Two friends were returning from school. On their way home they were talking to each other:
– tomra ki khaben? (What will you eat?), asked one friend to the other.
– ami bhat khabo(I shall eat Rice), answered the other friend.
– tumi ki khabe? (What will you eat?), she asked the same question to her friend.
– mui ruti khamo(I shall eat roti), answered the friend.
Have you noticed that the same question (in bold) being asked by the two friends in two ways? In other words, they were using similar words in different senses. But there was no breakdown in communication.
The children were speaking Bangla, but not really the Bangla that you get to hear most often, but a version of Bangla informed by the mother language of the children, namely, Rajbangshi, in this case.
In reality, two friends were using two so-called different languages (or you can say language varieties). They were using different pronouns for the same words. Sometimes, they were using the same pronouns for different words.
Pronouns do get to have this quality, they often vary. Do they use the pronoun to mean the same pronoun that we are referring to? Do they use the pronoun to refer to a different person? Different number?
The word tomra is a singular second person pronoun in one language (you). But it is a plural second person pronoun in a different language (you-all). This is an interesting puzzle. Same pronouns are used differently.
You can also notice that the verbs used with the pronouns change differently. One language can have an expression like tomra ki khabe? (what will you eat?) Where tomra is singular. Another language can use the same sentence where the subject tomra is plural. The choice of the verb will be different in that case. When the sentence will have a plural subject, the verb will be replaced by yet another different expression.
This is game of language varieties, and it’s always played by rules.
ekushé 