Lying Language : The Ethics Of Dying Languages?

Mr. Treuer explains how there was several hundred of languages throughout different tribes and now there are very few that still are dying out. A main reason that the languages have died out was Native Americans being

Currently, there are over 6,000 living languages spoken in the world. Even with these many languages spoken, people are still discriminated in America. Language is a part of many cultures and daily life, for example in Amy Tan's "Mother Tongue", Tan says "I've heard other terms used, 'limited English,' for example. But they seem as bad, as if everything is limited, including people's perceptions of the limited English speaker." Language should not be a border where people today are still treated as "broken".

Being made of diverse peoples, and being able to continue to use your own language may seem preferable as we encourage individuality and do not want anyone to disappear into the soup. This stand,

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.

Ken Wiwa presents several ideas pertaining to language and culture within his essay, Get Beyond Babel. Wiwa explains that every language has a chance of dying out over time. For any language to survive through years of societal changes, it must be adapted so it can be used to embrace other cultures, new technology and new perspectives. Wiwa presents the concept that language is the same as culture. I do not agree with this concept because I believe that culture is carried by the people, not by the language.

We are all members of a social group and members of `society´ as a whole. People interact in many ways and communication is just about the most common and among the most important. Whatever is meaningful to a group, from their everyday life to their traditions constitutes their very own culture and is generally respected by all group members. Language is only one of such items. For ethnic minority groups that may have a language of their own, their language is a cornerstone in their culture.

Parents pass their knowledge of language on to others,sense of culture,understand where you 're from ,a lot of what you say in African languages is reflective of the way we are and what we have been through, kids don 't understand where they 're from very effective on them as a person, appreciative of learning these languages keep this heritage and culture alive.The world 's second largest continent going at 30,370,000km^2 just a few km^2 away from Asia( first). A country that is filled with so much history and culture. One that holds 54 countries and within those countries are around 2,000 languages which are significantly greater than other continents. The country that holds these traits is no other than the great Africa. Africa was known as the“Dark Continent” due to a few information people knew about the country and language played an important role in that.Languages around Africa are sectioned into a language family. It contains categories such as Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, Niger-Congo A, Niger-Congo B, Khoisan, and Austronesian. To simplify this Below will be a description on what and how these languages work. These are just ones that have been identified but there are those who are unidentified and sign languages that not many pass on to next generations. Languages are dying in the certain area in Africa and it is caused by many things.

According to the author, Leanne Hinton, who has written the article, “Bringing our Languages Home”, explains that speaking an endangered language at home is the core of language revitalization. She has visited clans conference of which Tlingit tribes is among the clans. The article addresses a specific family within the clan of Tlingit, Mischa Jackson, her husband and her ten month old daughter, Michaelyn. The two parents have the ambition to ensure that their daughter grows up knowing the indigenous language. Jackson says that she did not have enough time with her parents and even grandparents to learn the language. Her intention is to overturn that which she never experienced as she grew up and make it happen with her daughter. They speak

Often children, because they integrate into a more popular language. They do this for an economic advantage.

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.

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 language is on its way to becoming endangered. One is when the

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.

Over centuries we have seen the amount and complexity of languages all across the globe reduced. If this trend continues, we could see the number of world languages potentially reduced from 6,000 to 600 in the future. Colonization and urbanization has led to the abolishment of languages spoke by smaller and less dominant civilizations. McWhorter uses the Native Americans in North America and the Aboriginal

The number of Languages spoken throughout the world is estimated to be 6,000. Although a few languages are for wider communication around the world, these are very often spoken as second, third, fourth, or later-acquired languages. Fewer than 25% of the world 's approximately 200 countries recognize two or more official languages, with a mere handful recognizing more than two. Despite there being lots of bilinguals and multilinguals, there is also a bunch of monolingual people in the world. The adult population is allowing their children not to learn a foreign language, drastically underfunding language courses in middle to high school level classes. Because they think it 's not necessary in this century, thinking they don 't require communication with other people from other countries. But the truth is that it can actually benefit in more ways than people think. The United States school system has started to not require foreign language class for graduation requirements, this places the U.S at a disadvantage in the world scene.

The language barrier is one of the biggest problems people face when they move to another country. Many immigrants who come from other countries are met with many linguistic challenges that not only impede their control of daily life tasks but also their ability to survive. I believe that it is important for immigrants to speak a national language. If they are unable to speak a national language, they will be unable to function to the fullest and therefore become isolated and disempowered from the community.