The following was prepared at IIM A in 2002 Feb. Theorising has no harm but proving them is difficult. But so what? Much of social sciences proves only at certain level of significance...
Culture revealed in a linguistic nuance.
Gujarat is a state in India which is considered to be a progressive one especially on the industrial front. The Gujaratis are particularly admired for their entrepreneurial and trading skills compared to the rest of the states. The Gujarati Diasporas spread across the country as also around the world are admired for their uncanny entrepreneurial nature.
Of particular interest from the linguistic point of view is one of those words that are frequently used to convey a sense of agreement or as a feedback. In English especially the American one, the acronym OK conveys an agreement or a feedback as to one has understood what the other is saying. The acronym forms part of the vocabulary of even a non native novice to the English language.
This illustration tries to analyze the deeper significance of the use of such conveying of agreement or feedback in a few of the languages.
The acronym OK is said to be a contraption of ‘All Correct’. This implies a sense of true or false as in correct or incorrect. The deeply embedded semantic sense is therefore a sense of correctness or incorrectness.
Similar is the case with Malayalam or Tamil where the equivalent term is ‘shari’ meaning correct and therefore comparable to OK in its deeper sense. In Hindi, the predominant language of India, the corresponding term is ‘dheek hai?’ with a questioning intonation at the end. The meaning is once again ‘correct’ or ‘is it not correct?’
The Gujarati language is an offshoot of Sanskrit and closely related to Hindi. Significantly however the term in Gujarati corresponding to the English ‘OK’ or the Hindi ‘dheek hai’ is ‘barabar’ or ‘barabar?’ with a questioning intonation.
The meaning of ‘barabar’ in Gujarati as well as Hindi is ‘equal’. Therefore the agreement or the feedback conveys more of a sense of justness or restoration of the balance as in an economic transaction. ‘A’ has something to offer ‘B’ in return for a consideration equivalent to the value of that something. Once ‘B’ pays the equivalent value to ‘A’ then the balance is restored.
In other words the Gujarati equivalent of OK is more reminiscent of a deal or a transaction that is perceived to be just and mutually equivalent which is to say that the deeply embedded meaning of such a day to day term and so much a part of the lives of the people of that particular culture renders the almost instinctive conveying of the trading entrepreneurial character. That is to say the mother tongue gives away the collective mental programming of a particular linguistic community.
Similar ‘give aways’ of the deeper cultural nuances through words used in day to day conversation is probable in other languages as well which warrants further studies.
Gujarat is a state in India which is considered to be a progressive one especially on the industrial front. The Gujaratis are particularly admired for their entrepreneurial and trading skills compared to the rest of the states. The Gujarati Diasporas spread across the country as also around the world are admired for their uncanny entrepreneurial nature.
Of particular interest from the linguistic point of view is one of those words that are frequently used to convey a sense of agreement or as a feedback. In English especially the American one, the acronym OK conveys an agreement or a feedback as to one has understood what the other is saying. The acronym forms part of the vocabulary of even a non native novice to the English language.
This illustration tries to analyze the deeper significance of the use of such conveying of agreement or feedback in a few of the languages.
The acronym OK is said to be a contraption of ‘All Correct’. This implies a sense of true or false as in correct or incorrect. The deeply embedded semantic sense is therefore a sense of correctness or incorrectness.
Similar is the case with Malayalam or Tamil where the equivalent term is ‘shari’ meaning correct and therefore comparable to OK in its deeper sense. In Hindi, the predominant language of India, the corresponding term is ‘dheek hai?’ with a questioning intonation at the end. The meaning is once again ‘correct’ or ‘is it not correct?’
The Gujarati language is an offshoot of Sanskrit and closely related to Hindi. Significantly however the term in Gujarati corresponding to the English ‘OK’ or the Hindi ‘dheek hai’ is ‘barabar’ or ‘barabar?’ with a questioning intonation.
The meaning of ‘barabar’ in Gujarati as well as Hindi is ‘equal’. Therefore the agreement or the feedback conveys more of a sense of justness or restoration of the balance as in an economic transaction. ‘A’ has something to offer ‘B’ in return for a consideration equivalent to the value of that something. Once ‘B’ pays the equivalent value to ‘A’ then the balance is restored.
In other words the Gujarati equivalent of OK is more reminiscent of a deal or a transaction that is perceived to be just and mutually equivalent which is to say that the deeply embedded meaning of such a day to day term and so much a part of the lives of the people of that particular culture renders the almost instinctive conveying of the trading entrepreneurial character. That is to say the mother tongue gives away the collective mental programming of a particular linguistic community.
Similar ‘give aways’ of the deeper cultural nuances through words used in day to day conversation is probable in other languages as well which warrants further studies.
-----------------
No comments:
Post a Comment