After the Deluge: An Action Notebook for a Responsible Sociolinguist (original) (raw)
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Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, 2020
Language plays an important role in the dissemination of critical health information across human societies. Taking a cue from the sociolinguistic nuances of the role of language in society, this study probes the India-Bharat divide in the COVID-19 scenario as a potential hurdle to the sense making practices necessary for successful health communication. By delving into the dichotomous linguistic relationship between India and Bharat, this study contends that in order for this sociolinguistic dichotomy to be resolved and health communication to be effective, it is important that all concerned must be in control of the same code. The study raises questions ranging from challenges for health communication with respect to the linguistically diverse population in the country, access to reliable health information, to the problem of incomprehensibility as a barrier to the availability of proper health information. Through qualitative content analysis of the COVID-19 health information terminology mediated through popular Hindi news channels during the first phase of lockdown in India and the corresponding outcome reports across digital platforms, the study analyses the India-Bharat divide and suggests sociolinguistic strategies that can tacitly turn the structural pluralism into an organic pluralism making heath communication in India smooth and discernible.
The Covid Pandemic: Response of the Raji Revitalization Programmes
2021
Raji is a little known tribal community that resides in twelve geographically scattered hamlets in the state of Uttarakhand, India. According to 2011 Census, their total population is 732. Their language belongs to Tibeto-Burman family. Since, last twenty years or so the author has been working with this group and trying to document, preserve and revitalize their language and culture. Language revitalization requires tackling problems on many fronts and its different approaches depend upon the unique local conditions of the speech community. The author is trying to develop a new revitalization model called 'South Asian Model of Language Revitalization'. This paper discusses the Response of the Raji Revitalization Program towards the present pandemic and sheds light upon the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Raji community and the status of their language.
Language, Culture and Communication: India
2015
We use language to express our emotions and attitudes, to give our ideas and opinions, to complain, to gain acceptance or approval, and to receive and transmit information. Essentially, language is a means of cultural communication. There are different ways we can communicate. In this world, just about everyone--his/her intelligence, competence, social status, group membership, and the value system are often judged from the language through which one communicates. The tone, the speed of the speech, and the accent can evoke reactions not only in monolingual but more so in bilingual and multilingual societies, causing tensions and conflicts related to social identity and belonging. Language influences our thinking, feelings, and behaving. This paper discusses diverse sociolinguistic variants, such as, gender, race, ethnicity, class, caste, and religion with reference to Marathi, Hindi and India’s diverse cultures. The paper also discusses extra-linguistic factors, including biological...
Language Endangerment: What are the Sociolinguistic Consequences?
Language endangerment and Language shift have long been a topic of discussion among sociolinguists, linguists, language planners, educators, and others. The result has been an extensive literature about the causes, processes, symptoms, and results of language loss and death (Denison ). Language endangerment and Language shift are socio-political and cultural phenomenon.
Language Endangerment in South Asia
Patan Pragya
Language endangerment is the very critical issues of 21st century because the extinction of each language results in the irrecoverable loss of unique expression of the human experience and the culture of the world. Every time a language dies, we have less evidence for understanding patterns in the structure and function of human languages, human prehistory and the maintenance of the world’s diverse ecosystems. Language is thus essential for the ability to express cultural knowledge, the preservation and further development of the culture. In the world, 500 languages are spoken by less than 100 peoples and 96% of the worlds languages are spoken only 4% of the world’s population. Data shows that all most all the minority languages of world are in endangered and critical situation and not becoming to the culture transmitter. This paper will explain the process, stages, paradigms, as well as the language endangerment in global and in South Asian context.
