Even in the title, David Shulman makes clear that he is writing a biography of Tamil, and not a history.
Old languages like Tamil, given to intense reflection of many centuries, write their own autobiographies, in many media, though we may not know hot to read them. Sometimes they ask the assistance of a ghostwriter, a biographer, like me.
What a wonderful storyteller he is! In this biography of Tamil, he educates me on how the grammar evolved, which then made the rich poetic literature happen, and then as the times changed, well, prose also developed.
Modernity is always a relative concept, privileging the more recent over the more distant past and thereby habitually distorting the latter. It never happens in a single shot.
That applies to the changes in the language as well as to any aspect of life, it seems.
From the Sangam poetry to modern prose is one hell of a journey over nearly 2,000 years. "Modern literary prose," for which the Tenkasi period played a critical role, is very different from the poetry of the past. "Nothing can quite prepare us for the expressive power and stylistic range of nineteenth-century Tamil prose works, which 'bespeak a change of consciousness, of conscience'"
In addition to Sanskrit being woven into Tamil, "by the late seventeenth century, two new languages have entered into Tamil-ness from the outside--Persian and Arabic." The biography of Tamil, it seems, is also about assimilation. Perhaps this cosmopolitanism that is innate in the language in which we grew also contributes to how easily we move around and assimilate into societies that are completely unlike the Tamil country.
Shulman discusses "the great Muslim poet Umaruppulavar." Of course, I had no idea about him either. Even though he was from the part of the Tamil country that was home to my people. He was born in Ettayapuram, the same place that also claims as its own the poet whose verse I have in a tshirt!
Umaruppulavar's opus was:
the best-known literary work of Muslim Tamil, the Cirappuranam, probably the finest large-scale narrative poem in Tamil in the seventeenth-century; this vast work, largely modeled on Kamban, tells the story of Muhammad in a Hijaz that has reimagined as the verdant Tamil land
I had no idea that my ancestral areas in the old Tamil country played such roles in the evolution of the "modern" Tamil.
Even the most ardent supporters of
universities and higher education aren’t being helpful when the only
support they show is for basketball and football victories, for which
they are also willing to invest millions of dollars. Imagine, instead,
that a few million dollars were invested in order to encourage students
to learn Chinese and Arabic. Not that I don’t want students to, say,
learn French. Au contraire! But in preparing students for the future,
shouldn’t we actively promote Arabic, Mandarin and Hindi, which will
then become portals to understand those different places and their
peoples?
Yep, that was more than two years ago. Over the nearly thirty months since then, don't you think that the importance of understanding the part of the world where Arabic, Mandarin, and Hindi are spoken has vastly increased?
By now you know that this blogger presents logic and evidence, unlike the president and his 63 million voters, Here too, in the case of foreign language, you can bet your farm that there is plenty of evidence that we need to worry about. Like from the United States Government Accountability Office. (How they managed to get such reports out under this presidency beats me!)
Proficiency in foreign languages is a key skill for U.S. diplomats to advance U.S. interests overseas. GAO has issued several reports highlighting State’s persistent foreign language shortfalls. In 2009, GAO recommended that State, to address these shortfalls, develop a strategic plan linking all of its efforts to meet its foreign language requirements. In response, in 2011 State issued its “Strategic Plan for Foreign Language Capabilities.”
In 2009. That explains it--of course, the Kenyan Muslim Obama would be interested in foreign languages! A real American would not care a shit about any language other than "Murican."
So, in brief, what has the GAO to report?
As of September 2016, 23 percent of overseas language-designated positions (LDP) were filled by Foreign Service officers (FSO) who did not meet the positions’ language proficiency requirements. While this represents an 8-percentage-point improvement from 2008, the Department of State (State) still faces significant language proficiency gaps
Guess where the deficiencies were the highest? In the least important parts of the world. of course, I am being satirical!
Regionally, the greatest gaps were in the Near East (37 percent), Africa (34 percent), and South and Central Asia (31 percent).
It is not like there is anything important happening in any of those regions that we want to understand anyway, right? Oh, wait, those are also some of the hardest languages for "Muricans" to learn?
Category I—World languages (e.g., French and Spanish)
Category II—Difficult world languages (e.g., German)
Category III—Hard languages (e.g., Russian and Urdu)
Category IV—Super-hard languages (e.g., Arabic and Chinese)
According to State documents, the time it takes to achieve general proficiency depends on the difficulty of the language. World languages require 24 to 30 weeks, difficult world languages require 36 weeks, hard languages require 44 weeks, and super-hard languages require 88 weeks to achieve general proficiency.
Oh, the harder it is, the more we want to avoid investing in learning that language. Makes fucking sense to me.
So, you want a feel for the implications for this language gap, yes?
language proficiency gaps have, in some cases, affected State’s ability to properly adjudicate visa applications; effectively communicate with foreign audiences, address security concerns, and perform other critical diplomatic duties.
I will wrap up the post with this:
embassy managers in countries where super-hard or hard languages, such as
Arabic
and Russian, are spoken said that certain positions have been
designated as not requiring language proficiency or designated at a
lower proficiency level to increase the likelihood of filling the
positions
Managers also said that, while they would prefer to
require higher levels of language proficiency, they sometimes require
lower levels to avoid delaying the arrival of FSOs at posts who would
otherwise have to spend longer periods in language training. Some State
geographic bureau officials spoke of significant tension between quickly
filling a vacant position with an officer who lacks language skills
versus waiting to fill the position with an officer who is trained and
fully proficient.
Oh well ... it is not like 63 million voters care about anything other than "White Christian America First."
I have no clue about the lyrics, but I love the taarab music. It seems to have the best of everything--Arabic/Indian/African/life ....
The Lonely Planet book (thanks to my daughter!) mentioned taarab, which was the first time I had ever come across that word. But, it is one thing to read about it, and another to actually listen to it and in its "natural" environs. It was simply awesome to listen to taarab especially on the long drive from Dar to Iringa. The driver, Mohammed, was, I think, excited about my interest in taarab. After listening to taarab for a while, he then switched to another station that played Arab music.
I tell you; I am humbled everyday when I encounter stuff that I did not even know existed. How little I know!!!
I wish I could understand the lyrics in this youtube clip that I found:
So, in an earlier post I wondered how the Daily Show would respond to Obama flip-flopping on the torture photos. Well, Jon Stewart did great. An awesome job. But, highly depressing to realize that this is politics here in the good ol' USA.
