Reasons of Extinction of Scripts and Languages

Reasons for Extinction of Scripts and Languages
The reasons for the extinction of scripts and languages can be studied in six sub-divisions. They are given below.

a. Nature of Extinction of Script and Language
b. Method of Extinction of Script and Language
c. Reason for Extinction of Script and Language
d. Symptoms of Extinction of Script and Language
e. Outcome of Extinction of Script and Language
f. Protection of Extinction of Script and Language

a. Nature of Extinction of Script and Language
To talk about the nature of script and language, they get their origin developed over a period of time, travel across diverse geography, and die at last like humans. For example, the Kasabe language was alive on 1995 November 4, and on November 5, it was extinct. An old man named Bagon was the only speaker of the language. With his death on November 5, the Kasabe language also became extinct from this world. His only sister could understand but could not speak her language. None in their clan, sons and daughters, nephews and nieces, were able to speak the language. Consequently, the Kasabe language became extinct from this world forever. Languages and scripts are carriers of culture, tradition and knowledge, and once they get extinct everything gets extinct. It can be compared with moving ships in the ocean. Once it gets destroyed, every human asset gets destroyed. When the mother tongue and script of a caste become extinct simultaneously the caste itself goes into extinction. There wouldn’t be any space to scale large or small damage. Finally, people of that caste get transformed into another caste, and their earlier clans disappear. When a person doesn’t speak one’s mother tongue, he/she has no value.

2. Method of Extinction of Language and Script
It has been said that more than 1000 languages have been extinct only in the 20^th century. Reports say a language becomes extinct every fortnight. A group of American linguists, including Michael Cross, has predicted that in one hundred years’ time, to come, around 50% of mother tongues will become extinct, which come to be around 3,000 languages. 100 years converts to 1200 months. The calculation appears that in around two weeks, one language will go extinct. Michael Cross has further claimed the same view. The unprecedented rise of material extension of the present age indicates a major crisis in mother tongues. 6000 languages are predicted to be extinct. Paris Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) published a report on 28 February 2009, saying 25% of world languages are suffering from extreme danger phase. This is the study of 2001. The risk might have increased further. Based on this, scholars have said there will be only six languages in the coming 250 years. They are English, Chinese, Spanish, Hindi, Portuguese and Japanese. As there are hundreds of languages spoken by very few people they are vulnerable to extinction. 51 languages are spoken by one person only. 50 languages are spoken by around ten people only. 500 languages are spoken by around 100 people only. 1500 languages are spoken by less than 100 people. It is said that 5,000 languages are spoken by less than 100,000 people.

3. Reasons for Extinction of Script and Language
There are three reasons for the extinction of script and language. They are:
a. Identifying the reason
b. Searching dominant reason
c. Examining these reasons in our language

a.     Identifying the Reason
There are three reasons for this claim

I. Outer reasons
II. Inner reasons
III. Inherent nature of script and language

I. Outer reasons
There are four reasons for script and language to be destroyed. There are:

I. Political reasons
II. Asset related reasons
III. Culture and language-related reasons
IV. Social reasons

I. Political Reasons
Various political interest groups, in their course to establish political principles, created difficult conditions to destroy the language of people in certain areas where their language was the dominant language. By the same token, they tried their best to promote their language. They did so by various means: dictatorship, various attacks, peaceful means, some direct and some indirect ways. They achieved their political motto by destroying the script and language of the dominant population/ aborigines of various regions. They did it in different ways: (a) destroying at the moment (b) destroying slowly (c) destroying using third person (d) destroying by using the people of that language. In the village area, schools were established with no inclusion of any local script or language. Further, local dominant language speakers were demoralized by calling the language ‘Jungali’ (wild), a lazy language without interest, coarse and harsh language. Thus, script and languages were deliberately destroyed by creating the ‘Chakrabihua’ great conspiracy. Such activity is given name as a direct method to destroy language and culture. By destroying ethnic language and culture, these people want to flourish their language and culture in the same stream.

