22 Years Later | Reminiscing Our Rendezvous with the Legendary David Crystal
12 October 2004
British Council Library, Chennai
Can’t believe it’s 22 years since the red-letter day when we had the fortuitous chance of meeting with the legendary David Crystal, considered one of the world’s foremost experts on the English language, at the British Council Library Premises, Chennai.
This rendezvous assumes that special significance for us for a few reasons.
Firstly, the Memorable “Front-Row” Experience that we had – buddy Premjith and myself - (the “LASER babus”) busy firing off questions to David Crystal both at the British Council and at the Anna University, where he gave another lecture the same morning, 😊 and receiving “appreciative and brilliant replies” is something that we can never ever forget in all our lives!
Well, the legend David Crystal is now 85 years old!
Secondly, Crystal’s belief that, language teaching must be a “humanising” and playful experience. He proved it through his impactful stage presence – so beautifully mimicking baby talk to an amused crowd of language enthusiasts, and also dramatically read out the first chapter of Genesis using only words starting with the letter “a”.
Thirdly, a very powerful takeaway for us all in the rendezvous was his prophecy regarding the role of the English language in the Indian context! Long longg before India’s current global technological footprint was fully realised, he declared, “The future of Indian English is the future of Indian power,” directly linking the country’s upcoming dominance in Information Technology to its command and evolution of the English language.
Finally, a memorable artifact for this blogger from the legend which I’ve so carefully and faithfully cherished this long – A signed autograph!!! 😊
Coming back –
For a few quick takes on David Crystal the linguist –
Well, Crystal’s pioneering work in language, the English language, and in emerging fields of language are awe-inspiring, by all means!
Crystal is indeed a linguistic seer of sorts! Long before anyone could study the effects of technology on language, there was Crystal busy studying the impact of technology on language. In his famous book titled, Txtng: The Gr8 Db8 (2008), he had argued that, text messaging and internet slang do not destroy language skills; instead, they actually improve children’s writing, reading, and spelling by encouraging playful engagement with words. 😊
Apart from his two powerful Encyclopedias that he had single-handedly edited all by himself, his much-renowned book Language Death is something that needs some special attention!
In fact, his 2000 book titled, Language Death was a real wake-up call for humanity across frontiers.
That’s because, before Crystal published Language Death, the mass extinction of global languages was discussed only amongst elite academic circles. This book turned it into a matter of urgent public interest and global heritage.
Crystal gave a very startling calculation that out of the roughly 6,000 languages spoken in the world, one language dies approximately every two weeks. He projected that half of the world's languages could be extinct by the year 2100.
He argued that just as biodiversity is essential for the planet’s physical health, “linguistic diversity” is very much essential for human intellectual and cultural health. When a language dies, we don't just lose words; we lose unique ecological knowledge, history, mythology, and a distinct way of perceiving reality, he observed. Connecting language preservation directly to human rights, Crystal argued that, people have a fundamental right to speak their mother tongue.
It would only be meet to sign off on this post, and the enduring impact of that red-letter day 22 years ago, in the legend’s own words –
“A language is not just words. It is a culture, a tradition, a unification of a community, a whole history that creates what a community is.”
How true!
PS: You may want to read that memorable blogpost HERE on our blog dated, 12 October 2004
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