Languages go extinct gradually as successive generations of speakers become bilingual and then lose proficiency in their native language. Most often, speakers tend to favor a more prestigious language because of the potential social and economic benefits to be realized. While globalization has benefited humanity greatly for the most part, language related cultural assimilation provides an obstacle for the long-term preservation of relatively niche tongues. A language becomes “dead” when it is no longer functionally used. However, to go extinct, there has to be no native speakers left. According to David Harrison, when languages die, we are losing so much more than we realize. We lose not only the language itself, but also generations of collective knowledge and experiences from that particular community or culture that can no longer be codified and expressed. Linguists play an important role in helping to preserve languages as they possess the necessary skills and training required to travel to remote places around the world, assimilate into different cultures and learn about their language, help bring those learnings to a global audience, and work towards the preservation of those languages that are endangered. Yes, a “dead” language can be brought back to life. We read about how Bud Lane, a tribe member of the Siletz people, spent 7 years building an online Siletz Dee-ni Talking Dictionary where he himself recorded over 10,000 audio entries. This will help ensure that the language is preserved going into future generations. As Mr. Harrison had said, most languages are not properly recorded and thus, at the risk of going extinct. Today, the technology exists to better document linguistic diversity for example by creating collective online databases for the world to access, building a functional talking dictionary, and helping to connect remote communities of speakers. However, the most important point that that Mr. Harrison brings up in my opinion is the need to teach linguistics at a high school level as this will help recruit more prospective linguists into the field who can help document more languages before they and all their collective knowledge disappears from our grasp.
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