People involved in politics blame people of other languages as blunt, lazy, interestless, and coarse when they lack understanding of these politicians’ language; these people play a key role in lagging local people’s economic, social and educational interests as well. Such people in politics even hamper ethnic language directly or indirectly by calling it uncivilized, dark language, backwards language and obstruction of progress. To deliberately destroy the multi-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-ethnic cultures of Nepal, almost no ethnic language has been included in the formal schools like primary, lower secondary and secondary. That’s why, from ancient times to the present, many languages have been extinct, and many are on the verge of extinction.

The main reason is not to include the mother tongue in the school curriculum. My conviction is that there is a deep political motive. Similarly, people who can only speak their mother tongue can’t take advantage of social rights and assets. If anyone doesn’t learn and use the language of power holders, these ethnic people are blamed. People in power do it by various unfair means, harmful use of power, calling ethnic language backwards, obstacles to progress and development, etc. Such condition creates different doubts, and we may have to leave to speak our own language. It is the exact win of the exploiters. It is easier to create such thoughts in the young minds. But none blame from childhood one’s own mother tongue, script, culture and traditions. This is the reason they keep interested in their own language and culture while mimicking others’ language and culture. Various doubts originate at this young age regarding one’s own language and culture. We lack to know the tricks and politics of others. Later, these people blame our language and culture. Such people in power call the preservers and old people, who speak their mother tongue, foolish, backward, and dark. As a result, our own people do not let their own future generations learn and speak their own language and culture. Like mixing milk in vinegar, our language, script, culture, and tradition become different types when ill-willed people become more in number. When such number increases, ethnic people (say and) hesitate to speak their own language, culture and tradition as inferior to others’ language and culture. On the contrary, they pride themselves in learning others language and culture. They develop superior feelings in doing so. If such preventive tendency continues in our society, they come under the political motive of the political class. When they do so, the objective of the exploiters is achieved.

This is an extremely dangerous perversion. Further, they deliberately design and conspire with fixed plans and programmes to mould one community and mother tongue to destroy its own language and culture. Such ill-willed politicians are rampantly found across the globe. Such tactics nowadays are called politics. Don’t do politics in our mother tongue, religion, script, culture and tradition. This my hearty request

Asset Related Reasons
Income generation has its relation with constructing and deconstructing language and culture. To speak and not to speak a mother tongue over the time and space has given opportunity and snatched the opportunity of earning money. Mother tongue lovers have been got rid of opportunities by the people of other languages and cultures. Such situations compel mother tongue speakers to shift from their language to other mainstream languages. As a consequence, they begin to be happy when they start to earn little money and completely switch to other languages. This tendency plays a vital role in destroying any mother tongue. In the context of our country, Nepal, getting a job, position, or hierarchy has already been a privilege for other language speakers. So, mother tongue speakers have to be deprived of all such opportunities. Further, to get a good job and better position, mother tongue speakers must assimilate in the grip of powerful language. Conclusively, as they assimilate a powerful language, the door of opportunity, income generation, and better post opens, and mother tongue speakers easily switch to the dominant language. In such a demeaning situation, mother-tongue lovers come under pressure to earn money and get opportunities, and they also tend to decline to speak their own language. Especially modern humans are magnated to money and material gain and quicksanded in the lake of greed. Scholars have often warned them of such cases but the result has been little.

Language and Cultural-Related Reason
In the encounter of ethnic and local language and culture with the language and culture of other castes, local language and culture are treated with insult. Their cultural rights are gradually taken away from them. The language of the medium gradually intervenes in the language of ethnic people. And the medium language hampers the local language by the use of different names, prepositions, and sentences and consequently makes it weaker. There are three ways to do it:

a)    First condition
b)    Second condition
c)     Third condition

a) First Condition
While dealing with diplomacy, politics, business and such other functions, using medium language by different mother tongue speakers has diverse consequences. As ethnic people can’t use their own language, their language slowly starts crumbling. Further, these people face a lot of problems in their own village, district and province, as they can’t speak medium language properly. Some instances are political pressure, problems in sustaining life, problems in easy access to necessary goods and problems in performing various social activities. These circumstances compel us to go in the second condition.

