scholarly journals Centering Bhasha (Indigenous Languages): An Ecolinguistics Perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ravi Bhushan ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
Ecological Diversity ◽  
Indigenous Literature ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Research Article ◽  
The World ◽  
The Third World ◽  
The Sacrifice

The 21st February is celebrated as the International Mother Language Day to commemorate the sacrifice of Bangladeshis who struggled to keep their mother tongue (Bangla) alive. The day is also celebrated to mark respect for world’s indigenous languages (Bhasha), which are on the verge of decline and demise. Notwithstanding the fact that, increasingly, English has gained most of the linguistic ground world over, the tacit and now most vocal resistance to ‘English imperialism’ is witnessed in at least the third world countries like India and its neighbors. In fact, because of extraordinary intervention of ICT and virtual world promoters like social media, the question of English has come to be the Shakespearian question in Hamlet; “to be or not to be”. The moot point is, should we resign and accept English as fait accompali or to think of alternative ways to turn ‘English advantage’ to our side without denying the fact that indigenous languages are disappearing at an alarming rate. As far as English in multilingual, multicultural and multireligious context like that of India is concerned, one must remember that language is a cultural product and also the potent vehicle to transit culture. Language is not only the medium but also the creator of thoughts and truth. These functions of language are necessarily associated with one’s mother tongue as these are the markers of one’s identity. Indian philosopher of language Bharthari (570 AD) said that language constructs our world; jagat sarvein sabdein bhashatei (we take cognizance of the world through language). Therefore construction of meaning is at the centre of language use, which is manifested through literature resulting in gyan (knowledge) and anand (bliss), the twin objectives of literature obtainable through indigenous literature created in mother tongues. The dwindling ecological diversity and declining linguistic diversity are the two greatest challenges before the world in modern times. The following research article discusses why we should care for promoting linguistic diversity (Bhasha) and solutions thereof.

scholarly journals PANDEMIC, LAW, AND INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES IN PAKISTAN

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-16
Author(s):  
Muhammad Hassan Abbasi ◽  
Maya David
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
National Language ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Speech Communities ◽  
The Law ◽  
Local Languages

Pakistan is a multilingual state with 74 languages (Siddiqui, 2019), with Urdu being its national language while English is its official language (Article 251 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan). However, the linguistic diversity, as per the law, has not been given proper status in Pakistan (Rahman, 2002). In the wake of Covid-19 pandemic, the role of medical health professionals, local police officers, media persons and educationists to create an awareness about the precautionary measures to fight Covid-19 among the indigenous communities in different regions of Pakistan is important. However, there is no practice prescribed in the law, to disseminate awareness in the local languages. Moreover, as most of the lexical items regarding the pandemic have been borrowed, the shift to local languages is more than challenging. In urban areas, indigenous communities are aware of the precautions to be taken during this pandemic as they use the mainstream languages (Ali, 2017 & Abbasi, 2019.) However, in the rural and northern areas of Pakistan this is not so prevalent. Some language activists and concerned members of the community in different parts of the state took this opportunity to educate the masses and started an awareness campaign about coronavirus pandemic in local languages (posters in local languages and short video messages on social media and YouTube). Yet, linguists and community members have not been able to work with many indigenous languages, which Rahman (2004) lists in his study, and these speech communities urgently need the required information in their respective heritage languages. Such small steps by community members and NGOs in providing necessary information in local languages suggest that proper education in the mother tongue can protect communities in times like this. The government has to protect endangered and indigenous languages by an effective law-making process that actively encourages the use of local languages and helps provide information in their respective languages in such situations as this pandemic.

Are we making a difference?

2007 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 3.1-3.14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Clyne
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Professional Groups ◽  
Professional Societies ◽  
The World ◽  
Making A Difference ◽  
Special Responsibilities

Language is crucial in our lives and to all disciplines. It affects our well-being individually and collectively and touches important sociopolitical issues. Linguists/applied linguists have exciting opportunities for interdisciplinary research and to work in contexts personally meaningful to them. While language is the concern of all people, professionals have special responsibilities to provide leadership in understanding how it works and responsible insights into the uses and abuses of language in society.Australian language specialists can offer the rest of the world experience with language policy, typological and language contact studies, and bilingual language acquisition. Some Australians have advanced linguistic knowledge through studies of indigenous languages. Many have worked with indigenous, ethnic and other communities and professional groups, providing evidence in court or advice to teachers and families. Some broadcast regularly or occasionally. But have we succeeded in contesting the monolingual mindset of the mainstream? The Australian authors represented in language sections of most general bookshops are not linguists.Far more collaboration and coordination of initiatives through the professional societies is needed to put languages back on the national agenda and make Australia more language-aware. This should lead to recognizing, valuing, fostering and transmitting, supporting and sharing our linguistic diversity. Australia’s rich language potential has only been partly realized.

scholarly journals The Representation of Indigenous Languages of Oceania in Academic Publications

Publications ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
Eve Koller ◽  
Malayah Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
Indigenous Language ◽  
Pacific Island ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The World ◽  
Academic Publications ◽  
Language Of Publication

