Title: PLANNING FOR HERITAGE LANGUAGES
1Heritage, Language, Technology
Folk Languages in the Perspective of
Sociolinguistics
5-DAY Workshop, Nov 11-15, 2003 ASIATIC SOCIETY,
KOLKATA
Udaya Narayana Singh Central Institute of Indian
Languages, Mysore, India
2- Languages are disappearing at an alarming pace,
so much so that in Pagels prediction only 10 of
the current 6,000-7,000 worlds heritage
languages will survive by 2050 A.D.
- When a language is lost because all speakers die,
it is understandable. But wiping off of an entire
community is painful.
THE LEGEND
3Disappearance, Death, Danger
- Who mourns language loss in a folk language
society? - Aboriginal elders who speak their languages do.
- Also, the younger people mourn their loss.
- Most indigenous people point to the connection of
Aboriginal languages with culture. - They talk about their roots and identity.
- A Red Indian Secwepemc elder Nellie Taylor once
noted that "without your language you're nothing,
you are like a white person, lost and without a
home. How very true even in South Asian context?
4... Even this vastly reduced reservoir of
linguistic diversity constitutes one of the
great treasures of humanity, an enormous
store-house of expressive power and profound
understandings of the universe. The loss of the
hundreds of languages that have already passed
into history is an intellectual catastrophe in
every way comparable in magnitude to the
ecological catastrophe we face today as the
earth's tropical forests are swept by fire. Each
language still spoken is fundamental to the
personal, social and - a key term in the
discourse of indigenous peoples - spiritual
identity of its speakers. They know that without
these languages they would be less than they are,
and they are engaged in the most urgent struggles
to protect their linguistic heritage. (Zepeda and
Hill, 1991)
Zepeda, O. and J.H. Hill, 1991. The Condition of
Native American Languages in the United States.
In R.H. Robins and E.M. Uhlenbeck, Robins
(editors). Endangered Languages. Oxford Berg
Publishers
5Moving away from South Asia, lets take up a
concrete case of Canada
- Over 60 languages were originally spoken in
Canada, according to Kinkade (1991158) - At least 8 were extinct by 1990 (approx. 13)
- 13 languages (21) are judged 'near-extinct'
6More about Canadian situation
- Most of the remaining languages in Canada are
seen as viable but having small populations - a
risk in itself. - Only 4 languages may survive in the long run.
- In a more recent study by Norris (1998) study
using 1996 Census data, the estimate of
Indigenous languages likely to survive in Canada
is down to 3.
- 23 languages in Canada are 'endangered' (38)
now, because they have few speakers under 50
years old and almost no children are learning
them.
7We can plot the decline in the percentage of
speakers of Indigenous languages among the
Indigenous populations of Canada in the following
manner
Plotting the Decline in Canada
8Indigenous language speakers as percentage of
Indigenous population, Canada
9The North American Scenario
- Chafe (1962) counted 211 languages as still
living in the USA and Canada in 1960 - Out of these only 89 (42) had speakers of all
ages - Therefore, 58 folk languages are 'endangered' or
'near-extinct'.
- For North America as a whole, any prediction is
difficult - North America had had a turbulent early history
of colonisation and massive mortality due to
disease - Bright (1994) and Mithun (19991) put the number
of Indigenous languages originally spoken at
around 300.
QUITE GRIM
10Predictions
- Thirty years later Zepeda and Hill (1991136)
estimate that 51 (approx. 24) of the 211
languages supposed to have been alive in 1960
have disappeared. - Campbell (199716) predicts that 80 of the North
American languages spoken at the turn of this
century 'will die in this generation'. - The prediction is for 20-30 Indigenous languages
will survive in North America by 2040.
11Krauss (1996) uses a four-fold classification
based on which age groups speaking the language,
could be placed in respect of the United States
in this way
- Category A, still being learned by children, 20
languages, 12 - Category B, still spoken by the parental
generation, 20 languages, 12 - Category C, spoken by grandparents and up only,
70 languages, 40 - Category D, spoken by only a few very oldest, 55
languages, 36
12Indigenous people now left in Eastern USA
13Australia Equally Disturbing Statistics
In absolute terms, there may be actually only
55,000 speakers of Indigenous languages there.
