Jaffna Dialect: Bossing Other Srilankan Tamil Dialects?- a newspaper article

   Jeyaseelan Gnanaseelan

·         Gnanaseelan, J. (2001, February 3). Jaffna Dialect: Bossing other Sri Lankan Tamil Dialects? The Weekend Express,

Jaffna Dialect: Bossing Other Srilankan Tamil Dialects?

When I planned to write on this topic, I had already known that the Tamil readers have a distinct advantage over me. More than in most areas of inquiry, they already ‘know’ the subject. For, it is their mother tongue, which they already speak and read! However, surprisingly, very little has been published about the nature and function of the Srilankan Tamil dialects such as the Jaffna Tamil, Baticaloa Tamil, Up-country Tamil, Muslim Tamil, which is a bit implicated in the sense that though it is distinct from the other dialects, its speakers are living in a dispersed way in all the districts and, no need to say, Colombo Tamil. Moreover, it is not wrong if I say that in modern societies, there is awareness for possessing many linguistic skills whether it is in Tamil, English, or Sinhala in this country.

 

The present Srilankan political, social situations have imposed a need on the Tamil scholars to initiate investigation by looking at the main opinions and beliefs of our Tamils about the Srilankan Tamil dialects. So that these views may provide a frame of reference which will familiarize the Srilankan Tamil dialects and the people to many international readers. They may act as a point of departure for the detailed, systematic and objective study of the Srilankan Tamil Dialects, later to be made by more Tamil scholars especially writing in English.

 

Suppose you go and comment about the Tamil Language to a Tamil layman; just compare it with the Sinhala language by pointing out some linguistic features which are not found in Tamil. Definitely, gradually this linguistic talk will deteriorate into invective and polemic. At this juncture, I would like to narrate an event that happened in the Jaffna University when I was studying there as a student. One learned person, off-course not a university academic in Tamil phonetics or phonology, presented a paper on reducing the Tamil alphabetical letters to suit them for the modern use in information technology. I was there in the seminar listening to him along with many university academics specilized in many other disciplines. Once he started to describe his innovative suggestion, I am really worried that you missed it; you must be there to listen to the storm of negative criticisms, most of them are outright defiance and mockery, which came from the university dons specialized in all other disciplines, bless me, not in Tamil linguistics. But it seemed to me as if all of these attackers were dons in Tamil linguistics not in their subject areas! Poor man he was! He couldn’t continue his presentation properly as prepared. His encouraged face became so discouraged! Now you can perfectly understand how emotional a subject  which now I am dealing with! Our Tamil language has indeed some special semantic, discourse and syntactic features, for, it has been bathed in the religion and culture of Hindu civilization and their emotions for ages! The reasons for it are not strange but understandable! Language belongs to every one; so most people feel that they have a right to hold an opinion about it. And when opinions differ, emotions run high! Arguments can flare as easily over minor points of usage as over major policies of linguistic planning and education.

 

There are still language extremists with half-baked knowledge among us, who continue to stress that Tamil is the original language from which all the rest originated. “ It is the sweetest language”! Poor beings! Without learning to use the other languages properly, how can they be so sure that the other languages are bitter languages! The Jaffna layman used to tease the other regional dialects as the distorted, spoiled and sub-standard versions of the Tamil language! The layman speaking one of the latter dialects used to tease the Jaffna dialect as so dragging and irritating! Since language is a public behavior, it is easy for different usages to be noted and criticized.

 

In Srilanka, much of prescriptivism goes to the speech community of the Jaffna Tamil. The common man, why even an educated one from Jaffna feels that what they speak is the Tamil language, the standard, pure, and highly preserved language, not even a dialect! For them, the Tamil spoken in Tamil Nadu, the place from where we all came from at particular historical phases in ancient times; some may argue that we didn’t come from but the Indian ocean separated Sri Lanka from its main land India at later stages, also has become inferior and contaminated! This biased notion has gone to the extent that even some of the rhetoricians in Tamil Nadu too have accepted the virginity of the Jaffna Tamil! The dominating major factors are pronunciation and vocabulary. We could easily observe that deviations from the written Tamil or Jaffna spoken Tamil are said to be ‘incorrect’. I have seen some of the learned persons from the up-country side trying to hide their native Tamil dialectal accent when they talk to the Tamils from the NorthEast province. In Jaffna the caste divisions are also identified on this basis within the sub-dialectal level.

