Words of the Wild Wes

Sat, 17 Oct 2009: The Death of Language?

Category: Linguistics

A BBC article looks at language extinction.

Among the ranks are the two known speakers of Lipan Apache alive in the US, four speakers of Totoro in Columbia and the single Bikya speaker in Cameroon.

Their question is,

As globalisation sweeps around the world, it is perhaps natural that small communities come out of their isolation and seek interaction with the wider world. The number of languages may be an unhappy casualty, but why fight the tide?

They have a very good answer, to which some of us could add “the loss of the language of some of our ancestors.” I've traced one line of my genealogy to a speaker of Ktunaxa (Kutenai). I'm hoping preservation efforts (see below) will be successful enough for me to learn to at least read Ktunaxa.

What’s your answer?

Comments

richard wrote:

I have mixed emotions about the demise of minority languages. Of course, something valuable is lost; but without a "critical mass" of native speakers, it seems pointless-even impossible-to try to preserve a language.

More pressing, I'd argue, is the survival of a billion people on this planet who suffer from nutritional deficiency!

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:59

Florence Bernard wrote:

I totally agree with Richard. There are way more pressing issues!
Plus, the world is full of enough other issues due to lack of communication. There is no need to see it as a loss of something! We gain so much in opening doors to the whole planet rather than being stuck in one's little communities. There are people in some areas of Quebec who are so keen to "preserve" their language that they live in complete isolation. What is the point! In the meantime, English speaking canadians who went to immersion school have the whole use of their full country! No brainer! If we want to keep languages, then let's make more bilingual school. It would kill 2 birds with one stone!

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 03:59

DaveS wrote:

Why not "both and". Yes, people who speak a small minority language, unless they live to themselves in isolation, need to learn the larger language of their area to be successful, but the loss of a language takes with it the loss of cultural heritage that is irreplaceable. Where feasible I would support bilingualism in these cases. It is true that in some instances, where there are only a handful of speakers, the language is doomed, and the best that can be done is for linguists and anthropologists to learn what they can from the last speakers and preserve it in recording and print.

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:35

richard wrote:

I like Dave S's comment. However, "some instances" understates the problem or, if one prefers, the situation. Perhaps some 3,000 languages are in danger of dying out in the next 3 or 4 generations. (I won't vouch for exact figures.)

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:43

WGroleau wrote:

Well, I guess I agree with the notion of priorities. But I’m still wishing for a way to preserve languages without preserving isolation.

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:48

Add Comment

(Members, please log in first)

Whatever.

Sat, 17 Oct 2009: The Death of Language?

Comments

richard wrote:

Florence Bernard wrote:

DaveS wrote:

richard wrote:

WGroleau wrote:

Add Comment

Sidebar