Punjabi parents’ indifferent attitude towards their mother tongue
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Date
2011
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University of Management and Technology
Abstract
Native language marks the identity of an individual. It is the main source through which cultural values are transferred from one generation to the next. It has been commonly observed that Punjabis, especially the parents, do not attach much importance to their mother tongue. The researcher has focused on the parents as they are the first people with whom a child interacts after birth and who play a key role in the formative years of a child with regard to the choice of code. If the parents communicate with their young one in a language other than their mother tongue, the child will have little choice but to follow the choice made by the parents.
In this study, the researcher has tried to understand the factors which make Punjabi parents to select a language for their children other than their mother tongue. It was noted that the major reason for parents’ indifference with regard to Punjabi was its inability to provide a reasonable job or in other words it is not the language of economics in its own land. Consequently, parents do not attach much educational importance to Punjabi. In other aspects like social acceptability, effect on moral values and structural features, parents, however, have favourable tilt for the Punjabi.
There may appear to be status quo as far as the use of Urdu and Punjabi are concerned for various domains; Urdu being favoured in formal domains while Punjabi for informal domains. Actually, the redistribution of languages over domains is a dynamic process. The domains continue to be shifted towards socially strong language, in this case Urdu. For this reason language shift in Punjab cannot be ruled out.
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Keywords
Punjabi, Mother Tongue