Language maintenance and attitude of Garo community members in Bangladesh
1. Language maintenance and
attitude among the Garo ethnic
community members in
Bangladesh
Student: Jiniya Bhoraty
ID: 14114006
Session: 2013-2014
MA Thesis Defence
2. Outline
⚫Introduction
⚫Justification and significance of this study
⚫Literature review:
Habitual languagede use
Language Ideology and Attitudes
Existing research on Language maintenance
⚫Methodology
⚫Findings of this research
⚫Discussion and Conclusion
3. Background
⚫About 6% of the total population in the world speak ethnic
languages(UN,IYIL,2019 ) while in Bangladesh nearly 2% speak
ethnic languages (Banglapedia).
⚫In our world there are approximately 6500 to 7000 languages but
very few of them are official languages. 96% of the world’s
population speaks 4% of the world’s languages.
⚫We mention about our country; we see the presence of roughly 45
languages including state language. Among the 45 languages only
Bangla has been selected as its official languages (Bengali
Language Implementation act, 1987).
4. Objective of Research
This research focuses on the language maintenance and shift of Garo
community in Bangladesh with an aim to explore their language
attitudes and ideology in their daily language use and practices.
⚫Present the actual scenario of maintaining Garo language in
Bengali mainstream society in terms of the social, political,
cultural circumstances as well as their planning or thinking about
their language.
⚫ Find out problems regarding their language usage.
⚫Provide some systematic solutions to such problems
5. Justification of Research
Linguists and researchers in the fields of linguistics should focus on
endangered languages. They should help people to transmit their
language to their next generation.
- As a student of linguistics, it is one kind of responsibility for me to
work on language maintenance of ethnic minority to preserve and to
back their respect based on cultural values and social values.
Government of Bangladesh has recently introduced the Mother-
tongue based multilingual education (MTB-MLE) in five different
indigenous languages in which Garo is one of them.
- it is proper time to make ethnic people conscious of their ethnic
language who are living away from their ethnic community based
villages.
6. Significance of Research
⚫This current research is significant because it will let the people or
other Garo community living in different parts of Bangladesh and
around the world know the stories of actual language situation of
Garo people who live with the mainstream Bengali community,
and how they are different from the people who live in the
concentrated Garo villages.
⚫Government of Bangladesh has recently introduced the Mother-
tongue based multilingual education (MTB-MLE) in five different
indigenous languages in which Garo is one of them. So it is proper
time to make ethnic people conscious of their ethnic language who
are living away from their ethnic community based villages.
⚫This thesis will be a milestone for further research on other ethnic
communities’ language maintenance and their attitude.
8. Garo: History
In Bangladesh, Garos were first introduced officially in the
Mymensing district which resulted in the emergence of a notion of a
separate Garo homeland in Bengal by the British administration (Bal
Ellen, 2007).
⚫There is also a Garo myth of arriving in the Garo community in
Bangladesh. It was supposed to be thousands of years ago when
the Garo migrated from Tibet to the Indian subcontinent and set up
their inhabitation in the place that we call now Kuchbihar. But they
had a bad habit of eating human meat so they were reprimanded by
the Kuchbihar king. Later they moved from Kuchbihar to Kamrup,
the king of Kamrup proposed to marry a nice Garo girl but the
Garo refused so the king attacked them, and then they moved to
Meghalaya. Later on, they scattered to the Bangladesh part
9. Garo: Language
⚫ Garos have distinct cultures and language which is different from other ethnic
groups and Bengali culture in Bangladesh.
Even the origin of language is different, too.
⚫ Garo language comes from the Tibeto-Burman branch which belongs to the Sino-
Tibetan language family. In the Sino-Tibetan family, the Chinese language is on one
hand and the other hand is for Tibeto- Burman.
And the diversity of the Tibeto-Burman language is noticeable in Myanmar, Nepal,
Indonesia, Bhutan, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Pakistan, and Laos (Britenicca).
⚫ There are lots of variations in the Garo language but they have similarities, too.
Maximum plain land Garo speak abeng while borderline Garo speaks Atong,
Megham, Dual, Awe, Chisak, and Kamrupi, etc. The Garo in Bangladesh also refers
to their language as ' Mandi Khusik' ( Sangma, 1998).
10. Language maintenance
⚫Language maintenance 'LM' is closely linked to the term 'language
shift' (LS).
