon of ‘language shift’ just as much as the ‘minority languages’ do. For example, the youth in urban Punjab cannot speak their mother tongue and feel happier speaking English or Urdu. Villagers who speak their native language are deemed rustic and consequently they also opt to learn the language their ‘modern’ counterparts are using.
There are other reasons why languages die. For example, many educated people cannot read or write their mother tongue. Similarly, most of the minority languages do not have a script or orthography. These languages still have a long way to go before producing reading and writing skills. Although a number of appreciable diglossic arrangements are underway in some of these minority languages, wherein the speakers are encouraged to speak their languages; and to some extent carry out research on those languages to preserve them, but it is very important to allow these languages to be used in ‘public’ – in education and the media.
Language activists suggest that the death of a language can be prevented by passing it on to the next generation. And the best way to do that is the public incorporation of these languages in education, especially on the primary level.
The writer heads IBT, an independent organisation dealing with education and development in Swat.
Email: ztorwali@gmail. com