Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Maxcr1 t1_j8mrqb0 wrote

People, especially westerners, don't realize just how diverse and complex India is. Officials aren't even sure how many languages and ethnic groups exist within India. The complexity is incredible.

Try getting people to fill out a census form and mail it back to you when they speak a language that you don't even know exists, and there's only an ~80% chance they know how to write (India has a tragic, major literacy problem which is being worsened by the objectively terrible Modi government)

96

Runaround46 t1_j8mtdc1 wrote

Wait you're saying there are people that are speaking languages in India that no one has ever heard of before?

28

VintageJane t1_j8mwqjp wrote

From my understanding it’s less that and more that when does a dialect become so distinct that it’s it’s own language? In English we have some dialects that are so distinct that if you don’t speak English, you would never be able to tell the root language. Think that really deep English/French/Southern Louisiana creole accent. Now imagine you are a government official who speaks Arabic and a little bit of English and goes to a village with that dialect. Can you communicate?

59

therealdannyking t1_j8n4xeh wrote

I remember my linguistics professor telling us that a language is just a dialect with a military.

41

JohnGillnitz t1_j8o8tgv wrote

That's why we have the KISS Army to protect the language of Rock 'n Roll.

16

jaxinpdx t1_j8n5tf6 wrote

Kind of like Rio de Plata Spanish in Uruguay. Totally different than other Spanish. A tricky hybrid of Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, and French. It really should be considered a stand alone language.

11

Runaround46 t1_j8myft3 wrote

Oh wow so they can't read and any official coming to record on their behalf can't communicate. Wow just wow, that is a mess.

9

Cormetz t1_j8n4vtk wrote

One Problem with your example is Arabic not spoken as a primary language in India at all. The Muslim population speaks the local languages of their area but might speak Arabic for religious reasons at times.

−1

VintageJane t1_j8oxrxv wrote

My example wasn’t for India. I went for Arabic as a language in my example that has nothing more than some words in common with English (the “technical” language being spoken in Louisiana Creole) as opposed to being a root language (German or Latin) or language with shared root (French or Italian).

The point being that in India, the government official may speak two of the common languages of the country (one natively and the other regional language functionally) and if the person they are attempting to communicate with is speaking a weird bastardized version of the latter language (sorry Louisianans) which has very little in common with the language you speak fluently then it can be very difficult to decipher.

5

onioning t1_j8o9a2i wrote

Well, not "no one." That's impossible. The speaker has definitely heard it.

Tangential but fun fact: something like 20% of the world's languages come from Papua New Guinea. The geography is such there that it's largely made up of isolated valleys which has allowed the languages to remain distinct.

2

mhornberger t1_j8ofqzq wrote

Some countries are more rough groupings than cohesive units. The westphalian nation-state isn't always a perfect fit for how the world works. I've visited a number of places where what people identify as starts with caste, religion, region, and maybe nationality is somewhere down that list.

6

Pallasite t1_j8ouhx2 wrote

Yeah but this isn't really what India is like. It has this long English history and unity as a country. Lots of people speak English to do business within the country and because of lingering colonial heritage.

1

OiVeyM8 t1_j8osjdt wrote

Try sending those to the Sentinelese.

2

jyper t1_j8r0ot7 wrote

Ethnic identity is complex and political is group A a subgroup of group B or a different group altogether? What if different members disagree? Similarly whether something is a language or a dialect is also fairly political.

1

mansnothot69420 t1_j8ne0q2 wrote

Of all the problems that you can blame our current govt for, seriously? Education? How are they objectively worsening the literacy rate?

What's wrong with NEP? Are you pissed that more courses will be also be taught in Hindi?

If anything, blame them for waiting so long conduct a census. It's been over a year after COVID had subsided in our country. If we can conduct all kinds of rallies around the country throughout the year, we damn well can conduct a census.

−1

humanbot69420 t1_j8otquj wrote

you're on a US centered news subreddit, move along, don't expect nuance here, especially for India lol

4