It is really surprising to get to know about the mentality and attitude of most people towards language and literature. Sometime back while passing through a road in one place, I could see written on a board, “Men at drive, work slow.” What the creator exactly wanted to write was, “Men at work, drive slow.” This is only an example. When we move into the market, we will see ‘Battle shop,’ ‘Motton corner,’ and so on and so forth, which remain the same even after years of having been written in their respective places. This is the story of the ordinary people who take the least interest in language. But the way the educated people use language in different media and other places makes one surprised. Language is only a medium of communication or expression. What harm is there if we make the right use of our mother tongue or the language in which we are proficient? Years back while staying outside Odisha, I was talking to a gentleman in Hindi. But he was talking in English to give the impression that he did not know Hindi. After some time, I also started talking in English. He immediately switched over to Hindi from English. The position of Hindi and Sanskrit in our country is not encouraging, and it is because of people who think that knowing or speaking English is the yardstick to measure their knowledge and educational status. We have started staying away from Sanskrit gradually. Hindi has also not received the amount of recognition it deserves as the national language. No language is our enemy. There is no harm in learning English since it is an international language. But it is not acceptable when we try to display our knowledge through it. We forget that this way we underestimate our own language. Because of this stepmotherly treatment of people, many languages around the globe have gone into oblivion. Who knows, Sanskrit will not meet the same fate one day!
Once a teacher asked his student, “Construct a sentence with the word ‘Byatita’. (‘Byatita’ is an Odia word meaning ‘apart from’ or ‘in addition to’). The student asked, “Sir, what does ‘Byatita’ mean?” The teacher replied, “Chhada”. (‘Chhada’ means a grown-up calf no more dependent on mother-cow milk. It is also the equivalent word for ‘Byatita’ in Odia.) Then the student constructed the sentence, “In the garden a cow and her ‘chhada’ are grazing.”
This may be a joke. But our mentality relating to language and literature is such. Once a friend asked how to write the names of folk music styles (Shaili) in English! Is it not ridiculous when words like ‘Pipal’ and ‘Tandoor’ have been assimilated in the English dictionary! We have to learn a lot from the English language. It has become an international language by deriving and assimilating words from various languages in the course of time. There is no harm if we borrow and use a word of another language if it has no substitute in our language. But it does not seem to be acceptable if we borrow a word from another language, distort it, and then try to give it the status of a local word. It is seen that words are coined and used in the context of a country, state, or region exclusively. If a particular flower or fruit is grown only in Australia, how do we expect its equivalent word in our dictionary! So there is no harm if we accept and assimilate the words as these are pronounced or spelt in Australia. Similarly, it is seen that we try to translate and use many technical English words in our language. It only provides for the content of a joke relating to language and literature.
While using our own language, it is often our tendency to doubt whether others will understand what we speak! Whether we will be made a laughing stock! Why cannot I use the indigenous and odd-sounding words of my language? If I go on doubting and borrowing words for use from other languages, how can the native words come to the limelight and vogue!
There are no one-to-one relations between languages. No language is our enemy. Having a liberal attitude towards language and literature, forsaking our narrow mentality, seems to be the requirement of the day.
(The views expressed are the writer’s own)

Mr. Prafulla Kumar Majhi,
Retired Asst. Director, A. I. R, is an eminent Scholar and freelance writer in English & Odia. His areas of interests are sociocultural, economic, literary, historical and analytical studies and writings.
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