YOUR tongue often carries your national or regional identity. The Arabs, all speaking the same language, identify Egyptians or Saudis from their linguistic accent The English speaking Irish dlstirtgulshes the Scottish from the Cocknish Londoner. And with the language or dialect your status is rated. Language often acts as an enemy. That's why It is often claimed that the dumb has no foe. and individuals and nations fought hot and cold wars to impose one's language on others. The Vikings tired to Impose their language on the English, the French carried their tongue wherever they went as colonists. So did the English and others. The Japanese are alleged to have used batons to teach their tongue to the Manchurians and Koreans.

The late Zahur Hossain Chowdhury, one of the few non-conformist anti-establishment Journalists of Bangladesh spoke chaste Bengali and also used to speak In Noakhall dialect without bothering about and difficulty which his listeners could have faced In understanding ft. Once one of his friends reminded him that his Noakhali-Bengali was not understandable. his reply was quick and straight. He claimed that ft was the people’s language and "you people vulgarized if. He jokingly vowed not to cut the corners to make ft straight. When three Fenl-ans met — Abdus Salam of Observer. Zahur Hossain Chowdhury of Sangbad and Mahbubul Hoq of Purbadesh — the Noakhall dialect was at its highest peak. The trio never switched to the other side. It was pure Noakhall dialect spoken by people from Sitakund to Chauddhogram and Maljdee to Chandpur.

Finance Minister Salfur Rahman has not been able to liberate his Bengali from the influence of the Sylhet accent. Once he threatened his critical listeners that if they patiently did not listen to his Bengali, however bad. he would*speak in pure Sylhetl dialect. This worked well and

he found avid listeners.

At a dinner, a conceited man who always was critical of others, held up his fork with a piece of meat upon it and asked the host —" is ft the alien pig?" The host, knowing the person's character well, threw a counter question : "On which end of the fork?"

These vilifications travelled from individuals to nations. Nationals at times hurt insults and taunts to the others. A Frenchman asked a Swiss. "Why is it that you Swiss always fight for money, while we French only fight for honour?" The Swiss cleared the Issue saying. "Each fights for what he most lacks." Lord Macaulay who headed an education commission in British India claimed that the best quality of the educated Bangalees was their ability to cheat. Do we need to verify this?

The Creator of the Universe. Who knows all the languages Including the unspoken one. in His supreme wisdom has not thrust greatness upon any single language. Yet the Christians of the Holy Roman Empire made people believe that God speaks only in Latin. The Jews claimed that the Lord communicates Irt Hebrew and the Brahmins told their folks that Bhagwan speaks In Sanskrit. And the first word Allah sent to the Prophet of Islam through Gabriel was In Arabic. Allah -God-Bhagwan, the Informed of the unknown and unseen, Ignores all brags and boasts of men in His supreme indulgence and helps His servants to learn any language they like. That is perhaps how the Creator avoided the majority minority and bourgeoisie-proletariat Issue In languages. Allah leaves the choice to the children of Adam to learn any language they like and that's why the new-born never descends on this earth with books on grammar and alphabets.

Despite the unannounced

At

languages. The victor nation tried to thrust its language on the unwilling throats of the vanquished throughout the ages. Individuals too. used language as a weapon to hurt the enemy or the disliked. The Urduwallas did not want the Bangladeshis to talk In their own tongue. In the resultant movement we gave ourselves a Bengali holiday in English calender. The Brahmins threatened the Bengali readers of Ramayana- Mahabharata with hell-fire of Rauraba But they could not stop translation of Ramayana-Mahabharata into Bengali: Michael Madhusudhan Dutt wrote Meghanad Badh Kavya In blank verse to set a style of its own. His opponents, instead of writing a better one. had ridiculed this typical style of the language by producing a ■ parody named Chuchundart Badh Kavya

But nothing matches the linguistic feud fought by two nations living across the English Channel. They humbled each other in bloody bat ties, they ran for each other's throat across the tables. The are the French and the English. Napoleon called the English the nation of shopkeepers. as if the French never owned any shop themselves.

The English idiom, to take French leave, as we are given to understand, means to go away or to do a thing without permission or without notice. The allusion was that in the eighteenth century there was a custom In France of going away from reception et cetera without taking leave of the host or hostess. Then Jocularly it came to signify to do anything without permission or notice. The compilers of English dictionary wanted to bring their traditional enemy, the French, on record by ascribing a bad manner to the people of France and they dis-

irtbuted the Information throughout the English •peaking world

But the French avenged it by inventing and incorporating ■ similar phrase into the French dictionary. They coined Jfcr a 'angiatse — to go off in English style. Filer a I anglaise Is just the French synonym of to take French leave The frogs known for their harsh sounds (croaking) were equated with the French. The french were called frogs by the English The FrenqB here too. avenged tt is • rather-, dignified way when they called the English the roastbeer. How and where.-the English resembled the bovine community has not been elaborated

The last English big at the French was the English name of a particular birth control implement — the French leather. The French ingenuity In throwing the blame back on the other side of the Channel was equally laudable. They added a similar phrase in French capote anglaise — the English overcoat — meaning •the same implement. This linguistic duel continued for some time and when one became aware of the other s potential in retaliation to the same kind the degree, they burled the hatchet and sued peace.

In a Moscow park an intelligence agent caught a Russian who was reading a book with peculiar signs. On enquiry he told that it was a Hebrew grammar The agent wanted to know why he was reading Hebrew as his chance to visit Israel .was bleak. The learner told that Hebrew was the language spoken In paradise and his knowledge of Hebrew grammar might help him to speak better

"Suppose you go to hell, how this grammar helps you?" asked the agent.

"In that case. I am equally proficient in Russian." replied the learner.

Allah-God Bhagwan knew all these frictions and feuds over language That’s why He has not kept any official language of His own. He speaks to. and receives message from, your mind.