Last Words By Walter Michaels

In most cases, some people think that it is not important for them that several languages die out every year because they believe that if there are fewer languages in the world that means they need not to learn so many languages at all and their life will be easier to have a communication with foreign people. While others do not think so, which sound reasonable but ironical based on the fickle situation in society and history. Because for me, despite the adventure of being entitled as ‘absolutist’, I will consistently support that it is significant to prevent the truth that several languages die out every year.

This leads to the idea of the disastrous impacts of “killing” your language. The author discusses this principle as being denied the right to speak within in your country. However, I would like to take this principle one-step farther. Research shows that mastery of other languages demands mastery of the regional language. We see this is apparent in our own Public School system, with English speakers teaching students foreign languages and dialects in the regional language. Thus, in order to shift to a more modernized, globalized world we must start within our own regional culture. Society must understand that mastery of the mother tongue is a prerequisite for creative expression in other languages. (Adichie)

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

The poem “If We Must Die” is written by African American author, Claude McKay. “If We Must Die” was written just a few decades after slavery was abolished. It was created at a time when blacks were highly discriminated and segregation was common. Mckay life was filled with hardships, especially as a writer. Roger M. Valade III said " The United States proved not to be the land of opportunity for which McKay had hoped. Editors of larger publications refused his work because he sympathized with black causes. If We Must Die", by Claude McKay, is a powerfully written poem that has strong relevance not only to the past but to the time we currently live in. The poem begins with the speaker seeming to establish that he and his allies are under attack. The poem is a powerful and sad battle cry of people trying to fight back their oppressors and stay alive. Claude McKay seems to have written the poem as a sort of call to arms to take a stand and fight for African American 's equality. Claude McKay has taken great inspiration from poets of the past, specifically men like Shakespeare. This particular poem is a sonnet which is essentially a short poem, but it is a more Shakespearean sonnet. The poem is 14 lines long, contains 3 quatrains, and it is written in iambic pentameter. Furthermore, most of the poem is at least twelve lines of rhyme in alternating pairs. It also has a rhyme scheme of ABABCDCDEFEFGG. McKay also uses a lot of similes and metaphors to help describe the

Languages may refer to the communication between individuals, but it also reveals the individuality of different geographic locations, the uniqueness of different cultures, and the history of different people. It contributes to the image of an ideal world, but the current situation diminishes the diversity of the people, thus moves them away from their ideal society: 97% of the world’s people speak 4% of the world’s languages while 96% of the world languages are spoken by 3% of the world’s people (Turin). Furthermore, one language dies every 14 days and by the end of the next century, nearly half of approximately 7,000 languages spoken on Earth today will disappear as many communities will abandon native languages in favor of dominating languages such as English, Mandarin, or Spanish (Rymer). Most endangered

Also, it has been estimated that half of the world’s remaining languages will become extinct over the next hundred years (ibid.). Another point suggested by Crystal (1997) is that the presence of a global language may cause people to neglect the chance of learning other languages because they may think that other languages are unnecessary. Thus, languages are dying out and this will lead to a ‘communication fault-line’ between generations. As a result, many concepts and culture cannot be kept and passed to the younger generation since the younger generation becomes more proficient in the new language and finds their first language irrelevant to their new needs.

Of all the languages that exist in the world, not all of them will be at use in our lifetime. There will one that will surely die. A language dies when the people or the last people to speak it die. Their language dies with them. If we are not the speaker of that certain language or we are not even related to the group of speakers who speak it, do we have any concern about it? Do we even care about it?

