Young adults' linguistic manipulation of English in Bangla in Bangladesh

Abstract

It is commonly assumed in the print media that bilingual young adults in Bangladesh are subjugated by the colonial legacy of English and they are 'polluting' Bangla, the national language of Bangladesh, by their indiscriminate insertion of English in it. However, this ethnographic study on a group of young adults in a university in Bangladesh shows that this assumption is simplistic and inadequate. A close linguistic analysis of extracts from their face-to-face and virtual conversations on Facebook illustrates that they (1) use linguistic and semantic forms of both English and Bangla very creatively, strategically and pragmatically, (2) bring in diversity to Bangla not only from English but also from different genre of discourses, and eventually (3) transgress the boundary of the Bangla language. English in fact provides them with newer metalinguistic and indexical opportunities. The study also identifies that the nationalist stance in favour of Bangla may not allow a fuller appreciation of the complex linguistic scenario in Bangladesh. At the end, the study suggests a prospect of a future research that may provide important insights into the socio-cultural dynamics of bilingualism in English and Bangla in the social landscape of Bangladesh as well as in other multilingual contexts.

Styling the periphery: Linguistic and cultural takeup in Bangladesh and Mongolia

“…This particular creation seems to value morin khuur and huumii in a way that avoids their common English translations (‘horse headed fiddle’ and ‘throat singing’) while still using English suffixes to relocate these terms discursively. A similar trend has been observed in the language practise of young adults in Bangladesh who add the English suffix ‘ing’ to Bangla verbs/nouns to give a feel of continuity, action and progression (Sultana ).…”

“…Here we want to draw attention to the diversity of linguistic and cultural forms at play. A close analysis of data drawn from virtual space by Bangladeshis and Mongolians (drawn from two larger projects looking at young adults’ engagement with popular linguistic and cultural resources), as well as interviews with artists and consumers, show that they are very much part of a mobile culture (Dovchin ; Sultana ).…”

“…These set expressions are also over‐emphasised with enunciated pronunciation of the last vowel sound or middle vowel sound of the last word of the sentence, such as deeeeeeeeeeey , jeyonaaaaaaa , or duuuuuuuuure (Sultana ) or chood do mujhee , suun loo , maanga , and so on. Such dialogues are accompanied by exaggerated melodramatic tones, body movements and gestures…”

“…In the Bangladesh context, English is mixed with Bangla to achieve a particular mode of stylization. Sultana (: 12), for example, notes that for young adults in Bangladesh ‘English provides the participants with newer metalinguistic and indexical opportunities’ not only by bringing diversity into Bangla but also by taking up different genres of discourse.…”

Facebook graph search for refined screen-based data collection in CMC: A pilot study for Fiji English

“…West 2013) or from people willing to participate in the study (e.g. Sultana 2014). The last approach is obviously the most laborious way of collecting data, as the advantage of instant data availability in the web context is lost.…”