Three reasons to learn your language

If Hindi, Sindhi, Gujarati, Russian, German, Arabic, English indeed whatever is your mother tongue, mother language or home language, please read on. I put before you three reasons for speaking and learning your own language that you should consider before forming any quick judgement based on the title only. Through out the following I’ll be using condition of Sindhi language in India as an illustration but I am sure in most places you could replace that with name of your language and the arguments will still make sense. But before I do that I call for your patience to read about some events that took place 57 years ago in what was at that time East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

February 21st is a special day, not because it is exactly one week after Valentine day, but because it is celebrated as International Mother Language Day (IMLD)! If you knew great! if not, you know it now. Why would United Nations educational, scientific and cultural organisation (UNESCO) deem it appropriate at turn of the second millennium AD to declare a day to celebrate importance and recognition of mother language? Bit of search and lot of curiosity led me to finding a gripping story of struggle and sacrifice to sustain one’s mother tongue. The events leading to IMLD were intimately related to a major unfortunate event of 20th century, namely partition of India.

Division of India was a hurriedly carried out exercise. The demarcation of lines between India and the new nation of Pakistan was such that Pakistan was born on two sides, eastern and western, of India! Pakistan on east of India was East Pakistan carved out of Bengal and on north western side it comprised large parts Punjab, North West Frontier and so on. While the Pakistani people in East Pakistan shared the religion, Islam, with majority of Pakistanis on western side, they did not share the same language. East Pakistani (now Bangladeshis) have had a rich tradition of literature and a great language just as the people speaking Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Pushto and other languages in Pakistan on its western side have had. Soon after the independence Pakistan government decided to have Urdu as the only official language for Pakistan. Bengali speaking people in East Pakistan started resistance to this decision and launched agitations. On 21st February 1952 the Bengali Language Movement in East Pakistan led to unrest in Dhaka and in police firing many students lost their life fighting for recognition of Bengali as one of the official languages of Pakistan. Subsequently in 1956 Bengali was recognised as one of the official languages in Pakistan. A beautiful monument, Shaheed Minar, commemorating the student sacrifices for their mother tongue was built very soon and is still located on the campus of Dhaka university. Till today 21st February is celebrated as Bengali Language Movement day in Bangladesh and is a public holiday in Bangladesh. In 1999 the United Nations, based on proposals from Bangladesh and some other language lovers declared 21st February as International Mother Language Day. So hopefully after reading this story you are ready to read further few other reasons that I put before you to consider why one must learn and speak one’s mother language.

First reason: Is functional utility only purpose of language promotion?

I frequently get asked this question while talking to young Sindhis in urban India or abroad. What is the use of learning Sindhi language? It is of no use in business and profession, it does not help in education as English dominates school and higher education therefore, there is no need to learn Sindhi. Let’s deal with this functional (utilitarian) argument for not learning which also leads to my first reason for learning Sindhi. Clearly it is possible that your mother language may not be one of the main international languages such as English, French, Spanish and other internationally dominant in the world of commerce and professions and neither might it be medium of instruction at higher education level. If it is so, what is the point in learning it. I will call this ‘functional' utility argument. Many world languages be it several regional languages in India, China, wherever, face this challenge, although some more severally such as Sindhi in India than others.

But now let’s extend this functional utility argument to other walks of life. Let’s take architecture. What is the functional utility of having great architecture in the present times? Imagine someone could argue that Taj Mahal in Agra or Egyptian Pyramids or Stonehenge in Scotland or Eiffel Tower in Paris have no functional utility and hence suggest that they be demolished to construct houses or offices on those spots. Most sane people will disagree with such an argument and put forward the case for preserving ancient architecture as these represent some of the finest achievements of human endeavours (and also pains in many cases, which is not justifiable I must say). That’s why so many of these places are declared as World Heritage sites. There are many other arts and crafts which may not have so called ‘functional’ value in our day to day living but we would still support the idea of preserving them. Actually many of such arts might have served some purpose at some place at some time.

So what’s different when we consider a language? Is it because it is intangible compared to a physical structure? As a matter of fact evolution of a full fledged language is far more complex, intelligent process than construction of a monument is. The refinement and development in linguistic feature such as vocabulary, cultural nuances of language use, grammar spans many generations. Yes language is intangible and but is not ‘invisible’ one can read, write, hear and speak it which involves three senses rather than just eyes. A particular language may not possess the same functional utility in time and space but its importance is high if not more than say that of ancient architecture heritage sites as preserver of the human accomplishments. Language enabled transmission and storage of knowledge that facilitated the growth of civilisations.

Actually if functional argument were extended to extreme, one could argue for benefits of having only language world wide. But this is a dangerous idea. This is why. Human progress requires diversity in thinking. Different people, different societies, different cultures when co-exist in peaceful manner produce far more and solve more problems than uniform cultures, homogenous views would do. There are plenty of examples in human history to show what such one track thinking can do in any walk of life be it politics, economics, religion, science or culture. Different languages represent different cultures, different dialogues, different interpretations and different systems of knowledge. Hence languages are precious for the progress of human civilisation. I am sure many languages would meet this criterion and therefore, using narrow ‘functional’ view on language with reference to career and commercial relevance does not seem a rational choice for intelligent people. That’s my first reason why one should learn one’s language even though it may not have in current socio-economic conditions so called ‘functional’ value.

