One thing always amazes me is that there are so many different languages in the world. It could be the Babel tower which separates people from each other. But they are the results of our ancestors' creativity, and it makes the world so much more diverse that we will never get bored.
But language is also politics. I talked about the language situation in one of my previous posts, and today I want to talk about several examples in which two or more languages are virtually the same one, but they are named differently for a certain political or historical reason.
1. Hindi and Urdu:
Hindi and Urdu, together having about 500 million speakers, are spoken in a pair of political arch-rivals. True, there are considerable differences in vocabulary, especially in the formal language. Urdu draws much vocabulary from the fellow Muslim Persian and Arabic, while Hindi from the ancient Sanskrit. Plus, the written scripts are so different that many people wouldn't realize they are virtually the same language. In fact, they derive from the same dialect close to Delhi. Hindustani is a more academic and neutral way to address the two languages/two versions of the same language.
2. Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin:
Under Comrade Tito, Serbo-Croatian was spoken by the majority of Yugoslav people, with the rest spoke closely related Slovenian and Macedonian. But today, nobody would claim that he/she speaks Serbo-Croatian. For them, it is either Serbian for Serbs, Croatians for Croats, Bosnian for Bosniaks, even Montenegrin for the newly-independent nation. There are indeed differences nowadays, since different countries are standardizing their language differently, and they have been based on different dialects. But their difference is still trivial. It is, of course, good for a guy to claim that he speaks five languages, including Serbian, Croatian or Bosnian. In response, I may claim I speak American English, British English and Chinglish. They are still the same language today. But they may become different enough to be separated linguistically after the bitter political division.
3. Romanian and Moldovan:
Moldova, a former republic of Soviet Union, maintains that its official language is called Moldovan, which is a continuation of the Soviet policy. This is aimed to damp down any talk of unification with Romania. Most part of Moldova was Romanian-speaking, and it was part of Romania until the Second World War. In the eastern part of the country, there are significant Russian and Ukrainian populations, who have established a break-away but unrecognized republic. But all of those cannot change the fact that Moldovan is identical to Romanian. The only difference is Moldovan is written in the Cyrillic alphabet.
4. Indonesian and Malay
When the "Thousand-Island Nation" gained its independence from the Netherlands, the government found that people speak so many different languages, and those languages can be very different on different islands. As part of the attempt to unite the newly-independent country, they "borrowed" the language from the neighboring Malaysia. The new Indonesian is not based on any language in Indonesia, but a dialect of Malay language. When Malaysia accused Indonesia stole their cultural heritage in a tourist commercial last year, what they really meant was that the whole language which unites Indonesia was stolen from Malaysia. For Malaysians, ss that actually something to be proud of?
5. Finnish and Karelian
Karelian is spoken in the Russian Republic of Karelian, but many people simply regard it as dialect of Finnish language. Karelians share their history with the neighboring Finnish, and a significant part of the republic was ceded by Finland after the Soviet invasion. Republic of Karelian was once at the equal level with other 15 republics, which showed Stalin's intention to annex Finland completely. Fortunately for Finland, he failed.
6. Persian and Dari
Dari, which refers to the historical court language of ancient Persian Empire, is spoken in Afghanistan. The name was encouraged by the Afghan government to distinguish with the language in the neighboring Iran. There are indeed some difference in phonology and vocabulary, but they are the same language. Mr. Ahmedinejad, any response?
7. Lao and Isan
Isan is the name given by the Thais to the combination of Lao dialect in their country. It is suffering from the official discouragement of the Thai government, which doesn't allow it in the public occasions. It doesn't even have its alphabet.
Please tell me if there are more examples.
Showing posts with label Afghanistan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Afghanistan. Show all posts
October 2, 2010
October 22, 2009
Why bother holding presidential election?
President Karzai finally accepted to participate in a run-off after a deeply fraud first round. Many people believed, with good reason, he had confidence to win, with or without the help of rigging, before being willing to back down after declaring the previous result of first round is legitimate.
Unpopular and corrupt as his government is, Karzai is still the favorite for America. His reelection seems best for the sake of stability in that shaken countries. Abdullah Abdullah isn't a majority Pashto, but a Tajik, which seems to be harder to win support over Pashto Taliban.
But what if there is widespread fraud in the second round? Some suggest forming a coalition government would be a wise option. Due to the fact that it's hard to hold a free and fair election under this harsh condition, we have adequately good excuse for picking this third way out of the dilemma. This also has been proved to be partly, though not totally satisfyingly, successful after similar cases in Kenya and Zimbabwe (incumbents rigged to close victory, but conceded to form coalition with opposition thanks to immense international and domestic pressure). Incumbents staying as president and opposition leader becoming prime minister seems to be a solution for future election controversy.
