Streamlet Dkhar, Head of Khasi Department, North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) said that the Khasi language has a vast vocabulary range.
“But what makes us not to use them is that we forgot their usage and replaced them with foreign words. The words may be in English or in Hindi or Sanskrit,” Dkhar said while speaking during the book release of “Ki Syrwet Ba La Jah” a collection of Khasi poetry written by Reniwell Majaw.
Quoting the famous words of Father Hopewell Elias Khariong SDB, “Im ka ktien, im ka jaidbynriew”, (If language is alive, its people are also alive), Dkhar said that language is the one which we write and also speak.
According to her, colloquial language is alive when one speaks it during one’s lifetime while the written word will be alive even after one’s death in a book form and readers will read it from generation to generation.
Dkhar said that the objective of Majaw to pen his poetry in a book form is to uplift Khasi language through his writings.
She said that if one has passion to do something, especially writing, one will not rest.
Dkhar praised Majaw who chose to write despite ill health due to age and appreciated his family for supporting him in his endeavours. “If you still have the power to think, a healthy body will keep on writing so that others will know the voice of your heart,” Dkhar added.
She also lamented the fact that today’s youth do not know certain Khasi words which can enrich the language.
Dkhar said that Khasi language has many adverbs and adjectives but if they lie unused they will be extinct.
She also said that if people read English novels and watch English films, they should also read Khasi books so as to uplift not only the writer but also the language.
Majaw who has so far written four books, is a Khasi Herbal Medicine practitioner.
