Our Languages-Our Identity Languages are Socially Determined Phenomena-the Case of Wakhi Language (original) (raw)
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Countering the challenges of globalization faced by endangered languages of North Pakistan
Language Documentation and Description, 2020
Indigenous communities living in the mountainous terrain and valleys of the region of Gilgit-Baltistan and upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, northern Pakistan, speak over 30 languages. Some of these are Balti, and Yidgha. According to Moseley (2010), all these languages are considered to be endangered because of a number of challenges the communities speaking them face: lack of political organization, suppressed identities, no written tradition, marginalization and globalization, impact of dominant languages over these languages, life in a difficult ecology, poverty, and migration. The cultural, political, linguistic, and ecological milieu is leading to language and cultural loss among these communities. Notwithstanding these extremely tough challenges, there are some good initiatives being carried out privately by community members that are focused on reversing language and cultural loss by documentation, transmission to the coming generation, and trying to make the languages relevant in pedagogical settings. 1
2009
This paper refers to the present language situation in Badakhshan -a flourishing multilingual region with a range of endangered languages. All Pamiri languages are potentially endangered, with many speakers, but without an official or prestigious status. But there are some languages so endangered as to be extinct, such as Old Wanji . One other -Zebaki --is nearly extinct (with a few dozen elderly speakers). Still others are rapidly disappearing, such as the Ishkashimi, Sanglichi and Munji languages. The latter is spoken in the Afghan Province of Badakhshan and in Chitral (North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan). In spite of the fact that mother tongues are still passed on from one generation to another, they are limited rigorously and solely to informal settings in communities, and to mono-ethnic families. Today the transmission of languages is not supported by any particular community or state policy programme, and is not in the context of formal education. All this means that these communities lack awareness of the fact that their own languages are in danger of extinction. The transmission of languages takes place mostly in the context of informal community activities, such as the transmission of traditional skills in diverse areas. These include agriculture, medicinal plants and indigenous wild species; educational programmes (other than language learning); protection of sacred sites and recovery of related knowledge and values. All these activities strengthen local Pamiri languages as repositories of traditional knowledge and values. The language data employed in this Paper are mostly names of places, ethnic groups and their identities, with regard to their influence on language speakers' awareness of their identity, and the historical evolution of the meaning of these terms.
STRENGTHENING LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY A CASE OF TORWALI LANGUAGE
Educational planning in the indigenous minority linguistic communities needs a holistic approach wherein it is ensured that the people of the particular speech community or communities can integrate development of their language(s) with the general development of their communities. In Northern Pakistan over two dozen languages are spoken by the various ethno-linguistic communities. In six of these speech communities, work on the development of their languages started in early 2002 which led to incorporating these languages in mother tongue based early childhood multilingual education programs in the respective communities. The work for the revitalization and promotion of the Torwali language and culture began as early as 2002. How far the integrated approach for the promotion of the Torwali language and culture was successful is the question this paper tries to trace. This paper is an attempt to present the work done by the community members in the form of an organization for the documentation, preservation, promotion and revitalization of the language Torwali and the culture associated with it. It presents an overview of this initiative; the mother tongue based early childhood multilingual education in the Torwali language. Torwali is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the upper beautiful parts of the Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which is a northwestern frontier province in Pakistan. The paper is an endeavor to look into this program which accompanied mother tongue education planning with a focus on strengthening of identity; and overall social development of the Torwali speech community.
Exploring Role of Language in Constructing Individual Identities: A Case Study of Sindh, Pakistan
Language plays significant role in shaping individual identities and in distinguishing how one group is different from another group. Although a group may distinguish itself by its racial features, the type of dress its members wear, the food they eat, the houses they build or the group's totem, insignia, tattoos and specific practices, it is the language that distinguishes groups of people most precisely. This paper examines role of language in constructing individual identities in Pakistani context with a focus on how people leave their indigenous languages and choose any other powerful language to construct their identity. Main areas of this study are how language and different factors (historical, social, global, political etc) are responsible for making individual identities. Uniqueness of this paper lies in its investigation in this field and overview of different literary concepts on the topic. Due to nature of the research in the field, data was collected through questionnaires and interviews from the people belonging to different parts of Sindh. The results found that the way people speak multi languages in different contexts reflect their individual identity. Thus, this research may provide foundation for understanding the roles of language in constructing identities.
Challenges to the linguistic diversity of North Pakistan
Lokaratna , 2017
Indigenous communities living in the mountainous terrain and valleys in northern Pakistan speak about 30 indigenous languages. Some of these languages are Khowar, Shina, Indus Kohistani, Torwali, Gawri, Palula, Kalasha, Dameli, Gawar-bati, Bateri, Chilloso, Dumaki, Brushaski, Ushojo, Balti, Wakhi, Yidgha et el. They are the known indigenous languages spoken in northern Pakistan. All of these languages are ‗endangered‘ according to the UNESCO‘s Atlas of the World‘s languages in danger. These languages are endangered because of a number of challenges the languages and their speakers face. Crucial among these challenges are lack of political organization, marred identities, no written tradition, and marginalization, globalization, especially the rule of dominant languages over these languages, rough terrain, poverty and so forth. The aforementioned cultural, political, linguistic and ecological milieu adds to the ‗language and cultural loss‘ among these communities. Notwithstanding the toughest challenges, there are some good initiatives carried out in these communities that are focused on reversing the language and cultural loss by documenting the languages and cultures in question, transmitting the languages and cultures to the coming generation; and by trying to make the languages relevant in pedagogical setting. This study explores the challenges and threats faced by these communities along with the few good initiatives carried out by individuals and organizations for the documentation, preservation and promotion of these languages.
