The fate of Bangla in the world of dying languages

Illustration: TBS

Comforting someone who has lost a loved one can be difficult, and even more so when the right words are hard to find. But what happens when the words themselves cease to exist? When the language we used to express our feelings is lost? What becomes of our ability to convey that sense of loss? Will our tongues be rendered silent, or will a new voice emerge in its place? In our daily parlance, the phrase "stopping a voice" is a metaphor for death.

Shaolee Mahbub, professor of anthropology at Jagannath University, says, "The death of a language in linguistic terms refers to the unique situation when a language loses its final 'native' or 'local' speaker. A language is deemed extinct when there are no second-language speakers left and no written form of the language remains."

The death of a language is an unparalleled event in human history. Even with modern scientific tools, most of the world's languages remain shrouded in mystery, making it impossible to accurately quantify the loss that occurs when a language disappears.

In the introduction to the book "When Languages Die", K David Harrison laments the demise of languages, noting that centuries of human exploration into time, seasons, marine life, flora, mathematics, natural beauty, mythology, music, evolution, and infinity are in danger of disappearing along with the vast repository of human knowledge.

As of 2001, there were 6,912 distinct languages spoken around the world. Unfortunately, many linguists predict that by the end of the 21st century — by 2101 — roughly half of these languages will no longer be spoken, and will instead vanish forever. Linguists also suggest that the rate at which languages are dying means that one language will disappear every 10 days in the near future.

It is estimated that approximately 7,000 languages may vanish from the world within the next century, as speakers of these languages shift to using English, Mandarin, or Spanish as their primary language. Tragically, there are concerns that up to 90% of all languages will vanish from the earth within the next century.

Professor Mahbub explains that there are two causes behind the death of languages: "language maintenance" and "language shift". 

"These processes come into play when a language comes into contact with another language, leading to the dominance of one over the other, and ultimately resulting in the death of the less dominant language," she says. 

"Additionally, if a community no longer feels compelled to use their language, or if they lose the reasons to use it, the language may also die out. There are also natural factors that can lead to the death of a language, such as the loss of a group of people due to an epidemic, disease, or natural disaster. Once a language has died, it is lost forever, unless there is a written framework available."

Humans often abandon complex knowledge systems like language, and there is no proper technical term to denote this phenomenon. Linguists have resorted to metaphors to describe this abandonment, leading to words like "death of language," "language shift," "language under threat," "extinction," "last word," and "fading tone".

In the past 500 years, approximately half of the world's known languages have vanished. Even languages of ancient empires like Sumerian and Egyptian became extinct centuries ago, leaving only inscriptions as faint reminders of their existence. The cultural remnants of those speakers have faded as well.

One such example is Meroitic, which was the official language of an empire in Sudan from the 8th century BC to the 4th century BC. Today, it only survives in inscriptions that remain undeciphered. Other languages like Cumbria, an ancient language of Britain, only have three surviving words. Many other languages lack any written inscriptions, so little is known about them or the people who spoke them.

Despite the Irish language having a strong presence until around 1000 AD, it is now in decline, and the future of the language looks bleak. After Latin and Greek, a vast amount of ancient European literature was written in Irish. However, linguists have noted that the future of the language was much brighter 60 years ago than it is today.

The rate at which languages worldwide are disappearing is alarming and unprecedented in human history. Although the extinction of languages cannot be measured on the same scale as the biological extinction of endangered species, it is happening much faster. The rate of language extinction is much more significant than the extinction of species, making this a disaster with dire consequences for the world's linguistic and cultural diversity.

According to scientific estimates, 484 animal species and 654 plant species have become extinct since 1600 AD, though this is considered a conservative estimate. Nevertheless, these numbers only represent 7% of our total known flora and fauna. In contrast, the fact that at least 40% of the world's languages are endangered is a shocking reality.

When a language dies, a unique worldview also disappears, along with the expressions of human experiences that it conveys. Linguist Ken Hale worked on many endangered languages until his death in 2001, and once told a journalist that when a language is lost, so too is the culture, intellectual wealth, and artistic expression that it encompasses. Losing a language is akin to a tragedy such as the bombing of a museum like the Louvre, as it results in the irretrievable loss of a significant part of humanity's collective heritage.

Linguists also use the words extinction, dying, etc., to denote the disappearance of languages, like biologists who use those words to mean the extinction of animal or plant species. Apart from this, words like "language killer" are also used to mean that the language did not die a natural death. But all these words sound very strange. Moreover, many linguists do not consider such usage of the word to be appropriate. Glanville Price said that English is a killer language. It is said that this language killed many languages like Irish. 

