linguistic identity – Educational Sociolinguistics

State of Indigenous Languages in Bangladesh

Nishat Sharmin

Indigenous people estimated 370 million, across the globe demonstrate a rich cultural heritage, linguistic diversity and a history of traditions and values. Therefore, preservation of their languages, as a vehicle to move forward their cultural integrity and linguistic identity is paramount. However indigenous languages are disappearing fast, due to the lack of local government initiatives.

Bangladesh, a land of 148,460 square kilometers houses 50 indigenous communities as enlisted on the gazette of “Small Ethnic Groups Cultural Institutes Act of 2010”. The indigenous communities as Chakma, Marma, Garo, Khasi, Rakhaine, Santal and others have a distinct language, cultural heritage, and history to nurture. According to a recent survey by Kapaeeng Foundation with the International Labour Organization, 92 percent of indigenous community respondents agreed that their language is in a vulnerable state, 4 percent agreed their language is critically endangered while 4 percent agreed their language is already extinct. Their children have limited access to quality education as their mother tongue is not integrated in the mainstream education. Hence it is crucial to take necessary steps for the preservation and learning of the alphabets of their respective languages.

Bangladesh, once fought for its sovereignty and mother tongue is yet to properly address the state of indigenous languages residing in the country. 21 February is observed as the International Mother Language Day as a tribute by UNESCO to the Bangladeshi people’s sacrifice for their Language Movement. However, they are yet to recognize the rights of indigenous people of the country.

As a solution to the existing situation, Bangladesh might adopt language policies that ensure the peaceful coexistence of the ‘mother tongue’ of the tribal people and ‘national language’ and thus appreciate the linguistically minoritized subjects’ identity, and their contribution to the social, cultural, historical, and economic significance to the independent Bangladesh. Establishing ethnolects could be an effective way of accommodating linguistic rights of the ethnic communities.

References:

Sultana, S. (2021). Indigenous ethnic languages in Bangladesh: Paradoxes of the multilingual ecology. Ethnicities, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/14687968211021520

Van Herk, Gerard. (2018). What is sociolinguistics? 2e Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.

Question:

How would you feel if you were a member of any indigenous community? What kind of personal or collective initiatives you might consider for exhibiting your language, culture and values to the global audience?https://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/news/state-our-indigenous-languages-1783657

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What your speaking style, like, says about you

Victoria Ky-Khim

Whether or not you use slang terms, I am sure you have encountered them in your lifetime. Often, adolescents promote these slang terms. Although slang terms are not always approved, especially by older generations who value a proper or standard way of speaking, these represent language change. Some people, such as adolescents, tend to lead such changes. The period where adolescents use non-standard features, such as slang terms, most is referred to as the adolescent peak (Van Herk, 2018).

There are many slang terms. Terms that were introduced years ago can go out of style, and make a comeback again, just like fashion. I guess you could say slang terms come and go just as fashion comes and goes. To continue with this idea of slang terms as fashion, “just as accessories, clothes, handbags, body language even, is able to project an identity, so language variation patterns do the same thing” (TEDx Talks, 2014, 5:46). Depending on the linguistic features chosen, language can reflect the speaker’s aspirations, stances, and even attitudes.

One such example is seen with “like.” Not the standard like, but the nonstandard like as used in this blog post’s title “What your speaking style, like, says about you”. To some, the use of the nonstandard like can seem arbitrary. However, there are rules that govern its use, and these rules must take into account syntactic constraints as well as the social context. Depending on the English variety employed, nonstandard like is either used as a clause marginal or a clause medial.

As a clause marginal in Irish English, “like” is positioned at the beginning or at the end of a sentence. Examples would include “like, he’s never there”, or “he’s never there, like” (TEDx Talks, 2014, 7:13). As a clause medial, in American, Australian, British, Canadian Englishes, “like” is used in the middle of a sentence. An example would be “he was, like, way tall” (TEDx Talks, 2014, 7:38). As such, depending on whether one uses clause marginal or clause medial “like” can show whether they associate with a more global English versus a more local English (such as Irish English).

We do not always realize it but, there are reasons why people speak a certain way. Their usage of different linguistic elements reflects their linguistic selves. People are expressing their identities through their language choices. As such, slang phrases represent more than we might think.

Questions

Are there slang terms that you use more than others? If yes, what are they? Why do you use these terms more?
What other linguistic variation patterns would you say represents your linguistic self/identity best?

References

TEDx Talks. (2014, Nov. 21). What your speaking style, like, says about you | Vera Regan | TEDxDublin [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAGgKE82034&ab_channel=TEDxTalks

Van Herk, Gerard. (2018). What is sociolinguistics? 2e Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.

A Father’s Language Anxiety

Ethan – second blog post

I’ve just read some wonderful blog posts like Hsinhua’s and it seems the buzz word in our recent discussion is language anxiety. I want to talk more about it, but not like Lauren Godfrey-Smith who talks about her own experience as a French learner and speaker in Montreal.

I would like to talk about language anxiety from a parent’s perspective. It might be difficult for those who have never had the experience of L2 learning or raising a baby to make sense of the meaning of ‘a parent’s anxiety for his child language learning’. Well, I might have coined this term, but I believe I’m not the first to be concerned about it.

Continue reading “A Father’s Language Anxiety”