Will English kill off India's languages?

[Bhairava]

What I am saying is that non-Hindi speakers will not speak Hindi unless it is absolutely necessary. For example, when a Marathi and a Tamil get together, they will talk in English, not Hindi.

And logically why should they ? :/

---------- Post added at 12:47 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:45 AM ----------

Because their identity recognition is not as high as the Chinese people.

Therefore, they have to use English in order to linguistically unify their country.

Bullsh!t.

On the contrary we are not insecure enough to think different language will some how split our country and everything will fall apart. We appreciate our diversity in ethnicity,culture,language,religion and still then manage to inculcate the oneness of being Indian. With all the difference we have managed to pass through the most turbulent phase. I can see only a upward movement from here.

 

[Manas]

Survival of the fittest.

That's nature's law. That's how everything in this world works.

If something is not fit enough to survive, it will perish...this is true of species, countries, empires and even languages.

This is simply not true.

English become global language not because its superior nature ,but due political backing it received from its native speakers.

Be it language,religion or culture ,they survive by grit ,commitment and sacrifice of its upholders.

Hinduism survived many centuries of foreign rule , not just because of its great philosophy ,but commitment and sacrifes made by its believers against all odds whereas many native cultures and religions in America,Africa and South East Asia got extinct as foreign forces took over reins of power.

 

[Manas]

Persian and Parsi were court languages. In otherwords they were the language of the elite which never penetrated into the masses. So when the courts that patronized it disappeared, so did the language. That cannot be said about the Indian languages and even English. English started off as the language of our then colonial masters, but now its as Indian as anyother Indian language.

The status of Parsi was the same what is English today.
You are considered educated only if you know parsi.

Do you know Munsi Premchand wrote his novels not Hindi Devanagari script ,but Persian script ??

 

[harpoon]

The status of Parsi was the same what is English today.
You are considered educated only if you know parsi.

Do you know Munsi Premchand wrote his novels not Hindi Devanagari script ,but Persian script ??

As I said it never penetrated the masses as English is now. Parsi lived and died in India as a language of the elite.

 

[53fd]

As I said it never penetrated the masses as English is now. Parsi lived and died in India as a language of the elite.

You mean Farsi, not Parsi. A Parsi is a Zoroastrian.

 

[harpoon]

You mean Farsi, not Parsi. A Parsi is a Zoroastrian.

I stand corrected. Is Persian another name for farsi?

 

[53fd]

I stand corrected. Is Persian another name for farsi?

The Persian language has a few registers: Farsi (spoken in Iran & Western Afghanistan), Dari (Afghanistan), Tajiki (spoken in Tajikistan & Uzbekistan) etc. These three register are almost identical.

 

[Omar1984]

I have met some South Indians and they refuse to adopt Hindi. They need subtitles to watch their Bollywood movies.

Punjabi Indians can understand Hindi, but dont like speaking it and many can not speak it well.


Indians communicate in English with each other (meaning different ethnic groups) which is odd because all of us Pakistanis communicate with each other in Urdu (regardless of ethnic group).

 

[The HBS Guy]

Indians communicate in English with each other (meaning different ethnic groups) which is odd because all of us Pakistanis communicate with each other in Urdu (regardless of ethnic group).

Think about what you're saying.

If that were true, there'd be no iliiteracy in India.

 

[53fd]

Think about what you're saying.

If that were true, there'd be no iliiteracy in India.

I think he is talking about the Indians living outside of India.

 

[Omar1984]

Think about what you're saying.

If that were true, there'd be no iliiteracy in India.

I never been to India. I have no idea how a Tamil communicates with a Punjabi Sikh in New Delhi. Here in North America thats how it is. North Indians and South Indians communicate in English, and both have the same accent

 

[The HBS Guy]

I think he is talking about the Indians living outside of India.

Oh ok.

But then he is only partially correcct.

See I'm equally fluent in English, Hindi and Punjabi.

...but I'd still talk to a Tamil in English. That is understood because Indians have never had a language common for all.

Not to say that Tamils don't understand Hindi. They very well do but they prefer to not speak it for their affinity towards their own language and it's perfectly fine.

English has a unique advantage over other Indian languages in that it is the language of the outsider.

It has created a bridge among people so that now they can communicate with each other without getting embroiled in a worthless debate over who is being 'favored' and who is not.

That's what India is all about in the first place. Giving every ethnicity its rightful space under the common umbrella of the nation.

A Tamil is not any less Indian than a Delhiite just because he doesn't speak Hindi.

Comin back to what I was saying earlier.

I still pretty much talk in our desi lingo (Hindi + Slang) with most of my North Indian friends across the world.

So all in all, Omar at least partially incorrect if not entirely.

---------- Post added at 02:58 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:57 AM ----------

I never been to India. I have no idea how a Tamil communicates with a Punjabi Sikh in New Delhi. Here in North America thats how it is. North Indians and South Indians communicate in English, and both have the same accent

...and the funny part, which I happened to miss, was...???

 

[Korean]

Use of English as common language has greatly helped India, because the language of science and business, and diplomacy would still be English 100 years from now.

 

[Götterdämmerung]

Normally, small countries have to learn the language of a stronger neighbour. Up until the defeat of Napoleon, French was the lingua franca of Europe and remained as the diplomatic language well after the 2nd WW. The language of science was until then pretty much German. English has established itself as the language of commerce.

English became globalised when the US became a super power after the 2nd WW. But until today, many of our smaller neighbours are still teaching science at university in German. For a population of just a few millions, it's just too arduos and expensive to translate everything for just a few hundred students per semester.

 

[FairAndUnbiased]

Normally, small countries have to learn the language of a stronger neighbour. Up until the defeat of Napoleon, French was the lingua franca of Europe and remained as the diplomatic language well after the 2nd WW. The language of science was until then pretty much German. English has established itself as the language of commerce.

English became globalised when the US became a super power after the 2nd WW. But until today, many if out smaller neighbours are still teaching science at university in German. For a population of just a few millions, it's just too arduos and expensive to translate everything for just a few hundred students per semester.

In China, the language of science and commerce is all Chinese. Because Chinese has very few phonetic concepts, we were forced to create our own equivalent words for every modern technology, instead of directly take the English word like Japan did.

As I know, the only word that's a phonetic translation and not a new equivalent is radar = leida.

Everything else, from computer = jisuanji/diannao and laser = jiguang, to quantum informatics = liangzixinxixue, has a new Chinese term that's totally unrelated to the English.