However, the use of the word killer is questionable here.

Although we often refer to the "life" of languages, they do not possess a physical existence in the same way as living organisms like butterflies, birds, or plants. Languages are not born or subject to death as they lack a corporeal form. Rather, language resides within the human mind and is not a self-contained entity. It can only survive when there is a community of speakers, as it has a close relationship with people and a connection to their culture.

There have been instances in history where the use of a language was abandoned because it meant saving lives. 

One such tragic incident occurred in the Latin American country of El Salvador in 1932. Following a peasant revolt in the country, the indigenous people known as Indians were subjected to oppression and killings. Salvadoran soldiers captured and killed anyone identified as Indian by their clothing, speech, or behaviour, resulting in the deaths of approximately 2.5 million people. Three years later, newspapers and radio stations advocated for the extermination of the Indians to prevent further rebellions.

Many Indians stopped speaking in their own language, hoping to avoid certain death. At that time, the government of the country claimed that there were no Indians in El Salvador.

The Ubykh language vanished as a result of the genocide of the Ubykh people. Until 1864, this population resided on the eastern coast of the Black Sea in the region of Sochi, which is located northwest of Abkhazia. In the 1860s, Russia took control of the predominantly Muslim North Caucasus through a campaign of aggression. 

Faced with this onslaught, the entire Ubykh population was forced to leave their homeland, with thousands being expelled. Many individuals escaped to Turkey, although it is likely that there were significant casualties. The surviving Ubykh people were unfortunately scattered throughout Turkey.

Meanwhile, Turkey itself has a long history of human rights abuses against the Kurds. There are restrictions on the use of the Kurdish language in government works.

This situation has become extreme in Australia as 90% of the 25 native languages in the country are on the verge of extinction. Only 50 languages are still spoken today. It has 500 speakers of only 18 languages. It is feared that two or three of these languages may survive in the next century.

Most of the indigenous languages still in use today can be found in Africa and Asia, while European languages have spread across these continents in the last 200 years. Unfortunately, recent studies have shown that the death of languages is occurring in countries throughout these regions. As of the most recent count, it is believed that 54 languages have become extinct or are on the brink of extinction, with another 116 languages facing the same fate. It is worth noting that this information was not gathered through a field survey.

Based on ethnological data from the Summer Institute of Linguistics, only 100 languages are spoken by 90% of the world's population. The remaining 6,000 languages are only spoken by 10% of people, and according to linguist Michael Krause, only about 600 languages with more than 100,000 speakers can be considered safe.

Highlighting the current status of the Bangla language, Professor Shaolee Mahbub said, "Bangla is the native language of about three hundred million people and the second language of about 37 million people. It is the seventh most spoken language in the world. Besides Bangladesh, the language is spoken in some parts of West Bengal, Tripura, and Assam. All languages of the world undergo changes over time, and Bangla is no exception."

"Due to globalisation, Bangla-speaking people are interacting with other language users. As a result, many words are being included in the vocabulary of Bangla," she added.

She also emphasised the need to enrich the Bangla language so that it can adapt to the technological changes that have been taking place in the world.

There is growing concern that our society is prioritising English over Bangla, with many individuals now writing in Romanised Bangla online. If this trend continues, there is a risk that Bangla may disappear altogether.

Unfortunately, the future of the Bangla language remains uncertain as it holds little importance for high-ranking individuals. English, on the other hand, is increasingly valued among Bengalis. In developed countries, education is often offered in one's mother tongue, including scientific subjects. This is not yet the case for Bangla speakers, which adds to the challenges faced by the language.

Highlighting the necessary steps to preserve Bangla, Professor Mahbub said, "Studies on language preservation have shown that where the economic status of minority speakers is relatively poor, there is a strong tendency to move towards the majority language. The social status of a group depends on its economic status. One is closely related to the other.

"Only when a population is economically strong can they take their language to a strong position? Demography is also an important factor in preserving a language and ultimately its utility will increase when the language is used in all cultural and organisational contexts," she added.

Mahbub also highlighted the status of the mother tongue in the case of immigrants based on a study conducted in 2021 on three groups of Bangla speakers in Iran.

The study examined Bengalis living in Iran, finding that those who settled there have adopted Persian as their mother tongue, while those doing high-quality jobs and living in Iran long-term prioritise both Farsi and English. However, Bangla remains prevalent among the working class, who are more likely to return to Bangladesh and maintain their language. 

"Further research is needed to understand how migration impacts language changes and the position of Bangla in the world," Mahbub said.