b) Second Condition
Coming under such great pressure from various sectors, as said above, it becomes compulsory for ethnic people to learn the medium language. As a result, two languages came into existence as communicative languages. The medium language entered in the homes of ethnic people and gradually, it diversified in many directions. This led us to the third situation.

c) Third Condition
This is how the young generation grew their interest in the language of others by learning their mother tongue and medium language together at a time. People also gave preference to medium language communication. In the course of time young generation becomes lazy to learn words, names and prepositions. Secondly, they preferred other languages and became experts in other languages. Consequently, they lacked the ability to communicate in their mother tongue but they felt easy to communicate in the medium language. Further, the new generation started mixing words and phrases of medium language while communicating in their mother tongue. In addition to all of them, this generation has a cultureless feeling if they can’t speak the medium language. A sense of inferiority complex would be there if they are unable to communicate in the medium language. Due to this reason, the young generation speaks only in a medium language when they encounter each other. Not only this, this generation speaks in the medium in their home as well. As this process continues, mother tongue speakers become old and pass away. Consequently, the number of mother tongue speakers declines, and the number of medium language speakers increases rapidly. They are not only giving less priority to their mother tongue but they also don’t want the future generation to learn the mother tongue. In a short time, this perversion leads to ethnic language, script and culture in danger, which results in the extinction of language and culture.

d) Fourth Condition
Social reasoning is studied in the fourth condition. Among various social reasons, some are explained below:
a)    Mixed settlement
b)    Living with other language majority speakers
c)     Different caste marriage
d)    Discriminatory state
e)    Mass media
f)     No legal condition to learn in mother tongue
g)    No space for mother tongue in public and private institutions
h)    Self-humiliation
i)     Less number of mother tongue speaker

a) Mixed Living
The first cause of the destruction of language is living together with other communities. The nouns and phrases of the powerful language intervene in the languages of the weaker community. Politics, wealth, and culture in competition destroys weaker language. From this day, one caste enters into another caste.

b) Living with the Dominant Caste
There is the probability of extinction of the language of the weaker population with the dominant population. In any place where the population of natives is less in numbers than the people who are coming to live there, the language of less population gets destroyed. In every village, place and state where there is less numbered population, it will always be in danger. Their language, script, culture and tradition become extinct like prey swallowed by an anaconda. The dominant community’s language pushes aside the language of the weaker community, and at last, the first one makes the second language identityless. There are dozens of examples of the extinction of the languages and cultures of less populated communities in many villages and provinces of the world. We all need to be aware of time.

c) Different Caste Marriage
Not marrying a person from one’s own community is also a cause of the destruction of one’s language and culture. Marrying one’s own community means marriage with one’s own caste following own culture and tradition. This is supposed to be the best way to protect, preserve and promote one’s language and culture. Where both parents communicate in the mother tongue, their offspring also learn it easily. As this is the first language acquisition, it has a deep impact on the mind of every child. Thus, learned language is not forgotten easily if they learn a medium language as well.

d) Discriminatory State
The state has discriminatory behaviour toward ethnic communities as only medium language is allowed in government offices. No space has been given to any mother tongue. For example, no language of Aborigines has been allowed in banks, post offices, industrial areas, hospitals, offices, bus parks and airports. Due to this cause, the languages and scripts of native people are being destroyed day by day. Grammar and its various parts are being gradually destroyed. For instance, we lack the ability to express the environment of a bank due to the unavailability of appropriate words. The related words in our languages for banks and other offices have been erased due to not using them for long, and new terms have not been coined. Due to this, our language is not developing.

Similarly, the more outer instruments develop, the faster our language, religion, script, culture, and tradition go to extinction, as they can’t progress. A great change: listening to the mother tongue of one or two people has been felt in a short period of time. If we have to suffer this way, our language will go extinct in no time.

e) Mass Media
Mass media has a great effect on changing the behaviour of people. The same case also applies to our language and culture. Public news, daily newspapers, television and the Internet have a deep impact on the changing behaviour of people. Through all these media, our people are mimicking foreign cuisine, clothes, foreign lifestyle and, after all, foreign thought patterns. This makes our people transform into others’ caste and identity. Linguists call this dangerous poison to destroy language and culture.

