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- Convenor:
-
Hugo Cardoso
(Universidade de Lisboa)
- Location:
- C405
- Start time:
- 25 July, 2012 at
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
- Session slots:
- 2
Short Abstract:
Although historically South Asia has been among the richest linguistic ecologies in the world, as well as a hotbed of multilingualism and contact, recent reports clarify that obsolescence/death are now conspicuous there. This panel takes an encompassing look at the issue, from various perspectives.
Long Abstract:
Although historically South Asia has been among the richest linguistic ecologies in the world, as well as a hotbed of multilingualism and contact, recent reports clarify that obsolescence and death are now conspicuous in the region. Endowed with more knowledge than ever before, South Asian nations now face the challenge and opportunity to tackle the problem more effectively than other countries have in the past. In this respect, we will attempt to ascertain whether the threat to South Asia's linguistic diversity can be quantified, what the root causes are, and also analyse how the topic has been addressed in the South Asian media/education or what reactions it has elicited from policy-makers and members of the society at large. Despite the global reach of the problem, there is no assurance that scenarios which have been identified elsewhere apply in every region of the planet; therefore, we are also interested in finding out if there is any specificity or recurrent risk factors in the South Asian context, so as to develop better-suited solutions.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper short abstract:
South Asia is not only rich in languages, but also in scripts. While most scripts have been continuously in use for centuries or even millennia, others were introduced only in the 20th century. This paper will discuss how scripts intentionally and unintentionally function(ed) as agents of demarcating and preserving languages.
Paper long abstract:
South Asia is not only rich in languages, but also in scripts. While most scripts have been continuously in use for centuries or even millennia, others were introduced only in the 20th century. But scripts have not only been recently introduced with the purpose to demarcate, preserve or strengthen a language and its speech community.
The most prominent and successful example for this kind of endeavour is Punjabi and the introduction of the Gurmukhi script in the 16th century. The Sikh religion is today inseparable from both language and script, although Punjabi can be written also in a variant of the Perso-Arabic script and Nagari.
Furthermore, in the 20th century new scripts seemed to have been introduced to strengthen the shared identity of speech communities which lack a long literary tradition, e.g. the Ol Chiki for Santali. This paper will offer an overview on this unexplored topic and will try to offer first thoughts on the role scripts - invented, revived, modified or borrowed from other languages - can play in preserving languages in South Asia.
Paper short abstract:
The aim of the paper is to analyse historical, economic, political and cultural reasons for the death of Punjabi - the majority language of Pakistan - as tools of expressing intellectual demands of the speakers and of preserving cultural traditions of the society.
Paper long abstract:
The Punjabi-speaking community constitutes the majority of the population of Pakistan. It consists of influential class of rich Punjabi landlords and the largest - in absolute numbers - educated middle class, which provides most of the personnel for white-collar professions and the pool for recruitment into civil and military service. Punjabi speakers usually identify themselves with their mother tongue and willingly discuss the meaning of 'Punjabiyat'. But the self-identification on the linguistic basis does not mean that the speakers are interested in developing their mother tongue. All cultural, intellectual, professional activity of the community takes place either in Urdu or in English. Punjabi-speaking poets and writers have to write in Urdu for Punjabi speaking readers if they want their books to be sold. The symmetrical type of bilingualism of the 'parents', who were able to express themselves in all cultural domains, is gradually substituted by the recessive bilingualism of the younger generations when the mother tongue is used predominantly in everyday life and when the speakers' vocabulary remains restricted to some 1000-1500 words. The aim of the paper is to analyse historical, economic, political and cultural reasons for the death of the majority language as tools of expressing intellectual demands of the speakers and of preserving cultural traditions of the society.
Paper short abstract:
This paper looks at marginalized communities of Sri Lanka and discusses the factors behind their present linguistic conditions. We review the discourse of endangerment behind Sri Lanka Malay and Batticaloa Portuguese, and discuss the various forces that influence them.
Paper long abstract:
With a rich past of migrations, invasions, colonization and unification as a consequence of independence, Sri Lanka is a virtual laboratory of diverse dynamics of language. Conflict, contact and planning have radically changed the linguistic profile of the island from one of diversity to one in which a number of minor, peripheral languages may be on the verge of disappearing. This paper looks at marginalized communities of Sri Lanka and discusses the factors behind their present linguistic conditions. We consider in particular at the discourse of endangerment behind Sri Lanka Malay and Batticaloa Portuguese, and discuss the interaction between the various forces that influence them, namely convergence, planning and shift.
