Language Death Essay

The film “The Linguists” follows linguists Gregory Anderson and David Harrison on their journey to learn about and document endangered languages in Bolivia, India, Arizona, and Siberia. Through their quest, they are able to interact with some of the few remaining speakers of languages that are near death and they manage to make an impact on how these communities view their heritage language. Focusing on the moribund languages of Siberia and Arizona, it becomes evident that speakers of the heritage language feel a love for the language and the culture it represents, but went through periods of oppression and embarrassment for being speakers of a minority language that ultimately shaped their attitudes on the language.

Language and culture are interconnected. The matter of how they are intertwined vary according to history and culture. Such variations are important to recognize when analyzing the effects of pivotal periods in history such as settler colonialism. Settler colonialism was a dark period in history and must continuously be recognized for its disturbing chronicle of events. The impacts of settler colonialism still reverberate today. Such impacts can be understood through the direct survivors of settler colonialism. In other words, indigenous nations. Despite centuries of attempted elimination, their presence continues to persevere. This does not exclude its losses, however. Many indigenous communities undergo threats of disappearing languages. Each indigenous language is affected by settler colonialism differently. So, for this research, the focus will be on the Nuu-chah-nulth language, which is spoken in the Nuu-chah-nulth region. Significance: Currently, about ten percent of the Nuu-chah-nulth population speak the native language, while even fewer speak fluently. Thus, understanding what circumstances lead to this dilemma may contribute

In the essay “Last Words,” published on the first of October in 2006, the author Walter Michaels instills an idea of what to do when a language is loss. Throughout the essay, he gives examples of how languages are (and how they could be) lost. He also points out, that even though many of those reasons have been eliminated, that languages continue to go extinct. Thus, the author brings up the point, “Why would it be a tragedy if English disappeared?” Although people mourn the loss of a language, Michaels argues that speakers of the dying language should exert effort to learn the dominate one.

Native Americans and their unique languages were widespread across the United States for most of its existence. However, as time went on, and as history took its course, Native Americans have been mostly removed, and a whole arsenal of their languages have gone with them. Elyse Ashburn has studied the amount of languages that are left. Written in 2007, “A Race to Rescue Native Tongues” uses the strategy of logos to persuade the reader by reason. Many Native languages are disappearing, and people must make an effort to save them.

In Vanishing Voices by Russ Rymer, the author gives readers an in depth overview of the significant loss in the number of languages over the years. “One language dies every 14 days. By the next century nearly half of the roughly 7,000 languages spoken on Earth will likely disappear, as communities abandon native tongues in favor of English, Mandarin, or Spanish. What is lost when a language goes silent?” he asks. A major argument Rymer includes in his essay is that languages are seeming to “compete” with one another. Parents children who speak tribal languages encourage their children to break away and learn to speak major languages such as English, Spanish, or

For those languages which have no written form, when the language dies off, so does the accumulated knowledge and history of the culture. Sadly, indigenous languages around the world are dying off at an alarming rate. It is estimated that nearly half of the languages spoken today are likely to die off within the next century if steps are not taken to preserve those which still exist.

Many people do not realize that a language can become extinct, it can die. In New Mexico, many Spanish speaking families decide not to teach their children their language. This does not mean that the language is dead; it means that the language will gradually die within the family since it will not be passed on to the younger generations. Multiple factors influence the decision for not teaching the next generation Spanish. Many of these families become ashamed of their ethnic origin or want to feel accepted.

In an ever changing world we have seen the number and complexity of languages become reduced. In a Wall Street Journal article entitled What the World Will Speak in 2115, John H. McWhorter advocates for the world to see these changes as necessary and a way for communication worldwide to become more efficient and simplified. McWhorter shows how language has been streamlined for centuries as a way for citizens to adapt rather than viewed as an extinction of culture. Modern English is likely to become the dominant language worldwide but more so for the fact that it can be easily learned and is open to transformation with the times. Despite the fears of a world where lingual diversity is reduced, McWhorter suggests that there will still be variation to promote culture and communication with people from all backgrounds will be easier. The following is a summary and analysis of McWhorter’s main points describing the simplification of language. Following the summary of main points will be a hypothetical situation in what the world language could consist of 100 years from now.

Death is final. Some die naturally in a peaceful manner while others suffer through tremendous pain in order to get there. Euthanasia is the only way for some people to leave all their pain behind. Euthanasia is the act of killing another person in a merciful way. Of course, euthanasia has many more meaning to it than that. A person that is suffering from a terminal illness decides that life is not worth living because there is too much pain involved and ends his own life, would that be wrong of him? That is the question that is at hand.

According to Paterson and Rentein ancient languages to mankind as it is the way history is trying to communicate with the future; also it grants us with the source of the origins from where languages embark on. There are various research carried out every year for the extinction of different languages from different part of the world which usually giving us a big number of extinct languages. The effect of this can be clearly seen on the academic clique which is a major topic of argument these days, but on the other hand some argues that it’s a natural thing is happening as we move forward in life. All individual are known for the language he or she speaks that represents individual from which region, which state or which country he belongs to therefore loss of a language will lead to identity crisis of the speaker. With the loss of academic knowledge there is also a loss of culture; different communities have different culture which is passed to the next generation majorly through their native languages so with the loss of languages there is loss of history, traditional songs and poetry. All kind of forms which are reliant on the language

It has been said that, it would be a good thing if newspapers published more photographs of death and dying. There are many reasons why people say that photographs of dead and or dying people should or should not be published by newspapers. For example, some people say that pictures of people dying should be published in newspapers because death is a huge part of life. While members of the opposition state that death should remain private, and it should not be published, especially in a newspaper. The argument for or against publishing pictures of death will be disputed forever, however, I believe that photographs of death are appropriate, and I will argue why I believe in the publishing

In the United States, an emphasize in learning the dominant language, English for example, can inevitably put other languages within the country in extinction. In reality, there are many other spoken languages in the United Sates, like those spoken by Native Americans, that are becoming endangered because of the immensity of more used languages. One may ask, what is an endangered language? According to Michael Cahill (Bonvillain), who has studied and researched many different endangered languages around the world, a language is endangered when "it is in fairly eminent danger of dying out." Cahill states two ways to quickly identify when a

The documentary film, “The Linguists” revolves around the concept of language death, specifically, in four places: Siberia, India, Arizona and Bolivia. Personally, the most significant forgotten languages were in Siberia (due to my Russian heritage) and Arizona (due to close place of birth, Los Angeles).

Among the more than five thousand known languages of the world, circumstances like colonization are putting hundreds of languages in danger of becoming dead. This means that these languages are no longer have a prominent group of speakers (Wurm 1). There are also many endangered languages known that are characterized by still having speaker, but these languages are no longer being taught as a mother-tongue to children (Krauss 1). In his argument, Michael Krauss stresses an urgency to either help take these languages out of the danger zone or record them, but Peter Ladefoged argues that not all languages have to be preserved as Krauss and his associates claim (810). Here I will discuss my own views on whether or not languages

After much debate, I have chosen to research the language of death. I came to this conclusion after revisiting a website that Professor Delane provided. Not only was the website interesting, but also relatable. The language of death revolves around the idea there is “an entire language of facial expressions and bodily gestures and vocal utterances that make up our communication about all aspects of the dying process” (Carey, 2016). It is a complex and delicate topic that everyone encounters. I intend to focus my paper on three perspectives.