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With
the development of almost instant means of communication, knowledge and use of
more than one language is increasingly becoming a desired and imperative behavioural
goal in the present day world. Linguistic repertoires are now found to contain
a number of languages over and above the varieties of a language. this is true
as much in the case of nations as individuals. Thus individuals, societies as
well as nations can be bilingual. In the earlier phases, scholars paid more attention
to the study of individual bilingualism. With the exploration of the nature and
patterns of inter-relationships between language and the social milieu of its
use, and the need and urge of different countries, mainly plurilingual ones, the
study of societal bilingualism and national bilingualism, which received scant
attention earlier, has become a significant area of study. In case of individual
bilingualism definable patterns of specificable contexts for the selection and
use of a particular language exist and are revealed by study, while in the case
of national bilingualism, different sections of populations within a nation may
be monolingual but the national policy and its implementing agencies, including
the national administration, use more than one language as in Switzerland. thus
individual bilingualism is at one end of the spectrum while national bilingualism
on the other.
Bilingualism
has been defined more and more broadly since the beginning of this century. Thus
what was at one time referred to more or less equal mastery of more than one language,
is now applied to situations in which one has a passive knowledge of a language
or languages other than his native language National bilingualism is a further
extension of this concept. Thus bilingualism is a relative concept. it involves
the questions of degree, function and alternation. Another important feature of
bilingualism is the question of interference. Thus "bilingualism is a behavioural
pattern of mutually modifying linguistic practices varying in degree, function,
alternation and interference".
Bilingualism
can be either coordinate or compound. This distinction applies only in the case
of individual bilingualism. Societal bilingual can hardly be understood in terms
of this distinction and national bilingualism not at all.
India,
being a pluriethnic, pluricultural and plurilingual country, manifests a fairly
high degree of bilingualism (including multilingualism). The census figure 9.5%
bilingualism incidence (according to 1961 census of India) does not really portray
the actual situation. Bilingualism is not practised only by the educated Indian
but also by the illiterate and the semi-literate. This is why the Indian scene
has been characterised as having 'grass-root' multilingualism. Bilingualism in
India is not a recent phenomenon but is attested throughout the different stages
of its history.
Another
significant feature of Indian bilingualism is that it is 'complementary'. Thus
an individual may use a particular language at home, another in the neighborhood
and bazaar and still another in formal domains, viz., education, administration
and the like. This is not true of an individual only but such definable patterns
of selection of different languages are revealed by sets of populations as well.
Apart from the home language, regional/stage language (if it is not the same as
the home language), and languages of national and international communication,
Hindi and English, are constituent members of the linguistic repertoire of a sizable
number of Indians.
Hindi
in some form or the other has been a means of mass communication in the country
for quite some time. In the post-independence period, it has also been accepted
as the official language of the Indian union. In stating that Hindi should develop
by incorporating the linguistic features and vocables of other Indian languages,
the realistic, ongoing process of the development of lingua franca Hindi has been
accorded an explicit acceptance and no more. It is thus encumbent that detailed
studies be made of the linguistic characteristics of this pan-Indian medium of
communication.
The
present study is a step in this direction. In studies the significant characteristics
of Hindi as used by the speakers of south Indian languages. This study, however,
restricts itself to the study of Hindi written by such users. A study of the colloquial
form will separately follow in due course.
Data
has been collected from different genre of written Hindi, fiction, criticism and
the like. Not only has original and creative Hindi works of such writers been
studied, Hindi translations from the mothertongues of such writers have also been
taken into account. This has added the exploration of the carryover of linguistic
features, modes of expression and cultural vocables which have formed part of
the translation process has also permitted a comparative study of the quantum
and nature of the interference involved in original writings on the one hand and
the translations on the other.
The
first four studies are on Kannada-Hindi, Telugu-Hindi, Malayalam-Hindi and Tamil-Hindi.
The first study is coauthored by Narasimharao and Jaswal, the second and third
by Narasimharao and the fourth by Jaswal. These studies reveal the linguistic
features resulting from interference of the mothertongue on the one hand and the
influence of the carryover of features of regional cultures of the specific language
communities on the other.
The
fifth and the last study on Kannada-Hindi is by Sanyukta Koshal. The approach,
analysis and presentation is different in this study. This study analyzes the
data as a synchronic body of materials. It further states the deviations and the
degree and nature of such usages exclusively on the linguistic level. The carryover
of linguistic features of the mother tongue are thus more clearly set out in this
study thus showing the nature and extent of interference.
It
is necessary to conduct studies of the Hindi written by users of other major Indian
languages. It is further necessary to study the linguistic features of Hindi used
as the means of spoken communication by the speakers of all the major Indian languages.
This needs to be done for Hindi used by speakers of an Indian language (other
than Hindi) while speaking to a person of his own speech community, e.g., Hindi
used by a Tamil speaker to another Tamil speaker at the spoken level (and there
are contexts in which it is done). Furthermore, studies need to be made of Hindi
used by a speaker of a major Indian language while speaking to another Indian
language (other than Hindi) speaker, e.g., Hindi used by a Telugu speaker while
speaking to an Assamese speaker. Moreover, no less significant will be the study
of Hindi used by a non-Hindi speaker while conversing with a Hindi speaker. Thus
it will be important to study the characteristics of Hindi used by all the three
types of dyads. Only after such studies are made, shall we be able to synthesize
the results and determine the nature and form of the pan-Indian Hindi. This will
also help in answering the question whether there are regional standards of pan-Indian
Hindi, i.e., South Indian Hindi, East Indian Hindi, etc., or at least there are
grounds to hold the view that such standards are emerging. Such studies are being
made for Indian English and are no less significant for Hindi. Studies of attitudinal
type also need to be simultaneously made. This programmatic plan will not only
bring forth important data for the study of pan-Indian Hindi and help in planning
and promoting its development, it will also have significant theoretical implications
for the study of the development of lingua francas and national languages. if
this exploratory study marks the beginning of such studies, our efforts would
have been amply rewarded.
Our
thanks are due to M/s Samskrita Sahitya Sadana, Mysore, for neat and prompt printing
of this book, and also to Shri. R. Narasimha for the cover design.
BAL
GOVIND MISRA