By Piyali Sen

Language -- Truly its essence is conveyed when you come across different people from different countries and cultures. I guess if one observes carefully, language and culture play a vital part in shaping individual and collective behaviour and values. It symbolizes the common beliefs and psychological make-up of the community from which it springs.

...language and culture play a vital part in shaping individual and collective behaviour and values. It symbolizes the common beliefs and psychological make-up of the community from which it springs...

The very nature of the place and the person will be revealed by the language of the person.-the gait, the customs, and more essentially the propriety of the locality. One can say that human behaviour is a function of the culture one lives in, rather then on some biological singularity. This is emphasized by the common thought that human beings can only live inside linguistic systems. If you are not able to understand the proverbs, the popular sayings or the tongue-twisters, legends, myths or songs of a given community, then it will be very difficult for you to understand the politics, economic activities, social organisation and the cultural values of that locality.

So needless to say, language defines our very ethos. Take India for example. It is so rightly called ‘Unity in Diversity’. When you visit different places, you will be struck by the varied cultures and customs. Each place speaks volumes of the kind of tradition prevailing and amidst all these language plays a dominant role. Through linguistics you come to know the uniqueness of the region or what sets it apart. It is so very important because it helps to bind or preserve our cultures; it earmarks the speciality of the region. And this very difference actually helps a person to respect or try to understand other person’s culture and tradition. And that is the underlying factor for keeping the country in unity. There is a richness of emotions involved and one cannot deny the fact that a close relationship exists between habits of language use and thought processes as well as between socio-cultural mechanisms and the nature of human language.

But sadly, we see erosion of values and customs creeping in. The very factor of globalisation is slowly but definitely leading to loss of language diversity which is becoming a worldwide phenomenon. It is ironic that biological diversity is highly valued and that there exist numerous groups dedicated to the preservation of biological and ecological diversity and hardly and concerned with eroding linguistic diversity. This is essentially due to the common belief that languages are perfectly interchangeable with each other. This belief has recently been challenged by people who believe that each separate language is a window into a different cultural world view.

...Language is the cornerstone of culture. One language is not ‘better’ than another language. But sometimes languages contain concepts and worldviews that cannot be translated into another language. Culture is about the acquisition of habits, Language plays a crucial role in facilitating the self-consciousness, rationality and agency of human beings....

The importance of language in human life and in determining the place of humans in the world is emphasised in most past and present cultures on earth. In many religious traditions the spoken word is creative power. Ritual, as performed through language, is seen as a way of adhering to right principles and values. For the Ancient Greeks, the logos were words, speeches, discourses, and the principles that govern the order, and the orderly development, of the universe.

Language is the cornerstone of culture. One language is not ‘better’ than another language. But sometimes languages contain concepts and worldviews that cannot be translated into another language. Culture is about the acquisition of habits, Language plays a crucial role in facilitating the self-consciousness, rationality and agency of human beings.

So be it a small place tucked away in the remotest corner of the world or a region well-known to everyone, the originality or the uniqueness of the region lies in its language, ultimately leading to varied dimensions of living. It is the undeniable truth and the time has come to respect and value the true essence of language which has such a huge role in enhancing the cultural and traditional diversity of the world.

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