⚫ The term language maintenance is used to describe a situation in
which a speaker, a group of speakers, or a speech community
continue to use their language in some or all spheres of life despite
competition with the dominant or majority language to become the
main/sole language in these spheres (Pauwels, 1986).
⚫Investigating language maintenance is often done through the
identification of domains and situations in which the language is no
longer used or is gradually making way for the use of another
language.
11. Habitual language use
The domain is an abstract concept that is restricted only to "places" or
"locations" (Fishman,1965) Domains can be varied, there are no fixed
domains.
FAMILY DOMAIN:
Clyne and Kipp (1999: 47) assert: " if a language is not maintained in the
home domain, then it can not be maintained elsewhere''--- the home is the last
fortress of language maintenance.
FRIENDSHIP DOMAIN:
Several studies have found that the role of the friendship domain in language
maintenance is strong among the first generation speakers, but weak in the
second generation. Second-generation speakers in English-speaking countries
seldom use the community language with friends, preferring to use English in
this domain (Harvey 1974, Clyne & Kipp 1999).
12. Habitual language use
RELIGIOUS DOMAIN:
⚫Butcher (1995) and Sarker (2007) found that their participants
strongly believed that their children could enhance their community
language through church and encouraged their children to participate
in church activities that were in the community language.
MEDIA DOMAIN:
⚫Clyne & Kipp (1999) and Gibbon & Ramirez (2004) have shown,
media consumption has a significant correlation with the community
language proficiency level of the second generation.
13. Language Attitudes
⚫ Fishman (1964) says language attitudes means the beliefs towards a
particular language when people interact with others in a multilingual
settings. Attitudes towards one's community and language can be
affected by several factors, including age, gender, cultural
background, and language proficiency (Bakker 1992, Hesbacher and Fishman
1965, Johnston 1967).
⚫Although the relationship between language attitude and language use
is complicated, parental attitudes toward language maintenance have
been recognized as one of the significant factors that can affect
community language maintenance (Chowdhury, 2019; Johnston, 1967; Lao,
2004; Li,1999; Park & Sarkar, 2007).
14. Language Ideology
⚫Language ideology means ideas of some particular linguistic
forms and the factors of using that particular language by a
particular group of people, and often can focus on the people
who use them (Kroskrity, 2016).
⚫The degree to which language ideology is an essential or non-
essential element depends on many factors, both personal and
societal (May, 2001).
15. Language maintenance research in the
migration context
Borland (2006) mentions language maintenance or shift as two factors: facilitating
factors and motivating factors.
⚫ Facilitating factor connects with the social and political context in which immigrants
support government policies while it is related to cultural diversity and language
education, and accessibility of opportunities for engagement between diaspora and
homeland, both virtual (e.g. media, the internet) and embodied (via travel).
⚫ Motivating factors means whether immigrants maintain their language with their
family members such as the desire for intergenerational communication within the
family to be primarily in the heritage language, and the desire for the maintenance
of ongoing strong familial ties and engagement with homeland.
This study show how different migrant communities maintain their language in their
host country and what are the factors nehind such maintenance.
16. Language maintenance research in the
indigenous people across world
⚫ The presence of indigenous people is all over the world. All communities
have unique languages and cultural activities but we usually do not call the
indigenous whose language and cultural activities are dominating; we call
indigenous those people who only follow their language and cultural
activities among themselves or in their community, they do not have such
right or intention to follow their language publicly.
⚫ In 1980 a few indigenous children are allowed to learn their language as
well as a dominant language but it was not mandatory so many children
learn only the dominant language to get all kinds of benefits equally from
the state.
In this point, this study shows how different countries indigenous people
maintain their language staying with the mainstream language.
17. Language maintenance research in Ethnic
Communities in Bangladesh
The indigenous languages in Bangladesh belong to 4 main language families:
⚫ Austro-Asiatic family: Khasi, Koch, Mundari, Santali, War-Jaintia
⚫ Dravidian: Kurux and Sauria- Paharia spoken by indigenous groups living in the
northern districts in Bangladesh.
⚫ Indo-European: Chakma and Tanchangya spoken by the indigenous groups
bearing the same names in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and speakers of Bishnupriya
are found in the north-western districts of Sylhet, Moulvibazar, Habiganj, and
Sunamganj.