Paper short abstract:
Language endangerment of South Asian languages with long history and big population is about reducing their functionality and restricting their use to in-group communications and for cultural and political identity. For smaller minority languages and tribal languages, it is their speakers shifting to dominant languages. Both developments are encouraged by the economic and political changes from feudal to capitalistic in the post-colonial period.
Paper long abstract:
The contemporary regional languages of India emerged autonomous in the beginning of the second millennium out of being variants of Sanskrit in the north and being subordinated to Sanskrit in the south (with the exception of Tamil). Under the colonial rule, these languages came to be subordinated to English. The independence of India promoted a policy of maintaining and developing all Indian languages, of which the major ones will take the place of English in administration and education. Challenges to this change over raise questions about the survival of the major Indian languages not with regard to their demographic existence but with regard to their vitality in domains other than culture.
The minor languages of India face the challenge of physical survival in the changed environment of increasing disruption of the feudal order and geographic and economic mobility of people as well as the assertiveness of the regional major languages.
This paper discusses the meaning of survival for the major and minor languages of India including their symbolic existence and hybridized existence. The discussion is embedded in what has changed in South Asia in the post-colonial period.
Paper short abstract:
Indo-Portuguese, the generic term to denote the Portuguese-lexified creoles of South Asia, has a long and important history in India and Sri Lanka, and subsists in some locations with variable degrees of vitality. In this talk, we will zoom in on South India, where the rise and fall of Indo-Portuguese were particularly dramatic – from extremely widespread up to the late 19th-century to extinct (with a single known exception) nowadays.
Paper long abstract:
Indo-Portuguese, the generic term to denote the Portuguese-lexified creoles of South Asia, has a long and important history in India and Sri Lanka, and subsists in some locations with variable degrees of vitality. Out of all the geolinguistic settings in which Indo-Portuguese creoles formed, in this talk we will zoom in on South India, a region where the rise and fall of Indo-Portuguese were particularly dramatic - from extremely widespread up to the late 19th-century to extinct (with the single known exception of a small pocket in Cannanore [Kannur]) nowadays. Based on historical-archival evidence and oral histories recently collected in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, we will characterise the past geographical and social implantation of Indo-Portuguese in South India, map its demise, and identify the reported reasons underlying its rapid contraction. What emerges is a history of obsolescence which to a large extent mirrors that of other endangered or extinct languages the world over - reflecting e.g. social restructuring, and changes in the region's political, economic and religious dynamics - but also with some specificities, in which ideological notions of (in)correctness, hybridisation and colonial associations take centre-stage.
Paper short abstract:
Comparing languages of the Tai and Tibeto-Burman language family, this paper will study the effect of writing systems, orthography linguistic ecology and language history on the maintenance of minority languages in North East India.
Paper long abstract:
At the meeting point of South Asia with South East and East Asia, North East India is probably the most linguistically diverse area on the subcontinent, with long established communities speaking languages of four different families - Austroasiatic, Indo-European, Tai-Kadai and Tibeto-Burman and several language isolates.
We will compare the case of the Tai Ahom, former rulers of the Ahom kingdom that made up most of what is now Assam. Ahom has not been spoken as a mother tongue for perhaps 200 years, a decline that occurred despite its being the state language at one time. Today there is a large body of surviving manuscripts, and the language is still used in some rituals, and while both of these factors are foundational to a revival of the language that is ongoing, neither was able to maintain the language in its spoken form.
The various Tangsa languages (Tibeto-Burman), on the other hand, are largely unwritten and still healthy, despite small populations. At least 35 different Tangsa subgroups are found in India, with more across the border in Burma. Each has a distinct linguistic variety, many of which are mutually intelligible while others are not. Only one variety of Tangsa is known to have become moribund.
Since many Tangsas are now Christians, projects are underway to make Bible translations, necessitatating orthography and literacy development. Such programs would be in only a handful of the many varieties and this desire for standardisation is likely to lead to a significant loss of diversity.