This
article was published in the national newspaper, Kuensel.
A language will become dormant and
ultimately vanish when it is no longer spoken as the first or primary language.
It disappears when its speakers disappear or when a community of speakers of
one language becomes bilingual in another language, and gradually shift to
speaking another language – most often, a dominant language used by a more
powerful people.
The loss of language is not
primarily caused by external forces such as the military, but it is caused by
educational subjugation and also internal forces, such as people’s negative
attitude towards its own language.
The loss of language has
consequences much wider than simply losing expressions. It means losing
identity, culture, history and crucial knowledge.
A dying language in Bhutan
Educational Subjugation
The loss of language in many
countries is to be blamed on education. The English language is beginning to
conquer and contribute to a language shift in our country too. The education
policy of Bhutan is that we must only speak the English language in the classes
and the schools. By and by, our mother tongue dialects like Khengkha, Kurtoep,
Sharchop are vulnerable as most children speak English, and our local languages
are restricted to the home. Now local languages are mostly used by grandparents and
older generations and even if our younger generations speak it, they speak the
language partially and infrequently.
In schools, I remember we were punished
for speaking our own mother tongue. The schools’ goal was to assimilate
children into the English language and culture. We had to wear the tag labeled
‘Speak English,’ for speaking Sharchop or we were made to cut grass or even
beaten badly just for speaking the native language. And this trend is still
there in the schools. But little has it been reformed as language policy is
being framed and students are made to use only English and Dzongkha in the
schools, and corporal punishment is not as common now like before. English has
become the measure of intelligence. We have been rewarding any achievement in
spoken or written English. And we tend to think that all things originating
from the West are symbols of enlightenment and progress, and all things associated
with what we have are primitive and inferior.
And when or if this continues for
more generations, it plays an active role in language death. If children are
not speaking it now, then children will probably not speak it in the next 50
years.
Negative attitudes by parents and
community
Today, if children are with their
parents, they might be punished for speaking their native language at home.
Parents today encourage their children to speak and learn the English language
instead of their heritage language. Babies are taught other words and
languages, not mother tongues. We are bombarded with American, British and
Hindi shows, movies and games, language and many young people think they are
cool and anything Bhutanese is not. We have negative attitudes towards our own
language that might lead to languages becoming endangered. Our students and
parents feel ashamed and outdated when they speak their native languages. We
have different views of where we belong.
I’ve met many Bhutanese people whose
English and Hindi skills are arguably better than their Sharchop or Dzongkha.
What does language extinction mean
for the rest of us?
Knowledge
The extinction of a language results
in the loss of unique cultural knowledge embodied in it for centuries, including
historical, spiritual and ecological knowledge that may be useful for many.
Language is the knowledge-vessel of tradition and heritage. Many oral stories
in Bhutan are passed down through its language, so when the language
disappears, it may take with it important information about the early history
of the society.
Culture
The extinction of a language results
in the loss of culture. Ngugi Wa Thiong’o says that language carries aesthetics
of a culture; the entire body of values by which we come to perceive ourselves
and our place in the world. Ngugu (Decolonising the Mind) says that colonial
power didn’t use any weapon to fight and colonise African countries. The language was used as both an insidious tool for imperialism as well as a weapon of
resistance for colonised peoples. With language, they disrupted the entire
fabric of the lives of their victims; in particular their culture, making them
ashamed of their names, history, systems of belief, languages, lore, art,
dance, song, sculpture; even the colour of their skin. That’s why Ngugi
considers English in Africa a “cultural bomb” that continues a process of
wiping out pre-colonial histories and identities.
Identity
The loss of language results in
people attempting to assimilate with other communities, thereby losing one’s
identity. Language is a powerful symbol of identity. Much of the cultural,
spiritual, and intellectual life of a people is experienced through language.
This ranges from prayers, myths, ceremonies, poetry, oratory, and technical
vocabulary to everyday greetings, leave-takings, conversational styles, humour,
ways of speaking to children, and terms for habits, behaviours, and emotions.
When a language is lost, all of this must be refashioned in the new
language-with different words, sounds, and grammar.
Remedies
The education system
The most important thing that can be
done to keep a language from disappearing is to change education policy. The education system should support mother-tongue instruction or multilingual
education, and create favorable conditions for its speakers to speak the
language and teach it to their children. We cannot teach in our language, but
we can use local languages in teaching to uphold our native language. Children
mustn’t learn that their language and their culture are worthless, of no use in
the modern classroom or society like in our education system. Our languages
should be given attention in all education policies and it should be drawn up
by the government. UNESCO also acts on many fronts to safeguard endangered languages
and prevent their disappearance. It says, “In education, UNESCO supports
policies promoting multilingualism and especially mother tongue literacy. It
supports the language component of indigenous education and raises awareness of
the importance of language preservation in education.”
Increase of prestige
Since the most crucial factor is the
attitude of the speakers toward their own language, it is essential to create a social and political environment that encourages multilingualism and respect
for minority languages so that speaking such a language is an asset rather than
a liability. Speaking one’s language should be a matter of pride rather than
feeling detached from others. Children and parents must not think that their
mother tongues are non-standard languages, wrong to speak, inferior, for the
uneducated, and should be abandoned.
Conclusion
The loss of language has a great
impact on one’s identity, culture and knowledge. Knowing this, there are many
things to be formulated in education or students’ learning as it is the main
factor of degrading local language. So that we can change the mentality of our
own language and speak with pride.
Contributed by
Saacha Dorji
Teacher
Darla Middle Secondary School
Chukha
And I like this comment. Thank you
jbradley. We are in the same boat.
- jbradley
Hello
Saacha Dorji, all that you say is so true. I work in Australia with Indigenous
languages, I have seen in 35 years of teaching and research three languages
die, or at least only have one or two very elderly speakers. The result is a
youth whose identity is not strong and thus they are open to many kinds of
social ills such as drug and alcohol addiction, anti-social behaviours and most
extremely suicide. Having ones own language respected and used also creates a
very strong sense of well being. A person who has lost their own languages is,
as you say and scholars such as Mignolo and Ngugi a colonised mind. Having
visited Bhutan and sensed these issues I wish you all the best in this most
important endeavour.
John Bradley, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
John Bradley, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
