Death of Language

Death of Literature

“Are you crazy?” Samantha asked.

“I prithee your highness.” Jessica answered.

“Hai, stop talking this nonsense words.”

“Fie, fie. Wherefore thou art not using Shakespearean language?”

“No. Because I want to be expressive.”

“Hark. Mark my words. Anon why we can’t use Shakespearean language?”

“It is dead. No one can understand that. By the way we are going to get our class test marks and corrected papers of Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare.”

“Oofoo…”

We are only writing exams on Shakespearean Literature but we are not using the language.

The following will help you to understand the concept:

A variety of terms distinguish the kinds of languages and vocabularies that exist outside the mainstream of standard, formal language. Here are eight words and phrases that denote specific ideas of language usage.

1.     Argot: An argot is a secret language used by various groups – eg. schoolmates, colleagues.

2.     Colloquial Language: Colloquial Language is informal language that is not rude, but would not be used in formal situations.

3.     Creole: A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable natural language that has developed from a simplified version of a language. Creoles share more grammatical similarities with each other than with the languages from which they are phylogenetically derived.

4.     Dialect: Dialect is a form of a language that is spoken in a particular area and that uses some of its own words, grammar and vocabulary.

5.     Jargon: Jargon is a language where many special words or expressions used by a profession or group that are difficult for others to understand.

6.     Lingo: Lingo is a language. The special language used for a particular activity or by a particular group of people.

7.     Lingua Franca: A lingua franca is a language often adopted as a common tongue to enable communication between speakers of separate languages.

8.     Slang: A vocabulary of terms employed in a specific subculture is slang.

9.     Vernacular: A vernacular is a native language or dialect, spoken by the ordinary people of a country or a region.

Is it death of language or death of literature?

Several weeks ago (3^rd July, 2014), Johnson (an Economist) discussed his debate with Nicholas Ostler about the lingua franca of the future. Johnson thinks that English has a very long run ahead of it. Mr.Ostler sees English’s time as coming to an end, to be replaced by machine-translation tools that will remove the need for people to learn to speak, read and write a lingua franca. But we agreed that whatever the long run might look like, the next few decades are set. No language has anything like a chance of displacing English.

Take Hindi language for an example. Rig  Veda  is accepted as the starting point of Hindi literature. Rig Veda was written in Sanskrit language. It was later translated into common man’s languages such as Pali, Prakrit and Apabhramsa languages. Sanskrit is accepted as a mother language of Hindi as well as all Indo-European languages. But the question is why the language is not prevalent at present.  This is called death of literature.

This is my idea. If a Vernacular (see box) or a Lingo develops itself and constructs its grammatical rules and becomes a Creole, after a few decades the same Creole will change into a Jargon and slowly becomes a Vernacular. The Vernacular becomes Dialect and starts to count its days.

The literal language becomes so old, affected by old thoughts because of not accepting new ideas, the same literal language becomes unpopular among the people.  The language fails to satisfy the changing needs of the people and prevails only among the elitist class. It becomes shunned by the majority. This is how the sophisticated Creole changes itself into a Dialect. Then the death of the literal language follows.

The empty place of the literal language must be occupied by a popular Vernacular and the Vernacular starts walking tall up to some age. Even though Jesus and his disciples primarily spoke Aramaic, the common language of Judea in the first century AD, the bibles which were written in the languages of Aramaic, Hebrew and Koine Greek are not popular. Lord Gautham Buddha selected Pali language which was a common language of that time to spread his thoughts when the literal language had been Sanskrit. Death of literature causes birth of a new language.

So please answer the texts if your son or daughter (even grandson, granddaughter, son-in-law and daughter-in-law) texts you – “hw r u? shal I nd ma frs r com ter. pls. Lost yer t ws g8 pleasr.” Because it is not an argot but a common language. Be ready our eng lang is in its end of days.

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Science vs. God

I don’t know the topic is correct or not.

Vishal asked, “What is so good about having faith when you don’t have evidence? What is the real advantage to that? Why is this something that we want to encourage?” I knew he repeated Natalie Angier’s (A Pulitzer prize winning science writer for The New York Times) words.