⚫ Sino-Tibetan : Marma, Bawm-Chin, Chak, Khumi-Chin, Koch, Pankhua, Tippera,
Mru, and Mizu spoken by indigenous communities who live in the Chittagong Hill
Tracts; Garo has spoken by the Garo community in the Greater Mymensingh area;
and Rakhaine by the Rakhains in the south-western district Patuakhali (Lewis,
2009).
This study shows how different indigenous communities maintain their language in
Bangladesh
18. Research Questions
The existing literature shows that Garo communities are struggling to maintain their
language and transmit their ethnic language to the next generation from the very early
stage in Bangladesh but this particular issue has not mentioned previously any of the
research papers.
For this reason this research is going to emphasize this particular issue such as how
they maintain language and what is their attitude about language practices.
The research question guiding the exploration of the language maintenance
experiences of Garo communities in Bangladesh are as follows:
1. How and to what extent do the ethnic Garo community members in Bangladesh
maintain their language inside and outside of their community?
2. What are their attitude towards their Mandi language? Identify the ideology behind
such attitudes.
19. Habitual language use
Family/home domain
Friendshipship domain
Religious domain
Media domain
and literacy domain
Language
attitudes
Language
Ideology
Theoretical Framework
20. Methodology
This study is an in-depth qualitative resaerch.
-- Qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings,
attempting to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the
meanings people bring to them.
In the field of language maintenance and shift, the standard research
tools are questionnaires (Clyne & Kipp 1999, Hulsen, Bot & Weltens 2002, Pauwels
1986, Pütz 1991) and interviews (Butcher 1993, Hesbacher & Fishman 1965, Johnston
1967).
As a research tool, this study followed a semi-structured interview.
-- Semi-structured interviews are a combination of both structured and
unstructured interviews such as, a researcher will come up with a list of
questions to be asked in the interview, but he can also ask follow-up questions
to get deeper detail or explanation from the respondent on the basis of his
response. This helps the participant to provide accurate information.
22. Participants
Profession
Male Female Total
Teacher(Primary)
0 2 2
Private job(NGO)
2 0 2
Deputy commissioner
1 0 1
Electritian
1 0 1
Retired
1 0 1
Sister
0 1 1
PA
0 1 1
Housewife
0 3 3
Unemployee
2 0 2
Student
1 1 2
Other (Farmers and unable
to work)
3 2 5
Details of
participants in
terms of Places
Haluaghat
Thana
Fulpur
Thana
Total
Respondants of
all Ages and
Gender
9
(F=6,M=3)
12
(F=6,M=6)
21
Age
group
Male Female Total
20-35 3 2 5
35-95 6 10 16
23. Data Collection and Analysis
Semi-structured Individual Interview
Duration: 20 minutes
Data was recorded
Transcribed
Coded according to the themes and sub-themes of Research question
Data was analysed based on Thematic Analysis.
The thematic analysis allows a lot of flexibility in interpreting the data
and allows approaching large data sets more easily by sorting them into
themes.
24. Findings of Research
Family Domain
8/17 people speak in Mandi ,
3/17 speak in Bangle, and
the rest speak in mixed language.
