The Queen's English

By Syed Badrul Haque Lalmatia, Dhaka
5 May 2005, 18:00 PM
There is an ongoing argument both in the academic circles and the press about the onslaught of Americanism on 'roper' English. Of course, one has to accept those language changes and that is what constitutes its interest and variety, but one has to draw the line somewhere. To use a commercial analogy, there is a point below which one will not go! The place where one draws the line is becoming nebulous, and one very often feels that one is fighting a rearguard action. Obviously in such a scenario, a big question mark hangs over how long 'pure' English can survive.

To turn to Dr Richard Murphy's views, I am afraid, he brushed aside the urgency of the English language in the context of Bangladesh, a country struggling hard to find a place in the sun. Over the period, Bangladesh had to pay quite a price in her developmental strides for failing to realise the primacy of the English language in this globalised world right from her emergence as an independent nation. Until now English language has virtually remained an exclusive preserve of the affluent class in our society. The sooner we are able to remove this class-barrier, the better.