© Laura Kamian, Garden Bardez http:/ / laurakamian.livejournal.com
J 'would have liked that my parents taught Armenian m'aient
by Arda Jebejian
www.keghart.com
Often linguists find themselves unexpectedly in a situation where they encounter negative attitudes and careless members of a social group concerned with preserving its own language. What linguists are they involved in this kind of question? Should they just say: "This is their opinion and we have no right to interfere? "Or, based on past experience, should they try to save that language? Delicate situation.
It is easy to argue that many languages are already in need of our help. Languages, whose users are convinced of the effectiveness of the efforts of linguists.
Anyway, it should take sides. First, recognize that everything down here is neither white nor black. In other words, different attitudes can exist within the same social group: pride, regret, indifference, etc.. This family can feel very proud of its traditions and national identity, another will be devoid of such pride. Doe's mother tongue can be considered as useless and unimportant, as will other in their mother tongue as a source of spiritual energy. It is therefore important to examine first the reasons for the negative attitude within a social group.
In certain circumstances, economic, military and security encourage minorities to focus their energy on their livelihoods. When, for example, the linguist Matthew McDaniel was trying to preserve the language of the Akha tribe in Thailand, the thing, he writes, was not easy, because their children were dying by the dozens each day. No doctor was there to make a diagnosis. McDaniel was concerned on several levels: their children had no opportunity to grow and learn their native language, they were in immediate need of medical care and economic support. It was thus faced with the choice of documenting and preserving the language of the Akha tribe, or to save and protect the Akha people.
Often sensitivities must be respected and political pressure be taken into consideration. Meanwhile, following a long history, linguists know they will hear the same complaints: "I wish my parents m'aient learned my mother tongue," "I wish my grandfather and my mother m 'have learned my mother tongue. "
linguist Nicholas Ostler explains the fact with a question: who are we to question the decision of a social group not to pass on her language to her children ? For example, what about the Kenyan father, speaking dahalo and proud to declare that his son now speaks Swahili (official language of Kenya)? However, Ostler notes, the choice of a social group often change. And it becomes a problem when, for example, a goal is attained. Then he says it is too late to learn the language to children, because it no longer exists.
Linguist Nancy Dorian, for example, discovered that with the speakers of the dialect of East Sutherland Gaelic in Scotland. They had decided to abandon their Gaelic language for economic reasons and now their children who are in a better financial situation, want to regain their national heritage, blaming their parents: "Why have you not learned our native language? "
Unfortunately, during my discussions with a number of young Armenian parents, they express their wish that their children, being more closely related to the local Lebanese life, reach a socioeconomic position and future more important. According to linguists, parents should be aware of the nature and terms of the consequences of their decisions for mother tongue, they must understand the impact of their stance on future generations ("We do not earn a living from the Armenian!", "The Armenian is not an international language," " I do not want to be a teacher of Armenian "," Armenian is outdated and does not feed its man "- behavior vis-à-vis the Armenian language among Armenians youth aged 18 to 24 and young parents Armenians in Lebanon, aged 30 to 40 years) and decide to transmit the language to their children, whatever the circumstances.
The need for collaboration between social groups and linguists
It is necessary for parents to be aware of the dangers threatening the native language, understand the results of their negative or passive deciding to transmit the language to their children. But how all this will he be available when the majority of parents are unaware of the phases of the decline of a language and how quickly a social group can become bilingual monolingual?
Ils regardent autour d'eux et observent many still speak the language. They conclude that the language is in good condition. They refuse to see that their language is weakening. Moreover, there are those who think that their language has special protection. For example, despite the fact that the language of the tribe in Panama Tiberi is greatly threatened, their ruler said: "We are not in danger, because God created us. He did not create us so that others can destroy us. Since we have survived in difficult conditions in 500 years, why should we disappear now? "
According to linguists, a social group does not realize the seriousness of a problem until it is too late. The goal of linguists is to safeguard a means of communication, but to help a social group to realize that his heritage is unique and appreciate it. Arduous task. Many efforts are needed to emphasize the importance of linguistic heritage and the consequences of negative attitudes on language.
So what's the solution?
Only the social group itself can save language.
That does not mean that linguists are not indispensable. Instead, their help and advice is greatly needed. When linguists encounter negative attitudes vis-à-vis a native language, so they know what to do. Their intervention has as its first objective to improve the spiritual welfare of the social group, so that its members can begin to consider their native language with feelings of pride and confidence.
