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| Tuesday, 30 March 2004 |
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Passionate linguistic love affair Second thoughts by Prof.Sunanda Mahendra 'What's your son doing now?' I asked my friend the other day, 'Oh he is engaged in a linguistic love affair'. 'What sort of love affair is that?' "You should get it from the horse's mouth" saying so, he summoned the young son, and made him sit opposite us. 'Now tell this uncle all about your research project' my friend said to his son. The young son who has not gone to the university and was awaiting results, unfolded his research.'Uncle, this is by no means an easy research. It is something to do with linguistic patterns hitherto unearthed by any linguist in this world'. 'Oh then you are going to be the most modern Chomsky?' 'No, no, this is nothing to do with that sort of thing, and I am not sure of these pedagogical harangues', he looked rather annoyed for his body language reflected to that effect. 'Anyway, tell me for I am interested in linguistic matters' I insisted. The young boy was pensive. he pulled out a sheet of paper from his pocket. 'Now see this word 'mada posteraya', which in English means mud poster. Do you have anything of the sort elsewhere in the world. This is indigenous in origin for there are quite a number of meanings attached to it, we belong to a culture of mud for we have paddy fields in all parts of the country. Though some fields are not tilled and made up ready for cultivation there is mud in it. But our farmers never made use of mud to hit each other. Though the term mud or mada comes from the field, it is not utilised to hit anyone. Similarly the mud is also utilised to build huts, and they are called mud thatched huts. From mada stems mada pahara or mud slinging. "Uncle, I have been reading quite a number of English papers but I hardly detected the term 'mud', 'mud poster' and 'mud slinging'. Now the other point is that mud slinging has become more or less a part of politics', he stopped for a moment. 'How come that?' I asked. 'Mada gehilla is the term used when you sling mud you feel a certain sense of satisfaction, like writing an anonymous gossip letter to someone when you feel is your enemy. So mada gehilla goes on and on'. 'Isn't there any way of stopping the mud slinging forever?' I asked. 'I am not too sure of the way' said the boy, 'but I can tell you that, one party has to stop it or receive it with a bit of humour'. I was anxious to know more about his findings. 'What more?' 'Then to cut a long story short there is the term 'mahatma desapalanaya', which means gentlemanly politics'. All of us laughed at the point. 'No uncle, this is a serious point, just try to understand the conceptual frame behind it. The term Mahatma denotes 'a great soul'. That's why Gandhi was known as Mahatma. So for some, the politics looks mahatma, and for some others not so mahatma. It also denotes that for such a long time we have had no 'mahatmayas' in politics. It also hints that those who delve in politics could be sub-divided into two categories, the gentlemanly or the great souled ones, and the ungentlemanly or mini souled ones. Those two categories have to be studied in the context in which it is practised. 'Putha, you have done some real research' I said. 'No uncle this is just a starting point, for there are quite a number of words and terms like 'mara desapalanaya', or brutal politics and 'batgotu desapalanaya' or tummy filling politics, where one curry favours with another in order to get more votes'. 'So putha, you should show these findings to a university linguistic professor'. 'No Uncle, I want to do it myself, in my own humble method and hypothesis. If you have any words, concepts or terms of this type please pass on those to me, for I will be ever grateful to you'. The passionate linguistic lover stood up and went into his room leaving his father to continue from there onwards. "You know what he is doing all the time?" asked my friend. "No" I said. "He is trying his best to compile an annotated dictionary of socio-political terms". "God bless him" I said. |
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