Ling 115 Film: ‘The Linguists’ Instruction for film commentary assignment The two ‘linguists’ visit several different locations where endangered languages are present: Siberia, India, Arizona, Bolivia. Your film commentary assignment is to write 300-500 words describing the linguists’ visit to Siberia and Arizona. Your commentary should include information on the following: (1) What is the endangered language situation shown in the Arizona and Siberia sections? What languages are involved, and who speaks them? Siberia – original people from Russia came to exploit Siberians, Russian dominating over Siberian languages Languages disappearing at a rate of about one every two weeks Unique way of seeing the world can be lost when language is lost Chulym – one of the least documented Siberian languages, no contact with community for 30 years – too long - Language which can consist of one-word sentences compared to a series of words in English or Chinese - Doesn’t have a writing system - Youngest native speaker the Linguists ran into invented his own writing system using Russian letters They don’t expect 52-year-old people in this community to speak the language Most of native speakers of dying language are elderly, first guy they ran into who used Chulym had difficulty hearing, second woman started shouting at them Some people deny knowledge of language and turn out to speak the language (2) What attitudes do the speakers of the endangered languages have towards these languages? Some have shame in their language, school tells children that speaking their native language is forbidden, punished if caught speaking language Language is part of your identity, any breath you take without speaking your native language you might as well be dead Some people abandon language because it may not be useful anymore in the world, think they will have more economic advantages if they abandon (3) What positive ‘revitalization’ initiative is organized by the linguists in the Siberian village? How do you think this may have helped the community there? Found 9 speakers of Chulym, creating a children’s story book in Chulym, honoring grave stones of people who spoke Chulym Writing a story book gets the community working together to accomplish a goal, promotes pride in speaking Chulym (4) What other general impressions of the movie did you have? India – native speakers of Sora outside of the Indian caste system You can’t just sit in a room and interview someone about a language. You have to breathe it in. Sora – base 12 and 20 system for counting Bolivia – Kallawaya – less than 100 speakers Not just learning about language, learning about food, culture, medicine, rituals, etc. Due date: Tuesday 24th September. Please bring a hard copy of your commentary to class. Make sure to add your name, your TA’s name and the time of your discussion section to the commentary.
