Dr. Omarlin Kyndiah
Mother tongue is regarded as not only relevant but also important in today’s world. Today, people all over the world have expressed great love for their respective mother tongues. A century earlier, people might not have realized the relevance and importance of their mother tongue. Some of them had even switched over to the language of the dominant group. For instance, English had been the dominant language in Wales. Most of the Welsh people particularly in South Wales, had even adopted English as their mother tongue. But, today, there is a resurgence of Welsh nationalism; and the preservation and promotion of their Celtic language is one of their important political agenda.
It is pertinent to mention here of the Welsh experience because when the Welsh missionaries came to the Khasi and Jaintia Hills, they realised the relevance and importance of imparting their religious teachings in the mother tongue of the local people by reducing their spoken language into a written language in Roman script. Earlier the Baptist missionaries from Serampore too had made an attempt to put the Khasi language into a written form, in Bengali script. This is how the Khasi language developed during the last 170 years. Before that time, there were different Khasi dialects which were not reduced into a written form. From among these dialects, the Sohra dialect was preferred by the missionaries to adopt as a Standard Khasi language. Accordingly H.Roberts and his, “A Grammar of Khasi Language” (1891), the dialects of Charrapoonjee (Sohra) is taken as the standard, because it is the purest, as universally acknowledged by the natives, besides being more amenable to systematical arrangement than the patios of the smaller villages. The Standard Khasi Language has reached a stage for recognition by the Sahitya Akademi and inclusion in the Eight Schedule of the India Constitution.
In North East India, there are many tribal dialects which have been reduced into written language in Roman script by the missionaries working in the hills. Not only the tribal dialects but the missionaries had also contributed to the growth and development of non-tribal languages, for example, the Assamese language. In North East India, preservation of the cultural and linguistic identity of any given ethnic group had gained momentum because of the emergence of forces that promote ‘cultural assimilation’. Sadly, in Our North East Indian context we have not been able to achieve even what has been guaranteed by the Constitution of India so far as the issue of mother tongue is concerned. Article 29 guarantees protection of interest of minorities having a distinct language with a right to conserve the same is yet to be fully implemented. In addition, Article 350A provides for adequate facilities for instructions in mother tongue at the primary stage of education to the children belonging to linguistic minority. But this provision also remains only the declared intention of the Indian State so far, as many local languages are yet to be introduced at the primary stage of education. One such classic case is of the Pnar language of the Jaintias. It is because of this, the Jaintias have exerted themselves in translating their spoken language into a written language which led to the formation of Association of Jaintia writers called Ka Sein I Ktien Wei Thoh Jaintia in 1975.
Historically, Pnar has been by far the most important language. Many describe Pnar as a dialect or variety of Khasi (Grierson, 1904 & Bareh, 1977). However, Grussner in his article, Khasi: a minority language of NE India; from an unwritten to a written language” acknowledge that Pnar may be a language in its own right. Lexico-statistic studies shows that Pnar has the highest intersection with the lexicon of the four Khasian branch of Austro-Asiatic language (Pnar, War, Standard Khasi and Lyngngam). In addition to lexico-statistic defference, Pnar, War, S. Khasi and Lyngngam (PKWL) also show difference in their phonetics, grammatical morphology and typology. Linguist Anne Daladier argued that these differences are an indication that PWKL were probably spoken in different locations of the Assam corridor before they grouped in Meghalaya. Another young Linguist Hiram Ring in his paper on “A phonetic description and phenomic analysis of Jowai-Pnar” mentioned that and I quote, “Pnar and Khasi do share a significant portion of their culture and certain lexical items, but Pnar is distinct linguistically and there is reported low mutual intelligibility between the languages’.
Several research works by both National and International Linguists on Pnar language have been published in both National and International Journals. Few of them are worth mentioning. These are K.S.Nagaraja, Hamlet Bareh, C.Bareh, Narayan Kumar Choudhury, Mankular Gashnga, Paul Sidwell, Simon Green Hill and Anne Daladier and Hiram Ring. Sadly, very little research on Pnar language has since been carried out in our very own North Eastern Hill University (NEHU). While acknowledging the contributions of all these researchers on Pnar language, much more scope is left with our own researchers for the development of this language.
Though orthography for Pnar is in some use in few literatures, but there is a lack of standardisation. Spoken languages have dialects- from varying geographical areas and social groups. In Jaintia Hills District there exist fourteen dialect areas. These are Nartiang, Nongjngi, Nongbah, Mynso, Shilliang Myntang, Shangpung, Raliang, Jowai, Rymbai, Sutnga, Nongkhlieh, Lakadong, Narpuh and Saipung (Daladier 2011). Standardisation is a tool of language promotion. The UNESCO’s Atlas of the world languages in danger had listed Khasi as susceptible, but Pnar is more likely to be in danger, since it is not standarised and used as language instruction in education.
At this point it is relevant to mention here that Ka Sein I Ktien Wei Thoh Jaintia under the leadership of former Vice Chancellor of North Eastern Hill University, Professor B.Pakem in 1975 adopted the Jaintia alphabets in Roman Script. However, his untimely death left the work incomplete. This year, we are celebrating the 41st year of adoption of Jaintia alphabets. Unfortunately, very few are aware of this historical background of the Jaintia alphabets. At this moment, therefore, the question arises what should we do about the perpetuation of our script? Who should carry forward the unfinished task of its completion? Is it not a duty on our part to raise the status of our spoken language into that of a written language? Therefore, time has come now that the Jaintia scholars and intellectuals come forward to raise the standard of our spoken language into a written language. This will help to preserve and promote our rich cultural heritage and also increase the literacy rate of Jaintia Hills. Mr. Humphrey Hadem, the then Community Development Minister, Government of Meghalaya while addressing the Annual Session of Ka Sein I Ktien Wei Thoh Jaintia at Jowai pleaded for having a separate written language for Pnar in order to preserve their rich cultural heritage, customs and their identity ( Shillong Times April 24, 1982).
In conclusion, I am reminded of the words of Raven I. Mc David Jr, an American linguist who is specialised in dialectology- “the dominant culture will not really be able to accept the aspiring minorities until it realizes that all dialects are legitimate forms of the language, arising through normal interactions of human beings in social contexts”.