Will local languages deliver? (Part II)
Pupils will be equally affected. Woe to the pupil who transfers from one area to another to follow parents or guardians. You can imagine the confusion that will befall a pupil whose parents initially work in Chikwawa, then get transferred to Phalombe and later to Karonga. That pupil will have to be or to become a multi-linguist to complete their education.
Another challenge is that local languages are not developed enough to convey academic concepts, particularly at the higher levels. We will end up using local spellings of English words for most of these concepts. If, for example, a pupil takes Additional Mathematics, it will be difficult or impossible to describe in any local language concepts such as differentiation or integration. Words like ‘difalanshiyeshoni’ may have to be used, which really are English words with local spelling and pronunciation. I do not think any pupil that has difficulty understanding differentiation will find it any easier to understand ‘difalanshiyeshoni’. In fact, they will be confused even more with such borrowed words.
At Kamuzu International Airport the public address system blares out an announcement: “Will those passangers travelling to Johannesburg by flight number SA 171 proceed through International Departures?” Then a Chichewa translation follows: “Onse opita ku Johannesburg pa ndege, flight number SA 171 dzerani pa International Departures.” That Chichewa translation is only 54 percent Chichewa, the rest is English. This is the dilemma we shall face if and when we decide to localise the language of instruction in our schools.
Once upon a time there was a Chichewa board in Zomba, which may have been useful in coining new words to express scientific and other concepts. Its existence was a very emotive issue and naturally, it was gotten rid of at the dawn of the multiparty dispensation. There should perhaps have been parallel boards for the other Malawian languages. In any case, some of the functions the Chichewa board was expected to perform were presumably transferred to a language research arm of the University of Malawi. The rest is history.
The other tragedy is that there has not been much attempt at letting speakers of local languages follow any grammatical rules. In any country, radio is the medium where standard language is expected to be heard. The plural for mfuti (gun) is mfuti. On a number of occasions I have heard the word mifuti being used on radio. I even once heard somebody talk about “midalitso” on radio. The word midalitso does not exist in Chichewa. The plural for dalitso (blessing) is madalitso not midalitso. It belongs to what is known as the ‘li-ma’ class not to ‘mu-mi’ class.
If people are so casual with the use of local languages, can we expect such languages to be used in serious academic discourse? We need to maintain a certain level of discipline in the use of our local languages. University subjects are also called disciplines, and not without good reasons. I find it absurd that we can or should, without first tightening the discipline in the use of our languages, use them as languages of instruction in academic pursuits. Let us be serious. Otherwise, we still have a long way to go to achieve what Tanzanians have achieved. I, therefore, urge that we continue to search within our history and our demographic patterns to find a solution to this dilemma.