- Out of about 300 in 1800, there has been a
decrease of 90 in the number of such speakers of
all age groups who can speak fluently. - Decline rate in Indigenous people speaking their
own languages from 100 in 1800 to 13 in 1996. - If these trends continue unchecked, by 2050 there
will no longer be any Indigenous languages spoken
in Australia.
Of the 20 languages categorised in 1990 as
'strong', 3 should already be regarded as
'endangered'.
14ABS 1994 Survey of Aboriginal Relative
proportions of those who can speak an Indigenous
language and those who speak an Indigenous
language as the main language at home.
15Proportion of Indigenous People speaking an
Indigenous Language or Creole, 1996
16Spread of Speakers of Indigenous Languages by
Absolute Numbers
17Matter of Rights
- The Preamble to the United Nations Charter says
"We the peoples of the United Nations determined
to save succeeding generations from the scourge
of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought
untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith
in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and
worth of the human person, in the equal rights of
men and women and of nations large and small, and
to establish conditions under which justice and
respect for the obligations arising from treaties
and other sources of international law can be
maintained, and to promote social progress and
better standards of life in larger freedom, and
for these ends, to practice tolerance and live
together in peace with one another "
18- In December, 2002, at the United Nations in
Geneva, Switzerland at the Eighth Session of the
Working Group on the Draft Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous People (WGDD), the tussle
between large nation states like US, Canada
Australia and the indigenous peoplebecame
evident. - The Draft includes a preamble as well as 45
Articles e.g. Every indigenous individual has
the right to a nationality.
Disturbing debates
Article 43 states "All the rights and freedoms
recognized herein are equally guaranteed to male
and female indigenous individuals
- The Draft was adopted in 1994 by the
Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination
and Protection of Minorities of the UN Commission
on Human Rights. It was then channeled to the
WGDD where it has been kept in limbo by the
larger States. The Draft is to be finalized by
2004.
Charmaine White Face, a freelance writer, in
www.dlncoalition.org
19Lets try to understand the Spread of the problem
in India
- The Scheduled Tribes account for 67.76 millions
representing 8.08 of our population living
mainly in the forest and hilly regions (1991
Census) - More than 70 are in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,
Orissa, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and
Gujarat. - We not only need special provisions for their
protection from social injustices and all forms
of exploitation, we also need concrete plans for
development with safeguards including promotion
of educational and economic interests - I think a concrete Language Development Plan is a
need of the hour.
20What could we do in India?
- There is a general feeling among many that we do
not have a mechanism in place to protect and
promote minor and minority languages. - The trouble is that they often point to small
countries like Nepal where both in Constitutional
provisions and in Universal Education documents
these issues are specifically mentioned. - In case of India, the sheer size of the country
and complexity of the administrative set up are
such that it cannot be compared with other
nation-states in this respect.
21Responsibilities Shared and Scattered
- 5th 6th Schedule of the Constitution Article
224 Under Home Ministry - Special representation for the STs in the Lok
Sabha and Assemblies till 2010 (Arts, 330, 332
and 334) - Under Articles 164 and 338, separate State-level
and National Commission at the Centre with Dr.
Bizay Sonkar Sastry in the Chair), Ven Lama
Chosphel Zotpa (Vice-Chair) Under the Ministry
of Tribal Welfare, 1999-. - Commission for Linguistic Minorities (Allahabad)
under the Ministry of Social Justice
Empowerment
- Grant-in-Aid scheme under Article 275(1) was also
created - Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 and the
SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 - Planning Commissions landmark step 43 Special
Multi-purpose Tribal Blocks (SMPTBs) during 2nd
Plan, later called Tribal Development Blocks
(TDBs) - Under 4th Plan, six major projects in Andhra
Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa, and a
separate Tribal Development Agency was
established.
