Speak proper Bangla
Photo: Munir Uz Zaman / Driknews
Come each month of February and suddenly there is a lot of talks going around about the decline in Bangla language, affected accents and upward trend of so-called Banglish and how far all that can be accepted in our culture etc. I would like to point out a few facts here. Firstly, Bangla can be traced back to Charyapada dated 10th century which makes it one among the very few of the most ancient languages that are still thriving today. Secondly, Bangla did not borrow Roman alphabet or suchlike but we can be proud that it has its very own alphabet which exhibits only one aspect of the richness of the language. Thirdly, Bangla has continuously taken in elements from numerous languages, circumstances and consequently it has only gotten richer and more diverse. This single feature has helped the language remain vibrant over such a long period of time because a language dies out once it becomes static. All the different forms of Bangla are to be appreciated. So, change is all good but we guess that it is the “distortion” of the language that the linguists are worried about. While many would shrug off the affectation in Bangla accent and 'Banglish,' widely demonstrated by some RJs of the radio stations, as the 'in-thing' or as being 'cool,' it mostly stems from the inability to speak the proper Bangla language. The most disconcerting aspect is that no conscious effort is made to learn the language properly. It is true not only of the youngsters, bit also ot almost any section of the society, apart from the minimal effort made to pass the Bangla exams. If the people in the higher official ranks start to speak Bangla the way it should be, it is bound to have a trickle-down effect and reach the masses. While the way we speak to our parents will be different from when we are around with friends, we should at least be able to speak proper Bangla when we need to. There can absolutely be no debate on this issue and I hope everyone will make some effort to at least speak properly the language people laid down their lives for.
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