Second reason: Language enriches human living

My second reason for learning one’s language is to get a flavour of its richness. Languages are not just medium of communication but they embody human experience and create human experience. The words have impact on how we feel as anyone who has been verbal abused or verbally praised would know. This short article is not suitable for describing its richness but having read some of the great poems and, knowing the versatile and the rich repertoire of words in Sindhi language I can only say its richness can be tasted only when we speak or read it.

I am sure most languages have same level of richness and there are quite a few languages in the world. Let me try to tickle your imagination with few facts. There are nearly 7000 languages in the world with known speakers of which 428 are spoken in India, 18 in the UK and 72 in Pakistan. 516 of the total known languages are endangered. Sindhi is spoken by more than 50 million people[1] which makes it 22nd ranked most popular language in the world according to estimates by Ethnologue[2]. You may like to check where your language stands before it becomes endangered!

According to Nancy Dorian there are three symptoms of death of language: fewer speakers, fewer domains of use, and structural simplification.[3] For example, while there are many speakers of Sindhi, its domains of usage have shrunk seriously because of non-Sindhi medium of education and migration of (mostly Hindu) Sindhis from Sindh and getting dispersed all over India and rest of the globe. An important domain of the use of language is home and the other being social-cultural domain. Sindhi like many other languages is also facing the challenge of so called of modernity where western culture and western languages, particularly that posed by English in India. It does not befit the intelligence of Sindhis to deprive themselves and their future generations of the privilege of knowing one more language. It is also not responsible of them to run the risk of Sindhi becoming gradually an endangered language. This also applies to other linguistic communities in the world.

Third reason: Mother language helps your development too!

My third reason for learning one’s language is based on the argument the evidence that learning one’s mother tongue along with other languages has several advantages. Here are some listed by Jim Cummins of University of Toronto:[4]

Bilingualism has positive effects on children's linguistic and educational development: More than 150 research studies conducted during the past 35 years strongly support what Goethe, the German philosopher, once said: The person who knows only one language does not truly know that language. The research suggests that bilingual children may also develop more flexibility in their thinking as a result of processing information through two different languages.

The level of development of children's mother tongue is a strong predictor of their second language development: When parents and other caregivers (e.g. grandparents) are able to spend time with their children and tell stories or discuss issues with them in a way that develops their mother tongue vocabulary and concepts, children come to school well-prepared to learn the school language and succeed educationally.

Children's cultural and linguistic experience in the home is the foundation of their future learning and we must build on that foundation rather than undermine it. (Source: Cummins[5])

So the third argument is that knowing one’s language along with other languages is not going to be a disadvantage for you or your children. On the contrary it seems ‘profitable’, if I may use the term bit lightly knowing very well the enterprising spirit of Sindhis who are known to weigh the costs and benefits or everything!

Let’s conclude now. The aim of this write up has been to reason with the readers that it is worth and necessary to speak and learn one’s mother tongue illustrating with Sindhi language as I happen to be Sindhi and know that this language is struggling to survive in India as written and read language. It is argued that functional utility of a language should not be only criterion in accepting or rejecting one’s mother language. There is clearly a very rich body of literature, rich Sindhi culture embedded in Sindhi language which is part of finest traditions and human achievements for which, those who know the language, have responsibility to pass on to future generations. And finally it's argued that there is scientific evidence that bilingualism helps children do well in education also. I hope you are persuaded enough to make a start, even if it is small start tomorrow morning on breakfast table having cereal with milk. Here is the richness for you. There is a word ‘Shree’ Sindhi/Hindi/Sanskrit (after all they are sister languages!). The word Shree means good and also means goddess of prosperity and agriculture. Latin Ceres comes from ‘Shree’[6] and Ceres in Latin means goddess of agriculture and food which is the root of word cornflakes Cereal that you enjoy in the morning. Although Shree looks very plausible derivation of could not verify this from Oxford Dictionary of Etymology. By the way UNESCO had declared 2008 as year of International Languages!

Notes:

[1]According Encarta, reported on Wikipedia, there were 54.3 million speakers of Sindhi in 2006. But I am not really sure about this number. It appears to be very large to me. Ethnologue website suggest that number of Sindhi speakers is 21.3 million. DK
[2] http://www.ethnologue.com/ is part of an international organisation that studies trends in languages.
[3] Dorian, Nancy C. 1980. Language shift in community and individual: The phenomenon of the laggard semi-speaker. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 25.85-94.
[4] For full article refer to http://www.iteachilearn.com/cummins/mother.htm
[5] From above quotation, accessed on 14th October 2008.
[6] Source: Bherumal M. Advani (1944, 2008) Qadeem Sindh, National Council for Promotion of Sindhi Language, New Delhi.