22A lot more needs to be done with concerted focus,
esp. in prevention of land alienation from tribal
to no-tribal, review of National Forest Policy
and Forest (Conservation) Act 1980, etc
- The Fifth Five Year Plan marked a shift in the
approach when the Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) for
direct benefit of the STs was launched - In 1987, the Tribal Cooperative Marketing
Development Federation (TRIFED) was set up for
marketing help remunerative prices to tribals - The GIA scheme covers 376 NGOs working in this
area, each getting about 90 grant.
BUT ARE ALL THESE ENOUGH?
23Possible areas we could move in
Cultural documentation Dictionaries (general
purpose) Thesauri Specialized/Technical
Glossary Literacy books Primers Style
Manuals Initial Literary Attempts
EACH OF THESE RELATES TO TECHNOLOGY TODAY.
24LINGUISTIC PLURALITY
25Truly plural world
- 1,576 rationalized mother-tongues
- 1,796 other mother-tongues
- 114 languages with 10,000speakers
- According to Ethnologue, the figure is 401.
- Tremendous variation Hindi with 33.72 crores to
Maram with 10,144 - Large non-scheduled languages - Bhili 55.7
Santali with 52.2 lakh speakers - 146 speech varieties used in radio
- 69 languages in schools
- 35 languages newspapers and periodicals.
26Multilingualism a burden or an asset?
- India has always had a large number of languages.
- There have also been many language families.
- Language distances are great in both structure
and function, i.e. in both grammar and use. - There is a necessity to bind us together.
- Each one of our national languages acts as
binding forces.
27There was No Breakdown in Communicationever in
India
- During the several centuries, our writers were in
the process of constructing India as a nation. - But this construction was possible not because of
any one language. - Just as Sanskrit bound us together because
people from all corners contributed to enrich
knowledge bases using Sanskrit as a medium,
Prakrit gave us the much needed freedom to speak
in peoples languages. - Just as Sanskrit was important, so was Tamil
literary tradition. - There was freedom and joy all around in the
matter of languages communi-cation options.
28POOR LITERACY IN LARGE AREAS
- Mainly Problems of TEACHING -
- MODE NON-INTERACTIVE
- MATERIALS CONVENTIONAL
- METHOD UNINTERESTING
SOLUTION? USE LANGUAGE TECHNOLOGY
29PROMOTE ALL VARIETIES OF OUR LANGUAGES
- Each speech area has a rich variation, esp Hindi
heartland. - There is often a tendency to brush all varieties
as if they do not exist. - We do more harm to our major languages this way
than help its cause. - Encourage folklore, writing, plays and
performances and cultural traits in each
sub-community. - Remember that English has grown as a world
language not by strictly monopolized its style
and standards but by liberalizing its use. - Even while talking about ancient Indian
literature which many of us confuse with only
history of Sanskrit literature we find scholars
like Winternitz commenting thus The history of
Indian literaturenot only stretches across great
periods of time and an enormous area, but is also
one which is composed in many languages.
30Wide variation
- Although South Asian nations offer remarkable
similarities in many respects that have to do
with plurality of languages and cultures, they
vary in a number of other ways. - Take for instance, in density of population (and
consequently, in Physical Quality of Life, I.e.
PQLI ratings), in overall GNP, Per Capita Income,
or in size. - Since maps often do not tell us the complete
story, lets briefly compare them in terms of
other features.
31(No Transcript)
32However, their standard of living differs,
because of population density
33Economic might depends on overall country-wide
income. They differ on that count, too.
34However, the common man in South Asia face more
or less the same predicament
http//www.ifpri.org/themes/sai.htm
35Patterns of Language Death
- Finally, I would like you to look at the patterns
of language death, survival and revival in the
South Asian context from a socio-linguistic
angle. - Interestingly, Sociolinguists show that the
pattern of appearance disappearance is related
to the game of language names or labels used. - Language labels become important as there are
different claimants of language status among
dialects, speech varieties and pidgins. - With disappearance of languages, other
sociolinguistic items like registers, speech
communities, texts and traditions may also
disappear thru a set of complex processes.
36Language Loss in developing nations
- Theodore Wright compares a number of cases across
the globe and shows that contradictory forces are
at work.
