Language Death

[Jonathon]

link

I thought this article was interesting and wanted to share. To sum it up: over half of the languages in the world are teetering on the brink of extinction. Linguists estimate that 60 to 90 percent of the world's languages will be dead by the end of the century. It'll be a mass language extinction the likes of which have never been seen before.

And unfortunately, there's little that can be done to stop it. Most of these languages are dying because of centuries of abuse—foreign imperialism, relocation and reeducation, policies that punished people for speaking their native languages. And now there's just not enough incentive to keep many of those languages alive.

I don't know what else there is to say about it, but I just thought I'd share.

[Porter]

The usual rationale for why it's so horrible that species are disappearing is along the lines that one of those lost species could hold the cure for cancer.  Or left-handedness.

What's the rationale for why it's so bad for languages to go extinct?  Is there anything beyond the general shame it is for humans to forget something we once knew?

[Jonathon]

The usual rationale for why it's so horrible that species are disappearing is along the lines that one of those lost species could hold the cure for cancer.  Or left-handedness.

I think there are more (and far better) rationales for trying to keep species from going extinct. For one thing, the extinction of one species can throw an entire ecosystem out of whack.

What's the rationale for why it's so bad for languages to go extinct?  Is there anything beyond the general shame it is for humans to forget something we once knew?

That's part of it, but I think it goes far beyond that. There's a lot of culture tied up in language, and though I don't believe that language shapes thought, I do think that language can show a lot about how we think. Language is one of the few things that really makes us human, so I think that gives it incredible value. And when a language dies, it's almost certainly going to stay dead.

[Porter]

I think there are more (and far better) rationales for trying to keep species from going extinct. For one thing, the extinction of one species can throw an entire ecosystem out of whack.

Yes and no.  If only a handful of members of that species exist, then then their disappearance would have a minimal impact on the entire ecosystem.

There's a lot of culture tied up in language

It seems to me that most dying languages are dying precisely because their culture is already dying.

And when a language dies, it's almost certainly going to stay dead.

Using that definition of "die", would you say that Latin died?
 

[Neutros the Radioactive Dragon]

I imagine a lot of those languages are being eaten by other languages.

Like English.  It's such a bully!

[Jonathon]

Yes and no.  If only a handful of members of that species exist, then then their disappearance would have a minimal impact on the entire ecosystem.

Well, by that point, most of the impact has already occurred. I read something once about how the removal of wolves from Yellowstone changed things. There were all sorts of repercussions all up and down the food chain. I don't remember now what all of them were, but I found it quite surprising.

It seems to me that most dying languages are dying precisely because their culture is already dying.

I'd guess that they both die at the same time, not that one death causes the other. And when you really get down to it, it's not like they simply died—it's that other languages and cultures have moved in and killed them, sometimes quite actively.

Using that definition of "die", would you say that Latin died?

No. Not in the same sense, anyway. Latin evolved and became other things. A language like Salish–Pend d’Oreille is going to go extinct and leave no descendants.

[JT]

If we were about to lose our very last language it would be a cause for panic (or extreme celebration because we mutated into telepaths), but since we have plenty left it doesn't really bother me.

I actually think it's an advancement -- the world is shrinking.  I can't wait until we all speak Standard.  Or Common.  Or whatever else we decide to call English when it's the Highlander of languages here in about 50 years.

[pooka]

How would you feel about switching to a more "with it" Bible, Porter?  Or translating Shakespeare into more understandable forms?  Actually, I'm rather guessing you won't care as long as the folks in charge are okay with it, but that's probably the closest thing we can imagine.  

And if English is swallowing up these languages, maybe it will explode like that python that ate the Alligator.

[Jonathon]

If we were about to lose our very last language it would be a cause for panic (or extreme celebration because we mutated into telepaths), but since we have plenty left it doesn't really bother me.

I don't mean to be critical, but I think it's a lot easier to say that when it's not your own language that's been reduced to a couple dozen elderly speakers.

[JT]

For you, probably (and by that I mean 'definitely').  For me, doubtful.  I love evolution, and I don't see any reason why I wouldn't expect survival of the fittest to apply to my language along with everyone else's.  Of course, it's moot, since we don't really know how I'd react if it was my language and we're not likely to find out anytime soon.

[Jonathon]

I wonder how long it'll be until there's only one language left standing. I'm not sure it'll ever get to that point. Once all the minor languages are wiped out, we'll be left with a handful of languages whose speakers number in the hundreds of thousands or more, dozens more with tens of thousands of speakers, and a few hundred smaller ones. A lot of people seem to think that English is going to win out, but even with its half a billion primary and secondary speakers, it's got a long way to go before it can take on Mandarin.