f) No Space for Mother Tongue Education
Having no opportunity to learn in the mother tongue is one of the major causes of destroying language. Nepal’s government has paid no interest in including mother tongues in the course of schools and colleges. Neither is the mother tongue given any priority in the villages and districts where native language speakers have a greater population. It is not that we don’t have our own language, script and education system. We have such an education system; if we practice this, it can do the welfare of society and it can lead people to positive growth and enlightenment. Further, we have our own language, script, culture and tradition. We have great classics of philosophy, religion, history and grammar of Buddhism, but the government is in the deep sleep of “Kumbhakarna”. It goes blank eyes to allocate a budget in mother tongue education though the highest financial investment is there in the education system. Due to such dirty politics, many mother tongues, languages, scripts and great education systems have already been destroyed. Due to the government’s biased treatment of mother tongues, our great ancestral heritage of education is being destroyed. ‘Tripitak’ of Buddhism is one of them. There are 104 volumes: five ‘Laghu Bidhya’ (General education)’, and five ‘Maha Bidhya’ (High education). The ‘Maha Bidya’ includes the education of medicine (The Science of healing) linguistics, dialection spiritual education and mechanical arts have been included. Similarly ‘laghu Bidhya’ includes poetry, rhyme, astrology, drama and alliteration. These classics include 218 volumes, which include Poetry, Alliteration, Astronomy, Drama, Art and Medicine. The wise scholars who have access to the concerned authority of the state should interact and help manage the education system in the mother tongue in our local area and districts.

Great scientists are lagging behind in spiritual education. It is a matter of sadness to learn for one life and for material living, people are learning medium languages like ‘Khas’ Nepali and English. So hardly 1% of our people can speak in their mother tongue. Where will our religion, philosophy, history, linguistics, language, culture and tradition reach? Everyone can easily predict. The aforementioned scripture ‘Tripitak’ and other sub-scriptures are worshipped in a great and well-decorated ‘Chhoshyam’ prayer room. This is good and the better is to learn, read, study and practice what is said in these great texts. In this regard, Buddha has said, ‘I have indicated the road to heaven. To go or not to go, it’s up to you.’ We have a great repertoire of education. There are two reasons for being unable to continue this great tradition of learning. They are:

a) Biased attitude of the state mechanism
b) Greed to material prosperity.
There is much to say, but this much for now

g) Self Humiliation
We all know that no space has been given to our mother tongue in banks, post offices, hospitals, public offices, mailing, patient check-ups, police reports, etc. Mother tongue has no rights or privileges of any sort. Politicians of these villages and districts also learn and communicate in a medium language. These politicians don’t speak in their mother tongue at home either, which reduces the number of mother-tongue speakers. In the greed of wealth, they are encouraging their children to learn and communicate in medium languages like ‘Khas Nepali’ and English. So, a new hybrid generation is being produced. This generation replies in a medium language to the questions asked in the mother tongue by the elderly people.

When queried about such a reply, they say that they feel odd to speak in their mother tongue. Where does this hybrid generation take our mother tongue in future? Further, lots of people of our generation are abroad in search of a better life and career. Their offspring know nothing about their mother tongue as their parents don’t have any interest in their language and culture. Some corrupt minds of our own, following the other’s language, are blaming our language, religion, and culture as old, backward, obstacles to progress, etc. Further, they denounce the mother tongue and culture to destroy it. It has been crystal clear.

I.               Less Mother Tongue Speakers
If there are less numbers of people to speak their mother tongue, it leads to extinction. Whatever the reason is the reduction of the number of people, be it plague, war, quarrel, or other kind of destruction, it leads to the destruction of the mother tongue. Less population is not the exact cause, but it does not last any language and culture.

There are other similar reasons as mentioned above. But they are the outer reason to destroy our mother tongue.

II.             Inner Reason to Destroy Language and Culture
Keeping the above-mentioned reasons, we haven’t become able to preserve and promote or we didn’t try to do so. We want to save our face by not speaking our mother tongue.  In our society, people are disinterested in such work; those who have an interest are very few in number. They suffer from an inferiority complex to speak their mother tongue.

