By HH Mohrmen
The struggle to include the Khasi language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution is no doubt a difficult task and obviously we would not be able to achieve this goal within the next few months. In spite of the efforts by the public and the government which includes the adoption of the resolution in the Assembly towards achieving the goal, the same is not going to happen soon. Till today there is no indication that this aspiration of the people is going to be fulfilled. The government has done its bit but the question is where have we gone wrong? Or is there anything else that the different agencies which are mandated to work for the progress and development of the language need to do to achieve the goal?
The British Legacy
Till date the respect that we have in the society for our former colonial masters is still very high. And the fact that the same colonisers who brought the word of God to the hills also gave us the alphabets. Hence questioning the work of the missionaries which includes putting the language into writing is unthinkable. The general impression that we have of our former masters ‘that they can do no wrong’ still envelopes the psyche and perception of the people in the hills. No doubt the missionaries who put our language into writing using the Roman script deserve respect and honour for the work they have done, but they can make mistakes too, can’t they?
The whites are always right
Have we ever been critical about the alphabets that were used by the missionaries to write the language? Did we ever ask any questions about the Khasi alphabets as we call them now? Or does it mean that because it was introduced to the society by the white people so the alphabets will have no flaws. Since the art of writing the alphabets was introduced by the British there is no reason whatsoever to doubt that they are perfect. In fact the very reason that the alphabets were introduced to the community more than a hundred years ago makes it sensible that we relook at the alphabets again.
The lesser used ‘G’ alphabet
There are complaints that “G/g” (pronounced as ek or egg) is redundant as the alphabet has not found any use while writing the language, which is also true. But has there been any constructive debate or have we even started the debate on this important issue? The reason we have not debated the issue could very well be because we are people who are always complacent with whatsoever things are happening in the society. We are not taught or we do not have it in us to think critically. In fact if we apply our minds carefully we will find that we need to relook at the list of alphabets that we use in writing the language.
Alphabet “Ng/ng” is redundant
Again because we are not critical and do not apply our minds while using the alphabets, we do not realize that there are some alphabets used in writing Khasi which are no longer of any use. The alphabet in the list that we have which is redundant is ‘Ng/ng.’ One may ask how that can happen and that it is not at all true. Of course ‘ng’ is the most important alphabet in the Khasi language, but the question is whether we have looked at the word critically? The truth is we already have ‘N/n’ in the list of Khasi alphabets which is also a very important alphabet and we also have ‘G/g’ as mentioned earlier. The question is what sound do we get if we combine ‘N/n and G/g’ alphabets together? If we combine the two alphabets we get the ‘Ng/ng’ sound. ‘N’ is another very important alphabet in the Khasi language and if we keep ‘G’ in spite of the fact that it has not been very useful, we can have the same ‘Ng’ sound. Hence if we keep both ‘N’ and ‘G’ in the list of Khasi alphabets then we can do away with ‘Ng’ altogether and we have one less alphabet in the list.
Sohra dialect the Royal English of Khasi
In England it is said that one cannot be a news reader or an anchor on any BBC show be it on radio or television channels if one has a Scottish or even a Southerner or a Liverpool accent and not the Royal English accent. The Scots are often said to have a Celtic sound in the way they speak English. So the correct way to speak the language is like the Royal family does and that is the accent that is generally accepted in official communications.
Now there is a similar understanding with regards to the Khasi language too. One can only write Khasi the way Sohra people speak or the correct way of writing the language is as it is being used in the Sohra area. It is understood that because the dialect that was first used for writing the language is Sohra that is also how the language is to be written. It is also true that we need a standard dialect to write the language. But it is equally true that the Khasi Jañtia which is Austro-Asiatic Mon-Khmer group of languages has many dialects. The people who speak these dialects also have the aspiration to write the dialect they are speaking, which is in fact good for the progress and development of the written language.
Khasi as a mother tongue should be more inclusive
Despite efforts to improve the way we write the language, much is still left to be desired. The immediate need is to have an inclusive list of alphabets. Since we are speaking the same language with dialects which are at times incomprehensible to the other, we need to have alphabets which can be used to write all the other dialects of the language. And instead of complaining when the people and their Autonomous District Councils who want to write their dialect come up with their own alphabets, the question that we need to ask is, how inclusive are the alphabets that we have? There was brouhaha when the Jañtia Hills Autonomous District Council introduced the alphabet for writing the Pnar language but can we write the dialect with the existing alphabets? Perhaps this issue was not recognized by those who first put the language in writing. Hence the question for the writers and the scholars of the language is whether they can remain complacent and ignore this issue?
In fact there is no need to come up with a fresh list of alphabets to write the other dialects in the language. We only need to think out of the box and come up with solutions. If we only apply our minds, we would find that by including a few alphabets to the existing list we can write the other dialects of the Khasi-Pnar language.
New alphabets to write all the dialects
If we take the Pnar and War as a case in point, the new alphabet we need is ‘AE or ae’, ‘Chi or C’ and ‘Tj/tj’ sound. My friend CA Suchiang, a teacher of Marian Hills High School, suggests that we do not need to introduce new alphabets for ‘Ae or ae’ sound since we already have ‘A/a’ and “E/e’ in the list of Khasi alphabets. If we add these two existing alphabets we will get the ‘Ae/ae’ sound we need to write the Pnar and War dialects in. Similarly do we need new alphabets for ‘tj’ sound as in ‘tjiang’ uncle or ‘tji’ rice in War dialect.
The only alphabet that we need to introduce is for the ‘chi’ sound if we are to write the Pnar and the War dialects of the language. Alphabets representing these sounds are not there in the existing list of Khasi alphabets.
The advantage of putting the other dialects in writing
It must be reiterated that despite the differences we have in the dialect that people speak, studies confirm that we speak the same Austro-Asiactic, Mon-Khmer branch of language. One of the advantages of including Pnar is because there are already many books published in the Pnar dialect. The other element that may not cross our minds is that religious books of Niamtre can only be written in Pnar or War. The reason is the chanting in the sacrifice or the rituals can only be in Pnar or War as the case may be.
During the Bam Phalar festival, no less than fourteen dramas were presented by the different communities. This tradition has been going on for many years now. If we can only publish a quarter of these dramas in book form we would have many books in the list we send for inclusion in the Eighth Schedule.
Email: [email protected]