Edit: By the way, here's an interesting page on the numbers of speakers of various languages, the number of countries where those languages are spoken, and so on.

[Porter]

Yeah, it's hard for me to relate since the main cultures I inherit from are cultures that have been on the other side of the conflicts -- they're the ones that have been growing and "killing" other cultures.

I think it's a lot easier to say that when it's not your own language that's been reduced to a couple dozen elderly speakers.

Of course, if that were true, it wouldn't even be his language, since he's not elderly.  It would be the language of his ancestors.

[Jonathon]

Well, it could be one of his languages. Usually there's one last generation that speaks it as their first language, then the next generation uses learns it as a second language but still uses it a lot, then the next generation learns some but not enough to be fluent.

[Jonathon]

And just to give an idea of the linguistic scope: there are more language families in California than there are in all of Asia. Some of the native languages of the Americas contain features that are quite rare elsewhere in the world, so when languages die and aren't documented, we lose access to some important knowledge about how languages work. And even when languages are documented before they die, it's still not quite the same as having living speakers.

[Tante Shvester]

I believe that I am the sole speaker of Shvesterish, a language closely related to, but not entirely identical to, English.

[pooka]

Save the Tante!  

Actually, Porter, I'm nearly certain you have culture and heritage with a dead language, but you don't even know it.

Yeah, I can't wait until the Chinese start setting people on fire for speaking English.  Boy will I be kicking myself then.  

[Brinestone]

I know I would be sad if an entire culture died another way---say, by ethnic cleansing. But then my sadness about losing the culture would be mixed in with my outrage and sadness about the actual ethnic cleansing (i.e., the loss of human life). Still, it seems to make a difference to me if every member of a culture dies at the hand of another culture as opposed to more "fair" violence, which might hit multiple cultures randomly.

I guess what I'm saying is that the death of a culture because of the thoughtlessness or hate of another culture is sad to me.

[pooka]

Language death in particular generally involves the reeducation of children, separating them from the normal transmission of culture from their parents.

[Porter]

Actually, Porter, I'm nearly certain you have culture and heritage with a dead language, but you don't even know it.

Not in the same way.  I have a fair amount of Welsh ancestry.  Let's say that the English had been successful in wiping out the Welsh language all those centuries ago.  How would that affect me personally?  Not at all.

While my ancestors were Welsh, I'm not at all.  I didn't have Welsh grandparents, and I've never known anyone who speaks Welsh.  Besides some names, I don't know a single Welsh word.    

[pooka]

How Green was my Valley mentioned English policies to discourage Welsh quite a bit.  Of course, I seem to remember a lot of the awful parts of that book.  I'm not quite sure what the point of it was supposed to be, except maybe to make me feel like I was part of this kid's life.  The wikipedia entry seems dedicated to pointing out that no one who made money off the story is actually Welsh.

[Jonathon]

While I've never heard any of my grandparents speak a language other than English, my mom did occasionally hear her grandfather speak Scottish Gaelic. As far as I know he spoke it natively but didn't teach anything to his children.

[theCrowsWife]

When I was in college I worked for a few years on a dictionary project that was documenting Tohono O'odham (Papago). There are many fascinating things that can be learned from these lesser known languages that help linguists to understand human language as a whole.

Unfortunately, the dictionary project's website hasn't been updated since I left, so I don't think much more work has been done on it. It makes me wonder if I provided a lot of the forward energy in those two years. I was just an undergraduate (the only one amongst several grad students and faculty), so it never occurred to me that the project would fall apart after I left. Maybe it was a combination of factors that caused the collapse; I have no idea.

--Mel

[pooka]

I guess seeing language death as a necessarily bad thing arises from caring about languages as if they were alive in the first place.  If one doesn't see that, then "language death" sounds a bit hystrionic.

I guess a language is kind of like an ecosystem of mental life.

[Noemon]

The last native speaker of Eyak has died.

[goofy]

I have mixed feelings about language death. Languages have always died and new ones have always appeared. But they might be dying at a more frequent rate now than in the past. But new languages are being created as well, for instance Jafaikan and Hinglish.

I'm not sure there's anything we can do about language death. Trying to preserve a language seems a bit unethical: "you should be speaking the language we want you to speak!" Also, a lot of what's written about dying languages romanticizes them and assumes that the dying language encodes profound insights that no other language does.

On the other hand, every language can tell us interesting things about human language in general, and we should keep a record of these languages so we can still examine them after they die.