I said to him, “Hai chill up. What happens?”

“I got maths test paper. God is a cheater man. I expected 80 marks out of 100. But I got 2.”

The seriousness ascended up on the air.

“See my paper. Everything I wrote. I did my rough work in separate paper.” Vishal showed his paper which was not corrected, no red pen markings. Before opening my mouth he told, “Yes. On exam day I had submitted my rough work paper. I forgot my main sheet. Yesterday I came to know. Today I got result.”

Even scientists not ready to disprove God and divine power. But we are ready to point out God for our failures. This is against God but a new fashioned different thing. Most people who have thought for themselves have been told that it was wicked to think differently from other people.

Falling apples and boiling kettles caused Newton and Watt to think new different thoughts, and because they thought new thoughts, men came to understand more about the world and to invent things. But they don’t have a brain to think against God. See here a Noble Prize (for physiology or medicine in 1902) winning scientist (Sir Ronald Ross) says:

This day relenting God

Hath placed within my hand

A wondrous thing; and God

Be praised. At His command,

Seeking His secret deeds

With tears and toiling breath,

I find thy cunning seeds*,

O million-murdering Death.

I know this little thing

A myriad men will save.

O Death, where is thy sting?

Thy victory, O Grave?

The Malaria

Malaria Protozoans * (the seeds)

There are two things I must say:

1.    Not Scientist but Science is ready to disprove God. Not Philosophy but Philosophers are not ready to accept new different things.

2.   If you have Hit, Allout, Good night or some other mosquito repellent don’t read the following.

Malaria Protozoans * (the seeds)

A microscopic image shows protozoans of the genus Plasmodium, which invade red blood cells and cause malaria in humans. The protozoans are transmitted through the bite of mosquitoes, primarily in tropical and subtropical areas of the world. Malaria is characterized by chills, fever, and sweats. In some cases it can lead to death.

Sir Ronald Ross

In the late 1890s British physician Ronald Ross conducted experiments that proved malaria was transmitted by mosquitoes. He won the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine in 1902.

 Malarial Information

        Malaria, debilitating infectious disease characterized by chills, shaking, and periodic bouts of intense fever. Caused by single-celled parasites of the genus Plasmodium, malaria is transmitted from person to person by the bite of female mosquitoes.

        Malaria is an infectious disease caused by a one-celled parasite known as Plasmodium. The parasite is transmitted to humans by the bite of the female Anopheles mosquito. The Plasmodium parasite spends its life cycle partly in humans and partly in mosquitoes. (A) Mosquito infected with the malaria parasite bites human, passing cells called sporozoites into the human’s bloodstream. (B) Sporozoites travel to the liver. Each sporozoite undergoes asexual reproduction, in which its nucleus splits to form two new cells, called merozoites. (C) Merozoites enter the bloodstream and infect red blood cells. (D) In red blood cells, merozoites grow and divide to produce more merozoites, eventually causing the red blood cells to rupture. Some of the newly released merozoites go on to infect other red blood cells. (E) Some merozoites develop into sex cells known as male and female gametocytes. (F) Another mosquito bites the infected human, ingesting the gametocytes. (G) In the mosquito’s stomach, the gametocytes mature. Male and female gametocytes undergo sexual reproduction, uniting to form a zygote. The zygote multiplies to form sporozoites, which travel to the mosquito’s salivary glands. (H) If this mosquito bites another human, the cycle begins again.

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Oh! Kaveri maa!

My friend, Akshay Kumar was so dull today morning. I asked, “Why man, you are so dull?” He answered me, “It’s about my village (in Bihar).  There my parents are struggling with hip level water. I m in Bangalore, How can I help them?” He sighed a long sad breath. I cannot answer.

“Hi chill up man, tomorrow bandh. Holiday. Enjoy.”

With this one more event I must share up to you.

One of my students, Ms. A asked me, “Sir, are you supporting Tamil Nadu? Tomorrow bandh sir. If you are supporting Tamil Nadu you should not support this bandh. Come to school and work.” I cannot answer.