- In some nations, former languages of power have
lost to others, and hence are facing some kind of
endangerment - Manchu in China, Coptic in Egypt, Gaelic and
Latin in the British Isles, Quechua in Peru,
Arabic in Spain, German in Eastern Europe, Urdu
in India.
37Cases where Colonial Languages won over
- They all lost the link with power as dynastic
states or colonial powers were overthrown. - But there are other cases where, even after
political changes, former languages of power
became even more successful. - For example, Spanish and Portuguese in Latin
America, Afrikaans in South Africa, or French in
Canada, or English in many countries.
38The Politics of Language labels
- There are also instances like language revival,
as it happened with Nepali. - Or, campaign for rightful place for what was once
a marginalized speech like Konkani. - There are also cases of survival of a
transplanted language community, such as
Saurashtri Tamil. - Many generations of settlers in Andaman Nicobar
also retained their languages.
- The predicament of the planner is that every
decade, many new language labels come up. - Angika, Bajjika, or Galong are labels which went
out of use recently. - On the other hand, we have no dearth of new
labels - Rajbanshi, Kokborok or Gorkhali. - They are also new voices of stridency.
39Stories of Language Retention
- 1. South Asia is still unique in that languages
are ratherretained here than be allowed to die. - 2. Just as languages go out of use, or try to
re-group and emerge as separate entities in their
own right, there are also instances like the
language revival, e.g. Gorkhali or Nepali. - 3. This often happens after its neighbouring
communities write them off as marginalised
speech. - 4. There are also instances of survival of a
transplanted language community, such as
Saurashtri Tamil, among the settlers from Gujarat
in Tamil Nadu who retained their original
linguistic patterns for 200 years. - 5. Take the case of many generations of
settlers in Andaman Nicobar from the mainlands
who have also retained their languages.
40The Feature of Split Merger
- There are thus two opposite patterns of
convergence and divergence working in the field
of languages here. - Languages split and new speech forms emerge
finally giving rise to new languages. - Mergers of language structures is often known as
linguistic convergences. - Thru it, dissimilar structurally divergent
languages become more like one another. - When it happens on social plane, unified
varieties emerge like Sadari in Jharkhand.
41Asian Variation Human Genetics
- Speech variation in South Asia is closely related
to genetic variation. Luca Cavalli-Sforza, a
geneticist from Stanford correlated
archaeological evidence as well as DNA markers,
including mtDNA and Y chromosome. She and her
colleagues suggest the following - There are four major clusters in Asia Southeast
Asians, East Asians (including Mongols and
Siberian Uralic speakers), Northeast Asians
(showing the greatest similarity to American
Natives, their genetic neighbors), and a
heterogeneous group of extra-European Caucasoids. - South Asians to Iranians, Arabs, and other Middle
Eastern groups fall in this last group.
Ref http//popgen.well.ox.ac.uk/eurasia/htdocs/ca
valli.html
42- The expansions of Indo-Europeans (Tocharians?)
may have started around 3800 years ago. - Perhaps 1000 years (or earlier), Indo-European
speakers from the oases south of the Urals, north
of the Black Sea and in western Kazakstan moved
west-ward east-ward. - They moved to the south, mixing with (presumably)
Dravidian speakers of the region including Iran,
India and Pakistan.
THE SOUTH ASIAN STOCK PATTERNS OF EXPANSION FROM
THE WEST TO THE ORIENT
43Defining South Asia as an entity
- Consider the genetic gradation of Asian people,
and north-south division will become important.
Ref History and Geography of Human Genes by
Menozzi, Piazza and Cavalli-Sforza, Chapter 4
44Socio- linguistically, South Asia is still strung
together?
- Speech variation is the order, and cultural
habits, rituals, and belief-systems show an equal
extent of plurality.
- In a Times of Indias web-portal, Sandy Sundaram
(April 16, 2003) in her Speaking Free,
recollected the peculiar predicament of many
multilingual Indians like herself
- Father was posted in the true Telugu districts
it was but natural that we siblings spoke purest
Telugu. Grandma, being a true Tamilian, made sure
we also spoke Tamil, and tutors gave us the
basics of English. Mother, being a very wise
lady, engaged a Hindi tutor. To complicate
matters, father went to Calicut and Mangalore,
making us reasonably proficient in Kannada and
Malayalam. This multi-lingual upbringing can be a
boon and a curse.
