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Languages are what make us unique and different. If you see the world as it really is, you cannot say that languages dying out is a good thing. It's awful as, with every language lost, thousands of years of culture disappears with it.
Katy Lee, Berkshire
Language is a part of how we are, and to suggest that the world would be better if we all spoke one language is as absurd as to suggest that we should all have the same colour eyes.
Myfanwy Alexander, Cymru |
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What do you think about your local accent?
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Foreign Language Syndrome occurs when people with brain injuries lose the ability to talk in their native accent. After a stroke, George Reynolds developed an Italian accent.
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Page 1 of 4
 Why should we care?
How do languages die?
Can we change the fate of languages?
What else can we change?
Language Ecology by Philippa Law Losing languages
Why should we care? Compared to saving the rainforests, or helping pandas to breed, linguistic ecology can seem a bit tame. One language is becoming extinct every fortnight - so what? "Why should we care?" is a common question. Here are a few reasons.
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Listen to Dorothy from Huddersfield talking about Jamaican Patois. More... |
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Identity:
Many speakers of minority languages are fiercely proud and defensive of their language. Language forms an important part of anyone's identity. Nerys Jenkins in Belfast says, "Telling me not to speak Welsh would be like telling me not to breathe: I just couldn't do it." To let someone's language die out is to let part of their identity die too.Culture: Language is bound up in culture - if a nation loses a language, it may also lose its links with a tradition of jokes, music and literature. Elizabeth MacDonald from Arisaig says Scottish Gaelic is "...our language, the most important part of an ancient culture which has somehow survived despite many persecutions over the centuries. It is a culture rich in story, song and poetry, beloved of those familiar with it."Knowledge: Languages harbour all kinds of human knowledge - including useful biological or medical information that we might not find out about otherwise. In the Micmac language, for example, trees are named after the sounds they make in the wind. The names change as the sounds change, so, if an elderly Micmac speaker remembers that a certain kind of tree used to have one name, but is now called something else, this can reveal the effects of acid rain on that species. Lose Micmac and you lose that insight.Understanding language: To find out more about language in general, the more examples we have of languages the better. As Daniel Nettle and Suzanne Romaine point out, in their book Vanishing Voices, "To exclude exotic languages from our study is like expecting botanists to study only florist shop roses and greenhouse tomatoes and then tell us what the plant world is like."The last speaker of Ubykh (spoken near Istanbul) died in 1992; fortunately not before linguists noticed that the language had an incredible 81 consonants and just three vowels. This kind of observation is vital in stretching what we know to be possible in language.
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Listen to John from Sark describe the decline of the Sark dialect. More... |
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The linguist Peter Ladefoged presents another view of endangered languages. Plenty of speakers of endangered languages don't want 'rescuing' by linguists. Many minorities who are looked down upon, discriminated against, or persecuted by a dominant group are willing to give their language up, or make sure their children don't acquire it, in exchange for a more secure life.Professor Ladefoged remembers speaking to a speaker of the almost-extinct Dahalo language in rural Kenya; the man was glad his sons could only speak the more prestigious Swahili: ''He was proud his sons had been to school and knew things he did not. Who am I to say he was wrong?''Further reading:
Vanishing Voices by Daniel Nettle and Suzanne Romaine
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