[Assam] Losing the Language - Irish to English

Sun Mar 2 17:46:58 CST 2008

Ramgopal:
There are several different ways of responding to your false views and false worry
(1) Most of the Assamese who say they are are worried of losing their language are the same people who themselves are fast forgetting to speak their own language and whose children donot know how to speak and write Assamese. From that point of view, they are not even sincere in their worries. One can say, these people themselves are partly the cause of this problem. If one does speak Assamese, at least be noble like an Irish, don't shed tears about losing your language. Take it easy brother. One cannot eat and have the cake too.
(2) This worry of losing the Assamese language is actually intermixed with Assam being more Islamic. Statistics are showing that many of these Bangladeshis are actually learning to speak Assamese. According to one statistics, there are more Bangladeshiues studying Assamese language in college than the ethnic Assamese. But that will not satisfy these Assamese who continue to worry to death for losing the language.   
(3) Thus this worry of losing the language is actually a worry of being a minority Assamese speakers in Assam itself. This I agree, but this is not the same as losing the language. There are many minority languages in the world who are doing fine. 
(4) In spite of everything, most importantly, if you look at the statistics, Assamese is about 35th language population wise out of about 5000 languages of the world. I will bet couple of million dollars, (ie if I had the money),  not to worry about losing the Assamese language in spite all the negative things that is happening against the language
(5) Instead of worrying about losing the language, one should ask what one doing positive to retain the language.

There are certain issues for which we need to worry. One is that the Assamese language is fast losing its originality as a language under the influence of Sanskrit and other mainland Indian languages. I am yet to find too many Assamese who understand this issue and who are worried of this problem.  One does not lose a language as a mother tongue unless and until the mothers stop speaking the language to their children. That is what is happening with the non resident Assamese. That is what happened to the Ahoms who lost their Tai language because they married Assamese girls even from the first generation. The Bangladeshis will not kill the Assamese language unless the Assamese themselves kill it by stopping to speak it. I think, in spite of the non resident Assamese who are losing the language, there will be enough Assamese speakers in Assam who will continue the language as a mother tongue for years to come. Instead of looking at the percentage, we need to look at the million of Assamese speaking people in Assam.

 BTW we discussed this issue with linguists like Dr Golak Ch Goswami, Dr Nagen Saikia and others this time in Assam. They agree with my views. Dr Golok Ch Goswami even declared publicly in our meeting, that the Assamese language will not die unless the Assamese people commit suicide of the language.

Nice discussing about the Assamese language.. Keep it up.
Rajen Barua

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ram Sarangapani" <assamrs at gmail.com>
To: "A Mailing list for people interested in Assam from around the world" <assam at assamnet.org>
Cc: <umesh.sh05 at post.harvard.edu>
Sent: Sunday, March 02, 2008 1:20 PM
Subject: Re: [Assam] Losing the Language - Irish to English

> Barua,
> 
>>Interesting. Compared to that Assamese are fortunate that I don't think
>>there is any concern for losing the Assamese language although many >people
> are worried for nothing.
> 
> That itself is an interesting statement.
> The problem is comparing Gaelic (in this case) and the Irish being
> non-challant of their language to the concerns of the Assamese.
> Why do you think some Assamese are worried for nothing?
> 
> The Irish have had problems with their religious denomiations
> (Catholoc-Protestant, Northern Ireland/IRA etc, etc) - compared to that the
> Assamese have had very *few problems* with regards to religions.
> Both Assamese Hindus and Muslims have gotten along very well for a very long
> time.
> 
> The Assamese are and should be rightly concerned with the changing landscape
> whereby illegal Bangladeshis are coming in hordes, and more *importantly
> speak a different language*.
> 
>>From all practical indications it does seem that the Assamese language will
> face huge challenges, to say the least. It is very simple, if only a small
> minority speak a language, it will cease to exist
> 
> I think it is a major problem facing Assam and I am not sure if any Assamese
> can or should be magnanimous as to not be worried about losing the language.
> 
> --Ram
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 3/2/08, Rajen & Ajanta Barua <barua25 at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Umesh:
>> Interesting. Compared to that Assamese are fortunate that I don't think
>> there is any concern for losing the Assamese language although many people
>> are worried for nothing.
>> BTW is there some predictions which are the languages that will be lost
>> during next 50 or 100 years.?
>> Rajenda
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "umesh sharma" <jaipurschool at yahoo.com>
>> To: <assam at assamnet.org>
>> Sent: Saturday, March 01, 2008 11:23 PM
>> Subject: [Assam] Losing the Language - Irish to English
>>
>>
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > I just met an Irish singer from Dublin and was surprised to learn that
>> he
>> > couldn't speak Irish (Gaelic) since as he said " In Ireland it is easier
>> > to find Chinese speaking persons than Irish/Gaelic speaking people."
>> This
>> > is despite that fact that Irish is compulsory is schools - for 16 years
>> of
>> > schooling.
>> >
>> > He told me that Scotland has its own version called Scot-Gaelic but it
>> too
>> > is losing ground to English  - only 50,000 speakers though 5 million
>> > Scots. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Gaelic_language
>> >
>> > Surprisingly he said there is no revolt or bad feeling that Irish has
>> been
>> > taken over by English - depsite IRA violence in Northen Ireland (and
>> rest
>> > of UK) till recent times
>> >
>> > Umesh
>> >
>> > PS:: We are delighted that Luke Slott will be back at Tiny Planet to
>> warm
>> > the room with his radiant spirit and music.  This time Luke will be
>> > singing some of his original songs with piano and guitar.
>> >
>> >
>> > Umesh Sharma
>> >
>> > Washington D.C.
>> >
>> > 1-202-215-4328 [Cell]
>> >
>> > Ed.M. - International Education Policy
>> > Harvard Graduate School of Education,
>> > Harvard University,
>> > Class of 2005
>> >
>> > http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/index.html (Edu info)
>> >
>> > http://hbswk.hbs.edu/ (Management Info)
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > www.gse.harvard.edu/iep  (where the above 2 are used )
>> > http://harvardscience.harvard.edu/
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
>> >
>> > ---------------------------------
>> > Yahoo! Answers - Get better answers from someone who knows. Tryit now.
>> > _______________________________________________
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>> > assam at assamnet.org
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>> >
>>
>>
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