The New Nation - Internet Edition

Some oddities in the English Language!

Munir Muztaba Ali

An high court ruling stayed all proceedings of the trial court today of the extortion case against Hasina by businessman Azam J. Choudhury until an earlier ruling regarding the legality of placing the case under emergency power rules is heard. No sir, I am neither euphoric nor downhearted about the news. The ruling is probably going to be overturned by the nation's highest court anyway, as the trend of our courts does not suggest otherwise, but what I am confused about the news is the language in which the news has been entertained. Since language is the tool of my trade, I could not help noticing the use of the article 'an' before the 'h' word 'high' and wondered why the English language was made unnecessarily so confusing.

Why do we have to have two articles of the same meaning? Why two, or sometimes three or more, of anything meaning the same? Like he or she, do or does, am, is, or are, etc. I do not think the Mahabharata would be desecrated and the English language would be spoiled if I said, following the pattern above, "I put on an hat and ventured into an hot weather to go look for an house and saw an helicopter while listening to an heartfelt song tuned on an harmonica and ate an hamburger."

The main business of a language is to communicate, and if the previous sentence is capable of communicating what exactly I intended to convey, then what's the heck? But as a language expert, you would probably say that you understand me alright, but my English does not conform to the standard practice. I understand I often fail to conform to the so called Standard English, but that's because the Standard English is fraught with confusion for the infusion of too many unnecessary stuff in it. As I said before, the use of those double words meaning the same is unnecessary, and recalling their proper use put extra strains on my brain. Take the use of 'he' and 'she' (and their objective and possessive versions of him/her and his/her) for an example.

While growing up a few decades ago, I remember using only 'he' for an indefinite person, but it is no longer proper because such a usage now-a-days is accused of being gender biased. So we have to say things like "the student should complete and turn in his or her assignment himself or herself, and he or she should not let any body else turn it in for him or her" how odd they may sound. Such odd sounding awkward formula of 'he' or 'she' is stuck with us because we refuse to accept suggestions of a simple singular pronoun denoting or specifying no gender. Instead of accepting such an easy and logical solution to this conundrum, we, the laymen and scholars alike, have chosen simply to substitute the awkward 'he' or 'she' by 'they', especially after words such as 'anyone' and 'no one', which may imply a reference to more than one, but the words are absolutely singular nonetheless. If such a substitution is universally accepted, I do not see any problems.

The language users will get used to it any way. Some famous writers have accepted it and used it frequently with relative ease in their works. "To be sure, you know no actual good of me-but no body thinks of that when they fall in love", wrote Jane Austen in Pride and Prejudice; "Every one to rest themselves betake", Shakespeare wrote in Lucrece; and Thackeray wrote in Vanity Fair, "A person can't help their birth". I see, again, a remarkable following of this pattern among the Bangladeshi news writers. A recent news item read as follows: Deputy Inspector General of Prisons, Maj. Shamsul Haider Siddiqui, told the Daily Star that there would be no regular briefing on Hasina's health conditions as "it is not right to brief everyday on the health of a person when they are detained." The problem with such a usage, however, is that the rule following pedants would say that it is not grammatically correct, and they would insist that it must be replaced by that proverbial formula of 'he' or 'she'.

So the logical solution to this problem would be to come up with a single word for singular pronoun specifying no gender. I would like to suggest the words 'fhe' 'fhim', and 'fhis' for 'he' or 'she', 'him' or 'her', and 'his' or 'her' respectively. Are you laughing, my dear? But if we do not have any problems with gender-neutral 'they' 'them' and 'their' for plural, why should we have any problems with one word for singular? After all, many languages of the world are functioning just fine with gender-neutral pronouns. I come from one, my beloved Bangla, and I am so used to using a single, gender-neutral pronoun in Bangla that when I speak English I often find the correct use of 'he' or 'she' to be an onerous task. So many times have I subjected myself to be embarrassed by referring to a man as 'she' and a woman as 'he'. I am sure 'fhe', 'fhim', and 'fhis' will permanently palliate the pain that I often suffer from such embarrassing situations. I know you are wondering why I have added an 'f' to the gender-biased pronouns of 'he', 'him', and 'his'. Well, probably you have guessed it. In an era of feminist awakening, if my suggestions of a single singular pronoun have any chances of catching the imagination of others and ensuring their approval, then the addendum of that 'f' is wise, practical, and shrewd indeed.

As a university professor here in the United States, one of the four major English speaking countries, I always come across students who are so confused regarding the usage of words such as do or does, was or were. Expressions such as "he do" and "we was" are not infrequent here among not only the students but also their teachers and caregivers as well. I, for one, not too long ago, wrote to a Bangladeshi bureaucrat friend who had earlier emailed me from an African country that he was visiting at the time, "When you goes back home, convey my salam to bhabi". He didn't forgive and forget to point out what I had done; a reply came within the shortest possible time, and sure enough, the letter started with a pointed question: Is "when you goes back home" a new American style, my dear professor? I blushed in embarrassment.