45VARIATION IS NOT A NEW PHENOMENON
- After Independence 1961 and 1971 figures show193
classified languages out of a total of 1,652
mother tongue labels. - 1961 and 1971 census figures of raw labels
numbered 3,000. - This jumped in 1981 to around 7,000
- It finally touched an all-time high of 10,000 in
1991. - Rationalization thus became a big challenge.
- Speech Variation in early surveys makes the
picture of changing space of Indian languages
clearer. - The older demographic records like census returns
of Bombay (1864), Madras Presidency (1871) and
Bengal (1872) or Griersons LSI (1886-27) tell
the same story. - 179 languages and 544 dialects at the turn of
20th century.
46SOUTH ASIA A COMPARATIVE CHART
47Standardization as a goal for Folk Languages
- Vernaculars require to get a uniform and
consistent norm of writing that is widely
accepted by its speakers (Haugen 1994 4340) for
them to achieve standardization. - They must also be legitimized as State
languages (Williams 199224). - They must provide planners with motivation for
literacy as well as computerization (Le Page
1992 120-38). That provides the connection with
language technology. - Such languages also need to be intellectualized
(Garvin 1955). - A combination of all these or some of these will
provide occasion for others to admit these
languages in the privileged club, as it were.
48Model of Secondary Standardization for Folk
Languages
- All developing countries have to resolve the
problem of finding the appropriate model of folk
language development. - In Meta, 1994, I had proposed a dichotomy of
Primary vs. Secondary Standardization applicable
to developing countries. - The point made there was that
- although primarily
standardized - languages usually had no
model before - them to imbibe, languages of
today - have a number of models of
primary - development before them.
- These latter languages are described as having
adopted a Secondary Standardization strategy. - Obviously, when languages develop naturally, they
take longer time to develop because of lack of
planned interventions. - Depending on degree of intervention by the
planners, the secondarily standardized languages
show a kind of cline or gradation.
49Types of Multilingual Societies Indigenous
Language Communities
- I would argue that the typology of multilingual
contexts be viewed as a cline. - At one extreme lies Type A-societies where
'language' is almost anthromorphized. - In some, language is a revered entity and is
regarded almost like an object of worship. - Here, language becomes a matter of passion for
which the community is ready to make bigger
sacrifices. - The history of nation-building is often written
after such sacrifices. Bangladesh is an ideal
example of this type. - However, since Bangla is spoken by 98 people
there, the fate of 44 other folk languages are
not known, nor documented. BRAC efforts are only
begun now.
50The Other Extreme
- At the other extreme lie Type-Z communities that
view 'language' as a tool. - Some of them view it as a skill to perform some
action the nature of which depend on exigencies
such as - (i) doing business,
- (ii) establishment of links,
- (iii) use of it as a medium of mass
communication, - (iv) for spending leisure-time, or
- (v) to use it as a utility like a library
language, or language of religion, etc. - No doubt - this is also an equally common and
capable way of handling societal multilingualism.
- Such communities often use different 'tools' (or
languages) for different purposes, - They are often (but not necessarily so) unable to
be charged enough to use language as an
instrument of nation-building. - Singapore with its four national language
communities offer a picture that comes closer to
this kind of postulation. - Here we find a number of interesting strategies
being used, including cultivation of new
country-internal norms like Singlish, for
instance.
51More about the Cline A Little about the
Development Model
- Surely, one could point out a number of
situations from multilingual communities around
the world to push the point further and plot them
on a cline to show that this typology does not
offer all-or-none mutually exclusive baskets as
was often assumed in earlier typologies. - I would suggest that many of these possible
types show an overlap of features from
neighboring types. - Thus, they together present a cascade that poses
an interesting challenge for language planning
agencies. - I would like to argue that language planning
models have to eclectic and pluralistic to
accommodate these differences. To the extent this
is needed, it draws from the pluralistic paradigm
as presented in Singh (1992 Language Development
and Planning A Pluralistic Paradigm. Shimla
IIAS).