Ch6/Sec4: Why Do People Preserve Local Languages?
 The distribution of language is a measure of the fate of an ethnic group
 Language displays the 2 geographic trends of globalization & local
diversity
- English as the principal language of communication & interaction for
the entire world
- Local languages, endangered by the global dominance of English are
being protected & preserved
Preserving language diversity:
Why?
 Extinct languages: once in use, even in the recent past, but no longer
spoken or read in daily activities by anyone in the world
 Ethnologue: 473 extinct(Americas 182, Pacific 152,Africa 46,Europe 9)
e.g. Amazon in Peru in the 16th c.: >500 languages; today: 92 but 14
face immediate extinction b/c <100 speakers remain
[out of the 92, only Cusco is spoken by > 1 million people)
e.g. Gothic in E. & N. Europe in the 3rd c.: it became extinct in the 16th
c., along w/ its entire language group, East Germanic
 Only ~ 300 languages are clearly safe from extinction due to plenty of
speakers & gov.’t support
 Reasons for extinction:
- Conversion to another language, mostly due to conquest or religion
- Native speakers stop teaching their children their languages
Preserving language diversity: the EU’s European Bureau for Lesser Used
Languages (EBLUL) based in Dublin, Ireland  financial support
1) Reviving extinct languages:
Hebrew: diminished in daily use after the 4th c. B.C. & was used for religious
services (Aramaic was spoken, then replaced by Arabic)
 1948: State of Israel is established  Hebrew & Arabic became the
country’s two official languages
- Hebrew spoken at religious services in the diaspora  symbol of
cultural unity
- The revival was difficult: new words had to be created for new
inventions unknown in biblical times
- Eliezer Ben-Yehuda created 4,000 new words & the creation of the 1st
modern Hebrew dictionary
Celtic: used to be the major language of the British Isles b/f the Germanic
invaders; today: in parts of Scotland, Wales, Ireland, & Brittany (France)
 Celtic language groups:
1) Goidelic (Gaelic):
a) Irish Gaelic: one of Ireland’s official languages (along w/ English);
spoken by 350,000 on a daily basis
b) Scottish Gaelic: spoken by 59,000 people; extensive Scottish Gaelic
literature (Auld Lang Syne); diffused from Ireland 1,500 years b/f
2) Brythonic (Welsh):spoken by 611,000 people (more b/f English
speakers migrated there to work in coal mines & factories in the 19th c.)
3) Cornish: became extinct in 1777 w/ the death of Dolly Pentreath, the
language’s last known native speaker
4) Breton: spoken by 250,000 people in Brittany, France  mixed w/
French words
Why do certain languages survive?
 Political & military strength of their speakers
 Parents teaching the native language to their children
 Preservation societies (e.g. Welsh Language society) (e.g. compulsory
education in Welsh language, literature, arts, and music)
 Preservation policies:
- Compulsory native language education
- Government services in the native language
- Road signs, TV and radio broadcasts in the native language
 Part of the competition for jobs, esp. in gov.’t, media, culture, & sports
 Youth’s loyalty to the native language (related to point #2)
 Public figures taking on the preservation cause; ads
Multilingual states:
 The boundary b/w 2 language Indo-European language branches,
Romance and Germanic, runs through Belgium & Switzerland  trouble
Belgium: 2 official languages
1) Flemish in Flanders (N. Belgium)
2) French in Wallonia (S. Belgium)
* Brussels is legally bilingual, although it is located in Flanders.
**Antagonism b/w the 2 regions: Flanders want Belgium to be separated
into 2 independent countries. (Huge economic and political differences.)