The article Language Death by David Crystal talks about language threats that are present and that will occur in future. He begins off talking about the risk of to minority languages. There are level headed discussions over the meaning of “language” and assessment of the quantity of language change, yet a figure some place around 6000 is conceivable. Maybe more vital is the circulation of speakers, with 4% of language representing 96% of individuals and 25% having less than 1000 speakers. There are diverse methods for ordering "threat levels", however there is doubtlessly countless face termination in the prompt future, while in the more extended term even generally language spoken might be in threat. Crysal points out five key arguments of

As we move deeper through the 21st century native languages are becoming more extinct. An endangered language is one that is likely to become extinct in the near future. Many languages are going out of practice and being replaced by the others that are more used and dominant in their particular region or nation, such as English in the U.S. or Spanish in Mexico. Unless the current language trends that we are using now are reversed, the now endangered languages will most likely to become extinct within the next century. Many of these languages are no longer being taught to children or to the new speakers; it is certain that these languages will become extinct when the last fluent speaker dies. Dozens of languages today have only one native speaker still living, and that person 's death will mean the extinction of the language: meaning that no one will speak or know the language at all.

The poem “If We Must Die” by Claude McKay is not only a sonnet, but also a story that portrays so much more than what first meets the eye. The poem is discussing a group of people who are going off to battle. The narrator of the poem is preparing the group to die, but implying that they must die with honor and in a noble way. The group has been pressed into a corner and there is no way out without a fight and warns them that death is most likely in their future. This poem sheds light into the author McKay’s history and the importance of the time in which he wrote the poem. This poem uses a group of men’s final battle to discuss how one handles his last choice in life, and how he will be remembered.

The feminist movement emerged over a century ago and has received its fair share of attention, especially with the spike of followers in recent years. Women are encouraged to be empowered by their individuality and independence, without reliance on a man. Although society has slowly begun to depict the feminist woman as a strong, free thinking individual Hollywood has not represented this change in momentum in modern day cinema. Romantic drama films still portray the damsel in distress who struggles with problems unrelated to her love life, but is inexplicably can only be saved by a knight in shining armor, and without him her world would be in shambles, encouraging the dependence of women on men for emotional entertainment.

Imagine waking up one morning to find out that your whole family has disappeared. With them they have taken everything that relates you to your culture. You are the only person who knows your cultural language. It is up to you now to either save your culture and language or adapt to another culture and learn a new language in order to survive. While this may be a hard concept to grasp for many of us as we cannot even fathom the culture we live in and language we speak to disappear, for many people in countries such as South America, Africa, and Australia this is the reality they are facing. With the modernization of every aspect of society today, advancements in some parts of it, have detrimental effects to other parts of it. One aspect of society that suffers with these advancements is language. There are about 6000 languages in the world today, and linguists predict half of these languages will be extinct by the end of this century (Newman 2003: 284). A language is considered to be extinct when a community no longer uses the language. Out of the 6000 languages that are spoken around the world today, 1/3 of these come from the continent of Africa (Janse, Tol 2003, 171). Linguistic anthropologist predict that by the end of this century only 2000 languages will be remaining. One particular country that is very linguistically diverse within Africa is Ethiopia. There are about 84 languages spoken within the Ethiopian boundaries (Janse, Tol 2003: 171). One language on the brink

The next section is about linguistic death. He asks here if a global language does grow and grow could it be possible that it wipes out minority or smaller languages. Already in some regions in the world local languages are being forgotten. Like in Brazil, parts of Africa, Asia and North America. People have predicted that in the next 50 years around 50% of the 6,000 languages may disappear. Losing a language is a tragedy. Especially when they have never been written down. The young people learn the global language and sometimes don’t even know anything in their native language. A cultures identity can be lost because of this. Maybe old folklore tales that were told in the native language but never translated and now maybe forgotten. In recent times though the emergence of English has seemed to have the opposite effect.

However, it is important to note that a lingua franca is necessary for people to communicate on a global level. International relations are important and have been important throughout history. The League of Nations was the first of many alliances to allocate a special place for English making it lingua franca for its proceedings. Lingua franca is a shared language of communication used between people whose main languages are different. In order for a language to become lingua franca, it must be widely used by those who wield power (Crystal).

Is English a “killer Language”? A Denmark associate Professor, Tove Skutnabb-Kangas , described that English is a linguistic genocide, killer language and language murder. It means a local language became bilingual in other language, such as English; gradually cease to use local language. The greatest