Not that I didn't know the difference between 'go' and 'goes', but my friend chose to shame me for the slip. I felt the pinch of pain, and to minimize the shame, I took the help of humor and wrote him back, "Well, if you doesn't want to convey my salam to bhabi when you goes back home, then do it when you comes back home. Oh, I get it now; it's about you being used as a third person, isn't it? You doesn't want to be a third person, I see! You think second person is better than the third person, huh, but here in America we doesn't discriminate; we treat every person equally. If the third person deserves an extra s, then why not second person, or first person for that matter. I see some bureaucratic hubris in you, my dear friend, but see, our politicians don't mind to be in the third person category. Remember Latif Gazi, an MNA from Jessore or Khulna in the Pakistan era? He once said in the parliament, "This are parliamentary house, this are not your own house, I is the Latif Gazi, and I does not care the Sabur Khan". Ah, Latif Gazi, see how he humbled himself with his acceptance of the third person status"!

With my self-servicing humor shoved aside, I have no rancor to admit that my original sentence to my friend had a serious grammatical flaw, but my defense is that such a flaw wouldn't have crept into my writing hadn't we have the unnecessary rule of the double use of verbs as they relate to their subjects in the fancy name of subject-verb agreement. If your subject is a third person singular, you must add an 's' or 'es'. I don't understand what would be amiss without this rule. What would be so wrong with all 'do' and no 'does'? Nothing, absolutely nothing! We would get used to writing "I do", "you do", and "he do". May be some day someone will change the rule, and every one else will be alright with either 'do' or 'does'. After all, changing rule in a language is nothing new. It occurs all the time, and that brings me back to the use of the article 'an' for the H-words.

Originally, there was no rule of the use of the article 'an' preceding an H-word since H is neither a vowel nor does it sound like a vowel. Then a few French words, such as hour, honor, honest, and herb, crept into the English language, but their French pronunciations lacked the 'H' sound. Hence, the usage of 'an' to those few words of French origin became a rule. Then a few centuries ago, a fool started using the article 'an' to the word 'historic' arguing that the 'h' sound of 'historic' was not accented, and the language users seemed to agree.

Unfortunately, no such agreement has yet emerged regarding the use of 'an' to the word 'high' as in 'high court', but who knows such an agreement isn't in the offing. In language, as in politics, or in judiciary for that matter, anything is possible. May be some day our judges on the High Court and the Supreme Court will agree on something, and you will accept my favorite spelling of the word "fish", which I spell as "ghoti". Are you laughing too, again, as do my students? Doesn't it sound like fish? My students opine it doesn't remotely sound like fish. Do you have the same opinion? How come? Doesn't 'gh' of your laugh sound like an 'f', 'o' of your 'women' sound like an 'i', and 'ti' of your 'nation' sound like a 'sh'? Then how come GHOTI cannot be read as fish? Think about it!

(Dr. Munir Muztaba Ali teaches English at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA.)

Book Review

The absent poet & other essays

Anisur Rahman

Published by Biddya Prokash

Anisur Rahman, a passionate fervent poet, is basically more a poet than an essayist in histemperament, expression and above all his style. Writing poetry from the mid nineties, he has graduated more to cerebral compositions writings that have been published in various newspapers, magazines and little magazines - with his own unique and remarkable style of weaving compositions of extraordinary skill.

The contents of his wordings and the analytical power he unleashes have enabled him to win readers' admiration. His distinct art of language is quite surely the first thing about him and, in fact, this is his specialty. At this year's Ekushey book fair, Anis gave us a sheaf of essays in various moods. Most of the essays are discussions on poetry and its various aspects in terms of modern and contemporary themes. Poetry has a power that is its own. It opens up the varying facets of civilisation and humanity. That is why poetry is very closely associated with time and situation. In earlier times, Anis gave us two worthy contributions - Ibsen's poetry and Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis. He translated Ibsen's poetry and play, The Lady from the Sea, into Bengali. He adapted The Metamorphosis for the Centre for Asian Theatre.

In this book there are a total of 40 essays that can give readers a feeling of novelty as Anis appears with quite a new approach in many senses. First of all, as one goes through his writings, one must feel a world swinging between a variety of immense emotions and expressions.

Anis is a very conscious writer. His gaze is always on all the stages in our society. He

has written on some burning issues such as poverty, Monga, women's harassment, land rights, lack of proper education, political instability, religious zealotry and ethnic issues. These issues have come into his writing significantly and strongly. His open and unbiased expressions help us make out the perfect picture of our society. His observations are very clear and guide us into peering intently into our souls.