Karnataka government called for bandh tomorrow to go against the verdict of Supreme Court.

I think that it is extremely harsh on the people of Karnataka. Including me. My students cannot attend the classes. Exam is nearing. I should be burning my midnight oil. Why should be an holiday? And why should Saturday be full working day?

But who is to be blamed for it? Tamil Nadu government? Supreme Court? Karnataka government and lawyers?

Tamil Nadu government did not do anything wrong by appealing to the Supreme Court and asking for water. They too were in a desperate situation. My parents are living in Madurai. The situation there is bad. The biggest disadvantage Tamil Nadu has is that they have only one major river basin in the state i.e. the Kaveri river basin. There is no major river there apart from Kaveri. The entire state is totally dependent on Kaveri.

When Tamil Nadu filed the petition in the Supreme Court, a group of farmer representatives from that state met the Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and requested him to release some water so that their samba crop wouldn’t be damaged. The Karnataka government clearly told them that the water level in the reservoirs in the Kaveri basin is very low and we wouldn’t be able to supply water. The state’s lawyers also communicated the same to the Supreme Court initially. The people in Karnataka including myself also thought there was no water in our reservoirs and hence wouldn’t be able to release water to Tamil Nadu.

But on the day of the hearing, our great lawyers communicated to the Supreme Court that Karnataka would be able to release at least 10 TMC ft of water to Tamil Nadu over a period of 7 days. Tamil Nadu had demanded 15-20 TMC ft of water to be released over a period of 10–15 days. The SC on its part came up with a middle figure and directed Karnataka to release 13 TMC ft water over a period of 10 days. Look at the irresponsibility of the Karnataka lawyers. They said at least 10 TMC ft and not at most 10 TMC ft!

Moreover if we were in a position to supply 10 TMC ft of water, why didn’t the CM negotiate with the farmer representatives of Tamil Nadu? All this mess could have been easily sorted out. The only insensitive thing said by the SC bench was when they said “live and let live” to Karnataka. It is insensitive because in the matter concerning the Mahadayi dispute, the tribunal ruled in favour of Goa and rejected Karnataka’s demand. So much for “live and let live”.

For years, politicians and lawyers have taken both the people of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu for a ride. In the end, it is the common people living in both the states that have suffered either because the judgement was not in their favour or because of the backlash in their respective states. It is time that people say enough is enough. We can’t keep fighting amongst ourselves. States like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana must pressurize the Central government so that the interlinking of rivers can be done. The Himalayan rivers never go dry and their water can be used in the south where the rivers go dry if in case rains fail.

Ok. We will go to international water sharing rules.

The Helsinki Rules on the Uses of the Waters of International Rivers is an international guideline regulating how rivers and their connected ground waters that cross national boundaries may be used, adopted by the International Law Association(ILA) in Helsinki, Finland in August 1966.  

The Helsinki rules consist of 37 articles spread over 6 chapters.[3]Chapter 2, Article 4 states: "Each basin State is entitled, within its territory, to a reasonable and equitable share in the beneficial uses of the waters of an international drainage basin".In determining what is reasonable and equitable share, all relevant factors are to be considered together and a conclusion reached on the basis of the whole.

A slice of information about Kaveri river basin:

The Kaveri river’s basin covers four states and Union Territories, as follows: Tamil Nadu, 43,856 square kilometers; Karnataka, 34,273 square kilometers; Kerala, 2,866 square kilometers; and Puducherry, 160 square kilometers.

Interlinking of rivers was one of the dreams of our beloved President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. It is up to us to make sure that we do something on the issue. The states that I have mentioned pay the highest taxes to the Central government. If they collectively put enough sustained pressure, the Central government will be forced to act. Calling a bandh, burning buses, disrupting vehicular movement, and causing hatred among people is not at all a viable solution. Measures need to be taken so that Tamil Nadu is no longer too reliant on Kaveri and Karnataka also doesn’t have a problem to release water if required.

I think the conclusion is enough for the answer to Mr. Akshay Kumar and Ms. A. The questions may be different. But answer is same.