<div dir="ltr"><h1>The death of regional languages</h1>
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<div class="gmail-meta-date">October 25, 2016
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<h5><a href="http://nation.com.pk/Columnist/taj-nabi-khan">Taj Nabi Khan</a></h5>
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<p>About 6,000 different languages are
spoken around the world. The Foundation for Endangered Languages
estimates that between 500 and 1,000 of those languages which are spoken
by only a handful of people. Thus every year, the world loses around 25
mother tongues. That equates to losing 250 languages over a decade.</p>
<p>Pakistan has been and is still rich in lingual diversity. Even today,
it has more than six major and 70 small languages. This language
heritage provides the country a reliable source of cultural strength and
diversity. However, Pakistan as a federation did not treat the
diversity to increase the social capital but tried to enact national
integration through religio-ideological hegemonic designs.</p>
<p>Some 28 regional languages including Hindko, Kashmiri, Torwali,
Khowar, Shina, Burushaski, Balti, Wakhi, Pahari, Hazaragi, etc., are in
extreme danger of extinction. Some may refer to these as minor or small
languages. Whatever you name it, whatever status or respect you give it.
It does not matter. What matters is the vital role of the mother
tongues in shaping identity and worldviews of the native speakers. First
the forces of colonisation, now it is the power of globalisation and
modernity which has endangered the mother tongues of the local populace.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the language and identity politics recently gained
firm grounds in Sindh, Karachi, Southern Punjab and Hazara region of
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa linking language with the creation of new provinces.
The issue of language and new provinces, no doubt, has been politicised
over the years. The movements for the creation of new provinces fuelled
due the persistence reservations of these language communities over
distribution of resources and unfair dealing with the regional
languages. Since the state favors English and Urdu, regardless of
whatever happened in the past, the languages of the domains of power –
government, corporate sector, media, education etc., are English and
Urdu.</p>
<p>The language issue has also divided the society in classes such as
“English being the language of the powerful” and the rest taken as
marker of lower status and in some forms “cultural minors”. In the
current situation, it appears that the Sindhis, the Pashtuns and the
Baloch have resisted elimination of their languages while the Punjabi
middle class has completely succumbed to the dominant English and Urdu
oriented culture. However, the question raised by many researchers
including Dr. Tariq Rahman, one of the prominent linguists of the
country, is whether we are all collaborating willfully or unknowingly in
“killing” our indigenous languages?</p>
<p>The dominant elites in media are deliberately code switching and code
mixing is also affecting the languages of the region. Similarly, the
private educational institutions are contributing to the extinction of
these languages as it has almost become impossible for the so-called
educated youth to purely speak their mother tongue.</p>
<p>The recent episode of the Beaconhouse School System, which is one of
Pakistan’s top schools, has come under fire after calling the Punjabi
language ‘foul’ and banning it from usage within and outside the school
premises. The controversial text of the circular has invited strong
criticism from linguists, language students and researchers for imposing
ban on the language which has already been reduced to spoken form
amongst its speakers. The English medium private school’s categorisation
of the language as ‘foul’ not only perpetuates colonial stereotypes,
but also reeks of racism.</p>
<p>It’s nothing new all the so elite English medium schools forbid
children from speaking any native language and this is how our so called
education system is teaching the children how to disown their identity.
Above all, the notification has numerous grammatical mistakes, which
makes the Headmaster’s authority over the English questionable. Those
who are intentionally becoming part of the same agenda of disassociating
us from our mother tongues are actually breeding a generation who would
soon turn their backs on their roots.</p>
<p>We would never be able to acquire the native-like efficiency in
English or any other second or third language but surly the unfair
dealing with the mother tongue will make us foreigner to our first
language which is the sole transmitter of our culture, tradition and
distinctive human characteristics.</p>
<p>Let us treat the rich language heritage as cultural assets and not
liabilities. It is need of the hour to change our language policy so as
to add English and Urdu to our repertoire of linguistic skills without
destroying our mother-tongues, our authentic selves, our culture and our
identity. The federation is strengthened when minorities feel that
their rights, culture, language, and heritage is being preserved,
safeguarded, protected and promoted.</p><p><a href="http://nation.com.pk/columns/25-Oct-2016/the-death-of-regional-languages">http://nation.com.pk/columns/25-Oct-2016/the-death-of-regional-languages</a><br></p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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