Rashtra Bhasha Bangla Rakkha Committee (Committee for the protection of Bengali, the State Language) formed a human chain in front of Bangla Academy on Tuesday afternoon to demand an end to the misuse of Bengali language in technology. The human chain, chaired by Harunur Rashid, General Secretary of the committee, expressed concern over the distorted spelling and pronunciation of words among the youth on mobile phone messages, social media and communication apps.
Speakers in the human chain said that there are many perverted usages like Besambhab (impossible), Naich (nice), Kinya (buy), Gese (gone) and Dash (country) in mutual communication through digital media. The tendency to combine and abbreviate sentences or phrases such as vallagse (liked it), munchay (want it) myrala (kill me) etc. has become evident. In the same way English sentences or words are shortened like- OMG (Oh My God), HBD (Happy Birth Day), BTW (By The Way), congratz, (congrats), r8 (right) LOL (Laughing Out Loud) is often written. This trend is a shame for this language-based country.
Meanwhile, President of Bangladesh Mobile Phone Consumers’ Association Mohiuddin Ahmed said that we have moved away from the movement that took place between 1996 and 1956 for the demand of Bengali language. Although February 21 is recognized as International Mother Language Day, there was a movement but not for Bengali as mother tongue. And since we speak the mother tongue, we must ensure the dignity of it. On the other hand, with the advancement of technology, the misuse of Bengali language is increasing day by day. We are using Roman words while typing in WhatsApp, or Messenger. Although we have two software for Bengali writing but we all are not aware about them or their use.
In order to overcome this situation, the speakers demanded that the Bangla Academy and the Ministry of Culture take necessary measures to ensure the correct use of Bengali language in the use of technology.