1. I try to speak Mandi with my parents because they do not understand lots
of Bengali words. আমি িান্দি তে আিার বাবা-িায়ের সাযে কো বলার তেষ্টা কমর
কারণ োরা অযেক বাাংলা শব্দ তবাযে ো। (Interviewee 1,Male)
2. I try but it is mixed automatically( Bangla, Mandi ,and English (আমি তেষ্টা
কমর মিমিে হয়ে যা়ে। বাাংলা িান্দি ইাংযরন্দি।)(Interviwee 1,M)
3. I speak in Mandi and I can proud of it. (আমি িান্দি বমল এবাং এটা আমি গব ব
কযর বলযে পামর ।( উমে তয িা়েগা়ে োযক তসখাযে িান্দি তে়ে েবু ও মেমে িান্দি টা
বযলে েেবা কযরে। এিেযই মেমে একটু তিাযরসুযর গযব ব
র কো বলযলে)।
(Interviewee 2. F)
4. It is mixed language sometimes words and sometime sentences. (Mixed with
bangla and English). (মিি হয়ে যা়ে । শব্দ মিি হয়ে যা়ে তসেযটেছ মিি হয়ে যা়ে(
আমি আস্ক কযরমছলাি তকিে মিি হয়ে যা়ে)।
25. Findings of Research
Friendship Domain
Almost 15/18 speak Mandi with their Mandi close friends
1. We speak Mandi each other but with Bengali we speak Bengali.আিরা
আিারা হযল পযর িান্দি বমল েযব বাঙ্গামল হযল বাাংলা বমল। (Interviewee 2,
Female)
2. We speak Mandi but we speak Bengali with Bengali . (িান্দি হযল িান্দি বাাংলা
হযল বাাংলা়ে বমল। (Interviewee 3, Female)
3. I taught at Birudhakuni school and there I spoke in Bangla. মবরুধাক
ু মে স্ক
ু যল
পড়াোি। তসখাযেই বাাংলা়ে বলোি। স্ক
ু যলর কাি করোি। (Interviewee 3,Female)
4. I use mixed language but I prefer Bangla. িান্দি বাঙামল মিক্সড সবাই ।বাাংলা
িান্দি দুইটাই বলা হ়ে।েযব বাাংলা হ়ে তবমশ। (Interviewee 5,Female)
5. I speak in Bangla. বাাংলা়ে বমল । (ঊমে মসস্টার একটট মিস্টাে তহাস্টযল দাম়েযে
আযছে)।
26. Findings of Research
Religious Domain
This domain is the poor domain to maintain Mandi language because
no church use Mandi language and the reason is that there is a
Bengali Christian in their villages.
Sometimes it is in Mandi language but most of it is in Bangla. At home
or in the church or in the village. That is in Bangla. (Why is it) Since the
Bible is translated into Bangla like our Quran is translated into Bangla,
we are all reading and writing in Bangla. We speak our language in our
own way but we say such religious prayers in Bangla.িাযে িাযে িান্দি
ভাষাযে হ়ে েযব তবমশর ভাগ বাাংলাযেই হ়ে। বাসা়েও হ়ে আবার মগিবা বা গ্রাযি হ়ে।
তসটা বাাংলা তে হ়ে। (তকে হ়ে) তযযহেু বাইযবল আিাযদর বাাংলা়ে অেুমদে ক
ু রাে
তযিে বাাংলা়ে অেুমদে আযছ ো, আিরা সবাই বাাংলাযেই পড়া তলখা করমছ ।আিারা
আিাযদর ভাষা টা আিাযদর িে মেিস্ব ভাযব বমল মকন্তু আিাযদর এিে ধিী়ে
প্রােো বাাংলা়ে বমল।
27. Findings of Research
Literacy Domain
90% of Garo are literate though their high education rate is not
noticeable that much. Because of the missionary they all can read,
write but they can do it through the Bangla language. They do not
have their language literacy such as reading and writing skills, but
have speaking and listening skill in their language
I can read but I can not write . We do not have Mandi words we write it using English
words. I do not write usually. I can read Achik language because those are written in
English. আমি পড়যে পামর মকন্তু মলখযে পামর ো। আিাযদর কাযছ িান্দি শব্দ তেই আিরা ইাংযরন্দি শব্দ বযবহার
কযর মলমখ। আমি সাধারণে মলমখ ো। আমি আমেক ভাষা পড়যে পামর কারণ তসগুমল ইাংযরন্দিযে তলখা। (Interviewee
3,F, Age=51 )
I can not read and write. আমি িান্দিযে মলখযে-পড়যে পামর ো ( Interviewee 8,F,Age= 70-80)
I can read but I can not write.আমি পড়যে পামর মকন্তু িান্দিযে মলখযে পামর ো)(Interviewee 10,F, Age= 32)
I can . I can write poem through Mandi language.হু পামর। আমি িান্দি ভাষা়ে িাযে িাযে
কমবো মলখযে পামর। (Interviewee 5, F , age 50. Profssion: teacher).
28. Findings of Research
Language Attitudes towards Mandi
Attitude towards language is important to maintain language like the domain.
It is important to understand what they think about or what their attitude is
about language because it helps to maintain and show how much they think
about their language maintenance. It can reflect their attachment with their
language and culture.
