OK, yang terakhir.

(Demi landaklaut, saya terbitkan semula pos ini )

Sebenarnya ini coretan yang terilham apabila membaca kata-kata Pak Samad: “Rupa-rupanya begini caranya untuk menyelamatkan bahasa.” Ada rasa sayu menyelinap tiba-tiba.

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Tonton filem pendek di bawah. Malaya, jangan sampai jadi macam Eire.

Dua sisi yang boleh dilihat melalui video ini (berkenaan PPSMI):

Satu. Jika kita simbolkan Yu Ming sebagai orang Melayu yang mahu menguasai sains dan teknologi, kita kenalah berusaha apa saja untuk mencapai cita-cita itu, hatta menguasai bahasa Inggeris (yang dinobatkan sebagai bahasa ilmu sekarang) kerana banyak rujukan tentang sains dan teknologi dalam bahasa tersebut. Tetapi asasnya, kuasai dahulu bahasa tersebut. Untuk menguasai bahasa Inggeris, belajarlah bahasa Inggeris, bukan belajar Sains dan Matematik dalam bahasa Inggeris. Banyak sekolah yang mengajar bahasa Inggeris di sini, dan setahu saya sekolah-sekolah ini mengajar subjek bahasa Inggeris.

Dua. Dalam masa yang sama apabila orang Melayu sudah begitu hebat berbahasa Inggeris, jangan sampai lupa diri, jangan sampai jadi macam orang-orang di negara tempat saya tinggal sekarang, sampai tak faham bahasa ibunda sendiri kerana terlalu menyanjungi bahasa lain. Benda ini kita takkan dapat tengok dalam masa yang singkat, tetapi berpuluh-puluh tahun akan datang. Tersilap langkah, tak mustahil suatu hari nanti bahasa Melayu pun tempatnya cuma di papan-papan tanda saja.

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Tahun lepas, semasa melawat muzium Isle of Man, salah satu sudut yang paling menarik perhatian saya ialah sudut bahasa. Bahasa Manx telah pupus apabila penutur terakhir bahasa tersebut, Ned Maddrell meninggal dunia pada tahun 1974. Bagaimanapun ada usaha dari kerajaan Isle of Man untuk menghidupkan kembali bahasa tersebut, dan mula dijadikan sebagai medium pembelajaran di sebuah sekolah rendah.

Pak Menteri, tolonglah jangan sampai wujudnya ’sudut bahasa Melayu yang pupus’ di Muzium Negara suatu hari nanti.

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Speaking Manx – From Mother Tongue to a Forgotten Language

The Mother Tongue

There was an old woman living alongside of where I was and she couldn’t speak no English neither.
(Thomas Leece, Kerrowkeeill)

The Final Decline as a Language of  the People

I know very little Manx and am not sorry. The Manx language is dead and it deserved to die because the last use it was put to in our house was to enable our parents and grandmother to carry on a conversation between themselves which my sister and I did not understand.
(Mr J. R. Corlett, Sulby)

Reasons Not to Speak or to Teach Others Manx

1. Going to School

I never bothered with the thing – Manx – myself. Once they gave up teaching the Manx in school it was finished, and when the younger people were moving about it was no use to them, once you left the Island it was no use to you.
(John Gawne, Fistard, Port St. Mary)

2. Too Much Effort

There was Manx spoken on the farms in my day and more of the younger men must have known it from hearing older people in the house and on the farms speaking it, but the younger men wouldn’t bother to speak it, so it died out in the end.
(Edward Christian, Greeba)

3. English More Useful

They would be giving the orders in Max to the young fellows. It was always ‘Gow shen’ and ‘jen shoh’, and the younger men must have been able to understand the order at least. The English would have been of more general use to them, and so it got to be all English that they were talking.
(Edward Christian, Greeba)

4. A Secret Code to Exclude The Rest

The man and his wife talked Manx all the time when the men came in for meals, so they would not be able to repeat the conversation outside. It wasn’t much good unless you could already speak it, and then it was used when they wished to keep the conversation private.
(Mr Logan, Gordon, Patrick)

5. English as a Status Symbol

My father and mother could all talk Manx, though they weren’t encouraging the children to speak it. The parents would be wanting the children to speak English and  not Manx. They would not be wanting them to appear backward compared with others.
(Henry Quayle, Ramsey)

Label: Qronic Qronicles