Of the estimated 7117 languages in the world, approximately 1500 (21%) are indigenous to the Pacific. Despite composing approximately one-fourth of the world’s linguistic diversity, the representation of these languages in academic publication is scant, even in periodicals focused on Pacific Island studies. We investigated 34 periodicals that focus on research in Oceania. We report on (1) journal names; (2) how many are currently in circulation; (3) how many accept submissions in Indigenous Pacific languages; (4) what percent of the most recent articles were actually in Indigenous languages of the Pacific and (5) which languages those were. Five of the 34 journals allowed submissions written in Indigenous Pacific languages. Three of the five journals specified Hawaiian as an accepted language of publication; one Sāmoan and one Tahitian and any other Indigenous language of Polynesia. We were able to collect data on four of the five journals, which averaged 11% of recent publications in an Indigenous language. None accepted submissions in Indigenous languages from the Pacific outside of Polynesia.

scholarly journals Global and Local Perspectives on the Preservation of Linguistic Diversity: A Nepali Experience

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-94
Author(s):  
Min Pun
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
Global Trends ◽  
Global Perspectives ◽  
Multilingual Education ◽  
Diversity Issues ◽  
Global And Local ◽  
Local Perspectives

This paper deals with the past studies about preserving and promoting linguistic diversity with special reference to indigenous languages of the world in general and of Nepal in particular. It is broadly divided into two major categories viz. global perspectives on linguistic diversity issues and local perspectives on linguistic diversity issues. The global perspectives section is related to conceptualizing the global trends of preserving and promoting linguistic diversity in different regions of the globe. For instance, past studies conducted on indigenous languages of Europe, South Asia (including Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India), Latin America, North America, Africa, and Malaysia were reviewed to identify the research gap for this study. The local perspectives section is related to conceptualizing the Nepali trends of preserving and promoting linguistic diversity in Nepal. Similarly, empirical studies were reviewed into four aspects such as a) linguistic diversity and multilingualism, b) endangerment of indigenous languages, c) bilingual and multilingual education, and d) mother tongue literacy. Based on these observations, this paper has been developed to identify the global and local perspectives on the preservation of linguistic diversity, using a Nepali experience.

Language Policy and Planning in South America*

1994 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 220-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy H. Hornberger
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
Language Policy And Planning ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Low Profile ◽  
The World ◽  
Policy And Planning ◽  
Immigrant Language ◽  
Official Status

South America, widely known as a “Spanish-speaking” part of the world, is in fact a region of great linguistic diversity and complexity (see Table 1). The history and hegemony of the colonial languages, Spanish and Portuguese; the elusiveness and elitism of immigrant languages such as German, Italian, Japanese, and English; and the variety and vitality of the indigenous languages have combined to pose continuing challenges to language planners and policy makers. For the colonial languages, which have long enjoyed official status, the pressing language planning issues are those concerning standardization vis-a-vis national and international varieties. Immigrant language concerns maintain a relatively low profile in the policy and planning arena.

scholarly journals Are we making a difference?

2007 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 3.1-3.14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Clyne
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Professional Groups ◽  
Professional Societies ◽  
The World ◽  
Making A Difference ◽  
Special Responsibilities

Language is crucial in our lives and to all disciplines. It affects our well-being individually and collectively and touches important sociopolitical issues. Linguists/applied linguists have exciting opportunities for interdisciplinary research and to work in contexts personally meaningful to them. While language is the concern of all people, professionals have special responsibilities to provide leadership in understanding how it works and responsible insights into the uses and abuses of language in society. Australian language specialists can offer the rest of the world experience with language policy, typological and language contact studies, and bilingual language acquisition. Some Australians have advanced linguistic knowledge through studies of indigenous languages. Many have worked with indigenous, ethnic and other communities and professional groups, providing evidence in court or advice to teachers and families. Some broadcast regularly or occasionally. But have we succeeded in contesting the monolingual mindset of the mainstream? The Australian authors represented in language sections of most general bookshops are not linguists. Far more collaboration and coordination of initiatives through the professional societies is needed to put languages back on the national agenda and make Australia more language-aware. This should lead to recognizing, valuing, fostering and transmitting, supporting and sharing our linguistic diversity. Australia’s rich language potential has only been partly realized.

The Imperial Legacy of Language

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harm De Blij
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Historical Geography ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Language Loss ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Cultural Convergence ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The World ◽  
Great Merit ◽  
Early Human