Everywhere I go with the identity of Mandi. Language is an important part
of us.আমি সব িা়েগা়ে িান্দি পমরে়ে মদয়ে োমক েলা তেরা়ে বাযস ঘাযট সব
যা়েগা়ে। ভাষা টা আিাযদর গুরুেপূণ বঅাংশ।
Mandy language must be practiced. We always need it. This is what we
need.িান্দি ভাষা েেবা করযেই হযব। এটা তো আিাযদর সরবদা দরকার । এটা
আিাযদর প্রয়োিে।
29. Findings of Research
Language Ideology
⚫ Participants of all ages of two several thanas show their positive attitude to
protect their language but a few of them show the practical usage of Mandi in
their daily life, demands, and for educational purposes. They blame the
government steps and activities and said that those are not effective what
steps have taken.
⚫ All participants have a strong desire to teach Mandi to the young generation
because of their ethnic identity and culture. For their ethnic identity and
cultural maintenance, all Garo use Mandi at home. The people who do not
follow have to face some discrimination inside their community.
⚫ Findings of this study has identified seven main language ideology emerged
from individual interviews.
30. Findings of Research
Language Ideology
This study has found four main factors to maintain the Mandi
language and three main factors to shift to the Bangla language.
⚫ Identity and cultural maintenance
⚫ Parents’ preference and usage
⚫ Social Networks
⚫ Desire for assimilation
⚫ Market place Value
⚫ To protect language
⚫ Communicating with friends, family, and relatives
31. Findings of Research
Language Ideology
This study has found four main factors to maintain the Mandi
language and three main factors to shift to the Bangla language.
⚫ Identity and cultural maintenance
⚫ Parents’ preference and usage
⚫ Social Networks
⚫ Desire for assimilation
⚫ Market place Value
⚫ To protect language
⚫ Communicating with friends, family, and relatives
32. Limitations
⚫ There is not much research work on the Mandi language maintenance. Though
there are some works about Garo people, those are related to their lifestyle and
culture. In whole Bangladesh Garo people are living unheard. There is hardly
any work specifically for their language maintenance. I did not find too enough
resources on the Mandi language to relate my research findings. I found a very
few but I could not able to access those data because of the institutional problem.
I could not able to log in to their university journal portal. However I have tried
to mention all of them that were in an open access in this research.
⚫ I wish I had collected data from a large number of people from the Garo
community in Bangladesh, but I was not able to do for the short duration of time
in my MA thesis. However it is okay for in-depth qualitative research methods.
⚫ Hopefully I will extend my thesis collecting information from a large number of
participants using both Quantitative and qualitative research methods.
33. Recommendations
1.More and more work should be done on this field for that reason
researchers the linguist and sociolinguists need to keep their
contributions actively on this site.
2. As Bangladesh is a diverse country, keeping the diversity alive
government should take some productive steps to save the language
since language is the main focus of culture.
3. Not only government but the language holder (Garo people)
should conscious of the endangerment of language because they are
using of Mandi is decreasing day by day.
4. Garo-educated people should contribute to their language and
language maintenance.
5. And the scholar and students of linguistics should work more and
more on indigenous language, it is their responsibility to retain the
endangered language and try to give respect to all the language
equally and not to let lose any language because of their
unconsciousness.
34. 6. More and more projects and documentaries need to build
based on their language and language maintenance.
7. Government should run a broadcast media for them where
they will organize their program completely based on their
language and cultural style.
8. Different institutions such as schools and colleges should
keep some space for them where they can practice their
language; it can be a language corner. . Students of
different ethnic groups will decorate based on their cultural
style. Through this process, indigenous kids won't feel low
because of their uncommon language and culture rather
they will feel motivated to carry on.
9. People of dominant language should change their view
about non-dominant language.
10. Embrace the difference that we have as a diverse country.
And here not only the people of the majority but the
people of the minority also should be respectful about the
differences. This will lead to making a good environment
to practice diversity.
36. Conclusion
⚫This study has attempted to provide an overall picture of language
maintenance, ideology and attitude of Garo people and tried to
seek out what factors and sectors are playing a great role in
maintaining the Mandi language and the shift from Mandi to
Bangla despite the dominance of national language Bangla.
⚫This study has also tried to represent their motivations for using
Mandi despite having no value of social and national.
⚫It has found that parents in the Garo language have more positive
attitudes for that reason still their children speak in Garo language
with their parents, seniors, and relatives.
⚫Awareness of maintaining mother-tongue should be encouraged
throughout the community by the stakeholders and elderly
community members that should be started very shortly before its
complete shift to the dominant language
