Embracing My Mother Tongue – Tangkhul
My unlikely path on embracing my mother tongue
I belong to Manipur, one of the North Eastern states of India, but I spent several years of my childhood in Tamil Nadu in Southern India. As a result, I was talking in a language that you would not find in an Ethnologue (a publication of all living languages of the world). I not only lost the accent but was faintly able to speak. I was unable to talk in my mother tongue, Tangkhul. I somehow managed to converse with borrowed English words, some South Indian accent and crumbs of native dialect.
Who wouldn’t be proud to be talking in English?
Related Read: Childhood Remembered in Manipur
The hype around the English Language
With the hangover of the colonial era, we treat the English language as supreme. Something that has crippled the prominence of our mother tongue in this globalized world is this stereotype. Unknowingly, this mindset that I was brought up with, laid a seed for an initiative to sprout in 2020.
I hardly watch comedy shows, yet one day I was able to catch a stark difference in contextual understanding between two comedy videos – one from America’s Got Talent (AGT) and another from my community. While the audience in the auditorium laughed out, agreeing to what the comedian from AGT had to say, I wasn’t able to relate. What a disappointment!
On the other hand, I was laughing along with the audience to the comedian from my community. I realized how silly words from the comedian made me laugh. It was a weird feeling during those split moments. But that led me to dig deeper and ask “Why”?
The power that language is
I found that language is among the oldest tools of communication. It spans centuries and outlives civilizations. Language carries expressions, knowledge, stories, culture and so much more. It is the embodiment of the history of humankind and our identity. This significance is magnified in situations where oral tradition is prominent and little or no written records exist.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Language is the mother of civilization. It enables emotional expression to grow deeper, intellectual insights to reach new heights, and interaction to conquer intolerance. I say this because to me, getting exposed to various languages fostered tolerance towards diversity and taught me about co-existence. Thus, even if some languages are not given the prestigious “official language” tag, these big or small languages are as important as English or any other official language.
Related Read: Emotional Intelligence in Communication
How my quest to learn my native language redefined my life’s purpose
In a quest to learn my native language Tangkhul, I started an Instagram account to share, spread and create a community where we could learn together, by posting words and their meanings. As this initiative gained traction, we started crowdfunding to develop the Tangkhul Keyboard. This was required as the default keyboard does not come with two additional characters i.e Ā and A̱ that my community needed to effectively communicate in our native Tangkhul language.
Replacing these two letters with A, was a sign of ignorance that was often camouflaged by saying that instead of writing the letters correctly, we could get our minds accustomed to the incorrect letters while reading. This was like saying that we can write ‘tear’ instead of ‘dear’. These unthoughtful strategies could lead to the decimation of the language over time.
See that your children are properly educated in the rudiments of their mother tongue, and then let them proceed to higher branches of learning.
Brigham Young
This project is a necessity and someday we will be able to use the Tangkhul language keyboard, that is currently under testing. While everyone loves writing, it seems there is a trend in the community of writing in English. For this reason, we have created a website (avaramtui.com), where we not only encourage reading content in Tangkhul but also writing in Tangkhul. We publish all genres of poems, stories and articles exclusively in Tangkhul language.
Related Read: Learning Is Life
Mother Tongue: The language that resonates with one and all
Nelson Mandela once said:
If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head.
Nelson Mandela
If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.
Speaking to someone in their mother tongue can indeed lead to meaningful conversations. Although a large portion of the population is literate, many of them do not understand English. Consequently, they are detached from the world of literature, for the most part. We created the website, Āva̱ramtui, to bridge this gap and enable access to content in the local language.
Related Read: How to Handle Difficult Conversations
Language-friendly technology going beyond preservation
I have become more convinced than ever that our mother language will not lose its relevance, despite UNESCO proclaiming it as “vulnerable” or “endangered”. I am as hopeful as a child that people will embrace their mother tongue. With the integration of language-friendly technology, we can help change of status of the language to “safe”, with the help of more published content and widespread oral adoption of the local languages.
Related Read: The One Technology
Realizing my dream through Āva̱ramtui
Ultimately, it is not just about the process of preserving. Languages such as Tangkhul may not be able to align with their counterparts such as English. However, it is a language that touches the hearts of people who understand it. This is enough to keep our mother tongue alive. And, that represents a summation of my desires, as I get back to initiating more action.
Finally, what a joy to be able to connect in a language you almost obliterated!
About Ngashanngam Zingyo
Ngashanngam Zingyo is a graduate, B.Sc Zoology. He belongs to a small village called Halang situated in Ukhrul, Manipur in India.
In his quest to save and propagate his mother tongue, the Tangkhul language, he is currently heading a team of seven members who together run Āva̱ramtui – a website, Instagram and Facebook account.
Responses