D.Thilini Ferdinando Temporary Demonstrator, Faculty of Humanities, University of Kelaniya
[email protected]
GLOBALIZATION AND ITS EFFECT ON LANGUAGE (with reference to Sinhala and English languages) Language and Literature
Abstract With the rapid advancement of science and technology, the world is gradually losing its diversity. It is getting globalized. People's attitudes, the way they dress, their foods the way they eat, the way they do their daily chores, the way they travel, the way they enjoy and get entertained and etc are getting globalized. The diversity, the traditions, rituals, customs are getting drifted away. Does not this impact on language and communication? Of course it does, language too is getting globalized gradually. The spoken variety of the language is getting mixed with English and we call is "singlish". Also the gap between the written variety and the spoken variety (diglossia) of Sinhala language is drastically shrinking. Language is changing into a more simple, faster communication mode that fits with the electronic communication methods and dissemination of information. Face Book English, SMS English are getting populayized among the new generation, especially because it is free of many complicated grammar rules and spelling rules, thereby people can easily grasp it and they will like it absolutely. The research probes into this rapid transition of language, specially referring to Sinhala and English and the degree of influence of science and technology involved in this process. Is this process really a change or deterioration on language? What is the role played by Technology in this regard? What are the pros of cons of this process of globalization of language? The research probes into these factors and descriptively analyses and describes them.
Extended Abstract
INTRODUCTION
Because of this fast paced advancement of technology the world is getting smaller and smaller. Your bank payments, account's balance check and many other things for which
you had to spent hours and hours earlier are now at your fingertips. People talk about a "Global Village (Vishwa Gammanayak) " not about a "Global City (Vishwa Nagarayak, Gooliya Nagarayak) or "Global Town", because this process called globalization shrinks the large things and make them smaller. Does this impact on language? of course yes. Language is the most effective, natural and faithful medium of communication. Moreover, it is a unique creation of human being. It is the only device that exists in this word which carries the title of "man-made, yet natural device". Nobody knows when language was created, invented or discovered but for sure it is a man-made device, yet, it gets changed in every minute. New words are being coined new phrases are being uttered in every minute in anywhere of the world. The community can adjust it as they wish; so, it is a living entity, it is natural. It is a living thing. This natural device was hugely affected by the process called globalization, mainly because communication is one of the major component or may be more suitable to define as a catalyst in the process / phenomenon called globalization. Thus the research scrutinized into bring to light the nature of the changes which undergone and is being undergone by the language with reference to Sinhala and English languages.
METHODOLOGY
The data have been collected through a socio linguistic research by navigating around social networks such as Facebook, twitter etc and SMS; short message service available in most of the mobile phones, smart phones, and handheld devices such as tablets etc. These applications and devices are products of modern technology which has been highly instrumental in globalization. The technology and the computer related technical terms too have been used and analyzed as significant data of the study. The data have been deeply examined so as to convey the nature and the degree of the change or the alteration occurred in the corpus (structure) of the language and the status of the language with reference to corpuses and the status of Sinhala and English language. Because of the influence of technology and globalization, language is getting mixed with abbreviations, symbols, icons etc. This type of language is known as "slang language" which means the status of the language has undergone changes. So, it links with the subject called "status planning" found in socio-linguistics. Also it sometimes loses spelling and grammar as well, which means the corpus or the structure of the language has undergone changes. The data have been analyzed in the study based on "corpus planning" and ''status planning" found in Socio-linguistics.
RESULTS AND FINDINGS
One of the most common and drastic change which has been undergone by the Sinhala language because of globalization is the substitution of English words. This has made the effect on changing the status of the language.
Any non-speaker of Sinhala can talk Sinhala within five minutes. They just have to learn three words. They are; "eka" which joins with inanimate nouns only - Car eka, bottle eka, pen eka, Computer eka, e-mail eka, Office eka, phone eka, TV eka, charger eka, university eka etc. "kenek"- which joins with animated nouns only - doctor kenek, lecturer kenek, technician kenek, player kenek, cricketer kenek, lawyer kenek, lady kenek, student kenek etc. The third word is "karanawa" which joins with verbs only teach karanawa, type karanawa, On karanawa, Off karanawa, study karanawa, search karanawa, open karanawa, send karanawa, delete karanawa, forward karanawa etc.
Now you know the three basic components that you need to form a sentence in every language. Sinhala is a SOV language, so now, anybody can talk 50% of Sinhala, and you just have to combine subject (animate noun with kenek), object (inanimate noun with eka) and a verb with karanawa.
ex:- Student kenek email eka open karanawa Lecturer kenek lecture ekak karananwa Technician kenek computer eka format karanawa
What does this indicate? Language is getting globalized. Is it good? bad?, we don't care or is it happening without our awareness? Sri Lankan government has implemented a trilingual policy which aims at making Sri Lanka a tri-lingual country in 2020. But at the same time we have this threat or fortune of language getting globalized. Department of Official Languages in Sri Lanka and the Department of National Archives and Lexicography have been compiling a glossary of the discipline called Information Technology and at the same time they have stated that the people will never use their odd and weird words, such as; Down load - baa ganiima
E -mail - Vidyuth Thapala
Up load -Uthpathanaya
Default - Peranimavuma (noun)
Actually, people do simply use the English word. The equivalent Sinhala terms sound too weird and odd, because, the native speakers of Sinhala language do not use it. Language is natural and alive only if it get used in the community. That is why it says that there are no common errors in language. If the error is common, it is not an error any more, the community of that particular language has accepted the error, which means it is registered in that community through arbitrariness, so the error is correct, nobody say it is an error, actually they don't even feel that there is an error. In India people use English sentences such as "he did Sachin Tendulkar" (he played like Sachin Tendulkar) he did Salman Khan" (he acted or he became heroic like Salman Khan). They don't feel that they are using wrong English. People are forgetting grammar. Actually, man is living in a global village which quickly changes at unimaginable pace, so, can they waste time on grammar and spelling? Is this the future of English language - z diz da futre f Enlish? Are you coming? - r u comi? Where are you - whre r u?
Dropping vowels or silent letters, using abbreviations (BTW, ASAP, thx, nite, IMHO, gr8), pictures or symbols called a smiley, emoticons, chat pictures, images, emoji, icon arts, chats stickers, chat pictures, text emoticons are the most common features that are instrumental in changing language. These methods of communications are known as slang language or the colloquial way of communication. But, this face book language or SMS language is rapidly getting lingered into every corner of the world and every aspect of our life. Once they get computerized within next 20- 30 years to come, people will never remember that they were being using such a language that they are using today.
CONCLUSION
"The Telegraph" publishes an article on April 2010, under the title Facebook speak: Teenagers create secret online language". The article mentions "the teens using it to stop parents and employers judging them by their social activities such as "partying" and "drinking". Instead of writing "they are drunk", teens post "Getting MWI" or "mad with
it". Being in a relationship is known as "taken" or "Ownageee" and "Ridneck" a "corruption of redneck", means "to feel embarrassed". Thereby, it is realizable that the globalization is effectively instrumental in changing language. This has been referred as a change, transition or getting globalized, but in a different perspective, it can be defined as a deterioration of language as well.
REFERENCES New Facebook emoticons & Chat symbols, Retrieved on 5th June 2014, fsymbols.com/facebook/smileys/ Chat slang, Retrieved on 5th June 2014, http://www.chatslang.com
KEY WORDS Globalization, Technology, Social Networks, Sinhala, English