If it is based on the experience of linguists, we can say that there are some truths of nature to convince. But only the minority itself may highlight these spiritual ties that accompany the preservation of ancestral language - links that are not often tangible, but nevertheless are very real, like reading the pages of history, listening to songs traditional and cultivate feelings of security, which arise from the notions of identity and history.
Each member of a minority language and must feel responsible for transmitting the language to the next generation. People often think that the leaders of social groups and teachers do what is necessary. True, but this is not enough because the most important factor is the family home. No matter how many other languages experienced by family members. Home, they should speak their mother tongue. In other words, young couples must give preference to their mother tongue and speak to their children in that language. Older couples, more experienced people and those who matter in the social group must use their influence in awarding public importance to the language provisions. The elders are to act as a source of linguistic knowledge and exemplary models of speech in the mother tongue.
The language and priorities of parents
According to sociologists and linguists, parents have a central responsibility, regarding the renunciation of language, culture and to national history.
Why this emphasis on parents?
Because, note the socio-linguists, it is parents who decide whether or not their children learn their mother tongue. It is parents who decide For example, if their children attend or not the Armenian school in Lebanon. The tragic fate of a language begins when the parents' decision is negative, because this attitude leads to the absence of traditional language teaching, lack of use of mother tongue at home, at break communication with the grandfathers and grandmothers, multiplying the number of non-Armenian friends, participation in decreasing the national and religious life, the remoteness from the traditional values and feelings of loss belonging.
It is no coincidence that the issue of minority language preservation is beginning to have more and more importance on an international scale. Flipping simply linguistic structures, we can realize the alarming situation, the seriousness of concern and professionalism of the programs undertaken to address them.
Often, parents do not realize that a generation later, their mother tongue may initiate a process toward oblivion and it will be very difficult to remedy this situation.
Fortunately, some communities Greek, Italian and Chinese in North America is now mobilizing to preserve the languages of their ancestors in the Diaspora because they feel proud again of their heritage, begin to develop a positive attitude towards their language, decide to take advantage of the values conveyed by language, becoming aware of the importance of national unity, regard as essential to being tied to their homeland and want to remain attached to their beliefs and specific religious rituals.
is why Armenian parents in Lebanon and throughout the Diaspora, must realize that a culture, a particular way of life, a distinct identity, a world view and way of thinking go hand in hand with the preservation of a language tongue. Unfortunately, Armenian parents, because of their decisions, address issues of identity and belonging in children by keeping them away from the Armenian school of Armenian culture and Armenian Church. The justifications for parents, insofar as their children, mastering the Arabic language and adapting to society Lebanese are concerned, have negative impacts both at personal, national, community, cultural and international, as a sociolinguistic point of view and language.
Conclusion
As we know, language, diaspora, homeland, memory, assimilation, language, death, language preservation, minorities and isolation are the most studied topics in sociolinguistics. The reason is that recently the number of refugees and immigrants has increased worldwide. Besides the political difficulties and social groups diaspora also meet requirements to retain or sacrifice to strike a balance with regard to identity, culture and language.
Many people are probably familiar with these nagging questions: stay Armenian? be Lebanese? Armenian become Lebanese? send his child to school or Lebanese Armenian? Marry a (e) Armenian or (e) Arabic?
The Armenian community was established, mainly in Lebanon after the 1915 genocide. A new wave of Armenian immigrants arrived in 1937 and 1940 Alexandretta [Iskenderun], when Turkey seized it and the French forces left the area. Armenian refugees continued to arrive in Lebanon in the 1940s from Palestine, following the Arab-Israeli conflict. Then in the 1960s, they came from Syria, where the rights of Armenians in culture and education, began to suffer because of the Arab nationalist movements.
The Church and political parties were quick to play an important role in religious life, organizational, social, educational, political and cultural life of Armenian immigrants, building a specific and distinct Armenian identity, away from the soil of their homeland. Along with Apostolic Churches, Catholic and Evangelical and their institutions, the three Armenian political parties have also reorganized and created their daily newspapers.
All this was possible because the knowledge of the language is what enables deeper and have an interest in its roots, its history, its literature and music, so as to acquire a strong notion of identity.
In Lebanon, the efforts of the Armenian community, in terms of language preservation, owe much to the socio-linguists and linguists. Today it is the same if one wants to convey all this to future generations.
Armenian version of the text
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Source: http://www.keghart.com/A_Jebejian_A_SevagLinguistics
Article published on 01/20/2011.
English translation: © Aris G. Sevag - 01.2011
French Translation: © George Festa - 02.2011
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