Taylor’s Linguistic Leaders: Celebrating 2021’s International Mother Language Day | By Tsang Ching Nam
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| Official poster for the International Language Day event. Source: @taylors.tbss on Instagram. |
There is no doubt that the diverse methods human beings use to converse with one another constitutes our world. The concept of language may not necessarily take on a purely verbal approach as gestures and written words are also verticals that exist under the linguistic umbrella. However, the importance of language is typically overlooked due to misconceptions and mistranslations. Therefore, it is crucial that said boundaries are stripped down in order to appreciate various cultures.
In honour of International Mother Language Day, Taylor’s Bangladesh Society collaborated with the rest of the societies from Taylor’s University to cordially welcome those who are interested in gaining an elementary understanding of various languages spoken across the globe.
“All languages have gone through an evolution, be it in verbal or alphabetical form,” said Rodela Sherizad Ahsan, the host of the event.
The session began with panellists from each society giving an elevator pitch regarding the most prominent languages that best represents the group they are in. Rafayet Huda, co-host of the event, first introduced the origins of Bangla, a lingua franca of Bengal regions within India’s subcontinents, to the participants.
Bangla
“It is an old-age argument that language affects the way we think and perceives things. To me, Bangla has an immense impact on us and plays a part in reshaping the land of Bengal as well as its inheritance,” said Rafayet.
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| Consonants in the Bangla language. Source: Namaste Nepal on YouTube. |
The evolution of Bangla can be divided into three historical stages: Old Bangla, which dated back to when Sanskrit was widely used in literary works by priests and scholars of Bengal; middle Bangla, which was influenced by the Mughals’ Persian language in the sixteenth century, and modern Bengal, which originated from the Nadia region around 1757. In a time where fine arts were encouraged, notable scholars allowed the reputation of Bangla to emanate by incorporating the language into various forms of literature, such as poems, stories, and novels.
Wolof
Vice President of Taylor’s African Society Mariama Bah then shared a brief description regarding the history of Wolof, a language spoken within African regions.
“There are two varieties of Wolof: one spoken in Senegal, and the other spoken in the Gambia. Senegal was colonized by the French while the Gambia was by the British. Due to this, Senegalese Wolof has adopted a large number of French loanwords and Gambian Wolof has English ones,” said Mariana.
“The official language of Gambia is actually English but it is typically used by the well-educated and primarily spoken during school and office hours. On the other hand, Wolof is one of the country’s national languages along with Mandinka, Fula, Jola, Serahuli, Aku, and others,” she added.
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| The Wolof language. Source: Pinterest. |
Urdu
“Urdu, like many other languages, started off with the base of Sanskrit and if you look at Urdu today, it is actually written in Arabic. If you were to travel across Pakistan, you will see people using the combination of the two in many different ways,” explained Muhammad Daniyal Shaikh, a Pakistan Society representative.
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| Urdu alphabets. Source: Wikipedia. |
Urdu started developing in northern India during the 12th century. It was based on the language spoken in the region around Delhi and it was heavily influenced by Arabic, Persian and Turkish. Hindi, the official language of India, is written in Sanskrit while Urdu is written in Arabic.
Malay
Lastly, several members from the Tradisi Society talked about the evolutionary origins of the Malay language.
“The first thing that might come to your minds about the origins of Malay may perhaps be a Sultan or Princess. However, its origins were derived way before this period,” said one member.
The implementation of Old Malay (or Melayu Kuno) is traced back to the 7th to 14th centuries. The language was heavily influenced by Sanskrit and ideas found in Hindu-Buddhism as the people of the Malay Archipelago made contact with Indian traders.
Subsequently, classical Malay was used in the 14th to 18th centuries. This era witnessed the introduction of Arabic and Persian vocabulary as well as the integration of major Islamic cultures.
Lastly, modern Malay (19th to 20th century) originated from the Western political and commercial domination in the Malay archipelago, especially the Dutch East Indian Company and the British Empire which held several colonies in the Malay Peninsula.
In the next session, a set of tongue twisters were presented from each society in the form of a language they are represented by. Participants were chosen at random to attempt reading each one without any prior practice. There were many hilarious yet ambitious attempts and everyone had a lot of fun.
Give them a try! Can you read any of these without stopping?
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| An example of a tongue twister in Bangla. |
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| Examples of tongue twisters in Malay. |
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| An example of a tongue twister in Urdu. |
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| An example of a tongue twister in Malay. |
Now, time to get musical! The next section of the event was a karaoke session. Participants were given the chance to listen to songs played in the aforementioned languages and encouraged to sing along to the romanized lyrics.
Taylor’s Bangladesh Society invited Waseq and Plaban for the singing session, where both of them performed the song Amar Bhaier Rokte Rangano on the guitar.
The participants also cheered each other on for the subsequent songs: Taylor’s African Society played Jerusalema by Master KG, Taylor’s Pakistan Society had Tera Woh Pyar by Coke Studio Season 9, and the Tradisi Society wrapped up with Anak Itik Tokwi and Rasa Sayang.
After grooving to some catchy beats, participants took a Kahoot pop quiz that was centred on universal languages.
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| Kahoot game session. |
The participants were asked a myriad of questions that covered languages spoken in Asia, Europe and even South America. Everyone was thinking on their feet, trying to hit the correct answer as fast as possible.
Towards the end of the session, another karaoke session ensued due to popular demand. The highly suggested Atif Aslam was then sung to close off this meaningful session.
The participants had definitely learned a thing or two from the array of languages that were shared about today. Languages are more than just words we use to communicate with one another within a homogenous group. It allows us to formulate bonds and relationships with others and is arguably inherent to the representation of one’s culture.
Taylor’s Bangladesh Society hopes that this event was successful in promoting linguistic-cultural awareness in an interactive yet informative way and wishes to organise more fun events like this in the future!
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