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Speak your
mother tongue if you want that your language, culture and folk
wisdom remain alive in your country
Languages are an
essential part of the cultural diversity of our planet.
Languages are not only expressions of the human culture and
the human mind, they are also the means by which we
communicate with others and seek ways of explaining the world
we live in. At the same time languages are a very vulnerable
part of our cultural heritage.
According to an
estimate there are around 6000 languages spoken worldwide
today. Most of these languages do not enjoy majority status.
It is estimated that more than half of the world's population
communicates in only 8 languages. These 8 languages are
English, Chinese, Hindi (with Urdu), Spanish, Russian, Arabic
and Bengali and finally Portuguese.
Language is an
essential part of what defines a culture or civilization. The
identity of an individual person is defined by its social
affiliation.
Language is considered as being
endangered when it is not any longer learned by the children
or at least by a large part of the children of a community.
Then the language is not any longer transferred by the elderly
to the younger generation and it will eventually disappear
with the death of its last speakers. Even though a language
has child speakers, it can become endangered when parts or
individuals of a given speech community are transplanted into
communities that use another language.
Like other languages, Khowar is a language that is
spoken
by approximately 500,000 native speakers in Chitral,
Ishkoman, Gupis and Yasin. Khowar is classed as an
Indo-European language of the Dardic Group. However, "Dardic"
is simply a geographical collection of Indo-European languages
spoken in the Hindu Kush and Himalaya Mountains. Among them,
only Kalashamun, the language of the Kalash tribe is closely
related to Khowar.
The main reason I write this
article is that I want to convey a message to the speakers of
Khowar “The sweetest language” that proud to be
Khowar speaker and try to use your language as much as u can.
If you want to preserve your native language you can do that
just by using it more and more. Especially the parents who
live in the cities should try to speak Khowar with their
children beside Urdu and English. Mostly it has been observed
that when we move to cities we (especially Gharzik) try to
forget our language and especially the children born in city
cannot speak their native language (Khowar).
I have seen that we (Khowar
speakers) are mostly feeling shyness while speaking our
language with others. I am a person who can speak five other
languages (English, Urdu, Shina, Brushaski of Yasin and Hunza,
Punjabi) beside my mother tong (Khowar). In my point of view
if Brushaski (Hunzai) language has got a reputation that is
just because of its use. Among the five languages that I can
speak, Brushaski (Hunzai) is a language that I can speak the
least but whenever I have spoken with a Hunzai in Brushaski,
he/she has appreciated me and always responded me in Brushaski.
But whenever I have talked to a new Chitrali or Gharzik in
Khowar, he/she has talked to me in Urdu.
It is my experience that if you
just say hello hi to a Hunzai in Brushashi, after that
he/she will always talk to you in Brushaski. He/she will never
talk to you in another language even if he/she knows that you
cannot speak Brushaski well. But if your mother tong is not
Khowar and you talk to a Chitrali or Gharzik in Khowar he/she
will feel hesitate to talk in Khowar, he/she will prefer to
speak in Urdu.
The reason why I am comparing
Khowar with Brushaski is that Khowar is also a local language
like Brushaski but Brushaski has got a worldwide recognition.
We can also introduce Khowar through out the world if we
fallow the strategy of Hunzais
At the end I would like to convey
a message to the speakers of Khowar that proud to be Khowar
speaker. Do not try to forget your language because your
language is your identity.
By Gul Nawaz Khan
Islamabad
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