The current sociopolitical structure of developing and developed countries is a result of colonization and imperialism. Language death and linguistic endangerment is woven in with colonization and the history of oppression toward indigenous communities by the colonizers. We cannot speak of language “death” without fist acknowledging the speakers and the systematic oppression that indigenous communities continue struggling to resist. The death of a language has both linguistic and cultural consequences within the particular community affected as well as the world’s knowledge diversity. Languages serve as carriers of cultural knowledge, thorough identity and verbal art; hence, when a language is lost key cultural resources, such as continuity and oral traditions are lost. In this essay I will discuss how economic incentives interrelated with the hegemonic language and language ideologies are two great causes of language death or sleeping languages. In addition, it will highlight what is lost when languages die and will examine how Jane Hill (2002) and Peter Whitely (2003) critique the scholarship on language endangerment. Furthermore, I will share my perspective of Hill and Whitely’s critique of linguistic scholars trend to popularize concepts of universal ownership, hyperbole and apolitical concept of language rights. One of the most important causes of language death is language shifts due to the economic incentives of hegemony. Language shift is when people adopt the
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.
Scholar, Gloria Anzaldúa, in her narrative essay, “How To Tame A Wild Tongue’, speaks her many experiences on being pressured on what language to use. She then expresses how the discrimination made her to realize the ugly truth--that people reject languages that aren’t their own. She adopts logos, ethos and pathos in order to appeal toward her audience who is anyone who is not bilingual. One of the perspectives she takes on in her piece clearly expresses the relationship between language and identity and how it creates a conflict between her and the world.
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.
In this paper the main focus is on the language of the Cherokee. Is the language of the Cherokee, or as they also call it Tsalagi, still alive? Is it still spoken among the members of the tribes, including the younger generations or do they have lost the language of their ancestors? Is there something to be done until it is irretrievably lost? In order to come to a solution on this matter, I will be taking a look at why Native American languages in general have become extinct in the first place. On the example of the Cherokee language a look will be taken at the initiatives set to revive and preserve it in order to prove it is still alive and will continue to be.
This is essential in asserting the author’s creditability. This quotation explains about the fact that digital technology is effective in rekindling dying languages and scripts such as N’Ko. The story of Traore’s personal experience allows the essay to be more compelling as it helps to make Traore’s story more relatable and credible to the average audience, and awards the readers with an intriguing piece of writing. Rosenberg’s approach of using real life examples works because her audience wants to hear firsthand accounts of other cultures that have either dealt or are dealing with the issue of preserving their indigenous language. She uses the story of Traore to raise interest among audience regarding this topic. By the use of anecdotes, Rosenberg makes Traore’s story more relatable and credible to her audience of linguistic minorities.
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
The reason for a language’s death having little importance is that it is just a tool for communication. Any tool can be replaced. For example, “The very thing that made it a mistake for the missionaries to try to stop people from speaking Native American languages…makes it a mistake to care whether people continue to speak (it’s not as if English is worse).” (Michaels, 2006) English became the tool for communication, replacing the Native American languages. This happens to places where a new language is introduced, and begins to grow more popular compared to the native language, for some type of need. This leads to the dominating language to become the lingua franca.
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.
While examining the packet of resources, two pieces caught my attention, “Vanishing Voices” by Russ Rymer and the Self Portrait Between the Borderline of Mexico and the United States by Frida Khalo. In “Vanishing Voices”, Russ Rhymer explains, “Parents in tribal villages often encourage their children to move away from their insular language … towards languages that will permit greater education” (Rymer 7). This demonstrates how isolated ethnic groups abandon their culture in order to pick up the global language for economic prosperity. It indicates that remote societies are conforming to globalization for a greater economical gain. Likewise, the bottom of the self portrait of Frida Kahlo clearly displays how plants are converted to provide energy for modern technology. The plants represent the developing countries, while the technology serves as the most-developed countries which are eliminating remote cultures, and are using those countries’ resources for their own commercial advancement. These sources interested me as I had been accustomed to an Indian culture for 7 years, before assimilating into the American culture. I understood that I must learn the English language while preserving a part of my Indian heritage. I spent my 10 years in the U.S. learning English while slowly losing graph of my Indian language. It related to my life story as both sources centered around the theme of discarding one’s native culture to help learn the new language. Lori Hale,
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.
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
Why should people nowadays see languages as a big prize? A person speaks more languages have more opportunities are skewed to him because he benefits the profit comparing to a person who speaks only one standard language. It is time for globalization and its effects on children for speaking other languages as a must. In two articles “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” by Richard Rodriguez and “Whose Voice Is It Anyway?” by Victor Villanueva, the two authors both expressed their opinions on native language and how the assimilation impacts a child. However, Rodriguez believed that the assimilation was beneficial for him as he had grown up in the English-speaking world and he disliked bilingual education which created many controversy.
Linguistic imperialism is a concept used by scholar Robert Phillipson, he mostly spoke about the imperialism of the English language, although this concept can be applied to all the world’s major international languages with imperialistic origins, when the original population had to adopt the invader’s language because of the benefits that accrue to the speakers of the languages when the dominant language has been imposed (Phillipson 31). Linguistic imperialism in Latin America started with the ‘discovery’ and the occupation of the New World by the European powers. Spanish and Portuguese language were imposed on the local populations and therefore many indigenous languages vanished. This essay will especially focus on Brazil and the