Thursday, August 21, 2008

Language

The much talked about "Pan-Indian" nature of BITS-Pilani always makes me wonder about the several languages spoken in the campus. Telugu, Tamil, Malyalam, Bengali, Marathi, Hindi, English, Gujarati...the list is long yet countable ( Effect of Maths courses is evident! )!!

My schooling was done in a school that was owned by a Gujarati trust. It had many Gujarati staff members,right from the principal to clerks. My fascination for learning different languages began at that stage. The curiosity of knowing what is being talked between two persons was a fundamental reason, showing off that 'I know these many languages' another! All attempts of grasping the language ended up in knowing just Su chhe? Saru chhe! Danda leke maru chhe!! I even had a hit on Bengali (Thanks to Jhinak , Shubho and Rajat for teaching me and not to Soumyadeep!!) and now I can ask you Tumi Kemon acho?

India is blessed with myriad dialects. Add to it the multiple accents in each language, that makes it one of the largest collections of its kind. These very dialects speak more than just words. They reflect the culture of the terrain, for the coining of a word is often related to some event or some object or a phenomenon. They reflect the way humans are treated, for the politeness or rudeness encased with the words. They reflect the generations, for the slangs. They are vehicle to convey a plethora of emotions.

A language evolves with time. Those who don't, extinct. Thou has become u now, Because its cos today, My cellphone supports Hinglish as a language. This a pointer towards amalgamation of languages, globalization and the manner in which people think today, Geographical barriers proving ineffective in inhibiting the usage of a language. Purists will always disapprove the changes, but they will be there.

So the 'To Do' list for this year includes, to speak at least a complete, error proof, and a fluent sentence in Bengali! Any bong ready for the coaching?

6 comments:

Internet Person said...

I wonder if globalization is leading us towards a world of one language? Then we would no longer spend hours and hours trying to learn Bong at least!

Internet Person said...

I wonder if globalization is leading us towards a world of one language? Then we would no longer spend hours and hours trying to learn Bong at least!

Goonjan said...

Phodu... sahi kya kya sochta hai be tu!!!

BTW, nice thots... and nice resolution...
I hope that u stick 2 ur resolution and may be.. i repeat may be i can talk 2 u in bengali...

PS- i dont doubt u here... i doubt my bengali skills ki tu merese aacha bong bolega aur meri maar lega!!! [:)]

also- i now remember ki mera bhi blog hai... hmm... and i have some pending work there!!!

Anonymous said...

The most interesting part for any language lies in its origin. Its quite amazing to find most languages having its unique grammar and its rules. The script for any language also depicts a lot about its origin, the civilization which developed it and the advent which a particular civilization made.
It will be also interesting to find out the first proper human language developed in the history of mankind. Like the one which has both the verbal as well as the script counter-part. Remember the Egyptian heiroglyphic script, the Devanagri script and the Roman script. Try to find out the common things in each of these and you'll be surprised to find different civilizations having many things in common. Also there may be other forms (forms; I mean, they are totally different and have not yet been deciphered) of languages which may have been lost in the course of history. Languages are also facing the danger of extinction. The languages are indeed an important heritage of the entire human race. They should be explored from a global as well as the local perspective.

Pratik Maheshwari said...

u can trust me to teach u atleast some basics of bengali..rest globalization has stretched itself everywhere..

Anonymous said...

Thanks for writing this.