Language use and the Spread of COVID-19 pandemic in Igbo Culture Area
Scope Journal: www.scope-journal.com, 2023
Background In 2019, the overwhelming COVID-19 pandemic has stricken the worldwide population, and although virtually all nations have language problem about COVID-19, Igbo southeast Nigeria's problem is significantly different. In Igbo culture area, the pandemic gave rise to speculations and inappropriate language use-'Koro is not in our place', and its various forms to assert that 'Igbo people are not vulnerable to COVID-19'. Obstinate language in this study, is viewed as a stubborn and unreasonable persistence language. During COVID-19 era, indigenous people of Igboland often use inappropriate language to trivialise the coronavirus, adhering to that opinion, in spite of reason, arguments or persuasion.In consequence, their language use and the linguistic perception about COVID are seriously influenced the peoples' behaviours negatively and many people in the area failed to observe the COVID-19 protocols. Such attitude in many ways exposed the people to contact the disease in the area and also led to other multifaceted implicationsas we shall observe in this study. Regrettably, scholars have not paid adequate attention to the inappropriate language problems. This negative impacts are what excited my curiosity about the region group's obstinate language uses in the context of COVID-19. Besides, studies that recorded issues about the language interface and COVID-19 elsewhere, did not analyse how language use can serve as a tool for the spread of the pandemic and its other multifaceted impacts. This study will step further from the critique of the COVID from its impacts on language and individual as has been more commonly advanced by other scholars, to investigate howobstinate language use increases the spread of
LANGUAGE AS A TOOL FOR COMMUNICATION IN MANAGING THE CHALLENGES OF PANDEMICS
Sapientia Foundation Journal of Education, Science and Gender Studies, 2023
This paper explores language as a tool for communication in managing the challenges of pandemics. Language is a medium of communication that helps us express and convey the thoughts, feelings, and emotions of two individuals. A language is a communication tool used by everyone in their daily life as a means to convey information and arguments to others. In this case, language cannot be separated from society because language represents its nation and has a close relation to the attitude or behavior of groups of speakers of the languages. Language communication paved way for the society at large in relating and managing the challenges of the widespread pandemics that occurred in our society. The paper further reveals the concepts of language, language as a communication device, functions of language, the role of language as a communication tool, communication, components of communication, the purpose of communication, pandemics, challenges of pandemics, managing the pandemic and theoretical framework, etc. It also suggested that Language should be taught from birth to enable everyone to be carried along in society, there should be constant communication through social media or other means to reach out to people for more updates and the masses should also be educated or enlightened to avoid the continuous widespread of the pandemic.
Preserving and empowering local languages amidst the Covid-19 pandemic; Lessons from East Kalimantan
Wacana, 2021
This article brings together two ostensibly separate subjects: language empowerment and the Covid-19 pandemic. It argues that knowledge of local languages can help disseminate health-related information on a regional level. This addresses two problems simultaneously: the problems raised by the intelligibilty of governmental healthcare protocols and the functions of the use of local languages. The article is a case study presenting a number of interventions in the languages of East Kalimantan and can be seen as an inclusive, grassroots example of health communication. The study was initially a modest attempt to generate on-theground examples of health information in the dominant languages of the region of East Kalimantan. These studies demonstrate that the local communities of these languages are very enthusiastic about getting involved in the interventions. They also reveal that communication using IT and social media is thriving. One of our observations was that information about this pandemic tends to be understood only by highly educated urban people. This happens because it is conveyed by the government in standard Indonesian, which includes many foreign loanwords. The application of local languages is not just using local language vocabulary, it is instead a trigger to revive the collective memory of disaster management based on local culture. In this case, local languages are recognized and considered useful in helping to break the chain of virus transmission to free Indonesia of the Covid-19 outbreak. There were a number of unexpected developments. We found support for the intervention being rolled out on a national level by Special Task Force for Covid-19 under National Disaster Management Agency (Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana/BNPB). We also welcomed the online publication by the National Agency for Language Development and
Indigenous language sustainability during COVID-19
Journal of Indigenous Social Development, 2021
This paper gives insights into the ways an Indigenous group has continued to teach and learn their language(s) during the COVID-19 pandemic. As an insider researcher from this community, I draw upon observations and dialogue among my people globally, as part of an inquiry into our language sustainability. Although social distancing and border closures hindered communal gatherings, this cohort continued to teach and learn their language(s). Many used digital forums such as social media, Zoom and Facebook to facilitate their language transmission. This article shares how this group has been able to maintain and sustain their language(s) in a time of global crisis, may their story support the Indigenous language fight.
Language and society in South Asia
1981
This work attempts to provide an overview of liuguistic diversity in South Asia and to place this diversity in a cultural context. The work tries to describe the current state of knowledge concerning socially conditioned language variation in the subcontinent. Each of five major language families contains numerous mutually intelligible and unintelligible dialects. Different dialects of a language may be required for 'written and spoken use and for different social groups. Bilingualism and multilingualism are common for communication between groups. Language choice is important for education, politics, radio and television. Chapter 2 of this book enumerates criteria used in the taxonomy of language forms, discussing a number of theories of dialect formation from the points of view of linguistic innovation and diffusion of linguistic change. Chapter 3 surveys literature on classification of South Asian languages. Chapter 4 considers South Asia as a distinct linguistic area and Chapter 5 evaluates literature on South Asian social dialects. Chapter 6 examines linguistic codes encompassing elements from more than one autonomous language. Chapter 7 considers the ways in which the lexicon of South Asian languages and dialects contain elements that structure themselves into concrete systems. (CHK)