Language on the Move: The Linguistic Landscape of Peshawar
Pakistan Journal of Society, Education and Language (PJSEL), 2022
Linguistic Landscape studies symbolic signs in public sphere. Since every language has its distinctive sociocultural features, symbolic signs offer a multitude of explanations and interpretations. Public transport is one of the modern facilities available to the public at large and is an essential part of our living experience. It is a means of travelling used by general public that operate at a scheduled time and charges a certain far. Signs on vehicles are symbolic of how the drivers identify with certain cultural themes and how these signs are representative of public sentiments. These expressions are empowered by the culture and influenced by the recurrent ideas in social, political, or religious sphere. This study explores the Linguistic Landscape (LL) of Peshawar city by analysing written signs on the public transport of the city; the study focuses on how mobile signs or signs-on-the-move contribute to the construction of the symbolic identity of Peshawar. Three hundred written signs were collected from taxis/cabs, rickshaws, buses, coaches-plying on main routes i.e. University road and General Trunk Road (GT Road). Data were analysed in relation to the symbolic functions of language on public display to answer the research questions of the study. The analysis revealed that while Pashto is the most dominant language in the complex linguistic landscape of Peshawar, Urdu, English and Arabic were present to varying degrees, contributing to the sociolinguistic make-up of the city. Hindko, however, was missing from the scene. The study concludes that signs on public transport of the city are indicative of the complex multilingual nature of city.
Diminishing local Languages in the Era of Globalization: A Case Study of Pakistan
2020
The transmitted cultural and nationalistic values, morals and ethics, are truly the essence of any nation which makes them unique and exclusive. The permanence, relevance and practice of cultural traditions, values and mores, are social ideals that have existed for centuries are passed down to every generation. They are one of the very few things that have stood the test of time. Language is the backbone of all cultures. It is the most distinguished skill, a present and an art presented to an individual by society. We sense, impart, express, pass on, dream, and manage our day by day lives, with the guide of words that are fathomable and important to us. The skeleton of culture is deficient and can't get by without the solid help of language because of the unavoidable, uncontrollable and massive flow of foreign cultures as a result of Cultural globalization are considered as the most vital reason that is diminishing the importance of local culture and local languages.
Collaborative efforts in northern Pakistan for revitalizing endangered languages and cultures
The 27th Annual Conference of the Foundation for Endangered Languages, FEL XXVII (2023) , 2023
The northern-most mountainous part of Pakistan is a multilingual and multicultural region of the country. The region is home to more than 30 language communities and their associated cultures. The population of the language communities ranges from a few hundred to several million. The majority of the languages the communities speak belong to the Indo-Iranin branch, others to the Tibeto-Burman and isolate linguistic groups (Liljegren & Akhunzada, 2017; Liljegren, 2018). Until the recent past the languages of many of these communities were under the threat of extinction due to mainly lack of revitalizing efforts and awareness of speakers. The speakers were shifting to state-sponsored or more influential languages. Forum for Language Initiatives (FLI) was founded in 2002 to provide the language communities in the region with support in their efforts to revitalize, maintain and promote the use of their mother tongues. FLI in collaboration with the language communities carried out research about the languages, trained members of the communities in language documentation, develop orthography for the many languages, produced literature, helped set up pilot literacy projects, run awareness-raising campaigns for language rights and built bridges among people in the region. Additionally, FLI also helped to address the computational issue of the languages to enable the speaker to use their mother tongue in digital devices. These collaborative efforts contributed to maintaining, promoting, and increasing the level of vitality of these languages. The situation as a whole in the country and among these language communities is very different from the way it was back in 2002. Many trainees of FLI are actively involved in preserving and developing their mother tongues and as a result many languages turn to written language and produce books. The speakers of the languages are now able to use their mother tongue in increasing domains like social media. Some have formed community-based organizations and established mother-tongue-based education programs. Two provincial governments have done legislation to include the languages of their constituency in the school curriculum. Further, one province implemented the legislation by developing schools books up to grade-7 in four languages and started using books in classrooms. The language communities are holding cultural events like music and poetry sessions in their mother tongue. Data for this paper has been collected through personal experience, informal interviews, and literature review (Akhunzada, 2021; Liljegren & Akhunzada, 2017; Liljegren, 2018; FLI, 2022; Wayne, Sagar, Ahmad, Haider, 2020). This paper concludes that for the collaboration a thorough survey needs to be conducted to find some potential people for a collaborative effort, the strategic planning should include the needs of the language activist and the issues hurdling to maintain and promote the speaker’s mother tongue need to be resolved. This paper is a case study for organisations that aim to develop endangered languages and government institutions for policy development.