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Participants, guests and OKM members seen here on October 8 at Longmisa in Mokokchung.[/caption]
Our Correspondent
Longmisa (Mokokchung), Oct. 9 (EMN): ‘When a language dies, along with it dies the culture, knowledge and a way of life,’ this was the core message of the Ongpangkong Students’ Conference’s (OKM) fourth Ao Mother Tongue competition 2018-21 on Tuesday at Longmisa village, approximately 20 kilometres from Mokokchung.
The competition started in 2015. It is a project of the OKM and has played a role in imparting the community’s linguistic ethos to the community's younger generations. The student organisation believes that language is the basic foundation vital for the survival of any civilisation.
According to Aso Imsong, convener of the competition’s committee, the North-eastern states in India are a hotpot of thousands of diverse ethnic dialects. There are large numbers of languages that are endangered and some are slowly becoming extinct.
Within multilingualism, he cautioned that the dialects spoken by each Naga tribe and sub-tribes which are unique are also enlisted among endangered languages.
Imsong, an author and former journalist, was referring to the sharp decline of dialect use among the younger generation who prefer other languages rather their indigenous dialects which are the bedrock of a person’s identity.
At this critical juncture, what the OKM must do to preserve and promote Ao dialect to support the ASLB, a body of the Ao Senden dealing with Ao literature, in its endeavour was deliberated at the 36th OKM’s general conference at Mokokchung village in 2015 and a resolution was passed to hold a competition in the ways of the Ao dialect, he said.
Imsong narrated that a series of competitions were held in phases among its units during a three-years timeframe culminating the grand finale at the 37th OKM general conference at Ungma in 2018 which was a success.
“The delegates and judges at the OKM general conference, Ungma, were overwhelmed and astonished by the answers replied by the finalist that the conference further endorse to reaffirm its resolution to organised the competition in a much bigger way by a separate committee,” he said.
Currently, more than 40 participants from 18 units of the OKM are participating in these competitions of the 2018-2021 phases.
The first session of the competition was held at Longkhum village on reading in the Ao dialect, the second was at Chuchuyimpang village on poem recitation in Ao, and the third was at Settsu village on Ao proverbs.
The fourth session of the competition is at Longmisa and it is based on the folklore of the community. The fifth session will commence from next year at Longsa village.
The competition focused on the skills of speaking, reading and writing so that the knowledge of it learned by the participants during the three years’ of competitions will become an asset for them. The prizes become secondary, Imsong said.
Sashimeren Jamir, the chief judge of the competition, asserted that the indigenous languages are headed to becoming endangered ‘because we failed and neglected our Mother Tongue.’
“We are nobody without our mother tongue. Therefore, we need to encourage to-speak-read and write our mother tongue,” he said.
Here, Imsong added the good news was that people were gradually sizing up the urgency of the matter and were now consciously spreading the word in own capacities.
Perhaps in a small way competition like this might fill in for the tribe’s lost ‘Arju’ or bachelor’s dormitory system and Tsuki or girls dormitory system of education, to learn deeper about the people and the land.
As Vice-President of India Venkaiah Naidu said, ‘The mother tongue is your eyesight and the other language is your spectacles.’ The task of reinvigorating a language is tough but can be achieved. It only needs to be worked on with concerted efforts.