LINGUISTICS is the scientific study of languages. The scope of this field is very wide which can be understood from the large number of its branches. For example, sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics are two main subfields which study social (external) and psychological (internal) aspects of language respectively. Relatively newer branches are neurolinguistics and corpus linguistics: The former examines relationships between language and the structures and functions of the human brain while the latter is an empirical study of data on actual language use in different settings.
In addition to these more established areas within linguistics, scholars have proposed newer understandings of language by combining linguistics and any subject of interest. The most notable example includes raciolinguistics which is a combination of race and linguistics. Raciolinguistics seeks to theorise how race shapes practices of language in different contexts. The association of language with race is indicated by concepts such as the 鈥榗olour鈥� of language, linguistic whiteness and native-speaker ideology. Another addition to linguistics is religiolinguistics, a term that is modelled after raciolinguistics. A less known area, it examines how linguistics works in the context of religion.
Perhaps the most interesting neologism is 鈥榩etrolinguistics鈥� which was proposed by a British applied linguist with Pakistani heritage in a journal article published in 2005. A combination of 鈥榩etroleum鈥� and 鈥榣inguistics鈥�, the term was used to theorise how the oil boom in the Gulf region generated significant linguistic activities. In fact, one approach to the applied study of language known as 鈥楨nglish for specific purposes鈥� is often attributed to the petroleum industry in the Arab world.
Following these older and newer branches and theories within linguistics, I would like to propose what I would call 鈥榬evolulinguistics鈥�. This is a marriage of 鈥榬evolution鈥� and 鈥榣inguistics鈥� and is inspired by the July 2024 Revolution in Bangladesh led by students and other young people which brought an end to Hasina鈥檚 15-year autocratic regime. Revolulinguistics is a way of acknowledging the role of language and other semiotic resources in the movement and its outcome.
Language played a unique role in the physical and virtual domains during the movement. Physically, the movement changed the urban linguistic geography in Dhaka and other cities and towns across the country. Graffities of different colours, shapes and sizes both in Bangla and English were written on the walls of public spaces everywhere. In the virtual domain, language took the form of 鈥� among other artefacts 鈥� memes of some of the protagonists of the revolution such as Abu Sayeed and Mir Mahfuzur Rahman Mugdho as well as its antagonists the most villainous of whom is fascist Hasina. Some of the virtual artefacts were replication of those in the physical space. Whether on the physical or virtual landscape, the aim of such linguistic creativity was to resist Hasina and her forces of oppression.
The idea of revolulinguistics is not something entirely new. As language is at the centre of all human activities, scholars have examined the role of language in social movements and activism. For example, social media studies have demonstrated how movements in physical spaces are facilitated by the affordances of social media and how the physical and the virtual are coordinated to steer social and political movements forward.
The July Revolution in Bangladesh is an exciting opportunity to claim a new frontier in the study of language and other semiotic tools. The revolution provides a minefield for researchers in sociolinguistics and other areas of language study who can examine how language plays its role in a digital world and what forms revolutions take in contemporary eras. Linguistic artworks on the walls around Dhaka University have turned the place into a linguistic museum for local and foreign tourists. Language and communication researchers can examine this open museum of language when theorising contemporary social and political movements from linguistic and discursive perspectives.
On the first day of December 2024, BRAC Institute of Languages and four academic departments and institutes within the University of Dhaka co-hosted a seminar on the 鈥楩uture of language education in the Global South: Challenges and possibilities鈥� in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the latter university. Four applied linguistics scholars from Australia, New Zealand and the United States spoke at the seminar. As the fourth speaker, I invited current and future applied linguistics and language education researchers in Bangladesh to explore new frontiers in research. I suggested that revolution linguistics could be one such new avenue.
The audience of the seminar comprised mainly senior students in the departments of English and Linguistics and the Institutes of Modern Languages and Education and Research of the University of Dhaka. While colleagues from different higher education institutions also found themselves in the audience, I utilised my presentation to speak directly to the students. My aim was to point out what kind of applied linguistics research they were going to inherit in Bangladesh as they entered the discourse community as new members. Following this, I invited them to invest their researcher agency and imagination to advance the inherited research culture.
I noted that while the socio-political context at the global level would disappoint the students as researchers given the Israeli genocide in Gaza and the West-sponsored wars in different regions, the local Bangladeshi context was somewhat more optimistic. This was mainly due to the ouster of Hasina through the student movement which was a recognition of youth freedom, creativity and leadership. Such an environment was conducive to utilising various epistemological resources including theories of, from and by the global South and pursuing strategic research to address language education challenges and possibilities in Bangladesh and other South societies. I also noted that while the students were free to explore the field and take it to any direction that they would like, the July Revolution was something that they could examine from (socio)linguistic and semiotic perspectives to inaugurate the new domain of revolution linguistics.
I can鈥檛 be sure how convincing I was in my argument or what impact my invitation will have on the students and emerging researchers in the audience. However, I am optimistic that the idea will be given some deep thinking by some members of the language research community in Bangladesh.
Some colleagues have already taken steps in researching revolution linguistics. I had the opportunity to talk to one academic from BRAC University who was deeply motivated in researching the linguistics of the July Revolution. He shared with me his ambition that he would take at least one thousand photos of the graffities and slogans written on the walls in different locations around the Dhaka University campus wearing the shoes of an ethnographer. He said that he was still haunted by the memories of police brutalities at his university. His active involvement in the movement worked as a catalyst for his enthusiasm about revolution linguistics.
I won鈥檛 be surprised if more colleagues are already heading in that direction to claim revolution linguistics as a new frontier of research in post-revolution Bangladesh.
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Obaidul Hamid is an associate professor at the University of Queensland in Australia. He researches language, education and society in the developing world.听听听