 

At this juncture I must note the Muslim speech community who speak the Muslim Tamil Dialect! Though it is mostly different from the main Srilankan dialects, and often teased by the rest, the Muslim people have never felt any shame and continue to maintain their distinct variety as it is. I hope that their religious and racio dimensions provide them the necessary solidarity as one distinct community. Therefore they are indifferent about the linguistic identity. But the Srilankan Tamils mostly depend on the linguistic idenetity; the religious identity is secondary to them!

 

Though the Srilankan Dialects have evolved as distinct varieties through out the past, the standard Tamil is sought prescriptively in the classic writings of grammars, dictionaries and literatures from Tamil Nadu. Interestingly, though the Jaffna Tamil is trying to evolve itself as a distinct, complete, original dialect, it is still helpless and nervous about standing on its own feet! Not only the Tamil language, our Tamil traditions, cultures, social structure etc, have their roots in Tamil Nadu. We all know that language is integrated with society, culture and history etc, Even for the coming decades, this dependency will remain though we are trying to codify the principles of the Jaffna dialect to show that there is a system beneath the apparent chaos of usage. Here I must point out a misunderstanding being committed repeatedly by most of the Tamil writers and journalists, who are mostly Jaffna Tamils that when they refer the Srilankan Tamils, their language, culture, and geopolitical dimensions in their wrings which are to be read nationally and internationally, they focus their attention almost on the Jaffna Tamils, their dialects, traditions, culture, history, and geopolitics!

This ‘minority majoritanism’ is influential in the linguistic side as well. What is going on at the linguistic level is a continual search for a means, in the Jaffna dialect, of settling disputes over usage. The Jaffna Tamil writers focussing on language want to point out what they feel to be common errors, in order to ‘improve’ the Srilankan Tamil dialects. But fortunately, this authoritarian nature is loosing its grip on the Srilankan Tamil dialects gradually due to the consequences of the politico-military scenarios over the past two decades. Emigrations, internal displacement, the arrival of information technology, widespread educational improvement in the districts other than Jaffna are the causes! Linguistics has been introduced at the advanced level and tertiary level of education. Many ‘prescribed usages’ are being described now; many ‘proscribed usages’ are being prescribed now! 

It is appreciable, due to the development in the information technology in Tamil Nadu, the Tamil language in Tamil Nadu also has been modified and refined in such a way to be appropriate for the IT use. There have been changes in the alphabetical, phonological, morphological, syntactic and discourse levels. This flexibility for language change is realized and accepted in Tamil Nadu, where people are undergoing many technological and economical changes; but in Sri Lanka it is still a shortcoming!

Therefore our attitudes should be changed regarding the linguistic standards of the Srilankan Tamil dialects and linguistic diversity in Sri Lanka. Though we theoretically accept the prehistorical importance of speech over writing, we practically place it at the lower level of importance and usage. Yes, we have been undergoing many social and political revolutions, so we feel a need for a language revolution as well in Sri Lanka. We must eliminate the opposition between the ‘radical liberalism’ of the Srilankan Tamils at the political level and the ‘elitist conservatism’ of the speakers of the Srilankan Tamil dialects especially of the Jaffna Tamil dialect. Here we must not forget about the linguistic reality of acceptability, ambiguity, and intelligibility. Whether it is the Jaffna dialect or Baticaloa dialect or up-country dialect, all have to face this reality. I am not supporting the idiosyncrasies of private opinions. Though it is impossible to reach any immediate rapport, there are some grounds for optimism. The sociolinguists of the Srilankan Tamil dialects must be looking more seriously at the prescriptivism of the Jaffna dialect in the context of explaining linguistic attitudes and beliefs.