On 12/13/05, Nishant Shah <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > No...let me rephrase and re-emphasise that. FLUENT Gujarati is not > something that comes easily to new generations anymore. While Gujarati > remains a functional language - the grammar structures will still be > retained, other languages creep into the language too easily. Most Gujarati > families speak a mixture of the two - I am now making horrifying > generalisations based on my interactions with people there. Please also bear > in mind that I havent been living in Gujarat the last five years - but > fluent and 'pure' gujarati is no longer in vogue. Only the very rich or the > very 'cultured' speak it. Gujarati theatre is almost dead. The gujarati film > industry definitely is. The language we speak in the urban pockets is the > language of functioning and not of poetry. Gujarati Literature is now only > fossilised in Hindi movie representations.
Languages are never static but are always evolving. Language is a reflection of popular culture. No wonder you will see words like computer and electricity imported from English in other languages. English has also not been left untouched either (with words like "jungle", "curry" and "podcasts" becoming part of it) More often than not any language "purist" is often also equated with "elitist". Coming from a city of Mumbai, I have seen many people switch between languages effortlessly (I am not talking about "Bambaiya" here). The main reason for this being often one language does not have good enough words to define an experience or object. An example of this is Inuit (spoken by Eskimos), which has 20 words for different types of snow. http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/7953/eskimo.html Coming back to the topic, any event (like migration) is always met with resistance and hostility. The next step is assimilation. This is the reason why the Shiv sena is no longer "popular" in Maharashtra. Maharashtrians form a small percentage of Mumbai's population today so their appeal is limited. --> Vinayak H www.livejournal.com/users/vinayakh/
