Chat Bout: A Wordy Party on International Mother Language Day
Wa’agwaan piipl!
February 21, 2024 is International Mother Language Day — a worldwide annual observance to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and to promote multilingualism.
That’s a lot of words. In English. But International Mother Language Day is about so much more than just words. It’s about respect, awareness, communication, and plain commonsense.
It’s complicated
I, like many people from Jamaica, have a complex relationship with my Mother Language, Patwa. In one sense, Patwa isn’t even my Mother Language, because it was not the language in which my mother communicated with my siblings and me when we were growing up. She communicated with us in English.
She embraced Patwa as a language of culture and even bought my first Louise Bennett book of poetry (from which I was able to recite scores of poems from memory for large and small audiences). The point, however, is that she thought there was a “time and place” for Patwa.
That’s not strange for my mom’s generation. Though Patwa is understood by 100% of the population, it is not recognized as an official language in Jamaica. Yes, shocking, I know. English is the country’s official language and is, therefore, the language of the government, the classroom, and the boardroom.
And yet, Patwa is the language of the playground, entertainment, familiarity, anger, laughter, happiness, the corner shop, and best-friendship. I feel it’s safe to say that if two people from Jamaica only communicate with each other in English, their relationship is, at best, only formal.
The result, of course, is that a large portion of the population thinks they are fluent in English when they are not — fluency being defined as a state wherein someone can completely communicate their deepest thoughts and feelings in the target language, and understand others who are doing so. It also means understanding communication context, nuances, and subtleties both in written and spoken form. I’ve seen hundreds of misunderstandings where people were talking about two totally different ideas, but each thought the other person was either confused, unreasonable, or an idiot. Sometimes it was funny to watch. At other times, stressful.
I get it. The idea of English being the official language has its advantages internationally, but people learning ideas in a language they only speak when talking to authority figures changes the ease with which they are able to communicate certain concepts and situations.
We’re making progress
I’m proud to report that in recent years my mother has had a change of heart, and when conversing, we now slip between English and Patwa as most Jamaicans do. Patwa is being used on billboard advertisements in Jamaica, and in TV commercials. Of course that makes sense, and it took advertisers long enough to figure out. If you’re going to try to sell me something, your best bet is to speak to me in my language.
My father is a bit slower to change, holding to the idea that Patwa isn’t “appropriate” for certain settings, even though he often uses it without realizing it. We get a kick out of listening to him defend his position.
In Jamaica, there are two very vocal camps — one that advocates for Patwa to be given the same prominence as English in places of government, education, and worship, and the other that says the idea is “rubbish” because people need to be taught how to speak “proper” English instead of a “broken” version.
A quick history lesson (It’ll be interesting, I promise)
Well, broken or not isn’t even the point. Every modern language today was considered “broken”, or a poor version of a parent language. Italian, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian, Catalan, and other Romance languages are descended from Latin. English, German, and Dutch are considered Germanic languages. In fact, English had low status and was considered a broken language prior to the 14th century, only being spoken by peasants, commoners, and other uneducated people. Latin and French were the languages of the dominant culture in England, with penalty of death for owning an English Bible. About 80% of English words are actually borrowed Latin or French words whose pronunciation has morphed over the centuries into words now less recognizable in their parent language.
Don’t believe me? Check out this incredibly insightful documentary on the history of the English language.
As European politics changed the composition of the dominant class, it also changed the dominant language, and so the English language rose in status to the point where a tiny island commanded and continues to command, the language of trade, communication, and technology all over the world. It has risen to the point where English speakers can now look down on non-English speakers and English speakers with Jamaican and other accents. It has risen to the point where some people believe that the English King James Version Bible is the “original Bible,” and English is now lending words to other languages. Big up yuself, Englan.
Where we stand
The truth is, we’re never going to stop people from speaking the language in which they’re comfortable expressing themselves, among the people with whom they’re comfortable. If history has taught us anything, it’s that trying to suppress a movement tends to make it more resilient. And self-appointed gatekeepers forget that multilingualism is standard in many countries. The existence of English is in no way threatened by Patwa’s rise in prominence, so they can coexist peacefully.
I walk down the streets of Toronto on any given day and I hear young people of European, Asian, and Middle-Eastern descent who’ve never been to Jamaica, and whose only association with the language is a friend whose parents are Jamaican talking about “di man-dem”, and “my yuut”. It makes me chuckle, and if I’m honest, it warms my heart.
I like this idea of promoting multilingualism, and I’m not even opposed to a hybrid. In theory, it means you meet people where they are so that they can learn abstract ideas using words they’re already familiar with, instead of using a word they’ve only read in books to explain an entirely unfamiliar concept, an approach that’s risky because you’re never quite sure if they fully understood the breadth and background of the word they read.
When I wear my educator hat, I find that meeting people where they are is an effective way to simplify my job and promote creative thinking in learners. Some people learn better by watching a video, others by reading and making notes, and others by modeling an activity. Some people learn better in English, some in Spanish, and wonder of wonders, some in Patwa. For some, it involves taking a flexible approach and using a single Patwa word when the English equivalent doesn’t quite do it for them. It’s really that simple. Why would anyone object to that?
