IACLSC Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Vol. I, Issue. I
January - December 2020
Editorial
Recent research findings on the dying out languages reveal that the endangered languages are threatened by the encroachment of the indigenous set ups, societies and cultures during the founding of the wave of the colonization, capitalization, industrialization and globalization. Studies undertaken in this area has empirical evidences based on the disruption and replacement of the indigenous languages and extinction of the oral traditions of the indigenous people worldwide which may be seen from the view point of the critical humanism at present. Dying out indigenous languages and their influences and effects must not be overlooked as it further caters towards the annihilation of the existing social and cultural ecosystems. Thousands of indigenous languages in Asia, Africa, Australia and Latin America are under threat and extinction; instead, English, Spanish, Hindi and Chinese Mandarin are replacing these endangered indigenous languages due to the increasing ratio of the migration and need for the economic drives and expansion of the mainstream material culture(s) under the pressure of the political-economy of the nation-state. The Royal Society research journal offers a serious debate on the issue of economic growth of the developed countries and its effects across the indigenous languages. The debate is based on the finding of a study undertaken by a group of scientists at Cambridge University. It notes that, “New research shows economic growth to be main driver of language extinction and reveals global ‘hotspots’ where languages are most under threat. The study’s authors urge for “immediate attention” to be paid to hotspots in the most developed countries – such as north Australia and the north-western corners of the US and Canada – where conservation efforts should be focused. They also point to areas of the tropics and Himalayan regions that are undergoing rapid economic growth as future hotspots for language extinction, such as Brazil and Nepal (‘PROCEEDINGS B’, Vol. 281, Issue. 1793; Oct 2014)”. Another finding in a research study undertaken by Nicolle Rager Fuller provides a statistics of the dying languages in the recent years. Rager writes over the effects of the globalization and dominant languages. He notes, “As “globalization” increases, so does the loss of human languages. People find it easier to conduct business and communicate with those outside their own culture if they speak more widely used languages like Chinese, Hindi, English, Spanish or Russian. Children are not being educated in languages spoken by a limited number of people. As fewer people use local languages, they gradually die out. At least 3,000 of the world’s 6,000-7,000 languages (about 50 percent) are about to be lost. Why should we care? Here are several reasons. The enormous variety of these languages represents a vast, largely unmapped terrain on which linguists, cognitive scientists and philosophers can chart the full capabilities—and limits—of the human mind. Each endangered language embodies unique local knowledge of the cultures and natural systems in the region in which it is spoken. These languages are among our few sources of evidence for understanding human history” (Malone, Elizabeth. “Endangered Languages” in Language and Linguistics; National Science Foundation: Virginia, 2015). The statistics of the findings of the studies cited here may be taken as the empirical evidences to address the probable issues of the endangered languages. The problem lies with the collective local knowledge systems which have been stored in the indigenous languages since time immemorial. As soon as the indigenous languages are dead, the whole pattern of the dominant languages would swap away the various types of the traditional ecological knowledge; therefore the social and cultural ecosystems along with their allied natural resources would extinct as soon as the indigenous languages are replaced. Knowledge of the local species, climate and natural environment, flora and fauna, medicines, arts and artisans, sculptures, printed materials, oral patterns, rites and rituals, festivals and various social and cultural patterns, agriculture and food systems, medicines, several traditions and diversions etc. are put under threat due to the extinction of the indigenous languages. Most of the local languages of the erstwhile colonized nations are disappearing very fast and are replaced by the English language. It may be a measure concern for the stakeholders of the traditional knowledge systems. The new generation would be unable to access the traditional knowledge systems as the knowledge systems extinct along with the dying native languages under the threat of the political-economy of the nation-state. Global conservation efforts by the civil society, governance and institution are sought to protect the native languages at present. As majority of the indigenous knowledge systems are preserved in the local languages; henceforth, replacement of the local languages with popular languages such as English, Hindi, Spanish, Chinese Mandarin etc. would extinct the thousands years old natural, social and cultural ecosystems around the world. The Kondha indigenous people of the Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Koraput, and Rayagada districts in the state of Odisha in India speak Kui language which is under the threat of extinction due to heavy deforestation, industrialization, and the loss of the natural resources which led to the loss of the livelihood further encouraging migration of the community members to the industrial sites in the Odisha state and outside. The domination of the main stream official language Odia in this region may be considered as another major threat to the Kui language. The ‘IACLSC Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies’ being a bilingual interdisciplinary-multidisciplinary-trans-disciplinary research journal has provision of publishing research articles, monographs, folktales and songs, belief narratives, ecological patterns, socio-cultural institutions, and traditions and knowledge systems etc. in the indigenous Kui language. The effort of writing and publishing in the Kui language is a challenge so far which will remain as the responsibility of the ‘IACLSC Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies’. The practice of the Kui language in research and publication may cater to the dissemination and conservation of the native knowledge systems existing in the Kui language.
The IACLSC Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies is based on half a decade’s research work undertaken by the International Association of Comparative Literature, Society and Culture (IACLSC) on the basis of the workshops, symposiums, seminars, conferences, winter schools, conversations, field works and book projects conducted in the past until now which may be considered as an outcome of the multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary approaches in research in the area study of the arts, culture, design, environment, humanities and social sciences with its proximity on examining the intermediary vis-a`-vis overlapping of the areas, genres and sub-genres, and themes and sub-themes to build up and understand the cross sections of the qualitative and quantitative research within the scope of the comparative and historical methodologies. Members of the IACLSC being the privileged stakeholders of the IACLSC Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies must look upon it from the perspective of the challenges and opportunities to disseminate and share their research findings, and to network among the global artists and artisans, authors, humanists and social scientists, scholars and translators for possible research collaboration.
- Sarat Kumar Jena
Editor, IACLSC Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies (IACLSCJIS)
31 December 2020, Bhubaneswar (Odisha State), INDIA