Naeva Week 2 - Tongue Tied
Week 2: Tongue Tied - 09/09 [7:56 PM]
A couple weeks ago, I took a practice test for the dreaded SAT. One particular question stood out to me. The questions talked about the folklore origin of Mesoamerican stories. The question focuses on two ethnographers with different opinions. Aurelio Espinosa claimed that folklore had origins in Spain because of its colonial history. Americo Padres argued that folklore was made from the interactions of Mexican and Native cultures. The answer choices asked to find evidence that would support Padres argument and the correct answer choice stated that the folklore showed songs and texts about the tribe's history and social life.
This answer got me thinking. Much of our knowledge on ancient history comes from the study of their languages and texts. Look at cuneiform and hieroglyphics. We have learned so much from ancient languages, but today, those same languages are being forgotten generation by generation. In my own personal life, my family speaks Marathi, which like many Indian languages, was derived from Sanskrit. Everyone in my immediate family can speak fluent Marathi, but if you put me on the phone with my cousins, an indecipherable string of mumbled Marathi and English is what comes out.
I distinctly remember going to the bustling markets of Pune and seeing a booth filled with intricate beaded tops. The seller started speaking to me about his products, and I could not understand a single thing. My grandmother asked me to translate a speech I had written for a project so she could understand, and the amount of times I asked my dad “He mi kasa sangu?” (How do I say this?) was incalculable.
This phenomenon is happening everywhere, Aljazeera says that 40% of languages are considered endangered. Numerically, that's 3,000 out of 7,000 languages that are prone to being lost. With my grandparents coming to visit from India, I try to speak in my mother tongue without the use of English words. It's safe to say that my Marathi could be improved. But, I can report that I have been getting better! I tend to speak it everyday through the conversations I have with my parents and relatives, and while I still may need to turn to my dad for a translation, Marathi has become an interwoven part of my life.
Image Source: Research Gate
Hello Naeva! I, too, have struggled with my own mother tongue, Telugu. I find myself stumbling on my own words when I try to speak with my family as well, and also constantly find myself looking to my cousins who are fluent in both English and Telugu or my parents to help me get my thoughts across. I agree with your points on how many languages are being lost as they are passed down, leading to a loss of cultural and historical knowledge, and I wish this was not the case. Unfortunately due to globalization and the world increasingly relying on a few main languages, such as English, Mandarin, French, and Spanish, people are beginning to forget their own mother tongues as they are simply less important to know. I see my dad working with people from around the globe, even people who speak the same language as him, but he always defaults to speaking in English. It is scary to think that nearly half of all the world’s languages are on the cusp of extinction, and the sheer volume of information we would lose if these languages do die out.
ReplyDeleteHi Naeva! Using that SAT question about Americo Paredes and Mesoamerican folklore is such a clever hook for this. I find it so fascinating how random things, such as this standardized test question, can trigger such deep and personal realizations.
ReplyDeleteYour story about the markets in Pune and struggling to translate your speech is so real and relatable. I have experienced that exact feeling of awkwardly scrambling for words and ending up mixing English with my mother tongue (Hindi) when talking to family. I have had a lot of instances in conversation where I have had a really funny joke pop up in my mind, but struggled to find the right words for it to hit the same in Hindi—or even worse, times where I just awkwardly laugh at a cousin's joke I did not quite understand because of the vocabulary going completely over my head.
Bringing in the stat about 40% of languages being endangered makes the whole thing hit even harder. It’s awesome that having your grandparents over prompted you to practice more. Reading your story has honestly inspired me to start practicing mine, too!
I think the loss of cultural elements like culture is one of the most tragic parts of global interconnectivity. Sure, beforehand, there was a loss of languages, but as seen in the graph that you included at the end of your blog, it really shows the impact a more standardized community has on having diversity in language. Growing up in the United States places a prevalence of learning the language English, even though it was only made the official language a year and a half ago.
ReplyDeleteEven though both sides of my family speak very popular languages—English and Mandarin Chinese—I still understand the disconnect in not knowing how to speak to relatives. Obviously, I can speak English relatively well, but my knowledge of how to speak Chinese is very limited. I also can’t really speak with my family how I want to.
A shower thought—although it wasn’t in the shower—I’ve had is that it would probably be easier if everyone spoke the same language. I still believe that statement is true, but I’ve grown to realize since the time I first had that thought to realize that while it might be easier to have a society like that, the world wouldn’t be the culturally diverse melting pot that it is now. It would be simpler, but it would destroy entire cultures and maybe even lifestyles.
Hi Naeva! I hope you are having a great day! Tu kashi ahes? My family also speaks Marathi, I always get super excited when I hear that someone speaks the same language as me, it really makes my day. Don't worry, I am not some Marathi prodigy, "How are you" is pretty much the extent of my vocabulary. I really connected with Marglish, get it Marathi plus English, because even though it is embarrassing it helps me a lot. Your dead language point, really connected with my fear of losing fluency leads to the possibility of losing the traditions that come with language; leading the language to die out but also all the culture that comes behind it. I really want to pass down my Marathi language and culture down to my kids and then pass it down to their kids; which is why I have been trying to make up for lost time by desperately trying to learn the language. When you lose a language, you lose all the stories, jokes, songs, etc. that come along with it. For instance, certain words like "thaska", which means the reaction for when you choke on food traveling down the wrong pipe, which English does not have an equivalent form are just simply lost to time. That is what makes a dying language seem unsettling and scary to me. Sometimes, it really bothers me that I may not be able to pass down Marathi to my own family, which is why I am also super impressed when people can speak their native languages. Let's make a commitment to both start speaking more Marathi by having conversations with your relatives, family, and who knows maybe each other. Even if our Marathi may not be the greatest, continuing to make the effort to speak means saving a piece of our culture that we refuse to let disappear.
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