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 (3rd 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.
**************