But since the incumbent will stay in the power anyway, why not just hold a prime ministerial election to share limited power with opposition? Why bother rigging the election to merely 51% and then shamefully giving in to pressure? We have only one answer: they are simply farces. If that also happens to Afghanistan, United States would even lose the last moral high ground.
Election Watch:
In Botswana, one of the Africa's best managed countries, the ruling party, which has been in power since the country's independence in 1965, once again renewed its mandate, in a seemingly free and fair election. The biggest opposition suffered a big blow, reducing from 12 seats to 6. The third party has gained ground, but the conflicting opposition cannot find a way to challenge the incumbents, making Botswana a Type-2 error in democratic statistics. Replying on the abundance of diamond resource, this country is successful and stable according to African standard. Voters feel no reason to change the status quo, which is totally understandable. But without a challange from the opposition, the ruling party will be hard to prevent from self-damaging with corruption and nepotism. A credible opposition should be the future if Botswana wants to become an example of whole sub-Sahara Africa.
Unpopular and corrupt as his government is, Karzai is still the favorite for America. His reelection seems best for the sake of stability in that shaken countries. Abdullah Abdullah isn't a majority Pashto, but a Tajik, which seems to be harder to win support over Pashto Taliban.
But what if there is widespread fraud in the second round? Some suggest forming a coalition government would be a wise option. Due to the fact that it's hard to hold a free and fair election under this harsh condition, we have adequately good excuse for picking this third way out of the dilemma. This also has been proved to be partly, though not totally satisfyingly, successful after similar cases in Kenya and Zimbabwe (incumbents rigged to close victory, but conceded to form coalition with opposition thanks to immense international and domestic pressure). Incumbents staying as president and opposition leader becoming prime minister seems to be a solution for future election controversy.
But since the incumbent will stay in the power anyway, why not just hold a prime ministerial election to share limited power with opposition? Why bother rigging the election to merely 51% and then shamefully giving in to pressure? We have only one answer: they are simply farces. If that also happens to Afghanistan, United States would even lose the last moral high ground.
Election Watch:
In Botswana, one of the Africa's best managed countries, the ruling party, which has been in power since the country's independence in 1965, once again renewed its mandate, in a seemingly free and fair election. The biggest opposition suffered a big blow, reducing from 12 seats to 6. The third party has gained ground, but the conflicting opposition cannot find a way to challenge the incumbents, making Botswana a Type-2 error in democratic statistics. Replying on the abundance of diamond resource, this country is successful and stable according to African standard. Voters feel no reason to change the status quo, which is totally understandable. But without a challange from the opposition, the ruling party will be hard to prevent from self-damaging with corruption and nepotism. A credible opposition should be the future if Botswana wants to become an example of whole sub-Sahara Africa.
| Parties | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Botswana Democratic Party | 290,099 | 53.26 | 45 | +1 | |
| Botswana National Front | 119,509 | 21.94 | 6 | –6 | |
| Botswana Congress Party | 104,302 | 19.15 | 4 | +3 | |
| Botswana Alliance Movement | 12,387 | 2.27 | 1 | +1 | |
| Independents | 10,464 | 1.92 | 1 | +1 | |
October 17, 2009
The greatest legacy of Roman warriors -- Bribing Taliban
It's reported that the only reason why the Afghan region occupied by Italian troops were so peaceful was because Italian government bribed the Taliban tribal leaders. What's more astonishing was Italy didn't pass this secret tactic to French troops, who are currently responsible for this area. Their failure to pay angered Taliban, leading to a false assessment, resulting in huge casualties for France. (The Times)
Once again, Italian troops showed they are the descedents of great Roman army. The humiliated victory in World War I and the even more humiliated loss in World War II (probably Germany could have won the war if they were wise enough to make Italy ally with England) reminded us of their great history. They even couldn't defeat the Ethiopian troops using swords and arrows, until they introduced mustard gas into battlefield.
But we should understand Italy's tactics. The enemy they were facing was ruthless. They really threatened a Pakistani newspaper that if they continued to call them terrorists, they would bomb the newspaper headquarters. Sounds like exactly what terrorist means, doesn't it?
PS: I'm going to start a series about China's history! If you are interested, please keep coming~ The first series would be some interesting facts of many Chinese emperors. There were really so many of them.
Once again, Italian troops showed they are the descedents of great Roman army. The humiliated victory in World War I and the even more humiliated loss in World War II (probably Germany could have won the war if they were wise enough to make Italy ally with England) reminded us of their great history. They even couldn't defeat the Ethiopian troops using swords and arrows, until they introduced mustard gas into battlefield.
But we should understand Italy's tactics. The enemy they were facing was ruthless. They really threatened a Pakistani newspaper that if they continued to call them terrorists, they would bomb the newspaper headquarters. Sounds like exactly what terrorist means, doesn't it?
PS: I'm going to start a series about China's history! If you are interested, please keep coming~ The first series would be some interesting facts of many Chinese emperors. There were really so many of them.
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