Saving Local Languages
“The distribution of a language is a measure of the
fate of an ethnic group.” (James Rubenstein)
LANGUAGE
EXTINCTION
An extinct language is a
language once in use
that is no longer spoken
by anyone, anywhere.
516 languages are on
the verge of extinction
today.
46 in Africa
170 in the Americas
78 in Asia
12 in Europe
210 in the Pacific
UNESCO Atlas of Endangered Languages
CASE STUDY
PERU
Spanish missionaries in the 1500s found
over 500 languages in the Eastern, Amazon
region of Peru.
Only 92 of those languages survive today.
14 of those survivors face immediate
extinction because fewer than 100 speakers
of them remain.
Only seven of the 92 are spoken by more
than 100,000 people.
Quechuan peoples of the High Andes
PRESERVING
LANGUAGES
Some endangered languages are
being preserved.
The EU has established a bureau
for saving little used languages in
Europe.
Hebrew, for example, which was a
written language only for
thousands of years was revived
from extinction with the creation
of Israel in 1948.
Thousands of new words
had to be created to
modernize the language.
Celtic is also being preserved.
MULTI-LINGUAL
STATE
A number of world states have multiple languages spoken within
them.
Multilinguality can serve as a centrifugal force, threatening stability
within a state.
Examples:
Nigeria
Belgium
Southern Belgians (Walloons) speak French (Romance)
Northern Belgians (Flemings) speak Flemish (Germanic)
Southern Walloons historically dominated the economy and
government and imposed French as the national language.
This discrimination angered the Flemings and aggravated relations.
Flemings pushed to divide the country into two independent
regions: Flanders and Wallonia.
Road signs in each region are monolingual but the capital, Brussels,
is a legally bilingual zone.
Tensions are particularly high along the border between the regions
as there are pockets of Walloons in Flanders and pockets of
Flemings in Wallonia.
Switzerland is an exception, it is multi lingual and maintains peace
with a decentralized government and frequent voter referenda.
ISOLATED
LANGUAGES
An isolated language is a language unrelated to any other an not attached to any language family.
Video on
Basque
Separatism
(click link)
Basque is the only language in Europe surviving from before the arrival of Indo-European speaking settlers.
It is spoken in by 600,000 people in the Pyrenees between northern Spain and Southwestern France.
GLOBAL
DOMINANCE OF
ENGLISH
A globalized world needs a common language used to facilitate communication.
English is increasingly becoming that language.
A LINGUA FRANCA (International Auxialiary Language) is a language of international communication used to facilitate tradE.
English is a common lingua franca.
Groups who learn English or another language as a lingua franca may learn a simplified form called a PIDGIN LANGUAGE.
Pidgin languages are often used as trade languages.
Pidgin Languages simplify the rules of grammar and mix in elements of the home language.
Other common Lingua Franca languages:
Swahili in East Africa
Hindustani in South Asia
Indonesian in Southeast Asia
Russian former USSR
DIFFUSION
OF ENGLISH
In the past the spread of a Lingua Franca came through
migration Relocation diffusion) and conquest
(hierarchical diffusion) (think Roman Empire).
Under the British, English spread that way as well.
Current English spread is through contagious diffusion.
The diffusion spreads with mass media and internet
(semi-hierarchical) and happens in two main ways:
1) Diffusion of new vocabulary, spelling and
pronunciation
• Emerging dialects: Ebonics and Appalachian
1) Fusing English with other languages
• Franglais
• Spanglish
• Denglish