Anis has identified himself inextricably with the cultural heritage of the soil. His central philosophy is that he is a Bengali by birth; has grown up and developed in an environment shaped by the wind and water of Bengal. He is a true narrator of our social, cultural, political and economic conditions. He is among those few dedicated writers of Bangladesh with a distinctly individual inventive style. He always tries to focus on the desires, pains and mental state of the underprivileged in our society. A number of his essays are very touching and expressive. He writes the essays from very close observations. Some of his heart-rending essays are Parlours, Factories and Harassed women, Sex Workers - The Issue we Look Away From, Monga: The Hunger Grip, Our Poor, Our Rich - And Points to Note, The Jongis, the Monga and the NGOs and some other articles. In this book, Anis recollects two legendary figures in our country - eminent writer Humayun Azad and veteran journalist Enayetullah Khan (widely known as Mintu Bhai). Both were very unique, innovative and played important roles in their respective fields.Khan gave a distinct and innovative look to our journalism. Without him, our journalism seems barren and poor. Mintu Bhai is always remembered for his thought-provoking and cerebral creations.

Anis is a journalist by profession, a very risky and uncertain profession in our country. The possibility of one's losing one's job and irregular remuneration are the common features in this field. In Defence of Journalism as a Career and Plight of the Journalist are the two essays where Anis has tried to draw a picture of this profession for readers.

An essay is a success only when it leads readers towards enjoying the beauty and message of writing. Definitely a book worth reading.

Reviewed by Takir Hossain

World Poetry day observed

World Poetry Day was observed for the first time in Bangladesh by the World Poetry Center, Bangladesh recently which was held in the seminar hall, Public Library with a discussion on the topic "Future of Bengla Poems" and recitation of self composed poems. The meeting was presided over by Poet Rafiq Azad. president of Center while Poet Syed Shamsul Haque and Poet Anowara Syed Haque adorned the chairs as chief guest and special guest respectively. Poet Sarder Azad, General 'Secretary of the World Poetry Center, Bangladesh delivered the welcome address. Among others Senior Vice President of the Center Poet Shihab Sarker, Poet Dr. Bimal Guha and Poet Dr. Dilara Hafiz took part in the discussion.

Later on, self composed poems ware recited by Poet Syed Shamsul Haque, Poet Anowara Syed Haque, Poet Rafiq Azad, Poet Shihab Sarker, Poet Dr. Bimal Guha, Poet Dr. Dilara Hafiz, Poet Makid Hyder, Poet Sarder Azad, Poet Sunanda Kabir, Poet Nahar Farid Khan, Poet Yasir Aziz, Poet K M Masum, Poet Ahasan Alam Tapash, Poet Prof. A. Rafiqul Haque Bangalee, Ad A N Salamat Ullah and Parvez Babul.

Poems

Some Haikus

Ashraful Musaddeq

Summer noon

Spellings of the sun

Into water-mirror.

Soft midnight

Spring yawning

Happy new year.

Watching TV-

Old shirt

With new button.

An yellow leaf

On the green grass

Creeping winter.

Insect on the

Yellow pumpkin flower

New life.

Mosquito on my hand

Tiny balloon

With a positive blood.

Green tea

Sweated

Tipra lady.

Nature, human and the mind

Emdadul Haq Badsha

I have seen a lot of colours of cloud,

And seen it's aggressive mood;

I have seen huge waves of many rivers,

And seen much happiness in those tears.

I have seen good blessings of sky,

And seen it's endless and vastness;

I have seen grand speed of wind,

And it's divine blowing kind.

I have seen countless dances of sea,

With her Swatch -of -no -ground lee;

I have seen much more heat of sun,

And the vastness it's strong gun.

I have seen many broadness of hills,

And it's natural playing games dills.

I have seen many types of human being,

And their colourful hippocratic staying.

I have got much taste of my life,

And got immortal honey-sweet type;

I have seen various scenes of human minds,

And also seen their sad and joyous kinds.

I have seen the tidal flow of Bengali here,

Creating cheerful madness for Ekushe there.

Tale of those souls

Shujauddin Kaisar

After the dream is dispclled

there remain the words of the dream

there remains serene silence

there remains across the scenery

the delightful spread

of the golden hue.

Sweet gracefulness sprouts into letters

and words

touching the body of the language-

the golden cluster of words

streaming down towards the source

with its unbounded nectar-like sweetness.

After questions there remain

the words of questions

there remains the enchanted originality

in the listless Falgun

there remains distasteful faded sources

around a painting.

In the gracefulness of soft threadwork

there arise dream and courage smiling and hugging

engulfing memories

there arise the wonderful book of tables.

In the exotic high tide of golden fluid

in the march of freedom

there come afloat

the pristine soul of the Bangalees.

Translated by Zakeria Shirazi