Language is the essence of culture, and culture is the epoxy of society. Individually and collectively, people tend to feel passionately about their mother tongue, especially when they have reason to believe that it is threatened in some way. Ever since the use of language evolved in early human communities, some confined in isolated abodes and others on the march into Eurasia, Australia, and the Americas, languages have arisen, flourished, and failed with the fortunes of their speakers. Linguists estimate that tens of thousands of such languages may have been born and lost, leaving no trace. Some major ones, including Sumerian and Etruscan, survive fragmentarily in their written record. A few, such as Sanskrit and Latin, live on in their modern successors. But the historical geography of language is the story of a loss of linguistic diversity that continues unabated. At present, about 7,000 languages remain, half of them classified by linguists as endangered. In the year from the day you read this, about 25 more languages will go extinct. By the end of this century, the Earth may be left with just a few hundred languages, so billions of its inhabitants will no longer be speaking their ancestral mother tongues (Diamond, 2001). If this projection turns out to be accurate, the language loss will not be confined to those spoken by comparatively few people in remote locales. One dimension of the “flattening” of the world in the age of globalization is the cultural convergence of which linguistic homogenization is a key component. Some of my colleagues view this as an inevitable and not altogether undesirable process of integration, but if I may be candid, most of those colleagues speak one language only: English. Having spoken six languages during my lifetime (I can still manage in four), I tend to share the linguists’ concern over the trend. English has the great merit of comparative simplicity and adaptable modernity, but as it reflects historic natural and social environments it is sparse indeed and no match for the riches of French or even Dutch. If such contrasts can arise and persist among closely related languages in Europe, imagine the legacies of major languages such as Yoruba, Urdu, Thai, and others potentially endangered as language convergence proceeds.

scholarly journals Translations for Our Nations: Addressing the Indigenous Language Gap in COVID-19 Health Communication

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thilaxcy Yohathasan ◽  
Sterling Stutz
Keyword(s):  
Medical Student ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Health Resources ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
Plain Language ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Indigenous Youth ◽  
The World

Purpose: The availability of culturally safe and plain-language resources is necessary to reduce the spread of COVID-19 for Indigenous communities around the world. Translations For Our Nations is an initiative addressing these resource gaps, making available COVID-19 health resources in Indigenous languages on the web. The project began in April 2020 as a result of the Indigenous COVID-19 Health Partnership launched by Victor A. Lopez-Carmen, a Dakota and Yaqui medical student, Harvard Medical School) and co-founded by Sterling Stutz and Thilaxcy Yohathasan, (MPH-Indigenous Health at the University of Toronto), and Sukhmeet Singh Sachal (medical student, University of British Columbia). Methods: Translators from Indigenous communities around the world signed up to participate in the project via a GoogleForm in April 2020. Over 100 Indigenous translators and community members in regions (South America, Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, and the Pacific) were provided the 5 English language source materials reviewed by physicians and Indigenous youth leaders. Translators submitted their translated documents via email and on September 1, 2020 the website Translations4OurNations.org was launched where the translated documents can be accessed and downloaded with more translations accepted on a rolling basis. Results: Translations for our Nations has published COVID-19 health resources in 40+ Indigenous languages from around the world. The website also includes photos and text submissions from community members speaking to the importance of culturally-specific COVID-19 health information disseminated directly to communities in local languages and dialects. Implications:  Indigenous Nations have the right to access vital health information in their mother tongue. This project is led by and designed for Indigenous youth and Indigenous community members to empower individuals and communities to make informed choices regarding their health and exposure risks, and decrease the risk of COVID-19 transmission in Indigenous communities around the world.

scholarly journals PRESERVING AFRICAN LANGUAGES AND TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY IN THE FACE OF EDUCATION AND GLOBALIZATION

2013 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-15
Author(s):  
Ayodeji Olasunkanmi Abari ◽  
Idowu Olufunke Oyetola ◽  
Adedapo Adetayo Okunuga
Keyword(s):  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
Global Village ◽  
Territorial Integrity ◽  
African Languages ◽  
International Language ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
Language And Education ◽  
Separate Identity

With the colonization of Africa, the language of the colonial masters has taken precedence over the indigenous languages of the Africans to the extent that the latter seems to be going into extinction. Yet, education is better founded on the native language of a people which also preserves their culture and tradition and gives them their own separate identity. Meanwhile, the world has turned into a global village and there now exist international languages with the owners’ ways of life. The latter seems to have subsumed the culture and tradition of others who are borrowers of the international language. Where then lays the fate of Africans, between the preservation of their indigenous languages and the risk of being left out and behind the rest of the world if they do not simultaneously come to terms with international languages. It is these issues of language and education, as well as globalization and African territorial integrity that this study examines separately and jointly with a view to juxtaposing them. The study then recommends balanced ways out of the dilemma one of which is the compulsory use of the mother tongue by Africans as the medium of instruction at the foundational level of education. Key words: African languages, education, globalization, preserving, territorial integrity.

Role of Self Help Groups A Study with Specific Reference to Vellore District

GIS Business ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 243-252
Author(s):  
Dr. M.A. Bilal Ahmed ◽  
Dr. S. Thameemul Ansari
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Role ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Government Organizations ◽  
Research Article ◽  
Self Help ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
Self Help Groups

SHG is a movement which came to being in the early 1969. Prof. Muhammed Younus, a great economist of Bangladesh took initiative in setting up Self Help Groups and these SHGs were gradually spread all over the world. This social movement unites the people hailing from poor background. Those who are joining this group feel socially and economically responsible to one another. In India, there are some likeminded bodies and stakeholders of some government organizations play pivotal role towards the formation of SHG In this research article, role of SHGs in Vellore district is studies under the three dimensions of Cognitive role, leadership role and role towards entrepreneurship.

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