In Pakistan, different ethnic identities live and normally have grievances against each other. Almost all the ethnic identities take pride in their respective cultures, especially language e.g., Pashtunes, Baluchis, Sindhis, etc. But Punjabis, which comprise biggest ethnic identity in the country, normally do now take pride in speaking their native language. They either use Urdu or English to interact with each other. They do not normally let their children speak Punjabi. Parents speak Punjabi with each other but speak Urdu with their kids.
What theories explain this phenomenon? One explanation is that when a community feels itself politically and economically deprived, it strives to claim a 'nationality' rather than an ethnic identity, and therefore, focuses on the native language - a characteristic of a nation. Sometimes dialects of the same language are claimed as separate language because of the political and economic differences between people speaking these dialects.
Other than that what theories can explain this phenomenon?
I tend to see it differently - in my experience smaller groups who are insecure and feel threatened or vulnerable will tend to make a great deal of everything they do - holidays, language, flags, festivals, cultural identity items & traditions of all kinds. In nature it would be the "look bigger" principle. Perhaps the Punjabi's as the largest group have the most cultural confidence and as a result they don't feel as compelled to "look bigger" than they are. There may even be a reversal of the social sensibilities, in pursuit of a social equilibrium, where the largest group actively seeks to lower it's profile and minimize it's domination of the cultural landscape in direct proportion to the degree that smaller groups try to look bigger. Just my thoughts from years of inter-cultural exposure. Hope it helps.
Dear John Robin Strohl,
I agree with you. Punjabi ethnic group thinks they don't need to "look bigger" than what they already are. But what adds interest to this is that normally Urban people of Punjab normally don't want their children to speak Punjabi. May be it's an impact of modernity, because other ethnic identities are not that much modern in Pakistan.
Personal preference in an environment that is not effected by an outsider factors, is drowen by basic subjectives of joy, pride, and light- competition. As much as this personal perference transforms to a small groups' common interest, the preference gradually changes to be an identity. Moreover, as the group grows toward a scale of an large ethnic (more important than nationality), not only the internal sub-categories of gender, economic, and local symbolic values would affect the preference, but also the impact of outsiders (from close neighbore to a far colonizer) would effect the majority of locals' preference at the same direction (as a result of being from same origin). Bsides, even in a traditional basic communities, the light- burnish of the odd couple (globalization & unicness) would be recognizable.
My suggestion would be to examine what has been occurring in other cultures. Here in the United States we have had several immigrant groups where the first generation (Italian, Polish, Jewish, and others) spoke the original language, second generation spoke English and knew the original language but did not teach their children, the third generation. Why? I think they wanted to be fully American.
What you might have in Pakistan is a group that wants to identify with the country more than the original ethnic group. Nationalism/patriotism?
Dear colleague
I observed this processes as an effect of the colonial and post-colonial dynamic. The existence of an institutional structure (with its micro, macro and exo-system) has facilitated the genesis of a vertical (hierarchical) scale of values for people of countries subjected to the colonial/post-colonial power (in Marxist terms, some authors -such as Antonio Negri- prefer to use the term "Imperialism"). So, local languages have been placed at the lowest level of the scale because their knowledge did not offer any facility to access to the highest levels of the social scale. Also, state politics have been creating a series of prejudices on languages and dialect belonging to minorities or ethnic communities, even if they are not minorities, but majorities: for indeed, in several Latin American countries, ethnic communities represent the biggest part of the population, but the official languages remain the ones inherited by the colonial domination: Spanish, Portuguese, French or English (sometimes transformed in Creole or Pidgin idioms). This process has been theorized in academic terms by Darcy Ribeiro (with his theory of the ethnic transfiguration) and by Nestor Garcia Canclini (with his theory of hybridization). Both of them based their critical perspective on Antonio Gramsci's works.
However, the post-modern dynamic has a side effect: the renewed interest to "subaltern" cultures. This is an effect of the growing globalization process and an exigence created by the inter-continental tourism. But... generally it is only a folkloric dynamic, do not empowering local cultures: it only treat them as commodities able to generate economic value in the global market. This is the case of some indigenous languages in USA, teach at University courses and used to attract tourists in native reserves.
Best regards
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220034210_Savage_Mind_and_Postcolonial_Representation_in_Colombian_Journalism._Mentalidad_salvaje_y_representacin_poscolonial_en_el_periodismo_colombiano
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266733294_Escolarizacin_Obligatoria_en_Contextos_Poscoloniales_Disgregacin_Familiar_y_Transfiguraciones_tnicas_en_Guayana_Francesa_%2A_A_escolaridade_obrigatria_em_contextos_ps-coloniais_desintegrao_familiar_e_transfigurao_tnica_na_Guiana_francesa_Compulsory_Schooling_in_Post-Colonial_Contexts_Family_Disaggregation_and_Ethnic_Transfiguration_in_French_Guiana
Article Savage Mind and Postcolonial Representation in Colombian Jou...