Failure to understand the value of one’s own language and culture, as a deer lacking to trace fragrant scent coming from her own ‘Navi’ (abdomen), has been the major cause of the decline of our language, script, and religion. The promotion of all of them has not been materialized. As stated above, our state and concerned authorities have achieved milestones of success in destroying the religion, language, script, culture and tradition of Aborigines through dictatorship and hegemony.

By giving preference to private property, name, position, and fame, we are also helping destroy our own language, script, religion, culture and tradition. We not only don’t speak our mother tongue but also don’t let our offspring and kinsmen learn it. Furthermore, instead of promoting our language and culture, we are blaming it and showing weakness. Keeping all these matters in consideration it is compulsory to eradicate our own cultural perversion. Who will protect, preserve and promote our culture and language if not we? If we don’t do anything, our identity (culture and language) certainly will get destroyed. Thus, humans killing one’s own culture is called language suicide. If it has been done through others, it is called language murder. If a language is the cause of destroying another language, it is called language murder.

I. Inherent Causes of Language and Script
a) The causes remained within language and scripts are as follows:
b) Language without script
c) People becoming unable to utilize script in language
d) Unable to exist in a few numbers
e) Lack of language in sparse population

2. Detrimental Causes to Destroy Language and Script
Various people have various say regarding the detrimental causes to destroy language and culture. Some are listed below:
a. Wealth
b. No to be any newspaper or magazine in mother tongue
c. No to be in any television program in the mother tongue
d. Victimization of political power
e. Human’s own weakness

But the main harmful reasons are listed below:
a. Wealth
b. Victimization of political power
c. Mixed living other castes
d. Human interest

3. Are the Aforementioned Reasons Exist in our Language also?
The case of wealth comes first because only mother tongue speakers have no opportunity to our wealth. They should learn the medium language. Language becomes an obstacle to excelling in college education. As there is no legal provision to take exams in the mother tongue, there is no opportunity of getting any job. The state hasn’t made any provision for learning education in the mother tongue. This is clearly a conspiracy to destroy the language and script of native speakers. Due to this reason, a lot of our brothers and sisters have done their Ph.D. in our own language and script but the biased State has not given any value to their certificates. As a result, they have to remain unemployed as their mother tongue is not used as an official language. There is no alternative to learning a medium language if one has to get a good job. That’s why native speakers avoid their mother tongue and learn the language of communication so that they can earn money. This is the reason which has detrimentally affected to learn greatly our language, religion and culture.

4. Causes of Destruction of Script and Language
There are two causes of the destruction of script and language. They are:

a. To identify symptoms of destruction
b. To examine the first cause in one’s language

a. To Identify Symptoms of Destruction,
There seem to be three symptoms in this category. They are:
I. Methods to examine destruction
II. Age category
III. Comprehensibility and practicality

I.  Methods to Examine Destruction
There are methods to see signals of the destruction of a language. Population is one of them. It is believed that if there are less than 10,000 people speaking one language, the language is supposed to have been on the way to destruction. The language of the people with less population is signalized to be destructing if more than 40% of that community speaks other languages.

II.   Age Category
The age of the people speaking and not speaking a language is taken as another way of examining the destruction of a language. For instance, people at the age of 40, if unable or humiliated to speak their language, it is taken as a symptom of destruction. When only elderly people speak a mother tongue and not by the younger generation it is taken as a major cause of that language’s destruction.

III.     Comprehensibility and Practicality
Comprehensibility of a language and its use in communication is taken as another symptom of the destruction of a language. If people can understand their mother tongue but they can’t speak it, it is also taken as a symptom of the destruction of a language.

These three conditions should be taken as major causes of the destruction of language. Not getting a job in a department or government office to blame one’s language, culture, and religion is also the cause of the destruction of a language.

A Bird’s Eye View in Our Own Language from the Aforementioned Perspective

The aforementioned causes seem to be speeding up in foreign countries and in their provinces and some situations are occurring in our own villages also. For instance, children of Sherpa, if asked in their mother tongue, reply in a medium language, which is an indication of understanding the deteriorating condition of our mother tongue. If this continues, our mother tongue will be destroyed in our own village.