Conference Paper Escolarización Obligatoria en Contextos Poscoloniales: Disgr...
Maurizio Alì, Thanks for such a thought provoking response to the question. I'll go through the papers and get back to you.
Regards,
Usman
Muhammad - Looking at your first paragraph, Javanese might be comparable with Punjabi. Javanese is spoken by the majority of people in Indonesia, but Indonesian is the official language there (perhaps because Malay had already become the lingua franca of the area in the early 20th century). However, I have not been to Indonesia, so I cannot discuss the socio-linguistic forces operating there - although I believe that educated Indonesians (like Pakistanis) are very much aware of the importance of learning English.
Referring now to your second paragraph, what you say could well be consistent with the fact that (despite being its official language) Irish is not widely spoken in Ireland: most people prefer English. Ireland is of course now a fully fledged independent country in its own right (whereas Wales is still trying to assert itself, in that regard, such that the Welsh language still has an important role to play). In this context, Basque and Catalan are probably like Welsh - they are all thriving languages cultivated by people striving to form their own nation.
Namibia is another country where the unofficial lingua franca (Afrikaans) is not the official language (English is). And the most widely spoken home language there is Oshiwambo - so the Ovambo of Namibia (and indeed the Shona of Zimbabwe) appear to be other examples supporting your suggestion regarding the Punjabis in Pakistan.
Hello!
Your example reminded me of Wsevolod W. Isajiw sociological research, where one of the parameters of the study was the use of native language by second and third generation of ethnic minorities. Despite the fact that Punyabi the largest ethnic identity in the region, this looks very similar to description of ethnicity deconstruction process.
I hope this would help.
Best regards.
Article Definitions of Ethnicity
To a large extent, numerous theories and theoretical frameworks could be adopted to explain the tendency for parents to speak to their kids in certain languages or, at a broader level, why certain native languages are gaining more grounds than others in a multi-ethnic setting. For sure, the foregoing interventions from colleagues above remain valid only to the extent that societies are considered as an evolving entity with sometimes unpredictable "tentative stops." Numerous logic guides these tentative stops - one of which could be in terms of the expansions or shrinkage of languages - as (variedly) propelled by socioeconomic factors that are in themselves shaped and reshaped by the precolonial, colonial and post-colonial realities and experiences of respective societies. Thus, while I agree that perceptions of ethnic groups ('we' versus 'them') could influence the expansion or shrinkage in the use of native languages, there are other instances where rather than expand or shrink, existing groups have struggled to promote hybrid languages like the Pidgin English in Nigeria. Yet there are instances where certain natives languages have 'naturally' been adopted by other groups in society or at least a systematic/historical import of certain languages into others as for instance the impact of Hausa language on other languages in some West Africa. In other sense, some languages have developed and have become popular among non-speakers as with the popularity of Twi among Ghanians. My point is that while these tentative stops could be located within the context of post-colonial theory or even Marxian theory, the relevance of ethnic entrepreneurs suggests that the good old elite theory and group theory could also be useful. More importantly, apart from socialization theories, depending on the role (or otherwise) of the state in this expansion or shrinkage, the theory of horizontal inequality could be useful. At least for the Nigerian situation, Onigu Otite’s (1976) thesis of “marginal systemic analysis” in understanding such phenomenon could also be useful (i.e. his “On The Concept of A Nigerian Society,” in A. O. Sanda (ed.). Ethnic Relations in Nigeria, Ibadan: The Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan). Ultimately, I think your particular area of interest, discipline, period of study and subjective drives will determine your choice. This is not to discredit triangulation...
What you describe are early signs of language shift, see Joshua Fishmans work, for introduction:
Fishman, J. A. (2008). Language Maintenance, Language Shift, and Reversing Language Shift. The handbook of bilingualism, 8, 406.
However, it would be extremely uncommon for a speech community of over 120 million to undergo language shift - so it needs closer study. Most importantly - is this pattern of parents not speaking Punjabi to children a recent phenomenon, or has it been around for long. If the latter is the case, it might be an interesting pattern of Diglossia or Stable Multilingualism.
I have studied language shift for long time, and it is very surprising to me to hear that there might be signs of language shift in such a large speech community. I would like to know more..